Cheers to 21 Years

Birthdays on the mission are the best!! Today has honestly been the best day - we went and toured the USS Lexington (a WW2 aircraft) and got lunch and spent some time at the beach! It's been a super fun day.

This week was rough, but we made it hahahaha. Here's a little something I wrote to mission president about how this week went:

Our most progressing friend, Gilbert, called us out of the blue on Tuesday and told us that he no longer wanted to be baptized. We were in shock! We didn't know what happened.

Afterwards, we had to go to an appointment with a member and investigator at the chapel and on the way I fell off my bike and got all muddy and I was so mad haha. To make matters worse, when we got to the chapel the member was already there but our friend never came.

The next day we rushed out for another appointment after sitting in traffic for an hour, only to realize there was a thorn in the wheel of my bicycle. When we took it out, the tire deflated completely.

Then the next day, our second most progressing investigator and my favorite person ever, Hannah, dropped us. We had a lesson with a bible basher and at that point, I was so angry! I didn't understand why all of this had to happen in a week. I prayed and told God about how mad I was.

But, when I heard your comment in Come, Follow Me, I realized that this work is not about me.  It doesn't matter if our friends drop us, people flake out on appointments, or I face plant off my bike into the mud. The Lord's work goes on !!  And I can choose if I want to be part of it, or spend my time angry because things don't happen the way I want. God's plan is perfect and things will work out the way they are supposed to. Maybe God was teaching me this week to have a little more patience and trust in Him. He is refining me until the very last minute!

Hope that gives yall a little insight into the life of a missionary hahah!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and emails! I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love I've received today. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Ray of Sunshine

hey yall!!

It's been a good week! We went to the beach today, so I don't have a ton of time. I'll keep this one short!

Gilbert and Hannah are still doing well and progressing! We also picked up a few new people to teach.

Jared is a teenage boy and we taught him the story of Joseph Smith's first vision and he was so excited. He was like "God really speaks to people???" We were like "Yeah!!!" It was awesome to see how pumped he got.

Natasha is someone who we picked back up from being taught before. She is SO SWEET. She's been going through a lot of hard things and basically just called us and ranted about it all and we related it all back to Christ and His Atonement. It was amazing to just sit there and listen and watch her figure out how Christ can take her burden away.

Funny experiences:

We got swarmed by like 20 seagulls at the beach today and everyone around us was just taking pictures and videos. Then the seagulls started diving so we had to all get up and leave hahah.

Spiritual experiences:

We went to go visit some investigators in this apartment complex that's only for old people, and on the way out we decided to visit an old widow from our ward who lives there.

When we showed up she was so tired because she had made cookies for company, and then no one showed up. So we cleaned up her kitchen for her and made dinner and then sat and talked for a little bit. We shared a little message and as we left she told us we were her "rays of sunshine" that day.

It nearly made me cry!! I was so grateful the Spirit had led us to visit her and brighten her on a lonely day. I know God is aware of all of His children and won't ever leave us alone.

I can hardly believe I'm winding down to the last month of my mission. I'm grateful for all your emails, thoughts, and prayers that have kept me going throughout these past 17.5 months!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Here's my new address!

5757 S. Staples Street Apt 308 

Corpus Christi, TX 78413

Biking Beasts

This has been a wild week!!

To start off - I love Corpus!!! The ward here is AMAZING. The members are so welcoming and we have dinner at their houses each night. They help us with lessons and give us rides when it rains, and they invite the people we are teaching to sit with them at church! I have been shocked by the amount of kindness in this ward.

We live in a four man with the STLS, Sister McKee and Frandsen. I love them so much!! My companion, Sister Wheelwright, is so sweet. She is from Roosevelt, Utah and went to BYU Hawaii for a year before the mission! She also trains horses :)

Teaching in English is WEIRD. I have spoken Spanish with someone besides my companion maybe like 3 times this week, it's definitely different but it's kind of cool to see what the rest of Texas probably looks like! Everyone here has a southern accent and we meet a lot of people who are from Church Unlimited or Baptist.

The first 3 days here I was SO SORE from biking. We bike about 10-15 miles a day. I have only fallen off my bike once!! It's started to get fun though and we are able to meet a lot more people.

People we are teaching:

Gilbert!! He is so cool! We set a date for him to be baptized the first day I got here, and he came to church and sat with the members on Sunday. He is a little old man and sometimes can't hear us because we have to teach him outside haha, but he has a sweet heart and is so kind!

Hannah! She is our age and SO COOL. She graduated from college already and has a degree is psychology. She has a hard time having faith in God, so we have been working with her to grow that faith.

Spiritual experiences:

We went to go eat dinner with someone we are teaching the other night and it was pretty dark. Normally I just tie my safety vest onto my backpack, but I got a prompting that I should put it on instead.

As we were biking it was pretty dark and I noticed this big, white truck looked like he was about to turn in where I was crossing. I slowed down a little bit and then all the sudden he gunned it and almost hit me, I slammed on my brakes but I wasn't quite fast enough. Because I had my vest on, he saw me at the last second and slammed on his brakes.

I kept biking and was pretty shaken up, but I said a prayer of thanks because I know it was GOD, not my safety vest that protected me. I'm glad He gave me that feeling to put the vest on.

As always, there's a lot more I could write about, but hopefully that sums up generally what has been going on here in Corpus!! I'm excited for this transfer - lots of good things coming!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Pictures:

We visited Mr Bill's Christmas Wonderland and took pictures by the nativity. Then we got Bible bashed for 20 minutes and just stood there and said nothing #lovethesouth

Brother Aguirre made my dad's famous chili for our goodbye dinner!!

We went and said bye to the palleros and watched the restoration movie with them and our investigator, Paty.

Trunky Transferred

Hello!!

Well, my mission president sure has a sense of humor. I told him in my email last week how much I like being in a bike area on exchanges, but my legs hurt so bad after one day. Well, guess where he's sending me for my last transfer - a bike area hahaha.

I will be heading to Corpus Christi and end my mission in an English area! I'll be there with Sister Wheelwright. She has been out as long as my greenie, Sister Lund! Woot woot.

I am honestly terrified because I have heard Corpus is way diferent than Laredo and Brownsville and basically no one speaks Spanish there. My mission president also told me that area is really struggling right now. It will be different than anywhere I've ever served in Texas or Argentina, but I'm excited to see what it's like! Hopefully I can help pick up the work there a little bit!

It was a good last week here in Brownsville! I was able to say goodbye to some of my close friends/members here and made some good memories with them.

Some miracles that happened this week:

We found a bunch of new families to teach!! We taught a group of little kids at least once a day.

Some guy told us that he was super sick and then he started reading the Restoration pamphlet we gave him and when he read about Joseph smith he was immediately cured and now he wants to join our church hahah. MILAGROS!

the members taught paty about how to study the BOM and she loved it and is progressing towards baptism!

We taught a guy in ASL and I was able to use the little sign language I know and I understood a lot of what he was saying!

Jezias wants to be baptized! He is on date for February 13th!!

We found a group of all these 20 year old guys to teach and were having a super dope conversation about God with them and then their mom invited us in for pizza and mexican hot chocolate and we were able to teach their whole family!

Funny things:

I ate octopus for the first time, two days in a row.

Sister hall ran our car into a fence

We went to the Palleros (my all time fav members) for New Years and did latin dancing and the cha cha slide hahaha. It was a good time.

That's about all I have for this week!! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love,

Hermana Spackman

feliz navidad y año nuevo!!

Hello!!

We had another great week here in Brownsville!!

Yesterday was AMAZING.

Paty and Rufino both came to church. A member of our ward brought her friends and introduced them to us. Two young boys of a family we have been teaching were able to get the priesthood. Our recent convert, Juan, got the priesthood. We had a lesson after church with Juan's sister and the members basically just taught the whole thing. The zone leaders investigator got baptized and confirmed. It was honestly the best Sunday of my entire mission hahah.

Christmas was so fun!! On Christmas Eve we ate lunch with someone we are teaching and then had two different dinners with members. We went with the zone leaders and caroled to a bunch of people we are teaching and some members in the ward. We went to a members house and did the Mexican tradition of the posada and then hit a pinata and lit fireworks hahaha

Then on Christmas morning we made brownies for a bunch of people and went with the elders again all day to carol for people and visit them. Then we all had dinner with the members again. The members in this ward are so sweet and just kept giving us food and they all bought us little Christmas presents. I have never been so full or so grateful in my entire life, haha.

Earlier in the week I went on exchanges with Hermana Olguin and we biked a TON. It was so fun though, it almost made me wish I got to serve in a bike area until I woke up the next morning and was super sore, lol.

Spiritual experiences:

I felt the Spirit so strong while we were caroling to people. There was a man we visited who just started crying as soon as we started singing and said he was so grateful we came by. It always amazes me to see the way that music can touch people's hearts.

Funny experiences:

While in the bike area we contacted A LOT. We went to go talk to someone but I accidentally turned too fast on my bike and totally wiped out in front of a bunch of people hahaha. It was so awkward but we just started laughing.

There were a lot more things that happened this week, but it would take another full email to write them all. I'm so grateful for the time I've had to serve here in Brownsville and for the blessings I've seen here. We have transfers next week and I would love to stay here if I can. There are so many miracles that happen each and every day and I know without a doubt that it is God who is guiding our work here as we teach people about His Son, Jesus Christ.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. I want to invite you that as you are making New Year's resolutions, make a spiritual goal as well. Whether it be reading the New Testament all the way through, saying nightly prayers or studying Christlike attributes each day. I know that as we make goals to do something that will allow us to get closer to God in 2021, He will also get closer to us.

Have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Hermana Spackman

Scooby Doo Christmas

Hello!

This was so fun and FLEW BY.

Some things that happened this week:

1. Our investigator Paty had us over for a birthday party for her son with special needs,  and it was SO MUCH FUN. I want her to throw me a birthday party. It was Scooby Doo themed.

2. We had a mini exchange with the sisters! I went with Sister Hakes and we taught some guy that was super high so that was fun hahaha. Then we had a sleepover with another companionship!! 

3. We drove down to Corpus Christi which is like 3 hours from here and I beat all the Elders with my speedy driving. (Dont worry TIWI will only let me go 5 over)

4. Christmas conference was SO FUN!!! We sang songs, played games, got 2nd place in a giant tug of war, did a gift exchange and ate christmas dinner. It was a blast and so fun to see all my cute mission friends and Elder Demann from high school!!

5. We had MLC down in McAllen so we had another road trip with the zone leaders and totally blew past the exit because we were all talking and didn't noticed so we rolled up late lol. Still such a fun conference though and I learned lots!

6. Had another exchange with Sister Olguin (two exchanges in one week is always fun) and we found some cool new people to teach!

7. Made christmas cards with some people we are teaching and other missionaries! It was super cute and we are going to deliver them to nursing homes.

8. We made a cake and had a little party for another less active member and her mom came up to us with tears in her eyes afterwards and said her daughter was so happy to have 2 new friends. I love being a missionary!!

9. Had a special christmas meeting at church and I played the organ!! (Do I actually know how to play the organ? No. Did I do it anyways? Yes.) The ZLs and my comp sang silent night!!

We are teaching the cutest little family with 3 girls and we have been praying a ton for their parents to get involved and they finally did this week!! The 2 oldest girls said they want to get baptized and have been begging their parents to take them to church. We are crossing our fingers for a Christmas miracle next Sunday!

This week I have been studying a lot in the New Testament and about Christ. Something that stuck out to me in Jesus the Christ this week was this quote:

"Indeed, God raised up witnesses for Himself to meet all classes and conditions of men—the testimony of angels for the poor and the lowly; the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and proud priests of Judea. So that of the things concerning the birth of Messiah, no less than of the things of His death and resurrection from the dead, His disciples could say, ‘these things were not done in a corner.’”

I know that Jesus lives and I am so grateful for His birth and life. I am grateful these things were not "done in a corner" so that I have evidence of His goodness in the scriptures that I can share with all the people I meet. I hope to celebrate him not only during this Christmas season, but during the whole rest of my life.

Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Hermana Spackman