Adios, Texas!

Hello!!

We've had a huge cold front come through Texas this week - it was colder here some days than it was in Salt Lake! We even had a little snow last night.

I don't have much to write about for this last email - I just wanted to share a quick story and my testimony!

As my last transfer came closer to the end, I felt a little sad that I wouldn't be able to see one more of my investigators get baptized before I got home. I still kept praying for it, hoping somehow a miracle would happen.

Well it did!!! My trainer texted me one night and told me someone we taught together in my first area was getting baptized.

I was able to watch the service for Alicia on Saturday and one of my converts from my first area was the one who presided the service.

IT WAS SO SPECIAL.

I really felt that God had answered my prayers so perfectly and so specifically. I'm so excited for Alicia and I feel like my whole mission in Argentina and Texas came full circle this weekend.

I know that God lives. Without a doubt, I know my Savior loves me and that He died for me. I truly know that God has a plan for my life and I can talk to Him through prayer - anytime I want!

I am so thankful for my mission. I can't thank all of you enough who have loved and supported me along the way, and I can't even begin to thank my Heavenly Father for this small time I've been able to work under His hand in His kingdom.

MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST. 

I will see you all soon!! I fly home Wednesday. My homecoming talk will be on February 28th, send me a message if you would like the zoom link :)

Nos vemos!!

Hermana Spackman

I'm Famous

 

Hello Everyone!!

So remember how last week I talked about our free piano lessons?

So throwback to last Tuesday, I get this message from someone on Facebook asking if she can give me a call. So we call her up and she's part of the local news station here and she asked if she could do a segment on us.

So my companion and I are like "yeah!!! Let's do it."

We text our mission pres and get permission and all that jazz and then the next day the news crew comes and they film 3 of our piano lessons.

Guys.

They posted the segment at 6 pm and by 6:10 pm I already had 10 new messages hahahah.

My phone was blowing up all night!!

Throughout the whole week people on the street recognized us from the news and would talk to us about it.

On Saturday we had our whole district help out because there were so many people that Sister Wheelwright and I didn't have time to do them all ourselves.

Now here's the cool part:

Last night, I get a message on Facebook from this lady. She said this: "Hello  Sorry for the random add. I saw your post on the Corpus Christi resources about piano lessons and noticed y’all are sister missionaries. I added you because my husband & I use to have y’all sisters come visit us at our house and well since this COVID stuff we‘ve lost touch with y’all sisters."

We messaged a little bit and set up a time to teach her and her husband.

GOD KNOWS HIS CHILDREN.

That post got enough comments and likes that this sweet lady would see it and be able to reconnect with missionaries again. It makes sense now why all of this had to happen.

SO COOL.

We had zone conference this week, it was my last one. Our mission president gave all of us who are going home the opportunity to share our testimonies at the end. As I shared my testimony and listened to the other missionaries I couldn't help but think about all the ways my testimony has grown since I've been on my mission. I have been so blessed, and my mission has sincerely changed me so much!

If you are thinking about serving a mission - PLEASE DO IT. You will never regret it. The blessings that are waiting for you are more than you can imagine. There are people who  need you!

Spiritual experiences:

So many this week!!

We called this guy from area book and when he answered he said "I just  barely got done praying that God would send me a new beginning, and then you called."

We felt prompted to change plans and call some moms in our area book. We called this lady, Andrea, and she said she had just been thinking about us the day before! She lost contact with missionaries and was so glad we called.

We found two people while contacting this week who asked us to teach them right there on the spot. Some people are just so prepared for the gospel!

Funny stories:

We called some guy and we asked what he was up to and he said smoking a lot of weed and then hung up.

We biked all the way to the church and the second we pulled in we got a call from the zone leaders asking us to bike back to the apartment so they could do a cleaning check hahah. Luckily, there were other missionaries there who let us drive their car - so I got to drive a truck hehehe :)

My companion got pooped on by a bird while we biked.

Going into my last full week as a missionary is a very surreal feeling. But, these past few days have been a really good time to reflect and think about all the things I have learned over this year and a half. I'm so grateful to have one more week to serve the Lord!

Love,

Sister Spackman

Piano Lessons :)

It was a good week!

This week we had exchanges with the STLs and I went with Sister McKee. We found people that we have not been able to get in contact with for more than 2 weeks.  It was great! We laughed a ton and she taught some cool bike tricks 

The other day I got a feeling that I should offer free piano lessons on some Facebook groups. I didn't want to, because I really didn't know how I could help someone learn piano and if it would be worth offering. But I did it because I felt like I really needed to, and within minutes I received over 15 messages from people asking for help.  There are now over 70 comments on the post. Next week we already have more than 14 appointments scheduled to teach people the piano!

We already had our first lessons on Saturday, and when people came into the chapel they said "Wow! How beautiful!"  I hope that we can plant some seeds that grow in people's hearts!

The STLS had a baptism this week, and we invited our friend, Eric, to come.  He came and loved it!!  He told us that he was having some doubts about his own baptism because of some Anti stuff he had read, but after watching the baptism and talking with us he wanted to continue with his baptism. He came to church yesterday too and we taught him the restoration with a returned missionary in our ward.  When we taught him about Joseph Smith he told us "I believe it!!"  He is so cool.

We also had an old investigator reach out to us and ask if we could come teach him again. We went over and taught him while he smoked a huge cigar hahah, then afterwards we asked him to prepare himself to be baptized and he said yes!! We are gonna work towards March 31st with him.

Funny experiences:

We were facebook finding when the zone leaders came in one night to use the computers with us. Well, being sister missionaries we get lots of weird messages on Facebook from old, creepy men  The elders started looking over our shoulders and  reading messages as we opened them and they started freaking out  it made me realize how weird messaging people on Facebook can be sometimes as a Sister missionary haha.

Spiritual experience:

As I come to the last few weeks of my mission I have been thinking a lot about the type of person I want to be when I get home, and the goals and plans I have for the future. I've been praying a lot to know what I should study at Utah State and for help with lots of other decisions I will have to make.

We had dinner with our relief society president last night and she drove us to her house, which is about a 15 minute drive. The entire time we just talked and she answered so many of my questions and things I have been worried about!! She was a direct answer to my prayer.

Have a good week everyone and remember that God loves you!!

Love,

Sister Spackman