HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!!

oh my goodness i dont even know where to begin!!! unfortunately, i dont have quite as much time as i wish but i will try my best to fit everything into this first email.

from the very moment that i arrived here in the CCM, the spirit has been so strong. the MTC president met us at the door and greeted us all my name. To me he said, "Hermana Spangler from Texas." he knew ALL 22 OF US by name and where we were from and a few other random facts about us. just from shaking his hand, i felt all the power and authority that he has. i absolutley adore him and his wife. the great thing about being here in the mtc in spain is that its much much smaller than the one in provo. we have the chance to really get to know everyone here and the teachers and the president. its absolutely wonderful.

so many people here remind me of people i know. a compilation of the group of missionaries here would be people like nicole naccarella, ashlee spangler, krista spangler, hailey thomas, kendal brandt, krista spangler and other wonderful people i adore like that. so as you can praobably tell, im loving the people here and they make it feel a little bit more like home.

speaking of which, my companion is hermana allen!!! shes the absolute sweetest girl ever. she is from england and she has the cutest accent ever. we spend so much time together that i constantly find myself speaking with an accent and she has starting thinking in an american accent hahahaha but really she is so great and just has the sweetest spirit ever. i really feel blessed to have been assigned to be companions with her because she makes me want to be better and is always trying to do whats right. the lord truly knows what he is doing. my district is a super small group of 2 elders and 7 girls but they are all SO fantastic. we all get along really well and always have the best conversations about what we are learning and everything,

most of you that know me, KNOW that i am terrible at languages and i basically almost failed out of all 3 years of spanish. but after being here for 1 week, i can officially pray(i was the first one able to do that, thanks dad), bear my testimony, have a typical conversation, give the whole first lesson and understand almost everything that the teachers are saying. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL. i cannot stress that enough. all the teachers here speak only in spanish so the first day was a mess of confusion but now during classes, i am able to understand everything they say, its crazy and amazing!!!!! its a lot harder to speak than it is to understand spanish, but my reading and speaking is coming along better than i thought. 

in other news, i already went proselyting!!!! ALREADY!!! for those that dont know, proselyting is just going out to the real world and doing missionary things like sharing the gospel and talking to everyone i meet. every saturday out here, we go to the park and take books of mormon and pamphlets and everything we have so that we can pass them out to people. my companion for that ((we get different companions when we proselyte)) was sister briggs aka the absolute CUTEST missionary ever!!!! shes been in the mtc for 6 weeks so her spanish was much much better than mine. but anyways, we walked around the park for about 2 hours and passed out pamphlets and pictures of the temple and 1 book of mormon!!!! sister briggs did a lot more talking than i did, but whenever we met someone that spoke english i took control. the one book of mormon we gave out was to an american girl that was here studying abroad!!!! so i basically just bore my testimony of the book of mormon and how much happiness it can bring you and she actually said she would read it!!! when we talk to people in the park we are supposed to get their info so that the missionaries in madrid can contact them but since she was going home pretty soon we didnt get it. but as a zone (all 50 of us in the mtc) we had 676 contacts!!! that means 676 new people were introduced to the gospel of jesus christ just by our little group!!!

along with the park proselyting, we also have "investigators." herman allen and i have been teaching an investigator named johanna and we teach her the 3rd lesson tomorrow!!! its actually really hard becuase everything we do has to be in spanish so when she asks us random questions we have to come up with an answer. on the spot. in spanish. its so hard buit its amazing how much the lord helps me during those times. hermana allen is pretty shy so when we get asked a random question, i do must of the talking. but ive learned that when i put myself out there and start talking, heavenly father will do the rest. we also have trc investigators which is just a one day random investigator, not someone that is progressing with the lessons. we taught ricardo on saturday and it went so well. we teach the lessons and then after then teachers give us feedback on how we did. brother basurto (ricardo) told us that he felt like he was talking to week 4 missionaries!!!!! we had only been there for 4 days!!!! its amazing how much ive progressed and how much im learning. i love everything about spain and the people and the missionaries here and all the teachers.

i love love LOVE and miss you all!!!! thank you so much for all the support and all the emails!! i may not have enough time to reply back but just know that they make my day and they will definitely help me throughout the week :)) also, we are´not allowed to take pictures here unless it´s preparation day and since this is technically our first p day, i havent taken pictures yet :(

i feel so blessed to be out here in spain at this time in my life. its hard but i can really feel the spirit working more strongly in my life. this is an opportunity to me to find out what i trust the lord to do with me. i am already seeing miracles and i am so excited for whats in store for me.

i wish i could write more about every little detail but i am running out of time :( thanks for all the prayers and love.

once again i LOVE you all!!!!

xoxo,

hermana spangler