hi!!!!!! I am officially here!!!!! I am out of the mtc and into the
REAL world. I am currently in cartagena, which is a beautiful part of southern Spain. the weather is perfect and the people are surprisingly a lot nicer here. I love it.
so leaving the mtc was way hard and way sad because I just love all
the people I met so much. I took a 3 hour train to Malaga to go to the mission home where we met the president, his wife, and a few other missionaries. right from the start, we got assigned to a random missionary in the area and went proselyting. crazy. I was assigned to be with hermana Johnson and she is AMAZING. we walked around and contacted on the street and talked to everyone we saw. but we weren't really having any success so we went to talk to a less active and she was really nice. I realized in this 2 hours of proselyting I really don't know. my brain was about to explode because they talk so much faster here and hermana johnson has way good Spanish. we shared a scripture with her and hermana Johnson talked about it and turned to me to make a comment. literally I had no idea what was happening or what was going on so I just said a little prayer in my heart and went for it. the scripture they were reading talked about prayer so I shared a testimony of prayer and gave an experience that hopefully made sense and then we ended with a prayer and left. hermana Johnson told me that what I said was absolutely perfect for that moment. so all I can say is that God listens to our prayers and he is always going to help us out. ALWAYS.
anyways, that night we went to the mission home and got assigned to our new companions. my trainer is hermana Vigo. she's a peruvian from spain. she is SO GREAT. she speaks fluent Spanish and almost perfect English. so it's great because she can always use her English to explain to me what's going on if I'm confused and then when she speaks in Spanish IT IS SOOOO FAST. which is good because the people in Malaga speak way fast. she tries to speak Spanish to me all the time and I am seriously learning so much. she's teaching me a lot and is super patient with me and is always teaching me knew things. love her to death. she is always telling everyone about me and calls me "her babygirl" which just sounds so funny in her Peruvian Spanish accent.
I thought I knew what the gift of tongues was in the mtc but WOW it is so crazy amazing how much Spanish I can speak and understand. not going to lie, the first day was so hard. I was just doubting everything and feeling really stressed and just wanting to cry. all the lessons were hard and I didn't understand anything and I felt scared and nervous to talk to people ((which never happens for me)) I genuinely was confused and just thought to myself "what am I even doing out here?? is this really worth it??" I know, I know, terrible to think. but I said I prayer that night that I would feel peace and confidence and I'm telling you WOW the next day was a million times better and every day after that has been even better. I haven't had a single second of fear out here and my Spanish comprehension just grows every day. it's fantastic. all I know is that Satan is real and he does a good job of making us feel bad and like we aren't good enough. BUT I can testify that Heavenly Father is even more real and he has the power to make any tiny bad feeling go away completely. he has the power to make us feel strong and confident and happy. I can testify of that because he did it with me. there is a word here in Spanish that we use, "animo" or "animado" which means like pumped or excited or encouraged or super happy. everyone here calls me "hermana animo" because after the first day I decided I'm not gonna let satan get to me and I'm not gonna be nervous or scared. I'm here for a reason and that reason is to share the gospel with EVERYONE. to invite others to Christ in every moment. why not be super happy and excited?? it's more fun and everyone can see it. "those who move forward with a happy spirit will find that things ALWAYS work out" I can testify of that for sure.
this week has been crazy and fun and exciting and we have had so many amazing experiences. I love this work and I can feel the lord working in my life every second. we taught people in the streets and in houses and at the church and every single time we teach I feel the spirit. we have more less actives than investigators but that's okay because all of them are progressing. in the street, we talked to 7 different people that wanted us to come teach them. so that's 7 futures!!!!!!! ALSO, we have an investigator with a baptism date as of Friday!!!!!! renaldo was a new investigator and it was his first lesson. his "couple/girlfriend" ((that's what we call people that live with someone but aren't married)) roxanna, has been taking the discussions for years and hasn't progressed at all. but during our lesson with her we invited him to join us for the lesson and he LOVED it. he was interested and wanted to learn everything. he spirit was so so strong and I know that they felt it too. I'm really hoping that he will inspire roxanna to take the steps she needs.
my thoughts after this first week are that the mission is GREAT. and I'm sorry that this email is jumbled and probably a little confusing, I'm in a room full of people talking and I can't quite focus. but I do have an iPad now so I can read my emails any time I want. I can't reply til Mondays but I can read them during medio-dia when I have a few minutes of free time. thank you thank you ALL for your emails and love and support. it's the best. every little message makes my day so thank you all.
I love love LOVE you all and I feel so blessed to have in you my life.
miss you all like crazy!!!!!
stay happy,
xoxoxo
hermana Spangler
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