MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILIA AND AMIGOS-
Do you guys have any idea at all how much I love you??? I feel so blessed every day to have the
family and friends that I do, thanks for being you.
So, on Tuesday, a super less active guy that we try to visit
every week walked into the church with his girlfriend because he wanted to show
her around ((happens a lot because our new building is BEAUTIFUL)) and he asked
us to give them a tour, although he ended up getting really excited and wanting
to explain everything to her. She
was so sweet and told us that she felt something different whenever they talked about the church and especially now, inside the
building. She doesn't live here
right now, she's in the process of moving, but once she's all settled in we're
gonna start teaching her.
On Wednesday, an interesting couple walked into the church
looking for people to talk to. Let
me tell you a little bit about their back story. Norma is Colombian, and she speaks barely any English. Jared is from England, and speaks no
Spanish ((at all)). Turns out,
she's now pregnant with his child so he decided to move out here to live with
her and they're trying to turn their lives around. They came in to ask us if we could
teach Jared some Spanish and then share with them our beliefs. Norma
knows a little bit about the church and they want to know how to raise their
baby in a good environment-what better place to do that in the church? At first, I was a little skeptical
about the situation but I have grown to love them SO much. They came to the
church a few days ago to work on spanish and they're so great. We shared the Book of Mormon with them
((me, talking to Norma in Spanish and Hermana Bailey with Jared in English)) It was an interesting lesson but it went
good overall and we committed them to read and pray about it. I testified over and over again about
how the Book of Mormon has answers to all of life's questions-especially about
how they can raise a little girl together in this crazy situation and this
crazy world. I've learned that the
Book of Mormon isn't just a book you read in church, it really does apply to
our day and can help us learn how to be better people. Then,
we had a barbecue on Saturday and they came!! They talked and ate and met people and Jared was walking
around asking everyone what their name was in his new language. Then, they both showed up on Sunday as
well!!! I spent the whole meeting
translating it to Jared but it went really well. Norma LOVED it, she's totally interested and wants to come
back!!! It was fantastic. They're both so special and they have a
lot of potential.
In regards to Iris, she's back on track with her baptismal
date!!!! We had a great lesson
with her this last week and planned everything out. Her new date is August 14. It's been hard to pick a date because she has a few specific
people she wants to be able to go but with summer, everyone's traveling. We finally picked the 14th and she's
super happy about it. At the
barbecue we had, I watched her go around telling everyone about it :)) She came up to me later and said, "I'm pretty sure the
whole ward knew about my baptism date before I did, every time I tell people
they just say, 'yeah I already know.'" Thanks to her best friend who is more than excited that she's
finally getting baptized. She's so
great and I'm so excited to watch her take this step in her life.
Speaking of the barbecue, it was such a success!!! ((Video
attached)) It was the two wards from San Fernando so it was pretty big. We had 8 investigators come from our
area!!!!! 8!!!! I was so happy
& it was a good opportunity for people to meet and talk and eat. Activities are so important and SO great
to bring friends to-it's a chance for people to feel our love and friendship
and realize that we are just as normal as everyone else.
Hermana Bailey and I have been working a lot more with the
members and strengthening our relationships with them. We've been teaching the members the
investigator lessons and always ask them to be thinking about someone that they
can invite to hear us :)) It's
been pretty successful so far and we've received a lot of referrals!!!!
Thanks for everything!! You guys are the best and my biggest support system. Keep smiling and keep finding friends to
bring to church. I love you all
and I love being a missionary.
All my love,
Hermana Spangler
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