Monday, October 17, 2016

love with your heart wide open

MI QUERIDOS

Well, it's been a week!!!!!  I swear I just sat down yesterday to write you and it's that time again.  I am absolutely loving my time out here and I just ADORE Hermana Wood.  A little info about her, because everyone is asking:  She's 20 ((her birthday was yesterday)), from Farmington Utah, has about 5 months on the mission, loves to dance and sing, has the BIGGEST heart and is just an absolute angel.  I have seriously been so blessed in the companion category, I don't know what I did to deserve this.

The ward members here are super great!!!  The bishop is a young guy with a nice family and they're actually waiting for their visas to move to Utah!!!!  So we're sad about that, but for right now, he's really good at pumping us up to do the work. Hermana Wood and I have spent a lot of time with the primary kids these past few Sunday's because we are helping out with the primary program!! I'm playing the piano and Hermana Wood is leading the music and we have SO much fun.  There are only 5 primary kids right now and 2 of them turn 12 this month so we are going to find some families soon to fill it up.

So, right now we are teaching a woman named Loe. She's from the Dominican Republic and she's about 36. She's a DOLL and I just love her to death. She just wants to grow her faith and do anything she needs to come closer to God. The last 2 lessons we had with her were so so good. The only thing that's holding her back right now is the fact that her husband really doesn't want anything to do with the
church so she doesn't come on Sunday's because he always comes up with other activities to do :/ HOWEVER, we are working and fasting and praying together that his heart will soften and we promised that if she does everything she needs to do, his heart will soften. We also invited her to be baptized the 12th of November, so please keep her in your prayers!!!! It was super cute because we asked her to be baptized to take a leap of faith and let it grow and she totally accepted and then we said, "we've prayed a lot and we think you'll be ready and prepared by the 12th, will you be baptized that day?" And she said, "Yes, wow, thank you, I really appreciate that. I have the faith that I can be ready." No one has ever thanked us for inviting them to be baptized but it was super sweet :")

We are also working with an 11 year old named Chela and she's progressing really well!!!! Everyone in her family is a member but then went inactive before Chela was born ): They got baptized in Peru but then came to Spain and stopped going. But it's okay because hey are giving her the chance to come to church and investigate and she loves it!!!! We had a REALLY good lesson on the plan of salvation because she had a lot of questions but we were able to answer them.  Also, Hermana Wood said that she has never seen the family open up but I starting talking to them about Peruvian food ((thank you Hermana Vigo)) and they said they would make some for us!! So yesterday, for Hermana Wood's birthday, we went over there and they made us food!!!!  It was really yummy :)) we also shared a little spiritual message with
them and the dad said that in his own time, he wants to start coming back to church!!!!!!! I almost cried!!!!!! So we are definitely going to be working with them :))

Okay funny story: This week, Hermana Wood and I were given a bag of almonds, peanuts, and walnuts by a less active man. We didn't really want them so we were just thinking it would be cool to find a homeless person to share our message give them our little gift. I said out loud, "it would be really nice to find a homeless person right now." ((There are homeless people allllll over San Fernando but in Alcalá I never see them)) So then, we turned the corner and THERE WAS A MAN RIGHT THERE. We just passed him because we were freaking out about how quickly it happened and then realized we should definitely go back and talk to him. We started talking to him and HE WAS SO NICE. He really didn't have a lot of interest in our message because he believes in energies in the universe and things like that but he let us sit down and answer some questions and teach him a little bit. We had a great conversation about prophets and a few other things. Then, when we were about to go, Hermana wood said, "this is pretty weird but do you like walnuts or almonds?" And he said, "yes, I'm a vegetarian and I was just thinking I needed to buy some nuts for some extra protein." Hermana wood showed him the bag and said, "well, you're in luck, we'll give you a bag right now." His face lit up so much hahahaha it was so cute :"") He said, "wait, what? for me?" He then proceeded to tell us that we were angels that fell from heaven because he didn't have enough money to buy anything and that's just what he needed. It was a really sweet moment. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father loves his children so much that he sent two little American girls to a Spanish homeless man with a bag of almonds. It strengthened my testimony that EVERYONE, no matter who they are, can always use a little bit of love.

Go out there and love with your heart wide open, the world could use a little more!!!

Love you all,

Hermana Spangler




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