our true potential

HELLO TO ALL MY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

This has actually been a crazy week and it went by soooo fast.  My mind is all jumbled up today so bear with me.  In summary, this is what happened:

Tuesday- We had a district meeting.  It was fantastic!!!!  We talked about what we can do to work with the members and find more people.   Our mission is starting a new plan to work with the members and IT IS SO COOL.  The SHEs((sister training leaders)) and zone leaders are doing a test run on in this week and then we'll try it with everyone.  I'll let you know what it is and how it goes a little later in the

future.  Then we went straight to the train station and headed out to Fuengirola!!!  I had to do some residency stuff there so I got to see my group :-)

Wednesday-the residency stuff was actually Wednesday morning and then we spent the whole day traveling back so there was no time to do much.   We contacted a bunch and passed by a few houses and then it was time to go home.

Thursday- thanksgiving!!!!!!!  We had plans to go to a member’s house and eat but last minute he failed so we ended up having an American thanksgiving in the church as a district.  We had mashed potatoes, chicken, salad, brownies and homemade rolls.  It was wonderful :))  We talked about what we were thankful for and it was a pretty great time overall.  I just want to put it out there that I am MORE than thankful for all of you, my wonderful, favorite people.  Thank you so so much for all your support and love.  I couldn't do it without you.  Thursday night, we had a cita with a woman named Lola. She's actually a reference from a member family and she is AMAZING.  She is seriously golden!!!!!  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and we invited her to pray about it.  She said she would definitely do it by the next time we saw her.  Keep her in your prayers please!!!  She's recovering from a super big surgery because she has cancer :(

Friday-my first intercambio!!!!!!  Hermana Lamb and Hermana Stilson came and stayed with us until Saturday afternoon.  Hermana Lamb is from my group so that was fun to work with her.  We just walked a ton because it was raining and everything we had fell through but it was great to catch up with her and talk.  We talked a lot about our true potential the fact that we can never really reach our full potential in this life but that the church is definitely a church of progression.  We can always try as hard as we can and even if it's not enough we will still get credit for trying.  We should try to be a little bit better tomorrow than we were today and naturally our potential will keep rising and we will have to keep working at becoming more like our savior.  If we use the atonement more fully in our lives and use the power of repentance and the strength that Christ provides the act of perfecting our imperfections becomes more possible.  Hermana Stilson is a brand new, one week old missionary and she is a rock star!!!!!  We had a SUPER great time and it was fun to work with someone that is so brand new and so pumped with animo.  It was a really good intercambio overall and it made me really excited for the ones we will continue to have this transfer :))

Saturday- I have officially hit 10 MONTHS ((what???)) these months keep going by faster and faster and it's kinda freaking me out a little bit.  We had a ward activity for thanksgiving and it actually turned out great!!!!  The bishop just kinda threw the whole responsibility on us so we did the activities, the spiritual thought, the food, the decorations, and the cleaning.  Needless to say, we were very stressed but it was a great turnout and super fun :)) there's some videos and pictures attached so you can appreciate these crazy Spaniards.

Sunday-I was sick and feverish all day and it rained like crazy this week so that didn't help :/ We laid low but we got to talk to all of our hermanas and have a district lunch so it was a good day overall.

The new "light the world" video came out this week!!! ITS SO GOOD GUYS, GO WATCH IT. It's on www.mormon.org :)) There's also a list of 25 things you can do in the 25 days of Christmas.  If we all make an effort to serve the people around us, this might just be the most special Christmas yet.

Hermana Højholdt and I are BEST FRIENDS.  Ah, we seriously have so much fun together and we're always laughing.  I'm so excited for this transfer to continue to unfold and see all the miracles God has in store for us.

Until next week,

I love you all!!!!!!!

Hermana Spangler

miracle savings

                                                                                                            November 21, 2016

MIS QUERIDOS-

Bueno, here we are with another week come and gone!!!!  This has probably been one of the longest weeks of my whole mission with not as much visible success as we'd like to report BUT it's okay, we've still seen miracles.  God is so good to us.

Leaving Alcalá was really sad ): I was only there for about 6 weeks but it was just so easy to fall in love with the people.  I'm ESPECIALLY grateful for the time I had with Hermana Wood.  She's an actual angel and I am positive that God sent her to me for a reason.  I think that's probably one of the reasons I loved Alcalá so much.  God just likes blessing me in the companion category, what can I say :))

I'm officially settled in and here in Jerez.  Hermana Højholdt and I get along really well and she's an absolute doll.  I'm the worst and didn't take pictures, forgive me :/ BUT there's some videos and rainy pictures.  Hermana Højholdt and I have seriously WORKED our brains out and we come home absolutely exhausted from walking so much but we are really just soaking it all in.   Whenever transfers come around, I always pray that God will put me with someone that has a specific attribute I want to be better at.  For example, I've been praying that God will put me with someone that contacts A TON. ((I can contact pretty well, but I want to be better))  At one point I was thinking about it, and I thought, "Wait, why do I have to wait for a companion that does that? Why can't I just start doing it?"  What if someone was praying for that kind of companion too?  I decided to be the companion I would want to have and it's really been an eye-opening experience.   I have been contacting like a crazy person and even though we aren't seeing many results, I feel a lot better about myself as a missionary overall.  I want Heavenly Father to feel like he can trust me.

At one point, we had contacted for a straight hour without a SINGLE bit of success.  I just kept waiting for the miracle to come and then Hermana Højholdt said, "We're just putting work into our miracle savings today."  And I realized that sometimes we don't see miracles right away, but we are showing God that we are prepared for what he will send us.  If we do our part, he will always pour his blessings upon us.

This is a short one, again, but I don't have a lot of cool stories.   I'm still in the process of meeting the ward and the investigators.  I have to go to Malaga this week to do my residency and then we have intercambios ((wish me luck!!!))  I'll have a better/more detailed email next week.

I LOVE YOU ALL MUCHO,

Hermana Spangler

wait what

MY PEOPLE-

Well, let's just start off with the transfer news why don't we?? I AM LEAVING ALCALÁ. I have only been in this beautiful place for 6 weeks and now they're ripping me away from yet another home. I have absolutely loved Alcalá and all the people here. Hermana wood and I have become the best of friends and I'm really sad to leave her ): But I'm excited because she's training this transfer!!!!! She has to leave

tonight to pick up her new companion which means I have to be cleaned, packed, and out in a few hours. ((I have done nothing yet)). This is going to be yet another really short email, sorry guys :/ I have zero time to be able to respond to all your emails, so you'll have to wait another week.

I have been assigned to work in JEREZ. Which means I am going back to my lovely zone of San Fernando!!!! I'm going to be with Hermana Hojholdt!!!!  She's a girl from Denmark that I was at the MTC with and I LOVE her so I'm pumped!!!! This next transfer is going to be a lot different because I am going to be a sister training leader!!!!! For those that don't know, a sister training leader is like a leader of a

zone but focuses more on the hermanas. She's the one that does the intercambios and the zone meetings and things. Heavenly Father definitely has different plans for my mission because I feel very unqualified for this assignment. BUT, like my mother always reminds me, "The lord qualifies those he calls." I'm really excited for this

new journey and I'm going to learn SO much.

Quick story: so this week we had interviews with president!!!! He's such an inspired man and I love being able to meet with him. He gave me a blessing and it was so perfect for me. I am learning more and more on the mission how much Heavenly Father really knows and loves us. He said something that I that I think can apply to anyone. He said, "I bless you with the confidence to know that Jesus Christ has

been before you on this path. He has paved the way and tested the ground. I bless you with the confidence to know that even though he has been before, he will be next to you throughout your journey. You will be able to feel him at your side in every moment." Isn't that a beautiful???? Jesus Christ has been through it all and he's felt it ALL but he will never ever leave us comfortless. He is right next to us, step by step, taking it with us.

Like it says in Alma 7:

"11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."

I know with all my heart that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  He truly has the power to help us and succor us and comfort us because he has already done it all.

I love you all!!!!!!

Hermana Spangler

tengo prisa

MIS QUERIDOS-

I'll start out with my apologies that this week's letter is going to be very short. Today, we went to Sevilla to do some sight seeing so you'll get lots of pictures!!!!!

Quick update on all my people:

Bella- Ahhhhh my sweet Bella is doing SO well.  She came to church this week ((she hasn't been able to come for the last two weeks)) and loved it!!!!!  Hermana Wood and I taught gospel principles and we talked about the atonement.  We actually had 4 investigators in that class so it was a great day for us.  One man started complaining about how hard life was and how he didn't understand why he had been through everything he had to go through.  Bella raised her hand and then just bore this POWERFUL testimony about God’s plan and Christ's atonement.  It was seriously like an Elder Holland moment-we all just sat there in awe.  The spirit came in so strong as I watched Bella pour out her heart to this man.  It was a really proud missionary moment :')  We're still working towards the 18th so please please keep her in your prayers because she doesn't know if she's really prepared.  She's prepared lemme tell you.

Chela- We couldn't see her this week because she's been super busy with school and family things BUT she came to church on Sunday!!!!!  The bishop bore his testimony and said something like, "a few people in here have baptismal dates and that couldn't make me more happy" and she turned to us and said, "ooh me me."  So we're still helping her progress to the 26th :))

We haven't seen Loe in 2 weeks so there's not much of an update with her.  Please pray that we'll be able to meet with her soon.  We have some other somewhat progressing investigators that we are working with and they're all doing super well!!!  I'll give more of an update on them next week.

If you can believe it, next week is ALREADY transfers.  They'll call us on Monday to tell us what's happening.  It's most likely that I'll be staying and Hermana Wood will be leaving me because she's already been here 5 months. ((But you never really know)) I'll let you guys know what happens.

Sorry this is the most uneventful email yet, I'll send some videos to make up for it.

 I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH

Hermanita Spangler