i'm home

grateful

ALL THOSE WHOM I LOVE THE MOST-

I am ALL emotions as I write this letter- knowing it's my last letter as a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ.  Spain has become an actual part of me and I never want to leave, but I feel at peace knowing that I did all I could and hopefully changed a few lives along the way.

I have learned SO much but I've summed all my knowledge and experiences into the five biggest things I have learned on the mission:

1. God is present.  His hand is in every single part of my life.  It's not only there, but it is there and working miracles.  I've gone through weeks where our numbers were at the lowest of lows, but when it came time to sit down and write you, all I could remember were the millions of little miracles I had seen!!!  My favorite quote from my mission president goes like this: "miracles happen because God loves his children."  The areas I've served in, the companions I've had, are all evidence that God is PRESENT and working in my life.  This week we taught Jonathan 3 times and he continues to progress every time.  On Monday, he cried because he had never felt the spirit so strong.  On Wednesday, we invited him to be baptized August 17th and he accepted!!!!!  And on Sunday, he came to church.  That's what joy feels like, I'm pretty sure.

2.  The gospel makes me happy. I have cried, been yelled at, rained on, cussed at, and ridiculed. I have had my legs 'broken' from walking so much, my spirit broken from so much rejection, and my heart broken watching people I love make wrong decisions.  BUT I have never been so happy.  I have come home every single day, exhausted, and crashed into bed with a smile on my face and heart full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the experiences He's allowed me to have.  The gospel is part of God's marvelous plan and what's the ultimate goal of that plan?? OUR HAPPINESS. "Men are that they might have joy."  He knows us so perfectly inside and out and He knows exactly what we need-which is why He gave us the gospel of Jesus Christ, the KEY to happiness.  It's not a list of rules to make us miserable.  It's a giant book of BLESSINGS and what we must do to receive them.  Anaís, one of my very best friends, taught me that when I was in Cartagena.  She went from being lost and lonely, to becoming confident and radiant and happy.  I saw it change in her face and in the way she acted.  The little things we do every day (read, pray, serve, repent) are the things that lead us to real, true JOY.

3.  The Book of Mormon has brought me closer to God than any other book.  I have no doubt in my mind that that book is TRUE.  I can't even number the amount of times I've mentioned this in my weekly email, but it's true!!!!!!  It's seriously like a magic book full of animo, and answers to my questions, and stories, and insights. I've gained such an appreciation for it and I can't imagine my life without reading it every day.

4.  The atonement of Jesus Christ is for everyone and everything.  He loves us SO much that He came to earth for the very purpose of being killed and mocked and whipped JUST because He loves us.  Just so that we might have a chance to make it back to Him.  Just so that we would have someone that understands us and can walk with us in our trials.  The atoning power of Jesus Christ truly heals.  My sweet friend Iris helped me learn that more than anything.  I watched the power of the atonement physically CARRY her when her mom passed away and she was left with nothing.  She had no where to go and no one to help her, expect the power of Christ's atonement which led her to making decisions that would change her life forever. One of my favorite moments is just after her baptism, dressed in white, soaking wet, and dancing because she felt so light and clean and new.

5.  Faith is an action word. I can believe in Jesus Christ with all my heart and soul but it doesn't make any sense until I get up and DO something about it.  It makes me think of Rosa and Rocio, those two angels from Jerez, and how INCREDIBLY prepared they were.  They had questions and doubts and they didn't find those answers to their questions until they did something.  Rocio received her answer reading the Book of Mormon.  Rosa received her answer while praying.  They had that desire to know and they worked until their faith turned into knowledge.  Every experience, every cita, everything that happened led them up to their baptism day-which is still one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced.

I know that God loves us with an infinite love.  I know his son, Jesus Christ, is the Savior of the world and I am eternally indebted to him.  I know that His gospel was restored through Joseph smith.  I know that the Book of Mormon is physical evidence of that.  I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will give us real joy and ultimately lead us to salvation.

I have learned and changed and grown in ways I didn't know were possible.  I'm still Ginger Dee Spangler....just a better version of her.  My time as a set apart missionary may be over but I will forever be a servant of Him who saved me, even Jesus Christ.

PS-I love you all!!!!!!!!!  I can't even begin to thank you for the support and emails and prayers and things that have helped me every day.  I will hug you all very soon :):):):):)

Hermana Spangler

the field is white

MY DEAR GENTE-

The most AMAZING miracle happened this week.  On Sunday, we fasted as a mission for miracles to find people that were prepared to hear our message.   Hermana Mckeown and I were heading to visit a less active member and on the way, we passed a man and his two kids.  But it happened to be one of those awkward moments in the middle of the crosswalk where you can't really stop people so we just kept going.  I really felt like we needed to talk to them but they had already left and we were in a hurry to our cita so we continued (not a good excuse, I know).  I said a little prayer and apologized to Heavenly Father and asked him to put them in our path again if we really needed to talk to him.  We went to visit the less active and she came down to walk her dog so we just walked a little with her.  After walking for about 15 minutes, WE SAW THE MAN AGAIN.  I was in the most awkward situation again of trying to listen to the less active and wanting to talk the man and I literally let him walk right past us.  But I couldn't deny the spirit that told me to leave her and go talk to him so I said to the woman, "I'm so sorry, I need to talk to that family right now."  And she was totally great about it and just told us to come see her after talking to the family.  So we thanked her and ran back and we found him just standing there in the middle of the sidewalk. (blessings)  We started talking to him and he was SO nice.  His name is Jonathan and he's from Venezuela.  We went to a park to talk to him and so his kids could play and taught him about the restoration of the gospel.  And then listen to what he said.  He said that the first time he saw us walking, he wanted to talk to us but didn't have time and hoped to see us again!!!!!! AND THEN, when he saw us later he said, "when I saw you I really wanted to talk to you but you were talking to that woman so I just stopped right here to wait and see if you would come back.  And you did." !!!!!!  We had such a good lesson with him and then set a cita to meet again.  SO, we met him again (another Hermana and I on intercambios) and it went so good!!!!!  It was one of those lessons where we had something planned and then just changed because of all the questions he asked.   We ended up testifying a lot of the Book of Mormon and how he really, really needed to read it and find out if it was true.  At one point he started kind of shivering and then kept saying "WOW, I've never felt the spirit like this before.  Of course I'll read it." Just as a background, he's evangelist but kind of a confused one that's really just looking for the truth.  He recognizes the spirit really easily, which is great because HE, on his own, tells us that this is what Hod has been wanted him to hear.  HE’S SO PREPARED!!!!!!!!  We have a cita with him tonight, so pray for him!!!!!!!

Just another cool story:

We were walking to visit a family and got totally lost.  (You'd think that I would know the area by now)  We were stuck in this neighborhood that didn't have an exit and while making circles this woman stuck her head out the window and asked us who we were.  We explained that we were missionaries and shared a message about Jesus Christ and she proceeded to say, "I don't really practice my religion, but I want to learn more about yours, want to come up and teach me right now?"

............. we cried.  We told her that we had a cita already but that we would come back as soon as we could and teach her so she gave us her house number and name and told us to come back.

This week, we had 4 different people contact US and tell us they wanted to learn more.  After almost two transfers, things are starting to look up and people are just falling into our laps.  My testimony was strengthened that God in fact, IS preparing people.  It's made all the hundreds of rejections worth it.

I love you guys TONS.  And apologizing in advance for all the pictures I'm about to send. Enjoy :-)

xoxoxoxoxoxo,

Hermana Spangler

god's will is better than my will

MY LOVED ONES,

The weeks are seriously FLYING by!!!  I don't even have time to blink and it's already time to write another email.  Can you guys believe it's already July?!!!  I'm in shock when I think about myself last July and how much I've changed.  It's been a good year and I am a happy girl.

This week we had a BOMB ward activity!!!  I basically gave myself an ulcer trying to plan it and make sure everything was perfect, but it turned out great!!!  We had a talent show and a tortilla de patata cook off and it was seriously a blast :))  I'll attach photos and videos-TONS of people came.

Hermana Taggart and Hermana Burt invited all of us hermanas to pick a Christlike attribute for the month of July and work towards really developing it.  I chose obedience, or just aligning myself more perfectly with God's will.  It's been really cool to study Christ's life and how willingly He obeyed the Father in every single thing and how much I want to do that as well.  I've been trying to be exactly obedient in every single thing and make it a PART of me.  Something that will make life a lot easier when I come home.  I've seen so many blessings, and truly seen how much more abundantly the spirit is blessing my life.

In other news, ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING TO OUR MISSION.......in September.  So I'm bummed because I literally just missed it but, está bien, I'm excited to see how our mission will start preparing for him to come.

We've found some cool people here but for some reason, no one seems to want more.  We're working really hard and it feels so good to talk to everyone but satan's working really hard on the hearts of these people ):  We did a mission fast and included ALL the members in southern Spain, fasting for miracles and the ability to find those that are prepared.  I'm excited to see miracles!!!!!!

I love you guys tons and tons.  Thanks for all the support and love and things!!

Hermana Spangler