Well, it was definitely an eventful week! Christmas was very special and it snowed! (I might have had a prayer in my heart that it would haha) It was great to talk with my favorite people in the world!! Also, this past week, we were able to help out the members a lot. It was awesome to get to know them better, we even learned how to make tamales and ponche!

The missionary work side of this week was a little slow, and a lot of our investigators are on vacation ha so we have been in finding mode! I know things will start picking up with the new year!! Just barely, someone texted us asking where the church was and that he wants to come on Sunday! We have never met him but somehow he got our number! It just shows that as we work with faith Heavenly Father will literally put people in out path :)

Hermana Fifita gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting with perfect spanish!! While she was up there, I couldnt believe that we started this journey together just a little while ago! She is such an example to me and I am so glad I have her as a companera y amiga!

This next week will be a little crazy cause of New years and all, but I am excited! :)  What are yall's plans?

Well, I love you!! Have a great week!

Hermana Spackman

We had the chance to help out with the Night of Excellence for the young women! It was very cool, we have been working with pretty closely and helping them finish their personal progress! Laurie (the one in the long green dress) finished! She is the first one in the branch to receive her medallion!! But she wont be the last, thats for sure!

Then later this week we have the branch Christmas party and Hermana Soto and her family came! She even brought her neighbors! Then, on sunday the relief society performed and they were so cute, they all matched and wore red! :)

Annd then today we had a great Christmas conference with President and his wife :) Hermana Fifita and I did a musical number, it was fun Let's just say that I love this season!!! :)

I dont have a lot of time today but thanks for all the support!

I wish you all the very merriest of Christmas!!

Hermana Spackman

We tracted into a less active a few weeks ago and he hasnt missed church since! He is the only member in his family and was baptized about 6 years ago. His wife never let us in when he wasnt home. However, recently she has been super humble and started listening to the lessons! The spirit was so strong when we showed her the Christmas video and then later taught her the restoration! She asked great questions!! The coolest part was when she apologized for never letting us come in. She was truly sorry, you could feel it. It was very bitter-sweet and a huge humbling experience, she is so awesome!

So, something crazy happened this past week. Last monday, we went to a mexican store to drop off some pass along cards and while we were there, a lady starting talking to me really fast. And I just nodded to what she was saying even though I didnt really know what she was talking about. Turns out I accidentally agreed to sign up for a rafal? raphel? (i dont know how to spell that) and pay ten dollars to possibly win a huge thing of like perfume or something..haha luckily i had my companion to help me get out of it, we told the lady that we didnt have any money. Then, she asked us when we were coming back and we could give her that money then. We told her sometime next week and left. To be honest, we never planned to go back. Now, fast forward to friday, we were in the neighborhood and we were exploring some new streets, we didnt have time to knock all of them so we prayed and chose one. Turns out, it was a member family from the english ward! They were able to refer us to a hispanic family that lived just down the road.. So we tried them! annnd it was the same lady!! yikes!! She let us in and let us share a message, then asked for our money... haha but hey maybe she is supposed to be baptized or something! :)

Its been raining quite a bit! Welcome to Washington, I guess.

I just found out that I am staying in Lynnwood for another transfer!! :)

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! :) I love tracting cause we get to see everyone's Christmas decorations!! :)

I love you all! Have a great week!!

Hermana Spackman

Hola y'all!

Sorry, I havent been able to write the past couple of weeks!

Last week, Hermana Fifita had the flu and we were on "Level Lockdown" for almost 4 days and we werent allowed to leave the apartment! Just saying, I am glad I got my flu shot haha even though I didnt want to! I saw the blessings of obedience for sure.

We have been able to see many miracles with the members and investigators this past week :) And most of all of them happened on sunday! Janet, our cute inestigator came to church for the first time and she brought her two kids and a friend and her kid! :) It was awesome!!  Then, our recent convert who hasnt come to church for the past three transfers came! and then another recent convert who doesnt like wearing ties came to church with a tie and was able to bless the sacrament for the first time! We were able to teach these people while we were on exchanges! I am so grateful to be a sister training leader and see all the many miracles from bringing other sisters into our area and even though they dont speak spanish, they bring such an amazing spirit to our lessons!

Something funny that happened this past week is one night, for some reason, I woke up got our of bed, knelt down, and started praying out loud. I must have thought I heard the alarm.. Hermana Fifita woke and heard me praying and being a good companion she knelt down as well..After I was done, I checked the clock and it was 12am...not the time to get up.. haha poor hermana fifita I made her get up, so I quickly said sorry and just went back to bed..haha the mission does crazy things to you, first I am sleep praying..whats next? ;)

We had the chance to hear from Elder Johnson of the seventy this past week and we received some awesome counsel! :) He talked about how no one in the world besides members know the true nature of our Heavenly father and the Godhead, and it is our job to let everyone know that he has a body of flesh and bones, and her loves us.

So excited for this Christmas season!! :) I hope you all enjoy your holidays!! I have loved sharing the video on christmas.mormon.org and talking about why it was necesary that Christ was born!

I love you! Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Sarah Spackman

Such a crazy week!

We are teaching a sweet family, we used to just teach the mom but now they are all investigating now! It was soo awesome!! We went over and their dad sat everyone down (Three teenage sons, mom, dad). Which was different cause usually he leaves the room. Then, we only read the first three verses of 1 Nephi but the spirit was so strong!! The husband straight up called out the spirit and said "Everything is better when you girls come over, we were fighting before and know we are all together having a good time, we might be slow and it will take time to learn everything, but we are willing to keep listening" It was so cool!! :) The gospel really does bless families! And sometimes they don't even realize something is missing until they find it!

It was super funny cause Olga though Nefi was netflix haha

We had a few mishaps with the bus this last week haha we are still learning how to use it! We have very limited miles and then having to do exchanges twice a week, we have to be super careful! So, we thought that we would buy a bus pass. It has been fun contacting people in the bus! (cause they cant go anywhere ha ha)

This past Saturday was also Hna Fifita's birthday!! She is a whole 20 years old!! It was fun! Some members surprised her with a cake and my sweet family sent some awesome cards and presents! :)

We had combined sacrament meeting with an english ward for the primary program! It was so cute and threw me back to good old primary days :) My favorite part was when a little girl stood up and said "Repentance means...saying sowry (you know how little kids say their R's haha) for what we done wrong." :)

I love being a missionary, even though some days we just knock doors and nothing gets done. I know the church is true! Heavenly Father loves us and know exactly what we are going through!

Have a great week! :)

Hermana Spackman

 Sharing insight and testimony is so great haha this past fast sunday one of the returning members that we are working with shared his testimony for the first time ever in sacrament meeting! It was so incredible, this past week he has been able to see a lot of blessings. He and his wife came over from Guatemala with literally nothing. He works a lot and his wife is about to have a baby in like 3 weeks. They want to be sealed in the temple but havent been able to pay their tithing recently. We have been teaching them and last month he payed some fast offerings then a little bit of tithing. Later in  that month they had to pay a 10,000 dollar bill..some debt they had before I think..but after meeting with some people they were able to lower it to about 1,500!! His testimony grew so much! and he committed to pay a full tithe from here on out! He bore is testimony so simply saying that God is always there for us. It was so powerful :) I am so glad I got to know them and so excited for their baby to come! :) haha I just realized that I was going to share something about testimonies and kinda went of on a tangent..sorry ;)

 We almost had a baptism yesterday..everything the was ready and set up, then Ricky (investigator) came late to church and didnt take the sacrament and then left early...we didnt feel right about it and that he really understood what baptism meant...so we had to call him and tell him that there wasnt going to be a baptism...it was so hard.. and his girlfriend (member) got so mad at me ... hopefully after a few days they will realize we did it out of love...but it was hard.

 We have transfers this week and a lot of changes are happening. We still dont know who is going and staying but we will find out soon!

Its been a rough couple of weeks but I am happy to announce that I am back and loving missionary work even more!! :)

I just cant be selfish or worry about my own problems. Because I am on the Lord's time right now and there are many of His children you need the gospel! But, I wont find them unless I am focused and thinking of all the ways that I can help them! :)

I love you and have definitely received strength from your prayers this week! Thank you for all of your support! :)