Week 8 South Diamond Las Vegas

Hey wassup friends and fam!! 

     Ahh man this week has gone by so quick! Time flies when your working on the Lords time! Anyways, some stuff that happened this week. So I have no work out stuff and I can't go to the gym so I've made make shift weights by lifting water jugs and my suitcases and stuff so it makes me feel like Rocky, it's dope. I just gotta work with what I've got! No one in my apartment likes to work out so it's so funny I just go so hard and am sweating like crazy and there just sitting there watching me and It makes me laugh! Also, I convinced them to buy some healthy food which is nice cuz it's hard to stay healthy out here so I'm on a diet now hehe. But we helped this guy move this morning and we were in our church clothes and it was so funny!! We had me and my comp and one other companionship and we literally packed his entire house up and it was awesome. I was sweating so hard it was like 112 so we were just soaked head to toe in sweat! I was lifting this super big dresser and I kinda slipped and it came down and hit me in the chest and busted my dope pink pen and it got all over my white shirt. Then I was lifting parts of there tramp in the truck and it just started pouring out rusty nasty water and got all over me it was so funny I was like well I can throw this shirt away it was stained all over it made me laugh! Then the guy gave us a referral and so it made it all worth it cuz the dude seems solid! We were able to knock tons of doors this week it was great. My comp hates it and doesn't like talking and knocking so I read the "talk with everyone " section to him in Preach my Gospel and then I said Elder... We are going to talk to every person that walks by us and I can talk to them first and he was like ok fine. So I've been getting some good practice In! Haha it's awesome I finally got the typical missionary experience where you knock and the dude opens the door and just starts cussing you out it's so funny I LOVED it. The other Elders also saw some dude getting held at gunpoint at the KFC so that was sick. I wish I was in the ghetto more cuz then the people are more humble and accepting. I'm in an area that everyone drives Tesla's, Mercedes, Jaguars, Corvettes, Alfa Romeos, Porsches, Nissan GTRs it's dope to see them but they usually aren't to interested in our message but that's cool I love to hear the cars just ripping through the streets. Anyways I had tons of spiritual experiences this week but I'll share the coolest ones. First, I got to go to the TEMPLE agh it was so good the Vegas temple is gorgeous and I felt the spirit so strong and received some powerful revelation! We then had a church tour with the lady and her kids that we're teaching and it was just insanely spiritual. We took them through the church and showed them what we do in each room and it's importance! We took her to the Font and talked about baptism and eternal families. Missionary work is tough, but the light and joy I saw in her eyes when we talked about eternal families outweighs ANY crappy experience that happens out here. She just lit up with joy and light when I said that and it was so cool. We handed out tons of pass along cards and BOMs so that was dope and we got in contact with some other older interested people so that was dope. But man FOOOTBALL IS STARTING AGGGHHH! It kinda hit me hard this week. There is a high school right next to my apartment and I saw the stands packed and the lights on when we drove by on Friday. It was super weird because this will be the first fall in 12 years where I don't get to strap up and play football with my boys. I absolutely love football and everything about it. It was cool because then I realized all my boys are doin the same thing and dropped football to go and serve the Lord! So I'm good now. And then a miracle happened cuz I knocked on this dudes door and he is a less active but he was the coach for that highschool and he talked to me about football and how they're doing and he played for AF and knows Brandon Huntsman and the Normans so that was so sick. His name is Colby Knight and he's so sick. He told me I could stop by anytime and chat with him and he'll keep me up to date with football hahaha and he said they play Bishop Gorman in a couple weeks so imma ask President if I can go support him and go watch or something. But other then that it's been good I love being on a mission it teaches ya so much and there's NOTHING I'd rather be doing. I know this Gospel is true with all my heart. I'm so happy I get to share the joy it brings to me with people in Vegas and soon to be Norway! 

 Me and my companion! My mission president assigned me to do the driving, which is nice!

 BW's, perks of serving stateside for a few weeks!

 "I love being a missionary, I'm not just saying that. I wish I could drive to other places to watch some football then I'd be 100% perfectly fine. It's ok though it's on the shelf for a little bit."
- Elder McSpadden

Week 7 Las Vegas

Man this week has been crazy!! 
    I'm finally out here in the mission field and I couldn't be any more stoked! The last couple of days in the MTC was rough because it was me and Eldste Holbrook and Søster Bradshaw alone in class! Woo glad I'm out here now though! Quick funny story with that, when we were cleaning up I realized my companion left his container of 100 Tide Pods. I was going to give them away, then I had this awesome idea pop into my head! Back in the day when Chandler, Trent, Dillon, Speen and I would go to good ol Taco Bell we would put the hot sauce packets under the toilet seats and it would explode and get all over whoever sat down to use the toilet. It made some funny memories and a lot of good stories to tell. It was so funny I had this grand idea to use the extra Tide Pods on the toilets in the MTC and it worked perfect!!!  I was on a plane to Vegas before anyone found out it was me so that was sick! Then we had a cool miracle where we found a person who is super interested in the gospel so that was tight. And we're teaching these two little girls their names are Ireland and Harbor and they're so adorable! Their parents are not active but were working on them. During the lesson we were talking about baptism and then prayer and Ireland was like " I say my prayers every night" and my heart was like awe what a stud!!! They're so dope so I'll be working with them. But it's super hot here and I sweat like CRAZY it's so funny I love it and I don't even care that all my shirts are turning brown and my pants have sweat stains on the butt because this mission isn't about me it's about bringing others to Christ! I love it here and love serving the people of Las Vegas! They're such cool people and they have dope cars so that's tight too. But love you all hope ya have a good week!
Elder McSpadden

Elder Shoop and I 

 Elders Young, Boyle, McSpadden and Shoop

 The guy who invented Fortnite's house!!

 Dope cars everywhere!!

Week 6 Arrived in Las Vegas

Arrived in Las Vegas!!

Mission office address:  4455 Allen Lane, Suite 140, North Las Vegas, NV 89031

Week 5 MTC

Hello everyone!! 

    This week has gone by fast and slow! It’s my last week here in the MTC and I can’t wait to get out and serve. I was reassigned to the Houston Texas South mission this week because my visa had not come through and I was not super stoked because I want to get to Norway so bad! Then I got reassigned again to Las Vegas and I was kinda bugged. I kept thinking I got called to Norway why can’t I go there?! Then on Tuesday we had a devotional and my district is absolutely amazing at singing so we all sing in the choir. The choir director is a stud and told us the background story of the song we were singing, "Praise to the Man". It was so sick I never realized how that song came about. But he said something I loved, right before the devotional started we did a practice run and filmed it. And every time they would show the choir all the missionaries would look up at the screen! He stopped everything and said “ Elders and Sisters, this mission isn’t about you, stop looking at yourself and sing to God! If your mission is centered on you this will be the longest two years of your life.” I just started laughing and I was like what am I thinking?!! It doesn’t matter if I don’t want to be in 110 degree weather walking around or if I’m scared I’m going to lose the language because God has a plan for me. Then I had this realization, the people of Norway need missionaries right now. The numbers are low, they don’t have a temple, areas are being shut down, and it needs missionaries!! So if God wants me to go to Vegas, he’s probably got a darn good reason why so I need to stop worrying and go to work! It was so cool!  Then we sang Praise to the Man and the spirit was just RAGING! But other than that we’ve just been grinding at the language and trying to learn as much as we can before we head out! We had a TRC this past week which is normally a spiritual thought with a member who speaks Norwegian. So me and my comp sit down at a computer to Skype this individual who lives in Norway and we said a prayer. I said amen and then my teacher goes “ oh Elders by the way this person is from Bergen and has a REALLY strong dialect so you probably won’t understand most of what she says so have her repeat stuff. Oh and she’s actually not a member. So we’re like oh flip and we start tripping out cuz she’s not gunna know what we’re even talking about and she’s not a member, then we started! She answers and starts saying stuff we couldn’t even understand! So I did the best thing I could do and looked at my companion and encouraged him to respond hahahah it was great. We couldn’t understand much and she didn’t know what we were sayin but we would just say “ Ya, bra! “ which means “yes, good “ shook our heads and smiled and sometimes she would just burst out laughing and we would just follow along it was great we pulled it off pretty good. Then we wrapped up the lesson and she just starts chatting with us in English and we’re like oh my this would have been way easier, but it’s ok! Then our teacher went and told us some pronunciation tips so we don’t say brake our arms instead of fold our arms or the Holy Ghost not the holy duck and stuff like that. It was a good week though! Can’t wait to get out to the field! Love you all hope ya have an awesome week! 

Eldste McSpadden 

My Awesome Zone!

 My boy Danny and I met while I was on my high school trip to Oahu, Hawaii! He's headed to Fort Worth Texas!

 High School Homies!

Week 4 MTC

Truxton just received his Visa Wait call to serve in the LAs Vegas West Mission!   He's super excited and knows he'll get to Norway sooner or later!  

Hey friends and fam hope your all doing well! 

     My week has been great! The language has been coming along well and we have been teaching some lessons to our teachers and volunteers who come to the MTC! It’s been pretty cool to see how much we’ve learned in four weeks of being here! Last week I got to clean the temple it was way cool! We started off cleaning the women’s locker room and I mean we were in the temple so it was cool, but cleaning up Bobby pins and breath mints was getting old. So I walked up to the guy in charge and said “ I know there is some cleaning that needs to be done In the celestial room, we’d love to help ya out with it too!  Not thinking it would work he goes, “ yeh actually I could find something for you Elders".  I was so pumped so we ended up using a rotavac and cleaned the celestial room carpet it was so cool, that guy was a homie! Then Sunday was good we had a cool devotional and our MTC presidency spoke on being valiant! Sister Titensor shared about being valiant and her story of having stage four cancer and going through 2 full treatments of chemo and how she was very down at times and didn’t know if she would make it but she pushed through and beat it! It was cool it hyped all the missionaries up and we were like let’s goooo! Then on Tuesday we had a good one too, a member from the young women’s presidency came and spoke to us and it was so spiritual and amazing! Sister Craig talked a lot about following through with promptings from the spirit! She shared a story that was insane! She had a friend who was one day walking down through some shops in California and they walked by this shop that had fresh crab for sell and she had a weird impression to grab some crab for her ministering sister who had been struggling lately! She kinda blew it off and kept going then got it again. She then asked her husband, “I feel like we should get some crab and maybe a loaf of bread for sister so and so" her husband said “ that would be nice but how would we keep it cold and fresh I don’t think she’ll want spoiled crab. We can get her something else though!“ So they went to go get her a loaf of bread. Once they had purchased the bread she got the prompting to get some crab! So she finally was like ok I just think we should get crab and walked over to the stand and asked if they could get some crab and a way to keep it cold. So they get the stuff and head over to the lady’s house. The sister goes and knocks on the door and the lady opens the door, she says I thought you would like some crab and bread today here you go, is there anything I can help with? The lady said thank you and nope then shut the door. The ministering sister felt terrible. She went back to the car and slumped in her chair and cried and said she probably hates crab I’m so dumb why did I do that!! A week goes by and then she gets a call from that same sister. She answers it and starts to apologize, the sister said I have to tell you something, so she stopped to listen. She proceeds to tell her that last week she was having a really rough day. It was her and her husbands anniversary that day and she was reminiscing memories and moments with her husband who had passed away that last year. She said she was mad at God for taking her husband a way but knew that it was for a reason. So she asked him and said I just need some help right now I can’t do this it’s to hard I need a sign of help or comfort. A couple hours later her ministering sister knocked on the door with some crab and a loaf of bread. The most tender part of it was that her and her husband in the pervious years on their anniversary would go buy crab and bread and eat that together for there special day. And she apologized for not being as grateful because she was just in shock and knew that God was there helping her through that day. I just thought that was so crazy cool! Modern day miracles are so real and I know we can have those happen to us as well. We need to always follow the promptings from the spirit. They may not all have crazy endings or miracles like this one but we never know! I love you all and hope your doing great. I love this gospel I know it’s true and I know this is Gods work and I’m so glad to be apart of it. 

Eldste McSpadden 

Elder Brown and I before he heads off to Bolivia!  (High School friend)

Elder Church and I before he heads to Germany!  (High School friend)

 Big Daddy, Derek Leetham high school friend, and I! He arrived this week!

 Lovin my bathrobe!

 Elder Wesley Tuiasoa (Tonga), Me (Norway), Elder Reed Taylor (Japan) High School friends!

 Cleaning the temple with my district!