Saturday, August 9, 2014

Feliz Cuatro de Julio :) - July 7, 2014

HI GUYS!!! HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT FOURTH OF JULY!!






STARS (OR POLKA DOTS) AND STRIPES (OR CHECKS) FOREVER!!! WE LOVE US SOME RED, WHITE AND BLUE!!! AND HAD FUN CELEBRATING WITH JOHN AND HIS FAMILY :)

For starters, let me apologize for not writing an email last week! Email time was hectic! So I am going to try and give a brief summary of the last 2 weeks. I had Hermana Stratford send you her email last week,so hopefully you already know most of what happened :)

The 2 biggest highlights last week :) 

We have been working with one of our fabulous less-actives in the ward. We found him the first week Hermana Stratford came to Fort Collins. He has been living in FoCo for a little over 3 years and has not been to church at all. He and his wife separated and that is why he moved here from Missouri. We are the first missionaries to have visited him in the 3 years he has been here! We have invited him to come to church but he didn't feel ready and said that his church clothes were still packed up and he needed to get them out and get them dry cleaned. But we continued to visit him and it took 2 full weeks but we told him it didn't matter and that we were going to go to his house Sunday morning and get him a ride to church and iron his clothes for him etc etc. Well, we showed up and he was all ready :) Beaming and glowing!!!!!!! Mi corazon estaba llena :) I was sooooooooooo happy!!! He hasn't been to church in over 3 years and he came last week!! He was so happy to be there! And it showed in his countenance  It is moments like this that make everything worth it! And that make me absolutely LOVE being a missionary!! He is an answer to pray for our Spanish group!! :) While at church he signed up to feed us and so this last Friday he took us out to eat and we had a great time! I love him! 

The same Sunday morning we went to get him for church, we went to another less-actives house to get him to come as well. He wouldn’t budge :( He said he had to move bricks from his garage to his backyard and that was why... so we offered to quick do it for him but he said no. So he promised (and shook on it) to come to church this week. We went back during the week to share a message and make sure he was still coming to church and he said, "I promise! I am a man of my word, I will be there." Well, he never showed up yesterday... that was disappointing... We are trying to figure out a new game plan for him because he is such a good man and I want him to feel the peace of the gospel again... 

Last week we were early to a dinner appointment, so Hna. Stratford and I decided to go walk around the trailer park and find some new investigators! There was this crazy hailstorm the night before that really destroyed some of the trailers. Breaking windows, sidings, roofs, etc. We saw this lady outside and I felt like we should go and talk to her. So we walked over and she didn't speak any english, but not a problem because Heavenly Father has blessed us with the gift of tongues and so we spoke to her in Spanish and we offered to help her. She told us we could come back the following day to help her. So we did! She said she was shocked that we came! She fed us a yummy authentic mexican almuerzo and we set up a return appointment to teach her about the church. We have gone back several times now and she is great!!! I love her!! Elsa is amazing and finds everything we teach to be really interesting. She is patient with our Spanish and we try to help her with her English. Her husband, Jesus, sat in on a lesson and really liked it.They ate it up. Elsa had so many questions answered! Rosa, their daughter, came in after we had already explained pretty much everything, but I had bought this puzzle at the MTC that explains the Plan of Salvation. So when Rosa came in, Elsa immediatily told her to sit down and listen. Elsa grabbed the puzzle and taught Rosa the Plan of Salvation herself!!! It was really cool!!!! And to see she understood everything we said and to see how exctied she was made me feel so happy ! IT was an amazing feeling and it strengthened my testimony of the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel even more!!! 

This week we also went on exchanges with our sister training leaders. They were good :) We also had a cool experience after one of our lunches this week. We were walking back to our car when this guy on his longboard stopped us and said, "youre mormon missionaries right? I have some questions for you." So we talked to him and he had dated a mormon girl before and had met with the missionaries and was trying to remember what they told him about the Plan of Salvation and more specifically the Kingdoms. So we taught him on the sidewalk right off of Old Town and gave him our number and we are going to meet with him again this week! 

I feel so honored and blessed to be involved in this work! To be seeing miracles and to be building relationships with the amazing people here! I love everyone! I love the peace and joy and blessings the Gospel brings to people! I know miracles are all around us and we can see more as we share the Gospel with those we love!! I encourage all of you to read Power Of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton Christensen! It is amazing!!! And it will give you the added strength you need to OPEN YOUR MOUTHS :) Also, Elder Ballard invited everyone, especially parents of missionaries, to read Preach My Gospel and share what they learn with their kids! I encourage and invite you to accept his invitation! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! I hope you all had a good 4th :) I did! Also, my year mark is on Wednesday! How crazy is that!! It has flown by!! 

XOXO

Hermana Mangum SR. ;)

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