Slow, but GREAT week - October 21, 2013

So, I don't know that I have too much to write about this week... It has been a good week, super long! We have done service just about every day! We went back and did more service for Carol and are going back again tomorrow! I LOVE HER SO  MUCH!! We are going to give her a Book of Mormon tomorrow and I am so excited!!! She started asking us questions about genealogy and the temple last week. It was a good conversation :) She told us that since we came to help her she has had so many miracles happen in her life. She would be a golden investigator! She is ready for the gospel! She loves me so much! She calls me sister hannah... haha! (she asked for my email and saw my first name and so she calls me sister hannah. it is super cute!) Sometimes she calls me Sister Mangum. 

We have done a lot of service up at this house in the small mountain town. You literally have to hike to get to their home! And their house got covered in mud! so we have been unburying it - literally!! It has been hard work! But great!! I am so happy to be helping them!

This week I had dinner with a family whose daughter and husband are kind of taking the missionary discussions. The daughter was raised a member but has left the church, and her husband has taken discussions on and off for the last 2 years. He told us that he used to be the OG of his gang. (The OG is the leader of the gang) He became the leader when he was 14!!!! I think he really does believe the church is true, he just needs time. And he also doesn't understand why bad things happen to good people. He has a lot of friends who have been shot and killed from gangs and he doesn't get why God would let that happen. The Elders are teaching him, I hope it goes well!! Keep him in your prayers :) 

This week we had stake conference. Have you guys had yours yet? I got to go to the adult session and it was great! :) And then at stake conference we got a new stake presidency so 2 members of the 70 were there! Elder Wright, and Elder Schwarts. They spoke in the adult session and on sunday! They were EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They talked a lot about member missionary work. Family, I have come to realize how important it is for members to do missionary work! So please look for opportunities to share the gospel right now!!! I know you will be blessed for your efforts! :)

 I hope gma is doing ok! please let her know i love her and i am praying for her!!! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Sorry, this was kind of a lame email... I apologize for that! haha! I will do better next week! :)

XOXO

HANNAH :)

Origami with President and Sister Brown - haha! We think we are pretty creative and funny!!

Ridiculously beautiful sunsets here!!

ALSO THIS WEEK WE HEARD FROM 2 MEMBERS IN HANNAH'S AREA:

Sister Mangum and Sister Jarvis,
Hello from Broomfield!  Last night your missionaries came by which is always a treat for us at the Kaiser home.  We took a few photos.  Here are a couple that turned out on my camera.  The first photo I am wearing heels, the second photo I am not.  As I stood in between your missionaries and noted the height difference I can tell you that their height in stature is not only about their physical bodies.  They are wonderful people and I love serving with them.  I know they are dedicated and hard working. They care about making a difference and doing their very best every day.  You should be so proud.  Keep encouraging them and send them your love.  That's what they need from you.  The Lord is mindful of them and you as you miss them.  I totally understand as I miss my daughter as she also serves the Lord in California.  I can't wait for our daughters to meet each other some day.  They will find instant friendship just like I did.
Love,
Kendra Kaiser

Sister Kaiser with heals :)

Sister Kaiser with NO heals :)

AND...

Dear Sister Diane Mangum,

 

You have a wonderful daughter on a mission in Colorado. She is showing her testimony as well as work ethic and more as she serves here in the Broomfield Third Ward. I know it was probably hard to send her in some ways and great in others, so I hope to help with the ease of having her gone by seeing a little of what she's involved in with the flood relief efforts. I only have a small window into that, but I will share.

 

Look for the stories and videos in the last few posts on my blog I put up as part of my calling in public affairs. There's a clip of Sister Mangum and three other Sisters in the video, "Serving in the Colorado flood relief efforts."

 

As Light Shines

http://aslightshines.wordpress.com

 

I have pictures to share, too, but they are large files. I will send one with this message and others separately.

 

With love and gratitude,

 

Shirley Scoville

It is ALL about Service, People :) OCTOBER 14, 2013

Hey!! This week has actually been the hardest week of the mission...BUT the beginning of the week was wonderful! So I am going to focus on all the good :)

Last weekend we received a name of a couple who needed help with their home. I tried calling them all day Friday and Saturday. They never answered when I called, so I left messages. And then they would call back and we would miss their calls and they would leave messages... So we were playing phone tag all weekend. Then on Tuesday, 8 of us missionaries met up at the stake center to go and do service and I thought of trying to call and get a hold of Carol and Michael again. I called, and they didn't answer... of course... about 2 minutes later they called back! 

Carol was SO happy!! She said that it was a perfect day for us to come over and help :) So we all headed to their home. They live in the mountains. Like WAY up in the mountains!!! So we get to their home and immediately Carol just loves us and is so kind!!! We start cleaning things out and breaking out tile and sheet rock and stuff. And then Carol asked 4 of the sisters to go and make lunch with her! She was so excited!! She needed some girl time. She is the only girl in her family. So we cooked the most healthy lunch I have ever had, haha! It was delish! Carrots, peas, salad, and bratworst (don't know how to spell that... ha) But we made up for the healthy by making TWO cakes!!! haha! With homemade frosting! YUM!! She was so cute and just put us to work. We cooked up a storm while the Elders continued cleaning their home. I did the dishes and we just had a blast! 

At one point Carol stopped us and cried and told us that we had no idea how much this meant to her. And that we were an answer to her a prayers and a miracle to her. Carol is very religious and thinks what we are doing is absolutely amazing! I think there is some potential in teaching her and her husband about the gospel! I wish so bad they were in our area! Before we ate she said a pray to bless the food. It was the best prayer! I love hearing other people pray! She prayed that we would all find our "life partners" hahaha! It was so cute and precious! I will always remember it! :) After we ate, she took us for a hike near their home. It was beautiful! Especially with the fall colors! Carol has already planned for us to come on Tuesday of this week with a meal and a new hike for us! Haha! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! She got all of our info written down, and she is planning on sending YOU some Madagascar Vanilla from her job as a gift for Christmas and as a thank you for letting me be out on my mission :) SO DANG CUTE! 

Also this week we helped a guy name Eric. His back yard was destroyed! He lives in the mountains also. But he lives in a super small mountain town that looks like the scary movies where everyone is related and they are all killers. haha!!! He was SO nice!!! He had about 3 to 4 feet of mud piled up in his backyard! So we shoveled it all out and evened the ground and unburied rocks and built a rock wall in his yard. IT WAS HARD WORK!!! I was so sore after! He also took us for a hike :) haha! It was so pretty!! 

On Friday I had my last training meeting in Fort Collins :) Yay! No more training! After this transfer I don't have to be considered a greenie :) hahaha! I got to see Ally there! It was SO fun to see her! She is doing great, except she and her companion got in a car accident on Thursday night! It could have been really bad! They got hit by a drunk driver!! He was coming at them head on and her companion laid on the horn and moved out of the way as much as she could and he swerved last second and just clipped the front of their car. So THANK GOODNESS they were not injured! So scary!! But she is ok!!! She had a dream that we got called to be companions together in Nebraska in a 

apanish area! haha! I hope it is true!!! I would love that! :) 

On Saturday we went and helped out another guy whose home got destroyed as well. He owns a lot of property and a river runs through it. The river is typically 10ish feet wide, and during the flooding it spread out to 2 football fields wide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is debris EVERYWHERE!!! So we spend all day picking up debris and burning it. Me and and Elder unburied a HUGE log and I wanted to carry out of the pile with him (to show off how strong I am... haha) There were sticks everywhere and I was walking backward and completely tripped and fell flat on my back and the huge log fell on top of me! Hahaha!!!! IT WAS SO EMBARRASSING!!! But I redeemed myself and carried that sucker with the Elder out into the fire! Haha! It hurt! But I was ok :) While we were there we found a Mercedes that got buried and literally destroyed! I will send pics! 

Yesterday at church the choir sang during sacrament meeting. And guess what?? I am in the ward choir! Yep that's right!! Haha!! It was fun and then we had practice after church. We are practicing Christmas songs. The Sister who is the chorister is crazy musically talented and knows Roz Hall!! We do all the warm ups you guys did when you were in choir with Roz and I love it! Reminds me of growing up :) 

Anyway... I loved your emails this week :) Glad to hear you are all doing so well!  THANKS SO MUCH MAMA! My tailbone still hurts, I had to stand up halfway through a fireside last night because I couldn't handle the metal chairs... Maybe I will get a donut... I don't want to though! haha! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT! I hope you are all reading the Book of Mormon! It is so amazing! I just started Mormon today :) I am almost done again!! 

TE QUEIRO!! 

-Hannah :)

Hermanas Mehner y Mangum

Hannah and the wonderful Engstroms!!

Never knew Colorado was soooo beautiful :)

Fall is here!!

Notice the heart I drew in the dirt!!

I have wheelbarrow skills...

Looks MUCH better now :)

I should have taken a before shot - there was about 4' of mud in here that we hauled away!!

Missionaries can build rock walls!!! Now that is talent :)

I am afraid this is a typical sight around here :(

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be doing this on my mission - haha!

The tree branch that fell on me!! I was trying to show off and what did I get....

DEBRIS - it is e v e r y w h e r e !!!

On a hike after some clean up and an EXCELLENT LUNCH :)

Doing some Interior Design on the Mish!! - October 7, 2013

Hey fam!! It has been such a wonderful week!!! Where to begin... So I got to have lunch with Necia, Laurel, and Tiffany!!! It was so much fun to spend time with them and catch up on people in the family! They took us to Jimmy Johns :) It was great! They gave me the gifts and I LOVED THEM!!!!! Mom, I know in my letter that I sent with Sister Engstrom, I said how much I love my quilt, but I LOVE IT!!!! AND I WILL TREASURE IT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!! IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! We watched conference at the church with some other missionaries and I took it with me and snuggled with it :) It is freezing in the church so it kept me warm and I felt like I was with you :) Also, pretty sure the way we met up with Necia was not really following the rules...  Maybe it was, I really don't know...since my cousin literally and practically lives next door and all, but it was super fun and totally worth it! haha :)

So this week we still did a lot of service! I don't know how much more we will be doing... I think for the next 2 weeks at least... Unfortunately we haven't had the chance to meet again with Kathleen... But we are going to call again this week and try and meet up with her! I will let you know how it goes :) We do have a potential investigator... Luis... Bro. Allred actually hooked us up with him. He speaks english, but his wife only speaks spanish. We really hope it all goes well!! Then I can get some spanish practice in!! We went over to meet with them at the beginning of the week, but Luis wasn't home and they had friends over. So we just said hello and introduced ourselves and hopefully we get to really teach them this week!!!! 

Also, this week I got to use my design skills!! :) It was super fun! We went to help a lady named Kim. We helped her right after the flood and hauled all of her furniture out of her house. We went back to help do some more cleaning. She had carpet and tile samples out... so of course I told her I have my degree in Interior Design and I offered to help her out. She jumped on that!! So we went in the other room and I helped her decide on carpets and tiles! It was so much fun!!! She loved everything I picked out and said she is going to do all of it!!! :) We also bonded over both having broken our tailbones... haha! I don't remember how it came up, but she wants to send me some article, so I gave her my address and I hope we can keep in touch! 

After helping Kim, we went back to Daryl's house. He is the one with the Original Eames Lounge Chairs. When he saw me walk in he said, "your’e the design student right!?" And then he told me that he was able to save the chairs!! YAY!!! He looked at the serial number on them and they are numbers 608 and 609. They are REAL ORIGINALS!! He loved that I appreciated them and knew what they were. He then got excited to show me everything they have in their house that he knew I would LOVE IT and he was RIGHT!!!. It was a day full of interior design fun!! It felt good to lend my help!!! :)

CONFERENCE!!! Oh my! I loved General Conference so much!!! It was fantastic! Probably my favorite conference ever! Probably because I actually paid attention the whole time and took notes :) I will be taking notes from now on! I learned so much! The leaders of this church are truly AMAZING! I know that this church is true! Even more after this conference! I LOVE President Monson! He is so amazing!!!!!!!! And all of the Apostles and other leaders! I did pick up on Elder Anderson talking about the Roberts! I got so excited!! And I think I caught when Elder Eyring talked about Kollin... I read his article BTW, wow!! The Gallands are amazing!  Also, I saw that Sister Esplin... Big Max's wife!!!, gave the opening prayer on sunday morning! That was neat!!! One of my favorite quotes from conference was, " You must become the rock the river cannot wash away." Brother Richard J. Maynes said that. I loved that! I loved his talk! I really loved all of the talks! One of the men who spoke, Arnulfo Valenzula, actually spoke to us at the CCM which was super fun :) I also really loved Elder Hollands talk, Elder Ballard, Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Oaks, Elder Eyring, and Elder Anderson's. So pretty much everyones! Haha!! I loved how they talked about the importance of member missionary work! It is so true! We wouldn't have people to teach if it wasn't for the members in our ward! 

Also for conference, we had a little get together with the Spanish sisters in our zone! :) We made orange rolls! (isn't conference with out them!) bacon, sour dough bread with eggs, crepes, and... TRES LECHE!!!! We went all out!!!!! haha!!! :)

Mom... again... thank you SO MUCH for the package you sent with Necia, and for the boots and skirts!!!!! you seriously

are the BEST!!! I really could not have asked for a better mom!!! I am so blessed and lucky to have you!!! Don't worry, I am being safe! :)

Mom, I have also been having a lot of pain with my broken tailbone... I really need to get surgery when I get home! It hurts me at church still... and then when we did dumpster babysitting I sat on the ground, and I was in pain for a day and a half... It really hurt to walk for at least a half hour after I got up... not good. 

Ok, I think that is it... I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Max- did you get my letter??

LOVE,

HANNAH :)

1. Me and Sister Cropper

2. Me and the gang!

3. Flood destruction

4. Colorado is breathtakingly beautiful

5. Thanks for the quilt - it is cold here!

6. Pillsbury Orange Rolls Forever!

7. Tres Leche

8. Me at the library emailing you!!

xoxoxo

TENDER MERCIES - (Post by Diane, October 7, 2013)

Hi there!! It is Diane :) There are a lot of perks on the mission when you have a niece that lives 2.5 miles away from the member-house your daughter is living in!!! For one, your sister-in-law might go and visit that niece and phone you and ask if you want anything delivered to your missionary!!! OF COURSE!! And so it went!!! My sister-in-law, Necia, went to visit her daughter Laurel (and my other niece, Tiffany, came along). Then they proceeded to Denver to visit another niece, Kristen :) Whoo hook! I was able to send all of Hannah's winter clothes, coats and boots. She did not take any of that to Mexico City to the MTC, or she would have never made the weight requirements for her luggage at the airport - haha. Plus, it was the middle of summer! Necia saved me a bundle in shipping costs!!! Thanks! We were also able to send some of her favorite treats (including the famous "Connie Boshard"!!) which I knew would make Hannah one happy missionary! The best part about this tender mercy, is that Hannah visited Laurel on her mission in Nebraska years ago when she and her Dad drove to Indiana to help Uncle Brad and Aunt Jane move. The whole thing has come full circle, although Hannah and Laurel will probably meet up at the grocery store or in the chapel quite a few more times before she is transferred to a different area :) And the icing on the cake is that the quilt I made for Hannah was finished and ready to be delivered to her as well. I took a ton of Hannah's leftover design school fabrics, old fabrics we had saved from years and years of costumes and clothes etc, and a bunch of new fabrics and made a quilt for her. It was then stippled by the fabulous Lou Hale and was ready to send to her just in time for Necia's visit. I was more excited to get this quilt to her than I will be in sending her a Christmas package!!! I could not be happier that it was delivered to her personally by family that love and adore her :)

Cousin Laurel (Colorado resident), Sister Jarvis, Sister Mangum, Cousin Tiffany, Aunt Necia

The quilt before it left for Colorado!!

And here is the next great thing that happened! The following day or so, we got a visit from Hannah's actual "Host Mom", the fabulous Sister Engstrom that she lives with in Colorado!! She drove to Provo to visit some of her kids and wanted to meet us, so we had her over. In 2 seconds flat we could all tell why Hannah loves the Engstroms so much and why she is so happy to be staying with this great member family!! We had a great visit and I am sure we will always be friends. I am so grateful to know that Hannah is being taken care of by such a fabulous family!!

Instant friends! She loved Phoebe too :)

Yes, we made her swing :)

And this swing too!!

And yet another tender mercy for me this week! Sister Engstrom has a sister that also lives in Broomfield. Hannah talks about her in her letters and loves this family sooo much! Their names are the Kaisers. I became facebook friends with Sister Kaiser and she sent me the nicest email and picture of Hannah. Here it is:

Sister Mangum,
Tonight we had homemade pizzas for dinner with Elder Payne, Elder Lund, Hermana Jarvis and Hermana Mangum.  What a treat!  We had a busy day and we weren't quite ready for dinner when they arrived so we put them to work.  Sister Mangum is comfortable in the kitchen and it was nice to have extra help.  The guys all left for the priesthood session and the Hermana's and Michelle and I cleaned up a mountain of dishes and had a lovely visit.  The elders came back and got seconds on the apple crumble dessert with ice cream but the Hermanas waited for some mini cinnamon rolls to come out of the oven, the only problem was that I forgot the cinnamon :).
I think they all enjoyed having a break from the hard labor they have been doing for flood victims.  Conference was a needed break and rejuvenation opportunity.  We sure do love having Hermana's in our ward.  Sister Mangum is a sweet heart and she and Sister Jarvis are great companions, it is a nice fit.

Fun fact:  Our daughter, Hermana Kaiser, had lunch at Elder Lund's home in Eureka, CA yesterday.  He said most likely his mother served pizza.
Love,
Kendra

And last but not least, we received a letter in the mail this week from one of the couples that Hannah and her companion helped in the flood. It was so lovely and I wanted to include it as well.

How grateful I am for my sweet missionary. It has been an overwhelmingly BEAUTIFUL week filled with lots of blessings from her service. We are so proud of her and so grateful for her testimony and willingness to be a representative of our Savior. LOVE YOU HANNAH!!!