This week was a dooooooozy! - January 13, 2014

Hellooooo :)

Well, like I told you in the letter I mailed to you, Mom, this week has been the worst week. It was really rough. I asked my zone leaders to give me a blessing. I have never asked for a blessing on my mission. But I was just feeling so overwhelmed and stresssssssed, so i did. And, I am so glad I did! The blessing was amazing! Elder Spring is so great! The blessing was so similar to my patriarchal blessing! It almost freaked me out! The priesthood is so real! I immediately started feeling better after :)

And everything started getting better at the end of the week. We still had to take it slow. But Jonathan (the Martinez's son who we have been working with) is making HUGE strides! He came to a lesson with us with our investigator, Jose!! And he talked and shared an experience and even said the closing prayer!

We made so many appointments on Friday! This was probably the most well planned out day! Appointments scheduled, backup plans, and even back ups to the back ups! And every single appointment feel through except for our lunch appointment. Which went terrible! The Hermano that fed us was told us that the only reason we are getting people to church because we are pretty woman and that as soon as we leave they will stop coming. My companion left crying. It was bad. But then... we had to go take our car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated. And the guys there left a packet of Hot Chocolate for us on our seats and wrote God Bless You on our oil sticker on the window! It made us so so so happy! It made me really want to do nice things for people all of the time! Because this simple act of kindness brightened my day SO much!!

Saturday was FULL of miracles!! So last Sunday we visited one of our investigators Aunt’s and cousins who were recently baptized last transfer. The sisters had our car, and usually we wait for them to come and pick us up, but Hna. Soto felt like we needed to leave and start walking. We did and saw our great guy in his truck with a lighter in hand. He stopped using drugs, smoking and drinking only a month ago and he had a really hard time with some things said at church that day and he was about to smoke. We caught him right in time. We had been worried about him all week. We set up an appointment with him for Saturday. And he told us he had something to tell us. 

We met up with him on Saturday and he told that he was driving yesterday and had a crazy experience. He was about to pass a semi truck he was behind when he heard a voice tell him to stay in the lane and not to move. A minute later the truck in the lane next to him got t-boned by another semi! He said he knows it was the Holy Ghost that told him not to move. He said he doesn't care about his concerns about last sunday and what people said at church. We had an awesome lesson and discussion with him. He knows he was being watched over! He came to church yesterday and was SO happy!! He was smiling from ear to ear, talking to everyone, and even running down the halls! haha! It was hilarious :)

Also on Saturday... Jonathan came to us to another appointment with Jose and we asked Jose to be baptized on Feb. 1 and he said yes! He said he would try and prepare himself by that date! :) Then we had an awesome lesson with Jonathan about the sacrament! It was just an amazing amazing day to say the least! Best day of the transfer by far!

And listen to this: EVERYONE came to church on Sunday! The room was full! The last few weeks hardly anyone had been coming and this lots of people did yesterday! All of our less actives we are working with AND another one of our investigators, Jorge :) I gave the opening prayer in sacrament meeting! I survived, Mom :) And then a member came up to Hna Soto and I after Sacrament and told us that their sister wants to take the discussions and be baptized! So we have 2 baptisms!!! Such a great day! Our goal of reactivating this branch are coming to fruition! 

Despite the terrible start of the week, it ended amazingly! Full of milagros! :)

I love you guys so much! You are seriously the only reason I was able to push it through the beginning of last week. I feel your love and prayers from here! I hope you know how grateful I am and feel to have such an amazing family!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

XOXO

Hannah :)

Haha - my only picture for you this week is of the hot chocolate the guys at the tire shop gave us. Thank goodness for them - they helped pick me up this week :)

Hola Hola Hola - January 6, 2014

Familia Mia - 

It feels like forever since I have emailed you guys! The week has been great, just really long!

Well for starters, New Years was great!! :) I made homemade artichoke dip and it was a hit to say the least :) I would have made you proud mama ;) ha! We had to be in by 7:00 that night. Hermana Leo, who is in our branch, made us homemade flan and it was fantastic!!! Best flan I ever did have :)

So, I have to tell you a hilarious story that happened to me and Hermana Soto this week. Our car was almost empty in gas. So I pull up to a gas station, get out and stick the hose in the car and get back in because it was freezing! Hna. Soto and I are having a good conversation when Hna. Soto looks in the mirror and yells my name! I turn around to see gas FLYING out of our car! The pump did not stop automatically and continued to spray everywhere! I somehow managed to maneuver my way around and not get gas on my clothes! I seriously don't know how I did it. I pull the hose out and there is gas ALL over our car and all over the ground. It was just spreading like wild fire and covering the ground at the station. I look at the total, and it filled our 14 gallon tank with 20 GALLONS OF GAS!!!!! Oh my gosh. So we run inside and tell the ladies that work there what had happened. They refunded us the difference and had to go put an “out of order” sign on the pump. It was CRAZY!!!! Haha!

Other great things that happend this week...

1. Hermana Wilson curled my hair :)

2. I got a package from Sister Kaiser and it made my day!

3. I opened your New Years gifts and LOVED them!!!! Love the clothes, and love the book! thank you thank you
     thank you!

4. The Hermana's in my apt. did a gift exchange on New Years and it was really fun :)

5. We had a snow day, and couldn't leave our houses. (That isn't great)

6. SAM AND RICHARD COMMITTED TO A BAPTISM DATE!!!!!! FEB. 8TH :) I AM SO HAPPY!!!! SISTER HOER TOLD 
    ME ALL ABOUT IT :)

  

This week was also filled with cooking with Mama Martinez :) She taught us how to make real authentic mexican tacos! So you guys are in for a treat when I get home :) Haha! It was so much fun! And then it was also her son’s birthday (Jonathan who we are working with) yesterday. So we made tres leches! Your recipe mama! And it was a huge success!!! They didn't have any regular milk though, so we made it with soy milk and we forgot to get cool whip so we made our own icing and then we decorated it beautifully... haha! not quite the real deal, but they were tasty!

Another blessing this week was that we convinced all the Martinez children to prepare to go the temple in May. (that is my and hna soto's 10 month mark and when we actually get to go to the temple) so we got them to commit to come with us!!!!! BLESSINGS I TELL YOU!! Hermana Martinez is so happy. She never thought this would be happening. It makes me so happy! It makes those hard times worth it. You can experience true happiness through the gospel. People may think they have it all because they do what ever they want, and that may be true and they may be happy at that moment, but the gospel offers eternal happiness. Happiness that people have never felt before. And I really know that the only way to truly be happy is through this gospel! It is true!!!! And I am so grateful I get to see this change and happiness in others lives! Lennon I can't wait for you to see it too!

I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!

Con Amor,

Hannah :)

We talked and it was SUPER BUENO! - December 30, 2013

Merry Christmas Family!!!

Wow, well the highlight of my week was defintely getting to facetime you guys!!!! That seriously was the BEST ever!!!! I was flying on Cloud 9 for days :) It was such a wonderful blessing and tender mercy to be able to not only hear your voices, but to see your faces!!! Ah! It made me so happy :) And it was so great to be able to have watched everyone open their presents. I felt like I was really in the house with you guys :) I am so happy to know you guys are doing so well. You all look BEAUTIFUL!! I am so blessed to be apart of this wonderful family! After talking to you I was just flying. I was so happy and felt so pumped to work! I can hardly believe it has already been 6 months!! I only have a year left! That is crazy! The time really flies when you are having fun and doing the Lord's work. Lennon, I am so happy and excited for you to be a missionary!! Right after I talked to you, we went over to the Martinez's and I won't lie... I cried... we all cried actually. All 4 of us. It was weird because we were all really happy, but we just realized how much we miss our families. So I did cry for about 5 to 10 minutes, and then I went back to being on cloud 9! Haha!

So, as I told you we were able to watch movies on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day :) It was so great! We had a lot of fun with the other missionaries and doing that! We watched Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and MegaMind :) The members were so nice in inviting us over to watch the movies.

I have told you all about Christmas, but forgot to mention that the Kaisers took Hermana Jarvis and I and our companions out to lunch on Christmas Eve. It was the best!!! I LOVE THAT FAMILY!!!! And Brother Kaiser went and changed into a Santa suit and passed out candy canes to everyone in Panda Express. It was so cute! I want to be that happy and do things like that to make other people happy!

This week the Martinez family fed us every day except of saturday! They are such a wonderful family!! I love them so much! Their kids are all less active. (they are all in their 20's) and 3 out of the 4 are married. So we have been working with all of them and getting them active! Half of them came to church on Sunday :) I am really excited for you guys to meet this family! They are wonderful :)

We did more service at Restore this week, it is owned by Habitat For Humanity. It is where they sell furniture and stuff. Everyone who volunteers is there for some kind of parol or community service because they have been arrested or convicted of something. They would come up to us and ask, “so what did you do to get here?”, and we would say we are missionaries. And they were like, "oh, you good people. alright!" Haha! We got one of the guys there, Robby, to commit to come to church next week! I will let you know if he ends up coming or not. He seemed really interested. He was the one asking us info about the church and wanted to know what time and the address for the building. So I have hope he will come :) 

Also, there were some creepers there... We were washing out a bath tub and one guy, who was probably my age, kept saying to me, "ya sister, you scrub that tub" and then he would blow me kisses. Haha! It was pretty funny. But it was non-stop. And i was starting to get a little worried, and told my zone leaders to protect me if he tried anything - ha!. I also got some dust on my pants so I was brushing it off and some old man came over and started brushing it off my leg too. Like upper thigh area. It was awka-awkward! But, we got a potential investigator out of the service time, so it was worth it. haha!!

I am trying to think if anything else happened this week. Non of our investigators came to church... that was a bummer, but we did get some less actives :) Hardly anyone was there this week! I counted and there were only 20 people there (not including the 6 missionaries that are serving in the branch). Hopefully next week will be better. I know some people were out of town because of Christmas, but still! My goal is to get this branch to be a ward! If we got all of the less actives to come, we would be a ward! I hope we get more people active! It is going to take work, but I know Heavenly Father will help and provide! :) I am really grateful to be serving in this area! The people here are wonderful! And so giving and kind to us! Lennon, I am just so excited for you!!!! I can not wait for you to be able to serve a mission and experience everything I am experiencing. It will bless and change your life forever! I love you all so so so much! Tenga un Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mangum

aka in-tune cookie ;)

I am in love with this area!!! - December 23, 2013

Hello great family :)

It has been a great week! I love love love being in a spanish area! So, let me first tell you why the last transfer was only 5 weeks long and why this one is 7 weeks. So, the transfer was supposed to end tomorrow. But President didn't want us to have to move to a new area on Christmas Eve, so he cut this transfer a week short and added the week onto this next transfer. I wish he would have made the last transfer 7 week one and this next one 5... oh well. But that is why we have kind of a weird schedule!

On Monday, Sister Smith and Sister Hoer and I wanted to do something special. We didn't have a dinner appointment, so we decided to go out to some country-styled restaurant - haha. It was soooo much fun!!! Sister Hoer's mom sent her a 20 dollar bill for each of us and we were supposed to use it to do something nice for someone during the holiday season. I still hadn't used my $20 so I decided to leave our waitress a $20 tip! It was really fun and felt good :)

Tuesday was transfer day and Hermana Soto, Ally and I were all stranded at our apartment without a car. So we did nothing that day... it was terrible! You think you want a break as a missionary, but when you get one, you realize you really don't want one! You just want to work! But I do love living in an apartment for a change. I have loved living with members, but you do get more privacy in an apartment. It has been a fun change :) The other sister's I live with are great! I like them a lot! I knew Hermana Wilson before, but I didn't know Hna Martinez. She is hilarious! She is from LA. She thinks I am hilarious and legit. I don't know why. ha! She told me that I would make it in the streets of LA. So Lennon, here you think you are the gangsta in the family, but it is really ME! hahhaha :) Also a family in our ward gave us and the Elders some spicy suits - absolutely hilarious. Lennon, I will send some pics - pretty funny! We have also had more Tuba-ruba fun this week - Mom, you need to find this game!!

On Wednesday was Mary's funeral. It was at a Catholic church. Hna Soto had a doctors appoinment so Hna Wilson came to the funeral with me. It was at a beautiful Catholic church. Sister Hoer and her new comp came too. The funeral was very good. All in all it made me so grateful for the gospel! It reaffirmed my testimony about God;s plan here on earth. I want you all to know how beautiful this gospel is! And also how simiple. The gospel is true! It is wonderful! I wish everyone would just know and accept it! People would be a lot happier!

This week we were supposed to have dinner with an Hermana in our branch but she got a cortisone shot in her back and couldn't move. We decided to go over and clean her house for her and make her and her family dinner! It was so much fun! She was very grateful! When we got there we shared a message and then got to cleaning! They don't have a dishwasher so we did all of the dishes all by hand and there was A LOT! Then she told us where the food was, so we started cooking. We made hamburgers. We made them for her family, then we made some for the Elders so they could still come over, and then we made some for us and the other spanish sisters. (There are 6 missionaries in our little branch!) It was an awesome day!

We also visited with 2 less active guys in the branch. They are both in their 20's and have been inactive for a really long time. And last week was the first time either of them have been to church in forever! They are both making a lot of changes in their lives. It is great! Jonathan had to work this week so he wasn't there. But Jesus came again! Yay!! Less active work is just as important as investigator work! We have some progressing investigators too, which is great! :) 

I love you guys!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!! I can not wait to talk to you on Wednesday!! Just two days away!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!! and to see your faces!!! Yay!

Love,

Hannah :)

(this is an email from the FABULOUS KAISERS - literally the best people on earth!)

We saw your missionaries today!  Yaaaay!  It was so much fun and Santa came too (Brother Kaiser)!  What a treat to sit and have lunch with them.  They are both doing well and happy.  We love your missionaries.  You can start counting the hours until you get to skype!  We can't wait to Google Hangout with our missionary that way she can meet her nephew and see her brothers and their wives who are all in Washington visiting the wives' families this Christmas.  Merry Christmas! Love, Kendra

I AM GOING TO THE SPANISH BRANCH !! Whoo hooo! - December 16, 2013

Hola Familia y todos!!!

Can you believe it - I AM GOING TO THE GREELEY SPANISH BRANCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not going far at all! But I am finally in a spanish area!! YAY! So after 5 months on the mission, I am going to try and speak the language I learned for a few weeks back in July - haha! I am so excited!! But, Ally got transferred... so we will not be in the same branch or living together... but she is still in the zone! Thank goodness! She is out in the boonies.. So i probably won't see her very often :( My companion is Hermana Soto. She is from Mexico :)

Ok, I was going to email you the rest of my week. But we have to actually run. But we still have more email time. Sister smith just got kicked off her computer... it is weird and said she could log back on in an hour. So I will finish my email in an hour and send pics and talk to you soon!!

I am back - Ok, so yes, I am going to the Greeley Spanish Branch with Hermana Soto. Pretty excited about the spanish branch!!! :)

Also this week... We did have the Christmas Devotional! They just didn't do a good job at announcing it so I didn't know about it. Ha! It was on Thursday! I think the best part about this day though, was getting the 35 letters from you guys and from the preschoolers! That was the cutest thing ever! When everyone saw my big stack they were jealous. Ha! I absolutely loved looking through all the letters! So cute!! The devotional was great! It was 3 zones, so about 70 of us total. And guess what happened again... I got called to bear my testimony in front of everyone AGAIN!!! I was like, this has got to be a joke. I just did that 5 days ago in front of the whole mission! But sure enough, I went up and did it again. It was great! It was less scary since it was 70 people rather than 220... I have no problem with bearing my testimony in front of investigators and on a small scale but this is my peers. And I want to say something that would make a difference. I really don’t do well in front of big crowds. Maybe I will be the end of my mission - haha! Then we watched 17 Miracles which I have never seen. It was super good!!!! I cried. Great reminder about the sacrifices made by the pioneers so that we could live the lives we have today. President also announced that we are going to be allowed to watch movies on Christmas Day! Wahoo! Pretty excited about that :)

 After the Christmas Devotional we went to visit Mary in the Hospital. She was not doing good at all. Poor thing was in so much pain, you could just tell. She was having a really hard time breathing. We had been going to visit throughout the week too. The first time we went, Sister Smith grabbed her hand and said "Hi Mary" and her eyes opened right up and she said Hi and then went back to sleep. Before Mary went to the hospital, Sam, Naomi and Richard, always had us go and share a message in the bedroom with Mary even though she was always sleeping. One day after we said a prayer, Mary said "Amen" at the end. And that was the only thing she had said all day. She knows exactly who we are. It is pretty cool. 

Well, on Thursday after we left, she passed away about an hour and half later. The family is hanging in there. Richard is absolutely breaking my heart. A few days ago, when we were visiting, he walked in and it was the first time he had been there all day, and Mary's arms were bloated and he was freaking out and crying and just kept repeating, "Grandma, it's Grandpa. Grandma, it's Grandpa" and just cried and cried. It broke my heart! We were all crying. But we keep going back to visit them and they seem to being hanging in there. The funeral is on Wednesday and we will be going to that.

Friday and Saturday Sister Smith and I were sick... Not fun! We stayed home and slept. I am feeling much better today. We found out about transfers on saturday night. Sister Smith is going to Fort Collins and will be in the same ward as Cory Turners Parents! Sister Hoer is staying in the ward and is training a new missionary and Sister Jarvis is coming to Greeley! We will be in the same zone and see each other all the time! I am really excited about that! :)

On Sunday the Bishop asked me and Sister Smith to bear our testimonies during sacrament. So we did. Yep, that is the 3rd time in a matter of a week and a half I have had to bear my testimony in front of a lot of people... I am a pro now ;) haha! I think the Lord is really trying to send me a message - stop being afraid of big crowds Hermana Mangum. And it really is a blessing to be able to share it with people because the Gospel is true and that is why I am out here on my mission. To let people know of it's truth. After church we went and said good bye to people and took pics with them! I will send some right now!!

Also, we met with an inactive guy this week, Cody, and he came to church this week! It was really awesome!!

Ok, sorry, I know this was kind of a lame email... But I have great pics to make up for it!!! :) I am sending some of our baptisms last week and of my goodbyes this week with one of the Shipp family who I just love. Also I put some in there of our mission conference. It was so awesome. 

Love you all!!

Me :)

I have a surprise for you…. December 9th, 2013

Hey Hey Everybody --------

I HAD 3 BAPTISMS THIS WEEK!!! What!? Yep! I am not lying! So the Elder I told you about last week who broke his arm, had to go home on Monday to get surgery. He got 24 screws in his arm and a plate... It was a bad break! So his companion got moved to Fort Collins and we took over their investigators! We have felt pretty stressed out trying to visit everyone we are teaching and everyone the Elders were teaching. And they had 3 investigators set for a baptismal date. So let me tell you a little about the family....

John, Josh and Angel got baptized. John and Angel are cousins and Josh is John's best friend. John is married to Becky. She hasn't wanted to take the lessons yet. She wants more time. They just moved here from Wisconsin. So their crazy story is this... They had a very upsetting and tragic thing happen to one of their family members. The same day they found out was the day the missionaries found John. The missionaries approached John and he decided to talk to them. Well, John and Becky and the kids, and Josh and Angel decided to move to get away from all of the mess in Wisconsin. They moved to Greeley. The Elders working with them in Wisconsin knew one of the Elders serving in this mission and he called him and asked if he could send someone to visit them. Turns out his friend in our mission was serving in Greeley and in their exact ward boundaries!!! Can you believe the miracles of the mission? So absolutely completely coooool :) So he went over and started teaching them and set them up with a baptism date.Then last week was the broken arm week, so we started meeting with them and went over everyday and have built a great relationship with them! And we had their baptisms on Saturday! They are really great people! Becky is really starting to warm up to us too which is awesome! I really think she is going to let us teach her soon!

So the baptism... Saturday was just the craziest beyond craziest day! We had a Mission Conference (which i will tell you about later) and my companions had a meeting after the conference, we had a dinner appointment and the baptism as well. We were racing around!!! The baptism was supposed to start at 7:00. We got there right before and we got a lot of members from the ward to come and support. But... John, Josh and Angel were an hour late... Yep. So everyone waited for an hour for them. So the baptism didn't start until 8:00... Becky and the kids came and so did Josh's mom. She was visiting. (John is 24, Angel is 21, Josh is 18). Becky LOVED it! She was crying. and taking pictures... no one knew how to tell her she probably shouldn't do that. John had to be baptized 4 times! He would not bend his knees... So after 3 tries, he got on his knees but his elbow almost stuck out. It was a miracle he got all the way under that time too! It was pretty great. 

And then as the bishop was giving his talk and welcome after, the drain in the font started making all kinds of loud noises!! Lesson learned: Don't drain the font until after the everything is done! The noise was so distracting! But it was funny! And John, Josh and Angel could care less about that kind of stuff! So that's good. They kept saying things like, "Lets get this done!" "I just want to get baptized!" "I don't care if it is noisy, I am sure when Jesus got baptized it was quite." haha! (there was a ward christmas party during the same time as their baptism and our ward mission leader was trying to get them to change the time because it was going to be noisy). Talk about a ton of distractions. But it was such a beautiful experience and I love them so much and am grateful I have the opportunity to teach them and be their friends!

So like I mentioned, we had a mission conference on Saturday. The entire mission got to come to it. So there were 200ish missionaries there. It was amazing! Craig C. Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was amazing! He is an amazing man! He just inspired me so much to just be the best missionary ever. He talked a lot about the light of Christ and compared it to gravity. And said, without gravity, we are nothing. We couldn't exist. It is what holds us done and in place. The Light of Christ is the same way. We all need it and with out it we are nothing. Everyone had the light of Christ in them, but need to use it and let it radiate from us. It was pretty cool. After he spoke they opened it up to questions and then we closed by having 4 missionaries, chosen at random to come up and bare their testimonies. President Brown picked who he wanted the 4 to be and Elder Christensen called them up. No notice before hand. And yours truly was picked... I was so nervous!!! When he said my name I turned to Sister Smith and said, did he just say my name? And he did. And mine was the first name he said, so I was the first to go up and bare my testimony. I was so nervous! But I survived. I just made it short and simple :) Ha! It was SO fun to see everyone there! My old Boulder Zone! I miss them!! I can already tell that  Mission reunions are going to be the best! I can not believe how many life long friends I have already made here! And I have a year left! It is pretty great!

So quick update on Sam and Naomi. We went over a lot this week. I don't think Naomi is going to be able to get baptized on the 4th. It will probably have to be pushed back. We had a hard time meeting with Sam this week. But when we did it was good. He is such a nice guy! We haven't set him with a date yet. We had our zone leaders come and give them blessings. When they gave Sam his blessing, Naomi started crying. And looked at us and asked if we had told them anything about Sam. We told we hadn't, and she said, "Then how did they know to say the things they said? It fit him perfectly." She was really freaked out. But in a good way! The spirit was SO strong! They were crying and shaking. They told us that they feel such a different feeling when we are with them and they want to feel that way all of the time. So I still have hope that they will get baptized. 

Yesterday we got a phone call from Naomi saying the Mary (the grandmother) was rushed to the hospital becuase she was having problems breathing. Mary is 94 and has the tumor on her lip. When she got to the hospital the doctors said that she also has pnemonia, a bladder infection and her kindeys are failing. It doesn't look good. We went to the hospital yesterday to visit her. She looks so terrible. It breaks my heart. Their family is praying for a miracle, but I just want her to be put our of her pain. She is 94, and I really don't think she is going to make it. But I believe in the Plan of Salvation and I know where she will be and feel total peace that she has led a good life and will be happy there. Keep their family in our prayers! Pray that whatever Heavenly Father's will is will happen.

Well I believe that is about it. This is the last week of the transfer. I find out on Saturday if I am staying or going. So I will let you know on Monday :) It is FREEZING here! We haven't gotten as much snow as you, but we did get a lot. It is mostly just freezing cold! I am going to buy some wool socks today! My toes can't handle it. Haha! It is like a high of 6 degrees here most days! And gets below 0 every night... yuck!

I love you family!!!! I hope you have a great week!! XOXO

I am having trouble sending pictures.The ones that went through are pretty random. I will catch up with baptism and other pictures next week :)

-Hermana Mangum :)

Goodbye to Elder Dickerson and his really really really broken arm :(

Getting ready for the holidays at Target :)

It is transfers this week. Can I really leave these Hermana's?? It has been the best 5 weeks of the mish!!!

great*week! December 2, 2013

Hey fam! It has been such a great great week!!!! I will begin with the GREAT NEWS!!!

NAOMI COMMITTED TO BEING BAPTIZED ON JANUARY 4TH!!!!!!!!! Sam was out of town this weekend so we haven't committed him yet but we are going to this week! We are shooting for December 21st for him! He is so ready! And we thought it would be really cool and special for him and his family if he could be the one to baptize Naomi :) We go over to their house every single day to teach them more about the gospel. This week they asked for the Elders to come and give them blessings again. IT WAS SUCH AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!

I did it again! Sent my email without finishing! My dang clumsy fingers! Anywhooo...

Sorry, let’s do this thing... ok...

So the Elders gave Sam, Naomi, Richard (the grandpa) , Mary (the gma with cancer) and Tina the aunt who has mental disabilities blessings. The spirit was so strong!!!!!! After, Sister Hoer said to Sam, "after you get baptized you will have this authority and will be able to give blessings." I wish you could have seen his face when she said that!!! He got the biggest smile ever!!! It made me so happy!! AH!!! I love love love this family! Richard has also become really interested and absolutely LOVES when we come over. He had a stroke and has a hard time expressing things. He reminds me of Uncle Gary after he had his stroke and it makes my heart tender. He tells us he gets so happy when we are there and that he feels different. :) Their family is going through some major financial struggles right now. So we had the ward put together a Thanksgiving meal for them! It was awesome!! They were so appreciative :)

So now about my Thanksgiving! It was AWESOME!!!!! The Buss' signed us up to do the Turkey Trot! We went and ran a 5K in the morning! It was great! And we ran the entire time! Wahoo!!! It was so much fun! Then we went to the Adamson's and hung out there and ate a ton of food :) And played games. We played cards, flash uno (so much fun btw) and then we brought a game with us from the Buss' house that we discovered called Tuba-Ruba. IT IS THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD!! I really hope they still sell it! You should try and look it up online and order it! You guys would love it! You wrap a tube around 2 people who are back to back and you put a marble in one end and try and get it out the other. It is so much fun and so funny! I will send pics from it! 

The next day we found out the Adamson's son and daughter got in a car accident on their way to Utah for the weekend. Their house was still a mess so we went over while they went to the hospital to see their kids and cleaned their house for them and made them a buttermilk pie :) It was the least we could do!

Also on Thanksgiving... And Elder in our ward was playing football with the Adamson's in the morning and he threw the football and his arm snapped in two. No lie, all he did was throw the football and his humorus broke. It was really bad. So he probably has to go home to get surgery. He knows Cameron McGinn. They went to school together.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOO happy about Caleb's mission call!!!!!!!!!! He is going to be an amazing missionary! I had another dose of Mehner/Roush this week... So at church yesterday I am walking down the hall when I walk past this really cute couple and their baby and then I realized IT WAS SHANNON AND NICK AND FINN!!! They were in town for Thanksgiving and tracked Ally down! I was like... "Hey, I know you! Shannon!" and she was like, "Hannah!" We hugged and talked for a little bit and then when we went to look for Ally, she had gone home early because she was sick! So I was going to take Shannon to their apartment... But then Ally come walking in for their Correlation meeting. When she saw Shannon her face went into shock and she started crying! It was such a beautiful moment! They just hugged and cried! i am so happy I was there to see it!!! It was so much fun to see her!!! :)

Well, I think that is about it for this week... I DID GET YOUR PACKAGE!!! Thank you so so so much for it!!!! I love it all :)  I love you all so so so much! I am glad you had a great Thanksgiving! The holidays are the best! Especially because you get to focus and what really matters in life. Family, and Christ. I hope you all really try and focus on that this holiday season! It is what it is all about. That is one of the greatest blessings of being on a mission: to not worry about normal everyday things, but to literally focus on the gospel 24/7!!

Love you all!!!!!!

con amor,

hannah :)