Soup of the Seven Seas - January 27, 2014

Hello there my lovely family - yes you!!!

I am going to write this week out in “days”. I think it will help me organize my thoughts!!!!

Tuesday: We had dinner at a home where they served us the craziest meal I have had to date! It was called Soup of the Seven Seas (Caldos de Siete Mares) ... it was INDESCRIBABLE! The smell alone made me want to loose my cookies! It had all kinds of freaky sea creatures in it! Shrimp with their eyeballs still on them, octopus... and things i could not even recognize! I was blessed with the “gift of stomach” that night! I didn't finish, but I ate as much as I could so the family wouldn't be offended. I appreciated all of their effort and kindness to us. We had a meeting with our branch president right after. Hna. Martinez really had to throw up! But she didn't want him to know. Ha! So she goes back to his bathroom, and starts vomiting while Hna Wilson and I start rocking back on his couch! haha! his couch makes LOUD noises every time you move. So we just started moving around a laughing so he wouldn't hear her in the bathroom! hahahaha!!! We leave and she throws up again right outside his house! On way home she asked me to pull over and she lost it again on the side of the road! Oh boy - that Soup of the Seven Seas....

  

Wednesday: We had an amazing district meeting in the morning! So great! Then we had a delish lunch with some members (whooo hoooo!!!) and appointments with Jonathan and Maria :) Hna. Martinez still felt sick. She passed out in the car! Got home and was throwing up every other second and passing out even more!  Things were really bad the rest of the night!!! What a day....

Thursday: Hna. Soto was sick too! So we had 2 sickies! All day! Soto couldn't move because of her stomach, and Martinez was throwing up and passing out! It was scary!!! So I just took care of them all day!

Friday: Hermanas were still sick! Hna. Wilson and I went out a little to work. Which felt really nice! And Maria wanted us to come over and dye her hair, so we did :) I am becoming a professional :) Then Soto was feeling better, so she and I went and made homemade tortillas with Hermana Mama Martinez :) Haha! It was a lot of fun :) And I gave her your present Mom :) She loved it!

We came home and Hna. Martinez was really bad!!! Throwing up and passing out a ton still! And major memory loss!! She couldn't remember anything! It was freaking me out! We called Sister Brown and the mission nurse and they told us to put her on the BRAT diet. Hna. Soto and I were supposed to go on exchanges that night, but it didn't end up happening. So, Sis. Hoer and Jarvis just spent the night at our apartment and stayed with us on Saturday.

Saturday: Martinez was really bad! Couldn't even remember the sisters were at the apartment. Couldn't remember anything that had been happening during the week. Things started getting a little better with her during the afternoon though, so Jarvis and Hoer took me out! I needed out of the apartment and to work! So we went and visited Richard!!!!!! And Naomi was there!! It was such a blessing to see them!!!!! I love that family so so so so much! They will forever be apart of my life! They were so happy to see me too :) Richard is doing so great!! We watched the Restoration video with him and he loved it! And the cutest thing was, Naomi and her husband went and bought him new clothes for church :) He was so happy! He went and tried them on so he could show us!! :) I almost started crying! It made me so happy :)

After, we went and visited John and Becky :) I love them so much too!! It was so much fun to spend time with them! I miss the people I used to teach in Glenmere! So it felt wonderful to forget about everything that has been going on all week and to see the people I have grown to love so much!!

We had the adult session of stake conference that night too. It was great! I loved it :) Then we had the elders come over and give hna. Martinez a blessing. It was incredible! Everyone was at our apartment and it was so powerful! I have always felt this way, but it literally shot through me again strongly that night, that I will NOT settle for anyone who does not have the priesthood or who is not a worthy priesthood holder! The priesthood is AMAZING and blesses lives! I need the power in my home at all times! To see these worthy young men give such amazing and powerful blessings was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had! The priesthood is simply beautiful, and incredible.

Sunday: For starters... SAM AND RICHARD CAME TO CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! I almost started crying when I saw them!!!!! Milagros l tell you!! So, stake conference begins and I am sitting next to Hna. Martinez. She would not stay home. And I just had my arm around her and she was just kinda sleeping on my shoulder. Then she had to throw up. Hna. Wilson took her to the bathroom and she passed out. She was so delirious! It was TERRIFYING!!! Members from the branch and the other wards came out to help! She was completely out of it! No strength, nothing! It was SCARY!! One member was an EMT so he came out and helped. We have to get permission from Pres. Brown to take someone to the hospital and he was sitting on the stand at stake conference at a different building than us.So he couldn't answer his phone. We called the mission nurse and she told us she can't give us permission and the EMT guy was like, she NEEDS to go the hospital! So we took her! I was speeding going like 70in a 35 following him! We got there and they rushed her back and immediately hooked her up to an IV and ran tests and gave her a CT scan. Pres and Sis Brown came and she slowly started coming back to conscientiousness. Thank goodness!! It was so scary!! Turns out she was dehydrated. The nurse said it was the worst case of dehydration she has ever seen!.It all started out with the 7 things of the sea soup and her not being able to keep things down, the dry weather made it even worse, and she got SO dehydrated. I know this sounds crazy, but I really thought she was going to die.

She started feeling a little better last night after everything. She has been able to talk and heal a little. She was really freaked out by everything. She told me a lot about her life. She has been through more than anyone I know. Wow! Amazing story.  She is such and strong person. Also, Sister Soto also found out her friend is in a coma and dying right now... So it has been an emotionally exhausting week. I pray this week goes better! I am nervous! and So incredibly grateful it is the last week of the transfer!!!!

Please don't mail anything to the apartment address this week. Send it to the mission office. I will be moving out of the apartment next tuesday  regardless if I am staying in the branch or not.

Ok, well i think that is it for this week!! I just have one request: Do not ever make me Soup of the Seven Seas! Ever. Ever. Ever :) I LOVE YOU ALL!! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK :) XOXOXOXO

-Hannah :)

My pics - snow, a chihuahua puppy, rescued by Jarvis and Hoer, someday I will have to explain the little dinosaur we keep leaving for each other in silly places, Richard and Naomi!!!

Thanks for all the support - January 21, 2014

Hey family!!!

This week has been better than last week! I wrote you a letter with the details of some dramas, but this email will be to highlight the good stuff. Thanks for all your support and advise as to handle things. I sure am learning a lot, on how to handle people choices and living with others that I have not had to deal with before. On to the good stuff...Let me first tell you about Monday night :) Jonathan Martinez challenged me to eat 6 "Bear Hot Spicy Wings". He has challenged Elders to do it in the past and only 2 Elders have been able to. He gave each of them one of his watches at the time as a reward for eating them. I guess one Elder even threw up trying! I told him I didn't want his watch, so he told me he would give me $20 for each wing I ate. So on Monday we had an appointment with him and he brought the wings! I start eating the first one, and it was HOT but I was OK. I made it through the first 3 wings like a champ! Once I got to the 4th wing it got tough! My lips were on fire! I pushed through it and at all 6!!!!!!! Hermana Martinez made me drink some lemonade right after and eat baking soda to calm my stomach. haha! She is so awesome :) My lips were on fire for like an hour after! When I got home my stomach started hurting a little. The next morning I woke up at 5am in the fetal position near tears! hahaha! It hurt so bad! Needless to say, it might have not been the best decision I have ever made regarding my health!!!! hahahaha!! It hurt!!! haha! I will never do the challenge again! ha!

Also, some more wonderful news about Jonathan... He is doing SO great! SO SO SO great! He is progressing so much! A complete 180! He got his temple recommend this week! I almost cried! So huge! I feel like that counts as much as a baptism! He is planning on coming to the temple with me and Hna. Soto for our half way mark to do baptisms! I can not wait!!! And speaking of temples... I hear there is a NEW new movie!! Have you seen it yet Mom? I hear it is pretty similar, but slightly different.

Also this week... we met with Mirtha (pronounced Mirta) who is the sister of the family in our ward that came up to us and told us she wants to be baptized! She is soooooooooo cute! She is from Honduras and has been in the states for 2 weeks and doesn't speak a word of english. She is darling! I want to be her best friend! haha! I am really looking forward to teaching her! We are going to try and set her up with a baptism date this week :) She has taken the lessons before in Honduras but it has been a while, so we will be teaching her all of the lessons again. There is an Elder that was teaching her who is now home from his mission, that she wants to perform the baptism. We will have to coordinate with him and find out when he can come to Colorado and do it :) I can't wait!

This week we had interviews with President Brown. I was so grateful! I needed them! I was the last Hermana to go in for my interview. Everyone else came out bawling... which made me nervous. When I walked in, the first thing he said to me was, "So when are you and Sister Mehner going to be companions? Sister Brown and I have been thinking when it should be." I was SO happy! Ally told him in her interview from June to July! That way we can be together for our birthdays and year mark :) Then he opened the interview with a prayer and looked at me in the eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "I have never seen so much drama before. Sister Mangum, counsel me. What should I do?" I was thinking, "You are supposed to give ME the counsel and advice! ha!" It was great interview, we talked a little about all of the drama that has been going on and he was so nice and just apologized that I was having to be in the middle of all of it and thanked me for helping everyone. He said he really appreciated the fact that I am able to just roll with things. He could tell I was stressed, but happy. Which I really am. Stressed for sure!! But also very happy! He told me that next transfer he is getting a new apartment and splitting the Hermanas up and only having 1 companionship live together. I think it is a great idea! My interview was great and much appreciated! And my love for President Brown grew for sure!

Also this week, Hna. Soto asked me to dye her hair. Sister Martinez helped too. I have never dyed anyone's hair before. It was fun but not something I thought I would be doing on the mission, haha! I think I remember that you had to cut some Elders hair on your mission mom, is that right??? When you were out in the middle of nowhere - haha - I guess I am developing some new talents. 

Hna. Soto's stomach pain got really bad again while we were at the church for Pday yesterday. I don't know how to help her, which is hard! This has been going on for this entire transfer and I feel bad that I really don’t know what to do. I called Ally and asked for advice. She was amazing! I love her SO MUCH! I am so grateful she is here! We decided to fast together today. This has been a tough transfer! Really hard! I have not had to deal with the kind of problems that face me right now so far on my mission. It has been hard to have all of the drama, and then the fact that some days Hna. Soto and I can not even work because her pain is so bad. I really hope things get better and I am really excited for this transfer to be over. 2 More weeks.

Anyway, on a happier note... I AM SO HAPPY FOR LENNON!!!! I am so happy she got her papers in! I can't wait for her to be a missionary! So my predictions are where she will be serving....

State Side: Pennsylvania, Spanish Speaking

Foreign: Sweden or Canada

I am so happy for you Lennon! You are going to be an amazing missionary!!!

I love you guys! Thanks for your package and letter this week Mom! I really appreciate it! There is something special about getting a letter in the mail. So thank you :) I needed it! And what you said at the end of your letter, that I am here to be an example, I really do believe is true. Despite everything I have told you this transfer with all of the drama, I am the peacemaker for these Hermanas and if that is what the Lord wants me to do right now, I will try to be patient and please Him with my performance and actions! It is just other sisters who struggle getting along with each other. The next day after I got your letter, Hna. Martinez said to me, "You are such a good example of what a daughter of god should act like. You are my hero. I am going to name my daughter after you. For real. Her name is going to be Hannah, and I hope she acts just like you." I am not telling you guys this to brag. I am just sharing this because I needed to hear that. I have been trying really hard to be friends with everyone and to have the spirit with me as my constant companion this transfer. I am grateful that I have made a difference and I know the reason I am here, serving in this area, is because I need to be here for these Hermanas.

Thank you for your prayers, I feel them! I love you guys so so much!

Love,

Hannah :)

My pics this week include a beautiful Colorado sunset, some humanitarian work which I LOVE doing especially with the hilarious Hermana Hoer, me and Soto, cute babies, and Johnathan and the HOT WINGS!!!