Busy Week, and when I say Busy, I mean B*U*S*Y! - March 24, 2014

Hey hey everybody:

A lot has happened this week!! We have had quite a work load! I will explain why a little later :) But it has been great! We met our goal of 25 lessons!! I know it is not all about numbers and the work load definitely depends on the area you are in, but it sure does feel good knowing we are working hard and you can really see that through our numbers :)

So like I said, this week has been super stressful! It has been GREAT but very overwhelming. I have had a permanent headache for the last 5 days... My neck and back feel broken. I am so exhausted and have been having a hard time sleeping... I have been surviving on excedrin and advil and I think I might buy some sleeping pills today because I am just so tired and need help sleeping. The reason it has been stressful is because on Wednesday night, we got a phone call from the Elders in our ward telling us they are being ETed out and that we were going to be the only missionaries in the ward for at least the next 6 weeks and that we had to take their entire work load on top of our own... I don't know the specifics of why the Elders had to go. They didn't even know where they were going to be transferred to and I still haven't heard where they have ended up. So now our work load doubled!! We went from having 3 progressing investigators to 6 and a total of 12 investigators in all. And then a million other less actives to visit. And we are not complaining a bit -All of this is GREAT!!!! It has been a challenge managing the work load, figuring out schedules and the needs of everyone. But I think, for the most part, we got the hard stuff out of the way. We were able to meet most of the people they were working with this week, so that was great :)

Tuesday: We got our truck taken away :( It was a major bummer! I miss our truck! We had a Nissan Frontier and I loved it! I can really see myself driving one of those when I come home. haha! I never thought I would be a truck person, but I am converted. So we we are on foot. The Elders let us borrow their truck a little that day though. It was just a typical day. We taught English and then had some great visits :)

Wednesday: We had to walk all day... My feet were killing by the end! It made the work a little bit slower cause we had to schedule time in between appointments so we could walk everywhere. Our dinner appointment canceled on us that day too, which was a bummer because we didn't bring any food with us and Brush is 9 miles outside of Ft. Morgan so we couldn't walk home... But that night we took the Elder's truck home and then we got the phone call from them saying they were both being taken out and leaving... We were super shocked! Sorry I am skipping around a bit - I am trying to give you all the details but just realized I put some Wednesday in my Monday :) hehe!!

Thursday: We had Zone Meeting in Greeley. It was great! I love zone meetings so much! They are inspiring and it is great being taught and spiritually lifted and motivated by your peers. We said goodbye to the Elders in Fort Morgan. This was sad. I really liked them. So now we are even more banished! Because now we are the only missionaries within an hour! But good news, we have a truck again!! It isn't the Nissan... :( But it will do little pig, it will do :) haha!!

Friday: A Pastor that volunteers with us at Caring Ministries (a place where they give food and clothing for homeless people and those who struggle a lot financially) asked Ally and I to have dinner with him and his family. His name is Aric. We have become good friends with him and always have good conversations with him about religion. So we went to his home for dinner. I am not sure what church he belongs to... I want to say he is the pastor of a Lutheran church... His family was so nice and welcoming to us! I was a little nervous that maybe he would have us over for a little bit of a bible bashing, but not the case! We had a great time :) 

After we had an appointment with one of the Elder's investigators named Troy. We have been working with his girlfriend. She is a less active member. They live together and have 2 kids. It has been the wards goal to get the 2 of them married. But they won't do it because it costs too much money... They were going to do it this spring with their tax refund, but they blew it on new phones, a trip to Greeley, and getting nails done... I just want to say, "Why do you have to have those things right now!? Get married!! But obviously I can't.... ha! I didn't feel our visit was very affective. They didn’t appear motivated. They don't feel it is important to go to church, get married, or live by the word of wisdom as long as they are being good people. We were kinda frustrated after we left. But then we got a text from Kylie (Troy's gfriend) and she said that Troy wanted to have us over for lunch the next day and that they decided they want to get married in the next 6 weeks so we can both be here! WHAT!?!? I should have kept the faith - haha! I guess we did have an impact on them! We were so happy after hearing the news :)

Saturday: We went back to see Kylie and Troy for lunch. We got them to commit to being married on April 26th!! :) I know the people at church will help with the wedding and we will have the bishop marry them. The ward is happy to get the details ready and prepared! So we were really excited they said they were going to do it!  We had 6 other lessons this day, making it a total of 7 in one day!! We beat our record :) We met with a less active family, and they ended up coming to church on Sunday! yippee!! And then we met with one of the Elder's investigators, her name is Jo. She is very interesting... She lives in Log Lane Village (which is literally just a giant trailer park that decided to make itself it's own town...) We went the day before to tell her the Elders were gone and to set up an appointment with her for the next day. When we got there she had a razor in her hand and she had just buzzed her head :) She said we could come back on Saturday, so we did :) We will need to work with her on some word of wisdom issues. She had a Book of Mormon on the coffee table a long with stuff to roll her own cigarettes... oh boy! So we will hopefully be teaching the stop smoking program to her too! Her friend David was there. They are both recovering alcoholics. They have such great faith!! They talk a lot and are kind of intense, but I have a lot of hope for the both of them and I am excited to teach them :) We had several other great lessons after, one of which included teaching the Plan of Salvation with our new Spanish investigator :) It was simply a fab day!

Sunday: We taught Gospel Principles and had a great time at church :) We decided to go and visit Patty Schoke, (Roxy's sister) after church. And guess who was there? Roxy! It worked out perfectly!! We had such an amazing visit with them! I love the 2 of them so much! I have gotten really close with them! Ally and I had the thought that they should come to our weddings after our missions and we got so excited!! Haha!! We found out Patty is getting divorced... :( I feel so bad for her! This is her 2nd divorce. It sounds like she has had a very similar experience as Jean has... Pray for her please! And pray for Roxy that she will have the strength to quit smoking!

A little later that night we had a lesson with one of our new investigators, Ferny. We taught him the restoration and it went really well! He seems golden! I am really excited to spend more time with him and teach him! He said he would be baptized when he comes to know it is true :) We are hoping he comes to church on Sunday! He is the uncle to one of our less actives. We are teaching his nephews wife at the moment as well. They have 4 kids together. They are in their 30's and are not married either! This is a recurring problem for us - I remember you saying it was on your mission too, Mom. His wife, Jennifer, wants to get baptized so bad! So please pray for them, that either Cruz will marry her or she will be given the strength figure things out. It is a really sad situation and I am seeing this a lot out here. She needs all the prayers and support she can get!

I am tired, really tired! But it is a good tired! Knowing I am giving everything I can. This is a wonderful work to be doing! Something I want to be better at when I go home. There is such peace and happiness when we are serving the Lord and those around us and bringing them to the fullness of the gospel. I am so excited for you Lennon!! Being a missionary will bless your life so much, not to mention all of those you will teach. I encourage all of you to make it a point to do missionary work at home!

I love you all so so much!!!! I am praying for you :) Have the best week ever!!!!

Love,

Hannah :)

I ONLY TOOK THREE PICTURES THIS WEEK - sorry!! Just of us and our Elders :( SAD!!!

Happy Saint Patricks Day - March 17, 2014

Well, for starters.... ALLY AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER TRANSFER IN FORT MORGAN!!! YAY :)

This week has been really good!! :)

Monday: We had dinner with Roxy and her sister Patty :) It went sooooooo well!!! Man, every time we meet with Roxy the spirit is so strong!! It was so much fun and we shared a quote about the atonement. IT is amazing. It is by Cheiko Okazaki (idk if i spelled her name right) Ally showed it to me and it is amazing! It talks about how we all experience sin and pain and sorrow individually and how the only person who totally gets it is Christ. Then she gives a list of examples of things people go through, like loosing a mom to cancer, drug and alcoholism, pregnancy, rape, things that happen to your children. It is amazing! And super powerful! You should try and look it up and find it!

Tuesday: Zone Conference! It was in Fort Collins. We had to wake up at 5am... and leave at 5:55... Ft. Collins is only 2 hours from us, but our zone leaders asked us all be there super early! We were an hour and 15 mins early... Oh well. The zone conference was great! I love zone conferences! It is great to see all the missionaries united in 1 purpose and come together and be taught and instructed on how we can be better. There were wonderful talks shared about using our tools (i.e. scriptures, prayer, companions, lds.org, etc.) the power of repentance and how your mission should change you spiritually for the better. It was my favorite zone conference so far on my mission :)

Wednesday: We had a lesson with our investigator Simon. Oh boy... He would be golden if he didn't have this hang up over wording of the baptismal prayer. He has investigated over 100 churches and finally found ours :) Ha! He is very well versed in the scriptures and knows his stuff! He knows that there has to have been a restoration and everything. He really believes everything about the gospel! But... he thinks the wording of the baptismal prayer should say in the name of the lord jesus christ and not in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost. We showed him 3 different scriptures about the wording of the prayer in the bible, bom, and d&c. Still didn't work... It was an emotionally exhausting lesson... but the next day I found a scripture in 3 Nephi 11:23-26 ... that says to be baptized in Jesus' name you do it in the name of the father the son and the holy ghost. Hopefully he will respond well to that scripture!

Thursday: We had an appointment with Roxy again! It went sooooo well!! We watched the Restoration with her and she was crying. The spirit again was SO strong! She is opening up to us more and more and she loves us so much! And I love her! She is going to be one of my miracles on my mission! After that we went and had a picnic in the bed of our truck in a park because the weather was so nice!! :) It was great! Then we went to teach English at Cargill and someone made us shrimp soup there and it made Ally sick. So we left early... And yet we had another appointment, a lady in our ward is the principal of the school in Wiggins and asked us to come and translate parent teacher conferences for the teachers. So we did that. IT was pretty fun!! A great day!

Friday: Ally was sick all day. But we had an appointment with Brittany, our new investigator :) So Ally was a trooper and we were able to go and teach her. We taught her the first lesson and it went great! After she asked us when she can be baptized!!! WHAT!? We were so happy! She is turing 16 this week, so she has to get permission from her parents, and from what we know, they seem ok with it. We are going to set her with a date this week! I am so happy!!! I had 3 baptisms already, but I basically inherited them. Ha! But I totally count them, because I have built up such a relationship with all 3 of them since then! BUT this is the first one that is going to be from the beginning to the end! And this will be Ally's first baptism too! We are so excited that we get to be together for it! Please pray for Brittany that her parents will be ok with her getting baptized and that it will happen in the next few weeks! :)

  

Sunday: We got a new investigator! It was really cool! A man in our ward, spanish speaking, called us on Saturday and said he was going to bring a friend to church with him and to make sure we had translating equipment. So we got that all taken care of on Sunday morning and ready. The friend came, and his name is Melvin. He really enjoyed sacrament meeting and asked us to teach him the 1st discussion in the second hour. So we did! And he loved it and wants to learn more! So we are going to set up and appointment with him for hopefully this week! We finally have a spanish investigator :)

Then we taught Relief Society. It went really well! We taught about the Sacrament :)

After church we went to visit some people and one of the people totally bailed on us. We saw her drive past her home avoiding us...haha - oh well. SO we decided to go and visit a kind of/ sort of investigator. Ha! Her name is Sharon and the lesson went super well! She is hilarious! And just says things how they are. She is great and told us to keep coming back :)

So, all in all it was a wonderful week! We have some great things planned for the upcoming week! I am excited! But we just found out they are taking our truck away today... NO!!! So, hopefully we are still able to do everything we have planned! I am really happy I am staying in Ft. Morgan! This smelly little town is really growing on me!! I am really loving it here! I think it helps that we are seeing so many miracles and staying super busy!! The ward was SO happy to find out we were both staying! They really love us which feels so good :)

I love you all so so much!!! Have the best week ever!!

Love,

Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmana Hannah Mangum :)

1. Our cupcakes worked! We are staying together!!!

2. Haha - timer went off and I didn't make it back to the truck

3. Chilin on a beautiful day with a little picnic and our truck

4. We think we are so cool - haha!

5. Colorado sunsets - there is nothing like them :)

6. I am turning country - whoo too!!

7. P-day activities with the Elders!!

Semana de Milagros - March 10, 2014

Hi Guys:

This week has been absolutely fantastic!! Probably one of my favorites on my mission!

Tuesday: I went on exchanges with Sister Hoer to Greeley. It was so great! And so fun to see the members from the Glenmere Ward and some of our investigators we taught together when I was there! We had a bit of a different experience... We went to see Richard and Sam!! :) I love them! But last week they were watching the gospel channel and something came on called "The Truth about Mormons". So they decided to watch... Oh boy... It obviously sparked a lot of questions. So they asked us to watch it with them and to resolve their concerns. So we sat down and we only got through 15 minutes in 1 hour! We were having to pause like crazy! This preacher was saying he got all of his information out of our books and they actual were quotes... He made accusations that Mormons don't believe Mary was a virgin, or that we only believe in partial Atonement. What does that even mean?? We quickly set that straight and explained that we DO believe Mary was a virgin, and we DO believe in the Atonement completely! We shared verses from the Book of Mormon that backed us up. He also "quoted" a verse in D&C 130:22. It said on his slide... "God is a body of flesh and bones and he lives with his many wives and together they procreate and live with their spiritual offspring." WHAT??? So we immediately opened our scriptures to that verse and had Sam read it. It doesn't say that at all! The only thing that was the same was "The Father has a body of flesh and bones". Yes, this opposition and false accusations were a set back. BUT they worked to our favor so much! Sam and Richard were only strengthened after that! We have opposition in all things! Everyday we are faced with opposition! And this experience was a testimony to me that opposition only makes a stronger!! 

Wednesday: It was a good day. Nothing too special. We met with a less active Spanish family. They were so rude! This is the 2nd time we have gone there and they just make fun of our Spanish. It actually really upset and offended me. I am trying my very best. I try to listen and understand everything they say and bear testimony after. For example, this week I read a scripture in Alma, and right after I was going to explain why I liked the scripture, before I even had the opportunity, the dad stopped me and asked if I even understood what I read. It was so rude. Most people are sooo nice and helpful and lift you up and tell you your spanish is great. They do not. They tear you apart. And I DID understand the scripture! Ugh! It was hurtful and made me want to stop trying. And the most frustrating part was they don't speak a lick of English! They don't even try! So here I am trying to speak their language, in an English speaking country with very little exposure to Spanish and they still make fun of us. Ugh. Sorry, had to vent. 

Thursday: This was a WONDERFUL day!! We met with our fabulous Roxy! We taught her the Stop Smoking Program! It went SO well!! We had Sister Korf come with us, who we knew used to smoke, but didn't know she quit on the program! Divine Inspiration! We read through the packet, we made her go out to the dumpster and tear up her cigarettes and throw them away. We testified to her about the atonement, that she is not alone. She was crying. It was so powerful! The spirit was SO STRONG! The strongest it has ever been for me in a lesson! We were on cloud 9 after! ANd Roxy was feeling so good!! And ready!! Then we went to Cargill to teach english! I LOVE doing this! I have built relationships with all of the Africans and Hispanics in the class! We joke and have fun together :) We are not really supposed to talk about he Gospel, but if it comes up we can answer questions. It actually comes up a lot because we have to explain why they call us Sister and not by our first names. On tuesday, 2 guys, one from Ethiopia and the other form Sudan were SUPER interested in learning more and asked for our phone numbers! Their names are Glitch and Muhammad. Pray for them please! Pray they call us this week!! Also, the last hour we taught a different class with only 3 guys in it. One from the Congo and 2 from Sudan. (another named Muhammad). The other guy from Sudan started telling us he is Muslim and he thinks Christians are crazy for believing Christ was a Prophet. The other 2 guys are christian and they lost it on him. They got into the huge heated argument! It was crazy! We didn't know what to do! Neither did the teacher... They finally calmed down. Thank goodness! It was kinda funny though. 

Then we had dinner with Sister Korby. She is the German lady in our ward that makes enough food to feed a village! We were there for 2 and a half hours and ate no joke like 15 courses! It was crazy! But DELICIOUS!! She also invited over the Mangum's in our ward. They really wanted to meet me. Bro. Mangum brought over this book of genealogy and I was flipping through it and a family picture with Grandpa and Grandma and the first 7 kids of the fam were in it along with autobiographies! SO cool! So we are related.They are very nice!

Friday: Was just an average day. It was good though!

Saturday: This was a day of MIRACLES!! We were supposed to meet with Roxy again in the morning. We got to the church for our appointment and she called us 5 minutes after she was supposed to be there to cancel because she was sick... I don't know if she really was, or if she was worried we would be upset because she messed up... I really don't know. I think she was sick. But I am not sure if she has smoked since thursday or not. It is all ok - we just wanted to give her some love and support! Then Simon, our other investigator texted us and canceled our appointment! We had 6 confirmed appointments scheduled for Saturday and we were so excited because that was the most lessons either of us have ever gotten in 1 day! And now, 2 appointments fell through! We were pretty sad. But Sister Korf was there for Roxy's appointment, so we shared a message with her! Then we decided to phone up an elderly lady in our ward and see if we could go visit her. She said of course! So we went over and did a puzzle with her played a couple rounds of cards and shared a message. It was so fun! Then we had a lunch appointment with Maria Cruz, a less active spanish speaking member. She invited a friend who was a former investigator! It was awesome! She told us she might want to meet with us and be taught again! The lunch was great! I love mexican food! She made shrimp enchiladas :) I miss having spanish food everyday when I was in the Branch! Then we went to visit a less active old couple who are in their 90's. We visit them weekly :) And then we went and saw Grandma Nichols! Haha! I love her! She is 93 with a thick German accent and is as sassy as can be! We told her we were speaking in church on Sunday and that she should come. She never comes to church. Partly because of her age. We had a great visit! And we were able to meet our goal!! 6 lessons! It felt so good! And that day was just a testimony that even when problems arise, push forward, keep trying and we will be blessed for our efforts!

Sunday: We got to church and were up on the stand because we had to give talks. And Simon walked in and Roxy walked in and Grandma Nichols walked in! Ah!!!!! I had the hugest smile on my face! Our talks went well I think :) I told about Ally and me and our story before the mission :) People were crying! I was so nervous to talk, I really hate speaking in public, but it felt really good after! Then we taught Gospel Principles class. That went good too :) We also had a 15 year old girl, Brittany, who is not a member but who has been coming to church with her friends come up to us and ask if we can teach her. We have been trying to for 5 weeks but she hasn't felt ready, but she is now! We have an appointment with her for next friday! I can't wait! 

We were at a total of 21 lessons for the week at this point, and our goal for the week was 24. We had a couple confirmed appointments and we were ready to meet our goal! And then, someone of course canceled... But again, it didn't stop us! We got 3 more lessons in and we were able to meet our goal of 24 lessons for the week! All time high for me and Ally!!!! IT FELT SO GOOD!!! And then at the end of the day we were driving home and got a voicemail from Roxy's sister. SHe is in the ward and is feeding us dinner tonight and Roxy is going to come! :) But in her voicemail she started crying and thanking us for helping her sister and that we are having a bigger impact than we know. It almost brought me to tears listening to her. It was so sweet and made me realize that what we are doing is huge! The gospel DOES bring joy and happiness. A joy you can not experience any other way! And through it we are promised eternal life and exaltation! I was overcome with gratitude to be a missionary! There is seriously no better feeling than when we are serving the Lord with all of our might, mind, and strength! 

I am glad to hear everyone had a great week! This is the last week of the transfer for us. So don't send any mail this week just to be safe. And I ask that you all pray that Ally and I get to stay together in Fort Morgan next transfer!! We are seeing so many miracles together!! We are so happy! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!

Love, 

Hermana Hannah Mangum :)

#1-3 My day in Greeley

#4 Beautiful Colorado clouds

#5-6 Our relatives!!!

#7 Hermana Hoer has a crazy family photo of you guys!!!

#8 Roxy, some grapefruit juice (helps with smoking cravings) and her commitment to not smoke!

#9 A blue door and a dress from Somalia

#10 We bought "Catching Fire" nail stickers in honor of Katniss this week :)

#11 We found John Lennon roaming the street of Fort Morgan

Sister's Conference was A M A Z I N G!! - March 3, 2104

Familia Mia:

We had our first-ever Sister's Conference in our mission!! It was so wonderful! We met in Loveland and all 65 of the sister missionaries were there :) It was SO MUCH fun seeing everyone! I love the sisters in this mission! They will forever be some of my dearest friends and a part of my life! The talks were great!!! The wives of all of the mission presidency spoke. It was wonderful. They showed us a video called "Courage" about Esther and three other women. It was amazing and powerful! You guys should watch it!

This week a family in our ward who had signed up for dinner had to cancel on us so they gave us a gift card to a Mexican restaurant. We were really excited :) While we were there, another member of our ward came in to pick up some food to go. He saw us and paid for our meal! How sweet!!! There are so many great people out there! I am so grateful :)

We got a text this week from one of our investigators, Simon. I believe I have told you about him. We asked him if he was going to be able to make it to church this week. And he send back this text that said, "By God's grace, I will be at church."  I love it!  And then he didn't end up coming. He tore something in his hip the day before... :(  He is doing well and we love knowing that we can be a support system to him. He is just so nice and we really love working with him. BUT we did have another investigator at church who has been avoiding us the last couple of weeks! And we were able to set up an appointment with her for this week :) And we had 2 potential investigators at church too! So great!! We were really happy :)

I think the ward is really getting involved with us as missionaries and we are so happy. The bishop asked us to both speak in sacrament meeting this next week, we were also asked yesterday to teach for the next 8 weeks in Gospel Principles, and to teach Relief Society in 2 weeks. We have so much to do! They didn;t ask the Elders to do anything but we asked if we could switch off every other week for the Gospel Principles class with the Elders and they agreed. We just wouldn't have had time to prepare a lesson every week on top of all of the other lessons we teach, service projects, sacrament talks, etc. I am grateful for the opportunity to dig in hard and study and prepare for all of these assignments.

Last night we went and visited Grandma Nichols :) She is sister Penn's mom. She is 93 and from Germany and is just a crack up! She talks so loud with this thick german accent. She lives on a farm and when we walked into her house there was a baby calf that had just been born that day in her garage! It was sooooo cute! It was so weak and kinda sick, that is why it was sleeping in the garage. As we were leaving, Grandma Nichols (who always has chocolates) asked us if we wanted a bag of "kitty-kats" haha! I took us a minute to figure out she mean Kit Kat bars :) So cute!!

We also had the opportunity to teach a lot of English at Cargill again this week. I am literally in love with the Somali people in our classes. We spend a 3 1/2 hours teaching both Tuesday and Thursday. I absolutely love it. George, who works there was very busy, so we took care of his classes for him. 

I have been thinking a lot this week that I want to challenge you guys to have the missionaries over more! Get to know them! Feed them dinner! It means soooo much to us! I wish our family did that more back home! So please pay it forward and feed the missionaries serving in our stake! Ok!? Great!!!I hope you are all doing well!! I love and miss you!!

con mucho amor,

Hannah :)

#1 - 4 SISTER'S CONFERENCE in Loveland! I love love love these missionaries! Sister Smith cut out a picture of my face and stuck it on her calendar because she was excited to see me on that day - ahhhhh :)

#5 I loved Simon Peter's text - such a great investigator!

#6 -7 Newborn calf in the Garage at Grandma Nichols :)

#8 - 10 Fort Collins temple site on a REALLY windy day!!

I hang out at a beef plant :) - February 24, 2014

Hello Everybody :)

We had 20 lessons this week!! Wahoo!! It was an all time high for me :) My highest before was 19!! It felt sooooooo good!!

This week just started off great. I was feeling really good about everything and happy about Fort Morgan. We wore our Somali dresses to Cargill (the beef plant) to teach our English class and the ladies were so excited that we were wearing dresses from their store! But a lot of the Americans were trying to decided if it was appropriate or not... What? Sister Penn told us she thinks it is great and that we are literally helping bridge the gaps between the 2 cultures. Also, there is an infestation of bed bugs here in Brush... they are in the library... so Sister Penn said we could come email at Cargill. Therefore, I am emailing you from a beef plant today. Haha! Everyone is blaming everyone else for the bed bugs. It is really hard for me to listen to people blame another culture for bed bugs!! But all of them are participating in the fight. Ugh!!  Fort Morgan is sooooo poor. They serve breakfast in the public schools because parents literally can't even afford to feed their children. The poverty level here is really sad. So with that all sad, I am grateful to have met these people and for them teaching me how to be more humble, and more grateful. Mom, your letter came at a PERFECT time!!! Everything was building up and I was getting really sad about all that I was seeing and then I got your inspired letter!! With wonderful advice!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

This week we also had district meeting in Greeley. We got there a little early and decided to stop in and see Hna. Leos!! I LOVE HER! We went up to her door and she opened up and was completely shocked!!! Soooo happy :) She had just made some flan (which is straight from heaven) and fed us. It was wonderful!!!!! It was also fun to see some of the other missionaries at the DM.

We also had a ward pot luck on friday. The boy scouts put it on. It was fun. The whole time they played 3 songs over and over for the background music! They were: We Are The Champions- Queen, Roar-Katy Perry, and a song I have never heard before which was really weird and annoying... I liked Roar, but everything else got annoying really fast! haha!!

On Saturday, we called our dinner appointment to confirm and the family said they never signed up to feed us and that they were going out of town... so we were dinner less... But we got a phone call from Sister Korf in the ward and she said she was making shrimp tacos and wanted to know if we wanted to come for dinner. Holy divine inspiration, Sister Korf !! She loves us! She is in her 40's but looks like she's in her 30's and is a body builder! haha! We went over and it was delish!! Her son Rayven (he is 12) told us that if we ever need dinner to call his mom! haha!! It is really cute! Sister Korf loved our Somali outfits and so we are going to go today and take her there! I am excited to get them more business :)

Best news of the week....

Simon, our amazing investigator came to church :) He is probably in his late 20's early 30's. He is from Brazil but has lived everywhere! Portugal, France, Senegal, and a million other places. A member in our ward, the Wolff's invited him to our dinner appointment that night. He came!! It was awesome!!!! He had a great time! And we had an awesome lesson about faith! I am excited to meet with him again this week :) We are going to try and set him up with a baptism date!!

Well, I think that is about it for this week! I love you all so much!!!! I hope you are doing great!! Even though I have been feeling a little homesick and stuff, I know this is where I am supposed to be. On a mission!! I know that this brings blessings and I feel them. I am grateful to be comps with Ally!!!!! I love her so much. We work so well together :)

TE AMO Y EXTRANO!!!! TENGA UNA SEMANA BUENA!!!!!!!!!

con amor,

Hannah :)

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

#1 A visit with Hermana Leos

#2, 3 We made the cupcakes Dad sent me

#4 Cargill - THE BEEF PLANT - in my Somalian outfit

#5 Your letter and package

#6 Holy crochet, Mom I thought you would enjoy this!!

Little Somalia in Fort Morgan - February 18, 2014

Hola -

I am so glad to hear you are all doing so well! For some reason this week I had a feeling like something had happened and I was worried, so I was very relieved to know you are all doing great!

On Monday night we had an appointment with a less active sister named Hilda. She is wonderful! She has been through so much! She is getting a divorce. She has had cancer. She works as a hotel maid. She is struggling! She is so strong and amazing and unfortunately has to work on sundays and can't make it to church but LOVES when we come and visit and loves that she can speak to us in Spanish :) While we were there though, I had a major allergic reaction to her cat... My eyes swelled up and were huge and super itchy!! We went back again last night and again my eyes swelled up! I have been around other cats this week though and haven't had a reaction... But there is something about this little kitty cat that my body doesn't like! haha! I am going to have to keep benedryl on me every time we go to visit her!

This week one of our new investigator’s husband got out of jail and we were strongly advised to not go and visit until he goes back. He is out on bail. So we can't visit her anymore... :( That is something that I have come to see and realize on my mission - How common abuse is in marriages. It breaks my heart! Soooo sad! I just want to help these women and tell them to be strong! But, as a missionary, I can't offer that advice and it is hard for both Ally and me. This is common problem in the our area.

We are also teaching an excommunicated member. She and her husband want to prepare to go to the temple. And so she needs to be re-baptized. She struggles with smoking. So we are going to start doing the “stop smoking” program with her! This is going to be my first time teaching it, but I am really excited for her! She is great! We had a lesson with her last week that went really well :) I look forward to our visits with her this week :)

Some other good news... Mirtha (from my last area - that came up to Hna. Soto and I and asked if we could teach her because she wants to get baptized) was baptized on Saturday! I am so happy for her and wish I could have taught her more.

There are NOT a lot of projects for our “Just Serve” program in Fort Morgan. But we do one that I love! We teach English to people! We go to the Beef Plant, which is literally a factory where they kill beautiful cows... yikes! And we teach the workers there. There are a TON of people from Somalia! Which is super random to me. There are a lot of people from every where in Africa, mostly Somalia, and then a lot of Hispanics as well. I really love it! It has got me thinking about maybe going somewhere when I get home to teach English for a summer or something!

This week was kinda rough. We didn't get our 35 lessons... It seemed like everyone and their dogs were canceling on us :( And then to top it off... we both got sick. GR!! Satan always gets ya when you are trying to do  your best! But it is ok, we are bouncing back from that and are feeling much better now and we started the week off with a bang! We got 4 lessons on a Pday! That just doesn't happen! So we are really excited and feel like this week will be the week we get 30 lessons! Please keep praying for us that we will be able to do so :)

We went and got some soup and a deli in Brush on Friday when we were not feeling too good. And the man who owned the restaurant was super nice and gave us discounts.  And the soup he gave us was literally Progresso soup... haha! He then talked to us FOREVER about religion. The man was crazy! I am sure Ally is telling the story in her email, so you will have to read it to get more info. But he basically doesn't believe in organized religion, thinks half of the New Testament shouldn't be scripture, baptizes people in the hot tub that is in his deli... and speaks in tongues. haha! He spoke in tongues to us! It was so crazy!!!! We would think we were getting somewhere with him about the church, but then he would say something crazy again! We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and are debating whether we should go back or not. Ha! It was a crazy experience! He kept us there for hours! Luckily we didn't have any scheduled appointments.

Yesterday, Ally and I went to a Somali store. (Because like I said, there are a ton a Somalians here! Enough that they have their own store in this tiny tiny tiny tiny town. haha!) And we found the most BEAUTIFUL dresses and skirts! For $20! So we each bought one! I got a dress and Ally got a skirt! We are wearing them today and feel so cute! Haha! We will have to send out a pic of ourselves to you next week! Lennon- if  you want, I will buy you a skirt or dress from there! Everything is super long and modest and beautiful! Let me know :)

I love you guys soooooooooo much!!! I hope you are all doing well and having spiritual experiences by reading the Book of Mormon daily, by daily prayers in the morning AND night! By doing service for others and trying to live in the way you know our Father in Heaven wants us to. Nothing will bring you more joy than that. I know that, because I have been able to dedicate my time for the last almost 7 months doing that. And I have never felt so happy. The gospel is amazing!! I hope you all take advantage of the blessings we get from it and try to share it with others. I love you all!!! Have a wonderful week!!!!!!!! You are all in my prayers!

Love,

Hermana Hannah Mangum :)

THIS WEEK IN PICTURES:

#1 - Our truck,, yes Mom, we drive a truck!!
#2 - Happy girls, but I wish I could drive :(
#3 - My FAVORITE - Toberlone!!
#4 - Beef plant where we teach English :)
#5 - Valentines Day packages
#6 - We heart attacked Sister Penn
#7 - Valentines dinner at a members home, their daughters decorated for us! So sweeeeet :) We felt loved!!
#8 - We saw Hermana Hoer!!! love love love her

Baltimore, Maryland!! Spanish speaking!! I could not be happier :) - February 10, 2014

Familia Mia :)

I am just soooooo happy about Lennon's mission call! It is absolutely perfect!! When I read "Baltimore, Maryland", i was so filled with the spirit and just KNEW that is where she is supposed to go! And I am so happy it is spanish speaking!! Best language ever!!! :D You are going to be an amazing missionary!!!

It has been a great week! I love being companions with Ally!!! We are having a lot of fun together!! I will admit though, being with someone that reminds you of home can be tough. It makes me homesick. We both feel it. But, we are keeping ourselves so busy and it keeps our mind off of all we are missing back home! Ha! This week we have planned 35 lessons!! It will be amazing and an all time record for me if we are able to get it! I hope we can, or at least close :)

So Fort Morgan... Wow! I am in the country in the middle of no where... I miss being around PEOPLE!! We cover several towns since the towns are tiny. We cover Wiggens, which literally has more cows than people, Fort Morgan which has about 12,000 people and Brush (where i live) which is about 5,000 people. I am not used to living like this, but I am so grateful I have Ally with me!! I can survive because of her!! :) And, there is so much work here!! So we are keeping ourselves busy which is great.

The second night here, we had dinner with a German lady. She is soooo funny!!! She talks for ever and has a thick accent! Her food is amazing, but she feeds us so much!!!! She stuffs us!! Course after course! And then sooo many left overs! 4 grocery bags full!! haha!

Also, guess what? There are some Mangum's in the ward! They are less-active and I haven't met them yet, but I am going to try and see them in the next couple weeks. Maybe the fact that we are probably related will get them to come :)

There have def. been some miracles this week! For starters, we had district meeting on Thursday. And before we all went to McDonalds for lunch. While we were there, one of the Elders started talking to this man and gave him a Book of Mormon and the address to the church for sunday. Well the next day we all went out to eat at Wendy's (wow, i sound fat and ridiculous - never thought missionaries did this... a member gave us coupons...) and he was there!! What are the odds?!? He was SHOCKED when he saw all of us! Then on Sunday, about a half hour after sacrament started, he walked in and stayed for all 3 hours! Amazing! The Elders are going to be teaching him. It was pretty cool!

Another miracle... We went and visited a less active family this week. They haven't been to church in a long time, and they came!!! And one of our investigators came too! His name is Simon Peter. If that doesn’t indicate something, I don’t know what will! It was the first time I had met him. He is cool! I hope we can get a lesson with him this week. He believes in everything about the church, including the restoration! The only thing he has a hang up about is the wording of the baptismal prayer. That is literally his only hang up... He feels like it should only say Jesus Christ's name. And he is pretty adamant about it. So hopefully we can resolve this problem, because when we do, he will get baptized! Pray for us!

We also got a referral this week for a lady named Juana. Her husband is in jail, she has 3 little boys, and she has no money. She let us in immediately and started crying and telling us everything. Her TV was on and her boys were running around showing us all of there toys and she was crying and speaking spanish. So it was sooooo hard to understand!! I wish I could have spent more time in the Branch so I could have been immersed in spanish and picked it up faster. Oh, well. I am trying hard! I am already way better than I was before :) But I want to be fluent! I know it will come :)

Ally and I have a goal of finishing the Book of Mormon in Spanish together this transfer! We have to read 18 pages a day! I am so excited! I think we can do it!!

  

During my personal study this morning I was reading in D&C 75 and it talks about when you are a faithful missionary you will be blessed and will be able to overcome the challenges.  I have seen how the Lord is blessing our family. This gave me extra strength this morning because I was missing you all terribly! But I know you are being blessed!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Hannah :)

#1 Elder Welch gave ally and me messages in a bottle

#2 me, ally and sis. jarvis!

#3 me and ally in our brand new TRUCK headed to fort morgan :)

#4,5 and 6 Ally and I absolutely freezing in front of coolest train ever!