Easter on the Mission - April 21, 2014

Happy Easter Family!!! 

What a BeAuTiFuL Easter it was!! I love this holiday and for the chance to celebrate our Savior!! 

So this week... it has been long! I feel like it has been forever since I emailed you! There has been a lot of wonderful things that have happened, but also some really stressful things...

Monday we spent Pday with a lady in our ward, Sister Judd! She is great! We played a board game called Swash Buckled. It is so fun! It was invented by a guy in Utah and I guess you can only order it online... idk. But you all should try and find it! It is really fun :) After Pday was over we went to dinner with a cute family, read out of the Book of Mormon with Kylie, and then did a FHE with one of our less-active Spanish families! It was fun! We also started teaching them English! They made chocoflan for us, which is HEAVEN ON EARTH!!! Check out Dominic's hair - it is legit!!

On Wednesday we set our Spanish Investigator, Melvin, with a baptismal date for May 10th!! Wahoo :) Pretty excited 
about that! Feels good to see those we are teaching having a desire to progress! We also gave Mohamed his Arabic 
Book of Mormon this week and I am excited to hear back from him about what he thinks, etc. 

We had interviews with President Brown this week! The more time I spend with him, the more I love him and respect him! He is a wonderful man with a lot on his plate! I can not imagine the stress he must feel! He is pretty sure he knows Lennon's mission president! He thinks he was his area 70 in Oregon. What is your President's name? My interview went really well. He was very laid back and happy which was great :) He said it was a possibility that Ally and I will get to stay together next transfer! I hope it happens. I know ultimately it is not up to him, but to Heavenly Father. I am trying to prepare myself now for whatever the news will be on Saturday, but I am hoping we get to stay!

Thank you so much for your Easter packages this week! They were absolutely perfect! You know me all too well!! :) And Glen sent each of us succulents! You know how much I love succulents!! It was absolutely perfect! So thank you all!!

This week, Sister Schocke had to give a talk in church. She was really stressing out, and asked us to help her write it. So we did :) It was all about the Garden of Gethsemane. I am glad we got to help her! I learned a lot! And then Sis. Judd taught Relief Society and she asked us for help too, and I showed her a talk I had read that morning called, "Lessons from Liberty Jail" by Elder Holland. It is an AMAZING TALK!!! You NEED to read it this week!  She used that talk for her lesson, and then Ally and I taught Gospel Principles. And then we got asked to teach Relief Society on Mother's Day!  So, if you can find any good talks about Mothers, send them to me!! (Preferably through the mail because I can't print emails...)

We went over to teach Troy on Friday and right when we get there Kylie and Troy told us the wedding is now off. I can't even describe to you how I felt as they told us this. I wanted to cry. But we went in and had a lesson with them.  And then they told us they weren't going to come to church on Sunday because they had to be at Troy's parents at 11:30 which was disappointing because their daughter was being blessed that day AND it is Easter! But, we convinced them to come to church and to let their daughter be blessed! And they did come :) But wedding, as of right now is still off... :( Hopefully we can change that tonight when we go over! So who knows, maybe we will have a wedding on Saturday, maybe not. And then, Jo, our other investigator texted us and canceled our appointment. We were going to teach her the stop smoking program and she told she is not ready to quit... Ugh. Ally and I were pretty sad. We were feeling really down in the dumps... But Sister Penn is amazing! She brought down a talk for us to listen to on her laptop by Elder Holland called "Missionary Work and the Atonement." It was amazing! It explains that we do get rejected as missionaries, but it is ok! Christ's Atonement made it possible for us to overcome this. And we are still successful even if we have set backs. I was so grateful for Sister Penn! It was exactly what I needed to hear!

Easter was AwEsOmE!! Church was wonderful! We had a great sacrament program :) And 3 families let us come over and spend the day with them. We saw Sister Penn's entire family and it was really fun! The Judd's had us over and we had rootbeer floats and they taught us how to make those rainbow rubberband bracelets that everyone is obsessed with! ha! And then our ward mission leader and his wife invited us over. It was so fun! I felt like I was home while I was there! They are such a cute family! We played ping pong and air hockey and their 14 year old son showed us movies he had made, and then they showed family pictures on their Apple TV with their grandparents there. I FELT LIKE I WAS HOME!! We do the exact same thing! I love it :)

We watched the Because of Him video with all of these families! I LOVE THAT VIDEO!! What a beautiful depiction of the Savior's Atonement and all that is possible because of Him. I am grateful for this knowledge. It is because of Him that we can be made whole, it is because of Him that despair can become hope! It is because of Him that we can overcome trials and challenges. That we can feel joy and peace and love! It is because of Him that we can and will conquer death and live with our families again!! It is because of Him that I am out on a mission. It is because of Him people find purpose in their lives and hope for their future. I love our Savior Jesus Christ! I feel honored to be able to wear his name on my chest every day! I love that I get to bear testimony of Him every day and bring others to Him. I KNOW there is NO OTHER WAY to have TRUE happiness without living the commandments. Without obeying the laws of God. Without attending church each week. Temporal happiness is not the same as eternal happiness. And the only way we can have that overwhelming eternal joy is by exercising and experimenting (alma 32:27) our faith here on earth. We can feel this overwhelming happiness on earth. What a blessing it is! I know that this is the ONLY TRUE church on the earth today. I know that as we live the commandments we become better people. I read a talk this week that had a wonderful quote. The talk is called “Settle this in Your Hearts” by Elder Larry B. Gibbons. He quoted a Jewish man that said...

“… I am not diminished by being told there are certain things I may not do because they are wrong. Rather, it enhances me.” 

I love this quote and know it is true!! 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have had a wonderful Easter and that you continue to have a great week!! Transfers are this upcoming week! We find out on Saturday... So don't send mail in case I get transferred :) 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

-Hannah :)

Here are more pics from visits we had this week:

1-2. Wheatley family and cute teepee they made for Conference weekend :)
3. Brother and Sister Boyer - I LOVE THEM!
4. Grandma Willow :)
5. Sister West
6-8. A cool random abandoned train we found!

The Denver Temple and 28 pictures (because it has been 2 weeks since last pday) - April 14th, 2014

Hi guys - I literally have so much to tell you and a million pictures to send, so get ready…. A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks :)

The absolute high light of the week was being able to go to the temple! What a beautiful and holy place!! I am so grateful to have it in my life. And I am even more grateful I got to share a temple day with you Lennon :) How special!! The peace I felt there was overwhelming! I did NOT want to leave!! I am grateful for the chance to have gone with Ally and with Sister Penn and Sister Thornton!  When we walked into the waiting room before going into our session, the Elders that got et'ed from Fort Morgan were both there!!! What are the odds!? How crazy is that? So we talked to them a little after and took pics with them. Then we went to Deseret Book and I bought a scripture case for my spanish scriptures which I desperately needed, a CTR ring :) a cute necklace and a necklace for Roxie and Patty! It was great! Sister Penn and Thornton took us to lunch at a Thai restaurant in Denver. Sis. Penn's daughters and little baby grandson met us there :) It was a great trip and wonderful day!! We also saw the Denver Broncos stadium :)

I want to tell you about all of the great blessings Ally and I have received! Oh my! We have just had GIFTS showered upon us lately - like real presents from people! We went and had a lesson with Patty and Roxie and they whipped out these super nice, dry fit nike hoodies that say Fort Morgan on them! (the tag was still on and it was $65!) my goodness!! Soooo nice!! And so sweet that they want to give us something, we were so thankful. Then we were doing service at Caring Ministries and one of the volunteers there left and went to the gas station and bought us each an ice cream bar! Then, Hilda told us she is making us custom-crochet mexican necklaces! And to top it off, we were visiting with Kylie and Troy on Saturday night and Troy was telling us how much he likes us and appreciates us for teaching him and Kylie and for pushing them to be married and baptized. And then he went and took down a Utah Jazz flag/banner they had hanging up in their house (the very first time I went to their house, almost 3 months ago, I made a comment that I was a Jazz fan too) and gave it to me. He said since he didn't know when we would be transferred, he wanted to give it to me. OH MY GOODNESS!!! It was the sweetest thing ever! The amount of blessings and sweet heartfelt gifts we have received from the members of this ward, our investigators and those we have built friendships with, have been so sweet and humbling :) 

We have been working a lot with Jo Ellen, our investigator. She has had a really hard life and has made some choices in her life that have not been the best. But she has really been turning her life around this last year. She is now a little over a year sober! So that is great! She really loves to talk! We always have great lessons with her. At the end of our lesson 2 weeks ago, we invited her to be baptized on May 10th, and she said YES!!! We are sooo happy! :) Now we need to teach her the stop smoking program. We are pros at teaching that program! haha! We taught it to Troy this last week too! 

Kylie and Troy's wedding is on for April 26th! They went and bought their marriage license and gave it to us to hold on to. ha! Great idea! We have it in our bedroom and have been working with the ward in getting the wedding/baptism/reception all together! It is coming up! A little less than 2 weeks away :) 

We have a new investigator, Bobby. He is really cool! He is friends with a man in our ward and is going through a divorce and is ready to learn more about the gospel. He is really cool. He is super smart and I have a lot of hope for him :)

We also have a potential investigator, Mohamed, he's from Sudan and we met him while teaching ESL at Cargill. I am pretty sure I have told you about him... Anyway, we have been in contact with him and will hopefully be meeting with him this week! We ordered a Arabic Book of Mormon to give to him. It looks really cool!! We had to get special permission to get a copy in Arabic. I didn't realize it was such a big deal. ha!

We had some really great lessons with Roxie these last couple weeks as well!! She is just amazing!! I love her so much!! We re-taught her the stop smoking program and she has cut back from a pack a day to 3 cigarettes!! That is huge!! The goal of course is for her to quit completely, but she is making huge improvements and I am so happy for her :) We made her some "healthy snacks" and brought them to her house last week. We made ants on a log. Haha! Cheesy I know, but it was fun :) There is just something about Roxie, I love love love love her and her family! Here is a picture of her with her declaration of independence as well :) 

General Conference was amazing!!! I hope you all got a chance to watch it since you were on vacation! We had 3 investigators that came which was great :) My favorite talks were Elder Eyring, Uchtdorf, and Bednar! Such inspired words and men! If you didn't get a chance to listen to their talks, you need to!

We have had 2 weeks of visiting the most wonderful members of our ward as well. 2 of these cute girls got baptized on Saturday. The one in the pink dress, and the one with the white headband. The other little girl is one of our favorites in the ward!!

Here are some pics of people in our ward that we love :) Hilda and us making tortas with Sister Penn, Grandma Nichols, Sister Marting and the Cuylers who are both in their nineties :) #weloveoldpeople

Check out these ginormous tomatoes and sweet Sister Korby and her amazing German food and left overs!! 

We also went to Greeley for zone meetings and Sister Hoer let me ride her new bike! So awesome, I loved it. 

We also met the saddest lady last Thursday. She is friends with our investigator Jo, and she literally has no money. NONE! It broke our hearts!! She asked if we could help strip some trailers that she owns so she could sell the parts for money. Our hearts were just completely broken. We said yes, and so this morning we went and helped. OH MY!!! The trailer part was evacuated a year ago because of water contamination and then people have just ransacked the trailers and destroyed them. It was disgusting and depressing!! We picked up garbage and ripped out walls. So sad! People have it hard :(

I hope you are all doing great!! I love reading your emails and looking at all of the pictures you send me :) It makes my week that much better! And good news!! We get to skype again in less than a month for Mother’s Day!! Yippee!! 

Well, have a wonderful Easter Sunday and remember the meaning of it. Christ's atonement and sacrifice is such an amazing blessing we have in our lives! The more I have been out on my mission, the more I learn and feel of our Savior's love for each of us! It is real! What a blessing it is to us! 

Love you!!!!!

Hermana Hannah Mangum :)

30 Lessons - March 31, 2014

Hola Familia Mia :)

Well, we did it! It wasn't easy!!! But we got 30 lessons for the week!!! Never ever ever have I ever gotten that many lessons!! It was a challenge! We def. had some hiccups, but we were able to do it! We had to get 7 lessons on Sunday to get our goal, and we some how managed to do it! Our district (which consists of 3 sets of missionaries) got 64 lessons all together! That is fantastic!! I am so happy to see the work progressing! Now that we reached 30 lessons in one week, we are not going to focus on reaching a certain number anymore. It felt really good! But numbers are not what is important. 

HERE WE ARE - COMPLETED EXHAUSTED AFTER PLANNING MEETING :)

So, it was a great week! We had some great lessons and saw many miracles! For starters... We had an amazing lesson with Patty, Roxie and Chuck (Roxie's husband). Sister Penn came with us. We read Chapter 32 of Alma. It was AWESOME!!!!!! They got so into it! The spirit was so strong! And then after, we re-committed Roxie to quit smoking. I gave her the black pepper oil (thanks mom and Sister Cox!) She was really excited about it! Sis. Penn brought her doTERRA book and she had a blast looking though it! So thank you thank you! Also, we told them how we like to go to McDonald's and get a coke from there for a dollar every other day or so. So they went and bought us a $20 McDonalds gift card! How sweet! But now I decided to not drink anymore soda... I want to quit and tell Roxie I am giving up my coca-cola to give her that added strength to quit smoking. So now we will use the gift card for ice cream! haha! :)

We also had 2 wonderful lessons with Jo and David! The Bishop and our WML came with us for one of the lessons to give Jo a blessing. It was great! The Bishop is super forward and does not beat around the bush. He told them he wants to see them baptized. David was super on board, but Jo was a little more hesitant. That was on Wednesday. On Saturday we went and saw them again and Jo told us that she has been thinking a lot about it and she had been praying for 6 months to find the truth and then the missionaries knocked on her door. She said she knows that was a sign and that she needed to act on it. She was talking to Ally and they were talking about something and Jo was like, "Oh that is kind of like what I was reading yesterday in the Book of Mormon in Jacob." And then she whipped out the scripture and showed it to us! How cool!! She is applying the scriptures in her life! We are hoping to set her and David up with a bap date this week. 

We went and visited Grandma Nichols this week too. During our message i looked down and there was a HUGE spider crawling on my scriptures!! Of course I freaked. Ha! I threw my scriptures on the ground! haha! Gma Nichols has bad vision but she saw me do that... haha! It was really funny. She is so sweet!!! I love her :)

We had a very very interesting dinner this week... with the Mangum's in the ward... Oh man. They honestly break my heart! They have nothing!! They live in the tiniest and oldest RV ever! They have it parked behind his brother's house, which is completely falling apart too, and then they have wood piled EVERYWHERE! We go inside their RV and it so tight! Sis. Mangum (who doesn't even say our name the way we do ... she literally says man-gum) was cooking... she made a pork roast, potato salad, corn bread pancakes, and green beans. I appreciated all their efforts!  

Women's Conference was just incredible on Saturday!!  I loved all of the talks a lot! So uplifting and inspiring! The videos too were just amazing! I had teary eyes :) I loved Elder Eyring's talk! I really loved all of it! I really liked it when he said, "Heavenly Father sees you not as you are, but what you can become." How amazing is that!! And comforting! We all make mistakes and sin. And that is the wonderful part of the atonement and repentance. Knowing we can be forgiven. Knowing that our loving Father in Heaven is aware of the person we are and can be. That brought me a lot of comfort. I also loved the quote that Sister Oscarson shared from Margerie Hinckley. I was wondering if you could send me a copy please? :) 

And great news! Kylie and Troy have re-committed to the wedding! We had the Bishop come over with us to their house yesterday and meet with them and figure things out. Like I said, the Bishop is bold, which is exactly what we needed! They committed to it! April 26th! And we are going to have Troy baptized right after the ceremony!!! How exciting!! I am so happy! Please keep them in your prayers! Please pray to help them to stick with it and not wait any longer!! 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! I can feel them!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! Things are just going so well!!! I am so happy!! Serving a mission is the greatest! The love you feel for others is incredible! And when you are in the service of your fellow being, you are only in the service of your God. It is so true! I feel his love for those I teach, and the love He has for me and our family. 

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

XOXO

Hermanita Hannah :)

1. WAFFLE WEDNESDAY FOR OUR DISTRICT!!

2. MOM'S PACKAGE - THANK YOU!!!!!!!