Week 4 in FOCO - May 27, 2014

DIANE SPEAKING, BEFORE I POST HANNAH'S LETTER, HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF MELVIN'S BAPTISM FROM ALLY/HERMANA MEHNER (this is their investigator from Hannah's last area in Fort Morgan) Whooo hooo - what a great guy!! Also pictured is his friend, Pablo, who invited him to church and introduced him to the missionaries!! "Every member a missionary"!!

Hola Family of Mine:

It has been a good week! We started it off right with an AWESOME Pday with Niki! :) Oh I just love her so much! She made us delicious paninis with tomato, basil, bacon and mozzarella!!! and then you grill it in the bacon grease! holy holy holy! They are fantastic!!!! The we got to ride on her cool Schwinn cruisers her husband has fixed up! Literally everyone rides bikes in Colorado - it is awesome! And we put on these mustaches and rode around town! It was so fun! We got a lot of comments! Niki took us to some really cute boutiques and shops in Old Town and then we rode back and played life-size jenga with her and Mike! Oh it was fun!!!! 

We got to help out with a really cute service project this week. There was an elementary school doing a triathlon. It was so cute!!! So we helped out with writing numbers on everyone's arms and legs and getting kids on their bikes after swimming and cheering them on. It was darling! I want to try and put something like that together for my kids school in the future!

We also met with John yesterday. He just got back from being out of town. He said he wasn't feeling ready to be baptized this weekend on the 31st... Disappointing to hear, but I actually do think it is still a possibility. Keep him in your prayers! We are meeting with him tomorrow and hopefully he has changed his mind. If not we will probably shoot for June 7th. I appreciate all of your prayers for him this last week! Keep them coming :)

Yesterday's Pday was the BEST!!! (We know how to celebrate MEMORIAL DAY!!!) Thanks mama for funding the Tandem bike :) It was so fun!! We rode all around! We had a picnic in the park :) Black bean hummus with pita chips, blueberries and peaches :) YUM! and then after we went to Sister Rust's house and she rubbed oils on us and had us use this cool Japanese machine that is supposed to help relax you :) Started the week off right!! And we have wonderful plans for the rest of the week!! Our goal is to get 400 lessons as a zone! And our district decided we want to do 100 of them! That means we each need to get 25 lessons! It will be hard, but I am ready for the challenge! 

So other than having a blast, we've been working HARD! We got together with the stake president and went through the ward directory marking all the names that sounded remotely Spanish. Our mission this week: to contact all the names and recruit them into attending the group. Michelle Parry came with us to help out. She learned Spanish in college and bends over backward to get this group going. She literally fasts EVERY Sunday for the group. She teaches zumba for free every Saturday in the church building. She goes to the temple often. She is heaven sent. President Foster couldn't have come in at a better time as the Spanish program is struggling. He travels to Honduras often and performs 100's of cataract surgeries for people who can't afford them. He also trains surgeons over there. He has a huge place in his heart for Hispanic people. I just love him. He feels quite impressed that something big can happen if we all come together and use our strengths. He is the missing piece and exactly what this area needs to grow. 

As you can tell, things are going great here :) I miss and love you guys!! Lennon... 22 more days!!!! Wahoo!! So happy for you! Missions are the greatest!!!!!! 

Have a great week!!! Summer time :) 

Love,

Hannah :)

Happy Birthday Lennon!! - May 19, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LENNON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you have the best day ever :)

Last Monday, we ate with this cute old couple. Their house was DARLING!!!! Oh my gosh!! I was going crazy!! It is this charming old home that is over 100 years old. It is in such a cool part of FOCO and just gorgeous! It got me thinking so much about design and how much I want to flip homes!! Ah! I love it! :) 

And at another dinner appointment we had Honey Bunches of Oats for dessert!! Who knew you could serve breakfast for dessert…yum!!

We were visiting with one of our less actives this last week and he told us that when he can't come to church he will just bless the sacrament himself, at his house… ok, well there you go! This guy also thinks it is ok to drink wine because doctors have said it is good for your heart. Oh, and that gambling is ok when you use the money for something good and righteous. We have a lot of work to do! ha! He is the sweetest guy though! I really like him! 

Last week we had cats on our car, this week we saw dogs on a truck!! I just thought I would remind everyone that I live in COLORADO :) That is how they roll here!!

We had an awesome dinner with the Cameron's yesterday! Denae and her husband Brenden (Maude’s cousins!) Oh my gosh I love them! They are so cool and real. It is very refreshing! ha! The dinner was positively one of my absolute favorites of my whole mission! They grilled corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers, and this delish mango salsa and a to-die-for black bean and avocado salsa and grilled chicken. We put all of it on a salad with homemade cafe rio dressing! Oh me, oh my! It was fantastic!! :)

On Friday night we burned skirts! haha! This is a mission tradition when Sisters hit the one year mark. Hna. Smith hit her 13 month mark and still hadn’t burned a skirt. I burned one too even though it was too early :) ha! You know, when you have a fire, you better take advantage of it!

A lot has happened this week! Wow! We went to a funeral of a lady in our ward. I never met her as she died right before I came. She was in her late 70's and died of cancer. She was a nun for close to 20 years and then left and ended up adopting 3 boys. She sounds like an amazing lady! And she moved to Fort Collins about 10 years ago. After she became a member of the church, she served 2 missions! Super cool!! She recorded her testimony before she died and they played it for us. Oh boy, it was beautiful! So touching :) Really neat to hear!

We had a surprise Zone Conference this week! It was a "Brown Conference" Ha! President Brown's Dad and 2 of his brothers came to see him. And so they all spoke and we got to meet his family. One of his brothers didn't have an arm... and the other limped really really bad! They made sure to let us know that President Brown has a fake tooth. Hahaha!! His Dad was so adorable! They told stories and experiences from their missions. The one that I thought was the coolest was from his brother Mike who served in Florida and he had an investigator that was progressing a lot. And his brother, Barry, who was also at the zone conference, was serving in Italy. Mike's investigator moved to Italy right to Barry's area, so Barry taught him and baptized him!!! How cool is that!! What a testimony of miracles!!! 

We went “finding” in Old Town on Friday night. They have these really cool pianos placed around town that people have painted. We set up in front of one and an Elder played and some of us sang hymns, while the rest went around talking to people. Hna. Smith approached this guy who was watching us and he lost it. He went on for ever saying how Mormonism is like a “company” and they are brilliant at making people think they are happy people because they just want to recruit and expand their "company". He would twist any words that she said. So she basically stood there as he told her we were crazy and wondered how could we believe in a church that has only been around for 100 years. He kept asking for her “30 seconds sales pitch”. Are you kidding - ugh! I walked over after a little bit and he asked me if I knew 100% that this was the only true church. Sister Smith told me when he asked her that she really thought about it because she wanted to be honest with him. And she had this overwhelming feeling that YES I DO KNOW THAT. I had a similar experience when he asked me. I knew without of shadow of a doubt that YES this is the only true church on the earth today. There are good people all over the world and there are truths and good things from all religions. But they do not have the fullness of the Gospel. As we reflected on that, we both just knew, YES this in the true church on the earth today! And how interesting that he was saying we were forcing religion down peoples throats when we sat there and took everything he said, and he was the one that was shoving down our throats the concept that religion is a joke and what we are doing as missionaries is a joke. People have their agency and we are here simply to invite. We are not here to shove anything down anyone's throats. It was very clear to us that we really are happy! And how grateful I am to INVITE people to feel that same happiness :)

We had 2 awesome lessons with John this week!! I am pretty sure he is going to get baptized next Saturday! I am so excited for him! He is great! I love teaching him! He and his family are out of town this week... so next week he will hopefully have his interview and be baptized! Please keep him in your prayers! He is nervous about having the Priesthood and the responsibility that comes with it.

We got a phone call on Saturday from one of the men on the Stake High Council. He said he was inviting a friend to hear him speak in church in one of the wards in our stake and that he does speak very much English and asked if we would translate. Oh boy. We were nervous! Neither of us have ever had to translate before! But we did it!(especially because we had recently been challenged to). Hermana Smith translated the first half and I did the second half. It was a very humbling experience. I know Heavenly Father helped me. It was scary and hard. I didn't do a great job. But I feel great about it nonetheless because I did something hard! That is the cool thing about the mission! It pushes you to do hard things and helps us realize how capable we are! It was a neat experience :)

Last of all... We had an amazing lesson with Luis last night. The spirit was really strong! He told us all about his life and hard things he has gone through. This poor kid has been through so much. It was amazing to be able to testify to him. He was crying. It was such a deep spiritual lesson. I love Luis so much! I am amazed at how far he has come! He is such an example to me! I feel so honored and blessed to know him! 

I am doing so good right now! Today is going to be a great day! We are spending it with our favorite member in the ward! Niki!! She is darling!! She is going to take us out to a legit place to eat and she made a life-size jenga that we are going to play with and then the rest is a surprise. She has planned the whole day!! I am so excited!!!!!! :) 

I love you all!! I am so grateful for you guys!! Thanks for your support! :) 

LoVe,

HANNAH 

Happy Mother's Day Mamasita :) May 12, 2014

Hola, Hola! THAT WAS THE BEST CONVERSATION EVER!!!

I am not going to write a whole lot since i got to talk to you last night :) 

It has been a great week!! The highlight of the week was setting one of our investigators up with a baptismal date! May 31st is the big day :) His name is John and he is 14. He is really cool! I am really excited for him! So please keep him in your prayers so that he will feel ready to be baptized by that date :) 

Probably the craziest thing that happened this week was having to help a 90 year old change her diaper... haha!! It was crazy! But luckily, Hermana Smith got in her changing diaper zone (she was a nurse at a nursing home antes de la mision) and she took care of business! Oh and the weather was crazy! Hail, I mean hail!!!

We have had cats sitting on our car this week, and toads in the roads. We got out to save the toad, and when we got back in the car it jumped out in front of us and we ran over it. No lie! It didn’t die, but we may have maimed it :( 

Also, one of the members showed us her original newspaper when JFK was assassinated. And another member let us ride her motorized scooter in the hallway after we cleaned her apartment. You know me, I can’t pass that up! You never know what you are going to see or do from week to week on the mish :)

Another highlight of the week was going to the Elder's baptism on Saturday. Their investigator is mentally challenged. And when he was baptized he didn't go under all of the way. His head was still dry. They told him he would have to do it again and he said, "Oh, it's ok" and stuck his head under the water so it got wet. It was darling!! So sweet!! Such a testimony of true kindness, meekness, simplicity and love. It was really touching. 

I loved talking to you guys last night!! I felt like I had never left you. Which was really refreshing! Makes me realize how fast time flies and how blessed we are when we serve the Lord. I was worried I would feel like I was missing out on things back home, but I didn't feel that way at all. In our Zone Meeting this week one of the Sister Training Leaders talked about the General Conference talk "Your Four Minutes" by Bishop Gary E. Stevenson. She compared our lives to 4 minutes. And she calculated, if we all lived to be 80 years old how long (of those 4 minutes) our missions would be. For sisters it was only 4 and a half seconds and for elders 6 seconds!! That is it!! This time FLIES!! In retrospect, a year and a half is nothing. And so, I want to give it my all!! And seeing you all yesterday made me realize how fast these 4 and a half seconds are going! I am grateful for this time! I am grateful to share my testimony with others! To share what I know and love with the people of Colorado! I know this is where I am supposed to be. It has blessed my life immensely so far! And has changed me forever!

Mamasita - I am glad you liked your Mama Day present! We have to go to this consignment shop when you pick me up. Here are some pics of the place. You would love everything in there! 

I love you all!! Thank you for your support!! It helps me so much when days get hard :) TENGAN UNA SEMANA BUENISMA!!! 

con amor,

HaNnAh :)

p.s. Hermana Smith and I have created a fun schedule for ourselves for each day of the week: haha! I included some pics!!

MONDAYS - Family Home Evening with a game :)
TUESDAYS - "Steamers" - aka as homemade facials
WEDNESDAYS - at this point, I am not disclosing what we are doing - nothing disobedient, just saving to tell you later!!
THURSDAYS - Throwback Thursday, writing down memories :)
FRIDAYS - Yoga
SATURDAYS - Sleepover, yes, we are making  a fort every Saturday night!!
SUNDAYS - Stargazing :)

Happy CINCO DE MAYO - May 5, 2014

Hola mis Queridos :) 

FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO :) Like my Sombrero??

Well, to start off let me say how much I love Fort Collins!!! The vibe of this city is refreshing! It actually reminds me a lot of home! Mountains! Oh how I have missed the mountains! And trees everywhere! A really cool oldtown/downtown. We have seen this guy on the bike a few times around town. Sooo cool! So I am really enjoying and appreciating my time here :) And being back with Hermana Smith has been a blast!! 

So some funny stuff...

Hna. Smith and I bought roller-blades  haha! We are starting a blade gang. ha! They are super ghetto, we bought them at a thrift store. But we spray painted them and they are legit!!! So part of our morning work outs now include rollerblading :) We are pretty excited about it :)

 

Another funny story of the week. Hna. Smith and I got to our dinner appointment on Friday and we were getting something out of the trunk of our car to use for our lesson and we shut the keys in the trunk... and couldn't get it open! You have to have the keys in the ignition to pop the trunk... new cars... so we left our car unlocked for the appointment and then the family came out to try and help us when we were done. We stuck our hands in the back of the seats to try and push the lever in the trunk to lower the back seats but couldn't reach it or the keys... It was ridiculous. And embarrassing! haha!! And then Bro. Swensen was able to find this secret button in the glove department that will open the trunk. It was ridiculous! We were out there forever. But we finally got it! :)

Now sad news...

There is a man in our ward named Richard Cornwall who is a chemist. He was cleaning some beakers on CSU and one of the bottles was mis-labeled. When he washed it with water, it reacted and exploded. It was basically like a grenade went off in his hands. He lost a finger, has lacerations all over his chest and face, severe burn marks and also lost complete vision in his left eye AND can only see colors and shapes right now out of his right eye. They are hoping after a few more surgeries, the sight in his right eye will come back. Yesterday the ward did a fast for him and his family. And to top off the sad news, 2 years ago he was in the car with his wife and 2 young kids when they were hit and his wife died. He just got remarried a few months ago and has I think 3 new step daughters. He is either in he late 20's or early 30's and just signed a contract to be the chemist professor at BYU-Hawaii. I am not sure what will happen to his contract. Just a completely devastating story. Please Please Please keep him and his family in your prayers!!!!!

Ok, on a happier note. Let me tell ya about some of the miracles this week :) I met the Turners! Cory's parents!! They are really classy people and really really nice! 

We also went to go and contact a new investigator Hna. Smith found last week but he wasn't home. His brother was home and we asked if we could share a message with him. And he said yes! So we taught him outside of his home and taught him about the Restoration. He was super nice! And said he would be baptized if he came to know it was true! And that he and his brother have been wanting to get baptized. So exciting :) He sounds like he has had a troubled life. But is trying to get on the right track. His name is Joel and he is 19. We went back to see how he was doing later this week and he wanted another copy of the Book Of Mormon to give to a friend! And then asked what time church was and for the address. (He didn't come though...) But it was a really cool experience! 

Another cool thing - we were leaving an appointment with an investigator last night and walking to our car to go and visit a new potential investigator. We were going to see the aunt and uncle of one of our favorite people here, LUIS! And as we were getting into our car, Luis drove by! He said he tried to call us and tell us his aunt and uncle had to go to Denver and couldn't meet with us. He decided to take a different way home and had never gone home the way he went. But he ran into us!! So he said, “well, how about we go visit a different aunt and uncle?” So we followed him and met with them and we have a return appointment for Wednesday!! So cool to see the Lord intervene and take charge! I really do believe that we were supposed to see these other relative. And if they are not ready, then that experience was completely for Luis and to build his testimony!! It was a tender mercy for him - to see us there and for him to feel the spirit to tell us to visit his other family members. He used to be less-active only a few months ago, but Hna. Smith and her old comp worked with him and now he is gung-ho about the church! I guess he made a complete 180! He is working on mission papers right now :) 

So, Hermana Smith and I are wanting to do some new and creative fun activities. Tracking is just hard... so we want to do something different every week in Old Town! Like sing, or have a booth or something like that. We have 5 weeks left. So we need 5 ideas. So, think about it and let me know if you come up with some cool and fun missionary ideas we could do!! 

Last night we got some difficult news. President Brown has decided that we are no longer allowed to have Pdays as a zone or listen to any music other than hymns and we are not allowed to use our car on Pdays except to go to the grocery store and library. It is really frustrating. It feels bad to have priviledges taken away because other missionaries broke rules.  BUT with that said, I am grateful to be with a companion I like!!! And I am grateful for the NEARER CD. I am grateful to know that it wasn't by my disobedience that these rules had to change. I am upset that I have to be punished for others actions, but I am going to be obedient. And I know I will be blessed for it. This morning I read the talk, "Living a Life of Peace, Joy, and Purpose" by Elder Richard G. Scott. It is an amazing talk! And I recommend you read it this week! Elder Scott does a great job at explaining as we live a certain way, we will have peace and joy and purpose. And that we can be an example to others. These changes for Pdays are going to be tough, I won't lie. But I know that my attitude will be what affects me. I can still enjoy Pdays and still enjoy music if I let myself. And that is what I am going to do! Thank you for your examples to me of how being obedient brings blessings! I know it is true!

I love you all and I seriously can not wait to talk to you on SUNDAY!!!!!! Mom- HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!! I love you all!!! 

Con Carino,

Hermana Hannita Mangum :)

Here are some more goodbye pics from Fort Morgan. I am really really really going to miss teaching ESL :(

1. Patty and Roxie

2-5. The ESL Gang :) I heart them!!!

6-7. Super windy goodbye!!

P.P.S. We may have to move in the next few weeks. So if you send me any letters or packages, send them to the mission office because I don't know how long I will be where I am.

TRANSFERRED - headed to Fort Collins (How can I leave Ally?) April 28, 2014

Hi Guys :)

So... I should start off with transfer info... I am being transferred :( Ally and I will no longer be comps :( The Hannah and Ally Show is being put on pause. I am going to Fort Collins to be companions with Hermana Smith again! I am really excited about that :) And Ally will be staying in Fort Morgan and training a brand new missionary who is a visa waiter.

This week has felt so long and weird. I am trying to remember everything that has happened... I feel like it was mostly Ally and I stressing out about transfers... ha! SO, lets see… I guess the rest of the time I have said good bye to everyone and started packing…  Here are the some pics of the FORT MORGAN-ERS I AM SOOOO GOING TO MISS!

1. My district!

2. Troy, Kylie and their family!
3. Howe family :)
4. Hilda!
5. and her mamasita :)
6. Jo
7-8. Birch family, Birch family again being cute
9. The Judds!
10. Jennifer, Cruz and one of their daughters
11. All the present people gave me :)

We had lunch at the hospital with Sister Judd. She is the chef there and invited us over.  She introduced us to her friend who is now a potential investigator! His name is Josh and seems really cool! We taught the stop smoking program to Sister Korf's 17 year old son. It went really well!! 

The weather is not been nice the last few days... cold and rainy... I seriously don't know what else to tell you... I am trying to save the best part of my email for last... but i have no other fillers to tell you... so on to the good stuff!!! haha!!

RICHARD WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! So our wedding and baptism duo didn't happen... but Richard, my investigator with Sister Hoer and Smith, who we found on that awesome night on the street, (Richard, Sam, and Naomi) was baptized!!! And I got to go!! Oh!! It was beautiful!! And such a special feeling seeing an investigator that I found get baptized :) Richard was so cute and so happy!! I love him so much!! He looked so great in his white jump suit! But the best part was after he walked out of the font and changed and walked back in, he was in a white suit coat, with sunglasses on and a brief case with his big massive gold rings and looked like a straight up mobster! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM! He is so funny!! He was so cute!! I will never forget the image of him walking back into the room :) Sam and his sister and Naomi and her husband all came and it was beautiful! They really enjoyed it and Naomi cried the whole time! I am so glad I got to go!! Such a blessing :)

So... funny story...

At Richard's baptism we got some info about transfers. I was told I needed to pack... And later that night (Saturday) at 8:00 we got our voicemail from the zone leaders with all of the transfer information. We had gone home a little early so I could start to pack bc my neck and head were killing me. So Sister Penn gave me some doterra icy hot and I rubbed it on my neck when the phone went off. I picked the phone up and we started to listen to what was going to happen and the phone slipped out of my hands because of the cream and fell on the floor and the battery went flying out under Sister Penn's refrigerator! We were freaking out!!!! haha! I sprawled on the floor trying to see if I could see it... I was laughing so hard that I was crying and I wiped my eyes, not realizing I still had the icy hot on my fingers and my eyes started BURNING!!! I ran to the sink and got a paper towel and Sister Penn grabbed some eye drops. It was crazy hilarious!! Haha!! My eyes calmed down, we managed to get the battery out from under the fridge and listened to the rest of transfer doctrine. To find out I was truly leaving :( Sister Penn says she is going to kidnap me and lock me up in her basement. Haha!! I am going to miss her! She is taking us out to lunch today and then we are having dinner with Patty and Roxie :) It is going to be a good last day here in Fort Morgan :) 

So, I forgot to tell you, but 2 weeks after you sent me the adorable polka-dot skirt, Tiff sent the same skirt to Ally! THE SAME EXACT SKIRT!! How funny is that!! So we took a picture of us being twiners and with our Glenbron shirts on too :)

And I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but I did!!, in our gospel principles lesson there was this picture in the manual and i thought i looks so much like Lennon when she was little!

And Mom - here is Hermana Hoer and her cool art! Check this out!! She wants to hang out with you after the mission and make masterpieces together!!!!!

I love you all!! Thank you for your emails and your support! I am excited for my new adventure and for the exciting change I have in store! I am so grateful for my time here in Fort Morgan. It may be tiny and smell like dead burning cow (in a good way), but it is a special place to me!! I love the people we have taught and I have loved loved loved being companions with Ally! It has been a great blessing! We have seen so many miracles together! 

Have a wonderful week family!!!!! 

Con Carino,

Hermana Hannita Mangum :)