Denver Temple Here We Come - August 25th, 2014

It has been a great week :) So much has happened!!!!

First: It was Hna. Stratford's birthday on Tuesday and was also her year mark, so we got to go to the TEMPLE!!! It was awesome! Such a wonderful blessing to be in the House of the Lord and feel His spirit so strongly there! The best part though was that John Bowman came and did baptisms with Mark Orchard as we did a session! It was John's first time at the temple! What a blessing and treat to have been able to be there with him on that special day! Christine took us to CPK after to celebrate! Oh yum! They don't have CPK in Fort Collins! Messed up right? So that was awesome! 

Also, Tuesday morning we woke up at 5:00am and kidnapped some other Sisters in our Zone who had the same bday as hna. Stratford. We took them to get donuts! It was really fun :)

Thank you so much for your letters Mom and Lennon!!! They made my day :) I love getting letters! And thanks for sending me Geoff's talk mom! It was AMAZING!!!! 

So some funny things...

Our ward had a Jell-o Cook-off. Hna. Stratford and i decided we wanted to participate and bring something! So John helped us make the jello and then we left for some appointments we had and ran back to their house right before to pick up the jello and bring it. We thought it would be funny to have our name tags floating inside the jell-o so everyone would know it was ours. haha! we made it in a bunt cake pan and when we went to flip it over, it completely fell apart! Epic Fail. It was hilarious and it tasted nasty! haha! Oh well it was fun :)

We also had an Emergency Preparedness activity at the church and Christine needed my help to be in her play that she wrote... I wasn't too excited (you know me and being in front of people), but it was pretty fun! We were the”not so prepared family” and the Cornwall's were the prepared family! It was great!!

We had dinner with Cory Turners parents last night and it was awesome! They are such AMAZING people!!! We are all predicting that he will be the Fort Collins Temple President! 

We had a great lesson with Carlos this week. His wife is suuuuuper sick! She does not believe in our teachings, but she was in so much pain that she told Carlos that we could call someone to give her a blessing! That is huge!!! So we called Bro. Morgan, our ward mission leader, and he and Carlos gave her a blessing together! It was so special! Carlos has never given anyone a blessing since he has been baptized. It was a neat experience for him and I think for his wife too! I hope she gets feeling better!! 

This week we had an awesome lesson with Patty! We went over to her apartment and she told us that every night she and Daniel FaceTime each other and they pray together!!! How cool is that! These are 2 people who had never said a prayer before and now they are praying together over FaceTime! The church is true, dang it! Haha! But, we decided that Patty would do better going to the singles ward... this was a hard decision because (selfishly) we wanted to keep teaching her because we love her so much! But we did the right thing. We took her to the YSA ward on Sunday and had her meet the missionaries there. She brought 3 friends with her and Enya came too! So there were 5 beautiful Taiwanese girls at church yesterday! It was awesome! And then we had a pass-over lesson with the YSA Sisters last night with Patty. Daniel was on FaceTime and chatted with us during the whole lesson! It was so awesome! They are incredibly smart and really FEEL it and try to understand everything They each said a prayer during the lesson and they were so amazing and so sincere! A good reminder of what a sincere prayer is all about! I love them! Even though we can't teach Patty anymore we will still visit her and be great friends! :)

So as you can tell it was an amazing week! Things are going well! Transfers are this weekend... We are really hoping that we get to stay together for another transfer! I love Fort Collins :) 

I have read/listened to 2 amazing talks this week! The first was... "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox and the second was "Healing the Wounded Soul" by Jack Christensen. I want you guys to read His Grace is Sufficient this week and listen to Healing the Wounded Soul. (you can't read that one) they are amazing! So do that for FHE tonight! Ok!!?? The Atonement is simply amazing and the greatest gift we have! We just need to use it! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

love, Hna. Mangum Sr.

Long but Good Week - August 18, 2014

Sweet family!

This week has felt so long... it is really weird how some weeks fly by and others take a little longer. But it was a good week! 

So, lets see... we went on exchanges with our sister Training Leaders. They went pretty well. Hna. Stratford and I are doing great together, so they didn't feel very necessary... but it was still good and we got a lot of work done that day and saw a lot of people :)

Also, this week we started teaching English classes!!! Ya! I am really excited about this! It is going to be a great way for the ward members and our Spanish members to get to know each other better and a way for us to get new investigators!!! yay! This was our 1st week and it was kind of a fail... but not really. Only 3 people came but that is ok :) No one came for the first 30 minutes... haha! We entertained ourselves by dancing on the chairs! It will take some time to build up our group! But I think this is going to do a lot for our work! :)

We also had interviews with President Brown this week and they went really well!! It is official... I will be coming home December 16th :) Wow! It seems so soon! It is crazy! I have got to make the most of the time I have left! :) In my interview we talked about Elder Uchtdorfs talk from this last conference. I had read it that morning in my personal study. I think it is very interesting that being grateful is actually a commandment! Pres. Brown had me read D&C 78:17-19. I love these verses! We need to do things cheerfully and with a grateful heart! Our attitudes have to power to change everything!

We had a lesson with one of our investigators this week. He told us he didn't feel ready to get baptized on the 23rd. He had been drinking coffee and has an occasional beer. He is having a hard time putting away his Catholic beliefs even though he also says he loves the LDS church and feels in his heart it is true.He says he loves everything about it. I think he is just afraid of commitment. But we had an amazing lesson with him! I am glad he was honest with us! We explained that our intention is not take away anything that he has learned from the Catholic church but to simply add to it. Then Hna. Stratford showed him Elder Uchtdorf’s talk from the October Conference, "Come Join with Us". It was PERFECT! He even said after, "Well you nailed that one on the head" haha! And then I asked him if he would do a joint fast with us from Saturday night to Sunday after church, to give him the strength to quit drinking and to receive an answer from Heavenly Father that the church was true. It was really awesome! So we did! On Saturday we texted him and told him we were starting our fast and he sent us the best text back :) He was at church on Sunday and looked so happy! He said he went to a carnival in Old Town Saturday night and that there was so much food but he didn't eat it! He was so proud :) So, even though we will not be having a baptism with him this weekend we made leaps and bounds with him in the right direction! It was a miracle and the spirit was strong as we fasted all together :)

I have a testimony of fasting! And of this great work! I know that Heavenly Father cares enough about each one of us to bless us and comfort us and give us the answers we are seeking for as we sacrifice and show him how much we truly love Him. I am grateful for the experiences I am having. Some days are hard but others  are great! And seeing people change their lives is one of the greatest things I have EVER been able to experience! Thank you for your love and support!!! I love you all so very very much :)

LOVE,

HERMANA MANGUM

P.S. Lennon- your bad bird luck has now hit Fort Collins!! We saw some kind of hawk or falcon eating another bird AND I ran over a bird this week too!! hahaha!!

WARNING: these pictures are graphic!!!

Slovakia and Taiwan - August 11, 201

Hola a todos :)

A lot of good things have happened this week. We have had a week filled with meetings and teaching people from all over the world! Super cool!

It started on Tuesday when we went to go and visit a menos-activo en nuestro grupo de Espanol. She lives in the basement of another members home. It was POURING outside and when we got to the door there was a young man standing under the porch. He was a sales guy and was waiting for the rain to let up. But it didn't!! We started talking to him and he wanted us to give him our "sales pitch" or in our terms “our door approach”. It was really funny :) The member inside saw all of us waiting under the porch for the rain to stop and so she invited us in. We started teaching Andre (the young salesman.) He is from Slovakia! He had perfect English, just a heavy accent. He is 19 years old. He had a ton of questions. And we loved answering them. Mostly his questions were: where we came from, what is our purpose, what happens after death, how do we have faith, etc? I had my Plan de Salvacion rompe cabeza conmigo. How perfect! So i whipped the puzzle out and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He was a stubborn one though! Man! He fought everything the best he could. It was getting really frustrating. But it actually just ended up strengthening my testimony. EVERY time I teach the Plan of Salvation, I become so filled with the spirit. I gain a greater understanding. I feel God's love for me. I become less and less afraid of death. There is nothing to be afraid of. This life is not the end! It broke my heart that Andre believes when we die we are just in the ground and nothing happens. There is nothing more to life. If that was the case, what is our purpose on the earth? Why are we here? What a depressing way of thinking! Oh how grateful I am for the knowledge of the Gospel! How grateful I am to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who does have a plan for us! 

We also visited the cutest Taiwanese couple in our ward this week! Alan and Enya :) Enya invited us over for lunch at her house with a non-member friend of hers. We went over and her guest was the cutest little Taiwanese girl! Her name is Patty (these are obviously their chosen american names). We had an awesome lesson with her and enjoyed a very very delish Chinese meal. Patty said she was interested in learning more! So yesterday at church Enya asked if we could come over later that night to teach Patty again! We were so excited! So we went over and Patty's boyfriend, Daniel (also Taiwanese) was there. He is in town visiting. We had such an amazing lesson with them! Lennon you will understand this... It felt like a lesson from The District! haha! But really! Everything just went so perfectly! Enya and Alan were awesome! They bore testimony and were strong witnesses! THAT is why member referrals and member being present at discussions are soooooooooooooo important!!! We taught them about faith. Neither Patty nor Daniel know if they believe in God yet. They asked us if we have ever lost faith before and how we got it back. What a profound question for people with broken english with essentially no religious backgrounds. It was awesome! The spirit was really strong! We stopped in the middle of the lesson and asked Daniel to say a prayer and ask God if He was real and if He loved him. Daniel had never prayed before! And he agreed and did it! And did it in the most beautiful broken English! Oh, it was sooooooo cool! After he said that he felt peace and very relaxed :) We explained that that is how Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost talk to us. It was really really neat! At the end of the lesson, Patty said the closing prayer! She, too, had never prayed and it was beautiful! Such a beautiful prayer! I wanted to cry! This is what missionary work is all about! We will be meeting with her again this week and helping her move into her new apartment. She wants my help with some interior design! Yay! :) 

We had 2 great lessons with Elsa this week. She was supposed to get baptized this Saturday. She felt ready, but her family wasn't going to be able to come... and Hna. Stratford and I felt like we needed to wait so her family could be there. What a great missionary opportunity for them! She is now getting baptized on August 30th :) I can't wait! We have another baptism coming up next week on the 23rd. Our amazing Miguel :) Good things are happening with the Spanish group! 

We had a great zone meeting this week. We talked all about happiness and how we can help ourselves become happier and more positive missionaries and how we can help others feel this way too. There were some great quotes that were shared that I want to share with you guys!

"Challenges can feed us. Struggles can deplete us." PERSPECTIVE!

"Sometimes Christ will calm the sea and sometimes He will calm the sailor."

"Concentrate on the basics of the gospel! It is the basics that bring us simple and complete joy."

I had fun seeing Sister Cardon too :)

I know these things are true! I am trying to apply them better in my life right now. I hope you all know how much I love you! How grateful I am for your sweet and supportive words of encouragement. It helps me soooooo much! I will be keeping all of you in my prayers this week! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Mangum Sr.

WE HAVE 30+ MOSQUITOS IN OUR HOUSE EVERY NIGHT WHEN WE GET HOME!! HERE IS A PIC TO SHOW YOU AND A SELFIE TO SHOW HOW WE FEEL ABOUT IT.

A Baptism! - August 4th, 2014

Hey hey hey :)

It has been a long week and honestly quite hard. I know it was hard because Satan was working overtime on us because of John's baptism. It got really difficult! All of our lessons and appointments (including our dinner appointments) were falling through! Everyone was canceling or wasn't home... It was really hard for Hna. Stratford and me. But we endured to the end! Ha! And after John was baptized, things got a lot better :)

Before I tell you about the baptism, let me tell you about a couple of other things that happened this week :)

First, we have had some CRAZY rainstorms!!!! Like insane! The rain was coming down so fast and so hard! Driving in it was scary! I was praying the whole time. The streets were so flooded... Colorado has a terrible drainage system! 

Second, we went and contacted a lady in our Stake from Peru to get her to come to our Spanish group. We stopped by her house and she had just made some authentic Peruvian food and gave us some to take with us :) We decided, on our way home, to stop by Sister Rust's and share the food with her. When she opened the door we showed her the food and she freaked out! she said that she was starving but couldn't leave the house to go and get any food because of a spider bite she had on her face. She was saying "you are my angels! Thank you for listening to the Holy Ghost!" We went into her kitchen and ate the delicious food! oh man! So good! It was rice and chicken cooked in pesto and YUMMY! It was great to be an answer to her prayers :) Thank you to our Peruvian sister!

On Tuesday, Richard Cornwall come to our lesson with John. It was awesome! Richard is the man in our ward who lost his sight and received lacerations all over his face and body from a chemistry explosion. He is doing so much better now! Still a lot to recover from, but his sight is coming back :) Miracles! So he came and we talked about Enduring to the End. It was so great! Richard had so many wonderful things to say. He has had a really hard life! But is the perfect example of staying in the boat when the waves are crashing! Seriously, the gospel is the ONLY way to over come hardships!!! Something I loved that he said was how "enduring" sounds really hard and how he likes to say "Enjoying to the End" instead. Because there is something to be learned in everything we go through in this life and we can look for the good and try and ENJOY. We can also learn to just enjoy life even when it is good. It reminded me of Elder Uchdorft's talk this last conference about being grateful in every circumstance. It is sooooooooo true! Something I am still learning. But the lesson was great :)

NOW ON TO THE REALLY GOOD STUFF!!! John's Baptism! Ah! John Charles Bowman was baptized! I feel so honored and blessed and grateful to have been able to teach him and get to know him and become such great friends with him! It was a long road to get him here, but he did it and I am so proud of him! And I know that Heavenly Father is too! His baptism was on Saturday, August 2nd at 4:00 :) The program was wonderful. John looked soooooooooo amazing in white! His grandparents gave the talks and did such a good job! I love them! I call them grandma and grandpa :) haha!! When John got in the font (which we made sure was very warm ;) haha!) he looked so great! My heart was so filled with love for him and joy and happiness! When he got out and changed, he came and sat down next to me and I asked him how he felt and he said "I feel too clean" haha!! He was confirmed right after. We got permission to do that instead of during sacrament meeting. We had a family dinner with him and his grandparents and sister and aunt and uncle and parents. It was awesome :) AND HERMANA SMITH GOT TO COME!!

 

Then on Sunday he was sustained a member and ordained to the Priesthood :) Oh man! It was awesome! Christine was sooooo happy! She leaned over and said to us, "I finally have a Priesthood holder in my home." That was so exciting to hear! Her husband is not a member. I am so so so happy they have the priesthood in their home now too ;) 

So despite the hard times this week, John's baptism made it so worth it!!! I love that boy! And I know that it is THESE moments that truly testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and makes me so overjoyed and grateful to be a missionary!!! 

I love you all so very much!!!! 

Love,

Hermana Mangum :)

Cow Tongue Tacos, Yes, I Said Cow Tongue Tacos - July 28, 2104

Hey guys -

Another great week here in Fort Collins! I love it here! 

So... I had tacos de lengua (cow tongue tacos) on Wednesday... Oh boy! Elsa made them for us. I heard they can be good, depending on who cooks them and Elsa is a great cook! So I was thinking they were going to be good... but... I didn't like them! They were hard to chew and the whole time I just kept thinking I have a cow's tongue in my mouth! I could still see some of the taste-buds on them.... yikes! But it is part of the mission experience to try new foods, right?

Speaking of Elsa, we had several great lessons with her this week! The best news, though, is that she has committed to being baptized on August 16th!!!!!! Wahoo :) And some missionaries in our zone had a baptism on Saturday, so we invited Elsa to come with us. It was all in English but she still came. It was awesome! People were so nice to her! No one else could speak spanish there, but they still came up and introduced themselves and thanked her for coming. It was awesome and she felt so loved! It was so cool!!! 

So great news about John! He is being baptized this week! On Saturday!! Yay! Please keep him in your prayers! But let me actually back up further... So Hermana Stratford's year mark is in a couple of weeks, so we called President and got permission to go to the temple! Wahoo!! So we are actually going on her birthday, August 19th, and Christine Bowman (John’s Mom) is going to take us! We are so excited! So then, a couple of days ago Hna. Stratford and I were reading in Preach My Gospel, Chapter 3 Lesson 5, and I got this thought! We should go early to the temple  on the 19th for Hna. Stratfords year mark, and do baptisms for the dead with John who will already be a member by then because he will have been baptized! I was really excited about this! I told Hna. Stratford and she liked it too :) So we went over and told John. He is a stubborn kid and super sarcastic, haha,  but when I told him we wanted him to come to the temple with us, he got this smile on his face and this light in his eyes! I am so excited! I think it got him more excited about being baptized! Also, tomorrow we have a great lesson planned! We have asked Richard Cornwall (who was the man who had the chemistry explosion accident a couple of months ago) to come with us and testify how the Gospel has blessed his life! I am so excited! It is going to be great :) Then John will be baptized on Saturday!!! It is going to be the best week!!!!! 

Things are going so well right now! I love it here and I love the people I am teaching! I love Hermana Stratford! I love this Gospel! I love being a missionary! Lennon! You are leaving in a few hours to Baltimore! Oh boy! I am soooooooooooooooooo excited for you! You will absolutely LOVE it! I keep bragging about you to everyone :) When I say there is no greater joy than sharing the Gospel with others, I MEAN IT! There truly isn't! I can't wait for you to experience it! I know the church is true because of the great and overwhelming feeling of love and peace and happiness I feel as I share my testimony with others! I love you all so very very much! I am praying for you! Please pray for my investigators and less-actives (especially the spanish group) that they will feel Heavenly Father's love and guidance. 

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

Hannah :)

P.S. I found out this week that one of our less-actives, Enrique, has Leukemia... will you please keep him in your prayers too!!! 

ROASTING STARBURSTS WITH JOHN  and Anthony :)

We moved again - YEP, 3 times in 6 weeks :) - July 21, 2014

Hola familia :)

Ok, so for starters let me tell you about transfers... I am staying in Fort Collins with Hermana Stratford!!! I am really excited!! This is the first time I will have served for longer than 2 transfers in 1 area!! Yay!!! I can tell this transfer is going to be one filled with miracles!! I can't wait :)

So, we moved again this week! That's right... 3 times in 6 weeks!  I will send a pic of us with Sister Freytag. We will miss living with her. Now we are moving to next door to Fairbanks. All these good members taking care of us!! I think this is going to be a more permanent place though, and for that I am grateful! I still haven't unpacked because we weren't sure what would happen with transfers and just in case I did get transferred, I didn't want to have to pack again. But now that we know we are officially staying for another 6 weeks, I am going to get all settled in today! Yippee :) 

Pues... Friday was an amazing day!! Filled with miracles :) Started off by taking my GPS into Best Buy because it totally broke. It was stalling and giving me problems and then last week it just completely stopped turning on! :( So, they can't fix them, but i was able to return it and get a new one and luckily, Heavenly Father was looking out for me because the GPS was on sale for $109! so i was able to get the same GPS with the protection plan for only $3 more than what Dad originally paid for it! So it only cost me 3 bucks for a new GPS :) Whew!!

Then we were trying to find this restaurant that one of our investigators works at. We were having problems finding it and happened by a Walgreens and Hna Stratford needed to pick up a prescription. So we ran in (totally not on the plan) and the pharmacist who helped us is a less active member who said she might be interested in meeting with us! We gave her our phone number :) Total divine intervention! 

Then, luckily, we found the restaurant, but the line was huge! The man next to us in line immediately started talking to us! He recognized our tags and he took the lessons 20 years ago in Brazil, when he was a teenager! He speaks perfect English and Spanish and Portuguese! His name is Viney! He was soooooooooooo cool!! He kept complimenting us up and down for being on missions and how impressive he thinks the church is and the morals and standards we have. He LOVES Mit Romney!! Haha! It was fun to talk to him about Mit. He even got to meet him during the elections. So after we ordered, he asked if he could sit with us so we could teach him about what we believe. We obviously said YES! OF COURSE!! We were so excited!!! We ate our delicious food (made by our investigator Rosie) and taught him! He had lots of questions about what we believe happens after death and even before this life and so we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and we explained the Book of Mormon and he was super intrigued. He loved and agreed with everything! It was such a cool experience! I hope we can start teaching him soon!! 

Thursday was Raul's birthday! We went over that night and brought him candy and soda :) Ha! He was so excited to see us! He had to spend the day at the dentist... who told him he needed to stop eating candy and soda... oops!!! Haha! So we hung out with him a little and taught him how to tie ties! It was lots of fun :) I love Raul! He is such a good kid!

On Wednesday we met with Miguel, (Hermana Smith and I met with him a couple times and ended up dropping him because he wasn't progressing) but we started teaching him again and we had an amazing lesson. We set him with a baptismal date for August 23rd :) He picked the date himself and promised to be prepared and ready by then. He said he is in it for real this time! Yay!!!

On Saturday we had a Spanish Relief Society activity at the park :) It was a picnic and volleyball. It was fun! Kinda awkward at first... but once more people came, it was great! Elsa came with Rosie and her daughter Mariana!! It was perfect! Every one was so nice to them and it was amazing! 

Sunday was just fabulous!!! Miguel came with Maria :) Anthony came again and so did Joaquin! But the best was... ELSA CAME!!!!!! And she brought Mariana :) Oh mi corazon estaba llena! muy muy llena!! She walked in with one of the families from the group that live right by them. Elsa looked beautiful! She was in a purple dress and looked scared, but happy to be there. She and Mariana sat next to us and it was great! We then went to Gospel Principles, which was fantastic as usual! Yamel is such a good teacher! The class was full and Elsa loved it! Then at the end of Relief Society, they asked Elsa if she had an questions or wanted to share anything about what she likes or dislikes and she said all the questions she had were answered in the Relief Society lesson! (which was all about baptism... how perfect!) The women were so kind to her and it felt like a family! That is what I just love about the Spanish culture! You’re family there! It is very different from the English ward! Elsa said that she was so happy she came. She wants to come and knows she needs to, but she has a very hard time actually leaving her house. She has been really sick the last few years with kidney problems and so she got really accustomed to staying at home and it is now hard for her to leave. But she was so glad she did! The sisters told her about Priesthood blessings and she said she wanted to get one. So after church we grabbed 2 men in our ward that speak Spanish and they gave her a blessing :) It was perfect! She was crying and the spirit was so strong! Elsa is truly golden! I love her so much!! She feels it and knows it is true! It will only be a matter of time before we have a baptism :) 

So as you can tell, it has been an amazing week!!! I am so grateful I get to stay here for another 6 weeks!! I loved what you said, Lennon, about how you feel so much love for your "fake" investigators at the MTC! Because I will promise you, that feeling will be times-ed by 10 once you teach "real" investigators and less-actives! The joy you feel and love you feel for those you teach is unlike any type of love I have felt before and that is because we get to feel how Heavenly Father loves them!!! I think that is so cool! What a great blessing! After church yesterday I was so overwhelmed with happiness and I told Hermana Stratford how grateful I am to be a missionary!! I would never have had the blessing to feel this way or met these people without serving the Lord! I love you guys so much and I miss you a lot! But I am really happy to be here :) 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!!! You are in my prayers :)

XOXO

Hermana Hannita Mangum

OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE WEEK INCLUDED:

Us and the Elders with christine's lemon poppy stickers on our foreheads :) Both the Elders are being transferred :( we are so sad! 

I ripped my shirt... :( so Christine let me wear her duck dynasty shirt! haha!! she's my adopted mother in fort collins!)

Hermana Stratford and me with Shanelle this morning. They are moving to Pueblo today... :( 

Cold stone is celebrating SHARK WEEK! and since I am not  home to watch it,

 Christine bought me the cold stone special :) haha!! I was thinking of you Lennon!! 

17 Visitors at Church on Sunday!!! - July 14, 2014

Hey-ho everybody :)

Where to even begin... So much has happened! 

So, on Wednesday we were over at Elsa's having a lesson when we were just getting ready to leave and she mentioned that she was going over to her daughters to eat menudo.  Hna. Stratford immediately let her know that I had never had menudo before... UGH!! Do you all know what menudo is??? It is the lining of cow stomach!!! Sick Nasty!!! Haha! So Elsa insisted that I should go to her daughters house and try it... I was so nervous!!! I don't want cow stomach inside of my stomach!! haha! But we walked over and I did it! I ate the menudo... I guess it really depends on how it is cooked and who cooks it... it wasn't terrible... not my favorite and I would never ever voluntarily eat it! The texture was weeiiirrd! But it was better than I was expecting :) Hna. Stratford has had some pretty terrible menudo before, but this was tasty according to her!

I was attacked by a dog this week too! But not in a ferocious kind of way... We went to contact a less active spanish member and their dog was outside and it kept wrapping itself around my leg and “you know what-ing” me! Over and over! It didn't matter how many times I would push him off or try and shake him off of my leg, that dog was wrapped tightly around me and would not let go! The less active wasn't home but her non-member live-in boyfriend was there and was dying of laughter!!! It was so funny!! He couldn't even talk. He was actually crying bc he was laughing so hard! It was pretty hilarious! But I was completely violated. Haha!! 

We were tracting in a trailer park this week and knocked on a door. Some lady yelled from inside, "Who is it" we respond awkwardly... "Missionaries"... She yelled, "Come in!" We looked at each other wondering if we should or not and she yelled it again... so we opened the door and she freaked out! Haha!! She obviously did not hear us right! haha! It was really funny! She wasn't mad, just shocked! #missionaryworkisawkward!

We were tracting in this same park and this guy answered and he immediately told us he believes what the native Americans believe, when they say that Christ came to the Americas and visited the people here. And we were like, DUH! That is what we believe!! Haha! So we told him we have an ancient record that is from the Native Americans and it talks about when Christ came! He seemed pretty shocked and then not sure how to get us off his porch. haha! But we finally convinced him to take the Book of Mormon and to read 3 Nephi 11 :) He said he would! It was pretty cool!

Also, I got a terrible migraine on Tuesday night. We ended up coming home early... It came out of no where... ugh! So our District Leader, Elder Olson, came to give me a blessing. So sweet! I love him! He is a great missionary! I mentioned that my year mark was the next day so as he was leaving our house ,he chucked a $20 bill at my face and told us to go out to lunch. I tried to give it back but he would not take it. So SWEET!!!! So we went to Noodles and Co :) As you know, one of my personal favs :) Haha! We also hit up the Waffle truck this week - life has been goooooooood :)

Ok, now onto the good stuff!!!! 

We had an amazing lesson with John Bowman on Tuesday! Oh!! Fantastic! We have been trying really hard to help him recognize answers from Heavenly Father. He was waiting for some Aw-ha moment to know the church was true and for a very specific answer! So our last few lessons we have been really trying to help him open his eyes and to READ from the BOM because that is where God talks to us. So, as we were talking to him, he all nonchalantly tells us that he was reading in Helaman 6:3 and he got his answer that this is God's church! This is what the scripture says...

"Nevertheless, the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy."

He did it! He finally got his answer :) So we committed him to baptism for July 19th. But Christine made us move it back to Aug 2nd because her family will be in town. But it doesn't matter! He is really going to do it! We also had a member of our ward, Bro. Williams, who is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric come and share his conversion story. IT was awesome! John ate it up!! He said EVERYTHING John needed to hear! And at the very end, he told John, "Once you know, don't wait". And John just had told us he knew! Amazing!!! So August 2nd baby! Please keep him in your prayers :) 

Another wonderful miracle... We had Elsa and her daughter Rosie come to the church on Saturday for a tour. IT was amazing!!! The spirit was strong! We were able to show them around the building and explain what we do during the 3 hours and where it happens. We ended in the chapel. The spirit was tangible; it was so strong! We taught lesson 3 (the gospel of Jesus Christ) while in there and explained the sacrament and it was awesome! Elsa told us when she goes to new places she is not familiar with, she gets scared and nervous, but she was overwhelmed with peace and happiness there!!! :) Ah!!! It was amazing! One of my favorite lessons probably overall from my mission. Top 5 for sure! 

Then at church!!! Oh!! This was by far the most successful Sunday I have had! Our Spanish group, which usually is about 5 or 6 people had 17!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had 9 less actives that we teach who came church!!!!!!!! and 2 Investigators AND Mike (niki and mike) and Scott (bowman) came to church too :) It was awesome!!!! Mi corazon fue muy llena!!!!! :) I was flying on cloud 9 all day yesterday!! Carlos came! Anthony came! Some other less-actives that I haven't mentioned to you before, Maria, Joaquin, our investigator Miguel, and we got a new investigator yesterday who came with a member, her name is Carmen :)

MILAGROS!!!!!!!! Heavenly Father is looking over the Spanish group in Fort Collins :) 

So, needless to say, it was a great week!!! Transfers are this Saturday!! I really do think I am going to stay with Hna Stratford again and I really hope so!! So please pray that that is what happens! I am not ready to leave!!! 

I love you all so so much!!! :) Thanks for everything! I wouldn't be here without you :) Lennon, I am so happy to hear you are doing good! Your letters give me strength! and build my testimony of this great work!! Our family is so blessed to have 2 of us out at the same time serving the Lord and inviting others to come unto Christ!!! The church is TRUE!! And I can't wait for you to go to Baltimore and help the people there :) 

Les Extrano muchisimo :)

-Hermana Hannah

Pics with Niki and Mike