Hermana Lennon Mangum: We Taught and Taught and Taught and Taught This Week :)

Hey hey everybody :)

Holy Cow! Time is flying by! It is already P-day again! I thought that it was hard to write you guys in the CCM, but it is 40x's harder now that things are actually happening! haha! So many people I want to tell you about but it would take my entire hour and a half telling you their background stories!

Miracle Monday!

We had a service project con una familia menos activos en nuestra rama. They are very private and don’t allow anyone to come over, so it was un milagro that we even got this set up! We went to their house and helped them with their yard. Hermana Zindel and I got to go with the Mom on many trips to the Home Depot because we never bought enough mulch. At first, she wouldn’t talk (she is one tough cookie to break) but by the end she had told us her whole life story! #miracle! Also, I was quite lost during the whole conversation, but, apparently she is almost blind! So, it is a miracle we were not hurt! I had been driving around with a blind woman for 3 hours!!!!

Tuesday...

I taught my first ever lesson in the field! J. works from 6 @ night to 6 in the morning! So it is super hard to get an appointment with him because he is always sleeping in his free time. The lesson started off a little scary, he is really good friends with a guy named Darwin in our branch, so Darwin drives him to church every once in a while. J. said that when he went to church this last week he didn’t feel anything. I was so scared and did not know what to say. Hermana Zindel took over and taught a great lesson and then at the end I bore my testimony. He had a big old smile on his face at the end of the lesson and said that he would pray about it ( and this is a big deal because he never says he will these kinds) of things - yay!!)

We also had a bomb diggity lesson with our investigator C. He is the dad of a family in our rama. CUTEST MAN ALIVE! I cant understand a thing that he says, but I love ‘em with todo mi corazon! We are gonna try to get him a baptismal date this week! Pray that everything works out well!

Ate some amazing crab soup!!!!! Apparently it had every part of the crab in there, but I didn’t notice because I gobbled that bad boy down so fast! Que Rico!!!

Every tuesday night our branch gets together and plays fútbol. I do not understand soccer and I never will (and it doesn’t help that they don’t seem to have any rules! haha) But I sill had a blast! AFter our fútbol game we played some basketball! Yayay!!!! Hermana Zindel said that they have never played basketball before, so we are pretty sure that they played just for me! I LOVE our branch!!!

Wednesday...

We had zone conference! I loved it! Seeing President and sister Richards, Brennon Rasmussen and Dallas Swenson from school- all of it was so fun! But, the best part was when one of the senior sisters came trekking on over to me with a HUGE package! MOM!!!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!! I can’t even express how much I love it! From the decorations on the outside to the mounds of food on the inside! You are fanflippintastic! And hannah, THAnks for our card!!!!!!!! Just what I needed to hear!

We also had a Relief Society activity and learned how to make ceviche! Sooooooooooooo gooooood!!!! Missionaries are not allowed to eat raw fish so they had to cook ours, but it was sill heavenly!

Thursday....

WE had a awesome lesson with an investigator named C2! We asked her to be baptized and she said that she had already been baptized into the catholic church. So, we had a great talk about the priesthood and I actually contributed to the lesson! She doesn’t feel prepared yet, but we are going to do everything we can to help her out! She was so sweet and made us dinner. But, we had a scheduled dinner appointment right after! So I had 2 honkin’ meals and thought that I was going to POP!!!!!!!

Friday...

We had an AMAZING lesson with a potential investigator named J! Fiama came with us! We talked about the Spirit and J. basically ended up teaching the lesson! I am so excited to continue visiting with her!

While we were out on the town you would not believe who we ran into again... M! M is the guy who we met while he was playing basketball with his son. He said the he didn’t go to church because he doesn’t want to feel like a "heathen" #hehasasketchypast, and he says that he doesn’t want to be stared at. We told him that it is not a coincidence that we ran into each other again, and he couldn’t deny it! It is so clear and easy to see this while on your mission God's plan for each of us and his hand in our lives!

Also, it was about 8:45 and we were talking to this lady. When we said goodbye she told us to please be careful and safe. Hermana Zindel and I started thinking back on our day and we noticed EVERY single person we talked to that day had told us to be safe... EVERY ONE! So, we hauled in the car and headed home early that night. I am so grateful for the promptings of the Spirit!

Saturday...

WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was one of the most spiritual, beautiful experiences I have ever had! The temple is HUGE!!!! It is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! We got to go with our Branch so we did our session en Español!!!!! BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so grateful for temple! They are one of the greatest blessings there is! We rode down the Hermana Trinidad and her mom Hermana Burgos. They are from El Salvador (basically everyone in our branch is) so they took us our to get pupusas! so yummy!!!!

We have been told some places in town that might have some Hispanic families. We decided to check it out! It is the HOOD and so we went in the middle of the day just to be safe, but no one was out except for a guy named W. Our conversation started out by him saying that we were wasting our time, we could try the suburbs but that no one would listen to us here. Long story short, our conversation ended with him telling us where some Puerto Ricans live and telling us that we should keeping walking down the street and being Examples!! ha :)

WE had a fantastic lesson with Hermana C., a member of our branch and her boyfriend F. They started talking about "oofos" and 10 minutes later Hermana Zindel and I realized that they were trying to say UFOs!! hahahaha! They fed us pineapple chunks and mandarin oranges with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. We started to read 1st Nephi 1 with them and explained what the Book of Mormon is to F! It was amzazazazazing! I wish I could describe it to you!

I am so happy! I am so so so so so happy! Hagerstown in not that big, but there are about 3 different churches on every single street! I have never seen so many in my entire life! I have been so blessed to meet all of these wonderful people here. Whenever we talk to them they tell us that they already go to a church, and I find it really hard to respond. Here is why, I think that it is amazing that they are going to church every Sunday! They are such wonderful people who want to show their love and devotional to God! It is amazing!!! But, I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church that has the FULLNESS of the gospel. I know that through the prophet Joseph Smith that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored the gospel that was on the earth while Christ was here. I am so grateful to be out serving a mission! WHOO HOO!!! It is the BOMB!