Holy Moly, Me Oh My, Did the Spirit Testify! - October 27, 2014

FAMILIA!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAY MMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I cant believe I am missing your 50th Birthday!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! What are you going to do!? What are your big plans? I love you so much mom! I am so bummed that I wont be able to celebrate with you! I hope that you have the BEST birthday!!!

I had such a great week :)

So, Monday and Tuesday we did not get much done. Hermana ZIndel was running around trying to say goodbye to as many people as she could before she left on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun to see some old neighbors and people we had not seen in a while. But, it was also hard because I was getting worried that our relationships with these people wouldn't be the same if she was gone. But, I was wrong! Hermana Cardona is awesome and everyone loves her :)

Wednesday we had our exchanges and to be honest I was super nervous and sad! Not only because Hermana Zindel was leaving, but because our district was being split up! But, there was no need to worry! Elder Young and Hermana Cardona are SO cool! Hermana Cardona is from LODI! What!? She talks about places that she use to hang out at and I know exactly what she is talking about! She loves to longboard. She was a cop! She loves rap :) She is a native Spanish speaker,so she has really been helping me out. She is super cute and really funny! We are having a blast together :)

So, earlier in the week all of our appointments were just canceling on us. It was a little discouraging but we ended the week off with a bang! Oh sweet baby :) We had the most amazing lesson with F! We taught the Restoración and holy moly, me oh my, did the spirit testify! It was really hard not to cry! I was just looking at Hermana Cardona like "do you feel this right now". F then told us that she knows Joseph Smith had a vision. I wanted to ask her to be baptized, but as soon as we were about to, someone rang the doorbell. #satan. But that is ok! We have an appointment with her today!

Also, WE had a great lesson with Y and her mom. Her mom use to date a guy that was LDS in Mexico! She knows a TON about the church! I mean A TON! She started to tell us about how Joseph Smith found the golden plates under a rock on a hill, and told us that Alma 21 is her favorite chapter in the book of Mormon! She told us that she knows it is true! But, she had a very bad experience with some of the members and with her boyfriend. She had a very hard time and it kinda ruined the church for her. But, now her daughter is very interested! They told us that they have been talking about the church for awhile. Y's mom is very supportive of her and told her that she can do whatever she would like and thinks that the church is great :) Hermana Cardona and I know that her mom is going to come around too. GAH! Being a missionary is JUST TOO DANG WONDERFUL!!!!

We had some other very great lessons! Like with A! We taught the Restoration and she soaked it up! She told us how beautiful the story of Joseph Smith was and she committed to being baptized. She doesn't have a date yet, but I know that is it going to happen. There is something really special about A! She has had a HARD life. She just barely turned 17 and has a 2 year old son. There are a TON of problems in their home. You can tell that she really does want to learn more and change her life. She wants to follow God and the plan that he has for her.

This week I really grew to learn and appreciate the Restoration. During our transfer meeting, President Richards had ALL the missionaries come and he gave us a devotional. He and Sister Richards had gone up to New York earlier that week and had a Conference with Elder Holland. They were able to go with him to the sacred grove while he taught them about the Restoration of the gospel. They were able to sit where Joseph Smith sat, while a living day apostle, and not just any apostle... Jeffery R. Holland, bore his testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith! Can you imagine a more amazing experience!!!! WOW! He talked about the scripture that changed everything. James 1:5... “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him”. Just like how the prophet Joseph Smith prayed and received an answer, I KNOW that we can do the same. I KNOW that God will answer our prayers. If we lack wisdom, if we have a question... Ask God. I am so lucky that I am a missionary and that I get to teach the Restoration of the gospel. I cant think of anything better.

As a mission we are going to read 8 pages of the Book of Mormon a day so that we can finish by Christmas! Wooooooooooooo!

Love you guys!

Lennon

GOT TO PLAY SOME BBALL :)

My Testimony of Christ - October 20, 2013

hey hey hey :)

So... I am staying aquí in Hagerstown! Hermana Zindel is going to Columbia and is becoming one of the very first Spanish Sister Training Leaders. Say what!? My new companion is Hermana Cardona. I don't know much about her- she is very quite but Hermana Zindel said that she is super funny once you get to know her :) Also, she was a cop before she came out so you don't need to worry about me anymore mom! haha! She is also a native Spanish speaker so I am VERY excited about that!

This week, I am gonna be honest with you, was hard. I would rather not even talk about some of the experiences. When Hermana Zindel and I were at the lowest of the low, we both just broke down in the car. Then, Hermana Zindel started to talk about the Atonement. Far too often we think about the Atonement only as Christ dying for our sins. It is SO much more that that!

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfuilled, which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

-Alma 7:11-12

Christ know every pain, affliction, temptation and sickness. He is literally sitting there with us. HE experienced exactly what Hermana Zindel and I did. He felt the pain that we felt. He know exactly what happened and He is who we can turn to for relief.

This scripture has really started to mean a lot to me...

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto you souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. "

-Matthew 11: 28-30

And I love Elder Bednars explanation...

"Consider the Lord's uniquely individual invitation to 'take my yoke upon you. Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus Christ. In essence, the Savior is beckoning us to rely upon and pull together with Him, even though our best efforts are not equal to and cannot be compared with His. As we trust in and pull our load with Him during the journey of mortality, truly His yoke is easy and His burden is light."

So, I just want to testify that I know Christ died for us. I know that no matter what we are going through, if we rely on The Savior, we will find relief, peace, joy, comfort, happiness and strength. I also want to testify of how important it is to endure to the end. This is probably the most important step! No matter how down you feel, keep pushing through it all. When you feel like you can’t  go much longer, this is when the blessings come! I know this is true because it is exactly what happened to us. After a week of trial after trial, hardship after hardship, Hermana Zindel and I got to the point of being ready to throw the towel in. But, we didn't, and this is when we were blessed.

Yesterday we had the most amazing lesson with Y! WE taught el Libro de Mormon. As we were teaching, I looked up and she was just crying. She told us that she just felt so good, that God can give her what the world cant. It was a beautiful experience.

After that we stopped by L’s. His sister A. came outside with us. During exchanges (oh ya, I was in Frederick for 2 days) Hermana Zindel had dropped off a Book of Mormon for L Well, A., his sister, started to read it! We haven't taught her at all! She came outside yesterday and said "You know that book you dropped off for L., Ive been reading it. I am on Chapter 4" WHAT!? We cant even get people we have been teaching for months to read. It really was a tender mercy from the Lord. Even though this week was ROUGH, even though it seemed like nothing good was gonna happen, even though the miracle didn't come until 7:45 on Sunday night, it came and I know that they always will if we just keep pushing and enduring to the end!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

-Hermana Mangum!

p.s. We found out one of our investigators broke his parol and is most likely going to jail- not juvey- jail, for a year and a half. I will just have to write him in the clink, I guess.

These are our old neighbors :)

I Am REALLY REALLY Tall - October 13, 2014

Whats up? Whats up? Whats up?

It has been reinforced quite literally this week that I am really really really tall :) HAHA!

Highlights from my week… 

Numero Uno: WE HAVE A HOME!!! We moved into our new apartment on Tuesday! It is soooooooooooo nice! Our old house had mold growing in it and it smelled weird all of the time. Our new apartment is more in the city, so there are more people to talk to, mold free and doesnt have a nasty odor! Whooooo! We are still unpacking so I haven’t taken any pictures of the house, I will send some next week :) And, btw, Hagerstownians are super creepy with their Halloween decorations - like super freaky creepy!!

Numero Dos: It was Hermano Valentin's birthday this week, Monday, and we were still living with them at the time. They invited us to go to get ice cream with them at this place called Nutters. IT WAS SO GOOD! I got pumpkin ice cream and have been dreaming about it ever since!!!! 

Numero Tres: C. has to go back to El Salvador :( He is leaving this Wednesday. His daughter had a baby so he hasn’t been able to come to church for quite some time. When we visited with him this week he asked if we could help him ask his daughter for permission to go to church- he really wanted to go because it is going to be his last sunday. How cute is that!? So, he came to church yesterday and the branch was so sweet! We are going to miss him so dang much! WE are going to set up having the missionaries continue teaching him in El Salvador :) At church he came up and told HErmana Zindel and I that we will always have a special place in his heart!!!!

El Cuatro: C2 came to church!!! She works every other sunday, but on the Sundays that she has off, she ALWAYS comes with us! She offers to give us ride which is so nice... but it is also so dang scary! I think I told you, but she is 2 feet tall, can barely see over the steering wheel, and STOPS the car to merge onto the freeway. Then, when we get on, she goes 45 miles an hour and we get passed by 6 or 7 semis! After church yesterday, Hermana Trinidad had us all over for dinner. IT was awesome! You could tell C2 was loving it! It was also C2’s birthday this week! She had us come over for breakfast to celebrate with her! We made her a cake and she had one piece, then gave us back the rest of the cake...... hahaha! She told us that we are her best friends :) :) :) :) Now, I need your advice on something. When we have talked to C2 about baptism she tells us to be patient with her. She is from Peru and grew up, or was basically raised by nuns. She feels like she is betraying them if she gets baptized. What do we do!? How do you handle something like that!? Here is our plan, you guys let me know if you think it is a good one. We want to watch Elder Bednar's talk with her. He talked about how, when we invite others to come to church with us etc., it is not to diminish what they believe; they should bring all of the great knowledge and truths they have with them. So, we want C2 to see this. She can bring all of the great things that the nuns taught her and have the fullness of the gospel. What do ya think???

Numero Cinco: We got to go to the temple yesterday night for a little fireside in spanish with Cinthia and Darwin. It was a lot of fun! The temple was SO pretty because it was late at night and the whole thing was lit up and just glowing ! 

Y el Numero Seis: “L”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best part of the week! L. is a former investigator that I have met a few times because he is neighbors with Cinthia. This week his sister was outside so we went and talked with her and set up an appointment for the next day. Well, we came back and she wasnt there... but L. was!!!!!! He is 15 and is OBSESSED with basketball! He was out shooting hoops and was looking sad so we went and talked with him. He was having some women trouble (broke up with his girlfriend during 4th period but they had gotten back together by 6th... haha) He vented to us for about and hour and we set up a return appointment for the next day. We came back and played some basketball with him for an hour, then had a lesson. When we asked when we could come back he said "Tomorrow" So we came back the next day and did the same thing, played basketball for an hour and had a lesson. When we asked him what day we could come back, he again told us to come back the very next day!!! WHAT!? L. is my favorite! I got to play basketball like 3 or 4 times this week! Also, his favorite animal is a pig!!!!! SAY WHAT!? hahaha! The only bummer is that I had to buy him McDonalds because he made a crazy shot. I know I shouldn’t be betting with our investigators... oh well! Lesson 

learned :) 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Can you believe that I have almost been out for 4 months!!! IT is going by WAY too fast.... WAY TOOOO FAST!!!! I love you so much! Thank you so much for all of my sweaters and boots mom!!! It is getting SO cold! You are the BEST! BEST! BEST! BEST! 

Talk to ya’ll next week! 

Peace and blessings

Lennon :) 

PS - The dog that bit me the first week I was here!

Homeless - October 6, 2014

Hola Guys :)

Monday:

Our preparation day this week was quite literally a PREPARATION day. WE had to do some quick shopping, wash our clothes and pack up/deep clean our entire house. We had no time to write letters home. So they were sent a little later during the week. Sorry if you haven’t gotten them yet! 

We had an appointment set up with our investigator A., and were planning on dropping him. He hadn’t shown up for our past few appointments and just didn’t seem that interested. We started the lesson and asked him questions like "Why did you invite us over?" etc. While this was happening, Hannah's email kept poppin’ into my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about what she wrote about Elder Cook- that the 2 most important things an investigator can hear are the First Vision (Joseph Smith) and the plan of Salvation. That is when I realized, we hadn’t had the opportunity to teach him either of these lessons! How could we drop him if we gave him no reason to keep his appointments? I looked over at Hermana ZIndel, and then I just started in on the Restoration. The lesson was AMAZINg!! A. seems really interested, we have a return appointment, it is all going VERY well! THanks Hannah!

Tuesday:

We had a great district meeting! Elder Johnson's instruction for us was tooooo inspired! I also got shot in the face with a water gun for speaking English.

The day went pretty down hill from there - haha! We found out that we are homeless!! Elder Pascoe drove his trailer on over to Hagerstown, we packed up our entire house and when he called the owner of our new apartment, he told us it wasn’t ready yet. Sooooooooooooooo, we hit up la familia Valentine and have been sleeping at their house for the past week. How amazingly sweet it that!? The only problem is that Hermana V. is going to kill me with her food! The other day she served us a heaping portion of Lasagna... for Breakfast! All of our own food and a few other random items are in the car. WE have our refrigerated items stored at the church. So, the past week we have literally been living out of our car, the church and the Valentines home. We move into our new place manana.

Miercoles:

We went and helped out Carlos during seminary. He doesn’t speak any English and is 5000% lost during the seminary lessons. So, the stake President asked if we would start going once a week to help Carlos during class. 

We also had 2 'member present' lessons which is a pretty big deal for us! The 1st one was with JC. We brought Hermana Orillo because they are both from Columbia and we thought they would hit it off. They did! JC told us about the MANY problems that he is having at the moment. He is a completely different guy from the first time I met him. He is trying to change and be a good example to his kids. He even started to cry. IT is easy to get down and frustrated about him because he doesn’t come to church and isn’t there for half of our appointments. But, although the change is coming about slowly, it is coming, and that is all that matters!

The 2nd member present lesson was with Y. Kelly came with us- Presidente Quintanilla's daughter. It went fantastic! WE also had a lesson with Y2! I LOVE her so much! Her husband was there for the lesson and is now investigating the church as well! 

Thursday:

THE DAY OF MIRACLES! WE had a fanflippintastic cita con F! We taught el plan de salvacion and it could not have gone better! 

We stopped by C's. I am gonna be honest, we have not been the best missionaries with him and are gonna pick it up. IT was a break-through lesson! We have tried to teach him the restoration several times but he hasn’t ever understood. But on Thursday, it all clicked! He understood EVERYTHING and the spirit was undeniable! 

AT 8:30 we decided to hit up this house from a while back. In our GPS there is record of this man named W. We had his address, but there is no such place. A while ago, Hermana Zindel and I were trying to find him but couldn’t, so we knocked on the door of the closest, most similar address that we could find. This little boy answered the door and told us it might be his neighbor. So we went over. You will not believe who the neighbor is... F! She is the lady who gave me that terrifying hairstyle a month or so back! She had given us her number, but we were never able to get a hold of her because the had to cancel their cell phones! well, now we know where she lives and have an appointment set up!

Friday:

ANother crazy day! We were in the city trying to visit Hermana Vargas, when I saw this old man walking in the parking lot. IT was very windy and he looked like he was about to tip over. On our way over to help him, a huge gust of wind blew and he fell down and smacked his head on the concrete. We ran over, helped him sit up and saw that his head was covered in blood. Hermana Zindel grabbed some napkins and we tried to clean him up. A police officer saw it all go down and called an ambulance. He knew the guy by name, he is a "regular" and the cop confiscated his bottle of vodka from his back pocket. Holy wowza :(

We got a referral for a guy named J. from some Elders. J. picks his kids up from the bus stop everyday at 4. Hermana Zindel and I got there @3:45, waited 30 minutes, then realized that school had gotten out early that day. haha! While we had been waiting for the bus, this guy started to hit on me. I gave him a mormon.org card, he said he was gonna call the number on the back so he could see me again. About 5 minutes later he came back. He asked me if he could borrow a pen. I let him use my favorite pen and I never got it back!!! :( Then he asked his daughter to "ask the nice lady what her name was" He was literally using his daughter, like in the movies to try and soften me up! Hermana Zindel and I were dying!

Later that nicht we were walking in the city and ran into one of our homeless friends. He was not doing well at all, almost ready to commit suicide. Hermana Zindel and I ran to the car and packed up a bag of food to give him. Having to live out of your car has its advantages :)

Saturday and SUnday:

We stopped by Hermana B’s house, a less active sister in the rama. Last time we did, she said to come back in a month. When we stopped by Saturday, she let us right on in and during the prayer she asked for help and strength to return to the church! Quite a difference right!?

CONFERENCE!!! On Saturday we watched at a members house and at the church. On Sunday we watched the 1st session with the Marroquin's and the 2nd with the Valentines !

How spectacular was it!? Oh me oh my! WHAT?!?!? Toooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooood! Elder Oaks and Elder Holland were on fire! Conference leaves you so refreshed and ready to take on life! My favorite talk was by Jorg Klebingat! Do ya remeber it? How could you forget! He got us there and just told it like it is, he did not sugar coat that talk one bit! Such a great message! Max, have fun passing or blessing the Sacrament with Sister Esplin! haha! It was so fun seeing a place so familiar to me, recognizing faces in the choir, looking at the temple! The only thing that was missing was a plate of orange rolls! 

I know that we have a living prophet. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and he continues to guide and direct his church on the earth through a living prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prohpet of God. There is no one more filled with the spirit, joyful, optimistic and in-tune. I know that if we follow his counsel, that we will be able to push through all of our trials and come out stronger. In the past, I have taken this AMAZING blessing for granted. NEver again! I am going to study and ponder the words of the apostles and prophets, I am going to appreciate what a blessing it is to have a living prophet!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!! 

Cant wait to read about your weeks! 

Love,

Lennon :)

HERE ARE A TON OF PICTURES FROM OUR TRIP TO ANTIETAM. WOW - THIS STATE IS FULL OF HISTORY!!!