Just Call Me Hermana Magnum and/or Elder Mangum - February 9, 2015

Hey hey! 

Funny story! I lost one of my Hermana Mangum name tags a while ago so I have been alternating/wearing the one that was spelled wrong from the MTC in Mexico, Hermana Magnum for about a month now. Well, I finally ordered a new one and it came this week. I guess I will have to try again because this one says Elder Mangum!

This week, I discovered some new gifts that the spirit gives us that I was not aware of before.

So... the gift of tongues. I knew that the gift of tongues was real and I have felt Gods help BIG TIME during lessons or when the members are able to understand me even though I say everything backwards and with my little accent. But, this week was HUGE! We got a phone call from some less active members that we had contacted in the street. She asked if we could stop by and help translate. When we got there we realized that she needed us to translate for a realtor and that they are buying a house!!! That is a big deal! I could barely fill out a job application on my own before my mission and now I am helping people buy houses in another language! Pretty sweet huh!?

The gift of direction! Family... I know that you’re probably not going to believe me... but I have a sense of direction now!!!! I know where I am and how to get places! I don't even use the GPS very much anymore!!! Besides it says things like "Keep going til you hit New Orleans" or "If you turn right on Highland you can get to the Eastern Seaboard..." WHAT!?!?!?!

The gift of gasoline! Yesterday... we realized that our car was COMPLETELY out of gas. There wasn't a single drop in there and it was sunday! We were driving home and saw that we were going to have to go through a toll, so we quickly took the closest exit to avoid paying, but then realized that we took the exit to New York (haha, I just realized I said that I had the gift of direction in my last paragraph - haha, but just wait....)  No gas in the car, heading to a different state. I am not sure how, but we made it home safe and sound!

Volleyball this week was super fun! So, the elders and I are the only ones who have any idea what we are doing. So, when I go back to the line to serve, I just serve it as hard as I can at them and when they serve they do the same to me. Well, Hermana S, a sister in our ward, wanted to play. I went back to serve and aimed it hard at one of the elders. Hermana S walked right in front of him and it just NAILED her in the chest! Everyone started to bust up laughing and were telling me that I am never going to get fed at her house ever ever ever again! (We have a dinner appointment with her tonight, so it is ok!!)

We also got to go to the temple with Hermana S! It was SO much fun! She took us out for Dunkin Donuts right before and got us dinner afterwards! We had a really good conversation in the car and she told me about her and her husband. We are teaching her daughter because she wants to be baptized. They are just returning to the church and Hermana S wants her to know more before she is baptized. She is from Argentina and I convinced her to make us some empanadas sometime soon!

I am getting VERY attached to the members here! I didn't think I could get more attached to people than I did in Hagerstown, but it is happening! This week we really grew close to some of the members in our branch. I heard some of the saddest stories in my life this week. Almost every single person we visited has a child living in another country . Even children that were born after they left and that they have never met. They came here to find work and send money back and try to save to bring their children here. But too many obstacles pop up and it just doesn't happen. I do not understand how they are able to do it. Every single day I spend here in Baltimore makes me more and more grateful for you guys and the many many MANY blessings that we have.

Although the members barely have enough to get by themselves, I have never felt so loved or so served by a group of people. They give us EVERYTHING that they have. They send us away with leftovers and make us the most amazing meals! This week, we went over to a lady's house, and she gave us the very last of their milk and the only box of cereal that they had in their house to take with us. I feel so grateful, I feel so spoiled, and I pray my guts out every night that the people here get blessing after blessing after blessing for what they do for me.

Love you guys! Thank you so so so so so so so so so so so much for your package in the mail this week! It meant so much to me! It even came with a Virgin Mary sticker!!

Con amor,

Elder Magnum

Apparently I Have a Unidentifiable Accent - February 2, 2015

HEY HEY HEY!!!

Greetings from Baltimore! This week was lllooonnnggg... I don't know if it felt like that for you guys, but for me it was!!!

We had a miracle lesson with H this week. It was so so so so so good :) We brought over Naye, our go-to member, and we talked about the plan of salvation. I have never liked sharing about the pre-mortal life. Not only because I have to use past tense in Spanish, jaja, but because I have never really understood why that would be important or stick out to somebody. When we were talking about it with H she couldn't even contain her joy. She told us how good it felt to hear that she lived with God, that he KNOWS her, that he LOVES her, that she is not just here, but that He had a plan set apart from the very beginning! Then, when we started talking about life after death she told us that she cant wait to go and be baptized for her grandma in the temple. It was a cool experience and a humbling one as well. I kind of realized all of the blessings that I take for granted and it made me wonder "How would it feel to not know that you lived with your Heavenly Father before?" H is so amazing!!!

We had investigators that came to church yesterday! It was quite the hassle trying to get them there, but we did it! I had to translate during sacrament meeting and it was my first time ever doing it all! dang. It was hard! Trying to translate what they just said, and listen to what they are going to say next! During one story, I just said in the microphone, "I am sorry.... we are just gonna skip that part". I am sure I will get better as I practice more and more. After church, we were talking with one of our investigators and we asked how she liked it. She said "Un Poquito" WHAT!? I didn't know how to react. She used to go to a Pentecostal church and I think she was just surprised by the reverence and the difference. She told us this week that she know everything is true, but I guess the actual church service wasn't her favorite. Her daughter on the other hand, LOVED IT :)

I was a little sad this week. Here are the reasons why...

1. I went through an identity crisis! haha! Everybody here will not believe me when I say I am from Utah. They tell me that I am from a different country or try to guess where my accent is from. I thought it was funny at first but it has really started to bother me. Apparently I have a European accent when I speak Spanish, I have a European accent when I speak English and a Spanish accent as well. I don't look American, I don't speak like an American, etc.  Are you guys sure that I am not adopted because NOBODY believes me and EVERYBODY comments about my "accent".

2. This city is just depressing and it has finally started to take its toll on me. The people, the trash, the weather, the sadness! It is really hard to describe. Here is an example: this week Hermana Orton and I were driving down the street. She says to me "What is that lady doing?" We look over and she is looking through the trashcan. We watch as she leans in, picks out a to-go box, opens it up, and starts to eat whatever was inside. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It made me physically sick and we both started to cry. The light turned and we drove off. We couldn't get the experience and the sight out of our minds so we turned around, found her, and gave her a box of cereal that was in the car. There are also all these stuffed animals tied around lamp posts and street lights here. It means that somebody died in that location and it is so hard to look at them. Makes me really sad!

This week I heard story after story, from members and people on the street about their problems with money. Seeing all of it just took its toll on me and it made it a long week.I was trying to think of how I can make this city happier, the people happier, and then it hit me! I AM A MISSIONARY! I am here, in the saddest city ever, Baltimore MD, sharing the HAPPIEST message ever! I have the chance to serve and to share and to help others see and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We have heard from people on the street that the Seahawks lost and that "The Ravens offensive coach NEVER would have called a play like that!". hahaha!

Thank you so much for your note and your prayers and fasting for my jaw. It is still locked, I am taking Aleve and have called the mission doctor. He told me to call and set something up with a jaw specialist. I have called, we don't have an appointment set up yet but I am working on it. He said that I am going to need to get an Xray taken. I am doing good! Thanks!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

2 Overly Amazing Weeks in a Row - January 26, 2015

HOLA!!!

I would like to start off my email this week with some AMAZING news: THE ATLANTA HAWKS ARE IN FIRST PLACE IN THE EAST!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were doing some service at the Bishops Storehouse when Elder Riddle said "Hermana Mangum... I have got some news that is going to make your entire day!" He told me that he was talking with somebody and they said "You are not going to believe who is killing it in the east. The ATLANTA HAWKS!!!" Elder Riddle responded by saying "There is an Hermana in my district who is going to be VERY happy" WHAT!? Apparently they had a 14 game winning streak! WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Now we can talk about my week here in BaMo.

It has been amazing!!!!!! I do not know how I was blessed with 2 overly amazing weeks in a row... but I was!

We are teaching a 9 year old girl whose parents have had a hard time getting out to church here in the rama. She is SO cute! Well, we have started visiting them and the family is starting to come back to church! We set a baptismal date for A this week for the 1st of March. She is the reason the family has decided to come back to church. She kept asking them if she could be baptized and why they had stopped going. She is the cutest little thing and it has been a blast getting to go over and spend time with their family. Her mom is crazy with the food! When we tell her we are full, she says "Ok. I will wait here until you guys aren't"! The Elders aren't helping the situation either! They have been egging the families on! They told one Sister in the ward "Las Hermanas are too skinny... you need to fatten them up" I threw up 2 times this week from all the food.

Our investigator M is still going strong and has been such a miracle!!!!!!!! This week she said that she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet and said that she would be baptized. Her only hang up is that she doesn't want to leave the church she goes to right now because she has lots of friends there and they have become like her family.

On another note, the men in our ward aren't allowed to play futbol at the church anymore because they are destroying the church. So, the branch has decided to play volleyball instead!!! WHOO HOO!!!! This week it was super duper fun! I have forgotten how to play though! Can you believe it has been 2 years!? I blocked a few of those said men - haha - and I hope my volleyball skills slowly start to come back to me.

This week we also visited a member we didn’t know in the branch. We went over to find her and it was so amazing! She told me that her and her husbands goal is to come back to church! Her children have been asking why they don't go and that it is time for them to come back! She came on Sunday and it was SO AWESOME!!!

Also this week I had one of the hardest moments of my mission. Yep. By far the hardest one. We had to drop an investigator that was no longer progressing and it about did me in. We were on exchanges, I was with Sister Parkin again!!, but she doesn't know any Spanish so I had 3 days of being literally the ONLY person talking during the lessons. It was tiring! But, back to the situation. We get in there and the lady just starts to talk about how happy it makes her when we stop by. She probably said it close to 15 or 20 times. I kept looking at Sister Parkin and she was giving me encouragement and telling me that I could do it. Then, our investigator said something that just made me start to cry. She said "You guys know that I don't know how to read. But, I can recognize and your names and I know when you are calling me. It makes me so happy and I get so excited to answer!" I broke down. But, I continued because we knew it was the right thing, but a terribly hard thing. It was so hard but she understood why. We gave her the address of the church and she stuck it in her wallet. She asked if it would still be ok if she called us and asked how we are doing every once in a while. I just started to cry when we left. Crying like a baby because I love her so much and also because it broke me in two to think she can’t read. Never did I think that illiteracy would affect so many people and so much of my mission.

We also visited P again this week and when we got to her house there was a man there that I had never seen before. We had brought a member named Teresa with us and she is VERY quiet. Well, the man just went off about Joseph Smith! He was calling us crazy and if I ever tried to respond, he would just cut me off. Poor Jordin, I mean Sister Parkin (kind of crazy that used to have classes at Timpview together and now we are out preachin’ the word!) was sitting there and had absolutely no idea what was going on - it was all in Spanish. I was worried about P and what she was thinking. Then, Teresa, the quietest little thing went to town! She bore her testimony and it was one of the most powerful moments in my mission. Then, P told the man  "I KNOW these things are true." So, the lesson went from dang scary to turning out pretty good :)

I am sure ya’ll remember me talking about Z! He is one of my FAVORITE people! Well, we were visiting his wife and he walks in. I asked why he hadn't come to church and he told me that he felt bad so he didn't come. I made him promise me he would try again, and you wont believe it.... HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!! He went to Bishops Storehouse on Saturday and he got himself a suit and tie. Everyone was amazing and so welcoming and loving. He doesn't know Spanish so we all translated and had some amazing talks with him! He said he had so many questions so I told him to write them all down. He did.... he has a list of 23! Pray for me this week, we are going over to answer them all!

Tito was baptized!!! This was def def the highlight of my week!!! This man has completely changed his life! He was taught by the Elders. It was amazing to see him do a 180 with his life! After he came up out of the water he just started to say "YES! YES! YES! GRACIAS SENOR!" It was one of the sweetest experiences. The elders talked to Hermana Orton and I right before the baptism and asked us if we could give talks. YIKES! I was so nervous! No time, zero preparation, but, Tito was crying at the end so I must have done a good job :)

Rosibel was finally confirmed yesterday and is going as strong as ever :) 

And people are kind to us! Just had to say that!

So... it was an AMAZING WEEK! AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING WEEK :)

Love you all so much,

Hermanita Manguuuuum :)