Awesome, Awesome, Awesome Week!! - Sep 27, 2015

HOLA FAMILIA!!! 

This week was just awesome awesome awesome! 

My last day in Winchester was super fun! So, it was Hermana Alvarado's Bday and Hermana Orton's last day in the mission, which means everyone was extra lovey dovey on us! We got to eat a LOT of cake and had lots of birthday/ goodbye parties! It was hard to say goodbye to D. and H.! But, D. used to be a radio announcer in Honduras and before we left he wanted to do an exit interview with us. haha! In that fake radio interview he bore his testimony to us and it was a super sweet experience!

So, now I am here in Columbia MD and I love it!!!!! It is so nice being in a Spanish branch again!!!! I feel like a normal Spanish missionary again and it is awesome!!! My companion is Hermana Hicks and she is so sweet! She is 5 "9 and I am so pumped about that!!! I don’t feel so giant anymore!!! whoo hoo!!! The members here are AMAZING!!! Sweet baby they are so great! Church yesterday was so great! We have some really great investigators! We went and did service for a familia this week and they have been reading the the Book of Mormon! We also had some really cool experiences, one of which was with a new familia we met. They are potentials that we stopped by to visit. We were sitting there and they started to ask us some questions. They had heard some false information about our church and the Book of Mormon, in the church that they are going to right now. We started to explain the Book of Mormon and told them that Christ had come to the Americas. When they heard that, you should have seen the change in la hermana's face! She got so excited, asked us to look up where in the book it happens, marked it and told us she wants us to come back! I will keep y’all posted! 

We had some cool experiences as well talking with people on the street! We meet this guy from Puerto Rico! Well, guess what... he went to BYU! He told us all about it! We had a great conversation and he invited us to come back! We also met a very sweet man from Pakistan. He had read the entire Book of Mormon and said that he still studies from it often!!! 

Women's Conference was THE BEST!!!! I felt like every word that was spoken was directed right at me! I cannot wait for conference this weekend because I have a feeling it is going to be a GOOD one!!!! These are a few of my favorite things from Women’s Conference.... 

- "I don’t know why we have so many trials. But I know that our reward will be so great and marvelous and amazing, that I have a feeling we will ask 'Is that all that you required from me?'" 

- "One of the things the spirit does best it letting us know how much God loves us." 

Well, as I am sure you can tell I don’t have the quotes with me and they have been poorly translated from Spanish to English, but you get the gist of it! 

I know that God loves me even though at times I don’t pay attention or don’t realize it. I know that if we sincerely pray and ask God, he will let us know and feel of his love! I know that this life can be hard. But, if we put it into perspective, the trials we have and they blessings we are receiving, and are going to receive, we would ask ourselves why he requires so little of us! Love you all!!!

1.) My District!

2.) Brother B. always calls me Magnum P.I. so that's why he decorated the cake like this! haha!

Off to a New Area & a New Adventure - Sep 21, 2015

BUENAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

You all are not going to believe it. I am getting transferred again. And, I don’t know where to. They still haven’t updated the system so all I know is that I am either going to Baltimore or Colombia. So, I guess we will see... 

I am super sad. This is the second transfer in a row that I have only gotten one transfer in an area. Three of the Spanish Hermanas are leaving this transfer and there is only one new one coming in. Therefore, they need to close another area and they chose to close mine again. I am pretty sad. I cried a little bit last night, but it is ok! I am excited for a new adventure wherever I am being sent to. I will let you know as soon as I find out! 

We had an amazing week! It was a ton of fun :) 

Our biggest miracle by far was with D. and H.! They are the CUTEST!!!!!! We were able to meet with them a lot this week and had an awesome lesson and dinner at a members house. I don’t want to even think about saying goodbye to them. They also took us out to pupusas and we had such a fun night. They were talking about Honduras and how they miss it. They talked about their life after coming here not having been so great. But then D. said he knew that he came here for a reason and that he is so grateful to have met us. They said that we are their only family here. H. is pregnant and is going to go into labor any second. We are trying to get them to name the baby after us :) D. and D. are their kids and I love them so much! They actually know how to say my name! I am so so so so so sad to be leaving them! But, it is a good thing Elders are coming in and can keep visiting them. And, I will come back when D. gets baptized :) 

We had lots of other amazing visits this week. Hermana Orton is going home on Wednesday! It has been weird to have her packing and saying goodbye to everyone. 

I love you all so much!!!! I will email and let you know where I am heading to as soon as possible!

I Met Elder Cook!! - Sep 14, 2015

THIS WEEK WAS SOMETHING ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT! 

Ok, so we have the cutest new investigator. She is 14 years old and it super ready and openminded and excited to learn. Her parents are Catholic and she has been studying with los Testigos de Jeovah for 3 years. She is just super duper confused by all of the doctrines and different things she is being told. She has a lot of questions about the plan of salvation and we are going over tonight to teach her. 

Our lesson with M. was amazing! We went over with Hna. K and we talked about the Book of Mormon. She told us that she did what we had asked. She had prayed and read the pamphlet on the Restoracion and told us it was true! We invited her to be baptized and she seemed open to it. Her only hang up is that she is worried what we believe when it comes to the Virgin Maria. 

We had a really cool experience with our Relief Society president. We went and talked with her about all of the Hnas. in our ward and what we can do for them. They have kinda been forgotten and the Relief Society has decided to make them their focus. Well, our Relief Society president was so excited about it that she called us later that night, invited us to dinner and went out to visit with us. She had written each sister a letter in Spanish and they all appreciated it so much!

We went and saw D. So, he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He told us he had a few questions and he took out this little sheet of paper he had written them on. Well, his question was about why Nefi had to kill Laban. As soon as he asked us about it I got the biggest smile on my face! I am sure D. was wondering why I would be so excited and happy about a man being beheaded. Let me tell you why I was so happy! I have heard so many mission stories about people asking that question and it had never happened to me! 15 months into my mission and it happened! I am so happy that he is reading and having questions... it shows how real his desire is! Also, my companions and I were so shocked to see him walk into church this week! Hno. E. had called him and went and picked him up all oh his own! #members!!! 

The week keeps getting better!

We have the BEST new investigators, C. and I.! We had one of the most amazing first lessons with them! We taught the Restoracion and I can’t tell you or describe what the spirit felt like! You could almost feel it in the air! It was tangible! They both got teary eyed and I was about to start crying as well! I. is going to be at church next week and I am SO excited to go back! 

So, this week we had the AMAZING experience of getting to hear from and meet Elder Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! We drove 3 hours from Winchester to Annapolis and he spoke to our mission! It was an incredible experience! He shook each of our hands and gave the most amazing advice to our mission! Probably my favorite thing he said was "We are the message". It is so true! We are the message of the restored gospel! How we act and how we live our lives is a testimony of the church and of our Savior Jesus Christ! It was also said in the conference that "We are always made equal to the task". It was an amazing experience and I am never going to forget it! 

The icing to the cake was being able to go and see A. get baptized! A. lives in Baltimore and Hna. Orton and I would visit him and his family. He got baptized in a river!!! It was a beautiful experience! 

My week was amazing!!!! The weather is also cooling down so that is a huge plus :) I love you guys!!! 

-Hermana Mangum

A.'s baptism!!!

Spa party!

We Were Struck by Lightening!!! - Sep 8, 2015

THIS WEEK WE GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTENING AND I AM VERY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS!!!! 

So, we didnt have dinner one night so we headed over to Wendy’s and it was raining SUPER bad. We were sitting in the parking lot, chewing on dem chicken nuggets when everything goes white, we heard a thud and the car started to shake! I just started screaming and it took us a good 10 minutes to gain control of ourselves! I can officially say that I have been struck by lightening! I mean, this is quite the testimony that they Lord is protecting us if I do say so myself! 

We were able to have some really good and fun appointments with our investigator D. this week! I know I told you all that his wife is prego. So, this week we talked to them about the law of chastity. It went over really well and they do want to get married. Now our only obstacle is that they want to wait until after the baby is born. That is ok though :) We were also able to go over and make baleadas with them! This was the best appointment ever!!! So, H. was in the kitchen making tortillas and we asked if we could help out. H. tried to teach us but it was not going over too well. They thought it was so funny! So that D. took out his phone and took a video of us trying to make these tortillas. We were only able to make about one each, in 20ish minutes and they came out in the shape of a triangle! #gringas I cant wait for you all to meet this cute family!

We saw R. and his wife this week! They are doing good and we had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon! R. really liked it and promised to get started on his reading :) 

Unfortunately we were not able to see J. He canceled both of our appointments that we had set up. But, if we look at the bright side of things, he called us to let us know that he was not going to be there. We are just keeping him in our prayers and hoping that we are able to find some time to meet up and see how he liked church! 

I love you all! I love this gospel! I love teaching it! I am so grateful that everyday I am reminded of the basic doctrines and I can see the blessings of them!

The Atonement Makes Things BETTER, BEAUTIFUL, and GOOD! - Aug 31, 2015

We just had an amazing week!!! I am trying to think of just a few of my favorite experiences to share with you because there are too many to share. I am thinking I will tell you all about yesterday. 

Church was awesome. The reason why it was so awesome is because D. and J. came!!! It was so so cool :) I left ward council early and Sister K. (a member in the ward) and I went out to go and get our investigators! I was so nervous that they weren’t really going to come. I called J. to tell him were outside, and he came out! I was shocked! I couldn’t believe it! Then we went to see D. and he came outside with his little son! I was trying so hard not to scream and jump and dance from pure joy! It was hard to read how they were liking it all while at church since everything is in English... and they don’t speak English. We translated and it went well though. D. told us afterwards that he really liked it and his son had a BLAST in the nursery! :) 

Then, after church we went to this trailer park to street contact. Nobody is outside since it is so hot so we decide to knock some doors. We wanted to be guided by the spirit to a house that would listen to us. We sat there for a bit and Hna Alvarado says "lets try that house" We go over to this little blue trailer, knock the door and a man answers. And guess what!? He is interested! His wife walks behind him, sees us and comes to the door. She invites us in and gave us some water. Well, turns out that his wife is a member!!!! She stopped going when the branch got split up. She is a less active that we have been trying to find! How cool is the spirit!? 

Then, we went to a return appointment that we had set up with the coolest family! I would like to tell you that the appointment went well, but it didn’t. He would not listen to us at all and I could go into more detail about it all, but I won’t. Here is the cool part. After the lesson, Hno S. started talking to us. He served a mission and I think us being out here teaching sparked something in him. He gave us SO many good ideas on how to find people and thought of several friends that he wants to start working with and share the gospel with! 

We are also teaching a new family! They are just the sweetest and cutest family! We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration and things are looking great! 

I love you all so much! 

Random thought that I had this week about the Atonement. So, I have grown to understand more and more about the Atonement here on my mission. Something that clicked with me this week is that the Atonement is not only Christ suffering with us through our sins, infirmities and afflictions. The Atonement isn’t just about suffering and Christ being with us while we suffer. The Atonement makes things better, makes things beautiful, makes things good. The shames of our sins turn into peace. Our sadness through suffering turns to joy. Our weaknesses become strengths. The Atonement just makes everything better :) 

LOVE YOU!

Our funny tan lines... 

We played charades with this awesome family and the husband had to act out being 

Christ so he started washing his wife's feet. Too cute :)

Pupusa Prayers Answered & A Wedding = Una Hermana Feliz :) - Aug 24, 2015

BUENAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had an amazazazazazing week this week! So many milagros :) 

One of the biggest, actually, THE biggest miracle by far happened on Saturday... the day of Mom's wedding. I was thinking I was going to be all sad and down all day. It was not that way at all! I DID NOT SHED A SINGLE TEAR THE ENTIRE DAY! If you guys had seen how I have cried before about all of this and about missing the wedding, you would be in so much shock and amazement that on the day of the actually wedding, not a single lagrima fell from my ojito! God blessed us with such a great day! We were able to see our cute little investigator! We met with a potential, J., who is now investigating the church as well! We had appointment after appointment after appointment that day! I know that God gave us a busy day here to keep my mind busy and focused! 

Other amazing things that happened this week were... 

1. B!!! He is the coolest guy in the world that we street contacted. He asked us a BILLION and one questions. He was not the biggest fan of the church, but that was only because he had some very mixed up, not correct info about us. As we cleared it all up, you could see him start to get more and more interested! By the end of our 40 minute conversation he said "You've convinced me!" and invited us to come back! We did and it was AWESOME! We talked about the Restoration and it went so so well! B. had lots of questions about the plan of salvation and about the family! Our member friend did amazing, the spirit was hecka strong!!! Too bad we had to hand B. off to the English Elders. But, I am 100% positive that he is going to be baptized! 

2. C! She is a less active who came to church! We were able to bring one of her really close friends in the lesson to visit her with us. Then she invited her and her daughter to come to church, Hermana C. excepted and was there yesterday! 

3. We got to go to the Orioles game as a mission on Friday night! That was the BEST!!!! I didn’t watch too much of the game because I was running around, seeing so many members from my old areas! I cant tell you how much it means to me and to see all of these people that have changed my life! I literally have the best friends and family in the world here in Maryland! There really is nothing that makes me happier! 

4. So, as I have told you, I am serving in an English ward working with the Hispanics. This has been a little hard for me because I am having some culture shock! The food is hard, praying in English is weird, all of it has been a bit of a struggle. We were out street contacting and I was just praying "Lord, I really want a pupusa right now. Please give me a pupusa! A few minutes later we see this lady and we start talking with her. She had her apron on and I asked what she was making. Guess what she said. PUPUSAS!!! I couldn’t control my excitement! She then invited us in and made us each of one of the BEST pupusas I have had! Z. makes pupusas and sells them every Wednesday. But, she told us that we didn’t need to pay, that she was proud of us and of what we were doing! She even made us a desert! It was such a sweet experience! 

I am so grateful for the gospel! I am grateful that the Lord answers my pupusa prayers and that this Saturday he answered my prayer of giving my mom an AMAZING man like Rob :) I am so grateful for our families and that we can be together forever! I know God's plan is perfect!