Busy few weeks

Hey Mom and Dad!

Hope all is going well and you are feeling better!

Aww! it looks like you guys had so much fun!

It is getting a bit warm here.  I haven’t had to wear a cardigan the past few days but apparently its going to get cold and rainy again this weekend.

We made it to and from Albuquerque safely, which is good.  Good prep for all the driving i’m going have to do this summer :)

It was good. Just a really long drive. 

So, Sister Hunt and I had been before but the other Sisters hadn’t, and the Las Cruces Sisters area had been closed and they usually drove,

So we called and texted the APs to find out who was supposed to drive.  They never answered never called us back, so we were like "oh well” and we drove.  

Yesterday we got our miles for the month and we were like oh no. That is most definitely not enough miles to cover the trip to ABQ.  So we called them again and finally they answered and they were like "the other sisters were supposed to drive"

Ah well, mission dynamics….

Interesting a HUGE group of missionaries is going home.  President said he is going to have to shut 20 areas.  and most of them are Sisters going home…

Not much is really much is going on with the work.  We are on the hunt for new investigators....again.  All of the people we are teaching suddenly vanished.  

But hey, Matt got baptized!  It was the most well attended baptism by non members that i have ever been to. Yes, we had a baptism this Saturday!  it was amazing! :)  Our investigator Matt was really excited for his baptism and spirit was so strong and he invited a ton of non member friends and family who all came.  He is doing great! Still progressing amazingly.  I have never met someone who recognizes answers to prayers as quickly and readily as he does. Its a gift that i am always striving to develop. 

He texted us this morning and said  "I got Sundays off from now on, but i wont get my promotion anymore. Its all part of his plan, just keeping my head up” and 

yesterday we taught about temples and he was like "Just get me the dates of the next temple trip and ill get them off now”.  Amazing!

The boy who was supposed to be baptized this upcoming week is pushing his date back for a later date, he is second guessing himself :(

We are just going to continue to teach and help him see that he is ready.

He said that he wants to read the entire book of mormon and that also he wants to be sure that he is doing it for the right reasons.  (A girl introduced him to the church and she has been his main fellowship)  We spent the whole lesson dancing around the issue, then after the lesson, when the girl left we had a discussion about why and the things he’s felt.  We told him to write down how he feels this has strengthened his personal relationship with Christ.  We have another lesson on Friday.

Heavenly Father has it all under control,  Sometimes i just want things to happen NOW, but its all in his timing 

It sounds like a lot of fun is going on at home :) 

Oh, and we found out that Elder Holland is coming to our mission!  SOOOOO excited!

We got snow here too!  Its crazy! Everyone in El Paso was in panic mode.

It was actually kind of funny.

Lately its gotten warm again here.  Today we are going to go hiking as a zone.  Which will be fun, but leaves no time for anything else during the day :/

oh well. 

WOW Mom and Jess!!! I’m super super impressed! Wonderful Facebook posts! I’m sure it reached a lot more than even you know :)

And giving a book of mormon out on the beach!  That is super missionary status!

Contacting using the book of mormon!

So, I don't know if i told you, but our zone, the Mount Franklin East zone, about 20 missionaries was chosen by president to be a test zone for a new book of mormon contacting thing.

All we do is talk about the Book of Mormon when we meet people. we explain how it helps build our relationship with Christ and how it testifies of Him.  We testify how it has changed our lives, then invite them to learn more.  It has been HUGELY successful.

We got to go contacting on campus this week (apparently the first time ever in UTEP history ) And we managed to get 5 possible new investigators from it. 

We have so many appointments this week.  So exciting.  Most people weren't really interested, but there were a few and this week we have 5 appointments set up with new people that we have met and wanted to learn more.  Just pray they all actually show up!  :)

Last weeks P-day, yeah, the Elders wanted to go to an indoor soccer place. Which meant we got put on teams and got to just run back and forth after all the Elders :/

oh well, at least we get our workout.

Yeah,  big big decisions coming soon for Jessica and me. :/

I’m sure where ever she decides to go, it will be good  Just lots of different factors to take into account.  I’ve heard that all the schools are good, but really expensive.

I would like to get a job as soon as I get home.  It would probably have to be a temp job because of the move but anything would be super nice.

I really like my new companion.  She is really really sweet.

Hope you are having a great day! 

Love you!

Em

Transfers...staying in El Paso

Hi Mom and Dad, 

Happy belated birthday Dad!

This week P-day is Wednesday because of MLK day.... Grocery shopping and zone sports again :) 

Zone sports is when our zone gets together to play sports. its fine. mostly all the Elders just want to play basketball all the time, so all the Sisters just end up running back and forth across the court for about 2 hours.  

The mission has had a big emphasis on being unified lately.  And since we are STLs we have to go every week or at least as often as possible.  

Its really up to the Elders what we do and they mostly like to play basketball...  we play chair soccer or volleyball. we are fairly unimaginative down here.

Sounds like you are having tons and tons of fun in St Augustine!

Transfers were yesterday.  I stayed in UTEP and Sister Thompson left.  

My new companion is Sister Hunt from Kaysville, UT.

Yes we are both STLs.  We were both STLs before.  She was in the Las cruces YSA, then it got shut so, nows she is here. We met at the big meeting last month.

And she goes home at the end of this transfer, so I will have another new companion in March.  I will most likely end my mission here in the El Paso University ward. 

We have had so many amazing things happen with investigators.  They are all awesome and ready to be baptized! :) 

Shannon’s baptism went really well and we have a few others that should be getting baptized later in this transfer. :)

This is Shannon.

Baptism of Shannon - El Paso YSA - January 2015

She has been investigating for a long time with several different sets of missionaries, has jumped wards all over the place.  And she finally got baptized.  She is really really sweet. 

Matt is doing awesome!  Working hard to get Sundays off work.

But the big miracle this week is Michael! He dated a member in High school and has been coming to church for a really long time.  And he finally admitted to his family this weekend (Who are devout Episcopalian) That he has been regularly attending a mormon church.  He is on date for next Saturday! YAY

I’m reading my way through the Doctrine and Covenants too.  I’m in section 55 I think.  SOOO good!  I’ve learned so so much! :)

Hope you are enjoying your warm winter weather!  

Its been 70 here the past couple days.  I’m hoping that this isn't the end of winer, because that means it will get hot again. I’m not ready for that just yet.

Love you!

Em 

Week of Miracles!

Hi Mom & Dad!

I’m glad to hear that you really like Pennsylvania! It sounds like a great area and a wonderful ward.  It sounds like you are all having lots and lots of fun!

Thanks so much for the package! I really really appreciate it. The chapstick was exactly what I needed!

Here, it can’t decide if it’s going to be warm and sunny or cold and windy.

Here are a few pictures of us squishing cans(mostly beer) for service for a member. The picture is Me and Sister Thompson and Heidi and Karla.

Sister Mangum & Sister Thompson - El Paso, TX

Me and Sister Thompson and Heidi and Karla.

I can’t believe Tanner is already done. I was thinking about that recently and wondering if he was going to be finishing soon.

This week has been a week of miracles! So many amazing people who we are teaching!  People who are so so so ready for baptism and church membership!  It’s amazing and such a great experience to teach the gospel to them.

We have a new investigator; she is so so so sweet. Her name is Meghan and we love her to death!  It’s a special circumstance; she isn't for the YSA ward but from one of the family wards in the area. We have special permission from president to teach her, so that has been fun trying to find people from a ward we have no idea about to be her fellowship and rides. But, she is ready for the Gospel!

Another new investigator is Matt. He took the lessons a while back for his member girlfriend, but now she is on a mission and he wants to do it for himself.  He just gets it. Which is really nice to teach. The other day he was looking at some pictures on a board in the building and he was like "Hey! That's my cousin!"  It was our recent convert Joe is a cousin of his who he hasn't seen in Years. The whole family has come into contact with the church in different ways.

This weekend was stake conference and Elder Robbins of the seventy was here. (He gave the talk in conference "which way do you face?")  It was really good. The Saturday night session was all about councils and how they should be effectively used and we had an investigator there, And at first I was really worried if he was going to get anything out of it. But then he was so excited, he said everything that was said was meant directly for him. Such a relief!  He is already inviting people to his baptism in February :)

We do have a baptism on Saturday. She passed her interview with President Miller and is excited.

So we also got to go to MLC this week. It was a really good training on Attitude. And we set the baptismal goal for the year of 2015. Then we got to stay up really late and plan a training for the next morning :)  It was really fun!

We also woke up to snow in Albuquerque :)   I got to go for a run in the snow with Sister Shaner (My MTC companion) and Sister Hunt who we drove up with and are the STLs in Las Cruces. 

Snowy Run in Albuquerque NM

It’s interesting being an STL. Basically we just deal with a lot of the health needs of the Sisters and do whatever the Zone Leaders want us to.  Whether that be telling a set of Sisters they have to come and participate in Zone Sports, no more excuses. Or helping the Sister that hurt her back really really bad and reporting back to sister Miller.

Anyway, it’s been a really good week.

Not really anything special for p-day today. We are running a bit low on miles and we have to go to zone sports, so probably just a nap.

Love you so very very much!

Em