Mission Conference

Mission Conference Oct 2015

Hey fam,

16 months as a missionary!  It feels more like 16 days to be honest, time just flies by.  The week went well, no news on Jesus G, he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.  This week we got to go to Cordoba for a conference with about half of the missionaries of the mission, which was a blast.  It’s always great to listen to President and his wife.  In the conference, the focus was on the Book of Mormon and the Sabbath Day - 2 huge instruments in the role of retaining converts, as well as in our own personal conversion.  We talked about that the people we teach really only have one doubt, and that is if the Book of Mormon is true.  Because if it’s true, everything else falls into place.  

This week I also had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview for an 8 year old girl, who proceeded to teach me the 5 missionary lessons.  She will be the only member in her family, aside from her 23 year old uncle who is about to go out on a mission.  She was extremely prepared, and the sisters have only been teaching her for a month.  However, when Saturday rolled around, she showed up to her own baptism crying, due to problems her family was having.  After waiting over an hour, she decided to postpone her baptism for a different weekend. It taught me a huge lesson concerning our free agency as sons and daughters of God.  In the church we don't force anybody to do anything, we have to use our agency.  It was also good to remember that agency is a gift, it’s part of the process that we have to be able to progress.  There is a consequence for every decision that we make, be it a good one or a not so good one.  

We do have Halloween here, but it’s not nearly as big as it is back at home.  Investigators of ours are MIA, we were only in our area 2 days this week with the travel to Cordoba and helping the sisters with the baptism.  There is a branch mission leader, and there are about 6 youth in the branch.  I didn't teach YM, this week I taught YW!  There were only 2, and I taught about giving thanks.  We organized an activity for the Friday after Thanksgiving, to have a Thanksgiving of our own down here. Sunday was my second Fast Sunday in the ward, which was filled with quite a bit of silence. This week I will be in Helaman studying. 

It is beginning to feel a bit more like spring now.  Today I made peach cobbler...didn't exactly come out the way it was supposed to, but the flavor was there! Sounds like things are going great at home!  I am glad that everybody had a good week.  

Love you all!

Elder Mangum