Intercambios and Activities

Hey fam,

The week went really well.  Elder Flores and I had a great time in his area (the ghetto in Córdoba Capital) on Monday and Tuesday.  Having both started our missions in Rio Ceballos, we had a ton to talk about.  I think both nights we were just lying in our beds talking until about 2 in the morning.  We had a good time working together, and I "dropped cane"  in his ward's PEC.  I talked about the initiative from the stake that we have had since June, that they hadn't even started, and we got them to start it.  So it was not just a fun intercambio, but an effective and successful one as well.  

Wednesday and Thursday were both pretty normal days, teaching English.  We had 3 people show up, the high priest group leader, a less active YSA, and a youth, which is great that the class appeals to people of all ages.  I am also working a little with the high priest group leader, Hermano Sotelo, on how to make home teaching more effective here in the ward.  We have developed a program that divides the area into sectors, and each area has active members which will be the home teaching supervisor, and it will all be a lot easier for people. This hermano reminds me a lot of Brother Eccles.

Friday was the ward talent show.  We spent all morning cooking because we were worried we wouldn't have enough food.  I made cookies (they were pretty bad) and peach cobbler (which everybody loved and was asking for the recipe) , as well as a chocolate and dulce de leche cake.  My comp made lemon bars and salsa.  At the end of the day, we had a ton of food, over 70 people showed up to the activity (we had only had 90 in sacrament meeting the Sunday before)  and  bunch of participation.  I ended up singing twice with groups, as well as an act/sketch that the 4 of us missionaries did.  It was a huge hit, everybody loved the talent show.  At the beginning we were really worried, it was supposed to start at 7 and we only had about 10 people there, and nobody who had signed up to perform, but by the end we had more performances than we had originally thought we were going to have.  

Saturday we had another activity, this one for all the Melchizedek Priesthood.  It was more of a social activity, but there were several activities, focused on the importance of communication.  There were 14 of us, and 15 kilos of meat.  Cow, pig, sausage, ribs, there was so much food.  And homemade bread.  We ate really well on Saturday.  Yesterday was really good. The sisters had 3 investigators at church, and because of all of the activities we had, there were 30 more people in sacrament meeting than the week before.  It was really sweet to see the fruits of our labors.  At night we had the Stake Youth Missionary activity.  My companion and I gave a 10 minute training on how to knock doors and present ourselves as missionaries to people.  The goal was to show how to establish relationships of trust really quickly, and be invited back to the house a second time.  There were 4 groups of youth, about 25 in each group, so we had to give the training 4 times.  After the first 3 times I was pretty spent, but then an ex-mission president walked in to the last one...no pressure!  It went really well, all of the youth said that ours was the best (the sisters and the zone leaders also had to give 10 minute trainings on other subjects).  I really enjoyed being able to teach the youth, and get them excited for the mission.  We showed them several examples on how to knock doors, and had them participate in the examples, it was really good.  Both fun and spiritual.  Just like the mission should be!

I am glad to hear that Jake had a great birthday! I am loving his shirt in the pictures. That is awesome that Granger got his call, and Dan will be getting his soon!  I am super excited for conference this weekend, 3 new apostles will be pretty exciting.  It was sad to hear about Elder Scott, he was the mission president here in Cordoba 50 years ago, he holds a very special place in the hearts of the members here. We have a washing machine for laundry, and the clothes have to air dry. This weekend after conference are transfers, so that will be exciting.  There is a 99% chance that I get sent to a different area, which is pretty crazy, because it feels like I just got here.  

Love you all!

Elder Mangum 

The District

Paintball activity with the Zone in September

FHE's and P-Days

Hey fam,

The week was good, nothing too crazy here in Carlos Paz. We found quite a few new people to teach, but once again nobody showed up to church.  It’s hard to work all week and then Sunday rolls around and nobody comes, but we just have to keep our heads up and go work even harder this next week.  Monday night we had an FHE with a family, who surprised us by inviting two of their friends to come and listen to us, it went really well and we gave them both Books of Mormon with the commitment to read and pray about it. Wednesday were English classes, we only had 2 students show up, but all in all it went well.  

Thursday we were able to have an FHE with the less active Family Pelegri, and talk about the importance of having reading the Book of Mormon be a daily habit that will help them.  We are trying to help the dad, Alberto, stop smoking so that he can be able to baptized his daughter when she turns 8 in a couple of months.  This weekend we were able to also have a dinner with the Nielson Family, the RM who served here a few years ago who is living here for a few months.  Sunday we had several good classes, I really enjoyed the class in priesthood that focused on "orgullo" or being prideful.  We talked that a lot of times the spirit of contention comes from us being prideful.  So it’s a lot better to be humble!

Things with my comp are going well, there are only 2 weeks left in the transfer, so we are trying to go out with a bang and find lots of new people to teach.  He is going to play the piano in the talent show, I have no idea what I am going to do.  I plan on making cookies again, maybe that will be my talent.  

We didn't eat anything too crazy this week, quite a few lunches and dinners of empanadas. A normal breakfast for us is a cup of chocolate milk or maybe mate.  My favorite thing to do on pday is rest, maybe take a nap, and write everybody who takes their time to write me.  Today on Pday we went to the zoo in Cordoba and then played soccer with the zone. 

I am currently on intercambios cruzados in a different area, it is exchanges with all of the zone.  I am with Elder Flores from Mexico, the elder who replaced me when I left Rio Ceballos, so we will have a lot to talk about in the next day or so!  I am looking forward to it.  The exchange is from today until Wednesday.

They haven't told us anything about when we will have fast Sunday, before or after conference.  I do get to give a training to all of the stake youth next Sunday, they are having a huge activity for future missionaries, everybody from ages 12-25, and the Stake YM president, who lives in my ward, wants me and my companion to give a couple of workshops.  I hope I can be able to help the youth, we are doing a pretty good job in the ward, so hopefully we can make an impact on the stake level. It will be fun.  

I am glad to hear that everybody is doing well at home.  I hope everybody has a fantastic week, and that Jake has a very Feliz Cumpleaños!

Love,

Elder Mangum

Temple Trip

Hey fam,

The week was good.  On Tuesday we went to the temple as a district, and ran into the Tanners- the senior couple that is serving in La Rioja.  We got to participate in a session together and talk afterwards, which was really a neat experience.  They just happened to be in town because President had invited all of the senior couples for a BBQ at his house, and they were taking advantage of being in town and going to the temple as much as they could.

Tuesday night we also played a little volleyball with the ward as well as helped out with the Family History class.  Wednesday was English class, and a grand total of...0 people showed up. 

Thursday we had interviews with President, along with 5 hours of training by the assistants.  It was a long day.  The rest of the week was fairly normal, I attempted to make Mom's cookies...didn't come out anything like them, but we ate them just the same.  They don't have brown sugar like back at home, or shortening, which made it slightly difficult. 

Not mi madres cookies!

We did service on Saturday, loading a truck full of about 200 "tejas" (roof tiles) that took us a solid 5 hours.  My comp sliced his finger open.  It got pretty fun.  We were all in a line tossing them to one another until they reached the truck.  If you stopped paying attention, you get hit in the face.  Church yesterday went well, no investigators in church, but several inactive families came for the first time in years.  All in all a solid week, looking forward to General Conference in just a few weeks, that is always a really good time.

We ride busses and walk, it just depends on the day and if there is money to pay for the bus.  Nothing new this week, it was all pretty normal.  We do have a few dinners and FHE's with members set up for this week, which means we will be eating quite well.  The Talent Show is on the 25th, I am looking forward to it, although as of now we have all of 5 people signed up to do something.  But I have faith!  My favorite part of the area are the people.  I think I say this with every area, but it is the people you meet and the friendships you make that really make or break the area.  

I did hear that BYU pulled out another Mangum Miracle, that is awesome.  Sounds like y’all had quite the fun car ride home from Dallas! :)  

Love you all, hope everybody is doing well,

Elder Mangum 

Our District at the Temple

Carlos Paz at night

September

Hey fam,

The week went well.  Nothing too crazy, no eating of cow heart this week.  We got to teach quite a few lessons, and put more baptismal dates on people as goals for the 19th of September, but alas, they did not show up to church.  Looks like this week we will be spending quite a bit of time on the importance of the Sabbath day. All in all a good week, the ward started playing volleyball as a ward activity every Tuesday night, and the elders quorum president asked us to go.  We also decided that we would start doing English classes every Wednesday night, starting this week, so that will be fun.  All 4 missionaries in the ward are from the States, so hopefully we will be able to teach a little something.  

Sunday went well, the sisters had an old investigator of ours in church, so that was good.  Fast Sunday went pretty smoothly. Today for Pday we went to Cordoba Capital and a zone and played paintball.  It was a blast.  Definitely not something I was expecting to be able to do on the mission, but President gave us permission, so we went for it.  There are rumors that this week we will have interviews with president, and there is also a shot that we go to the temple as a district again. My comp will be participating in the talent show, we will see what I do.  This week we did set up an FHE where I will be making Mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies, so I will let y’all know how that goes.  The most interesting thing that happened this week was on Saturday night, I wasn’t exactly in the best of moods, and my comp had us stop in the middle of the street and pray to find somebody to teach.  He prayed, and then said "the next street over, house on the corner."  We went, knocked, and he just asked for a glass of water in his limited Spanish, and the woman let us pass into her house and we taught both her and the people who were there visiting the restoration.  

I did hear that Argentina was in Houston playing Bolivia, I think they won 7-0 or something like that.  I also heard that BYU had a crazy comeback win against Nebraska.  We had a Utahn move into the ward this past week, Kenny Nielson is his name, he went to BYU, and told me all about the game at church on Sunday.  Definitely made my day.  

Hope everybody is doing well.

Love,

Elder Mangum

Life in Carlos Paz

Hey fam,

Todo bien down here in Villa Carlos Paz.  This week was good, no staying home sick por lo menos. On Tuesday we set baptismal goals with a couple of investigators, but they ended up not showing up to church on Sunday so we will have to talk with them tomorrow.  Wednesday we had district meeting, we all got to know each other a little better and I gave a small training on the power and authority of our calling as missionaries. Thursday we had missionary correlation where we planned to have a Ward Talent show at the end of September, and Friday we planned with the Elders Quorum a Mother’s Day activity in October.  Definitely an improvement from when I got here, when the ward hadn’t had activities in months!  

Saturday the "Obra Misional" got to clean the chapel, so the 4 of us got to clean it all and at the end the Bishop showed up, so we had a small meeting with him.  He wants us to be a choir that he can call on in any given moment to be able to sing in sacrament meetings, or baptisms, or in any given circumstance.  We were all down for it, whatever it takes to gain his confidence!  Sunday we had an Area Broadcast via internet in our building for Stake Conference, Elder Gonzalez of the 70 spoke, Sister Marriott of the YW General Presidency, and Elders Cook and Hales of the Quorum of the 12. It went well, a couple of little hiccups on the way, we ended up doing Skype with the stake president who was in the stake center to be able to watch it. They talked a lot about the Sabbath Day and the importance of serving a mission.  They threw out a statistic that really blew my mind. In the Area South America South, of the 33,000 priesthood holding men between 18-25 that could serve a mission, less than 900 are actually serving.  They gave a good reprimand to those who aren’t yet serving, and talked quite a bit about the blessings that the mission brings, not just to our own lives, but to the lives of our families and friends, which I know from experience is true.

I am back to feeling mas o menos normal, still a little congested with a bit of a cough, but in this mission we don’t believe in excuses.  We are still feeling out the ward with the new Bishop, we had ward council for the first time with him yesterday, and we are definitely going to be quite a bit more organized.  If we want to talk about something in the meeting, we have to send it to the ward secretary via email before Wednesday, otherwise we won't be talking about it come Sunday.  

The best thing that happened this week was watching my son (greenie) set the baptismal goals with the investigators.  He looked at me like "do I do it" and I gave him the nod "Heck yeah!" and the look on his face when they accepted was priceless.  The strangest thing that happened this week was eating heart again...it is almost becoming a weekly thing, but it is always in the same house.  I made the mistake the first time I went of saying I liked it, and since then...

Somebody interesting that I have come to know in my area is one of the Young Men named Nico.  He reminds me a lot of Andra. He was baptized a year ago, and is the only member in his family.  He comes to church every week on his own, always finding a way to show up.  The sisters are teaching his mom and sister right now, but he is definitely a cool kid.  I started reading the Book of Mormon again this week.  Today I finished 1 Nephi 14.  This week, if you all could pray for us to find new people to teach, that would be great!

I Love you all, and I Love that Blue Bell is back (I never knew that it had left...)

Elder Mangum

Temple Trip

Our District at the Cordoba Argentina Temple

Hey fam,

I didn’t get transferred, I get to finish training my son Elder Lakey here in Carlos Paz.  It was a pretty good week, ended up in bed sick for 2 days, but other than that it went really well.  We found a couple of new people who are interested in learning a bit more, so we will be visiting them throughout the week.  

Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple as a district, the 2 sisters and us 2 elders.  It was a really neat experience.  The session was supposed to start at 9 and we showed up at about 8:57, but we made it, and it was great.  I really felt quite a bit of comfort, at a time where it was definitely needed.  It is a smaller temple, only 1 endowment room, but it is really, really beautiful inside.  

It was also a week of goodbyes for one of the sisters here, as she finished up her mission.  Sister Carrasco from Peru has been here ever since I got here, it will be weird not having her in the area.  There were quite a few "Family home evenings"  which were excuses for almost the whole ward to get together and eat and say bye.  Sister Dennis from Utah is the new missionary in my district, which means that all 4 of us are from the good ole US of A.  It will be tempting to have all the meetings in English, but I won’t do it.  

The ward is doing well, this week we have stake conference coming up, but you can already feel the changes in the ward, just with the way that the bishop and the new counselors are.  It is going to be fun.  Something that I studied this morning was Abraham 3:22-23.  What stuck out to me was that "God saw these souls, that they were good. And he stood in the midst of them and said, these I will make..." (rough translation from Spanish) What sticks out is that I get the feeling that when God saw the souls, that they were good, He did a lot more than just watch them, but was an active and involved Father who helped them, who "stood in the midst of them" and "made them" his rulers. God is not a passive Father, but a Father who takes part in the lives and development of His children.  That is something that really stuck out and inspired me this week.

I love the family theme for the year, it has the approval of Elder Mangum.   Sounds like everybody is excited for school, we will see how long that lasts!

Love you all,

Elder Mangum

Some other pictures from the last couple of weeks - 

Zone Conference August 2015


The T-Shirt that our District Designed

Waiting for the Bus

Service and a new Bishop

Hola fam,

This week went well.  It absolutely flew by. We are now in the last week of the transfer, which is pretty crazy, it feels like I just was picking up my greenie from the mission home! This week my comp and I were both pretty sick, flu-like symptoms, but that didn’t stop us from getting out and working.  Wednesday we had district meeting, which is always fun, I have the best district in the mission.  We did interviews, and then I had to go and write the end of transfer reports.  Before the mission, I had no idea that there would be so much paperwork!  

Thursday we were able to visit one of the families that Elder Campello and I found, and we taught them The Restoration, and committed them to read, pray, and come to church.  Unfortunately, they didn’t come to church. Saturday my comp and I had the spirit of service.  There was an activity planned to help an hermano load up roof tiles in a truck (over 1000) that the elders quorum president had made and then drive them to his own house, so we went to go help.  Unfortunately, they had cancelled the activity on Friday night and had told everybody, except the two gringo missionaries. So we show up at the house of the Elders Quorum President ready to work at 8AM, but nobody else was there.  We ended up helping the Elders Quorum with some work he had, then went to a member of the bishoprics house to go dig a trench, and then went to another member’s house to chop firewood, all before lunchtime!  It was a pretty packed day.

Sunday was interesting.  We got a new bishop in the ward, Obispo Pascualon, an older member that is about 75.  There will definitely be some changes in the way things are run, but it will be good.  I have no doubt that our leaders, both local and churchwide, are called by revelation!

We have planned to go to the temple tomorrow as a district, which will be really good.  The ward handles more of the retention phase of the work.  The plan in the mission is that all recent converts go to the temple to do baptisms ASAP. Nothing too out of the ordinary this week, other than the new bishop.  My favorite time of day is the studies that we do in the mornings.  The toughest part of the schedule is having to go out and work after eating a really heavy lunch.  I am well into my second pair of shoes, there may be a few small holes.

Crazy that it is already time to go back to school.  Summer definitely flew by!  

Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Zone Conference

Hey fam,

The week was really good.  We had the zone conference on Tuesday, which was really enlightening.  We focused on winning more references from the members and on the Atonement.  That is a topic I am really starting to focus on in my personal studies.  On Friday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, I was with Elder Campello from Brazil.  We found 7 new investigators in one day!  2 separate families, without knocking any doors!  All we did was talk to a lady at a bus stop and it ended up in 7 new people who want to learn more about the church and the gospel.  A really fun day, the first time I had worked with a Brazilian, which was a lot of fun.  We also visited a family in the ward that is from Brazil and when we went, they all spoke Portuguese, which was cool because I could actually understand a good part of it as well.  

During the zone conference we also had a training from Elder Muñoz (one of my ex comps) on the Book of Mormon.  We talked about the converting power that the Book of Mormon has, and just how important it is to use in our teaching.  The amount of chapters in the Book of Mormon that are dedicated to the Atonement...there are quite a few!  The whole thing really is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ!" 

Saturday was Sister Carrasco’s birthday, one of the sisters in my district, so we had lunch with them, the zone leaders, and members.  We got to have cow heart again!  Delicious...not! Sunday was really good, talking about the eternal responsibility and calling of being a parent.  It is the only calling of which we will never be released.  

My comp and I are doing really well.  We are in the flow of things, it is crazy to think that there are only 2 weeks left in the transfer.  Gonzalo is doing well, still going strong in coming to church and everything.  The next step is getting him the Aaronic Priesthood.  Something new this week, check out Mormon 9, it is full of good stuff!  

Glad to hear that every is going better back at home, prayers and fasting from the West Zone here in the mission have been headed up to Virginia.  Sounds like seminary will be a lot of fun these next few years!  

Love you all,

Elder Mangum

Gonzalo's Baptism

McDonalds and Walmart in Argentina...some things never change!

Hey fam,

This week was a good one. Gonzalo got baptized on Saturday, and both him and Dana got confirmed yesterday.  Tons of people showed up for the baptisms and confirmations, we had the highest attendance yesterday of people in sacrament meeting since I have been in Argentina (133!). 

This past week we had a zone meeting, and talked about the importance of both asking inspired questions and listening.  Elder Holland has said that if we will listen to what our investigators say, they will tell us exactly what their needs are.  Friday night was a reception for an RM that just came back into the ward after serving in Peru.  That was a lot of fun, we had a few nonmembers and lots of less actives show up to that.  The highlight was probably my companion knocking the huge cake onto the ground...which we later ate, but the people who were serving "accidentally" forgot to give any cake to my comp!  We got a laugh out of that.  Saturday was the baptism of Gonzalo, in which I sang with the youth of the ward the EFY Medley, in Spanish.  It was a really good baptismal service, with a lot of support from the ward.  It is really interesting to see just how much the relationship between the missionaries and the bishopric and ward council has improved in the past 2 months, and in the past 3 weeks especially.  The attitude of the missionaries really does make a difference in a lot of different aspects, not just with the people we teach, but with the members as well. This week I was studying a lot in 3 Nephi, when Christ came to the Americas.  What probably stuck out the most to me was when he talks about the importance of following His example, and doing what we have seen Him do.  

The training is going really well, we have gotten into a good routine, and Elder Lakey is a quick learner, and always tries to apply what we talked about in the morning that very same day.  It is nice to be able to slip into a little English every once in a while!  

The district is doing well, everybody is happy and having success, although the sisters did lose their cell phone on Friday...but stuff happens, que va a hacer!  We do have a zone conference tomorrow, with about a third of the mission going and we will listen to a few trainings from President and his wife and the assistants. Not really any new progressing investigators, we have to work on that, although we are teaching the girlfriend of a less active member, and have received a lot of references this weekend to visit this upcoming week.  Something that happened this week that really strengthened me was going to the baptism of Gonzalo, who after 6 long years finally made the decision to be baptized, and the joy that you could visibly see that his wife had.  Something unusual this week, well I broke a molar, and also ate cow heart and cow stomach!  Delicious!  Not sure how I managed to swallow the heart down, but I did! The mission really is full of surprises.

That is great about the family scripture study, Luke makes me laugh.  Give everybody my love back home.  I will be praying extra hard for Marc and his family. It is hard to swallow, makes me really grateful that yesterday was Fast Sunday and for the reminder that we are all tied together for eternity, no matter what happens. 

Love,

Elder Mangum

**Before Michael left, everyone in the family got matching ties to be worn on Fast Sunday.  Each month we fast together on the 1st Sunday of the month for important things to us.  The tie is just a physical reminder that we are all "tied together" both as a family and in our fast for missionary work and Michael, no matter where we are in the world.  We know that great strength, blessings and miracles happen when we unite our faith together in Jesus Christ through prayer and fasting.

"Family is the center of life and is the key to eternal happiness." 

- Elder L. Tom Perry 

Dana's Baptism

Hey fam,

It was another good week.  We did a lot of role plays in our studies, practicing the lessons, and it is amazing to see how much more comfortable and familiar my companion has gotten with the language as we do these practices.  This week we focused a lot on "How to Begin Teaching" and teaching the Restoration in our studies. This week we were able to teach Santiago again, this time about the Plan of Salvation, however it was obvious to see that he was more interested in developing friendships with foreigners than actually learning about the gospel.

I also had the opportunity this week to do a baptismal interview of a little girl named Dana Baca.  Her family had been less active but since I got here they have been coming almost every week. It was a really neat experience to be able to interview and talk with her about baptism and the promise she was going to be making with our Heavenly Father.  I ended up conducting the baptismal service yesterday, and my companion got to baptize her.  Less than 2 full weeks in the field and he is already baptizing!  I have pictures, but the computers this week don’t have anywhere for me to hook up the camera, so I will send them next week.  We have another baptism this weekend, of Gonzalo, on Saturday.  We are pretty excited, it sounds like just about the whole ward will be coming out for it.  

This week we gave several lessons to less actives on the importance of the family (we are making a big emphasis on that now, especially with the temple being practically next door and all of the possible blessings that these families could have).  We also talk a family on the importance of prayer, and the different ways that God answers our prayers.  We read Ether, chapters 1-3 and talked about the different kinds of answers that the Brother of Jared got.  It really is amazing to think just how much our Father in Heaven loves us, and how willing he is to always answer our prayers, and how His way to answer them is always better than our way.  

Crazy that Hayley is now a TEENAGER.  13 years old, hard to believe. Sounds like she had a great birthday! 

Answers to your questions - My comp and I are doing well, no more sicknesses.  This week we also had a period of 30 minutes where we found 3 different families to teach. Unfortunately, only one of them was able to be there when we went back for the second appointment.  I am eating more, but I am still as skinny as a toothpick.  We don’t normally go on splits, but tomorrow one of the youth is going to come work with us all day.  The youth are pretty cool, they all love soccer, so sometimes we play with them.  What I like best about my area is that I don’t see the same people every day, the opposite of my last area.  

Love you all,

Elder Mangum

Pray Always!