Busy Week



Awesome service project!



Dear fam,

This week passed by in a blur.  Monday was P-day, and we has the whole zone come down and pay soccer and football in Rio Ceballos, then had a "splash" which means that everybody in the zone contacted and tracted for a couple of hours in Rio Ceballos to help us out.  Then I headed to Arguello with Elder Perez, and spoke only Spanish for the next 36 hours. Arguello was way different, they have a washing machine and a blender in their apartment, and AC!  We don’t.  No mountains there either, it is literally just a neighborhood, set up in a grid system, totally the opposite of my area. This week was full of giving blessings, pretty sure I assisted with 3 or 4, and also went out with the Bishop and gave the sacrament to a number of people.  We have 4 baptismal dates, 2 for the 26th of September and 2 for the 27th.  We’ll see who actually arrives, 3 of the 4 are either children or grandchildren of part-member families.  In Arguello, I ate 6 milanessas (steaks) in about 4 hours.  I am definitely putting on some weight!  This week was really good though, crazy that we are 5 weeks done with the transfer already!

Today was Day of the Virgin Mary for the Catholics, they had a parade. Also I got to do service on Saturday, I helped paint a school.  Got to do the basketball hoops, definitely one of the highlights of the week.

Answers to your questions - The most interesting food I ate this week was rice and pollo, pretty normal food here.  My Spanish speaking companion was from Peru.  I understand about 95% of the Spanish anybody speaks, so there were no communication issues.  I didn´t teach at church, and today for Pday everybody came to Rio Ceballos again to play basketball and soccer, because we have the best court and field.  I played basketball for like 4 hours today, it was a blast. There are probably 20 youth in the ward that are active.  My favorite Article of Faith is the 4th one, because that it my purpose as a missionary, to help others come unto Christ by exercising the principles taught in the 4th Article of Faith.  We use pass along cards, and especially the ‘I am a Mormon cards’. We don’t sing a ton, although we did this week when we were teaching the grandchildren of Hermana Cabrera who want to be baptized. We sang I am a Child of God in Spanish.

I am glad to hear everybody is doing well!  Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Parade for the Day of the Virgin Mary