Birthday and Conference

Hey Fam,

Another month in the books.  This week was great, Elder George and I really get along well and we put up some decent numbers.  With my new comp we are moving at a pace that I really enjoy.  We had more new investigators last week than anybody else in the mission, with 19.  We are both "experienced" so we want to take advantage of every moment and baptize the most people possible.

Wednesday was my birthday, and we celebrated by finding 7 new investigators and eating ice cream that night.  Nothing too fancy, tonight I have a belated birthday BBQ with some of the YSA in the ward. 

We were able to put a couple of baptismal dates, so we are hoping that this weekend to have a full font.  Gabriel and Selene por lo menos, if not more. On Friday we had a zone meeting, where we set the vision for the month and how we are going to fulfill our baptismal goals.  It was a lot about working effectively, taking advantage of every moment.  If an investigator isn't progressing, we gotta drop 'em (as harsh as it sounds). The Lord is hastening his work, and we have to hasten our pace to keep up.  

Hey, btw, my last area Marcos Juarez was part of  the District Belleville Argentina.  It just got announced that in a month, they will make it the Argentina Bellville Stake!  Crazy that I was a part of that for 4 months!

General Conference was fantastic, for the first time I was able to watch all 5 sessions in English, which was sweet.  I particularly enjoyed Elder Holland's talk, and the many, many talks on the importance of family and making temple attendance a priority and a habit.  Something I definitely have a goal of doing when I get back home.  

Hope everybody is doing well, and some final words from the prophet this weekend, Choose the Hard Right, and not the Easy Wrong.   The decisions we make on a daily basis have an eternal impact.

Love ya!

Elder Mangum

Printable from adashofsalter.com

Transfers and Easter

Hey fam,

Another transfer come and gone.  I am still in the same area, but my new companion is Elder George from Holiday, Utah.  I have about 2 months more in the mission than he does.  He is an old friend, we have been in the same zone several times, I remember when he was brand new in La Rioja, we did a few exchanges together, and now we are companions, crazy how things work out. The zone changed quite a bit, one of my buddies from the MTC, Elder Hansen, is now in my zone whitewashing an area and training, so it should be a fun transfer.  The week went well, minus the baptism in our own ward.  We had the font filled, but there were some last minute complications and we ended up not baptizing anybody, maybe after General Conference we will be able to.  However in the zone we had 5 baptisms, including one in the river in Rio Ceballos!   I was able to do the interview for the guy, who has really given his life a complete turn around from what it was before.  It is amazing to see how the Atonement can help anybody and everybody who allows it to. 

The Easter concert went really well.  We had over 1000 people show up. The Spirit was super strong, with the music and the testimonies from Presidente and Hermana Alliaud.  When we sang Handel´s Messiah to end in Spanish, everybody ended in tears, it was almost overwhelming the witness that He will reign forever and ever.  King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. There is no doubt in my mind that is the truth.  

Yesterday we had mission council, and for the 3rd straight month, our zone baptized more than all of the others. We hope to keep up the streak here in April, I am really excited for this month, we have some really great missionaries and with General Conference coming up this weekend, we will all have a spiritual feast and be ready to work, work, work afterwards.  

It is great to hear that y’all are doing well and staying busy.  Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Exchanges

Hey fam,

Today was a pretty solid week, the highlight being able to go work in Rio Ceballos and put a couple of baptismal dates with my old investigators that I left there. Didn't get to visit my converts or a ton of members, but that will come in time, I will be here until the end of my mission (unless something crazy happens on Saturday with transfers, but I doubt it). 

Tuesday I went with Elder Christensen to my old area, and we put in work.  I showed him around Salsipuedes, one of the towns that is also in the area, a place where President is thinking about opening up a branch there again. I worked quite a bit there a couple years ago (its fun to say that) and it really has progressed a ton.  The only thing different about my old area is that the missionaries no longer live in the same apartment, which was weird, but the new one is pretty fancy, so nobody is complaining.  Wednesday we had a zone meeting, where my comp and I gave a small training on asking inspired questions and extending strong commitments.  And if we commit somebody to do something without verifying afterwards, it's as if we had never done it in the first place. 

The rest of the week was business as usual, visiting and teaching the people we have set up for baptism this next weekend.  At church on Sunday we had 4 investigators at church, Natalia, Jessica, Serene, and Gabriel.  We were expecting three more, but they couldn't make it for various reasons, but they will be getting baptized in April now so its all good. We still hope to have at least 3 in the water this weekend, and in the zone at least ocho.  The choir is coming along really well, y'all need to look up "Hallellujah Motab virtual choir." We sound like them now.  

In my pdays we usually hit up downtown Cordoba because we are so close.  We teach at the temple once a week mas o menos, on the grounds or in the waiting room. The choir practice is in downtown Cordoba, not too far, its the place where we always have mission and zone conferences. The stake BOM/FHE challenge has died down, the first couple weeks went well, but I don't know if we will be getting to the goal that we set with the Stake President..uh oh. All the contacting we do on the street is the Easter Initiative. The 82 year old grandpa didn't get to church, but next week he should.  

Sounds like you all had a busy week, and have another busy one ahead of yall!  Love hearing how everybody is doing.

Love y'all,

Elder Mangum

Hallelujah Chorus Video

P-Day Pictures

Baptismal Interviews & Music

Hey fam,

Another week in the books.   It was a good one, I did another baptismal interview.  We ended up with 3 investigators in the chapel, all with baptismal dates for the 26th of March, so we are pretty excited.  Jessie, Milagros, and Micaela.  Plus we found a boatload of new investigators to start teaching this week.  

Crazy stories this week, I don't have any.  We did have a zone conference with President and two other zones, we recieved trainings based on the talks given in the worldwide missionary training in January.  It was enlightening, a big focus on the doctrine of Christ. The importance of baptizing everybody.

Friday we had a huge BBQ and I did another baptismal interview, he got baptized on Sunday night,the nephew of a member. It was cool because all of his family came, and none of them are members, and the grandpa (who is 82) asked "Can I be baptized right now too?"  But he was dead serious, he said that he felt like it was the right thing to do and that it was what God wanted.  He lives in our area, so we will definitely be working with him this week!  Another miracle in the MAC.

You asked about the missionary choir I am in.  We will perform for the 5 stakes of Cordoba Capital for a big regional Easter conference. The whole choir sings 8 songs - Hallelujah, Come though Fount, He is Risen, I Believe in Christ, Simple Gifts, Bound for the Promised Land, Lillies of the Field, and Where Can I turn for Peace.  Then you have various duets, solos, etc. But I'm not a good enough singer to be asked to do that haha. They actually did cuts, and kicked people out of the choir who couldn't sing...luckily the guy in charge of doing the cuts was Elder Lakey, my son, so he didn't cut me haha.  And I don't sing THAT bad, I can match the guy next to me at least.  

Speaking of music, I am the ward pianist now! I have the gift of tongues, and music is definitely a foreign tongue!  I play the piano 10 times better in the mission now (having hardly ever practiced) than I ever did back home.  Pretty crazy when I sit down and start playing.  I actually help out a little in the choir with piano as well (playing the parts, the easy stuff). 

This week is key to end March on a high note and start the next transfer on a good foot.  Transfers are the 28th, this week I get to write reports on all 22 missionaries in the zone.  And exchanges with Rio Ceballos and the assistants, it will be a packed week. 

Glad to hear that everybody is doing well! Tell the fam in Dallas hi! 

Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Lautaro's Baptism

Lautaro and Elder Mangum

Hey fam,

It was a good week.  Not too great as far as numbers in our own area went, but the zone had 4 baptisms on Saturday, 3 of which were in our area.  The meeting on Tuesday with the Stake President went well (our mission president wasn’t able to make it, an emergency came up.) With President Paolantonio (an old friend of mine from back in the day in Rio Ceballos, Catalina the convert we baptized is his neighbor) we made a Stake Mission Plan.  Every companionship in the stake (all 11) need to have 5 FHE's in the month of March with active members, and somebody else invited (less active, recent convert, non-members).  That way we can improve not just the baptisms, but also the retention and reactivation in the stake. In addition, the focus of these Family Nights will be the Book of Mormon.  The theme from now until stake conference (May 15th) is to Flood the Hill Country of Cordoba with the Libro de Mormon. We will be giving copies to the members so that they can give them away to their friends, the goal is 15 copies given away by the members in the month of March in every ward/branch.  

Wednesday we had a zone meeting, where we presented the Stake Mission Plan to our missionaries and reemphasized many of the things taught by Elder Bednar and in the World Missionary Training.  We passed the vision of the month to the missionaries, with a big focus on the Book of Mormon as well as verifying commitments.  With those two, we are ready to see the zone explode with baptisms.  De hecho, we are already seeing it.  

The rest of the week was business as usual, teaching and finding.  Saturday I had the opportunity to do 3 baptismal interviews, and in one of them the youth asked me to baptize him.  I had seen him around the church (the other elders were teaching him) and played basketball and soccer a few times, and at the end of the interview he surprised me by asking me to do it.  It was neat, because with almost all of the baptisms I have had, we almost always have members perform the ordinance, it was fun to get back in the water.  

Sunday we only had 1 investigator in church, Jessica, the girlfriend of a member.  She would already be baptized, but she is currently living with her boyfriend, so we can't baptize her until they get married, and they are in the process of doing that, but it could take a while. So we have a lot of work to do to find people this week so that we can complete our goal before the end of the month.  Did I mention that I am in the mission choir?  We have rehearsals every Sunday, and we will be doing a sweet Easter Program.  I love Easter, my favorite time of year (and not just because my birthday is 3 days later...)

Sounds like y’all had a pretty busy week!  I always love hearing what y’all are up to. The apartment is fun, but today we got a phone call, there is an emergency transfer and one of the other elders is leaving, and they are sending another elder to live with us.  Should be interesting!  We shall see how it goes.  The hardest part of the area is the bikes.  I definitely prefer walking, but it’s hard to argue that the bikes aren't more efficient as far as time goes.  

Love you all

Elder Mangum

Baptisms and a Training

Hey fam,

It was a solid week.  Didn't go quite as planned, but then again we kind of get used to that in the mission.  Of the 8 people we had lined up for baptisms on Sunday, only 2 made it to the water, Richard and Lacus (there was a third one who had his interview and showed up to be baptized, but his dad said no at the last minute and they walked out right before the baptismal service, second time that has happened in the mission). 

Wednesday we had an Area Training from Elder Bednar (for the countries Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.)  It lasted 3 hours, and was the first training of its kind.  Almost 10% of the missionaries in the world are located in those 4 countries.  The end was a Q&A session, which was pretty interesting (Elder Bednar was in a chapel in Buenos Aires, we were watching by satellite, so only the 4 missions there could ask questions).  I learned a ton, a huge emphasis on the Spirit and other things (I can't remember any of the words in English...compromisos, el modelo de aprendizaje, y la verificación.) 

The rest of the week was business as usual, Sunday night we baptized which is always a good way to end the month.  Yesterday was Mission Council, where all the ZLs and Sister Leaders meet together with President and we talk about the things going on in the mission.  President gave us the preview of the Easter Initiative, there is a new video that will come out March 15th for the members, but Pres already had access to it so we watched it.  Unfortunately, only the English version is available for now, so my comp volunteered me to do the translation.  It’s a really good video, I am excited to put a big focus in the zone in using it.  The title is Hallelujah.  Easter is a great time of year to be a missionary.  

Sounds like y’all had a crazy week! Britt couldn't wait a couple weeks for a brotha?  Haha that is awesome, I am glad to hear that all is going great in casa.  Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Working Hard

Hey fam,

It was a good week.  Pretty busy, a lot of work, being a ZL isn't as easy as they make it seem.  My hairline is receding even faster than before.  4 districts in the zone.  11 companionships in total, including the assistants to the president.  But it’s been fun, we have 8 baptisms lined up for this weekend in my area (between us and the other companionship), so we're praying that it will all work out!  Truth be told, I don't remember a ton of details from the week.

Tuesday we worked ourselves dead finding people and putting baptismal goals for the 28th with 3 people.  We had ward council as well that night.  Wednesday we stayed in our area and went to the District Meeting of the DL who lives with us (every week we choose a different meeting to go to)  and guess who decided to make a surprise visit?  The mission president.  First time in my nearly 2 years here that he has done that, but it was cool.  We did intercambios with one of the areas, Arguello, and afterwards ate 3 litros of ice cream in one sitting between the 4 of us. (The ice cream here is super cheap...a cone with 2 scoops here is the equivalent of a dollar back at home). 

The rest of the week was work, work, work. Friday we went to the temple, which was neat, the first time since Carlos Paz that I have been able to go. Being a ZL, and over the temple, I can pretty much go whenever I want. Special privileges, it’s pretty cool.  Sunday was good, it’s nice being back in a ward where my only worry is that my investigators get to church. 

This week I hit 2 Nephi 2, a chapter full of "nuggets" as Brother Brame would say, I encourage y’all to check it out.  There is an opposition in all things, but we are free to choose for ourselves. Or as President Hinckley said "You can be smart and happy or you can be stupid and miserable. The choice is yours." 

We are teaching a boat load of people, but the ones who should be baptized this weekend are Javier, Richard, Jessie, Ruben, Lautaro, Lucas.  A normal zone baptizes 10 a month, in the zone we have 12 lined up for this weekend alone.  Nothing too different in this area, although I am on a bike for the first (and probably last) time in my mission. This week we have a Broadcast/training from Elder Bednar on Wednesday.  4 months from today I land on Texas soil, hard to believe.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mangum

Hill Country of Cordoba

Hey fam,

This was a good week.  Learning the ropes as a Zone Leader has been fun.  I love the area, it is great to be back in the hill country of Cordoba.  Both the areas of Rio Ceballos and Carlos Paz were this type of scenery and climate, so it feels very familiar.  Those were also my two favorite areas, so its an added plus.  In the ward we have 4 missionaries, my comp and I, Elder Coombs from Utah, and Elder Aldaz from Ecuador. We are all in the same pension, which is fun.  Everything in the pension works as well, the fridge, the microwave, and we even have a washing machine, perks of being a Zone Leader. We have the biggest zone in the mission, with 22 missionaries.  The zone includes the mission offices and the temple, so we have permission to go and teach investigators on temple grounds whenever we want.  

Last Monday was fun, a bunch of missionaries from my old districts hung out and we went to a Peruvian restaurant, and did bowling and walked around downtown. Tuesday it was back to work, we visited a few people here in the area, and had to organize a splash in Villa Belgrano, the area where the mission home and temple are located, because the 14 missionaries who were going to train had 3 hours of free time, and President wanted to put them to work, so he called us to organize it.  We got a map of the area and split it up into sectors, and made companionships of those who were going to train (the greenies still hadn't shown up yet) and we got to work.  In less than 3 hours, we found 20 new investigators for the area, which in that area, is unheard of.  Think of the neighborhood where the Houston Temple is located, it was the Argentine equivalent of knocking doors there.  I found a pretty cool family, Daniel who is a doctor, has his wife and 3 kids, the Elders who work in that area went on Saturday and have another appointment with him tomorrow, hopefully it will keep going well!  Wednesday and Thursday it was working in our area, and on Friday we had a zone meeting.  Elder Castro and I gave a small message, sharing the zone vision of baptizing 33 people this month and using all of the mission tools that we have at our expense.  We shared the last chapter of John as motivation.  I then went to a "rendir cuentas" (in English that would be...Accounting?  Basically giving reports of investigators) of one of the districts, it was..interesting to say the least.  Can't go into too much detail, not a ton of time to write it all out. That night I went to Rio Ceballos to do a baptismal interview, the girl never showed up, but it was cool to go back to my old area, truth be told it felt like coming home, I got to talk with the bishop of the ward for a solid hour and catch up on how things were going.

Saturday was more work, and Sunday we had 2 investigators in church, Ruben and his dad, who is also named Ruben.  Ruben Jr. has a baptismal date for this next Sunday, so we'll be praying for that.  Today we went to Rio Ceballos for Pday, we hiked up to a waterfall (truth be told, pretty pathetic waterfall) and grilled choripan (sausage on a bun mas o menos). It was a long day, I am pretty beat, but the whole zone came out and we did it together, which was the goal.  More zone unity, something that had been missing.  It is harder, trying to do these things with a zone, in a district there were 4 or 6 of us, now we are five times that amount.  But all in all, it went well, no complaints from anybody por lo menos!  I started the Book of Mormon and the New Testament again this week, hope to finish both by my birthday.  Read your scriptures every day, it may seem like something small, but it will make a huge difference! 

I have had some pretty good meals already, it feels so much better to be back in a city type of area.  There is a shopping (like a mall) a couple blocks from our house, and it feels like walking into First Colony Mall back at home.  Mickey D's, a smoothie place, stores, and it’s even got a movie theater.  All with AC, which is pretty awesome, especially since we are burning up down here this summer. (Did I mention our house has AC?  only in our bedroom, but it’s still awesome to come home a the end of the day to a freezing cold room after being out suffering in the heat!) My tooth is good, don't even notice it.  Valentine's Day is a thing here, but not as big.  Church was good on Sunday, they had me bear my testimony.  Glad to hear all is going well back at home, crazy that Maddie is already heading out on her mission!  Time is flying by, February is already halfway done.  

Love you all!  Take advantage of every minute this week!

Elder Mangum

Transferred!

Hey Fam!

Another area come and gone.  Saturday night I got the phone call, my new area is Villa Allende as Zone Leader.  It will probably be my last area.  It is the same zone where I started my mission, so it’s kind of cool that everything has come full circle.  I will be doing an exchange or two in Rio Ceballos, that's for sure!  My new comp is Elder Castro from...guess where...Peru! My third companion from Peru, which will be a lot of fun.  He has about 14 months in the mish, I actually was in the same zone when he started the mission and remember him as a greenie.  I am pretty pumped, I am in another one of the strongest wards in Cordoba (well, technically I am right outside of the city...again.)  It’s funny, half of my areas have been "strong" wards, and the other half have been tiny little branches or annexes.  The best of both worlds!

This last week in the area was fun, we did some service for our branch president, helping him clean up his backyard and move some things.  Wednesday we had a zone meeting and were in Bellville all day, but it was good to be able to do the end of transfer interviews with the sisters and really see how much each of them had progressed in the past 6 weeks.  Truth be told, I might miss being in charge of sisters, sometimes it wasn't easy, but I definitely learned a ton!  The rest of the week was pretty normal, Sunday half of the branch decided to go on vacations to Carlos Paz, so there were only about 20 of us in the chapel, but really it was probably the most spiritual Sunday that I have had in the area. All of the old timers in the branch in testimony meeting shared their testimonies and conversion stories, which was neat.  We studied 2 Nephi 2 in Sunday School, which is always a fun class, there is definitely an opposition in all things!

Sounds like y’all had a great time this week, minus Jake.  Hopefully he feels better!  I am pretty excited for my new zone, it is the zone that baptizes most in the mission, and we intend to keep it that way.  Crazy to think that, unless something crazy happens, this will be my final area.  It is crazy how time flies!  Love you all!

Elder Mangum

Some older pictures from Marcos Juarez in Nov/Dec

A Splash and a Root Canal

Hey fam,

Another record breaking week in District Marcos Juarez.  Last week I had gotten a call from the sister training leaders telling me that one of the companionships I have in my district was in need of some help, not with obedience, but in terms of doing the work with animo (good cheer?) and enjoying it.  So we did a "splash" on Wednesday, where 10 of us (the 4 sisters, us, the ZLs, and 2 youth) went and just contacted people in their area for a couple hours.  At the end of the day, they had 36 new investigators, which is unheard of in that area.  The normal is 3 or 4 in a week...and we quadrupled that in a matter of hours.  In total in my district (the three companionships) we found 60 new investigators...more than 7 of the other 11 zones (A zone usually has between 14-24 missionaries, and finds 40 or so new investigators).  In other words, we killed it this week.  

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days in the work, we had an FHE with president and his daughter happened to have 4 friends over, so we took advantage of the opportunity and taught a little there, and one of them (Victoria se llama) showed up to church on Sunday.  Wednesday we were in Leones, I assigned one of the sisters to give the training based on the scripture in Matthew 16:24-26. Then the splash, which was a huge success, and showed everybody just how much we can do when we put our mind to it and have the right attitude.  Thursday and Friday was more work in our area.  Thursday I had to have a root canal...remember the molar that broke about 6 months ago?  It had started bugging me again, and I went to get it checked out, and they "operated" then and there, supposedly it was pretty serious.  I would explain it to y’all, but the truth is I can only explain it in Spanish, seeing as I had never had a root canal before in the states.  But the molar had 3 "conductos" and one of them started gushing out blood and wouldn't stop...it was a long 2 hours at the dentist office.  No pain meds, and they barely gave me anesthesia, hurt like heck during it. And my face still hurts, but no pain, no gain!  

Saturday morning I got a phone call telling me that I needed to travel to Bellville to do a baptismal interview for one of the ZL's investigators.  Antonella, mother of 3, super prepared, it was a really fun baptismal interview.  She knew everything, and had a testimony of every principle that we talked about.  She was baptized yesterday in the tarde.  Sunday we taught the 3rd hour lesson, on the Area Plan, which is a focus on The Sabbath Day, Self Reliance, and the Temple.  Then we had a surprise visit from a member of the 70 to our branch!  Elder Romeu from Buenos Aires, an area 70, came to talk to the youth specifically but ended up giving a charla to everybody, based on a few principles in For the Strength of Youth (language, music, friendships, etc.). It was only about an hour long and the left to go to one of the other branches, but it was cool to have a surprise visit.  Not quite like having the President of the Quorum of the 12 like y’all had at home, but still! Sounds like a pretty fun packed weekend. Alma 5 and 7 are packed full of good stuff.  

This is the last week of the transfer, they will call us on Saturday night.  Almost 100% sure that I am gone, already have 4 months in the area, and only 4 months left in the mission, probably headed to my last area.  Crazy how time flies!

Love y’all, keep on keeping on!

Elder Mangum