Live, Laugh, Love

I have experienced many adventures and miracles this week.  First off
our Zone and another Zone in our area sang the National Anthem at the
Round Rock Express Baseball game and it was so much fun!  They have a
video of us and some pictures on the TSAM Facebook page!  We got there
and it started to pour rain on us and they had to postpone the
baseball game at first but then the weather got better.  A lot of people from
our Branch came to the game for family night just to hear us sing and
they were all cheering for us...it was great!!  This week the weather has
been a little bit nicer.  On Tuesday morning my companions and I went
running and about 10 minutes into our run it poured on us and we were
completely soaked in about 2 minutes.  When it's rainy here it's also
super humid and really hot.  We've had quite the experiences with bugs
this week!  They are so much bigger here!  We were eating lunch one
evening and decided to open our back door because it was so hot in our
condo.  Well we opened the door and all these spiders about the size
of a nickel came flooding in!  It was quite a funny experience.  I
introduced myself as Alyssa Mann this week and laughed because I
haven't done that ever before.  We had some awesome lessons this week
with some of our investigators!  We have been consistently teaching 2
different families and a man named Herminio.  They are all progressing
and we invited Herminio to be baptized but he says he needs to
continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray more before he decides.
We talked with a less active family this week and they said they have
a goal of wanting to be sealed as a family by the end of the year!  We
talked with them about temples and how we can help them achieve this
goal of theirs.  We had many miracles this week but I will share one
that happened.  One evening we were biking to a house of someone who
we were going to contact and we couldn't find the house number
anywhere (we were lost).  We kept biking and saw a woman sitting at a
table under a pavilion at a park and we decided to go ask her if she
knew where the house was that we were looking for.  When we got over
there we introduced ourselves and asked how she was doing.  She began
to cry and told us that she has been going through a really rough time
in her life. She explained what was going on and we sat down
and talked with her for a little bit.  We shared some scriptures with
her and invited her to read the Book of Mormon.  Afterward she explained
to us that we were a miracle to her and that she needed to hear what
we had to say.  I truly believe that Heavenly Father put us there at
that exact moment that she needed us.  I know that Heavenly Father is
aware of us and is always by our side.  The Holy Ghost is always there
to help us and guide us in our lives. It's so important to constantly
be in tune with the spirit and be worthy to have it.  I know with
all my heart that God has a plan for each and every one of us!  He
loves me and each and every one of you!  The Book of Mormon is the
Word or God.  I have gained such an understanding of it and have come
to truly know my Savior Jesus Christ more fully.  I love being a
missionary and sharing all that I know to be true with these wonderful
people!  I hope you all know how much I love each and every one of you!
Have a great week!

Con Amor
-Hermana Mann

Floods, frogs, and fire ants!!

Hola y'all

Y'all are missing out!  This week has been full of adventures.  The
weather has been crazy here!  It's flooding everywhere and I've never
seen storms like this before!  After a rain storm something funny
happens all the frogs from the grass just come up and chill in the
road. (Haha) There are frogs everywhere!! Also there are a lot of fire
ants!  Both my companions got bit by a lot of them and there whole
feet were swollen.  They both were standing on an ant hill and that's
how that happened.  Fire ants are all over and luckily so far I've
been able to dodge them but probably not for long.  Both my companions
say fire ant bites feel almost like bee stings which makes me even
more nervous because I don't particularly like bees!!  Another funny
thing happened this week. We were meeting with a less active family
from our branch and a lizard crawled right by my foot.  One of the
little kids screamed and pointed it out to me.  Long story short I
caught the lizard.  All the kids were so fascinated.  There are lots
of lizards here too.  Last but not least I woke up one morning and my
trainer looked at me with a big smile on her face and said Hermana
Mann Guess what?!  You talked in your sleep last night in SPANISH.  I
laughed and she said that that's a sign that your learning Spanish!!
(Haha). I was so happy and we all laughed about it for a while.
Anyway at the beginning of the week  we went on exchanges again and a
member that just got back from her mission a couple weeks ago from
Argentina called us and wanted to come to some lessons with us.  Her
name is Alyssa Greenwood (we have the same first name!!!:).  She drove
us around to some of the farther houses in our area.  It was just me,
her, and Hermana Newman.  Hermana  Shepherd was with another sister in
a different area. Alyssa bore her testimony at the end of one of our
lessons and it was powerful and awesome!  On Saturday we had awesome
experience we taught a lesson to a family of 5.  We knocked on there
door and they were in the middle of reading the bible as a family!
They let us in and we introduced the Book of Mormon to them and taught
them about the restoration. They all have so much faith and by the end
of the lesson the dad was crying. We are going back this week to teach
them more and invite them to be baptized!  We gave them some Books of
Mormon so that they could all read as a family like they do the Bible
and they Committed to praying as a family to know that what we had
just taught was true.  They are such an amazing family and the spirit
defiantly touched my heart while teaching them!  Another awesome thing
happened this Sunday. We have been teaching one of our investigators
and we invited him to come to church and he did and after he texted us
saying he was so grateful that he came and he said he felt the spirit
and that he feels like he is on the right path!!  I love how prepared
these people are for us to come and share this wonderful message with
them!!  I love being able to witness how this gospel changes these
people's lives as well as it continues to change mine!!  I learn so
much more each and every day about this gospel and how important it is
for us to follow christ and I'm so grateful to be here and sharing
what I know to be true with such amazing and wonderful people!  I know
with all my heart that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God
and that he restored this true and everlasting gospel on the earth for
us today.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that
by reading it we can know for ourselves the truthfulness of it!  This
gospel has changed my life and continues to change my life everyday!!
I love you all and hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Mann

2 months!!

Howdy y'all

I can't believe it's been two months that I've been on my mission!
It's crazy how time flies when your working hard and having fun!!  A
lot of great things happened this past week!  First I got to teach
some people in our branch and some of our investigators how to pray in
English.  We teach an English class every Tuesday night to anyone in
the branch, or anyone in general who wants to learn English. It's a lot
of fun and a great way for people to make friends.  Also something way
awesome happened this past Wednesday and Thursday!  I got to go on
exchanges with another sister from a different area.  And guess
what!?!  It was a deaf area!!! I got to speak Sign Language with
people!!! That was so so awesome because I was able to take 2 years of
ASL in high school before my mission!  We had an awesome lesson in
English with someone in there area that they had been teaching and it
was neat to see how things work in their area.  On Friday I went back
to my area and we went and taught someone who we've been working with
and we got him to pray with us!  It was amazing!!  He said he would
pray about being baptized and that he would continue to read the Book
of Mormon.  A miracle happened this week.  We went to stop by a less
active member's house. This lady is 92 years old and she's still up and
going.  She doesn't look as old as she is and she's the sweetest lady
I've ever met.  While talking with her, her grandson came out from his
room and said he wanted to be baptized!  His name is Freddy and he's 16
years old.  He said he had talked with missionaries before and that he
had been reading the Book of Mormon, and that he has been praying to
know if it is true!  His mother is a less active member and we set up
an appointment to go back and talk with them.  Last but not least,
I would like to share with y'all is that we were proselyting in an
area and we came across the ice cream man!  We bought some Mexican ice
cream from him and talked with him for a minute, it was great!  (And
the ice cream was yummy too!)  Well it's been a great week and I'm excited
for the week ahead of me!!  I love it here in Texas and I couldn't
imagine myself with any greater people!!  I know that this gospel is
true and I've seen what it can do for people in their lives. I've seen
what it has done for me in my life.  I've witnessed so many miracles
here that have made my testimony grow.  I know Joseph Smith was a
Prophet of God and that he restored this true gospel on the earth
today.  I know that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father
and that He is always with us and He is mindful of us.  I love being a
missionary!  Hope y'all have a great week!  Remember who you are and all
that you can become!

Love,
Hermana Mann

Miracles

Howdy y'all,

I can't believe how fast time flies.  Every day goes by way too fast!
A lot has happened this past week and I've experienced many miracles.
I have a couple experiences I would like to share with y'all.  On
Wednesday last week we were walking around and contacting some
referrals that we had been given around an apartment complex, and I had
an impression come to me that told me to go back and knock on this
specific door.  I told my companions we had to go back, so we
did.  I knocked on this door and a man answered.  He was English
speaking.  The spirit overwhelmed me as I started to say that we were
missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We
talked with him for a minute and began to talk about prophets and the
restoration.  I bore my testimony to him and gave him a Book of
Mormon.  I began to cry after talking with this man not because I was
sad but because I was happy.  I have not been able to speak much
Spanish here and to be able to bear my testimony to him fully in
English and to feel the spirit so strong was a miracle for me.  I know
the Holy Ghost guided me to have that experience.  Another miracle
that happened this week was on Saturday morning.  My companions and I
got up at 6:30 AM to go running, and we locked ourselves out of our
condo (woops).  We tried to see if any of our windows were unlocked and
we tried to lift our garage door but we couldn't (it was locked too).
Well at that point we didn't know what to do.  None of our neighbors
were awake that early and nobody's lights were on, and we didn't have
our phone to call any of the Elders or anyone else.  We decided to
pray.  We walked around our area for a little bit to wait for
someone's lights to come on or a garage door to open.  Finally a house
light came on and we walked over to that house.  We knocked on the
door and a man walked out.  We explained our situation and he tried to
think of a way he could help us.  He then remembered that his next
door neighbor worked for a garage fixing company or something like
that (who would've thought).  We then went to his house and knocked on
his door.  Both of them came and worked on getting our garage door
open.  I love how Heavenly Father watches out for us and takes care of
us.  We were guided to that man's house for a reason! Those are just
some of the miracles I witnessed this week.

We went to one of our less active members house on Saturday as well.
Her name is Hermana Llanes.  She is from Cuba and is the nicest lady I
have ever met.  She made us dinner.  It was one of her favorite things
to make from Cuba.  It was like a roast with rice that you mixed with
crackers.  It was really yummy but a lot of food.  Then on top of that
we had cake and some Blue Bell Ice Cream (the famous ice cream here)
mmmmm!  But I was so stuffed I though I might throw up!  My companions

were laughing at me and said "welcome to the
mission life" (haha)!  This week we had our new sister training meeting
back in San Antonio.  On our way there we stopped at one of the
largest gas stations in the Nation. It's called Buc-ees!!  We got some
super yummy cinnamon roles there!  We continued our journey to San
Antonio and had a wonderful meeting with our Mission President and his
wife.  They are such great people and there family is wonderful! The
next day my trainer (Hermana Shepherd) had a meeting that she had to
go to that took up the whole day.  So Hermana Newman and I took the
reins and went to work! We contacted our progressing investigators and
went door knocking around that area!  We were so nervous that we
weren't going to be able to speak to these people but guess what....
another miracle happened and we were able to communicate with those we
came in contact with, and we even set up more appointments to come back
and teach more with some of the people.  The gift of tongues is real!

Well I want to end this email and share with y'all about how much I
love General Conference! I learned so much this weekend from all those
who spoke to us.  First of all I know that God calls prophets and
apostles to teach us and guide us!  I loved many of the talks that
were shared.  I love our Prophet and I know that he speaks from God.
I love what he said and I quote "May we choose the HARDER right
instead of the EASIER wrong".  It is so important for us to choose to
work hard for the things we want in our lives.  "Our choices determine
our destiny"!  I know that the Temple is the Lord's house.  I'm so
excited to know that we have 4 more temples that are going to

be built on the earth for us today.  I recently re-read a conference talk that was

back in April 2011 by President Tomas S. Monson and it talked about the

importance of being worthy to enter into the temple.  I know that the temple is a
place where we can go to feel closer to our Heavenly Father and I love
the peace and happiness that I feel there each time I go.  Lastly I
know families are forever I know Heavenly Father and His son Jesus
Christ love each and every one of us!  They know us better then we
know ourselves.  They watch over us and protect us and are always by
our side.  I know that Joseph Smith restored this gospel and its fullness. 

I know that the Book of Mormon is true without a doubt!  I love
my Savior Jesus Christ!  I have grown to know him more personally while
being on a mission.  The Holy Ghost is real.  I constantly feel its
presence guide me each and every day!  I love love love being a
missionary and sharing this true gospel with everyone I come in contact
with!!!  I love you all and I hope you know how much your Heavenly
Father loves you!  I challenge y'all to read and re-read the
conference talks that were just given and I promise you that you will
learn something new from them every time you read!

Con amor,
-Hermana Mann