Heading back to Austin for my last transfer!!

Hola Todos!

        What a great week it has been!  Transfer news came today!  Drum role......I will be going back up to Austin!  I will be double covering Austin and Zilker Park!  My new companion will be Hermana Rueda!  I will still be the Sister Training Leader there.  I will be so close to my old area (Lake Travis) that I'm so excited!  Aww man I'm going to miss these people dearly!  My companion, Sister Landon, is staying here and is going to train a new missionary!   It's my last transfer of my mission and I'm super excited to finish out strong!  I love these people of Texas and never want to leave my mission!   

OK now I will tell y'all about my week!  First we had an awesome lesson with Jason, Pearl, and Precious.  We are now going through recent convert lessons with them.  We talked about missionary work and Jason expressed to us that he wants to go on a mission when he grows up!  He made a tag for himself too (so cute)!  They are doing very well!  Pearl is loving her new calling and enjoys learning more.  She's been watching all the church videos that she can and loves them.  They love doing family night on Monday's together and she has expressed to us how much their relationships are growing closer because of it.  I will never forget them! 

I finally fulfilled my dream of getting to play soccer at the border. On Monday we got together as a zone and had a Zone P-day in Eagle Pass. It was so much fun!  I've never been so hot in my life and so out of shape but it was definitely worth playing down there! 

I had the wonderful opportunity to bring Hermana Newman into my area with me for exchanges.  What a wonderful sister she is!  She is such a good listener, patient with others, charitable, diligent, understands her purpose, and is fully consecrated to the Lord and his work! We got to teach together, which brought so many memories back from when we were companions at the beginning of our missions!  We arrived at one of our lessons, Isabelle's, house.  As we were welcomed into her home all of the kids came running up to us to give us hugs, and then said, "we all have staff infections!"  Both Sister Newman and I looked at each other and we're like "oh no!"  We hoped and prayed that we would be OK and not get sick. The lesson with them went really well.  We taught the 10 commandments and showed little hand signs that they could do to help remember them.  Then we had them all draw them out on paper and say them with us.  It was awesome!  After the lesson we invited them to all put their pictures and drawings of the 10 Commandments where they could see them each day and remember to live them!  It was a wonderful exchange and I'm glad I got to experience that with Sister Newman.  

I had a back to back exchange this week so I also had another awesome opportunity to get to have Sister Ferrell come to Carrizo Springs and serve with me.  She is a wonderful sister full of love for the Gospel and those around her.  She is a hard worker and willing to learn.  She talked to everyone that she could while we were together. It was great!  We had the opportunity to teach Brianna together and it went really well.  We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and emphasized that repentance is joyful and is for everyone.  Brianna really opened up more than she has before and understands that repentance is possible.  We invited her to pray and to ask Heavenly Father if there is something she could change in her life.  She looks forward to reading in the Book of Mormon each day with Ana and discussing together what they learn.  I enjoyed our exchange as well.  

We had many opportunities his week in which we found some new investigators.  We have a saying now "eat when you find, find when you eat".  Because while eating at a members house they were having a cook out.  While at this cook out, the AC guy shows up and the Sister of the household said "sisters I want you to meet someone. His name is Jason and when he comes over to fix our AC he always asks us questions, and so I'd like y'all to meet him."  We gladly followed her into the other room where we met him.  We had a brief conversation about the church, got his information and he said we could come by to his house and meet his family soon.  Oh the joys of sharing the Gospel! 

Kris Poff is doing so well.  She is literally one of the sweetest people I've ever met and I will miss her dearly.  She is like family to me now (everyone here is) and it's going to be hard to say goodbye.  She made it back from Utah ok and is eager to continue progressing in the Gospel.  I'm so excited for the Sisters here to hopefully start teaching her husband soon.  I just have such a love for the both of them. 

        I had an experience this week that I wanted to share with y'all.  We went and visited a less active family (the Florez').  They are always busy and haven't been willing to act.  When we went by they were outside doing some yard cleanup.  We offered to help them.  After helping finish cleaning up they invited us inside.  They told us about their busy lives and how they don't ever really have time to do anything else.  My companion and I felt prompted to share the first vision with them and talked about Joseph Smith.  We bore testimony of the love that God has for each of his children.  Sister Florez said, "I want a testimony like that again, I want to be truly happy again."  She went on to say, "It's so easy not to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ because there are so many things in the way stopping me from doing the more important things."  We left them with an invitation to act and they actually accepted it this time.  Later I pondered what just happened in that lesson.  I thought to myself how important it is to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to not take the easy way out.  The Lord said: “Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made.”  I believe he is saying to each of us, be happy.  The gospel is a thing of joy.  It provides us with a reason for gladness.  Never forget who you are.  You are in very deed a child of God.  He is your Eternal Father.  He loves you.  He wants His sons and daughters to be happy.  Sin never was happiness.  Transgression never was happiness.  Disobedience never was happiness.  The way of happiness is found in the plan of our Father in Heaven and in obedience to the commandments of His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

        Regardless of your way of doing things in the past, I offer you a challenge … to square your lives with the teachings of the gospel, to look upon this Church with love and respect and appreciation as the mother of your faith, to live your lives as an example of what the gospel of Jesus Christ will do in bringing happiness to an individual.

Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel. Forgiveness is a mark of divinity.  This is a work of saving and assisting people with their problems. This is the purpose of the gospel.  Sometimes our lives get so busy with work, kids, school, extra curricular activities, callings etc, and with all of this we are prone to complain, frequently at home, often in public. Turn your thinking around.  The gospel is good news.  Man is that he might have joy [see 2 Nephi 2:25].  Be happy!  Let that happiness shine through your faces and speak through your testimonies.  You can expect problems.  There may be occasional tragedies.  But shining through all of this is the plea of the Lord: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30.)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!  Love ya, be safe! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mann 

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God"

Hola Todos!

        First off I hope all of you fathers had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday especially my wonderful dad!  I am so grateful to have him part of my life!  Love you dad!
        Another busy week has passed by.  I'm not sure how it all comes and goes so fast!  I am so excited for today because we get to go to Eagle Pass and play soccer on the border of Mexico! I have wanted to do this my whole mission and now I get to! We had so many amazing things happen this week.  First off Kris Poff got baptized!  Oh how happy I am for her.  I have come to love her so much since we've been teaching her and she has come a long way.  I'm so excited for her and her family and the things that the Lord has in store for her!  She went to Utah to be baptized there with the rest of her family and friends so sadly we weren't able to be there but, we were able to facetime her and she looked so happy and was glowing!  I can't wait to see her this week when she gets back! She already has some family names to go to the temple for! Oh how I love Family History and Temple work!
        Funny story for the week. About a week ago my companion really wanted to get her hair cut because apparently it's been a while since she's had it cut. Well there isn't a hair cut place around here. The closest one is about an hour away so..  finally the other day my companion was getting anxious and said to me "Sister Mann will you just cut my
hair"? I told her I had never in my life cut anyone's hair, I would be so sad if I messed it up!  She then said, "It's not too hard" and explained to me what she wanted.  As we went into our bathroom and got her all set up she began to get nervous, and secretly I was too, but I didn't want to show it.  Long story short..I DID IT!  I cut her hair exactly the way she wanted it.  Haha She loved it. That was quite the experience.
        We saw another miracle this week.  Ana, one of our recent converts, has another daughter Brianna that we started teaching.  She is about 15 years old and we taught her the Restoration this week.  We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she's been asking Ana all sorts of
questions and it's giving Ana an opportunity to teach her!  It's awesome!  We hope she continues to progress.
        On Friday Abby Guerrero, a member from our branch, came out with us.  It was so awesome!  We went to an appointment that we had set up and they weren't home, so Abby told us she had some friends around there that she would love for us to teach the gospel to.
So of course we did!  We saw many miracles that night and Abby was so excited to see her friends asking us questions and finding out more. I want to share one miracle that happened that night. We went by a family friend of hers.  Her name was Ana Sulikea.  She is an older woman and when we went by she was outside doing a yard sale.  We started talking with her and got on the topic of family history.  She told us all kids of stories that her grandparents and great grandparents had told her.  We gave her a family history card and tied in how families are import and that we can be together with them forever.  She said to us, "How did you know I needed this"? (Miracle)  She's going to start working on her family history and we are going to
go back this week and help her with that!
        My companion's bike broke this week so we have been walking a lot.  Luckily people are outside so we can talk to them.  It's still pretty hot and every day it's in the 100's but it's all worth it!
        This week we had the wonderful opportunity to go to San Antonio for Zone Conference.  It was amazing!  Elder Cornish from the 70 and his wife came to speak to us and train us on a few things along with our Mission President and his wife.  We talked a lot about the importance
of working with members and what that means.  We also talked about how to quote "Love people into the gospel".  Each missionary at this Conference was to prepare a 2-3 minute talk before hand incase Elder Cornish called on us to share our thoughts on this subject.  As I was
preparing for this I was able to ponder what that phrase meant. To "Love others into the gospel".   Elder Henry B. Eyring once said, "Thousands of times every day members of the Church are watched, by people curious to know something about our lives. Because we are under covenant to be a witness, we will try to tell them how the gospel has brought us happiness. What they think of what we say may depend largely on how much they sense we care for them.
          That was true when King Lamoni met Ammon, as we have it described in the Book of Mormon. Ammon had been captured by guards and brought to the king, who could take his life. But apparently within minutes King Lamoni recognized that Ammon cared enough for him to want to serve him. Ammon said, when offered high station, “Nay, but I will be thy servant” (Alma 17:25). Within days the king knew that Ammon was willing to risk his life for him. And then came the opportunity for Ammon to be a witness of God to the king.
          Those we meet will feel the love that springs from our long practice in keeping a covenant to “mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:9). It may not be in hours or days as it was for King Lamoni, but they will feel our love after testing our hearts. And when they find our concern sincere, the Holy Spirit can more easily touch them to allow us to teach and to testify, as it did for Ammon.
          I have learned from my own experiences that to love some one into the gospel is to patiently teach, live as an example of the believers, serve, and immediately show your sincere concern for the well being of another.
           I have grown such a great love for the people here in Texas. I have seen many lives change including my own. So that many others may receive the same blessings let us all continue to love others into the gospel.
          Elder Cornish bore testimony that God loves us more then we know and we are all worth something.  I echo his testimony.  I know that is true!  He quoted a scripture in D&C 18:10 "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God".  This scripture brought light to my eyes and happiness to my heart.  Please trust that God loves you.  Trust that he has a curriculum for your life. There is one way to be truly happy and that is Gods way.

I hope yall have a wonderful week! I love you.

Con Amor,
Hermana Mann

"Let us be first responders"

Hola todos!

       Esta semana fue muy bien! Vimos muchos milagros!  I learned a lot this week but most of all I have learned the importance of being a first responder and listening to the promptings of the spirit and acting immediately on them.  My companion and I had many experiences this week that have changed my life forever.  For some reason I had the prompting to bike more than usual this week.  The weather is only getting hotter but I felt like it would be a good finding opportunity to bike to each of our appointments.  While biking there were many promptings that I received that we should take a different route to get to our appointments.  We met so many different people who were put in our path for a reason.  One miracle that happened because of a prompting followed was that we ended up stopping by a less active member because we saw him through his window vacuuming as we biked past, and they are usually never home.  I called out to my companion to turn around and for us to go back.  When we knocked on their door he answered and came outside to talk with us.  After about 15 minutes of talking and hearing the things he was going through recently, we asked him if he had been able to pray and talk to his Heavenly Father. He told us he hadn't even thought to pray but that he would that night.   I have a testimony of following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and acting on them even if you're not sure exactly why.  You never know what the outcome might be.
       Jason got baptized this weekend!  It was a wonderful baptism and boy he was so excited!  One of the young men from our branch got to baptize him and Jason said to me after when I was giving him a hug that he was so happy to be closer to God now!  I love that kid.  Pearl
and Ana are doing so well. Pearl is loving Young Woman's and wants to invite all the neighborhood girls who are beehive age to come to church!  Their family has been watching a ton of church movies and they've been watching them over and over again.  We did a family night with them this week and we taught them how to do family night on there own, they are super excited to do that. Pearl was so excited and happy for Jason.  That family is doing so well! Ana recently told us that one of her other daughters, Brianna, wants to start meeting with
us.  We went over and taught her last night and she was super involved and excited to learn more!
         Kris Poff is getting baptized this weekend on the 17th!  She's doing so well!  When we went by on Tuesday this week she told us amazing news!  She told us her husband Jim's heart has been softened and he is willing to learn more. This is a miracle because just a little while ago he avoided us all together and wanted nothing to do with any of it.  He's seeing the changes his wife is making and sees her so happy and the miracles and blessings that are coming into their lives!  We are so excited for them both!
        I had the wonderful opportunity this week to go on exchanges with one of my lovely sisters Hermana Reeder.  She is one of the most positive, kind people I know.  We saw a lot of miracles together.  I loved that I got to work with her for a day and see how amazing she
is.
      The members here are great!  There aren't very many of them but they help us out whenever we need it, which I am very grateful for!  Almost every day this week we had a member come with us to a lesson.  One of my favorite experiences was inviting one of the members to come to a lesson with us and help us help our investigator start her family history.  It got our member to look more into her family history before our lesson, and on Sunday she gave a talk on family history and how us inviting her to the lesson helped her have more of a
desire to look into her family history.  She ended up finding names that she thought their work in the temple had already been done.  I know that as members go out with the missionaries their testimony is strengthened.  We love member missionary work!  We can't do it alone, we need the members help.  Our members relate so much with our investigators.  If you have not been out with the missionaries, or even if you have, I would invite you to do so!  Your testimony will grow, you will see miracles!
      One last miracle I want to share this week.  While we were at church yesterday a man showed up.  His name was Brandon.  He had been taught by Elders about a year ago and decided not to keep meeting with them. He said he had the feeling that morning that he needed to come to church.  He told us afterwards that he had felt the spirit and wanted to start meeting with us again!  I know God is aware of us and everything we are going through.

      I read a scripture this week in 1 Nephi 4:6 and the phrase “Led by the Spirit” stuck out to me.
6. '​And I was ​​​led​ by the Spirit, not ​​​knowing​ beforehand the things which I should do.'

     Sometimes it takes courage to be led by the Spirit. There will be times when the world’s logic and reasoning will suggest a course of action that is contrary to the Lord’s teaching. Elder John H. Groberg of the Seventy challenged us, “Be willing to take reasonable risks. We live in an age of reason, logic, facts, and figures. These can be useful if kept in subjection to faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.  But if they ever take precedence over faith in Him, then they are not useful and can be very harmful.“  … Nephi was determined to do what God wanted him to do even with
logic to the contrary. The scriptures tell us in 1 Nephi 4:6 that he went forth not knowing beforehand what he should do but knowing he should obey God and get the plates.... "I suspect had he listened only to reason, Nephi and his brethren would still be waiting outside the walls of Jerusalem. I sometimes wonder if by our listening to reason and logic too much, and not
trusting God enough, we may find ourselves waiting outside the walls of His holy city.”

I love y'all, I hope you have a wonderful week!  Be safe.

Con Amor,
Hermana Mann

Big baby bums, and answered prayers!

Hola Todos!

I can't believe how fast this week went by.  I had the wonderful opportunity to experience many great things this week and my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has grown even stronger.  I want to start of by talking a little bit about the meeting I went to this week in San Antonio (MLC-Mission Leadership Council).  It was one of the most helpful and motivating meetings I've been to on my mission.  We discussed a lot of things that I would love to share with y'all but I would like to focus on one important topic for today.  We received our new mission plan for this transfer and one of the things that stood out to me was to follow President Monson’s invitation to study the Book of Mormon daily.  Not just read it daily but study it daily.  This past April in General Conference President Thomas S. Monson spoke about this.  He said, "This morning I speak about the power of the Book of Mormon and the critical need we have as members of this Church to study, ponder, and apply its teachings in our lives. The importance of having a firm and sure testimony of the Book of Mormon cannot be overstated.  We live in a time of great trouble and wickedness. What will protect us from the sin and evil so prevalent in the world today? I maintain that a strong testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His gospel will help see us through to safety. If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so.  If you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you. If it is true--and I solemnly testify that it is--then Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  Because the Book of Mormon is true, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s Church on the earth, and the holy priesthood of God has been restored for the benefit and blessing of His children.  If you do not have a firm testimony of these things, do that which is necessary to obtain one. It is essential for you to have your own testimony in these difficult times, for the testimonies of others will carry you only so far. However, once obtained, a testimony needs to be kept vital and alive through continued obedience to the commandments of God and through daily prayer and scripture study.

My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives." 

Our Beloved Prophet has instructed us to to this very thing.  Let us follow the Prophet and obey his council. I know God knows us individually by name and knows whats best for us. He loves us.  As I have studied from the Book of Mormon each day I have come to realize how much it applies to me and how important it is to each of us.  President Gordon B. Hinckley once declared:  "Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts … the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

I undoubtedly enjoyed MLC and the things I learned.  I also had the wonderful opportunity to go on exchanges with the Lead Sister Training Leaders this week.  I love them and all that they do for this mission.  They both taught me so much!  We had success talking to some people in their area that day and were also able to do service, which is my favorite thing to do!  Sister Landon got to work with another wonderful sister in the mission (Sister Croney). She used to serve at the border and I sure do miss her!  They also had a lot of success working together. 

We found a family yesterday!  As we were walking we decided to knock on this door and a little girl opened up and said, "come in come in!"  We chuckled and asked if her mom was home.  Then her dad came to the door and happily invited us in.  We talked to them and got to know them a little bit and then started our lesson out by talking about families and then taught them the restoration. It was a great lesson and the spirit was felt in their home. They gladly invited us back this week and I'm excited to be able to share next Monday how it goes.  The family is the Garganza family (Rene, Laura, Bella, Jordan, and Chloe).

Church this week was wonderful Pearl (one of our recent converts) received a calling to be a Beehive adviser!  She is so excited and we are so happy for her.  Jason (one of her sons) is also getting baptized this week on the 11th after church.  On Friday Jason turned 8!  Our Branch President told us that when he was talking with him he asked Jason, "Why do you want to be baptized?" And Jason responded, "Well because Jesus the Christ was baptized"!  Awww! I love that family!  We are continuing to work on family history with them and are hoping they will get to go to the temple soon!

Kris Poff is doing so well.  She has come so far since we started teaching her.  She comes to church every week and absolutely loves it.  She bore her testimony this Sunday and shared her story with everyone.  It made me cry it was so sweet.  She has such a big heart and I'm so excited for her to get baptized on the 17th of this month!

        Before I finish up this email I wanted to share a excerpt from my companions weekly email that I find hilarious........ 

--Praying for happy days--

"As a missionary sometimes the days can get a little long but we frequently pray for eyes to see the good in each day and end laughing our way through missionary work.  One day as we were leaving Pearl and Anna's apts we saw them walking up ahead of us and Chicharrone (their dog was trying to leave with them). I started calling for her loudly and she eventually turned around and ran back to us. Just before she did Sister Mann laughed and said, "That's enough embarrassing me Sister."  We laughed and got in the car.  Well, Sister Mann did.  She locked me out and started slowly driving off (missionaries think this is hilarious because we have no other way to mess with our companions).  So I was walking next to the car and making faces at her through the window when I tripped and fell to my knees. Sister Mann thought I was faking and just pulled away!  So I got up and started fake limping behind her.  Of course this is when Pearl and Anna turned around.  Instantly, they started shouting, "Landon!  What happened?  Are you ok Landon?"  Sister Mann finally unlocked the doors and told them what was happening.  I got in and told her, "That's enough embarrassing me Sister."  She would not believe me when I tried to tell her that I really had fallen!  But she finally realized I wasn't a faker and felt terrible! Haha" 

--Praying to share--

"Later that same night we stopped by someone's house and Sister Mann asked to use their bathroom (her bladder is our secret weapon for getting through people's doors).  I sat and talked with them about family history and we were able to share a short message when she came out. 

After we left the home Sister Mann said, "Sister, two incredible things happened in there. I saw big baby bums and my prayer was answered."  There had been a cross stitch in the bathroom of two large baby bottoms getting into the tub. One had pigtails and one had a cowboy hat on. I really wish she had taken a picture because I can't quite picture it but it sounds hilarious to me. As she sat in the glory of this craft she had an impression to pray to be able to teach these people. The instant she said "amen" she heard us laughing in the living room and came out to find that we were perfectly ready to start a mini lesson with the women who lived there. 

Miracles come in many ways my friends!"

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!  I can't believe this Saturday marks 16 months in the mission!  I have enjoyed every day of being out here!  I love, and miss y'all!

Con amor,

Hermana Mann