Famous

Hello Family,

 

My bishop is going to be on TV this week! He is a designer in San Francisco, and he wil be on SharkTank on ABC Friday night. Please record this for me mom and dad. I'm not sure what time he is on, but you can look it up on the TV. He is younger, about 33, has curly hair, and he is showing off a design for plants or something. I have never heard of Shark Tank but apparently its a pretty big deal. So look for Bishop Oyler.

 

Also, our zone leaders had a meeting with us this week and mentioned that Walnut Creek has "seen a bump" lately in baptisms. Then the Assistants to the president called us and asked us about how we used revelation in turning our area around. Then we made it into our mission's monthly "Messenger" or newspaper thing! Woah, we felt so famous! Apparently, Walnut Creek hasn't had baptisms in a year, and in the past three months we have been there, we have had three, and others with a baptismal date. I think I mentioned it before, but we had "shot gunned" or "whitewashed" the area. Both Sister Hewett and I were completely new to Walnut Creek, so we had no preconceived thoughts about it and just came to love everyone and work. But honestly, we have no idea what to tell people when they ask us what we are doing. It really is just prepared people that are ready, we just happen to be the missionaries here. It's all the Lord!

 

This week was Lacie's baptism! We have LOVED working with Lacie. Her husband Ross started coming back to church about 6 or 7 months ago, because he was getting married to her and they wanted to to raise their kids in the church, so Ross started coming back from being less active. He knew he needed to be strong for his family and our Bishop (who happened to be a childhood friend of his) helped him make the necessary changes. Sister Hewett and I started seeing him pass the sacrament and teach Elders Quorum, we were so proud of him! He was working so hard because Bishop told him he needed to be the one to baptize Lacie. Then when Ross was ready, we had to make sure Lacie was ready. She wanted to be baptized, but wanted a sure answer. Sister Hewett and I didn't hear from her for a while and freaked out that we were losing her, but then we fasted and prayed a lot one Sunday, and two days later she texted us saying she wanted to be baptized December 29. We screamed and jumped for joy! When we met with her we asked what happened to make her say that. She said she was talking to a troubled friend who was going through some really hard decisions, and Lacie said she had a thought to send her the missionaries! But then she thought "I'm not going to subscribe someone to something I'm not subscribed to" and said she knew that was her answer. So Saturday, Ross' family came into town to support them, and Ross' mom gave a testimony of her own conversion. It turned out to be very similar to theirs. She got married to Ross' dad, and said she wanted a religion and started to look for a church. Ross' dad was less active and said "wait before you do that, I have to call someone" and he called his stake president and he got back into church and she got baptized! So Lacie came up out of the water on Saturday and gave Ross a big hug. It was really powerful seeing a family make these steps of progression together. We are going to help them make it to the temple to be sealed in a year! Also, Lacie is pregnant, so they will get to seal a little girl to them as well. They are one of the coolest couple we have ever met. I will send a picture, but Lacie actually put on her jumpsuit backwards and it had a weird tie on it, and she tied it in the front. She thought it was supposed to look like that so she just rocked it anyway. Ross said it looked like her belly was a present with a bow on it. Then they took us out to eat Mexican food with their whole family, bishop's family, and our ward mission leader's family.

 

This week was exchanges with the sister trainers and it was the scariest most stressful thing of my life! I had to be in charge of Walnut Creek for 24 hours while being watched and trained by Sister Jensen, one of the sister trainers. I had to be senior companion, lead everything, and drive. Driving (and parallel parking) here was terrifying! When Sister Hewett and I were back together again, I almost cried with relief. I had a lot of funny stories to tell her, because I was so stressed of course we had the worst things happen. We had an ant infestation in our apartment to name one thing! Poor Sister Jensen was a little freaked out by that haha. We got transfer calls this week and Sister Hewett and I are staying together in Walnut Creek! I had been praying for that. I was not ready to train or leave Walnut Creek. Our ward was relieved as well; there is too much work to be done!

 

Love you all tons!!

 

Sister Martin