Post Christmas

Hello Family!

This week was so fun talking to you! It was good getting to see you all as well. Especially the babies and cats....just kidding, I love all of you. But seriously. One of the things that is crazy is that we can't hold babies on our mission! And if I could pick one rule to rebel against in the white handbook, it would be about keeping pets. I miss having cats around! And one of our members would love to give away their giant sweetheart of a cat. I wanted it so bad! But don't worry, I won't rebel, I will be obedient! :)

So since I just talked to you, I will send pictures of our Christmas zone activity, service project, Lucia's baptism, and working at the Visitor's Center. 

We are back working full proselyting time in Walnut Creek, no more VC. So we have been struggling just a little actually having appointments, because this is the horrible awkward time when everyone is out of town, or can't seem to afford 30 minutes with the missionaries, until after the magical January 1 date. "Come see us after new years" is the key phrase. But we did have some cool experiences already this week. First of all was that we lost our house key at night. Our key ring was loose, and that was the one key we lost. Our land lords recently moved, so there is no other way into the house. We were freaking out, we called our previous dinner appointment place asking if they could look out in their driveway, we were searching all in our bags and outside the appointment we were at. Finally we had the sense to calm down and pray about it. As the prayer was ending, our phone rang and it was the dinner appointment saying she didn't see it, but my companion had the prompting to just look in the backseat again. So we did, and there it was! But at this time, we had cancelled our next appointment because we thought we were going to have to look for it all night. We were sad we had done that, but then we realized we had been parked next to another house with a lady in the ward who is really struggling right now. We had been asked to visit her before, but have NEVER been able to get a hold of her. She happened to be home, with her daughter. We came in and asked how their Christmas was, sang a hymn, said a prayer, etc. She told us to come back again, and we left that place knowing we had not lost our key coincidentally, we were meant to see her that night. So prayers are answered, we just need to ask, and also Heavenly Father knows us individually and His plan is always better than ours.

Also this week we talked to another older lady in the ward, she served a mission back in the 70's. She served in Arizona/NewMexico/Texas/Indian Reservations! She showed us her pictures, and shared her testimony of the Lamanite people, and the Spirit we felt was amazing! She told us she has taken a college class here in Calfornia on the Native Americans, and her professor from Berekely had listed the top five references he would use for the information in his class. Number five was the Book of Mormon! A kids in the back raised his hand and asked why the BOM, and the professor looked at him and stated " it's one of the most accurate records kept of the native american people!" This professor was not a member, he was actually Jewish. I have been reading so much more of the Book of Mormon in one day than I ever have before. I know it has a Spirit about it that brings conversion, and I know it is true, but not because of Indian records, but because of the Holy Ghost.

I REALLY LOVE YOU ALL!!

Love,

Sister Martin

picture 1) at zone conference, I got to pick a gift from that pile (which had been bigger than that before) and steal gifts, etc. All the missionaries were really getting into it, chanting to steal and everything. So was our mission president! It was really fun, and I got some good presents, like toilet paper, toothpaste, blanket, candy, and cd in my bag. We were so spoiled! ;)

picture 2) also at the zone conference, they had a display of a collectin of nutcrackers, including star wars ones(i don't know if you can see them in the picture or not)? so i took a picture because I thought of mom's collection of nutcrackers.

picture 3) at lucia's baptism with: the member lady who referred her, the elders that began teaching her, my companion and I that taught her, and our bishopric member who baptized her.

picture 1) at the warehouse service project, you can see only one corner of all the bags we had filled.

picture 2) all the missionaries in our shift who helped: top l-r: elder watanawongworakula, sister stewart, elder anderson, me, sister chan. bottom row l-r: sister hewett, sister chan, sister lau. sister lau and chan (in front) were the chinese sisters who rescued us when our car battery died in oakland! our chinese angels! :)

picture 3) in the mexican ghettos of oakland after the service project, eating our cactus flower and corn flavored icecream, and waiting for our burritos. i loved the burrito, but not so much the icecream.

picture 4) all the VC sisters in our outfits for our Christmas concert performance. this was not our final performance picture, because we realized after this picture was taken how bad the scarves all looked, I think mine in particular is pretty awkward, and of course I am right up front. We made them look uniform for the actual concert, don't worry.

picture 5) on the phones/mormon.org chat in the VC. so when mormon.org says chat with a representative, that's us (or other VC's around the world). it was actually pretty fun!

picture 6) me and sister hewett all ready for the last Christmas performance (so you can see the fixed scarf, and a pretty ribbon thing we had to wear as well)

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

Merry Christmas Family!

I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas filled with gratitude for the Savior and the peace we have because of Him. 

This week we got to do a zone service activity, where we worked with Salvation Army and some other community members. We were in a large warehouse and there were mounds of toys. We got a paper that had a family on it. The children's names and ages and wishes for Christmas were listed on there. We had huge garbage bags and a paper with names and we got to shop for them! We got to pick what toys they got for Christmas! They told us not to be stingey, so we stuffed big toys, little toys, stuffed animals, etc plus every family got a games and coloring books. Then when we filled that bag, we got another family! The whole warehouse got filled there were so many needy families. I saw a a really funny book in the pile that never got picked, and it was called Why Cats Paint haha, its was the cutest thing, but no one wanted it sadly. But it was THE funnest service project!

I also tried cactus flower icecream and octopus this week. Neither was very good :( The icecream was after the project, we went to downtown Oakland in the Mexican area, and our car battery actually died and we were stranded for a little while, but dont worry we are safe! The chinese sisters helped us out. Just another mission story. The octopus was from a Tongan family in our ward, they made us island delicacies. It was not the calamarie we had in Boston, but it was so sick, it squeaked in my mnouth as soon as I bit it! Ugh that did it for me. Rubbery, nasty thing. 

I am performing in the vc and we see over 1000 people every night!

Well I will talk to you TOMORROW! I am using a members house at 12:00 here, so maybe 2:00 texas time? be signed on to skype!

love you,

sister martin

Book of Mormon

Hello Family,

 

This week in the Visitor's Center, I met an older lady who was from Ethiopia! She spoke only Amheric and was a Coptic Chrsitian (which I remember writing a paper about coptics in high school). She was soooo excited though that we had a Book of Mormon in Amheric, and she kept saying thankyou and touching me and Sister Hewett like she was so grateful. It was really cool, and its awesome that the Book of Mormon has been translated now into over 100 languages, and people can feel the Spirit of it when we explain what it is and that it is a gift.

Lucia got baptized yesterday! She is a holistic chiropractor that was a referral from another ward's member. She was great, there was a huge turn out and she is already well into all the singles activites! She is really fun to teach, and has crazy good comprehension with the Book of Mormon.

I have the chance to watch a G-rated movie with my zone on New Year's Eve. We are asked to ask our families what is a new G-rated/non romantic comedy movie that has come out recently?

We met an amazing lady this week who just walked into church one Sunday! We had a lesson with her and she wants to get baptized! I will update more on her later.

Zone conference was amazing! We got tons of presents from member who just wanted to do something for missionaries! I got toilet paper, a blanket, toothpaste, and a Handel's messiah CD! And candy! It was really fun, we all got to steal from the other missionaries and we alwasy cheered when someone got toilet paper or else the other hot gift--watches. Then the stake relief society fed us a christmas ham dinner and we felt soooo spoiled! It was really fun.

I will be working in the VC every night this week. And performing on Christmas Eve and Day.

I hope you are all excited for Christmas. Stay warm and remember our Savior and everything he has sacraficed for us so we can have joy. So lets be joyful! Every day!

 

Love you!

Sister Martin

The Field is White!

FAMILY!

This week has been incredible and full of miracles. First of all, Zaya is now a member! We took her to the Visitor's Center/temple and she was so happy and told us that was her next goal!

 Another investigator, Lucia, is getting baptized on Sunday! I will tell her story next week. THEN we had been wanting Lacie, another investigator, to have a baptismal date. But she was still praying to know for sure, etc and we didn't know what to do everytime she said she had been praying but no answer. She came to Zaya's baptism and everything. We fasted for her last Sunday, and on Tuesday we were texting her when we could meet up. We wanted to meet up to give her a lesson on just taking a leap of faith and just getting baptized because she knows its good. But all the sudden we got another text from her, I look over and my companion sets the phone down and puts her head in her hands. I immediately thought the worst (which is what I learned missionaries do haha) and thought we had lost Lacie. but no! Lacie texted us saying, "I decided yesterday I'd like to get baptized on the 29th". My companion and I started jumping and screaming we were so excited. And her husband is worthy now to baptize her! They are the cutest couple and we are sooo happy for them!! What did I tell you about Walnut Creek? It is truly on fire, full of prepared people! D&C 31:4 says "...You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which white, already to be burned." You notice it doesn't say harvest. During the harvesting process, the burning comes after to purify and put nutrients back into the soil. We are here to help burn the area! We talked to some great people during our "Christmas" tracting, where we hand out Joy to the World pass a long cards on the street or talk about Chrsitmas Temple Hill events. As we help those already found, finding our own, and just working hard, we are seeing so many miracles, and harvest just doesn't seem like quite strong enough a word. So I have been very busy!

The Visitor's Center has been crazy. We have a live Nativity outside which I have been itching to see, and free concerts every night, so its been busy. When I am on "outside tour", we always joke we feel like Salt Lake Temple Square sisters. I go around asking people if they have been to the VC, or I might refer them to mormon.org if they are not members as well. But I like it, because we get to walk around in all the lights and everything. I love Christmas time as a missionary! Everyone seems to be more open to talking about Jesus Christ. Also we get to perform ourselves! On Chrstmas and Christmas Eve, we are singing as a sister missionary choir.

I have my first zone conference tomorrow. I heard we are getting christmas goodies. Also, I get to either call you or skype you on Christmas! I will be sending out Christmas cards soon.

Well I hope all is well at home. Please send more cute christmas family pics. I love you all.

Sister Martin

pictures;

1)zaya's baptism

2)mom, you sent the wrong boots. this is what the rain looks like here outside my front door. the boots you sent would get soaked. becky has matching ones of the ones i need, ask her

3)our district leader gave us each a "snowball" to have a 'snowball fight", since there is no snow here in california. we put our name tags on them

1)Tank, the cat. He was huge and soft and loved me! I wanted to keep him.

2) Us with Lucia at the temple. She is getting baptized on Sunday. This is also what I look like when I am on "outside tour" at the temple.

3) mom and dad will be happy to know, I actually did meet Elder Flemming this week. He was at the Visitor's Center and came up next to us and asked what I thought about El Paso. His parents sent him a picture of me so he recognized me. I made sure to get a picture so you can see the proof. He is also about 2 whole feet taller than me.

4)a crazy decorated house just down the street from our house. we got to see his window displays too, which included a lot of villages, which made me think of mom!

Baptism

Hello Family!

 

I am so mad I forgot my cord this week, because I have a picture of MY FIRST BAPTISM!! Our Mongolian investigator Zaya got baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday. I played the piano for it, but that left no time to take pictures with her in white, I am so sad. But I did get one after, with her hair wet, holding her little girl in front of Jesus getting baptized painting. The service was great. Her husband came with her two girls and sat in the front row. We had other investigators come as well. After the service, Zaya just looked at me and said "I feel so happy!" I wanted to cry (I know, I am such a girl missionary) at that simple statement. Zaya speaks little English but her whole story was the mongolian sister missionaries before us found them, Zaya's mom (who was just visiting from Mongolia) taking their trash out one day. They talked about Jesus Christ and she was interested in hearing more about following Him. They taught one lesson to Zaya and her husband, and then Sister Hewett and I got transferred in. We have been working with Zaya slowly, getting help once a week from another missionary who speaks mongolian (from mongolia) to clarify gospel terms. Zaya is taking English classes, but obviously community colleges don't explain most of the things we teach her. But she kept telling us she wanted to get baptized and follow Jesus Christ. When she told me of her happiness at her baptism, and I could see her glowing with it, I was reminded just how simple the gospel of Jesus Christ really is. What wonderful hope, light, and restored knowledge and authority we have. It reminded me of my baptism; whole I don't remember much, I remember I couldn't stop smiling all day. As we follow Jesus Christ, and feel His spirit, we make changes in our life.

 

I have been reading in "Our Search For Happiness" by Elder Ballard in the missionary reference library and there was a part about how missionaries were teaching a man, he was a bit of a dirty man, into drugs, etc. But he found the elders on the street and asked what they were selling. They said they weren't selling anything, what they had they were giving away. He said he would take it. Every time the missionaries came to teach the man had showered and trimmed his beard, cleaned his house, dumped out his booze, applied for jobs,etc. The missionaries didn't even ever invite him to do anything, he just did it on his own as they talked about Christ. I thought of Zaya and how the Spirit really is the universal language and causes us to change and better ourselves naturally as we let Him into our lives. This is a major reason we ask everyone to read the Book of Mormon personally, every day. It allows the Spirit (especially the spirit of the Restoration) into our hearts and we change. We can try and try to get more temple marriages, less actives back to church, etc but really as they read the Book of Mormon daily, these things will naturally happen. There is so much power that comes from reading the Book of Mormon. I've been blessed to see it in my life, now I have to focus on helping others do the same.

 

I loved the Christmas Devotional! We got to eat dinner and watch it with a member family. I actually stayed awake the whole time. I thought of Pres Uchtdorf and how I need to show more love for those who give me things, Pres Eyring I thought of the question "what will be in my treasure box in heaven? memories of what was important? or things that wasted time?", and with Pres Monson-woah, his story of visiting his primary president when she was in her 90's was amazing. I thought what a grateful person Pres Monson is. He didn't care that the others were scoffing at him saying it was no use, she didn't talk to anyone. It made me ask myself how much do I actually lose myself and show that kind of care to others?

 

Sunday we had a special combined 3rd hour where we showed a part of "the district", missionary training videos we use of actual missionaries getting followed by camera men. We watch a segment of a recent convert sharing the gospel with her friends and they turned out to be super prepared and ready to be baptized! Then the missionary purpose flashed across the screen (PMG P1) and lots of the ward was crying. Then we talked about turning comments and questions from friends into invitations. We talked about Christmas tools. By the way, visit mormon.org/christmas and link things to your facebooks. Share videos, ecards, free motab, bible apps, etc. or your friends can request a christmas message from the missionaries. Everyone was told to think of 3 families and then we gave them kits full of pamphlets, cards, etc.We already have members telling us they immediately thought of people!

 

I must go, I LOVE YOU! Walnut Creek is on fire!

 

Love, Sister Martin

Visitors Center!!

Hello Family!

Crazy it has already been a whole transfer out here! 2 months already gone. Since I am getting trained, my companion and I will of course be staying in Walnut Creek for at least another transfer. HOWEVER, we got an early transfer call from President Meredith last week asking us to additionally serve in the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center during the busy holiday times.

So I started this weekend! Saturday night was the night they turned on all the lights, and there were a ton of people there! We had 22 sister missionaries plus some senior couples holding down the fort. I got to meet an old man from Scotland! He joined the church in Australia then moved back to Scotland to start the first branch in his area and now it is thriving apparently. I also got to talk in Spanish just a little. I had to help close the God's Plan For His Family presentation, but it was a Spanish family. My companion helped me practice right before on saying "Que les gusto?" (what did you like) and then bore a brief testimony "yo se jesu cristo es mi salvador y mi familia es muy importante a el." (i know jesus christ is my savior and my family is important to him) not the most advanced spanish, but it worked!

Also, Becky, Sister Benson, Sister Coulson, and Erin Jones(which by the way if you see this on my blog, I wrote you back and they said bad address so sorry! rewrite me with a new address) will appreciate, I ran into Debbie from Time to Blossom in Arizona at the Visitor's Center! We hugged and she took my picture and asked if she could use my picture in next summer's program! She wants to add classes for the girl's on missionary work because of the age change, so she wants to use my picture for inspiration :) I felt so bad I forgot to email my girls about my mission call this summer and I asked her if she could email all the girls and let them know where I got my mission call, and she said she would! A small prayer answered.

I was very tired from standing for 8 hours straight on Saturday. I didn't really get any formal training, so I just picked up things other sisters did, seeing as how I worked with 6+ different companions while at the VC. I learned some cool facts about the painting of Christ in the Garden of Gethsamene, and that the VC half the time is a glorified restroom stop, most people just ask where the bathroom is. Funny thing is, the Cristus statue actually points one hand to the women's and one hand towards the men's haha.

Thanksgiving was crazy! I ate at FOUR houses. The first was some appetizers, then we ate lasagna vegetables bread and pie with an investigator, then more dessert at the Relief Society President' house (which was awesome cause all the sudden their nonmember son inlaw started asking questions which he apparently never had before), and THEN we went to a Hawaiaiin member's house, where she had heaps of food that was mostly cooked in cream. I woke up with THE worst stomach ache the next day. I didn't even eat until lunch the next day and even that was a small bowl of cereal. But I did get blueberry pie that was made with organic blueberries from Oregon and it was very good!

We have our first baptism in Walnut Creek on Sunday, we are very excited and hope everything goes well, so next week I will have to write about that and her story.

Well I need to go, but I REALLY LOVE YOU ALL! I am so glad to hear Thanksgiving was a hit. Many people asked me what my family did for Thanksgiving, and they thought flag football was a great idea.

Love,

Sister Martin

1)at the temple with an investigator

2)with district leaders playing volleyball at a zone activity

 1)picture after thanksgiving district meeting. gospel gobbler is the turkey's name. i have learned missionary's get very creative with gospel terms, games, pictures, etc.
2) me with ziva the cat! on thanksgiving

Making goals is awesome!

Dear Family,

Last week I told mom about how we were stuggling to get our investigators to church. Well this week, we made that our number one goal. So we emphasized teaching Sabbath Day, constantly reminding them about church, arranging rides, giving church tours, and being devasted about how they didn't come last week. After a busy week where we actually went past some of our numerical goals, we were blessed and pleased to see FOUR investigators at church! The Relief Society was especially pleased because they were all women, and we had a lot of visitors to announce. Seriously, we are so blessed as a companionship. Our district plus other misionaries we know around here don't even have investigators to teach, so thank you for your prayers, they are felt. We have two of those who have a baptismal date before the end of the year, and another one that we will hopefully have one by the end of the year. I know as we have written down the goals, made plans to acheive them, and just work hard and be obedient, and also praying sincerely and specifically, the Lord will bless us.

Also at church, we got to teach sharing time in Primary! It was soo fun. We packed a suitcase full of missionary things like a tie, alarm clock, scriptures, a name tag, etc. and asked them if that is all they needed on a mission. Then we read Doctrine and Covenants 84:62 and talked about what a testimony is. We gave them mormon.orgcards to write their testimony on them and give them to their friends (for the littler ones we just gave pictures of Jesus or the temple to give out). I thought a lot about my neices and nephews! How blessed they are to be learning gospel truths at such a young age.

This week also was a week of being at the hospital! One lady said she had a dream to call the sister missionaries and got a hold of our bishop who called a counselor who called us. We went right away to a lady who has been less active for a long time but was so kind and loved our hymns we sang and scriptures we shared. It was weird checking into the hospital desk nearby and them asking if we were clergy and if she requested us. Basically, yeah. That is still weird to me people look to me for spiritual guidance and hopefully I can point them in the real right direction for guidance. SOOO many people this week asked me how old I was. The ages guessed only ranged from 14-19. yeeeaaahhh... anyways, we also visited out investigator who ended up in the hospital this week. So we are getting familiar with the medical centers around here haha.

Last week on P-day we went to a place called Cream in Berkeley. It was a place where they made a real icecream sandwhich in front of you ( not very hard, but still). So I had a chocolate chip cookie sandwhich with cookiedough icecream in the middle. The place is super popular, there was a line out the door when we were there and everytime we passed it. Berkeley campus was pretty sketchy. We went to a Japanese store that had everything for $1.50 and we bought cat stuff. I got a pencil pouch that had cats on it with badly translated English haha. I thought of Todd especially!

One lady that is feeding us on Thanksgiving asked what was one thing we traditionally have on Thanksgiving in our families, and she will make it. My thing was blueberry pie!

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving! I am thankful for every member of my family, my good friends, that God has allowed me to come on a mission, that He loves me, that I have the restored gospel to give me answers to life's questions, and that I have someone that loved me enough to suffer and die for me. I am thankful that Jesus Christ is my Savior and because of Him I can live again and see my family forever!

Love you all,

Sister Martin