Skiddle!

Hello Family,

This week we had the privilege of serving with Sister Erdenebaatar, a sister from Mongolia serving in the Northgate 1st and 2nd ward. I mentioned in the last email her companion has gone back to the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission, so president asked us to be her companions for a week until our mission's transfer day (this tuesday). Oh yeah, mine and Sister Hewett's transfer calls were both to stay in Walnut Creek again! I am now officially the only missionary in my group that came out at the same time as me to stay with their trainer this long. I have also been sister hewett's companion that she has had the longest. Don't know why, but the Lord sees that we need to both stay here, which we are ok with!

Anyways, so since we had Sister Erdenebaatar, we had to work three wards this week! Almost every hour of every day was filled with appointments, it was crazy. We had to drive back and forth between Walnut Creek and Concord so much, every night we have all been exhausted. But it has been soooo fun! I have learned even more about the power the Book of Mormon has when you take time to read it with everyone you teach, including less actives. Also Sis E is still learning English, so it is fun teaching her new things (she pronounces squirrel as "skiddle"), and her attempting to teach us Mongolian. She is very humble and sweet when she teaches and prays, you can feel her love for the gospel, and she is also a convert! I'm telling you, something is happening with the Mongolian people and the gospel! I also had some Mongolian food this week, basically any Mongolian will tell you their favorite thing is "meat!!!" so I had this thing pronounced ho-shore, it was really good, like a folded over pastry thing with a juicy piece of meat inside. Sis E says you can also put onion and garlic in it. But so far we have seen she doesn't really like too spicy or sweet of things-not even cereal! Sis Hewett and I love the Mongolian people we have met here, maybe we will go visit one day! 

On Valentines Day, we got to visit some of the elderly in Sis E's ward. They were in different nursing homes, but it was so cute when they got excited about the Valentines we brought them (you know I like the ones with cute kittens on them). I was very impressed with one of the ward missionaries we took with us. He brought different things to each person, like three avacados, or two notebooks, etc. You could tell he visited these people often, and knew what they needed and how to serve them. It was very touching and inspiring, it reminded me of President Monson and how he always visits the widows. What a lonely life they lead, and how blessed are not only we, but them as well when we take the time to visit and bring good cheer. When we earn someone's trust, give them of our time (as the Savior did to people) and show we truly care, they will open up to how we can help them.

Also while in Concord, we went to contact a referral at night (we should have known it would be sketchy) and the whole apartment complex was blasting mariachi spanish mucic for a birthday party- at 8:00 at night! It made for a very loud and awkward conversation at the door, and it is so important that we help them feel the Spirit with the first contact. Sis E will go back another time, but it reminded me how much in our life we need to make sure its not too loud to feel the Spirit, or else we could miss out on great opportunities. 

Well this week we are teaching a new part member family, they seem to be a hot item in our ward lately! We are continuing teaching two Indian investigators, who are soooo polite, and also very insightful about the Book of Mormon. Keep praying for us to find more investigators, and that they will come to church (we seem to be back at our original problem when we first got here, but now we know how to work on it). Also, don't forget that while its nice to pray for the missionaries to find people, its even better to pray for your own missionary opportunities!

Love you!
Sister Martin

The Spirit of Elijah

Family!

 

Can I just say new converts going to the temple for baptisms is awesome?!

On Tuesday night, we had last minute scheduled Zaya, our Mongolian recent convert (my first baptism here in December), to meet with our family history specialist in the ward. Out of nowhere, Zaya had asked if she could be baptized for her grandma one day, so we really wanted to help her out. Mind you, we have no idea how she understood anything about family history, we taught it once in gospel principles class, and she has been to the Visitor's Center and said she looooved being around the temple and her new goal was to go inside. But this is a miracle because Zaya still struggles with English, especially gospel language english, and some people were worried about her retention as a new member. But somehow she understood and had gotten all the information/death dates of both her grandmas and her husbands grandmas, so when we took her to get the names printed, we had had a goal of one name, and came out with FOUR!

 

We had zone conference that next day, Wednesday, and right after, Sister Hewett and I headed over to the temple, which was just across the parking lot. Our ward was having a youth temple trip that night and we had been invited to tag along with our recent convert. We went and got the names officially printed and waited for our ward missionary to bring Zaya. Of course, first time through Satan works really hard to not get someone to the temple. She was really late. Most of the youth were baptized and changing by the time she showed up. But we were able to just sit in the waiting room with President Lopez, a member of the temple presidency, and he kept sooo calm and said 'have faith. have faith. she will come." then we had an amzing conversation with him about calling men with cigars in their mouth to be stake presidents, miracles of being able to retire so they could be on a senior mission, and the power of ward unity bringing forth convert baptisms. It was a blessing to be able to wait just so we could learn from him. Finally when Zaya came, we went in to do the baptisms. The YM/YW presidents said it was such a cool experience to see someone do their own family names, it really did change the whole atmosphere of the trip. Zaya went into the font and the poor priesthood holder from our ward didn't know how to pronounce the names so she whispered them to him every time, he said those were probably the only names he got completely right all day :). It was really powerful. She also did some extra names the temple had, she was worried at first about being dunked 10 times, but she loved it! We then went to confirmations, where our bishop and ward mission leader were helping out. Zaya later said she felt the Holy Ghost strongly when the hands were on her head. A kind temple worker asked if she wanted to sit somewhere for a while or if she needed to go. The look on her face was so clear, she was really torn, she wanted to stay so badly! We kindly reminded her she had a hungry baby at home she needed to feed and she said "oookay". Then when we got to the parking lot, she literally skipped across and kept saying how happy she was! My companion and I still have no idea how it all came together, except to say literally the Spirit of Elijah had touched her heart to turn to her ancestors so they could be as happy as she was. I have actually never felt the spirit so strongly in temple baptisms before. I realized that because we helped Zaya receive the gospel, we ended up helping others we didn't even think about. I hope to meet these wonderful grandmothers someday that have such an amazing granddaughter :). Little did they know someday in Oakland California, their posterity would receive the truth.This is a testimony of it is literally not us (missionaries) doing anything, it is all the Lord and His work.

We are still teaching her husband, Peter. He is a little harder to teach, he understands even less English and struggles to know if God is there. However, we got a call this week from President Meredith saying we were going to be in a trio for one week. The sister we are getting is from Mongolia! MIRACLE! Prayers really are answered, we will be visiting him as much as we can with our Mongolian speaker sister. Her companion was from the Temple Square mission and their transfer days are different from ours, so she will be companionless for a week. They are in the area right next door, so we picked her up. We are really excited. I will send pictures with Sister Erdenbataar next week.

 

Well, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! I hope you all feel loved from each other, your ward, your Savior, and your Heavenly Father. Even if it may seem like a silly holiday, we have been commanded to love our neighbor, so now is a great excuse to show some Christlike love for someone who needs it more than we do. Go serve someone else. Make a visit, a note, anything to make someone smile. Give the missionaries work to do and people to teach, and you will experience no greater joy.

Also, happy birthday to Jen and Todd this week! I am sending cards.

 

This really is the truth on the earth restored again, and it brings no greater happiness!

 

LOVE YOU!!

Sister Martin

Why Cats are cooler than NFL football

Hola Familia!

1) I need to correct a scripture from my last email, I meant to say Alma 32:21, not 12.

2)This week was stake conference!

I first got to go to the adult session, because we rode with Mandy and Norman, our RC. It was amazing, definitely some general conference worthy material. One talk in particular, was a lady who taught about helping children, youth, and young adults stay active/get a testimony. I know some of you have emailed me about this for your own youth classes, so I am happy to share what insight I gained. She first gave an analogy of a tree she was growing in her backyard. She thought it was doing pretty good and was proud of herself, she had staked the young tree down with ropes thinking it would help keep it safe...until a professional pruner guy came and asked "what have you been doing?!". He told her it was important that the tree needed to feel the wind, so its roots could grow stronger. She applied this to our children. She said we need to share our conversion, not just our testimony with youth. Explain exactly how knowing that gospel principle helped you in a hard time, how exactly you came to know of a truth and how it has made you happy! Bearing testimony and hoping they get the nourishment at church is not enough! They know the "whats" of the gospel, now they need to understand the "whys" and the "hows". Then as they go through their own trials and wind, the gospel will help their roots grow stronger as they know they can apply it.

Then we had a missionary stake meeting, with bishops, ward mission leaders, ward missionaries, and full time missionaries in attendance. We went over the stake vision of missionary work for 2013. But what was cool was Pres Criddle, stake pres, talked about how a ward has a different feel to it when it is focused on missionary work. He then made a shout out to the Walnut Creek 2nd Ward and the sisters there, and said how the missionary work has never been like it is now! Sister Hewett and I were in the very back, blushing pink I'm sure. Then to add to it, our bishop raised his hand and asked when he could get MORE sisters, and then he clarified, "I don't want a replacement, just additional sisters!". Man, if our ward has anything to say about it, we are never getting transferred!

Then we got a satelite broadcast on Sunday from Salt Lake City, and we got to hear from Elder L. Tom Perry, one of my favorite apostles! He also talked about missionary work, particulary with the new missionaries coming out! He said Northern California will be seeing a new wave of missionaries come summer, and we need to have work ready for them as members! He said members need to help fill the missionaries calendar! He also said to familiarize yourself with Preach My Gospel first three lessons, so you can be a good assett in lessons with missionaries and investigators. He then taught from Preach My Gospel, about the basic doctrines of the church. I got the goose bumps several times as he talked about this year of missionary work--I know right now really is different. We heard the MTC usually has 2000 missionaries there, and now will have 8000.

Then again in that session, a young women counselor, sister cook, spoke. She told a story of a young woman who would justify to herself that she was fine dating a guy when she was 15 as long as they were always in a group. Then at 16 they steady dated. Then she justified that she needed soccer to get into college, so she woud play on sundays to get ahead, and rationalized it by saying that she could still go to sacrament meeting. Pretty soon she was having a harder and harder time making decisions. She was losing the companionship of the Holy Ghost and was not really happy. She decided to do something about it. She talked to her bishop, who told her to read her scriptures in the morning before she went to school, and that would help her with decisions. Also to pray in the morning and at night. After doing this, she decided she needed to dump her boyfriend, drop the soccer games, and get new friends. It was hard, she had to feel alone for a while, but she ended up finding and choosing friends who helped support her, and she spent more time with her family as they supported her. She got the guidance again from the Spirit and now enjoys a temple marriage. Once again, that topic of the importance of youth seeing the "how" the gospel can apply to them. On my mission, I can honestly say I feel the companionship of the Holy Ghost almost all the time. Someone in stake conference actually mentioned that, how youth and then returned misionaries get discouraged and fall away when on their mission they were so sure of their testimony? It's about removing the static/noise/distractions (hence missionaries lifestyle) in our life to hear that still small voice. The small voice will never change, but our volume of our life does, so we need to adjust it so we can hear. Sometimes it is hard and lonely to make changes, but then comes happiness!! Happiness as we change our lives and become closer to becoming like the Savior- our ultimate goal.

I have been reading in Alma lately around captain Moroni, and how he is awesome at defending against the Lamanites. But soon some of the Nephites start to get prideful and want a king instead of a judge, because they are "of noble birth", Moroni gets so upset that he has to take time to fix the humility of his people so they can then together defend the Lamanites, the real enemy,. Because of this setback, it hurts them a little war-wise. But then as they covenant to work together to have peace and freedom, they are awesome again. It reminds me that we are all running a race, but its not against each other, its against sin. Satan wants to distract us by taking time to look at the other runners, and see how much faster or slower they are. But when we think of the ultimate goal, to fight against the real enemy, Satan, we should work together in that cause against sin. 

  

3)This week I had exchanges again in San Mateo. I went into foreign-language coma once as I could only sit in one of the lessons entirely in Spanish. I was trying soooo hard not to fall asleep. I hope I did not offend anyone. But one lesson was part English, and I felt the Spirit so strong as I testified to this family about the Book of Mormon and how the restored gospel allows them to see their mom/wife who passed away two years ago. The member we had with us, Socorro,who I thought was kind of a cynical person at the time, started crying and after the lesson said "Marti,"(thats what she called me, she nicknames all the missionaries)" I guess you are an ok person." Then Sister Croft looked at me, and said that is a huuuuge compliment. She let me escort her around (she was part blind) and wanted to sit by me on the couch in the next lesson. She also ended up  respecting me cause I told her Selena was from my home ward town. She as surprised I knew what Lake Jackson was. She had at first said "let me guess, you are from Utah?" and was pleased I was from Texas. We experienced other miracles on the exchange as well, like an old referal that Sister Croft had not been able to contact due to her lost planner, just walking up to us in the park and saying she has been wanting to meet again with the misisonaries but had lost their information as well!

4) Superbowl Sunday. Well obviously everyone and their dog here was in their living rooms with the game on, due to the 49ers popularity. Everyone was so pumped becasue the Giants already won the world series, and that was bad enough trying to get undistracted appointments. Then even though the 49ers lost, our neighbors I guess had bought celebration cigars, but wanted to smoke them anyways right outside, so we came home to our house to the absolute foulest smell EVER. Gross. Call me whatever you want, but I despise the Superbowl and football on Sundays. But despite all that, we found an awesome less active man who is apparently on fire with missionary work and gave us a referal, and we finally contacted another referal who is really prepared to hear from us! He was so down in life, then they lost their cats, we went to visit and prayed for their cats, then the next day someone brought it to them at their front door after being lost for 3 days!

Sooooo conclusion? Cats are awesomer than NFL football.

Well sorry this was long this week. I really love you all, I am going to try and send Valentines this week!!!

Love,

Sister Martin

Questioning and Faith

Hello Family!

Yesterday was so filled with the Spirit, I will write you some of my notes I took at ward conference, then I will talk about Norman's baptism. Just know that I thought about my family a lot yesterday and wanted to share the incredible knowledge I gained. I promise you this is all worth reading.

Ward Conference:

Bishop Oyler- He sees many come into his office, and they are struggling. It's never about if Thomas S. Monson is really a prophet, or if this is really Christ's true church. The question is always does God exist. They say they want to believe, or maybe even believe like they used to. It is normal and ok to question and doubt! It causes us to reflect on spiritual experiences that have built our testimonies. Bishop said he never felt huge spiritual experiences reading his scriptures.For him it has come through serving other people, whether at their homes or yards or coming out of his bishop's office in tears. He says those are times when he feels God exists, because that is when God's love is manifested. He said there was a time in his life when he wanted to know if he had truly repented, not because he doubted but because he honestly wanted to know. He read in Luke (I didn't catch the exact reference, it may have been 22:32) and realized it was when we have a desire to serve other people that we have truly repented. That is when the Atonement works.He has never seen God or Jesus Christ, but he believes and wants to believe they are there and live.

It might seem a strange thing to say its ok to question, but then the stake presidency speaker really elaborated on it, this was my favorite talk from the day-

President Stewart- James 1:5 says...that giveth to ALL men...Moroni 10:4 says...he WILL make it manifest unto you...We can still have faith, even if we are not sure.If we had a perfect knowledge, then faith would be dormant. Alma 32 :12 (the theme of the day) helps us to understand that we may never get out of the lacking perfect knowlege stage. The gospel of Jesus Christ is faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end- no where in there does it say have a perfect knowlege, in fact it asks for faith which is to NOT have a perfect knowlege.Sometimes our life trial may be that we never do get a sure witness throughout our life (later I learned of a story shared in priesthood how one man served 3 missions and said he never felt he got an answer if Joseph Smith was a prophet, but he had faith anyways). Alma 32 has three references to patience, and 0 about instant gratification!

He says he is a believer because he doesn't want uncertainty to crowd over the things that are important. He gave an example of his daughter after she got engaged. She called almost every day and kept freaking out to her parents if she was doing the right thing, how can she know for sure he is the one, etc. He said he got tired of it one day and said then dump him, and she said what?!, and he asked if she loved him. She said yes, and he said than you have to be willing to take a leap of faith, or else you might miss out on the greatest things in life. When Christ asked Peter if he would leave him, Peter says "to whom shall I go? Thou hast the answers for eternal life"- we have to be willing to trust the Lord and lean not unto our own understanding. (I was reminded of the phrase "God can't drive a parked car.")

He said he was a believer because of Alma 32, because of King Benjamin, because of Lehi's dream, Luke 15, Luke 24, and Alma at the waters of Mormon. There are powerful accounts all in the scriptures of the Lord's work. His life has been changed for the better because he has chosen to be faithful. Have the faith and the willingness in life to say "it's God".

Wow! I loved it! I have been working with families who are struggling, and it really is doubt crowding over their faith. While its normal to question, we should come out stronger not break apart. We get scared, and fear is the opposite of faith, when we don't know what will happen to us- but he does. Trusting in Him in key to conversion. We have to realize we are all His, everything around us is His, including our time,the only thing we can truly give Him is our will. Our gift of free agency allows us to choose to keep His commandments, but I feel there are definitely levels of keeping the commandments. We do it because we are told its good for us, and then its because you love the Lord. I know as we seek to know if He is even there, we will feel He is, whether that be through the scriptures, prayer, or service to others, and that we will feel He is truly our loving Father in Heaven.

Norman's Baptism:

Instead of teaching the Restoration during the intermission, we shared testimonies. My companion and I shared ours. I have not felt that moved at any of our baptisms yet. I felt the Spirit stirring inside me as Norman went down into the water and came up new. I had seen such change in him, more humility and trust in the Lord that he was ready. I had seen how emotional his wife got, and how much I KNOW this will bless their family. I know that God loves us and He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for us so we can all change, repent, and enter the waters of baptism.

I want to hear all of your testimonies or why you believe/have faith this week.

Please write me at my permanent address:

Sister Laurel Martin

California Oakland/San Francisco Mission

4945 Lincoln Way

Oakland, CA 94602

I love you.

Love,

Sister Martin

picture 1: our korean kids! sally and louis. my comp and I are really dressed up because we also had interviews with President Meredith that day

picture 2: I ran into Alyssa Madsen from Bay City at the Visitor's Center. my eyes are kind of closed

picture 3:Norman's baptism

BBE

Family!

 

So Norman is getting ready and excited for his baptism! He and his wife Mandy are calling it BBE Best Baptism Ever! It has been one of the most joyful experiences seeing this come to fruition.

 

We met an Indian man knocking dorrs this week. We gave him a church tour and taught the Restoration and he said he has a hope that this is all true. He will be baptized in February if he gets his answer! We are teaching another Indian woman referred from the Hawaii visitor's center who lives here. She has been coming to church and bobbing her head around saying "I'm making so many new friends and I dont even know their names!" haha. Also we are teaching another Mongolian woman and then Peter, Zaya's husband is also Mongolian. We were sad to see our little Korean kids we were teaching go back to Korea, but we sent them with Korean BOM's and pamphlets and will refer them to the missionaries there! I will send pictures next week of them. Basically, this area is soooo diverse, its really fun getting exposed to the different cultures they teach me a lot.

 

Sorry it is short this week. But we are getting pumped for ward conference, with Normans baptism right after. Then coming up is stake conference and also a temple trip with our recent converts to go do baptisms!

 

Also, one of Ben's old mission companions is in my ward! I am sending a letter and pictures to you soon Ben. It was Elder West!

 

I love you all, please email and write letters, I love to hear from you.

 

Love,

Sister Martin

Great week

Family!

 

Sorry this will be short.

 

Another part member family has seen success! Norman said he got his answer to be baptized! He announced it after fast sunday (of course, chalk that up to another fast miracle!) in our lesson. His wife Mandy, the member, got emotional. What a blessing for their family! Norman is chinese and works at Berkely, super smart, but finally has opened his heart to following Jesus Christ. Our ward mission leader was also fasting for him, our ward is SOOO excited for them.

 

Also we went to Fenton's icecream place in Oakland, its famous, its on the Disney movie "UP". It was really good, I will have to take you there sometime.

 

Our recent convert, Lucia, went and watched baptisms in the temple for the first time! With all our recent converts now, we are setting up temple trips! Yay! I only go once every quarter of the year, unless its one of my converts. Of course we are hoping to come back for the sealings of the part member families in a year too! :) Also Lucia has seen success in her chiropractor business, she got more clients! She told us "It doesn't hurt having the Holy Ghost!" haha too cute.

 

Also Sister Hewett and I got a special assignment from our mission president for the whole mission. We are getting official maps printed for every apartment. So we are getting the best prices we can, networking,etc. I will tell you more later.

 

Love you! Keep the faith! The gospel is true!

 

Love,

Sister Martin

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