Nothing to report?

There has been no letter from Sister Martin this week. Pday fell on a holiday so we are figuring she either went to the temple (as mentioned a few letters ago) or is busy doing service projects and just couldn't get an email sent. Look forward to next week!

Referrals

Hi Family,

Thanks for the Bday wishes, I seriously have the coolest family ever!

This week Priyali received the Holy Ghost. It was great, she loved it, said she felt Spirit. We taught her her first new member lesson this week and after talked about us sharing the Restoration with others, and she told us about her neighbors. We went straight there with her, and she knocked on the door, introduced herself, said we were her friends from church, and she wanted to talk to them about her church! Woah, bold recent convert! It actually was fine though, he said ok and nodded his head, I think he liked it that she was straight to the point. I took some time to testify to him about the gospel blesses families, especially because he said his wife was out of town taking care of their sick daughter. He seemed a little interested to hear more, so we are going back when his wife is in town! We have been really struggling with finding lately, and so we are hoping with these potentials we can help them progress in the gospel.

Then we had two other miracle phone calls receiving random referrals, some in our area, and some not. But both were just members going by the Spirit and sharing what they know to be true (espeically sharing the Book of Mormon and just ASKING people if they want missionaries) with others. 

This work is truly the Lord's!

Love you all!

Sister Martin

More

Hola Familia!

Well, it was fantastic talking to you all (and SEEING everyone)! It made me so happy that you all cared enough to see me :) The babies and cats were all still cute so that's good...;) Mom I hope you were treated right and had an enjoyable day! Love you!!

Well like you saw, I am training again. Sister Fiefia is from Tonga, the first sister in our mission actually from there (the other Tongans were from Utah). So it has been an adjustment not only teaching her missionary life, but also helping her live in America. When we went running the first morning, she grabbed my arm and said "Sister Martin! What is that?!" I look up to the power line and replied "That's a squirrel." Haha she was so scared of it! She calls me Sista Martini from Texasisi. She thinks all the cars are very nice and go very fast, and asks me things like why can't I just cut across to the other road, that turns out to be an opposite one way street with a meridian between us. So its been interesting having to explain all the little things. I'm sure I would have been the same way if I had gone to a foreign place. 

Priyali's baptism was great! I didnt mention yesterday that she was crying before she went into the font, and just beamed when she came out! After the baptism she went right to our other investigator, who is struggling to commit to a date, and told her she was next! She said she felt sooo different before and after going down into the water. You can tell she is ready to start this new life.

As for my birthday, I sent mom a list of some ideas, but really just a letter and/or maybe some spending cash would be awesome. Or cute summer sister missionary clothes, my current things are heavier. Or General Conference on DVD is nice to have in the apartment. We only can watch those, The District training videos, Finding Faith in Christ, and Restoration. But the only conference ones are from 2008. So the newer ones would be cool. There is a Texas BBQ place close by I think I want to try on my birthday to see if its real :) Also, it happens to be on a P-day, so we are going as a district to the Oakland Zoo! Then the next week is a temple trip and maybe Peter's baptism! Good birthday month! ;) 22, isn't that crazy?! You are all probably rolling your eyes...but it feels weird to me!

Well, just know that I REALLY LOVE YOU ALL! Read the Book of Mormon everyday!!

Love,

Sista Martini

News and Answered Prayers

Hello Family!

 

Big News this week: We got transfer calls. Usually when you train a new missionary, it is for 12 weeks. But there are so many sisters coming in, its causing a lot of changes. I will be training ANOTHER new missionary come Wednesday! Oh, and staying in Walnut Creek! (I will be here for at least half my mission when I am done training this sister).So Sister Goff is getting transferred after only 6 weeks of being out, with another missionary who has only been out 6 weeks, and they are "shotgunning" the area! Meaning they are both brand new, there is not a senior companion who is already there and knows the area. They are going out to Brentwood, with a ward who is finally getting their own set of missionaries and a brand new building. I am very excited for her, but also sad to see her leave. Her and her new companion are very nervous, our zone leaders mentioned to them "so you are 'the experiment'?" haha, so this has not really been done before in the mission. Also, Sister Goff will be driving and the senior companion! Sister Hewett got called as one of the new sister training leaders!

 

Prayers Answered: If you prayed for Peter this week (like I mentioned in the last letter), we had a great trip to the Visitor's Center, where we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes! He picked a date of May22, which is a Wednesday haha, but we can change that. Also Priyali was praying that her parents would be ok with her getting baptized, and she talked to them Saturday night, and her mom was not only ok with it, she even told her if she is going to be committed to something, she needs to be committed 100%! Smart mother :) Priyali is getting baptized on Sunday! So lucky new sister is getting to see a baptism her first Sunday out in the field.

 

Mother's Day: I will be skyping from a members house around 4:00 pm my time, 6:00 Texas time. Hopefully I remember my log in information haha. I might give a brief phone call right before again to let you know to get on. Our call has been encouraged this time to last from 30-40 minutes. Bring the babies!

 

Love you!

Sister Martin

Right Time, Right Place

*****Sorry I'm late this week guys, I've been uber sick and totally spaced posting Laurel's email, enjoy! Even if it's a few days late*****

Howdy Family

This week was incredible, full of tons of downs, which were quickly made up for with ups!

Sifting

First, we had a lot of interesting first appointments with some people we had street contacted. The first was a young salesman who ended up just having a lot of questions about what we do for door approaches, what kind of training we had, etc. He basically was just curious about Mormons. When we shared scriptures from the Bible, he was ok with reading them to us out loud, but when we tried to get him to read a little bit in the introduction of the Book of Mormon,  he all the sudden said he didn't have his contacts in. So I should have seen it coming, but he had said he wasn't really interested after the lesson was over, so when I asked who he knew that we could share this message with he said "well I don't agree with the message"-ouch! It's like they are all fine and dandy talking to you about God and Jesus Christ, but as soon as you hit the points about prophets and joseph smith, they get into all kinds of crazy questions, and he pulled out all the crazy ones that no one ever wants to deal with. So we just invite him to pray and read the book of mormon, and he didn't want to, so I at least convinced him to keep it so he can get true answers and not stuff he finds online about it. He saw the reasoning behind that and said ok. He really was very nice during the whole thing, but not prepared at all. He mentioned something about his pastor, and I could only think about what my companion said about how back in Oklahoma, there are some churches that literally preach "don't read the book- that's how they get you!" hahahaha. Pretty sure that was what happened. Then we met with another Indian man, and as we talked he was so excited we were spreading the word about Jesus Christ. Then as we kept talking, it turns out he is a preacher of some sort, showed us his facebook page on his phone and everything. And he really got upset about prophets and Joseph Smith as well. He even said Sister Goff and I would be prophets too someday hahaha, we tried to explain that was not how it worked, but once again he was just really not prepared and wouldn't listen. So moral of the story here---give missionaries appointments with your friends! People who personally know a Mormon, not just what the world says.

Miracles

This week we made some major progress with Priyali. She is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, and loves it! We talked to her about baptism again, and this time she said she smiled and got excited, and said she wanted to say yes, but there was a little something holding her back. We talked to her about her family, and she is concerned about talking to them about joining the church. We even role-played with her what she would say to her family, and she bore powerful testimony on the importance of baptism as the first step in getting to the kingdom of God and being new and clean. It was amazing. I just told her to "say that!" 

We called Zaya this week to make sure she was coming to church on Sunday, and then all the sudden on the phone call, she said "Peter, wants baptism?" We had been planning and dropped our pens and said "wait, what?!" Then our ward mission leader stopped by at that moment and we opened our window and said out loud "so you are saying peter wants to be baptized?!" our ward mission leader freaked out and started whooping and jumping. Zaya was the first baptism I had here, and we have tried to teach her husband Peter, but he keeps saying do not push baptism, do not push baptism. So we have just tried teaching him about the priesthood and gospel blesses families. This was a plain miracle, that we had absolutely nothing to do with! We hadn't even seen him this past week, except to say a quick prayer with him before he went to work. But our bishop (one if the most inspired people I have ever met), had told us a few weeks before in ward council that for some reason, Peter had really been on his mind. Zaya told us not to say anything to him, he had to come to us and tell us he wants to be baptized, but that she was talking to him about her baptism and he had told her. So pray Peter will feel comfortable enough to tell us he wants to be baptized! 

Then we went to visit a focus family (a program our stake has for us to teach certain families the missionary lessons) that has been on my mind, and while we just made a stop by Sunday night, its turns out the grandma had moved in with them. As soon as we walked in, I kid you not, she said "I know you from somewhere. You look very familiar!" I joked with her and said it must be in the pre-earth life. Turns our she wasn't a member! Instead of teaching the whole family (most had to leave anyways to a scouting thing), we taught the grandma and the mom (the member) parts of the plan of salvation, because this grandma had been devasted by the loss of her daughter and grandson, and was unhappy about being out here in California. We read a lot from the Book of Mormon about how little children are alive in Christ, paradise, and enduring to the end. After the lesson, we asked if we could come back, they both said yes. We are going back tonight and are bringing a large print Book of Mormon with us! Her name name is Dorothy and she is 79 years old. I have hope though, because we have a man who was baptized at 74 in our ward.

The Lord truly shows us tender mercies. This is His work, He is preparing people, that's the hard part! So we must do our part to be a good example and then open our mouth so people can see what we are a good example of.

Lots of Love,

Sister Martin

The Power of Service

Hello Family,

 

I had exchanges this week with Sister Croft, one of our Sister Trainers. Due to so many sisters going on missions now, the Church is officially giving leadership titles to some sisters. They will not be District or Zone Leaders, that is still for the elders. But so we have an opportunity to go on exchanges and learn from experienced missionaries as well, we have companionships of Sister Trainers. Technically our mission has already had this because we are a mission with so many sisters, we had special permission. There have been one set of Sister Trainers for the Visitor Center sisters, and one set for the Full Proseylting sisters. Now we are getting so many new sisters we will be getting an additional set of Full Pros ones. Exciting news for the missionary world! Anyways, Sister Croft and I had a great time in Walnut Creek, she said I was doing great! And Sister Goff did well in San Mateo with Sister Camarillo, I was very proud of her and her first exchange!

 

We are working really closely with two investigators to hopefully get baptized in May. They are soooo close, and the adversary is pushing so hard against them, its very frustrating. But we had some great lessons on Recognizing The Spirit this week that will hopefully help. We are also trying really hard to get up a new teaching pool, so we are getting a lot of potentials, but then return appointments are so hard to keep solid for them. Any advice from you returned missionaries out there? Also prayers are always helpful, trust me I feel them!

 

On Saturday we had the special opportunity to work with Mormon Helping Hands on the Fred Finch Youth Center. It really was a blast! A bunch of missionaries and members in yellow shirts pulling weeds that were probably like 50 years old! It was so fun bonding with the other sister missionaries especially Hermana Ferguson and Hermana Cash (from Texas EFY!) as we pulled out giant bulbs that just got bigger and bigger, and cut down ugly bushes. There was painting and weeding mostly, and on this next weekend we get to help mulch and plant. The youth center houses children in Oakland, but they only have one part time groundskeeper, it was really sad. Who better than a bunch of Mormons to come clean it up for free?! We had such nice weather and there was lots of food for the volunteers, just a really fun day! I will post some pictures.

 

This week I really felt the power of service. I literally forgot about everything else for few hours as I just enjoyed working and serving these people. It reminded me that whenever I am down on myself or stressed about my life, I need to just get out there and serve someone else (which yes, Mom always taught growing up). Not only so most of the time you see others have problems too, but it's in fact a real chance to feel your Heavenly Father's love for not only His other children, but for you too. So many people these days question if there really is a God; well when you genuinely serve someone else, I know you can feel the answer. Also, I don't know how many people can say they spend their free time visiting widows, doing someone elses yard, etc except home and visiting teachers. This really is Christ's church on the earth today.

 

Go out and serve somebody this week, it will build not only your testimony, but your conversion!! Promise! I REALLY LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

Love,

Sister Martin

Gardens

Hi Family,

pictures:

1)at Emma's Garden Party, the pretty set up for the stories of the presidents of relief society. I thought it was beautiful.

2)Sister Goff and I at the Garden Party

3) Norman spoke at "Why I Believe" fireside finally! He did a great job, and mentioned Elder Watson, one of the elders who first helped teach him, in his talk. Luckily Elder Watson was there and he has been so excited Norman chose to be baptized in Walnut Creek. Elder Watson is from Australia, and sounds like it too! So even though his old companion and my old companion were gone, we still both took a picture with him to show that you never know when the fruits of your labor come!

 

This week we had some great things happen. First, we are helping prepare for the big Mormon Helping Hands project this weekend. The Relief Society was asked to make quilts for the youth that will be staying at the home we are building on Saturday. Mom just so you know, I am still terrible with a needle in my hand, and I hope the parts I worked on don't fall apart!But I tried.

 

Relief Society celebrated it's anniversary on Saturday. It was called "Emma's Garden Party", and it was so well put together, it looked like they hired a wedding reception crew! But no, we just have extremely talented, driven, and Pinteresty ladies here. It was beautiful all set up in the church building's little courtyard, complete with a mini production one of the counselor's made. She found the script somewhere online, but there were sisters who each represented one of the Relief Society presidents of the past. It was actually very touching, I felt the Spirit a lot as they talked about the sisters during old war times, and some of the hard things others experienced. What courage they had to endure, and how much we have to learn from them! Zaya and Augie came and even brought some food to contribute, so it was a great day!

Interesting how much gardens play a role...garden of eden, garden of gethsemane, 1st vision was in a grove of trees, but close enough...

 

We found a new investigator this week. We found him as we were just walking down the street. In our lesson with him he mentioned how he had been exploring religions and he loved how he felt when he went to church. He said he felt a difference when he did not go, and wanted to know why and how he can have that feeling again. The Lord has really prepared him to hopefully now drink from living waters.

 

We have been praying for Priyali to be baptized, and she knows everything is true, but is hesitant about the actual ordinance of baptism. We took Mandy and Norman into her lesson, and they both contributed so much to her concern. Norman spoke about how he came to decide to be baptized, and Mandy mentioned that she said there is a reason we got a body. It's pretty significant that we came to earth to get one, and we are showing God that we will follow Him by a physical act. Together our spirit and body are entering into that covenant, so yes it is significant to have an ordinance. We also talked about how your baptism day is a day you will always remember, so you have an more of an obligation to honor it; instead of just saying one day you would follow Christ. Anyways, it was such a good lesson, and I learned a lot from the Spirit through our members.

 

Well, I am still looking forward to all your thoughts on Conference and your testimonies. That is amazing the Angleton area is getting a church building finally! We must be growing?

 

Love you all!!!

 

Sister Martin

 

P.S. I am very sad to say my camera fell out of my bag onto some rocks this week, and now my screen is all shattered. I am grateful it still takes pictures, but does anyone know where I can get this fixed? Or is there nothing I can do?