Transfers!

Hey!

Lo siento that I forgot to mention last week that every 6 weeks here (every transfer week) our P-day gets switched to a Monday because transfers tomorrow is going to take up so much time. So hola a day early! 

Hermana Holding and I were sure that they wouldn't switch either of us this transfer, I still need to finish my training this next 6 weeks and we're both pretty new to this area, but Friday night President Miller called and asked Hermana to be a sister training leader and so she has to leave and she'll be going either to El Paso or Albuquerque, we won't find out until the transfer meeting Tuesday morning. So yeah that's been sad, I love her SO MUCH and she's been such an awesome trainer, plus I'm a little scared about having to introduce my new companion to this area and being the most knowledgeable about it for a few days. But I'm sure my new Hermana will be absolutely AWESOME if President Miller trusts her to finish my training so I'm excited to see what this next transfer holds. 

We haven't been able to teach a lot this week, our investigators have been really busy so there's nothing much to report there. One awesome thing this week though, so there's a soup kitchen here in Las Cruces that the members of the church here mostly help run and they needed to repaint and so all of us missionaries here were more than willing to help! Friday afternoon we cleaned and taped off the walls and then Saturday morning we were able to paint! We probably got more paint on each other than the walls but we did a really good job and it was a lot of fun! 

Also this past Saturday we were able to watch the broadcast for the women's session of General Conference and wow! The Spirit was so strong and I just feel so grateful that we get the opportunity to listen to the leaders of the church and their divinely inspired messages twice a year! One talk that I absolutely loved was from Linda S. Reeves and she talked about how he "happily ever after" doesn't ever come until act 3, that this life is really hard and sometimes it feels like it's too much and we can't understand why all of these bad things are happening, especially when we're trying to be a good person. But then she talked about how the fullness of all of these blessings that we're earning down here by our good works will be given to us in heaven and how, yeah right now is really tough, but once we receive the fullness of the blessings of heaven we will ask "Was that all that was required?" What's waiting in store for us is more amazing than anything we can possibly imagine and if we are able to keep that eternal perspective, all of a sudden those really hard things don't seem quite so hard.

I'm so grateful for this knowledge. I'm so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to challenge me, sometimes more than I think I can handle but He knows I can do it and He is ALWAYS there to help. I'm so grateful for the understanding that everything has a purpose, every trial and hardship in our lives, and that when we're through and surrounded by the fullness of the love of God that these trials will all seem so insignificant in comparison with the pure joy we will feel.

Hermana Martin

There is help and happiness ahead

Hola! 

This week has been a little crazy but good! 

On Thursday we did this thing called exchanges where the Sister Training Leaders did this little swap thing so I went down to their area, El Paso, with one of them and the other sister came and stayed up here with Hermana Holding for a day. They're both super sweet and it was great to get to know one of them, and the El Paso area a little bit. When we first got there it was raining so hard that in the about 15 seconds that it took me to run to the apartment I was completely soaked head to toe but at least the lightning was really cool! The members down there are really nice and I met some awesome investigators, and then at the end of the day I was able to come back to Hermana Holding and my area. 

ThenFriday was crazy because we had this huge ward fiesta. So I guess Cinco de Mayo is really more of an American thing and in Mexico they celebrate the 16th of September and so we did this big party and talent show to celebrate. One of the members let us borrow her folklorico (a traditional dance) skirts so we could dress up a little bit. There was SO MUCH FOOD. I got to eat authentic mole, tamales, paella (there's a member from Spain), and all sorts of crazy stuff that I have no idea what it was and man it was so good! And the talent show was fun, especially when a few of the members danced folklorico which is so pretty! All of us missionaries sang the Mexican National Anthem and the members all loved that we took the time to learn it so that was really nice. 

Missionary work hasn't really been progressing lately though. Our investigators, even the one with a baptismal date, just don't want to put in the effort to come to church so there's really not much more we can do to help them at this point which is really sad for us, we just have to hope that some day they'll have that desire again. 

But so the past few days we've been really focused on finding new investigators which has been interesting since we've talked to a whole lot of people but there's two that we're starting to work with who are both really interested so that's been a HUGE blessing for us lately. But yeah nothing too exciting to report this week. 

One thing we have been focusing on though is just getting back to the basics with faith. We need to have the faith to find new people to teach and we need to help those people develop their own faith. Without that base, there's no progression that can happen. And how amazing faith is! Faith is the opposite of fear and when we can embrace everything just seems a little better, a little easier. There's a quote I love from Jeffrey R. Holland that says

"Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. And some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."

Peace and Blessings, 

Hermana Martin

White Sands and Goats

Ok I don't have a lot of time to email this week and so I'll just sum up the main points:

• WE MOVED! Our new apartment is SOOO nice. We have clean water, a garage, we each get our own bathroom, and a normal air conditioner so we don't have to yell over the roar. We're seriously spoiled. The new address is 1000 La Fonda #U Las Cruces, NM

• I'm emailing a little later than normal because we went to White Sands this morning! It's really cool but it's really just a big stretch of really soft, white sand. We call it New Mexico snow.

• We learned how to make empanadas from a family in the ward and apparently we did a good job because we were officially told that we are wife material now. But really they were so delicious.
• One of our investigators with a baptismal date has an adorable 7 year old daughter who made us party hats out of cups and the picture is horrible, lo siento, but we thought that they were fantastic.

• While we were contacting in Old Mesilla last night (which is my favorite place here, it's so cute and we call it little Spain) we saw a couple taking their goats for a walk and I absolutely love baby goats so seeing even grown up goats was pretty cool. Also it was just a really funny sight.

• We cover this area called Vado which is pretty much just a lot of farm land, mostly dairy farms, but there's a lot of mosquitoes down there and we were outside talking for five minutes and Hermana Holding got 98 mosquito bites. Luckily I remained more or less unscathed but yeah I've had to help her not itch her legs constantly. Poor thing!
• We haven't had a ton of progress with any of our investigators this week but they're all doing well and we're super excited to see how this week goes!

Ok so spiritual thought for the week, I think 1 Corinthians is my favorite book in the Bible and I was reading a little out of it this week and really the first three chapters are just absolutely fantastic and it's so hard to pick just one thing to talk about but I think my favorite thought was at the beginning of chapter 2 where it says "when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God" and Paul talks about how he spoke with the power of the Spirit and the power of God instead of relying on fancy words. This was really comforting to me because I definitely do not have an excellency of speach when I teach in Spanish, but I have learned to rely on the Lord and on the Spirit to convey this message into the hearts of the people I get to talk to. I really can do nothing on my own, this is His work and He is with us every step of the way and I am so grateful that I get to be His missionary! I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Month 2!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Wow I can't believe that today is my 2 month mark! Crazy stuff man, it's been flying by. The CCM just feels like a blur at this point. So the work here has been awesome, the ward is making leaps and bounds and is really starting to become strong which has been such a HUGE blessing because missionary work is really hard without the full support of the members and leadership of the ward. Our investigators have been doing well and we found two more this week!

When we met one of our new investigators we found out the Elders had given him a Book of Mormon a few days before and he told us that he had read some of it, already knew it was true and wanted us to teach him all about what that meant and this church. So yeah you could say that that was a really good day. He has so much faith and you can already see the light of Christ and the hand of God at work in his life, he is such a joy to teach! 

And one of our investigators decided this week that she wants to be baptized! We have her scheduled for the 26th and so we're so excited and have been working with her a lot to make sure that she is 100% ready and truly believes in this gospel. 

We've been really busy with a lot of lessons to teach and a lot of members to visit which is everything a missionary could really ask for because that means that we're being productive and contributing something to this work so we're exhausted all the time but we're beyond happy. 

Oh update about our lovely apartment, so this past Wednesday morning Hermana Holding went to put in one last load of laundry right when we woke up and when she went to check on it an hour later the whole laundry room was flooded. Like a good few inches of water and the washer machine wouldn't stop running water and it was like 7:30 in the morning so no one was awake to answer their phones to help us but a few minutes later some elders (our incredible ​zone leaders actually) called back and came over right away to help us. We couldn't find knob to turn off the water but after a few minutes of panicking it just stopped so that was a really nice miracle. The elders came and helped us get as much of the water out as we could and an hour later a repair man came to try to get some of the water out of the carpet so all was well. But yeah, so WE'RE MOVING! The carpet smells all moldy now and we have to go to a laundromat to wash our clothes this week so that was just the push we needed to find a new apartment and we should be moving in this Friday! It's so nice with a garage, two bathrooms, and clean water. We're so excited! But we certainly had an exciting morning that day and we were laughing about how we had the water to go with our sand to make it a complete beach! And in the mayhem the dryer got moved to the living room and left there and so naturally Hermana Holding and I tried to fit inside and finally took some pictures.

But in the midst of all of the chaos of this week and our little flood I've been thinking a lot about the song I learned in church when I was little about a wise man who built his house upon a rock and a foolish man who built his house upon the sand and how when the rains and the floods came the man on the rock was safe, but the foolish man lost everything. I've also been thinking a lot about how important it is to have faith in Christ and to have Him as our foundation, our rock, because that is the only sure foundation in this world. 

A classic scripture came to mind,  Helaman 5:12 which says "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.". 

I know that as we allow Christ to be our foundation, as we put our faith and our trust in Him, that no trial, no sorrow, no temptation is too great. With Christ all things are possible and all hope is available. I'm so grateful for this knowledge and for this opportunity I have to be so close to Christ and His gospel and to help others find this light and hope.

Love you all and I hope you have fantastic weeks!

Miracles and Beaches

Hola familia y amigos!

 Wow the work is really picking up out here in Las Cruces, it's been an incredible week! I'll just mention a few of the many miracles we experienced this past week. 

So as missionaries we try to have members come out with us to teach investigators and help them feel comfortable and start having friends in the church but the members here are so busy that it's really hard to get those member present lessons so Hermana Holding and I have been praying a lot for help with that and doing all we can, working diligently and such and this week during planning we managed to get 6 member present lessons scheduled when last week we barely got two and one of those was a surprise (I'll talk about that lesson in a little bit). We are so excited and hope that this momentum keeps up! 

Ok so that surprise lesson. So we've been working a lot with the less active members of the ward one of those is a nurse. She has a hard time coming to church herself because she's a nurse and has had to work on Sundays but she loves to share the gospel and the things that make her happy so one day, out of the blue, she called us with a referral to teach her friend. We scheduled an appointment to talk to her more and that was a whole thing (long story short we had the wrong trailer number and thought she bailed on us and we were really discouraged) but she came and brought her friend! So right then we were able to have one of our long hoped for member present lessons with an incredible investigator. 

Seriously her friend has gone through so much in her life and she is such an amazing and strong woman, it has truly been a blessing to get to know her. And then both of them came to church on Sunday so the blessings and miracles just keep coming! Also on Sunday, there's a lot of just clerical tasks that the ward has been needing to take care of and hasn't been able to for enough weeks that the members were getting a little frustrated, but this past Sunday the Bishop was amazing and got so much done and taken care of and we're really seeing a lot of progress and a renewed excitement in the ward.

And we have two investigators that are an amazing couple and really just soak up the gospel, they are so fun to teach!, but their marriage has been struggling a little and so they decided to wait to get baptized until their marriage was stronger. We've been talking to them a lot about temples and the fact that families can be together forever and the Spirit is always really strong as we testify of that and on Sunday 3 members had just gone to the temple for the first time and so they bore their testimonies of their experiences and the blessings of the temple and the wife felt the Spirit so strongly she started crying and said something to us in Spanish about baptism so we don't exactly know what she said but we're so excited to teach them tonight and talk about it! So many blessings man.

On an unrelated topic, we've had an exciting new development with our apartment! The water has sand in it! Not every day but it's been pretty often recently (but we have plenty of water bottles so we have clean water to drink so it's not a big deal). The best part is though that our shower curtain is a beach scene and so it's really funny to see the sand at the bottom of the tub and then the curtain. It's definitely the closest I'm going to get to an actual beach for the next 16 or so months so I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts!

I'm loving the work out here and even though it's really hard at times, there's no place in the world I would rather be and nothing else I would rather be doing. Seeing the joy in peoples faces as they feel the truth of God's love for them and how their family can be together for eternity, there's really nothing like it. I love this gospel and I love my Savior and every minute of every day out here I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to serve.I love you all and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded, me and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance, and this is my joy."

Love always,

Hermana Martin