Zone Conference

Hola everyone! 

Wow this week was amazing. 

We finally got Beyonce back from the autobody shop this past Thursday! But then we had to drive her straight to a Pep Boys to take care of a water leak and went back to work with our extra car but when we went to pick her up a few hours later they said they couldn't do anything so Friday we took her into the dealer to finally be fixed which was no problem since we still had the extra car. But last night the assistants to the mission president had to take the car so today we're back to bikes and buses! But hopefully she'll be done by tonight! And we're getting pretty good at using the bus system here! 

Also I keep forgetting to mention, no one in the spanish ward can play piano and so it's up to the missionaries here to play for church. We've always had elders here in the ward that could play but this last transfer our pianist got transfered to El Paso and the new elder can't play piano so for the last few weeks I've been the Miranda ward's pianista! 

I still can only play with my right hand but no one can even tell and I've been improving a lot in the past few weeks! But yeah it's really scary every week.

Yesterday we had a big zone conference and all of the zones in the south (so basically us and all of el paso) came up here to Cruces and the mission president spoke to us and Elder Bennet from the quorum of the seventy came too! It was so incredible and we all felt the Spirit so strongly! I love zone conferences because they always help us to stay motivated and get out there and work, even and especially when it seems hard. And since El Paso came up here I got to see my Hermana Moss, my CCM companion!!! That was a HUGE tender mercy for me, I've missed her so much! 

Excuse the awful lighting, we were far too excited to see each other, to consider leaving the gym

All of our investigators are doing incredible. We have a lot of baptisms planned for the next two months which is so exciting to see! There's just so many prepared people out here who are ready and willing to follow their Savior, Jesus Christ! It is the most amazing thing in the world to watch and help others fall head over heals in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ like I have! 

Something I've been thinking a lot about this week, and especially at the conference yesterday, is how incredibly blessed I am to be able to have the knowledge of this gospel, of how much my Heavenly Father loves me and all of His children, and how I can live with Him again and with my family for eternity. I still don't quite understand why I was blessed to be born into this church where I've been able to have this knowledge and understanding my whole life but I was and I want everyone to be able to feel that peace and love that I get to every single day. Missionary work is the most incredible and joy filled work I've been able to experience and I'm so grateful to be out here! I miss you all and I'll see you in a little over 1 far too short year!

Hermana Martin

Thanksgiving!

Ok so it was another pretty uneventful week so this should be short. 

We survived Thanksgiving! Normally missionaries have anywhere up to 5 dinners on holidays but we were master planners and just scheduled a lunch and a dinner so it was absolutely perfect. Lots of turkey and tamales. It was delicious. 

And all of our investigators are doing awesome! And one of them finally came to church!!! It's been like 2 months since an investigator has come to church so that was a great day. He's this really sweet 79 year old man that we found walking around this random trailer park and he's so excited to learn more about the gospel and how to come closer to Christ. 

Every day I am so grateful that I get to be out here teaching amazing, prepared people like this investigator and that I get to constantly teach and testify about how much their Heavenly Father loves them. It's seriously the coolest thing. Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Beyonce and Bikes

Wow this week was crazy, I don't even know where to begin. 

Ok so last week after we did all of our emailing and grocery shopping and everything we went to drop our car at Caliber Collision because like a month ago we were driving through Vado which consists entirely of poorly made dirt roads and it was flooding like crazy so we ended up smashing into a big pot hole and the front bumper has needed a little tlc ever since so we FINALLY got cleared to get her fixed. 

So we take her in and they're like yeah we already have all of the parts, it should be a quick 4 day fix! So we're freaking out but we have bikes and it's not too unreasonably cold right now so we leave with our bikes (which was a whole ordeal, the zone leaders here had to take my bike to a pep boys and then an actual bike store and get a part to fill up the air because apparently my bike has a european valve or something funky but now we know and I'm all set for the future!) but so we're going along with our bikes for the week and we had a lot of rides from members thank goodness because they felt bad for us because bikes, wind, and skirts is a really bad combination. 

So she was supposed to be done maybe Friday but we got a call from the vehicle coordinator, Elder Funk, and he said that they had to order another part and that our car would be a whole other week so we were just freaking out but we have a ton of help here, Heavenly Father has so obviously been looking out for us, so we figured it wouldn't be too bad to tough it out for another week. 

Then Friday morning Elder Funk called and said he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that our car was still definitely going to be another week. But the good news was that there was an extra car down in El Paso that they would bring to us the next day! I literally fell to the ground crying I was so happy. So Saturday morning the assistants to the mission president showed up with our beautiful borrowed car and we get to use it until ours is ready again! 

BLESSINGS. 

Hopefully we get our car back soon though, I don't want to put too many miles on a borrowed car. Also we have a bond with our car now since we named her Beyonce because she's a survivor like the Destiny's Child song.

Also, I don't know if anyone remembers the fun washer machine flood incident a few months ago but we've been out a washer and dryer ever since so we've been going to a laundromat and we actually found a really nice one! 

But so Wednesday morning we get a call from the zone leaders saying "hey, can we bring your washer over at like 11?". Apparently a member somewhere in Las Cruces had an extra one and they are amazing elders so they picked it up for us and now we have our very own washer machine! Wow it really makes everything so much easier! We've really been so far passed blessed here. 

As far as our investigators go it's been a great week as well! We're still finding new people and 5 people have set they want to be baptized and set a date! Which is absolutely incredible. The only thing is that they all have a hard time getting to church but we're working on that and hopefully they'll all be able to make it soon!

As crazy as this week was it was so jam packed with obvious blessing which is so cool right before Thanksgiving. A part of a scripture we've been sharing a lot this week that I love is "that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you" (Alma 34:38) and I love love love this scripture because this really is such an amazing time of the year filled with such a special spirit as we think about all of our many blessings and as we look forward to the Christmas season but we can keep this special spirit with us all year long and we should! 

We are blessed so far beyond belief every single day and we should give thanks for all we have continually. I remember growing up one of my teachers in church asked us to think about everything we thanked our Heavenly Father for the night before and what would our life be life if we woke up with only those things left. There's a whole lot that I'd be missing and that was a big wake up call for me. I challenge all of you to live with a spirit of thanksgiving in your hearts, especially during this holiday season, and I can promise that as you do so you will see the Hand of the Lord in every single part of you life. He is always there and He loves youso much. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Hermana Martin

Fun fact: a lot of people in spanish call Thanksgiving 'Dia de Pavo' which means 'Day of Turkey' and I just think that's really funny