HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hola everybody!

We don't really do anything for Halloween though. But we get fed enough here with all of the hermanas taking care of us that I guess we don't need any candy anyways. But our ward did have a sweet Halloween activity! Basically everyone dressed up and they just had a huge dance party. I love that we're in the party ward of El Paso.

Man this week was a roller coaster again. And I seriously don't remember like any of it. I'm going to have to start writing things down to email.

We're still finding lots of people to teach so we're super pumped! But a lot of them are basically impossible to find again so we're working on getting really solid new investigators. But the ones we can find are doing so amazing! Hermana Smurthwaite is doing great! She's learning Spanish super fast and we're starting to really teach more unified.This month of November is going to be awesome!

Funny story. I'm still adjusting to the whole P-day switching to Mondays thing so basically this whole week I kept taking us to do things a day early, like we always have lunch with a certain member on Wednesdays and so we show up on Tuesday instead and just had a nice little accidental visit. I'll figure this out one day!

So probably the hardest part of this week was saying goodbye to an incredible investigator and friend. Cecilia decided to move back to Juarez so that she could better keep the commandments (that's a whole long, complicated story) but so Friday we went over to teach her one last lesson and say goodbye. 

She shared with us her amazing story of battling cancer and how she was told that she only had a few days left on more than one occasion, but how in that hospital room she found God and had the faith enough to be healed each time. She told us about how since that day she has been searching for God's true church on the earth, and her search is finally over. She is so converted and she is going to do amazing things in Juarez. It was bittersweet to see her go because I know that she's doing exactly what her Heavenly Father wants her to do, but goodbyes are just hard. But I'll see her again soon I'm sure!

​Saying goodbye to Cecilia

And an awesome miracle story for the week! There's an investigator that we taught once way back in September, and a lot of things were going on in his life and we just haven't heard from him since. So Sunday we're in the chapel and we turn around, AND THERE'S JUAN MANUEL! 

We were so happy to see him and it'll still be a little bit before he can really regularly meet with us, but that was such a sweet surprise. We got to teach him a quick lesson and he even stayed to watch a baptism that the elders had after church. Tender mercies!

This week I've been thinking a lot about what the Atonement of Jesus Christ (His sacrifice for us) means in our daily lives. My one New Year's resolution this year was to understand the Atonement better and it's been so amazing reflecting on what I've learned so far this year. I can testify without a doubt, because I've been able to experience it in my own life and see it in the lives of so many others, that what the Savior heals stays healed. Whether it be sins we need to repent of or emotional burdens, the Savior can fix everything. We just have to let Him. I love the chorus of the hymn 'I Stand All Amazed',

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

He truly is Wonderful. I love my Savior and I love being a missionary!

Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Greenie Fire!

Hola everyone!

Ok so this week was all a blur and I really don't remember any details but I'll see what I can do!

SO my new companion's name is Hermana Smurthwaite (the Spanish speakers have a hay day with that one) and she's from Kentucky! She has a ton of fire for the work, and we should be able to get a lot of things done this transfer! 

Training is easier than I anticipated, but I've certainly been more tired this week than any other week I can remember on my mission. We're still finding lots of great potentials, and it's been really hard to meet with our investigators this week because of their crazy schedules and everything, but the lessons we did have were crazy powerful! 

This week I've gained a really strong testimony of the power of asking inspired questions! The right question can change the whole lesson, bring the Spirit so strongly, and really help to be able to understand their needs. Basically it's like the best thing ever and Heavenly Father helped us a lot this week to be able to think of the right questions!

It was weird saying goodbye to all of my friends from last transfer, I love Hermana Oliphant so much and one of the best friends I've made on my mission, Sister Almond, got trasferred up to Albuquerque, but I can already tell that this transfer is going to be a great one and the new missionaries that came in are so amazing! Transitions are always just weird for a little bit.

That's really all I've got right now. Lots of work, lots of changes!

I hope y'all have an amazing week!

Hermana Martin

Hermana Oliphant still hasn't sent me the pictures we took so this is all I've got. Here's my new comp!

​I don't think I'll ever have a companion that's my same height or taller at this point

Drum roll please.........

Hola everybody!

Ok so transfer news!!! By a crazy turn of events and against all prediction charts that we hermanas make every transfer.....

I'm staying in Ascarate to train my verdecita!

And Hermana Oliphant is reopening Miranda South to train her greenie, my first area! Which is awesome because I can give her a bunch of information about what the work is like there, different members, streets she needs to know, the whole bit! 

So yeah, transfer calls were a bit of a surprise, but I'm excited to be able to stay here because this area is so golden and I absolutely love it here in barrio 12!

So I'll drop Hermana Oliphant off tomorrow at 2 and pick up my new companion at the same time! I can't wait to meet her!

So this past week has been crazy trying to finish out the transfer strong and prepping for one of us leaving, but we saw so many miracles and found 6 new investigators! There are so many elect people just coming from every side and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be able to keep teaching them and see how they progress and how the gospel blesses their lives!

That's been the main craziness of this week though, I'm sure I'll have lots to update on next week! 

Also, I highly reccomend this video! It's an apostle of the Lord talking about how much our Heavenly Father loves us and what we can do to recieve more of the blessings that He is ready and willing to give us!

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/shower-of-heavenly-blessings

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Tender mercies and all sorts of big changes and oh my I have no idea what's happening this week

Ok so starting with just super cool things in our area this week, we found so many people! 

There's a woman we've been trying to meet with for like 3 months, she's so prepared for the gospel, but has a really crazy schedule and really difficult things going on in her life, but we prayed for direction on whether or not we should keep trying to see her and asked Heavenly Father that if there was something we needed to teach her then that she would open the door this time when we knocked, and she did! It's like maybe the third time we've actually found her in all of those months of trying and so we know without a doubt that Heavenly Father answered our prayer. We were able to teach her the next day about the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was so strong and she already knows that it's true!!!

​One of our superstars that comes out with us all the time, Karem Vidaurri, got her mission call! Washington Kennewick Mission, Spanish speaking of course!

And then we had an appointment with a potential investigator but we realized when we got there that he gave us the number of the trailer park and not his trailer, and so we prayed really hard that if Heavenly Father needed us to talk to this man that we would be able to find him. And so basically we spent an hour knocking doors at this trailer park and asking around for Omar, and finally we saw a teenager walking around and so we started talking to him and after a few minutes we found out that he was Omar's son! He took us to his house and we had an amazing lesson with a super prepared family and we're so excited! Finding families to teach is the greatest thing as a missionary!

​Here's a really awful picture of a really cute kitten that adopted us as we were trying to find a potential and it kept licking our faces and it was just the cutest thing ever!

And then Sunday I was just in a weird mood for some reason, but we had work to do so we went to church and were going around trying to help the members and investigators when all of a sudden the primary children were walking down the hallway and a bunch of them ran over and basically tackle hugged me out of the blue and then went off to class without any explanation and it was just the cutest thing of my life!

And then we had kind of a stressful weekly planning yesterday and our member dinner cancelled so we decided to go to Corner Bakery Cafe (basically Texas's Kneaders) and as we were ordering there was a member of the church behind us in line and he payed for our food! That like never happens to missionaries outside of Utah! He was so nice and so we talked to him for a little bit and then went to sit to wait for our food and another member walked by and started talking to us! He has a friend who just got back from serving her mission here and so he took a snapchat with us to send to her and he was super excited and it was just the coolest dinner ever! Also the food was really delicious. Heavenly Father is so mindful of us and like things like running into people who are actually excited to see missionaries is really nice.

​We took an actually mildly nice zone picture. I love Chamizal zone!

Ok so now the crazy changes. So normal missionaries throughout all of the rest of the world have their P-day (when they email and everything) on Mondayright? And so we're super weird an ddo ours on Tuesday for whatever reason. NOT ANYMORE! President Guffey just told us that STARTING NEXT WEEK WE HAVE MONDAY P-DAY. So that moves our weekly planning day around and none of us are really sure how to do that yet but we'll finally be on the same page as the rest of the world!

The elders tricked us into hiking another mountain and I was wearing my cactus socks and actually got a cactus spine stuck in said socks so it was really funny but also really hurt and also I can't believe I actually hiked another mountain.

And trying to figure out how to do all of those changes is super scary because transfers are this next week and last night President called me to be a trainer! I'm getting a greenie missionary next week! And Hermana Oliphant is training too! (as well as 4 other Hermanas which is crazy because we normally only get 1 or 2 greenies a transfer, not 6!) So since Hermana Oliphant is training too that means one of us is leaving and opening us a new area with their greenie and that person is like 100% me since I've already been in this area for forever. So yeah! We'll find out details on Saturday so next Monday I'll let you know! AHHH! I'm really super excited for a training call and I've always wanted to open an area, but it's kinda scary to do it at the same time and also when we're making a huge schedule change that we don't know how to do yet, but we'll figure it out as we go!

Ahhhh have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Jam Packed Week

HEEYYYYYY everybody! 

OK this last week was so jam packed with so many things! I'll see how much I can remember!

• So right after emailing this last week our zone went hiking to these "caves" which really meant hiking up an entire mountain to see a mild hole in a rock and look out on the desert of El Paso and I thought I was going to die but then we ate McDonald's afterwords and so everything was great.

The "cave" we hiked to

• The english ward sisters (our missionary BFFs really) had an animal die in their apartment in one of their vents or something so they came and slept over for 4 days and it was so fun! It was definitely an interesting challenge trying to coordinate 4 showers in one hour and we didn't sleep a whole lot, but we loved having them! And now they're moving in to a really nice apartment so it all worked out!

SLEEPOVER! 

• We watched the women's session of General Conference on Saturday and that meeting is definitely going to be one for the books! All of the leaders and the apostle that spoke brought such a special spirit into the chapel we were in and I think everyone left that room crying from the messages we heard and how they touched our hearts. I'm so excited to hear more from the leaders of the church and especially the prophet this next weekend!!!



​Us at the temple, it was really windy so don't judge my hair

• Yesterday we road tripped up to Albuquerque to go to the temple and it was SO AMAZING! I love the temple so much! I didn't realize how much I missed it until I walked into those sacred walls and felt that special peace envelope me. The temple is such a perfect place to receive revelation and just generally feel of God's love for us! I'm so sad we won't be able to go back until April, but we have a lot of work to do until then!

We took a "nice zone picture" in front of the temple. I love all of these people so much

​We also took a sweet selfie which I don't have so here's a picture of us taking the picture

• Our investigators are doing amazing! We feel really strongly that Heavenly Father wants us to help 3 of His children enter the waters of baptism here in this area for the month of October and so we're working really hard to find and teach those elect sons and daughters that are ready and waiting for the gospel and we have a lot of people preparing for this month! Tons of miracle stories, I'll share them as their stories continue progressing because there's too many right now!
• So Saturday was one of the most amazing days on my mission so far, without question. We didn't have any appointments planned so we had a whole day of knocking doors on our schedule, which normally is not exactly a missionary's favorite day (it is so much more fun teaching lessons!) but we know there's a lot of people we need to find so we prayed really earnestly the night before for Heavenly Father to lead us to which part of our area we needed to focus on. We separate everything by colors for ease and so we decided to work in Dark Blue because that was the answer both of us received. We would drive until we felt impressed to stop at a certain house, and knock that street until we felt impressed to leave and just spent the whole day like that. It was so amazing (and exhausting, but a really good exhausting) to be so in tune with the Spirit and driving away from each street we were essentially in tears because we knew without a doubt that we had talked to every single person that the Lord had sent us there to see. Being a missionary is so cool! I have truly never been more exhausted, happy, or filled with love at any other point in my life than I am right now and I love every second of it!

​The sunset over the border fence. I love this area <3

This next weekend we all have the opportunity to listen to the leaders of the church, the apostles, and the current living prophet of God. How amazing is that?! I encourage each of you to really be pondering this week in questions that you have for God and to write them down, then watch General Conference with those questions where you can see them, ready to take notes. I can promise with out a shadow of a doubt that you will be able to receive answers to each of your questions if you put in your part to listen. I've seen it every time I've done this and this is one of the best opportunities to receive personal revelation. Utilize it! 

Love you all, have an amazing week!

Hermana Martin

Mermaids

Hola Everybody!

Ok so this week was kinda a bum week because Jose moved to Oklahoma (we set an appointment with him and confirmed at like 5 and by 8 he had decided to go was on his way so....), two of our investigators spent the entire week in Juarez and we still have no idea what exactly is happening with them, our investigators who are still here were impossible to find so we didn't teach like any lessons, and we just were not good at figuring out how to use the Lord's time effectively. 

​Our 8 o'clock appointment last night ended up sending us home with half of a tres leches cake, 4 hot dogs, and a bowl of ground meat. But at least they gave us a convenient carrying tray! I'm gonna be gordita by the time I go back home

So yeah, bum week. BUT I love bum weeks because the next week you get so pumped to do better and to fix everything and to really not have another bum week and so yesterday in weekly planning we set great goals and have plans to improve and yesterday was already so much better! We were led to 2 super prepared potential investigators and we're planning for a baptism this weekend for one of our current investigators and it's going to be so good!

Also, funny story. So we were trying to find a less active member, but we weren't sure which apartment she lives in so we asked some kids who were playing outside (she has a son about their age so we figured if anyone knew it would be them!). They led us to like 3 different apartment with families that matched our description, but none of them were the right one. We told them thanks and as we were leaving we had this lovely exchange...

Like 9 Year old boy: So are you like mermaids?

Us: What?!

Boy: Are you mermaids??

Us: What do you mean?

Boy: You know, those ladies that go around and talk about God!

Us: Yes, we are 100% mermaids, actually.

So that was delightful and still brings us joy.

A bunch of us sisters got real Hatch chile burgers in between conference sessions on Saturday because Texas

And of course GENERAL CONFERENCE was this weekend!!!!!!! It was incredible, of course, I mean it's the living prophet and apostles and other general leaders of the church giving heaven inspired council and direction to us so. I don't think I made it out of a single session without crying, the Spirit was so powerful! I can't even pick a favorite talk, there were like 3 that I swear were written directly for me, but an overarching theme that I felt was how much our Savoir loves each and every one of us individually. His grace truly is sufficient to be able to help even me, no one is exempt.

He loves us and knows that we really can't do this by ourselves, but we were never meant to. The plan is and has been from the beginning that He would always be there, through rejoicing and through sorrows, to carry our burdens and help us solider on. To help us progress to be the individuals that our perfect Heavenly Fathers knows we can be. He loves us with a perfect, infinite love and He's always waiting for us to just turn to Him and allow Him to help us. I know with all of my soul that my Redeemer lives, that He is there to comfort me when faint, to wipe away my tears, and more than anything to love me with an all encompassing, perfect love that heals any and all scars without a trace. I love my Savior and I love this gospel! I love being a missionary!

Hermana Martin

Viva Mexico!

Hey! Computer problems, not a lot of time so here's the highlights

• Hermana Oliphant and I are getting along awesome! She's super cute and this is going to be a great transfer!

• Friday was Mexican Independance Day so we partied real hard. It was so fun and our recent convert Nancy got us dresses from Juarez to wear!

• Yesterday we had a big zone conference so a bunch of us missionaries met together and President came down and we had a super awesome, spiritual training meeting basically.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

NANCY GOT BAAAPPPPTTTIIIIIZZZZZEEEEEDDDDDDDDD

​Hermana Bosch was able to make it over to see and support her and I promise her kids loved it, they just hate taking pictures.

Nancy is so cute!!! She was so excited all week and she has such a strong testimony and every time we go over to teach her she explains these principles way better than we ever could and she's so converted. She told us afterwards that when she went under the water that she felt like God was hugging her and she felt more than heard the words "Hija, estoy contigo" (Daughter, I'm with you). It was so sweet and the Spirit was so strong! She's already seen so many blessings in her life and she can feel a huge difference. I love my job!

So this whole week was kind of crazy, in the space of 4 days I had 4 different companions and I was in charge of my area that whole time so it was a little stressful to say the least, trying to remember all of these children of God that we're working with right now, getting members to appointments, figuring out how to get to appointments without a gps (it was Hermana Bosch's so of course she had to take it) and just general mayhem. But I prayed a whole extra lot and everything worked out! Hermana Oliphant is awesome and she's getting to know the area super quickly! It helps that we're using the old school map so we get to visualize where we're going. And since I have no idea where I'm going 80% of the time, every time I start driving I just sing "Let the Holy Spirit Guide" and somehow we always get to where we need to go!

The area is doing awesome, this week was awesome, and everything is finally starting to settle in!

​Hermana Bosch finally emailed me pictures. This was our best attempt at taking a nice picture with the elders we split the ward with.

There are so many awesome things I learned in studies this past week, but I think one of my favorites is the story of when Alma and Amulek were trying to teach and help the people of Ammonihah and were thrown into prison, and after they had suffered for many days Alma says

"'How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance.' And they broke the cords with which they were bound;"

I LOVED this because it really shows how important not just faith, but specifically faith in Christ is. Through Him we can do all things, we can overcome anything and everything. But we have to act along with that faith. We can't just pray for help and sit there and wait. Alma and Amuleck had such faith in Christ that after they prayed they acted and tried to break the cords, and they did. God loves us, He is always there to help us! I can testify from seeing examples in my own life and the lives of many others that when we have faith in Christ and act, we will see miracles. When we do our little part, God always makes up the rest.

I love you all! Hope you have a good week!

Hermana Martin

Miracles Man!​

Hola everybody!

This week was so good!

Ok so first off we had stake conference so everyone in our middle third of El Paso all came and met together on Sunday and it was PACKED! Our stake was just created in February so it was the first stake conference and naturally it was super amazing and inspired. President and Sister Guffey came to speak and all of the talks and testimonies were just what we and our investigators and members needed to hear. We have the best leaders ever here!

​Most of the missionaries in the zone with President and Sister Guffey

So update on Nancy, Luis, and Jose (the miracle from last week's email). Nancy and Jose are pushing forward and preparing to be baptized on September 3rd! Luis had some complications that we're working with him to overcome but he's such an amazing son of God and we've already seen him grow and understand so much in our short time knowing him. Nancy was able to get a priesthood blessing two days ago and yesterday she told us how amazing her day was and how she's felt so much peace and comfort ever since the blessing. They are all so strong and without a doubt elect children of God!

Another incredible miracle, there's this super cute older man, Enrique, that we've been teaching for a few months (really my whole time back out here). He's super funny and has such a desire to learn! His wife passed away about 6 years ago and we know that she has already accepted the gospel and is just waiting for him because we've felt such a strong spirit and love whenever we teach him. He's been preparing for a long time now. So we set a baptismal date as a goal for him for August 28th (next Sunday) and we've been talking to him about it and he told us Sunday night that he absolutely wants to be baptized, that he knows this is the true church and he can feel the difference in his life already, but that he didn't feel ready yet and wanted to wait about 3 or 4 more weeks. So no problem, our job isn't to pressure anyone into the church, we're just here trying to help people come unto Christ. But as Hermana Bosch and I were trying to set a new baptismal date for him for September both of us got a really strong impression that no, it has to be August 28th. So we shared our feelings with him and just asked him to pray and ask God if he should prepare to be baptized this next Sunday so that he could make the decision for himself. That was absolutely the most beautiful and humble prayer I've ever heard in my entire life. He asked God if that was truly His will for him and even though he didn't feel ready, if God wanted him to be baptized on the 28th he would do it with pleasure. Hermana Bosch and I were both just bawling because the Spirit was SO STRONG and we know that for whatever reason and whatever plan God has for Enrique, he needs to be baptized on Sunday. And Enrique being the amazing and humble disciple of Christ that he is is now excited and preparing for Sunday. We seriously cannot stop screaming with joy. 

​With our stake president, President Sandoval (he's super funny and also an amazingly inspired leader)

I cannot and never will be able to adequately describe in words what it feels like when you get to watch the process of someone letting the Light of Christ into their lives and especially when they want to take the step to be baptized. And it's nothing about getting more numbers in the church, there's no way I'd leave California and my family and school and everything in my life to come all the way here to scorching El Paso, Texas just for numbers in the church. But watching people learn and understand and start actively walking towards God and the path to eternal life and happiness in this world and the world to come and understanding that families can be eternal and knowing exactly what they can do to have that promise, that's what true joy is. That's why I'm here and why I came back to the mission. 

There's a scripture in Alma chapter 29 that I absolutely love. In verse 9 it says

"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."

There is absolutely no better feeling than knowing that we were able to be an instrument in the Hands of God to help and bless one of His children. All we have to do is listen to the Holy Ghost, the thoughts and feeling we get to help and serve others. It's hard to hear sometimes, but listening makes all the difference in the world!

Being a missionary is the greatest thing in the world! Love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Martin

I have no idea what happened this week.

Hola everyone!

I survived transfers but Hermana Bosch didn't so that was sad, even our apartment started crying (the AC broke and was dripping from the ceiling for a little bit). Her new area is only like 15 minutes away though so I'll still get to see her every so often! So I have to take over the area and we don't have a gps so we're using an old fashioned map and it's certainly interesting! My new companion is Hermana Oliphant, she's from Utah and I actually got to meet her when I came back to the mission! She was one of the greenies in the group that I met up with in Salt Lake so I was excited to be able to see her again. And my MTC companion, Hermana Moss, got transferred to the area right next to us so I'll get to see her all the time! I don't remember much from the past week though. Lots of goodbyes for Hermana Bosch. Yesterday I dropped off Hermana Bosch in the morning but Hermana Oliphant wasn't coming in until late so I got to spend the day with Hermana Jolley who is the closest thing to a real life Disney princess. Sorry, that's really all I've got right now though, taking over an area takes up a lot of brain space I guess. Well love you all, hope you have a good week!

Hermana Martin

ENRIQUE GOT BAAAAPPPPTTTIIIIIIZZZZZZEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDD

Enrique is so adorable and faithful and one of my favorite feelings in the world is being able to fill up the baptismal font and watching the water start to rise and that was the most beautiful baptism in the history of ever and no one will ever convince me otherwise!

I have so many thoughts in my head I don't even know where to start! Enrique is the best! We saw him almost every day this past week and he started getting super excited and he really felt ready, which was a huge chance from last Sunday. Amazing what a truly humble prayer can do to change your life. All week when we asked him how we was feeling he would always say "tranquilo y listo" (calm and ready) and we saw so many miracles helping him really be ready for Sunday. 

Hermano Gardea, Enrique, and us! I wish we had a picture of his face and just pure joy after the baptism.

So church came and we were so excited and also stressed because we had to prepare an entire baptism during the last hour of church but everything worked out and we were ready in time! Except for the fact that we filled up the font like an entire step too low so the water was way shallow but Hermano Gardea is a pro and pulled off the baptism flawlessly anyways.

Starting to fill up the font!

But the absolute best moment was when Enrique was baptized and when he came out of the water he was visibly a different person. There was just an immediate joy that overcame him and he said "Gracias, Dios!" and kept looking up at the heavens. I started crying and taking off my shoes to go down into the water and hug him but then I remembered that that is very much not allowed and Hermano Gardea hugged him for us so it was all good. 

There was such a huge difference. The church is true guys, I've never been more sure in my life. Afterwords when we asked him how he felt he always said "nuevesito" (brand new) and you could tell he really felt it. The Spirit was so strong and it's one of my favorite experiences of my entire life!

It's amazing to look back and see that this whole experience was able to happen because Hermana Bosch and I listened to the Spirit that Enrique needed to be baptized this past Sunday, and more importantly, because Enrique listened to the Spirit and had the humility and faith enough to ask God, and then to act. 

That's it, faith and a willing heart is really all the Lord needs to do incredible miracles like he was able to do with Enrique. Just trust in Him, listen, and then act. A lot of times He will ask us to take a step into the dark and we have no idea how it's going to work, but when we truly trust in Him and just do it we will see more blessings and miracles in our lives than we ever could have imagined. With Enrique's example and with some of the trials that our other investigators are going through right now I've been thinking a lot about the hymn "Lead, Kindly Light" and I love the whole hymn really (I highly encourage everyone to really read the words to it!) but I especially love the lines

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene--one step enough for me.

I really have been trying to remember and apply this in my life. Normally God won't reveal the next 3 miles of our path, He knows that what we really need is just one step at a time and when we have faith in Him we know that every step He gives us will be in the right direction. 

I love you all, and more importantly your Heavenly Father loves you!

Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Half Way!

Hola everyone!

Today is my 9 month mark but it I swear only feels like 3. I don't feel ready to be halfway done with my mission, but at least I still have a full 9 months ahead of me!

Found this while out tracting.

This week was so great! Like always apparently now I really don't remember much of what happened but we saw some amazing miracles and Heavenly Father is working really hard with us here in Ascarate.

One of my favorite miracles is this couple we've been working with. She was a former investigator a few months ago and we found her record and Hermana Bosch has been trying go to back and find her like the whole time we've been companions. About a month ago we knocked on her door with no response, like usual, but I felt like leaving a card with our number and then we went on with our day. A few days later we went and knocked again and she answered! She told us that a few days before she had been praying for God to help her know what He wanted her to do and then she came home to find our card! Then that morning she had been praying again for direction and a few hours later we show up! We cleared up some of the confusion from the previous missionaries and she came to church two days later with her boyfriend and their 3 small kids! 

Her boyfriend, had just barely come to the US the week before and so we were able to start teaching them as a family. They already know that the church is true and that this is the path they need to take, but they need to be married before they can be baptized. They've been working on getting that taken care of but he wants to get his citizenship first and so the soonest we could set their baptism for was next March, but we felt strongly that they were ready sooner and that God would provide a way. 

We've been meeting with them for a few weeks now and they are so unbelievably prepared, but we couldn't see how to help them progress faster. So yesterday we get a call from her and she tells us that they just got into an accident and that they're all ok, there wasn't even any damage to their car, but they were pretty shaken up and wanted us to come over that night. We set up a quick family home evening with their family and we all went over. They told us about how they couldn't stop thinking how unpredictable life is and they want to get married and baptized as soon as they possibly can! We had a great lesson and the family was absolutely perfect! At the end she bore a powerful testimony at the end about how if they put God first and go ahead with their marriage and baptism, that He will help them in all other aspects of their life, including helping her boyfriend get his citizenship. It was such a powerful lesson and a day I'll never forget! 

We're now working with them to plan for everything by the end of this month! I'll keep you all updated!

I can testify that God is a God of miracles, and that miracles still happen today, because I've seen them every single day. 

2 Nephi 27:23 says

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

God loves us and He wants to help us. I'm sure everyone of us needs some sort of miracle in our lives and as we have the faith to ask and to be obedient to the commandments of God, those miracles always come. I've seen it day after day. God loves you so much and so do I!

Have a great week!

Hermana Martin

Lesson at the park with Kevin, our recent convert, and Joel, a super cool return missionary!

Literally my life is a blur

Hola everyone!

I can't remember like anything we did this week, again. The mission is going by way too fast. On the 16th I'll hit my halfway mark! We just do so many things all the time every single day that it all blurs together and I can't ever remember what day it is. But a busy missionary is a happy missionary, and we're sure busy! 

Yesterday morning we had interview with President and Sister Guffey and it was the first time that I've really gotten to talk to them so it was really cool. They're the absolute sweetest and are implementing great new ideas in the mission, like we have this big mission-wide conference call every Tuesday so we get to hear from people all over, the mission!

We got to hold baby bunnies at a member's house and they also gave us a box of pop-tarts so they're pretty much our favorites now.

I can't think of anything else though. It was such a good week and we're finding so many new, crazy prepared people to teach! Hermana Bosch and I just agreed that there was just too much general awesomeness to talk about.

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/none-were-with-him-2

I highly recommend everyone watch this video! (It's 4 minutes and 24 seconds, you can't tell me you don't have time for that!) It's about the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ and it makes me cry every single time.

Love you all!

Hermana Martin

Episode VI: Return of the Watch Tan

Hola everyone!

It finally went below 100 this week for like the first time since I've been out here! Blessings! And perfect timing since it was the end of the month and we were basically out of our allotted miles we can drive each month so we did a whole lot of walking. Which also led to some really great missionary tan lines, of which my favorites are the watch tan and shoe tan. You just can't not laugh when you look down and see that your toes are super white but the top of your foot is super tan from walking so much in flats.

You can kind of see my hair tie tan line on my wrist here. Still not as good as the watch tan though.

I have really no recollection of what happened this week. A lot of appointments cancelling again and a lot of miracle stories of finding new investigators! Everything is settling in nicely after transfers and since we didn't have very many missionaries changing it's not too different. 

Coldstone to celebrate Kevin's baptism last week

I really can't remember any details of anything though so I'll just share one of my favorite scriptures that I read this week in studies. It's in Jacob chapter 3 and it reads

"But behold, I , Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction."

I truly believe that most everyone fits into the 'pure in heart' category, where we're really doing our best to do the right thing. I, like the prophet Jacob, want to testify of the blessings that come as we continue trying, and more than just that, but really turn to God. When do the little things each day like praying, and reading the scriptures, that's when we're really going to be able to feel that power and support from God to accomplish the things we need to. He's there, always, and this is a promise from a prophet of God. Remember the little things, they truly add up!

Love you all!

Hermana Martin

KEVIN GOT BAAPPPTTIIIIIZZZZEEEEEEDDDDDDD

He's like literally glowing in this picture because of the Light of Christ and baptisms are the greatest and also we were blessed with perfect lighting. Carlos was supposed to be baptized too but some stuff happened that morning and he wasn't able to make it, but Kevin is so pumped to be able to be an example to him and when he gets the Holy Ghost next Sunday and officially confirmed a member of the church he's going to be even more powerful! We had the baptism right after church and about half of the members stayed so there was like 70 people there and we had to move to the chapel for the meeting part of it and all of the members brought food for after and it was the biggest turnout that anyone can remember! He's doing great and it so excited to keep going and learning! 

The rest of this week was awesome too, Saturday night we had this huge pioneer activity with like 2/3 of the members in El Paso and it was so cool and they served a bunch of mexican food made by the members. We had 2 investigators and a less active member come so we were running around like crazy making sure they had people to talk to but it was so fun!

At the Pioneer activity with the Elders that we share the ward with

I have no recollection of anything else that happened this week, I think we had a lot of appointments and things cancel but this week is a brand new week and a brand new transfer so it's the time for new starts and goals! This has only been the second time that I've been able to stay with my companion through a transfer and we're so excited to be able to keep working together! Only a few missionaries are leaving, including one of my favorite elders that I've been able to serve with, but another one of my favorite elders is coming to replace him so I'm super excited! 

Missionary work is the absolute best and I can't even believe that every single day I get to put on a little name tag that has my name right next to that of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I will never be able to adequately express what an honor it is to be able to testify with the power I hold as a representative of Jesus Christ. And the pure and overwhelming joy that comes from watching the light of Christ enter into peoples lives and their countenances.

Alma 28:14 reads

"And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life."

Life is hard. We all have trials and reasons for sorrow. But even more than that we all have reasons for rejoicing in the power and light of Christ. I have been able to feel firsthand, and witness secondhand just what power and joy comes from letting that light into your heart and I can testify that it works and that our sorrows can truly be swallowed up by joy if we just turn to God. It takes time sometimes, but I promise that that relief does come.

Hermana Martin