Dec. 26, 2011

Hello Hello Hello!!!!
Soooo Drum Role Please.... I'M STAYING IN QUEEN CREEK!
                                          WE'RE STAYING IN QUEEN CREEK!
We are so excited to be able to stay together again for another transfer. Thank goodness I'm not going home yet so i still have plenty of time to be able to open a new sister's area. big things are happening right now and lots of areas are being closed and new ones are popping up everywhere!  we will be getting two new sisters and we aren't losing any so that will make it 14 English sisters, which is an all time high! and we will have 7 Spanish! Awesome!

So Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful one!
It was awesome to be able to hear and SEE my family with Skype, for the first time since MAY! wow i can't believe that it has been that long!  we get to talk again on mother's day and then i will be back home sometime around October... EEK that is scary because i have LOTS to do and time is ticking, so every second counts.

Big news from this week is.. CHASTITY! Yey, she is a new investigator and she is just awesome! she is 15 and has actually been going to church with her aunt and uncle for a little while now.  She went to the Christmas Lights at the Mesa Temple and referred herself.. AMAZING! Sometimes it's hard to teach people that young because we need to have a parental consent, but we met her parents and they were totally okay with everything, which is a huge relief. Hopefully they will begin to join us for our lessons. We invited them last time but no such luck.  Only time will tell! :)

Also., one of the BEST Christmas presents I received was from one of our recent converts named Josh! he wrote Sister Doll and I a letter and it was the best thing ever. It was a really great note and it made me cry like a little baby! Also we got to see him bless the sacrament for the first time on Sunday, which was such a blessing. His family came and supported him as well! Aww, I just love families together on Christmas!

Spencer Algers made these shirts for us for Christmas!

We made these bracelets with our names on them for all the Sisters for Christmas.

Sister Doll and I truly love each other.

Awesome stockings that Sister Alger made us! We love her!

On Tue we had an Arizona Tempe Mission Christmas Party and it was so great! we ALL went to the temple on Tue so they split the mission in half; half went at 6 am and the other half went at 3 pm. At one time there were 100 missionaries together at one time with president and sister Howe's, which was AWESOME! we all got to eat a Christmas feast with pie and it was fun to all be there together. We're all going to be together again on wed and so I'm excited.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We're all getting skinny for 2012
love,
sister martin