July 11, 2011

Emily holding a hummingbird found with a broken leg.

Feeding the hummingbird sugar water.

Well I'm Outta here!!! Goodbye Tempe  - Hello who knows where!

Well it's official, last night at like 10:45 i received the call that i will be transferred tomorrow so now im frantically packing and trying to get in all the goodbyes. I'm way sad to be saying goodbye to Sister White! I love her so much and she truly is an amazing missionary. Last night we were laying in out beds and i was like, “Wait Sister White tell me everything you know!”   She knows everything and more about the church and im scared to not be with her. My prediction is that I am getting sent to Yuma and that I'll be in a threesome. Only one new English sister is coming in this transfer and no one is going home so that will make for an odd number. Omg I'm just so excited tho to be able to start fresh in a new area and with new wards. The only sad thing is that Brad is getting baptized this weekend so if i get sent to Yuma then i wont be able to come back for it because i will be 3 hours away.  i will be VERY sad if i cant make it. Brad is AMAZING and so i will be going over to see him today so say goodbye... WEIRD!

okay so for more news... DID YOU SEE THE DUST STORM!!! It was crazy. Sister White and i were thankfully in Brad's house teaching a lesson when it happened so we didnt even know that it happened. After, we walked outside and it was like it snowed, but it was just all dust. the temp. dropped 15 degrees and it felt amazing, but we had to bike home in it and so we were coughing the whole time and we were covered in dirt when we got back. It was so weird because even walking on the sidewalk, our footprints were left so it truly was just like snow. we saw pictures and videos of it and it was just nuts. I guess the dust went a mile high if you can even imagine that! and when we got home we check our phone, we had tons of texts telling us to go inside AT 7:30!!! we never get to go in by then but all the other missionaries got to! LAME!

Well beside all of that it is SOOO HOTT and i have never sweat this much EVER! it's embarrassing because we look so gross. We showed up to teach wesley and he was like "WO what happened to you two!" haha thanks. but ya there is nothing we can do about it. to make ourselves feel better about biking in those temps we just talk about how we are working on our tans. if i get sent to San Tan,  there isn’t a car at all,  so pretty much i will be black... well except my face! because we have to wear helmets and our faces are always shaded, so my face looks pasty while my arms are tan! ohhh the joys of being a missionary.   Ohh and i am officially done with training! this may sound like a good thing, but im sad about it because it was an extra hour a day that we got to be inside out of the heat so im really not happy about it.

Home sounds like a blast! shout out to my awesome nephew Dayne! Happy 7th Birthday!!! Wow i cannot believe that you are 7. I vote that everyone stops growing until i get home because everyone is going to look so different. Well this week was another good one and now i have to leave my area and all my investigators, but i'm making sister white write me with all the updates. Hopefully i wont be too far so that i'll be able to come back for their baptisms. Well i hope everyone is staying cool out there!

love Sister Martin

July 4, 2011

okay so this week was just a blessing!  On Tue we took Brad to the visitors center and we watched the Joseph Smith Movie and afterward the VC sister missionary asked him what he thought about the movie and he pretty much bore his testimony there and then told us that nothing was going to stand in his way of getting baptized.   i was tearing up for sure!  then wed (which stated the 10 day countdown for his baptism) was the day for him to quit smoking and HE DID IT! he has been weening himself off them for the past 2 weeks but still has been smoking around 3 a day and then wed he was done! he told us on sunday that the first 3 days were the hardest but now he is fine. Omg Brad is just amazing and his faith is just so powerful. He was supposed to be baptized on the 9th but his g-pa died and that is the day when the memorial service is on so he had to push it back the the 16, which i was nervous about becuase i thought that he would start smoking again before the 10 day started again but he didn’t.   he is just so awesome!!!

 okay so then on sat we had a BAPTISM!!! it was just awesome. i never knew how stressful planning a baptism was. but overall it was just awesome. Her name is Jennifer and her sister actually got baptized in Nov of last year but never wanted anything to do with the church.  every week we go to their apt and read a few chapters from the book of mormon with her sister and becuase of that she finally came around and wanted to be baptized as well.  She is just awesome and we love her so much!

ohh HAPPY 4th of JULY!  i just got done eating at the ward pancake breakfast this morning and it was so much fun. Joe and Rocio and their two daughters came as well. they are the best family ever and we love teaching them.

 It's so hot here! it got up to 118 this week and our air conditioning barely works. its 92 degrees in our apt and the other night i couldnt sleep because it was so hot so i got in the shower then i finally fell asleep soaking wet on my bed and it felt so good. i just can’t get cool here. i really ALWAYS feel hot. ohh well, thank goodness it will only be like this until october. haha isnt that weird that october will be in the 100s! im used to snow in october. well all is well here and i hope yo all have an awesome 4th of july! i love you
oh and yes mom and told kass to wear my clothes.  i always wore her clothes when i lived with her so its her turn now.

love sister martin

.

Mon. June 27, 2011

 Hello everyone,

okay so good news... WE GOT LONER BIKES!  they are great and i'm super grateful for them but i miss my bike.  we are praying daily to find them, so hopefully they will show up!

 Omg so sooo funny (dad you might want to close your ears) Sister White got hit by a car this week and barely escaped a bad injury. The driver wasn't looking and we didn't realize it until we were directly in front of the car. i saw that the man wasn’t stopping and  screamed really loud and peddled as fast as i could. sister white was just confused by why i was screaming and then... WAM she was down. thankfully the person stopped and she wasn’t hurt too bad. she had a few scrapes and a bruise. She popped up pretty fast and there was even a doctor driving by who stopped to help. the Lord is def protecting us.  We will be more careful from now on.

So way funny! We’re teaching this girl who is a spiritual healer as a profession, so lessons with her are way interesting and she asks the best questions ever.  we taught her on thur. and all of a sudden she just started crying... obviously i thought she was feeling the spirit so i asked her to tell us what she was thinking about and she told me that she was reading my aura!! so pretty much after that i was kinda freaked out that she was reading my thoughts and was looking into my past. I dont think my aura is bad so I’m curious to what she was seeing HAHA! 

Sooo this week was kinda hard at first because lately we have been loosing some investigators.  all week we have been praying to find  new ones and then Nancy literally fell from the sky! haha well not really, she referred herself to us tho and was searching for us! CRAZY! okay so she met sister missionaries 3 years ago but just wasn’t in a good place in her life to accept the gospel.  she could feel the spirit that the sisters brought with them and remembered them all these years and now she is ready! we met with her for the first time on sat. and she pretty much set her own baptism date for the 24^th.  we are super excited and she is so prepared it's crazy! she is reading through the book of Mormon like crazy and she is praying and progressing like a champ! people like her a def a tender mercy from the Lord!

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! sister white and I are so blessed and I love being a missionary. it's the best thing ever to be able to teach people about the gospel and literally see their lives change as they live the commandments. Mosiah 2:41 - "the blessed and happy state by those that keep the commandments of God".  I have never been more happy in my life and i know it's only because i dont think about myself anymore and all I do is try to help others. I never want this to end! Home sounds fun and all the wedding plans are exciting but pictures are all I need! haha

i love you all and try to stay cool out there. it's supposed to be 114 today so its pretty brutal here. I’ve never drank so much water in my life!

love sister martin

Mon. June 20, 2011

Hello!!

okay so not so good news! pretty much sister white and i had a dumb moment.  last night after we got home we forgot to take our bikes off of our bike rack and this morning at 10 when we left our apt they were GONE! ya... i almost died... i still can't believe it happened. we've reported it to the police and to out apt complex so we'll see what happens. We're praying like crazy that someone finds them so that we don't have to buy new one. The mission office said that we could borrow theirs for a bit to see if we can find ours, so that's way nice!

Well on a happier note this week was great!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!
and HAPPY EARLY BDAY JENNY! i love you both so much :)
We have another baptism for july 2 and 9th that we are way pumped for because those investigators are awesome. they are so excited to get baptized and they both are truly golden investigators. We had another one of our investigators come to church drunk yesterday which was random/funny/ who knows what! ha he is a really great guy and he is struggling at the moment but he really wants to turn his life around so its great.

The fires here in arizona have been crazy but thankfully i'm not around them, but they are in the Show Low zone and all the missionaries had to be evacuated so i'm not sure where they are or what they are doing. The weather in MO still sounds crazy so hopefully everyone is staying safe there as well.

It's way hot here and its supposed to get to 111 degrees i think tomorrow or maybe even today so hopefully we get our bikes back so that we don't have to walk in that weather. Walking is 10 times hotter then being on bikes.

LOve you Lots
-sister martin

June 13, 2011

Bike pimple

Yey, all finished! Notice the black thumbs.

No comment!!!

Hello!
Another great week to be in Arizona and not Missouri! what is happening there... tornadoes and now flooding? omg that is just crazy. although it is working to my advantage because when i tell ppl that im from Missouri, it is an immediate conversation starter, which is just great. Also, now there are 2 LDS people running for president and that is awesome!

So this week i became an expert bike repair girl. My back bike tire got a leak so we went to walmart to get these cool slim tires and came home, then had to go back to walmart to exchange them because i guess tires are different sizes... who knew!  i changed both the tires just because i knew the other one was soon to be a goner. after i was all done, i realized that i read the pressure gauge wrong and i aired up my tire WAY too much and the actual rubber tire broke, which caused a pimple effect to happened to the rubber tire. then I had to go back again to walmart to get another one of those. Well after a lot of wasted, but much needed time spent on my bike, i was finally finished and its running just great!

we have an AWESOME new investigator! his name is brad and he actually asked for missionaries by getting on mormon.org. we met him on thur and he told us that he feels like he is in the same situation as Joseph Smith and that he needs help on choosing which church is the true church. he completely agrees with modern- day prophets, so as you can imagine i am freaking out at this point.  I’m also sweating like crazy because we had to meet in the heat, since our member wasn’t there yet so we could go inside. so long story short he came to church on sunday and then we had another lesson that night and he had already read 11 chapters in the book of mormon.  he had also given up coffee and we hadn’t even taught him that yet, he had just heard that we didnt drink it!! OMG CRAZY! that never happens.  so we committed him to be baptized on july 2 because he has other word of wisdom problems that he has to overcome, but he will because he is just that awesome.

pretty much sister white and i are being blessing beyond imagine. brad is the 4th person that we put on date this week and that's only because the Lord is literally pouring out his blessing upon us as missionaries. I love this gospel so much and it truly changes lives. Sister White and i both gave talks on faith this week and it was the perfect topic because what i could apply it every single day last week!  7 investigators came to church yesterday, which is an all time high and it was just awesome because 4 came to the ward where we spoke. What A Blessing!    

I hope you all have a great week and be safe out there!

Love you,

Emily

Mon. June 6, 2011

Scorpion in the font

Alfredo's baptism

Water park cool-off

Aren't we lovely?

Hello Family and Friends,
Okay this has been another great week! Alfredo got baptized on sat and that was just the best service ever! Baptisms are the best ever and the spirit is so awesome and strong. It was great to have such a great saturday because Sundays are ALWAYS the hardest day of the week, well at least for me. Getting investigators to come to church and relying on their agency is one of the hardest things for me. i wish that i could just make them all come so that they could see how wonderful church is and so they can feel that awesome spirit inside.   i know that wouldnt be the best thing to do, so we just pray like for them like crazy and hope that they come.

So updates on joe and Rocio is that they are doing awesome but Joe has to get a job before they can get married.  getting married means that Rocio will lose all of her government help which would not be good for their family. They are in a really tough situation right now but i can see them being blessed for their diligence and for all their efforts and there really is no doubt in my mind that they wont get baptized. The work is soo good here in Tempe even tho it's so hot. the people and members are all working so hard!

I'm sad to be missing out on all the family fun that will be happening this summer and all the fun vacations that are about to take place but its okay. i guess this is what getting old feels like, although i have heard MULTIPLE times that i look way too young to be here. I’m serious, people won't quit saying it, but ohh well at least i don’t look old. Don’t worry, we get the "Wow you two look tired" line all the time. To all you out there, don’t say that! ha we're always so sweaty and gross and we know we don’t look good. It's okay because thankfully people still talk to us even tho they think we are crazy for riding our bikes in this weather! well i love all of you and its always great to hear from you. stay cool in the heat!
love sister Martin

May 31, 2011

HELLO WORLD!

sorry for the late email but this week being transfer week they switched  pday to tue (for only this week)! dont worry me and sister white are safe and are not being moved anywhere. two companionship's in my zone are being white washed out and my district leader is being transferred tho so my district will be totally new next week! kinda sad but good at the same time!

HAPPY LATE BDAY TO KASS!! i love you and im relieved to hear about Mike! he has def been in my prayers

first of all THANK YOU MOM! you are so awesome and i just love you so much. The plan of salvation thing is absolutely perfect and the candy was, as always not needed, but much enjoyed :)

second of all.... TAYLOR IS ENGAGED! omg heather wrote me this week and told me first and then i got all your emails today! omg that is crazy and totally does not feel real at all! Congrats taylor and crystal! I think you should wait a year and a half to get married tho... dont you think it would be worth it :) I'm def not a fan on missing out on their wedding but there is no way you could get me to leave Arizona because i just love it, so i say just wait!

So for more interesting news... i have told you about my investigator family, joe and rocio with their two little girls, well they were on date for may 28th but had to push it back because of joe's smoking so then they were set for june 11. Well this week we discovered that THEY ARENT MARRIED! haha okay so in order to get baptized you must be married if you're living with someone of the opposite sex. so obviously this came as a big surprise to me since im the one who asked the question. so sister white and her last comp found this family and they told them that they have been together for 7 years but obviously together does not mean married, so she learned her lesson.  Haha, but dont worry  because now we are planning a wedding, YEY!  i never thought i would get to do that on my mission, but that's what's happening so im excited! They are so awesome and their faith is just incredible. ill let you know more when i do.

Next.. okay so while oyming last week we found vito! on friday we met him and the first thing he told us was that he was addicted and was currently using MANY illegal and harmful drugs, plus many more things, so immediately i was scared. thank goodness we got a good member to come with us for this lesson.  it was a great lesson and he actually came to church on sunday YEY! then we met with him again on mon and he informed us that his girlfriend had died sunday night due to a drug overdose and that he is done with everything. He had been reading like crazy and wants every packet we have. he is amazing and he is completely changing his life around. he bore his testimony to us and told us that at church he felt the spirit and that he knows that God loves him and now he is going to change and has committed to baptism. obviously we still have much to teach him and we are taking it slow but we have another lesson with him on thur so ill keep you updated!

this sat we have a baptism!!! his name is Alfredo (yes like alfredo sauce haha) and i just love this guy. he is awesome and he is so excited to be baptized!

Well my memorial day def didnt feel like a holiday but it was good none the less because it was spent doing missionary work!

I love you all

love sister martin