October 31, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Shout out to my sister CHRISTY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY :) I LOVE YOU!

Birthday at Costa Vida! Sister Algers got me way too much stuff, but I loved them all, especially the spinach!

Stephanie, Doll, me, Norton, Kerr, and Maddy

Maddy, Momma Alger, me and Stephanie

Me, Dolll, Kerr, Norton - all my roomies!!

Brithday cake!

We shouldn't have gone through the sprinklers, but oh it was fun!

Austin!

Temple trip

Sister Wilson

Jessica

YEY for today! today is p-day so we don't go out until 6 but because it's Halloween we can't teach because it's too dangerous so instead we are watching 17 Miracles!! I am SOOO excited! its fun to have a day off and really get to enjoy a holiday. We have been given way too much candy this week and the side effects are not in my favor!

Okay so Halloween + 4 wards = craziness!  all of our wards had "trunk or treats" so we were inviting people like crazy this week and all of our efforts paid off! we had lots of investigators, nonmembers, LA, and inactives there so it was definitely a success. Sat night we had 2 big parties at the same time so sister Doll and I had to go on splits. About a little over a month ago my friend, Jessica from school,  got my number from the assistants and called me to come on splits with us sometime.  because she wasn't in any of our wards we haven't been able to use her, so this was the perfect opportunity.   she came out from Gilbert and helped for the night and it was so much fun to see her :)  She is the first person from my previous life that i have seen while on my mission haha!  I'm grateful that she could even recognize me :)

Okay sooo Elder Wilson is AWESOME!! he trained us on how to better use preach my gospel and how to be the most effective as possible. THEN Sister Wilson and Sister Howes (mission president's wife) came out with sister Doll and I for 2 lessons. The first one was with Toni and it was soo great!  the lesson went really well with lots of powerful testimonies and then at the end Sister Doll was awesome and committed her to baptism for Nov 29! after that we headed over for a lesson with Annette and that is always great! Man do I feel blessed. We did have some sad news this week... Josh isn't going to be baptised this weekend anymore, but we did put him back on date for Nov 19 which is still okay. still sad but it's okay!

GUESS WHAT.... okay so in our mission we are all extended the challenge to memorize "The Family A Proclamation to the World" and I DID IT! Seriously when they extended that challenge I laughed! I stink at memorizing just a scripture... there was no way i was going to be able to memorize that huge thing! Well one day i realized that I was in the best place in my life to do it and that if i didn't do it now  i would never be able to do it, so I did. It took me a month probably,  but I did it and passed it off to President last night! Now i get a swiss army knife and a CTR necklace for a prize, but that doesn't even compare to the prize I have of just being able to say that i did it!  SOOO HAPPY!!!

Reading the Proclamation daily has really been a testimony builder to me! The family is ordained of God! The Family is central to the Creators plan for the eternal destiny of his children! The family is key to everything that we are, have, and do in this life. We are warned that at the end,  those who violate the covenants of chastity, abuse their spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibility, will one day stand accountable before God. In the world today we are taught the exact opposite.  What a blessing it is to have a modern-day prophet who leads and guides this church and is able to warn the nation about these things! Heavenly Father loves us all too much to not give us modern-day revelation that will help us today in a world that is creating new sin daily! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church here on the earth! I love this gospel! Without it I would be lost!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

love,
sister martin

October 24, 2011

Some of the most darling Sisters ever!

Hello Hello!
thank you SOOO much Johnson and Dufrain family for the wonderful birthday packages :)  I have always celebrated my birthday for at least a week, so it was good to still get gifts in the mail!

Well this week was another good one! Sunday was the BEST EVER! It was such an amazing experience to watch Dennis pass the sacrament for the first time!  i felt like a proud mother watching her child go off to kindergarten for the first time.  He was so nervous but of course he did awesome! It's so great to see a 40-year old man pass the sacrament with 12 year old boys. I told him that he runs the show now :).   then we were able to be in the room when Austin received the priesthood and that was just awesome. Austin is super nervous to pass the sacrament next week but he will do great as well!

Sooo GUESS WHAT!!! this week on Thurs we are having a mission tour.. not really sure what that means, but Elder Wilson from the 70's is coming and talking with us! THEN after dinner sister Doll and I will be teaming up with Sister Wilson for the rest of the night and she is going to come with us to all of our lessons!!! uhhhh I am freaking out! I am going to be scared out of my mind to even talk!  I feel like she is going to have the Spirit so strong and everyone we talk to are going to feel it strong too and  turn their lives around ( pretty much just jump into the font!)  SOOO EXCITED!!!

Also, last week president gave us a referral... yes i mean President Howes! we made the contact and will hopefully be meeting with her sometime this week!  Okay,  i  feel a lot of pressure coming on,  but it's okay!
this week we got 2 new investigators and are really seeing people's hearts softening!

there is a lady we visit once a transfer and she and her husband are not members but their son is and he is on a mission... ummm sound like Zach??  He was dating this LDS girl in high school and she introduced him to the gospel and he just went with it! She is now married and living in Utah and he is on a mission doing great! His mother has never been interested,  but we kept stopping by and last week when she answered the door she told us that she was sick and couldn't talk, but then she perked up and said...." Hey would you girls want to have a pizza party at my house??"  uhhh YA!  so a few says later we did and we had an awesome conversion/ lesson with her about the gospel,  while eating pizza.  She told us all about her concerns and why she has never met with the missionaries and then at the end she agreed to let us come back each week to read the Book of Mormon with her!!!! We are soo excited!

This Sat. is all the ward Halloween parties and we are just so excited because we have a lot of non-members coming out. Sadly, we can't dress up!! LAME.  I'm going to do something... not sure just what,  but i will do something!  Halloween is my favorite holiday and it feels like just yesterday that i was dressed up as Mrs. Potato Head haha!  cliff and I rocked those costumes :)

sister Doll is pretty much a pro by now with no help from me. I think the Lord knew that she would be an easy one so that is why I got her! So excited for another great week!

 love sister martin

Oct. 17, 2011

HELLO!

CHRISTY YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! seriously i love the pictures that mom posted and i cant believe how big your boys are!

Okay so my birthday was just great! I woke up and the first thing i did was tear open my presents :) Thank you so mucho! I just LOVE the odometer but i have no clue on how to hook it up but one of the elders told me that he could figure it out for me. The Algers (best family ever) took sister Doll, the spanish Hermanas that i live with, and me to Costa Vida and it was the best :) they even bought me 2 cartigans, a scarf and twistable which i really wanted and spinach! haha sister Alger is a hardcore couponer so she supplies me with lots of spinach so that i get as much iron in me as possible! Then later that night Jennifer duffany, a recent convert in the san tan ward fed us dinner and got a CAKE! yey it was a GREAT birthday!

mom i finally got you deseret package on sat and thankyou so much for that! thankyou so much Brian and kass for the zumba workout dvds. I can't use them quite yet because sister Howes has to look at them first but then its on!!!  YEY then throughout the week i recieved several more bday cards and WAY too much candy. thank goodness there are 4 sisters now that can help me eat it all.

Okay so this weekend was Austin's baptism and it was awesome! Austin's dad is inactive as well as the rest of his relatives, except one of his aunt and uncles, and because of them he found the church. the baptism was such a blessing for their family. the whole chapel was full of nonmembers and inactives and it was very powerful! Austin is a poineer for his famiy and his testimony is so strong. I feel so blessed for the opportunity that i had to teach him.

due to it being fall break, (all the schools are year- round here because its pointless to have a huge summer break when its too hot to do anything) EVERYONE was out of town. So this week was a struggle to find people to teach and to even meet with our investigators. We are seaching hard for new investigators and we are really putting a lot of effort into working with our ward memebers for refferals. Oyming, aka street contacting, is the least effective thing that we can do to find people that are prepared to hear the gospel. this next week everyone should be getting home and i am so happy for that.

sister Doll and I have probably too much fun together. She is just so awesome and i love her so much.

I am learning so much in this whole process and i just love it. Sadly, one of the sisters in the mission went home on friday and it was just the saddest thing ever. the mission is the best thing ever! yesterday marked the the 1 year from then that I will come home and i am not okay with that! time is moving way too fast!

the mormon blitz is awesome but we arent getting too many questions about it yet, but we will and miracle are about to happen!

I love you all so much !

love sister martin

Oct. 10, 2011

                                sister white (grandma) me (mommy) sister doll (brand new baby)

                                                            sister white,  me,  sister doll

 ANTHONY'S BAPTISM

                                         do you see the NAIL in my tire that i ran over... not fun!

Keith's baptism

Well im a proud mother of Sister Doll! yes like a baby Doll :)  she is AWESOME!

She is from Oregon and we are the same age and she has actually been attending byui at the same time as me! She is an early childhood special ed teacher and so we have taken pretty much the same classes and have spent most of our time in the same building but we don't know each other!! weird huh! well she is just great! she is so willing to do anything and everything, and her "can do and will do attitude" is just the best. 

well she was super lucky because her first day on the mission she had a BAPTISM! and not just any baptism... Anthony's baptism and it was AWESOME! He is truly amazing and afterwards he came up to us and he was just smiling from ear to ear. He is just so grateful and is so excited. His confirmation was awesome and i know that he is about to do great things in his life.

Then on sat. Keith got baptized and that was just as awesome. Keith invited his mom to come and his recent convert brother was able to baptize him. Keith's faith and willingness to do everything possible in order to follow Christ is truly inspiring. I just love everything about being a missionary. Yesterday we got 2 really awesome referrals so hopefully i will have more updates on that next week. Yes Tue is my birthday and I'm excited! i cant believe that i am turning 22.... ughhhh oldy! But we are eating costa vida -  thanks to mom and dad - and then eating dinner at a Jennifer's house who is a recent convert so I'm really excited!

I JUST LOVE living with the Spanish sisters! So it's me, sister Doll and Hermana Norton and Kerr.  Sister Kerr is fresh out from the mtc too so we help each other train which is very helpful. I feel like i'm being trained too. I am learning so much and it's always good to go back to the basics.

Man life is just GOOD! sister Doll and I are pretty much laughing all day long, but when it comes to the work we're serious. This work is a joyful one and it brings me the most happiness that i have ever felt. What a blessing it is to be out here and to be trusted by the Lord to be able to help in His work and to help to prepare others to do it as well. I am just so blessed!

i love you all so very much

Sister Martin

Oct. 3, 2011

my prego picture :)

 i cant wait for my baby to get here  (haha dont worry its just a towel)

  

GUESS WHAT!!!!

I'M PREGO!!!....

okay so for all of you that havent been on a mission this just means that I'M TRAINING!!  Ohhh man im SUPER nervous/excited/ scared out of my mind!  I just hit my 6 month birthday last week so i feel like its WAY too soon for this to be happening but that's pretty much the pattern that my mission has been going so i guess i really shouldnt be that shocked!  i just found out last night, so i wont actually meet her until wed, but im excited for all the changes.  we also just found out that 2 more sisters are moving into our apt!  YEY this makes me super excited because NO sisters live with others sister and ALL the elders do. It's going to feel like college again so im way excited!  the only bad thing is that there will be 4 sisters and 1 BATHROOM! ya that math does not add up right...ohh well that bad def outways the good!  

i am SOO happy that i am staying in this area and that i get to be here to anthony and keiths baptisms this week :):):)  LIFE IS GREAT!

okay so what's new??? ohh actually i just remembered... I had on eof my ward mission leaders watch heather on the price is right and he told me that she gave a shout out to EVERYONE except ME!  wow thanks a lot heather... iv only been gone 6 months, im not dead!

okay so back to the mission!  Wasn't Geneneral Conference just amazing!  Seriously i wish that we had it every weekend!  i feel so spiritually filled and just ready to go as well, and physically filled too!  okay so here in AZ General Conference is comparable to the Super Bowl!  there is food galore, and all the members insist that we eat one of everything!   they must all think  im starving, but if you look at my waistline you can clearly see that is not the case. so maybe i take that back, im okay with General Conference not being every weekend.

It's still weird for me to hear the general authourities pray for the missionaries because that's ME! weird... it's kinda like they are saying my name :) but we all feel the countless amounts of prayers for us and we def all appreciate them very much!

Sooo for more exciting news... THE MORMON BLITZ STARTS TODAY!  ohh man am i excited!  the tv adds starts today and i hope that soon the billboards will be up as well.  hopefully the billboards make it out to Queen Creek because we are just a little farmtown away from it all!  this blitz is going to be so awesome for this area and miracles are about to happen. I already feel so blessed for the people that we are teaching.

This week we went to the visitors center with Anthony and on the way we talked about temples and the priesthood and he  said " I feel like you have just taken a blind fold from off my eyes that i didnt know was there!"  I almost started to cry. That right there is my purpose for being on a mission. All i want to do is to help people have that closer relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them to have a happier life. I love this gospel and i KNOW that it is true!  The decision to go on a mission is the BEST decision that i have ever made! EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO!

I love you all so much and im so grateful for all of your prayers. Keep them coming so that i dont screw up my new baby :)

Love,

   sister martin

Sept. 25, 2011

Hello Hello!!!

So Dennis's baptism went AMESOME! and he invited his mom and brother and they just loved it, so hopefully we can begin to teach them really soon. That would be awesome! I don't know if you remember, but we started teaching Dennis because his cousin Silvia introduced him to the gospel and she was just baptized in feb! It is the best when recent converts do their own missionary work!  Also we started teaching a 15 year- old boy this week named Austin. His dad is a long-time inactive member but just recently moved into his sister's house (austin's aunt and uncle's house) and started coming to church with them. Austin immediately loved the church and so we went over to start teaching him on tue. and then we met with him again sunday night. When we first got there we asked him how he had held up his commitment to begin reading the Book of Mormon and CRAZY he has read to Mosiah! and it's totally legit because he had been asking his uncle questions along the way. Austin has so much faith and is such an inspiration to me to be totally dedicated to my work. He is seaching for truth and so he is doing everything with "real intent" so that he can find that truth! He is on date to be baptized on Oct 15!  We talk to everyone that we see on the streets but that isn't a very effective way to find people to teach. the best way is always member referrals!

 

Okay so next week is transfers and I better not get moved! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the people that we are teaching right now and Anthony, Keith, Josh, and Austin are all getting baptized in October so i just can't be moved! Ughhh i hate transfers!

 

Thankfully this week the weather is dropping again to the high 90s so what a blessing that will be. Even though this last week it was still in the 100's at least it is cooling down at night. It was the worst when it was still in the 100's at 9:00 at night!  Okay so big things are coming up...General Conference is this weekend and im sooo excited. then comes the mormon blitz in this area and then MY BIRTHDAY!!!  yey i just love it!

 

So for general conference we get to attend all the sessions thankfully!  we can watch conference at a members home only if an investigator is there so that will be nice, but if not we will go to the church. the relief society broadcast was amazing!  Also my mormon.org profile is submitted and once it is approved it will be up so you should all check it out. don't judge because we didn't have a lot of time to do it and we had to take a picture on a members webcam haha but it is up and that what counts. 

Mom thanks so much for the package!  i haven't recieved it yet but ill try to wait to open it. i might get moved so just send the packages to the mission home!  thanks so much for all you do. bear lake sounds like so much fun. i couldn't watch the price is right but i had one of the members watch it and tell me all about it!  i want to see it sooo bad. i love you all so much!

 

I read this scripture this morning D&C 64: 33 "wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. and out of small things preceedeth that which is good."  this is what im doing... even though everyone won't listen to me, the seed is planted.

 

i love you all so much!

Emily

 

                                this is what missionaries eat when members dont feed us!!! SICK

                                       Dennis's Baptism! sister warner, orton, dennis, and me

Sept. 19, 2011

Hello Familia

SHOUT OUT TO MY BEST FRIEND KYLEE UEHLIN!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I love you so much

This has been another great week to be a missionary. the weather has been GREAT but sadly, this week we will be back in the 100s... i'ts halfway through september! how is that even possible!

Surprise, surpise we are a TRIO again! Yes it is the middle of the transfer but one of the sisters extended for only 3 weeks so on friday she went home and her companion came over here. i know lots of people dont like trios,  but i am SOOO grateful to be in a trio!  it just feels less stressful and more like just 3 girls just living together. It's still a little stressful since im senior over 2 sisters that are both age- wise older then me, and sister warner is older mission- wise as well... thankfully its fine but it just kinda makes me nervous to making all the decisions because im the youngest of the bunch. this whole mission experience has really helped me learn so much about myself and my personal weaknessess and even though that learning part has'nt been the funnest that iv ever experienced, its been very well worth it!

No baptism on the 17th... so the bishop, ward mission leader, and the 1st and 2nd pick for people Dennis wanted to baptize him were ALL out of town! so it got rescheduled for the 24th. im not okay with postponing baptisms for members, but i guess it's okay because he really needs a lot of people there. this week we got 4 new AWESOME investigators. What a blessing!  So first is Josh!  he is 23 and has had a really rough background but has made it through and is truly an amazing person. He is dating an lds girl and he asked her if he could meet with us because of the example that she set and mainly the example her family set for him. the lesson was amazing and tons of cool things happened during the lesson. before the lesson we prayed to know what a good date would be to extend for him to be baptized, and we knew that by oct 15th he would be ready.  So when we extended that date to him he was just shocked! literally his mouth fell open. I guess during the middle of the lesson he was loving all that we were teaching him and he asked himself when he thought that he personally could be ready to make this step in his life and he thought of that very same weekend! it was just awesome and then we showed him a mormon.org profile and he related completely with that person and it was just amazing. We're also now teaching a new couple, and another amazing guy named Daniel and tonight were teaching a FAMILY!  ohh man the blessing of being a missionary!

Life at home sounds just great and im so glad to hear that everyone is doing so good!  Mom i would love some cds! i fo rsure want Joseph Smith a tribute to the prophet of the restoration (the title is something like this) and the refection of christ cds. Aww i love that you were all watching home videos... was my hair super short and gross? haha why did you let me do that to myself? tell Paul congrats.. he is gunna rock!  Well i love you all so very much.

Mom I love you and i really appreciate all your emails and for all the support that you give me in each email. sometimes its hard to hear about all the fun things you're doing, but its okay because im glad that you're safe and are all doing good!

 i love you so much.

Emily