November 24th - My awesome week!!! Yes I broke my foot, BUT......

Yes I may have broken my foot and sprained my ankle, BUT it has still been a crazy awesome week!!!

We are seeing our new family of 6 tonight!! They are the cutest family every and we are so excited to give them a baptismal date! 

Giovanni came to church and he actually got emotional yesterday while watching The Restoration. He is really excited to get baptized the week before Christmas :) we can't think of a better Christmas present for him. His wife is a member and her family is all very excited that after several missionaries he is finally ready to take this step in his life! 

Maria Garcia came back from Mexico today so we're seeing her tonight! Her baptism is in 2 weeks :D   Getting so excited for her! She said she is so ready to get baptized haha!

Paulina has been sick a lot lately and wasn't able to come to church yesterday :( her baptism will be next week after her 3rd time at church. We have been watching Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with her. She absolutely loves it!

Other than that, it has been a busy, normal, and extremely awesome week! On Monday after I fell, I was on the floor just shaking and praying (in really fast Spanish apparently) just begging to not go home. I was so scared that this was it for me and all my nightmares about my foot hurting my ability to serve were coming true. I know that He is looking out for me and obviously I'm still needed here or it would have been worse. So thankful I get to stay here and see miracles every day! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! So grateful for being a missionary!!!

Hermana Martin

Filling out paperwork at the hospital

Such pretty colors!

Boot decorating provided by investigator's children

Yellow companion unity - Accidental !  :) 

Sierra's version of "highlighting" in D&C 4.

November 17th - My Amazing Week! Best week ever!!!

Yes, I do mean every word of that! It has been the best 4 days ever since we last talked. We made goals as a companionship and we decided that we were going to use our greenie fire together to make this the strongest area in the mission!

Thursday- 8 lessons!!! We are seeing so many people with members and we even found a less active whom no missionary has seen in who knows how many months!

Friday- 7 lessons!! Waking up early to fit in more lessons is the best :) gives the day so much purpose!!

Sunday was the Temple Dedication yet we still had 7 lessons. 11 members present this week and 5 new investigators. We have been inviting EVERYONE to get baptized haha. I love being bold.

On Thursday night, we had an extra hour so I told Hma. Erickson we'll both pray and try to figure out who we need to see. We came up with the same 2 names.

1-Potentials who weren't home but we contacted an RM outside who is returning to activity who is going to start teaching with us.

2-Potential who we have been trying to find for 2 months. Found her and we are seeing her and her 5 teenagers tomorrow!

God is answering our prayers and we are staying so hard at work. 31 lessons this past week, and the goals for this week is 40!!! Wish us luck! Haha yes we are crazy!!

Hermana Martin

PS on Thursday I followed a prompting to see a less active. She had prayed because she is in a rough patch and God comforted her and said He would send the missionaries. Guess who then showed up on her front porch :) we're seeing her this week as well! Love El Dorado!!!

Sierra being Sierra with Hermana Erickson!

The President Uchtdorf shirt mentioned in last week's e-mail that hangs

 in her kitchen to remind them to stop snacking.  Ha ha!

November 12th - Hello hello!!

We didn't hear from Sierra until Wednesday this week.  Monday was transfers and Tuesday was Veteran’s Day so the library was closed.

This has been a crazy busy week and I've been loving every single minute of it! Never getting a break but I like it that way! We've seen a lot of miracles with us working so hard and I'm so grateful that I'm in a place where I can expect miracles.

We had 5 investigators at church this past week. Yea, I couldn't believe it either! The members bore the most amazing testimonies for them and told them how they came to know the church was true. Best. Branch. Ever!!! Israel also got the priesthood this past Sunday. I am so happy here. My prayers were answered and I've been given another transfer in El Dorado. We were thinking I might get transferred but thankfully that wasn't the case.

Hermana Mags is home in Utah right now. Really weird to think about!! So grateful for her support and advice and I will always treasure the help that she has given me. I love her so much and we are both missing her like crazy. We are a duo now and we are still expecting miracles and loving Tucson!!

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning :) such a special experience and I am currently working on it in English. I love my personal studies and love how they've changed over the past few months.

Still in the 80’s in Tucson. Wahoo!! No arthritis for me! I am pretty special I might say haha. Love my calling here.

That is about it! Really late email haha but with Veterans Day and Transfers it just worked this way. Hope to hear from you all soon!!

Hermana Martin

A funny story from her letter earlier this week (translated from Spanish):

On Saturday, we had the Festival of Hope.  It is for homeless people.  We were helping with the clothing.  At the end, after 4 hours on our feet, we cleaned up.  Hma. Magallanes found a green shirt that said, "Stop It" and it had President Uchtdorf's face on it.  So funny!  Now, it is hanging in our kitchen to help us stop snacking.  It's not working.     

P.S.- I need more Oreos.

Another experience from her letter:  

(on exchanges with Hermana Gregory)  I kept bugging her all day that we should go see a less active.  No, I didn't just do this to get out of knocking.  Eventually we sat down and looked at the ward list.  Last page - La familia Wood (the Wood family).  She had never heard that name, so we went!  We knocked and a girl about our age opened, smiled, and hurried and stepped out closing the door behind her (parents are hard-core Baptists).  She is starting to see an RM.  She went and saw the Phoenix and Mesa temples, is reading the Book of Mormon, and watched a video on mormon.org this past week on Joseph Smith.  She said she cried, feeling like he was in the exact same situation as her.  She has been trying to figure out how to find missionaries.  Enter us :)   Amber will soon begin taking the lessons from the English elders in her area.  It was a reminder to me that in the moment, we may not be able to see the promptings of the Holy Ghost, but after we can if we listened.  Amber said she knows God loves her because we showed up.  I made a comment at the end, "See you at your baptism!"  and she said, "Perfect!  See you there!"   This is why I'm a missionary.  I love what I do.  Who else gets to do this for a year and a half!   Love love love love.

The trio!

                                                                                       

          

                                                                             Heaven's Angels!

November 3 - My Awesome, Crazy Fast week!

Oh man, I don't even know what to say. I feel like I blinked and P Day is here again so...nothing to tell! Just kidding,  haha.

Well, we have good weeks and bad weeks right? Paulina disappeared again. Keep her in your prayers, we are trying so hard to help her progress. Also we are finally getting to see Luis and Alicia tonight so that is such a blessing! Maria and Alice are still doing great :) we are seeing them tonight as well.

(Recent convert's) husband left her last weekend and stole (her son's) birthday money, (her other son's) clothes (her special needs, blind son), tv, other stuff, and has since returned to take more. She now has the police involved and he can't come in now. I am so upset and yet so proud of (her). She is staying so strong in the church and such a good mother for her children. PS when the elders called us on Monday to tell us what happened and that she needed me there, they were getting mugged while on the phone call. Don't worry! They are okay, they just had scriptures and the drunk people weren't interested. Yay Tucson.

We had Stake Conference yesterday which was a Broadcast from SLC. Made me all think of you!! But we got to hear from President Uchtdorf (who apparently lived in Arizona for several years), Elder Christofferson, and others. Mini  General Conference anyone? So awesome!

We helped with the Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween at the church. Really fun :) everyone had an awesome time!

Well that's about it! Keep my investigators in your prayers please. We will be working hard every day to find them. Love you all like crazy!! Bye!!

Hermana Martin

PS My companions have started a "Harry Potter Anonymous" and are trying to stop 'geeking out.'  I'm the weird one in the companionship who has never seen them,  Ha ha :P oh well!

Halloween fun with some members.

I have no idea what this picture is from - she didn't give me an explanation!  Ha ha.