Testifying in Tucson: October 26th - Working hard in Willcox!

Hello! This is your Willcox Sister Missionary checking in! Well this has been a week. I felt so ready last week to just get to work and see so many miracles BUT it was actually a really slow week and I was feeling sort of frustrated at the end. Mind you we still had over 20 lessons and have a lot of potentials, but I just didn't feel like we were able to do all that I had wanted. Then I remembered that Sister Malm told us last year to enjoy even the bad days, "because one day it will be your last, and you will be praying for one day more." A good or a bad day.

We started this week with Melissa serving a mini mission with us. She had a good time! I think haha. I sure hope that we didn't scare her away from serving a mission ;) She said it is a lot more stressful and crazy than she thought. I remember thinking the same exactly thing haha.

On Wednesday we celebrated Elder Driaza's birthday. I made stir fry and Hermana Evans and Melissa made cheesecake. Elder McWilliams bought a pinata. Needless to say, he had a pretty great birthday haha.

Let's see....Oh!! Yes, I am more than happy to have gotten rid of the boot. It was a relief to hear that all was well and that I would get to finish my mission. I had felt like such a failure when I heard that I might need to go home early to get a pin put in. BUT I am ready to keep going strong :) Feeling super blessed!

So Mercedes is getting baptized on Saturday!! She had her interview on Sunday but then Lisa (her mom) called and said that they weren't coming and that Mercedes didn't want to get baptized anymore. Hermana Evans was on the phone and was just freaking out! She asked why and then Lisa said, "Because we are pulling in right now." Oh man it was SO funny. They got us good. Merc passed her interview with flying colors and is so excited for Saturday!

Side notes for some pictures, we carved pumpkins with the Miller family last night and had a great time! Junior wanted me to carve him a Jurassic World one and then he painted it. We had a lot of fun! Another picture is of the elders pranking us and spraying us down with super-soakers that Elder McWilliams' mom sent him. We have fun haha!

So to end, this morning I was able to finish "Jesus the Christ." I remember trying to finish reading that book on several occasions before the mission and always just feeling unable to understand it. I have learned so much about my Savior and have been able to better understand the New Testament. I wanted to share 2 things that I was able to apply and use from "Jesus the Christ":

This is part of an email that I sent to a friend of mine on her mission when she was going through a hard time: There are some days when you just want to call your mom, or better yet go and see her; I'll be honest, it never completely goes away. I was reading in Jesus the Christ and I found something that I just love which helped me. In Chapter 21, it talks about Jesus Christ sending his apostles out to teach the word of God. "The duties of their special ministry were to supersede the love for kindred; they must be willing to leave father, mother, son, or daughter, whatever the sacrifice..." I feel that that very much still applies to us today, We must be willing to give up those things for a greater cause. You are doing just that :) Keep it up! You're doing great!

Another part is in Chapter 33 when James E. Talmage talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ: "Christ's agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause. The thought that He suffered through fear of death is untenable. Death to Him was preliminary to resurrection and triumphal return to the Father from whom He had come, and to a state of glory even beyond what He had before possessed; and, moreover, it was within His power to lay down His life voluntarily. He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other being who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, the prince of this world could inflict." This really brought into light a better understanding of what exactly my Savior went through for all of us, but specifically for me. It helped me to better understand how great and unfathomable the gift of repentance really is in our lives. I'm grateful that this book was able to help me to come to that knowledge and better understanding. I don't feel though that I will ever REALLY understand.

Alright I'm calling it there! That just made my email super long haha my bad. Love you all so much and I will talk to you soon!!

Hermana Martin