April 13th - Trio power!

Yea, we had an awesome weekend as a trio with our missionary Genevieve R. :) she is a Laurel in our branch and wanted to see what life was like as a sister missionary! We picked her up on Friday after school and she was with us until last night. It was so fun having her with us! She said that we pray a lot haha! She really wants to serve a mission now :) me too! Haha it was fun to have that reminder of how awesome our work really is as misisonaries. Sometimes I feel like it is the norm but really...we're weird haha. But really awesome at the same time! 

We went to a baptism on Saturday for Omar  :) a cousin/nephew of the Q. family in our branch. We visit them on Sundays (the whole family). It was a beautiful baptism :) while waiting for the confirmation, they asked us to give a message. Well...their elders should have done it but they didn't show up. And I was with 2 missionaries who had never done it before. You know what? Best baptism message I've ever given! Genevieve started and did amazing! It was really powerful. At the end, Omar's mom hugged us and said that we had made her day. Love being a missionary!

Good news and bad news....good news! J. came to church! We went over and A. (lovingly yet boldly) told him that he needs to go to church. He was saying that he was too busy. It wasn't an invitation though, it was very direct that he needed to be at church. He came! Bad news....he hated it. He said he felt so peaceful but that he didn't belong there. We'll see what the future holds with him. 

I spent last P-Day making cookies! It was fun. We took them to a lot of people. I have about 6 cookies left in cookie dough form...saving them for a good ( bad ) day. Or when I'm craving cookie dough haha!

Ah! I had too many emails. Next time I start with this letter haha. Last thing, Diana gave her testimony at church yesterday! She told me yesterday morning that she was feeling nervous and didn't want to do it. She and I talked on the phone for a few minutes and she did do it. It was so powerful! She is amazing! I cannot wait to see all the people that she is going to touch :) love her to death. 

Talk to you all next week! Miss you!!

Hermana Martin

Sierra and Hma. Adams with their "mini-missionary" for the weekend

April 6th - Loved Conference Weekend! Happy Easter!!

I have had a great weekend! General Conference always makes it a very special experience. We spent most of conference with the Christensen family (Andrew's family-ward missionary). It was so great being with a family for Conference. Reminded me of home a lot :) miss you all! John came over for the first session of conference. At the end all he could say was, "I need to see my kids." He wanted to see his girls so much. He is starting to see how he can change and become more than he is. We're seeing him again on Tuesday. He's great! He says the Lord keeps clearing his path and it is so true! I'll explain more after the mission!

Genevieve (young woman in our branch) will be staying with us this weekend to serve a mini mission! I cannot wait! She is really awesome :) I've loved keeping up on Personal Progress. I now have the whole first column of the Living Christ memorized. Great way to spend Easter reciting that! I want to finish it before the end of my mission :) early Christmas present.

We had Zone Conference this past week. Someone from the Fleet Department came down from SLC to install a Tiwi in every one of our cars. Let me tell you about our new "Big Brother". If we go over 5 mph over the speed limit, it says "Check your Speed" and if you don't go down within a few seconds it sends a report to SLC. There is a GPS to track you. If you take a turn or speed bump too hard, speed up to fast, etc. you get "Reckless Driving" and it sends it to SLC too. Also checks for buckling up and if we are out past or before curfew. Yep! We all feel like little children. It yelled at me the first day 4 times to slow down. 5 yesterday. Bah. Working on it.

Oh man running out of time....one more! Melissa (investigator who we found at the member's home that night when I was told we needed to change our plans) is doing great! She said she was going to read the Book of Mormon this weekend and if she got an answer she would get baptized! Yea! She is super awesome :) Love her to death.

So much more...but no time :( I'll send a letter this week with more stuff haha! Love you! I will talk to you all soon!!

Hermana Martin

Easter dinner with the Elders

Easter package from home

Guinea pig hiding out in Sierra's hair

March 30th - El Rio Seco! (The Dry River)

IT IS GETTING HOT!!! Oh man, I'm getting flash backs from last summer and I'm getting scared haha. Pray for me starting now!! I am so not feeling ready for another summer. I was getting way too comfortable with the amazing Arizona 'winter' that we have had. 

I'm loving training! Hermana Adams is such a boss. Her Spanish gets better and better every day and she just loves everybody! She is a great example for me. We went and saw the Quijadas after Women's Conference on Saturday and she taught them a lesson on Gratitude and did an amazing job! Love the Quijadas too. And they make AMAZING food. They used to have a food truck. It shows! 

Women's Conference was amazing! 100 years of Family Home Evening. I still have great memories of FHE with our family. Can't wait to do them again when I get home to show you all the cool object lessons that I love to do out here haha! I feel like this is just preparing me to be a primary teacher one day. Although I think I would love to spend the rest of my life in the Young Women's Program. Nothing would make me happier.

La familia Munoz brought Danna to church on Sunday and it was so great to have them here! Karlena and her girls came too :) John (investigator) was going to come but things fell through. He is great, we just need to keep helping him. He makes me laugh haha!

We've started a new service project at the Farmer's Market near our place. We sell fruit and vegetables that people grow in their yard and they depend on the Farmer's Markets as their income. A percentage goes to the Food Bank as well. So much fun working there with all the amazing people! We are going to start doing it every Thursday. Love when people question the name tags haha! It is weird being in public though in jeans and a t-shirt. I sport my U of A shirts that la familia Medina gave me with pride :) 

Last Saturday I taught Diana how to make sushi! We had so much fun! Danna also came over. We had such a fun time :) love bonding with these amazing sisters.

Love you all so much! So excited for Conference weekend and Easter as well! Make sure to go onto elvive.mormon.org/helives.mormon.org to see the new Easter video!

PS if you could put that on my Facebook that would be peachy!

TTFN -Ta ta for now!!!

Hermana Martin

Arley and Yesenia love how tall we are!

Sierra reliving her glory days on the Jump Rope for Heart demo team.

Sierra with one of many people she loves!

March 23rd - Testifying in Tucson :) Living the dream

Yep! Things are doing great here! Couldn't be happier. We had 32 lessons this past week! When Elder Ferguson called to get our numbers and we said we had 19 lessons with Less Actives and Recent Converts he said, "How is that even possible?" Yea, it made us feel pretty accomplished haha!

I've been loving to train again :) Hermana Adams and I just get along so great! We are doing Personal Progress with a good handful of the young women and absolutely love it. I seriously just want callings in Young Womens for the rest of my life. Enough said. I'm over 1/4th of the way done with memorizing The Living Christ for my Faith Project and I have a bunch of Young Women doing it with us :D  So excited!

So Diana is seriously such a boss. She has been giving Danna rides to church and has just been so great with studying and looking for answers. I still remember meeting her last July and just thinking she was so awesome! Even when I couldn't understand a word she was saying haha. I remember meeting her with mi primera companera (my first companion) Hermana Ramos (who I love and miss greatly) and just feeling so lost between her and Karina talking. Now I'm on the other end! My companion is doing so great with Spanish! Even within a week you should hear how awesome her Spanish is doing!

We hiked Saguaro National Park this morning. I'll let the amazing pictures do most of the talking :) my purse broke on the hike. Yea, why did I take my bag? Because I'm the mom, that's why. Supplied need: knife, pliers (cactus needle pullers), bandaids, extra water bottles, carrying bag for other people's stuff, snacks, haha!! Yea, I'm such a mom. I tied it though and it is okay. I would look for a new one but I kind of want to see how bad my bag can get by the end of the mission :P

It is already starting to get hot....If you see cute short sleeved shirts there I would appreciate them. All my shirts are 3/4 and they are starting to kill me. Please and thank you haha! Summer #2 here we come!!! 

Love you all so much! Miss you! Talk to you next week!!!

Hermana Martin

Hermana Adams and Sierra

Morning P-day hike in Saguaro National Park

Hiking in Saguaro

Can't believe Sierra actually lost this battle!

March 17th - I am training!!! Companion #11!

Yea!! Super excited :D   When President called with the news I was sad that Hermana Dominguez was leaving me (we thought we would be together 1 more transfer) and yet at the same time the thought that I would get to train again made me so beyond happy!! I've spent 2/3 of my mission in the 12 week program and after training it will be like 3/4 haha. I love training and I love the 12 Week Program. Super stoked! Her name is Hermana Taya Adams :) she went to the Provo MTC like me and is the oldest of 3 girls. I love her :D  She is 6'1"!  Yeah, a companion that is taller than me. I need to grow!  She is from Farmington UT and is just so awesome, wanna know why? Because she is an Aggie just like me :D we went to USU at the same time. We probably passed each other at some point. Weird, right?

So Tuesday...we went and saw our investigator John and he accepted a baptismal date! It was a miracle because the second I got in the car I began feeling so beyond sick. I was in bed the rest of the day with the stomach flu. I couldn't even drink water, it was so bad. I spent the next day recovering too, but in the evening we went back to work. By Friday I was feeling 100% again. I am just so glad that happened last week and not this week. 

All the missionaries sang "I know that My Redeemer Lives" on Sunday. Super cool to do before transfers (Hermana Dominguez and Elder Tyler left the area). Yeah, I sang a duet at one part with Hermana Dominguez. You wouldn't have caught me dead doing that before the mission. I'm changing....in a good way I think? 

We had so many awesome people come to church on Sunday! The Munoz family gave Danna a ride so they were all able to make it. Also Eric came too and sat with us. El Rio is such a great Branch. I am excited to take Hermana Adams around to meet everyone!!

I got a package from St. David from the Merrills with a necklace from an anonymous giver who said he wanted to remain unknown. In it was a BEAUTIFUL necklace (pictures to come). I seriously wear it every day. I wish I could thank whoever did it! I love it so much!

Well that is about it! Really excited for the adventures to come with training and taking over the area. Love you all so much! Talk to you soon!!

Hermana Martin

Goodbye Hermana Dominguez   :(

More signatures on the quilt.

Welcome Hermana Adams!  :)

The anonymously gifted necklace.

Um, yeah........I have no idea what this is about but here it is anyway!

March 9th - Las Adventuras de Hermana Martin y Hermana Dominguez en El Rio!!

This upcoming week is the last of the transfer so next week I'll be online on a Tuesday. I don't know if Hermana Dominguez and I will be staying together, President didn't give me any hints with our interviews this past week. Normally he gives me something. He did say he will have to move a lot of Spanish missionaries into English because SLC keeps sending more Spanish than we have spots for. I think he saw the panic on my face and said that I will be remaining in Spanish for a long time. Yay :) I hope that isn't because he is worried about my Spanish and he knows I'll lose it in English....hmm...

Anyways, this week! Where to start. Oh, I ate a fish eye. Yep! I got dared. You know me...we were eating with la familia Reyes and she made this awesome fish that...I can't remember the name of it....it comes from Mexico (Pictures to come) and it was way good! And yea, somehow I got dared to eat the eye. I got a video don't worry. It was pretty weird haha.

Our neighbor's cat wandered into our apartment this past week! Super fun haha! Her name is Maui and she only has 1 eye. We had an awesome conversation with our neighbor where she said that she's avoided the missionaries ever since one of the sisters threw rocks at her cat because she kept trying to get by them while they were outside studying. We were SO grateful for the opportunity to help her change her views on missionaries. It was a lot of fun :)

Danna came to church yesterday! Diana Cruz gave her a ride :) she hasn't been to our church in months. So awesome to see her there. 

After dinner yesterday, we had an AMAZING miracle :) we were heading over to see our new investigator John who has been reading the Book of Mormon and believes it is true. On the way there, I just kept getting this feeling (yay for the Spirit). I told Hermana Dominguez, "Is it bad of me if I don't feel good about seeing John? I think we need to go see (a less active family we see)." She said, "Nope, you follow that prompting." So we went over and the parents weren't home, only the kids and their babysitter. You wouldn't believe it though, the baby sitter was a potential 16 year old who we have been texting and trying to go and see! She doesn't live super close to there and we had NO IDEA that they were even friends. We had an amazing lesson on Prayer and The Holy Ghost (I had us do an impromptu scavenger hunt for rocks so we could make prayer rocks) and in the end we set up a return appointment to see Melissa and the family. The spirit in that room was so strong and it was seriously one of my favorite lessons that I've ever had as a missionary. Following the Spirit really does lead to miracles!

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning for the Book of Mormon Challenge given by President Passey last December. As I read the last chapter I just couldn't believe that I was already just about done! I loved then flipping through the book and finding how much the hand of the Lord not only was in their lives but also in mine. To finish my email I want to share one that I loved:

Alma 17: 9 ".....they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth."

Love you all! The church is true. Talk to you soon!!

Hermana Martin

PS - wow that is a long email!!! 10 points for me!

Hermana Martin and Hermana Dominguez

Yep, I guess this is the fish eye she ate.  Ugh.

Maui the cat that wandered in for a visit.

March 2nd - One month until General Conference!

I don't know why I'm so excited for conference. I'm secretly hoping that they announce that women can now serve 2 years and those currently serving may choose to extend. A missionary can hope right? 

But really, where did February go? I feel like months are like weeks. 

This week...Well I forgot my planner (again) so I'll see what I can come up with!! On Tuesday we did exchanges and I was in Sahuaro with Hermana Budge. She had just gotten sick that day and so she was in bed our whole exchanges. Everyone here is getting sick. I am buying more Emergen-C today. I do not want what everyone has. It is the worst!! Hermana Dominguez was coming down with it too. Pray that I don't get it!!! While with Hermana Budge I decorated like 4 planners and read a lot of Ensigns :P 

I'm already in Mormon with the Book of Mormon challenge too! How are all of you doing with that?

Well...Ah! Okay, we went to the Mesa Temple on Saturday with one of our ward missionaries who is going on his mission to Argentina this summer! Turns out my awesome MTC companion Hermana Walker was in his stake and he is way close with her brothers. Small world! Anyways, we went to a Spanish session and I loved it so much. After, we went to the distribution center and then to Deseret Book. I walked in and said, "I just went back to Utah" haha! I got a journal and some stickers to give away to the kids here. When I checked out they asked me if I had an account there. I gave our home phone number and my receipt has your name on it. I am keeping it, made me miss you really bad! Yeah, I'm weird. The Mesa Temple was absolutely gorgeous! Loved it.

Outside the temple, I actually ran into Cameron Martin from St. David and their family. Haha I just heard someone yelling, "Sister Martin!!" I guess I will be remembered from St. David :) just because we decided we are cousins :P just saying.

Our Zone Leaders that live at our same apartment complex have to move and we were helping them all weekend to move to their new apartment and deep clean the one they were leaving. Yea, glad that it is over with haha. Just goes to show that missionary apartments after being occupied by them for several years get pretty blech.

Love you all!! Miss you like crazy. Glad to see that you all had a great week :) you are always in my prayers. Remember I love you.

Hermana Martin

Mesa Temple

Fruit trees at the temple - you can just pick and eat the fruit!

A beautiful missionary!

Putting the license plate on our new car.