week sixty-four: dr.pepper brings blessings

Hello hello wonderful people! It was such a good week. It’s really hard not to always start out my letters the same way, because it’s always a good week when you’re serving the Lord. But luckily, the experiences and miracles are unique every time 🙂

At the end of our P-Day last week we stopped at 7-11 so I could get a Dr.Pepper…shocker. Well, we’re waiting in line to pay, and a familiar looking woman walks in. After a couple seconds we realized she was one of our investigators, Sarla, who we hadn’t seen since we met her in December!! We had an amazing experience where she got home right when we arrived, and got emotional when we shared the message of the restoration with her. We had kind of lost contact, but here she was at 7-11. We talked with her and she told us they had actually moved down the street (which explains why they never answered the door) and were going through some things. She said she would give us a call when she was ready for visitors. It was such a tender mercy to see her again. I know Heavenly Father places us in the right places at the right times. Also, Dr.Pepper clearly brings blessings.

Wednesday afternoon we had an awesome lesson with our new investigator Elizabeth. The Saturday before, we had an appointment fall through and decided to look for some potentials in the same apartment complex. We had written down the wrong address of someone who told us to come back, so we tried a couple of different options. In one of the options, we met Elizabeth, and she invited us back. She was so receptive to the message. She wants to know which of all the churches are true. She told us she would start reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it that night. Sister Harrison and I walked away from the lesson so giddy. It’s so exciting when you’re able to teach people who are prepared. We talk with dozens of people a day, but the best moment is when you find someone who is ready.

We had another miracle happen Friday night. In December, we had met a young family, Myra, Sergio, and their two little boys. We showed them Light the World and set up a return appointment. The appointment fell through, so ever since December we’ve been trying to make contact with them. We’ve called a few times, but every time we called someone would pick up and then hang up. We thought they were avoiding us. Well, this particular evening we went to go try them again. They were home and they welcomed us in!! Nobody does that so this was so exciting. We were able to teach them a brief restoration, and they committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. Myra also said she would be baptized once she comes to know that these things are true. Ah! I know this gospel will bless their family so much. God is good.

Church was amazing this week. Well, church is always great, but sometimes certain meetings stick out more than others. We had a less-active member we’ve been working with come to Sacrament Meeting, which was so awesome. All of her friends at church were so happy to see her. And other than that we just had awesome Sunday School classes. Something that really stuck out to me was something our Stake President said. If you’ve been praying about something for a long time, waiting for a yes or no, but you haven’t been getting any contrary feelings…Heavenly Father is okay with your decision. You don’t always have to get a huge YES to know if you’re making the right choice. He wants us to make our own decisions, and He will let us know when something is not right. That was so relevant for me, and I felt prompted to share it so hopefully one of you needs to hear that as well.

Sunday night we had an appointment with this man named Daniel, who we met the week before. It has been raining A LOT here lately, but this particular night it was just a torrential downpour. We had to park far away from his apartment complex, so it wasn’t a super ideal situation. We were soaking wet from head to toe and so cold, and I was so sure that he probably wouldn’t be there, but I’m so glad we decided to go visit him anyway because we ended up teaching him. Daniel left his whole family in Nigeria to come get a Master’s Degree here. He has strong faith, and is so open and willing to know if what we teach is true. At the end of the lesson we found out he will be moving in a week, but I’m still so grateful that we were able to introduce him to the restored gospel.

I know this gospel is true. I’m so grateful to have a Savior who is so full of grace. Something else we talked about in church was grace. It was mentioned that grace is not the gap filler, but the help and strength given to us so that we can fill the gap on our own. There are plenty of things in this life that we simply cannot do on our own. But it is the grace of God which enables us to overcome personal weaknesses and do the things we cannot do without Heavenly help.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

All my love,

Sister Martinez 🌧

Sister Harrison’s areabook wasn’t working for almost 2 weeks and this week it finally started working!! Hallelujah

The calm…after the storm.