week seventy-three: greetings from your fave mexican couple

Hello hello! It was an awesome week! I don’t have a lot of time but I’ll share a few things.

Wednesday was so awesome. I went on exchanges with Sister Hutchinson in the Anaheim 1st ward aka one of my past areas. Ahhh it was so nostalgic. It was like a blast from the past the whole day. But it was great. We talked with so many people on the street, probably one of my favorite things to do as a missionary. We also got to teach and see some of the same people I taught when I was there which was so cool.

Thursday morning we had a lesson with our investigator Emily. We were able to move her baptismal date for the end of April and she is so excited. She’s now in Alma and loves the Book of Mormon. She’s super golden. Also one of the best parts of the week was when she came to church on Sunday! She had been before with previous sisters but this was the first time she came since she’s been taught again. She loved it and wants to go to all the activities and get super involved. It’s awesome!

As a mission we’ve been doing a Jesus Christ topical guide study. We’re basically studying everything about Him. It’s been awesome because I’ve definitely felt my love and adoration for Him increase. This week my study was focused on Jesus Christ as my advocate. I loved in Hebrews 7:25, “He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Intercession is the act of intervening on behalf of another. He lives to intervene on my behalf, and to plead on my behalf. He always roots for me even when I don’t root for myself. He stands up for me and always sees the good in me. But it’s not just me. It’s every single person who has ever lived and who ever will live. He is your advocate. He lives for you. I know that Jesus Christ lives. That truth is confirmed to me daily. I hope you are all able to recognize His hand in your life.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 💘

1. We got a brand new car and we’re obsessed with it
2. Ran into Sister Harrison today!!! ❤
3. Downtown Disney

image13

image23

image32

week seventy-two: same

Hi everyone! It was a great week. Sister Garcia and I are both sick which has not been fun…but we still did lots of awesome stuff.

On Tuesday we went on exchanges, I went to Anaheim with Sister Benn. Ahh I missed Anaheim! It was a great day. We met some people with lots of potential and saw miracles. We were walking down the street and saw this woman crying on the sidewalk. Sister Benn felt like we needed to go pray with her. So we did, and testified of Heavenly Father’s love for her. She was so grateful and said it wasn’t a coincidence that we ran into her. I know that Heavenly Father is so mindful of every single one of His children.

God’s timing is so perfect. We had two miracles happen this week that are perfect examples of this. Friday night we were waiting in our car to meet up with some other sisters for a pass off lesson. I saw this guy across the street just walking around and we decided to go talk to him. His name was Emmanuel and he ended up being super interested and set up a return appointment with us! Our pass off lesson ended up falling through, but if we hadn’t been there we never would’ve met Emmanuel. We haven’t been finding a lot of new investigators lately so this was huge.

Saturday we went on another exchange, I stayed in our area with Sister Utley. We had an appointment with our investigator Nathan, but he never confirmed with us so we showed up anyways. We knocked and waited and nobody came to the door so we left….after driving for about a minute I felt like we needed to check the phone. We checked it and Nathan had texted us asking if that was us who knocked, and asked if we could come back to pray with him. We went back and prayed with him and committed him to read a specific chapter from the Book of Mormon that applies to what he’s going through right now. I’m so grateful for the Holy Ghost because if I hadn’t been prompted to check the phone we wouldn’t have been able to see Nathan and help him that day.

Later on in our exchange, we also had something else really cool happen. We have been trying this potential named Mary the whole time I’ve been here and she’s never home or available. Well this time we knocked on the door and her dad, Hossain, answered and immediately invited us in. He told us to sit down and to tell him about our religion, and what makes us different from other Christians. He proceeded to tell us that he and his family left Iran so that they could practice Christianity, but they haven’t found the right sect yet. WHAT. He and his family are super prepared. We’re going back soon to give them a Book of Mormon in Persian. 🙂

I’m so grateful for the gospel. I know it’s true.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 💕

1.🌵
2 + 3. At “The Eternal Family” institute class on Thursday night we had wedding cake and Martinelli’s to toast to eternal marriage hahaha

image12

image22

week seventy-one: y’all finished or y’all done

Hello people of the world! It was a great week in Irvine. Actually it’s always a great week when you’re a missionary.

So basically life is good. I don’t know how else to explain it except for that it’s just good. It’s just really cool to be able to go up to random people and talk about Jesus with them without it being weird. Like being a missionary just rocks. On Thursday we set up a table with copies of the Book of Mormon and whatnot at a local college campus and just talked to people. Lots of people were open, lots weren’t, but regardless I just felt so grateful in that moment to be a
representative of Jesus Christ and His church.

We had a huge miracle this weekend! Friday morning we were getting ready, when we checked our phone and had a bunch of texts from our investigator, Emily. Emily is on date for baptism, but she’s been kind of MIA the last few weeks. We thought she was avoiding us but then out of nowhere she texts us 10 verses from the Book of Mormon that she really likes and told us she’s now in Mosiah. We were finally able to meet with her on Saturday, and she couldn’t stop talking about how much she loves the church and the Book of Mormon, and she already calls herself a Mormon. She’s so excited to get baptized! We’re probably just as excited as she is. 🙂

Saturday was also wonderful because I was able to go back to Placentia for Rogelyn’s baptism!! Sister Harrison and I taught Rogelyn the whole time we were companions, and it was so beautiful to see the fruits of our labors. Rogelyn has changed so much. She has overcome so much and has truly changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She was so excited and happy!! It was a beautiful baptism. And I’m so proud of Sister Harrison and her trainee Sister Phillips for making it all happen. 💕

I love the gospel. I’m so grateful for it and know with all my heart that it is true. I love the scripture, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16) Jesus Christ lives. When He was on the earth He established a church, and that church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know this is true! Also everyone go watch this video: https://history.lds.org/story/first-vision

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 💘
Classic iPad selfies

image11

image21

Rogelyn!! 🌊🌊

She wanted to squat in front of us…so cute hahah

It was Sister Garcia’s birthday yesterday!!! 🎉🎉

week seventy: I would highly recommend that for myself

Hi hi! It’s been a busy but awesome week. We went to a lot of meetings, went on exchanges, and I’ll just go ahead and talk about it all…

Tuesday we went to MLC (mission leadership council)! It was so amazing. Basically we are given a training by President and Sister Taggart and the assistants, and then we give the same training to the missionaries in our zones at Zone Training. The focus of the training was our purpose as missionaries. It really inspired me to rise to a new sense of commitment to my purpose as a representative of Jesus Christ. We had the opportunity to teach at two zone trainings. Wednesday we went to the Fullerton zone training (we cover some of the sisters there), and then Thursday we went to our own zone’s zone training. We also had interviews and other trainings as well. It was busy but all good things. It’s so awesome to be uplifted and edified together as missionaries.

Saturday we went on exchanges with some of the ASL sisters. I went to their area and got to spend the day with Sister Sierra and Sister Gonzalez! It was such an awesome day. Something that I have loved seeing as a missionary is that the gospel is the same regardless of the language. It was such a privilege to be able to watch the sisters teach and bear their testimonies in sign language. They taught me how to pray in sign! I was so excited hahah.

Sunday we had a great lesson with our investigator Nathan. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson which just goes through the basic principles of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I love this lesson so much. It’s so incredible that we truly can be cleansed from sin through Jesus Christ. Nathan has such a strong desire to repent, and to change his life and I’m grateful to be helping him along the way.

Our P-day is today because we were able to go to the temple this morning! It’s been almost 6 months since we were last able to go so this was super exciting. I’m so grateful that the gospel was restored so that we can have temples. They truly are the house of the Lord.

Don’t really have much else to say except that I know Jesus Christ lives and I’m so grateful to be a missionary!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 💕
MLC

image1

image2

image3

image4

image5

image6