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

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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

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week sixty-nine: hop out of bed, put my tag on

Hellooo people of the world! It has been a different week for sure! Being in a YSA is a totally different dynamic than I’m used to but it’s been fun so far. Younger people are more open to the gospel which is awesome!

So our ward covers two stakes, and Sister Garcia and I work in the Irvine Stake. I love Irvine! It is so nice. Because we’re in a YSA, the things we do on a daily basis are a little different. We go to Institute like 3 times a week…mostly because that’s our dinner and lunch on those days but it’s fun. We also spend lots of time on one of the local college campuses just talking with people. Also when we go finding we’re always on the lookout for people who are YSA age. I feel a little out of my comfort zone, especially because I went from knowing my area like the back of my hand to now knowing nothing…but that just means there’s room to grow, right?! It’s good though, I have an awesome companion and we have some great people that we are teaching right now. 🙂

Yesterday, my first Sunday in the ward, we were both last minute asked to speak in sacrament meeting to fill in for someone who couldn’t. The life of a missionary hahah… I spoke about how we can change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I’ve really come to understand the enabling power of the atonement on my mission. We are all imperfect and have the natural man in us…but it is a necessity for us to put off the natural man and to become a saint through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we feel like we are so far gone that it is impossible for us to change. To believe that you cannot strengthen your weaknesses and change rejects the central message of the plan of salvation. It is through the atonement of Jesus Christ that everything and everyone can change. He lived and died because He knew that we would make mistakes.

We’ve been talking about repentance a lot in our mission recently. Someone said that, “changing the behavior without involving the Savior is not repentance. Repentance is change involving Christ. We can change on our own, but it is repentance that will heal us.”

The atonement of Jesus Christ has changed me. And I’m not done yet…I know that I have to continually allow it to change me. I would invite you all to repent daily. And don’t just do it because you should, but because you want to. I know that we can all become saints through the atonement if we allow ourselves to.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 🤙🏼

week sixty-eight: #operationsalvation

Hola!! Hope everyone is doing awesome! Today is transfer day so it’s super crazy, and I don’t have a ton to write about so I’ll fill you in on what’s new and share a couple miracles.

Well, my time in Placentia has come to a close! The past three transfers have been amazing. I have seen the ward and area grow so much since being here and I’m grateful for the time I’ve had to serve. As for now…I have been called as a Sister Training Leader and my new companion is Sister Garcia! She’s from Bothel, Washington and she’s super awesome. We are serving in the Orange Hills YSA (young single adult) Ward, covering the Irvine side. So our area is out of the mission boundaries which is kinda cool. Lots of change but I’m excited for what’s to come!

This week our investigator Rogelyn progressed so much. She is the perfect example of how the gospel can completely change your life. Rogelyn struggles with many addictions, and she’s been wanting to change for a long time. This week when we met with her, we found out that she’s been sober for two weeks!! And she told us that it’s all because she has prayed and asked for help. She now has a set baptismal date of March 11. I’m sad to leave her, but I’m grateful for all the progression I’ve been able to see in her over the last few months.

Awhile back we met and taught a girl named Elizabeth. She’s 20, and super open to the gospel. She really wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Well we haven’t been able to meet with her at all, but this week she texted us and asked if we would meet her at the gas station. I’m telling you, miracles always happen at the gas station. So we talked to her for a couple minutes and she let us know that her mom was not supportive of her looking into other religions but that she was still super interested. Kind of sad, but we know she’ll be taught again in the future. Here’s the miracle, so we had already eaten lunch but Sister Sainan wanted to get a snack from the mini mart at the gas station. This is not normal because Sister Sainan doesn’t really eat a lot. While we’re in there, this young guy approaches us and asks what church we’re from. His name is Joshua and we ended up talking to him for awhile. He is trying to change his life and come closer to God. He was super interested in learning more about the gospel. He gave us all of his information and said we could get the YSA missionaries in contact with him. I know we had to be at that gas station to meet Joshua.

This truly is the Lord’s work. I know that Jesus Christ lives and I’m so grateful for a Savior. The gospel is true, everyone.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 🌿
Heart attacked people for Valentine’s Day on exchanges w/ Sister Hawkins 💝

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Placentia Zone!

Trioooo

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Said goodbye to so many awesome people!!

week sixty-seven: the struggle is real but so is God

Hello hello!! It was such a great week. Super busy but wonderful. I’ll quickly share some miracles.

Awhile back we met a girl named Natalie, we taught her and she invited us back. That was in December and we’ve tried to see her so many times since then. While trying to meet her we’ve met two of her adult sisters Miriam and Lety, both said we could come back. Well Tuesday night we tried Natalie, and she was busy, but Lety said, “you can talk to me instead!” And she invited us in. We were like what….we taught her the restoration and she was super receptive and invited us back. Such a tender mercy.

Thursday we had about 20 minutes to kill before dinner and we had already finished all of our plans….so we decided to go to dinner early, and walk around to try people nearby. We parked in the IHOP (our dinner) parking lot and look over, and see our investigator Danny who we hadn’t seen in a few weeks. He’s super hard to get ahold of, but there he was in the IHOP parking lot. We were able to set up an appointment with him. After seeing Danny we went to go try a potential, she wasn’t home, but on the way back we ran into another hard to find less active and set an appointment with her as well. Heavenly Father’s timing is so perfect.

Friday we had Zone Conference! It’s always so good. We talked about a lot of things, but one thing that stood out to me was about FOMO (fear of missing out). As missionaries, it can be easy to have
FOMO….weddings, big family events, new movies, new music, etc….but do we have a fear of missing out on living with God? The ultimate FOMO is missing out on the opportunity to live with Heavenly Father again. This really made me think. If we have a “fear” of missing out on the opportunity to live with Heavenly Father, we will be more motivated to be obedient and Christlike. It was a good reminder.

There were so many other lessons and people and miracles from this week that I could talk about, but I would go on forever. This work never ceases to amaze me. I am just so grateful to be a servant of the Lord. I know that Jesus Christ lives! How blessed are we to have a Savior who loves each of us so much. I hope you can all feel of that love!

Have a wonderful week!

All my love,

Sister Martinez ❤
Went to the Fullerton arboretum for a sister’s activity today!

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I died in the desert 🌵💕

week sixty-six: where two or three are gathered

Hi people!! It was suuuuch a crazy but also amazing week. I feel like I always have so much to talk about!

To sum up the crazy from this week: I successfully finished a college application in 36 hours. It was due Wednesday and I didn’t find out until Monday because my mind has been on other things (aka missionary work). So that was interesting. Tuesday night we got a call that there would be an emergency transfer and we would be getting a new companion and also covering a 2nd area. !!!!what!!!! So Monday morning, two became three, and we welcomed Sister Sainan into our companionship. Sister Sainan is from Thailand (she’s teaching us Thai), has been on her mission for 10 months, and fun fact: we had the same first area (Valley View in Garden Grove). I love her so much!! So adjusting to a new companion has not been hard at all. BUT as I mentioned before, we are now covering both the Placentia and Yorba Linda areas for the next two weeks, until the transfer ends. A little bit stressful but Heavenly Father has been blessing us everyday.

Our goal everyday has been to try to spend an equal amount of time in each area. It’s been hard to spend a lot of time in the Yorba Linda area, but every time we’ve been able to go, we’ve taught someone unexpectedly. It’s been incredible to see how the Lord has provided a way for us to somehow keep both areas alive and thriving.

Thursday we had an incredible experience. We went to go try some potentials in Yorba Linda, and ended up meeting some of their family members instead. They immediately welcomed us in and offered us something to drink. They just moved here from Abu Dhabi! They are Muslim, but they were interested in understanding more about what we believe. It was amazing to be able to sit down with them and talk about the similarities we have. They were probably some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. The mom, Nihal, put the restoration pamphlet we gave her with her most holy books. It was just a really special experience. She wants us to come back and talk more with her and her children.

We had some interesting experiences on Friday and Saturday. We had two lessons that we thought would happen differently than they did. Friday we taught a woman named Karen, and Saturday we taught a man named Chris. They are both very kind people, but our visits were very stressful. They were both very interested in teaching us pretty much about how what we believe is wrong rather than letting us teach them what we know will bless their lives. It’s hard sometimes. People don’t understand that we are just seeking to bring them closer to Christ and that our message will bring them more joy and peace than they could ever understand. But honestly, meeting with them just strengthened my testimony even more.

I know that this is truly Jesus Christ’s church. The gospel means everything to me. I can’t even put it into words. I know that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us and that he really does have a plan of happiness for us. The Book of Mormon and the Bible are both the word of God. I know this. I’m eternally grateful for my Savior who strengthens me everyday, and helps me do things that I know I could not do on my own.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 🌺
Our new bedroom setup

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The trio!

15 months, 3 months, 10 months ⏰

week sixty-five: 6 o’clock, jazzercise

Hi everyone! This week was incredible. I have so much to talk about so here we go!

Not a whole lot happened Monday and Tuesday. Just normal days where we talked with lots of people but didn’t teach a whole lot. But then came Wednesday…there was another worldwide missionary broadcast!! It was amazing, of course. And as I’m sure many have heard, there were changes to the missionary daily schedule. If you’ve never served a mission it might not seem like a big deal, but it’s a pretty big deal. Our schedule used to be that we would wake up at 6:30, exercise, get ready and eat breakfast, have personal study at 8:00 and companionship study at 9:00. Then go throughout our normal day, and when we got home at night around 9/9:30, we would plan for the next day. Well now, we still wake up at 6:30 and exercise, but we have from 7-8:30 to eat breakfast and get ready, then instead of planning at night we plan in the morning from 8:30-9, then have personal study until 10. Now we can be more flexible and choose when we would like to have companionship study, and we no longer plan at night when we come home. These changes might not sound like a big difference but just in the last 4 days of living this schedule I have truly seen the blessings that come from it.

Thursday, we were finally able to teach a woman named Becky. We’ve met her a couple times and she always said she was busy, so we kind of felt like she might not be interested, but this time we went and she invited us to sit down with her. It was a powerful lesson. She has two children who she loves so dearly and when we related her love for her kids to the love that Heavenly Father has for her she got emotional. She was open and willing to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it’s true. It was so awesome. Later that day we were also able to meet and teach a young girl named Yessenia, who accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited us to come back.

Now comes the best part of the week: Saturday. It was such an amazing day. We met and taught a woman named Myra and she invited us back. Then we went to go try a potential named Maria, who we had met a few weeks ago. When we met her she was sick but said we could come back in a few weeks. We had tried a few times but no one ever answered. This was going to be one of our last times trying her for awhile, and she was home and answered 🙂 she called over her daughter, Jessica, to listen as well and we were able to teach them the restoration. They both accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and want to know if it is true. They invited us to come back and teach more. After teaching Maria and Jessica, we had a lesson with our investigator Rogelyn in a member’s home. It went really well. She is still working towards being baptized and is definitely strengthening her relationship with God.

After dinner we received a referral from the YSA elders for a teenage girl named Sandy. We went to contact her immediately and were able to teach her. It was a sweet experience. Sandy has never really believed in God or Jesus Christ, but she has the desire to know if they exist. We taught her how to pray and she said she would try to pray on her own that night. She also invited us back to teach more. Later that night we went to go contact another referral from the YSA elders, a guy named Danny. He answered the door and told us he had literally just gotten home from work and that we had caught him in his only free time. He felt like it was meant to be. We taught him the restoration, and he questioned every single principle we taught. But at the end of the lesson, he said something like, “you have convinced me. I can see the sincerity in your eyes and I know that you truly believe this. Now I want to find out for myself if the Book of Mormon is true.” It was such a miracle.

To summarize, we found 6 new investigators (people who we taught and set a return appointment with) from Thursday to Sunday, after we began the new schedule. I truly believe that the success we had has a direct correlation with the schedule changes. I know the changes are inspired, and they have brought so many blessings. Heavenly Father truly is aware of every single one of His children and He leads us to them when they are ready.

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the fullness of the gospel is on the earth today, and that because of it we can find true joy and peace in this life. If you sincerely want that, I would encourage you to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, with the intention of acting on the answer that you receive. See what happens. I promise the Holy Ghost will bear witness to you that it is true.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 🌼
Our only pic of the week 🍔

Yep we’re weirdos

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.

week sixty-three: mormon chicks

Hello all! Wow it was such a great week. We accomplished so much and saw so many miracles. I have so much to talk about!

Tuesday we just happened to be in the neighborhood of one of our investigators, Daniel. We hadn’t seen him in over a month so we decided to stop by. We finnnnally saw him. He opened his door and told us he was officially "ready to surrender". Aka come to church, be baptized, etc. He is going through a hard time and feels like this is God giving him a sign that he needs to strengthen his faith. He set a return appointment with us and told us to find him a ride for church on Sunday. We weren’t even planning on visiting him.

I got a little sick this week…and within one day I completely lost my voice. I’m a missionary, all I do is talk!! Hahah well on Wednesday, Sister Harrison had to do most of the teaching while I sat there and smiled. And tried to speak but could hardly make a sound. But it came back pretty quickly. 🙂

We had a lesson on Wednesday with our investigator Blanca. We met her in December and showed her Light the World, she loved it! At that time, she was pregnant and the baby was overdue! We thought we might not see her again. BUT! We saw her again a few weeks ago, newborn baby and all, and she set a return appointment with us. We were able to teach her the restoration and she was so receptive. There’s a little bit of a language barrier because she is a native Spanish speaker, but she got the gist of what we were saying, and this week we’re going back to teach her again with the Spanish elders!

Saturday was amazing. We talked with and met so many wonderful people. We were at an apartment complex trying to find a woman named Erica who told us to come back. We knocked on our door, and instead, her son Jeffrey answered. He was super open to having us come back. He doesn’t really have faith, but he said he wants to strengthen the faith he does have. Before we left, we asked if we could pray with him. He told us he didn’t know how to, so we taught him how to do it right there at the door. Afterwards he said he would try to do it that night on his own. I am so grateful to be able to share this joy with people who just have no idea.

Sunday night we went to go try a less active member. They weren’t home, and we had about 10 minutes left before we needed to go home. We didn’t really know what to do, but when we first got to her street, I had the feeling that we needed to try her next door neighbor. We decided to knock the three houses around her. The first two didn’t answer. Then we tried the last one, which was the one I had a feeling about….and we met Peggy. She was busy at that moment but told us she wanted us to come back and teach both her and her children. I know Heavenly Father leads us to the exact places we need to be in at the right times.

I feel like every week, there’s a different theme among all of the different people we meet and visit with. This week, we met a lot of people with questions. And by questions, I mean doubts. PEOPLEEEEEE. Please. Doubt your doubts before your faith. It is perfectly okay to have questions, everyone has questions. But do not doubt your faith. Hold onto your faith. Nourish it, and it will grow from a seed into a beautiful plant! Or flower. Or tree. Whatever you want it to be. In my case, it’s a cactus. But anyway. Faith is so important. Ask Heavenly Father any question you have, and I promise He will answer.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 🌵

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Bright and early saying goodbye to Sister Burns 😭

The Powell family from our ward. They moved to Texas this week!

week sixty two: penelope is real

Hello wonderful people!!! Holy cow it has been such a good week. It feels like a month’s worth of activities were jam packed into one week, but it’s been great.

Tuesday was so exciting. We had 5 set appointments and we were so ready to conquer the day. As usual with missionary work though, almost all of the lessons fell through. BUT Heavenly Father led us to people who we would not have met if those lessons had not fallen through. It was awesome. So another fun thing: every Tuesday we go to a nursing home and call out bingo for some of the residents. It is soo fun. One of the men who plays bingo is named Duffy and he’s 97 and he’s just the most precious thing. When we ask him how he is he always says, "I’m still here!" We visit some of the sweetest people there. There’s a couple of members who live in the home, we stopped by one of them and we’re going to start reading the Book of Mormon with her every week. As we were leaving she said, "tell your families that you have a new scripture reading friend!!" So I’m doing as she says. On our way out we ran into another member. While we were talking with her she said, "I’m only 80, I still have 40 years left." Hahah I love these people so much.

We have been calling Wednesday, "the day on foot." We had to take our car to the shop for a minor repair so we walked alllll day. It was actually so amazing. We met and talked with so many awesome people. It was also a wonderful experience for us to bond with a few members who gave us rides to appointments. We had one set lesson that night which ended up falling through BUT the Lord always provides. We met a young man named Christian. He is a very devout Catholic but was super open to talking with us. It was such a good lesson and he accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would actually pray about it!

We were broken up with a couple of times this week. 😦 it’s sad when you get dropped but something I’ve realized on my mission is that Heavenly Father has a perfect and specific plan for every single one of His children. Every single one. And if that means that accepting the gospel/listening to us right now is not a part of the plan…that’s okay. I have faith that everything will work out for all of God’s children, because He loves each of us so much and I know that He wants us to return to live with Him again.

After this week, all I can say is GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. Oh my gosh it is incredible. Each time I am reminded, I can’t help but just be amazed. Saturday night we had an experience that perfectly demonstrated this. We went to an apartment complex where a member lives to go knocking…as we approached the front of the complex we noticed a HUGE sign that said "No trespassing. No soliciting. No loitering." Normally these signs don’t bother me hahah but this one was just so in your face. We were a little bit leery about going in…but after contemplating for awhile we just decided to knock a couple of doors. While we were praying before going inside, I had the feeling that we needed to go to the second floor. We tried some on the first floor, then went to the second floor. I had so much faith that we would meet someone on that floor, but every door either wasn’t answering or wasn’t interested. Then we met Katurah. She just moved here from Seattle and is open to learning and coming to church to try it out. She’s a YSA, so we’ll be passing her off, but I know that Heavenly Father led us to meet her that night. And it was perfect timing because a few doors after her, we knocked on the apartment manager’s door and were told to leave. Oops.

This week I hit my 14 month mark….what. I’m so grateful for the gospel. I really don’t know where I would be without it….definitely not where I’m supposed to be. Which is here. I love being a missionary. It’s not easy and there’s something hard everyday but it’s so worth it. I’m grateful for this work, and for Jesus Christ who makes it all possible.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Martinez 💖

So much joy on "the day on foot"

It has rained more in the past month than it has my entire mission!!

A very serious zone

The district

Matching with Sister Harrison 🌸

Sister Burns leaves tomorrow…tear

Celestial skies