Portions from Emails with Dad
...The baptism was AMAZING :) it was so fun and so good :) Church was good for us too. We have zone conference tomorrow and I'm singing with Sister Davis and Elder Johnson and Sister Miller is playing piano. They just told us yesterday after church that they needed us to do a musical number... but I think its going to be really good. I'm kinda nervous for zone conference but I think it will be fun. I just hope I don't fall asleep, that would be embarrassing. I can't believe Tyler is already getting his permit that is so crazy to me. I'm great, we went shopping today and I got some cute stuff. I'm getting more and more nervous each day as the end of my training gets closer. I don't want Sister Davis to go home and I don't want to be on my own idk what I'm doing or where to go or how to get anywhere yet! Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter because it comes anyway. I love you.
...yeah and I might just train right after I'm done with my own training which is even scarier and we only have a stupid paper map booklet not even a full map you can open up. You have to look in the directory and find what page the street is on and figure out how to get from one page to the next and the pages don't line up! It's so hard idk whats gonna happen I'm just trying to not think about it! haha
Showing posts with label Email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Email. Show all posts
Monday, April 6, 2015
Email 3-30-2015
Well I have like no time to write you all this week and I'm not able to send pictures today so hopefully next week's email will be much better and you will get to see more of what I have been up to. :)
This was a crazy week! There is so much more to planning a baptism than it seems. Haha. But ADUT IS BAPTIZED!!! She was baptized on Saturday (3-28-15) and all her friends that we have been teaching went and it was so amazing. Adut is the best. As soon as she came up out of the water she just cried and hugged her mom who was waiting at the top of the stairs of the font. It was a very tender moment. She just cried and hugged and her mom didn't even care that she was soaking wet. It was sweet. The spirit was so strong. :) I love baptisms and I hope we have many more throughout my mission :)
We were also able to go to the Women's General Conference Broadcast and it was so wonderful. It talked a lot about the family and how we need to defend the family and how we all belong and play an important role in God's family. I loved it so much. Family is the foundation of this gospel and so important in my life. I love my family and I want everyone to be able to have a family they can lean on and turn to. I know that families are so important in God's plan and we need to do all we can to stand up for that. So those were my thoughts about that :)
I hope to be able to write you more next week. I pray you are all happy and well. :) Love you all
Sister Martin
This was a crazy week! There is so much more to planning a baptism than it seems. Haha. But ADUT IS BAPTIZED!!! She was baptized on Saturday (3-28-15) and all her friends that we have been teaching went and it was so amazing. Adut is the best. As soon as she came up out of the water she just cried and hugged her mom who was waiting at the top of the stairs of the font. It was a very tender moment. She just cried and hugged and her mom didn't even care that she was soaking wet. It was sweet. The spirit was so strong. :) I love baptisms and I hope we have many more throughout my mission :)
We were also able to go to the Women's General Conference Broadcast and it was so wonderful. It talked a lot about the family and how we need to defend the family and how we all belong and play an important role in God's family. I loved it so much. Family is the foundation of this gospel and so important in my life. I love my family and I want everyone to be able to have a family they can lean on and turn to. I know that families are so important in God's plan and we need to do all we can to stand up for that. So those were my thoughts about that :)
I hope to be able to write you more next week. I pray you are all happy and well. :) Love you all
Sister Martin
Monday, March 9, 2015
Email 3-9-2015
Not a lot of time, but one miracle from this past week: our family of 8 that is investigating, the Obi's, all came to sacrament meeting yesterday! They only have a small car and can't take all of their family so we had to find a ride for the other 4 of them. And let me tell ya, that was harder than it should have been! No one from the ward was willing to do it and that was really frustrating and stressful since we promised this family a ride. But God always provides a way and one of our recent converts offered to take them. So she went out of her way to take this family to church then back home to pick up her daughter and her neighbour for church. What an amazing lady :)
The kids were all so good during church! They had to go somewhere after sacrament meeting, but they told us that next week they would love to come and stay all three hours! Wohoo! The church is true! I'm excited for them, I think they will love primary and Relief Society especially. They are progressing, slowly but surely. The language barrier is a bit hard, but we were able to find copies of the Book of Mormon in their language! What a miracle.
Oh and yesterday I dropped my bagel on the carpet, but it fell right side up, tender mercy of the Lord :) haha.
So that's my news for this week :) Stay updated on my blog :) Love you all
Sister Maddy Martin
The kids were all so good during church! They had to go somewhere after sacrament meeting, but they told us that next week they would love to come and stay all three hours! Wohoo! The church is true! I'm excited for them, I think they will love primary and Relief Society especially. They are progressing, slowly but surely. The language barrier is a bit hard, but we were able to find copies of the Book of Mormon in their language! What a miracle.
Oh and yesterday I dropped my bagel on the carpet, but it fell right side up, tender mercy of the Lord :) haha.
So that's my news for this week :) Stay updated on my blog :) Love you all
Sister Maddy Martin
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Email 2-23-2015
Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry my emails are super lame haha there's just like no time! Good thing my dad made that blog you can all go look at, it probably has way more stuff than these emails! Well this week has been pretty great. I feel like every week is pretty great. There are a lot of ups and downs but by the end it usually balances out to great.
On tuesday, we were going to meet with a girl named Adut. She is the friend of a laurel named Angella in our ward that came to church last sunday. So when we get to the church on tuesday to meet with her, guess what. SHE BROUGHT THREE FRIENDS. So there were 4 of them! and we taught them all the restoration and you could tell that they really felt the spirit. The spirit was really present when we were talking about JS first vision! It was pretty amazing. We also taught another one of Angella's friends earlier that day named Czerri, i might have talked about her before. But anyway, now were teaching 5 of Angella's best friends and it's so amazing! Angella is such a good example to me because she is so open about her beliefs and willing to share the gospel with the people she loves. If we were all more like Angella, the church would grow exponentially and the missionaries in all our wards would have so many people to teach! I think that we sometimes undermine the importance of member missionary work but really, it is one of the most important things you could do in your life! And all you have to do is invite your friends and talk about what you believe. It sure works for Angella and I know it has worked for me too (cough cough TAYLOR cough) hahaha but seriously people! SHARE THE GOSPEL! haha and you will find so much joy and so many blessings from doing so. :)
So I love my companions :) Sister Miller just cracks me up all the time. Mostly with the weird stuff she eats haha. Today for breakfast, she had plain popcorn, with vinegar and pepper on it! Our whole apartment smelled like vinegar! And the other day she had a green spinach tortilla, then put peanut butter on it, and then put bananas on it AND THEN proceeded to put spinach leaves on it! WHAT. Hahaha and she eats her salad with mustard and vinegar. She is an odd one but i love her and she keeps me laughing. Sister Davis is all around amazing, my main goal on my mission is to become just like her.
This week we were also able to go teach the Obi family. They are the family of 8 we found last week. We taught them the restoration and they seemed really open and interested. It was a little hard because the baby was crying a lot. But then as soon as we started reciting the first vision, the baby stopped crying and everyone was silent and listening intently. It was amazing. I have been told that nothing can bring the spirit like sharing the first vision and I've noticed that that is so true. Satan knows how powerful it is and so many times when we are sharing it, the phone rings, or the baby starts crying, or someone does something distracting. But there are a few times that Satan can't win and everyone is still and the spirit is so crazy strong. It's interesting because I always thought that part was super cheezy and awkward like reciting it from memory, but its true, and people feel of its truthfulness and that is why the spirit is so strong when we share it. And the Obi's invited us back so I know that must have felt the spirit.
Well I know a bunch of other stuff happened this week but i don't really remember, that is just the things that I loved the most. And my Dad can fill you all in on the blog. I love you all! Share the gospel! Be happy! :)
Sister Maddyson Martin
Sorry my emails are super lame haha there's just like no time! Good thing my dad made that blog you can all go look at, it probably has way more stuff than these emails! Well this week has been pretty great. I feel like every week is pretty great. There are a lot of ups and downs but by the end it usually balances out to great.
On tuesday, we were going to meet with a girl named Adut. She is the friend of a laurel named Angella in our ward that came to church last sunday. So when we get to the church on tuesday to meet with her, guess what. SHE BROUGHT THREE FRIENDS. So there were 4 of them! and we taught them all the restoration and you could tell that they really felt the spirit. The spirit was really present when we were talking about JS first vision! It was pretty amazing. We also taught another one of Angella's friends earlier that day named Czerri, i might have talked about her before. But anyway, now were teaching 5 of Angella's best friends and it's so amazing! Angella is such a good example to me because she is so open about her beliefs and willing to share the gospel with the people she loves. If we were all more like Angella, the church would grow exponentially and the missionaries in all our wards would have so many people to teach! I think that we sometimes undermine the importance of member missionary work but really, it is one of the most important things you could do in your life! And all you have to do is invite your friends and talk about what you believe. It sure works for Angella and I know it has worked for me too (cough cough TAYLOR cough) hahaha but seriously people! SHARE THE GOSPEL! haha and you will find so much joy and so many blessings from doing so. :)
So I love my companions :) Sister Miller just cracks me up all the time. Mostly with the weird stuff she eats haha. Today for breakfast, she had plain popcorn, with vinegar and pepper on it! Our whole apartment smelled like vinegar! And the other day she had a green spinach tortilla, then put peanut butter on it, and then put bananas on it AND THEN proceeded to put spinach leaves on it! WHAT. Hahaha and she eats her salad with mustard and vinegar. She is an odd one but i love her and she keeps me laughing. Sister Davis is all around amazing, my main goal on my mission is to become just like her.
This week we were also able to go teach the Obi family. They are the family of 8 we found last week. We taught them the restoration and they seemed really open and interested. It was a little hard because the baby was crying a lot. But then as soon as we started reciting the first vision, the baby stopped crying and everyone was silent and listening intently. It was amazing. I have been told that nothing can bring the spirit like sharing the first vision and I've noticed that that is so true. Satan knows how powerful it is and so many times when we are sharing it, the phone rings, or the baby starts crying, or someone does something distracting. But there are a few times that Satan can't win and everyone is still and the spirit is so crazy strong. It's interesting because I always thought that part was super cheezy and awkward like reciting it from memory, but its true, and people feel of its truthfulness and that is why the spirit is so strong when we share it. And the Obi's invited us back so I know that must have felt the spirit.
Well I know a bunch of other stuff happened this week but i don't really remember, that is just the things that I loved the most. And my Dad can fill you all in on the blog. I love you all! Share the gospel! Be happy! :)
Sister Maddyson Martin
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Email 2-16-2015
Wow! This week went by fast. It seems like everything flies by. Probably because we do the same thing everyday, it's so routine. This week has been really good though. I think the best part of this week was watching our prayers get answered through obedience. We have been told that by being obedient and diligent in all our efforts, it guarantees an answer to our prayers. I know that God always answers our prayers anyway but I feel like I've been getting a lot more yes's than no's.
I see little miracles every day too, like when Sister Miller walked into a glass door at a member's house and I died laughing. That was a miracle! Getting to laugh a lot :) hahaha She probably wouldn't describe it as a miracle though haha.
We always plan every minute out and we are always doing the Lord's work so He knows when and where to put people in our path to find. One day this week we went to see an older less active lady and we got there a few minutes early and when we got out of the car her neighbor was walking her dog so we went and talked to her and she let us in her house to teach her! And were going back this week! What a blessing. When we show God we can do the little things, he trusts us with the big things.
Another miracle like that happened this week as well. One day we were just getting to our apartment to change and go back out again and we saw a man walking down the street smiling so we went up and talked to him. He invited us to come to his house later in the week. His name is Innocent. What a great name! So meanwhile, we have been praying to find families that are prepared to learn the gospel and come unto christ. And so yesterday we stop by Innocent's house and he is not there and he didn't tell his wife we were coming, but she opens the door and lets us in anyway! And then what do you know they have SIX kids! They have a religious background and are willing and interested in learning more about the gospel and how their family can be together forever. So guess what, God answered our prayers and led us to find a family ready to learn. They have 3 kids over 8 so that is 5 new investigators. In one day. How amazing.
We also met with this 92 year old lady from our ward this week her name is Grandma Gross. We meet with her every week. She is so inspiring. I always learn something from her. This week she was telling us about how she knows Christ created this Earth and that she doesn't know how but she doesn't need to know how to appreciate it. She loves seeing all the beautiful colors of the world. And she was talking about how he even created so many amazing colors we can't see but she knows they're there. My companions and I discussed this and we thought about the Aurora Borealis and how it is this beautiful colorful light and you can't always see it and sometimes it is colors you have never even seen before and it dances and lights up the night. We talked about how we all have our own inner light, our own aurora borealis and it dances and shines within us. It is so unique and sometimes its color is something like no other or never seen before. Sometimes only certain people can see it at certain times. But what if the aurora borealis would shine more often in more places and light up more nights. How beautiful and wondrous every night would be. We need to let our light shine. Let it dance. Let more people see it and experience it. That is something I'm working on this week. Letting my aurora borealis dance and shine more often and broadening the spectrum of colors it can shine.
The lessons are going better and I'm getting more comfortable. mostly just with the restoration lesson cause we haven't really been practicing or studying the other ones yet so those are still a bit uncomfortable but it's all getting easier. The days go by fast and the week flew by!
Sorry this is short but you can check the blog thing my dad put up for me and I'm sure he will put things from my other letters up there so you can hear more! I love you all! Let your light shine! Be obedient and see the rewards!
Love,
Sister Martin
40 below! i used my balaclava thing!
One of the sweet members and her friend which is one of our investigators, they're 18 and 16, they brought us valentines :)
We met a maple leaf guy :) haha oh canada eh
This totes beauts mural of Jesus and in his eye is Baby Jesus
Footprints in the snow, not sand :) I feel him carry me sometimes :)
Monday, February 9, 2015
Email 2-9-2015
Well here we go.
It's been crazy. Leaving the MTC was harder than I thought it would be. I met so many amazing people there and it was sad leaving them. We woke up super early and left for the airport and travel took a long time. One connecting flight in Minnesota and then straight to Winnipeg. I got to call my family from the airport which was nice. I miss them a lot and I was so glad to talk to them. When we got to Canada there were some issues with my Visa so I only get to stay in the country for 90 days and then I have to leave the country and reapply for a visa. Which will be okay cause luckily we have one area in the mission in the States in Minnesota so I can go there and get it all sorted out. I hear it's beautiful there too so I'm excited for that.
When we got to Winnipeg we went to the Mission President's house and had some amazing food. Way better than MTC food haha. It was nice having a home cooked meal. Then in the morning we had a long orientation and then found out where we were going!
I am now in the Winnipeg North area serving in the London Ward. I stayed with my MTC companion and we are both being trained by Sister Davis. Tri-pan numba TWO haha already. Crazy. But I'm grateful for it.
It's nice staying with Sister Miller cause I love her and I know her and its nice having a familiar face around :) Sister Davis is great. She is very obedient and I'm learning a lot. She is super energetic and cute and fun which drives me a little crazy sometimes haha cause she's like always happy but good for her.
When we got placed we had to leave almost right away and go to some lessons. Our first lesson was amazing. It was a less active at a member's house and she made us tea and brownies so it was like a little tea party with her fancy china, it was cute. But the spirit was so strong our less active cried. Not gonna lie, Sister Davis did all the talking, I said like 5 words the whole time and Sister Miller said like 15 haha. But it was still fun.I haven't gotten used to the sleeping schedule yet. I feel like I'm always tired and I fall asleep in random places at random times all the time. Its awkward haha but I haven't fallen asleep in a lesson yet so thats good. Maybe I'm like a little narcoleptic or something. It is freezing here but not too bad cause we are only outside when walking to and from the car. And we're always busy, we have like 5 or 6 lessons a day so far. It feels like I've been here way longer than I have.
We got to do service at someone's house and help them demolish their basement and tear everything out. It was fun. We're teaching some great people and I love almost every lesson. Even when I'm super awkward haha. But oh well.
Sunday was great. It was pretty relaxing and spiritually uplifting. And on Sunday mornings when we usually get up and exercise we get to just relax and do something else like write letters so i liked that too. Well I can't really think of anything else right now. But I'm doing okay. I'll try to be more organized and send better letters from now on haha it's crazy how fast the time flies, it's like I'm rushing through all my emails. I love you all!
Sister Martin
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