Email 6-8-2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, this week has been a little crazy. We started the week with Zone Conference on Tuesday. That was really fun. It was nice to visit with all my missionary friends here in Saskatchewan. Sometimes we feel a little isolated out here in Moose Jaw with only the Elders and us. Especially coming from Winnipeg with a million missionaries. So it was nice to be with everyone again for a little bit. It was pretty long though. Meetings all day. And we had to role play, which I hate. But I am starting to get over it and just grin and bear it till it's over haha. The food was good though :) Pulled pork sandwiches.

Then we came back here to Moose Jaw and continued with our work. On Saturday we got our Transfer calls. So Sister Reyes will be leaving me and going to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which is kinda sad. It is always hard starting over again. But I also found out that I will be training a brand new sister. She is still in the MTC this very moment. haha. So that should be exciting. Kinda scary, but oh well I guess. Live and learn and figure it out along the way. Haha.

We have a baptism scheduled in a few weeks and we're really working hard and praying for it to go through. And we're hoping to set another one this week. We haven't found many new people to teach, but we are trying. So we will see what happens next week. I am doing well, and I am happy. Life out here on the mission is hard, but I am surviving and finding happiness along the way. Time seems to fly by some days. I am 4 and a half months down with 13 and a half to go. Not that I'm counting down the days or anything ;) I promise, I am being good and trying to stay focused on what the Lord wants me here to do. :)

I hope you are all happy and well.
Love,

Sister Martin <3

505 Academy Road
Winnipeg, MB R3P 0C9
Canada

Pics 5-4-2015

This is our last sunday in the London ward with. We decided to all match haha :)

We found a random burning tree and had to call the fire department and also take a selfie

All three of us sitting on a tractor haha out at the Heieies

Pics 4-28-2015

Au Revior Winnipeg!

Maddy just found out she is getting transferred. I'm not sure where she is going. No long email this week. I guess we'll read about it in her letter.

saw this super neat old tank and had to stop for a pic :)

we got matching 3$ sunglasses :) haha

Sister Davis :) I'm gonna miss her like crazy

Sister Miller, I love her!

Jumpin on the trampoline at the Heieie's. We were over there for service and we were waiting for Bro. Ryan Heieie to help us with something. So we figured we may as well have a little fun :)

Kate Gross and her cute kids and one of those girls is a Fisk child that practically lives there since the Gross family and Fisk family are besties

These are the Gross kids, Navy and some of his siblings.

This is Grandma Gross. This is my last picture with this sweet woman. I love her with all my heart and if I came out on a mission just to meet her, it was worth it. I'm gonna miss her a lot.

This Navy Gross and a few of his siblings and friends. He is literally the cutest little boy I have ever met. He is so gentle and sweet and I love him. He always tells us this story about how one time he heard the Holy Ghost warn him that he and his brother shouldn't do something so he didn't do it haha it is so cute. His family is amazing. I love them all. Every time I see Navy he runs up to me and give me the biggest hug.  :) 

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

Letter 3-2-2015

So this has been a really good week. There were some ups and some downs but the good outweighs the bad :)

I almost fell asleep in a lesson! acca awkward! haha

So guess what, this week we met with all the girls ( Angella's friends: Adut, Apajok, Rhoda, Angellique) and they brought another friend named Sabrina! AND THEY ALL COMMITED TO BAPTISM. Adut and Apajok's date is March 21 and the rest of them are April 25 so i'm super excited about that. They all seem really open and interested. Yesterday at church Adut came and brought her 2 younger brothers and she even went up and BORE HER TESTIMONY. What what what what... what what what what... hahaha anyway she is super good and so are the rest of them. I love them already.

Then we met another girl named Natasha she's in her 20s and like 9 months pregnant about to pop any day and we taught her the restoration and committed her to baptism. She doesn't have a date yet but she is super sweet and wants to learn more. But she wasn't there when we went to our next lesson with her so we think she might have had her baby!

The Obi family is doing great as well. We talked about scripture reading and prayer and they are progressing slowly but surely so that is good. I am doing well. I am happy. It has been hard to eat weird food and eat way too much and sleep way too little, but other than that I am good. The days seem to go by fast and the weeks fly by.

Sorry my email is super short. I have no time to email today. But the good news is that my Dad is amazing and made a super neat blog that you can all go check out for more updates and info on my super crazy fun mission life :) I love you all :) Have a good week :)

Sister Maddy Martin

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 :)

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