Whoa! I made it here!

March 25, 2013

Familia,

Wow, a week ago I was on a plane that departed from Provo, Utah. I'd lugged my two 49-pounder bags and my 19 years worth of knowledge and six weeks of MTC experiences with me. Now I'm in a library in Princeton, New Jersey, with snow falling on pretty red brick buildings around me millions of new stories with new, amazing people and spiritual experiences, questions, and a lot of Spanish! I hope that was slightly poetic enough...

Where to start? When we stepped out of the airport with about 25 new missionaries and President and Sister Jeppson, there were grey skies and sleet. I rode with other sisters in the van with Sister Jeppson. On the ride one sister asked, "So are we going tracting today?" It was perfect timing because right then, Sister Jeppson pulled over on a corner of downtown Newark and said, "Yep! Get out!" We were greeted by about 20 excited, super-smiley missionaries and lots of hugs from the sisters. They rushed us into a circle and told us to grab a partner. We started singing "Called to Serve," and partway through they all sprinted off into the stinging rain/snow and we followed our partner and started contacting people. I was able to talk to a few people on the street about the Book of Mormon and the church right then and there. It's amazing how receptive some people are to our message- they actually want to here this!

Luckily since then the weather hasn't been quite as intense, but we're still working hard! We stayed at the mission home the first night with all the new missionaries. President and Sister Jeppson are truly inspirational people. They take good care of us.

I was feeling really nervous to meet my new companion/ trainer and I didn't know wny! I knew that I should just trust that it would all work out, but it was still a little scary! I saw Sis. Swann there- she is so awesome! It's great to see a familiar face. My whole district from the MTC was still with me too. When they paired us up with our new companions, I was SO excited, because the only Spanish-speaking sisters left were Hermana Daniels, my good friend from the MTC, and an hermana who was really cool and had talked to us during dinner.

At the transfer conference, Pres. Jeppson announced where all the new companionships were going. Our trainer knew she'd be going to a new area with us, but had no idea where! President made a special announcement for us in front of everybody and said that we'd be "tripled in" to a brand new area that has just been split in Hightstown, New Jersey! And our apartment was not ready, so we'd be living with members for about three weeks! Our trio stayed in the mission home an extra night, and now we are very blessed to be staying in the basement of a huge home with some nice members.

Wow, so much Spanish, so many lessons, so many goals, and so many blessings! We study a lot, pray constantly, and we are always learning. None of us have been here before so it's kind of a challenge to get established in the area. We are meeting a lot of members and leaders and hoping to get a lot of investigators soon and get families to be "reactivated" in the Church. They are excited to have sister missionaries here because it has been years!

New Jersey is SO diverse! You get a little bit of everyone and everything here. There are mansions and tiny, trashy apartments. We are living in a really nice area and don't spend too much time in the cities- don't worry! In our area so far I've talked to people from Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico. We briefly talked with some Jehova's Witnesses who offered some of their own literature to us and a Muslim who told us how Christ was a only a great prophet.

But the best part about the mission is studying for and meeting all of the great people with different stories and testimonies of the gospel. The Spirit is so strong in the lessons.

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR RAISING ME IN THE GOSPEL AND TEACHING ME THE DOCTRINES OF CHRIST FROM BIRTH. Thank you for every single Family Home Evening "friendly frogs" and "Primary Songs Kangaroo" game and taking me to Church and fulfilling every calling and loving every neighbor. I never appreciated how the culture I was raised in in Utah is so supportive of the gospel. It is really different being here. People don't know who we are. They don't know what the Church is. Or they do, but they're not quite motivated enough to go to church on Sunday. Being here has challenged my beliefs, but then strengthened them. It is amazing how the gospel changes people.

Please continue to do all the good things you do and be the examples you are! I love you!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Martin

Last letter from the MTC

Familia!

Les quiero mucho. (I love you a lot.) I get so excited to receive your letters and emails, so thank you so much. As of now, I can only reply to my parents' emails, but I still like getting them.

I am getting so pumped up to head out into the mission field!! We just had "In-Field Training" classes yesterday. It's a little bit rough because we go to about eight hours of class in one day, but they work so hard to keep it interesting and help us understand the essential things we need to know about being great missionaries in the field! We learned about working with the members, setting goals, working toward baptisms, and more. I encourage everyone to think of friends/ neighbors/ co-workers who don't have the blessings of the gospel and refer them to the missionaries. Missionaries can also always use your help by fellowshipping converts and less-active members and offering to be involved in lessons with people you can connect with and bear testimony to. I know life is busy. Thank you for your examples. I know that you and other people will be blessed if you do this, though. I decided that I want to be that sister missionary who the members can trust to refer their friends. Elder Bednar shared a humbling experience in a video we watched when he told the missionaries that he would not give them referrals because they did not "feel like missionaries" but "like young men." They later changed their attitudes around and he was glad to refer people to them to teach. I hope I can be more than just a young woman wandering the streets of New Jersey in a skirt, but a powerful missionary who is obedient and has the Spirit.

So this past Sunday was the craziest one so far. One of the sisters woke up sick and getting bloody noses and we were all running late- especially me. I put my hair up in a not-so-cute bun and went to do personal study in the classroom for a few minutes before breakfast. Later we were out in the hall and an hermana said, "A sister fainted in the bathroom!" (The one which is now a women's restroom.) My companion and I told her to call the front desk and went over to help. She stood but then fainted again basically right on top of me and I sort of caught her. Luckily my awesome companion is a CNA and is always really calm. She told us to put cold water bottles under her arms, get some cool paper towels on her neck, and elevate her legs. A man came to help and I sat there with her head in my lap and we kept asking her questions until the van came to take her to the hospital. She's doing okay now, but she said "Who's going to save me when you leave?" She is so cute. Later that day, our district leader asked me to lead the district discussion on the Book of Mormon, so I did that, which isn't too hard. Then in church my companion said that she felt like I was going to be one of the two missionaries called up to give a talk in Spanish. She was right. We all prepare just in case, and so we have practice and talks already to go in the field. The topic was "Faith in Jesus Christ." It is such an important topic because it ties everything together. I wasn't very organized, so I read the wrong scripture twice, but I guess that's okay. Sometimes I just need to be patient with myself while I'm speaking. People said my Spanish was great, so that's nice. We'll see when I actually get out there, but I do think I've been blessed with help in the language. I appreciated the Sunday walk to the temple that day. That day made me realize even more that this experience isn't just for me to feel good all the time about the gospel, but to be ready to help people in need and use what I've been blessed with.

The MTC is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience- or once-in-eternity! Some of my favorite moments have been after personal study when las hermanas/ members of my district share insights we've found in the scriptures and ideas/ spiritual thoughts. Then we can connect them and we start to realize even more how amazing God is, and his plan for the world and each individual person.

I am leaving in less than 72 hours to New Jersey!! I can't believe it- but I can. They even want us to start contacting people in the airport and ask them to go onto Mormon.org/ get their contact information/ share a little message. I would love to be speaking Spanish all of the time in my first area, but we will see how it goes. I am excited to see who my new trainer will be, meet the bishop where we'll be serving, and start helping people change their lives and come to Christ.

I love you! Talk you you soon from the airport, family- I hope!

Love,
Hermana Martin

Pictures:
1. My amazing companion, Hermana Larsen, and I taking the opportunity to be in the SUN while we study.
2. District members and one of our teachers, Hermano Russell/ "progressing investigators." He is such an inspiration!
3. My district sisters and other sisters in our zone! They're all so cute.

Sisters are taking over the MTC!

3/8/2013

Hola, hola!

The sisters are taking over the MTC! It used to be that there were less women's bathrooms than men's, but they just converted one of the men's bathrooms into a women's in my classroom building because the wait was always so long. One stall just wasn't going to cut it! That was a funny day.

One of the "fundamentals" we have been focusing on lately for missionary work is "Teach People, Not Lessons." I have really come to realize more and more that missions are about the individual people we will be teaching and how the gospel is so important to their happiness this life and after this life. I thought I was a pretty good teacher before I left for the mission, but I have found out that I have a lot of weaknesses to improve on- such as listening, focusing on the investigator's needs, and asking "inspired questions" that will really help them.

I have also developed a much stronger love for the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I can see how it directly applies to what and why we teach. I would encourage everyone to read it more than I did before my mission.

A mission is so fun if you have the right attitude! I have had a lot of time to bond with las hermanas as we eat in the cafeteria together, go to the gym, clean toilets/ vacuum during service time, share things we've learned in personal study and personal experiences, laugh together, practice Spanish, teach, and more. The elders and sisters in my district are so unique and strong in their different own ways. It is such an opportunity to come on a mission to assess yourself and your relationship to God. You have a chance to consider what you really want for yourself and other people.

It's like you age in dog years here. So much wisdom constantly being poured into you! And today is already the day my district should get our travel plans! I can hardly believe we'll be across the country in New Jersey in ten days and meeting and teaching people for real! Oh man, pretty soon I'll be able to see what time our flight leaves and everything- and call hopefully call home from the airport! I hope I can do a good job to deliver the message that God has asked me to share.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! Please keep in touch!

Les quiero,
Hermana Martin


To specific people I love:

1. Hodi and Cody!---- IT'S A GIRL! I'm so excited for you!! Thanks for keeping me updated! Hodi, I wrote a letter back to you a while ago, pero no tengo su direccion. Puede enviar a mi, por favor? Congratulations!!!!

2. I got baby Natalie's announcement from Zac and Melissa! Thank you! She is beautiful! I don't get to see babies here, so that was especially exciting! Thank you! Love you!

3. What is the status on Noni and Poppi's calling? I want to hear more about it! Missionary work is amazing!

4. BAILEY MARTIN IS TURNING 11! Be expecting a package, seester! Love you!

Half-way through the MTC

Hola!

It's P Day again, so here I am in the laundry room (NOT in a skirt for once) writing letters and taking my email time! This week has been extraordinary for me. I have had so many uplifting and spiritual experiences. The MTC is a spiritual incubator. Missionaries are being prepared to take the same spirit we feel here into environments completely opposite of where we are now!

Every Tuesday we have a devotional all together (plus missionaries in overflow classrooms in the other building). We never know who the speaker will be until his/her name comes on the screens a few minutes before. This week were so excited to see that the message would be from Elder M. Russell Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! He has such a calm, peaceful, faithful, and genuine manner about him. He reminded us that we as missionaries have been blessed our whole lives to go to Sacrament Meetings, Primary, Sunday School, Young Women/ Young Men, Seminary, Relief Society/ Priesthood classes, and Family Home Evenings, so we already know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that because of these, we are already able to express the truths we know in our own words, but we also have Preach My Gospel, which has had an incredible amount of revelation and thought put into it, to help us teach. I am grateful for the spirit he brought to that meeting. We always meet with a member of our branch presidency and his wife after the devotionals to talk about what we learned. I am always impressed by the insights that the elders and sisters in my district gain from the devotionals, as well as when we share insights with each other after our "personal study time." I'm so grateful to have been able to meet such inspiring and fun examples here.

Hermano Hamilton, the teacher who has been with us chatting away in Spanish since day one, had to leave us. He's been asked to work on improving the Spanish teaching program instead of working with our district until we leave. It's sad, but I'm grateful for the example of teaching he has set for me. He did personal "coaching" with each of us, and for me he really took the time to research in his personal time things to share with me that have helped strengthen my testimony. I hope that I can have that kind of genuine care for my investigators. When I hear my teachers' stories from the mission field, I get really excited that I will be able to meet real people in New Jersey whose lives can be completely changed by the message of the gospel if they have the faith to take the steps they need to to come unto Christ.

We've pretty much memorized The Missionary Purpose and The First Vision in Spanish now. We are continuing to practice teaching our teachers/investigators and members of the Church in TRC. We're learning more complex grammar principles and how to apply the fundamentals of the gospel into teaching so investigators can gain relationships with God for themselves through revelation.

We also have a lot of fun working out or playing volleyball during gym time. On Wednesdays I can see through the windows the new missionaries getting dropped off at the curb by their parents. I think of Finding Nemo- "THE DROP-OFF?! He took them to the Drop-off? No one said anything about the Drop-off!"


 I feel like the longer you've been in the MTC, the older and wiser you seem, even if it's only been a week
longer than the new missionaries.

A mission is such a great experience! Sometimes it doesn't seem real that I'm actually flying to New Jersey in 17 days!! I love it. The Lord has blessed us so much and entrusts us with the most important work we can to and to wear his name.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support! (And thanks, Mom and Dad, for the chocolate-covered cinnamon bears! Love you!)

Your missionary,
Hermana Martin

Pictures:
1. My companera, Hermana Larsen, y yo
2. My district in front of the Provo Temple
3. Some of my hermana friends who are now serving in CANADA (can you see how they're spelling it out?)