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