Tres Leches Cake

Todos,

Please just soak in this picture for a minute. This is right after the church meetings yesterday in the Relief Society room in the Princeton Spanish Branch... We have a giant "tres leche" cake from the Guatemalan bread store in Hightstown, which the Relief Society sister secretely pitched in to buy together for Hermana Josy's birthday! We have plates of popcorn, rice, pasta salad, juice, soda... Behind that, we have a group of people from Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia... all brought together in love to support each other in the gospel! To top that- we have 2 investigators at their very first times at church ever- Hermanos Mario and Olvin- being welcomed right in are standing awkwardly on right side of the picture! Yes!

(In the larger group picture you can see me peeking out from the back on the right side.) These are the moments that get us through the week...

The day before that, Sister Stansel and I were so excited because we had 5 set appointments that day! It turned out that 3 of the people didn't even come to the door, our next one told us that she is not interested at all in the church after all, and we had to call and cancel our last one with a member because we didn't have enough miles left to last us this month. But, we pulled ourselves off the floor and were still able to find our friend Mario Lopez and have a short lesson with him and had one other lesson earlier that day.

This Sunday, I will officially have one year left of my mission! It's so long, but short! I love you all! Stay strong!
One of the most spiritual experiences this week may have been teaching Rosalba and Edy last night! We were desperately searching for someone who we could teach another lesson to before our numbers were due last night. We had passed by earlier in the week and happened to be by there, so we thought we might as well knock. She let us in!Rosalba had come to church 5 times about 2 years ago when other missionaries were here. As we were teaching, she realized that we used the "same Bible" that she already had and she got really excited. Edy seemed uninterested at first, but we ended up teaching a great first lesson and we all seemed to be so much more on the same page as we usually are with investigators in lessons. It was amazing! We invited Edy to kneel and pray, and at first he said he couldn't, but I wrote out the steps for him to read as he prayed, and he finally did it. I feel like people are really overcoming Satan in the moment they decide to pray! We are planning to see them tomorrow and see how their reading of the Introduction to the Book of Mormon went.

Love,

Hermana Martin

A Week in the Life...

Feliz verano, hermanos y hermanas!

 

Blips of days in the life of a Spanish-speaking sister missionary in Hightstown, New Jersey:

 

Lunes (P Day)- Landlords came to fix things in apartment; we probably confused some people while vacuuming car at gas station in scorching heat in skirts; charitable English-speaking members gave us free fruits and vegetables from farm on Hickory Corner Road; set an appointment for tonight with a lady who teaches a Bible class and already owns a Book of Mormon.

 

Martes- District meeting- 2 companionships of elders and my companion and me sat in a circle, trained on teaching people about the Book of Mormon to people who already say they accept it as the word of God, but aren't baptized; role-played teaching to help understand "what it is" "what it can mean for them" and "that it is personally significant to us as missionaries." 

 

Martes/ Miercoles- Went to New Brunswick on English exchange with Sister Shaw. Smooth experience knocking doors of less-active members, teaching an investigator named Asia, and teaching first lesson with team-up to some cool ladies from West Africa! Meanwhile, Sister Stansel led out in Hightstown with our Sister Training Leader. She taught/ translated during a lesson with a part-member family, had to drive through a crazy detour, somehow got a flat tire. They got elders' help in the morning and took it to the shop, where mechanic had mercy and gave a good deal on a new tire- it was all good by the time I got back. So proud of her!

 

Miercoles- Taught two lessons to less-active members on exchange; drove home to Hightstown; walked streets behind the Princeton University campus, contacting; taught the ice cream man from outside his truck; nightly planning...

 

Jueves- Transferred phone numbers, potential investigator names and information, and schedules to new, handy-dandy agendas for the next 6-week transfer; taught the Restoration to the daughter and granddaughter of our investigator, Rigoberto (interested and hopefully will come back and progress after their trip to Honduras!); did a little deep-cleaning of the apartamento.

 

Viernes- Usual personal study; companionship study; language study; approached an African man on a bench who had beautiful questions about Christ, prophets, and where our church is located- referred him to the English-speaking elders.

 

Sabado- Drove to downtown Trenton to find a mormon.org referral (who just happened to click the button on his phone a while ago, apparently...); felt inspired to drop off a Finding Faith in Christ video to an investigator in the area; left notes for less-active sisters in the area; called to figure out which members would help with driving investigators to church.

 

Domingo- Copied flyers for our English class this Wednesday; listened to uplifting talks in Sacrament meeting; attended Gospel Principles and Relief Society (always being amazed by the inspiring testimonies of our members); studies; drove to Hillsborough to welcome and teach a new family, (who will definitely help with the percentage of active members coming to the branch and wants to help with branch missionary work and activities!)

 

Un dia en la vida!

 

2 Nephi 30:5 stood out to me this morning. It says that the descendants of Lehi will have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached among them, that they will be restored to the knowledge of their fathers and of Jesus Christ's ministry among them. This is the amazing prophecy that we are going about 

fulfilling as missionaries through service and the Book of Mormon! I have so many areas I need to 

improve myself in personally, but I know that I am blessed to be a part of this great work. I love you all so much! I am learning that the little choices we make really do make a big difference.

 

Hasta luego!

Hermana Martin

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Pictures from July

Hola!

 

I hope that the pictures will make up for lack of writing this week! Sister Stansel are finishing our first transfer together. I have learned an incredible amount of lessons from being a trainer. We are on the hunt for more people to teach right now. We love the members and the gospel. It is difficult to describe in a street contact or at a door how amazing the blessings of the gospel are, but it is true! I love you all!

 

Love,

Hermana Martin

 

 

1. We had a "Cake Boss" contest between all of the zones at our all-mission summer conference activity a while ago! This zone's cake (not mine) was complete with figurines of President and Sister Jeppson and little photos representing their different areas! :) There was a GIANT Book of Mormon Rice Krispie treat cake too and some other creative ones- delicious! The English sisters in our zone made a black and orange layered cake to represent Princeton!

 

2. Each zone did a skit at this conference. Our sisters got a little 80's and did funny workouts like "Knee-phis" and "Tracting it out!" We asked our coach how soon we could be proselyting on Facebook instead of knocking doors!

 

3. The Statue of Liberty! I am with a new sister, Sister Lewis- and we are both friends with Megan Brindley! This photo is in Liberty Park in New Jersey. I should be able to go to Ellis or Liberty Island soon to do some service there! :)

New Jersey Morristown Missionaries - July 2013

Buenas a todos!

I have officially been a missionary for over 5 months now! On Aug. 4, I will have exactly one year left! It is hard to try to fathom how much I have learned in this short amount of time and how the Lord has been shaping me as a person.

I have met so many amazing people and I am learning more and more every day what my purpose truly is as a missionary. The more I understand, the more I realize how important the role of a missionary and each one of us is in making it possible to fulfill God's purposes on Earth! I am learning from reading the Book of Mormon that in this time, we are all helping to make a reality the covenants that God made with the House of Israel, including that the posterity of Lehi (aka Latinos), to come to a knowledge of the true and restored gospel- to know how they can be saved in the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ! Everyone's help is needed in this work, and I am excited about the First Presidency's recently stronger focus on member missionary work. It is scary to open our mouths to share the gospel with someone we know, but it is worth it because God loves all of us and wants us to come home to Him!

New Jersey is pretty hot and muggy! We had a fun little Fourth of July picnic at a giant, beautiful park

. Members of all ages were playing soccer together and we were surprised to find more hot dogs than tacos at the gathering this time! We have wonderful friends and examples in the branch. I miss home and think about my family and friends, but I love being here too.

Our darling Hermano Abraham from Guatemala, who was confirmed last week in Sacrament meeting, came to church wearing a white shirt and tie for the first time yesterday. We are planning for him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood next week and hoping that we can teach him about temples and family history work and take him to the temple in New York next month! Hermano Rigoberto is still excited to be learning about the gospel- he just wants to read the whole Book of Mormon first but we don't want to let anything happen to change his mind about baptism in this time- because he is a pretty slow reader. But we love him and he is a classic example of the gospel changing one's perspective and attitude towards life.

Other than these, we have some potential investigators, but we are really hoping to find more! We have recently helped some less-active members come back to church. That is a really rewarding feeling to see them walk into Sacrament meeting after such a long time of them not being there to take the Sacrament.

Love,
Hermana Martin

Feliz Julio!

Here are some updates from the area I love- Hightstown, New Jersey!

 

1. Hermano Abraham received the Holy Ghost yesterday in Sacrament meeting, and it was beautiful. The Spirit was so strong and filled me with such joy and purpose. It is amazing to think of the day I just saw him in the hallway at the thrift store. I couldn't have imagined how very prepared he already was to accept the gospel.

 

It was a VERY stressful morning that day. We were trying to make sure everyone had rides to church and teaching a lesson before. On the way, one of the members told me and my companion that we need to speak Spanish more together because she can see that we weren't practicing enough.. right before I was to give a 10-15 minute talk in Spanish in sacrament meeting. (The members can be kind of hard on us sometimes, like when I almost cried because I got called out in a ward council meeting in front of everyone for missing 2 appointments with an investigator. And now they expect me to be better at Spanish and tell my 3-week-old companion that she needs to work harder to learn the language... but it is all in good love and the care for us and want the best for us and the people we teach.)

 

2. We really only have one sincerely progressing investigator at the moment. Hermano Rigoberto, a 66-year-old from Peru, says he is happy learning about the gospel and it is helping him cope with some serious problems in his family. He loves reading a conference talk by Elder Cook that he received in church, as well as the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets. He read about Moroni's promise about praying to know and says he wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before he gets baptized! He also told us that the church is going to be full of all of his friends and family the day he gets baptized!! He brought his graddaughter to church last Sunday.

 

3. We taught our upstairs neighbor, Emily, again-- this time with her husband, Steve! Sister Stansel and I, along with Elder Hafoka who was with the other elders, taught Emily part of The Plan of Salvation at iHop last P-Day! Now we are waiting for them to come back from a vacation (we are feeding their cats in the morning and night) and are hoping to continue to help them progress!! :)

 

4. It's a good thing it is P-Day today, because Sister Stansel and I decided to challenge ourselves by not buying any more food last week on account of we were out of time and money last Monday. So now in our apartment, we are basically down to half a bag of leftover tostadas, some dry oats, a bottle of mayo in the fridge, and a little can of sardines that dear, old Hermana Carmen sent us home with as a gift about a month ago. I love mission life! (Don't worry, we still eat more than plenty every day. :)

 

5. I drove my companion and a trio of sisters through the rain to Jersey City today for an orientation meeting to prepare to do service on Ellis Island! We got a few pictures in front of the Statue of Liberty, but I forgot my camera supplies today, so there will be more photos and info on that soon, I hope! :)

 

The mission is such a blessing to my life. I am being stretched in ways and to extents I couldn't have imagined, but I am also being well taken care of and feel love from the Lord SO strong in my life. I understand the doctrines of the gospel more clearly and more of why his is the only complete, true, and living church of God on the face of the Earth.

 

My companion and I are realizing that outside of Utah, Idaho, where we are from, and other really densely-LDS areas, it is SO rare to have a fully-active family with parents who have been sealed in the temple. We are praying for this here. This should be the goal for all of us.

 

If you want to something truly nice for a missionary, set up an appointment with them and one of your family members who truly wants to listen to and act on the gospel message. That is what will make us happier than anything! I love you all! It is so great to get news from home, so keep that coming, please! I am so grateful for all that you and the Lord have given me! Carry on!

 

Love,

Hermana Marissa Martin