It's Warming Up!

Feliz primavera!

The weather has been teasing us a little bit and getting warmer. I just hope it keeps getting better! I never realized how happy the sun makes me!

Missionary work is a blast! I am so grateful to be here in Elizabeth and I'll be sad when I have to leave! We still have 3 investigators with baptismal dates and have added one more who is a little iffy on the date.

I am so grateful for active members who recognize their responsibility to do missionary work and the influence they have. We are teaching a single mom from Peru, named Rosario. She's amazing. She was a contact on the street and just has this pure, strong desire to learn like I've never seen. She is progressing, but has found anti-Mormon things online about Joseph Smith and has doubts about paying a full 10% tithe. Before, I might have been hesitant to encourage a mom living in a single room with her son who stores her clothes in cardboard boxes to pay tithing, but I've seen more the evidence that obedience to the commandments of the gospel brings, and we know it will bless her life. We found a member sitting down with Rosario after church on Sunday, sharing her testimony of her baptism in Peru and she talked more about the blessings she's seen from to obedience to the gospel in her life, as helped Rosario with resolving some problems. She can do it!

Luis Mendez, who will be baptized on the 23rd, changed his work schedule to not have to work Sundays and now he has lost his job somehow. But this hasn't weakened his desire. We taught him the Word of Wisdom yesterday and he said that he has already stopped drinking alcohol!

I've been thinking a lot about pride and how even though as missionaries serving full-time, we need to ponder on where our motives really come from. Do we want to impress the people at home or look good compared to other missionaries? Or are we motivated out of a sincere love for Christ and others? In Relief Society, we taught about faith and repentance and I shared how I have recognized my own need to repent to become more like the Savior than I would have ever imagined. But that's what makes us happier.

Missionary work is demanding and it can be stressful when we critique ourselves to much. Just let the Lord guide us along.

I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Martin