October 27th - "Solo Espanol" (only Spanish) Time a.k.a. starting week 5

Hola y'all!!

Not sure if I mentioned that after three weeks the senior companion switches with the junior companion, but this week of being senior companion.... nothing's changed haha.

I got my leather scripture covers at the Tienda last week. They personalize them with names and missions, I'll send pictures. I love them soo much.

We had service yesterday because, well, it was Monday haha. Hma.Conteh and I were cleaning shower floors in the enfermeria (sick room). When I was spraying the cleaner on the tile, the ... sprayer thing separated from the bottle and it spilled everywhere OUTSIDE the shower of course, including on my leather shoes. The Latina hermana in charge was really nice about it and said not to worry about it, but of course I felt awful haha. I'm also trying to figure out how to fix my shoes. Not sure if the tienda's (store's) polish will help enough or not.

I've been studying in the New testament during personal study when I'm not focusing on an "investigator" lesson, and I'm about 5 chapters into Acts now. It was fascinating however to spend the past few days studying the Plan of Salvation and realize how much can be evidenced in the Bible. Hah! Bible belt prep!!

Speaking of the field I'm assigned to labor and thrust in my sickle at, I met two new sisters here who lived for a while in the south. I learned that the weather is similar to here apparently (which I'm totally fine with). As one of the sisters was walking away, she turned around and said, "Oh, and everything really is fried." Me: "Oh goody...." hahahaha.... oh no.

This week has really been great though. Sundays are just study time, sacrament meeting and devotionals so we're surrounded by the Gospel from start to end. Speaking of sacrament meeting, not sure how things went down in Provo when Sierra was there, but no one knows beforehand who is giving talks at sacrament meeting except the ZL, so we're given a topic and everyone comes with a talk prepared. However, our teacher is sneaky and told us that 5 out of 8 in our districts were going to be asked to give talks. Guess who was part of the five. *Points at self* The topic was the Atonement, so I essentially gave a very condensed version of my farewell talk. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Talks have to be in Spanish. Hehe. We're supposed to take about 5 to 7 minutes. My talk was planned out to be 6, but I talk fast when I'm scared as you know soooo turned into about 4 minutes. Oops. Oh well. Everyone thought I was fluent because I was talking so fast but I was reading straight off my paper haha

This week we're starting role playing as investigators, so we choose a non-member or less active family member or friend to pretend to be for someone else to teach. I'm not going to disclose in this e-mail who I've chosen, but Elder Wilcox and I are going to be teaching each other. I'm glad for that because I feel like I know him the least out of the district. :)

Well, I think that's all for now!

The church is true, the book is blue, and God loves you!!

~Hermana Martin <3

Q&A time!!

Have you gotten my first letter yet?  If so, when did it arrive? Nope. The only letter I've gotten was one a couple days ago from Auzzie (Oakcrest) but I don't know when she sent it

What has been your favorite MTC meal?  Any authentic Mexican dishes served?  How many meals are served on Sunday?  Umm I like how often they have fish actually and I get rice and beans almost every meal minus breakfast. My favorite thing for breakfast is the drinkable yogurt. Every morning, apple, strawberry or mango. Top notch. I would say the food is very American-ized haha. Sometimes it's spicy but not too bad. We have tacos, burritos, and enchilada style food a lot but Tuesday night is pizza night and we've also had hamburgers several times :) Nummy. Three meals served on Sundays as well as the other days of the week.

Tell us more about your companion Sister Conteh.  You said she and her mother are the only members in her family.  Is she a convert? If so, could you share her conversion story?  Did she attend college before her mission?  What are her interests and hobbies?  Has she shared what it is like being a member of the Church living in Virginia?

Yes, she and her mother are converts. She has 8 siblings, she's the youngest. She went to a church activity and sacrament with a friend and the missionaries offered to teach her more about the Gospel. She gladly accepted and the rest is history. She was converted 6 years ago at the age of 13, but she's 20 now as of the 17th. She wants to be a pediatric surgeon :) She was the only active member of the church in her high school her senior year and she shared a story of standing up for the church on the bus once. She said "Mormons don't believe in that" (I don't remember what) and they said "how do you know?" to which she responded that she was LDS. They said she didn't look Mormon. She asked what a Mormon is supposed to look like and they didn't respond. HAH. She's super independent and strong in the Gospel and what she knows is right. I have such a deep respect and love for her I can't even explain it. If all of my companions are a fraction of the hard-working, stalwart missionary she is, I'll have no problems on my mission.

Laurel's new leather scripture covers

"Solo Espanol" - Only Spanish

October 20th - Halfway there! Wow!

Hola Familia! 

 

It's true, tomorrow makes three weeks here! Ah! Can't believe it's halfway over!!!

 

This week was pretty ...typical. Classes and pretending my teachers are investigators. H'na Vidrio is still driving us nuts pretending to be her depressed cousin. Our last lesson was a flop. I think all the lessons beforehand had just been too easy for me so God decided to humble me and allow me to make several mistakes. Oops. The one before that, though, I shared my experience about feeling alone and in the dark in high school and told her about the time I was just sobbing in my room alone and told God no one loved me, when I instantly heard the words in my mind " I love you."  I told her I knew that those weren't my own thoughts/words and that God loves us and has provided a way for us to be happy: the Atonement. We were both crying. Gah. We went overtime in the lesson, but I think Elders Wilcox and Ferguson weren't too disappointed about that haha. We also did TRC, teaching volunteers without knowing who they are beforehand, but they're usually members. Ours, Carmen, a cute grandma lady, talked pretty much the entire time so we didn't really teach her ..... odd experience. 

 

Man. I wish I could go to the cabin haha. There's so much to do here all the time we have like no time for ourselves. It's always study, devotional, teaching, etc. OY. Exact OPPOSITE. 

 

Ummmm, I mostly want to just send you all the pictures from the last 3 weeks haha. Elder Granger (District Leader) pointed out that there's a memory card/USB port, so NOW you can see what I've been up to with the lovely H'na Conteh and our 6 crazy Elders whom we enjoy quite a lot. There's no way to describe all the fun we have with them in an e-mail haha. 

 

Questions! I like questions because I don't know what to say!!

 

Q: Have you gotten my first letter yet?  If so, when did it arrive?  I think I mailed it on Monday the 5th.  I sent another one last Thursday the 15th. (mostly apologizing profusely for missing you last week)

A: Nope. No he recibido. (I haven't received it)

 

Q: Do you know if your emailing time will be the same each week now?

A:  We get on when we want, usually after doing laundry.

 

Q: How often will you get to go to the temple on your P-days?

A: We may go once more I believe, but I have no clue when.

 

Q: They have mentioned on the news that a volcano near Mexico City has been going off lately?  Have you heard anything about that?

A: Uhhhhh no????  Thanks for the update lol. The only smoke we've seen is a bit coming from the comedor (dining room) when they over cook something in the back xP

 

Q: Are you sleeping any better through all the noise at night there?  So people were right about there being gunfire all the time?  Crazy place.

A: Kinda. The Melatonin I've been taking helps me fall asleep but i still wake up 2 or 3 times in the morning. Last night I realized after I was cozy in bed that I'd forgotten to take it so it was a rougher night than usual. Plus, the past few days AND nights have been more filled with firecrackers and fireworks than usual sooooooo thanks Mexico city. Love you too.

 

Not sure what else to say haha. Any more questions??

 

Church is true, the book is blue, and God loves you!!

 

~Hermana L. Martin <3

Oh! forgot a funny story!

So, we do service on Mondays and yesterday one of the guys in charge, a Mexican man of course, started to talking to us about where we're from, our Spanish background, where we're going on our missions, etc. So I tell him about my 5 years (studying Spanish in high school), mom's minor in Spanish from BYU and Sierra serving in AZ, and then he asks where I'm going. When I tell him Alabama, he makes this face, sighs, and shakes his head hahahaha. Then he muttered something like 'whatever the Lord wants' twice. Made my day. xP

Goodbye Utah .......

.......Hello Mexico City!

Waiting to be picked up from the airport

Of course Laurel had to take a picture of a flower stand   :)

Laurel at the CCM  (Spanish for MTC)

Laurel and her companion Hermana Conteh at the Mexico City temple

Cute bedspread and pillowcase

Laurel being Laurel

Um........yeah.  I have no idea what this is about.

October 13th - 2 weeks down, 4 to go

Hola Familia! 

Glad that I have the opportunity to catch up with y'all, even if it's only for an hour, but I hope you know that you're in my prayers, and we pray ALL THE TIME. I'm tempted to count for a few days and take an average, but my guess is like 10 to 15. It's awesome.

One of the hardest things for me being here is just not being able to sleep completely through the night even though I've been taking melatonin, so I've just been tired and not as attentive or even awake during class sometimes, but Hma. Vidrio said the enfermeria might be able to help. I feel like I hardly learn much Spanish, but I'm learning more about teaching and investigator relationships and such, which is what I need most anyway.

Another hard thing is there is no quiet time. People in Mexico enjoy shooting off firecrackers/cannons all. the. time. Soooo silence is no longer a thing and my introvertedness is pretty much being completely ignored haha. We'll have to see how well that plays out over the next month here.  xP

As far as investigators go, the Elder we talked to after our first lesson with Enia, who told us she was a member, was not only right about that, but also that she would be our teacher later. Enia Comache is really Hma. Velasquez, but the teachers use real people that they know and pretend to be when they are our investigators, so now Enia\Hna Velasquez is now Erika, a curious non member with two RM roommates. 

And our original teacher, Hma. Vidrio, is pretending to be her depressed cousin whose fiance broke up with her and is now losing faith and hope and having suicidal thoughts. Our first lesson, focusing on the atonement and its cleansing power (which we chose because we knew she had a lot of mistakes in her life, which she told us), didn't go over well like at all. She's a really good actor and cried twice. We should've focused on God's love and that He knows what she's going through.  I just wish I had done it sooner because our first visit didn't seem to make a difference to her at all. Ugh. Hma. Vidrio should be an actress, not a doctor\MTC teacher. Hma. Velasquez is waaaay easier to teach haha.

District 7B in our zone left on Monday and Tuesday, including Hma. Kara Ferguson who went to Bingham (Elder Jordan Hall from Bingham also left) so we only have 2 districts until tomorrow when we get a new batch of US missionaries (the latinos come on Tuesdays). Our district is 7C and we're pretty much the most awesome district ever. We don't have any awkward, annoying, disobedient, lazy or dramatic missionaries like I've seen elsewhere, and we all get along really well. Blessed with the best!   :)

20 minutes until I return to my actual day of rest hahaha. 

Church is true, the book is blue, and God loves you!! <3

~Hermana L. Martin

10.5.15 - My first week in the MTC!

Hola familia!!

This week has been crazy busy, I had no idea how packed our schedules would be. It's like Oakcrest with Spanish and less fun activities hahaha.

I've found two people I had Spanish classes with in high school, Morgan.... something and Jordan Hall. He told me today while I was exchanging some cash into pesos that this is the 15th consecutive week that there's been a BHS grad there. Super funny. Great day to be a Miner xP

The food and house situation is great. They take good care of us here tongue emoticon There are two other sister companionships in our our casa (house) but we have a room to ourselves thank heavens. We might have some sisters join us though, sooooo hopefully not. There's hardly any time to get ready in the bathroom in the morning as it as haha

Ok, the 4 biggest things from this week are spiritual stuff though so brace yourselves.

On Thursday we watched a companionship teach a girl from LA that spoke English, and afterwards, we (a semi circle group of about 60 missionaries who got there the day before) got to talk to her and teach and testify etc. During her talk with the elders before hand though, she said she didn't believe that God was actually real, though she was raised Catholic, and that she was engaged to someone with a short temper who sometimes took out his anger on her physically and that killed me inside, but the elders didn't seem too affected by it... ??? After Elder Grossman in my district taught about the Spirit a little bit, I remembered she said she knew how to pray. I raised my hand to comment next and asked her, that since she knew how to pray, if she had ever prayed to feel God's love for her? She said no, so I then told her that God is our Heavenly Father and loves her, because she's His daughter, and that all she had to do was ask, having hope that He was there, and He would hear her and show her through the Spirit that Elder Grossman talked about that He was there for her. She started crying and said she'd never been called a daughter of God before. Oakcrest instilled that phrase so hard into my vocabulary that it was one of the only things I said to her, and through the 6 or 7 testimonies shared by the 1-day missionaries she was able to feel the spirit. And that was the one day that I would have had the opportunity to tell her that. Good thing I didn't wait until Sierra got home or skip Oakcrest, right???

Our District (Hna. Conteh and 3 sets of Elders) have an investigator named Enia that only speaks Spanish. Our first lesson with her was on the 2nd. We taught first and then the Elders. Her husband is inactive and she wants him involved with the church again because she said it made him happy. Before the lesson, Hna. Conteh asked me to ask her why her husband left the church. I translated, and she said that someone offended him in the ward. Lesson plan went askew as I shifted the lesson from asking her to simply pray with her husband to feel the desire to return to church and feel the spirit to pray for the power to forgive those who had offended him and to feel of God's love. She agreed to try. Elders taught after us and gave her a book of Mormon. Our second set of lessons with her yesterday, we were a bit more prepared. All the Elders went first and then us. They taught different sections in lesson 2, the plan of salvation, and we covered Faith, Repentance, and Baptism from lesson 3. And then committed her to baptism. Mwuahahaha. I talked in Spanish, twice, within a few days of being here, about the gosepl, non stop, for about 20 minutes. I cannot believe this is real.

Conference was so good. I may or may not have nodded off every session for at least 2 minutes because I keep waking up to the sounds of Mexico City at like 4 or 5 in the morning, but yeah. Still got the gist of everything and it was awesome!!

Went to the temple today, hence the late email and not much time left to chat now that I've told you about those things that were the best....


Quick other details:

Hermana Conteh is from Virginia, the first missionary from her family, and the 2nd member with her mom. She's the youngest of 8 kids.

My district is awesome and our teacher is Hermana Vidrio ("glass") and she's so sweet. She served a mission in Mexico I believe and she's a native.


Church is true, God loves you!

***Hermana Martin II

~Sister Laurel Martin




Below is a question and answer exchange from Laurel. I sent her the questions in her email:

How long were you at your gate before you started boarding?
idk i was chatting with missionaries the whole time so i wasn't bored though.

So it sounds like you sat by a different sister missionary on the plane? 
Hermana Olsen. yup. assigned seats couldn't remember her name before though

Did all the missionaries on the plane go to the MTC together on a bus/van?
yes

Tell me about your first evening - what did you do when you first got there? How was it seeing Meow (fellow Oakcrest counselor)? Had she come looking for you or was it by accident you ran into each other that quick?
She kept looking for me like crazy. The first day we had some medical stuff to check and then we went to our casa after finding our companion. it was kind of a blur haha.

Tell us about your companion. When did you finally meet her? Is she going to Alabama with you?
Oh yes we're going to Birmingham together the same day so I gave her the necklace. we're comps the whole 6 weeks here. She's senior now and in two weeks it will switch to me not that it changes anything.

What is your room like? Send us pictures of your surroundings. Is your quilt on your bed?
Yes. I can't find a memory card port though so I might have to mail it and buy another at the tienda.

How is the food so far? Is your stomach doing ok?
Yeah I got a virus from that sore throat from before but it's doing way better now after I got some medicine from the enfermeria.

How did things work with General Conference? I heard they have a room for English and a room for Spanish? Is that the case? Also, did you see Corban singing in the kids’ choir Saturday afternoon? Hayley and Clark said he was on camera like 3 times. 
We watched it in Spanish, the latinos joined us with headphones because of tech difficulties.

How long do you have for emailing on Tuesdays?
1 hr

Tell us about a typical day for you at the MTC. 

Classes that are either with Hna. Vidrio or interrupted by other districts who pretend to help us but just end up distracting us. I'm kinda done with distracted and wish they would just leave us alone to study because we learn nothing with them there. Essentially though, food, class, study, teach, class, study, food, class, study, class, food, class and study. Did I mention class and study??

9.30.15 - I arrived safely!

Hola! estoy en Mexico ahora, pero no puedo creerlo. (Hi, I’m in Mexico now, but I can’t believe it)

I saw Meow (a fellow Oakcrest counselor) within ten minutes of being here, Erik's cousin Nate (tell him to pass on to his family please?), and Kara Ferguson, a friend from Bingham, whom I didn’t know was here. Haha

Everything's good. Flight was great, talked with an hermana a lot in between naps. Empty seat between us so no chance to preach, or as a flight attendant called the work of sister missionaries, 'flirt to convert'. Lol. They had free snacks and drinks so I got some of my favorite cookies, peanuts and Fresca since I finally felt well enough to eat. (The sugary treats you got me seemed like too much for the flight still). (She barely touched the great breakfast she requested for this morning; also, she is the one who chose all the sugary treats!)

My companion’s name is Ashley Conteh but I haven't met her yet. Meow knows her and says she’s African American haha so that's all I know!

My P-day is Tuesday. I live in casa 9 room 3 but I haven’t been there yet....

All is safe and sound and I'm doing much better than I was this morning. I counted 22 Elders and 11 Sisters on the same flight as me but there might have been more. One of the co-pilots, I think, told me his son is getting home from his Mexico mission in a couple of weeks and that he always tells his son, "Pray like Enos, work like Nephi, and love like Christ", so I have three new goals!

Most people here are serving missions in Mexico but there are a few other stateside missionaries too. Mexico streets are crazy so I'm glad I don't need to drive here!! Scary people, like, stupid Utah drivers times ten, plus pedestrians and the stupidest road system I've ever seen in my entire life. Also this keyboard is annoying because it's meant for Spanish. -.-

Well, go post on Facebook that you finally got word from me and that I'm alive hahaha. (She knows me so well!)

I love you and miss you already, but I know this is where I'm meant to be. Todo de mi corazon, (All of my heart)

-Hermana Martin II

P.S. - Yes, mom, I'm taking pictures ;P (Again, how well she knows me! Ha ha)