January 19th - Benefits of the Book of Mormon

Dear Family and Friends,

We've been doing a lot of tracting again lately to increase our teaching pool; We have several investigators but they either haven't been keeping commitments or are very hard to get a hold of. Just....just....call us back...or text us....please....

One cool experience we had was with a man named Kevin. After knocking on his apartment door, we jumped into telling him about the Book of Mormon, what it is and why it's important, and had him read Moroni 10:3-5 and gave him Moroni's challenge. And he accepted! We had a similar experience with a man named Tim whom we contacted from a balcony while he was in the parking lot. And Kris, who texted with several questions (Is Sam, Nephi's brother the same Sam from the Bible? etc). He loves it! And also with Gabriel, who speaks Spanish. YAY!!

With this month being Book of Mormon month (mission-wide goal of giving out 40 BOMs/companionship), I've found it much more beneficial to jump into talking about the Book of Mormon with several people. It's so cool to see people take it in their hands and then start reading it immediately after we hand it to them because they're so excited to find out what's inside! I have found so many blessings from having the Book of Mormon in my life and I am excited to help others see the joy and peace that they can find in this additional witness of Christ. I've also been able to focus more on reading the Book of Mormon in personal study, and I've learned so much and seen how it affects me positively later on during the day when I'm doing the work as well.

Hermana Acosta and I stayed inside Monday evening after P-day last week as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday- However, we still surpassed our "may-we-teach-you" goal and came close on many others. Thanks to diligent effort and the Lord's help, we still had a fairly productive week despite initial setbacks.    :)

We had a Multi-Stake Conference (LA, AL, GA, TN, FL?) on Sunday, which of course was in Spanish for us (broadcasted in a different/separate room). It was a bit hard to get everything but I have notes on the gist of what each speaker's topic was. There was a theme of strengthening the families, which I've found is really what the world needs right now. I've met/taught so many families with rough pasts and/or currently in rough situations and strengthening the family would eliminate many of these issues. I'm so lucky I have the opportunity to serve a mission to help both other family and my future family become centered on Christ.

Thanks for your love, support and prayers!

The Church is true, The Book is Blue (and also true) and God loves you!!!

~Sister Laurel Martin

Laurel playing gator ball in a dress because she forgot her P-day clothes.

Southern license plates

Laurel is naming all the neighborhood cats - this is "Tigger."

Hanging out at Five Guys - yep, we raised her right!

Snickers!

January 11th - Sickness, Songs, and Selfies

Dear Family, Friends, and people who stalk my blog,

Unfortunately there isn't much news from Hermana Acosta and I because we've been sick a lot this week and therefore haven't been able to go out much. :(  No sense in finding the elect just to get them sick and make it impossible to see them, right? Haha.

However, one experience I would like to relate from last week (on Thursday) is about our investigator Jose. We followed-up on whether he'd read/prayed about the Book of Mormon, and he said he hadn't because he just didn't see the point in it. Hermana Acosta and I shared our testimonies about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the importance it's had in our lives. I started crying (not tearing up, like, streaming rivers of emotion. Poor guy had no idea what to do). I shared how much happiness I'd found in THAT BOOK *pointing to it on the table* and that's why we were here. This is why we kept bothering him about reading it. That is why we're inviting him to find out what's inside. Because we wanted him to receive the blessings that we'd received and find that immense, unmatched, pure joy that only the Book of Mormon can bring. He seemed like his heart was softened and like he was considering reading it more sincerely.  He didn't come to church but we're not ready just yet to give up on him though. We know that if he'll just give it a chance that he'll understand that it's the word of God and its importance.

To fill in space, I'm sending some fun adapted songs :)

(Originals will come next week when I find the one I wrote in Spanish.)

Golden Investigator  (to the tune of/adapted from "Love is Open Door" from Disney's Frozen)

(Red: Missionary, Blue: investigator, Purple: Both)

Ok, can I just say something crazy?
Are Y'all J-Dubs?
All my mish has been a series of doors in my face....

 and then suddenly I tract into you....
I was thinking the same thing! Cuz, like, I've been searching my whole life to find the right church, and maybe it's the Spirit talking that you brought here with you.

But with you,
but with you,
I've found my faith
I see your change,
and it's nothing like I've ever known befoooooore
(chorus)
Golden investigato-o-or! 
Thanks for knocking my do-o-or
Eternal life will mean so much more with you
with you
with you
with you!

In God's kingdom evermore.....

I mean it's crazy,
what?
We finish each other's
scripture references
That's what I was gonna say!
I've never met someone

who loves Nephi as much as me. Jynx! Jynx again!
Our spiritual synchronization can have but one explanation,
You
and I
Promised Pre-earthly....
To help you

fiiiiind
testifyyyyy
and let go of your past....
I don't have to feel it anymore....

(Repeat Chorus)

Ok, can I just something crazy? Will you baptize me??
Can I say something even crazier?? I'm getting transferred. {=.(

P-day Time/Mission Work (to the tune of Jingle Bells)

P-day time! P-day time!

Jeans and t-shirts all day!

Oh what fun it is to write our families far away- Hey!

P-day time, p-day time

We'll nap and shop and play

Then we'll head back to the work

Cuz we still have souls to save.

A day or ten ago

We thought we'd knock a door

And soon an unkind soul

Just gave us the what-for.

We waved and walked away

With a spring in our step

We don't care what others say,

We're here to find the elect!

Oh, mission work, mission work

Pray and serve all day

We're growing while we help others to

Progress along their way, yay!

1. Sisters

Mission work, mission work

Thanks for the 18

It’s time to leave the ABM

But I'll keep the memories!

2. Elders

Mission work, mission work

Thanks for the best 2

It's time to leave the ABM

But I'll never forget you!

Hope that made you smile. xP
Thanks for everything :D Have a great week!
~Hermana Martin

Olive Garden visit

Sister Mitchell did my hair yesterday; twinners!

Driving around this morning

January 4th - Happy New Year's!!!

Dearest Familia y Amigos,

....No we didn't stay up till Midnight, but I did wake up around 1:00AM (don't know why) and muttered it to myself haha.

Short summary of me from the past week:

In my personal study I've been going through the Attributes of Christ (Ch. 6 of PMG) and I'd been feeling lost on where to start on improving all these areas that need soooo much work (haha), but President Hanks' e-mail helped me realize I just need to take it slow and do all I can through Christ and His Atonement. I'm never going to get it perfectly, but I can come as close as possible through Christ.

Work-wise, we had several great experiences this week. 

We were doing area-book work the other afternoon, and Sister Acosta found a girl named "Veronica" that is very interested in hearing our message, but doesn't remember meeting missionaries. Odd. We taught the Restoration over the phone and she wants to learn more in the future.

Same story as above, but with a man named Eduardo, and he remembers the missionaries. We are hopeful that now is his time.

Last, the best of all the Elect, Suheimy! We were in the Boxwood Apartments to stop by the Marshallese family's home and see if they had time for us to come to by either then or later. Afterwards, we went past a door that Sister Acosta and Sister Johnson had tried to contact several times because they knew a woman from Puerto Rico lived there. Instead, her daughter answered, said her mom would be home soon, and invited us in to share the message with her instead. So, we taught God is a loving Heavenly Father, He gives us families, prophets, Christ and His atonement to make it possible to be happy and find the way back to Him, and then we covered the Apostasy. Then she stopped us, and started saying that she agreed it was so sad that the authority had been taken away and that humans are so violent and don't deserve the Priesthood, etc etc.... and then she said, "I guess what I want to know is... Will we ever get that authority back?"
I have never been so excited to share something in my entire life. We skipped a few parts of the Restoration pamphlet and jumped straight into Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She soaked up everything. We invited her to be baptized by this restored authority and she said YES! I finally understand the joy of having someone accept the Gospel after they've been looking for it. We also got to go over the Atonement a bit with her. She has such amazing questions, one of which was "Do we really deserve God's forgiveness?" So I got to feel the Spirit bear witness to her while sharing my testimony that even though, No, we really don't, He loves us enough that He forgives us anyway because He knew we were going to make mistakes and learn our entire lives- that's why he sent our Savior.

We're still trying to get time in with Dustin, Jaquelyn, and Derrick/Amber to help them keep commitments and such. I still have hope for them though we have some evidence that would make us doubt.

I'm very excited to share this Gospel more fully with others and help them receive the blessings in store for them! Alma 29:9 anyone? ;) This work is clear evidence that true happiness comes from serving others and helping them receive the Gospel. Mark 8:35- "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it."

Finally, for the New Year, I want to extend our Mission President's Challenge to all who read this:

Set BHAGs!!!

Big

Hairy

Audacious

Goals

This is from President Hank's e-mail to us a few weeks ago:

"PRESIDENT HANKS’ GOAL:  That you, your children, and their children remain Steadfast in Christ and Champions for the Lord.
I dream that someday, Sister Hanks and I will be holding hands walking through Temple Square (or perhaps in your city), and you and your eternal companion will walk up to us. We will hug and reminisce and then your cute little 6-year old daughter or son, (appropriately missing a few front teeth), will pull on my coat and drag me down to her level, and say with a lisp, “President Hanks, our family is Steadfast in Christ!"

Set Goals! Dream Big!

Philippians 4:13

The Church is true, the Book is blue, and God loves you- so let's be true!!!

Hermana Laurel Martin

December 28th - Christmas, Tornadoes, and Baptism Invites- OH MY!

It's been a CRAZY week. (See subject line).

On Christmas "Adam" (Wednesday) we went and got Arby's for dinner before we went to the church to teach English, but the latter didn't end up happening because we were ordered inside due to possible tornadoes. We left Arby's because it's 90% windows and went to our apartment with the other Hermanas (Moline and Mitchell).

There we essentially did laundry, hung out, showered, and tried to be somewhat productive while still relaxing. We got called a few times to have our safety/status checked, and were told we had an 80% chance of tornadoes. Ahhhh...... The wind was crazy and for a long time there was lightning every 3-8 seconds. I got a video I'll send eventually.  Nothing ended up happening but we're experiencing lots of flooding right now and possible tornado watches again today/this week, sooo fingers crossed....

Christmas Eve was fantastic. We met a family from the Marshall Islands (Hna Acosta tracted into them with Johnson two transfers ago). The parents in the Abija family don't speak English very well. But, we taught their son (one of six kids) on their doorstep about the Book of Mormon last week while the rest of his family was gone and got his mom's number. He is very interested in symbolism, so I had mom e-mail me a Christmas symbolism lesson called "Teach the Children". Then, we went to teach them on Christmas Eve. Though the son wasn't there, we taught the rest of their family and they loved it! The mom got down on the rug where I had set up all the little symbols (a bell ornament, a wreath and holly plant made out of sticky notes, a paper star and angel, etc set up on the tree Erik sent me.) She started looking at them and said, "Thanks so much for the tree!" Me: "...You're welcome." That wasn't the plan, but it made them sooo happy and added a bit of color to their humble apartment.  Plus, I was glad they had it because I left the story with them too for their son to read so he could get the symbolism too. It was incredible. When we asked when we could come back, they said we were welcome to come every day, any time. ....Wait, what?

SO, we came back on Saturday, two days later (a day after Christmas) and taught the Plan of Salvation/the 5 steps. We used cut out footprints for an object lesson with the words "Faith", "Repentance", "Baptism", "Holy Ghost", "Endure to the End" and "Eternal Life!" on them, and showed them how these steps make is possible for us the cross the 'lava' and make it safely back to our Heavenly Father. Though we have a partial language barrier, I'm so grateful that through the Spirit and past teaching experiences and lessons that Sister Acosta and I have had that we were able to convey the simple truths of the Gospel to this family. (P.S. the Mom's sister is a member, not sure if she's active though)

Oh, we spent Christmas Eve dinner with Hermana and Hermano Cruz. They feed us very well. We slept over at the other Hermanas apartment and opened presents the next day with them.

Christmas Day rained like crazy. Skyping home made up for it though :) Y'all haven't changed too much yet ;)  'Course, I've only been gone three months (in two days).

Last night, we also taught the Plan of Salvation to Dustin, and he agreed, once he receives the answer that the Church/Book of Mormon are true, to be baptized! For the third time! (If he follows through on being baptized this will be the first time being baptized by the Priesthood though). I'm so excited for him. He has so much potential and I know that the Gospel will bless his life immensely. 

So grateful to see the Hand of the Lord in this work that I am so blessed to take part in. I am so excited to see the Gospel having positive effects on those that we've found and I can't wait to see them continue learning and changing for the better.

The Church is true, the Book is Blue, God loves you- Let's see this through!!

Hope you had a very Feliz Navidad and that y'all have a Happy New Year!

~Hermana Laurel Martin

Christmas Eve with the Cruz family

Christmas morning!

Christmas day rain

Christmas dinner with the Lopez family

December 21st - 4 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD Y'ALL!!!!

This week we had a lot of time spent finding and contacting again, and we found several people that we have high hopes for, especially an English-speaking family consisting of Danielle, her brother-in-law and his wife and 3 kids. When we taught them, it was just the parents and 2 of the kids (both under 8 I believe), but their kids were answering questions and participating, which hasn't happened before on my mission as far as I can remember. I feel like this family, with some effort of course on the part of the missionaries as well as the family, will accept the Gospel in time. They already have so much light and the Spirit was there. Our bike lights were stolen during the time that we were teaching them, but if I had to go back in time I would still knock on that door and teach them.  Totally worth it. Don't get me wrong though, I was definitely not happy about my lights getting snatched. #seeyaonjudgementday

We are also trying to get Jaquelyn to come to church, our only progressing investigator that speaks Spanish. (Jose isn't technically progressing right now). She just wants to get to know the members before she comes to church so we're planning times when she could visit with them, perhaps the 31st for the Christmas/New Year's party, but hopefully sooner.

Bulon (sp?), who is very interested in symbolism, is the son of a potential that Acosta contacted with Johnson back before she got me. Their family moved here from Hawaii recently. His parents were out at a Christmas party, so we asked if we could share a message with him after some small chat. This 17-year-old is SO amazing. He is open-minded, loves learning, wants to become like Christ, and has a real intent that's easy to see. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would start reading and that he probably wouldn't be able to read ALL of the book, but that he'd try. Wait, what? Good gravy this guy thought we were challenging him to read the whole thing at once before we met again! Hahaha. No. Hna. Acosta then asked him to read Alma 32 because of the symbolism with the seed of faith.

We found a new apartment complex over 'the hill' that is near the other Hermanas' home. We didn't have much time there the first time but I'm excited to go back :) Muchos Hispanos.

Speaking of the Hermanas, guess who the new missionary is that Hna. Moline is training?  Carly Mitchell. The girl I found on "Many are called ... But few are Sisters"  (Sister Missionary Facebook page). Yeah. We're pretty much best buddies already and now I reeeeeeally want to be companions with her eventually. We make a great group. Elder Smith, who left to Tuscaloosa, was replaced by Elder Messick. Elder Smith and Messick were comps in the Provo MTC, so that's fun. He and Elder Wilson are having a hay day together already :) I love this District and the Rama.

Preguntas!

Do you know yet what you will doing for Christmas Eve and Christmas in the mission? Christmas Eve we will be at the Cruz's (all 6 of us). Christmas Day the Hermanas will be at Presidente Lopez's home and the Elders are going to the May's.

When do you expect to call home? We are planning on around 4

Did anyone take pictures of you hula hooping at the mission Christmas party? Probably. But better yet, Moline got a video soooo yeah. I made a lot of mistakes but I actually developed a new trick the day before the party/Talent show sooo that was fun.

Have you observed any uniquely Southern Christmas happenings there that you can share? Um. Not really. There was a sign off the road in someone's back yard that said "Happy Birthday Jesus"

We went to a Lutheran church yesterday morning because of the ukulele choir we're a part of on Wednesdays (sorry I forgot to mention that xP) and the director, Ferdinand (from Denmark with a crazy cool accent) asked us to sing "Angels we have heard on high". Their services had some things that were similar, but it was very different too. I enjoyed it, but I only felt the Spirit strongly once (almost to the point of tears though), and that was during a song that I had never heard before that talked about how there was only one king who stepped off His throne to save His people; I have the title in the program at home. I'll look it up. It was comforting to go to our branch later that afternoon where everything was familiar though it was in Spanish.

Well. There's Alabama life for you :)

The Church is true,

The Book is Blue,

and God loves you!

Hermana Laurel Martin

Laurel and Hna. Acosta at the library

"Did you know that Bamboo grows in Alabama? Me neither."

Thrift store donations anyone? #contactingcreatively 

(the last time we did this, we came back and the BOMs were gone and 

the basket was filled with JW's New testament books) 

Zone sister Christmas party/surprise birthday party for Sister Castagno

O Kwissmuss Twee, O Kwissmuss Twee... #tweety-bird

The sauce packet says: "Call your mom"

This is my "I can't cuz I'm a missionary" face.

December 14th - First Transfer Call Experience

Hola all y'all!!

Transfer calls came on Saturday night. Coasty's and ours came as we were carrying a bunch of stuff into our apartment, so when the phone rang we stopped at the bottom of our stairs, holding all our stuff in our arms. And our breath.

.....drum roll.....

We're both staying in the Hunstville Rama!! yay!!  Two minutes later, Moline and West got their call outside our door. West is leaving after only spending one transfer (though 5 weeks) in the Rama (branch). Moline, who has been in the field just one transfer longer than me, is going to be training a brand new missionary!! I'm not going to be the baby of the zone/district anymore!!! xP

This week was a fun challenge. We worked to reach our goals despite having the Mission Christmas party on Friday (which went well - hula-hooping in the talent show wise - despite major lack of preparation) and the shift on Sunday evening at the Festival. I think the best experience from this week was taking two bi-lingual girls (Spanish and English) from the branch with us tracting and contacting. Kelly and Sandra are 12 and 8 respectively. We tracted a bit in their neighborhood (first contact was in Spanish and Kelly rocked it), and then went contacting at the mall. We had 6 lessons and about 20 may-we-teach-you's, and they each gave out a Book of Mormon. They both were great helps and it was so fun seeing these two young girls get involved with missionary work and maybe start preparing for their own missions. Sandra, the younger one, was especially brave and shared her knowledge of the Book of Mormon and the Gospel readily. I hope to emulate the same excitement about the Gospel that they had throughout my mission.

Coasty, while we were at the mall, challenged me with a You-Aint-Down for a group of 5 or 6 rowdy teenagers, only one of which was female. I was hesitant. Kelly actually told me not to and said they probably wouldn't be interested.

*Challenge accepted.*

I walked over and addressed the one girl in the group and we started talking. She turned out to be fairly curious about what we were doing and accepted a Book of Mormon from Kelly. It was a neat experience to show our missionary friend for a day that you can't judge people and how they'll respond just by looking at them, and that's why we have to talk to EVERYONE.

Hermana Acosta and I are still focusing on expanding our teaching pool for the most part, but we have a couple investigators and potentials that we have high hopes for, especially Jaquelyn. She's been reading the Book of Mormon with her daughters and we're hoping to extend more commitments to her this week to determine where she's at in her progression with the church.

Well. That's all for now!

The Church is true,

The Book is blue,

and God loves you!!

~Hermana Martin

December 7th - Enduring Rejection ---> SPANISH PEOPLE

Hola familia y amigos!!!

This week, I finally got a taste of real rejection. On one evening while tracting, we were getting "No's" and doors closed on us left and right and it was the first time that time after time after time we were unsuccessful in sharing a message or getting contact information to come back and teach. I remained chipper outwardly, but inwardly I felt simultaneously humbled and disappointed. I knew it was just that they weren't ready, but I was getting discouraged at the repeated answers declining our message of Christ and the joy of the Gospel. Hermana Acosta said that meant that the elect was just around the corner. She said she wanted to try two houses on the left. I told her if the elect was right around the corner that they were up further, literally around the corner. She laughed but we went to her two houses. Unsuccessful. However, when we went around the corner, we were given the contact information of Angelica, and English speaker, and the next door was Juana and Angelita, SPANISH SPEAKERS (YEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!), who allowed us to come in and share the video "A Savior is Born" with them and talk about Christ for a while. We are looking forward to visiting with Angelita again soon (Juana went to Mexico).

The other experience was kinda funny. We were contacting at Wal-Martin and a teenage boy in a green jacket kept catching my attention. So I signaled to Coasty (Hna Acosta) that we should contact him. BUT, he was an employee. So as we were making our way towards him, he went into a back room. Ugh. Then he came out! So we hunted him! Then he went into another back room. Hermana Acosta wanted to leave because we didn't if he was going to come back out again soon or not. So as Acosta was starting to walk away, I prayed "Heavenly Father, I'm saying a specific prayer. I need that boy in the green jacket to come out so we can talk to him."

And guess what happened.

Acosta got distracted by something in the bakery area. Which bought some time. And then.... Thomas came out!! So, we went and talked to him. And after saying that I liked his jacket (even though I didn't, it was just what I knew him by), and Acosta getting him to take us to the rice cakes (long story), we asked him if he would have any interest in meeting with the missionaries. Got the phone number. *happy dance* His name is Thomas and I have high hopes for him even though he works so much (I've been to Wal-Martin twice since then and seen him there both times, but was unable to speak with him- only got a wave- He remembered me haha).

The other cool thing this week was going on an exchange on Friday after district meeting until Saturday morning with Sister Griffith, our English STL. We stayed in Huntsville and Coasty went to Bryd Springs with Castagno (Cuh-stawn-yo) (whom I went on a Blitz with the first week here). We went tracting and store contacting. I contacted a Hispanic woman and her daughter by myself because Griffith is English. "You ain't down" was going on left and right. It was way fun.

So many small miracles have occurred from small acts of faith this week. God works in mysterious ways and I'm glad to be part of this great work  :)

The Church is true,

The Book is blue,

and God loves you!!

~Hermana Martin

Hna. Griffith, Laurel, Hna. Castagno, Hna. Moline (sisters Thanksgiving party)

4 other sisters in our zone (Griffith, Castagno, Ralph, and Young) were inspired and attacked our door with love notes on the day Sierra got home when I needed a pick me up. 

Laurel and Hna. Acosta with their Thanksgiving hats I sent 

Laurel and Hna. Acosta

This is our zone:

Back row L to R: Faustin, Smith, Wilson, Wall, Stuart, Littleford

Front row: me, Acosta, Griffith, West, Moline, Castagno