February 22nd - Adventures in Alabama!!!

Hola, Folks! (brace yourselves)

First off, I have a stronger testimony of "be where you need to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing/Follow the rules” after the other night (Thursday?). Sister Portilla and I had just dropped off the other sisters at their apartment and we were driving down Triana to head back to ours. There was a car behind me that didn't like that I was going the speed limit in the left lane, but ....mission rules... and we were going to be turning left soon.  So, he zips over to the right, then merges in front of me, and proceeds to collide with a larger car in the turning lane a couple hundred feet ahead of us. Though it was scary, we stayed calm. I made a 911 call and Sister Portilla ran over to the larger car. The front left side of his car had broken off. The other car had spun several times and there were sparks coming off the part of his car where his tire should've been as he spun and fish-tailed over to the far right shoulder. (Before my mission I was kind of a lead-foot like Mom ;)  )  (Hey!  I resemble that comment!) but because we were following the rules and we were where we were supposed to be, doing what we were supposed to do, we were ok. (P.S. don't speed).

Mission work!

We've been turning our focus a bit more on LA's (less-actives), not just in the Branch but helping Sparkman out with single sisters since it would be hard for them to coordinate to visit them. We have started working with C. Z., a LA who joined the church while in Athens and has fallen away because he felt there were unworthy members doing Priesthood responsibilities etc. The Hunstville A Elders came with us and we had a lesson with him. We hope that he'll come to the branch, but he expressed a desire to move his records back to Athens.

We also visited a kind, soft-spoken LA in Sparkman named C. We are hoping to see her again soon and help her grow her connections with others in the ward to make her feel more at home in the ward since she is the only member in her family.

Upon trying to visit a LA in the branch named Maria, we found that she had moved, but 2 Spanish women live there now. One had a BOM already, and the other one accepted one. The Lord works in mysterious ways :) We shared a scripture with them and they were welcoming to have us back.  We found an apartment complex down the street a ways where everyone was SO NICE. We gave 7 BOMs and had even more lessons - the only people who weren't interested were still very kind and respectful. We heard several times "Thanks for coming here to see me even though this area is kinda scary". Yeah, it was sort of a sketchy area but everyone we met was incredible and wants to learn more about Christ. We found a Sparkman LA and a past investigator, so we're planning on returning to that area to finish tracting the area and follow-up on all of them. I'm so excited to have found these people even though most of them speak English and will be Sparkman's investigators later.

Also, I had one of the best birthdays ever :) Sister Portilla made me breakfast (toast with Nutella and hot chocolate). The branch was so sweet to me. Hermana Cruz gave me a butterfly charm xD  The Hermanas (Huntsville C - Mitchell and Bartlome) made dinner and we had a sleep over. They also got me a "Blessed Girl" shirt that has 1 John 4:19 on the back with teal, magenta, and white designs- it's super cute. I got several phone calls from missionaries and Sister Hanks. At District meeting on Friday we had chocolate cake with the District for both my birthday and Sister Mitchell's (whose b-day was on Tuesday) etc., etc., happiness and love. <3   We're going out to lunch soon with some branch members for our b-days as well :D

So grateful to be here to help others every day, including my birthday xP

The Church is true,

the Book is blue,

God loves you,

Do what He wants you to do!

~Sister Laurel Martin

Laurel playing around with some birthday stuff!

Can't believe my baby girl turned 20 on Sunday.

T-shirt from the other Hermanas

Hermana Portilla and Laurel

HAHAHAHAHA    #TRUTH

Gotta love Southern charm!

February 15th - Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Dear.... All Y'all,

Feliz dia de Amor y Amistad!! (Happy day of love and friendship!!)

Some love scriptures and a quote <3 <3 <3

2 Nephi 26:24 - "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."

1 Nephi 11:17 - "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

"We may never understand nor comprehend in mortality how He accomplished what He did, but we must not fail to understand why He did what He did.  Everything He did was prompted by His unselfish, infinite love for us." -Ezra Taft Benson, Oct. 1983 "Jesus Christ: Our Savior and Redeemer"

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 13:15

2 awesome experiences this week!!

1. I had an investigator come to church for the first time. His name is A., and he's from Iran. We only had a short lesson outside his home with an English sister in our branch where we discussed briefly the Book of Mormon and he in turn told us about his beliefs as a Muslim and about their scriptures. He accidently went to the wrong church at first (there are 3 within a quarter mile or less on Sparkman, namely ours, St. Luke's and Baptist church) but we made it in time for the sacrament. He seemed to enjoy it. We introduced him to the Sparkman Elders (Power and Stuart) and they got his number so now they can get involved in teaching him. We were in the overflow and there weren't any hymn books, but it turned out to be a tender mercy because one of the hymns was "If you could Hie to Kolob" and the other was "O My Father" - awesome songs, but a little bit too much deep doctrine for a new investigator. Luckily he speaks Arabic, Farsi, and Persian much better than English sooooo I don't think he was paying close attention to the lyrics.

2. Our ex-Christian, currently Atheist investigator, T., brought the Plan of Salvation pamphlet with him to soccer on Friday night and it was completely marked up with questions about the pre-existence, the Fall, the Atonement, and the Afterlife, - not "I disagree"/bashing/extremely deep doctrine questions (for the most part); just sincere "I want to learn more" type of questions. MADE MY WEEK. We have a lot of hope for him- he just needs to pray and feel the Spirit again. He used to be super religious but he changed his mind because of very difficult trial in his life, so because he felt that God had abandoned him, he abandoned his belief in God. I've been focusing a lot of my personal study on the Plan of Salvation so that I can explain it to him in the way that will best help him.

3. Bonus experience thanks to Hermana Portilla. We had been trying repeatedly to contact a referral that we got about 2 weeks ago from the Huntsville Elders- a Spanish woman named "Maria". However, we tried and tried and tried (both with Acosta and Portilla) to no avail, so Sister Portilla said "Obviously there's someone over here we need to meet; that's why we're here and she's not answering." We walked across the street and then we met M. K., an ex-investigator from Kenya. We got to clarify the relationship of "Blacks" and the church and the center focus of the Church being Christ rather than Peter because of the scripture in Matthew 16: 13-18- that the "rock" that Christ was referring to was that He is "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (as Peter had stated) and not that Peter was ...Peter. We went on to explain that Peter was an amazing disciple and diligent apostle who had the authority of God, but Christ suffered for our sins, was the perfect example, and established the true church of Christ ....not Peter.  So, our center is Christ, not Peter. #Helaman5:12

1.  How long has Sister Portilla been serving in Alabama? ---A little over a year, she goes home in June

2.  What have you learned from Sister Portilla about missionary work over the past couple of weeks? ---Give your all and have the Spirit or else it's useless and you should just go home xD

3.  Have you tried asking less-active families to allow you to “practice” teaching missionary discussions with them? ---We found a 'new' LA that we might do that with (he's Spanish), but usually we share messages for them more than practicing the same, set missionary discussions.

Roses are Red,

The Book of Mormon is blue

Christ isn't dead

His lives just for you!!

~Hermana Martin II

Hna. Portilla, Laurel, Hna. Lopez, 

Hna. Cruz, Hna. Santos, Hna. Mitchell

Laurel with Hna. Mitchell

February 8th - First week with Sister Portilla, leading out Huntsville B

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a roller coaster to be honest. Don't get me wrong, it's not because of my companion- I think the thing I'm struggling with the most is leading out the area. It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. We feel that we just don't have a whole lot of options of places to go, tracting-wise, because we have 6 missionaries in our little branch and we stay in 'the square' because that's where the Hispanic population is congregated. Some of us want to go outside of the square, but I find myself hesitant to do so because there are less Spanish-speaking options and I'm not at all familiar with those areas so I would have no idea where to start, where to go, anything. We'll figure it out though, of course!!

Teaching highlights from the week:

C. Family: 3 girls (14, 12, and 10) that committed to pray and study the Plan of Salvation together. Super cute family. They are familiar with the Bible and were very accepting of the Book of Mormon.

A. Family: Lucy, the Mom, has been reading the Book of Mormon (now that we got a couple copies in Marshallese) and she prayed and felt "calm" and "peace"- Committed her husband to read with her. They didn't come to church though :( Maybe next time. They have 6 kids of their own and 2 adopted sons, plus one of the parents' dads lives there as well I believe so it's a very full apartment.

Scripture application time!!!!

Ok, once upon a time Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah all decided to repent and serve missions and give everything to the Lord. SO, they went to King Mosiah and asked if they could go teach the hard-hearted, Nephite-hating, stiff-necked Lamanites. Oy. Mosiah 28:7 "And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out the hands of the Lamanites." I don't know for how long, and how many times I read that verse wrong. It's a very comforting scripture, true, but it's HONEST. It doesn't say "they'll convert all the Lamanites, it will be easy all the time, and they'll be protected from all hard things." Nope. It says many will believe on their words, it will be a blessing for them and they'll receive eternal life (if they do what they're supposed to of course), and they'll be delivered OUT of the hands of the Lamanites. To be delivered OUT, they have to be IN at one point, right?? So, it's no surprise that in Alma chapters 14 and 20 that we clearly see that they were in the hands of the Lamanites (smitten, imprisoned, watched all their investigators/recent converts be burned, mocked, had their clothes taken, bound, cast out, etc). BUT, they were all delivered and continued preaching the word. Also, in Chapter 22, it's cool to see how even then there are examples of "transfers" and picking up past contacts. Ammon "contacted" King Lamoni's father, but Aaron is the one who ended up teaching him, though he at first wanted to know why Ammon wasn't there (end of verse 3). However, it's amazing to see that the influence that Ammon had on him changed everything the King did. After being taught the Gospel by Aaron, we see that he goes from merely being willing to give up half his kingdom for his mortal life, (Alma 20:23), to being willing to give up his whole kingdom for the joy that Aaron spoke of (Alma 22:15), to being willing to give up all his sins, therefore, do the will of the Lord and to know Him (vs. 18). And later, his whole house-hold was "converted unto the Lord" (vs. 23).

This was a comforting scripture for me because even though Ammon was elsewhere, Aaron was able to help bring the King to the knowledge of the Gospel- so even though many of the people I currently know aren't progressing right now, when they're ready, after they've been "somewhat troubled in their mind" (vs 3), those who are humble and faithful enough, who've been prepared, will get to where they need to be no matter who it is that teaches them ultimately.

The Church is true, the Book is Blue, and God loves you!

Steadfast in Christ,

Hermana L. Martin

I may or may not have played with Hermano May's snake, 

"Spot", last Monday.  What?  ;)

Sister Beus and I spend Wed. together while everyone else 

was in Birmingham for transfers.  

Hermana Portilla and Laurel

February 1st - New Companion, Interviews, and Oscuro

Family & Friends,

This week had a few fun adventures despite having to stay in the apartment a few days again due to Hermana Acosta being sick again :( Poor soul.

I had an impression that there was a dog inside a gate we went through as were tracting. We heard a dog barking but it sounded far away. Then, it stopped. We turned to the left and suddenly there was a large black dog's head staring at us over the bushes. Its head was probably about as high as my waist. If Hermana Acosta and I hadn't started walking away off the porch steps right when we did he probably would've gotten me. Luckily right as he lunged at me his chain caught him and my leg was spared. *phew* After we went past him, he went up onto the porch, soooo if we'd stayed there we would've been in trouble. I'll take more caution next time. Oops. We named him Oscuro which means "Dark" in Spanish.

Couple of cool potentials:

G. is ....married.... but kinda separated because her husband is always out and about not being the best of people. She is so faithful and accepted a Book of Mormon. We're going back tomorrow to introduce the Restoration to her. We did Plan of Salvation last time because she lost her mom recently. She's amazing.

J.T. is also married with an Energizer Bunny for a son. We're seeing her Sunday and she was very accepting of the message of the Restoration.

Upon checking on an investigator that hasn't been responding to us, we tracted Andreas' door because he was playing super loud Spanish music featuring a loud Tuba. We are seeing him on Thursday. Yay for Spanish!

Also, Transfer calls came on Saturday!!! Because all Transfer Meetings in the world are no longer allowed, we got all the information over the phone.  I'm very much looking forward to having Sister Portilla as my new companion.   =D  She's from Columbia so Spanish is her first language. Though I am going to miss Sister Acosta, I know she's going to have fun with Sister Conteh (my MTC companion) in Bessemer. =D

Also, Dustin, our investigator we dropped a few weeks ago, texted us last night saying he'd been to church a couple times (not ours) and he'd been praying. He asked us to pray for him because of a court case he has today.

I find it interesting  that God sometimes give us trials to compel us to turn to Him, as Alma teaches in Alma 32: if we're not humble, we'll be compelled to humble. However it is better to choose humility to start with- there's far more blessings and peace in doing so. An LDS texting service I joined in High school called "Voices for Virtue" or "V4V" would send daily texts with quotes, inspiration and encouragement to be our best selves. One of the quotes was "Is prayer your spare tire or your steering wheel?" It took me a while to understand this completely, but now I have a firm testimony that when we turn to our Heavenly Father regularly and rely on Him, He will guide us in everything we do, rather than if we only turn to Him in times of 'emergency' and when we 'really need Him'. May we always remember the simple truth in Hymn #98, "I Need Thee Every Hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can peace afford." In order to have His peace, we need Him in our lives.

So grateful for this Gospel and the Savior in my life :) Nothing can replace them.

The Church is true, the Book is Blue, and God loves you!

~Hermana Martin II

P.S. -  Forgot to mention. We had Interviews with President Hanks on Wednesday. He was running way behind so I only talked to him for about 3 minutes but it's amazing how much individual love and concern he packs into those few minutes. 

Steadfast in Christ!!!

Laurel's apartment complex

Missionary group on a visit 

Lopez girls, Sandra (younger) and Kelly (older) 

that go out with us to do tracting/contacting sometimes

January 25th - Teach When You Find

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes we got snow (little late. I only like snow around Christmas time). Yes I got pictures. Yes I will send them.   ;)

Had a great time applying the "teach when you find" part of the "teach when you find and find when you teach" rule this week (still improving on remembering to ask for referrals), hence we had the opportunity to share our testimonies and teach more than we normally do. Usually our May-We-Teach-Yous are the most impressive number, but this week it was our lessons and “BOMs given” numbers (not that those numbers were higher than may-we-teach-yous); Thanks to Heavenly Father we had many people who were willing to listen to us and discuss the Gospel with them if only briefly. I have made it a goal to continue being just as adamant about sharing the Book of Mormon with others even after Book of Mormon month ends though.   :) 

Here are some highlights/lessons learned from the week.

C. - cliche story of showing up at just the right time when she needed a boost in her life and had been reading the Bible looking for answers. Magic tricks with gospel principles were shown, testimonies were born, Books of Mormon were given, tears were shed, numbers were exchanged, and our day was made. Looking forward to seeing her soon.    :)

A. and Husband- tracted into a man who was plenty kind though not too interested in religion. He invited us in to get warm and offered us some water bottles. He said his wife was very religious. Well, we were just getting to know him and what he believed a bit when she walked in. At first she seemed very wary of us and like she didn't want us there. She stood across from us, behind the other couch where her husband was and started asking oddly worded questions in an attempt to get us to slip up on doctrine and bash with us. I asked her a few times "What do you mean by that (exactly)?" so she would re-word her questions more simply because I just wasn't following what she was getting at initially. The last thing she asked about was true repentance and whether "Mormons" believe that in order for repentance to "count" do we have to commit not to do it again? I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THE ATONEMENT!!! So, we explained, it IS important to commit not to do that same sin again, and though we'll never be perfect and we may slip up again, we do believe that one of the steps of repentance is to do better and work harder to be more like Christ. She was quiet for a minute, nodded her head, and asked her husband if he'd offered us any hot chocolate. The Spirit really does soften hearts.

S. / M. Family- a lesson not to judge referrals and potentials by your first contact with them. The M. family was a referral that sounded golden and elect. When we actually got our schedules to align to go teach them last night, we found out her 'husband' had been deported last November, and she is more interested in talking about her problems than listening to our message about the Gospel. S. is a potential that we had an appointment with the same night as the M. family. We had to cancel, but we stopped by to say hi and find a new time to meet and get his number. Turns out he wants to find a Church to go to, change his attitude and how he thinks, and he wants to come closer to Christ. We thought he wasn't really interested at all when we first met him and that he was going to end up blowing us off or standing us up. Our expectations about these two were totally reversed from what reality ended up being, so it was a learning experience for me that everything that happens is the Lord's will and that everyone has their agency; I need to remember to be hopeful about each of the people we meet and teach, but not let my happiness ride on whether they accept the Gospel or not.

All in all, it's been a great week :) 

Looking forward to inviting others to come unto Christ, according to their desire!

The Church is true, the Book is blue, and God loves you!!!

~Sister (Hermana) Laurel Martin

Stopping the cold draft from their back door by stuffing scarves in the cracks!

Had to spend P-day getting their tire fixed

 after it got hit by another car in their parking lot.

Lunch at Cici's Pizza.  You can almost see Laurel on the side there!

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