April 18th - Little Tender Mercies anyone?

Hey all y'all! Brace yourselves for another update on a great week =)

This week Sister Barton was sick again so not too many stories to tell. However these are some of my favorites.

Yesterday after church we were helping a young girl named E. with her homework (her mom hardly speaks English so asks us to help her with spelling because we say the words without an accent). While Sister Barton was starting helping with E., I was with her cousin L. who is also a member (both are 8). I started asking her about her favorite scriptures and if she wanted to read with me. She said she doesn't like reading the scriptures. Eventually I coaxed her into getting her Libro de Mormon out of her car. Turns out she reads/understands English more than Spanish. So, I gave her one of our English copies. She asked what my favorite chapters are and I gave her a few. We read some verses from Mosiah 2 together in-between rounds of a guessing game. This continued for about an hour, and then L. said "I LOVE reading now!"  Hah! Mission accomplished. She was so excited to show her mom all the chapters I had marked for her to read and her scripture reading assignment I gave her ;) hehe.

Had a cool experience on a blitz with Hna. Ontiveros this week :)
A young boy named G. (around 9 or 10 maybe) started talking to us while we were tracting the complex where he lives. After we continued on tracting, he came back and started asking us some questions while we were at some lady's door. So, Ontiveros started talking to him and I kept talking with the lady. She turned out not to be interested but we continued chatting with this young man and he had some very profound questions and responses throughout our discussion. He invited us to come back and see his family soon.

We got a call last night a couple minutes before 10:30 from an unknown number. We answered it, and a man's voice asked if this was the Spanish sister missionaries in the Hoover area. We responded affirmatively and he began explaining that he has a referral for us, but he's going to give our number to his Spanish-speaking friend. She has apparently participated in some church activities in his area, closer to Inverness, but she doesn't feel as comfortable with English as she does with Spanish of course. *trumpet sounding* Hermanas Barton and Martin to the rescue!!!!!

We also got to see S. again yesterday, a man we met tracting. We taught him the Restoration on his balcony, standing by his door. He is very faithful and he agreed to pray about our message and the Book of Mormon. He also is very open to prayer and asking us to pray for him and everyone else. He is so humble.

Prime example of humility: Sh. We met her tracting in the Hoover Sisters' apartment complex. I think she's one of the most amazing examples of humility I've ever met. She kept saying that she's so blessed right now, and everything she had came from God. It's so amazing how easy it is to see well-developed Christ-like attributes in some people. She's incredible. 

Also, once upon a time, we went to Subway after district meeting. I let a woman with a very small baby boy go in front of me in line. A couple hours later, while tracting, we found her again! She gave us her number so we could schedule a time to see her again.   =)

Tender Mercy:  My missing planner was found (I left it at E.s house last week. Oops.) so now we have the phone #'s and addresses I wrote down on our exchange.   =D    No Child (of God) left behind! ;) Yay!!!!

That's all. 'Til next week!

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

~Sister Laurel Martin

Hanging out with Sister Layton

Reunion with her trainer, Hermana Acosta

Working with Hermana Ontiveros

Martin and Barton on the road!

April 11th - Exchanges, "Coincidences", and 'Service' of a Sort

Dearest all Y'all,

Exchanges were awesome!  We went tracting in the complexes near ours and found T. She asked us to come back later when she was less tired (she works nights) and we did so. She invited us in and was much more awake and talkative. She has reservations about reading the Book of Mormon but agreed to pray about it and consider it. Sister Layton read a beautiful verse from it that hopefully helped soften her heart to the idea.

We also met a man named D. whom we briefly taught the Restoration at the doorstep. He agreed to have us come back the next day so we could share more with him. Somewhere between the trailer park and the next morning on our exchange I lost my planner though :(   I remembered the time and where the apartment was though, but we didn't have his number to confirm our appointment. Thankfully, he was there and he allowed us to come in to share a message with him, his girlfriend D., and their 1-yr old DJ. Nearing the end of explaining more about the Restoration, his girlfriend said she had a copy of the BOM she'd gotten from another pair of sisters. ....What? She went and got it out of her room. ....Coincidence? I think NOT! (" 'Coincidences' are just miracles that God doesn't get credit for.") We're planning on seeing them later this week.   :)

We saw O. on Saturday; she has been reading the BOM and praying, but when we invited her to be baptized at the end of this month she said she felt like it was a little soon. She agreed to pray about it though and we'll going back to follow up this weekend.

Yesterday, we went tracting near T. for literally ten minutes in one complex, but in those ten minutes we knocked two doors- the first one didn't answer. At the second door, we met M. and he had never heard of the Book of Mormon before!  How is this possible??? We quickly fixed that by giving a brief overview, sharing a verse, giving him his own copy, and scheduling a return appointment.   :)  He seems really interested and I'm excited to see where his interest takes him!

Also, we went and did a “service” activity this week I haven't done in 3 years! Pictures are included :)

Until next week!! Love yall!

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

~Sister Laurel Martin

Its always fun to find your name on a sign!

It's been 3 years since Laurel's last hair donation......

This donation went to Wigs for Kids!

The end result!  Should be much easier to get ready and 

will be much cooler this summer!

April 4th - Zone Training, Sisters' Training, and General Conference, oh my!!!

Dearest all y'all,

This week was filled with great experiences from Zone Training, the Sisters Training (all the sisters in the mission), and especially General Conference.

Saturday morning I was reviewing questions and 'requests' that I had for Conference during personal study. I decided one of the things that would be beneficial to me would be to receive a mental vision of the person that Heavenly Father wants me to become ultimately. Then, I began reading in 3 Nephi. After a few minutes of study, I came across the 27th verse in chapter 27 : "...Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." In putting myself into a state of mind that I was receptive to advice, correction, etc I found the answer to my question 'by accident' simply through scripture study. It was a great reminder to me that the answers we need in our personal lives don't have to come straight from our living prophet at conference; we don't have to wait 6 months to get answers and receive the aid we need, especially in this work . All we have to do is prepare ourselves spiritually and listen to the Spirit as we continue to grow and learn. Also, the ultimate goal is always to be like Christ. Duh. (This is why I'm still learning xP)

However, some answers DO come through conference. One of which was when Mervyn B. Arnold said simply "Thank you for your efforts"; and also when Elder Holland told us how much the brethren love us. I felt a comfort and peace come to me that even though it's hard sometimes to be here, even though I'm imperfect, even though I've hit my 1/3 mark and no one I've met here has been baptized (yet), my efforts aren't going unnoticed. He knows and He wants me here, whether the fruit of my labors shows outwardly to others or not (because most of them never will).

So grateful for the restored Gospel on the earth today and for the opportunity to hear from them regularly and hear more of the word of God.

The Sisters' Training theme, chosen by Sister Hanks, was "Angels". It reminded me of one of the devotionals we had at Oakcrest about angels surrounding us and that "they that are with us are more than those that are against us", and also that we have people here and people on the other side of the veil helping us all the time. Never alone.

At Zone Training, both Zone Leaders and both Sister Training Leaders trained on great topics and helped me recognize something that I can do better and things that I need to improve on. Our leaders, from President Monson to the District leaders in the field are led by the Spirit to know what to do and say to help care for God's children.

Well, that's all for now!! 6 months down, 12 to go!! ;) (No, I'm not trunky.)

The Church is true,

The book is blue,

and God loves you!

~Sister Laurel Martin

Hna. Portilla signing Laurel's quilt

The hermanas - Martin & Barton

Assume the position!  This is how they spend their time when they are ordered to be on tornado watch, which they were last week.  They must get in the bathtub with their bike helmets on and a mattress over the top of them.  I think they were trying to have fun with it! 

The dynamic duo - Martin and Barton!

March 28th - Loving Lorna!

Hola all y'all !!!

This week has been so great with Sister Barton. We get along really well and we're two peas in a pod. I'm also happy with the new district/zone/area- ESPECIALLY the Rama (Branch). Everyone has such solid testimonies and they're all soooo nice. They're already like family to me.

Several of the branch members work at a bakery nearby so they have us over to eat and help with folding boxes or washing dishes for service. I feel like I'm at Del Taco again in doing so, haha. We went to a restaurant called "Three Amigos" and I ordered in Spanish, much to the waiter's satisfaction. Mwuahaha. Whitest girl in Alabama speaking Spanish, say what? The branch was also pleased with my level of Spanish after sacrament meeting. (They ask us to speak every time we get there for the first week and when we leave).

Two great experiences I had this week came from tracting:

1. D. - We knocked on her apartment door twice and we were walking down the stairs to the next level when she opened her door and stepped out slowly. I didn't even notice her;  Hermana Barton turned around and went back haha. We told her who we were and why were there, and she said she was about the head to the hospital. We asked if we could help her with something and she said she would like to say a prayer with us, so we did. She added onto our prayer and prayed for us to have safety, success, and the Spirit. She is such a sweet soul. We're planning on visiting her apartment again soon to see if she's ok and would be interested in a message about Christ, which I'm pretty sure she will be.   :)  She's so faithful and Christ-like.

2. C. - we were tracting in a mainly Hispanic trailer park and "happened" upon C.'s trailer. When he first started talking to us he seemed confused and said he didn't know very much about religion. It was an awkward start, but he invited us to sit on his porch and talk to him, so we shared the Restoration, gave him a LDM (Libro de Mormon), and invited him to read and pray about it. We then extended a soft baptismal invitation to him and he accepted with hesitating. He asked a couple more questions about religions in general and ours. He is so sincere. We're planning on seeing him this weekend :)

Lorna is so great and I'm excited to serve here!!

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

~Hermana Martin

"Tracting + finding a flower bush= 

Cliché missionary photo with a BOM"

(how cute is that face!?!?!)

Martin & Barton

Gotta love a rhyming companionship!

(and yes, her companion did just drop food in her lap!)

March 21st - Laurel is going to Lorna! ....I mean... Hna Martin.... xP

Dear all y'all,

Transfer calls came on Saturday night, and I'm going to Lorna, in Hoover Alabama! It's near Birmingham and I'm going to be in another Spanish Branch with Sister Barton (she came out with Hna. Acosta, so I'm killing her off (that means sending her home) ) and Sister Mitchell is killing off sister Acosta in Bessemer!

Previously, in Huntsville:

One miracle we had was on Tuesday. Huntsville C asked us to go to a neighborhood near the church/us to tell a lady that they wouldn't be able to come by that day but they would tomorrow (they didn't have her number) but if she wanted we could share a message with her instead though. En route, due to me getting lost (which happens with more frequency than should after spending 3 transfers in one area haha) we met a young woman named S. Martin (we're going to look into if we're related somehow ;) ). She told us that her husband is a member of our church, that she almost got baptized last year but had to move, but now they're back and she is still interested. She gave us her address and number and also told us she's planning on quitting smoking this week. I'm sad that I'm leaving but I know that what needed to happen, happened, and what God needs to happen, will happen.

We also tracted into a gentleman I met with Sister Acosta a while back that we had given a BOM to. He said he hadn't had much time to read it yet, but that he had been thinking about getting back into a church, so maybe this was a sign. Maybe. ;) He invited us to come back and talk with him more.

Small tender mercy: Sister Portilla and I both strongly dislike bees/hornets/things of that nature and there were a TON out this week during the warm spell when we were tracting. How many times did we get stung? CERO. Hahahaha. Yay for protection from ALL evil - including rude insects.

I've seen so many miracles in Huntsville, and I'm sad to be leaving, but I'm also ready to go now since God needs me elsewhere. :)

The Church is true,

The Book is blue,

Lorna in two,  (days)

and God loves you!

~Sister Laurel Martin

P.S. - We did indeed get the St Patrick's package and we were able to give K. and M.K. a copy of the Book of Mormon as well as a few others. We haven't gotten any from the mission yet, no. Maybe now that we have transfers we will, but I'm not sure. Thank you SOOO MUCH  Mama

Laurel with Hmo. & Hna. Collins

The Bahena family - featuring Charlie the beagle

St. Patrick's Day goodies

Laurel was happy to get some BOMs in her package 

since the mission has been out of them for awhile!

Saying goodbye to Hna. Portilla

March 14th - Miracles and Blessings

Dear Reader: Brace yourself.

One of the greatest things I learned is that sometimes investigators are the ones who answer our prayers, not the other way around; and not necessarily because they’re "golden"- simply because they're in tune with the Spirit and give needed encouragement and love.

One of those times was yesterday, tracting before church. We met a gentleman on the sidewalk who told us he'd met with missionaries before, that he was still interested, but his wife was against meeting with other religions. As we were parting, he told us that we were changing lives and that we were sent by God to help others.

The more powerful time was after dropping in on a potential named K. She had said she was going to call us the last time we met her but she hadn't, so we decided to stop by. She invited us in and she explained that she hadn't called us to come over to visit because ***1) the neighborhood apparently is crazy dangerous and she didn't want us to get mixed in with the wrong people (this is the neighborhood where several people thanked us for coming to see them even though it was sketchy) and ***2) she's been somewhat depressed lately because she had to give her dog to her neighbor for a time because the less-than-fantastic people in her neighborhood let her loose the last time she left her out on a chain. But, she proceeded to tell us that her mom is actually LDS (convert) and talked about how happy her mom was in the LDS church. We shared a short message with her from Alma 38:5 and said "my daughter, K." instead of "my son, Shiblon" and assured her that even though things were hard right now that God loved her and would help her. When it was time for us to leave, we asked if she wanted to say a prayer. She suggested that one of us as well as herself would say one. She went first and said in her prayer that we were touching/blessing lives all around us and that we were making a difference. I had been feeling the few days prior that my presence wasn't making much of a difference here at all, but when she said that it brought the Spirit to my heart, as it is doing now as well, recalling that moment, that even if I don't see any of these people enter the waters of baptism that somewhere along the line I did some good and that's what matters. She also said "When you get out there... Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop!" So grateful for her and her words.

***Tender Mercy: we tracted the upper level on the 3 buildings, bottom levels of 2, and the top and bottom sections of the apartment houses across the street. K. told us the places where the dangerous people live is the bottom level of the first building that we skipped and the houses in the middle of the street that we didn't tract. Coincidence? I think NOT!

Another amazing experience was when we stopped by to see the gentleman named M. K. again. After he opened the door, he apologized for not responding to our voicemail and said, "My wife doesn't want to add another book onto the Bible. I mean, what's the purpose of the Book of Mormon anyway?" Sister Portilla responded "That's a VERY good question." MIRACLE: he invited us to sit down on the couch on his porch (very common in the South) so we could explain. So, we explained more about the purpose of the Book of Mormon and how it corresponds, supports, and testifies of the Bible and of Christ; how they work together; and that it's not a replacement. We finished by explaining that the Book of Mormon is necessary because it's the evidence of the Restoration; if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet. If not, Joseph Smith was a phony. Ta-da! We bore our testimonies and that really brought the Spirit to the discussion. He agreed to meet with us in a week after reading through the Restoration pamphlet so we could answer more of his questions/discuss some more. (they are having a Book of Mormon shortage right now, so they weren't able to give him one - Laurel felt really bad.  I got several at the distribution center and mailed them to her so hopefully that will hold them over until they get a new shipment to their mission.)

The Sparkman Elders met the A. family and we've started team-teaching them. The mom has accepted the invitation of baptism. :) Looking forward to seeing her progress and hopefully getting her children and husband more involved as well; the parents have been reading and praying together!! Just need to get them to come to church. xP

Also, Temple Trips make everything better.

Miracles and Blessings all around!

The Church is true,

the Book is blue,

and God loves you!

~Hermana Laurel Martin

Group picture at the temple

Cute sister missionaries!

March 7th - Hola Y'all!

Dear All Y'all,

Despite the BOM problem we've been having (we're in a Book of Mormon drought), it was a great blessing to give out 15 this week, mostly in Spanish. I wish more people knew how important this book is to this time period and how much it could bless their lives if they would just read it with an open heart and mind.... But I guess that's why we're here!

One unique thing we did this week was a "Media Table" at the park in downtown Huntsville (I believe it's called Big Springs Park or something). We set out pamphlets, pass-along cards, Family Search Information cards, etc. and talked with people who passed by. We met lots of kind people and were invited to visit some of them in their home later. We're hoping to do this activity again in the near future.

We also planned out a member fireside that got moved back to next Saturday. Each companionship is going to be doing a breakout session and teach a different topic. Huntsville A Elders (Messick and Wilson) are talking about scripture study, we (Huntsville B) are doing eliminating fear & having confidence; and Hunstville C Hermanas (Bartlome and Mitchell) are giving ideas to the Rama on unique, easy ways to invite their friends/family to learn more about the Gospel and/or participate in activities. I think it will be a fun way to bring the Rama closer together and get them more involved in missionary work.

That's everything out of the usual! Have a great week!

The Church is true,

the Book is Blue,

and God loves you!

~Sister Laurel Martin

Laurel by a flowering tree that she loved (of course!)

Posing at their "Media Table" in Big Springs Park