Joy

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Doctrine and Covenants 18:15

Well your probably all wondering if Byron got baptized......yes, yes he did. And it filled my soul with great joy!

I'll tell you about the beginning of my week first and then more details about the baptism a little bit later in the email.

So Wednesday we had a lesson with Shauna. AND IT WAS THE BEST LESSON EVER. Shauna has never been interested in coming to church with us. We've invited her a few times but she always says no. So we've just been taking things slow with her and have just been reading from the book of mormon with her. We were reading 1 Nephi 11 and just talking about what the verses says and then she randomly brought up the fact that she wants to come to church with us on Sunday! What??! I was in shock. Apparently a member had messaged her on facebook and invited her to come and she decided that she wanted to. Having members help with missionary work is the best thing ever. So then we continued reading from Nephi 11 and then Shauna randomly asks the most important question ever. "What do I need to do to continue staying on the right path to follow Christ."..........me and Sister Sagers were silent not knowing what to say and I'm just saying a frantic prayer in my head to try and say the right thing. I then boldly told Shauna that in order to follow Christ we need to exercise our faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God and receive the Holy Ghost and then endure to the end. I honestly don't remember what else I told her but something along the lines of gaining her own testimony of these things and then acting on the answers she gets....one of those actions being baptism. She then said that if she got the answer that the church is true and that the book of mormon is true then she would get baptized. OH MY GOODNESS. Of course she's going to get the answer that its true! She just needs to recognize the answers from the Holy Ghost. Shauna is incredible and one of my favorite people. I'm really hoping that she can be patient with trying to get answers to her prayers.

On Thursday we had our last lesson with Byron before his baptism and we talked with him and his fiance about setting the goal to be sealed to each other in the temple in a year from now. They told us that they have made that goal and they can't wait for that day. Yay! Their family is too cute and I'm so excited for them!

Friday rained all day long. All day. Didn't stop once. Which is fine except for the fact we told a less-active member in the ward that we would walk her dogs for her. So we bundled up in lots and lots of layers and walked to her house in the rain. Then walked her dogs in the pouring cold rain and then walked home in the pouring cold rain. It was great.......kind of....not really but the less-active member was so happy we walked her dogs that it did make it worth it. 

Good thing I love helping people! We then tried to contact some potential investigators and tried to find some new people to start teaching which has been so hard to do lately. We really really need to find some new people to teach. I've been getting frustrated with that lately but then I just need to remind myself to be patient with Heavenly Fathers timing.

Saturday we helped with a child of record baptism which was so sweet. I love baptisms. The spirit is always so strong. We then contacted this former investigator from Nepal and we'll hopefully start teaching him again next week! I'm really hoping. We also ate dinner that night with a member from Sudan and she made some very yummy food. I really do feel like I'm traveling the world here. I love Calgary for that very reason. Also on Saturday my eye was looking a little irritated but I didn't think anything of it until I woke up on Sunday and it was superrrr pink. PINK EYE. What in the world?? I was so angry that I got pink eye the day of Byrons baptism hahaha of course that would happen to me. Things just went downhill from there. We then had a lesson cancel on us before church. And then we got to church and the bishopric was freaking out because they didn't have bread for sacrament, luckily a member had brought me and Sister Sagers lunch so we just gave them the bread from our lunch to use. Then the bishop came up to us and was like "Oh by the way you don't have a ward mission leader anymore." All I'm going to say is thats a good thing, we needed a new ward mission leader from the first day I got here. So after a stressful day at church we set up for the baptism. Byron ended up being super late which caused us to stress a little...more like a lot hahaha. And then our former ward mission leader decided he didn't need to print out programs for the baptism...sooooooo that made me a little angry but I held it all in, so be proud of me haha but the most important part happend. Byron was baptized, he recieved the Holy Ghost and everything is great! Shauna also had the chance to come to the baptism so hopefully she felt something there.

I love this gospel. I love serving a mission for our Heavenly Father and seeing His work move forward. I know the church is true and that we can live with our families forever.

I love you family so much! I hope you have a great week and that you had a fun camping trip!

Love

Sister M.

Sister Pace and Sarah

About to go outside in the rain 

After they got back from walking around in the pouring rain.

 Before Byron's Wedding

 Byron's Family

Byron's Baptism

Sister Simmons, Sister Sagers, Sarah and Shauna

Hey Family!

 

How are you??? How's the weather back home? Its been raining here on and off for the last 5 days. So we ended up not going to the zoo yesterday....sad! I really wanted to see some giraffes, oh well maybe another time. So this week was really gooooood.

On Monday we had a lesson with a less-active family who never lets anyone from the ward into her home, so we take any chance we can get to teach them. We had the little kids draw a picture of the Liahona and then we talked about following the Prophet and making our faith stronger by listening to his words. During the lesson one of the little girls Addison came up to me and just looked at me and said "I like you, I'm glad you come over." At the end of the lesson she gave me her picture of the the liahona. It seriously made my day. She's SO cute! Its always nice to know that people like you hahaha especially after a hard day of no one listening to you.

I felt like the whole day of Tuesday was focused on how much God loves his children. We had a lesson with a lady who hasn't been to church in like forever and doesn't want to change her smoking habits. We were teaching her the restoration and I just felt so much love in that little room of hers. No matter what happens in our life we can always change and feel Gods love for us. That night we had some members in our ward invite their non-member friends over for dinner and let us teach a lesson. They were the cutest family.....the only problem is they're not married. That seems to be a huge problem here. We find some really great families but the parents aren't married and they don't ever plan on being married. People need to learn to stay committed to things in their lives.

On Wednesday we tried to contact some less-active members that went MIA on us. We haven't heard from them in weeks and they weren't returning our phone-calls. So we just showed up at their house and asked how they were doing. Like I said before people are not committed to things even if its a less-active member who needs to just start praying and reading again. But luckily we got another appointment with them and hopefully they can start making steps to become closer to Christ.

Thursday was just not very good. Bad Thursday. We were walking around and it started raining....pouring actually and it was cold. And then people weren't home and people were cancelling their appointments with us and then to make it worse our dinner appointment cancelled on us. So at one point I just sat down on the sidewalk and wanted to cry. And then I had this thought....what would crying do for me? Whats the point of being disappointed? Heavenly Father has blessed me so much in my life that there is no reason to be upset....its not my fault if people don't want to listen to me or my companion. So I stood up and put a smile on my face and walked in the cold windy rain with a big smile. Sister Sagers probably thought I was crazy but that's fine because I kind of am hahaha. As members of the church we need to remember how blessed we are. We then had a really good lesson with Byron and we ended up with a really good night. Having a good attitude is so important.

So on Friday as we were walking around we saw this man walking his puppy and it was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. Turns out it was part wolf! I wish I got a picture with it because it seriously was the cutest little guy. We also had another lesson with Byron that day that went really well. His faith is growing and his testimony is growing and its so exciting to be a part of it!

On Saturday we tried to contact some potential investigators but no one was home. Pretty much no one was home the entire weekend because of the holiday. But we did come into contact with some members that just moved here from the Philippines which was a little miracle in a way. The whole family is from the Philippines and they don't have their drivers licenses so they can't drive and the parents are too old to walk. So they just haven't been coming to church because they don't know who to call. They were SO happy to see us and now we'll be able to get their records into the ward and help them get rides to church. I love little tender mercies like that.

 

So I ended up seeing Sister Pace today and she took me and Sister Sagers to lunch. It was so nice of her and her friend!

 

Everything is going really well, we're just trying to find some new investigators which is definitely easier said then done but I know the Lord will bless us for our efforts. Heavenly Father loves blessing His children, we just need to do what He's asked us to do.

 

I love you all and hope you've had a great week!

 

Love

Sister M.

Family!

It was soooo good to talk to you all yesterday! I loved hearing all of your voices and being able to have a nice little chat, saying goodbye was hard but I'm definitely grateful to be out here on my mission. This week was a little crazy! I know I told you a lot on the phone but I'll just restate a lot of it.

So on Monday we had a lesson with our investigator Carlin and the lesson was great. We had some really good members there that could relate to Carlin very well and said some things that really touched him that we wouldn't have been able to say or do on our own. Sadly after the lesson Carlin said he didn't want to set up a return appointment.....I was devastated. I know he has felt the spirit during the lessons and that he had a lot of his questions answered with our lesson on Monday. He's just too stubborn to change. Its so hard seeing someone you care about not wanting to accept the message of the restored gospel. Having an investigator drop you is like having a really bad breakup but like 10 times worse...haha but really its so hard. I just have to realize that people have agency and that our job is to invite and share the gospel of Jesus Christ and then its up to them if they want to accept our message.

Tuesday was just our zone meeting and other lessons with less-active members that all went pretty good but nothing too exciting happened. Wednesday was our Zone Conference and we combined with the North Zone and the Airdrie Zone. It was so good to see friends from the MTC like Sister Wray for example I loved seeing her. Zone Conference was 6 hours long but it went by really quickly actually. I love hearing from President Nicholas and receiving instruction and training from him on how to be a better missionary. So during the conference I had this strange feeling that I was going to be called up to bear my testimony and guess what? All of a sudden in the middle of the training I heard "We will now be hearing a testimony by Sister Martin."  So I got the lovely chance to get up in front of all the missionaries and bear my testimony. My favorite thing out of that experience was looking out and seeing all the missionaries, Heavenly Father really is hastening his work and its so great to be a part of it!

So on Thursday we did our weekly planning and then started walking.....because we have to walk now.....which is good....I guess...... We found out it takes us an hour to walk to our church building. We also had another lesson with Byron that night and I'm getting really really really really excited for him and his baptism! Hopefully everything keeps going well with him. Friday we walked around Calgary, we probably walked 10 miles but we got to talk to a lot of people that we would normally not be able to talk to so that was really good.

Saturday we got the opportunity to go to the temple!! The Calgary temple is so beautiful and it was so nice to be able to go in and feel the spirit so strongly. I love the temple. We also went out to lunch afterwards and a nice man came up and offered to pay for our lunch and told us how grateful he is for missionaries and how appreciative he is of us for serving. It was very nice of him. We then had 4 lessons the rest of the day and we were pretty busy walking around trying to get to all of them. Going from driving all the time to walking is going to take some adjustment, lets be honest my feet are killing me! But I do enjoy being out in the sun. 

And then Sunday came and it was a great day because I got to talk to my lovely family and it put the biggest smile on my face. Seriously I love you all so much.

That's pretty much my week! Sorry the email is short, it really was great talking to all of you on the phone! I love you and pray for you everyday!

Love

Sister M. 

Sarah at the temple

Hi family!

How is everyone!? I miss you all but guess what?!? I get to talk to you this Sunday! YAY!!! 

That will be exciting!

So this week has been really great. Want to know why? Because its soooo nice and warm outside! We've had some really good lessons with some of our investigators this week. We taught Byron twice and he's continuing to progress and prepare for his baptism at the end of this month! I have so much faith in him. I love hearing his insights from the scriptures because they're so basic and simple but powerful, he's always teaching me things. We also taught Carlin and to our surprise a returning less-active member showed up to the lesson and wouldn't stop talking the entire time! So I don't know how much Carlin got out of the lesson hopefully something. We're really trying to teach Carlin the basics of prayer and faith. Once he can gain a testimony of our Savior and of prayer he'll be just fine. He's a really great person. The next day we had dinner with my favorite people the Maunds and they invited a non-member over and the lesson went really well, I love it when the spirit just takes over and teaches. I'm really trying as a missionary to learn to be more in tune with the spirit and I've learned its going to take a life-time to really learn to be in tune. The Holy Ghost is one of the greatest gifts God has given us, we need to remember to use that gift every single day. 

So this past Wednesday Sister Sonnenberg (my favorite old lady who makes me sing) asked us to come over and help her with her yard. We got over there and she wanted us to stack wood for her wood pile. She didn't think we were strong enough to carry wood so she had a shovel and was trying to convince us to shovel the wood. I just started picking up huge blocks of wood and started stacking and she was so surprised that me and Sister Sagers could actually lift the wood. It was really funny, she asked us if we grew up on farms. We have a good time with Sister Sonnenberg and I get so much satisfaction with making her smile or laugh. She then wanted to feed us lunch again. Do you remember me telling you about those awful sandwiches we ate? With the mystery meat? Well I found out what the meat was.....peppered liver. Yup. And so again we ate peppered liver sandwiches......thank you mom for feeding me regular peanut butter and jelly sandwiches growing up, I really appreciate it. So after that we headed over to another home to do service. We helped Brother Clark make leather pouches. I sent home a picture of me in a cowboy hat and wearing a leather vest.....that was at BrotherClarks. He loves leather work but is getting really old so we go and help him occasionally. 

Thursday was a pretty normal day of planning and seeing people. We did however have dinner with a man from Ireland. I can't stress enough how funny this man is. He's a convert and loves the gospel and his Irish accent is great. He made us a traditional meal that he would eat in Ireland and yes it did contain potatoes!.....yummm! I really was laughing the entire dinner because of how funny this man is. We then had one of our lessons with Byron that night and we got to hear is testimony of prayer and scripture study and it was wonderful!

So on Saturday we helped the ward with a service project which was helping clean up the side of the highways. I got to wear a nice orange vest and gloves and walk along a highway for 3 hours cleaning up garbage. It was great! And I'm not even being sarcastic when I say that. It really was. We had 2 of our investigators come...Shauna and Carlin. When Carlin showed up he wouldn't get out of his truck, so me and Sister Sagers went to go get him. He was smoking and was trying to hide it. I can be pretty bold with Carlin and get away with it, so I told him I would grab the cigarette and throw it on the ground or he could do it himself. He was pretty shocked when I said that and refused to throw it on the ground but I just told him I really would take it from him. He just smiled and laughed and looked at me and said "Sister Martin you ask a lot from me but ok." He then threw it on the ground and stomped on it. I was pretty happy after that. So we all cleaned up garbage and had a good time and got super sun burnt. I look like a lobster but I'm not complaining because I'm honestly loving the sunshine and warmth.

Sunday was a really good day as well. I always love fast and testimony meeting. Testimonies are powerful and I don't think I really understood how powerful testimonies are until I came out on my mission.

So anyways guess what? They're changing some things here in the mission. Soon there will be Sisters in leadership positions over different zones. They are opening up British Columbia up to Sister missionaries.....which is great! I would love to serve there someday. They're actually opening up a ton of areas to Sister missionaries with how many are coming out. I think the reservations are still closed off to Sisters but thats ok I guess. Also we now have 2.5 walking days......I have to walk! I'm excited, it will get us out talking to more people hopefully. I love seeing all of the changes happening in the mission.

Also I'm feeling completely better. I forgot to tell you that a member told me to stick garlic in my ears at night to get rid of my cold. I don't think it worked.....I just woke up smelling like garlic hahaha. I also apparently talk in my sleep all the time. The other night Sister Sagers told me I was teaching a lesson on faith in my sleep. Hilarious!

Anyways I'm really excited to talk to you next week! I hope everything is going well and that the ward is doing good! I love you all so much! 

Love

Sister M.

Sister Sonnenberg, Sister Sagers and Sarah 

Stacking wood for Sister Sonnerberg's wood pile.