A Classy Time in Canada: Patience is a Virtue

Hello dear family!

How are you? How is everything back home going? So you're remodeling the upstairs?? That should be fun :)

So this past week was awesome. So many prayers were answered. So last Monday we went and picked up the Sisters from Raymond since it was Sister Connors birthday. We drove out to Leavitt and were met by our whole zone who surprised her with a cake and a happy birthday song. My zone is the best! We all went hiking down to a creek and saw deer and Canadian geese and took lots of pretty pictures. I'm in the prettiest place in the world, I'm so lucky to be serving here in the summer when everything is getting so green.

Tuesday was a busy day with lots of good things. We had district mtg and that went well, I found lots of new scriptures that I haven't used before which helped me later when we were teaching a lady. All of the scriptures directly applied to her and her situation. She told us that all she wants is to be happy and if the gospel makes her happy then she'll do it. Best thing ever. We promised her that the gospel was indeed a gospel of happiness and that's what Heavenly Father wants for us. She told us that she was excited to read the Book of Mormon and we're teaching her again tomorrow! New investigator! Finally! We've been working so hard to find new investigators and this week was just the best thing everrrrr. We also got to go up to the Visitor Center by the temple and learn exactly what we get to do there. There are around 9,000-10,000 people that come through every summer and 30% of them are non-members. What a cool way to do missionary work for the whole world! Then we had some lessons with some members and quickly ate dinner and then went to institute with our YSA Branch. We studied the talk by Elder Holland that he just gave in conference and it's such a good talk! "The cost and blessings of discipleship" As we read the talk I realized that he mentions a lot more costs than blessings, being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not easy in the world we live in but being a disciple of Christ is the best way we can live in this world. We are so blessed to have these apostles and prophets to hear from.

Wednesday was awesome because we got to work at the visitor center! I learned so many cool things about temples in just one day. When people aren't coming through the center we just get to study and learn awesome things! I love it! Its funny because my whole life I grew up around temples and then when I lived in Calgary and Lethbridge and Taber I never ever saw the temple. Now I get to see it everyday again and I appreciate it so much more. We are so blessed to have temples on the earth. Also fun fact! I get to go to the temple this Wednesday with a lady I taught up in Calgary. She's going through for the first time and I'm so so so happy that she invited me. I saw her a week ago and she said "Sister Martin thanks for helping get back on the path." That's the best thing you can hear as a missionary. That night we had to quickly clean are car for car inspections the next day. We also drove out to Aetna...feel free to google it. Its a super cute tiny place that we cover and I just feel like its a little gold mind for missionaries. Lots of part member families and less-actives live out there so we're hoping to start working out there more.

Thursday was zone conference! We got to drive into Lethbridge and combined with the West Lethbridge zone and the Fort Macleod zone. So lots and lots of missionaries were there which means lots of my friends! I consider the people out here my family and I just love them SO much! The best thing about zone conference was President Nicholas did a whole training on the Abrahamic Covenant which was literally an answer to my prayers! Its something I've been studying lately but it just seemed too complicated for me. We talked about the 12 tribes of Israel and how it all applies to us in this day. I learned so much! It was overall just an awesome conference. Also we won the car inspection again and got extra kilometers...best thing ever......we'll be using them for Waterton today :) That night we did exchanges with the Magrath sisters. Sister Johnson came to Cardston with me and we had so much fun! She's been out one transfer longer than me and is a really good missionary. We accomplished a lot of good things on our exchange. We met lots of members and the next day we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators and then our whole district went and sang songs at an assisted living home...also lots of fun. That night me and Sister Estrada picked up a new investigator! We got permission from the temple president to have the lesson in the Visitors Center since it was closed and it was such a spiritual lesson! We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! So now we have lots of work on helping her prepare. She's awesome and has a sincere desire to change.

Saturday was good! We did some service for the lady who lives across the street from us. She's the best and might be headed down to Utah soon so she might be taking some things down for me. I'll let you know for sure though. We wrote our talks for Stake Conference.....yup talked in Stake Conference. It went really well. Both Sister Estrada and I spoke and we got so many referrals after conference it was awesome! The members here are starting to have a different mindset about conference and are getting super excited about missionary work.

On Sunday the Stake Conference was a broadcast and it was nation wide for all of Canada. Elder Holland spoke and President Eyring they said some really good things and one of our investigators came and really enjoyed it as well. After conference we were so so busy! Appointment after appointment we got another investigator as well and she's awesome! She's so ready for the gospel. We just went to her house and was super bold. I was like "Hey! the gospel is awesome and really blesses families. You should learn more." And she agreed. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

I know that Heavenly Father has been listening to my prayers and He answered them in so many ways this past week. So many miracles! The gospel is true! I love love love being a missionary and guess what?! You can all be missionaries too! Just be good examples and invite others to come unto Christ!

Love

Sister Martin