Oh my glory people! This has been a week!!!

But i need to start with the wildest news every GUESS WHO MOVED INTO MY AREA????????

RYAN AND BINA AHHHHHHHHH THEY’RE BAAAACKKKK!!!!! WOW God must really know i need them in my life!!! 

Anywho …..

Also i never knew but if your wondering oregon has sooooooo many squirrels its crazy so ya 

Tuesday was a day… we were running around all morning because all of our lessons were like on opposite sides of the area heh! We had District council and we are the only sisters and we have 4 elders and they are a bit contentious so we’re making plans on how to help our district out lol they need some fr help! 

Wednesday hmm we had a lesson with our friend on date Amirah! Shes awesome! 

Thursday oh my goodness! This day was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. For zone conference we had a general authority come visit our mission! Elder David P. Homer! And part of this, president chooses like 5 missionaries out of all 3 zones to have an interview with Elder Homer! And the night before i got a call from president asking if i would meet with him! So Thursday morning i met with elder homer and the Spirit hit me like never before! He said everything i needed to hear and i was just overwhelmed by the love that i felt from him and from God! It was such a cool experience! Then we had the regular zone conference and it was also just sooooo good like the whole day was just filled with the spirit! Urgahhh it was such a good day! I wrote like 8 pages of notes!!!! 

Friday we were walking in down town salem in an alley way thingy (sounds safe doesnt it lol :0) and this dude in a garage stopped us and was talking to us and he told us he sings and so he asked if he could sing for us and we said ya and so he full throttle sang it was wild peep the google photos for a video of it lol (found out later he is a super less active member lol) 

Saturday was a longg day! Lots of knocking doors and calling people but we went and got sandwiches for lunch whoot whoot 

Sunday was such a good day! We had church!!! It was actually great meetings so thats good!! And we had dinner with the elders and some members so it was a gooooood time! And we had a lesson with vickie. her house smells awful we choked the whole time… she said next time she will give us a porcelain doll so we will always remember her….

Anywho good day 

Im not sure if I’ve shared this scripture before or not so i hope not lol! But at the end of Ether 12:6 it says, “…for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” And i think this is just soooo cool but also sooo hard because we need those moments where we are a bit shaken up on the play to have that witness of the miracles God brings. This is kind of whats playing out in my mission, like the beginning of this transfer has been rough (seems like they always are heh) but what Elder Homer told me and what I felt at zone conference was a witness of Gods miracles to me. Sometimes it seems like the trial of our faith lasts forever but because of Jesus Christ our best days are ahead and our witness of Him will come!!!!! Just keep going

Ok love you bye! 

Sister Martin out

Hello hello! Its transfer week and byebye royal oaks its been fun!! Love these weird people here

Im here in Salem 1st area (still in Keizer Zone) its literally just the area right next to royal! Im with sister shirley and shes this is her second transfer so technically im training her (idk who thought that was a good idea ) 

Shes very awesome tho! 

(Sister beauchat is training in royal oaks so prayers up to her haha)

Butttt last few days in Royal oaks went like this —

Tuesday – saw many little miracles! I saw this random less actives name and told my comp to call him and he was super happy to hear from us and later texted us and said he usually doesn’t answer unknown numbers but felt he should, and he said now he’s going to start coming back to church!!!! 

Wednesday was so sad! Had to say goodbye to some people well only like 3 lol but we went and said bye to ryan and bina and glory, it was so sad 🙁 they have just been such a blessing in my first 2 transfers of my mission! Bina said a prayer for us and it was just a super special experience hearing her pray for us! They kept being like are you ever going to come back and i was like oh my ya just to see yall! Anywho im going to miss them so much

Thursday was transfer day! And it was such a long day but its been hard because all i know is royal oaks so now im kind of going into everything not knowing anything and i dont know how to like best help becasue i dont know this area you know but im still driving which is fun! And the Willamette river goes all through this area and we go do our morning calls and studies there so thats pretty but makes me want a fishin pole and i want to catch some fish lol 

Oh my glory also they have the cutest church building here!!! I have a pic of it in my photos! Its so darling i love it 

Friday started the day off strong lol then we had a member lunch at a lil mexican restaurant and my comp has celiac and turns out she ate some gluten we didn’t realize and then a few hours later she just got more and more ill then she was like bout to barf and i said not in the car so i skirt skirted my way over to the church and kicked the elders out and she sat on the baño floor while i called our member to cancel dinner then the elders to come back for a priesthood blessing then a member to help with the blessing then the elders to tell them to wait anywho i was like cooking it up and then she got a blessing and we came home and i cleaned and read the scriptures lol 

Saturday was good and busy im just trying to figure out what im doing again lol

Sunday had church, this actually a good ward too!  

Met some people that lived in Loma Rica for a lot of years! The Fuentes’ so thats cool got to talk about a lot of people who we both knew!

Its also fun because one of the elders we ward share with was my first district leader elder wagner so its fun 🙂 

I’ve been thinking a lot about our covenants at baptism. The one that has been standing out is take upon the name of Christ. And sometimes i feel like it can be easy to just hide it, easy to just live a life not fully taking upon the name of Christ. And a scripture i read recently said, “Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ?” And this made me think, why, why would I be ashamed, Christ loves us so much that He died for us! We need to take His name upon us because He took our name upon the cross and gives us the opportunity to be made clean, to live with God again, and to be resurrected! So this next week make an effort to more fully take upon the name of Christ in your life!

Well… i love you all bye 

– sister martin

Howzit! 

Not the craziest week but heres some highlights ️

Tuesday every week we have District council and we have too much fun in there me and sister beauchat are always just bouncing of the walls in those meetings so that happened lol 

Wednesday (shout out anna perkes happy bday) anywhooo it was soooo rainy and we were soooo excited and then we made our first 3 visits and were soaking wet and dripping every time we knocked on a door and our hair looked insane and we were like yikes its going to be a long oregon fall and winter and spring… 

But it was still fun. Everyone just kind of gives us weird looks when we are walking down the street in a torrential downpour 🙂

Thursday it was also rainy and super cold again but we talked to a lot of people (most of them weren’t interested but just talking to people is a win right now!!) 

We also went to a churro food truck and got filled churros and they were sooooo yumm!!! 

Friday miracle -> our baptismal date friend David has been ghosting us but we finally got back in contact with him hallelujah! Anddd ya

Saturday was a good day 🙂 had some little miracles! Got in contact with people who seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth! And a fire member meal!! I started an uproar in the zone chat 🙂 lol OH AND the clouds on Saturday oh my glory like i cannot even describe how amazing they were like it was insane. 

Sunday was pretty good! Just veryyyy long but we had some friends at church! We sat behind Ryan and Bina and Kingson and Kiyogi and the whole time kingston who turn around and wave at us! He’s actually the cutest little kid ever!!!! And we had the best lesson with them that afternoon! We told them transfers were this week and they both were like WHATTT and they were not happy lol! Like you all need to meet them! I love them sm

So if you know me you know one of the biggest sacrifices for me going on a mission was football and this week was the BYU home opener at LES and i wanted to be there so badly 🙁 so i took some time and i thought about why i am here. Why did i choose to leave my family, friends, and football? 

This is why – i know its true. I know this is Christ’s true church on the earth. I know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that God runs this church and He needs me here. 

Joseph Smith said, “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done”

Nothing can stop this work from going forward because we each need this Gospel. We need our Savior Jesus Christ. I have seen sooo many blessings in my life and in my family because of this church and this Gospel. Everytime I think to myself why am I here, I remember what I know to be true and I wouldn’t be here if i didn’t 

This is my Y 

I know it’s true and i hope you do too

Go cougs! 

Sister Martin 

Oh hey its me again 🙂

So heres my week! I hope you enjoy 

Tuesday- so since im in in training for 12 weeks, I do zoom mentor sessions with my mentor once a week! And tuesdays was my last one rest in peace Brother Peck but we had an awesome lesson once again with Ryan and Bina! They ask so many questions about missions and Binas always like i want to go on one and im like girl you gotta get baptized then lol 

Wednesday– we woke up at 5:30 and went to the TEMPLE!!!!! Oh my it was much needed. It was so cool though because right as i walked in i just had the strongest feeling that i was home, which i haven’t felt for a few months 🙂 so it was a super special experience! 

Thursday was a whiplash day holy moly! So we started off the day with a phone call lesson with David Garcia and we planned on teaching the divine mission of Christ and Faith in Christ. And then as we were talking i was like in my head why aren’t we teaching baptism right now. *most definitely the Spirit* So i pointed at the word baptism in my book, looked at sister beauchat and shrugged and she mouthed “you want to?” And i nodded yes, we ended up talking about it and he accepted our invitation to be baptized!!!! We put him on date for September 27th and we will probably get to put his son Izaac on date too!! 

Ok but on the other side of things our friend Byron, remember him? ( he’s been taught for a year and a half, 274 lessons, and has the most interesting questions, and is just an interesting old dude and basically the whole mission knows him because he’s been taught for so long)

HE DROPPED USSSSSSSSSSSS he went around us to our ward mission leader and told him he is fully stepping away from the church   So that is the most wild thing every and very many missionaries are going to be depressed but he has his agency 

Friday my dream came true i was Hermana Martin!! And lets just say going spanish isnt my dream anymore lol i had no clue what anyone said… We had exchanges with our sister training leaders and so i got to go into the spanish area with hermana griffin!!! She used to be my roommate last transfer so we had a gooood time! It was so fun! We helped a member move and tell me why it took 4 elders to take apart a bed frame all while me and hermana griffin sweated it up going up and down the stairs moving mattresses, tables, nightstands, tvs, and bags and bags of stuff to the trailer and we organized the whole trailer. And we were in our dresses lol. I had fun though 🙂 

Saturday was a good day! We talked to lots of people and had an interesting member meal as always! Oh my and the clouds looked spectacular! Wow im obsessed!

Sunday only one friend came to church but that’s ok because as my mom says we do it for the one! But i hope you all had a good sunday and were able to go to church! 

Gratitudes

Ok so a popular scripture that i read in my personal studies this week is 3 Nephi 5:13! It says, “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Boom! And i KNOW this applies to all of us, we are all disciples of Christ. But i got thinking on what that actually means and if I fully live my life as His disciple! I wondered, how would my life need to change if I fully took on the responsibility to be His disciple. 

Then i was reminded of one of sister evans’ (may she rest in peace) favorite quotes, it says this at the end, ” I cannot fully be His Special Witness unless my life is fully special.” 

As Christs disciples we need to be His special witnesses which means we need to live special lives so we can be on the Lords errand having the desire to invite all to come unto Christ. 

As I go through everyday of my mission and for the rest of my life I am trying to fully dedicate my life to be Jesus Christs disciple and His special witness. And I invite each of you to do the same with me, because the blessings from heaven will be dumping on us! 

I love you all and don’t forget that! 

Hermana Martin 

Ok wow what a week this week was!! Heres just some highlights! Its kind of all over the place haha so good luck

Miracle from Monday and tuesday — missionaries have been trying to get in contact with a less active member Jennifer for MONTHS (a member in Yam Hill knows her from work and asked the missionaries to reach out to her months ago) and we finally have been able to meet with her 2 days in a row and shes awesomeeeee and we’re going to start teaching her son channing! 

Every wednesday we do weekly planning (3.5 hrs of planning our week) and we have been doing it at barns and nobel and now we are friends with the cafe dude (hes like 20 lol) we besties now haha (dont worry we invite him to church everytime but he says no :()

Thursday we found this super cool dude named Saron and he has the cutest little kids. He wasnt home tho on Saturday for the lesson we scheduled rip …

Friday we taught this guy over the phone, his name is Ranjit. And hes from india and speaks punjabi! He said he was a part of the Sikh religion so i asked him if hes been to the Sikh Parade in Yuba City and he was like ohh yus ive been to that and the temples there in yuba city! I was like yusss Ranjit! I also have to do all the talking because my comp cant understand his indian accent lolllll 

Ok Saturday was genuinely the weirdest day and experience of my whole mission. 

And if i tried to put it all in this email we would be here for hours. But basically we got this referral Estella and she lovesss Jesus and God right BUT apparently she is “the chosen one the north star” like obviously why didnt i realize that but not only that, she is always being followed and can make the trees move and once her soul left her body and was spinning in circles in the air and the earth shook. And another time these demons in a metal ship in the air grabbed her jeep and she yelled at it about how she was the chosen one and the demons left. Oh also she has seen Jesus at 7-elven! 

If you want more, email me and I’ll send the whole story hahaha

And thats not it for Saturday… i got stung by a bee twice and attacked by a spider and saw a bull in the back of a guys pick up truck. 

Anywho 🙂 

Sunday we had a wonderful lesson with Ryan and Bina! And my bestie kingston was having a good old time digging through my bag. Haha

Ok thank you for reading my rants everyone!

Duces

+ sister martin 

Hello there

I hope you all had a super duper week

Tuesday one of our new friends Julio came to our Book of Mormon study whoot whoot and our less active member betty took us out to get blizzards. She’s like 80 and said she gets a large blizzard everyday i was like uhh probs not the best idea …

Wednesday im just going to skip because i have the memory of a fish and even though i wrote in my journal it didnt help

Thursday we had interviews with President and Sister Parker! It was a good time we talked about Spiritual CPR! It’ll save anyone! Church Prayer and Reading the Book of Mormon!! Try it!

Friday was the annual Royal Oaks chicken and corn feed. Literally we just ate chicken and corn. And you best bet i mopped that gym floor clean 

Saturday holy moly this day was cooked! We knocked on probably 100 doors and called 200 people jk but not jking. We worked so hard and didn’t talk to many people but we tried our best. But our member got us orange chicken from love love teriyaki dab 

Sunday was a long but good day! Church was actually so good the speakers talked about miracles and in our sunday school class we talked about why bad things happen to good people and we talked about continually staying with God even through the hard but ya! Oh and also almost got hit by a bus! We had to do some driving on a sidewalk lol but were fine just a bit of ptsd lol 

Gratitudes

– people who answer the door or the phone 

– Sleeeeeep 

– The clouds!! ️ 

– safety lol 

One of my favorite quotes (hopefully i haven’t shared it before) but its “Joy is not the absence of sorrow in your life; it is the presence of Christ in your life.” I know that when I have had Christ in my life and held onto Him, i still have sorrow and sadness but I can have joy because I know Christ is my Savior and He knows what I am going through and He knows how to get through it. So continually hold onto the Savior in your life because He can be your rock!  

Well love you all and miss you  

• sister martin 🙂

dravstvuyte

(I tried to learn russian this week because we were visiting a man who only spoke russian…he didnt answer the door…) anyways 

Tuesday was an interesting day lol! Salt Lake was transferring our phone carrier from at&t to tmoble so our phone completely stopped working and we got lost. It was like a super long story but it was crazy!

Wednesday and Thursday was lots of visits and trying to find people to teach! 

Friday we had zone conference and it was so fun i love zone conference!!!! We talked so much about the Book of Mormon and it made me soar happy! Then we had such a spiritual lesson with ryan and bina and curve ball ryan might already be baptized its a whole long story! 

Then at midnight i hit a pinata! And Saturday was my birthday whoot whoot! Thank you everyone for the birthday emails!! It was actually a super fun day!! I cant even remember what we did but we got wing stop ofc! And we had some cool phone call miracles and talked to missionaries in San Francisco and new york so that was cool! The church is truly everywhere! Our inactive member bought me a mini cake and lit a candle for me and i got to talk to the family and open packages whoot whoot!!!

Sunday we had 4 friends at church. Ryan and bina couldn’t make it but they were like can you come over and tell us about church and what was taught so ofc we said ya! And we went over and we had an hour lesson and it was just the most spiritual thing ever like talking about temples and sealings and baptism and genuinely my favorite lesson ive had! Like it was all over the place but it was so cool and they were eating it up! They are the best you all need to meet them!!  

Anywho 

Gratitudes

Im grateful for you all!

Don’t forget to smile because God loves you!!

love, sister martin 

Wow this week has been a roller-coaster…

Im still in Royal Oaks ward 🙂 with sister Beauchat and this is her 3rd transfer so we both don’t really know what we are doing its fun… kind of… and its funny were both 18 (for now) and so we just got 2 little 18 year old girls running around trying to get people to church heh  

Tuesday we had a lesson with Ryan and Bina. Oh my they are genuinely soooo great! Like they are just so excited about the gospel and they always say ” we are so happy we found our church” sobs

Wednesday was so busy because sister evans had to say bye to so many people but also we had so many people to teach!!

thursday we cleaned allllll morning and had to go drop sister evans off and then do some work and then pick up sister beauchat! Also im the driver now which is fun but ive never had to worry about how many miles i drive everyday 🙂 but i love driving so   

Friday was a day… our phones stopped working. We aren’t able to receive any texts and in missionary work thats the end of the world right there. So we call Prez and he wasnt flustered like i was and he didnt know what to do so yay

Saturday we were on the phone with elder boggs the senior missionary over cars but he got thrown into IT stuff this week and trying to fix our phone for an hour. Still doesn’t work. So prayers up because we called so many people and many people were annoyed because we are “ignoring their texts” smh 

The only thing that kept me going Saturday was prayers and wing stop 

Sunday was good! We went with Ryan and Bina to a baptism and it was so great! I love going to baptisms and Ryan and Bina lovedddd it! And I just played with their son kingston the whole time haha it was wonderful

Gratitudes

– prayer

– Having a car is greattt 

– i love food and ya

– my family miss them lots  

It has been a hard week but 1 Nephi 3:7 always comes back to my head. Nephi said “…for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them…” There is nothing God gives us that we can’t do with Him by our side. And its hard to remember that but we just have to keep going and building our boats like Nephi did. Only trust in God! And His timing! And His love! And His help! And His strength! 

Bye bye 

– sis martin 

Holy moly it was hot this week!! And no one here has AC so every house we go in we’re just sweating:)))

Its my 2 month mission birthday and this is the last email of amelia’s first transfer whoot whoot! Felt like a century but also like i just got here! Transfer news comes out tomorrow and we move around thursday so i will let yall know next monday!! 

Anywho 

Tuesday our less active member angela made us banana splits! They were so good! She lowkey ended up kind of getting mad at us on Saturday so probs wont visit her very much anymore which us sad :/ then we made calls with a member (it was like 90* in her apt.) and she told me to be zen and think of myself as ice and i was like oh ok so then i said “i am ice, i am ice, i am ice” and she was like feeling cooler and i was like uh sure? 

Wednesday was kind of a slow day but it was a good day! Our friend Quime said he doesn’t know if he wants to get baptized (we think culture reasons) so we’re trying to find an Ethiopian member of the church so he can connect with them so if you know anyone hit me up! There was also a huge storm like thunder and lightning and rain and it was so fun!!!

Thursday and Friday were exchanges again. On friday there was bbq in keizer so we drove out there and it was in the boonies and it was so pretty and was kinda like yuba duba!! And on exchanges sister evans got to put the cute marshallese family Ryan and Bina on date for baptism for august 15! 

Saturday was a great day! Our ward mission leader had a bbq for all our friends and it was so fun we played corn hole with our friends and new members and it was so fun!! Then we had a lesson with our cute new friend Lindsey! She has the CUTEST SON his name is Nija he is so cute and such a flirt (hes like 4 lol) anywho ya great day :0

Sunday we had 5 people at church! Ryan and Bina and their boys Kingston and Kiogee were there and they are actually the best!! They love church and the boys are soooo cute they’re 3 years old and 4 months and we went to a convert baptism and it was so cool the Spirit was so strong!!! 

Gratitudes

– card from mamá! Made my day and it had more of my sticky tabs i ran out of blessssss up

– ice cream

– AC in our apartment

– the storm  

– package from mom and dad!!!!! They are the best  

– sister evans!! She goes home this week and im so sad because she is actually one of my best friends shes going off to play college softball tho so yay!! Love her!! 

Ok heres my spiritual thought so King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon *literal diva* was teaching his people before he gave his king title to his son. And he said “for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.” (Mosiah 4:27) so this makes sense right? Don’t run faster than you can and burn yourself out so fast. Its a steady effort. We all have so much going on in our lives and so much to take care of and so many responsibilities it can get overwhelming trying to do it ALL at once with no help. But nowhere in there does it say not to run. We still need to do all that is in our strength. And king benji said “he that should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize.” So don’t run faster than you have strength BUT RUN! 

Ok love you bye ♡

– sista martin 

Hello! Its me again!

I hope everyone had a super great week :)))

Wellll to start off the week on Tuesday night our friend on baptismal date Kaylea texted us and used very very strong words and blew up at us… and she doesn’t want to get baptized anymore (hopefully in the future she will tho) 

Wednesday was a weird day overall lol. but we went to a family we’re teaching’s house. Well the mom is a member and her kids aren’t. But their house is absolutely wild. Like one kid is always beating another one up and everyone else is screaming. And we just stand there and were like uhhh heh but it was cool we sat 2 of the semi older boys down and started playing a church video and not even kidding all the screaming stopped and the boys were locked in it was kinda cool lol. 

Thursday we visited our friend Qumie we just found again (he had been taught in the past) and he’s from Ethiopia and he is soooo funny!! We are trying to put him on baptismal date he just needs to pray about it he said 

Friday were exchanges again but the sister who i do exchanges with (sister hulet) her area got a new whip so we were feeling pretty cool in our Rav4 2026 with 150 miles on it dab dab dab. We did service for a less active member and we just broke down boxes for an hour (this lady has a shopping problem lol) 

Saturday was a good day! We had lunch with our less active grandma Betty. She made us suspicious hotdogs lol. Then we had Geris funeral it was good but super sad made me miss grandpa ron 😢  

Ok but then there’s a long story that’s funny but not important but somehow we ended up at red lobster with a member Beth and a bunch of her interesting friends. And i look over to the TV across the way and its playing the BYU vs Texas Tech CFP game 😭😭 literally i was about to cry i miss football and also that game is a bothersome one :/ but it was the end of it and then they played the poptart bowl game and it was so fun i was having a great time i love football so much!!!!! Shout out AK got to see my bruthu 

Wow, Sunday was a day… not going to lie, it’s hard being a missionary lol (but it’s also great dont worry) Like we just went from visit to visit and someone’s family member is dying and then our next member visit he tells us his wife just called 10 minutes ago and is filing for a divorce. And everyday its something different but its just so many heavy things that people tell us and we just kind of have to tell them God’s got them. Its kinda super hard! But it just strengthens my testimony in knowing Christ knows exactly what we are ALL going through. Anyways its hard but I’ve seen so many miracles and blessings in everyone’s life!!  

Gratitudes 👀

– kris! He is one of our new members and he hasn’t been coming to church but he finally came to our book of Mormon study and now he is on a missionary kick! He always texts us in the morning and tells us we can call him to help teach our friends! And he gave a talk in church this week and it was so tender! So yay for kris we love him! 

– prayer! Lots of prayer miracles this week

– good food this week!! 

– Aquaphor 

My favorite talk this week — “He Knows You By Name” by Elder Clement M. Matswagothata!! You all should go listen to it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvGsBOiKB60 It is such a good reminder that Christ knows us each so individually and knows each of our names. Not only that but because of the Atonement he knows how we feel when we go through joyful times and hard times! He knows and loves you! Don’t forget that 🙂 

Anywho that’s it for now! Till next time 

Love you all! 

– sister martin :))