December 11, 2012

Hello Friends,

How's everyone doing?

Can I just start off how I love this area? I love Logan. I love the people here in Logan. They're all just so nice! Transfers are coming up and I'm not very excited about it. I'm really hoping I don't get transferred or get a new companion. Hermana Judy and I have been having a lot of success. We're now trying to find new investigators. So please pray for us.

Any how, last Thursday we had mission conference. It was so much fun! It started at 9 am and ended around 5 pm. 9-12 was training by some missionaries and then someone came to talk to us about his life as a missionary. He was called to the Boise Idaho Mission and that he wasn't very happy about his mission call. He also had a football scholarship but lost it because he decided to come on a mission. But when ending his mission he had to start thinking about college. He was able to get a football scholarship from BYU and played for them. He talked about blessings from serving a mission. Then he told us that we're called to a certain mission for a reason. People have been waiting for US to teach them. We need to stop being selfish and bring people come unto Christ. It was a great talk though. Then we had lunch. The office staff made us lunch and it was super good. We then had a talent show. A couple of the missionaries and I did a Mexican dance. "El Baile De Los Viejitos". It was so much fun. We dressed up as Mexicans, well I didn't really have to dress up because I'm Mexican so I just put on a Mexican Pancho, wore a Mexican hat, and an old man mask. All the missionaries were at mission conference. When it was time for us to dance I was having second thoughts about it. haha, I was super nervous. The talent show was about 3  hours long. Longest talent show of my life. But it was a lot of fun. Oh and after mission conference, we got our car! Heck yeah! No more walking in the freezing cold and getting knee pains from how cold it is. :)

On Saturday we had 2 baptisms. Lucia and Elmer. Lucia is amazing! She has so much faith! I don't think I've ever met someone with so much faith. I know her and her son are going to be very strong members. Elmer who is 11 years old is even thinking about going on a mission. The baptism was very spiritual.Lucia had to get baptized 3 times because 1st the baptism prayer wasn't said correctly. 2nd because she wasn't all the way in the water. 3rd, she finally got baptized correctly. 2 of her children still aren't baptized but I know they'll get baptized soon. Steven who is 17 years old is a very difficult one. I was very bold with him and asked him..."so Steven, when are you getting baptized?". He said he didn't know. He's been going to church with his friends. :) it's great! Pray for him as well! Oh and his sister.

On Sunday we went caroling with the branch missionaries and the ward mission leader. We caroled to the less actives and out investigators. It was a lot of fun but VERY cold! Well everyone hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

 

 

December 4, 2012

Hello Everyone,

 

How are you doing? Transfers are in 2 weeks and I honestly don't want to get transferred. :/ I have a great companion and we've been doing work. :) This transfer we've had 3 baptisms and on Saturday we have 2 more. These 2 upcoming baptisms were a miracle. Last Monday we had a training by the APs and our mission president. It was about how we need to be bold with love to our investigators. Hermana Judy and I have been working with one of our investigators a lot. She would always bring up baptism but she wouldn't set a date. She said she wanted to learn more before she got baptized. So after our training we decided to use what we were taught. Be BOLD. We showed up to her house and she started asking a bunch of questions about the temple. She asked us what would be holding her back from entering the temple. My companion and I stared at each other and told her she needs to get baptized. Then she asked, "Isn't it a sin to get baptized in another religion?". Then we talked to her about the importance of getting baptized by someone that holds the priesthood. Then she set a baptism date! Score! :) She'll be getting baptized Dec. 8th. Her 11 year old son as well. That was another miracle. He wasn't very interested until we gave his mom a bunch of movies about the church. He had a ton of questions but he wouldn't ask us because he was too shy. When we had a scheduled appointment with his mom all the questions came out. He said he wanted to get baptized with his mom and he just kept asking questions like crazy! One question after the other and didn't even let us answer them until we told him to slow down and we would be happy to answer his questions. haha It was so funny.

 

What's everyone doing for Christmas? I'm so excited for Christmas. We've been invited to so many places for that day but I get to Skype my family and see them. :) If any of you would like to send me Christmas packages go ahead. :) I love packages. Missionaries love packages...and letters! My companion, Hermana Judy loves Christmas. I don't think I've ever seen someone so happy about Christmas before. It's funny to see how she acts when she hears a Christmas song. The wheather here is a bit weird. It's warm then cold. I don't understand. I guess it's a good thing because we've been walking for the past 4 weeks. Thursday we'll be getting a car. Thank goodness. I'm a Mexican popsicle! Well I hope you're all doing great! I miss you all very much! Love you!

 

-Hermana Marin

Novmeber 20, 2012

Hola everyone,

 

Yeah I know it's surprising that I'm barely updating after almost 3 months. I've just been super busy. I have a lot to tell ya'll though.

Transfers were about 2 weeks ago. I'm not in a trio anymore. I have 1 companion though. Hermana Judy. She's from Ashton, Idaho. It's about 3 hours away from Ashton. Hermana Judy used to go to BYU-I before her mission. She's waiting for a visa to Spain. Hermana Judy is great to have as a companion. We've been having a lot of fun. Oh and I'm still in Logan. Logan is super cold. You would think I'm used to the cold because I live in Idaho but no. I'm Mexican, remember that? Mexicans don't do very well in the cold. Also, we don't have a car at the moment because in the Buena Vista branch, now there are 4 sister missionaries. Our area got split and the car had to be handed over to the other sisters because of their area. Even though our area is split it's still huge. I had to talk to the APs and tell them that we need a car because it's impossilbe to get a lot of work done without the car. Also the whole walking deal is killing my knee. Every night it's swollen. But it's ok. Sacrifice brings blessings right? Of course it does. I've been seeing those blessings.

On Saturday, we had a baptism. Darian, she's from El Salvador. She's 12 years old. All of her family are baptized except for her. She was living in El Salvador with her grandmother but she finally was reunited with hre parents after years and years. Her dad baptized her and it was amazing. At the end of her getting baptized, her dad hugged her and the Spirit was so strong. I turned to my companion and my companion was getting a little teary. But really, it was very spritual. A ton of people came and they supported her. It's great to see members and non-members support someone that's gettings baptized. Next week we're having 2 baptisms. We're excited for that. Jenni who is 10 years old and knows a lot about that church and Estefania who is 22 years old. The work here in Logan is going great. But we need to look for new people to teach. Looks like we have to start knocking doors. Pray for us.

Last week we taught an 8 year old because the little girl's mom requested sisters to help her daughter understand what baptism is. Anyways, we taught her the plan of Salvation...before I go on I forgot to mention that Phoebe is ADHD. It's hard for her to focus. Towards the end, we asked her if she remembered what the pre-mortal life was. She says "it's when Adam and Steve partook of the fruit...", yes she said Adam and Steve. hahaha We all couldn't stop laughing! It was so funny. Our most fun lessons are with Phoebe. We always look forward to those lessons. We're having another lesson with her tonight.

For Thanksgiving, I'm cooking a turkey and ham. A total of 6 of us, sister missionaries, will be cooking. Please pray for us, I've never cooked a turkey before and I don't want to burn our apartment down. haha But I'm really excited for this feast we're having. I hope ya'll have a great Thanksgiving and eat a lot of turkey! :) Don't party too much now. Oh and if any of want to send me Christmas packages, you have to send them by the 30th of November. We're having a Christmas party as a mission and they're giving us our presents on the 6th of December at the Christmas party. Send them to the mission address. I'll love you forever if you send me Christmas packages. Every missionary looks forward to packages. Especially me! :) I love you all! And keep sending the letters too!

-Hermana Marin

 

 

Sept 25, 2012

Hola everyone,

 

Guess what? Transfers are tomorrow! We found out today if we're getting transferred or staying. I'm getting transferred to Logan to train Hermana Peña. I'm sad I'm leaving Brigham after we got a baptism date. It's ok, I'll come back for Maria's baptism. :) I'm going to miss serving with Hermana Faasavalu. We had a great time and laughed all the time. She's awesome and hopefully in the future I'll get to serve with her again. There's a lot of changes this transfer. The younger missionaries, meaning the missionaries that have been out less time are zone leaders and district leaders. I think that's cool. haha Anyways, today we are playing volleyball and just hanging out with a bunch of missionaries because I won't be able to come to Ogden as much anymore. Sad day. It's okay, I hope fun people will be in Logan. haha Anyone going to General Conference? I'm going! I hope to see a lot of you there and come up to me to say hi! I'll be going to a saturday and sunday session. I'm not sure what session on Saturday but on Sunday the afternoon session right in front of the pulpit. I'm super excited to hear from our prophet. :)

 

On Saturday was the cultural celebration for the brigham city temple. I was there all day! It was great! Russell M. Nielsen and L. Tom Perry were there. I saw them from up close. I felt the Spirit at the celebration even though there was a bunch of dancing, The youth did an amazing job dancing and putting everything together. I hope I can see the Boise temple's celebration on TV or something. My advice for the youth is that you should all be in it or participate in it somehow. Your testimony will grow and you'll just see. :) I also got to got to the dedication. It was great! We went to 2 out of 3 sessions. It was a great opportunity to see the temple get dedicated. Boyd K. Packer dedicated it and all I have to say is that he is a funny man. He made us laugh. Well I hope you're all doing great and send me more letters people or feel free to send me packages. ;) Love you guys!

 

-Hermana Marin

Sept 18, 2012

Hi everyone! Sorry for not updating on what's been going on. I was super busy for 4 weeks working at the temple open house. We worked Monday-Saturday from 7am-10pm. we didn't really have P-Days. I would come home exhausted. But working at the temple open house was great! I loved it even though it was stressful. haha We had a loft of spiritual experiences. I talked to a lot of non-members and I would asked them how they felt when they were in the temple and they would say they could feel God's presence and they could really feel closer to God. It was way awesome!

 

Yesterday was our first day back to work after the temple open house. We got right back to work and worked really hard to find new people to teach. This lady named Maria who we were just teaching her daughters because Maria didn't want to get taught went to the temple open house and I was able to sneak her and her sister-in-law (who's a member) to the brides room in the temple and a supervisor was there and gave Maria and her sister-in-law a lesson in the brides room and when she stepped into the brides room, she just started to cry. She felt the Spirit. The next day we got a call saying that she wants the missionary discussions. We were so happy. Yesterday, we had our first lesson with her on the restoration. My companion and I haven't taught for 4 weeks because all of us worked at the temple. So we don't know why but we both forgot the lesson on the restoration. haha But the Spirit guided us on what to say and we were able to teach it. Then I felt that I should ask her what was holding her from getting baptized? So I did. Maria started to cry and said "because I don't feel worthy to get baptized." I pulled out my scriptures and read to her D&C 18:10-12. she started to cry even more and I told her that "no matter if were worthy or not Heavenly Father still loves us. We're all children of God. And that's why Jesus Christ died so we can repent of our sins. If you get baptized your sins will be washed again and you get to start fresh, I wish I could get baptized again. It's an amazing feeling when you come out of the water." Then my companion shared her testimony about why she's here on a mission because she wants other families to have the same blessings her family has. Then she set up her own baptism date. :) She'll be getting baptized in Oct. Once my companion and I got in the car, we just started screaming from joy. haha We were soooo happy! It was such an awesome lesson! All 3 of us were crying during the lesson. haha :)

August 23, 2012

Hola!

How's everyone doing? I don't have P-Days for the next 4 weeks. I'm working at the Brigham City Temple Open House Monday-Saturday from 7 am - 10 pm. We all wake up at 5 am and be at the temple early. At the end of the day, we end up so tired and an older lady told us at the end of the day that we look like a bunch of drunk girls because of how tired we look. haha We must've looked like crap. We started on Saturday and our first day was super busy! Thousands of people came and we didn't really rest but to just eat lunch and dinner. That same day, anti-mormons came and would look for sister missionaries in the reception center and ask weird questions and start bible bashing. All we could do was just be nice and look pretty. The cops showed up and they were told to leave nicely. We can't do any proselyting which is really hard because people ask us questions. All we do is welcome people, press play in the video room, and talk to people in the reception center. Doesn't sound tiring but trust me it is! We stand all day. We end up walking like penguins at the end of the night. But the inside of the temple is amazing! So beautiful! I loved everything. We can take as many tours as we want. I try to take one at least everyday. When I go into the celestial room, I feel the Spirit so strong. A lot of people cry and it's amazing how strong the Spirit is. We went to the brides room and oh my heck. I'm not even going to think about it. haha It's too early for me to be trunky. But it's was really pretty! Yesterday over 16,000 people came. Just on one day. It's crazy! But it's amazing to ask people what they felt when they were in the temple. :0 Well sorry I don't have much time to write. I got to go back to the temple to work and help the sisters out. You all should come to the temple open house to see the temple and to see me. haha Have a great week ya'll!

-Sister Marin

August 14, 2012

August 7, 2012

Hi everyone,

 

I'm seriously getting horrible at writing everyone back and updating on whats been going on. I've been super busy with so many trainings and just doing missionary work as you all know. My companion and I have been working really hard in our area because as you all know it was dead. Now that it's towards the end of transfers...yes, transfers are coming up next week, and the area is picking up. This always happens! Towards the end of transfers, things get better.

Last week on Monday, I had training ALL day! It was ridiculous! Training from 9 am - 11 am. Then at 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. choir practice for the musical fireside. Then at 4-5:30 p.m. another training and this one was for the temple open house here in Brigham. Then at 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. we had another training/sleepover at the mission home. It was great and so much fun! After the training, it was when the fun began! We played a game a bit similar to UNO but it's so much better and we played Old Maid. Sister Hiers made us smores, it's an idea she found on pinterest. We played charades and oh man, it was sooo much fun! We laughed so much and my stomach hurt from laughing. We all bonded and it was great!

Hermana Faasavalu (my comp) and I started teaching this couple named Stivi and Carlos, they aren't married. First we were just teaching Stivi because she was more interested than Carlos was. We taught her the Restoration and we gave her a Book of Mormon. For our 2nd appointment, we asked her if she got the opportunity to read and she said she has. She said she really likes the Book of Mormon and it makes sense. She had read 10 pages. My companion and I were really impressed. We knew right then that Stivi was "golden". We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really liked our lesson. She did not doubt the Plan of Salvation. For our 3rd appointment, we decided to teach about faith. We put on a video, "Finding Faith on Christ". While the movie was playing, Stivi's 1 year old boy was puking because he had the flu or something like that. Then Carlos showed up and kept asking us questions. The questions that he asked us made us think he was going to be bashful. So our lesson wasn't going very well! The video was over finally! Then Carlos asked us questions about the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Temples, what we wear to church, etc. Oh and he asked us if we were kind of like nuns. haha Oh man, never been asked that question. Then Carlos started telling us that ever since we've been coming over to meet with Stivi, he's seen a change in her and he can feel the Spirit when we come over. He said he'll do anything to change and have a better relationship with Stivi. When he said that, it really surprised me! They both want to come to church. They want to have over for dinner on Thursday and on Saturday have us over for their BBQ. Then on Monday, we are going to temple square with them because they want us to come with them. I talked to President Hiers (mission president) and talked to him about going to temple square. He said we could go and supports whatever we decide to do. :) So on Monday, we'll be at temple square. I'm SUPER excited! :D So the lesson with them turned out GREAT! Yesterday, we had district meeting. We played knockout and a couple other games with water balloons. After district meeting, we were on our way to Wingers for lunch and we got a text from Stivi asking if we were over the age of 18. At first I thought they wanted us to buy beer or something or probably try to hook us up with one of Carlos' friends. hahaha Then we get another text message from Stivi asking us if we could be witnesses because her and Carlos have decided to get married. I had to read the text message 2 times because I couldn't believe it. It's something Hermana Faasavalu and I have been praying about it because in order for them to get baptized, they have to get married first! I tried calling Stivi to see if they were at the court house and we just decided to go to the court house and there's like 3 court houses in Brigham. We went to one of them and they weren't there. We tried another one and we finally found them. We were 2 minutes late so we barley missed it! They had already gotten married! I'm just glad they got married! That was one miracle we had yesterday! It was great! I was so happy for them!

Today we have a training from 4 - 8. It's for the temple open house. It starts next week! It's so exciting! I know I've said that about 10,000 times but I'm only speaking truth. haha About 400,000 or more people are coming! Hope to see a lot of you there! Love you all and miss you!

-Hermana Marin

July 26, 2012

Hola!

On Tuesday, it was Pioneer Day. In the state of Utah it's a Holiday. On Monday night we stayed the night with Sisters Iverson and Howard so we could go to the parade that was going to go on on Tuesday morning. The parade was so much fun! Longest parade of my life. While walking towards the end of where the parade was going to end, we got stopped by these girls that got SUPER excited to see 2 Sister missionaries. They started talking to us and got to know us a bit. They turned out to be hilarious and they want to have us over for dinner sometime. We met a lot of new people. Everyone says hi to us and it's nice. After the parade, we went to play volleyball at a church building. There were so many of us missionaries. There was this elder that fell asleep on the couch and Sister Saunima'a and Martinez made cupcakes. These 2 other Elders got Sister Martinez to smear a cupcake on the Elder. Oh my heck! The Elder woke up and had no idea what was going on. He had frosting all over his face and since he had no idea what was going on, he ate the cupcake. Everyone just started to laugh. He didn't even see the sister that put he cupcake on his face. It was so funny. We have a great time every P-Day. I love P-Day but not as much as missionary work that's for sure. :) And I'm not being sarcastic. haha

Yesterday, we had zone conference from 9 am - 4 pm. It was a very long training. I really needed that training. They talked to us about being obedient, talking to everyone we see, and we did some role playing. I mean real role playing with people that we meet every day. The APs are awesome. They always teach us a lot of spiritual things. I took a lot of notes and I know it'll be helpful throughout my mission.

Lately, the weather here has been crazy! It's been humid when it usually is super dry! My companion has been used to the humidity and while walking, I'm sweaty and sticky and all that nasty stuff and my companion isn't sweaty or anything. I'm like dying and she acts like nothing is wrong. haha

Um...on Monday we have a training for the temple open house. I'm super excited and I don't care how long the training is. I'm just super excited to work at the temple open house. Time is going by fast, don't you think? I think so! On Saturday, I've been out for 4 months already. Next thing you know I'll be home giving my homecoming talk. haha

Well I hope everyone is doing great! I miss you all and keep the letters coming! I hope to hear from you all soon. :)

-Hermana Marin

July 17, 2012

Hi!

 

How's everyone doing? I hope you're all doing great!

 

Transfer day was really crazy! I woke up early to finish my packing because I was super tired the night before. I had to be at the mission office at 8:30 am for a training since I was going to be a trainer. The training was a lot of fun and they basically told us to be a great example and be obedient because whoever we trained would end up basically like us after their 12 weeks of training. Anyways, we met at the chapel to see who we were going to train because there were sooo many of us. Other missionaries that weren't training were there too because they wanted to see who was training who and were the new missionaries that came in. the chapel was full. I'm training Sister Faasavalu. She's from Samoa but left from Hawaii. She's awesome. She has the desire to learn Spanish. She's a lot of fun. She was going to ASU and had a scholarship playing basketball for ASU but I think she lost her scholarship because she decided to come on a mission. I know the sacrifice that she made by coming on a mission, the Lord will bless her after. I've already seen the blessing I've received while being on my mission.

 

I'm back in Brigham and the work is slow right now. Not a lot of people to work with so we're tracting a lot and setting up a lot of appointments with new people we meet. So pray for us to find new people. :) Our car broke down Friday so we are car-less. We've been walking around and it's sooo hot outside. It's ok, I'm getting a work out. haha We've found a couple people by just walking so that's good. I came to realize that our car broke down so we could walk and find people. The weather here has been crazy. It's bi-polar like Idaho weather. Yesterday it was really hot and while we were at our dinner appointment in Willard it just started pouring outside. We walk no matter what the weather is like.

 

Anyone going to the Brigham City temple open house? If so, I hope to see you all there. We'll be working there and the temple is very pretty! It's about done and I think they're just putting flowers and cleaning inside the temple. We're so excited!

 

Well hope to hear from you all soon!

 

-Hermana Marin

July 10, 2012

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't sent an update! I've been super busy. Being in a trio is not easy and I have to cover 2 stakes. These last 2 weeks have been crazy. It's hard being with my companions. They don't get along with each other and I'm stuck in the middle. I'm trying very hard to help them but it looks like it's getting worse. Thank goodness transfers are tomorrow. Guess what? I'm going to have daughter! I'm training already! 3 months out and I'm already training! I'm super excited/nervous! The sister I'm training is from Hawaii. Doesn't know Spanish. Please pray for me. I'm going to teach her a lot of things and let have some fun too. There's 31 new missionaries coming in tomorrow. 31 of us are training. Crazy huh?

How was everyone's 4th of July? Mine was a lot of fun. I went to Morgan with a couple polynesian sisters. They are hilarious and a lot of fun. There was a parade and a carnival so we went to them. No we weren't breaking the rules. At the carnival,  we helped out and worked with kids. It was lot of fun. I love these sisters!

Well I have to go and hope you're all doing great!