🕊🕊🕊🕊 Doctrine & Covenants 18:15 🕊🕊🕊🕊

Hey everyone!!

So this week was AMAZING!!! I know I say that every week but if you keep reading you'll see why!

So to start I had my final Zone Conference this week and it was amazing because we talked about Worldly fear vs Godly fear and how we can use Godly fear to cancel out our worldly fear. We talked about the example in church history of Martin Harris losing the 116 pages of the translated manuscript, and the verses in the Doctrine & Covenants where the Lord rebukes Joseph Smith (D&C 3:7-10). I love these verses so much! Not only does the Lord say "you should have been faithful; and he (God) would have extended his arm and supported you against all the finery darts of he adversary; and he would have been with you in every time of trouble." But he says "But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which though hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work;" (the work of translating the Book of Mormon into English)

It amazes me every time how merciful God is. If it was me, I would have been just praying to not have eternal consequences for directly disobeying God. But not only does God offer forgiveness, but He offers to give back the gift of translation! How incredible is that!? He is willing to pretend it never happened if Joseph Smith would repent. And so it is with us. He offers to pour us our blessings if we will put our trust in Him, and obey Him. Fear God more than man.

I also gave my departing testimony at Zone Conference, that was hard. And scary. I am the only one going home in my zone so it was just me. When I got up there though the only thing I could think to say was "I don't know how I got here." Haha I gave the rest of my testimony after that but the truth is, this has all gone by so fast. I feel like this is the best dream I've ever had and I don't want to wake up! I love being here, I love being a missionary, I love having no other obligations but to look for people I can serve and teach about Jesus Christ and bring the joy of the gospel too!

Which leads me to one of the BEST MIRACLES of my whole mission that happened this week!

Over a year ago in Tooele there was a family I taught that I really connected with. The mom, Tasha, lived with her boyfriend Joe and had two of the smartest bits I've ever met, Sebastian and Tristian who were 8 & 9. I LOVED this family, and I loved teaching the boys. They knew how to help their mom, who did the best she could, and they wanted to get baptized. Their mom Tasha is not a member and neither is Joe. But she thought it would be really good for the boys, and she had always enjoyed coming to church. So we put them on date for baptism, and right before their baptism I got transferred out of the area. About a week later I got a call from the elders telling me they couldn't find them and they had disappeared.... Luckily I had a phone number and was able to get in touch with Tasha and talk her through some things for the next couple weeks. They were staying with her mom

in Murray temporarily and she asked me to send missionaries over there (because it's out of our mission), but her family was anti and by the time they got there the boys didn't want to be baptized anymore because of some of the stuff they had heard. Tasha was devastated.

I haven't heard from Tasha much since until about a week ago, she sent me an email saying THE BOYS ARE GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!! 😊  I could not believe it! President Palmer gave me special permission to go out of our mission for the baptism. Tasha didn't know I was coming so it was

a complete surprise! When she turned around and saw me they all ran and gave me a huge hug and Tasha and I both started crying. HaHa I was so happy!!! The baptism was beautiful. I didn't want to leave, as I sat there watching the boys I felt like I was back at the beginning of my mission again and I still had months left instead of just weeks.... It was so peaceful. Tasha and Joe and the boys are all doing much better now than when I first met them. In Tasha's words, "We are finally happy now."  And that's what the gospel of Jesus Christ does!! After Christ's crucifixion his voice spoke to the people of Nephi and

said "...Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted that I may heal you?" That is what our Savior wants to do for us, he wants to heal us!! I know that in time Tasha and Joe will both come to know Christ through this gospel and it will be because they will see their boys living it and being examples of Christ. 

More than I know anything I know that this gospel is true. There is not much left in the world nowadays that is pure or true. But, this gospel is pure, and it is true. It has been a long road for all of them but they are slowly getting there. I am so grateful that I was able to see Tristian and Sebastian get baptized and to see Tasha and Joe doing well!!  GOD IS SO GOOD!! 

This was the last baptism I will see on my mission and it was perfect. I love this gospel so much and I love being here and getting to see that my service out here really did make a difference for this family.

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Abby Martinez

We made a bunch of banana bread last p-day for the people we teach and the members who help us out a lot!
👌🏼 It had tons of mini chocolate chips so it was bomb. 👌🏼

Zone Conference

Having Fun @ Zone Conference

Joe, Tristian, Sister Abby Martinez , Sebatian , Tasha

Sister Milligan's Birthday Cupcakes

🕊 The Spirit Cares 🕊

This week was great!! We had an amazing lesson with Sebastian! The member we brought, Kaeli just got home from her mission and in our lesson this week she promised Sebastian that when he prayed he would get his answer about being baptized THIS WEEK. Well, yesterday at church she asked him about it and GUESS WHAT he got his answer!!! He is so excited to get baptized! His mom is totally on board with it but he still has to talk to his dad. He also has a friend in his theater class at school that recently got baptized who he said will give him scriptures to read to help him! He is such an awesome kid and it's so cool to watch him gain confidence in the gospel and see him realize that he has a testimony! 😄 it's just so great!!

My companions and I had an interesting/funny experience with the Spirit this week. I say interesting because one of the things that I have been amazed to learn on my mission is how the Spirit works and how he tells us things simply by being present or not. So here's what happened. My companions and I were trying to plan a family home evening lesson for this family we had met the night before. We didn't know much about their spiritual background, just that they use to be active in their old Ward and we're not coming to the new ward. So we knelt and prayed together as a companionship and asked to be inspired as to what message we needed to teach this family. Well ... we sat there for several minutes and one of my companions looked at me and said "I'm gonna be honest I didn't feel anything." I didn't feel anything either, but we had to come up with something! So eventually, we came up with a rough plan, but I didn't feel good about it. We were all trying to figure out why this didn't feel right. Then one of my comps said "is there something wrong guys? Do we need to talk about something?" I love both of my comps so much and look up to both of them because they are amazing women and hard working Missionaries ... so I didn't have any issues. But as we started talking we realized that the problem was we all felt the same way about each other, and in turn were intimidated and a little self conscious! Haha as we talked and shared our feelings with one another those insecurities went away and when we prayed again we could feel the Spirit come back and we were able to revive the inspiration we needed and our family home evening that night went great! The Smith family felt the Spirit and they really started to open up to us.

I think this is so funny because this is totally a girl thing and I'm pretty sure elder's don't have this problem. Hahaha 😂 But the moral of the story is that God is involved with every aspect of our lives and really does care. At first I thought it was silly and bit ridiculous that the Holy Ghost cared about whether or not we talked about our feelings or insecurities to each other, after all we were still working. But in order for us to work more effectively as a team and be unified, and help each other come closer to Christ we needed to learn to genuinely love and not just respect each other a little more. Both of my comps aren't use to talking about their feelings, I usually wear mine on my sleeve. So I'm excited to make them my new best friends. These are my last two after all. 😏 haha

Overall we had an amazing week! We had a meeting with our stake presidency yesterday, our stake president just got back from a stake president council with Dallin H. Oaks where they talked about how we need to start focusing more on how to help the older youth and young adults do missionary work because when it comes to missionary work, that is the age group when most people join the church. This is so true, we are teaching Sebastian right now and the impact and potential that he has on his family and friends from his example is amazing. So that was really cool to get talk about! I'm super excited for this new focus in the stake!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember that I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Abby Martinez 

This is how my hair turned out from those corn rows last week:

Tales of the Stripling Sisters 💪 🏼

Hey everyone!!!

Holy cow this week was EXHAUSTING. I've never been more tired in my life. It's like I never go to sleep. I get so tired during the day now that I can't think straight and I feel terrible for my companions because I'm the only one that knows the area so I need to be able to think! It will all be okay though. Yesterday at church one of the speakers told a story about how someone asked President Hinckley, when we was newly called to being the prophet, "How do you keep up with it all?" To which he said, "I don't! I travel through so many time zones that I'm asleep when I'm suppose to be awake and I'm awake when I suppose to be asleep! But I'll tell you a secret, I just keep going." That was the spiritual kick in the butt I needed. Towards the end of a race right before the kick is when you feel the most exhausted and you don't think there's anything left to kick with, but there always is if you dig deep enough.

We had a great first week in our companionship though. I love Sister Zee and Sister Milligan so much. Our first night together was an absolute miracle! We decided to drive out to Copperton to contact a couple referrals we had, but as we were driving past this apartment complex a name came to my mind of someone we needed to talk to in there. So I pulled in, and on our way up we ran into a woman who was trying to get this massive heavy couch up the stairs with just our Elder's Quorum President! We quickly offered our help and after about an hour or applying the Uchdorf method (Lift where you stand) we were able to get that huge couch up 3 flights of stairs and through a very narrow door frame. The miracles in all this though was that the woman with the couch, Sister Price, had actually been calling and texting everyone she could think of to come help lift this couch and we just

happened to walking by!!! I'm so happy I listened to that first prompting from the Spirit to pull into those apartments even though I though it was for a completely different reason.

Another Bonus to all of that: a week ago we had tried contacting one of her neighbors who had expressed interest to another member of the ward about learning more but when we went by he said that he was just messing with them, told us he didn't trust people who don't drink alcohol, and told me I was on drugs because I have large pupils and needed to get my eyes checked. 😂 But he came out and saw us helping Sister Price and he came over to help! I even gave him a high five afterwards and he accepted it although you could tell he felt awkward. Haha, I thought it was really funny, I can't imagine what he was thinking but I hope his heart was softened. At least now he knows Mormons are also very helpful!

We also had our first lesson with Jason this week and it was AMAZING!!!! We taught him the message of the Restoration, which is so powerful because it's the story of how truth was restored to the earth. I am so grateful for this event because without it we wouldn't have the church today and we wouldn't have the Book of Mormon or a living prophet or the priesthood or any of the other gifts Heavenly Father has given us to lead us and guide us back to Him. This is one of the most important events in all of history. Jason was in tears and told us how he knew for himself that this was the truth, having been on both sides of the fence and analyzing both sides, this is what he has chosen to believe for truth. That made me so happy to hear him say that. He told us that February 27 was the first time he had prayed in years with the desire to really know. He had been satisfied with not knowing and being complacent for years. But on that day he knelt down and prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw.... He told us he received a very powerful witness for himself and he knows now, independent of everyone else, that this is true. I know for myself as well, independent of all other testimonies, that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and they called him to be a prophet, to translate the Book of Mormon, and to restore the Lord's church here on the earth. I have prayed to know and received my own witness from the Holy Ghost, the testifier of all truth, that these events really did take place. I know this with all my heart and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share this gospel, this good news with others who are searching for the truth.

I hope you all have a fabulous week!! I got an email this week with the subject title "final countdown" hahaha I know it's coming fast, I have 5 more beautiful weeks left in the full time service of the Lord!! I'm trying not to think about it, while also trying to think about it so I can prepare... its weird. But great! I know God loves me and will help me figure things out. And He will do the same for you!!! I hope you all have a great week and remember to turn to the Lord for help and answers! He is always will to give answers to those who ask in faith!

Love,

Sister Abby Martinez

P.S. I slacked on taking pictures this week. Our district participated in I ❤️ West Jordan day!! We helped plant trees at a park! That story would take another email to tell though... bottom line, it takes at least 4 missionaries to plant a tree. Also, sister Zee corn rowed my hair!