Transfer!

I got transferred to WASHINGTON! A city just over a few miles... not too far :) I will still be serving in the VC, but not living in the temple apartments anymore :( I will live in my area, but that has its perks! We will be in the basement of a members home. And we are driving a brand spankin new white Jeep! You know... for all the dirt roads we will encounter! Haha not so much, it will probably be transferred to an area that is in real need of it. And my companion is Sister Pearson again! The one from New Castle, England! I was in a trio with her for awhile. I'm excited to be with her again. Her English accent is more Scottish. Reminds me of Adam's accents ;)

Oh and also! Before I forget - there will be a change of address for our Utah St. George Mission Office. Effective July 18th, our new address will be 881 South River Road, St. George, UT 84790.   No mail can be sent from the 13th till the 17th of July :( Sorry about that!! 

I hope you all had a great 4th of July!!! We went to a few ward parties in the morning in our stake (one started at 6:30 - the weather was SO nice!) and then we had an AWESOME zone meeting (I just love my zone. They're the best meetings ever), and then we went on shift at the VC. The director (Elder Watkins) got us all catered Chick fil A :) yum! It was pretty quiet the whole night there so we watched a lot of church movies. And then watched the fireworks with the beautiful temple from our apartment :) 

And we have been getting RAIN the past few days!! SO beautiful! It was thundering and just pouring down! First time it's actually been like a mid-west storm since I've gotten here! We all went out of the VC and started playing in the rain. We felt like the lady in that movie "The Windows of Heaven" ...the tithing one with Lorenzo Snow in St. George. Watch it! It's good. We were probably acting just like her when they got rain. 

So I have a pretty cool story about a woman who came in the VC not too long ago: 

Sister Watkins (Directors wife) came in the back with a woman next to her and said, "Sister Martin, this lady wants to learn more about he church. Will you help her?" Yay!! I just love hearing those words. 

This woman is from Zurich, Switzerland (so I automatically liked her since I love Switzerland). All the people from Europe come in with their hiking boots on, hats, and nice cameras - since they are always coming from the national parks. So I kind of already knew she was European! She is Christian and speaks German. I asked her if she preferred a sister giving her a tour in her native language but she insisted that English was fine. She came in very interested and prepared by the Lord. She said she had already visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City THREE times! She said was enthralled with the unity and love in the church.

I asked her what brought her here into this Visitors' Center and she said she wanted to come because she loves the felling that is in these places. I explained to her that this is what we call the Holy Ghost and told her of the importance of it. She also said that she loves learning about our beliefs and thinks that everything is very interesting. It was pretty neat because she didn't want the history of how the town came to be or any small chat - she just wanted pure doctrine. 

I gave her a tour of the temple pictures and of the Savior of the World room (pictures depicting Christ's life and a model of Jerusalem). I told her about the Book of Mormon. she asked if she could have one! And she was SO excited to read it. 

On our way to get the German Book of Mormon she mentioned that she still wanted to go inside the temple. I guess someone had told her that if she wears a badge we can taker her through. I had to break the sad news to her. I told her that because it's the Lord's house, we need to prepare ourselves to enter in. And I told her that if she prepares herself, she can one day go though the temple. 

I started to talked to her about missionaries that can visit her and help her on her way to the temple and described some steps in the process, such as baptism. She then asked me if it's a difficult process to be a member and if you had to be born and raised in the church in order to be a member. I kindly and quickly corrected her and said that we have baptisms in this church ALL the time and told her of the simplicity of the process. She was extremely excited to hear this!

She also asked me what I was going to pursue after my mission and then asked if she could stay in touch with me (she was just doing all the work for me!). Absolutely! Along with that I explained the process of me teaching her via phone call or email and sending the missionaries in Switzerland to her. I then invited her to be baptized. she kind of thought about it for a second and sweetly replied, "Yes, yes. But let me read this Book of Mormon first!" 

I will update you on this wonderful woman and her progress in the gospel :)

The Lord really is preparing people all over the world to hear His word. Even those Europeans who sometimes aren't the most receptive... so really this was a miracle! I have come to realize the importance of being worthy every minute of every day for when the Lord places one prepared on our path.

Thanks you for your continued prayers and support :) I love you.

Much love, Sister Martin

Sister Sordes (French) and me - twins!! :)

Sister Shafer (German) and be at Brigham Young's Winter Home.

Me and the kids of another one of our baptisms.