Kia ora 朋友和家庭!
I know last week sounded like I was pretty depressed, but honestly I just wanted to be real about the disappointments that come from this great work and capture my feelings in that moment. The work is continuing forward though and I am so grateful to be a part of it!
Update - According to God's will and I believe also according to our obedience as a Zone, Monday after P-Day ended, we started teaching 3 new people and we continue to find keen people to refer to the English program! This mission 100% believes obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles. We continue to see those miracles everyday even when we have those disappointments that I addressed last week.
Positives/Miracles/Blessings:
- I have yet to mention an integral part of this mission- the Tongan houses. I'm pretty sure a bucket of red and a bucket of white paint is an essential part of the moving-from-Tonga starter pack. All of the Tongan houses are painted red and white. Their fences- red and white. Maybe in the flag design. Yards- filled with flags. Garage, totally red and white. You KNOW when a Tongan lives in a house here. SO, here's the story: We got a referral for a Chinese woman and we pull up to the house and are devastated because its SO TONGAN. We went up anyway, hoping to send the referral to other missionaries if she was keen, and guess who opened the door- a Chinese woman. (Who was very NOT keen by the way). Which just made us laugh because we realized it was originally a referral from other missionaries who also got tricked into thinking this Chinese person was Tongan since she probably bought the house from a Tongan person and couldn't be bothered to change it. I know that doesn't sound too wild, but usually Tongan houses are a dead give away.
- We also got Bible Bashed by a Buddhist- so we basically got Buddhist Bashed. It was cool to feel the comfort of the spirit telling us we were doing the right thing in our faith as a man went ahead and tried to tear apart our beliefs. It was definitely a cool experience.
- We are teaching a woman named Angela and I was so close to getting her 1 year old daughter to stick out her tongue. Next time.
- New Years was cool. I'm going to be consecrating the whole next year for the Lord and that's kind of awesome.
Negatives:
- The fires in Australia are still blazing. Yesterday the air here was orange from the exhaust and it's honestly so sad to hear about. We're praying for the people there for sure.
- We went to a former member's house the other day to help her out. She is WILD. Her name is Angel and she is definitely a character. Imagine Sister Martinez, first day in the field, goes for an appointment with a Taiwanese woman who already knows she does not want to be part of this church. She sits there with her two trainers as Angel talks about people needing to believe in God but not a sect of religion, making food at the same time. Angel continues to talk at her and her companions with her super hard to understand accent, and even asks them to do the dishes for her. The experience was endearing up until the food was placed on the table. In comes gray overcooked noodles topped with squiggly beef with unidentifiable gravy and expired canned vegetables. Sister Martinez doesn't realize how bad it is since she just took the brunt of a couple months at the MTC cafeteria. Angel continues to talk about how her cooking is the best, Sister Sparrow can't stomach it. We went one more time in the trio and the food was still undesirable. Fast forward to this week. We went back to continue helping her record her experiences with God in English. She is a really entertaining story-teller, and honestly her experiences and testimony are touching. But then she went to feed us again. I always want to have the faith she knows how to cook something well, and this time it was breakfast-ish/lunch. Sister Rich and I were excited to see that the ribs (not breakfast food but that's alright) she gave us looked cooked. Then we continued to cut them apart. Totally raw in the middle. Definitely not edible. We would cut pieces off to show each other and ask if it would be 行 to eat. One of my ribs literally looked like it come straight outta the freezer. They came with a side of gray cabbage covered with some sort of sheen. It tasted rotten. We were excited to eat the oranges she gave is. We went back to our car to eat our prepared PB and honey sandwiches to wash down the Salmonella risk. It's always crazy. We know she's wild but we still love her lots. We'll see if next time we can get out of her trying to feed us.
Simple Truth
Fear is not of God.
2 Nephi 22:2
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation".
The Spirit of the Lord persuadeth to do good and comforts. It does not instill fear. This knowledge gives me strength to overcome fear.
Food Review
Chinese Plums
They're prunes!!
48/28
We went on exchanges with our STL's (Sister Training Leaders). I was with Sister Brown and I love her!!
A hedgehog in the wild. I think they are New Zealand's version of squirrels!
Love you all
马姐妹
Sister Martinez
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