WEEK 23!!! "WE CAN FORM A RAMA (Branch)!!!" NO COINCIDENCES IN THE LORD'S WORK!!

ADA's BAPTISM!!!!!!!! That's her husband next to her :) Hopefully he'll be next ;)

One of our member's houses that I have to duck to get into <3

The ducking house!

Ada and her aunt getting ready to get dunked!!!

​JUST FOUND OUT WE"RE GOING TO BE A RAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes Hermana White is wearing Hermana Pincock's nametag - she forgot it at home and we were in Bakersfield for the baptism so we ran to their apartment and she borrowed her spare one :) )

Yes that's salsa, yes I eat it, yes I like it.....no, it's not very spicy... but it is a little bit!!!

My AWESOME Comp Hermanan White

Sunset rain and a tree!

Meagan Martineau	3:15 PM (7 hours ago)

Hello Everyone!!!!!

Thank you for all the hellos that you give to my mom, and Mom, thank you for forwarding them on to me :) Dad, thank you for the email and for sharing your testimony about how God works. I have a little story about that later in this email :)

I am so excited to get to talk to you next Sunday!!! So we will be going to a member's house to use their computers and iPads. We know where we're going, so that's all worked out :) We will be talking at 7:00 pm your time, I hope that works!! And it will only be about 30-45 minutes long. I don't know if they have facetime on their devices, if so I will use that :) Just have them both ready to go I guess!! But apparently we will call you Sunday morning for final details, just a quick, here's what's going on phone call. I don't know when exactly or how that will work, so just be ready to answer the phone Sunday morning and then to talk at 7 pm. :) 

So Ada got baptized yesterday!!! It was so good!!! And her family came too!! We are hoping and praying that her baptism will soften the hearts of her husband and 2 daughters that don't want to be baptized. One of her daughters does want to be baptized so we will have to teach her and see how that goes :) We are so excited!! It was such a nice baptism!! She was baptized at the same time as her aunt who was taught by our zone leaders and who was married at the same time as her as well!! It was such a nice service!!! 2 more souls saved :) I love this work so so much!!! There are miracles just flying around everywhere!!

So at the baptism we were talking to someone from the Stake because a man - priesthood holder - was at church today in Arvin that hasn't been there before. Turns out he just moved here and is our 4th Melchizedek Priesthood holder!!! Ya know what that means???????? WE CAN FORM A RAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Branch) We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!! Hopefully we will be able to get our own building soon instead of using an old Veteran's Post with American Flags everywhere!!! There are NO coincidences in the Lord's work!! 

Also so the other day we were walking down the street and there was a lady so we stopped and talked to her. Her name is Adriana. We found out that she is a member and her whole family are members but they haven't been to church for 5 years because when they moved here 5 years ago they never knew where the church was. So we told her and she was really excited!! Then we found out that her 10 year old son is not baptized so we are teaching him now and he has a baptismal date for May 28!! We are super excited!!! The family is so cool!!! Except for the fact that they said they were coming to church and we stopped by their house before church and they said they were coming and then they didn't come.... That's the thing about Latinos. They lie. Right to your face with no guilt or shame. It's kind of frustrating sometimes because they just tell you what you want to hear... Oh well, we'll figure it out :) And that family that we found that was our dream family from exchanges actually isn't our dream family..... They are really cool and will let us in and share our messages but we're not sure if they're willing to change or not... We'll have to see how it goes this week... Pero, we did find our real dream family through that family that we thought was our dream family!!! It's their next door neighbor that has all the same family qualifications!!!! And the daughter is a member!!! Her brother is so cool and SO READY!!! He already believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet!! He may not understand what that means, but that's what we're here for, to help him figure that out!!! It's funny how the Lord works sometimes!! He doesn't always give us exactly what we want, we have to work for it a little bit, but we did and we are seeing the fruits of our labors!!! There are so many cool things happening here in good 'ol Arvin!!! I love this little town so much and all the people in it!!!

I am very sorry to hear about what happened... I will definitely keep them all in my prayers. Not going to lie, I did cry when I heard about it, but I will be fine. I just hope that everyone else is ok. Please send them all my love, especial to the Burn family <3

I love you all so much!!! I know the church is true!!! God loves us!!! Never forget that!!!

Love siempre,

Hermana Martineau <3