WEEK 44!!! "CRAZIEST WEEK EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Frida's Baptism!!!!!!!!! <3

Arvin Group People at Frida's Baptism <3

And this is the empty apartment after we got locked out of the car and had nothing but what you see here... :)

Had to put ALL the food in the fridge so the chemicals they blasted the apartment with didn't ruin the food.

Meagan Martineau	Sep 26

So this week has been the craziest week EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Tuesday morning we go outside at 6:30 am to run like we do every morning. The smog outside normally covers all the mountains except the one you go up to get to Tehachapi, but Tuesday morning you literally couldn't even see that mountain that is RIGHT THERE, like 3 miles away. We couldn't see it AT ALL. Even trees at the other end of the street were faded. We decided we'd better not run in that so we went inside for exercise which never happens!! Then we went out to work at 12 and it was still pretty bad... We had a hard time breathing and NO ONE was outside. We talked to a guy in his car and he said the radio said to not be outside, so we prayed and decided to head in. Then we called our housing people about the cockroach situation which has been going on for a few months now. She told us to start packing and that we would probably move out that night, which we were NOT expecting. Good thing we were already in from the bad weather!! So we had to pack everything and we were going to stay with the English STL's in Bakersfield until they found us a new apartment. Well, Tuesday night when we loaded up the car and were getting ready to go to Bakersfield we were taking the last of the stuff out to the car - our packaged up food that has no way for cockroaches to enter in (we had to de-roachify EVERYTHING) - and we get to the car and...no keys. The car was locked with ALL of our stuff and the apartment was locked. And no keys. No nothing. The Elders were able to key into our apartment so we had a place to sleep thank goodness but we could not find the keys!! We searched and searched until 11pm when we found them at the bottom of a bag that was FULL and had NO WAY for them to fall into, let alone fall all the way to the bottom!!! It was crazy!!! So we were happy but it was too late to go to Bakersfield so we spent the night in our apartment again and since all our stuff was packed in the car we didn't have a change of clothes or anything for the next day.. so it was a little rough! But the Wednesday night we got to go to Bakersfield. And they looked for new apartments but couldn't find any so they are currently decontaminizing our apartment :) So we've had to drive 30 mins to Arvin and 30 mins back every day for work, but it's been fun being with the Sisters!! It's Sister Alderman and Sister Holmstead and I knew both of them before so it's been fun!! 

Then Thursday President and Sister Layton invited us to have lunch with them at the mission home. FANCY!!!! We just talked and had a nice light lunch.

Then on Friday after district meeting we had an impromptu mini zone training meeting where President and Sister Layton were supposed to come but they got delayed....Also we had to give the training in district meeting. They are doing it very different now, starting 2 weeks ago so we have to give a 20+ min training then a role play, and right now we have an Elder in our district that doesn't speak English so we had to do the whole thing in Spanish!!! So that was exciting!!! It's easy for the district leader because he's a native speaker but we're not!!! But it was good practice :) And we had Frida's BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was so happy and she has made it SO FAR!!!!!! We are so proud of her and she had a lot of support :) Even Mario Montes, the first guy I taught that got baptized was there to support!! It was so good!!!! Then the women's conference was great as always!!! :)

So this week has been CRAZY!!!!!! But over-all pretty good :) Frida is happy and well, Jessy is a savage and didn't come to church, or the baptism :( And the white lady who's name is Sheri dropped us....But we have found some good people that hopefully have promise!! Yesterday Rosa and her kids came to church!!!! They really liked it!!!! She had to leave after Sacrament but her son Isaac wanted to stay till the end so a member took him home after :) Also a random guy named Marcial came to church yesterday!!! He is a former investigator from Lamont but recently moved to Arvin and decided he wants to learn again and possibly get baptized!!!! So after church we taught him and set him with a baptismal date!!! It was such a miracle!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!! :) So it's been pretty good!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!! Thank you for all your support.

Love siempre,

Hermana Martineau :)

WEEK 43!!! WE'RE STAYING IN ARVIN!!! THE BUILDING WAS FULL!!! FRIDA IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!

ARVIN!!! I'm staying!!!

I LOVE ARVIN!!!!

Our District

Our District Hermanas

Hermana White and I

Look at my tan lines!!!

I'm so proud!

They look even darker in real life!

I've never been this dark!

Meagan Martineau	3:47 PM (4 hours ago)

Dear Everyone,

This was a good week!! So some quick updates on people: Frida passed her baptismal interview yesterday so she is getting baptized this week!!!!!!! :D We are SO excited for her!!!!! Hna White and I are going to buy her a quad of scriptures today (if we can make it over there in time) for her baptism because she always comments on ours and tells us how much she wants one, but she literally has NO money. The poor thing is living with her friend who is very good to her but she is trying to get welfare to get help for her own apartment with one of our less actives members who is her friend as it turns out, then she wants to try to get an after-school job when her friend can babysit her kids. It's hard because her ex stalks her and drives past her friend's house all the time and goes and picks up her daughter from school and won't give her back just to make her upset. It's pretty rough but she sees the blessings of the gospel in her life <3

We have a lady we've taught a few times who is the mom of a referral from an 11 year old member who is actually really cool!!! She told us that she is in this 100% and she wants the end goal to be baptism!!!  Her name is Rosa, she is so cute!!! But we are worried it will be another Frida situation with her boyfriend... But she's awesome!!

Jessy (turns out that's how to spell it) is doing awesome!! He is recognized little by little that he HAS gotten the answer that the church is true, he knows it, he just doesn't know he knows it!! But he really likes church and he reads the Book of Mormon SO much!!!

We had the big meeting with Elder Hamula from the 70 yesterday morning at 8am and the building was FULL!!!! People had to stand in the back because there weren't enough chairs!!! It was so heart warming and the spirit was so strong!! Hopefully him seeing that will help us get an actual church building soon!!! At the end everyone had us take their picture with Elder Hamula, it was so great!! Then Stake Conference was WONDERFUL!!!! We have a GREAT stake!!! I only know the hispanics in the stake but the white people are pretty cool too!! And we found a white lady in Arvin yesterday (those are RARE) and she is fluent in Spanish and 8 other languages who has studied just about every religion and believes the Mormon church is the most correct of all and has been wanting her own Book of Mormon!!! (she's read it before but borrowed it from a library) So that's cool!!! We have been seeing some pretty great miracles!!! And Jessy and Frida were able to go to stake conference in Bakersfield too and they both liked it!!! It was so fun!!!

Now transfers: we are both staying!!!! We figured as much :) But this time around for transfers is different because they don't tell you where you're going or who you'll be with, just if you're staying or leaving! They don't even tell new zone leaders, district leaders, or STLs that they'll be in leadership positions so we don't know what's going on with anyone!! So that's crazy!! But anyways, so we will have 6 companionships (all the hnas) under our stewardship!!! 5 is a TON and they try to avoid making STLs have 5 in the stewardship if at all possible, but now we have 6!!!! YIKES. But it will be good I am glad I still get to learn from the Hnas, so it's good :) 

It has been good, life is good I am so glad I get to be a representative of the Lord for this short period of time :) It's such a cool thing if you really think about it! Nothing is quite like it!! I know I am blessed daily and I am so grateful for that!!! I love my Savior and I know He lives. There is strength in living the gospel. There is strength in the Book of Mormon, I have felt that strength as I have been studying it this last week. I know it's true. This is a gospel of happiness!!

I love you all so much!! Have a great week!!!! <3

Love siempre,

Hermana Martineau <3

WEEK 42!!! FRIDA IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! JESSE IS A ROCKSTAR!!! A BOOK OF MORMON CHALLENGE!!!

​What is this pizza??

​Our zone this transfer :) IT's HUGE!!!

Meagan Martineau	3:43 PM (4 hours ago)

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good 'ol Arvin is good and dandy!!! Transfers are next week.. We find out what's happening this Fri/Sat.... I WANT TO STAY IN ARVIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I will go where the Lord wants me to go, I just hope that's Arvin, CA ;)

So Hailey is having knee surgery....ON HER BIRTHDAY??????????? I'm glad she's getting it done though. I already wrote her a letter for her birthday but not for her surgery!!!!! I will for sure keep her in my prayers!!!! I am glad the funeral went well. My prayers have been with the family this week.

Frida is doing well :) LOTS happened this week with her... SHE FINALLY MOVED OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is AWESOME but also really sad and hard... So she missed church last week, and she had a CRAPPY week and she told us "I should've just gone to church!!! I won't miss again!!!" Bless her heart!! So what happened with her briefly is that her boyfriend found her phone and was trying to get it from her and was basically beating her up wrestling for it. She got a little bruised then he scratched and hit himself so that if she tried to tell the police that he could tell them she hit him first, which is a lie. And he did all of that IN FRONT OF their 3 young kids. Then he yelled a bunch of TERRIBLE things at her and it was BAD. Then he spit in her face and in the face of their 2 year old, Ethan. So she left and called the police, THANK GOODNESS. But now she is basically homeless for a while. She's just bouncing back and forth between her mom's (who is not very nice to her and doesn't really want her there and she doesn't want to be there either) and 2 different friend's houses. She is applying for government help so hopefully next week she'll have a constant roof over her head :) But she is doing better. She is working on getting custody of all of her kids so her EX-boyfriend stops trying to take them. And she was able to come to church again yesterday and she is ready and EXCITED for her baptism on Sept 24!!!!! :D She is really progressing in testimony A LOT so thank you for your prayers!!! She has recognized how much the gospel is blessing her and she doesn't even fully have it yet!!! She is just wonderful!!!! We are hoping she marries our other investigator Jesse <3 :) Haha!! And he's doing well and progressing a lot too!! He stopped drinking coffee and everything!!! And old gang friends stop by at his house give him drugs all the time but he always turns them down :) He is a rockstar!! 

Then we were able to pick up our member's brother as an investigator yesterday!!! He is Hna Navarro's brother and he is special and has been living with her since their mom died in July and has been coming to church, the FHE's and everything but just didn't want to "not be Catholic" but now he realizes that this gospel is how his family can live together forever and since his mom died that's something he really wants so we are teaching him now and when we asked him to baptism he nearly jumped out of his seat with excitement!!! He is so cute!!! His name is Berto :) Then we also were able to pick a family that we met a few weeks ago. We met them and saw them a few times but they were always busy, then last week we did some service for them, then this week we taught them and picked them up :) We will see them tonight as well :) They are SO CUTE!!! It's the Vargas family and they are VERY sincere!!! So things are looking up for good 'ol Arvin!!! <3

And the big thing with the 70, Elder ...Haramo... something like that will come and see how the group is to see if we can be a RAMA!!!!!! (fingers crossed!!!!!!)

So it's been a pretty good week!!! Also at MLC we learned about the Book of Mormon for like 4 hours. And we learned about the translation process, how it was translated in 65 days and everything and it was SO COOL!!!! Then  we were given a challenge from Pres Layton to read the Book of Mormon in 65 days!!! He promised us that if we do that as a mission that the work  here will double and many baptisms will follow!!! So we are faithfully working on it!!! We all started on Saturday, reading 8-9 pages a day to finish by Nov 14 (65 days). So I am super excited!!!! I have already learned so much about my Savior and I have learned how to grow closer to Him a little!!! I am excited to see the end result!!!! The Book of Mormon TRULY is a witness of Jesus Christ and His divine role in our lives. It's main point and purpose is to testify of Him which is the most important thing!! Then as that testimony in Him grows, then pretty much automatically comes a testimony of the restoration of His gospel because it all just make sense with how much He loves us <3 So my challenge to you all (to whoever is brave enough to take it ;) ) is to read along with us missionaries here in Bakersfield and read the Book of Mormon in 65 days, finishing on Nov 16 (if you start today) and a promise from the Lord in doing that is that we will see miracles in ourselves and our relationship with Christ will grow infinitely!!! And I know that's true!!! I know our Savior Jesus Christ lives and love each and every one of us so much!!!! <3

I love you all so so much, with all my heart!!! <3 Have a FABULOUS week of miracles!!!!! <3

Love siempre, 

Hermana Martineau :)

WEEK 41!!! This week has been pretty good!! Nothing super exciting happened but it was good!!

​I made chicken!!! Without any sort of recipe or help!!! Hna White was taking a nap during dinner (she needed it!) It tasted pretty good, but we did NOT have very much time so they weren't all the way cooked and we didn't have time to eat it anyway!! So it was kind of a bust, but it wasn't terrible!!

​Exchanges with Hnas Pincock and Hansen!!! It was a good day!!!

​Our little member-friend boy Esteban :)

Meagan Martineau	Sep 5 (2 days ago)

Hola queridos mios!!!!

This week has been pretty good!! Nothing super exciting happened but it was good!! And yes I was able to finish off the day last week :) I wasn't feeling too great but we went home and I took a little nap (which NEVER happens!!) so I felt better :) And now I am done with exchanges! We had one more last week with Hnas Pincock and Hansen from Palmdale, and they came here to Arvin. I went with Hna Hansen :) we are done for now unless we need to do a mini-exchange, which we might need to do with a few people :) I hope they like working with me! Some do but some really don't like us...and tell us... but that's ok because we just love them anyway and I just love them all so much!!! :)

YAY I'm going to have a NEPHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D

I can't believe Lauren is pregnant too!? That went fast!!!

And I'm glad you had fun at the game and got to see Hailey, Rhett, and David!!!!

Sorry to hear about Andrea.. I will keep them all in my prayers.

And to answer your questions from the package:

I LOVE the pictures!!!!!! You are the SWEETEST Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for doing that for me!!!!!! And thank everyone that participated for me!!!!!!!!!! It was so good to see them all, ward members, color guard friends, sheep people, co-workers, everyone!!!!!!!!! That was such a clever and cute idea!!!! <3 And I do not have those CDs so if they are hymns I would LOVE them!!!! :) And I like the new garments, but I'm good on garments right now, but I do need some new skirts!! 3 of the 5 I brought no longer fit me!!! I have lost 25 lbs!!!!! :) And the pens are GREAT!!!!! Hna White has a coloring book to so we can use the more marker-like pens for that ;) Thanks again so much for the package!!!!! <3 (PS capri suns, pretzels, the candy, fruit snacks were all EXCELLENT ideas too ;) )

Last week wasn't too terrible, it was in the high 90s, but I'm worried I'm going to turn out like Ryan and not be able stand the cold after my mission!! Because in the mornings now it's like mid 70s-80s and I get little chills in that cool of weather now, which is NOT ok!!!! I LOVE the cold!!!! But now it's just weird being in not scorching 110-115 degree heat!!!

Jesse actually didn't end up having surgery. He found out the day before that there was a mistake and the doctors were on vacation so he will have it either next week or the week after that. He is still progressing and coming to church!! The ride we got for him never went to get him but he found his own ride to church and got there just in time for the sacrament!! So that's cool!!! And we found out that he broke up with his girlfriend because she wasn't approving of him going to our church!!! So he is like dedicated!!!! But the sad thing is thought that he probably can't get baptized until January-ish because he is on probation... But as long as he gets there I'm happy!!

Frida....is still wonderful and I love her to death, but she has been having temptations lately to stop keeping commitments. Then she went 3 days without reading. Then she didn't come to church yesterday. She is still wanting to get baptized but falling into temptation... We're praying for strength for her!!!

The family of 10's names are:

Mom: Maria, Dad: Andrew, Kids (oldest to youngest): Valerie, Andreaz, Kari, Natalie, Jonathon, Julian, Armando, and Abraham :) Still praying for them <3

We might need to drop Adelfo and Griselda because they haven't been coming to church and we haven't been able to meet with them, they haven't been home for appointments... So that's weird, but everything's going well though :)

I love you all so much!! I am learning so much about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. I am so eternally grateful for the Atonement and for the ability we have to repent and be better!! It is truly a blessing!! Never stop learning about Him or increasing your testimony in Him!! He is the most important thing we have!! <3

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Martineau