Mar  25, 2013
Hi Familia!

Ray, congratulations again!!!! I am so excited! ...and so glad you didn't think May was a good time to have a wedding ;)

I have been exhausted after sacrament meetings these past couple weeks- kids have so much energy! It is tough to interact with kids without holding them on your lap or getting close to them. Missionary work feels weird in that way :) 

Guess what? We will be getting a new companion! Sister Crabtree! She leaves in 3 weeks from the mission. Her companion that she has been training just had her visa to Taiwan come through, so she will be leaving on Tuesday morning. This will be the first time there will be a triple-up (3 companions) as training sisters in the history of Kirtland! We talked to President Vellinga about it a few times- we think it will make it more efficient to go on exchanges to have three, so we are going to try it out. She is an awesome missionary, and I am so excited to be her companion! We are driving up to the mission home tonight to conference with President to see how we can make this situation most effective. 

We took a family on tour yesterday. Families are SO FUN. They are still my favorite to take on tour. I love watching them interact, and watching how they bring personality and neat insights to the tours. Being on a mission and being in families homes has really strengthened my testimony of how the gospel blesses families. Heavenly Father knew exactly what He was doing when He put us into families! Even though you all have to put up with my wacko personality sometimes, it was meant to be, so good luck with that ;) 

LOVE YOU all so much! Have a good week! Happy Easter!

SIster Mahrt

Mar 18, 2013
We are missionaries...
This has been a good week! We have a Jewish neighborhood in our area, so we went tracting there this week. That was... interesting :) We kept trying different approaches- "Hey, this a book about prophets!" Slam. "...families can be together forever!" "We know!!" Slam. "We are missionaries..." <---- That was actually a funny one- complete melt down at the door. The slam came after the tantrum. Needless to say, we didn't use that approach after that :)

Sorry, this is super lame. Gotta go. Love you family! The church is so true!

Sister Mahrt

Later...
Our stake is really pushing missionary work too! We just heard that in the Solon ward (my last ward) the Stake President got up at 4:15a Sunday morning, and knew that he had to redo his talk to focus specifically on missionary work. Then he called the ward members to repentance! Mind-blowing! That ward is so solid, and I am excited to see how things change once they focus on missionary work. There are going to be miracles in Twinsburg for sure! 

We had our Kirtland fireside last night. The training sisters are in charge of getting that all together by asking for recent converts from the stake/mission to come and bear their testimonies, then find keynote speakers, musical number, etc. We had everything set up, when two days before Sunday our recent converts let us know they weren't going to be able to make it. We scrambled through all the recent converts to find someone, and everything got thrown together last minute. I was conducting, and we were making a bunch of last minute changes. Freaked. Me. Out. But you know what was so cool? Everything came together so perfectly! The recent convert who spoke had prepared quite a lengthy testimony, which was perfect for the investigators who came, and Elder and Sister Sorensen (Kirtland site directors) shortened their talks to a perfect length- they were short and powerful. The spirit was so strong, and afterwards everyone lingered for hours (much to the senior couples dismay- they are the ones who had to stay and lock up for the night :) It is amazing how well He knows what needs to happen, and how little stressing about things really does other than give us ulcers. He is so in charge.