Week 19

Grandma, thanks for the reply! I haven't met with ruby yet again, but she spoke so highly of your family, told me stories about how hard you all would work, and so unselfishly, it was really nice to hear.

Well this week has been awesome! some bad news though, transfer news. I'm losing Elder Farnsworth! The past 6 weeks have really flown by! I can't even believe it. The work has been skyrocketing here, I can't even believe it! We had an absolutely wonderful baptism this past saturday! Don Welchoff, I'm sure I've mentioned him a few times, he is such an amazing man! and it was such a beautiful baptism, his daughter, who is not a member, was really touched by the spirit, I really hope to start teaching her. This baptism really meant a lot to me, its amazing to have seen from the first visit to where he is now, he was always a wonderful man, but now its even more so and he's grown so much.

We had an awesome experience on I think Saturday! we were up in this really cool area called Verrado, its like a dream location for a family, anyway we saw a kid in our ward, and went and talked to him, and then saw a group of 8 teenagers farther up by the street/park and asked if he knew them he said he didn't really, but they may not be the best of kids... but we went and started talking to them anyway. It was awesome! I love talking to teenagers, for some reason its a lot easier for me. One of the kids, I didn't know his name, but I'll call him Kyle for convenience, seemed somewhat anti, he was asking questions like "Who do you guys think created God?" and things like that. So most of the kids were cool, and receptive, some asking really good questions like "So where did the Book of Mormon come from?" we were having an awesome conversation!! somewhere in the middle of it this older lady came and sat down and was listening, and then Elder Farnsworth said "Don't take our word for it, we're only a few 20 year old guys" and then the lady piped in "Oh that's interesting, 20 years old huh? hey, just out of curiosity, how old are you kids? are any of you over the age of 18?" oh great, I knew exactly where she was going with this, they all said No, and she said "Oh, I just don't know how appropriate it is for you guys to be talking to these minors." and our good friend Kyle said "WHY?" and I was like YES! and she said "well, as a parent, I just don't think I'd like my kids to be out here exposed to all kinds of ideas like this." and kyle said "Why not? they're not doing any harm! They're talking to us about God, is God a bad person?" it was so awesome, we were being defended by someone who used to seem like a critic, and then all the other kids jumped on his side "Yeah lady, they're just trying to help us out! They're doing us a favor." and she would say "That's good, but I just don't think they should be telling you these things without your parents here to give you another side." I piped in then, and said "If any of you have any problems with us talking to you, just let us know we'll be happy to leave." they all said "No, no, we're really enjoying this" and then I said "And please do take this to your parents, share what we've shared, and again don't listen to us, but ask God if what we've said is true." We shook their hands and left. It was such a great experience, those kids defended us so quickly, especially Kyle, he was defiant! That lady did more good than she realized! Later one of the kids came riding his bike over to us, and said "Sorry about that, what a crabby lady!" and we talked to him some more, he was one who was asking most of the good questions.

We've had so many awesome experiences, I can't remember them all, and I forgot my planner with all that info in it, I'll be going back to just the 2 wards, so that will make things less hectic.

Today we got to go into a seminary class and teach the ten commandments, that was a lot of fun, I really love this area! I'm so glad I'll be staying, at the end of this transfer, I will have been here in the Waddell ward, goodyear area for 6 months! 1/4 of my mission. I love this area, I hope to stay here for a very long time. I'm really excited about the new people we're going to start teaching. We have quite a few, hopefully we will be able to teach a part member family where the mom is LDS but the husband and two kids are not, we taught them the plan of salvation and it was really awesome! the dad seemed like it wasn't new to him and was very happy to see us, the mom was very straightforward, she said "Yup, I'm super inactive, that's why you're here" and when we tried to set up a return appt, she said "If you do that, I'll just try to wiggle out of it, find an excuse to cancel, you should just come back whenever you can."

I just love being a missionary so much! I love the people, I love being able to all day long go into peoples homes and teach them the gospel. I love talking to the super anti mormons, cause it always strengthens my testimony, their ideas about the trinity are so complicated and ridiculous that it gives so much credence in my own mind to the truth! it solidifies everything we teach. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is found in its fullness in this Church, I know that Christ is the head of the church, I love being a part of this great and marvelous work!

Elder Martin