Week 30

Dear people who read this blog. Are there any of you who still read this?

This week has been another good one! I really don't want to leave this area! Transfers are next week! I can't believe it. I think something will change. I just hope I stay. I've really grown to love the people here, in the ward as well as though we are teaching. We have a baptism this coming saturday. Satan's out to get me though. He keeps trying to break my foot! Sunday morning at about 1:30 AM I heard a loud knock on my door, it woke me up but I couldn't tell if I really heard anything or not, so I forgot about it. That morning I opened my door to leave my room, and a very heavy wooden closet folding door came flying into my room, narrowly missing my face, and came even closer to landing on my foot. It was leaning up against a wall for probably the past month, and for some reason it fell last night, it put a whole in the door. 2 or 3 other things happened that day that almost broke my foot. I also almost broke a tooth. Last Tuesday I got the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Westbroek, who was recently released as the Assistant to the President, he goes home in a week. I asked a lot of questions and tried to gain as much wisdom from him as I could! He is an excellent missionary and has been helpful to me, it was a great experience.

We taught two new people this week, both of them had committed to baptism prior to meeting with us! they will be baptized soon, one is in her 60's and the other is in the singles ward... but he has 2 kids... so I may get to baptize a family in the singles ward... That would be weird. We've had another great week, and I'm excited for this week cause its going to be even better.

Ummm, I think that's all. I need to start remembering to write down the good stories to tell about. Elder Nuttall, who weighs all of 140 lbs tried wrestling Elder Kavatoe who weighs 250 lbs, mostly muscle. That was interesting. Elder Kavatoe is very afraid of me though, one elbow in his ribs completely neutralizes him. We have a lot of fun in this district.

Elder Martin

Week 29

What a busy BUSY week! I had almost no time for tracting this week, its so awesome.

We finally found the 11 year old Jason boy! YES! we talked to him, and got him all set up to come to scouts and things! We're excited! He's such a neat kid! there were about 5 kids when we got there, and they were all SO excited when I gave them pictures (pass along cards) of Jesus and of the Temple. It was fun!

We set a date for baptism for Kelly!!! Everyone remember him? I've been teaching him since AUGUST! if not JULY! We tracted into him, and he's finally going to get baptized. We just have to get him to quit smoking. We gave him a program to help him stop.

We were called on to give 6 blessings in 4 days this week! between wed and sat we gave them. They were some remarkable experiences! I love the priesthood. I love being able to use the priesthood to bless the lives of others. I love the work that I have been called to do, its the most rewarding thing I've ever experienced.

Lauren may be getting baptized this saturday instead of February 12th. Hurray! David is still scheduled for February 19th, and now Kelly is for the same date. We had 9 investigators come to sacrament meeting yesterday! it was so wonderful. Some didn't even come! There were 3 that didn't show up. We have so many people to teach right now, and so many more on the horizon! I have never seen so much work to do! and not NEARLY enough time to do it. That's the hard part, that's why we can't tract, we are busy all day every day... and unfortunately we have meetings! I wish we didn't have such long meetings each week. We had a Zone Conference on Friday, but that was a great meeting, I love Zone Conferences. The Spirit was so strong. Our president is very inspired! We were just given a rule that we can no longer listen to EFY music. Most people were really upset about it, I was thrilled... I hate EFY music! I've always believed that much of the EFY music detracts from the spirit, and the President now agrees!

The older Jason investigator is doing well, super busy so we can't meet with him very much, but he is very close to baptism. I love that family. I love everyone we teach. Also the Billy Bishop family we are teaching, they are wonderful!

A couple weeks ago we raked the yard of an investigator, and that night there was a wind storm and blew the rest of the leaves of the tree... dang it! It's satan's doing, the bible calls him the prince of the air. or wind, or something like that. But now there are no more leaves to fall, so we'll go rake again.

Well I wish I could tell more stories but I haven't the time.

Elder Martin

Week 28

What a week! It was quite busy, I'll just get right into some stories.

Wednesday I was on splits with someone in the YSA ward, and the sister missionaries called us and asked us to come give a blessing to one of their investigators. Actually it wasn't even an investigator, it was a friend of their investigator who has MS. So we went and gave her a blessing, and then their investigator also asked for a blessing to help her quit smoking. Her daughter was also there, who has not yet been an investigator. Her daughter held her moms hand through the blessing, and afterwards she commented "It felt like electricity was rushing through my body when you were giving the blessing." So we talked to them a bit about why. It was a great experience. I encouraged them to listen to the sisters.

Tuesday we set two baptismal dates... kind of. David set his for May 14th. AGH! SO far away! not good. Lauren set hers for January 22nd! Awesome! or rather, we set it, and she accepted it. Thursday, Lauren canceled that date, and said no to it. Saturday we set two NEW baptism dates. David set his to February 19th! and Lauren to February 12th. We are so excited for both of those baptisms! David asked me to confirm him a member, and give the gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm excited, yet somewhat nervous as well. But mostly honored. He's doing so well, he is so humble and willing to learn, he is doing more than what is asked and is being blessed accordingly. He has changed his life so completely, I'm amazed at the faith that he shows! What a great man.

Friday we decided to rake some leaves. It was fun, we stopped by an investigators house and raked their leaves without them knowing. We even borrowed a garbage bag from the son. This is the family that has the Foosball table. Did I tell that story last week? I think I did.

Well, I wish I could write more, but time is running out, I would have written yesterday, but all the libraries and such things were closed.

Elder Martin

Week 27

What a week! I'm going to start with Saturday. Saturday, as we usually do, we went on all day splits with the priests in the ward, I went with a 16 year old... thankfully he still has a few years before his mission... it was good though. We sadly didn't have any bashers that day, that's always fun, we did meet a lot of rejection, so that was good for him. We, as we often do, tracted into a member, who invited us in and we started talking. Uncle Darrell, do you read my blog? I'm offended if you don't. Dad, you should forward this to him, it will be of interest. So we get to talking to this member, and he points out to his wife my name and says some movie quote about cursing the martin name til the day he dies, and then he said "There was a martin who served in my mission with me" at this point, I wasn't really paying attention, I was trying to get comfortable on his too deep couch... I hate couches that are almost impossible to lean back in! oi vey, why do people get those couches? STOP IT! so I almost missed it when he said "his name was Darrell Martin" and he continued on, when it registered in my mind that he said that name, I stopped him and said "Wait, what was the name of the missionary?" he repeated "Darrell Martin". I thought... well, Martin is the 10th most common surname in America, it can't be the same one. But I had to find out... so in my mind, my uncle who is Darrell Martin, served in Scotland... am I correct? Maybe Ireland? but I think Scotland, you'll correct me if I'm wrong. So I asked him "Did you serve in Scotland" and he said "No way! yeah, I did serve in Scotland!" so we laugh, and we talk about it, and he tells me ALL kinds of stories about my Uncle Darrell. He said "One thing I remember is that he was diabetic". Hmmm... well that doesn't sound right... maybe there is something I don't know about my uncle, so I let it slide... I figured he was the one that was wrong. He then said "After my mission I even went and watched a movie at his house!" so I said "Oh, where are you from?" "Eastern Idaho" oh, of course, cause that is where my uncle was from. So I was supposed to ask my uncle a question... so here it is: Uncle Darrell, do you remember watching the movie fugitive, and freaking out over the opening credits starting some 10 minutes after the movie started? You may, that would be strange, but perhaps not... here's why. He said "Yeah, so lets see my mission was back in 94-95... " I said "Wait, what?? That can't be right... also you look like you're in your 30's whereas my uncle is in his 60's" he he, just kidding, I didn't say that, and I know you're not in your sixties... So we found out that no, it couldn't be the same one. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? it was quite an amusing experience.

Kelly came to church again! Anyone remember him? Yeah, we went back over, and got him to come back to church! We're excited again about him.

Anyone remember the 11 year old boy Jason? well we finally found him! sweet! and we're going to hopefully start teaching him again, he is so excited to get baptized, and go to church and scouts, and now we will have a reliable ride for him each week! I am so glad that I am serving in this area at this time! I absolutely love the Waddell ward, I know the people better than I ever did in my home ward... but that's cause I have to do a lot more interacting with them, which I am grateful for. There are such great people in this ward, a lot of diversity as well, some strange ones, but we still love them. I feel very much a part of this ward, and I will be very sad when I am asked to leave. I hope that if I do leave its not until summer, at which point I can go up to Prescott/Cottonwood area, and then after the summer, I will be transferred to South Phoenix... these are still my plans.

Well I have to get going now, thanks for listening to my ramblings.

Elder Martin

Week 26

Dear Family and Friends and accidental Passersby.

Well 2010 is now behind us! I'm excited for the year of 2011, its the only full year of my mission, the entirety of 2011 will be spent on my mission. How exciting. The past 2 weeks have been SLOW!!! I have not been allowed to do as much missionary work, and its no fun! I hate being locked up inside. If people wouldn't get so drunk on holidays, I would be happy. Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years were all days by appointment only. Plus we had our regular P-days. Let me tell a story of one of the few times I was able to tract the past couple weeks.

So I'm on splits with Elder Kavatoe, and we knock on this door, and a guy answers and we tell him about the Book of Mormon, he agree's with most of what we say... I was thinking maybe he was a member. He invites us in and we talk about the Gospel, we share a part of the message of the Restoration. He believes most of what we tell him! it was pretty crazy. We have an appointment back there pretty soon. Thursday. He doesn't like being pushed or pressured though.

Hmmm, that story took less time than I thought to tell... darn... ummm.. Christmas was good! New Years was cold. It got below freezing that night, there are many reports that it actually SNOWED! here in phoenix, it snowed. I didn't see any. It rained pretty heavily a few days before that too.

I've been learning many wonderful things from the scriptures. I love learning new things! We had an awesome discussion with an investigator a few days ago, she was asking questions about our divine potential, we were able to have a wonderful discussion about it, such a new concept to so many people, yet it is so clear in the scriptures. I love when we are teaching new concepts, such as the 3 degree's of glory, and we go over bible passages, and an investigator says "Wow, It's been there the whole time, I can't believe I never saw that before". I love teaching! I got to teach a sunday school class a couple weeks ago, that was a lot of fun! I hope I get to be in the Primary as a teacher when I get home! that would just be awesome! I could serve in the Primary my whole life and be very content.

Did I mention that I'm staying here? I guess not since I couldn't write a letter last week. Well Transfers came, and no one left in the whole zone. So I'm here in Waddell for another 6 weeks! I couldn't be happier. I think I need even one more transfer here. I would be happy with 9 months in this area. I would be thrilled with 10 and a half, but then for Summer, I think I'll be okay with going to Sedona! and then come winter, I want to be in South Phoenix. Enos 1:12 "And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith." I will labor and pray with all diligence, and maybe the Lord will grant to me according to my transfer desires. =]

Well, It's time to go shopping now, hurray! I hate shopping... but I do need food. Oh, how about this for ridiculous, extra cartridges for razors cost $25!!! WHAT??? I can't afford to shave anymore!

Elder Martin