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