Week 43

This is Melanie. I must apologize. Elder Martin sent me this letter last Monday to post here on the blog, and I THOUGHT I did. I was wrong, clearly, so here it is a week late.

Alright, well I forgot my old planner with all my information about last week, but I will see what I can remember.

First things first, today was transfer news! I am... STAYING! Hurray! Another 6 weeks in the best area of the best mission in the whole world. I'm very happy. I found out a mere 20 minutes ago. Everyone in the district is staying which is quite convenient because we have an awesome 6 weeks ahead of us. I am so excited in my mission right now.

We had a LOT of meetings last week, and I hate meetings, but I actually enjoyed every meeting from last week. First was a leadership meeting, that lasted for FIVE HOURS, that was overload for me. The effective period for meetings for me is 30-45 minutes, at that point I'm always super excited to get to work and go do things, after that it just gets long, but this time was great. We learned a new approach to use to help people get to baptism. The next day we had a 2 hour district meeting, and that was great! we are all now very excited to go out and get as much done as possible, we have some major plans in the Goodyear Beautiful Distict (Not the actual name, but its what we call ourselves). The next meeting was a 3 hour meeting for the whole mission and we received some excellent counsel from our mission President, it was very awesome.

As far as missionary work goes this week, there wasn't much done. It was too many meetings and car problems. So here is the sad news, I lost my wonderful car. I have had this car my entire mission, a 2010 Chevy Malibu, I loved it. We now have a 2008 chevy malibu that is falling apart. Ugh. It's quite frustrating, but oh well. The tires are bald, the back tire is losing air fast, the breaks are incredibly loud and squeaky, and there are many other issues, but it just gives me more chance to get to know the wonderful attendants of pepboys.

We found a huge spider! I wish I had a picture I could include, we named him Corey. We keep him in a gatorade bottle.

So in my district, of Goodyear Beautiful, there were 3 baptisms last weekend! there are 3 companionships, we all had a baptism, it was excellent. Kieran was baptized in the waddell ward. It went well, there was no worries with the water, he did awesome! then on Sunday morning I found out that I was confirming him! It was a good experience.

The work is going forward, faster and stronger than ever. I'm so sad to see President Beck leave in a couple months, but I am so excited for President Taylor, I have heard some amazing things about him, he has a near photographic memory, he has every missionaries face, name, and location memorized. I am very excited for the next year of my mission. The church is more true than its ever been. I love it, and I am grateful to be a missionary in the service of God.

Elder Martin