Week 51

Well... I will say this first. Best week of my entire mission! Some things I can't share, but I will share what I can.

It's been a week of injuries! Tuesday we get a call from an investigator, she was wakeboarding and her she caught an edge and the wakeboard somehow managed to smack her in the back of the head, splitting it open beautifully. We gave her a blessing. We also had a lesson, in which I was positive she was going to get her answer. We were so close to having her pray to know the truth right there. She wouldn't. I was on my knees for probably 10 or 15 minutes. Painful.

Wednesday we have a lesson with Ryan Begay, who is getting baptized soon, then we had to go to the mission office and get Elder Hall certified to drive, all new missionaries have to do that. We spent a LOT of time there, I even had to drive around the vehicle coordinator for a bit. It was good though, he loves me, and thinks I am the most responsible Elder in the mission, so I was worried that I would change his opinion... but thankfully I'm the best driver I know! I was mostly worried that our car was messy. So after that we go to Mark, a new investigator. We get there and he has a paper entitled "Scriptures to use with Mormons" That didn't go well. I can't argue against stupid statements, or rather explain and discuss them. He had some really dumb points, straining at gnats. We wont be back.

Thursday was my one year mark! I got a delicious cake and a jar of pickles from the Kharrl family! They are awesome! and then we went to matt kennedy's and he wasn't talking the whole time! it was awesome!

Friday was a really sad day, it was the last time I will see President and Sister Beck, they go home soon, and that was the last zone conference. It was really good!

Sunday was awesome! We were asked to do a Bishops Youth Night for the ward, and we did it on how to be missionaries, we had everyone role play, it was a lot of fun. I gave out 15 copies of the Book of Mormon to the youth to pass out, and it was just so much fun! I love the youth in this ward, they are so great.

Oh Friday night we got a phone call from Ryan Begay, which is strange cause he doesn't have a phone! but he was at the hospital. Thursday night he got jumped, he doesn't know anything about it, a group of guys came from behind him and beat him up pretty bad, his face is really messed up. Poor guy, so we gave him a blessing.

This doesn't show the full epicness of the week, I dont' have time to explain it all, but I loved this week!

Also speaking of injuries, today I sprained my ankle really bad! I was playing basketball and came down on someones foot, I heard a pop. It hurts. But I can walk on it so all is well.

Elder Martin

Week 50

Well, its a new transfer, and things are awesome! Better I think than they have ever been. I'm training again, Elder Hall from Alabama. He's a great worker, good teacher, very personable and easy to get a long with. We had an awesome week!

We don't tract anymore, but I decided to take him tracting so he could get used to talking with people. So we go to the street, and we go to the first house, and we brought a priest along with us also, and he says "It looks like no one lives here, there is no furniture" so I said "Okay, we'll skip it and move on, we wont waste our time" then he said "Wait, hang on, maybe there is someone" so we go and knock. The guy comes out and talks to us for about 10 or 15 minutes, then we go in and teach the Restoration. He is evangelical, and had a lot of counter points to what we had, but it was all basic stuff, he was really familiar with the bible, so it was fairly easy to show him our point of view, a lot of which was good for him, and he seemed to grasp. We just had a great discussion, it may not go anywhere, but he started to really open up towards the end, and shared some cool stuff about his life. He has never felt joy or peace he says. If he prays about the Book of Mormon, he will feel joy AND peace! I really hope he does.

The Bishops really like my new companion! I think that they are going to start progressing even faster. There is one problem though... Mary has faith in ME. I want to end that. She keeps saying "I have complete faith in you Elder Martin, just not Joseph Smith" So we tell her that her faith should be in Jesus Christ. We are going over there today to give a blessing to her daughter, and we told her that they need to show faith in Jesus Christ. Again, "well I have faith in you elder Martin" NO!!! Bad! We're taking them to the temple in July. It's gonna be good. But anyway, she also really likes Elder Hall, she said he seems familiar. I told her that she knew him before this life, and she liked that. That whole conversation happened while he was in the bathroom. I'm really excited.

We talked to a lady from Romania the other day, actually 4 people, but only 1 spoke english, one really old lady couldn't understand us, but I believe the gift of tongues was present, and she understood the language of the Spirit, the one lady who spoke english was baptist, and argued a little bit with us, but the one who couldn't understand just listened, and felt the spirit, at the end she said in English "I love Jesus! I LOVE Jesus!" and then she asked through her friend if she could get a romanian copy of the Book of Mormon. She was so excited, it was really cool.

The gospel is true, everyone can feel it if they will just listen for the spirit.

Elder Martin

Week 49

So this week has been... hmmm... I dunno. Good. Yeah, its been good.

President Beck wasn't happy with our entire Zone, we had a pretty bad week a couple weeks back, so we had a lot of meetings about it this week... unfortunately so many meetings prevented us from having that much better of a week. But there were a lot of companonship issues throughout the zone, and we worked them all out on Thursday, and everyone is happy now.

The funniest thing happened on Wednesday, well at least it was funny to me. We were at the tail end of mutual in our ward, and we were talking to people. I was talking to one of the leaders about some people she had visited over the past week, and Elder Jones was talking to some of the young women. He was informing them of the "Lock your heart" talk that Spencer Kimball gave, specifically in reference to a guy in the ward who is soon to leave who has a girlfriend. Then he mentioned a couple verses in Luke about not looking back after you have committed to the Gospel. One of the 14 year old girls was apparently quite impressed with his comments, cause she went in and gave him a big hug! Ooooh it was SO funny! he was trying to keep her back, but couldn't do much, and another 15 year old girl was shouting "No!!! You can't hug a missionary!!! STOP!" the girl apparently had no clue that she wasn't supposed to hug a missionary! it was hilarious. Maybe it was wrong of me, but all I could do was laugh! We make fun of him a lot now for all the 14 year old girls being in love with him.

I had two dinners last night for one of the first times on my mission... I think I did on thanksgiving as well. My second dinner had some of the best steak ever, but I couldn't eat much! dang it all. It was all good though.

My good friend Elder King goes home tomorrow! and Elder Kavatoe goes home in 3 months, I never thought it would be so close... which means I am just aroudn the corner! I don't like that idea! 10 days away from my year mark!

That is all for now.

Elder Martin

Week 48

It has been an interesting week. Not a lot got done. Elder Kavatoe keeps getting sick, so I've stayed in a few times with him, and its frustrating. I missed some great appointments, but that is okay, the work goes on no matter what.

I don't have any really interesting stories. I'm sorry. I do have a really awesome bike now, that I don't mind riding. I have customized it! Some of our neighbors moved out, and when they moved, they put a bike out by the trash. The bike was no good for me, but it had really high rise handle bars, that are currently on my bike! I wish I had pictures of it, cause its really cool, and now when I ride my back doesn't hurt, and its great! I can't ride super fast, and I look kinda silly sometimes, but I really don't care. Now I just need a super soft seat and I am set!

We've been riding bike a lot in our area lately, whenever we can. I hate riding bike! I am not in shape for bike, my legs are not strong, I am a CAR MISSIONARY! but its by choice, I want to be able to ride bike more.

We taught a new family the gallegos this week, they are so awesome, I can't wait to be able to get to know them better. Transfers are next week, I think I will stay again! which will mean I will have served more than half of my mission in one area. YES! But I wont find out until next week.

Sorry I don't have more to write, it wasn't that great of a week. Next week though... next week.

Elder Martin

to make up for a short blog letter, I will include some pictures.

Picture 1 Our busted back window when Elder Jones slammed the trunk with the bike rack in it

Picture 2 We rode our bikes out to those mountains... when I took the picture, we had already been riding 2 miles.

Picture 3 This was the cause of the broken window