Week 60

Not sure what all happened this week...

Wednesday was HOT! I was on exchanges with Elder Labrum in his area, which is the first time I've gone to that area... to get to their area its a five mile bike ride, most of it uphill, all day was biking and walking, it was 116 degrees, and I was fairly sick, but not enough to stay in.

Thursday was worse, I wasn't feeling very well, so I asked for some help so elder Hall could go to our appts that night, we had someone stay in with me... I felt okay to tract and things like that, but sitting inside and teaching I wasn't able to do... strange I know, but still true.

Saturday there were a couple more Baptisms in Elder Kavatoe's ward, after the baptism, I split with him for a few hours so we could practice a musical number we were singing the next day. Or rather, he was singing, and I was strangely enough playing the piano! It was Nearer My God To Thee, and the Bishop requested that he do it, since he is going home soon, and he heard it one day. Then we ran out of miles, and we are stuck for a few days...

Yesterday we had such a great lesson with an investigator Ben, he had before been unable to accept that the church was true, he knew it, but was having a hard time accepting it. We asked him to pray for acceptance, and now he is ready to be baptized! he is willing to do what is necessary to be baptized, and its so awesome to see his faith! He is going to be such a great member of the church, I am excited for him.

Today for a zone activity we played death ball (kinda like dodge ball) and volleyball and basketball, and my district performed the Haka, it was fun.

That's all for this week.

Elder Martin

Happy late birthday, Elder Martin

Elder Martin had him a birthday last month. It was celebrated at a zone conference.

Here are some pictures from that zone conference, as stolen from his mission presidents blog.

Week 59

Let me tell you of my wonderful week.

Monday we met with a family in our ward who has a child who will be baptized soon, we just felt like we should share a message with them before her baptism. So we went and we watched the John Tanner story, it is such a great video! even the 8 year old girl was in tears, the Spirit was strong and we had a great discussion afterwards. After all that, and the strong presence of the spirit, the mom told us that someone asked her a few weeks ago if, since she had a lot of nonmembers coming to the baptism, she would like the full time missionaries (me and Elder Hall) to speak at the baptism while the kids were changing... she said no, that she didn't want to push it with her friends too much, but that now she wants us to come and teach. This could be a great opportunity hopefully.

Tuesday we had an appointment with an anti-mormon... it was fun. All of his arguments were ridiculous! He first harped on how mormon researchers don't do their job right, and how they don't really go into it very well... and THEN he brings up 1st Nephi 19:1 which talks about plates... it says he was commanded to make plates, and then in verse two it indicates he wasn't commanded to make plates... he said that Joseph Smith was stupid to miss such an obvious mistake... Well this shows his lack of research, the verse clearly speaks of two sets of plates, and how he was commanded to make one of them, but he didn't know that he would be commanded to make the second one... or something like that... look into it, its pretty obvious! He had an old copy of the Book of Mormon which has pictures all throughout... he said that some of the pictures weren't historically accurate, or fitting to what was in the Book of Mormon. We said they were simply pictures, artist renderings. He whined about how we always just gloss things over, "You can't have the story say one thing, and have pictures say another thing!" "Mark, those pictures were not included with the gold plates!" anti's are funny.

Friday we had a Zone Conference, that was fun. We had some changes in the mission... a little more laxed on music rules... but at the same time not really. We don't have real limitations, other than it has to keep the spirit... I worry about some missionaries... but I love the hymns, so that's what I'll continue to listen to! It was a great conference, we have an incredibly obedient mission! President Beck took this mission from like 5% obedience, to 93% obedience! it is one of the most obedient missions probably in the world! President Taylor is taking us even farther, he puts it as, going from love to trust, which is higher than love.

Saturday was the baptism of the Caldwell family, not in my ward, but in Elder Kavatoe's ward... 6 people! it was so awesome, there were about 100 people in attendance. The caldwell family showed up 30 minutes late to their own baptism! crazy... President Taylor attended it with his wife and his 16 year old son Braden. After the Baptism, we asked President Taylor if we could take Braden out with us for an hour, which he said yes to, it was a lot of fun to get to know him a bit, he's a really good kid! Reminds me of myself at that age... HA! j/k.

Sunday we had a great lesson with Ryan and Curtis who finally both came to church! it was a really powerful lesson on the Plan of Salvation, it was done in the chapel.

Well that's all for today, love you all,

Elder Martin

Week 58

Well, its been a different week... not much got done, but we sure did use a lot of miles on our car! there were a couple days that nothing seemed to go right. We've lost a few investigators, found a few cool ones.

Tuesday we set a real baptism date with Morgan Welchoff, for 09/10/11 kinda cool eh? It's so good teaching her, it makes up for all the other people we teach who are tough! but the tough ones are good and rewarding too... sometimes...

I'm trying to think of any interesting stories. Not much happened this week. Friday went on exchanges with another missionary, we did a lot of tracting, and had a couple really fun lessons. I love teaching! We went to a thai restaurant hoping a guy we knew would be there, the owner, he always gives us free food... he wasn't there, or I would have had the roasted duck! but I just had curry instead, it was good.

Saturday was really our most interesting day, yet nothing happened! we had no 'numbers' anyway, but it was still a good day. Tom Wootton had his funeral, it was good, I really hope he will accept the gospel in the next life... it was so funny to hear all the stories, because it made so much sense, and made a lot of things make more sense. It was a good service.

Later that day we helped someone move, and then I got to go interview a family for baptism! it was a family of 6 (but the husband wasn't there, so just five) so I enlisted the Zone Leaders to help me interview. This family is awesome! they are very ready for the gospel... the 9 year old boy kept referring to the missionaries as the messengers, it was pretty funny, but I had each of them give the opening prayer, and their prayers were just awesome! I love hearing investigators or recent converts pray, its so real.

Sunday we had another fun incident in the Singles ward... I'm not sure if I told the last one where we had a 'heckler' talking about how abortion was okay... well he came back, he likes church sometimes... But the opening song was just finishing, and he stands up, and walks out and loudly says to his friend "Ya know how you told me last night that there is more to life than the Army? well there is more to life than the Book of Mormon!" and then he stormed out. I feel bad for his friend, he's trying so hard and doing a great job of being a missionary.

Well that's it for this week.

Elder Martin

Pictures

Here are some pictures of Elder Martin that I stole from the blog of his new mission president and wife.

Check out the blog, if you are so inclined.

http://azphxmission.blogspot.com/

Week 57

What a week.

Tuesday was awful! we had so many plans, not a single person was home! we seriously only talked to 3 people that day! It was not fun, but those days happen.

Wednesday was really fun! We had a District Meeting, and the focus for this month is personal and companionship study, so I taught the district how to study, and showed them things within the scriptures to help them study, no one knew how to effectively use some of the tools, such as the harmony of the gospels in the Bible Dictionary, and a number of them didn't have any clue how to properly use the Topical Guide, one in particular, a recent convert missionary, had no clue at all how to use the TG! he was ecstatic to finally learn how, no one had ever taken time to teach him. We then practiced, and I gave everyone a difficult subject to study. It was so much fun! everyone really enjoyed it I think. I think with the way things are going today, no one really knows HOW to study something, or how to figure something out themselves, its all so simple with google no one has to do the studying themselves.

Saturday was another day like tuesday! everyone was gone! people kept cancelling and everything.

Friday was an awesome day though, we went on exchanges with other missionaries, and between the four of us found 8 new people to teach! it was awesome.

Sunday was a fantastic day. We started teaching this really cool guy Ben. It is one of those ideal teaching situations, the spirit was in the meeting the entire time! He knows that its all true, but he is resisting it! I pointed that out to him, or rather I indicated that is how I often am personally, that I hear a new idea, and I immediately know its true, but I fight it. He got excited and said that is exactly what he is going through... so he knows he will accept the message one day, but is having a hard time with it. He was taught his whole life that Mormons are crazy and are a false church, so its hard for him to break that line of thinking.

Thursday we had an investigator challenge me in foosball. He thought he was pretty good. I suggested that if I won he would have to go to church on Sunday, and if he won, than I would have to go to church on sunday. He didn't think that was fair. He suggested that if I won, he would give up coffee and wine for a week, and if he won, that I would have to try coffee and wine! ha, yeah right... that didn't work. So we just played to see who was the true church, catholics or mormons. We played a total of 3 games one on one. Total score was 30-5 in my favor. He said he would come to church this next sunday, we'll see. I am not sure why he thought he was that good... he spins... his wife was shocked, she said he has never really lost before... I figure he must be only playing his 5 year old child... he he j/k he was okay. But most importantly is he will come to church.

That's all for this week.

Elder Martin

Week 56

I am SORE!! I was on bike most of the week since we ran out of miles in our car, and that wouldn't be so bad, but I realized my tires were low, not enough for me to tell, but enough to really drag! So I got them properly inflated, and its so nice! We got a ton of work done this week, it was awesome!

I'll tell you about church... cause it was funny! There is this guy bradyn in our ward who is just about to go on a mission, and he brought a friend with him to church. There was a speaker in sacrament who was talking about how keeping the commandments will save you money! it was a good talk, well he moved to the Law of Chastity, and how keeping that commandment will save you money, and I was sitting with Bradyn and his friend, and his friend shouts "Yeah, and it will save you a lot of pain too!" well the speaker took it well, and rolled with it, and moved on with his talk, "Not to mention how much money it will save you if you were to get an abortion. Abortion is a horrible thing as we all know, one of the worst things out there" and our friend piped up again "Yeah, it can be bad, but it can also be really good." Ha, how awkward! our bishop just looked at him and shook his finger. He didn't make any further comments. Ah, its always interesting bringing people to church. We are working with a guy dale that we are so afraid to bring to church! we are pretty sure he's been involved with some very hard drugs. It's really sad actually, and we are trying to help him out as much as we can. We will need miracles... thankfully that is something that occurs all the time!

We did a lot of tracting this week! Not a whole lot of good stories from it though, sadly. Oh wait... one I guess... not that cool, but we talked to one guy who was shaking a lot. He said he was going to be going to prison in about 30 minutes for 20 days. We gave him a book to read in prison.

We had an awesome lesson with the Welchoffs! the spirit was so strong, Morgan was crying, same with her step mom. She has read through a lot of Alma! she's in Alma 10 last time we talked. We are going to set a date for baptism with her soon!

Last month (July) our district had 1 baptism. August, we are planning on having 15 or 16! that would be the ZONE record in one month. It is going to be an awesome month!

Elder Martin

PS... the church IS TRUE! there is no other choice, but the church being true.