Week 64

This has been an eventful/uneventful week... Some fun things happened, but none are that important.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with the funniest Elder I know, Elder Nelson. We had so much fun, probably too much fun...

First we went tracting near our home, Elder Nelson told me he saw a magical place for tracting and that we HAD to go there... it turned out to be an apartment complex... which turned out to be an old persons apartment complex! we talked to 3 people, we weren't allowed to knock on doors. Lame. We then ate lunch. We went tracting and used his new tracting technique... it works quite well, but is so funny to me, that I really had a hard time with it. Basically you comment on whatever you see on their porch before you say anything else. So as soon as they open the door you say something to the effect of "So I see you have an old wooden bench!" for some reason it just makes them so much more agreeable and nice! they talk about the bench for a minute, and then you talk about the gospel. It's so weird and hilarious how well it works, and what things work. One time Elder Nelson said "I see you've got a thermometer!" Oh gosh, I thought it was the worst thing he could have said... the guy then excitedly talked to us about his two thermometers! It doesn't go well sometimes though. We once tracted into a guy who had a lot of foam swords and shields and things. It was Elder Nelson's turn. He said "I see you have a lot of foam weaponry!" the guy came out and said "What do you WANT?" he was a real big guy with a greek style beard (beard under the chin) Elder Nelson started laughing, so I had to take over, I talked to him for a minute, and asked him if he went to any churches. His response "I'm a son of Oden." My thought was that I didn't ask who his father was... so I rephrased the question. "Well do you have any religious beliefs?" "I told you, I'm a SON OF ODEN!" oh... apparently that's a religious belief. We talked for a couple more minutes, and left trying to not laugh... we had a hard time on a couple door steps cause we were laughing all day long.

Thursday we went on another exchange! and Friday was yet ANOTHER exchange! but they were all good. I went to Camp Verde and stayed with the Elders there, there are four of them in an office like apartment... they have one real big room, and all four beds are lined up! It reminded me of an orphanage!

Yesterday I rode bike... there are lots of hills here, it was not fun.

The End.

Elder Martin

Week 63

Dearest readers,

What a GLORIOUS week!!! I had such a good time this past week... Let me tell you.

Tuesday we had a training on Mormon.org from Brother Watson, the guy in charge of proselyting in the church missionary department. He's awesome! I wish I could be like him as a missionary. I am so excited for Mormon.org they are launching a huge media campaign here in the Phoenix area and its going to be really exciting!

Now for Wednesday. Wednesday was awesome, I went to Sedona! HURRAY! I love sedona, its so beautiful and crazy. The people who live in that city are so interesting! That's a nice word to use. First of all, the Elders who live in Sedona live above a Mortuary! weird. There is supposedly a lot of crazy things that happen... but its all silliness. So Wednesday morning we go and tract first thing, and I was so excited to be in Sedona, so I decided to let everyone know that... and ya know what? it made talking to people a lot easier. The very first guy we talked to, I just talked to him for about 5-7 minutes, and then started talking about the church... it was all just woven in to a good conversation. He agreed to a church tour... after that we didn't have as much luck, people are weird in Sedona... a lot of new agers, people who believe in something called the God Blob theory, where it states that God is everything, He is everywhere always, he isn't IN the tree's, He IS the tree's and the ocean and the animals, its crazy. Lots of drugs I assume. Anyway, we talked to a lot of those people.

After lunch we went to visit a part member family, and as we were arriving there was tons of lightning and it was so close! I LOVED IT!! we went under this guys porch and knocked on the door... no answer... we started heading back and the hail came... so we waited a moment. Hail only last a good minute or so. Not this time. I have never seen such intense Hail! and so big too! the diameter of an individual piece of hail was about 1 inch, and it was coming down so fast! I was so mad I didn't have my camera with me. It lasted about 10 minutes, I couldn't believe it! I got hit by one piece, and it hurt! then I saw this guy bookin' it down a hill with camera equipment trying to cover his head... poor fella. After it was all over, the hail was about one or 2 inches deep everywhere! So we went tracting after that, after it had all stopped. We went to an area that was supposed to be full of new age people, cause that was exciting to me and fun. Well we got about 30 minutes into tracting when it started to rain. My temporary companion had an umbrella... I did not. I got very wet.... then it REALLY started to rain, it drenched me, it was so awesome! I loved it. I haven't had rain in such a long time, it was so fun. It never stopped raining!!!

And then there was star. We went to Taco Bell to eat dinner, and this lady came in, and she was dressed very interestingly... but it wasn't something abnormal in Sedona, no one even batted an eye. I thought it was awesome... well it turns out she grew up LDS, she came up to us and said "Hey Elders!" so we started talking to her. We learned a lot of great things. Her name was Star, she was recently up near Idaho at a rainbow group party... she also told us about her most recent Full Moon Drum Circle! there were about 100 people there. We had such a fun conversation, I could have talked to her for hours!!!

Then we went tracting again, we went to one of the most creepy places I have ever been... it was down by a river, and it appeared as though we were transported 30 years back in time... if not 150... First house we got to I sware was the house of witches! no one was home, but wow it was a creepy house! I am so mad I didn't have my camera! every house must've been the house of a hippie or the house of a witch... most likely both. We didn't really talk to anyone unfortunately. Weird enough there was actually a small apartment complex there! I assume that in order to live there, it would be necessary to have at least one murder on your hands... it was creepy, and we talked to a couple people there. They weren't too happy to talk, but they did talk for a few minutes. Oh I had so much fun!!!

The rest of the week was also awesome, but I don't really have the time to tell about it. But I assure you it was a great week. The church is true, especially in Sedona!

Elder Martin

Week 62

Dear People,

My name is Elder Martin, and my week has been crazy. We'll start with... monday.

Well, nothing cool happened monday,

Tuesday. I was writing my e-mails when behold the news came. Elder Martin is leaving Waddell. I was sad. So we visited some families got some great pictures and it was sad to say goodbye.

Wednesday we had our transfer meeting at 11:15! I met my new companion and found out my new place to live. My new companion is Elder Geren from Spokane Washington! He is awesome, I am really excited to be working with him. My new area is Cottonwood, which is up right by Sedona, the Zone covers Sedona so I will be there on a number of occasions, so that will be fun. It is BEAUTIFUL here! So nice, the weather is perfect! probably a little too cold actually... I'm probably going to have to buy a real blanket. Well, it took an hour and a half to get up here, so that was no fun, the first night I was here there was a baptism, but not in my ward.

Thursday I just tried to get to know my new area, did some tracting, tried to meet some fo the people. Nothing to exciting.

Friday was awesome! we went on exchanges with the Assistants, so I had to travel back down to the valley, and I was with Elder Falconer who is great, the most exciting thing about that day was that there was a southwest mission presidents seminar that President Taylor was attending. He wanted his son Braden to come down for a dinner they were having, so they asked us to bring him there (mesa) so we did. We arrived early so we sat down outside the room for 30 or so minutes. Then it ended, and mission presidents started coming out, giving us weird looks... they obviously thought that we were not supposed to be there, we talked to a few of them though, and they were very nice! we talked to the Tempe Mission President, talked to him about Elder Turley who he told me is currently doing awesome and serving as a District Leader, so that was fun to hear! Then President Taylor came out and talked to us, and introduced us to Elder Rasband! That was really cool. It was Elder Rasband that requested Braden's presence. So after that we went back up to cottonwood, almost died a couple of times, the driver of the car wasn't good at all, I had to tell him about upcoming cars a couple of times, and red lights a couple times, once was pretty scary. No worries though.

Saturday I went to a baby shower... we were invited. Sunday was great, I got to meet the new ward and I approve of them. That's about all for now. I'm really excited to be here, I love this area so much, I love my companion, I love the district and the zone, I am so excited to be here!

Elder Martin

Pictures!

I snagged some pictures of Elder Martin from the presidents blog. They had transfers, and so many pictures were taken.
I am not sure, but this may be Jason's new companion. And a couple others...


Here he is doing...the robot?
Playing freeze tag?
Oh, he's guiding the truck back.
Caught in the act of stealing carrots!
Aww, he loves us.

Week 61

Well, I left my old planner at home, so I don't remember exactly what happened last week, but I remember the highlights. I can say that it has probably been the most incredible week of my mission, investigators aside.

First of all some sad news. I am being transferred. I have never been transferred in my 14 months out here, I have grown so close to this ward, its a family to me, and its going to be really hard to go. I have dinner scheduled with Bro. Healey tonight, he has been very influential on me here, I have been taking pictures with families lately just in case, and now I'm glad I did. I will now have to go and pack... darn it. I will find out tomorrow my new area and companion, it will be very interesting, we'll see how it goes.

Wednesday we had a leadership meeting for the mission. Best day of my whole mission. A few changes were made as to how we report numbers and just how things are done in general. In the mission we have somewhat gotten away from strict Preach My Gospel standards... different ideas for numbers, what an 'other lesson' means and things like that... and as such a lot of fake things happen... for example to get a new investigator before all we had to do was set up a return appointment with someone after teaching them a couple quick principles... we could pretty much get new investigators whenever we wanted to... of course those things are good to set up return appointments, but the numbers didn't truly reflect what was actually happening... I can't even explain it very well, but it was always a huge frustration to me! We no longer count things that don't need to be counted... such as how many people we contact. The basics of it is, we are no longer being babysat, we are true missionaries, each responsible for his or her own efforts! For some reason it just woke me up in a way, excited me so much! I have thusfar been a good missionary, obedient, hard working, and dependable, based on the fact that it was expected of me, it was done out of my sense of duty. Overnight it has changed, and now I do everything out of a true desire to serve God, out of love for Him, and for those I work with, its going from obedience to charity, which is how I think it should be. I never truly realized I wasn't doing it that way, I love the people, I love the work, but honestly something has just changed... I get home and I have a desire to study instead of go to bed, or to first write in my journal, which I have really slacked on! I AM EATING BREAKFAST! That never happens... that's how crazy this all is, it has changed my breakfast habits! I am so happy and so excited, and so motivated to do all I can, not because I have to report to someone, but because I WANT to do it, because I want to help people come unto Christ. This work is incredible, and I feel so much more like a true missionary now. I love life.

Morgan is getting baptized September 17. Ben Payne is getting baptized Sept. 17. I am leaving tomorrow... I am going to see if I can come back for the baptisms... I am so excited for both of them, they are so incredible, and are going to be powerful members of this church.

Sad news. Elder Kavatoe has left... he goes home today. He was my best friend on the mission, it was really sad to see him go. He was with me for 11 months, 5 weeks as my companion, the rest in my apartment except the last month. So much fun with that tongan!

That's all for today. The church is true, and is awesome! This work is run by revelation, I know it. I love the work and my mission president. Dont' ever forget that this is all run by God... there are difficult times ahead, and they are coming fast, the elect will be deceived... which means that at some point there will be things that come up that will make you question the church, or question the leaders, or your testimony, or something like that. Stick to the Prophet, seek revelation! God will tell you all things what you should do. I know it.

Elder Martin