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