A plethora o' pictures

Elder Martin sent home some pictures to my folks. My dad then sent them on to other people, me being one of those others. I selected some for the blog, but I don't have the captions for them. So I don't really know what we are seeing. I shall do my best to guess though. (Dad, feel free to comment with what things really are.


Hard to say, but I'm gonna guess that this is Elder Martin posing in front of the MTC.I bet this is Jason's zone, or district or whatever, while at the MTC.
Just some cactusy Arizona desert landscape.
I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty cool looking anyway. Reminds me of the alamo for some reason, though I haven't actually seen the Alamo.
I think we can assume that the inhabitants of that missionary apartment are patriotic, no?
Here it looks like Elder Martin has been tracting on a hot day. Do note the glistening forehead. Either he is sweating, or a vampire.
Here is motivation for each of us to never want to live in that part of the country. This is what the neighborhoods looks like?

Week 14

HI!!! How are you all? Glad to hear it, I'm doing well also thanks much!

Ooooh what wonderful comments, how nice it is to receive them, I would not be offended if I kept getting comments (hint hint).

Oh what a great week its been! I am so excited to be here, and for the work to continue to progress, and it will move at a now accelerated rate. Transfers came, and I have a new companion! His name is Elder Farnsworth from Centerville Utah, he is an incredible missionary, very hard worker, and we get along great! I would be just fine with being his companion for the next year+. I'm learning much, and growing much. I love what I'm doing, and I love the people here.

Chris, you asked about the members. The members here are incredible! I can't wait to do a "Mission tour" after my mission to come back and visit these people, I assume some of my favorite people throughout my entire mission will come from the Waddell ward. I just love these people! I love the investigators we have as well! we have two baptisms coming up that I have been greatly anticipating, I'm so excited for them both.

Last Friday we had dinner with a less active/part member family, we learned they had a wedding at their house (reception rather) the following night, so we thought we'd show up. We came and asked what we could help with, and after much persuasion we convinced them we were serious. We served food. Through serving food, we got to see/talk to over 300 people! too bad we couldn't give them pass along cards or teach them anything, but it was great exposure for us. Plus we were able to build a lot of trust with the family and now we will be teaching them next friday!

So I hurt myself pretty good the other day... we have this bike rack on our car for our bikes (go figure) and they have two arms that stick out the back... well we didn't have any bikes on it, and we normally don't have the bike rack on, but we did and I SLAMMED the trunk shut, and hit my head so hard with one of the arms on the trunk! the worst part was that a screw was on the bottom of it which hit me right on top of the head... I had no idea what hit me at first, just knew I was in extreme pain! Much worse than when I ran into a tree (he he, did I tell you all that story? funny stuff) I was quite disoriented, and OH IT HURT! I am surprised it didn't draw blood, or even just CRACK MY SKULL! It rocked me pretty good. Oi it hurt. It's been almost a week, and my head is still a bit tender.

I love being led by the spirit! we were driving in our car, and as its a new area, I'm the navigator as E. Farnsworth drives, well I was directing him and he randomly pulls off on a different street, and I said "What are you doing?" he said "Oh, ya know, we're just following the spirit" or something to that effect, indicating he felt inspired to go there. We tracted the entire street, and didn't meet anyone of interest (except a Jehovah's Witness... that was fun) our last house we ran into a family that was less active, they've been here since April but their records were never moved into the area so the ward had no idea. After meeting with them we knew that was the reason why we were on that street! Oh how I love the spirit.

Two nights ago we came home and saw this guy laying down right in front of the office of our apartments... we didn't know what was going on... so we went and grabbed our mail, and on the way back asked him if he was alright... no answer... he was breathing though, so we asked louder, we kicked his feet, we tried to rouse him as much as we could, but there was NO answer whatsoever, no response, nothing. So we called the non-emergency police, who transferred us to the Fire Dept. We told them what happened, and less than five minutes later we hear sirens, and I was thinking "Oh blast... it's not that urgent... oi vey, don't turn on the sirens" but they did... and they come screaming into our apartment complex. Oh, we were sure he was just drunk passed out, which he was... they came and they said they've seen him before, he was homeless and had done this before... so they said we could go... an ambulance came roarin' into the complex as well, and the a police car as well! I felt strange being the cause of so much commotion... meaning I called them and they responded... strangely that very night earlier in the day, I somehow accidentally pocket dialed 911!!! Oops.

We have some new investigators we're teaching and are excited to teach... we might drop kelly =[ he's just not progressing and doesn't want to progress. We're trying to contact everyone who has been taught in our areas in the past. I love this work! I love the church, I love being a missionary! I'm so grateful to be here in this area with Elder Farnsworth. I just love my job! The church is true, its all so true!

Elder Martin

Week 13

Greetings from STILL hot Arizona! All last week its been over 100 degree's, even over 105 a lot of the days. It's OCTOBER!! Should this not end yet? I was promised it would. I feel betrayed. This week is supposed to get into the 80's! I'm so excited. The other day we went to an early morning Service project at 6 AM, and it was 77 degree's, it felt incredible! we rolled down our windows, and actually got COLD! how ridiculous is that? I'm worried for when I come home, I plan on attending BYU-Idaho, so I will literally be making a 140 degree temperature shift!

Not too much to report, all my appointments this week cancelled on us, yes literally every single one of them! without fail. We tried to go back to JoeJoe's... did I tell about him? the most vile of sinners? Ha, what a guy, I did not enjoy talking to him the first time, My comp said he's pretty much a lost cause, but we persisted anyway, and we have an appointment to teach him, so hopefully that will go well. we were supposed to teach him last week, but again everything cancelled.

How about that conference??? What a powerful piece of enlightenment! I truly loved it, I felt the spirit so strong while listening to those men speak. I have never enjoyed conference more than I did this weekend. I especially loved Elders Holland, and Scott... Elder Scott's talk made me stop taking notes, I just couldn't keep up, so I decided to just enjoy it and do a deeper study on it when the Ensign comes out! How powerful! I loved President Uchtdorf's Priesthood talk on Pride! Wow I have a lot to work on. I took more notes on that talk than I've ever taken on any talk ever in my life. I'm not a note taker though, so its not a ton. I love President Eyering, he gave 2 powerful talks! I just love that man. How about that call to missionary service by the Prophet? Whooey, that should increase the numbers, it BETTER increase the numbers. If any young man was "thinking" about going on a mission, this conference should have made up his mind for him. It is our priesthood DUTY and OBLIGATION said the prophet. Or scratch that... It is our DUTY and OBLIGATION, said the LORD. So, problem solved, no one has to question whether to serve or not anymore. Awesome. Only 38% of worthy men in America serve missions, and only 13% worldwide... Almost an embarrassing statistic! (that's of course only including church membership he he)

So Transfer news came today. I am losing my trainer, but I am staying in my area. I'm very glad to stay here, I love Goodyear Arizona! I love the wards I am serving in. I love everything about this place. I love being a missionary and am very grateful to be here when I'm here. The Lord has blessed me abundantly.

Hey, does no one read this anymore? Where are my comments? Sheesh... I need some love.

I love you all,

Elder Martin

Week Twelve

What a week! It's been full of up's and down's and a few interesting/amusing moments in between!

We had an investigator drop us that we were positive would be baptized, so that was one of the downs, we got a number of new investigators, that was an up. We talked to a professional Anti-mormon, that was the amusing moment!

So this guy we talked to was the vice-president for some church, and it was his job to train the youth to avoid being "led astray" by the mormon missionaries! he then talked about how we are so blinded and kept from the truth. Quite ironic that he said WE are kept from the truth while he was actively engaged in keeping people from the truth. He started in on some of his anti-mormon rhetoric, but we wouldn't let him get too far... he used the whole "Well in revelations it says don't add or remove..." I cut him off and said "You know perfectly well that that scripture is only speaking of the book of Revelation, and you know that we know it as well. You also know that same thing is in Deuteronomy" I knew he'd argued with mormons before, so he should know better than to use such a lame argument. He tried to make it better and threw out some more dumb comments, all of which we handily shut down... I was itching to start bible bashing, but we instead bore testimony, he then left. It was amusing. It seems that at least once a week we have the privilege of running into an anti-mormon. Most people simply don't care or some have never even heard of us!

I'm very excited for General Conference this week! my first of four on my mission. A rare opportunity to get investigators to gain a real testimony of the current prophet! well there is always opportunity, but this one is quite profound.

We met this really awesome guy named Duane, or Dwayne, or however he spells it... but he's from Jamaica! He is so hard to understand. He's actually a member already, but is just getting back to church. Our first lesson was more him teaching about the importance of the Book of Mormon, he had some cool stories and is an incredible person, he will one day probably be a motivational speaker, he understands many things. It's just so hard to understand him!!! Also he was kinda rude at points, we had a member with us who has an incredible testimony and is very strong in the gospel, he's 19 I think, was just recently baptized, and is the only member of the church in his family, well Dwayne told him that the reason his family hasn't joined is because he must not be strong enough! AGH! it was somewhat amusing, because I can't imagine he meant it the way he said it, but still, rude. Oh well, what can ya do?

My district has a turtle! not really. But for a day or so we did, the sisters in my district found a baby Turtle, named him Hadley. Small little fella, but we're not allowed to have pets so we found him a home.

The church is still true! My testimony continues to grow as I see the hand of the Lord in my every day work and life. I love this gospel and I love preaching the gospel.

Elder Martin

Week 11

Arizona sure is hot! Tomorrow is Fall and its still in the 100's! will it ever end??? We had some very nice days, and I found that its very easy to go tracting when its not over 100 degrees! its almost pleasant!!! When before it was so hard to even be out for an hour, I could tract for hours and hours in 90 degree weather, oh I'm excited for the winter.

This week has been very good! We had some fun experiences, let me share...

A couple of days ago, we were tracting, and we walk up to this house and the lady says "Not interested in what you're doing." we said "okay, well have a great day then" and she said "I will, and then I'll pray that you can become christians and stop being sinners" and I said "Oh, well actually we are Christian, and I'm glad you are too! I'm grateful to know that Jesus Christ is my Savior" and she said "well you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you don't know him, and you're living in sin" and then she went off on how we've added to the bible, and then slammed the door on us. Oh I feel bad for her, but it builds my faith! The next house we found someone to teach! so blessings do come!

This week it was the privilege of the entire Arizona Phoenix Mission to meet with Elder Richard G........ Hinckley... not scott but Hinckley. It was a great experience to hear from not just a general authority, but the son of Gordon B. Hinckley! and I'll tell you what, he has the same humor as his father! he had the whole place laughing so much. He was teasing our mission president and others. It was a great experience. He gave us more B's like his father did, but said something that struck an interesting thought. He said "I'm not replacing what my father said, because he was a prophet and I am not" How interesting that must have been! I wonder if it would be difficult to accept for some people to see their father as the prophet of God to be completely faithful to him as your father and as your prophet. He was called as a mission president by his father, and he was called to Salt Lake City UT! he said he was disappointed! and then called his dad and asked about it, and his dad said it was because he wanted him close and needed him close, he moved 7 miles from his home to the mission home, and said it felt like he was 5000 miles away. He showed us some new commercials that the Church is going to be showing in television slots, they were pretty interesting, its an effort to change the worlds opinion on mormons, to show that we're not all just crazy!

I see missionaries even in this mission who don't put much into their missions and I am so sad! there are so many incredible experiences to have, I've been here a very short time really, and have had incredible experiences every day! I learn so much and I marvel at how the spirit directs this work. I hope everyone who hasn't had a chance to yet serve will have the desire, its well worth it and much better than sitting at home! It's so easy to be a missionary! its just easier NOT to be. It's easy to follow the rules here, its easier not to. Nothing that is asked of us is in and of itself a hard thing to do. Yes its hard and a sacrifice, but the blessings outweigh everything else. I see Elders in my own district who don't follow the rules, who don't try and they are so miserable! and they don't know why. The same is so true of life in general! if our lives are miserable, we should evaluate our obedience to God's laws, its that simple...

The church is true! nothing else is more important than that. If the church is true, then families can be together forever, if the church is true than Jesus Christ really is our Savior, the plan of Salvation is real and nothing else even matters as long as we do everything to make it to our next estate.

Love you all!

Elder Martin

Week 10

Hello my loyal followers! nah, can you imagine?

So what a wonderful week! We ran into some pretty crazy people this week, and some great people. Okay just one crazy fella who was the clear cut definition of Sin. He didn't want to talk to us at first, but he said he was bored so why not? He laughed at us when we said we have a prophet who speaks with God and then said we have 2 minutes to convince him that we are worth talking to. I immediately told him about the power of the Book of Mormon, we stayed for 20 minutes. He argued and brought up what he thought were excellent points. The spirit was with us, and wouldn't allow us to be confounded. He had no answer for many of our explanations, and we pretty well just told him off very boldly on many issues. I generally don't speak very boldly to the people we talk to, but I was pretty upfront with this guy, told him he would never be happy if he continued to live in sin. He said that's what made him happy. I told him he was lying to himself and that he knew he wasn't happy. Not in those exact words, but something close to. We pretty much just called this kid to repentance, cause he needs it! and there were a couple of times when I told him his thoughts on life were plain stupid. We're going to go back this week and talk to him some more, hopefully teach the Restoration.

We had a new family we taught, one member and another who had never heard much about the church, the member hadn't been to church in probably 20 or 30 years. It was possibly the worst lesson I've ever taught! I don't know what was wrong, but every answer I gave seemed hard to give, I couldn't speak clearly, I was confusing even to me! We're going to teach them again, so thankfully it wasn't too bad, but I was greatly humbled, I'm not sure what was wrong, but I just wasn't able to teach! I do know I have many things to learn from that lesson, and hopefully I learn them! I don't want a repeat.

We found a new person to teach through tracting, he was a great guy! he listened to us, was very gracious and very open to what we were saying. I really hope to bring him the happiness he is seeking in his life. Teaching the gospel is such a wonderful thing! Even when we teach lessons to members, I love it! I love the spirit that comes whenever we teach of Joseph Smith, and especially of the Savior. I have gained a testimony of the importance of telling everyone I come in contact with about the church... some places i'm not allowed to, but mostly I can!

Ah I wish all our investigators would just come to church!!! I get frustrated when an investigator has gained a testimony, but doesn't come to church, and always cancels with us! it happens all the time! well it has happened a lot the past two weeks! Satan is not sitting by idly as we go about doing the work of the Lord, that is for sure. But the Spirit of the Lord is much stronger than anything else in this world!

Elder Martin

Week 9

Hello my compadres! mis Comrades, my friends and family and random visitors to the blog!

 

First some questions for family members that may be answered through comments... Grandma, did you ever know a Vita Thude? or a Vita Haggard? I don't know her, but her son is in my ward.  I think there were other things I wanted to ask too... but oh well =] maybe next week

 

So on to the news of the week! we have a referral that we've been trying to contact, and we've yet to see him, he lives in a trailer park, so we went and searched for him after being given an idea of where he might be.  We saw a few teenagers sittin' outside a trailer, it was dark by this time, so perhaps unwise to talk to strangers.  No worries, we did anyway.  So we asked if they knew where Carlos was, and assured them we were NOT cops but missionaries.  They didn't know, but as we were talking Carlos' brother walks up to us, and he also doesn't know, so I start to teach them instead, we talk about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost, and one kid at the mention of the Holy Ghost perked up and started asking questions about the Holy Ghost, he was probably 16 years old, but showed interest! he wanted to hear more but wanted spanish missionaries, it was a really cool experience.  The next day we went back to find Carlos, but found his brother again and asked if he wanted to hear our message, he said he had maybe 15 minutes to listen.  We taught about the restoration, he said he didn't believe in God, but after we were done bearing testimony, he asked "That feeling you had, was it real? you really felt it?" we said yes! and taught some more, we asked if he would say the closing prayer, and he did.  It almost sounded like he was about to cry.  The spirit was definitely there so perhaps he was about to. 

 

It's been another good week! I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to feel the spirit so often and strongly in my life.  We finally had an investigator actually show up to Sacrament meeting! one who had said he would for over a month now, he loved it I think.  The work is unstoppable! Even someone like me can't screw things up. 

 

Elder Martin