Week 71

I feel drained! But I'm pretty sure its because I just ate macaroni and cheese, and I always feel really tired and groggy after eating that 'food'.  But in life, I am happy.  It's been a good week.  I think I have some answering to do...

So the yellow shoes.  It's a good story don't worry.  They are not mine.  End of story.  Okay I'll tell more.  We had to come down to Cottonwood early for those meetings, and I forgot my shoes up here in cottonwood, so I borrowed the shoes of Elder Buttars a missionary we stayed with.  I'm not sure which picture of me made it look like I was up instructing... so I am not sure what to say about that.  Maybe in Zone Leader Council, but I wasn't instructing, I was singing.  Was it in a church? was I with my companion? in that case, it was during a role play that Elder Duncan called me up for.

We finally found a new investigator! hurray, he's a great guy, not sure how it will go.  He believes the story of Joseph Smith, but I'm not sure he see's its significance.  But I'm really excited to teach him! We've been meeting with another person, Betty, who says she knows me from somewhere... I suggested the pre-earth life.  She doesn't believe in that.  She's very much a seventh day adventist, and its going to be a struggle to get her over some of those things.  She's a sweet lady though and really enjoys us coming over.

I am so much out of time on the computer today... I don't really know what else to write.  Life is good, The church is True! if you don't believe me, just ask me, and I'll tell you it is.

That's all for this week, sorry for a boring letter! I wish I could include more.

Elder Martin

Week 70

Wow, what a week and a half! sorry the e-mail is late, we couldn't e-mail on monday, and we were busy tuesday (you'll understand) and today is the soonest I could do it.

 

So Monday we left to Phoenix and stayed the night with some other Zone Leaders who are AWESOME, I loved being there with them, it was a great time, and tuesday morning at 7 AM we started a hike for Zone Leader Council.  My foot was doing so well at the beginning of the hike, but that did me in.  I couldn't walk by the end (Update, I have a damaged nerve in my foot for those who don't know) so its back to where it was before I saw the doctor, and as even worse for a few days.  Anyway, ZLC was awesome, the spirit was strong and we had some great things to learn.  I sang a musical number of O My Father.  The next day we had leadership training meeting for the full day (ZLC was all day as well) so it was a LOT of meetings! but they were SO good! I learned so much, and we got this new talk from Elder Bednar about being a Preach my Gospel missionary, it was so good and will change my mission.  Then we had a Zone Meeting on Friday to bring all this goodness to the rest of the zone.  It was a week of meetings, and not much missionary work, but that's okay, cause you gotta sharpen the blades.

 

Now the best part of the whole week + is that we had a visit from Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy! Wow, what a powerful day that was! We had to wake up at 4:45 so we could get down to phoenix by 7:30.  We had a leadership meeting at 8 with him, and he asked me specifically many questions, and then he asked Elder Pierson my District Leader even MORE questions... Elder Pierson is such an awesome missionary, Elder Duncan asked him something to prove a point.  He asked "How many progressing Investigators do you have right now?" most missionaries probably have between 2 - 6, a few 8-10.  Elder Pierson has 12-13.  Elder Duncan was not expecting that answer, but praised Elder Pierson for his hard work.  It was a really good meeting and I took tons of notes.  Then we went to the bulk of the meeting.  The Spirit was so strong throughout! just little things would bring the spirit in abundance.  At one point he called me and my companion to the front to do a little role play! That was fun... I guess... He talked a lot about how to do things, and then a lot about Faith to do things.  I am so on fire with missionary work right now, I am ready to baptize all of cottonwood! I know that good things are coming, we just need an increase of faith.  All things are possible, I know it! Faith is powerful, it is incredible! One of his big things that he talked about was just loving everyone, loving our investigators, and moving from "Non-members coming to church = converts to anyone we get to come to church = converts" We are here to lift everyone we can.  I am so excited for the gospel, I am so excited to be a missionary right now! My faith has been lacking, but this has been such a huge boost for me, its time to baptize thousands! and bring back thousands as well.  Sheesh, there aren't even that many people in cottonwood... more will have to move in so we can baptize more!

 

Elder Martin

Leadership meetings

There were a couple events that Elder Martin went to recently, that the mission president's wife blogged about. I stole pictures from her blog again.
From a leadership training, Elder Martin, with his companion, Elder Geran, and the other leaders of their the Cottonwood zone. (I think.)

I think it was November 1st that there was a zone leader conference thingy, where they hiked Sunrise mountain. Here are some pictures from that. Jason in the guy in the black shirt, wearing the bright yellow shoes. 

 

 I take it they then went to the presidents house, or somewhere, for food and lessons. And it looks like Jason taught.

So there you go! It's a good thing the president and wife take pictures, otherwise we'd never see any!

Stay tuned...there should be a letter from him coming today.

Week 69

Well, I wish I could report a super exciting week, but I unfortunately cannot! It was good though.

 

Monday night we did another FHE activity with a family, we played four square.  It was a lot of fun.  ummm... hmmm what else happened...

 

So Isay has been interesting.  I'm worried, cause he says no matter what he is going to be baptized on November 19th.  Problem is, we wont allow it, so I assume he may end up trying to baptize himself... and that could be real interesting.  The week started out real bad with him, we went over on tuesday and he was still very upset and giving us a bunch of Book of Mormon verses that supposedly prove why he can't be disallowed from being baptized for being on probation.  We provided counter scriptures, and he said "show me one scripture where someone wasn't allowed to be baptized" So I showed him one in Acts where Peter tells a group of people to repent and be baptized, and then he tells the sanhedrin to repent and be converted, so that by the time judgement comes they might be able to be forgiven of their sins... we explained that they weren't allowed to be baptized in this life for their works against the Savior and their responsibility in his murder.  He didn't like that, he said "Well that was wrong of Peter, no one can say that... that's why there are so many churches today! ya know what, I bet that every time someone is told they can't be baptized, they just start their own church.  Maybe that's what I will do!" So we flooded him with apostasy scriptures, showing it to be a BAD Idea. 

 

We went over Saturday and he had calmed down considerably, he has a lot of questions, and still argues, but he wasn't as contentious, and is more willing to learn and listen and pray.  We're again a bit excited about him.

 

Saturday we did a service project, the stake one.  It was fun I guess... but I didn't get to wear a helping hands shirt =[.  But it was still good.

 

Thursday and Friday we stayed in all day cause Elder Geren has been sick.  But it was good, I got to learn a lot of great things.  Number 1 was a statement made by Joseph Smith, something to the effect of "Weary the Lord, until He blesses you." That is my new theme.  There are righteous things that I desire, I want people to teach, I want more faith, so on, and thus I will ask until I receive, there is a parable about it as well in the bible.  The Lord WANTS to bless us, but according to the Bible Dictionary, the highest of blessings are conditional upon our asking for them!

 

I love that all prayers are answered.  I love that everything that we teach in this church are TRUE.  One investigator we have... or rather a recent convert who is less active, told us of an article she read by an LDS guy about how you dont' have to be fully engaged in the church, about how there isn't just black and white, about how you can stay on middle ground, still live how you want and go to church and pick what you want to believe.  AH! It was horrible, who would write such an awful article! I hate the philosophies of certain LDS members of the church, they go against the Apostles, they want to keep a summer cottage in Babylon! The Savior himself said that we are either hot or cold, and if we are lukewarm, he will spew us out of his mouth! sounds like a poor way to live.  I wish everyone would just be obedient to the commandments of God, life is SO MUCH BETTER! that's my rant for the day.  Don't be stupid, just do whats right.

 

Elder Martin

Week 68

Dear the People,

 

What an interesting week.

 

Item number 1.  Transfers.  No changes for me, except that in our zone we lost one missionary, Elder Nelson, the greatest missionary ever, I was real sad to see him go.  The meeting was fun as always, it was good to see some old friends, and my old Zone Leader, Elder Henrie is the new Assistant to the President. 

 

After transfer meeting I had an appointment with a podiatrist, I think that's how its spelled, a foot doctor.  My feet had been killing me for a couple of months, and I finally decided to see what was wrong.  My left foot has nerve damage, and my right foot has plantar fasciitis, but not at the heal, instead at the ball of the foot.  So, in order to fix this they used what seems to be their 'fix-all' and shot cortisone into my feet... first my left foot they took the 2 inch needle (literally! it was -------------------------- <-- that long!) and put some under my skin, real shallow, didn't hurt too bad... but I did get slightly worried as I watched my foot turn super pale white and look like death! Then he got another needle for my right foot, and he said "okay, this is going to hurt." Holy cow he wasn't lying!!! he went in from the side of my foot and shoved the needle all the way into my foot which caused an involuntary jerk as he brushed past nerves and things... that's what he said anyway "I know this hurts, the needle is touching nerves." It was surprising how much it hurt... it wasn't horrible, but worse than I would have ever expected.  I'm supposed to go in 3 weeks again for the same thing, I'm going to take my camera and video the whole thing.  My foot was numb the rest of the day, that was fun, I could finally walk again! then that night the numbness wore off and my left foot was in constant pain! I didn't think I would sleep, but I did, and I woke up with no pain in my foot for the first time in MONTHS! that next night it was my RIGHT foot that was in pain, and I woke up the next morning with no pain at all! the pain has tapered off now, its very minimal, but still obviously healing.  I'm so excited to not have so much pain in my feet, its such a weird feeling to be able to walk!

 

It's been a really tough weekend! we went from having a lot to do, to nothing.  We had two with a baptismal date a couple days ago, and now one of them moved unexpectedly to new hampshire, and the other one doesn't really like us right now.  I've been doing a lot of praying and fasting.  I don't know how things will turn out... but I know that God is in charge, and everything will be okay if I simply will put my trust in him.  If this wasn't true, missionary work would be real tough! thankfully the Gospel is real, its a fact, and we can all know for ourselves with just a little bit of effort on our part. 

 

Elder Martin

Pictures

Transfers came. I haven't heard where
 Elder Martin is, if he'll be staying or going, but President's blog had some pictures. Guess what? Once again, Elder Martin is caught with food. :)

This is he and his companion from a different day and mission pres. blog post.

Week 67

It's been a good week.

We have two investigators we're really working a lot with, one is Isay and the other is Richard. Isay we meet with probably every day! He is crazy and awesome. He's changed so much since we have met him! He talks SO much! he finally came to church on sunday and he absolutely loved it! We helped him change a tire yesterday.

Thursday and Friday we helped some lady move... we were tracting and asked if we could help with anything, and she asked if we cld help move, so we gave her our number and about 3 weeks later (this week) she called and asked for our help! it was unexpected. She really appreciated it, the second day we helped, there was a crazy lady there who was trying to direct everything, she made the truck get packed real poorly, so I went in and helped out, and would try to diplomatically change things positions... "Well that's a great place... what about over here though?"

Saturday we had dinner with Isay, when we first got there, he opened his fridge and there was this big bottle of expensive wine in there, and he said "Oh wow, I had no idea that this was here, how awesome!" So we said "Yeah, you should probably just give that to us, we'll take care of it." and he said "Oh no way, I'm not mormon yet! I'm drinking this thing." So we argued with him a bit, trying to convince him of the importance of giving it up. He said he wasn't there yet, but would be one day. So he cooks us food, and it was a bit scary... the whole thing was on fire a few times, and it got real smokey in the house so we left for a bit. Well we ate dinner, and then watched the restoration movie, and he loved it! He said "That's what I want, I want to show the evidence of my faith!" and later on talked about wanting to give up everything for God... so I said "Soo... now that you want to show the evidence of your faith... are you ready to give us that bottle of wine?" he said "Absolutely!" it was awesome, so he gave it to us, Elder Geren said "I'm not allowed to touch it, I'm not 21 yet." Sometimes I feel so old! So I put it in my backpack, and we went to the church and we dumped it down the drain! it felt good, but man it smelled real bad! I can't imagine anyone ever thinking to put that inside their mouth... gross.

Monday was great! we had a small exchange... one of the District Leaders in our area... actually he's my district leader, asked me to come with him to an appointment, cause he was worried that the guy was super anti, so I lovingly obliged (I often enjoy these discussions with anti mormons...) so we went and he also brought a friend with him, we did it at the church. There was Jory and Mack. Jory was real smart, and said he had some kind of Diodemic, or diadetic or something memory... in other words he supposedly had a fantastic memory and could memorize 10 pages of scripture in a month. He did have a fairly good memory and knew a lot of scriptures, but was still dumb as a rock! The conversation was civil, but they were definitely anti, Jory started the conversation in a way to try and outline OUR ignorance, by using obscure historical references and saying things like "You know about him right?" "Well surely you know the story of..." He changed that tactic pretty quick though. Long story short, we left thinking they were stupid, they left wondering, and realizing we weren't as stupid as they thought. Sometimes I was a little too... Brazen, we'll say. I told him that I thought the Nicene creed was repulsive. It was a good time though, I haven't been able to have a conversation with someone who actually knew some scriptures in a long time! It was fun.

Well that's all for today, hope you have a great week.

Elder Martin