Week 24

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Oh I'm excited about Christmas, I'll be celebrating in shorts and a T-shirt! I got my first present a few days ago from the Nampa 17th Ward! how exciting, tell them all thank you.

Let me tell you about my awesome week! Tuesday was good, can't remember it though he he... oh yeah that is right, I had a meeting with the Halls! Every tuesday from now on. They are great, David is so much more ready for Baptism than he realizes, he is really doing well! It's always fun to go over there, as they are pretty much family! literally. Did Ruby send you pictures mom? we were playing with Chickens, maybe you can give them to Melanie and she can post them on the Blog.

Wednesday is the weirdest thing... I can't remember any of it!

Friday I had an awesome exchange with Elder Westbroek, he is our District Leader, he just got released as the Assistant to the President, so it was a great opportunity to learn from him all day, we put up some Christmas lights in the morning and did some tracting and contacting, it was a fun day.

It all led up to the greatest day of the week! Saturday. All day exchanges again with a priest in the ward. 10 AM we go tracting, ridiculous story... so we are talking to this lady and she has two dogs barking at us the whole time we are talking, she wasn't interested, so we start to leave, and one dog BITES MY SHOE! he just takes a nip at me as I'm walking away! stupid dog... named Maverick because the lady said "Maverick, what do you think you're doing?" I nearly kicked the dog in the face, but I caught myself. It's reactionary okay? If someone bites my shoe, my reaction is to kick back. Had she not been there.... So at 12:00 we went to a baptism! Asa. I taught her once, but then found out she was in a different ward. But I still wanted to go to the baptism. It was pretty good. Then we had lunch, I made my famous fried potatoes... they are quite famous! and thanks Christine for the idea of Brown Sugar in them... its actually my secret ingredient to almost everything. Saturday was probably my best batch of potatoes. Mmmm... I remember it like it happened only 2 days ago.... anyway, so we started teaching a girl Lauren on Saturday, we've been meeting with her for a while, but never got to teach her, she has been coming to church though. So I finally got to teach her, it was really good! she has already read the book of Mormon all the way through, and is again in Jacob! She knows that this is the right path, but is having a hard time committing to it, she will probably end up losing a lot of friends over it, which is really sad. We had a great lesson though, or at least I think so.

Right after the lesson, we had another Baptism. Trisha Miller!! YES!!! What a wonderful experience, it was such a great baptism, the spirit was so strong, she was crying through a lot of it. She was so prepared for it, it was so wonderful! I am so grateful I had the opportunity to teach her the gospel and to see the changes she has made, and the changes the Gospel has made in her life.

That was my week I guess! It was a great week, and I can't wait for this week cause every week is awesome out here!

Elder Martin

Week 23

Hello friends and family, how is it goin'?

Things here are awesome! It's still in the mid 70's, so I'm lovin' life, how is the weather there? he he, nah can you imagine?

So let me tell you about this week. Our awesome investigator Trisha didn't go to church a couple week ago, we were worried. I called her about an appointment, and she had cancelled, she wouldn't set one for that week, it felt as though she was backing off, I was so worried! I talked to Elder Farnsworth, and told him that same thing, I talked to the RS president, and asked her to call Trisha to invite her for a dinner to try and guage the situation. Thursday I was planning for the week with Elder Nuttall, but the phone wasn't with us, so when I got to the phone I had 4 missed calls, and 4 messages! AGH! I saw that one was E. Farnsworth, one was the RS president, and one was Trisha, and then someone else... First one was Elder Farnsworth, he said "Elder Martin, I just talked to Trisha. We need to talk, but I think it would be best if we talked in person." His voice was sad, he helped teach her for 5 weeks, he grew to love her as much as I did. I was devestated! NO!! This was obviously not good. Next message, Trisha. Similar somber voice, "This message is for Elder Martin, I just wanted to call and let you know some things. E. Farnsworth said I should talk to you. I was wondering if I can be Baptized on December 18th" WHAT??? That's not at ALL what I expected! That little punk Farnsworth, so I call her back and we iron out some details, and now she is going to be baptized THIS SATURDAY! YES!!! Oh I was so excited, and I still am SO excited! I was so scared for a while, but it ended up being so wonderful.

Last Saturday we did an all day split with some priests in the ward. It was an awesome experience, I wish I could have had that before I came out on my mission. We started at 8 AM and they came and studied with us, I asked my companion to study the Restoration lesson, because we would be teaching it that day. We ended up having the opportunity to teach it 3 times. One was to his family, which I set up, but he was unaware of, but it was a great experience. He had the wonderful priviledge of tracting! although no real bible bashers, that's too bad, but oh well. It was a great day. I had another lesson on faith. When I was with E. Farnsworth, he one day said "We'll get 52 contacts today" a contact is where we teach a principle and bear testimony and invite them to do something, we've been asked to contact 140 people a week, or 20 people a day. It's not very easy to get sometimes, with so many people not letting us say anything, they just say no thanks and that's it. Well, I doubted Elder Farnsworth, we ended up with more than 52 contacts that day. So for this saturday Elder Nuttall and I were planning, and I said "We need 80 contacts between the two of us" he said "Impossible" and looking back on the previous experience, I thought 'not so' so I told him we could get it if we had faith. I told him I could get 50 contacts, if he could just get 30, he said okay. Then I changed it, and said "No, I'll get 52 contacts" We didn't quite get 80. Elder Nuttall got 17 with his companion, and I got ... ... 52!!! I knew that I could get that if I put my faith in the Lord, and somehow he worked his miracles as he always does. I know that when we do what the Lord asks, he will always prepare a way for us. This week we got exactly 140 contacts. It may not be a significant story, but it strengthened my faith. Also taught me that faith requires action, we acted, and the Lord worked through us. That whole day was very spirit filled.

Well I must go now, I know the church is true! the spirit has been with us so strongly in the past few lessons, I wish I could tell you all about the wonderful lesson we had last night, the spirit was so strong.

Love,

Elder Martin

Week 22

Dear the World,

How is December? Cold? yeah, I bet it is... I wouldn't know though, it sometimes gets as cold as in the 40's here though! yet, its still in the beautiful 70's during the day. I am perfectly content with not having snow for Christmas.

Last monday we had a Zone Activity, we were supposed to be playing Ultimate Frisbee. We got there and played Soccer. Oh yeah, I hate soccer. I'm never playing again, I got knee'd in the back, kicked in the knee, and clotheslined! what a dumb sport. Sorry Soccer fans, its just no fun. I'll stick with Volleyball. My P-days are generally not very fun! I hate them, and I think I figured out why. P-day's my focus is on Elder Martin, what do I need to get done, what can I do for fun. The rest of the week, its what can I do for others. What a great principle, the more selfish we become, the more miserable we become. Service and selfless thinking truly is the key to happiness.

What a wonderful wonderful week this has been! absolutely incredible! I'll explain.

Tuesday was a good day, we were tracting and ran into this guy, he said he has friends who are LDS but he wasn't interested, so we kept going, 20 minutes later we were coming back the other side of the street, and he calls to us "Hey, come back, I want to talk a bit" so we went and talked to him for about an hour and a half, or maybe more like an hour, but we just answered all of his questions, we didn't have a bible with us, so we used his. I like the idea of using other people's bibles to show them what truth is. All the questions he asked we could back up with scripture, they were relatively easy questions... Baptism for the Dead, potential to become like God, excommunication. He said he had a lot of really hard questions for us to answer. The world doesn't realize that there truly is an answer to every question. We don't have to guess about God's character, or about our eternal destiny, we KNOW! we gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read it 1 page at a time, then pause and ask himself if a man wrote the book, and then to pray about it, he said he'd take our challenge, I also gave him our number. He hasn't called us yet, which means he didn't truly take our challenge. Anyone alive will gain a testimony if they read the book of Mormon and Pray about it. Anyone!

Wednesday we had 5 appts! 4 of them cancelled. Boo. Relatively normal day.

Same with Thursday.

Friday however was incedible! the entire day. Yet I didn't do a single moment of proselyting, I didn't talk to anyone outside the church. We had Zone Conference in the Morning, a special Christmas Zone Conference, I played a violin duet of Still, Still, Still with Elder Cobourn, it turned out alright... we had no music, and Elder Cobourn can't play by ear, so I ended up writing out an arrangement on paper which I've never done before, so that was kind of fun. The violin I used was a little brassy, but got the job done. I'm playing next sunday as well, but I got a different violin this time, a really really nice one! Ooooh how I enjoy playing it. Anyway, that's a side note, so the Christmas Zone Conference was incredible, the spirit was so strong, and it was such a great experience, and then we went to the Mesa temple for the rest of the day. I love the temple! It is so beautiful inside of the Mesa Temple, they have scriptures and quotes by many of the doorways that really make you think and look at things differently. The spirit was very strong inside the temple, there was over 100 missionaries there which was such a neat experience.

Saturday and Sunday we had a nativity festival at the stake center, and choirs from all different churches were invited to attend. On Saturday night, the final choir was the Mt Pleasant Baptist Choir. Wow, what a treat! I'm sorry to say, but the average baptist choir has our choirs beat! Why can't we rejoice like that? Sometimes as Latter Day Saints we seem so somber and depressed. We should be the happiest people on the PLANET! We have the TRUTH, the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, we are told to REJOICE! in 1st nephi 11 I think verse 6, the Holy Ghost "Shouted with a loud voice; Hosanna!" So I've decided that when I get home I am joining a baptist choir. After the performance I went and told many of them thank you, and then later I found the choir director by her car, I told her about a concept called "Holy Envy" and that I had holy envy for her choir, and asked if she would let me join the choir after my mission. She said yes! SWEET! already in! By the end of one of their songs, they were all wiping sweat off their faces, they were panting, and nearly passing out, it was awesome! and the pianist was incredible!!!

Anyway, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is still better...

That's all for today, thanks for listening to my rantings.

Elder Martin

Hallelujah

Week 21

HAPPY THANKSGIVING... Last week... it was a great thanksgiving here, I started the morning by going to the ward turkey bowl, I'm not allowed to play football, so I took all the kids and organized a game with them, I coached one team... we won. Naturally.

Can I just say that being a missionary is so much fun! ya know how everyone says its awesome and hard? or some say "It's the hardest thing you'll ever love" ... well... LIES, its not hard at all! It's too much fun to be hard, yeah there is a ton of rejection, and sure some investigators drop you, and its frustrating, but its so great! I love the culture of this mission, we are constantly trying to improve as a mission, and we have so much fun! I'm really excited for this week, we are all going to the Mesa Temple, as a mission! its going to be awesome! I haven't been to any temple other than the Boise Temple, the Provo one was closed when I was at the MTC. My job as a missionary is to talk to people, that's it! I just get to tell people what I know to be true, could life be any better? Plus I have the greatest friends here, my missionary friends are amazing! Elder Kavatoe still lives with me even though we aren't companions anymore. He's so funny. I am playing a violin duet with another Elder this Friday at a Zone Conference, so I've been able to have a violin with me for the past few days to practice. Every single prayer that Elder Kavatoe offers, he says "Please bless Elder Martin that his violin playing will get better, and that he will one day be professional" and goes on for about a minute and a half about my violin playing... I'm not sure if I should be offended or not. Last night he gave a ten minute prayer giving thanks for everything imaginable. A filibuster prayer. Elder Pearson, who is Elder Kavatoe's companion is a beat boxer, so we often sing the lion sleeps tonight with the beatboxing in the background.

Speaking of Elder Nuttall, we were tracting yesterday and a girl comes running out of her house screaming his name and runs and gives him a big hug! it was the funniest thing! We randomly decided to tract a street I've never even thought of tracting before, and it just so happens that his aunt and his cousin are staying there for thanksgiving, they were shocked, he was shocked... I was confused, at least at first. I had no clue what was going on for a second, her scream stopped me dead in my tracks and I was ready to bolt. But because of that, we found a less active family we can hopefully teach! also on that street we got a new investigator and 2 bags of home grown grapefruit! oh how blessed we are. That night we also were given a pie.

I had a really awesome story I wanted to tell, but I can't remember what it was, I remember writing it in my planner so I wouldn't forget, and then I forgot to bring my planner today.

Little Jason is wanting to be baptized! the 11 year old boy, we talked to his dad last week, and his dad told us that his son could follow any path he chose, and Jason told us "I want to be baptized 1 or 2 days after I go to church! sadly that can't happen, but he can certainly be baptized soon!

We've had some crazy people talk to us lately, telling us the most ridiculous beliefs. We talked two a couple of guys playing volleyball (different vein of thought now) and they said they'd come to church, but they didn't, and we even tried calling... argh, I don't know why I even told that story, it was fun though, we played volleyball with them for a minute (pepper).

Well that's all I can write today. Love you all, the church is true, I love the videos of the church! go watch them, they're awesome. Some are weird, but that's okay too.

Elder Jason Martin

Week 20

Greetings to my friends and family... Say, does anyone even read this thing? is it worth me writing these? I hope so.

So this week has been great, I got a new companion, Elder Nuttall from California, he's a great Elder and its going to be a good 6 weeks! Elder Farnsworth and Elder Kavatoe are STILL in my same area though! its so awesome, Elder Kavatoe lives in the same apartment as me, and Elder Farnsworth is now my Zone Leader, I knew he would be.

I had an awesome lesson with the the 11 year old boy named Jason, we were teaching at his friends house, he is so excited to learn! the other kids were being so noisy and disruptive, and he would say "Stop it, I'm trying to listen, I want to learn about this!" it was awesome. They were pretty loud and kept interrupting, a 10 minute lesson lasted an hour, at the end they said "When is this lesson over, I want to eat" I said "Well, it was a 10 minute lesson, but you kept interrupting and talking and asking questions not on the topic" they said "Oh, good point". Anyway, at one point, Elder Nuttall was about to tell the story of Joseph Smith, the First Vision, but I stopped him and said "Now you guys have to listen and be quiet as he tells this story, its an incredible story and the spirit always comes when its told, so pay attention and don't interrupt him." and said other things to set it up and grab their attention, there eyes were all on him, so intent on listening, and then, as usual, someone knocks on the door! all three boys jump up and run to the door! UGH!!! Satan, you crafty devil you. Without fail, a phone rings, a door knocks, something happens during the story! always always always.

I've had quite a few people who are just crazy, I thought I've heard every argument ever. I was talking to a guy in the park, and he was making some silly points about how we are saved no matter what because of "Freedom in Christ" and I quoted the Savior himself in Matthew chapter 10, and he said "Well, that was said during his life, when people were still subject to the law, after his death no one was subject to that law anymore." I was baffled, through talking more, I learned that he pretty much rejects everything that Christ said, even though he denies that fact... it was so strange! people have so many ways of justifying their actions.

I wish I could write more! It's a busy day, I have to leave, I still believe though! =] the church is true and I love missionary work.

Elder Martin

P.S.
Oooh, great story, I meant to tell it in the other letter to everyone, maybe you can add it in there melanie. So the other day we were visiting the ward mission leader, and I thought "Hmmm, lets go visit the Quast family who live nearby" I thought I knew where they lived, but wasn't exactly sure, so I got to the house that looked like theres, and knocked on the door. It was not the quasts, but we talked and she said we could come back and teach some more! we'll see how that goes.

Week 19

Grandma, thanks for the reply! I haven't met with ruby yet again, but she spoke so highly of your family, told me stories about how hard you all would work, and so unselfishly, it was really nice to hear.

Well this week has been awesome! some bad news though, transfer news. I'm losing Elder Farnsworth! The past 6 weeks have really flown by! I can't even believe it. The work has been skyrocketing here, I can't even believe it! We had an absolutely wonderful baptism this past saturday! Don Welchoff, I'm sure I've mentioned him a few times, he is such an amazing man! and it was such a beautiful baptism, his daughter, who is not a member, was really touched by the spirit, I really hope to start teaching her. This baptism really meant a lot to me, its amazing to have seen from the first visit to where he is now, he was always a wonderful man, but now its even more so and he's grown so much.

We had an awesome experience on I think Saturday! we were up in this really cool area called Verrado, its like a dream location for a family, anyway we saw a kid in our ward, and went and talked to him, and then saw a group of 8 teenagers farther up by the street/park and asked if he knew them he said he didn't really, but they may not be the best of kids... but we went and started talking to them anyway. It was awesome! I love talking to teenagers, for some reason its a lot easier for me. One of the kids, I didn't know his name, but I'll call him Kyle for convenience, seemed somewhat anti, he was asking questions like "Who do you guys think created God?" and things like that. So most of the kids were cool, and receptive, some asking really good questions like "So where did the Book of Mormon come from?" we were having an awesome conversation!! somewhere in the middle of it this older lady came and sat down and was listening, and then Elder Farnsworth said "Don't take our word for it, we're only a few 20 year old guys" and then the lady piped in "Oh that's interesting, 20 years old huh? hey, just out of curiosity, how old are you kids? are any of you over the age of 18?" oh great, I knew exactly where she was going with this, they all said No, and she said "Oh, I just don't know how appropriate it is for you guys to be talking to these minors." and our good friend Kyle said "WHY?" and I was like YES! and she said "well, as a parent, I just don't think I'd like my kids to be out here exposed to all kinds of ideas like this." and kyle said "Why not? they're not doing any harm! They're talking to us about God, is God a bad person?" it was so awesome, we were being defended by someone who used to seem like a critic, and then all the other kids jumped on his side "Yeah lady, they're just trying to help us out! They're doing us a favor." and she would say "That's good, but I just don't think they should be telling you these things without your parents here to give you another side." I piped in then, and said "If any of you have any problems with us talking to you, just let us know we'll be happy to leave." they all said "No, no, we're really enjoying this" and then I said "And please do take this to your parents, share what we've shared, and again don't listen to us, but ask God if what we've said is true." We shook their hands and left. It was such a great experience, those kids defended us so quickly, especially Kyle, he was defiant! That lady did more good than she realized! Later one of the kids came riding his bike over to us, and said "Sorry about that, what a crabby lady!" and we talked to him some more, he was one who was asking most of the good questions.

We've had so many awesome experiences, I can't remember them all, and I forgot my planner with all that info in it, I'll be going back to just the 2 wards, so that will make things less hectic.

Today we got to go into a seminary class and teach the ten commandments, that was a lot of fun, I really love this area! I'm so glad I'll be staying, at the end of this transfer, I will have been here in the Waddell ward, goodyear area for 6 months! 1/4 of my mission. I love this area, I hope to stay here for a very long time. I'm really excited about the new people we're going to start teaching. We have quite a few, hopefully we will be able to teach a part member family where the mom is LDS but the husband and two kids are not, we taught them the plan of salvation and it was really awesome! the dad seemed like it wasn't new to him and was very happy to see us, the mom was very straightforward, she said "Yup, I'm super inactive, that's why you're here" and when we tried to set up a return appt, she said "If you do that, I'll just try to wiggle out of it, find an excuse to cancel, you should just come back whenever you can."

I just love being a missionary so much! I love the people, I love being able to all day long go into peoples homes and teach them the gospel. I love talking to the super anti mormons, cause it always strengthens my testimony, their ideas about the trinity are so complicated and ridiculous that it gives so much credence in my own mind to the truth! it solidifies everything we teach. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is found in its fullness in this Church, I know that Christ is the head of the church, I love being a part of this great and marvelous work!

Elder Martin

Week 18

What a great week! last monday we had a baptismal interview for a man I have been teaching who will be baptized this saturday! it was a great experience, he's such a wonderful man and is so ready for baptism. It was a part-member family, so his wife's family is all really happy and excited. It's so great to see a family come together like this.

I've had some great lessons this week! We finally got to meet with Kelly again, and this time he came to the church and we had the lesson in the chapel! I'm a big fan of doing lessons in chapels. It was just me and a couple ward missionaries from the singles ward, my two companions were teaching elsewhere. I invited him to experiment upon the word as is said in Alma 32:27 and suggested that he come to church on sunday, and every day throughout the week, read at least a page from the book of mormon, to pray about it before and after, and then come to church the following sunday as well, and then to see if his life wasn't blessed. He then said a kneeling prayer after accepting the challenge! it was exciting. Sunday came, he didn't show up! ugh! actually I had someone go pick him up, which I told him would happen, and he said he didn't know anyone was coming. Oi vey.

I had a great experience that same evening, just before visiting with Kelly, we had lunch at this families house who are less active, they have 2 boys we are teaching, 13 and 11 I think, and they had one of their friends over there who was not a member. Part of our reason for going was to give the 11 year old a blessing for his broken arm, the friend also wanted a blessing! he had already asked his grandparents who agreed! it was a great experience, he was so anxious to learn more about the church, so excited when he was invited to church! and he is just such a sweet little guy, it was so awesome to see his desire to learn about the book of mormon and about the Savior.

Last night we were contacting at a park, and we walked up to a guy on a bench, who said "Que pasa Amigo" so I said we were missionaries, and he said something else in spanish, so I said "Oh, do you speak English" and he said "no, no english" and then this little 8 year old came up and said "Man, he's lying to you! he speaks english just fine!" I started to laugh and said "ah, your son just ratted you out!" and he said "He's not my son" and further blew his cover, so he said "what are you selling?" and we talked to him. Saturday we went on 3 way splits for 2 hours with some people from the singles ward, and again I was at the park talking to people, and was having a great discussion with this lady about the gospel, but found she was probably just trying to confound me, she left when she couldn't, but as she was leaving 6 teenage boys came up and said "Hey, what are you guys selling?" and I said "Nothing, I'm a missionary" and he said "Oh are you Christian?" I said yes, he said "Oh, I thought you were Mormon or something" and I said "Why, I am! I'm Mormon, but Mormons are Christians" and we talked for a minute, but one of his friends said "I don't even believe in God" to which his friend said "WHAT?? Really?" boy #2 said "Yeah, he's never helped me out, I don't believe he's out there" his friend said "Man, he helps you every day! why do you think you don't fall off your bike all the time?" and boy #2 said "I fall off my bike every day." I decided it was time for a comment, so I asked him if he's ever prayed to God, he said no, so I asked how he can get an answer if he doesn't ask a question, and then told him that he does have a loving Heavenly Father who knows him very well, and I told him that if he went home tonight and knelt down and asked if there was someone out there listening, and that if he was in fact his son, that he would recieve an answer, and I gave him a Restoration Pamphlet. I hope something comes of that! I love talking to the skaters and the bikers at the park, they are such foul kids, but many are receptive, whereas so many adults are in no way receptive.

Speaking of Adults at the park, one guy came up to us and said "Hey are you Jehovah's Witnesses?" we said no, we're Mormons, and he said "Oh so you believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers" it turned into a bit of a debate, and then I remembered something I was told in the MTC, so I stopped everything and said "Let me ask a question, are you asking us this question out of a sincere desire to understand us and our beliefs, or are you just trying to patronize us?" He paused and said "Let me start over, sorry" and he shook our hands, and then started arguing some more, but much more nicely. It was pretty funny.

There are so many wonderful stories that happened this week, so many great lessons we taught to our investigators, one of our investigators committed to be baptized in December! it was one of the more powerful lessons we've taught, the spirit was very strong. We have a few new investigators that are really promising, I'm very excited about where things are going here, I really hope I don't get transferred next week! I want to stay.

One of those investigators many of my family should know! Her name used to be Ruby Bartlett, she is now Ruby Hall, its her husband we're actually teaching! They are wonderful and the spirit is working in their life, She is my cousin almost? maybe 1st cousin once removed or something like that, my moms cousin. She told stories about my mom, and about Austin Turley and asked about Joe. It was so fun to talk to her about my family!

Well the church is still true, otherwise I wouldn't be feeling the spirit so strong every day! How wonderful it is to see the changes in peoples lives, I love this work so much, and I can't believe its already been 4 months since I've been here! I have one more transfer til I'm 1/4 of the way done!!! I'm starting to feel like I don't have enough time left on my mission.

Elder Martin