Week 55

Alright, well... hmmm... Ummm, so this is what is happening. It's transfer week. No one in the District is being transferred. Whoohooo! I'm staying here another six weeks... which I've known for the past six weeks, but its still good and I am happy.

I had a good week! I'm trying to remember the good points though. I LOVE living in my new house, or Casita (spanish for small house). This coming week I think we are going to be getting a lot done, I'm excited. We had a few hangups last week... Thursday was pretty much shot... a lot of meetings and planning, Friday we had some meetings, but they were good... got to get to know the mission President a little better, and that is always good. We went and stopped by a family we are going to start teaching... not an investigator family, just a family that is starting to come back to church... they are an awesome family, a lot of fun, very well behaved children! so that's good.

Saturday I went on splits with Zone Leaders, Elder Mendenhall, he's awesome. I am trying desperately to convince them that we need a truck in our area, so I decided I would innocently take him down the worst roads we have. He agrees we need a truck, but it still probably wont happen. So I took him down this horrible dirt road, and saw houses that I have never been to before, so we started tracting the road and we knocked on the third of four houses and talked for an hour with this couple. It was a great conversation! he kept saying "Oh I need to get going" and then he would ask another question! we ended up teaching the first lesson, which is the Restoration. Before we got to the part about Joseph Smith they asked "So who is the man that God chose to restore the gospel in our day? and when was that?" so we were led beautifully into our next point! It was so perfect, the reason we teach many of the points BEFORE Joseph Smith is so they will see the need to have a restoration in OUR day.

Have I told you about Dale? Dale is crazy, and he has done a lot of drugs I think in his day, and plenty of alchohol to go along with it. We've been trying to work with him, he's so sad, and so afraid to die. Well we went over the other day, and it turns out he has a twin brother, and it was the weirdest thing in the world! he was so normal!!! he looked exactly like him of course, but sober. So strange to see such a contrast, and to see what drugs will do to you! So many teenagers just think "Ah yeah cool cool, drugs are fun, it makes things better, makes you happy!" wow, they screw up lives, they destroy your mind, and it doesn't take much to affect you the rest of your life.

Well I can testify that the church is still most definitely the true church! God's church, and the only way we can find happiness in life. People like to find other ways, and they will always fail, ALWAYS. You cannot find lasting and real happiness unless it includes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Elder Martin

Week 54

Well, last wednesday was my one year mark in the great state of Arizona! it's about 20 degree's cooler than last year, and I am LOVING IT! Oh first of all, before I get into the e-mail, thank you for the comment on the blog! everyone should follow your example. Which also reminds me, that doesn't cut it, you owe me a real letter cami! I have not received any mail for the past 12 weeks, so you should send me one.

Anyway, things here are going great! we have a new missionary in our district, and we are working hard with that, and keeping things going smooth. It was a slow week though, on Tuesday we went to clean the new casita we planned on living in, and after we cleaned we walked out and ran into Elder Cherry, the housing missionary! it was perfect timing! He came and approved the place and we moved in that very day! I absolutely love our new place, it is awesome! I miss the other Elders, but I love being with just my companion, we get a lot more done. However, the next day he got sick, so we didn't get much done the first half of the week.

Friday was awesome, I went on exchanges with Elder Bush, one of my favorite people in the world. I love going on splits with him, he's such an awesome missionary and we get along very well. We had a good day... but again not much got done, that morning we went to mow someones lawn which was really long, we used an ELECTRIC lawn mower! it needed an extension cord and what not... That was a new experience, I almost felt like I was vacuuming, so we got the lawn mowed, but unfortunately hit a sprinkler in the long grass and broke it! so then we had to go and get everything to replace the sprinkler and then fix it, which turned out to be really simple, I was kinda hoping for a tough fix, but it was just really easy. Whoever put in the water and electric in this house was really stupid! the pipe was about an inch and a half under the ground, and their were all kinds of wires around it too that I was lucky enough not to sever! very cheap labor! then we went and had lunch and then Elder Bush broke a veneer on his tooth, and he looked like a thug so we got it fixed right away, we spent a lot of time back and forth from town, it was no good.

Friday night I found out that one of the wards in the district had baptized a 10 year old! Ugh, that is not something that is allowed! anyone over 9 has to go through the missionaries. So Salt Lake refused it and now it has to go through us. Funny stuff. Saturday was good. I am very excited to teach Morgan, the daughter of one of my first baptisms, she is so awesome and excited to take the discussions and be baptized, I am so glad I get to teach her!

Well keep commenting, and feel free to write me a letter =]

Elder Martin

Comments

Hey, this is Elder Martin's sister. I was just looking through the blog and noticed that the last time anyone commented on it was April 25th. The comment was from his brother Chris, and it was about how he tried to comment, but it erased. Far out! And that was it.
Where is the love?
Send Elder Martin your love and support with comments!

Week 53

It's been another great week!

Monday was just fun! Oh yeah, I told about monday last week cause I e-mailed on tuesday. Tuesday we went and helped some members move, we are going to be moving in really soon with the Hunt family which is awesome, so we are doing all we can to get them moved in faster.

Hmmm, it was kind of a boring week... not really boring, but not much got done. A lot of failed appointments and stuff, it was still a great week though! Mostly the weekend. Friday we got to meet our new mission president and his wife, and their son! It was a lot of fun, I love them already and am so excited to work with them! Completely different from President and Sister Beck, but still awesome just in different ways. It's kinda cool. Friday night we stopped by the Welchoff's and set up a time to start teaching Morgan, the daughter. Next Friday! I am SO excited!

Saturday also wasn't so eventful. I know there were a few things that happened this week, but I just can't remember! Saturday we went and visited the Medina family. They are less active, and they moved within ward boundaries, but refused to tell us where they moved, but instead said "We want to see how long it will take you to find us!" They moved last week, and we found them this week... we had some help though, one day we ran into their daughter and got their address and swore her to secrecy. They were surprised to see us so soon, it was fun.

We are going to be starting a lemonade stand across from the college campus at the church. We can't proselyte on campus, so we'll send them to us with free lemonade. We'll see how it goes.

Elder Martin

Week 52

Well its been an interesting week. So last monday I sprained my ankle really bad, it got quite swollen, and turned a beautiful blue/purple. It made the rest of the week much more difficult, not to mention I have felt on the verge of being sick for a long time now... perhaps its the heat. Speaking of heat, Saturday was 118, or possibly more. 118 was the hottest I saw it while in the car. We were mostly of course not in the car, but out working.

Ryan is doing well, he was the one who got beat up pretty good. He had a lot of questions about the Law of Chastity, and if he could live with his girlfriend. We told him no. He asked if he could if they were both baptized. Ha, we of course explained that that would make it even worse.

So the McKaigs are ignoring us I am pretty sure! We have stopped by at least 10 times in the last 2 weeks. The last time we saw a little boy go knock on the door first, and someone answered the door and talked to him. They didn't see us at that point. So when he left, we went and knocked, and rang the doorbell. No answer. Nothing whatsoever from them.

I am very sore, I went to physical therapy for my ankle, cause there is a physical therapist in my ward who did it for free. He had me do a few exercises and then perhaps forgot I was doing them, cause I was doing them for a very long time, and now I can't use a couple of muscles. But they were great exercises! He also talked to me about my knee and what I can do to keep it healthy, that was great!

Nothing else really interesting happened.

Elder Martin

Week 51

Well... I will say this first. Best week of my entire mission! Some things I can't share, but I will share what I can.

It's been a week of injuries! Tuesday we get a call from an investigator, she was wakeboarding and her she caught an edge and the wakeboard somehow managed to smack her in the back of the head, splitting it open beautifully. We gave her a blessing. We also had a lesson, in which I was positive she was going to get her answer. We were so close to having her pray to know the truth right there. She wouldn't. I was on my knees for probably 10 or 15 minutes. Painful.

Wednesday we have a lesson with Ryan Begay, who is getting baptized soon, then we had to go to the mission office and get Elder Hall certified to drive, all new missionaries have to do that. We spent a LOT of time there, I even had to drive around the vehicle coordinator for a bit. It was good though, he loves me, and thinks I am the most responsible Elder in the mission, so I was worried that I would change his opinion... but thankfully I'm the best driver I know! I was mostly worried that our car was messy. So after that we go to Mark, a new investigator. We get there and he has a paper entitled "Scriptures to use with Mormons" That didn't go well. I can't argue against stupid statements, or rather explain and discuss them. He had some really dumb points, straining at gnats. We wont be back.

Thursday was my one year mark! I got a delicious cake and a jar of pickles from the Kharrl family! They are awesome! and then we went to matt kennedy's and he wasn't talking the whole time! it was awesome!

Friday was a really sad day, it was the last time I will see President and Sister Beck, they go home soon, and that was the last zone conference. It was really good!

Sunday was awesome! We were asked to do a Bishops Youth Night for the ward, and we did it on how to be missionaries, we had everyone role play, it was a lot of fun. I gave out 15 copies of the Book of Mormon to the youth to pass out, and it was just so much fun! I love the youth in this ward, they are so great.

Oh Friday night we got a phone call from Ryan Begay, which is strange cause he doesn't have a phone! but he was at the hospital. Thursday night he got jumped, he doesn't know anything about it, a group of guys came from behind him and beat him up pretty bad, his face is really messed up. Poor guy, so we gave him a blessing.

This doesn't show the full epicness of the week, I dont' have time to explain it all, but I loved this week!

Also speaking of injuries, today I sprained my ankle really bad! I was playing basketball and came down on someones foot, I heard a pop. It hurts. But I can walk on it so all is well.

Elder Martin

Week 50

Well, its a new transfer, and things are awesome! Better I think than they have ever been. I'm training again, Elder Hall from Alabama. He's a great worker, good teacher, very personable and easy to get a long with. We had an awesome week!

We don't tract anymore, but I decided to take him tracting so he could get used to talking with people. So we go to the street, and we go to the first house, and we brought a priest along with us also, and he says "It looks like no one lives here, there is no furniture" so I said "Okay, we'll skip it and move on, we wont waste our time" then he said "Wait, hang on, maybe there is someone" so we go and knock. The guy comes out and talks to us for about 10 or 15 minutes, then we go in and teach the Restoration. He is evangelical, and had a lot of counter points to what we had, but it was all basic stuff, he was really familiar with the bible, so it was fairly easy to show him our point of view, a lot of which was good for him, and he seemed to grasp. We just had a great discussion, it may not go anywhere, but he started to really open up towards the end, and shared some cool stuff about his life. He has never felt joy or peace he says. If he prays about the Book of Mormon, he will feel joy AND peace! I really hope he does.

The Bishops really like my new companion! I think that they are going to start progressing even faster. There is one problem though... Mary has faith in ME. I want to end that. She keeps saying "I have complete faith in you Elder Martin, just not Joseph Smith" So we tell her that her faith should be in Jesus Christ. We are going over there today to give a blessing to her daughter, and we told her that they need to show faith in Jesus Christ. Again, "well I have faith in you elder Martin" NO!!! Bad! We're taking them to the temple in July. It's gonna be good. But anyway, she also really likes Elder Hall, she said he seems familiar. I told her that she knew him before this life, and she liked that. That whole conversation happened while he was in the bathroom. I'm really excited.

We talked to a lady from Romania the other day, actually 4 people, but only 1 spoke english, one really old lady couldn't understand us, but I believe the gift of tongues was present, and she understood the language of the Spirit, the one lady who spoke english was baptist, and argued a little bit with us, but the one who couldn't understand just listened, and felt the spirit, at the end she said in English "I love Jesus! I LOVE Jesus!" and then she asked through her friend if she could get a romanian copy of the Book of Mormon. She was so excited, it was really cool.

The gospel is true, everyone can feel it if they will just listen for the spirit.

Elder Martin