Week 6

Ohhokay...  the week acutally started off not crazy in the sense of crazy, but rather just different.  I went on exchanges with our Zone leader,  i went to their area.  It was actually a Whole lot nicer then our area, it was like an actually city and stuff! and the appartment was WAY nicer too... and it had like tennis courts in the back yard that we did both mornings i was there.  i won both times... Awwhh yeah! 

 

They picked me up like at 1 on our P-day... so i got jipped there.  

And people over here i noticed like to just do lesson's out on their porches, wierd. 
So we got eaten alive at one lady's house, and the mosquitos are Freaky over here! they are like black with white stripes.  I was sure i was going to get West nile from them.

 

Anyhow, the first have of the week Flew by, 3/4 of it was spent driving or in meetings.  We had our district meeting (which again is like almost 2 hours away) and then the next day we had the trainer and trainee meeting  up in Nashville (about 2 and a half hours north) that lasted All day... no joke, we got back at like 8.  So friday was my only normal day.

 

But here's where the crazy comes, on saturday... It started off innocently enough.

We had a baptism for a family of 3 ( which technically counts as our baptism... SO EAT IT CAMERON!) and Pres. McKee came down for it and it was just an Awesome baptismal service!  Jock was there and President talked to him about getting baptized, it was sweet.  So he's moving along now.  But later that night our dinner appointment skipped out on us so we just went out and headed towards a less active that lives about 30 minutes (walking) away, and we ran into everyone that lives here it seems... the first guy was cool and we gave him a BoM and prayed with him, The second guy seemed alright to begin with, and Elder freeze kinda knew he was crazy from before and wanted me to experiance some crazy southerners.  He got to talking about how he believed that little people used to live on the earth millions of years ago.  At first i thought he was talking about midgets or something, but no! he was talking about people that were like 2 inches tall!! WHAT?! and he said he had a fossil of one, so he invited us in.  First thing i noticed was that his house was super clean... like theres Clean, then there's OCD Clean, then there is Psycopathic murderer clean, which is what this was.....  But alas i'm out of time, so next week i'll finish

Week 5

Oh man! this was a pretty crazy week...  i'll just start off from the
beginning of the week and work my way down the days.

So on tuesday and wednesday we had to wake up an hour earlier to go
and help Sister Floyd teach seminary at her house.  We taught The Plan
Of Salvation in two parts, which was awesome because her husband isn't
a member and has been taking the lessons forever, but hasn't ever
heard the Plan of Salvation in detail.  (Jock, i don't remember if i
talked about him or not yet.)
Anyways on tuesday we mostly met with less active members.  We were
fed by the Gill family, they are just crazy.  Brother Gill might be
insane,  But he's funny.   Anyways they made lasagna and they put
about 3 or 4 pounds of it on our plates.  I thought i was going to
die.  And then for desert they had cake and icecream, which they also
gave us like twice as much as everyone else... oh man that was a rough
night.

Then wednesday comes along and we have District meeting, which is like
2ish hours away from where we live,  so at least I was able to catch
up on some sleep.
That took up most of our day.     But then we had dinner with the
Brazeils (not sure how to spell it) and Brother Brazeil is also pretty
crazy,  super in to conspiracy theories and such, its funny.     Then
we went to go teach Bailey, and we invited him to be baptized and he
Accepts! Awwwhh yeah!

Then thursday we teach someone who goes by Ma-mah, she's super old and
has a slight case of dementia which is a little concerning, but She
also accepted our invitation to be baptized!!! Double yeah!

Then on friday we had a visit from Elder Kopishke (from germany) of
the first quorum of the 70, to come talk to the mission, so that was
really cool.

Then on Saturday we had the Baptism for Thomas, the golden
investigator from before! at the end of it, our bishop asked me to
speak the next day in sacrament meeting........  So i had to give a
talk yesterday.  He almost gave me a really deep doctrine topic to
speak on too... but then he found out i'd only been out two weeks so
he changed the topic.

All in all a pretty crazy hectic week though.

Such is the life and times of Elder Casey Martin.

Week 4

Alrighty!  First P-day in the mission field!  Let's start off with the plane ride.  We got up and like 2:30 to get everything we hadn't already packed all packed up and such-not,  then drove to the airport  where our plane left at 7 or something to georgia.  On the plane one of the sister's placed a book of Mormon and pretty much taught the first lesson to some other lady which was pretty cool.  We made a stop in Georgia for about 2 hours then flew the rest of the 25 minutes to Nashville.   Then the Mission Pres. and some of his family and the AP's met us there and we headed to the mission home. The next day we drove through one of the top 10 most wealthy area's in the US to get to our church for the transfer meeting.  SUPER nice houses, most made of brick... in fact, most of the houses are made of brick down here, keeps out the humidity better i suppose.  Got my new Companion, Elder Freeze from Provo. and headed out to my area, Shelbyville! McMinnville zone.  but we are actually in a town called Lewisburg, there is about 7 or 8 thousand people there i think...   Anyways, my very first lesson was with a guy named Thomas, he's pretty much a Golden investigator...  Really wants to be baptized and learn as much as he can about the church, so that was cool.  He's our only progressing investigator right now though.  We meet with a lot of other people, but they either don't progress or their less active's.  There is a Lot of inactive people here.  I think its about 35% active.  There is another guy named Jock, He's what you'd call an "Eternigator", someone who was been investigating for about 10 years.  He's married 2 different mormon's and really likes our church and the missionaries in particular, but he won't get baptized!!! its pretty frustrating, but alot of people around here are like that, they just say that Everyone is going to be saved so they don't care what religion they are.  But i think he'll come around pretty soon.  People are kinda strange around here,  But the other missionaries say its better in the city... i'm way out in the hickish part of Tennessee. about 45 or so minutes from Georgia.   But Tennessee is sooo cool! ALOT of rock!  All over on the sides of the roads there is just like rock walls about 4 feet high, its sweet.   And it's like only 2 feet or less till you hit rock from the ground.    Oh and we don't have a car in our area, which is i think, now the only area in Tennessee that doesn't. so we walk everywhere or get rides from members.  And we live in the ghetto too.  There is a guy named Jamal in one of the ghetto houses, he's pretty cool.  He looks JUST LIKE Theo Huxtable from the Cosby show. its hilarious.  Then we have a guy named Billy who i think might be dead, they used to go over to his house everyday and when they knock he'd always say "come in" cause he cant move around and stuff, but i haven't ever been able to meet him cause he either always gone whenever we go over or he's dead... and we go over everyday.  So thats a little odd.  Our appartment is nicknamed the Dungeon cause its just a basement of a hair salon and it has No windows at all, i'll show you pictures of it sometime.

Running out of time so just real quick,  Mom, can you send me the recipes for German Pancakes and No bake cookies? thanks.

Heres the address to send everything to.  You can put it up on my facebook too.

105 westpark drive suite 190 Brentwood TN 37027
I expect many real mails and packages now.. :)

And why is no one else writing me beside's mom and dad? HMM?? no Chris or even melanie anymore... How rude

Welp, Got to go
Love you guys

Week 2

Week 2 of the MTC!   It's crazy to think I've been here for 2 weeks.  I'm not sure if i said this last time, but the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days, its so weird.  Went to the temple again today so that was of course great.  Lets see... what happened this week?  Oh, well they opened up the indoor gym on sunday so we were able to play volleyball and such in there this week, i've had to just do sand volleyball which isn't nearly as good.  I'm the best person that i've played with so far though... But i hear that a BYU Volleyball player is here, i just haven't had the chance to play with him, must have different gym times.   Oh, we also have a celebrity here at the MTC.  The guy who play's the teen Joseph Smith in the newer Restoration movie, but he has like really dark orange hair in reality... Maybe i'll get a picture with him before i go.   There's tons of people here that i know from home though.  By tons I mean about 5 or so.  We only have like one more day of real classes before we leave on monday though.  Because on friday we have "In-field Orientation" all day then on saturday our teachers will pretty much just talk about thier missions and then we leave early monday morning...  We leave the MTC at 4:00 in the morning.....  no sleep for tired Casey's i guess.  Then i get to go to Tennessee!!! Awwwhhh yeah.  from what i hear from some of the missionaries, Tennessee is absolutly awesome.  i believe it.    We had Rex D. Pinegar speak to us last night, he's an Emeritus General Authority.  he was pretty cool.  I'll try to get some pictures sent next week, i just always forget to bring it to the computers here... Sorry

 

Oh and thanks Mom for sending me a letter...... NOT:(

 

Is all for now i guess, buh bye

 

Love,

Casey