Week 23

It is Christmas eve!  And yet it does not feel so.  For one, its like 60 degrees outside right now, and for two, I'm a missionary!  We just had a Zone Conference the other day and talked about kinda what our Christmas should be like as a missionary.  And it should frankly be the Best Christmas Ever, or maybe next years...  As a missionary I will be able to focus more on what the real meaning of Christmas is really all about and i'm super excited for that, as well as to try and share that with others!  And then there was that talk in the Ensign from Elder Holland which was tailored for missionaries pretty much, that was pretty sweet.

Anyways, P-days are alot more boring without the Spanish Elders here.  Oh and it seems like some of you think i got a new area, but i kept it....  We just got more added on is all.  

Thank you so much to all those who sent stuff!  at least some people love me...

Well Shoot! i don't really have too much to say since we'll be talking tomorrow via Skype... 

So until then!!!

Love

-Elder Martin

Pictures

I figured i might as well use it to send some pictures.

1. Here's those rock walls i talked about earlier, not a very good picture though

2. Me with a free shirt i got in Lewisburg eating a giant leg of mutton

3. A picture of my shirt after my crash the other month...  all scraped up...

4. Elder Bethers, my new companion.

5. BLACK SANTA!!! HAHA!!!

Week 22

Life in Shelbyville, or as the local's call it 'Shovel' is purty good.  This past week we've been pretty busy taking on 2 counties.  our area from corner to corner probably takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive.   But at least now we have a car eh?!

The past week we've taught several people, and about 7 of them we have plans to set a baptismal date with this week or maybe next week depending on when we can see them! 

First we have Barbara, She is on probation however so we'll have to get special permission to baptize her.  

Then we have 4 of her grand kids, who by the way are the craziest, unruliest kids you'll ever meet.

Then we have Mike, he's a neighbor of a member in lewisburg.  He's the only one who asks real question's that are good, i like him.

Then we have Donna, a friend of Barbara's, who'll probably get baptized when Barbara does.

And then on top of that we have Jan still!

All of these people are referral's!  So Remember!!! REFER PEOPLE TO THE MISSIONARIES!!!

In other news, the people here in shovel Cannot drive worth beans...  I've witnessed like 2 crashes and several almost accidents, a few of which happened with us.  

I've heard that no one will be home for Christmas? is this true?  Y'all are crazy....  

I actually hope to be able to try and do the call home on Christmas eve if at all possible.  Cause the member were going to on Christmas hate's us, and the ward, and pretty much everything.

But i doubt i can do it on Christmas eve.... so don't bank on it.

That's all for now i guess....

Love Ya'll!

-Elder Martin

Week 21

Transfers!  Kinda....

 

So as you already knew, i was in lewisburg, full time walk, in the shelbyville ward, with spanish working in shelbyville with the full time car...  Well! this transfer they did some changing.   Me and Elder Bethers are still together, but were moving to Shelbyville!  Well, kinda...  They moved the Spanish elders out so we'll be the only missionaries in the ward, and we'll live in Shelbyville half the week and Lewisburg the other half.  So we Finally have a full time car!!!! WOOOOOT!!!!  and also Washer and Dryer!!!! WOOOO!!!!  it's gonna be an interesting transfer indeed.

 

We'll be Super busy this transfer though, we have a ton of less active work to do now that we can drive places.

 

Anyways, Sister McKee is making alot of progress!  President told her he was going to see the missionaries (At the Russel M Nelson visit!!!!!) and he asked if she had anything to say, cause he's just Awesome like that, and she lifted her hand and kinda did a wave thing!  and apparently she also sat up by herself for a few seconds the other day!   Miracles are happening!

 

Now, about the Russell M Nelson visit, That was awesome! he talked to us for about an hour then opened the floor to the missionaries to do a Q and A type of thing.  All of it was just incredible.  Russell M Nelson is probably one of my favorite Apostles to listen to.    We also heard from one of the Zone Leaders (so it possibly isn't true, but i think they said President told them) that another Apostle is coming in February!  I've already seen more general authorities in the past 2 months then i have in my life!  Well... i guess i've seen more in the past 2 days then i've seen in my life too... 

 

But uhhh..... What the heck guys?  i only got a letter from Mom and Dad this week... what's up with that?!  I am calling ya'll to repentance!  Repent Ye, Repent Ye and write the missionary whom you despitefully use! Or else He shall not write you!!!  

 

Oh yeah and also, i just found out today that Patrick, our cousin, was in the mtc with one of the spanish elders who was in Shelbyville...  Small world eh?

 

Hmmmm welp, i guess that's all for now.

 

I'll see ya'll when the world ends here in 11 days

 

Love

-Elder Martin

Week 20

Already week 6 of the transfer?!?

What?!? That's crazy! it felt like this transfer just started!  but next week i could potentially have a new companion, a new area and perhaps by the grace of God, a car!!!!

 

I guess i'll start off by talking about what happened in the Mission.   Sister McKee had a heart attack, 2 strokes and a hemorrhage in her brain... All within the span of a couple of days, all of which could've killed her on their own.  She's been in the hospital for the past week and a half and is currently in an induced coma.   But! things are picking up!  She's been showing signs of recovery and signs of consciousness!  She's opened her eyes on her own several times, she's moved her toes, she can even respond to questions with blinking! 1 for yes and 2 for no!  We have a great hope that she'll make a full recovery soon.  I personally think that because Elder Nelson is coming later this week (Yes indeed! Elder Russell M Nelson coming on saturday!) He'll like raise her from the bed!   But thats all of that for now

 

This last week was pretty good!  Fantastic weather! Hot Dog it was nice! the past 3 days have been in the 70's! what a way to start December off eh? 

 

We helped put the Floyds Christmas lights and tree and stuff, so that was fun.   We met alot of new people,  Gave a few blessings to those who needed them, and even set another Baptismal date!!! With Jan, The Floyds Neighbor.  So that was pretty awesome.

 

However on the other side of the spectrum, Thomas, our recent convert of awesome, relapsed with his smoking saturday night, but we felt we should go over (which is when we found out about it) and stopped him before he smoked too much...  He was one of the blessing's we gave. 

 

So how'd y'all like the Christmas Devotional?  That was really good I thought!   They are all Great speakers.

 

Hmmm... well that's all for now i guess

 

Love y'all!

Elder Martin

Week 19

Well Hey there family!  Things are going good, we've met a lot of people that we're going to start teaching here pretty soon in the last week so that's cool!

I was sick the past couple of days, which is no bueno cause when i get sick, like i do EVERY single November, it usually lasts till late February.  I'm in for a long haul of sickness.

Thanksgiving was good, we had two thanksgiving dinners the past week, one on wednesday and the other on thursday.    Oh and whilst on the subject of holidays and such,  I will probably be skypeing home this year!  I've already asked Dad to get a webcam so now all we need is the People to be on the other side!  That's right i'm calling y'all to repentance before you commit the sin of not being present while we skype!

Anyhow, yesterday i heard some odd news from our ward mission leader as well as our bishop that someone in our ward has been backstabbing us in lewisburg and giving us a bad name! What?!? they said that we skipped out on two appointments with a neighbor who were teaching and don't return her calls...  Which don't worry, we haven't done anything of the sort...  We even called the investigator and talked to her to see if that's what she thought, it wasn't.  I don't know what someone has against us but its ridiculous and i intend to get to the bottom of it!

Cameron mentioned how his mission is getting 50 new sisters in the mission soon... Well let me top that, but first a bit of info

Mission's will cap out at 250 missionaries, ours has about 152 right now, by june of next year we'll have 250, all the new missionaries will be sisters...  That's 98 new sister missionaries!  They are going to keep the Elders at the same amount throughout it all, but still we'll have more sisters then elders soon! Weird

Anyways there's been some crazy stuff that's been happening in the mission which i'm not at liberty to tell y'all till next week,  but i would ask that you guys pray for our mission president and his wife.

That is all
Love
-Elder Martin

Week 18

Well Shoot son! hows it going family? 

This is the week of thanksgiving!  A wonderful time for Families to grow stronger together and to give thanks for all that they have been given!

This past week was pretty good.  We saw Jan, she's an older lady with a really strong southern accent (but not too strong where i can't understand her at all) and talks Re-uhl-ly sl-ow and a-uhdds alot of syllables to all her words, its pretty funny.  Anyhow, she's probably gonna get baptized here in the next month!  a few weeks ago we had a lesson with her and watch "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" at the Floyds house and our plan was to invite her to baptism right after the movie, but the Floyds Wouldn't have it!  Jock (the guy who is an eternigator) kept trying to subtly bash Mormons for some reason, it was ridiculous... And then Sister Floyd goes of on some tangent for forever long that doesn't have anything to do with anything...  So after that night we decided to try and teach Jan at her house without the Floyds...  So we did, and it went really well and she believes the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith so we were about to extend the baptismal commitment and her daughter comes in with her boyfriend and kinda killed the moment.  But we'll get her next time! ;)

I've walked by the place where i crashed a few times this week....  that Cursed Spot of Satan!!  i was tempted to dust that place, but I restrained myself.

I sometimes think that the mission has forgotten about Lewisburg though...  At least our zone has...  We usually get the ensign at like transfer meeting's or just other meetings where all the missionaries go and give them out and they have the place where they go on the front of it.  But there was no Lewisburg...  And on conference calls they never call lewisburg for roll call...   Oh well, maybe they'll remember us once we get a few more baptism's.

Elder Perkins Came to the mission this past week, he spoke in conference in October.  It was a Really good meeting and I learned a lot. 

Oh and also I met someone who served his mission in Boise Idaho!! He even went to Nampa for a few transfers!  He was a Spanish Missionary though so i doubt any of y'all knew him.  His name would've been Elder Gustavo.  So that was pretty fun.

But I'm about out of time, So until next time my dear avid readers! Adieu

-Elder Martin

Week 17

Alrighty then,  So you'll never guess what kind of fun we had for P-Day last week!  First, we did P-90X for fun, then cleaned the Spanish elder's apartment, then we walked the goodwill about 40 minutes away....  But we did find really nice Ecco's for 9.99!!!  Awwwhhh Yeah!!!   then we walked back, and that was our p-day.

the week was indeed slow though.

We had a tripanionship for a day this week with Elder Ahokava, from new Zealand, He was pretty sweet..  I'd like to serve with him at some point.

Oh and i am pretty surprised that American's would ever vote Obama back in, how could they ever want another 4 years of this...  I've lost faith in us.  I wouldn't be surprised if when he gets rid of religious freedom they have to ship all of us missionaries out of country.   So i'll tell you after the holidays where I'm going to spend the rest of my mission.

But enough of that...   well, enough of everything i guess... i can't think of anything else to write about, like i said it was a slow week.  Super slow week.

sorry for the super short un-fun letter... but hey, its bound to happen every once in a while eh?

Love yall



P.S.
Packages?  Letters?  Tell your friends.

Week 16

So as it's only been a few days since my last email and not a Whole lot has happened i'll just go into the nitty gritty

 

We had stake conference this past weekend and D. Todd Christofferson was came for it!  It was Awesome!!!

 

For the adult session we got Jock to take us, and it seemed like several of the talks were made specifically to address his concerns and hold ups!  it was just an incredible experiance to see an Apostle of God like that in person!  I even shook his hand! 

 

There was also a seventy there, Elder Meredith, he's actually from the city where the stake just got formed.  Murfreesboro.  He was a really good speaker and really funny. 

 

Sorry for the super short letter, but i don't have much time... 

But there is pictures!

 

 

Picture guide

1.  The guy who plays Joseph Smith in the hour long movie of the Restoration,  with my MTC companion on the right (this is in the MTC by the way)

 

2. Me, Thomas (My first Convert who is also a super member missionary) and Elder Freeze

 

 

3. Jack Daniels!!!

 

4. Our second baptism, Jackie Meredith and her used to be less active dad who was able to baptize her

 

5. Our Third baptism,  Anne Jolly AKA Ma-Mah.  She's 84.  And her family 

 

6-8 Picture's from that indian fort place that was super beautiful... Don't these look like desktop photos?

9.  A place in Lewisburg,  the corner of Joyce ave and Joyce ave!  haha

Week 15

First, Sorry i haven't written until now, but things got pretty hectic
and i didn't have a chance to write on P-day.  The reason i can write
now is because my new companion is a Facebook Missionary, this mission
is one of the couple that is testing it out.

Something i didn't get time to mention last time about the crash,  the
Dr mentioned that i might have had a chipped fracture in my knee! Ahh!
crazy... but alas it was okay.  But it did feel like my knee was split
the day i did it.

Also i told some of y'all this, but when i first got my bike i was
telling Elder Freeze that i wanted some good ol' Bike stories, not
crashes, but stories...   Then the day after i crashed i read in the
BofM something along the lines of "If you go out seeking or wanting
for something, chances are you'll find it."  so that kinda made me
laugh when i read it.

So last week!

We started doing a new exchange calendar that our ward mission leader
came up with (it's his pride and joy, and he thinks all the success in
the ward lately has come from it... and he just mostly likes the
glory) and so we had gone on splits 3 days that week and just had
normal exchanges 2 more times, so we had 8 exchanges that week...  Now
you're probably thinking we would've got TONS of lessons...  HA! we
had a grand total of 10 lessons that week!  That is the lowest I've
ever had in a week.  So much for the exchange calender eh?

So as you might have gathered it was a slow week,  But on Saturday (Or
rather Anxiety day as the missionaries call it here, because that's
when we're supposed to get the transfer calls) we were anxious waiting
for our call and such not, but it never came that morning.  So we go
out and do our stuff, Have a pretty big lunch, go over to an
investigators birthday thing and they have pretty much a whole
thanksgiving dinner.  So at that point I'm stuffed to the brim, then
we go to have a lesson with another investigator and She made a ton of
stuff for us to eat and she was Super excited to feed us...  That
didn't bode well, so we feel bad and try to eat more, so as to not
offend her.   I've never felt so full in my life, not even that time
at the Gill's...

Once we get back we are expecting The call that night,  Still nothing
came!  This was unprecedented, they Always call on Saturday, and
usually in the morning.
So we Finally get the call Sunday morning as the member who's picking
us up to go to church gets there.   Elder Freeze is now a Zone Leader!
and I am staying here with a guy named Elder Bethers.   Which is cool
i get to stay for this Stake conf. cause D. Todd Chirstoffersen is
coming!

And then we have Elder Perkins coming to the mission this month as
well, and Elder Russel M. Nelson coming soon after!! Yay for this
mission!!!

Elder Bether's is pretty cool from what I've seen so far, only had him
for a couple of days at this point though.

Sorry for such a long one this time...

Love Yall
-Elder Martin

Oh and the mission home address to send stuff to if anyone is interested is

105 westpark dr. ste 190
Brentwood TN
37027

At least i think that's the zip code

Week 14

So lets see,  We went out Thomasing again and found a couple of new investigators who seem really promising,  mostly a girl name Lucia and her family. They are hispanic, which I have a real quick funny story about that! 

We were introducing the BoM to her and mentioned how it was her ancestors and stuff, and Thomas catches on to what we do and uses it himself alot so later that day we went to a black ladies house and after talking for a bit he randomly asks "Do you have any indian blood in you?"... HAHA WHAT?!  oh thomas... he's a goober and a half but it's all good.

 

I Don't know if i ever mentioned him before but we have a guy we talk to who likes to be called "Lightning!" he's this old black guy with a Huge underbite and is super funny.  Anyhow, he ran away....  he lived with his son who we are teaching, and he ran away!!! NOOO!  I loved lightning! he was always a highlight to our day!

 

Oh hey! Cameron, i was just now informed that someone in my trainer's MTC district is in your district right now!  Elder sooter or something around that?

 

Also in other news,  Taylor swift's Bodyguard is getting baptized!  Someone in this mission is going to baptize him!  so that was kinda cool i thought. 

 

Now for the reason of the subject of this letter... 

 On Friday we were riding our bikes down this big ol' hill, Not like steep or anything just really long.  So we get some serious speed going down this thing and people here are dopes and put their garbage cans in the middle of the sidewalks that are already barely there, so Elder Freeze zooms by it Barely missing it.  Here I come with a bigger bike thinking i can shoot the gap too, (which i didn't go into the road because i would've crashed for sure if i had tried cause of how the sidewalk is situated) but alas my handlebar catches the garbage can and shoots me flying off the side of my bike.  I land in the middle of the road and luckily theres no cars in my lane of the 4 lane road, otherwise i probably would've died.  Somehow i landed on the inside of my right knee as well as my lower back and hip...   Anyways, so i crawl patheticly back to the sidewalk after a few seconds of not being able to breath in the middle of the road, and i hurt all over my right side.  its about this time that Elder Freeze shows back up... sheesh, it took him forever.  So he goes and retrieves my bike which was still in the middle of the road.  So i ride back the half mile to our appartment with a dead knee and busted hip, not a fun ride as part of it was uphill.

 

So after we rest for a while i get up to see if I can go back out, but my knee hurt like crap and i felt it and it felt like it was split, which worried me.  So I call the mission Dr. and he tells me it could be a chip fracture and that i should stay off my legs for a few days and if i have to get up to use crutches and such...  He told me not to stay at church for the whole 3 hours....  The heck?!  i stayed anyway though.   I'm pretty much healed now though so it's all good

 

But my shirt got all ripped up and my belt got scratched real good as well as my backpack.

 

Ohp, Out of time! 

Love yall

-Elder martin

Week 13

Okay so this has been an interesting week,  i accidently bought $10 of
pumpkin fudge (Which was actually Really good), seen some crazy people
and saw some more crazy people!

on tuesday we got a call from someone who moved down to Lewisburg from
Murfreesboro who had talked with the elders there, they gave him our
number when they knew he was moving.  So he calls us up and tells us
to go down to where he works so he can get to know us a bit better,
and all is well and dandy until the prayer.
First we hold hands, (he's one of Those people) and Elder Freeze says
the prayer, during which he starts mumbling things like "Yes Lord"
"Ummm hmmm!" 'Oh yeah, thats right Lord" and stuff like that.  But
once Elder freeze is done he Immediatly starts his own prayer, which
caught me off guard and I almost couldn't keep myself from laughing
from the whole thing!  his prayer consisted of "Yes Father God, We
thank thee Father God, For this day Father God"  He said "Father God"
at least 50 times....

So when we finally get away, we go what we call "Thomas'ing"  We go
around talking to people Thomas feels like we should see.  It actually
works really well.  Thomas is the guy who is on Fire with the gospel
who we baptized my second week here.  And we run into this guy (Randy)
who is pretty dumb and hard hearted, won't listen to anything anyone
else has to say, and he's a trinity guy, so we tell him what we
believe about it and he freaks out and starts running around in
circles with his hands in the shape of an egg over his head yelling
"They're one!!! They're one!!!  It's like and Egg!!! It's Like an
Egg!!!"  Oh the south... how you slay me.

So there's a new stake being formed over here, which we'll be in it,
and Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming for it, and there's also
rumors that someone else is also coming! Someone from the 1st
Presidency!!! Hoo hoo!   that'd be Sweet!
There's also someone coming to our mission next transfer, Craig C.
Christensen i think his name is.  He gave a talk in Gen Con!  So it'll
be a good couple of weeks here shortly!

Thats all for now though folks, Sorry!

Love ya all

-Elder Martin

Week 12

So okay, Holy cow.... Conference.... New aged missionaries...  Talks of amazing Splendor....  Jeffery R Holland.... Again...  
All in all it was an incredible weekend.

We actually heard Elder Hollands talk earlier this week at a meeting, he gave it at the MTC a few months ago so we saw the recording of it,  Still great though. Got me alot of good notes...

First a little bit about last week, i forgot this last time...  But we went to a Mennonite church last sunday evening,  a member used to study with them so he brought us down there for a dinner and an ordaining of a bishop.  It was really interesting and good food too.
They used the laying on of hands to ordain the bishop.  And they are bishops for life, so that was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. 

Meetings all this week... Wednesday we went to the Temple, which was awesome! but it is a really small temple here in Nashville...  Then we had Zone Meeting on thursday from 9-12, then Interviews from 1-5  those were 2 and a half hours away from us too... so we got home pretty late.  And then gen-con on Sat. and Sun.  Suffice it to say we didn't get a whole lot of lessons in this week, but thats okay cause we got a ton the week before.

Remember, If we Love Christ, we must Feed His Sheep and His Lambs!!!  it is the duty of everyone to warn their neighbors and preach the Gospel!  The Church is true, i know it, and I know that those men who spoke the past couple days are men called of God to lead His church on the earth in this day, and if we follow their example and do as they have said we Will go to the "Pleasing Bar" of God to be judged.

Love you all
-Elder Martin

Week 11

Okay... so first i'll tell you of the time our appartment (the dungeon) got attacked by carbon monoxide!

It happened on tuesday, we are inside just studying and someone comes to fix the AC unit for the hair salon upstairs, which he has to do from our place cause thats just where it is.  So after a few minutes of him working on it I hear an explosion, see bright sparks and a smoke looking air coming out...  i only see a bit of it cause of where i was seated by the way.  And then some more sparks.  The guy does really well on not swearing though.   I guess he cut into a wire that still had electricity going through it and he thought he turned it off.  So he doesn't have the parts he needs to fix That so he leaves and comes back a few days later.  But after we left for a bit and stopped back at the appartment a few hours later, we hear a beeping, so we investigate and find it was the Carbon Monoxide detector, so we leave.   Long story short though, it turned out to just be all the hair spray coming through the now gone AC unit thing which set it off. 

The rest of the week wasn't Too eventful, we had exchanges and the new ZL came with me in our area which i still don't know super well... and he was kind of a doofus so he didn't help me at all, like even in teaching... 
Oh and i also went on a couple hour exchange with Elder Law,  He's still a goober by the way.

This p-day we went to an old indian fort thing here in TN, it was Awesome, there wasn't really any sign of the indian fort, but the land around it was Gorgous... i'll send some pics of it.  These are like desktop worthy pictures by the way.

It rained later in the day Super hard and long and there was even more flooding then last time, as well as another tornado watch.  Good times.

Cant remember anything else though... shoot.. Oh well.

Later

-Elder Martin

 

*edit* apparently i cant send pictures so nevermind about those.... stupid computer

Week 10

So...  Lets see, to start off the week (I mentioned to some of you
that it was raining really hard all day last monday) we had some
pretty good flooding, in fact later that day we were going with the
spanish elders to an appointment and we drove through a big ol' puddle
that was Alot deeper then it led on... We pretty much floated through
it.  It got like halfway up the car, so i'm thinking of suggesting to
the vehicle coordinator to get snorkle kits for all the cars... :)
 Oh and also that day we were in a tornado watch, and neighboring
city's were in tornado warnings... Crazy stuff.  Three funnel clouds
formed over one city.   but it was hardley windy where we were.

We had a zone meeting on wednesday and one of the senior couple elder
gave a training which was AWESOME! mind blowing really...   He has
like a masters degree in archeology,  and has studied alot about the
book of mormon and its more physical proofs.   I won't go into detail
on most of it, but he started off the training by saying that he found
some mistakes in the book of mormon... So we were all like "ummm... is
this guy really supposed to be out on a mission?"  But he was
referring to mistakes that Moroni made, not Joseph Smith... and that
it actually proves that Joseph Translated it, not made it up...  He
showed us 2 places, one in Alma 50: 32 ( i think thats where it was)
and Alma 53: 3.  Lets see if any of you can find what it is... :)

We've been teaching alot of crazy southerners this week.  The things
they say.... oh ho ho, it can get pretty funny.  this one lady once
said, and i quote,  " But what if you no can!? What if you no can?!?"
(i may have mentioned this last week, cant remember.)
But we had another run in with Roy, that crazy guy who worships the
clam shell with Jesus in it.  We were walking Thomas (who lives across
the street) home one night, and roy yells from across the street,
"Is that your car?! Is that your car right there?!'  cause there was a
car that i guess wasn't normally there at Thomas' other neighbors
house.
And we're like "Nah, were on foot today"
"Cause iv'e seen that car the past couple days and I think they're
trying to break in to that house!"
us "Oh really?"  Not really believing him at all... he is Roy afterall.
so Roy walks over with his crazy man walk and looks at the car in closer detail
" I think they are in there right now!"
were walking towards home now cause it's almost 9, so we don't really
hear what happens next.  But as we get about a quarter mile away up
the hill, We see a cop zooming by, and i'm like  '.... i bet it was
roy....." and it totally was, he called the cops on them...  It turned
out to just be the guys girlfriend...

Oops out of time

Week 9

First transfer Completed... Crazy...

This week started real slow but picked up at the end.

First for P-Day we went to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg TN. Which was actually pretty interesting how they make it and all the processes they take to make it and stuff.   In fact its the only Jack Daniels distillery in the world, so all the Jack Daniels you see is made in that town.   And here's an interesting fact about lynchburg,  It was dusted by a 70 or an Apostle or a mission president or someone, can't remember who...  So that town was pretty much condemned because of their wickedness... But it was a sanctioned activity, So don't worry.

Tuesday Elder Freeze was Really sick and we didn't get out till like 5 that night so we didn't do a whole lot.

Then we had Dist. Mtg. on Wednesday and I got my Bike!!! YAY!  Now i can finally get some bike stories!  We had appointments with 2 people with baptismal dates, both of which canceled....... so we had to postpone it a day, but again they both canceled, and that happened everyday the rest of the week... Bah!   

Oh and we go out with Thomas a lot now, the guy who we baptized like my second week here.   And he is such a goober, he Loves to do missionary work though, cause he doesn't have a job so he just walks around town all day and talks to everyone he see's and gives them contact cards with our number and stuff on it.   He's just a goober though.  Oh yeah... one time when we were with him we were talking to a lady, and Thomas was saying how he wanted to get a job and the lady in a total southern stereotypical way says  "But what if you no can?!?! What if you no can get a job?"  Oh man... silly southerners. 

I don't want this letter to get super long so I'll end it here, but next week I'll tell you of another crazy guy who has brain damage.

Love

Elder Martin

Week 8

Holy Cow! I'm already pretty much done with the first transfer!! CRAZY! Lets see what happened this week... Ahh yes, we had exchanges again, i went to a city called Winchester. About the same size as lewisburg, but alto less ghetto. The apartment there was Quite nice too! But i think they're going to close that area, things are just too slow over there... So it was a slow couple days as you might imagine. But back in Lewisburg we had on a couple occasions, people talked to us about wanting to find a new church to go to. But alas they cant come to ours cuase we don't have a building in town and no one on that side of town has cars to go anywhere... What Lewisburg really needs is a church building, they have enough people to make a branch and there would be Tons of investigators we could get to go if we had one. Oh and we had Zone Conference this week too. Learned a lot! In fact You guys should invite anyone and everyone you know who isn't a member to do the 21 day Book of Mormon Challenge! It's where they read pray about the BofM everyday and go to church for 3 weeks, and if they do, they Will get a testimony of it and of the church. And that's a promise from our mission president... So it works. I mentioned to a couple of you that i found out when the second coming is... It's 2033. In the scriptures it talks about Jesus coming back in the beginning of the 7th seal, does it not? Well that's what i believe 2012 will be the start of the 7th seal, where God instead of trying to convince men through the spirit will convince them through natural disasters. It also says in the scriptures that the heavens will be closed for half an hour (Convincing men through the elements not the Spirit), Well half an hour in Gods time is equal to about 21 years and it says that Christ will show his face to the people once that half hour is up.... so if it starts in 2012, then it ends in 2033! And it never says that man won't ever know the Year of his coming... Only the Day and the Hour. In fact it says in D&C that it will happen in the "Year of His Redeemed"(Christ) So 2000 years after his death... being again, 2033! And that is my reasonings... But i am out of time, so goodbye Love Elder Martin

Week 7

Lets see... i don't remember exactly where i ended last time.  probably somewhere around here.  Roy, the weird fossil guy...  We get into his entry way and his house is the cleanest neatest house i've seen, especially for down here.  I think i said this last time but, its like creepy psychopathic murderer clean.   He goes deeper into his house and tells us to come in deeper, we hesitate but he calls again, so we finally go into the next room, The Living room.  Complete with creepy Psychopathic murderer nick-nacks.  Then he goes EVEN Deeper into his house, into the kitchen. Then to lighten the creepy mood, Elder Freeze asks him how long he's been in Lewisburg.....  No answer... AHHH!!! I thought he was going to show up with like a big ol' butchers knife or something.  But nah, he just washed his hands like an OCD murderer would...  Then he shows us this weird shrine in his kitchen with a sea shell with what was supposed to have a picture of Jesus in it...  Totally wasnt there.  then he showed us his weird fetus fossil thing, which was just a rock with some etchings in it.  To speed things up he showed us another fossil that i guess was supposed to prove that Another fossil was indeed a fossil of a dinosaur that was as big as a skyscraper... don't know how he figured that...   Then the rest of the night was just weird too.

Oh on tuesday or maybe it was monday or wednesday, not sure... I Gave my first blessing to Sister Floyd, that went pretty well. 

This week consisted of a LOT of walking and all of our appointments falling through, lame...   Oh and I also met a lot of happy drunks.  They are pretty funny.

We went to the Walking horse Festival, which is HUGE here and is like the world capitol for it, all sorts of famous rich Sheiks from the middle east come down with there horses and everything.  Thats Shelbyville though, which is the ward i'm in.  Lewisburg in the birth place of Fainting goats! HUZZAH! cant wait for that festival.

Cant think of anything else for now though. so bye.

Love Elder Martin

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

Week 1

Hello there!  I'm doing great, my companion is Elder Carlson, he's really talkitive, from Spanish Fork, and really nice.  We have a really good district, 8 of us are in it but only me and two others are going to Nashville, the rest are going to Toronto Canda, and most of those are even from canada.  They're all really cool and pretty funny.  The other elder going to nashville (aside from me and my companion) Is Elder Cragun, from Kaysville, He might be my favorite just because we get along so well and have alot in common.  For instance, he think's i'm really funny, and i think i'm really funny...     Ha.  
then we have our teachers for our district, which i'm convinced are the absolute Best teachers in the MTC right now!  our main two teachers are Brother Nate And Brother Pickett.  Brother Nate is the Best teacher we could ever have, He's Super spiritual and knows a lot about everything in the gospel, and he's also really funny at the same time, and the best part about him is that his first name is Casey!!! YAY FOR CASEY'S!   Then we have Bro. Pickett who served in jason's mission and knows him and Elder Pryor, we're going to swap elder Pryor stories soon.  He's also an AWESOME teacher (as they all are, but he's my second favorite) And he's not quite as intimidating as Bro. Nate.  Then we have their assistant teachers,  Bro. Smart, Bro. Hanks and occasionally Sister Nelson and Brother Johnson.  all awesome in their own rights.

The food is pretty good most of the time, and i Do like the coco moo...   

Anyways i've learned SO MUCH from the week i've been here already,  they had us teach a mock investigator the second day we were here, and pretty much everyday since then (Except sunday) and they even have the newer missionaries be a mock investigator for 5 lessons with other's in our zone... So that was different, but good still. 
I saw Elder McKnight a couple times before he left, so that was nice.    I've only seen Cameron like 2 or 3 times though.  

Today we went to the temple which just opened up again, so that was great.   And if you hadn't noticed Wednesdays are my P-Days, at least in the MTC.

I'll send some pictures next week.    

 

Anyways i'm out of time.    

Love you guys,

Elder Martin