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