Week 14

So, this week was shot, kinda sad, did as much as we could though!

Day one PDAY

We went apt hunting! I think I said that we were moving in the last letter? well, we are, and we found some stuff, well, not really, one thing, that was semi promising, other then that, norm Pday!

DAY 2!

MORE APT HUNTING! a lot of it this time, and that was mostly the day. we found some good ones, but really, but all of them on the BAD side of town. elder Ahby loved those! if they were not already crazy hood, they were well on their way! forreals! we did find one though, that is on the good side of town, and close to the church, so we grabbed it up, and for some reason the paper work is going to take about a week.. so, we won't move till probably the first of the month, which will be a new transfer, so I may NEVER get to live in it, sad.

day 3!! ZONE CON!!

GREAT DAY!! the best, Elder Nash is the man, I learned so much. the phrase, "the work is hastening" was said a lot! kinda cool to think about! He said that we need to be a "beach-front" for all those that will be coming in! He wants them to all come in and just have lessons to teach left and right! and with the number that is going to be coming in! that's what is going to be needed! He told us about how the Saturday of "the announcement" that by that night the church office got a call from one BYU Bishop that said he had 28 sisters call him THAT DAY saying they wanted to get started on their mission papers! CRAZY! that's just one ward!

anyhow, things are moving forward, and FAST! GOOD STUFF!

I also met a kid from MELBA! how cool, he is new, I talked to him for a while, Elder Mickelson,

DAY 4

spent the day in Greenwood again! yeah.. Elder Shelley is still recovering, by the way, Elder Souter, one of the guys there, knows Elder Casey Martin's trainer! they were in the MTC together! crazy!

Anyhow! saw all kinds of crazies there, that place is so hood! OH! the movie The Help! was TOTS filmed there! for reals! crazy!

Day 5

Well, went a less active hunting, and really found no one, kinda a sad day, nothing worked out, OH WELL

Day 6

Guess who we saw again!? GREENWOOD!! YAY!! this time they came here though.

We saw the Davis family again! and tots set those fools with a B-date! for the 4th of November! so that makes 3 for that day! we would do it next week, but for some reason our branch prez don't want to.

SUNDAY!

Went to Stake con with Greenwood, and spent most the day in Jackson area, Stake con was GREAT! there ARE Mormons in Mississippi! I never KNEW! we learned a lot, it was good.

That night we went to the Jones, and I gave Zach (the one that was baptized last week and is going to be confirmed in Cali cause he is leaving this week!) a blessing, and we talked to Emily about her baptism.. by the way she is the 3rd on that list of who is getting baptized on the 4th.. anyhow, she has all kinds of friends that we are now going to start teaching as well! that family! just the best!

I think that's it!

WELP! LOVE!!

P.S

to all whom it may concern, at LEAST send a dear john!! its common decency!

also, LOVE!

LOVE!

Week 13

So this week was so weird cause we were on some kind of exchange every day of the week!

PDAY

Taught a kid named Zach, he is Richard Jones great nephew, good kid, then we went and met the Greenwood elders and had a fun little pday together, and then started an exchange, elder Souter and I were here in phili.

DAY 2

Elder Souter wanted real bad to go to an Indian res, so we went out to pearl river and talked to the world over there. talked to some bigfoot hunter people that were from cali doing a little documentary! I wanted to do an interview with them, but they said no, I would have had so much fun with that! COULD YOU IMAGINE!

DAY 3

DDM and then just all kinds of nothing, other then when Elder Ashby  shut the car door on his finger, (his finger nail is SO close to coming off as a result of that) I looked the doors.. but I didn't get there on time, he opened it and got his finger out JUST in time. DARN!

DAY 4

ZL's came to town! so we went on splits, I went with a Elder Summsion, who, is 6 foot 8.. and very looks like he could eat you, so they put shorts MaGee with Tall man jenkins! what a day that was! at the end of the day they interviewed Zach for Baptism, good stuff.

DAY 5

Some folk came over to inspect our apt, (the few days before this all I heard from the other Elders was how bad our Apt was, like the smallest and junkiest one of them all) and made the decision that we will be moving out! mostly cause of the no doubt drug related smell! YAY! so that's going to happen.  Later that day we got a call that teller us that Elder Shelly from Greenwood was in the hospital, and that we needed to go there so Elder Souter could leave and go do work and go to a baptism they had set up for Saturday, so, we took the 2 hour drive to greenwood. and there I found out why our apt is so bad.

Day 6.

spent the day in greenwood, which it the hood of the WORLD! and talked to all kinds of crazies! and then had a really nice baptism, good day overall,

Day 7.

woke of early so as to be able to drive home and get back on time for church, MAY have almost died at one point on the way back, I was probably going a little to fast, but in my defense, its the roads fault for just ENDING out of the blue with NO warning! man Mississippi roads are the pits!

Church was great, and after! was BAPTIZED ZACH! and a kid named amaru, but he was a child of record, I talked on baptism, and it was just an over all great day, I'll send pics next week, as we don't have a lot of time today.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

"When you look in the mirror in the morning, be happy with who you see, regardless of what happened yesterday" - CamCam

LOVE

Week 12

YAY GEN CON!

So, I don't have my Journal, so this will be a different letter, but still with all the love in the world!

Hmm.. you know what, Kinda an uneventful week, let's see.

Went to tucker.. that was good again, and we DIDN'T ride home in the dark! that made it even better! we have all kinds of people to see there though so we might have to go more then once a week.   The Lord has been blessing us with all kinds of foods! people are giving us food left and right! its CRAZY! we don't even have to go shopping this week! maybe... um, I scared Elder Ashby half to death the other day, that was fun.. I made the discovery that I look AMAZING in a dress sweater, so I wear that as much as I can..

Okay, now to Conference! AHH! SO MUCH COOLNESS!  First of all, I just want you all to know, that the Prophet of the world quoted the scripture that is on my missionary plaque, making me awesome! second! did Y'all see the name on that one guy? Echo Hawk? WHAT?   Also! Walter Gonzalez. he is totes the 70 over this area, and talks to us all the time. and Marcus Nash. He is coming to talk to us for Zone Conference next week! yeah! we are that cool!

NOW! for the greatest announcement since the Meridian temple! THE MISSIONARY AGE CHANGE! OH MY GOODNESS! that knocked me off my seat! I am SO exited for this! and can not wait to see how this impacts the MJM! just crazy! I loved it! and I loved the Press Con about it too! so cool!

What powerful talks we heard from all, I have a feeling the the growth of the church is about to sky rocket!

...the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

There is no greater work! Bring the truth of God to all! there are many ways to do this work! Find one, and make it your purpose! Let us all press on! and conquer the foe! All worldly road blocks can and will be removed when the Lord is on our side!

"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the WORLD!"

With ALL of my love, I pray for you one and all! keep it up!

LOVE!

Week 11

actually, kinda a weird week, I'm going to skip a few days, as, nothing reportable really happened.

I shall start with Thursday!
Richard Jones, who is AWESOME! and is already doing all kinds of missionary work! Took us to him home town, which, has probably NEVER been knocked or even seen my any missionaries, ever!  With that said, it was a great day! we talked to the world! people are so much more willing to listen when they have never seen us before! and when we assure them that we are not J-dubs!  It was a really good day! I enjoyed it, after we finished up there, Richard took us to Chip and Meagans house! only Chip was there so we all just talked to him for a bit, he said they found another baptist church they want to go to.. sad.. but Richard says he knows that church, and that they wont be going there long! SO THERE IS STILL HOPE! That was our day

Friday, THE TUCKER DAY!
So, we had all kinds of plans then fell through! that was sad, but we ended up being able to talk to NEW people! so there are still people in tucker we have not met yet! YAY! anyhow, we had a lesson with this family that went really well, and we WILL be going back, GOOD stuff! We then of course, as always. went and saw the Davis family, and as always, it was a great meeting.. but we didn't get out of there as soon as we had planed.. and it got dark, again.. so, once again, we rode home in the back woods of a southern Indian reservation! yeah. we were being fallowed and watched by all kinds of creatures! that may or may not exist! But alas! the Lord is watching out for us! as we were coming up to the high way a car came up behind us and just slowed down, and fallowed us, giving us light, it was great! and THEN! she asked us if we wanted her to drive behind us with her 4-ways on just for this big hill on the high-way! what a blessing! but here is the best part! That hill, is NOT easy to get up, especially for me and my rackety old knees! Yet somehow, we ZOOMED up that hill! I mean, I was in top gears! FLYING! up that hill! There is NO way I did that with my own strength, I was definitely given a nice little push! Coolest thing ever!

Saturday we went to see Will Coggins again, and all kinds of other people, Will still plans on being baptized and going on a mission! SO COOL! good kid,

Fast Sunday!
good day! testimonies were all awesome!
Elder Ashby and I had the 5th Sunday lesson, mostly me.. BUT IT WAS GOOD!  We talked about member missionary work, and had a few people tell there conversion stories! most of them are do in large part to the members rather then the missionaries. So that went well, although, the only ones who seemed interested after were the Jones.. WHO ELSE!? so yeah, they are going to be helping us out a lot.
We went and saw the Bourne family! this guy, James Bourne, like a mix of James Bond and Jason Bourne! BEAST! he cool, he rewl cool, (that was southern talk there) other then that, normal day!

So here are some of the weird things southern people say and do, maybe Elder Casey Martin can back me up on this..
Whenever.. used for pretty much anything, but mostly instead of just saying WHEN! example "Whenever I was 10 years old" "whenever I leave will you.."
Skreet, used in place of street, really anything with a str is skr,
alright.. just, at all and anytime during a conversation, "alright, ok," all the time!
FIXEN! exp. "Im fixen ta leave" "I was fixen ta say"  If I ever do this one whenever I get home! I give anyone permission to smack me SILLY!
people here also avoid eye contact at all costs! it's the funniest thing ever!
also, the Martin name! is INFAMOUS down here! for a number of reasons, one of them being that the last Indian Chief was a Martin.

WELP! let CamCamian lift you to new heights daily!
LOVE!

Week 10

This week includes but is not limited to. Prison. PAIN! vicious dogs! Shelly Idaho! and SO MUCH MORE!

lets start with P DAY!

After writing our letters home, we went to wal-mart. There, some nice young ladies whistled at us.. me. so that was interesting.  That night we went and saw Chris and Cody, (keep them in mind!) and on the way home, it we pouring! SO, MUCH, RAIN! riding in that was really something new! but I'm still alive, so its just a story!

The day AFTER PDAY!

So, LONG day, cool story though, a lady from the branch flagged us down and took us to lunch! that in it self is unheard of for Phili, mostly 'cause there is a total of like, 4 active members that live here. Best part was though that her son! who is "less active" not active at all, was with her, AND! we totally had been trying to see him with no success for WEEKS! so that turned out cool!   And then.. we did all kinds of tracting, which, as you may know, is by far! my LEAST favorite part of missionary work. Mostly 'cause its ineffective. Well, that day was no different. Actually, it was the worst ever! First of all, it was the most hostility we have ever witnessed! in fact, there is one street that I want to just X out for good! oh, and a dog tried to eat me.. I have the hole to prove it. luckily, the dogs owners son was out there.. luckily for the dog that is! and elder Ashby. I'm not sure how he would have handled me breaking a dog's neck.

Yeah, even that guy, whose dog had a piece of my pant lag, would take 5 minutes to talk to us, BLEH! not a fun day.

Wednesday,

DDM, that was really it.

PAIN DAY NUMBER ONE!

Another day full of tracting, and biking, to THAT point, my knees had never felt the kind of pain they did that night, it was pretty bad. There were TWO bright spots: One, I have been praying REAL hard to see how tracting is in any way good for anything! and we FINALLY met a guy who seemed cool, James Born, cool name! he will come up again. and the other bright spot, I once again suggested we go into a store, and by doing so, met a member! I love me! WELL! this guy was just passing through, he lives in another state, and he just randomly decided to stop at this place called dirt cheap! WEIRD! I got to talking to him, and found out that he has a sister that lives in Shelly Idaho! and her Stake President is TOTS President Browning! HOW COOL IS THAT! that is the thrid person I have met that has some kind of connection to Shelly Idaho, crazy!

PAIN DAY NUMBER 2!

Tucker, biked there, did our thing there, met with the Davis Family as always, they are doing great! at about 6, we had a choice to make, either bike home, so as to get out of tucker before it got dark, or bike to the Stokes, who only live, like, 3 miles from tucker, but like, 7, from our pad, and we could just have them take us home after meeting with them. but if they were NOT home, well, we would have a rough time ahead of us. Now, if I have not talked about the Stokes before, they are a less active family that we have been relentlessly led to! SO! We went to the stokes, and as we were coming up to their drive way, it (at that point, of ALL TIMES) dawned on Elder Ashby, that "they might be at the football game.." AHH! YEAH! IT'S THE SOUTH! they were.. so, we biked home, in the dark, up hill the whole way! 'Cause again! IT'S THE SOUTH! and I about died, far more pain then the day before.

The day was not yet over! at about 830, just as we were getting home, we got a text, from Cody, , (Remember, I said to keep him in mind) saying that something happened with him and Chris, (I won't get into it, cause, its odd...) and that he was now homeless. we asked him where he was, and never got a reply. the next morning we get a call from Chris! the first thing he says is "HE LIED TO YOU!" well, turns out Cody may have stolen phones and walets and MAY have put bleach in a drink for Chris to drink and is now in prison.. So yeah.. that happend. there are some othet things, that I dont know if I should tell the whole world, so y'all can decied if you want to put this all in the blog.. like, the whole story, not sure about it. oh and Chris is gay, so was Cody, so thats fun...

DAY OF LESS PAIN!

Saw the Born family again, and it went REALLY well, I cant wait to see them again, maybe tracting is not the worst thing you could ever do..

Talked to a J-dove! that was fun!! she knocked on our door! it was great! and random! cause we are NEVER home at that time of day! good stuff!

oh and there is a chance that we once again locked ourselfs out of the pad..

SUNDAY!

3 weeks after his baptisem, Richard Jones was confirmed! YAY! good stuff.

WELP! that was my week! loving life here in the dirty south!

ALWAYS REMEBER TO SMILE!

LOVE! 

Elder CamCam Martin!