Week 73

Well this may have just been the shortest feeling transfer of all time! I just got here and the transfer is already over! ITS CRAZY!

 

An interesting week to say the least!

 

Pday was good! got to play some basketball, but sad! WAY SAD!! Cause I learned that the girl I taught that got baptized in Shreveport is in PRISON! She is like 15! WHAT THE HECK!? Worst news ever!

 

Tuesday was an ordeal! When I first got here we came to the library to volunteer so we could get some service hours out of it, well they had to do a back round check, no prob, I will give you my info, and that will be that! WELL! We did not hear anything from them for weeks! So I just forgot about it, then we get a call, they want us to go take a drug  test! REALLY!? Are we getting a job there!? Ok, whatever we can do that, so we go to the main library, in down town Shreveport, NOT THE LIBRARY WE ARE VOLUNTEERING FOR! But hey, what ever, we get there, ready to pee in a cup... This did not happen, all we did there is fill out every possible sheet of nothingness you could ever think of! And they send us to some other random place to go take the test! FINE! I can do that, I have already filled all that junk out, now we can just go and do the dang test.. NOOOO! These drug testers need all kinds of randomness filled out too! I would have just said forget it at this point... actually, i would have said it before we went to the library, but Elder Rose was in it to win it, so we went through every hoop possible, and got it all taken care of, best part, they probably wont even call us till next transfer, and odds are, one of us wont even be here anymore... yep!

 

Wednesday, saw a zombie..

 

The rest of the week was spent tracting, some of it on exchanges again, this time I stayed in stonewall with the new guy Elder Meyer,

While tracting, some drunk dude came flying down the road in his big ol SUV, he saw us, and like all people, tried to get in his driveway as quick as possible so he could get inside and not answer the door by the time we got to his. Well things did not work out for him, he ran right into a big bush/tree thing. No idea how either, it would have been tough to do on purpose, he got out, looked around, as if he hit someones car.. backed up and made the adjustment to get all the way up the driveway, then he and all his drunk pals piled out of the car into the house, Elder Meyer didn't really want to knock the door, I saw it as a day brightening experience, so we did! They did not answer, they just giggled inside daring each other to open the door, as we were walking away they were all looking at us out the window, I only know this cause they were not very quit or sneaky about it, I'm sure they thought they were though. So I turned around and gave the the cheesiest, biggest smile and wave I could muster! They got a kick out of that and started mumbling some kind of attempt and an English language... They failed..

 

Mardi Gras is huge here, they start celebrating it well before the actual day, parades all over the place! And drunk people! Its good times!

 

Joey and Cassidy Vandine are going to be baptized this week! I am so happy for them, it will be great!

 

WELP! have another great week! Talk to you soon!

LOVE!!

Elder CamCam Martin!

Week 72

HI THERE!!

 

Last week was all over the place, I don't even know what happened!

 

I do how ever remember rain! And lots of it! The rain came with warm weather though, and that is A OKAY with me! Cause the first few days of the week were FREEZING!!! like.. 20s... CRAZY!! And then the rain came, so still stunk to be outside! but after 2 days of nothing but rain! IT GOT WARM!! YAY!! BACK IN THE 60s! Gotta love southern winters! Now its raining again... dang rain..

 

On Monday I went to Coushatta to go one an exchange with Elder Anderson, (whom I love) Coushatta is a very small, back woodsy kind of town, like Jonesboro, but worse, and far more racist! Also, everyone there hates Mormons! So that's a thing, so glad I am not serving there... Anyhow, we had dinner with a cool family from the branch there, and all was fine and good, good, fun, cool people, till for some reason Winnfield came up, Winnfield was the other city... town... In my district when I was in Jonesboro, the winnfield branch is TOTALLY racist, I mentioned this, and the guy who we were eating with pretty much said "well... I am a racist.." Not his exact words! But pretty dang close, so that was awkward... I would tell you what he said, but one, I don't really remember, and two, you would not believe it... You would say "NO! People don't think like that anymore!" BUT THEY DO!!! THEY DO!!!!

 

We have a husband and wife that will be getting baptized on the 25th! So that's cool! They are really young, like, he is 18... So its kinda odd teaching people who are married, and yet 5 years younger then me... I have also had dinner with ANOTHER couple that are younger then me, I am in their home, they are married, they are feeding the missionaries, and they are younger then me! WEIRD!

 

OH! That racist family? They lived in a town called MARTIN! way cool! I will try to send pictures of the Martin Baptist Church!

 

WELP! LOVE!!

Elder Martin!

me holding a jar of moonshine...

I am also looking real fat in this one... mostly cause I am..

First two pics are some things I found tracting that I thought were funny.

Week 71

HAPPY 2014!!! ITS GOING TO BE THE BEST YEAR EVER!!!!

This is a little poem about how our new years went...

 

Twas the night before new years, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
BUT EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA WAS BLOWING STUFF UP ALL OVER THE PLACE OUTSIDE THE HOUSE!!!

Loudest night of my life!  AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO TAKE PART IN ALL THE FUN!! I HAD TO BE IN BED TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP!

It was a rough night to say the least.

 

It has also been really cold this week! LIKE TODAY!! ITS FREEZING!!! .... 20 degrees out there... way cold...

Ima freeze to death my first winter home..

 

So... yeah, kinda been a slow week, not a whole lot happened..

We DID meet this guy who is like a Mayan archaeologist!! And wrote a book all about how its ALL TOTALLY STRAIGHT FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON! ITS AWESOME!! There is even city's under water there! He told us all kinds of awesome stuff! Just so much prof that the Book of Mormon is real!  He said there were in the old Mayan times big groups of like 150 people that would gather in "churches" and they were always big families, and always led be the oldest son or some such thing, anyways! For years they could not translate what the word was that they called them! And finally some lady who is NOT a member said the closest thing we have in the English language is WARD! HA!!! WAY COOL! This guy was born a member and served a mission but kinda left the church for a long time, till he really started to study Mayan history and the book of Mormon together, now he says there is no way he could ever not believe in the book of Mormon!  He wrote a book about it and I GOT A FREE COPY!! He also made a cool little video, which he will give me one too! The book is called "The Lives and Travels of Mormon & Moroni"

The dudes name is Jerry L. Ainsworth. Anyway I found it way cool! I learned a lot about where he says everyone landed, and lived, and all that goodness, AND IT WORKS! So yeah, way cool!

 

ANYHOW!

I sure do love you!

Elder CamCam Martin!

Week 70

And hello friends!

 

I just talk to you! So thats fun!

 

Well, its been a good week, but a weird week...

Monday I went to my old stomping grounds at the Shreveport stake center, (My ward building when I served in Shreveport) and had some good times there with the rest of the zone for Pday, not a signal person in the zone is left from when I was here last, so ALL new faces, I already knew a few, but some I had never met, though, everyone in Shreveport seems to know me.... odd...

 

Christmas morning we went to a members house to visit for a bit, and when we pulled up we noticed a house down the street had the police tape all around it, and there were a bunch of news crews there, odd.. So we asked the members if they knew what was going on, and they had no idea that was ever out there, so we all went out and went all rubber neck! We just kinda watched for a while, it didn't seem like anything was going on, there was one cop car, but there was also a detective out in the yard, so it was something! AND THEN WE SAW THE CORONER VAN! As it backed up to the house, at this point the members sent their younger ones back inside, good choice, cause before long came the body... huh, kinda creepy, the member wife was like "ITS TIME TO MOVE!" I said, well it could have just been natural causes.. But then things got real weird as the members explained to us that the house had been vacant for months! OH!!! Ok yeah, that's creepy! It didn't end there, cause after the guys carted the body to the van and got it in, they went back in.. and left the van doors open, ANOTHER!!?? Yep, before long body number two came out. ahhh, this just got real awkward. That was the last of the dead folk, and the "party" was over, one of the news guys walked by us and looked at us with a depressed kind of face and mumbled in a very sarcastic voice "Happy holidays.."  I thought it was kinda funny and let out a quick HA! and then thought that was probably in bad taste and shut up real fast!    Turns out there was some dude and women in there camping out, they heated the house with a generator.. They had it in the house... All windows closed and doors shut.. That will kill you every time, its like its like sitting in a garage with the car on, poor idea.

SO THAT'S HOW MY CHRISTMAS STARTED! I feel like it was all up hill from there though!

We had a wonderful Christmas lunch with the Bishop and his wife and a few other lonely members, and was great time!

Then we went to our favorite family the Glass family to skype! And well, that is always a good time! Loved talking with Y'all!

 

Saturday we had interviews with President.. again.. BUT IT WAS GOOD! It's always good.

OH! We also had a baptism! haha, young man named Andrew Wilcox, good guy, I only taught him one lesson, he had already been taught everything but the law of chastity... I don't understand why missionaries always save that one for last..

 

Sunday I gave a talk, I went last, and the Bishops wife went first, and talked for a good 35 minutes, leaving me like 8, I am good at making my talks longer then I planned, but when I only had a few minutes, I had no idea what of all the stuff I was going to talk on to use, so it was kinda rocky, or so I thought, a few people liked it a lot, so that will work, I did use a Ski analogy for the second time in a row, those are always good.

OH! ahh, so in the program, It had me talking, but between me and Bishops wife they had down that there would be a musical number, normal, but this was was a bit odd, for a few reasons, ONE! Its said piano solo, and then had two names.. How does that work? And then there were the two names, Elder Rose, my comp, and Elder Thomas, Who? First of all, Elder Rose had never heard anything about this, and there Elder Thomas? There is one in the mission, but he has never served here, nor is he anywhere near here.. No one we talked to about it had any idea why that was there, haha, this ward...

 

WELP!

This is was WAY to long!

LOVE ALWAYS!

LOVE!!!

Elder CamCam Martin!

And a picture.