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!

Week 9

I have made it! 6 weeks down! a lot more to go! love it!

DAY ONE! Pday?

We started our first ever exchange! I stayed in Phili and got stuck with a feller by the name of Elder Jackson, Who, is going home tomorrow.. so he was super trunky! so that was a thing, also, he is just in general kinda lazy, so it seemed like we were going to have a FUN day!

DAY 2! Eday!

With Elder Jackson all day, he didn't get up till like 830! so we started off STRONG! thank goodness I had set up an appointment with someone at 10, so he HAD to get up so we could go to that... and it fell through.. darn! I spent a lot of time studying! had to. we did go out though, but only for one reason. You see, Phili.. was Elder Jacksons last area, so HE had all KINDS of friends we had to see, and that's what we did! it was.. fun!   One of his best friends was mister Diego! so we had Dinner with him, spent some time there, at one point they went out to put away some of Diego's MANY cars, (he has this big ol' 8 car port thing in the back of his house) as they were out there, I was inside for just a bit finishing some dishes, when I went out there, I found Elder Jackson in panic mode! (Oh no! is all that went through my mind) well, turns out that Elder Jackson is DEATHly afraid of all things spider! he saw me come out and he's like "ELDER MARTIN! WE NEED YOU!" He couldn't kill it cause he is a wimp, and Diego couldn't cause he is blind as a bat and couldn't see it to save his life! SO! I went to check it out.. BIGGEST! SPIDER! EVER! in history! I had to let out a gasp! it was no wonder Elder Jackson was ready to pass out!  So this thing is just chilling up in its web, (which, was also huge! and AWESOME!) all being big and scary, so I had Diego get some bug killer spray stuff, and he just so happened to have the most lethal of all sprays! Well as I was about to KILL it, Diego asked for a picture of it, so I took his phone got all close like and took some pics, but they were not good enough so Diego  wanted a closer look so he could see just how big it was, so I was giving him so light, as he is failing to see this spider that was right in front of him! when I randomly turn and BOOM! HUGE SPIDER NUMBER TWO! I gasped! and Elder Jackson had a mini heart attack and ran inside! Most, fun, I have ever had! so I sprayed them real good, they put up a nasty fight, but in the end they both fell to the ground, dead, this was not good enough for Elder Jackson, and he wanted them squished! I got a little 2 by 4 (cause I was not about to step on it with my NICE SHOES!) and it was like braking a shell or something! CRAZY! those guys were BEASTS! it was the best!...

and then.. IT happened.. Diego took us home, BLIND AND ALL! in the DARK! and when we got to the pad, I realized something was missing from my pocket.. YEP! the KEYS! good ol' Cameron STRIKES AGAIN! but it does not end there, the PHONE! was also in the pad! that one is Elder Jackson's fault! AHH! this was all very bad, SO after spending the next hour and a half trying to break in! (I may not be as good at getting in to houses as I am with cars) we called the Mish Pres and ended up staying and Diego's house.. I hated every minute of it!

day 3..

So we DID get in, got that all taken care of, and then went and got our Elders back.. and we MAY or may not have played some pokemon cards.. its a missionary thing, one that you will NEVER catch me spending money on.

Saw all kinds of People, like this guy that needs to go to Prison.. yeah. Saw the Agustos again! love that family he gave us some AWESOME riddles, this was one of them, a math thing,

You want to buy a 97 dollar shirt (no idea who would do that) but you have no money, SO you barrow 50 dollars from your dad, and 50 from your mom.  You buy the shirt, and get 3 dollars back. You give one to your mom, one to your dad, and pocket one.

Now you owe your dad 49 dollars, and you owe your mom 49 dollars. ok, 49 + 49 is  98, you have one, that makes 99. where is the other dollar?

we thought long and hard, couldn't figure it out there, but after we went to another less active home, the Stokes, I may have talked about them before, they go to some other church now.. its strange, anyhow, they LOVE us, and we will keep seeing them, but it will be awhile till we get them back to church, BUT with them we DID figure out that riddle thingy, so yeah, I know it now!

DAY 4.

the weirdest day of my mission.. we started the day off by going to this dudes house for lunch, he calls him self little Joe, and his house it an RV, ok, no prob, but I could not HELP but wonder if the drinks he gave us was just flat out knock us out! like REALLY! I was SO scared! I didn't want to drink, or eat anything he gave us! all I was thinking was, "which food item did he stuff the roofies in?" I did partake though, and it was all very good, up until he started rambling on about how.. he.. is GAY!  and that that started cause as a child.. he was molested.. um, the fear came back REAL quick! we couldn't get out of there soon enough! and right before we did.. he sang to us! AH! my only solice is that he is moving, and we can give him to the other Elders,

other stuff went down but I'm about to be kicked off, so I'll end,

We went to tucker, it was great, talked to a bunch of drunks

The Davis family FINALLY came to church!

and that's really the rest of the week!

LOVE

ALWAYS LOVE!

Week 8

SOOO! back again! and this time! I have my Journal! YAY!! so, first of all, in terms of "best letters home" I am WASTING casey! also, Stephanie is the only one who has yet to write me anything, offended!
OK! so kinda a bit of an overview of last week and this week! LAST week, so really two weeks ago, we got a call from the Mission Prez, it was the worst call ever! pretty much, he told us that Elder Ashby's driving privileges were being REVOKED! so, no more driving for him, (he got in a small fender bender 3 months ago and they finally decided to not let him drive) as for me, I had a bit of a record when I got here, and I guess I didn't qualify.. SO! an emergency transfer was IN THE WORKS! and that made me very, very, sad, BUT ALAS! I was able to take a little defensive driving thing, and now I am the driver, so all is well! always remember to PRAY! ok, now for the week.

DAY ONE! didn't write.. BUT! I do know that we saw CHIP AND MEAGAN! YAY! we thought they hated us and were avoiding us, but no, things just never worked out.

 DAY TWO! that's when I sent my last email, after the leadership training in which I was training to be AP!

 DAY 3!! DDM, that was really most of our day, but that night we went out with the brethren again, (brother muse) and went to a less active family, who live kinda far, and going there would take up the whole night, and I was thinking to myself "we should really use this time better, they probably wont even be there, no way are they expecting us, what a waste!" yeah, they were expecting us BIG time, I was humbled! they even made us cookies. it would have been the worst thing ever if we didn't go, so that was great!

day 4 biked... cause we had no car yet.. so far.. went to Peal River, another Indian reservation, only this one is twice as far as tucker.. AH! when I got inside, I sat down, and STILL haven't recovered! that, was a tough day, real tough! we saw a guy, who really likes what we are teaching, and we WOULD have him get baptized and such, but, he KINDA needs to go to prison.. he MAY or may not be running from the law. so that was cool stuff,

Day 5, YAY DAY! the day we got the stuff in the mail that made it so we could DRIVE! but we still biked all day.. even though I was still dead from the day before! so we went to the post office, to mail that thing that made me drive back, and right next to the post office is this gun and pawn shop, and I just felt the impression that we needed to be semi apostate and go in and look around, of course, Elder Ashby wouldn't have it, but I can be very convincing! so we went in! AND! turns out, it was VERY good that we did, cause as we were leaving, we ran into a less active guy that we had been trying to get a hold of for weeks! Brother Agusto! good guy, was very active all growing up, kinda stopped going at like 18, he is now 30 something, has not been back since, his wife is not a member, and knows very little about the church, and really church in general, which is CRAZY for the south. He invited us over for dinner the next day! Just goes to show, it pays off to be lazy sometimes! I will never let Elder Ashby live that one down.

 Day 6 TUCKER! So, a whopping two days after the worst bike ride ever! comes the ride to tucker, again! AHH! I had never been is so much pain by the end of the day.. BUT! it was still a really good day, talked to all KINDS of people, Indian people, black people, drunk people, shape shifters, even a white lady! who, is semi crazy, talking to the drunks was hysterical! thanks to good ol Canada! I know very well how to deal with drunks! Elder Ashby, on the other hand, not so much, making that meeting the funniest thing ever! he was so scared! It was great... don't bring expensive sun glasses on a mission.. in fact, just never buy expensive sun glasses.. That night we went to the Agustos! had dinner, and then had an AWESOME lesson! She said it was "very positive" and that she had never seen her husband (brother Agusto" open up that much, GOOD STUFF! so glad I went into that gun shop! GO CAMCAM!

 SUNDAY! welp, half the men in the stake were asked to go down to New Orleans to help clean up, so we only had sacrament meeting, AND we didn't confirm Richard Jones, so y'all still have a week to pray for me! after Church one of the few Brothers that stayed behind took us to see Will again, (along with all kinds of other people. but NO ONE WAS HOME!) The meeting with Will went great, again! He pretty much said that he wanted to go on a mission! BEST! THING! EVER! SO! after we got home, we got on our bikes (so as to make sure I NEVER recover!) and biked out to see some formers, met this awesome black guy, who's life story could SO be a movie! I kinda want to make it, he is very old, 82, which, is crazy! He doesn't look any older then 50, but that's really how most black guys are. anyway, he is old and does A LOT for his church, so probably not going to baptize him.. In this life. WELP! that was really my week, this is the last week of the transfer! it's CRAZY to think it has been 9 weeks from the time I left home! let camcamian fill your life! LOVE!

P.S everyone in the south LOVES to point out color of skin, its funny!


 1, we MADE COOKIES! for my bday,

 2, this is what my old belt did to all my shirts! does not really do it justice!

 3 and 4, BEST DICOVERY EVER!!!

 5 and 6 , this little guy found his way into my tire on the way to pearl river, I of course got a flat, we changed the tube but I never found why it went flat. we went on our day and had no problems, it was not till two days latter that I found a very small metel looking thing in my tire, and THAT is what we pulled out, it took some effert!

Week 7

SOOO! hello again! well, this time things will be different! I am yesterday. due to the holiday, we could not write emails, so we are doing it today. but, we are in Jackson, for a leadership training thing, (cause they are already ready for me to be AP) and we got here last night, and spent the night in the mission home... it is all very weird.. SO with that, I have little time, and I don't have my journal, so this letter will not be the norm.. at all,

 

OK! so.. how do I start, um.. that storm! lame! we were awaken be the sound of tornado sirens..  but I just rolled over and went back to sleep. and turns out there was not even really any high winds, so yeah, it was the lamest storm ever, it did rain all day though, so that was fun!

what else? so, we went to tucker again, good stuff as always, but on our way out we stopped by this house that we talked to a bit a few weeks ago. the lady there was about to leave, or as they say in the south (fixin to leave, or fixin to make some groceries..) ANYWAY! she said we could come back and all that, but as we were leaving the rain started coming.. like mad! we took shelter in the first car port we could find! it was great! and that was not our first run in with rain that day, the other one was a little more dramatic. imagine if you will...

Elder ashby is on the phone, being all aloof as always.. and I'm sitting there looking around just watching the storm a brewing, saying things like "um.. elder? wha.. um.. I think.. we might want to move.." and he is just in la la land, the wind is picking up, a little rain is coming down here and there, I'm phlipping out! (that's RIGHT, FLIP WITH A PH!) but no worries! elder ashby finally ended his call! YAY! WE CAN FIND SHELTER AND NOT DIE!! or so I thought, this was his response "oh.. is it raining? ahh, we'll be all right, lets just go, the house we are going to is not far" (not far for him is 2miles) SO we went on our way. it seemed to be going well for a bit, then I heard a strange sound.. imagine! riding your bike.. its windy, you hear a semi familiar sound.. now what could that be? you look back, and you see it! your eyes widen and the WALL of rain comes hurdling toward you! you bike faster! FASTER! the sound is just getting louder! THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO! IT WILL CATCH YOU!! ... now, Elder Ashby's point of view, imagine, if you will.. You are in lala land biking about, enjoying the view, not a care in the world, peddling along as if the time is paused, just for you, and then, a faint cry, (cause he was already so far ahead of me) that goes a little something like this "no! no! NO! NO!!!! CURSE YOU ELDER!!!"

so yeah, we both got wet that day, more then once, WELL i'm running out of time, this was a great week, a lot of good happened, for one, good ol RICHARED was baptized! it was great! this sunday he will be confirmed a member of the church! and, for what ever reason, he has asked me to do so! I need a lot of prayers to ready myself for that!

WELP! LOVE!

keep camcamian in your life always!

NEXT WEEK WILL BE BETTER!