Week 78

SOOO! This week, though long, has had some high points, mostly the weather.. IT'S SO HOT!!

 

So remember that lady I talked about that we tracted into that said she had been praying for this and what not? And I said it would be my first ever testimony of tracting?

So she has disappeared, we will try her a few more times, but, we have done all we can do there, but that's ok, I still believe I will find someone from tracting!

 

We did meet another lady while tracting this week, only, she was a former media referral. We got this media referral about 2 months ago, when Elder Rose was still here, we called her and talked to her a few times but she seemed unwilling to set up a time to meet, so we moved on. Fast forward to last Wednesday. Before leaving for DDM I looked at our map to plan a place for us to tract on the way home, we had an early dinner appointment out that way so I didn't want to go back to the pad only to have to go back out there. I found a area that seemed like it would have plenty of tracting to do, put in my mind how to get there, and we were on our way. Well, finding the area I had planned to tract turned out to me far more challenging  then I imagined, I drove down the road that I was SURE the area was off, and found could not find nothing! I was getting frustrated and was about to just give up and drive to an area I was more familiar with and tract there. We soon passed a road that looked like it had a nice little neighborhood off it. This was NOT where I had planned to tract so I just kept driving. 2.1 seconds latter the very strong thought came to my head "turn around!" I quickly obeyed, and we went to that little neighborhood and strarted to knock on doors. Again, this was not at all what I had planned, but days in the mission rarely are, so we went forward in faith... Kinda, It was one of them fancy neighborhoods so I didn't expect anything to come from it. The tracting went as expected, mostly no answers, a few cranky old ladies, and one women that was very well aware of how she was already "saved"! Then we knocked on the car port door of a large home, and... No answer, from the door, as soon as I was ready to say "no one is home, lets move on" A voice from behind us said "Can I help you?" I kept my composure, but deep down I screamed like a little girl, she came from no where! Well, actually she came from the guest house right behind us that I DID not notice. We told her who we were, and she invited us in! COOL! As we were sitting down she said that she had tried to get us over there not long ago. I immediately knew who she was, I asked if she was Anita, (the referral) and she said she was. We had a great lesson about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and answered some REAL questions she had! It was one of those, "These are the same questions a 14 year old boy had in 1820."  She said we had answered questions that no one else had ever answered. Its good to be a Mormon!

 

That there might be the best mission work story I have ever told, I'm getting good at this!

 

Other then that, we met this CRAZY family while tracting, all kinds of people in the house, all trying to get their bash on at the same time! IT WAS SO FUNNY! They thought Christ went to hell and back after he died, I didn't say anything, but they could tell I disagreed. They knew ALL kinds of things about Mormons... Well, they thought they did, the word cult came up, I just ignored that one, They rest of the "problems" they had with the church I shot down pretty quickly.. Then my comp would say something and they would suddenly have a very different problem.. It was mostly them trying to bible bash us and me saying "well... not quite" So we didn't stay long.

 

WELP! This letter is way to long!

LOVE!

Elder CamCam Martin!

pictures

Week 77

Nothing really happened this week.

 

We had an ICE storm, so that was cool, I have never really seen one like it, everything was coated in ICE! The car had like a sheet of ice all over it we had to pretty much pull off when it started to melt a bit, anyhow, so that happened Wednesday, by Friday it was 70 degrees.. I love the south.

 

It really was a lame week, This week will be better, I hope..

 

I am trying really hard to think of anything else that would matter in any way whatsoever to report. But I can think of nothing!

 

LOVE?...

 

elder martin..

Week 76

Welp! Its been awhile, my bad, not been much to report. So here we go!

 

I have a new comp, Elder Rose left, so that's a thing.

 

We got a new Word Mission leader, Brother Tuck, good guy! I like him.

 

We both gave a talk on Sunday, they are really starting to try and get the member to do missionary work in these part.. And trying is the key word there.

 

We do not have Ipads, and will not till summer, and I WILL NEVER USE ONE!! Cause even if we do get them before my time here is up, it will be like a month before, and I will refuse to take one for only a month, Im serving my mission the old fashion way! With a backpack full of books!

 

It has been really cold this week, like, 30s, all week, I have not seen the sun in a good week, its making me sad.

 

I SNOWED! Kinda, a mix between snow and rain, just not quite snow, almost, but not quite. Anyhow, we tracted in it for 2 hours, I thought we would for sure get all kinds of sick from it, but I'm just as sick as I have been for like the last 5 months, just kinda sick.

 

We for the first time in my mission tracted into someone that was INTERESTED!! She said she prayed for us and all that good stuff! IT WAS AWESOME!

 

I lost my wallet, could be a problem, if I don't find it soon, it is.

 

WELP! That's all I got,

love

Elder Cameron Martin.

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!