Week 49

HELLO ALL!

This week I had lots of cake...

 

I KNOW I had some great time stories, that I do not remember at all.. but that's ok, you will get so things that will be a good time..

Whilst tracting this week, we met the first man I have ever met that had a problem with the church cause of its past with back folk and what not, he said that "Before either of you were even born, your church taught that WE! (black people) were a RACE! (that caught me off guard..) and that we were not able to receive salvation!" He was one of them guys that you are just NOT going to get through to, like, what he know is just right! and there is no other truth! so, he still believes that that is what Mormons at one time believed, I didn't want to fight with him to much about it, kinda wished I had a black missionary there though, not that that would have helped at all, but would have been better...

 

Had a hobo give me a hug.. which is odd, cause I have yet to give him any money, even though he has stopped us on our bikes a good five times asking for some.. He lives at a car wash..

 

We had Interviews last week! that was a great time! always good to meet with pres! he told me that I would be transferred next transfer, no idea where, but I will only have a few more weeks left here, which is fitting, I never seem to spend to much time in one area. I am very ready to leave the city, I have loved it, but, its time to get back to the country!

Here is a picture from the president's blog from those interviews.

 

MAN am I hungry.. really, have not eaten all day, we really can only eat once a day these days.. haha, end of the month I have no money left, and of course, we NEVER get fed, I would not be sad if someone wanted to send me a package full of food or money or some such things.. that would be ok!

 

I have come to the point where I just stare at a package of ramen for a good 10 minutes trying to decide if it really it necessary to eat.  

 

Did I ever mention the time my mother, my ONLY mother, mistook me for her OTHER missionary son, and told me to have a great time in Tennessee? well, that happened again, only this time it was my ONLY FATHER! No worries, he just told me happy birthday, even though that is a month away, and asked if I got my birthday package.. the answer of course being NO! all though, of someone wants to mistake me for my much younger brother and send me a late birthday package, again, would NOT be mad about that.. as long as you correct the mistake come my actual birthday, and send me and even bigger birthday package!

 

I had a dream that I got attacked by a dog, actually, many dogs, and HUGE dogs, kinda scary, I told the other missionaries, but not Elder Huntsmen, didn't want to scare him..

 

 

WELP! I guess that's all from me today.

DONT FORGET THAT I ALSO AM ON A MISSION!!!

LOVE!!!

Elder CamCam Martin.

Week 48

Well, I did it! WE DID IT! ONE YEAR! I MADE IT!!!!!

So, for the year mark, and Casey's actual birthday, I had a baptism! yep, Rylee Gates, She was supposed to be baptized last week, but for some reason that did not happen.. who knows, well, I know, it was 'cause her mom had to go to the hospital.. so, yeah..

ANYWAY! that was a thing and really cool! Other then that we had your average week, other than when I was with one Elder Huntsman again, and then some dogs came out of nowhere, ha, he really, really does not like dogs, ha, good times, good times.

So we had this investigator, she was interested, things were good, up till she came to church.. and then, while her kid was in nursery, someone brought her child to her, cause the child had a dirty diaper, so, Sarah, the investigator, had to change her own kids diaper... OH NOOO!!! So somehow that meant that God was not in this church, yeah, anyways, I had zero sympathy for her, so later that week when we were to go see her, we went on an exchange, so as to not allow me to be... TOO bold, turns out that was a good thing, she was nothing but hostile to the missionary that went in my place, and some other things happened, that, I would have been.. bold with... haha, anyways, we will still try to mend things there, cause you can never give up! I will just have to bite my tongue.. her roommate is cool though! so that's good!

For church yesterday, the primary did this thing at the beginning of sacrament meeting, it took place of the normal song, they walked around the chapel and sang... and it was really weird...

The mission President was there, and for the second time EVER! we walked in a little late.. The president also happened to be there the first time that happened...

WELP! That's all for now!

LOVE!!

ONE YEAR!!

Elder CamCam Martin!

Week 47

Welp, just like my young brother, I have had a slow week.

We spent a lot of time at hospitals, giving all kinds of blessings, so that was a thing.

One of those blessing was to the mother of the girl that was GOING to get baptized on Sunday, she had some kinda panic attack at church.. so, the baptism did not go on.. Hopefully we can do it next week..

We had a zone fast last week, that was kinda cool!

We are still getting used to our new area, its a very different side of town, but we will get it.

I kinda hate our new apt! Nothing works and everything leaks! Its driving me crazy, We might not even be in it anymore by the end of the month..

Our washer doesn't work, it puts water in, but stops there.. I spent hours trying to fix it myself, only to spend a few more sitting on the floor next to it, wondering if there was an easy way to KILL it...

The next day we told the front office, when we got back, they had just done what I already did.. and fixed NOTHING!

I was rebuked in a zone DDM... they told me I talk to the sisters too much... so... yeah, I guess that's a thing...

WELP! ha, I have not much else to say this week... other then LOVE!!!

Elder CamCam Martin OUT!

Pictures

I found some photos with Elder Martin on his mission blog from that last zone conference he spoke of.

Week 46

HI THERE!

So I am trying to think of pretty much ANYTHING to say.. but really nothing is coming to me..

Last week was Zone Conference, but I think I already talked about that, it was good, learned a lot, I am kinda a fan of being 20 minutes from the church that holds Zone Con,

I went on a quick day exchange with one Elder Huntsman, we ended up knocking out side either one of our areas, so that was sad, we had to give all the people we found to some sisters.. That has NEVER been a concern for me before, seeing as how my last two areas were as big as all 7 around here, and then some..

OH! Elder Huntsman is very green (just got out like 4 weeks ago) and also a black guy! So, its stands to reason, that he is rather terrified of all things DOG! I too was once frightened by the beasts, but, one day I prayed REAL hard that I could... like.. I don't really know, but it worked, and now dogs don't even come near me, they FEAR ME! I love it, SO, back to the story, We were knocking on this door, when we hear the very deep loud bark of a HUGE HE MAN DOG! We could here it, could not see it, never before had I seen such fear in the eyes of the young Elder Huntsman, (other then that time there was an AWESOME thunder storm... he also has a fear of lightning... and LOVES grape cool-aid...)

I went to knock a second time, and then saw the BEAST out of the corner of my eye, as it ran across the yard. (don't worry, the yard was fenced.. which meant nothing to elder Huntsman) This dog was a MONSTER! still barking, but still mostly unseen, The beast had Elder Huntsman right where he wanted him.  Before I go on, let me give you the lay out of the house. It has a detached garage and connecting the garage and house was a small green fence, so as to protect the world from the creature on the other side. The beast stops barking.. silence, the glimpse of an unseen creature from the underworld as it bolts through the window between the house and garage leaves Elder Huntsman backing away slowly, then suddenly and with out warning, as if it came straight out of some horror movie script, the beast SLAMS against the small green fence drooling and barking ferociously at the sight of Elder Huntsman!  Although, Elder Huntsman was NOT in sight for very long, I must say the boy can RUN! I don't know if I will ever again have the opportunity to see a missionary running full speed down a street, but I sure hope I do, it was quite entertaining. If I had not been on my knees laughing I probably would have been pretty startled as well, I mean that dog came out of no where, and I must say, his head was bigger then my torso! Add to that the fact that the thing had MURDER in its eyes, and it was quite the frightening experience..

ANYWAY! That is far more then I expected to write, hope you enjoy!

LOVE!!

Elder CamCam Martin.

Week 45

It was another great week,

We still don't have anyone that has REAL potential, but we are making REAL headway with the ward, so that is really good.

We did a lot of service this week, and that has been... hot.. but good,

There are a lot of changes that are going to happen in this mission, and its very interesting, to say the least.

We had our zone conference yesterday, and for the first time, I did not have to drive 2 hours to get there! more like 15 minutes.

I has been all kinds of stormy! when its not hot, its raining, one day there was all kinds of flooding and what not, I could not even SEE, I was driving..

This has got to be the most boring letter I have ever done!

I don't even know what else to say, umm... THE CHURCH IS TRUE THE BOOK IS BLUE! ... ahh, love is a good thing.. An Elders bike was stolen, that was a thing, jokes on then though, it was very broken.

WELP! this was sad, but it really was a good week, I guess I need to start bringing my journal again, so I can remember ANYTHING!

LOVE!!!

Elder CamCam Martin.

Week 44

So apparently this area I am in has a bad rap, like, no one thinks work can be done here, so last week I had a lot of motivation, and Elder Adams and I went out and DID WORK! and, we led the mission in numbers, now, I have never cared about numbers, and still don't, but, it felt good to be able to prove all the doubters wrong!

 

It was a fun week, we got wet every day, either by the buckets of RAIN! or from the extreme heat making me sweat like crazy.

 

We talked to A LOT of people, and knocked on A LOT of doors, most everyone was really nice this week too, its kinda funny how different things are depending on where you knock, if we knock on like kinda higher end houses, they know exactly who we are, have talked to us before, and tell us right of the bat that they will chat with us, but never change, but if we knock in the HOOD! they have never heard of the Mormons!  So we spend most our time in the hood, mostly cause we live in the hood, I have no idea why either.. I have heard gun shots.. everyone we talk to tells us to move! like, this convo happens all the time "where do you live?" "In the shirewood apartment's," "MOVE!"  Just like that, they don't even say we should try to move, just, straight, MOVE! so that's interesting.

 

We were on bikes all last week, so even though my knees hurt, we biked all day every day! LIKE A BOSS!

We almost died a few times too! I don't know that ANYONE knows how to drive here.. One day on the bikes was spent mostly screaming from all the many close calls.

 

The other Elders neighbor likes them a lot, but is an avid... Mormon hater... anyway, he invited us all to a "bible study" with him the other day, it turned out to be a "the Book of Mormon will drag you to hell" study... that's common, so I know how to deal with it, the other elders kept trying to explain to him that Joseph Smith did NOT write it, but he was just not getting it, like most bapt... people here in the south, so I just put an end to it by sharing my testimony on the Bible and Book of Mormon, and told him that Christs blood was good enough for all of us, and there was no argument there, he said he was just concerned for our salvation and wanted to make sure Christ was number one to us.. I expect that he was told many a time that J Smith is number one to us and Christ is just in there somewhere, you would be shocked the things people think we do and don't believe down here, and for some reason, explaining that we believe in the Book of Mormon AND the Bible, and the the Book of Mormon is NOT our Bible, is really, REALLY hard.. You would think that that would be and easy concept.. 

 

ANYWAY! We really did have a great week.

LOVE Y'ALL!

Elder CamCam Martin.