Well hello friends and family!
It's great to be a missionary in Provo! This week was quite eventful, and as such went by quicker than any before. I guess I'll just mention everything as it comes to me, and not in chronological order. To begin, I have slowly been working my way through El Libro de Mormon, and already I feel that my ability to understand and speak Spanish is markedly improved, though I do feel that this was the right time to start reading it in Spanish.
We had a powerful lesson with Alejandro Herrera this week about God being our Father in Heaven, and that families can be together forever (which I felt I was able to contribute to better than other discussions). The same applied to our lesson with Diana Gabriela. Our lesson with Desiree Arredondo was my first (and unfortunately I feel not my last) in helping her deal with a member who had offended her. Just a reminder to everyone that people watch us as members of the church, especially here in Utah. She luckily is very sincere in her desire to learn about the gospel, and we helped her work over it. She is progressing nicely, though, and will go home for the winter holidays for a while, so we won't see her for too much longer.
Last p-day, the Elders in my district got together to play Star Wars Episode 1 Monopoly again, which I won with heaps of luck. It is a nice saving grace that in an area of 25 stakes and countless people to meet, I can make lasting friends with the other Elders in my district, and at my first Zone Conference we had a lot of fun learning how to be better missionaries. On that note as well, Elder Rivera and I have begun an initiative to meet with all of the Bishops in the wards we cover, starting with the family stakes we have in North Provo. It has been a great opportunity to get to know so many fine servants of the Lord, who know their wards like a shepherd knows the quirks of all his sheep. It has given us not per se many investigators, but plenty of people to strengthen and serve, especially as the winter snows loom near. (I am so stoked for my first real snow, woe be unto any within snowball range when it comes).
We have continued to try and build a friendship and spiritually encourage Diana Fernandez, who still has not made the leap into baptism, but we do not want to rush her in. Toree Coleman, the American girl we're teaching, finally came clean with her Catholic mother and told her of her decision to be baptized. It took some time for the dust to settle, but we'll be meeting with her again tomorrow. We feel confident that her faith will sustain her in these hard times.
Hard times came as well to Alex, a Russian returned missionary who was part of our Sunday night blessings we gave a couple of weeks ago. He had been feeling some very negative influences on his spirit and in his apartment. He asked us for an emergency blessing and we came right away. Elder Rivera gave the blessing and took the brunt of the negative casting-off, as Alex trembled and wept. By the time it was over, a sense of stillness, like after a loud noise finally turns off, engulfed us, and with the space that he cleared, I was able to bless his equally afflicted roommate, Valentino. It was a very easy blessing for me, in comparison to others, as I did not feel worried of what I would say or the effect it would have. It was well received, and I hope will encourage Valentino, who is struggling with the decision to go on a mission. Interestingly enough, my outer suit tag was not on while I preformed the blessing, and it made me realize that if this had any lasting effect on Valentino, he would not be able to remember my name, only the Spirit. To me, it testified that the Spirit is the true teacher, healer, and messenger, and that we have the opportunity to give the honor to the Savior, and that our own personal effect is not nearly as important. Quite subtle, but interesting to me nonetheless.
The Provo temple closes soon, so Elder Rivera and I went one last time before it closed, and it was an incredible experience. Especially after spending time in the waiting room reading the Sermon on the Mount, which I can't even relate how powerful and simple it is, I received so much spiritual testimony and guided thoughts/personal revelation that I had not room enough to receive and remember it all. I love the Temple, and it makes me think a lot about the New Provo City Center Temple under construction, which I see quite often and I often draw as a parallel to myself. This article I found basically sums up what I had to say, I'll add more of my own thoughts next time:
http://www.lds.org/church/news/provo-city-center-temple-teaches-lesson-on-conversion?lang=eng&query=provo+city+center
But the week's highlight falls on last night, when we had a lesson with Angel Corona from Mexico. I'd only had one lesson with him before, but I was impressed by his sincere desire and sweet spirit, and despite often forgetting others in my long list of investigators to pray for, I always remembered him. We had not had a lesson with him in two weeks, since he could only meet us on Sundays. This Sunday, on three separate occasions in Sacrament meetings, as I was praying, I felt the slight reminder to text him about a lesson for tonight, which we did not have. I forgot the first two times to do it or even write down a reminder, and finally on the third I talked to Elder Rivera right there and we set it up. I am grateful that the Spirit was persistent with me and my faults! In that lesson Angel accepted the invitation to be baptized on December 7th. It was a wonderful experience, and the Spirit filled the room in a happy, joyful kind of way. I am glad that I had the opportunity to help in this, and throughout the whole thing it taught me the very important lesson that it is much easier to listen to the Spirit when we try to align our thoughts and heart with him, rather than just look for influence on our own self-appointed path. Hopefully I'll be able to further exercise this as I continue on as a missionary. Everything is very exciting here!
To end it all, I don't have my list of things I'm grateful for fully complete just yet, but to sample you something before Thanksgiving (I'll include my full list and how everything goes Thanksgiving-wise next time), this is the list I wrote up in our Mission-wide grateful list. Note that I was trying to be unique and specific to avoid doubles with other missionaries, hence the lack of some of the obvious ones that will be present next time.
The sound of running water
A sun-warmed couch
Seeing a good friend after a long time
Tripping but no one sees
Shoe gaze
Crunch of leaves
Snowball fights
The moon on the mountains
A loud, solid high five
Seasons
Finding candy in your pocket
Finding money in your pocket
Finding a pocket
Pebbles
Puddles
Sunrise
Sunset
Dawn
Dusk
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, God bless, and Eat till you're stuffed!
-Elder Martin
Provo Mission Week 1
Monday, November 25, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Week 3: Greenie!
Well Hello Everyone!
It has been another solid and interesting week here in Provo! We finally managed to schedule appointments with and teach all of the people we haven't seen in a while. At the same time we were not able to meet with most of our regulars due to them being busy. It was actually kind of cool, and it illustrates for sure that people are busy in life, and making the time to meet with missionaries at all can be a sacrifice for people.
One girl for instance, Diana Gabriela, who I hadn't even met yet because she had been so busy with work, was finally able to meet with us, and things are going pretty well with her. The same thing happened with Alejandro Herrera and Desiree Arredondo, who we had also not been able to meet with for some time and were finally able to teach. We also met with the recent converts Sergio and Ruben, as well as our neighbors, the Martinez family. All of our investigators are progressing and accepting the principles as we teach them bit by bit. But they are all still genuinely seeking their own answers and witnesses of the truth, which they are doing with a sincerity that is truly touching. It has definitely made it clear to me the importance of the nature of our work, which is not as much bringing souls to Christ but helping souls bring themselves unto Christ. In the end, we all must choose our own path, and whenever we do it with Patience, Diligence, and Faith (there are those three together again!), Heavenly Father in the wisdom of his timing will always manifest his Spirit unto us. Just as our investigators are doing this, I have been, bit by bit, trying to come closer to the Lord in my own life. And goodness gracious knows what the end result of these two years will be in doing that!
But in other news, I have finished running through the Book of Mormon in English (I started in the CCM). Now that I have done that I'm going to read it in Spanish during personal study, which should really help me progress faster in the language. (I would have started sooner, but when you're halfway through Helaman you might as well finish up).
We also had our last lesson with Jose Ignacio Pardo, who will in the next few days head down to Bolivia to be baptized. He has a sweet, persevering and genuine spirit, and I only wish I could have got here to meet him sooner. Picture included below (along with Courtney from his ward). Elder Rivera and I are going to keep in touch with him via Facebook.
Toree Coleman has been progressing fantastically, in fact sometimes I feel like we're just preaching to the converted and that we're merely formalities in her conversion. She loves the lessons though, and since things have gone well with her Mom she has decided to move up her baptismal date to December 14th. Pretty sweet! Our experience with her has affected me mostly in that I want to learn Spanish faster, and be able to connect, understand, and feel what those I'm teaching in Spanish are saying just as well as I can while teaching Toree in English. Not just understanding the logistics of what they're saying, but the connotation and meaning conveyed through the tone, phrasing, and choice of words. It will take some time, of course, but I am recommitting to make not just studying, but learning Spanish (if you get my drift between the difference of verbs there) as my number one priority. After all, if you can't hear what your investigator is saying, how on earth are you supposed to hear what the Spirit wants for them?
And to end with some fun notes, as Elder Rivera is District Leader, we got to go on exchanges this week. I got paired off for a day with Elder Brown from Alabama. Two Southern boys together made the day (which ended up slow) turn out to be quite enjoyable. He is a semi-professional bass fisher, and in fact payed for his mission with fishing tournament winnings! We talked about a lot about that and we made some southern-seasoned chicken and cornbread for our companions when they got back to re-trade.
Also, a funny story... Elder Brown and I were walking around one the Riverwood Malls after one of our references wasn't home and we came upon a family unloading out a van. Their little girl, who couldn't have been more than 4 years old, flabbergastedly exclaimed to her parents, "Mom! It's the mississis... the missishnairies!" Her mom smiled at us and looked down at her daughter frantically trying to pronounce "missionaries" and encouraged her to say hi and wave. Just how many other missions get celebrity experiences like that? Me and Elder Brown headed back to the car laughing and saying "Missishnairies"
The work is going well, thank you for your prayers and support!
-Elder Martin
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Week 2: Not Much New
Dear Friends and Family,
Never has time passed so quickly and slowly simultaneously because I look back and think, wow it's only been two weeks, and then I realize that I already feel like I'm in the thick of it. Wait till a year in, and then I'm straight up in the thick of it! I will say that I have less time today than before to write emails and in fact I have less time in general. As a general rule, please try to send me letters or at least email me your addresses, because I have more time to write letters here than to send emails, it's just more economical with my time.
But the week was good! I am trying to speak to Elder Rivera now solely in Spanish. Which I'm sure is nails on a chalkboard for him but my speaking, which lacks most of all, is getting better. Things with the investigators are going along as they will. Yolanda got very stressed by her family in our last lesson with her, and has decided that she needs to wait to get baptized. Not ideal, but we're keeping her in our prayers, and she is still faithfully praying and going to church. These things take time, as does just about everything except making Ramen noodles, I have found throughout my life. For a few days during our unscheduled time we've been doing a lot of street contacting, but until we tried Saturday and really focused on praying with faith and knowing that we'd find people afterwards did we get like five new referrals. We won't teach all of them, and even less when we pass the English speaking families onto the other elders (we primarily cover Spanish speaking students unless we're up in the north of Provo), but regardless it was great to see some traction in the work. Lessons with Toree have been going solid. She committed to baptism, but will wait until after the holidays to smooth things over with her Catholic mother, and Filipe's and Angel's lessons are going strong as well. Scheduling conflicts have kept us from seeing Oscar for a while, but we're gonna see him tonight and both he and our other recent converts like Ximmena, whose Uruguayan accent is coming to my understanding slowly but surely, are solid.
My great experience for the week actually happened last night: teaching Carla Antezana and a bunch of her friends, including a less active member, we were asked to give Priesthood blessings to several of those present. I gave one blessing and did some anointing, but Elder Rivera with his Spanish (even though they all spoke English) was asked for most of them. Regardless, the Spirit that filled the room that night was undeniable, and another true testament to God's power and willingness to grant unto us blessings according to our faith. The priesthood gives a whole other dimension to Christ's commandment to be a servant to all, and I am so grateful for that ability. I will strive for the rest of my life to always be able and worthy and ready to give a blessing if it is needed. Elder Rivera is a stud, and an absolute perfect companion trainer. I grow more and more grateful for him every day and am glad to see us becoming fast friends. He is a textbook awesome missionary, and anyone who knows him would tell you the same.
As for the last small anecdotes from the week: I met a former EFY roommate in my zone at Zone Training Meeting. His name is Elder Peabody from Austin, Texas, who I first met at the 2011 San Antonio EFY session. Our EFY counselor actually served his mission in Utah - Salt Lake, which was the first time I actually considered Utah as an option for a mission. "Coincidence". We also had a great dinner with a member family up Provo Canyon this week, which was a lovely drive, dinner, and home. We had a service activity this week for a less active family, the Minods, who give us a free lunch every week from their Chilean restaurant (oh gosh....empanadas)! And I also enjoyed the fun of raking leaves again - you taught me how to work, thanks Dad.
I'll keep you all in my prayers!
Elder Martin
The pumpkins we carved on Halloween!
Our weekly planning board
Never has time passed so quickly and slowly simultaneously because I look back and think, wow it's only been two weeks, and then I realize that I already feel like I'm in the thick of it. Wait till a year in, and then I'm straight up in the thick of it! I will say that I have less time today than before to write emails and in fact I have less time in general. As a general rule, please try to send me letters or at least email me your addresses, because I have more time to write letters here than to send emails, it's just more economical with my time.
But the week was good! I am trying to speak to Elder Rivera now solely in Spanish. Which I'm sure is nails on a chalkboard for him but my speaking, which lacks most of all, is getting better. Things with the investigators are going along as they will. Yolanda got very stressed by her family in our last lesson with her, and has decided that she needs to wait to get baptized. Not ideal, but we're keeping her in our prayers, and she is still faithfully praying and going to church. These things take time, as does just about everything except making Ramen noodles, I have found throughout my life. For a few days during our unscheduled time we've been doing a lot of street contacting, but until we tried Saturday and really focused on praying with faith and knowing that we'd find people afterwards did we get like five new referrals. We won't teach all of them, and even less when we pass the English speaking families onto the other elders (we primarily cover Spanish speaking students unless we're up in the north of Provo), but regardless it was great to see some traction in the work. Lessons with Toree have been going solid. She committed to baptism, but will wait until after the holidays to smooth things over with her Catholic mother, and Filipe's and Angel's lessons are going strong as well. Scheduling conflicts have kept us from seeing Oscar for a while, but we're gonna see him tonight and both he and our other recent converts like Ximmena, whose Uruguayan accent is coming to my understanding slowly but surely, are solid.
My great experience for the week actually happened last night: teaching Carla Antezana and a bunch of her friends, including a less active member, we were asked to give Priesthood blessings to several of those present. I gave one blessing and did some anointing, but Elder Rivera with his Spanish (even though they all spoke English) was asked for most of them. Regardless, the Spirit that filled the room that night was undeniable, and another true testament to God's power and willingness to grant unto us blessings according to our faith. The priesthood gives a whole other dimension to Christ's commandment to be a servant to all, and I am so grateful for that ability. I will strive for the rest of my life to always be able and worthy and ready to give a blessing if it is needed. Elder Rivera is a stud, and an absolute perfect companion trainer. I grow more and more grateful for him every day and am glad to see us becoming fast friends. He is a textbook awesome missionary, and anyone who knows him would tell you the same.
As for the last small anecdotes from the week: I met a former EFY roommate in my zone at Zone Training Meeting. His name is Elder Peabody from Austin, Texas, who I first met at the 2011 San Antonio EFY session. Our EFY counselor actually served his mission in Utah - Salt Lake, which was the first time I actually considered Utah as an option for a mission. "Coincidence". We also had a great dinner with a member family up Provo Canyon this week, which was a lovely drive, dinner, and home. We had a service activity this week for a less active family, the Minods, who give us a free lunch every week from their Chilean restaurant (oh gosh....empanadas)! And I also enjoyed the fun of raking leaves again - you taught me how to work, thanks Dad.
I'll keep you all in my prayers!
Elder Martin
The pumpkins we carved on Halloween!
Our weekly planning board
Monday, November 4, 2013
Letter from a Member
Dear Martins,
We had the privilege of having dinner with your son and his companion on Sunday. One parent to another, He is doing so great! Elder Rivera and Elder Martin shared a sweet message with my children and assisted my husband in giving me a blessing. What an amazing work this is!! As we visited with them we realized Elder Martin's family lives in Houston, 9 minutes away from our son who is serving in Richmond, TX. And the other crazy coincidence is he lived in the same "casa" at the Mexico MTC as Elder Alan Christensen (my nephew), who just arrived in the Dallas mission Spanish speaking five days ago. Of all the hundreds of missionaries in Mexico he knows Alan and of all the places to be from, he is from Houston right by Richmond. That was a fun coincidence. What a small world! Or maybe there are no coincidences right?
Much love,
Kristine Baird
Sister Baird sent a photo of them eating dinner at her house. So kind of her!
Week 1: First Week out of the MTC
Back to BYU - but don't worry! It's my Mission area, I haven't copped out!
Dear Friends and family,
Well, it's crazy how much one week can contain: Thus ends my first few days in the field! It has been quite interesting to see how everything gets set up, but the end message is that all is well! I have been assigned to the Provo BYU Spanish Area, which means I cover 25 YSA Stakes and a couple other in Provo, amounting to a few hundred wards or so.
My companion is Elder Rivera from Mexico, and he is the bomb.com. He is from Mexico and actually went to Benemerito, the school that was turned into the CCM, and has been in the field 10 months, and as such will hit his one year mark training me here in Provo, where he has been for the past few months. He, of course, is a native Spanish speaker, which has really helped my own Spanish, but he also speaks superb English after only being here 10 months, his first time in the states. We get along really well, and I think by the end of my 12 weeks of training he will be one of my best friends in the Mission. He is a hard worker while still having fun, an obedient missionary without being ridiculous, and a powerful teacher (in both English and Spanish) despite his immense humility. I am set.
Provo itself is awesome, and though it is odd at times to be teaching people (as we often do) at the building I had church in this summer, or to see people I know (the list right now is Carter, Mallory, Angie, Traci, Dane, Kaelin, and I think Sydney) or to just walk on campus in general (we actually use computers for email or Facebook lessons in the BYU Library), I love serving in Provo. We have already taught some 25 or so missionary lessons since I came! All with wonderful people. Most were in Spanish, of which I understood the majority of what was said and followed the conversation, as well as being able to make my own comments here and there, though some are in all English (because they want to learn/practice) and some are mixed.
Either way it has been great, we have some phenomenal investigators and recent converts that are just wonderful people. Oscar Corredor, for example, was taught by the Elders for some months now until he was dropped because he wasn't progressing. However, as he had always done even when he didn't keep up with other commitments, he went to Church last Sunday and during a primary program heard a little kid testify "I know God lives and has a plan for me, because he loves me." Oscar went straight to the bishop mid-meeting and asked to be baptized, the spirit had given him all the answer and witness he needed from this child's words. And so, Elder Rivera baptized him two days ago and we confirmed him yesterday. Absolutely amazing experience, and one that I was very lucky to get to ride with. Indeed, I certainly came into a lot of wonderful situations that I did not work for, but I feel like it is a good chance to get my feet wet before I start seeing the fruits of my own labors.
One of such is Yolanda Sanchez, an 85 year old great grandmother from Chile who we are teaching now. She will be baptized on the 19th. We taught her the second lesson a few days ago, so I feel like I'll have sufficient claim to call her one of mine. But really, I already have so many stories to tell of wonderful people we've met and are teaching, I just simply don't have the time. But Provo is good, the cold is not bad at all, and when it snows every now and then (just falling out the sky, hasn't stuck yet), I occasionally start laughing like a little kid. Woe unto those I know who I see when the first snow actually comes, I will be the Snow Ball Master by the time I am done here.
But yeah, things are great! The other Elders in our district teach in Asian languages (yeah, most of them - that's right), and they are great guys, we're gonna play bowling and monopoly with them simultaneously today. For Halloween we had to go to a Chapel to just have fun, because people dress up like missionaries here as costumes, and President McCune (who from my 6 minute interview with him is a really solid guy) wisely called it better safe than sorry. So, we just watched Ephraim's Rescue and carved pumpkins together. It actually erased the few remaining doubts I had about people saying that you actually had fun on a mission-- like a laughing, enjoyable great time fun.
We get our own Ipads here! So, we can thus carry both our Spanish and English scriptures (and basically anything else the church has published) plus our Area book/daily planner app all in one little board. We also use Facebook to teach people anywhere in the world, and slowly but surely I am starting to get a grasp of how to use it as a missionary tool (which is all it is by the way, don't expect any personal messages or pictures from there).
My companion, Elder Rivera, is the District Leader. Since we cover the whole of Provo basically, we have a car, which I may regret 30 pounds later - thank goodness for early morning exercise time. But yes, I have been feeling the Spirit already as I am serving people here and I can only say that this will have to be a drop in a bucket compared to what's coming. This mission is going to be like nothing before in my life. By the end of it, I'm sure it will seem like this first week was just yesterday though. Crazy how the time will fly.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and please know you're in my own. I can't guarantee fast responses, but please send me anything that's going on with you and I'll get to it.
Loving the Mission and Life,
Elder Martin
Dear Friends and family,
Well, it's crazy how much one week can contain: Thus ends my first few days in the field! It has been quite interesting to see how everything gets set up, but the end message is that all is well! I have been assigned to the Provo BYU Spanish Area, which means I cover 25 YSA Stakes and a couple other in Provo, amounting to a few hundred wards or so.
My companion is Elder Rivera from Mexico, and he is the bomb.com. He is from Mexico and actually went to Benemerito, the school that was turned into the CCM, and has been in the field 10 months, and as such will hit his one year mark training me here in Provo, where he has been for the past few months. He, of course, is a native Spanish speaker, which has really helped my own Spanish, but he also speaks superb English after only being here 10 months, his first time in the states. We get along really well, and I think by the end of my 12 weeks of training he will be one of my best friends in the Mission. He is a hard worker while still having fun, an obedient missionary without being ridiculous, and a powerful teacher (in both English and Spanish) despite his immense humility. I am set.
Provo itself is awesome, and though it is odd at times to be teaching people (as we often do) at the building I had church in this summer, or to see people I know (the list right now is Carter, Mallory, Angie, Traci, Dane, Kaelin, and I think Sydney) or to just walk on campus in general (we actually use computers for email or Facebook lessons in the BYU Library), I love serving in Provo. We have already taught some 25 or so missionary lessons since I came! All with wonderful people. Most were in Spanish, of which I understood the majority of what was said and followed the conversation, as well as being able to make my own comments here and there, though some are in all English (because they want to learn/practice) and some are mixed.
Either way it has been great, we have some phenomenal investigators and recent converts that are just wonderful people. Oscar Corredor, for example, was taught by the Elders for some months now until he was dropped because he wasn't progressing. However, as he had always done even when he didn't keep up with other commitments, he went to Church last Sunday and during a primary program heard a little kid testify "I know God lives and has a plan for me, because he loves me." Oscar went straight to the bishop mid-meeting and asked to be baptized, the spirit had given him all the answer and witness he needed from this child's words. And so, Elder Rivera baptized him two days ago and we confirmed him yesterday. Absolutely amazing experience, and one that I was very lucky to get to ride with. Indeed, I certainly came into a lot of wonderful situations that I did not work for, but I feel like it is a good chance to get my feet wet before I start seeing the fruits of my own labors.
One of such is Yolanda Sanchez, an 85 year old great grandmother from Chile who we are teaching now. She will be baptized on the 19th. We taught her the second lesson a few days ago, so I feel like I'll have sufficient claim to call her one of mine. But really, I already have so many stories to tell of wonderful people we've met and are teaching, I just simply don't have the time. But Provo is good, the cold is not bad at all, and when it snows every now and then (just falling out the sky, hasn't stuck yet), I occasionally start laughing like a little kid. Woe unto those I know who I see when the first snow actually comes, I will be the Snow Ball Master by the time I am done here.
But yeah, things are great! The other Elders in our district teach in Asian languages (yeah, most of them - that's right), and they are great guys, we're gonna play bowling and monopoly with them simultaneously today. For Halloween we had to go to a Chapel to just have fun, because people dress up like missionaries here as costumes, and President McCune (who from my 6 minute interview with him is a really solid guy) wisely called it better safe than sorry. So, we just watched Ephraim's Rescue and carved pumpkins together. It actually erased the few remaining doubts I had about people saying that you actually had fun on a mission-- like a laughing, enjoyable great time fun.
We get our own Ipads here! So, we can thus carry both our Spanish and English scriptures (and basically anything else the church has published) plus our Area book/daily planner app all in one little board. We also use Facebook to teach people anywhere in the world, and slowly but surely I am starting to get a grasp of how to use it as a missionary tool (which is all it is by the way, don't expect any personal messages or pictures from there).
My companion, Elder Rivera, is the District Leader. Since we cover the whole of Provo basically, we have a car, which I may regret 30 pounds later - thank goodness for early morning exercise time. But yes, I have been feeling the Spirit already as I am serving people here and I can only say that this will have to be a drop in a bucket compared to what's coming. This mission is going to be like nothing before in my life. By the end of it, I'm sure it will seem like this first week was just yesterday though. Crazy how the time will fly.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and please know you're in my own. I can't guarantee fast responses, but please send me anything that's going on with you and I'll get to it.
Loving the Mission and Life,
Elder Martin
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