Hey everyone, and happy 2014! 14 has always been my lucky number, and being a missionary through the entirety of it is probably the luckiest part about it!
But first, here's the news:
On p-day we found out our cars were being reassigned elsewhere so we are walking now! It's quite fun, and it hasn't been too cold at all, and we get to talk to more people anyways! For p-day, we went to the flag shop on University Ave to get some new decorations for the apartment, as we were taking the Christmas stuff down in a few days and didn't want the apartment to feel bare. This would explain the pictures of the huge flags in our front room now. I love them! The district then gave me a late birthday present of a Lego set, which was very kind of them and was soon put to use. We accordingly ate my birthday cake (Thanks so much for that Grandma Wadley!)
On New Year's Day we had a mission district activity before the mission president's interviews with each of the missionaries. The activity was fun and we got to play Uno. New Year's Eve we really didn't do much, most of the people we went to visit weren't home and we ended up just walking a lot. That night Elder Rivera taught me the Mexican tradition of sticking 12 grapes in your mouth in 12 seconds, each one representing a desire or goal for the new year. We had no grapes, so I used cheese puffs and he used marshmallows, but it was still lots of fun, and I got some good resolutions written up. I actually ran a few of them by President McCune in our brief interview, and he gave me some wise pointers and advice. He is such a great man, it'll be hard to see him go right before I finish my mission.
As for the rest of the week, the days were filled with walking and talking, which has been a good chance for me to practice my Spanish with Elder Rivera. We've been getting our number and card out to as many bishops and students as we can in the different apartment complexes in preparation for the new semester, which starts today (yes!). We also did a fair amount of Facebook work.
In terms of actual lessons, we were able to see Toree again. She is doing great and getting her patriarchal blessing soon. We shared a spiritual thought to her and her dad about praying with New Years resolutions.
We tried to set a baptismal date with Diana Fernandez, but she still feels like she isn't ready, and that her family won't support her. Luckily, we found out just recently that the missionaries in Colombia have recently visited her family there, so we will soon see what reaction they had to that. As soon as she gets her answer, I can tell that she's gonna be a rock solid member, no doubt about it.
On Sunday, we visited all the bishops in the 9th YSA Stake and attended four sacrament meetings. This included the one that I went to this summer at BYU. It was rather fun reintroducing myself to my Wyview summer bishopric, and getting to bare my testimony for them in fast and testimony meeting. And I think I will close here with the same note that I shared in my testimony: There is mountains of work to be done here in Provo, no doubt about it!
We've been laying the seeds all this week, and now it's time to start sowing. Here's to a new year and a grand new wave of missionary opportunities!
-Elder Martin
My birthday cake
Celebrating my 19th birthday with my district
The flags we bought for our apartment
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