Week 23: General Conference is My SuperBowl!

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was quite awesome!  Elder Contreras put it best, "General Conference week for missionaries is like the Super Bowl". And how true that is! But first for the rest of the week, we got a good number of lessons in, and encouraged a lot of people to watch Conference. We will be checking up on them this week, but my hope is that a lot of people found it easier to watch General Conference on TV then go to church on Sunday, haha!

For myself, I was able to attend the Sunday morning session live at the Salt Lake Conference Center! This was very surprising because we only get tickets from the mission once during our mission, and usually they go to the older missionaries!  It was amazing to go and to be there live!  I also was able to attend the Music and the Spoken Word program (which I have been to before my mission) and it was also spectacular.

There were many things I learned during this Conference.  I took a bunch of notes, but I will say that one of the greatest conference experiences happened while I was at the Sunday morning session, actually sitting there in the conference center. While watching President Monson speak, it just hit me so strongly that this man is a Prophet of God, with the same power, authority, and position as all the famous prophets of days past. He speaks with God, and the Spirit testified that to me in a way like never before just watching him speak with my own eyes. It was a remarkable experience.

We also watched the Saturday morning Conference with a less active I'm working with named Frankie. He's a Navajo and a former four wheeler racer, but ever since a nasty crash a few years back he's been in rough shape, but he writes poems now, and he's shared a few with me and we talk about them; it's pretty legit!  Saturday afternoon and Priesthood session were spent in Goshen with the Sabeys, a wonderful family. Brother Sabey is the ward mission leader there. Sunday afternoon session was spent with the Davis family in Genola, who are also awesome; and we had a wonderful time talking and eating with them afterwards.

I was struck throughout the conference on themes of discipleship, love, and missionary work. The Preach My Gospel study admonition by Elder Ballard was quite solid.  I encourage everyone to take that up, and share what you find with me, I'm always on the lookout for tips to improve! Elder Holland's opening talk was of course a fireball and makes you want to get up and change your life on the spot, and President Eyring's talk on leaving a legacy is important for all of us, no matter what stage in our lives. Elder Scott spoke excellently on fellowshipping and better yet, being a friend to help share the gospel.  President Uchtdorf's talk on Gratitude is something we should hear often, if not monthly.

There were many other talks I enjoyed, but I look forward to seeing them in print and studying them again, particularly looking out for the passages I liked and took notes on, and seeing how it looks in print. But for sure, we have living prophets and apostles today, who speak with the power and according to the will of our Father in Heaven, and what a blessing it is to have the guidance! Let me know what you liked from conference too, and have a good week y'all!

Oh, and I got a haircut, as you can tell by the picture. I figure I'll never really have hair this short again, so I'm trying it out for now.

-Elder Martin

 Th view from where I was sitting in Conference

 Me at the Salt Lake Temple

With Elder Prince from the Ogden Mission (my friend from Dubai)
He went to the same session and found me when we took pictures by the north gate!

With Stephen Davis after conference, who is a boss!

Me, by the north part of West Mountain and Utah Lake

Week 22: Another Solid Week!

Hello everyone!

Getting right to it then! P-day we were able to go see the Goshen Jerusalem Bible video site, where they have been filming all the new church Bible videos that you can watch online.  Unfortunately, pictures from there are not allowed to be sent over the internet, so sorry but I've got nothing from that to show!  It was awesome though, very interesting and spiritual at the same time.

This week though was full of new investigators and progress with others. Daniel, a less active we're teaching in Eureka, is making great strides, and we hope to see him ask for Sundays off so he can come to Church soon enough here. A new investigator in Elberta named Tina has been really interesting to teach, as she is very open and honest about what she believes and doesn't know.  We hope to see the Spirit touch her life, which has recently become very rough.

Things with Heather have been going very well, and her less active friend Sara asked for a blessing yesterday, which Heather wanted to see, and she asked a lot of questions. The two have been helping each other a lot, and their kids are all a bunch of fun. A temple trip in the week was wonderful as usual.  The temple can bring such peace into our lives so consistently, it's unbelievable. We pulled a flat tire on the way out though, so that took a lot time that day.

Elder Contrares got pretty sick at the end of this week too, so that took out some time from our missionary work. But we're gearing up for a lot of teaching this coming week, especially some Spanish speakers in Genola and Elberta.  We are really excited to use General Conference to help the less actives we teach, and it might be easier to get them to watch TV instead of going to church!  Just as well, we've been getting a lot of investigators showing up at soccer at the Spanish branch on Friday nights.  We hope to get the Guatemalans we found in Genola to come as well, and to start teaching some of them regularly too. Spring will bring a lot of orchard workers into town for work, and hopefully we can find a lot more people to help strengthen up the Spanish Branch!

The sister missionaries in Santaquin had a baptism this week, which me and Elder Rios were able to be witnesses for. It was a wonderful service.  The Hispanic people are so kind and genuine, and mole freaking tastes amazing, as does pozole, which we now have a whole bowl full of in our fridge.

But yes, live is good out here in Goshen, and I am stoked to see general Conference.  Chances are I might get to go, but likely not this time. We'll see though! I'm coming in to watch it with some prayerfully considered questions again to see if I can get them answered as superbly as I did last time! It is such a blessing to have living prophets and apostles to teach us, so powerful and wonderful to have such guidance, let's all take advantage of it!

Have a great week y'all!

-Elder Martin

The "Dream Team" of brethren we go out on splits with in Eureka, 

Elder Contreras, Brother Stewart, Brother Mahoney, Elder Martin, and Brother Holdaway.

 Our apartment in Goshen

 Our office & kitchen area
(My desk is under the Texas flag)

Our bedroom (I have top bunk)

Week 21: What a Week!

Howdy y'all!

Life is just getting better and better out here in Goshen, and so much happens each and every day! I'm meeting more and more wonderful people and teaching a lot. 

I was able to attend my Grandmother's funeral last week and saw the whole family there, which is not common for a missionary, but I had permission from President McCune, who actually came to the funeral himself to support me and hear me speak.  He is such a great man! 

This week has really given me perspective on how we can be with our families forever, and how this life is so valuable and we should cherish it while we have it. 

As for teaching, we've picked up a new investigator who we're really excited about named Heather, already taught her two lessons and luckily the ward has already been very supportive, I'm excited to see this town really embrace her and help her family out, her husband works out of town for like two weeks at a time. 

I was able to meet and teach several less active members for the first time in Elberta and Eureka, where I went to church this Sunday.  Yesterday, after I met and talked to one guy from Guatemala living in Genola, we came back and taught a lesson to the three other guys out of five or so living there.  Hopefully we can start teaching all of them! 

As for today, we are going to hike a bit for P-day, and then head off to the new Bible video filming site near town! Cool stuff all around! Thank you for your prayers, and keep hastening the work wherever you are!

-Elder Martin

Companionship Trio: Elder Conteras, Elder Martin, and Elder Rios.
They accompanied me to Grandma Juliet's funeral.
Photo taken at the cemetary, on my 6-six month mark in the mission.

I was able to be a pallbearer at Grandma Juliet's funeral.

 With my 15-year-old brother, Hayden (He is so tall now!)

With my family at the cemetery

Holding my baby sister Sophia again, she is now 15 months!

It was great to see Sophie again!

After the funeral with my mom and Sophia.

Week 20: Many New Experiences

Another interesting week in the mission!

Howdy y'all, and hope everything is well at home! I guess we'll go down events chronologically: p-day we went and saw the Sacred Gifts exhibit at BYU, and that was spectacular.  It really shows some of the faith in Christ those artists have, and how powerfully it can make us think about him.  They are really testimony filled paintings. We then ran back home to get our bunkbed built, so now Elder Contreras doesn't have to sleep on an air mattress. I got top bunk though, so I'm closer to heaven, haha. 

Tuesday we had lesson with a less active named Benjamin, who reminds me a lot of my cousin Andrew, except he's really into superheros. Really cool guy, gonna work on getting him the Melchizedek Priesthood. Same night we had a lesson with the Haros family (In Spanish, they come around!) on the restoration.  They need to start heading to the Spanish branch, as it is far too small, and there's people that can fill it up. I also got "fired" by a less active man for showing up late to a lesson I didn't know about; he chewed me out a bit, and that was great fun!

The next day then, I woke up to hear the news that my Grandma Juliet had passed away. Luckily for me, we had planned a temple trip that morning, so I got to think it over in the temple, which helped a ton. She died peacefully in her sleep, and she is in a much better place now, and much happier too. President McCune called me to let me know, and allowed me to call my parents and Grandpa, and, since it would be in American Fork, attend the funeral if I wanted to. I will be able to speak at the funeral tomorrow.  I am so grateful both for the chance I have to speak as an Elder at the funeral, but also that my Grandma saw me be out 6 months on a mission (tomorrow will be my 6 month mark exactly) and that I could make her proud that way; I'm her first grandchild to do so.  Throughout the week The Lord has blessed me with tender mercies, great people, and spiritual calmness and peace, and I have been just fine. How blessed we are to have this Gospel which can afford us such reassurance, and for the blessing of the temple, for I know I will be able to see my Grandma again. I'm keeping the family in my prayers all the same though.  Grandma Juliet was a wonderful person, and she will be missed!

The next day we had a great lesson (in Spanish!) with a recent convert named Hector, who is such a humble and kind man.  I look forward to working more with him.  We had Zone Training Meeting the next day.  We have a great zone and good leaders over it.  Then, I took up some visits in Eureka, which is such a neat town.  I was able to visit a kind less active widow named Debbie, and I was able to share my experience with Grandma's passing as the Spirit directed, and we were able to have a great lesson. The next day we were able to attend a Family History Fair type thing, and take a couple classes to get ourselves more familiar with it, it was very interesting stuff! I need to do more of that, both on my own and with people we're teaching. 

Sunday was great yesterday, saw a couple of people at church that we were hoping would come out, taught a Sunday school lesson with Benjamin, and made some splits that night to get to know the area better. Ah, being a missionary is great, but it is only made better when one is in the Provo Utah Mission, and even then when you're serving in Goshen! 

The Church is true, and God lives and answers prayers!

-Elder Martin

Week 19: Paradise Found

Hello everyone, it is a great day to be a missionary!

So the news is in, I am now serving in the Goshen Bilingual area! We cover the Goshen stake in the very southwest corner of the mission, which consists a few small towns like Goshen (where we live, 900 people and two wards), Genola (three wards), Elberta and Eureka (one ward each) in both Spanish and English.  This means we co-cover the Spanish Branch in Santaquin with the Spanish Sisters there.

To begin, I love it here. No longer do I cover 67 wards, but a mere 7, which is just one stake. I am getting to actually know the members and can work well with them.  We cover everyone in the area, English or Spanish, no stepping on anyone's toes or crossing over areas: we have our little area and we know it. We have a car to get us around between the towns, and go on splits nightly on each ward's assigned day to visit people.

It is a great area, full of history and beautiful scenery and lovely families. We have a few investigators and potentials, but the bulk of our work is less actives. For example, one town has about 500 members on record, but an attendance of only about 120. We have a lot of work to do here, and I am so excited to do it!

As for companions, I am in a trio temporarily, Elder Contreras being the reason for that. He has been out for 23 months, and his visa will expire just before the normal transfer date, so he'll be leaving in 5 weeks. So that he doesn't make a hole in a companionship somewhere at that time, he is spending his final days here with us before he heads back to Mexico City.  He actually lives very close to the CCM where I lived in Mexico City. He is a great guy and a hard worker despite being so close to the end, I hope to learn a lot from him by the end.

Elder Rios is the one who was in the area before, and thus my "steady" companion so to speak. He is a convert of about 3 years from California (near Los Angeles), and he is an awesome guy.  He has been out on the mission around 14 months, three of them here in Goshen. The members like him a lot, and he's done a great job getting me acquainted with people in these small towns. With a trio now too we can cover a lot of ground on splits nights, so we hope to get a lot of work done this transfer! I am so excited to be out here, and to be a missionary in the thick of it is just icing on the cake. I will get more info out  on the people specifically next time as I get to know them!

For a funny anecdote though, when I arrived Elder Rios posted a picture of us three on Facebook for the town to see, though for some reason he put my name as Elder Milton.  So, now I am doing my best to get it changed to Elder Martin, but news moves fast in small towns, and I may have to fight hard to stamp out the Elder Milton virus, haha.

It was a bit hard to leave my last area in Provo, but the people behind are in good hands, and should get to the sets of missionaries they need to. Goshen is amazing though, I love it so much!

The Mission is the best!

-Elder Martin

Week 18: Heading Out of Provo

Woah.

Well, transfer calls just came in, and they're dissolving our area. As in all the different Spanish Elders will pick up the different YSA wards that their own Spanish family wards geographically cover. These next two days we'll have to pack up, say goodbye to everyone, make sure they know who's taking them, and vice versa. I'm a bit in shock now, I didn't think they'd dissolve us entirely, nor that I'd only be with Elder Palomares (likely, we have to see on Wednesday). 

I don't know what to say really, it's just rather stilling to know that all these members and investigators I have gotten to know will no longer be mine. Lots of pictures to get in these next few days! I guess I'll say what happens when I have found out next transfer!

Riding the waves,

Elder Martin

Recent convert, Carla

Great ward mission leader, Nate

At the Velour

Investigator Alejandro

Fellowshipper Tomas (left) and investigator Felipe (right)

Funny Ward Mission Leader, Mark Anthony

Fellowshipper Nick

Dinner with Sydney!

Sydney Boyer's family home evening group invited the missionaries over for dinner and it was us!  It was cool to see her and talk about how the mission was so far and the work she could do in her own area!

Elder Palomares did the baptismal interview for a Chinese woman being taught by the Asian Elders at David Stirling's house, so that is how I ended up at Esther's brother's house in Pleasant Grove on the same evening I had dinner at Sydney's house!