Elder Gunner Martineau: Week the Next (WITH PICTURES)

Another week come and gone. It's crazy how fast it happens. Only one week left and I might be somewhere else.. I've grown to like Elder Kirsi, he's a good step-dad. Recently, I've been working on a 'family tree'. Your dad is the person you're with for your first transfer, and your step-dad is the one you're with for the 2nd. (Sometimes these are the same person) I'll add a picture at the end of how I've worked it out so far. It's fun, but hard, since you can't go very far without people dying off, and becoming much harder to talk to since they're home.

This week was a hard and very stressful one. We didn't teach a lot for the first half, people fell, or are going to, off date, and most of our investigators are experiencing different trials and hardships. There are many people that experience opposition from their families, but I think that this will only root them in the gospel more. We have a couple that's living together that we're teaching that don't want to move apart, so they have to be baptized after they're married. The bright ray of sunshine is Carrie and her two kids though and I love being around them.

Just like the stress came very suddenly, it was also taken away very suddenly. I'm able to feel the Spirit and the peace it brings most when I'm teaching. And when we were finally able to teach a really spiritual lesson I was perfectly fine. My headache, exhaustion, all of it was gone. I'm really glad for the experience, because I know it helped me grow. I've made a lot of mistakes out here, but I'm glad that I'm learning from them.

This Friday I was able to go up to Pinedale with Elder Tagg. It was a nice being alone with him up there, we met a lot of awesome people. and we get along well together. We got to start a fire, and we roasted marshmallows while we worked on my family tree. We drove back the next day and got to watch 'Meet the Mormons', which was a great movie. So awesome. A lot of good will come from that movie. We had all 3 APs, the Mission President, and his wife all in the same room; quite a lot of power.

We had stake conference last Sunday, and I happened to give the closing prayer. When introducing me, one of the people in the stake presidency mentioned how I wear a scarf all the time since I was from AZ, and that 'he hasn't seen anything yet'. My scarf has become a pretty regular part of my attire.

I have had one pretty funny experience though. So, when the alarm goes off at 6:30, we both kinda rustle around and kneel down by the side of our beds and say our morning prayers. Elder Kirsi got to speak in Stake Conference, but he wasn't given a lot of notice, so he was up all night preparing. He got in bed at 1:00, and I heard the bedsheets rustle, which woke me up. I got out of bed, knelt, and said my morning prayers. When I finished, Elder Kirsi was just looking at me funny and he asked me what I was doing. I found out that it was 1 in the morning, and he told me to go back to bed. Pretty funny stuff.

I'm excited for this last week and always look forward to hearing all of you!

- Elder Martineau

Up in Pinedale with Elder Tagg