Transfer 3, Week 4 (WITH VIDEOS & PICTURES)

Man, it's miserably cold up here. So, another week has come and gone. I'm still alive, and the temperatures are above zero again! Woo! Since I've always predicted transfers right, it's coming time to make my predictions again. I know that Elder Wilson is staying, unlike before when I knew Kirsi was leaving, but I don't know what's going to happen to me. I think I'll know for sure by next week.

I've noticed something really cool, that the way we teach missionary discussions can apply directly to any kind of teaching. I'm noticing ways that I can improve my ability to teach not only for when I'm serving, but when I get home as well.

A lot of interesting things have happened this week. For instance, We had a FHE with Carrie and her kids, and about an hour after we left, Carrie gave us a call and asked if we could come back. Tera's lizard had died, and she was pretty upset. She wanted us to come back over and say a quick little prayer for it. So I gave a little obituary for Larry the Lizard. I never thought I would do anything like that ever, but it was really touching that we were the first people she thought to call.

D.J. Harris and his wife had been going through some marital problems, but seem to be doing much better now. We're so happy for them. D.J. came to church for the first time yesterday, and seemed to have a great time. We're going to be helping him to stop smoking on Wednesday, so be sure to keep him in your prayers.

One of the other Elders in our apartment, Elder Hanks, got in an accident a little bit ago. It wasn't his fault, and no-one was hurt, but the car got pretty messed up. There's a lot of accidents happening all over Rock Springs because of how icy the roads are. I should be driving next week, because I want to say I've driven on ice more than once, haha.

Well, that's about it. I can't believe I've been out for 4 months, it doesn't feel like that long at all. Take care, and I hope to hear from you all soon :)

Love,

Elder Martineau

Week the Next (...It's Week 17)

So, right after I finished my last letter we went outside, and it was snowing. Like, snow was falling down from the sky. It was pretty funny because me and a sister from Texas were really excited, and everybody else didn't really care. This week it got down to -17 without wind in effect (then it was -42). It was pretty cold. All of the roads were covered in ice, and there was a bunch of accidents. We managed to get around safely though. I slid around a couple of corners, but now I'm letting Elder Wilson drive...

This week was much slower, but we have 5 people on date now, and a couple others are almost there. I think one of them might fall off, but everyone else is super solid. Something that we have been sharing with members is the 21-day promise. This says that if you make a list of all those who you want to share the gospel with, and pray for each of those people every night, at least one of them will accept the invitation to meet with the missionaries. What a powerful promise. We've seen a lot of success with it, in fact, I would invite everyone reading to do this. It's a powerful promise with powerful blessings!

I found some really cool scriptures that I want to share really quick. The first one was actually sent to me by someone from home, but it had a really big impact. It's found in 1st Corinthians 8:9 

"But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak." 

Is there anything in our conduct, or the way we live our lives that could cause a stumbling-block to those around us that we care about? Even if we do not feel the ill-effects of doing wrong, how are we affecting those around us? It's why the Word of Wisdom was "adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints".

And my new favorite scripture is found in Acts 18:

 9  Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

 10  For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

 11  And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

I'm loving my mission so far, and I love serving up here in Rock Springs, or as it's called here, Zion. I love you all, and hope to hear from you every day.

- Elder Martineau

Week-the-next

I've already been with Elder Wilson for 2 whole weeks, it's hard to believe! We've been going through those investigating the church and dropping those who really aren't moving forward. It's sad to see them not progress, but it's important spending our time teaching those who want to move forward.

This week was full of things that I'm not very used to. We did another College Booth at WWCC, and got a really solid investigator with high potential! Also, throughout this week, I went on exchanges 3 times in 3 days. Thankfully I stayed in Rock Springs for each of them. First, an elder from Pinedale came down here, Elder Comer, then I was with an elder in our apartment, Elder Hanks, and finally the Zone Leader (Elder Willie) was down here as well. When I was with Elder Comer, I taught children for the very first time. It was a different experience, but teaching Chess/Math really helped. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It's fun to watch children warm up to you. This week seemed longer than the last, just because there were so many things going on.

Our investigators are still really solid and are progressing, each at their own pace. We have 14 currently and it's awesome to see them move forward. This seemed to be a week where Satan worked really hard on those we're teaching. Some of our investigators' testimonies grew, and somes' were weakened. We've been blessed to finding many new people to teach each week. Now that the members of the wards are trusting us, we are getting a lot of referrals. Even some referrals to teach in their own homes, which is awesome! I'm looking forward to the upcoming weeks because I'm excited about what they'll bring about.

I love you all!

- Elder Martineau

Week 15 (WITH PICTURES)

Another week come and gone. I'm really enjoying my time up here with Elder Wilson. Every 6 weeks I've been given a new companion, so I'm interested in what's going to happen 5 weeks from now. Elder Kirsi and my new companion, Elder Wilson switched places, so he's in Cottonwood Heights. When Elder Wilson came up, he showed me pictures of how EVERY SINGLE HOUSE in their area was labeled Member, Non-member, or Less Active. I'm so happy I'm up here in Wyoming *shudder*

A new apartment thing is not only a ping-pong trophy, but a ping-pong 'ladder' as well. You challenge the person above you to take their place. Not only this, everything has been moved around, so the ping-pong table is up against the wall. Hitting the ball off the wall is part of the game now, which makes everything more crazy. It all sounds kinda ridiculous, but it doesn't really matter to me, cause I'm sitting on top. Heh.

For Halloween we had a ward trunk-or-treat, but we couldn't go out past 6. This is because people will dress up as missionaries for Halloween, and do some stupid things, and the church will get blamed for it. So if no 'real' missionaries are out, there wouldn't be a problem. So we basically hung out at the Institute for like 3 hours.

On Saturday we helped set up for a HUGE event called Cowboys against Cancer. There was a ton of important people there, and when they recognized the LDS missionaries as volunteers, we got a standing ovation, which was pretty cool. Later that day we helped a suicidal man who saw how his life was better and wanted to come back to church. It was probably the most fulfilling thing I've done as a missionary so far.

Sunday was incredible. We had 4 investigators, and many, many less-actives come to church. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, Elder Wilson and I got up to bear our testimonies. After mine, I challenged the ward to come up and talk about a missionary experience they've had in the past little bit. The whole fast and testimony meeting was all about missionary work, and one of our investigators got up and bore an incredible testimony about how she feels God has been leading her to this church, and that she knew this was where she needed to be. (This was the first time she had even come to this ward) We expect to have even more people there next week!

I'm loving this experience, and I'd like to thank everybody again for all of your support. I finally got around to sending out some letters today, and hope to hear from you all over the next transfer!

Love,

Elder Martineau

P.S. (From Tami) One of the kids asked him "What do you do on Halloween? Do you pass out Book of Mormon's instead of candy?" He said that for Hallween he and Elder Wilson switched name tags. I thought that was funny.