Hello all!!
I am officially finished with my first week in the Great Louisville Kentucky Mission! My mission president and his wife are awesome, the new batch of missionaries I came in with are equally awesome as well. I was only in Kentucky for a day or so, my first area is Clarksville, Indiana! We cover two units, the Charlestown branch and the Jeffersonville ward. I guess I will give a quick rundown of my mission info and then get into more stuff. My companion is Elder Banks, he is an awesome guy. The day I got here we got a brand new car, so spoiled. We don't have any Spanish branches out here. . . . yet. So we translate meetings for whoever comes that speaks Spanish. There are not a ton of Hispanics out here, but they are here in small patches and numbers. It is a little different because a Stateside Spanish mission isn't as completely immersed as like Mexico, obviously, so the work is different. But I will just get onto my week.
So I was stoked to leave the MTC. The last few days were a bit weird since I was so antsy (btw, that feels so long ago). And over half of my MTC district was going to Argentina and their visas didn't come, so only four of us were leaving. My flight left SLC at 7:30 in the morning and then we got to Denver. We had a bit of a layover in Denver and then it was on the plane to Kentucky. Si denote - going from the MTC to an airport is a little weird, I felt a bit sheltered. But, I assimilated nicely, no worries. And on the plane to Kentucky was my first real taste of the mission. I sat in the emergency exit row, so much legroom, next do a guy named Brian. (FYI - I usually won't use people's names because that's not good, but this guy doesn't live in our mission) Our planes had TVs on the seat so I had a second to see Peyton Manning maybe coming to the Cardinals (WHAT!?) and then felt guilty and turned it off. But that's okay because good ole' Brian asked me what my missionary name tag was all about. First thing I did was check my watch and realize that we still have twenty minutes to takeoff and then our three hour flight to Kentucky, I had to assess how long of a lesson this was going to be. Man, I was stoked. This poor guy had no idea what he was doing asking a brand new, fresh out of MTC missionary "hey man, what's your name tag all about?" Especially since it is in Spanish I bet he was wondering more. So, thus began the best flight I have ever been on. It was awesome. He attends school in Kentucky and is like 25 or something and was just getting back from snowboarding in Denver. He served two tours in Iraq and has lived a much different life than I have. Now, I am positive that I shared opinions and said things with him that I will never again say or share in a teaching situation out here, but it just felt like two guys talking. It was awesome though. Since there was so much time I did not feel any sort of need to shove things down his throat. And I was kind of afraid to start sharing the gospel since I had only really done it in the MTC and only in Spanish at that. But quickly that fell away and I felt very comfortable. Brian and I talked non stop all three hours. I taught him every single lesson. He was definitely intrigued by the Plan of Salvation. It took a little bit of boldness when we started talking about the Word of Wisdom since he was sitting there with chew and a spit cup. And then I have never taught the Law of Chastity to someone my own age, more or less, so that was different. A few minutes after switching the topic from the WoW to something else, he spit out his tobacco and told me how he was probably addicted to coffee (very cool thing to hear). I felt very blessed at a few points, our last lesson with Ivelisse at the MTC she had brought us polygamy, and we were a little stumped. That is hard to talk about in English, let alone Spanish. But I felt a bit more prepared. When Brian asked about that whole thing, I was super glad I had found a good way to explain it. But honestly, I felt the Spirit guiding me, and us. He kept asking, I kept answering. I could just see him letting me into his life more and more and after that flight I genuinely cared about him. As the plane was landing I told him how hypocritical it would be if I did not ask him to do something to act for himself. As I pulled my bag out and he said, " come on man, I don't want a pamphlet", which was funny. But I told him I got something a lot better and pulled out one of my copies of the Book of Mormon I had brought. Let me tell ya, I had everything in that bag. Pamphlets and pass along cards and copies of the Book of Mormon out the wazoo. So i was definitely excited to hand something out. We talked about the introduction to the BoM and he said he would pray about it and I told him about attending church in his area. We shook hands, he told me he would "hunt me down" if I didn't go to Skyline Chili in Georgetown, and parted ways. I found out that night that he isn't in my mission, just barely, a small slice of Northern Kentucky is out of our mission. So I will likely never know what comes of that. Maybe nothing, maybe something. But he said he had never really talked to a Mormon before, so it was a great experience.
That really pumped me up and primed me for the work. We got to the Mission home that night, had a great dinner, testimony meeting and whatnot and then went to bed. Best night of sleep I have gotten for a while.
Woke up in the morning and got on out way to transfer meeting. The new missionaries left their "words of wisdom" and then we met out trainers. The rest of that day was a blur. Elder Banks and I drove out to Clarksville, IN and dropped my stuff off and then drove out to Charlestown to see someone they had previously talked to, then we had to get ready for English Class. We teach an English Class on Tuesday and Wed. night. They are awesome. Between the two this week there was like seven people, including children.
Wednesday we went back and were able to catch our investigator at his house and we went in and had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. His wife came over and tries not to act interested but she had a question about the picture of Christ from 3 Nephi that is in the front of the Book of Mormon we gave her. From then on the lesson went everywhere, which is okay, since she had lots of questions. It was awesome. We talked about Book of Mormon geography, babies not needing to be baptized (which caught her attention since it was something she had a problem with in the Catholic church) and then something that was a bit harder to handle in Spanish was circumcision in the Book of Mormon. Explaining all of that and the Law of Moses was a bit difficult. But we made sure to commit them to pray about the Book and then we left to our next English Class. That was a great one, a lady in that class owns a taco truck so she cooks awesomely. She brought us flan, and our topic that night was "ordering at a restaurant" so we had some fun with that one.
Thursday went and worked at a Baptist soup kitchen. Alright, my first real experience with all that. It was awesome. We helped them make fried chicken and cabbage and potatoes and then plated the food for everyone. I will try to get a picture of all the super cool ladies there and whatnot this week. They were enjoying a March Madness game. We weren't. It is hard not to catch glimpses of games here. Between KY and IN there are like 7 teams in the tournament, or used to. After that we went out to to the Seventh Day Adventist central distribution center for the tornadoes that came through here. We were there for a while organizing stuff and whatnot.
Let me tell you, I will have pictures of it this week, but it is crazy to see what the tornadoes did out here! One town, Henryville, got decimated. It is so sad to see. We went and helped a member out there on Wed. as well and I could not believe it. It was crazy. But it is awesome to see everyone working together.
Friday we had a huge weekly planning session since I am so annoyingly thorough with knowing about every single person in the area. And then went and met with an investigator who has a baptismal date, He is someone who has been dropped so many times before and just now is committing himself to do what he knows is right. But everyone has their trials and that's why we are here.
That is how a lot of it goes here. Since there are maybe 1,000 Hispanics here (tons from Mexico, and then a lot from Guatemala and Honduras and then some from Cuba) you have to be careful with who is really interesting and who just wants to be friends. The people are awesome. We haven't had to tract at all yet, we will next week, but apparently they all let you in and will listen, but not all are willing to change, which is probably more frustrating than not getting in at all. But, it was never meant to be easy. I honestly have no problems with it all. A lot of people have talked to missionaries before, its interesting when the Former Investigators folder basically comprises of the Spanish speaking people in the phone book. But they are awesome people.
Anyway, Saturday we went and worked with a member who his remodeling his house since we got bad information on a Stake service project and then were kind of in a bind. But it was still an effective day.
Sunday was great as well, my first Sunday on the mish! We attend both the Ch.town branch and Jeff ward. We would usually teach a Spanish Gospel Principles class but no one was there. A good bulk of the rest of Sunday was spent at an awesome family's house in our area. One thing is for sure, the members here are great and we probably won't have a problem with food. Also, they are rather quick at finding missionaries on Facebook, which is something I did not think about being a problem.
But, on that note. I feel so blessed to be in this area and in the states. Now, there are some things kind of hard, the language will be a bit different to deal with since not everyone speaks Spanish. But, going to Wal Mart today was a HUGE blessing. We actually live right behind two shopping centers. So to have both a Target and Wal Mart right there is a huge blessing. We live right behind a bike shop too. And then we have a Burlington Coat Factory right here too. Throw in the Taco Bell practically across the street and we got ourselves a full package. Clarksville, Indiana? More like heaven. Seriously, I feel so insanely spoiled. Most missionaries either don't have a car or they have one they don't like, or so I hear. But we have a brand new car. And then phones make things way more convenient. The only thing we don't have is a washer and drier, but our complex has a laundromat, so its not so bad. I know I am being annoying with my being braggadocios, but I feel so blessed. In the future I will have a bike, some missionaries like that more actually. And I will have less stuff, but why dwell on that? Right now is pretty awesome. I pray that I will still be here when summer comes so I can have that A/C car.
On that note, the weather here is so amazing. It isn't humid at all yet and it gets up to maybe 80, but its a good 80. As of yet nothing looks too insanely different from anywhere else I have been, other than everything being green and there are a lot more rivers and such. There are no mountains. I will have pictures soon I hope.
Anyway, I love it here. Elder Banks is from Idaho and Utah, he is a bit older so he can handle my little quirks. He has already learned how many millions of questions I ask and how clean I would like everything, so if those are the only bad things that can be said about me, I am doing pretty well so far. He is an awesome guy and I am so happy I have him as a companion. One thing I am glad for is that everyone 1. thinks I am way older, especially the latinos (one guy thought I was thirty, which is not a compliment and I look nowhere that old, a lot of Latinos say like 25 or so though) 2. no one thinks I am green, which is a huge blessing. I think I can assimilate pretty well into things.
There is so much potential here. I am so excited to get to work. By the time I leave we will have formed the first Spanish stake in the South. That's my goal. Some say its lofty. But, if people could baptize thousands in England, why not here? :)
I love and miss you all. Please write me, can't email anyone but family. I would love to hear from you. My sister should be putting up my new address soon. Those of you who have had big changes and exciting things recently, you know who you are, please write me soon!
Pray for me ya'll!
I am officially finished with my first week in the Great Louisville Kentucky Mission! My mission president and his wife are awesome, the new batch of missionaries I came in with are equally awesome as well. I was only in Kentucky for a day or so, my first area is Clarksville, Indiana! We cover two units, the Charlestown branch and the Jeffersonville ward. I guess I will give a quick rundown of my mission info and then get into more stuff. My companion is Elder Banks, he is an awesome guy. The day I got here we got a brand new car, so spoiled. We don't have any Spanish branches out here. . . . yet. So we translate meetings for whoever comes that speaks Spanish. There are not a ton of Hispanics out here, but they are here in small patches and numbers. It is a little different because a Stateside Spanish mission isn't as completely immersed as like Mexico, obviously, so the work is different. But I will just get onto my week.
So I was stoked to leave the MTC. The last few days were a bit weird since I was so antsy (btw, that feels so long ago). And over half of my MTC district was going to Argentina and their visas didn't come, so only four of us were leaving. My flight left SLC at 7:30 in the morning and then we got to Denver. We had a bit of a layover in Denver and then it was on the plane to Kentucky. Si denote - going from the MTC to an airport is a little weird, I felt a bit sheltered. But, I assimilated nicely, no worries. And on the plane to Kentucky was my first real taste of the mission. I sat in the emergency exit row, so much legroom, next do a guy named Brian. (FYI - I usually won't use people's names because that's not good, but this guy doesn't live in our mission) Our planes had TVs on the seat so I had a second to see Peyton Manning maybe coming to the Cardinals (WHAT!?) and then felt guilty and turned it off. But that's okay because good ole' Brian asked me what my missionary name tag was all about. First thing I did was check my watch and realize that we still have twenty minutes to takeoff and then our three hour flight to Kentucky, I had to assess how long of a lesson this was going to be. Man, I was stoked. This poor guy had no idea what he was doing asking a brand new, fresh out of MTC missionary "hey man, what's your name tag all about?" Especially since it is in Spanish I bet he was wondering more. So, thus began the best flight I have ever been on. It was awesome. He attends school in Kentucky and is like 25 or something and was just getting back from snowboarding in Denver. He served two tours in Iraq and has lived a much different life than I have. Now, I am positive that I shared opinions and said things with him that I will never again say or share in a teaching situation out here, but it just felt like two guys talking. It was awesome though. Since there was so much time I did not feel any sort of need to shove things down his throat. And I was kind of afraid to start sharing the gospel since I had only really done it in the MTC and only in Spanish at that. But quickly that fell away and I felt very comfortable. Brian and I talked non stop all three hours. I taught him every single lesson. He was definitely intrigued by the Plan of Salvation. It took a little bit of boldness when we started talking about the Word of Wisdom since he was sitting there with chew and a spit cup. And then I have never taught the Law of Chastity to someone my own age, more or less, so that was different. A few minutes after switching the topic from the WoW to something else, he spit out his tobacco and told me how he was probably addicted to coffee (very cool thing to hear). I felt very blessed at a few points, our last lesson with Ivelisse at the MTC she had brought us polygamy, and we were a little stumped. That is hard to talk about in English, let alone Spanish. But I felt a bit more prepared. When Brian asked about that whole thing, I was super glad I had found a good way to explain it. But honestly, I felt the Spirit guiding me, and us. He kept asking, I kept answering. I could just see him letting me into his life more and more and after that flight I genuinely cared about him. As the plane was landing I told him how hypocritical it would be if I did not ask him to do something to act for himself. As I pulled my bag out and he said, " come on man, I don't want a pamphlet", which was funny. But I told him I got something a lot better and pulled out one of my copies of the Book of Mormon I had brought. Let me tell ya, I had everything in that bag. Pamphlets and pass along cards and copies of the Book of Mormon out the wazoo. So i was definitely excited to hand something out. We talked about the introduction to the BoM and he said he would pray about it and I told him about attending church in his area. We shook hands, he told me he would "hunt me down" if I didn't go to Skyline Chili in Georgetown, and parted ways. I found out that night that he isn't in my mission, just barely, a small slice of Northern Kentucky is out of our mission. So I will likely never know what comes of that. Maybe nothing, maybe something. But he said he had never really talked to a Mormon before, so it was a great experience.
That really pumped me up and primed me for the work. We got to the Mission home that night, had a great dinner, testimony meeting and whatnot and then went to bed. Best night of sleep I have gotten for a while.
Woke up in the morning and got on out way to transfer meeting. The new missionaries left their "words of wisdom" and then we met out trainers. The rest of that day was a blur. Elder Banks and I drove out to Clarksville, IN and dropped my stuff off and then drove out to Charlestown to see someone they had previously talked to, then we had to get ready for English Class. We teach an English Class on Tuesday and Wed. night. They are awesome. Between the two this week there was like seven people, including children.
Wednesday we went back and were able to catch our investigator at his house and we went in and had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. His wife came over and tries not to act interested but she had a question about the picture of Christ from 3 Nephi that is in the front of the Book of Mormon we gave her. From then on the lesson went everywhere, which is okay, since she had lots of questions. It was awesome. We talked about Book of Mormon geography, babies not needing to be baptized (which caught her attention since it was something she had a problem with in the Catholic church) and then something that was a bit harder to handle in Spanish was circumcision in the Book of Mormon. Explaining all of that and the Law of Moses was a bit difficult. But we made sure to commit them to pray about the Book and then we left to our next English Class. That was a great one, a lady in that class owns a taco truck so she cooks awesomely. She brought us flan, and our topic that night was "ordering at a restaurant" so we had some fun with that one.
Thursday went and worked at a Baptist soup kitchen. Alright, my first real experience with all that. It was awesome. We helped them make fried chicken and cabbage and potatoes and then plated the food for everyone. I will try to get a picture of all the super cool ladies there and whatnot this week. They were enjoying a March Madness game. We weren't. It is hard not to catch glimpses of games here. Between KY and IN there are like 7 teams in the tournament, or used to. After that we went out to to the Seventh Day Adventist central distribution center for the tornadoes that came through here. We were there for a while organizing stuff and whatnot.
Let me tell you, I will have pictures of it this week, but it is crazy to see what the tornadoes did out here! One town, Henryville, got decimated. It is so sad to see. We went and helped a member out there on Wed. as well and I could not believe it. It was crazy. But it is awesome to see everyone working together.
Friday we had a huge weekly planning session since I am so annoyingly thorough with knowing about every single person in the area. And then went and met with an investigator who has a baptismal date, He is someone who has been dropped so many times before and just now is committing himself to do what he knows is right. But everyone has their trials and that's why we are here.
That is how a lot of it goes here. Since there are maybe 1,000 Hispanics here (tons from Mexico, and then a lot from Guatemala and Honduras and then some from Cuba) you have to be careful with who is really interesting and who just wants to be friends. The people are awesome. We haven't had to tract at all yet, we will next week, but apparently they all let you in and will listen, but not all are willing to change, which is probably more frustrating than not getting in at all. But, it was never meant to be easy. I honestly have no problems with it all. A lot of people have talked to missionaries before, its interesting when the Former Investigators folder basically comprises of the Spanish speaking people in the phone book. But they are awesome people.
Anyway, Saturday we went and worked with a member who his remodeling his house since we got bad information on a Stake service project and then were kind of in a bind. But it was still an effective day.
Sunday was great as well, my first Sunday on the mish! We attend both the Ch.town branch and Jeff ward. We would usually teach a Spanish Gospel Principles class but no one was there. A good bulk of the rest of Sunday was spent at an awesome family's house in our area. One thing is for sure, the members here are great and we probably won't have a problem with food. Also, they are rather quick at finding missionaries on Facebook, which is something I did not think about being a problem.
But, on that note. I feel so blessed to be in this area and in the states. Now, there are some things kind of hard, the language will be a bit different to deal with since not everyone speaks Spanish. But, going to Wal Mart today was a HUGE blessing. We actually live right behind two shopping centers. So to have both a Target and Wal Mart right there is a huge blessing. We live right behind a bike shop too. And then we have a Burlington Coat Factory right here too. Throw in the Taco Bell practically across the street and we got ourselves a full package. Clarksville, Indiana? More like heaven. Seriously, I feel so insanely spoiled. Most missionaries either don't have a car or they have one they don't like, or so I hear. But we have a brand new car. And then phones make things way more convenient. The only thing we don't have is a washer and drier, but our complex has a laundromat, so its not so bad. I know I am being annoying with my being braggadocios, but I feel so blessed. In the future I will have a bike, some missionaries like that more actually. And I will have less stuff, but why dwell on that? Right now is pretty awesome. I pray that I will still be here when summer comes so I can have that A/C car.
On that note, the weather here is so amazing. It isn't humid at all yet and it gets up to maybe 80, but its a good 80. As of yet nothing looks too insanely different from anywhere else I have been, other than everything being green and there are a lot more rivers and such. There are no mountains. I will have pictures soon I hope.
Anyway, I love it here. Elder Banks is from Idaho and Utah, he is a bit older so he can handle my little quirks. He has already learned how many millions of questions I ask and how clean I would like everything, so if those are the only bad things that can be said about me, I am doing pretty well so far. He is an awesome guy and I am so happy I have him as a companion. One thing I am glad for is that everyone 1. thinks I am way older, especially the latinos (one guy thought I was thirty, which is not a compliment and I look nowhere that old, a lot of Latinos say like 25 or so though) 2. no one thinks I am green, which is a huge blessing. I think I can assimilate pretty well into things.
There is so much potential here. I am so excited to get to work. By the time I leave we will have formed the first Spanish stake in the South. That's my goal. Some say its lofty. But, if people could baptize thousands in England, why not here? :)
I love and miss you all. Please write me, can't email anyone but family. I would love to hear from you. My sister should be putting up my new address soon. Those of you who have had big changes and exciting things recently, you know who you are, please write me soon!
Pray for me ya'll!
Love,
Elder St. Martin
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