4/30/12

Hello Family and Friends!

This was an AWESOME week in the GKLM.

It was a little crazy getting everything together for transfers, Elder Banks two years are up, so he was getting all of his stuff together for that.

Transfer meeting came and went and we got started pretty quick.

My new companion is Elder Zac Baker from Tuscon, AZ. He is 22 years old and has 2 years at U of A under his belt in journalism. His Spanish is pretty good, so I have no fears about that. He is a hard worker and a great planner and I have already learned a lot from. We teach rather well together and haven't had many problems at all in 5 days, but we will see. He really is a great guy and very sincere and focused on the work. He has been out for 8 months, including MTC, and this is his second area.  We mesh rather well and I don’t see any problems coming up at all in the future with him, I can say that pretty assuredly right now. Same name, same spelling, same state – good deal.

It is weird to not have Elder Banks here, all I know is Clarksville with Elder Banks, but that is a mission, we’re never anywhere for too long.

We hit the pavement and got to work. Tracting isn’t fun, and we end up talking to lots of English speakers, but that’s alright, they need this too. We have been making a better effort to talk to everyone we see and from that we have gotten some good referrals for the English missionaries in our district and in turn we have had some referrals from them as well, so its all working out.

We taught more lessons this week then I ever have so far, and we added more investigators this week than this area ever has. When you get to work and focus on the people and the Gosple, the Lord will make up for the rest.

This last week I really saw how inspired this work is. Every little thing is the way it is because that is the way Heavenly Father wants it.

A few weeks ago the mother of the only hispanic family in our area, actually THE only hispanics who go to church, had a neat experience. There is a Spanish branch a ways away out in Corydon, Indiana and she had been asked to speak in church at this branch. No one told her when she was to speak so she was trying to figure out if she should go to Corydon or stay and go to Jeffersonville ward. She prayed and felt that she should stay. A little bit after that some people came knocking at her door. When she went outside she was met by two other hispanics selling tamales. She told them she couldn't buy them because of keeping the Sabbath day holy. They talked for a little bit about church and the gospel and this member got the couples' address and said she would come visit them sometime. When she told us this story we were way stoked to go with her and meet and hopefully teach this family. But, the address was written down wrong. That went cold and we wrote it off as a cool experience for her.

Fast forward two weeks. Now we are at this last Saturday night. An appointment had just fallen through, we were planning to teach a lady and we were going to have her follow us to the church and have a lesson there. A member was waiting at the church as well, so we were hoping it would go well. Well, she never showed up at her house, we waited and called and knocked. Nothing, So we let our member know he could go home and we left a bit annoyed. We have tons of places to go knock at and lots of members to see, but we decided to go to a complex that has not been tracted by missionaries in a long, long time - if ever. So we started at the back and knocked. No one really answered or they weren't interested. After about 30 minutes we heard some loud Spanish on a TV and went to that door. We knocked and it was a family watching a lucha libre fight. We explained que somos misioneros con la Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santo de los Ultimos dias, and that we would like to share a message with them. Just like that they let us in real quick and we sat down. We asked them if they had every talked to missionaries like us and they said no. As we talked I started looking around and saw some coolers and a big pot in the corner. At that time she mentioned how she and he made and sold tamales. I let that pass by. Then she said she had met a member of our church. She struggled with the name and finally I connected the dots and blurted out her name and they said yes and we talked about her and what they had talked about.

We had a pretty simple and short lesson about the Restoration and invited them to church. They said yes. What?! Yes, wait, you just barely met us and church is tomorrow, in about 13 hours and you have lots of kids, you sure you want to come? We’re not arguing.  And man did they come. I have never had an actual investigator come to church. But they were there. It was testimony meeting, so I prayed that nothing crazy would be said. I prayed the whole meeting. That Elder Baker would do well on translation, I was struggling. They had things to do after sacrament. But they said they would come again next week. And we are meeting with them on Wednesday.

There are hundreds of hispanics that live around that area, not to mention lots of people travel for work and whatnot. And the fact that we just so happened to be there to knock on their door, and that they had met that member of our ward, and that she had felt the need to stay, and everything - is not a coincidence. It was so cool to see.

Who knows what will happen with that family, but I am excited.

Also, on Wednesday night we set up an appointment with one of the ladies from our English class, for Sunday. She had come to the charla with the huge group of people that our other investigator brought. Her husband really liked it as well. So we had a RM come with us to the lesson to. We knocked. She answered the door. Bad news: she had completely spaced about our appointment. Good news: she had a house full of people. They let us in and we chatted for a bit and then watched some futbol, but we rather quickly got into our lesson. It was awesome. Three of us, six of them. We had a great lesson on the Restoration and the BOM. There are some things that weren’t understood by everyone, but instead of us going back over it and explaining it, one of the friends jumped in and said, “no, that’s not what they are saying, what they are saying is . . . “. That doesn’t happen very often. It is a great group of people. A few of them have come to the English class, but there were a few that we have never met. We are going back next Sunday.

There are no coincidences. I know that for sure.

Missionary work is not easy. It is work. But it is a good work. The timing was just right, because we got new mattresses this week as well. So, now I know that really, really can sleep well knowing that we put in a good day.

My dad has reminded me that since I am in a car and that we have an investigator who owns a taco truck and great members, that I should watch out or I am gonna get stupid fat. Well, we now have an awesome family that makes the best tamales I have ever eaten and we found a bakery in of the downtown areas that gives us free cookies and cake and milk because we are “good people”, well I am sure they don’t give free food to all “good people”, but I will accept free baked goods any day.

The people here really are nice, some just wave us on, but the majority are very cordial and listen. Especially Hispanics, they are such great people.

We did happen to kind of get in the middle of a knife fight in one of the apartment complexes we were tracting at. I was torn between calling the police, watching with the guy whose door we had just knocked, or raising my arm to the square and testing some things out. We left our friend with a pamphlet and our number and jetted out of there. It was something I am not too used to. But, I can say that I was not impressed with the weapon selection. Such a poor choice to use a butcher knife, so much less dexterity at the wrist. The other guys’ choice of a barbeque lid as a shield was mighty impressive.  But the best was the five year old Mexican kid that ran out with a huge stick with a little rusty nail at the end. Unfortunately his mother pulled him back into the house before he could show off his skills. The real sad thing was that one of them was someone we had just talked to a few nights before, so I really hope he had that mormon.org card in his pocket when they took him to jail.

Anyway, I am sure my sweet mother won’t read down this far, so she will never know about our more “interesting” interactions with people.

I really am so thankful for all of your prayers and letters. I love you all and wish everyone the best.

Elder St. Martin