Hello Family and Friends!
It has been quite a while since I wrote anything in, so an update is in order.
The
biggest thing that has happened is that I got a transfer call this last
Saturday and I am leaving Clarksville. I will find out where I am
getting transferred to tomorrow morning. Where I am now is the only
Spanish area in Indiana so I know at least that I am going to Kentucky,
where every other Spanish area is at.
It is a bittersweet feeling for me to leave here. Other missionaries
get moved around more than I have these last few months, I haven't
moved at all. So this is an unknown feeling for me. I love the people
here. The members are awesome and there are several families who support
us a ton. Also, there a a couple of investigators who I have been with
since the beginning and I will be a bit sad to leave them. But, I hope
that I can come back for their baptism, which I am confident will be
pretty soon.
I really do love it here in this area. But, at a certain point a
change is good, so that is where the sweet comes in. I am excited to go a
to a new area with new people and new challenges. Elder Baker and I
have worked hard here and we have seen that hard work pay off. He has
definitely taught me a ton as well and I hope to use that knowledge and
put it to good use in my next place.
In terms of what has happened the last few weeks and the state in
which I am leaving this area, it has been a bit slow. We have had a
couple pretty constant investigators but in terms of finding and
teaching new people, we haven't seen a whole lot of new people. We have
changed around how we find a little bit as well. Most of the time it is
tracting, tracting, tracting. Going through members is definitely the
best way to go, but we only have one active hispanic family here in our
ward and the branch that we cover, and they have given quite a bit of
referalls to the missionaries in the past and so our member resources
aren't super heavy in this area. So, we have done as much research as we
can and have gotten a pretty good map of our area set up with different
addresses of hispanics. So, we drive around and knock in neighborhoods
for a change. It is still tracting, tracting, tracting, but just by a
bit of a different method. It isn't anything exciting but we have found a
few different people using that approach that we wouldn't have ever
found otherwise.
This area has definitely been worked in really hard and great
progress has been made. I am so proud of what we have been able to
accomplish here and I really do eagerly await tomorrow to find out where
I will be.
I have learned a lot from being here. I had challenges and trials
before my mission for sure. But they were all focused on me. Here, these
challenges focus on the salvation of souls. How many 19-20 something
year old boys/men (I usually lump myself in the man category) have to
deal and worry with issues pertaining to the salvation of souls? Not
many. It is crazy to think about. Through the challenges in this work I
have learned to rely on Heavenly Father and exercise faith in Jesus
Christ knowing that our hard work and striving to better ourselves and
love everyone will pay off. And it has. I haven't been a perfect
missionary here, I could have done things better, I could have done
things smarter. I don't have too many regrets, just a few, but regrets
are regrets and I hate having them. I have learned how to truly be
unified, both with the Spirit, Heavenly Father, and Christ, as well as
in a companionship and in a district. Elder Baker and I have wrestled
with the Lord in prayer and worried and fretted and cried and struggled
over this area. I know that I have learned a lot and I am excited to
learn even more in a new area.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts. I am so
thankful for supportive family and friends. You are all missed and
loved!
I will update y'all on where I am at next week.
With love,
Elder St. Martin
P.S. By way of mail, the mission office address is the best place to write me at.
1325 Eastern Parkway
Louisville, Kentucky 40204
No comments:
Post a Comment