[6/23/2014] Week 68: A Crazy Week

Hey, howdy!

Me Holding the Title of Standards of Excellence,
which we made for zone meeting!

The Everett Zone!

I tell you, it's been a crazy week. Yesterday was especially stressful. Elder Haupu and I were asked to teach mission prep at 7:30am, teach Elders' quorum in third hour, share a little bit in Gospel Principles about priesthood organization, and at the same time, had to find two new speakers for our stake cottage meeting last night--we had three set up, but two of them were suddenly unavailable come Saturday evening. Church gets out at 4:30pm, and cottage meeting started at 7:00. I was really stressed out for the first time since I trained Elder Benedict! On top of that, we received a call at about 5:50pm from someone in Arlington requesting that a blessing be given to a patient in Providence Hospital, which stood in North Everett, about 15 minutes from the stake center in South Everett. Of course, we went!
The patient was a 52 year-old inactive member by the name of Darrell, and when we arrived, his eyes lit up as he managed a few words: "I sure could use a blessing." After the blessing, just one word: "Calming." He requested we leave him with a Book of Mormon, which we did, and then we were on our way back to South Everett (it was a judgment call with the marshmallows) for the cottage meeting. We were even 15 minutes early! I love being on the Lord's errand.

Oh, and cottage meeting ended up being really great! We had almost the whole zone there with people they are teaching.

Baptism of Jessica and Zach Flanagan

This week has been a little different for finding since the college is closed. It doesn't reopen for summer quarter until June 30th, so we've had to work a little bit harder to find and talk with YSA's. What's cool is that we decided to visit a less-active young single adult, and then afterward, we simply tracted the rest of his street. We ended up talking with a young single adult at almost every door that was opened to us, and even found some people who want us to come back. What a blessing! The Lord always provides a way for us to move His work forward.

I've noticed this week that there has really been a push in the zone for hitting standards. It's almost the new "buzz-word" in the zone. The goal of achieving the standards of excellence was one that came up with each of our zone's district leaders during accounting last night, which tells me that the message seems to have finally gotten across!

Elder Haupu and I

Often, the relationship between Elder Haupu and I gets really strained. Frequently, it is an exercise in self-control and biting my tongue that takes me right back to the transfer I spent with Elder Julius. Elder Haupu is a really good missionary, and I have a lot to learn from him, but my pride seems to get in the way of that. I have prayed a lot for humility and charity in the past several weeks, and guess what? I think it's working! Brother Hall, our ward clerk, said something profound in sacrament meeting yesterday: "Contention never was and never will be an ally of progress." I think Elder Haupu and I are a couple of pretty sharp missionaries, and the only thing Satan can manage to get in our way is contention. But if he can do that, he can really slow us down. So I'm working on being more cognizant of that!

That's pretty much what I've got for this week.

Love ya!

Elder Martin
Silver Lake Ward

P.S. An excerpt from President Bonham's letter this week, which might be helpful to you:

"We need to continue to do all in our power to let members know that “we are here to help you with missionary work.” We can also say “we are called to be teaching specialists and are ready to teach the gospel to anyone that will listen.” Notice that I am not suggesting that we say “the members are helping us with missionary work”! It is true that they do, and we want that, but that is just our “backup plan”—the backup plan is what we do when we are trying to find, teach, and baptize on our own because we have time that is not used. For now, most of our time is used in our “backup plan,” but the member understanding, skills, and confidence are growing. I see it all over the mission. One day they will keep us really busy and we won’t have time for our “backup plan.” We see that on good days and in certain spots around the mission now. I pray for that “busy-ness” to spread and grow. Pray for this to happen, then work the “backup plan” so that we have lots of good successes to invite members to join in (member present lessons, fellowshipping, inviting people to Church events) and catch the spirit of missionary work!"

I love this guy!