[3/24/2014] Week 55: A Cure for Hiccups

Biking in the pouring rain is the best!

Well, my mind is whirling. I can't believe that. When I read the first line of Dad's email, I legitimately thought it was a joke. But I think that's so awesome! I'm so excited to have my brother serving at the same time as me again! So will Christian have to learn French and Mandarin? And English? :p

I'm staying in Blaine for another transfer, and I'm super excited! I didn't really want to leave at all. I was just having an off week. Elder Jones and I are gonna hit it hard.

I don't miss driving in Houston traffic. That's for sure. On that note Dad, I'm going to try and bring my mission bike home and use it to commute! I love that bike so much.

This week was great. We met a lady named Jessica (the niece of Erin Kelly, my first baptism in Blaine) who was raised in Tennessee in the Church of Christ. Well, wouldn't you know it, but Marilyn Denogean was raised in Tennessee in the Church of Christ? We taught Erin (for her new member lessons) Lesson 1A with Jessica, who has a passion for religions of the world, and her fiance nearby. Of course, they had pamphlets in hand and followed along. At one point, Jessica could not contain herself and piped up with a question about Joseph Smith seeing God. We resolved it with testimony and moved on. By the end of our lesson, Jessica asked a whole slough of questions about the Book of Mormon, so we ended up delivering a Lesson 1B in about 15 minutes right there. When we offered her a Book of Mormon, her mouth gaped. She explained that all she had ever seen of the book was a few photocopied pages that her pastor passed around as "that was all the Mormons would let him get his hands on." She's always wanted one, but was convinced early on that copies of the Book of Mormon were highly secretive and impossible to come by. Needless to say, she is ecstatic about meeting with us again and about being introduced to Marilyn.

Small miracle of the week: Before leaving the apartment yesterday, I developed the hiccups. I tried every home remedy I knew to get rid of them, and they just would not go away. This was bad news, as Kellie Edwards had asked me to confirm her in sacrament meeting. I hiccuped all the way from Blaine to Ferndale. We entered the library at the church to make copies of the progress record before Ward Council, and my diaphragm still would not cut me any slack. We saw the Blaine A sisters there, and Sister Wilkins jokingly suggested, "Take 10 really deep breaths in a row!". Well, I tried it anyway, hoping anything might help. And it worked! I confirmed Kellie without any hiccups and the day was saved. And then they came back after church.

I don't know if anyone is worried about me being jealous or feeling shortchanged or whatever. I definitely don't have those feelings! I think it's really crazy cool that he's going to serve in such a ridiculously unique way. And I really love my mission. I love the people I've met, taught, and brought unto Christ. I love the geography and climate. I love the experiences I've had and lessons I've learned. I just can't wait for him to have the same feelings as I have. I can't wait to start telling people where he'll be serving!!

I love y'all!

Elder Cole Martin

[3/17/2014] Week 54: Looking to the Future

Hey, hey!

This week was kind of weird. I was sick almost all week with a cold, and on Friday, I ended up taking a Schedule B. I was pretty spacey in some of our lessons on Thursday night and Friday morning, so I guess it was clear I needed a break. Anyway, by now, I'm about 90%, so we're doing good!

In other news, Kellie Edwards was indeed baptized on the 13th in Utah! Whoop!

This whole transfer has been weird for me, and I don't really know why. The best way for me to describe it is to say that I have felt as though I were elsewhere. I mean, I was here in Blaine, of course. But I felt removed. In a lot of ways, I felt as though I went through the motions. It makes little sense to me because we have had more success here than I've ever experienced in my mission. But we got into a pretty good rhythm of seeing investigators several times a week on the same days of each week (Darien on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Denogeans on Fridays and Sundays, Edwards' on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, etc.), and I think I got bored of it. Or something. So I fell into a rut. And I've been sort of floating. And now that most of those people are baptized and many are handed off to ward missionaries/home teachers. Some days are better than others. But some days, I just am out of it. I don't know how much sense I'm making. All I know is that I spent three transfers in both of my previous areas, and in both I was desirous to stay for a fourth. But here, where I've had incredible success, and where there is lots more coming down the pipeline, I kind of feel like I need (or maybe just want) a change. Just something different. I don't really know why. I love the members, and I love our converts and investigators. I have a darn good companion.

That said, yesterday and the day before were an upswing. So currently, I feel like I can definitely do another transfer here and work hard and enjoy it. In other words, I'm bipolar.

I was hesitant to say all that because I feel like I'm doing fine, and I don't want anyone to worry. And I don't want to sound like I'm complaining or, to be honest, like I'm incompetent. Now that I write all of that out, I feel silly.

The next-to-bottom line is: I would not mind staying here in Blaine. I would love to. I would not mind a fresh scene. I would love that. That's just what I'm feelin'.

The bottom line is: It's not about me, and I understand that.

Aaron and I

Let me tell you about Aaron. He is a referral received from Kevin (mentioned a few weeks ago), the less-active member from Salt Lake City. Aaron worked at Subway with Kevin, but has heretofore been let go (some money came up missing, and so a slough of employees were punished). Well, we were introduced to Aaron on Monday night, set an appointment to teach him for Thursday afternoon, saw him by chance at the library on Tuesday morning, had a short Restoration pamphlet lesson with him at the local Pizza Factory, invited him to be baptized, learned that he was MIA on Thursday and missed our appointment, he reappeared on Friday (he had gone to Seattle for some legal paperwork), took him to a baptism in Lynden on Saturday, put him on-date on Saturday evening, took him to church on Sunday morning and to a dinner appointment on Sunday evening where he talked about how genuine Latter-day Saints are, how he feels inexplicably drawn to make this course-change in his life, and where he asked how long until he can serve a mission. Oh, right. Aaron is 20 (just 23 days older than I) and he's homeless. Well, he calls it semi-homeless because he's currently sleeping on the floor in a Farmers Insurance office during the nighttime. But he rummages through dumpsters behind Cost Cutter in search of stale donuts -- his entree of choice most nights. Yesterday morning, a member of the bishopric asked if any of us were hungry, and Aaron responded, "No thanks. I had dinner." He's been in foster families through California and Montana for most of his life. All of the families he lived with were careless and abusive. He worked on a fishing boat in Alaska for a short time before getting involved in a fist  fight and being booted. He also mentioned that he worked on a cafeteria staff at a research lab in Antarctica. I guess he gets fired a lot. He leads an unstable life. But he also hopes and dreams, passions and talents. He wants to own and operate a bike shop one day. He has a special love for Montana, always slipping in comments about how Blaine is nice, but not like his old home state. He has seen the joy that Elder Jones and I have in doing missionary work and desires it for himself.

Now, don't fret! We're not poachers! We've got an appointment set with the Bellingham YSA elders to hand him off tomorrow afternoon. In fact, that's what we would have done on Thursday, but as I mentioned, Aaron took a slight detour, so we had to reschedule.

Dad, you're right. I've always had a problem with thinking about the future. I can't help it! It's just that I want to be absolutely sure I get all my ducks in a row so that I have the best opportunities possible. I mean there are certain timelines with applications and whatnot that don't exactly agree with my mission end-date. I just don't want to lose any extra time in getting my career and all that started. I guess I just don't trust Heavenly Father enough in that sense. Maybe what I meant with my request last week is for you to do research in my behalf. Just look around and research so that I don't have to. And I don't need to hear about any of it as of right now. I just want to know that I'll have a pool of information to dip into when the appropriate time does come to start college endeavors. Does that make sense?

Regardless, I still have a deferment to BYU for when I return home. And I'm definitely grateful for that safety net (not necessarily a last resort), but I don't want that to end up going there just because I've been guaranteed a spot.

That sounds like some crazy stuff going on the tech world. This is an opportunity for you to really get in the game, pops! Do research! Become the go-to guy for the forefront material! That would be awesome. You could probably knock five to ten years off your age if you became well-versed in the new stuff. :p You'd also have to get some thick-rimmed glasses and salt-and-pepper hair dye. And tight-ish dress jeans with pointy black dress shoes and a silky black button-up shirt, sleeves rolled up and tail untucked.

Love y'all!

Elder Martin

[3/11/2014] Week 53: Baptism and Planalyzing

The Denogeans with Bishop Jenkins and Brother Broyles.

This week was pretty incredible. It was a baptism-filled week for sure. The Denogeans' baptismal interview was on Tuesday night, Dustin's was on Thursday night, and Kellie, who decided suddenly to fly to Utah on the 12th and be baptized there, had her interview on Saturday afternoon following the baptismal service of the two aforementioned parties.

The baptismal service was, in a word, glorious. The Blaine ward really blew my mind in how many people came out to show support. We didn't have enough chairs in the Relief Society room to seat everyone. A lot of people have been waiting on the edge of their seats to see the Denogeans baptized ever since we first started teaching them. I love to see a ward family so involved, invested, and in love with missionary work.

Dustin with Bishop Jenkins, Brother Broyles, and Brother Gallant.

Dustin's progress, on the other hand, was a little more under the radar, but I think that's the way he liked it. He already has a close set of good friends in the ward and stands up for the Church wherever he goes. He's even got a fisherman friend, Ryan, who is interested in meeting with us!

We witnessed and participated in the confirmation of all three converts yesterday morning during sacrament meeting, and the ordination of Adam and Dustin to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic priesthood during the second hour of church. Words really can't describe the joy and satisfaction I have felt over the past week and the past two days especially. It's just magnificent to watch real growth in the Church occur, to watch people's hearts change and witness a trend of increasing joy and satisfaction in their own lives. I just don't even know. And to think that I have year left to improve upon what I've already been blessed to accomplish. What more could there be than this?

We also had Mission Leader Council this week, where we were visited by President Shawn Moon of the Provo Utah YSA 10th stake presidency, (a.k.a. Sister Bonham's brother, a.k.a. Executive of Something-Or-Other at Franklin-Covey). We learned a lot from him about "creating a mission for our mission". That latter "mission" was used doubly to represent the organization we form here in Northwest Washington as well as the 18- to 24-month experience we are granted during this time of our lives. Quite Franklin-ly, I was sent away inspired and motivated to set goals and more seriously evaluate my purpose here and why the Lord needed my talents particularly. I have a lot to think about.

Birthday pictures at the Poll's house

I really love to hear about the family. I am sorry to here about Seth's downturn in health, but enthralled at his sudden upswing succeeding a priesthood blessing. These things ain't just coincidences, you know.

That Brandon is wrecking shop on all of his tests inspires me. I'm a little nervous about going back to school and having to brush the cobwebs from the already minimal piles of knowledge concerning calculus and physics and literary elements within my brain. But! All is well; I trust that I will have the Divine aid I need when the time comes to study again. After all, I'm doing what I need to do now.

I turn 20.

On that note, Brother Meaker in the Blaine ward bishopric had a lot of good to say yesterday about Western Washington University in Bellingham. It was a convincing argument, and I was hoping that you, Dad, could take a second look at it. If you could Czech out their website/credentials/whatever else and tell me what you gather, that would be awesome. I want to start slowly thinking about school and things. Towards the end of my mission, I'll be allowed to apply to schools on p-days, so I'd like to start gathering information soon. Also, could you find out whether I might qualify for in-state tuition here in Washington since I will have lived here for two years?

Christian's emails are suddenly arriving with more consistency and substance each week. I enjoy this. However, I'm going to need an update on the status of his mission papers each week. Thank you.

Biking in the pouring rain is the best!

Mom, your dreams and goals are becoming reality! There seems to be a pattern in the Washington Everett Mission of goals being accomplished, hype being raised, complacency instilled, and then a drop in progress again. So be aware! You're on a good track, so make it an escalator and not an elevator. :p

Margo, I'm glad to hear you're doing well at band. When you get to high school, remember that Mr. G is really a good man, who is very passionate about what he does. Disregard what you hear from other students or even what you may gather based on your first impressions of him. Do your best to humble yourself and work with him to help accomplish his vision of the band program. If you do this, you will always have a blast.

I love y'all!

Plus a picture of me right after getting in for the night. It was kind of a rainy and windy bike ride. But so much fun!

Elder Martin

PS: Oh! And someone from home sent me a shirt and tie in the mail for my birthday. They ought to know that the shirt fits perfectly and it's definitely my favorite shirt out of them all. And the tie is super sweet. Thanks so much!

[3/3/2014] Week 52: A Year Out

Howdy y'all!

Well, it was kind of a weird week.

I mean, I turned 20 and all. And I hit my year-mark. But for a lot of the week, I was in a funk. Like, I was floating in limbo.

Honestly, I think it might be from not taking the sacrament in three weeks now. Oh, yeah. We missed church again yesterday due to inclement weather (if you're wondering, we went to the United Church of Christ this time). Since church is the culmination of
everything we missionaries do in a week, it's felt weird not having that checkpoint three weeks in a row. It's like we're running on endlessly teaching people with no real point of reference. It's hard to feel like there's any progression going on in our area without seeing people come to church--even though there's nothing we can do about it. Maybe there's a life lesson here...

Christian, I did indeed receive the package! Thanks much. It was delicious. Just what we needed. Went perfectly with a 24-pack of something dark red, delicious, and Texan that I keep in our refrigerator. I also received your card on Saturday--it was thoughtful and delightful. You know me so well.

Here's the biggest miracle from the week (and what do you know but it happened on Thursday, the 27th):

Kevin (LA found on my birthday) and Elder Jones.

Imagine you're at Subway with a couple of good friends. In the middle of your meal, a man in his late 20's whom you've never met walks through the front door of the business, approaches you straightway, and exclaims that he has been looking for you nonstop since he moved to Washington just over a week ago. He proceeds to pull up a chair, tell you his life story, break down in tears, discuss his gripping meth addiction and fragile state of recovery, point out touching scriptures in the Book of Mormon you had laying on the table, testify of the peace he's found "both" times he's opened that book, and plead with you to meet again and take the missionary lessons. These are the things that happen to you when you're living the life of a missionary. Raised in Salt Lake City, and baptized two years ago, Kevin only found true conversion three months ago--about the time his girlfriend left on a mission to Tallahassee. His father introduced him to meth at the age of 15 as incentive to clean the garage, and his indulgence in it has torn his life apart since. He compared it to money: when you ask someone what they think of money, they tell you, "Well, you can't do anything without money. You just have to have it." For Kevin, this was meth. He could not do anything without it. He also struggled with a mother and sisters who encouraged his dangerously suicidal tendencies. With this background and no desire to return to Salt Lake City, he picked up and fled. He ended up in Blaine and was warmly accepted by this small town, finding two jobs shortly thereafter and painting walls and sleeping in garages aside space heaters each night. When he crossed the border from Canada into Blaine, it was cold, dark, and rainy. He carried a few clothes in a bag, a handmade CTR ring, and absolutely no cash. Yet he couldn't help but feel the happiest he's felt in his life--and he didn't know why. One of the jobs he found was at the Subway at which we ate--we almost went elsewhere. Kevin told us he had been popping into the library near daily in hopes of running into us. In the process of taking a lady's trash out, he spotted at the bottom of the garbage can, a mormon.org card and jumped at it in hopes that it would bear the missionaries' phone number, but it was blank. We've met with him once so far, and he's going to be on the lookout for referrals. He has one of the strongest testimonies I've ever seen, and being from Utah, he was livid that church was cancelled for less than an inch of snow. He wanted to bear his testimony!

Well, I'm out of time.

I love y'all!

Elder Martin

So yeah, great birthday!

[2/24/2014] Week 51: So much SNOW!

Hey!

Snow pictures were taken this morning on the way to the library.

There is a ton of snow outside right now. It snowed all day yesterday (church was cancelled) and all last night. And it's still snowing now. Elder Jones and I walked a whole mile (or so) in that blizzard just to email you fine people.

Dad, we recently had a stake conference that was just like that up here in the Bellingham, WA stake, complete with President and Sister Bonham and even a bonus missionary choir composed of the Ferndale and Bellingham zones. Most of the members came away edified and excited to do missionary work. President and Sister Bonham did a role play at the pulpit so that everyone could see how to do missionary work at the grocery store (and how to role play). It was awesome.

The second picture is of an igloo someone built!

But!

The highlight of this week was for sure a visit from the Missionary Department head of the Church, Brother Lee Donaldson. Brother Donaldson is also the mission president from the District 2. He was awesome! Everything he taught us was basically an upheaval of everything I've done (as far as teaching is concerned) my whole mission. But it was so great! Basically, lessons will no longer ever go over 25 minutes. Ever. Forever. This way, everything we do inside an investigator's living room is brief, focused, and powerful. We barely skim the surface of the doctrine. Rather, we help them feel and recognize the Holy Ghost. They realize they like that feeling, and they seek after it after we leave.

Elder Lovell and I with the Edwards

That's when they read the Restoration pamphlet all the way through and learn the doctrine for themselves. The first segment of lesson 1 from Preach My Gospel is focused solely on helping the investigator receive revelation through prayer.  You hardly even talk about the Book of Mormon until the second appointment! We've had the opportunity to use this new method several times already, and it's working out great! President Bonham went on splits with Elder Jones and I, so he helped me teach a new investigator named Austin, whose family Elder Lovell and I tracted into late last year. He's 16, and, though he was raised by staunch Catholics, has trouble believing in God anymore. He really needs to learn how to receive answers to his prayers! Well, we have just the teaching method for him! He accepted a soft invitation to baptism at the end of our first lesson with him on the doorstep and again at the end of a lesson President Bonham on how to read the Book of Mormon.

In other news, Elder Jones and I attended the Blaine Christian Fellowship yesterday since our church in Ferndale was cancelled, and it was a pleasant experience, for the most part. One lady was slightly abrasive, but then she asked us to come by and talk to her son (who, it turns out, is dating a member of the bishopric's daughter and was almost baptized a year ago). Otherwise, people were really, really nice and happy to see us! After the sermon everyone came up to us and shook our hands and offered us cookies, cake, and coffee. We stuck to the cookies and cake.

On Friday, we had zone conference with the Bellingham and Mount Vernon zones, where we re-trained missionaries on Brother Donaldson's instruction. We also sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" a capella as a quartet, and I was super nervous. But it turned out great! Towards the end, Elder O'Rullian (now serving in Mount Vernon) played for everyone an original rendition of "Because I Have Been Given Much" and "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" on the piano. That dude is talented.

Elder Lovell and I with the Denogeans (right center)
and the Broyles (left center)

We taught a ton this week. The Denogeans are doing well, but have had to cancel/reschedule for two weeks in a row now, so we haven't taught them in forever. We should see them for sure on Wednesday, but it's a little disconcerting as their baptism is in just a few weeks. Dustin, as well, has acted funny in the past few days, and we're worried about him. His wife has caused him a lot of problems and heartache, and has practically (and even literally) spit in his face repeatedly. He realizes he just needs to leave her completely and move on, but it's difficult for him. We'll try and see him after we leave the library today.

Elder Lovell and I with Dustin

A lot of this week is already gone from my memory. Life is just so fast.

A lot of missionaries are on edge because of how much change and hard work the new training we received
will require, and one missionary said something concerning the matter that was profound, "The way I see it, if we don't start teaching this way now, the work in this mission will flounder. That training is not just a good idea. It is a commandment we received from a prophet of God. If we disregard it and keep doing what we're doing, we're disobeying God's commandments, and we can't receive blessings that way."

We enjoyed a nice dinner in this week.

That's really the truth with anything. As President Bonham always says, "One constant we can always count on is change." Heavenly Father expects us to be continually progressing, which means we're always having to change. It's uncomfortable, but if we dig our heels in the mud, adamant that "what we're doing now is working just fine", we're being disobedient to God's Plan and thus fail to qualify for His blessings.

Well, I love y'all.

I guess my birthday/hump day is coming up. Doesn't feel like it. I just know I have a year left on my mission, which, I like to pretend, is still a long time. But looking back, it's not. I think I'm having a mid-life crisis.

Elder Martin

[2/18/2014] Week 50: The Light is Intense

Well, it's been a great week! I have a new companion -- Elder Logan Jones of Springville, Utah. This is his first transfer as a zone leader and he's just a transfer younger in the mission than I am. Which is weird to say because I still feel like I'm new and "learning the ropes".

I learned this past week that Blaine is actually part of what they call a "rain shadow". In other words, we get less rain than any of the surrounding areas for whatever reason. We're shielded from it somehow. So that's why we've been so spoiled this winter as compared to "normal Washington winters", which are in reality probably still going on outside of my proselyting area. Seeing as I'm on bike these days, I feel really blessed! Anyway, it happened to rain quite a bit this past week, but I have rain pants and a rain coat, so really, I stayed warm, dry, and giddy as I watched the rain cascade over my bike helmet visor between teaching appointments.

Tuesday was the day of transfers, so that was when I got Elder Jones from Mill Creek and we headed back up to Blaine (1.5 hour drive). Immediately after arriving home around 6, we had dinner with a member of the bishopric, and two teaching appointments that followed. We got in by 9, and seeing as zone meeting was the next morning, we had to plan for that, which kept us up till a little past 11. Elder Jones got a feel for the life of a zone leader right away!

Zone meeting was awesome. As always, since we planned and prepared prayerfully (p-p-p), it flew by like a dream and seemed to be effective and edifying for all the missionaries in our zone.

Every companionship in our zone was changed this transfer. One of the zone leaders from Snohomish last transfer is now a junior companion in Lynden, so I look forward to seeing what effects President's upheaval of leadership will take on what is typically rumored to be the "deadest" area in the mission. As of right now, they're already soaring in finding and teaching.

On Thursday, we conducted an exchange and I spent the day in Blaine with Elder Knight, who is on his third transfer in his second area. We had a blast, and though I was a little apprehensive about planning on my own for the first time in a while, Heavenly Father helped us come into contact with an miraculously high percentage of the potential investigators (one of whom became a new investigator) we had included in our plans. And it was a beautiful day. That was a blessing because Elder Knight forgot his helmet in Ferndale, so we walked all day long (the sister missionaries in Birch Bay lost their car recently, so they use ours for proselyting when we don't have zone leader-y stuff to do).

Elder Jones and I get along really, really well. He's actually the companion that Elder O'Rullian had in Anacortes, WA before he was transferred to Seattle Hill with me -- thus, Elder Jones was the missionary that stressed Elder O'Rullian out with extreme obedience and hard work. This is good for me, because I like having companions that are extremely obedient and hard working!

As for Elder O'Rullian, I saw him at transfers, and he is still hanging in there, which I was glad to hear. I have worried a lot about his well being since I left Everett. He knows he wants to finish out his mission, but he is considering transitioning to a service mission of some sort as proselyting gives him lots of anxiety, which yields depression.

The Denogeans are still on track for the 8th. Dustin decided to move his date to the 8th so that Brother Broyles can be there--he has National Guard training on the weekend of the 1st.

We had a lesson with the Edwards' on Sunday night, and there we learned that Kellie wants to be baptized here in Washington (originally, the intention was Utah, so that her husband's family's convenience) because she wants me to be there. She feels a special connection to me and feels I have taught her a lot. This information came as a huge surprise, but it also really humbled me to know that I really am placed here in Blaine by inspiration so that I can serve as a tool in the Lord's hand.

We're teaching a 12 year-old young man named Darien, who at this point in his life, as already experienced much trial. His parents are both out of the picture, and he lives with his grandparents, whose daughter and son-in-law, the Worlands, are active members of the ward. Actually, Brother Worland is the young men's president. Anyway, Darien is bullied at school and finds it difficult to make friends and feel socially accepted. I think he looks up to the missionaries a lot and has really taken to the Book of Mormon and the doctrines we teach in general. He is especially drawn to the idea of the Priesthood -- "being able to hold the power of God in you".

Christian, thanks for your email! I seriously cracked up pretty hard at a lot of what you said, which made me really miss you. It sounds like you're living a pretty sick life up at the Academy, and you're really making me want to go there. I had no idea you got a gun! That's awesome. I feel like that's something I'll be seriously looking into when I get back, so I'll need some advice. I'm glad you've made the decision to serve. I can't tell you everything is going to work out perfectly when you get back, but I can tell you the Lord will take care of you and that you'll have experiences on your mission that the thought of having missed out on them will bring you to tears.

Dude, Brandon is freakin' hot.

Seth, that face.

Margo, you're a pro. I can't wait to hang out with you and hear you tear it up on the French horn!

I love y'all! Take it easy!

Elder Martin

[2/10/2014] Week 49: Cold Gear

Hey, hey!

This week was, again, awesome.

Elder Lovell and I just finished up our last week together. He is getting transferred tomorrow, and we don't know where.

But! We taught 13 lessons to investigators with members present! That's pretty much unheard of. Well, at least I have never been anywhere close to that on my mission. And Dustin now officially has a baptismal date of March 1st! Heavenly Father just keeps pouring out His blessings upon us.

On Saturday, I mentioned we invited Dustin to be baptized, and he said he'd pray about it. Well, on Wednesday evening, he called us and told us he'd received an answer to his prayer. How sweet is that?!

We had Mission Leader Council on Thursday, and it was awesome as usual. However! President is doing some crazy things! He told us he would be upsetting the leadership structure of the mission. This transfer we will see former zone leaders as junior companions and former senior companions transferred straight to zone leader areas. Elder Lovell is one of the few that was released from being a zone leader and reassigned as a district leader. Most of them are now regular proselyting missionaries. When President made this announcement, there was just an outpouring of the Spirit, and I know this is the right direction for the mission. It just makes so much sense! Now the more experienced missionaries will be more spread out, and, instead of a few strong areas here and there, many areas will be receiving a boost. More missionaries will have an opportunity to lead and administer than before. It's just so awesome! My new companion will likely be a missionary who just came from being a senior companion, so I will have some teaching (and learning) to do.

The Denogeans are doing wonderfully. We finished all the lessons with them, so we're going into detail on whatever topic we feel inspired to cover. Their date is still the 8th of March, but I think they may decide to move it up. Then again, Brother Denogean is the kind of guy who, if he commits to something, is going to be 100% sure he does it. They have both quit alcohol, tobacco, and tea completely and are currently weening themselves off of coffee, using less and less scoops per pot each day. When I mentioned that it had to taste horrible, his response was, "Yep. It sure does." I'm so proud of them!!

I think I've mentioned the Edwards family before. He is just returning to activity, and his wife is not a member, though she loves the gospel and can't wait to be baptized. They have a 6 month-old daughter named Ava, and a beautiful black lab named Danke. Anyway, Brother Edwards spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday, and it was awesome! He talked about how the gospel has helped him cherish his family and how the thought of depriving his wife and daughter, especially, of the gospel was just saddening. So they're doing great! She wants to be baptized in Utah where his family lives, so they just need to figure out when they can get the money to go down there, and she will have a baptismal date!

This week, it dawned on me that the hastening of the work of salvation is real. There were several days this week that Elder Lovell and I found we just had no time for anything as we were running from appointment to appointment. We haven't tracted in weeks! And members are continually telling us about people they've met that want to hear the gospel! This place is really every missionary's dream. I love it here.

In response to your email, the thermals Mom got me were mismatched - the bottoms from Wally World and the top from Family Thrift Center. But they work great! And I could use them still because it's windy/rainy/chilly - especially on bike - at least through April. Plus, there's next winter.

Seth and Brandon are both wearing my clothes in that picture. But they both look so dang good I just can't complain.

I'm super excited to hear about Christian. Speaking of, I heard Bethsy is going to Mexico?? Sick!

Outta time, outta breath. I love y'all!

As for a birthday/hump day package, sweaters and thermals would be awesome. I will also put in a request for a GPS. I know money is really tight, and those things can run pretty expensive. I've been fortunate enough to where my companion has always had one or the streets are numbered such that manual navigation is a cinch, but this area is a little different and my companion is leaving. If you could even find a super cheap, pre-used, old model on Craigslist, that would be great. But if not, seriously don't sweat it. I will figure it out.

I don't need much candy. You wouldn't believe the amount of desserts/sweets that get dumped on the missionaries. It's awesome, but two stomachs just can't consume it all.

I have a ton of pictures, but I forgot my SD card reader, so next week!

Love,

Elder Martin