New years eve email from Elder Martin

Elder Martin didn't have much too email about this week since we just Skyped with

him on Christmas day, he did have transfers and he is the only one still staying in Taber, his companion 

Elder Campbell is heading to the Calgary area, and he will be getting a new companion.

The other 2 sets of Elders were transferred and will be getting 1 set of Elders and 1 set of Sisters in his District. Elder Martin is doing great and is really enjoying the people in Canada..... It was fun to talk to him

a bit on Christmas day.... 

White Elephant and that's Bro. Hansen's Brother hah in my gift.... its a ninja mask lol

My new under Armor

Under Armor and Glow sticks = fun.... at least that's what he said

12-24-13 Email from Elder Martin

Well this week has been Exciting, Frustrating, Slow, Fast.... everything you can Imagine haha....
So we started off With Caroling on Tuesday and visiting less actives with cookies that we made... then we didn't get let an on Wednesday, or Thursday but we still set some things up with members then Friday we went Caroling again, and it was just fun... dashing from member to member pretty much with the other Elders.... We were Caroling this one Non-Member who has potential to be investigating and his neighbor opened the door and listened to and applauded and so we gave her a pack of cookies as well :) and then We Caroled to a Mennonite Lady who is recently divorced and has 5 kids she enjoyed that as well :) then comes Saturday we had Sydney Ojala's Baptism she is the Member girl that we taught in Vauxhall all the lessons :) it was awesome... no matter how many baptisms I see the spirit is always sooo strong and confirming. after that we had the Town Nativity that was put on by our ward where the whole town could come... we had about 300 that night through the 4 shows... I always love seeing the Nativity acted out live and we had real animals as well! it was pretty cool and coldish only -13 so only 8 Fahrenheit haha we set up a missionary table and just talked with people! then we had it again that Sunday night! (by the way, Sunday was amazing! always good Christmas talks and songs) so Sundays nativity was even COLDER it was -19! sooo -2 Fahrenheit yea pretty awesome i can now say i saw the Nativity in Negative temperatures haha.

Still Catching up Elder Martin Email 12-17-13

Well the weather this week was warm..... a whole 42! haha that's Short sleeve weather! we had the Chinooks come through which are like out Santa Ana's except a little... no a lot colder haha only because ours come from the freaking desert! other than that this week was sweet! We were able to listen to Elder Bednar in our mission, he came and talked to us and answered questions we had... SO cool! hes actually pretty funny :) and then we taught our Investigator Bruce, hes from China and that went really well! found out his Religion background and how he didn't have very much haha and we feel he will have lots of questions and were hoping to help him answer them! :) Then today Campbell and I were baking cookies to go caroling with! :) oh speaking of singing Campbell, and I and our member upstairs Stirling sang in sacrament this week "With Wondering Awe" turned out and sounded nice :) Also Campbell, Ward, and I sang with Jones on the piano, on Friday "He Sent His Son" also went well except Ward (the Ginger) is tone deaf haha and sings through his nose... oh well lol lots of singing going on out here....  Other than that it was a good week... should be getting some snow here in a couple days! 

Anyone that knows Elder Martin, could you ever see him in Church singing.....wow, he did tell me Elder Campbell had a Voice of an Angel.

Cookies Elders Martin and Campbell made to give out to those they caroled too.

Elders Christmas tree

Cool iced tree

Elder Martin attic helping move things for a Family

Catching up.... 12-10-13 email

This week was pretty crazy it was something like -30 F with an insane -54 F wind chill.... you know its cold when you take a break and your boogers just straight up freeze! so we were told to say inside, and that lasted for about 2 days then Elder Mackey and I were on exchanges on one of those cold days so we couldn't do much.... then we got a call that day to sadly hear that Elder ______ would be going home that weekend. we exchanged back and helped him pack. Really sad to see him gone feel weird now. then on Thursday I woke up feeling like death and had a really high fever and body aches so im guessing the flu so Elder Campbell as amazing as he is helped take care of me and make sure I didn't die haha, then Friday I felt just as bad... all the way up until Saturday did i start feeling slightly better and then Sunday it was like POOF felt like i was never sick, weird. Sadly needless to say those days were the days we had set up with our investigator and 3 less actives! all canceled.... I swear the devil has a say so when your sick lol. That's ok we were able to pick up our member and Gator up Sunday for church! :) And last night we were able to get a chain out to a Less Active family who actually opened the door for us!I think it helps that her daughter thinks were cute haha. I found out today from a missionary who passed a message to me that The Gentleman Francis from Airdrie hasnt been meeting with the missionaries very much anymore and he told them that its because he misses elder martin... so apparently he really misses me, that honestly made me smile! :) but other than that were still battling the cold and its awesome!

oh and tonight we have our mission Christmas party! yay!

if there's anything that I missed let me know! 

love ya both! :)

Elder Martins Car

Advent Calender they made for the Members

Elder Martin with others Elders in District

Baby it's cold outside

Well I Don't really know where to start this week haha. I guess for starters... went on exchanges with Elder Heath down in Lethbridge, he's the Zone Leader And From Lester England, love that kid.... already have talked about him coming down to visit or even play on one of the indoor teams with me haha.... We went over to the institute building and there was a guy talking on how to get a job pretty much and come to find out all of southern Alberta unemployment rate is 4% pretty good if you ask me, and that went well. 

This week in Taber Elder Campbell and I have started the Advent calendars and I think they are starting off pretty swell, if you ask me! they take a while to make but so totally worth it! We have a ton of less active appointments this week so I hope things pull together! The other afternoon we were over at our WML house and they told us that they dont want us to think work out here is wasted because were not baptizing, believe it or not we have done something they said..... He told us that we would be surprised on how many people have come up to them and told them how amazing it was having us over for a message... and just the spirit that we carry with us is enough to fill a home.... so that made Elder Campbell and I smile so I guess we really are doing something out here hahah!

We also made it out to Vauxhall this week to teach a member family's daughter about The Restoration, she wants to hear the lessons before she's baptized, and Elder Campbell and I were so honored to take One of the Assistants with us, Elder Hill is his name, and man do I love that Elder he is so AWESOME and such a simple teacher! Then the next day was zone conference that went pretty well We learned about how we must first understand the Doctrine then Learn the Principles in the Doctrine then know how to apply those two attributes so it was awesome..... and then CAR INSPECTIONS! drum roll please!........................ WE WON 1st! :) haha so that was pretty cool.

As of our new investigator sadly he didn't come to stake conference it was a gooder haha, but we will be trying to meet up with him again this week, we have introduced him into the Book of Mormon and he says its pretty interesting right now but the translation is confusing at times, but that's what were here for!

Then the snow came tumbling in, we were "snowed in" yesterday because of the conditions, doesn't mean I didn't walk in it! it was awesome hahah, all of Taber stayed at the ward building playing games and such then we went and made a snow fort back at our house! it was awesome haha.....

Elder Martin in his Snow chair

Sorry.....Zachs Email from Nov. 26th

Thanks for torturing me with all those amazing details of thanksgiving this year, i've been dying for a smoke meat of some kind!

Surprisingly we haven't all been wearing snow gear yet, isn't to cold, for instance today its about 40 degrees and i'm in a long sleeve church shirt. when i'm wearing it all i will send one though, but you know me i'm never very detailed so sorry about that. i don't think through the week of oh i need to take pictures of this for my blog specifically i just take pictures when i feel like taking pictures.

all the snows almost melted this week should be getting some more next week i think. we eat at home and out a few times a week. Mcdonalds and taco time for taco Tuesdays is popular, the members usually feed us every night.

This week we got a new investigator his name is Bruce, and he lives with the Chisolm family and he's their foreign exchange student from China right now, he has agreed to let us teach him and his still reading the Book of Mormon! wahoo! also, a ton of less active stop bys, just to see if they want us to teach them... no success there sadly, we do have a few less active families that like missionaries, and we can teach them though, so that's always fun! Elder Campbell and I both had to speak in Vauxhall this week as well, that was great! it was funny, driving out there i felt like i had to change my talk to something else, then Called to Serve came on by Motab and I was like well I know what i'm changing my talk to haha, i talked on why i came on a mission and the blessing I have seen, and how we can help others feel and receive these same blessing, Elder Campbell said it came out amazing, but I can never tell for myself haha..... and then he gave an awesome talk on Charity and Love, it seemed like vauxhall enjoyed us! today we came up with the idea on how to help people with the work is by making an advent calendar for them on things to do up until Christmas to help fulfill Elder Ballards talk. were both pretty excited about that.

So we read today that Elder Bednar is coming down to the mission for a mission conference or something and we don't get to meet him! because he's only in Calgary, i'm pretty upset about that... but we will be talking with the president to see if we could swing a mission tour to Calgary haha.... other than that all is well! love it out here in Taber!

Elder C cleaning up after flood and drywall work in living 

 Elder Christiansen before he went home

My birthday cake Elder Campbell made! what an awesome guy! 

snow mound in the church parking lot haha...

This was our dinner last night and they are awesome! The Gardners, it was his 80th birthday and this was there Christmas village pretty legit if you ask me! 

Elder C, Elder Martin and The Gardners

Getting Colder........ Also Happy 20th B-day Elder Martin

Coldest this week was -4 Fahrenheit, and I was actually sweating, it was nice, I think i'm going to be able to handle this cold stuff they call snow haha. I survived transfers! I'm way excited, me and Campbell will be together for Christmas! :)

So this week was not to shabby, nothing happened until Friday really, we had Our 2nd quorum of the 70 (Elder Schwitzer) come down and speak to all the missionaries in Southern Alberta (Med Hat... British Columbia.... Lethbridge... Cardston...and such), and that was good, they announced the fact that we were getting IPAD MINI'S in April! :D or at least that's when President Nicholas said we should be getting them...... annnd whats even more cool than that is President said "so we make sure you take care of them better each missionary gets their own annnnd gets to take it home after their missions" sooo i'm pretty stoked, I'm sure its going to cost a small fee like $100 or something, but that's all good for me! :) then that evening was exchanges with the Zone Leaders that was awesome I might add, got there at like 10 and hung out for a little, then passed out. Next morning it was a pretty bad snow storm so all the Vehicles were grounded, and we had to walk. it was about -20 with windchill, so like -4 Fahrenheit and I wasn't cold at all :) im pretty proud of that haha, Elder Heath was Freezing, he's from England and i was actually sweating haha ha it made me chuckle a little :) since we walked to dinner we got there a little early so instead of going in we just started going to peoples homes and started shoveling their Drive ways. We do that a lot,and makes me feel good, One guy came out and talked to us a bit but nothing really happened just said thanks. so we got back in from dinner, and it was still to stormy for the cars to drive so I ended up staying ANOTHER night in Lethbridge and had to go to the Singles ward the next day haha, it really reminded me of why i didn't go to mine back at home, just totally lame and boring. then we finally exchanged back after that! Not much happening teaching wise in Taber as of yet, Working with Members and less active mostly.

PMG is an AMAZING book, I always feel closer to the spirit when I read that every morning President said that if you stop reading this book (Preach My Gospel) you will have successfully cut off your tie to revelation with your heavenly father. so it is amazing in the mornings.


11/12/13 email

This week We only had one lesson, he still doesn't want to be baptized and worked with a less active who doesn't want to come to church, oh well, I still love them both! But this week we had a Ward supper and we got to talk to our Polish friend who's a non member who just has tons of member friends, and he seems slightly interested because he has asked about our church quite a  bit, so maybe we can do more with him, also we were able to give a mandarin Book of Mormon to a Foreign Exchange student living with a member, that family is awesome! and Bruce (kid we just gave a book to) is awesome as well, he's already in 1st Nephi 17 and just powering through it! hope that leads somewhere. But other than that that's really all.... things are slowly picking up I think, miracles haven't happened over night though. OH we have a family who's son is in France, and he ran into Kjersti last week and they talked and she said that "I'm awesome and a hard worker" i think not sure on all the wording haha sooo yay connection! :)

annnnnd side note....I can now bench press 205 lbs! :) (he has a workout routine every day except Sunday, has never had much upper body strength was always lower body being a soccer player and all, so he is pretty much excited on that 205 lbs mark)

Sunday was Interesting, we had to shovel snow before church started so it was safe to walk in haha, then we went home and secretly shoveled our members drive way for some service :)
we also set up member lessons with a family in vauxhall to teach their daughter before she is baptized. Other than that that's all that has happened this week. The snow is starting to melt now hopefully more come soon, I love it!   Oh I also got a letter from Jesus! :) it made me smile sounds like he's doing good, I will be writing him back as soon as I can as well...

His Words

Awsome Wolverine shirt a member gave him, wearing some Tatoo sleeve thing.

Service in Vauxhall

Snow! love the dry cold its awesome! feels AMAZING. Canadians different at driving... no Texas friendly drivers out here or courtesy waves! oh well such is life lol. Everything out here is good, we have a mission tour on the 15th with a member of the Area Authority, so that should be cool! umm only one less active member this week sadly but we had a Less active to church last week! all elders out here have cars(in Taber). Still no Referrals but we did get into Vauxhall this week and helped a member build a house, his less active brother and family friend who's a non member were there! it was fun we were hanging trusses. then about 8 of them collapsed onto 2 people luckily nobody was hurt just bruised.  Other Elders teaching is mostly less actives as well, Investigators are like diamonds out here it seems ha ha. sooo no interview questions yet, oh well.

 Elder Campbell has been getting into cooking/baking when we eat at home,so if you could do me a huge favor and send me the Recipe for the Red or yellow curry stir-fry mom does i cant remember... also your biscuits and gravy recipe! :) that would be amazing! If there's anything i'm missing let me know! sorry this week wasn't amazing, kind of slower and such! love you though!

Elder Martin 

Halloween, with other Elders at the Ward building

Morning sky, heading to Vauxhall to do service for a member building 

a home

Working with trusses

Trusses collapsed, destroyed ladder

Fixing Trusses

 Our Zone

First Snow

So today's email will be combined for mom and dad! :) So just to let you BOTH know i have my winter jacket and gloves, and i'm warm and fine, and i'm very confident in my driving ability thank you :) (not trying to sound Cocky) but i'm no idiot driver haha, James Taught me well! haha :) 

As for me out here in Taber Alberta haha, it has gotten a bit cold you could say :) it snowed for a day and its still melting off today as we speak, Elder Campbell thought it was AWESOME seeing how he doesn't get that in Vegas, also thought it was funny when he could see his breath in the car, he's a funny kid but an AMAZING baker might i add, he made home made bread and cookies that were to die for! Our Gun nut is doing well as far as i'm concerned we saw him last night at the Halloween Carnival we had, and that turned out to be awesome! and i've gotten all my cold gear but hasn't been cold enough just 12 degrees, yes that's in Fahrenheit i love the cold up here! because my body is always naturally hot so it feels amazing :) i went to my haircut on monday in shorts and a t shirt haha even the canadiens thought i was crazy, i go to a members home by the way to get it cut haha..

Our investigator who doesn't like church but loves us Mormons finished the book of Mormon, and all he could say was that it was a violent book, so we will be meeting with him again to talk about how he was feeling about the whole book in a lump sum. Hopefully something comes from it! 

Also Mother Elder Mackey has requested a box of twinkies haha funny kid.

 Halloween!! Grrr we have to be in by 6 and were not allowed to hang out with members, and yes it happens up here too. but thats ok seeing how theres 6 elders out here we can hang out with so thats great! As for my contacts yea i guess he changed them, whatever fine with me! i cant wait for my package its going to be so awesome when i get it! Other than that we are all doing super awesome out here! i grow a love for the mission more and more each day! :) No depression no nothing, no need to worry about me! :) thanks a bunch for all your support! :) Love you both so much!

Elder Martin

Taber District Elders :Ward, Jones, Campbell, Stone

front row: Elders Martin and Mackey

Elders .....

Elders Mackey and Martin on exchanges

Food..... No antlers among them

Empty home

Elders Mackey and Martin

First snow

Something new in Taber

Dad I wish I had some AMAZING missionary conversion stories to tell you but as of now I don't, sadly. We are focusing on Less Actives in the ward. Seeing how we have 83 family names and that's not including all the kids and such. We are also setting up Family Mission Plans with the Members as well and those are going well. We kinda train them pretty much on how to plan for missionary opportunities. It's cool. They seem to like it and every time we present one the spirit is always strong and adding to our testimonies. We did meet with an older Gentlemen who's in a retirement home. He is a member and is a character. He loves to talk and share stories of his life and his mission in Australia. He is the Oldest of 14 kids and made the joke of why his family is so big. He said its because "the train would come by the house at 5 in the morning and wake up mom and dad and well it was too early to get up but too late to go back to bed!" hahahaha. Elder Campbell and I just busted up laughing. I mean this guy is a riot. He's pretty bummed he's in the retirement home though. He said that he is to young to be here but to old to take care of himself haha. He then proceeded to give us a Canadian 2 dollar bill, they aren't made anymore so that was really awesome of him!

Well time for the biggest news this week. Last night I got a call from President and he said that things are changing in Taber. It's becoming it's own district, and then asked if I could be the new District Leader! Sooo yup I got a leadership position now. CRAZY! only 4  months out. Looking forward to it though! Other than that theres not a whole lot more to report on other than P-day is just Nerf and basketball and volleyball so not to bad. Nerf gets a little crazy haha. Makes you feel like a little kid again!

Well love ya dad hope you had an awesome birthday!

Elder Martin

HIIIII MOM!! So I'm a little disappointed I tried so hard to find you in conference but I didn't see any Elder Martin signs or Mommy loves ya baby! Like what's up with that!? Well I hope conference went well for you :) What session did you go to? How was Utah? and everyone up there? Hope the drive went well and quick. haha Should have been with poppy driving! Ummm yes I'm getting fed, yes I'm staying warm haha other than that have a wonderful day mom! Love yous! Elder Martin

  

Dog!

Our Pizza from Papa Johns half price since Payton Manning

had 51 points for the Broncos

Our District before transfers this week

Taber Chapel 

Wood flooring install in our base

Haven't gotten that referral yet, were trying to go over when we have her member friend with us on Thursday, and we met with one of our investigators and talked about Testimony, that seemed to perk his interest but sadly he said he wasn't getting baptized the first time we met, but he is one awesome dude! so were not giving up that easy haha, were trying to go over when we have a member friend with us on Thursday, Last night we set up a dinner with a family on Friday who will be inviting one of their daughters friends over to hear the lesson! so that's going to be pretty exciting :) Normal  food this week, went to Boston Pizza on one night with the members up stairs to get some Artichoke dip, after we finished installing the wood flooring in our basement. Our Shower head leaked and flooded into the kitchen so that was some fun. The members up stairs are so sick! Its like I'm living with James and Hattie it seems like haha. 

As the winter goes again its getting slightly chilly here but nothing for a coat yet, I have a schedule to go to Sports Check next week, and I think I'm just going to pick up another snowboarding jacket because those seem the best from what people are telling us and another pair of boarding gloves! so I'm excited for that haha

And I heard all the bad news this week from our one awesome member, he brought me down to his level of depression, he thought someone else needs to join me in misery so he said I'm texting you that Manchester United  lost haha he's, a funny guy, I think you two would get a long great! Well I will email you later on! Have a good one love ya dad thanks for all the support and prayers!

Elder Martin

 Elder Martin

Home on the way to Vauxhall

Elder Campbell and Elder Martin

Elders Bonham and Mackey

New Investigator for Taber Elders

Well this week has been pretty good I guess considering that we picked up a NEW INVESTIGATOR! His name is Earl Young and is possibly the most cool person that I have talked with in a while, he should be living in Texas if you ask me haha. He was an investigator in 2011 and the missionaries stopped teaching him then we came and picked him back up! He has a great knowledge of the gospel, he is a "devout catholic" but no longer attends church for what he found out about the catholic church. His wife has passed away and he has a super awesome black fluffy dog! And he has been reading the Book of Mormon on his own these past 2 years, he is only in Alma but he is still pressing through it. So that's all about Earl.

Also we met a new family who came here from Poland and came to the Elders Quorum Shooting activity (I was obedient and didn't shoot a gun. Even though I felt like a smoker trying to quit smoking while standing in a room full of smokers!) But this non member randomly asked us when church starts on Sunday and we told him and he said he would show up, so we arranged splits so Elder Campbell went to Vauxhall and I waited for the non member, sadly he didn't show up, but that's OK I'm sure it was because of the game because he too is a huge Man-U fan! So hoping for next week!

Then we were able to attend the Child of Record baptism that was cool. Any baptism is cool if you ask me though. But then... just yesterday we walked into a members house to teach her son who's about to turn 12 the priesthood, she starts off by giving us a referral and we didn't even have to ask! So that was awesome, She is very missionary minded seeing how she was a convert about 13 years ago. So that's way exciting! And her son honestly reminds me of myself when I was a deacon. He went on the Crypt Lake Hike with us and he just trucked along, reminded me when I went on Mt. San Jacinto!

As well as getting to Vauxhall, yes we did. There isn't as much potential out there as there is in Taber, but we are going there tonight for a talent show and pot luck. Still very small town but we will keep on trying to get teaching out there!

The Zone leaders in my area now are cool! Elder Young is from New Mexico and Elder Heath is from England! So he's pretty chill. And yes we got a chance to play Nerf this week and it was awesome! The sniper was pretty rad as well! All in all it was a pretty good week I think! I hope everything at the airport has gotten a little more calm and relaxed!

Thanks for all the support and love!
Elder Martin

Vauxhall Ward this last week

Alright for starters, thanks for sending the card :) second just call or ask dad/James to help with the ipod :) and third what pictures to print off.... just ones of family,friends,pets, the home, like the picture of Moroni/backyard/ house :) and then like the whole process of my car in the shop like before/during/and after pictures :) because on the ipod you cant really tell what happened and I've had people want to see more pictures of my car, like my stake mission leader for instance because he has a 1970 challenger its pretty sick!. And those Missionary lines are so true! I've lived them all so far that I can remember :) for us to live we get 200$ US so that's like 197$ canadian things are a little more expensive up here there's a lot of import and such. We pretty much have a dinner every night out here. bishops a funny guy, he said there's no reason that this ward shouldn't be able to feed us every night, and so they started stepping up. We have been to Vauxhall twice, first time none of our potential investigators was home, then just last night we went to the ward mission leaders house and ate with him and was introduced to the ward list essentially haha, we just went over it, got a couple of names that should turn out to be promising so we are going to get out there some time this week :) Campbell is getting better, seeing how mission really is and starting to become less green, I swear the MTC brain washes you haha. I will send pictures here in a bit :) Moms email

 Taber is still slow, No Less actives really want us or have time they say, all the members that we talk with either let us in to chat for a little bit or don't even invite us into the door, but that's ok because we got out to Vauxhall this week and have a good list of names, we met with the Ward mission leader and he encouraged us to meet with about 4 families who have had some really promising potential the last few missionaries, so i'm excited to get teaching out there.

We get Taco time every Tuesday for taco Tuesday! and yes we have a car that we have been told to just drive, they haven't given us a Clique allotment yet, president just told us to drive.

This week we finished up teaching a less active families daughter about being baptized and her date is on the 21st of this month, but its a child of record because shes still only 8 but thats ok still another person in the water :) 

P-Day we didn't do anything because we went on the hike on Saturday with the Ward, so we had to sacrifice p-day, but this p-day we plan on going into Lethbridge to play with Nerf guns, that seems to be pretty popular out in the mission here ,so I got myself a big ol sniper nerf gun haha, last night for dinner we had some Venison, and the other night we had some Navajo tacos, so pretty much like a doughy pastry/deep fried tortilla tostada is what they are, those were pretty delicious.

And I have plenty of people emailing me, pretty much all my friends and bishop and such so its awesome to open the email and see like 17 unread messages haha.  Well love ya dad!

Dads Email

I Asked Elder Martin a few things, and how he was doing on his mission and of course the miles thing with his car, and this is his response " yea i'm loving every minute of it, and President Nicholas is more concerned about the people then the miles it seems."

Pictures of Ward Waterton Crystal Lake Hike

we had to crawl through this cave and then hug the side of the the mountain haha

Elder Campbell

Elder Martin & Elder Campbell