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