Check this Monster out.....

sooo.....this week was a little less exciting, the usual this week some tracting and no such luck :( and then Wednesday we went to downtown Calgary to street contact, ended up talking with a man for about 5 blocks, we walked and talked about the world today and life he asked if i was on a mission and then was like what do you do, so i told him asked where im from i said San Diego, turns out he's actually been there! loved all the Naval and Military stuff, talked more about that then asked if he had tried doing his family history and he could find out where some of his ancestors in the war came from and background info on them then gave him a BofM so that was cool :) not much on Thursday then Friday i got my Easter package from smalls filled with all sorts of yummy candy haha and when we were at the mission office we went to the distribution center to go get some ensigns wellllll i saw the new addition of the scriptures and i really like the Small tiny ones with the snap on the front soooo i bought those haha. they are AWESOME so small and compact its great. then Saturday and Sunday were normal haha.

soooo today for pday were having a BBQ at my old house in Airdrie, haha its kinda of a last hooray before Elder Nelsen (my companion) goes home next week. its been a fun transfer though, I'm now wondering who I will be getting next haha! 

much love your kiddo Elder Martin

Elder Martin in a graffitied tunnel 

check this monster out... its a deep fried hot dog with bacon, grilled onions, hot peppers, mayo,ketchup,mustard, cheese, chili, and a fried egg! mmm sooooo good! 

Post Easter April 22

sooo.... this week was good, Easter ya know? for starters it was weird seeing Easter from a missionaries perspective, it was cool. So Monday was Pday played some ball and all that then we had a lesson with the Tuckers who are a part member family, we are teaching their daughter Haley who is 9 who will be getting baptized on may 3rd! :) 

then Tuesday we taught the Barrons, her BF wants to get baptized and her son does as well, but Terry (BF) has some more learning to do and same goes for Darrion. Those two lessons went great.... then on Wednesday was Elder Nelsen's Bday and we got to spend it street contacting in downtown!! yes.... like the heart of Calgary downtown. it was pretty cool, been a while since I've been in a city haha.... it seemed smaller then SD though..... we ate at this place called the big cheese, its a poutine place :) mmm so good,I had the Philly cheese steak poutine! So back to the contacting, sadly nothing came from it :( people are always to busy and just ignore you!. Thursday we planned for next week and did more tracting. and nada once again :( Friday a huge snow storm came in and made things very hard... it took us 2 hours to get into Calgary to pick up mail.... then drive back... it was pretty sketch but kinda fun at the same time.... :) then it cleared up kinda and went tracting again and still nothing.... but Saturday we went to a baptism for the other missionaries and that was cool her name was Kyla shes 19.... Sunday went to the new ward... wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be... haha but still cool to see people from 3rd ward there. after church we went to Bishop Mulhollands house where we had Easter dinner... his whole family was there, kinda reminded me of our house, tons of food, and laughter and kids running around and playing! :) and then back to Monday for Pday and then today we just got done with District Meetings :) sooo that's my week! 

Elder Nelsen and Elder Martin

Elder Nelsen and Elder Martin

On the way to Calgary to do some street Contacting

Contacting in Calgary

Elder Martin and Elder Nelsen at members home

What a Week

Well every appointment except for 1! fell through this week..... that was fun.... not really, but that's alright.... we went to Mission Leadership Council on Friday and that was cool, we talked about the New Standard of Excellence that president is announcing and thats pretty much 3 personal finding hours a day and 10 people talked to outside of tracting and then 1 new investigator and 1 new less active a week.... should be interesting :P so far its been going well.

I really enjoyed Priesthood session, its always my favorite, Especially Elder Eyring... who is my favorite hah. But I really enjoyed his Priesthood Hero talk I guess we could call it, and made me think who I have had in my life and how am I going to be able to give back to that for kids or friends when i'm in that position :)

So yesterday after conference we had like 2 hours to kill before dinner, so we went tracting.... yaaaay not really haha, no success needless to say so we went for dinner, thats was good, crazy family with 6 kids all under the age of 12, then we did some MORE tracting..... well boy was I Humbled hah... as you can imagine its easy to get bored or discouraged while knocking doors... and I will admit I had the wrong attitude towards it, until we started on this street we felt prompted to knock, mainly because there was a potential investigator on that street. so we started the grind and door after door it seemed like the people had been getting nicer the farther down the street we went, We talked with a lady named Kylie who was interested because she had gone to her mormon friends church building twice in the last month and wanted to know a little more, but seemed very busy but told us to stop by later we talked for about 10 min.... then 2 houses down we met a very pregnant Destiny who was super nice. Elder Nelsen asked if she would like to know More about the Book of Mormon and speedily said yea! my friends mormon and would love to know more about her church, but i'm Due in two weeks and will be a little busy, so we asked if we could come back a month or so later and said yes. Then we get to the second to last house, the door opens up and This man seems very pleased to see us, and I felt very happy and like this was where we were suppose to be. We asked if we could share a message about the Book Of Mormon and he boldly said yes..... we testified of its truths and then set up a RETURN appointment for next Thursday at 8 :) His name is Kent and he is an Electrician by trade... that was the end to my week. It strengthened my testimony of trials of faith and prayers were answered thats for sure, and what a wonderful way to  end Conference Sunday! :) 

Elder Nelsen and Elder Martin

Elder Martin at a members home with a Cool Lego room

Back in Airdrie.......

Welllll this is going to be a transfer to remember! :D This strapping young lad is back in the land of AIRDIRE!!!!!! ahh its so exciting :) I couldn't explain how excited I was when I heard that's where I was going to be serving again! :)  So Elder Nelsen and I cover the Luxstone ward we have 150 children in primary! it is such a young ward, someone told me the Average ward age is bout 29-30 it makes for one crazy sacrament, I will tell you that much hah. So Elder Nelsen is from Sandy somewhere....  haha and not to get him trunky, but this is his last transfer so that's pretty cool for him :) I'm excited for him to be able to get back to his family. He was more into school rather than sports or video games so that's pretty cool also, and he is the middle child of 5 kids.

We actually live with members who's last name happens to be Martin as well hah, I meet them when I was in Airdrie last time. so that was nice to see them again.

We have a Chevy Cruz and we do have a washer and dryer so no worries haha..... umm I don't know what else to report on about things now because you know what Airdrie is for the most part haha......

Sooooo the weather has been unforgiving because its spring up here and its still deciding to snow and be 3 degrees lol, other than that its great! we have a few investigators who are Part Member Families.... haven't been able to teach them all yet.... just one, the V's and she was a member until she was 16 then decided to go catholic... and cant remember anything about the church, only what her husband reads online, and we all know where that goes..... so they have TONS of question but thats ok! :) he isn't there to bash just know whats real and isn't real, so that's why he asks us to confirm what he has read haha. but that just about sums up this week to be honest haha just been getting settled in and knowing the ward it feels good to be back in Airdrie! :D

Umm so as a Zone Leader on the first Friday of every month we go to Mission Leadership Council to learn about the Mission and how to better prepare it so that's cool, and then every friday night we have a mission leadership conference call to talk about whats happening in the mission and to see what baptisms are coming up! :) so that's pretty awesome! :D  A lot of changes and things to learn with this new responsibility, but all is well and I'm excited to be back in Airdrie

last day with Elder Nilsson Before I Left for Airdrie :( he went south somewhere

Packing my things again...... Good ole Transfers

Soooo this week we had  lessons with a less active then we had a lessons with an investigator who wants to be baptized so that he can baptize his daughter by October.... so that's pretty cool! and then we got a call from the assistants telling us to start packing, clean the apartment, car, etc... because were getting purged...... AGAIN! haha soooo who knows why or where I'm going this time haha, but 1 transfer and 2 areas? and I will be getting 5 areas before 1 year!!  this will be a transfer to remember for sure! :) I know these things happen for a reason. All is good, Saturday we did go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders that was fun, we helped a family move and went Zone tracting... sadly didn't find anyone but that's ok.....  Well this day is short, and alot of things to do....... I'll let you know were I am next week, but have feelings this is a good thing.

Howdie 

First week in Sundance and MacKenzie Wards

Welllll... lets see this week..... has been alright mostly spent cleaning the old apartment still and moving all our stuff over, only reason we have to like super..... super deep clean, it is because the Sisters are moving into it. but on Saturday we did get to personally meet Elder Nelson.... yep shook a member of the quorum of the 12's hand! :) the presence you can feel when you first see him in the room is immense! we also met Bishop Stevenson who's the presiding Bishop, Elder Spackman who's the area 70 in Calgary and Elder Maynes who's is in the presidency of the 70! so yea..... it was pretty exciting. Elder Maynes had a good message, he pretty much asked us if we were living our purpose or just going through the motions of it. then he reassured us that no matter what our weaknesses are whether that be public speaking, or learning, whatever it may be he said that as long as you strive to live your purpose you will be blessed. Then Elder Nelson showed us how to be a real person in a normal street contact... and gave us tips on how to get your foot in the door and that is to simply just state your name and where your from because the people are already staring at you because lets be honest you look like a weird bunch of people.... those were his exact words hahah.... and then he left with giving us an apostolic blessing on if we remain diligent with our studies great work shall come about and you will grow personally more than you ever have.... so I thought that was pretty awesome to hear! very moving and powerful to be in that room. 

Well the new wards are awesome.. a lot younger than Willow Park. but Saturday evening we went to the Erasmus family for dinner and they have 7 kids 1 daughter on a mission... and it felt like home to be honest.... haha kids laughing with mom and dad making fun of each other playing around wrestling... it was nice to feel that again, and they like soccer! :)  I got my new suite and yes I took pictures not to worry. Yes we have a washer and dryer this time.... its so much more convenient.  

Most we have heard about ipads is that rumor has that Edmonton is getting theres next month or 2 so that means we should be getting them soon as well but thats all I know, and currently right now we have 248 missionaries right now with about 110 vehicles.... our mission has the largest fleet out of all the missions. Mom I am eating don't worry lol, and in between church we snack on whats in the house then head over to the other ward! :) I got to see Elder Campbell Saturday at the Nelson meeting and it was so nice to see him again he looks like he's doing well and was excited to see me I felt! :)

Elder Martin in his new suit

St Patricks day tie

E.T Elder Martin Covering 2 new Wards

No this does not mean I will be Phoning home...... this means Emergency Transfer! Elder Nilsson and I will be moving to the Sundance, and Mackenzie wards this week, Elder Downing who was originally there had a Companion go home, then Elder Spencer who was in Chaparral and Mindapore  had a companion go home also..... sooo Downing and Spencer got together trying to cover 4 wards and just was not working, and President thinks it would be better if Nilsson and I go there! soooooo CRAZY!!!!

Now how I found all this out... soooo last Monday after Pday we went to a Less active names Wade Cooke, and he was so awesome! one son is into cars the other was in Germany for 3 years playing soccer! it was like Division 1 so pretty good, and he expressed how much he wanted to go to the temple and it was just awesome and i felt like right at home... then Tuesday came along District meetings! Iget up in the morning and on my way to the meeting i got a Text from President asking when and where my meeting was. he said he would be stopping by, and so in the beginning we usually tell about our areas and President was interested to hear about Wade. After the meeting he asked me if he could go with us to the next appointment, we have with him so I said "yea I will set it up" so Friday comes, and we get a ride with the president... turns out wade bailed on us because one of his sons was moving to BC, and he left... so we hopped back into Presidents car, and I asked him "is there anything you know that I could do to help the ward" and then that's where he told me i was going to be transferred into the other wards.......  so in the middle of the week we went tracting, and once again proved it DOESNT WORK! Especially when you do it in the Rich neighborhoods... sooo yea that was the highlights of my week! oh and I asked President if we could still continue the work that we were doing, and he approved it and said yes!!! sooo im way excited about that! and mom the auto shop purchase was me buying a GPS and I pick up my suite today!!! yaaaaay! :)

Sooo Saturday rolled around and it was the zone tracting day.... sooo I put on a smile and grinned through it all... just an example of how tracting still doesn't work..... We met this one guy and it was normal started off by asking if he wanted to help out with a survey asking people about some things going on in the world, and he said "no" so I was like well that's alright, but I do have one question "how do you like BMW you have?" (his garage was open and it was a very nice beamer, so I thought I would ask!) he stared at me for like 30 seconds and was like "look i'm not interested in your stupid survey!!" so i replied simply "i know you don't but you have a nice day anyways" soo after zone tracting our ward had a Culture night going on, the Bishops Son Jonathan Lang worked at the PCC for 5 years (Polynesian Culture Center), and he asked if I wanted to do the HAKA for the opening of the party, I was like sure! and we did it with about 8 other young men, it was pretty awesome, that was such a fun night! other than that everything is going awesome! 

Emailing back and forth with Zach, he will still have his same car, but he and his companion are moving apartments, which he likes. He is still the District leader in the same district and now covering 2 wards plus finishing up some things they were working on in the Willow Park Wards.

Mckenzie Ward.. Same Ward Building as 

Willow Park Ward

Sundance Ward