Hey Team!

So how is everybody doing? This week has been super awesome. ya ya. it was good to talk to the family this week. Christmas was really good. I really enjoyed the letters and gifts from everybody. Thank you so much. Whoever addressed it to Shaun Jackson Marstian is the bane of my existance. 

We got one new investigator this week. He is a super cool guy named Chris who is the husband of our other investigator Christina. So now we just call them the Chris's. 

For Christmas we spent most of it in Roseburg. We slept at the Newtoncreek apartment for Christmas Eve. I throughouly enjoy being with Elder Eckman and Elder Holman even though they made me sleep on the floor. Keep getting Star Wars spoilers, getting me mad (Hans Solo dies). We watched Big Hero 6, it was just as good as the first time I watched it. and the 5th. Then after we skyped our families and went back to S. Umpqua and two dinners with BIll and Marylyn and the Reveras. So that was fun. After that, we retired to bed. Bascially ever since then, i've been feeling a little bit trunky. 

Warren came to church yesterday!! But unfortunaltey Jay did not. :(

It's crazy the excuses people have to not come to church. We were really hoping he would come because we went on a church tour with him Saturday night to get him and wife used to the building but he flaked. So that stunk. 

Thanks for all the support yo! I love you all! Keep the letters comin'. I'll respond one day... 

Later Gators!

Typed By: Sister Hokanson because I'm lazy

Elder S. Jackson Martin

Oregon Eugene Mission

Christmas pictures!

Hey team. How's it all going? Christmas is getting really close! Holy
cow! We didn't have P day yesterday. Instead we had interviews with
President so our P day got switched to today.

We've sure had a great week! We found 4 new investigators this week!
We have found six new investigators in the last two weeks! That's what
faith can do for you! We have been praying to find some people and we
got a referral from the Roseburg Ward bishop. He told us about a guy
he works with who really wanted a blessing because he was having a
tough time. We went over and were able to teach him and his wife and
son! Holy cow it was amazing. And then we gave him and his wife a
blessing. Talk about a spiritual experience. We will be seeing them
again tomorrow so we can't wait. We also got a new investigator from
our potentials list. She is super prepared and wants to get baptized.
So awesome!  We are just so happy to watch them progress!

Besides that we've been mostly showing #asaviorisborn in our finding
efforts. It's been way awesome. A lot of people are a lot more willing
to watch a 2 minute video than listen to us. We've been having fun
because the zone leaders made a finding point system so we have
finding challenges. We just beat the ZL's in a tracting competition so
that was fun.

Live is way good and there's been lots of rain. I love the members. I
want to stay here another transfer after this so fingers crossed! The
transfer is January 11 so that's coming up. I sure miss you all! I'm
behind again on responding to letters so I'll get those soon! Sorry
I'm so slow though. Have a merry Christmas!!!


Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
South Umpqua Ward

Giant Spider and Kimber's usual expression.

Our Apartment

Well things are going well in the land of no sales tax! I've been
having a good time and working hard. I'm still kind of struggling with
Kimber but he's not terrible.

 I went on exchanges with Elder Holman. I think he's one of my
favorites out here. We saw a lot of people and did a lot of service.
We found two new investigators!!! Boooom! Unfortunately they live out
in azalea and it's way hard on our miles to drive way out there so we
always need rides. But things are great. We had an awesome truck light
parade!!! It was so cool. Elder Kimber and I were invited by a member
to watch from his insurance office and he set up a pavilion outside
and had some fires going to keep us warm. It was such a cool tradition
been going on for 22 years. It was raining for most of it but that was
aok! Those were really the highlights of the week.

But then we got to Sunday and I woke up at 6:06 in the morning to
Elder Kimber wigging out because we didn't have power. So we sat in
the dark and did our studies with the sweet study lights Grammy gave
me. After that we went out and found that all of Myrtle Creek and most
places clear to Canyonville had lost power and there was snow on the
ground! Apparently since people can't function in 5 inches of snow
around here church was cancelled so I didn't get to take the sacrament
which was so dumb. Then we went to Roseburg because Elder Kimber had a
meeting so I hung out with some Elders up there for an hour then we
came back to Myrtle Creek to find out that dinner had been cancelled
because the people we were eatIng with had no power. Thank goodness
our homie Warren was in the one part of the community that had power
and he made us pizza. He's a 19 year old recent convert and he's super
cool even though all he does is work a little and play video games.
After all that we went to the church and found that all the power was
back in Myrtle Creek so we used the wifi and stuff then visited some
investigators and recent converts that are lonely to make sure they
were all okay. We finally got in the apartment super tired but very
happy that we at least had power.

So things have been great. Haha Oregon is still Oregon. Still no sales
tax, people still pumping my gas, and people are super crazy. For p
day today we played a game that was super fun and I got drilled in the
face with a volleyball that made my nose bleed pretty good. I have so
much on P day even if I'm a little sore afterward. Well love you all!!



Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
South Umpqua Ward

Hello everyone! Since Cassie got baptized our teaching pool is really
small now so we are back to trying to find more people to teach! We
have been hitting up our potentials list again trying to see who we
can find. We've also been trying to get in contact with former
investigators but they are proving hard to find. This week was the
ward Christmas party and that was way fun. We were able to get a bunch
of less active members there and they all had a good time. I love
getting together with the ward because they're always so warm and
welcoming. We tried to get Bill and Marilynn to come but USC was
playing Stanford so Bill had to stay home and cheer for USC. I thought
coming to Oregon would make me a Ducks fan but I think Bill is trying
to convert me to become a Trojan instead.

I spoke in church last week with Elder Sutton which was fun and I
spoke on member missionary work. This week a lady told me that I'm
kind of like a J Golden Kimball of the missionaries she's met. I'm not
sure if that was a compliment or not because he was that apostle who
cussed a lot. I just don't know what she meant by that.

We had a real blessing this week because the sisters in Newton Creek
ran into a lady at Rite Aid and she said she was a member and wanted
her fiancé to be introduced into the church. The sisters were way
excited and it turns out that the lady lives in our area! Her name is
Ivy and we've been texting her and she says that her fiancé isn't
ready yet but she hopes that one day he'll be open. I just think that
if the sisters weren't there at Rite Aid when they were they would not
have met her. I guess God has a plan!

Besides all that mostly I've been getting Elder Kimber used to the
area. I miss Elder Sutton already. Elder Kimber is a nice guy but he
kind of drives me crazy. This morning I about lost my temper because
last night he buzzed his hair which was fine but then he didn't clean
it up or anything so I stepped on a big pile of hair in the bathroom
this morning. I was not happy. I suppose I must learn some patience.
Well we are looking forward to an awesome week this week. Next week
I'm confident we will have a new investigator so I wonder who it's
going to be. Miss you all!!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
South Umpqua Ward