So it's been a pretty short while since I emailed last. First of all
on our way home from the temple a rock came out of nowhere and hit our
windshield and made a crack. We called the Vehicle coordinator right
away and we are going to have to get it replaced. The crack keeps
spreading so that's awkward. The next day we had our weekly planning
session like we do every Thursday and then went out and saw some
people. We were able to get a new investigator from it who had dropped
us earlier last transfer. It was good to get a new investigators from
it all and we were very much excited. Friday we went out and tried to
contact some potentials and the first one we went to named Alice had
just lost her husband the week before to cancer. We were able to
answer a ton of questions and teach her little bit about the Plan of
Salvation. It's crazy how the Lord prepares people but we definitely
felt bad for her loss. We also saw Joe and got a baptismal interview
set up for him for next week so he can be baptized on the 9th. We are
super excited. As it is there have been more baptisms this year than
there have been in the past 5 years. We feel blessed to serve the Lord
and are grateful for the miracles we've seen! Other than that we have
just been teaching and finding.

Yesterday was an amazing Easter Sunday! It was also Fast Sunday due to
General Conference so we had a super powerful time in sacrament
meeting with the spirit. Elder Johnson and I bore our Testimonies and
I was bawling like all sacrament meeting as I pondered the words
"death has no sting and the grave no victory" it was great. After that
we had stake correlation in Eugene so we had to drive down there.
While Elder Johnson and the other district leader; Elder Hallam were
in with the Stake President and the Zone leaders, Elder Morris and I
went out to his area to do some work. We knocked on the door of one of
their potentials who was a black guy in wheelchair from Seattle. He
was a straight thug and was a bit hung over because he'd quote, "Been
out with his home girl." We talked with him about what we believe and
he was way interested. He said he stopped going to his church because
they were all loud and rambunctious so we told him he'd like our
church a lot. He was super blown away that we were away from our
family for two years to teach the gospel. He then said, "Well I'm
still super fuzzy so I'm gonna straight up eat my cup of noodles.
Don't be surprised if you see me rolling up into your church here
pretty soon one of these days. You're the freshest church boys I ever
met." So we closed with a prayer and when we got done he was way
impressed. He said you know when someone believes what they do because
you can feel it in their prayers. We set up a return appointment then
Took off. Don't know if he was really interested or just way hung over
but I guess we'll see.

After all that Elder Johnson and I set off once more for Oakridge and
this time instead of a rock hitting our windshield something worse
happened! Our Easter dinner cancelled! We were so distraught! We
didn't know what to do! Haha but it was all good because then I
remembered my angelic mother had previously sent me the stuff to make
Taco soup so I fixed us some of that and it was delicious! Then some
awesome members in the ward called us up and said that the Easter
Bunny had left something for us at their house so we went over and
they had us search their house to find Easter Baskets that they hid
for us. We thought that was so thoughtful of them. In the end it was a
wonderful Easter!

Things are great out here! This transfer is winding down and since
it's an extra week long it ends on April 11. President Russell keeps
saying stuff in his emails to me like "your next test is coming" and
"will you be ready?" He's already told Elder Johnson that he will be
leaving so I don't know what this all means! Maybe I'll train. Finally
have a son which would be fun. But we shall see. Well I sure love you
all! You're all amazing!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch