Monday, August 29, 2016

So this week has been pretty dang good. We have still been hitting the
streets pretty hard trying to find new investigators. It has been
pretty dang awesome. We have had a lot of meaningful conversations
this week and a few new investigators which is always awesome. Since
Elder Kellerstrass is still in training we have been working a ton on
his door approaches and finding techniques which has been good for
him.

Other than a whole lot of tracting this Ward is super neat because
they have a night where a bunch of people get together and they all go
out to members and less active's homes and try to encourage everyone
to make a family mission plan. It's been a great way to get to know
people in the ward. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but
we do service at a place called the Crossroads Community Café which is
a neat little volunteer place. Haha all we do is wash dishes so my mom
will be pleased to know that I'm getting good at it. We meet a lot of
cool people there and it is a great opportunity to get out in the
community.

Out here in Coos Bay we share a ward with the Sister missionaries,
Sister Leavit and Sister Sorensen. This week Sister Leavit got a call
from President Russell and it turns out that the first ever Spanish
Sister in the OEM was coming from Mexico and had just obtained her
visa and needed a trainer. So Sister Leavit was called to Klamath
Falls to train her and teach her English essentially. It was so crazy
so now Sister Sorensen is beating placed in a tripanionship with the
two Sister Training Leaders who will now be covering both Coos Bay and
North Bend. It's been super crazy. So we had a going away party for
Sister Leavit during lunch on Thursday which was a blast. While we
were doing that Sister Megan Allen who had just got done serving in
Coos Bay came and visited with her family so we got to see her too.
I'll send some pictures.

We had interviews with President which went really well. He's a great
Mission President.


We had a ward Barbecue this week that was put on by the Ward
Missionaries. We came and went around talking to people about making
family mission plans which was a great opportunity. Also the food was
very good.

Finally yesterday we had scheduled two lessons for the same time so we
grabbed a member and Elder Deppe and Elder Kellerstrass went to one
and I went to the other lesson with a Member. Basically the family we
were teaching the dad was a Asian dude who really isn't too into
religion and the mom is a baptist. They are both super nice but the
dad started to really bash with us. It wasn't good and before long he
was yelling. The member I had with me was a recent convert who had
recently been sealed to his wife and his testimony is still growing
and at the end of the lesson he was visibly shaken so I had the chance
to encourage him and let bear my testimony to him. It was pretty nuts.

Since I'm in coos bay I was able to have few hand off lessons with the
North Bend Elders and was able to see my investigators in North Bend.
It was awesome and Melanie and Janet are doing great. It was way
exciting to see them.

Anyway so this week was great and we are starting light a fire in Coos
Bay (Spiritually of course). It has been awesome!



~Elder S. Jackson Martin of The OEM 🌲

Monday, August 22, 2016

This week has been a solid week of really intense new transfer. So we
just opened the Coos Bay Area for Elders which has been a bit rough
since we had no investigators or anything but we are working on that.
This week we found a few people but a couple of them ended up being
part of North Bend's area. We have been able to meet a lot of cool
members and people around town which has been great. We are still
living in the old North Bend apartment so we don't actually live in
our area. We just found out that we are seriously limited on miles for
our car so we are trying to conserve that. For the most part that has
been going pretty well for us. It's nice to have a car now.

I am enjoying my companions. They are both awesome. Elder Deppe came
out with me so I already knew he was a stud and Elder Kellerstrass is
a really good guy too. We have had to work super duper hard to build
up somewhat of a teaching pool and that is progressing slowly. This
week we taught a man named Jim who was sort of interested but mostly
just wanted to hear our views. He said that he didn't see how we could
claim the authority to be the only true church. We explained to him
that our authority comes from Jesus Christ and we could literally
trace our priesthood back to him. After a while he said that he had a
nephew who was a preacher and he was going to ask him where he got his
authority and see what he says. That should be interesting. The nice
thing about being so close to North Bend and sharing a building we get
to still see the people I taught and the members that I came to really
enjoy. It's super cool to just be one area over.

Since Elder Kellerstraus is doing New missionary training we go down
to Coquille on Fridays before District meeting and have training. It
was crazy because I hadn't been to New Missionary Training since I was
a greenie nearly one year ago! Crazy how the time flies. It's really
weird being on the coast because the zone goes all the way from
Florence down to Brookings so we are all too spread out to meet up
very often so a lot of the new missionaries had to skype in to the
training. Elder Kellerstrass did a good job and he is really trying
hard to be a good missionary.

Tracting has been interesting. One man answered the door and said,
"I'm Jewish and I don't need the Angel Moroni!" We laughed pretty good
after he slammed the door and wanted to tell him it was Jesus he
needed. One guy last night was a bit drunk and started telling us what
it means to be The Lord of Hosts. Which was interesting except that
none of it made sense. Yesterday we also tracted into a less active
who really wants to come back to church. It was super cool to hear her
story and we were able to set up a return appointment.

Besides all that we have seen a lot of cool things this week like a
guy named Tim turned up at the church and just said, "I felt the Lord
tell me that I was needed here." It was super neat and he stayed all
three hours. Sadly he lives in the North Bend Ward so the Zone Leaders
are going to be the ones teaching him which is a bummer. I miss
sharing a ward with them.

So yep it's been a great great week full of adventure! Thanks for all
your prayers and support! Later!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
North Bend Ward

Monday, August 15, 2016


Oh boy what a crazy time out here on the coast! Elder Batt is suiting
up to go home today and I am getting transferred yet again! I'm
getting transferred to the Coos Bay Area which is right next to North
Bend and will be opening it up for Elders. They haven't had a set of
Elders in like a year so they are really pumped. So I got my call
Friday night and President said "Elder Martin I need you to stay where
you are at and you will get Elder Kellerstraus who will need to be
follow up trained." So I was like neat! I get to stay in North Bend
and train a noob. Then I got a call from the APs and they told me that
there was a switch up and that I would be getting Elder Kellerstraus
and Elder Deppe (Who came out with me) and be in a threesome because
Elder Deppe was supposed to train but one of the trainees went home
from the MTC so they needed somewhere to stick him. Then Elder Holman
said, "Oh and President was mistaken you are being moved to Coos Bay!
Haha so now I'm Opening an area/follow up training/being in a
threesome/district leader. THIS IS GOING TO BE AN AMAZING TRANSFER! I
know for sure that Elder Deppe is an amazing missionary and I hear
awesome things about the other guy. I know we will have an awesome
transfer! Oooo and they are giving us a car! So I don't have to bike
with two other dudes behind me! I'm super pumped!

This week has been awesome! We found a few new investigators this week
who seem pretty solid. One of them we got a call from the mission
office and they gave us a referral. From Washington. It is a women
named Melanie who has been investigating the church for six years
because her friend in Washington had been sharing the gospel with her.
The problem is that her husband neglects her and doesn't support her
in anything. She is super afraid of him and he is just straight up
awful to her. It is a really dicey situation and I feel super bad for
her! Her husband sounds awful. But we sat down with her and taught her
about the restored gospel in more depth. Turns out she had already
read the Book of Mormon clear to Jacob! It was so awesome and she said
she knew it was true and that she wanted more than anything to be
baptized! It was such a powerful experience. But since her husband is
such a hater it's a huge road block but we are praying for her. She is
so prepared and we hope it all works out for her! Be sure to pray for
her!

So awesome week is the moral of the story! Oh man so much wonderful
stuff! Sounds like Coos Bay is an awesome Ward and I can't wait to
serve the people there! Yeehaw! Thanks for all the love and support!


Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
North Bend Ward