This week has been incredible! It's official, I'm getting transferred
out of Coos Bay. I'm headed to Eugene 3rd Ward to be the district
leader up there. I'm super pumped to be in Eugene it's an exciting
place to be. A lot of weirdos though. Missionaries say that Eugene is
tough while you're there but afterward you realize that they were some
of the funnest times of the mission. I'm excited and I'll be follow up
training another missionary. I'm pretty excited and pumped to work
hard. This last transfer has been my most obedient and hardest working
transfer and I definitely don't want to let it go to waste.

Our Ward mission leader Brother Hoffine shared a birthday with me so
we went and took him a cake and wished him a happy birthday. He was
super grateful, but not as grateful as we are for him! He is the best
Ward mission leader out there and I loved working with him.

This week we had a finding challenge in the mission which was exciting
but I figured it would just make missionaries want to fake numbers
just to look good but it ended up being awesome. It was a mission wide
thing and the Lord blessed us so much. Thanks to Him our area exploded
this week and we found a ton of new people to teach. Also this week
Melanie was baptized. Her husband even came and that was surprising.
While Melanie was changing after the baptism I got to get up and give
a talk about the restoration while we waited for her to get back. It
was awesome to be able to testify of the Restoration at the baptism of
a person who was so prepared. I wasn't able to get a picture with her
but the Zone Leaders took one so I'll send that one. It was a great
baptism.

We also got an awesome opportunity to go down to SWOCC. (South western
Oregon community college) and helped out with Institute sign up. It
was fun and we just got to talk to a lot of people our age and got a
few to sign up which was fun. We went and grabbed some lunch and we
were just going to eat it back at our booth but then Elder Deppe said
"I feel like we should sit out on the lunch tables since the sisters
can cover the booth for the time being." So we sat at a table and a
woman came up to us and said, "Oh my word Elders! I'm from Utah and My
daughter is coming here on a track scholarship and I need information
about the Ward." So we told her about everything and then told her
that she could sign up her daughter for institute and told her about
FHE. She was super shocked and didn't know there was an institute. She
said that she never would have seen out booth if we hadn't been
sitting at the lunch table. It was awesome and it made her feel a lot
better about her daughter going there because she'd been nervous about
her going less active.

When we went to throw away our trays there was two girls that called
us over and they said they were looking for a church. They were super
sincere and we were able to talk to them a bit. We aren't allowed to
proselyte on campus but we were able to set up an appointment to teach
them which was exciting.

It was a bit tough to say goodbye to Elder Deppe and Elder
Kellerstrass today but I'll see them again. It's going to be weird not
being with two companions but I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait
to work hard in Eugene and know that as I do the Lord will bless the
people there. Can't wait!! Love you all!



~Elder S. Jackson Martin

We went to Primary and they sang to me!

(Letter from Sept 5, 2016)
This week has been super good with plenty of awesome things happening
everyday! We've been able to meet with a good number of people this
week and we are building up a teaching pool.  One of the awesome
things that happened this week is that this guy named Dillon who has
been visiting the North Bend ward for the summer left with his wife to
BYU Idaho this week but before he left he helped us get one of our new
investigators John. We got a call from him and he told us that John
was someone who had just started working with him and they started
talking and he just felt prompted to invite John to take the lessons
and John agreed. So we met at Mingus Park and had a super incredible
lesson. John grew up Jehovah's Witness and was super duper interested
in finding the right path. We shared the restoration with him and he
really felt it. He said that he had really been looking for some truth
and he was willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray. It was
incredible!

Also this week we met with a guy named Chris who was a referral from
the Zone leaders. Chris was at a Piano Guy's concert in Portland and
he said that he felt the spirit super hard and felt inspired to check
out our church. He was an honest seeker of truth and it was a pleasure
to sit down with him. We all felt the spirit super strong and Elder
Deppe and I were super proud when our little greenie Elder
Kellerstrass bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. He
brought tears to all our eyes. It was a great lesson and he is anxious
to read and pray and to continue meeting. We found a few other people
while tracting who all seemed cool and it was great to find them.

Yeah I think that's about it. Just all around a fabulous week with
lots of miracles. It's super fun and I can't believe the transfer is
more than halfway done. I'm super excited to tackle this next week and
see the miracles that come. LOve you all!


~Elder S. Jackson Martin of The OEM 🌲