This week has been a good one. Elder Baxter is an awesome missionary
and we have worked well together. We had a lot of investigators drop
us lately though and it's kinda sad. But we have been trying hard to
find new people. Our on date investigator, Shane is moving to Bandon
on the coast and so we are pretty sad about that too. We will miss
him.

We met some crazy people lately. One lady was a bit wacky so we hopped
on the bus trying to get away from her because she was telling us
people were going to kill us haha. As we drove away she tried to chase
us on her bike and was screaming. Eugene for ya. Another guy told us
that we needed to get ready because Donald Trump was the anti-Christ
and he knew the future because the Lord showed him. We talked to him
for a bit and when it didn't go anywhere we just thanked him for his
warning and left him rambling about how Paul had no Apostolic
authority. Haha so Elder Baxter has been here two weeks and already
met some winners.

Yesterday I went on splits with one of the Zone leaders so he could go
out to the Blue River Branch church meetings and his companion could
stay here with their investigators. It was very fun and I met some
good people, tiny branch though.

Oh and when I came back from Blue River we met at our church building
in Springfield, and I saw a lady who had been baptized in Eugene 3rd
before I got there whom I had the privilege to teach new member
lessons to. I heard she had moved and nobody knew where she was and it
broke my heart to hear she wasn't active anymore. But when I got to
the church building I saw her walking out and almost cried! I ran up
and was like "Grace!!!!" And she probably thought I was crazy but then
recognized me. We talked for a bit and she told me about how she just
moved and got to nervous to go a new Ward but she felt like she need
to be there that Sunday. So happy I got to see her again.

Anyway more next week! Love ya!


~Elder S. Jackson Martin

Well Elder McCleary is headed to Coos Bay. It's sad but we had a
killer last week. Shauna Haidyn and Hailey all were baptized and it
was amazing. The Stake President said it was the most touching Baptism
he'd seen in a long time. Afterward they were all just beaming. It was
so cool to see the change. So that's 3 new members of Springfield 3rd
Ward with more on the way.

My new companion is Elder Christiansen. He's a great guy, I've served
with him before. The only problem is that this is his last transfer
and it's my second to last transfer so we will have to keep each other
motivated. This is the 4th time I've had a companion going home. But I
know at least he'll be willing to work hard with me unlike some. We
have a few people to baptize here before the transfer ends.

We have been working with some great people. Shane is continuing to
progress to baptism. We also have a guy named Donnie who is all in. He
really wants to be baptized July 1st, the only issue is he's very
prideful. He wants the Priesthood so he can "get recognized for having
God's Authority"... so we have a lot to teach him.

Anyway a lot of good things going. I'm sure loving it. Talk to you
later. Love ya

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

This week has been good. Shauna and her Kid's baptism got pushed back
to the 3rd of June. We are working with them and they are way excited.
We have been working hard and finding a lot of people. Super happy to
be here in Springfield. Elder McCleary has been incredible and I've
enjoyed being his comp. This is a 7 week transfer so transfers will be
taking place on the 5th.

Anyway all is good here I had interviews with President. It was
awesome. He's such a good guy. Haha he is going home pretty soon. Hope
he's not trunky.

Anyway love you all!!!



~Elder S. Jackson Martin

April 24, 2017

It has been a wonderful week. I got here with Elder McCleary he is a
wonderful companion and right when I got here we went hard to work. We
have a few people on date here and a lot of people we are working
with. We have been running all over the place here in the Springfield
3rd Ward finding and teaching. We have a family on date. It is a
single mom named Shauna and two kids Hailey and Hayden. They are the
bomb. They are so excited to be learning the gospel and will be
baptized this May. I'm glad I get to be a part of it.

At church we had six of our investigators there this week. We were so
happy to see so many people at church. We actually have a goal to by
the end of the transfer have more than 13 investigators at church.
Also as a Zone we tried to find 100 new investigators this week. We
hit 93 as a zone. It was pretty awesome to be a part of.

Cool miracle last night, we had been having a kind of tough time
finding investigators but we had faith that someone would be put in
our path. So after tracting most the day after church at 8:00 we just
decided to walk down Main Street and talk to everyone we saw. We had
talked to a lot of people and it was about 8:35 and nobody was
interested. But with a prayer in our hearts we kept going and came
across Chris. He said he was very interested in learning and that our
timing couldn't have been better. We were ecstatic! We figured out
where he lived and talked about the Plan of Salvation with him. It was
a great way to finish off our night last night.

I've been having a lot of fun here. Elder McCleary is a fun and very
hard working Elder. I'm so excited to keep working. Love you all!!!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

Transfer Van

I'm headed to Springfield with Elder Mcleary. Oh boy!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

It has been a pretty good week. Elder Mata and I had a heck of a time
contacting people since it was spring break. Don't know what's up but
all of our people seem to be hiding. But it has been fun going around
and talking with the various people here in Medford. I don't know what
it is but here I seem to meet more people that want to bible bash with
us than I have my whole mission. I have tried to just be humble and
not argue but I find it hard and a couple times I have fallen into the
trap of Satan and began to argue back which only leads to more
contention. The only thing I feel actually accomplishes anything is to
bear testimony and leave them with that.

Elder Mata has been more willing to work. We had a good talk about how
he wanted to end his mission. Interviews with President this week
really made him think about what his priorities were. Even though it
is still somewhat difficult he is definitely doing much better. We
listened to a talk called; Following Christ to Victory from April 1979
conference (great talk highly recommended you all read it or watch
it). It inspired us when it talked about how tracting and things like
that help show the Lord that we are willing to work and he in turn
blesses us. President Russell then extended to us an invitation to do
a 9-9 which is tracting from 9am to 9pm. He said it would help our
companionship do better and we both have agreed so one of the days
this week we are going to be tired beyond belief. Pray for us.

General Conference was incredible. I was very inspired by the messages
shared and I was really lead to think about a lot of things I can work
on. I was very inspired by Dallin H. Oaks who always says it like it
is, and his comments on the Godhead. I was deeply touched by the
Priesthood session and felt so much more committed to being a
effective missionary after that session. Basically I loved it all and
was very happy to once again hear from Thomas S. Monson who has always
served the Lord with everything he has. I feel now more than ever that
he is a prophet and felt very glad to sustain him.

So that was the week. Kind of scattered in the email here but its all
good. Have a great week and thanks for all you do!



~Elder S. Jackson Martin