with my voice so that is what I'm going to do. It's been a pretty slow
week, but we were able to baptize Sylvia which was awesome. Elder
Johnson perform the baptism and it was awesome he did a great job.
The rest of the week was pretty dry because a lot of lessons fell
through. We did however go on exchanges with Springfield 2nd Ward and
that was really fun. I exchanged with Elder Watson and he is a riot. I
absolutely love him! We came out together and it was good to rekindle
the old flame. The strangest thing happened while I was over in
Springfield. This guy showed up to their church building asking for
money. And the only people there were the relief society ladies so
they were freaking out. Naturally they called us and we showed up like
superheroes and assessed the situation. When we showed up this guy was
clearly very very high on drugs and he was wanting some money because
he had gambled away some money that he borrowed. So we tried our
hardest to figure out what the situation was and help him but he kind
of went off in all different direction and couldn't stay focused. In
the end we just told him it would give him a call if we could think of
anything and told him to talk to the bishop. We we then gave the guy
some soup and sent him on his way. It was a bizarre experience.
I met a lot of crazy people in Springfield. One lady who was a
hardcore feminist didn't want to talk about Joseph Smith because he
was a man and all men are evil, but then she went on to say that she
admired us because we were good men of God with the power of the
spirit. We were a bit confused. We also met a lady from Scotland who
was just the sweetest lady. Haha she had a little Pomeranian dog named
Simon and him and I became best friends right away and he sat on my
lap the whole time and wouldn't let me get up when it was time to
leave. I'll attach a picture. When it was time to exchange back with
Elder Johnson and Elder Lambert Elder Watson and I were talking so
much that we missed our exit and were practically halfway to Roseburg
before we realized that we were not going the right way. Haha Elder
Watson is so easily distracted.
Silvia's baptism was awesome! Elder Johnson almost dropped her because
instead of taking it back nice and easy she just went deadweight and
launched herself backward. When she came up she exclaimed "THAT FELT
GREAT!" It was pretty great. She will be confirmed this coming Sunday
since we had Regional Conference yesterday.
For regional conference we had a regional broadcast with Elder
Renlund. As we listened with the spirit we figured out some great
things to talk to our investigators about. His talk was directed at
the whole North West region of the world but I felt that it was so
directly pointed at missionary work. Last night we knocked on the door
of a man who was convinced that Christ had no need for a church on the
Earth despite the fact that we showed him through the bible where it
talks about him establishing his church. When it became clear that he
was unwilling to listen to us I used something Elder Renlund had said.
"I can see that we cannot agree and we respect your beliefs. All we
ask is that you extended us the same courtesy." He kind of paused on
that comment and then Elder Johnson and I bore our testimony that we
knew Christ had established his Church and that it had been restored
through the Prophet Joseph Smith and there was no amount of ridiculing
or arguing could change that. We left his home feeling like we had
done all we could and felt good about the testimony we bore.
I found that even though this week we had a lot of lessons fall
through we still had a lot of opportunities to bear our testimonies
and defend our faith. Along with that nice feminist lady who didn't
believe in Joseph Smith and the guy from last night, there was a
Jehovah's Witness earlier this week we met. I've found that there are
a lot of good people in any religion but the Jehovah's Witnesses no
matter how good they are sure love to argue. We contacted this guy in
his yard and he started telling us just how wrong we are and that we
had been deceived. We decided to be bold with him and told him that we
knew that the message we shared was true and offered him a Book of
Mormon, he refused so we said, "Then I suppose you have no business
telling us we are false teachers until you read this book and tell us
with all conviction that you do not believe it is true." He couldn't
really say anything to that so we wished him luck and continued on our
way.
Sorry my emails are so scattered I always remember things to put in
last minute so I hope it all made sense. Besides all that good stuff I
also rode in a sweet Corvette owned by a member in springfield and
Silvia's step dad gave me a Darth Vader helmet for no reason. That was
awesome. I'm loving it out here! I miss y'all! Hope you have a great
week. Transfer calls this weekend! Elder Johnson thinks he's staying
here but I think he's going to go off and become a Zone Leader. We
shall see. Now since Silvia got baptized we are down to 5 people on
date for baptism. Well we are going to kick butt this week! Wish us
luck!
Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch
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