Well P-day got moved to today (Wednesday) due to a temple trip that we
went on today. I'll send some pictures. We got to go to the Portland
temple and that made my day since that's where my parents were
married. It was beautiful and I didn't want to leave because it was so
peaceful. This week has been good but it has been long so I'm not sure
how much I remember and I don't have my journal to help me.

Monday we went on exchanges with 2nd Ward Elders and it was way fun.
Elder Gage from Springville and I had so much fun and taught some
great lessons. Elder Gage is so fun and a stellar missionary. He knows
tons of doctrinal stuff and I learn stuff from him every time we get
together. Something I thought was cool is that he writes super
detailed stuff in his journal. He can turn to any day and know
basically exactly what happened and everything. He writes like 4 whole
pages so he takes a while to get done. Anyway we had a great exchange
and taught some good lessons. The rest of the week we had more
cancellations than ever before in my whole mission! The only people we
met with were George and Joe. So we made a route of all our former and
potential investigators and now we are back to that good old Areabook
Cleanout. We haven't had tons of success with it yet but at least we
are trimming down the list.

Sunday church was super awesome. There were some great talks from the
high councilmen and it was way edifying. Sunday night we went to see
Shauna and Troy and it turns out they won't be able to get married
anytime soon. I can't talk a ton about it because it's their business
but things got pretty heavy because Shauna told us she doesn't get why
she even needs marriage for baptism. We tried to resolve her concerns
but she just kept going back to how she got burned in her last
marriage. In the end though she kind of accepted it and we came to an
understanding. Monday and Tuesday we contacted more people and tried
to have appointments with people. Tuesday night we went and saw Shauna
and she was a nervous wreck because she had lost some super important
documents. We shared a message about trials and by the time we got
done she had really calmed down a lot and felt the spirit. We drove to
Springfield and slept with the 2nd Ward elders last night and then got
in the transfer van this morning and headed for Portland. After the
temple we stopped by Deseret book and that was cool.

I sure love the gospel! What a great time to be a missionary. I'm
super excited for general conference and Easter. I'm a disciple of
Jesus Christ and have been called of him to preach his gospel to his
children, I am so grateful for this opportunity and I look forward to
more opportunities to serve.



Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch