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