This week has been super crazy! We had some pretty interesting times. Since last Tuesday was Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) Elder Willits had to go to Eugene so we drove to Klamath Falls Monday. The plan was for the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and all the District leaders, to drive into Medford Tuesday and have President Cropper of the Mission Presidency drive them the rest of the way to Eugene, all while I stayed in Klamath Falls with Elders Green and Mazyck. We spent the evening with the Zone Leaders, Elders Borden and Thibault, when suddenly they got a call from President. Since the snow was coming down so hard President Russell said they needed to get over the pass and into Medford right away and they would just spend the night there but they had to leave within 20 minutes or just skype into MLC. Considering that skyping into long missionary meetings is really lame, they flew into action. We drove through the snow and met the other District Leaders at a convenience store and I was left there with the missionaries I'd be staying with. We figured it would be safer to drive our truck than it would to drive their little Subaru so I was made the driver for the exchange and we finally got back to Klamath Falls 5th Ward's apartment and spent the night there. 

The next day we were greeted with a good amount of unplowed snow so we headed out and started to help people get out of their drive ways and helped them get unstuck. It was a pretty fun exchange except every lesson they had fell through. So we just helped people out most of the day. Somebody brought us dinner at the Church and it was some pretty good pork chops. We were informed that all of the leaders would spend the night in Medford once again so we spent the night at Elder Mazyck's apartment in Klamath Falls 5th ward. 

The next day there was even more snow! We attempted to get the snow cleared off of the truck so we could go to the Zone Leader's apartment and wait to meet up with them. Little did we know it would take forever for the truck to get heated up and when it did Elder Mazyck suggested that I go up a big hill because it was a "short cut" I went up it and got the truck stuck a few times so we went the other way and found that a whole street was littered with stuck cars with a big U-haul at the front of the chaos. In the back we saw the Zone Leaders Jeep so we hopped out and made a plan with them that we would help as many people as we could and then Elder Willits and I would try to get back to Alturas. Holy cow we helped a lot of people! We were pushing cars, shoveling, and lending aid to anyone we could. Finally Elder Willts and I got out of there around 1:00 and headed home. 

On the highway we saw someone pulled over and we thought about helping them but kind of brushed it off. After a while we felt bad and made a resolve to help anyone we saw. Before long Elder Willits who was driving, dosed off and we went off the road! It was pretty intense and we plowed into a snow bank. we were stuck real good, the snow bank had been very tall and we had sort of bottomed out. I climbed out of the car and surveyed the situation. Elder Willits kept spinning the tires so we got stuck pretty good. He's from St. George so I try not to hold his lack of knowledge driving in the snow against him. Also we aren't allowed to get snow tires or use chains so that stinks. Anyway we were stuck good! Then two young men pulled over and offered to help. We started to try to push it out and we would make some progress but the truck was in there pretty good. Suddenly to our surprise one of our investigators named Tyler drove by. He came and finally helped us get out of the snow and we got out of there. The only damage to the truck was a bent licence plate so we feel lucky we weren't hurt. It was a crazy day. The next day we had a lesson with tire and he is a pretty funny dude so he made fun of us and gave us a lot of crap for getting stuck. We told him it was punishment for not pulling over and helping someone out.

It got down to 20 below 0 this week so we were pretty cold. Our pipes froze so we have been without water again for a bit. Luckily the Branch President's wife manages the Super 8 Hotel here so she let us go there and shower. Right now our pipes are in the process of getting fixed so hope that goes well. It keeps snowing one day and raining the other so there is some flooding going on real bad. 

Besides that our investigators are doing great! We are still teaching quite a bit and people are progressing wonderfully. One of our recent converts just went to the hospital though. It's been tough on her husband, Ron, who we have been teaching and he relapsed and has been drinking a ton. A lot of people in this town have alcohol problems and it is really tough. 

Anyway more next time. Pray for Ron! I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin

Oregon Eugene Mission