March 20, 2017

This week has been good. Elder Mata is a really fun awesome dude. He's
at the end of his mission and its a little hard to motivate him but
I'm just trying to keep my cool and be loving and encourage him to
work with me. Medford zone is the most struggling zone in the mission
right now. We have not been performing very well so this transfer we
are working hard on our goals to change that.

Despite the fact that I am in medford now we do not get to go to the
temple more often. We still only get one temple trip every six months
or a quarter depending on when our mission President says we can go.
We had a temple trip this Saturday though and that was amazing. I
always enjoy our temple visits and always come out feeling rejuvenated
and ready to work. Having that opportunity is amazing.

I am in Medford 8th ward and also cover the YSA ward. It's kind of
thought to do both because the YSA work here is really slow but a lot
of our focus ends up getting directed toward 8th ward. We do share the
ward with another set of Elders. Elder Hafen and Elder Nelson are
their names and they are great guys. Both of them are hard workers and
its really cool to serve around them.

Considering that Elder Mata is somewhat hard to get out of the
apartment I have not met many of our investigators so this week that's
one of my goals is to meet them all. I did meet one named Kirk. He is
a great guy. We went over to his house and he told us that he wanted
to quit smoking, drinking, and coffee and wanted to start coming to
church. He told us he wanted to quit those things and he hasn't even
been taught the Word of Wisdom.

Anyway I am way excited for this area. President Russell called me the
other day and told me he was really counting on me to make some stuff
happen here besides chilling. So I'm feeling some pressure. Well have
a great week and love you all!!

March 13, 2017

I'm going to Medford 8th Ward and will also be covering the Medford
YSA. My companion is Elder Mata who is famous for sleeping in until
3:00 one time... I'm a bit worried and this is his last transfer. I'm
in Klamath Falls right now and will leave for Medford in about an
hour.

Elder S. Jackson Martin

February 20, 2017

We had a good week. We went on exchanges with our ZLs and it was way
fun. I went with Elder Borden who is the largest most ripped Hawaiian
I know. We had a great time and he's a very good Elder. Besides that
we've just been having fun with the work out here. We are trying to
find some more people to teach but we've tracted almost The Whole
town. We are working hard on Formers and Potentials. Today was
awesome. We got to play ball with the Priest in the Ward. I'm not any
good but Elder Ross is going to play college ball and the priest,
Tanner is playing varsity at the high school. It was awesome. Anyway
have a great week! Love you all!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin



February 27 - no letter



March 6, 2017

This week we got to go up to Medford for a zone conference. It was a
great uplifting meeting. I got to see Elder Willits and some of my
other former companions there. It was a good experience. Elder Ross
was very excited. His last zone was medford so he enjoyed going back
and seeing some of the missionaries he served with. We got to hear
from President and everyone so it was very good.

Our investigators on date have been struggling. Especially Mark. He
keep making his mind up to quit but doesn't hold out ver long. Right
now he's on a downward spiral and just keeps drinking more and more.
We are really worried about him. Andrew is doing great. He's so solid
and it's so good to see him being so active. He should be receiving
the Aaronic Priesthood this next Sunday so we are pretty pumped up
about that.

This week we had a lot of success passing out Book of Mormon copies.
We decided at the beginning of the week that we would focus on just
talking to people about the Book of Mormon. It went really well and we
passed out quite a few this week and in turn we got a good number of
return appointments. It was really cool what The Book of Mormon can
do.

Anyway that's about it! Thanks for all the prayers and support! Later!!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin