So this week Daniel L. Johnson of the Seventy showed up for a Zone
Conference! It was so spiritual I loved it! Haha he asked us what the
major difference between us as missionaries and the Mission President
and wife and haha I stood up and said "I'm not married!" And I
seriously thought that that was the right answer! But then everybody
laughed at me! So instead I pretended that I was joking to avoid the
awkward! Guys it was so funny!!!! Anyway yep good times!!! We heard
tons of great stuff and we saw so many great missionaries there I
haven't seen in a long time.

The rest of the week we hit the streets and it was so grand! We met so
many people who were not interested and it hurt my heart. Silly people
are so lost. But then we had a good week of teaching a few lessons
including to Tim and a Less active member named Don. It was so great
to see them.

We are having a lot of success having the young men bring their non
member friends to events. It's always so good to see them do
missionary work. There is one named Crayson. He is a stellar kid and
wants to be baptized but his parents are a bit hesitant. The plan is
to keep working with them so that he can take the lessons. It's been a
great time.

This week as well since Elder Johnson was coming to zone conference I
wanted to cut the hair that was touching my ears back so I could look
presentable for a general authority. I asked Elder Egan if I could
have the phone to call a sister in the ward and get a real quick snip
and he said, " Nah elder I'll do it!" And I actually thought he
sounded confident in his ability to cut my hair so I said "sounds
good!" So during our dinner hour he gave it a real quick cut with his
electric razor. Yeah dumb idea. My hair looked ridiculous! Haha he
like made them super uneven and then he just started laughing and was
like "Yeah okay let's call Sister Goodpasture." So thank goodness that
wonderful angelic sister was able to give me a haircut to mostly
repair the damage. It's kind of the most different haircut I've ever
had but it worked out.

So yep good week! It's been a great p day! Thanks y'all for all you do
and I love you!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Merlin Ward

Hey there everyone it's been a great week!!! Last week we started it
by having an exchange. So Elder Egan and I went down to Grants Pass
since our dinner was down there so we went down an hour early because
the district leader Elder Best wanted to do a real quick tracting
blitz. So we knelt up and Elder Egan and Elder Best picked a street
and went there and Elder Terrell and I went to another street and
started tracting.

Let me tell you about Elder Terrell he is a great guy! He's a big all
American football player who is just an amazing missionary. He's been
out about 22 months and is just a blast to be around. He sweats A LOT
so when we were Tracting whenever we knocked on a door they looked at
him and instantly let us in to get a drink of water! Haha it was so
funny! So we were well hydrated. And then are you ready for this!?
MIRACLE! We knocked on a door and this gal named Stephanie answered,
and was listening to us but was kind of standoffish. She then told us
that she had talked to missionaries before but didn't like it because
they told her she had to stop smoking and she got offended. Elder
Terrell and I then started talking about the word of wisdom right on
the doorstep! It was so crazy I've never talked about that right on
the doorstep before but that's what we felt we had to say. So we talk
about it and tie it back to the Book of Mormon and her attitude
changed completely! She felt the spirit! She went from where she was
before to saying, "You know what I think coffee and cigarettes are two
habits I actually want to get rid of and I want to learn more about
that book!" WE WERE SO EXCITED! But of course we kept our chill on the
doorstep and we set up a return appointment! It was just so dang cool
because that was the first new investigator we had both found this
transfer. Then we proceeded to go to dinner which was sushi! Oh it was
so good! TENDER MERCIES!

After dinner I took Elder Best back to Merlin with me. Elder Terrell
went with me for the blitz because he was the only one who likes sushi
but elder best was the one I actually went on the official exchange
with. The exchange was really a awesome time. We got to do some
service and go visit our two recent converts and some investigators.
It was so grand and Elder Best is an experienced missionary. He gave
me a lot of good advice. It was great! Then we exchanged back the next
day and exchanged our stories of the exchange and Elder Egan and I
headed back to Merlin. It was a great rest of the week and we were
able to teach plenty of lessons. In district meeting Elder Best taught
a wonderful District meeting and it really opened up my eyes to a lot
of things about happiness and obedience which was great. It's always
good to have a good district meeting.

Church on Sunday was great. It was Ward Conference so we got to hear
from the stake president which was awesome, he's a good guy. The
temple trip today was incredible. It's always so good to be in the
house of the Lord and kind of regroup. Anyway it's been a great week
and I've loved it so much! Another cool thing is that an elder I was
in the MTC with who went home the night before we left the MTC just
got permission to come on his mission. He is now in my zone and it's
so great to see him again! Anyway that was cool!!!

So yeah it's been a great week. The mission is still great! Just so
many tender mercies from the Lord. Daniel L. Johnson from the Seventy
is coming this Friday for Zone conference! I couldn't be more excited!
Super pumped! Love you all!!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Merlin Ward

Hey there team! Things in Merlin are still excellent! We are trying to
get lessons and do service and it's going pretty well. It's been 100°
weather around here and that kind of sucks but that's okay. We luckily have AC in the apartment which is a way good thing. We have been
trying to keep our room as cold as possible which works okay. Anyway
but yeah a pretty good week.

This week we taught our recent convert Cassie which was a delight.
Turns out she is going to move closer to her fiancé for a while until
they can move out here. I believe she is actually moving to the La
Grande area? That'll be cool since Grammy and Papa live there but idk
where exactly she's going. We have been visiting Tim a lot trying to
get him more comfortable with us so that hopefully he will be
baptized. We met with a less active named Don this week which was
cool. He was a great guy who was just really interested to learn.
Besides that our finding continues and we have yet to find an
investigator. We have set up a missionary sports night every Friday
and told all the youth to bring as many friends as they could. So
hopefully that will go well because all the youth were way excited.

Yep things are still good. This email is late. I'll try to get more
detail next week!!! Love you all!!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Merlin Ward

Things are great in my new area. It's pretty awesome and Elder Egan
and I have got to do a lot of service this week. We hardly teach any
lessons out here unlike in Oakridge where we would get 10+ now we get
like two. We have a lot of finding to do but there's some challenges
around here because like every house has a huge gate I swear. If we
had miles we would drive to Glendale and do some finding there but we
have to wait until next month. So we've done tons of service for peeps
out here and did a big service project out in Grants Pass.

The highlight of our week was that we went on a mini mission with a
young man named Christian Garfield which basically meant that he spent
24 hours with us and lived mission life. We had an awesome lesson with
an investigator named Tim and his member family. Christian bore an
awesome testimony of the Book of Mormon and we killed it hard. An
unexpected guest showed up and he also had a lot of questions and said
he'd like to feed us later in the summer. Christian was way rad and he
will be a great missionary.

The members here love missionaries and we got to speak in sacrament
meeting yesterday and Christian got to report on his mini mission.
Haha it was cool and he had a lot of cool things to say. His dad was
in tears it was great. We spoke on member missionary work which was
way cool. I made them all laugh and they seemed to enjoy it and I just
started crying when I said a quote from Jeffery R. Holland "how can we
expect it to be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?" It
was pretty spiritual. Elder Egan did a great job. Haha he's so funny!
He's changed a lot since I served with him last and he wants to work
harder than he used to. We get fed every night and well so no worries.

Thanks so much everyone! Love you all!!!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Merlin Ward

Merlin - Can you see the church?

Elder Egan and me being thugs.....

Super cool Member Missionary, Christian Garfield.

Yeah it's transfer day today so I'm hardcore busy. I got transferred
to Merlin with Elder Egan. He's a really funny guy! But he isn't the
hardest worker so we will see what we can do about that! Had a good
last week in Oakridge. I got to say goodbye to a lot of people. I
spoke in church yesterday and it was a good way to leave everyone.
Elder Davis is Getting Elder Earl who was my zone leader in Roseburg,
he's way cool so Oakridge is in good hands. Sorry this is short and
lame! More next week!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch

Not a whole ton happened this week so this email might be short. We
taught 11 lessons this week which wasn't too bad at all. Our
investigators and Recent converts are all doing really well! We've
been able to meet with the them often. We didn't get anymore people on
date for baptism which was a bummer so this week we sure will. It
doesn't look like we'll be getting a baptism this month which kind of
stinks. My goal was to have 1 a month and I've not come too close to
reaching that goal. I'm 8 months out now and have had 4 baptisms so
that's not bad at all.

This week we went out to Westfir to kind of get to know the area over
there since it is in our area but we don't go out there much. We found
this cool covered bridge which was really neat. Westfir is a tiny
little town just outside of Oakridge and its way spread out. We also
had a really good district meeting this week once again by Elder
Kroll. He's a way good district leader and an awesome teacher. It's
always good when you have good leadership in the zone because things
run so much better. Elder Davis is continuing to be a great Companion.
We are really low on miles on the car and it looks like we might go
over this month on miles. Two days ago we had a movie night and we
invited a ton of people but nobody showed up! Not really we had a few
people come and we got to watch Meet The Mormons  at the church.
Church was also great. Some Laurels from the 4th Ward came and spoke
to us so we had a good sacrament meeting. In Oakridge the stake sends
a lot of guest speakers since we have so few people.  We got to sit in
on Primary second hour and help teach the lesson which was way fun.
The children were really rowdy so I told them if they were really
quiet and reverent they could have the Missionary Award. Of course
that got them quieted down right away and we had a good lesson then I
haD to think of something to give them which ended up being a fist
bump from the missionaries which they really liked. Then we taught the
young men third hour and talked about serving missions. They had a lot
of questions about it all and it was good to talk to some kids getting
ready to serve. It was a pretty dang good week.

Still loving the mission. I feel like I grow more everyday. Love you
all! And I love hearing from you.


Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch

Hey everyone! It's Elder Martin way out in the land of no sales tax
and where slaves pump your gas for you! Yep things are still the same
old same old in Oregon. Me and Elder Davis are kicking butt and taking
names no doubt about it! I'm coming up quick on my 8 month mark which
means I'm almost 1/3 of the way through my mission. It's going way too
fast. Monday we got done in Eugene hanging out at the institute
building then drove back here to Oakridge and had a lesson with
George. It was way good and a great way to show Elder Davis the people
of Oakridge.

The next day we went to a little store named Cascade General and a
lady in there saw us and said she was passing through and she really
needed a blessing of comfort. We gave her a quick blessing since the
store was empty and learned she was an inactive member who was having
a tough time. It was kind of cool that we were there at that time. I
mostly introduced Elder Davis to all the key people that day like the
Branch Mission leader and Branch President and stuff. Then we went and
tried to contact some people and had a little success. We then went
and saw Shauna and Troy and they were doing really well.

Wednesday morning we were walking around town and a lady named Ruth
came up to us and said that her daughter was a member in the branch
and that she really wanted to be baptized. We were both so stunned! It
was so wild! That like never happens. We scheduled an appointment for
Saturday and then walked away from that way happy.  She ended up
having something come up on Saturday but she seems really solid. We
walked around town some more trying to contact more people and Talking
to people as we went. We got some things scheduled and some potentials
found. We are really low on miles so we walk and bike all around town
but Elder Davis's bike broke so now we are just on foot until we fix
it. It's so lame with no car. That night we contacted Donna a lady who
had met with us previously but had been dodging us really bad. She
said she's pretty stressed out because of all the stuff going on and
she's trying to quit doing drugs and told us it was just too hard. We
told her that the best way to overcome it was probably to not avoid us
but to listen to our message. She agreed with that but was still a bit
hesitant.

Thursday we went and saw Joe and talked with him for a while. And he
was doing good but still was insisting that The church wasn't for him.
In the end we were able to leave on good terms with him but totally
heartbroken for him. Luckily we convinced him to keep the Book of
Mormon and he even said he wanted to finish it so that was cool. We
also had a lesson with Tanya a recent convert and talked about the
restoration. She really enjoyed it. That night we went and saw Silvia
and her family and had a good lesson. She's still doing great  and
progressing in the gospel. Next lesson we are going to invite Dan to
be baptized and we are excited because he's so ready but every time we
invite he always puts it off. This time we'll get him.

Friday was District meeting and my old friend from Roseburg; Elder
Kroll is my district leader. It was so good to see him again and learn
from him. I love Fridays since we get to spend time with the zone and
we don't have miles to get down for P day. Besides that nothing too
exciting happened Friday.

Saturday we did a lot of finding thanks to all the appointments
falling through. But did get to meet with our investigator Aaron. We
taught the word of wisdom and learned that he was having some word of
wisdom problems and so we talked about how he could overcome that. It
was a good lesson and he shed a few tears. He said he'd probably make
it to church next week so we are counting on that.

Yesterday Elder Davis was shocked to see that 5 minutes before church
there was only 15 people there at sacrament meeting. Luckily we were
running on Mormon standard time and a lot more people walked in.
Sister Fine brought her Grandkids and o the chapel looked pretty full
even though we probably only had like25 people there. We had a few
meetings and Since Sister Fine's sons were in town she fed us dinner.
That was our first member dinner in a week so that felt good.

This week was pretty dang good! We are still going strong and hoping
to baptize before the transfer ends! Well that's it more next week!!

Elder S. Jackson Martin
Oregon Eugene Mission
Oakridge Branch