I don't have a ton of time to email today unfortunately but I will
include something funny and something awesome.

Something Funny: I tried to fill up my own gas for the first time in
almost a year and a half. In the process I accidentally hit the
handicap HELP button instead of ENTER so I was freaking out because I
forgot hot to fill up gas or something. It was pretty funny. The
cashier thought I was a moron so I just told him I was an Oregonian
and forgot how to pump gas.

Something Awesome: We are going strong with our people on date for
baptism! The closest to baptism, a guy named Andrew is progressing
super well and looks like he will make February 4 as a baptism date!
We are so excited. He says that he believes the Book of Mormon is true
and that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet today. He is coming to church
and loving it. He is a former marine and has PTSD real bad so he has
struggled for a long time to work toward baptism and he is 100%
committed to make it happen. We are so excited for him! Please
remember him in your prayers.

Thanks for all your support and I hope you have a great week! Later!!!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

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

Yo so good week this week. No time to really write but we have a lot
of good things going. We had interviews today which was great. I love
president Russell. Tomorrow is mlc so we are staying the night in
Klamath Falls. Anyway later!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

Hey team! Holy cow this week has been incredible! Alturas, California
has a few downsides being as far south as mission boundaries go and
having to drive 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to zone conference
yesterday in Klamath Falls, Oregon. We also cover a branch down in
Cedarville that dips into part of Nevada. I am as far from the mission
home as possible in this mission. We are pretty isolated and cold but
I have loved it here! We had zone conference yesterday so today is P
day which is always weird having p day on any other day than monday.

Elder Willits is my companion and he is such a delight. He is always
super encouraging and loving as well as obedient and hard working. He
is super service oriented. Like today I was cleaning my desk and when
I got done I went to fold my laundry and found Elder Willits already
folding it for me. I took over and thanked him only to find that when
i got done he had made me a breakfast burrito. He is a way nice guy.

Holy cow we had some great miracles. We teach a lot of lessons for
such a small town. We are teaching a guy named Mark who has been
meeting with missionaries on and off for years and never made any
progress but since Elder Willits and his last companion followed the
spirit they have been able to put him on date for baptism and he is
making tremendous growth! We also tract a ton which has never been my
favorite thing to do but we have seen a lot of success from it this
week. We were tracting my first night here and we found a gal named
Laura who was super interested and had lived in Utah for a little
while. We also tracted into a member who said that he was "taking a
break from the church" but he told us his daughter saw us the other
day and she asked why he never has the missionaries come over. She is
10 and not baptized and they both came to church this week. Those are
just a couple of the cool things that have happened.

Zone Conference was awesome yesterday. We had a super spiritual
meeting with a ton of awesome insights. I have been loving the
Christmas season. Sharing #LIGHTtheWORLD has been so awesome. A ton of
people love watching it and we can just whip out our iPads and show it
at every door. I have been studying the life of Jesus Christ a ton and
have developed a greater love for him. I love my Savior and all that
He does for me. I know He is the Messiah and it has blessed me
tremendously to have his atonement in my life. Many times these past
few months when things get hard I can just feel His spirit all around
me filling me with peace and comfort that all will work out. I'm
coming up on 16 months in the mission field. I feel like I just
started this journey and there is still so much I don't know. But i
hope to always recognize Christ's love in my life and can come closer
to him everyday through my life.

Have a great week! I can't wait to talk to my family this Sunday!!!!!!
It will be so very special! I sure miss them but I know they are taken
care of.



~Elder S. Jackson Martin

Snow!

Hey everyone it is transfer day and I am off to Alturas, CA. I'm super
pumped to go down there with some missionary who just got done with
training. He is the district leader down there and we are ISOLATED!
Nobody is even close to us. I will be in the Klamath Falls Zone even
though that is about 1 hour and 45 minutes away.

This last week in Eugene was fun. We had some good times. This week
President Lowary, one of the mission Presidency counselors, had some
heart surgery this week and we all prayed for him as a mission. He is
recovering and Elder Lance and I got to take the sacrament to his home
today since he is in our ward. It was a way spiritual experience. It
was great to do service for someone who has done so much for me.

We took some awesome pictures with Eugene First ward the other day
after ZTM and we call them our boy band pictures. Then Elder Swiderski
decided we would have to take a really dope one on the stairwell at
their apartment. They turned out pretty good. We also had a late lunch
with First ward at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was pretty fun.

Also while we were out contacting we found the trailhead to Spencer's
Butte so we stopped for some pictures there. Anyway it was a pretty
fun week. Hard to say goodbye to some people in this ward but I'm
excited to go serve in the Alturas Branch.


~Elder S. Jackson Martin

It has been a really good week here in Eugene. We have been having a
lot of fun! We found some awesome investigators!

The zone this week has been focusing a ton on baptismal invites and as
a zone we have invited 26 people to be baptized!! It's been awesome.
Not everyone is on date yet but it looks like Eugene is picking up. We
went on exchanges this week. I went with Elder Fowers who is easily
one of my favorite in the mission great great time working hard on our
exchange. He has been trying to convince me to go to BYU Hawaii with
him. I told him if he pays for it I sure will. Anyway we had a great
time on Campus talking with everyone we saw. We taught a guy named
Mason the Plan of Salvation. Correction, he taught us the Plan of
Salvation. He knew so much about our eternal happiness and it was
incredible to be with him.

We had a great district meeting this week. While that was going on we
had zone iPad checks and a lot of missionaries got iPads taken. It was
pretty hard to see a lot of people being disobedient with their iPads.
Most the Elders in my district got their iPads taken so they are
having to use paper for everything.

Church yesterday was awesome. Also the First Presidency devotional was
so inspiring! I love it so much. #Lighttheworld has been such a
delight to share with people! It's great to see so many people serving
each other.

We found a few new people this week! That was such a positive thing
since last week was a little tough. It's the last week of the transfer
so we are going to go hard and find some more people. Two of our new
investigators are Scott and Derry. They are some great guys who love
the
Lord. We got to talk with them a lot about the Book of Mormon and what
it means. Derry knew quite a bit about it which was neat. Great guys
to teach and we are seeing them again this week.

Anyway great week with a ton of great people. Last week of the
transfer and then we will see if I stay in Eugene! Till next time
Folks!!!

~Elder S. Jackson Martin

Went on Exchanges with Elder Thompson