Transfer from Portland to Lewiston, ME

Facebook post:

I'm so grateful for my time I had in Portland and the people I was able to meet and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to. I'm excited for my future in Lewiston and can't wait to serve and help others come closer to Christ in Lewiston, Maine!

Transfers and Baptism!

Bonjour tout le monde

These past couple weeks have been pretty good. Unfortunately I don't have very much time so I'll just write the important details.

Danny was baptized and confirmed! His English isn't super great, but after he was confirmed he turned to me and said, "I feel the fire." He is an amazing man, who lived through the Rwandan Genocide and beat stage 4 cancer.

We were tracting an apartment building and after a few minutes of speaking to a man in French, he asked me if I speak English.

Transfers was a week and a half ago and I'm now in a trio with an awesome missionary named Elder Kunzler, training a Visa waiter on his way to Portugal. They've been really easy to get along with and now we speak 3 languages as a companionship.

Also we eat whole fish here in Portland, Africa. Including the head.

Love you all and sorry I couldn't write much this week but I'll update more next week.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bonjour tous le monde!

Another great week! This week is transfers, so we got fed by the ward more than normal which was awesome! One of the people we're teaching says that everything he learns helps his faith more because it clarifies questions he had before about the Bible and he is thinking about baptism now! A couple of our other investigators also seem to be going towards the same route.

One of our lessons this week was a little stressful. Last night we went to teach with the Sisters because they don't speak any French and somehow had arranged a lesson with a family that doesn't speak any English. They were giving us the usual objections about the Book of Mormon and that they already have a Bible and that was hard enough to explain with our broken French. But then the mission President called to tell us what's happening with transfers so Elder Ellsworth left to answer the call and we couldn't talk about it until after the lesson so that was distracting enough. Then the woman started breastfeeding her child and made no attempt to cover up. Somehow we were able to finish teaching and give them a Book of Mormon.

So we found out that Elder Ellsworth is transferring to Essex, Vermont. I will be staying in Portland and Elder Kunzler, another French speaker will be joining me. Together we will be training a brand new Portuguese speaking missionary from the MTC who's waiting on his visa to go who knows where. So that should be exciting and challenging.

Also I found something cool in the apartment that's been passed down by Elder's preceding me. In honor of Valentine's Day this week I'm sending missionary dating application in the photos. I just thought it was hilarious haha. Ladies...My addy is 144 Washburn Ave, Portland ME  04102 

Love you all!

Elder Martin

Happy Super Bowl!

Hey everyone!

This week was another pretty solid week.

We drove out to the middle of nowhere in Scarborough to visit some members on Tuesday night and one of the back country roads we were on happened to be pretty much entirely ice. So we pulled up to a house and tried stop but drove straight into a snowbank. I wasn't driving of course when this happened. The car was also unable to budge at all out of the situation so I stepped out to push it and fell on my back as soon as my foot touched the road. For some reason Elder Ellsworth wanted to check if there was any damage and he also fell on his first step out. We fell a few more times walking up to the house and it was the wrong house. When we finally got to the correct house next door (after falling a couple more times) they weren't home. Luckily there wasn't any damage to us or the car.

One of the people we're teaching has survived the Rwandan genocide and most of her family was killed. The priest at her church in Africa had the power to save some people but basically turned a blind eye and that really hurt her faith for a while. She was having trouble recognizing what the Holy Ghost was and was kind of sad about that for the month or so we've been teaching her., but just recently that changed. We asked her if she felt comfort at church or when she prays, and she was able to think of moments where she did. When we told her that was the Holy Ghost, her eyes lit up and she was so happy.

One of our miracles for the week was when we tracted a hallway and not a single person told us no. It was only about 5 doors and they've been a challenge to get return appointments with, but I can see potential for sure. It was also just really relieving to not be told no.

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Martin

:)

This week wasn't too crazy. We had zone conference which was fun and met a bunch of pretty cool missionaries.

I went on a quick split with the DL and we went to go teach a lady named Cara. She then told us that meeting the missionaries was a "catalyst for her turning Catholic." I guess they had started teaching her and then her super Catholic family got involved and now she's Catholic.

We were tracting one night and we met a lady who loves Jesus and the Bible and speaks french. My companion was trying to tell her that Jesus came down to the Americas to minister to the people but he said, "Jesus a tombée dans les Ameriques." Which basically means Jesus fell into the Americas. She said "Oh ok byeee." And I don't think I've ever seen someone close the door so fast.

We also went to teach some Spanish speakers with the Jacob, a member from the ward. We had 2 super cool lessons in 100% Spanish which means my companion and I basically did nothing lol. But they seemed super ready for the gospel and want to start coming to church.

Much love! 

Elder Martin

New England Snowstorms

Bonjour tous le monde!

Another great week! We taught a lot of people, went on a couple companionship exchanges, experienced our first real winter storm, and witnessed at a wedding.

To start off the week, the Zone Leaders came over on P day and played Risk with us and a couple other Elders. I won of course. Then we went on exchanges and Elder Petersen and I taught quite a lot of people. We also attended a funeral.

One of my favorite moments from this week was when we went to teach a woman named Sunday. She is from Uganda so doesn't speak French, but we brought a French Book of Mormon just in case. She happened to have a roommate named Reine who was from Burundi. She told us a story about how she was pronounced dead at a hospital, but saw a man dressed in white who basically told her that she was still needed, and her heart started beating again after 5 minutes of stillness. She seems to have no ill effects from the event and came to America at the age of 13 speaking no English, but was able to figure it out. When we told her about the Book of Mormon and gave her the French one that we had brought, she told us she wouldn't be able to sleep that night because she was so excited to read it!

There was a couple that was investigating the church and basically told the bishop that they wanted to get married as soon as possible. So Elder Ellsworth and I served as witnesses for it.

Saturday night I started an exchange with Elder Jarvis, and we had our first big winter storm. We had restrictions on the time we were allowed to be outside, and weren't allowed to drive, so we did a lot of studying and shoveled out a bunch of cars. One woman tried to pay us but we just told her we'd love to share a message about Jesus Christ, so that's going to happen next week. Somehow we were even able to give out a couple of Book of Mormons on the street that day.

If you're still reading at this point I want you to know I love you and you're awesome.

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Martin

It's Freezing

Hey everyone!

This week has been another pretty good week. Danny accepted a baptismal date, and he has some friends that are also very open to the gospel. We've been teaching a lot, and also turned down as expected. 

On Sunday we went tracting with a member of the ward who speaks Spanish. I don't remember if I mentioned it last time but the first time he came with us we found 5 new people to teach in about an hour. This time we found 3 and had some super good lessons that I didn't understand any of haha.

I met some more really cool people this week. There were a couple people that lived through the Rwanda genocide and saw some pretty horrific things. It's amazing how they can still have such strong faith. Another woman we just started teaching had her husband pass away this week from cancer and we've been trying to spend time with them and help them to cope. She calls us "mes enfants." 

Not sure why the Lord continues to bless us but I'm very thankful.

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty solid. We found 8 new people to teach and have one new person on date for baptism!

I'd say the highlight of the week was when we were teaching someone about the Restoration,  and they had a friend over that didn't speak any English or French. I'm not sure how much she understood about the lesson but she felt the Spirit and asked us if we could teach her another time and have her daughters translate! We visited her on Saturday and brought someone who speaks Kinyarwanda and they got along great and she wants to learn more.

Later we visited someone who just moved from Burundi about 3 months ago and taught her about the Restoration as well. She said she wanted to come to church but was worried because she only had flip flops for shoes! So we went out and got her a pair of shoes and saw her at church on Sunday. There are so many people here with such humble situations but are still grateful for everything they've been given. One man bore his testimony on Sunday about how when he moved to the US he was homeless,  even though he was pretty wealthy doctor in the DRC. The reason he moved was because he was saving girls from sex trafficking and some people involved with the government told him he either had to stop or be put to death.

One last thing... We taught someone about the Plan of Salvation this week, and he loved it. So much that he started taking notes and writing down scriptures to study, just like he did when we taught him the Restoration. 

Until next week!

Je vous aime!

Elder Martin

Happy New Year!

This week was pretty good. We found a lot of new people to teach and a lot of people that just got to the US from Africa in the past couple of months, so I'll be able to practice my French more.

One of the highlights of our week was when Jeff Andrews dropped us. He had been having missionaries over for the last few years and feigning interest because he was lonely and wanted people to visit him. We knew he wasn't really interested and possibly an agnostic psychotic. But we still had to give him a chance so we told him we wouldn't visit him unless he came to church. When he didn't come to church a couple weeks and realized we were serious, he called and left a very angry voicemail telling us basically a bunch of anti-Mormon conspiracy theories and that he had been baptized 22 years ago and had his name removed from the church. Finally got that guy on the "Do not contact" list after wasting tons of missionaries' time.

We also went on exchange again and found quite a few people to teach for the amount of time spent finding. One of the missionaries in our district left for Angola this week so that was my last exchange with him. I was sad to see Elder Harshberger go because he was a really cool guy, but I know he'll do great in Angola.

New Year's Eve we went to a member's home and played "Ticket to Ride" because we figured it might not be a good idea to tract or talk to people out on the streets because they were most likely all getting drunk. That was a lot of fun and was a nice break from all the crazies we meet.

People keep telling us the weather is abnormally warm for this time of year. Last year about this time it didn't get above 0 degrees for over two weeks, and today it's a balmy 45. I'm very greatful that we haven't gotten extreme weather yet but everyone keeps telling us it's still coming.

Happy New Year everyone!

Elder Martin