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