Some Martin Missionary Moments: Woodland Hills

Hey everyone! The weather is getting better here in sunny southern California. It's actually starting to live up to its name again! First week and responsibilities as a zone leader have been real good. I love it!

Monday we finished our p-day activities and hit up some families that I'll miss in West Hills. The Rodriquez family took us out to eat at Lucille's BBQ and it was real good. Got some ribs and brisket. We hit up the Jeffords family afterwards, and said goodbye to them. Their kids were in their footie pajamas, and expected me to do the same, so I did. You'll do weird things when you have a good relationship with people, ya feel? To end the night, I took my stuff across the parking to my new apartment, considering I'm not going far. West Hills was blast, but I look forward to Woodland Hills!

Tuesday was transfer day! I had to inspect some apartments real quick and make sure new missionaries came into clean apartments, then we headed to transfers. Hit up McDonald's on the way and pigged out! Transfers are generally a mess, just a ton of missionaries in one parking lot. It was cool though, a random kid pulled in and asked what it was all about and Elder Hamilton was next to me, so I grabbed him and we taught a little in the parking lot during the exchanges, it was pretty cool. Afterwards, we had to drop some people's stuff off at their apartments. We were going to our last stop, when suddenly our car wouldn't start. Not good. Long story short, we just took the battery out, took another missionaries car, and went and bought another one, and then it started fine. (After charging, jumping attempts, and getting the approval of the guy in charge of cars.) We ending up having to go to our dinner appointment late, sitting down for 15 minutes, and leaving to get to our lesson. The lesson was with Tabitha. She's awesome and so ready to be baptized! Got some final things to teach, but it'll be good!

Transfer day

Wednesday we had weekly planning, and then hit up Elder Curnutt's birthday at 5 Guys, which was so sick. There were so many missionaries there. We ran some errands afterwards, but they were good. Elder Clark and I have some real good conversations too. I introduced him to my interest in semi trucks and taught him the brands too. Hahaha. We ended up talking like hicks. Lasted for a real long time. We're trying to stop, it's become a habit. Haha. We had a lesson with a lady named Marry Anne as well. Let me tell you a little background on Marry Anne. My first transfer in West Hills, I was on exchanges with Elder Clark, before we ever even thought about being companions, and we were knocking, and knocked into her. It was neat that it was kind of full circle. She remembered me too. We had knockout after, and saw a guy pushing a truck on one of the busiest streets, so we decided to help. Holy cow, I thought I was going to die afterwards. It was worse than any football conditioning I've been apart of. We pushed for some time to get to a gas station. If felt good to help someone out. We had english class with our good Indian friends named Pandian and Mr. Singh. (The one that came knocking early one morning, when I was on exchanges with Elder Horito.) They are great, I love those guys.

Elder Clark, Pandian, Mr. Singh, Elder Martin

Pandian hanging out with Elder Martin

Thursday we had another class with Pandian and Mr. Singh. More gospel related this time. We had correlation with our new ward mission leader, then hit up district meeting. It is nice not stressing over having to prepare for that anymore. We went to Elder Curnutt's district meeting, and President Henrie showed up. It was a good meeting too. We needed to get into a certain complex, but it wouldn't open, so we climbed in...that's always fun. We had a good K.O. too. We had to run to Van Nuys as well and grab some stuff for a mall booth on Saturday, but we also went and helped Sister Acevedo. (The family we helped install the basketball court.) She needed some heavy stuff moved. She has her own salon, and was getting rid of old chairs, so we took them for our study chairs...those things are heavy! For dinner we BBQ'd some meat that we had bought the other day...not the best at that.

New study chairs

Umm...this is where they climbed into a complex??! What? That doesn't look suspicious at all.

Friday we did some service at the maternity home again, then had lunch and companion study. We did have to go to Valencia to the mission office too, to get some stuff and drop off some stuff. Pretty sure we named every semi on the way. We had another good knock out and found some pretty good potentials. We eventually had dinner at Red Lobster...I bet you can guess what I got. One of the two things on the menu that was not seafood!

Companion study...in coats?

Saturday we got to go set up the mall booth, but they didn't have the stuff for us, like they were supposed to, and we had confirmed before. But they were behind, so we had to hustle and get that set up for the other companionships coming later on to have a good experience. Had another good knockout, and then dinner at yet another BBQ place. Boy am I getting fed well.

Sunday we had ward council in the morning, and had a good meaningful meeting. Sometimes it seems pointless when no discussion happens. But this one was good. Had a good fast Sunday, with 3 investigators at church. Mr Singh, who speaks very little English, got up and bore his testimony. It was really cool. We had knockout, and went to a part member family. We ended up picking up the non-members as investigators, and he's going to ask for Sunday's off from work. It'll be great! We had dinner at our Bishops, and visited various families in the ward to inspire them to do missionary work. Those went well too.

It was a great first week as a zone leader, and in Woodland Hills. Elder Clark sure is great! Have a great week everyone!

I love you and miss you all!

Elder Martin