Miracles on miracles!

Hey everyone.  I hope you all had a great week.  I don't have much time today, so this will be short. We were able to have a lot of good teaching opportunities this week.  We spent a lot of time finding this week.  We were also able to go to a baptism in Canoga Park for someone that Elder Jensen and I had found a while back.

With Michael, Cheryl, Elder Jensen

There was also a fire here last week, so the temperatures have been real high. We came out of church yesterday and it was 110 degrees...that's on the weather app, not the car.

News pictures of the fire in Elder Martin's area

We had a funny/weird experience this week too.  I'll share from what is called the "miracle hotline" in our mission.  When we have miracles, we send them in to Sister Henrie, and she compiles them, so this is one we sent in.

"MUST READ!!! Miracles on miracles!  We pulled into our KO location and parked the car in what seemed to be a visitor parking.  About and hour into KO, we noticed a tow truck drive by as we were OYMing-after we teach Miguel the Restoration, we see the tow truck drive by again...this time with our car.  We quickly found out it wasn't visitor parking.  As we chased the tow truck down, someone else in the street had stopped to talk to the driver (miracle #1) so we were able to catch up.  The driver dropped the car for $105 instead of the normal tow fee of $265 (miracle #2).  This opened up a Gospel conversation which lead to simple statements of truth, and a return appointment next week- Tuesday! (miracle #3)  #100dollarinvestigator #HBDElderHaws

KO= knockout, when we knock from 4-6 everyday
OYM= Open your mouth, or talk with everyone

Just some good insight to always keep in mind, Obey the commandments out of love for the Savior, rather than fear from God.

I love you all so much!  I miss you!

Elder Martin

"Every day is a great day in my life.  I hope every day is a great day in your lives-every one of you.  

I hope you can get ready to go in the morning and shake the hand of your companion  and say, 'life is good. 

 Let's go out and have a good day."  

President Gordon B. Hinckley

A Great Week in the YSA

I sure hope that everyone has had a great week with this weather heating up!  I heard it's getting hot back home?

Last Monday was a great day.  We were able to have 4 non members at the church playing basketball. It was really cool, we had the whole zone playing too.  It makes P-day feel a little more like missionary work when you have a purpose behind it, and still are working (playing) with investigators.  It really helps build that trust with them.  We were able to have Kora and Dede at dinner with us too, at the Kozak's.  Good ole Kozaks from the Saugus ward.  What great people!

Tuesday we were able to do an exchange with some of our district leaders, Elder Sosa and Elder Johnson.  I was with Elder Johnson in Canyon Country.  We were biking to and fro the places we were going.  We had a really good knockout.  We talked with some people who were really interested in the Gospel.We also were able to ask inspired questions to help people see the importance of the Gospel in one's life.  With Elder Johnson, we had a really good lesson with a part member family and we simply read from the Book of Mormon with them, but they had questions all ready to be answered.  It was so cool!

Exchanges with Elder Johnson

Cute Sister Aubrey and Elder Martin

Wednesday was filled with miracles.  After exchanging back, we had a really good lesson with Dede.  As we were nearing the invitation to be baptized, her brother walked up, also YSA age, and started asking questions.  How cool?  We also did a little message with a recent convert from a family ward, who has a down syndrome son, and she wants to share the Gospel with her sons caretaker.  We had a really spiritual moment with her, and made a little action plan to help her share the Gospel with him.

Thursday was district meeting, but we also had a really good knockout.  We got to skate a little bit with some kids, but also invited a lot of YSA's to church.  It was really hot, but it was good.  We had dinner, with a part member family, that went well.  We had some real good pupusas.

Friday we had interviews, and that is always good fun to sit and talk with Sister Henrie, while also role playing with the other missionaries as they come for their interviews.For lunch we went to Pho, a Vietnamese restaurant.  It was pretty good.  (Don't tell Elder Horito, I didn't want to go there, but it was good.)

Afterwards, we had yet another exchange, this time, with the assistants.  I was with Elder Call in Stevenson Ranch.  We had a really good knockout and were able to talk to a lot of people throughout the day. He's really good at talking with everyone, no matter the circumstance.

Exchanges with Elder Call

Saturday we were able to get out early.  We left earlier that 10 because there was coordination, but we started knocking doors right after.  It was a good couple of hours until it was about time to go back and study and then exchange back.  The second to last door that we knocked, we were able to find a girl named Calina, from Romania.  Her family just moved here a couple of months ago, and her family is yet to find a church that they are comfortable with here.  It was a good opportunity to teach and testify of the Gospel.  She was able to accept the things we taught and also accepted a soft baptismal date.  It was neat.  We exchanged back at a baptism.  It was a baptism for a 17 year old girl, and her family was there.  Her sister also had friends there who were YSA aga, and so we talked to them after the baptism to find out if they had interest i the Gospel.  It turns out, they do.  We eventually went and knocked on some doors and then had a quick appointment, then dinner with the Aubrey's.  Yet another great family from my first time in this area.  They spoiled me for my birthday, it was so nice of them!  So did Kora, she got me a pinata and some balloons.  Anyway, later that night we gold a hold of those friends from the earlier baptism, and we gave them a church tour of the YSA building.  Church tours really do help out so much!  It was a great day!

Sunday was your typical YSA Sunday.  It was good though.

It's been a really great week!
I love you all!

Elder Martin

Birthday pinata

"God sent you here to prepare for a future greater than anything you can imagine."  

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Happy Birthday, Elder Martin!

Thank you Aubrey family for going all out and making Elder Martin's birthday so special.  We are all so grateful for the generosity, kindness, and friendship!  

Hello everyone!  This is going to be a real brief email, with very little time left.

Last Monday, we were able to get two investigators, Dominic and Max, to come to family home evening at the church with all of the YSA's.  It would have been better for them, had FHE started on time...we had to leave to go to a meeting, but the ward really did take care of them, it was cool.

Tuesday we met with a couple of members and got them to do some missionary work of their own, it was cool.  We also got Kora, (recent convert) to do her family history, and we brought her sisters, and Dominic and his friend and played some ball for a quick minute.

With Kora and her sister

Wednesday we had MLC, so not too much happened.  A couple hour long discussions.

Thursday we had district meeting and knockout.  After knockout we just had a quick minute before a lesson, and no dinner, so we just hit up the Aubrey's and grabbed a quick snack.  We did have a really cool lesson with another one of Kora's sisters, and taught the restoration.

Thank you Eric Aubrey, for the snacks!

Friday morning we got to go to the valley and be part of a Temple Visitors center feedback meeting thingy.  It was cool to give them our feedback.  We were some of 4 companionships that got to go. Later on, we had an exchange with Elder Phillips and Elder Chappell.  Elder Phillips and I knocked into a really prepared lady named Christiane.

Elder Phillips and Elder Martin

On Saturday we were able to go to the big park by our apartment and contact some people.  There was a big 7 on 7 football tourney so we got to talk to a lot of people.  One of them, named Grant something...he played safety for UCLA from 98-01, and told me all about how he got trucked in the Rosebowl one year, haha.  Anyway, we had good lunch with our Bishop and some solid contacts throughout the day.

Sunday we were just able to get Dominic to the church.  But that's about it.  We had a good day at church.

I hope you all have a great week this week.  I'll write more next week, I promise.  I love you all!

Elder Martin

"Wonderful, glorious things are in store for you, if only you will believe, obey, and endure."  
President Thomas S. Monson

One Year!

Hello everybody!  Not too much went on this week, so I apologize for my short email.

On Tuesday, after our preparation day, we had dinner at the Wilson's home.  They feed all the YSA missionaries and anyone they bring, every Tuesday.  We were able to have Kora, and 3 of her sisters, as well as Chantel there.  It was so sick!  It was Elder Horito's birthday, so they got a cake with a picture of his family on it, it was sick.  After dinner, we taught a lesson with all of them there.  It was great!  We were supposed to go and meet with the stake high councilman over missionaries, but he had to cancel, and then at that point, the assistants asked us to go to the stake center and prepare and make sure things were ready for zone conference tomorrow.

Wednesday we had zone conference.  It was the North Hollywood, Valencia, and Santa Clarita zones, all at our stake center.  It took up a big portion of the day.  We were able to give a training that went well, I think.  I was giving it, not in the audience.  Some other zone leaders gave a training, as well as the assistants, and President and Sister Henrie. It's always such a good meeting.  We did exchanges after, and I went with Elder Sosa.  Elder Sosa just got released from being zone leader for over the past year, so I was able to learn a lot from him.  We had a good knockout, and then hit Wendy's for dinner, cuz no dinners in YSA.  Our appointment fell through, so we went to the park to talk with people, and played ball with some kids.  You know how it goes, if we win, we teach them.  We won both times. (They're coming to play basketball with us today at the stake center.)  We had a good lesson with Chantel afterwards, really Spirit driven.

Thursday (ONE YEAR!!!) we went and played ball in the morning for exercise, before meeting with some members and sharing a quick message and helping them share the Gospel better in their lives. We call this "Member Inspire" in our mission.  We were able to stop by a couple other people, and then a recent convert from  his ward, had a birthday/graduation party for him and his daughter, so had us over for lunch, and then we exchanged back.  We got bashed by some girls during knockout, but they don't understand we're not going to argue back, we simply invite.  We were able to go by some people, I can't remember who, though.

Friday was just a bad start to the day.  Our washer in our apartment like randomly blew up, Elder Horito had stuff in there, so they were stained with something, so we needed to get to a wash real quick, to get it out while it was fresh.  But the whole morning just had a bad feel to it.  We were able to turn the day around and have a good knockout.  Didn't find anyone too set, but some good people, nonetheless.  Also, when we were going to be home for dinner, we got a call.  The Santa Clarita stake has youth conference, and all the youth are going out with missionaries on Saturday.  We were asked to make the assignments to all the missionaries to let them know if they would or wouldn't be have youth with them, and where they had to meet them.  So I got to call all the zone leaders in the mission and go through their zone.  Very similar to transfer calls, I feel the pain of what the assistants have to do to make transfer calls to the whole mission, hahah.  So there went our dinner hour and time before bed.

Saturday morning we planned on biking with the youth we had, so we packed up the bikes, and planned to do studies at the church where it was more quiet (and central in our area.)  When we got there, some youth didn't show up, so we had to help coordinate throughout the mission again, who didn't need to meet somewhere to have youth.  But it seems like the youth had a good time with the missionaries, I hope they all had a good experience.  We were able to have a lesson with Kora and one of her sisters, Dede, before knocking, and doing some member inspire lessons.  We finally were able to have dinner and cool down a little today, so that was good.

Sunday we had coordination with our ward mission leader and then church.  Got to talk to Caden Bailey, from home, so that was cool.

Caden Bailey and Elder Martin

 Church was good, but let me tell you, YSA is weird...I may have said this last week, but I'm never going to a YSA ward outside of the one I'm serving in. They're great people though, it's just weird. We had a linger-longer after church so we were able to get some people better acquainted with Kora and Dede.  I was able to get to know some other people too, so that was good.  We knocked after that, and then stopped by Kora's to create a better relationship with her family.  It was a success.  We also stopped by a guy named Dominic.  Some Hermana's knocked into him last week.  He was praying to know if God was there and loved him when the Hermana's knocked on his door.  We were able to testify of the power of prayer, and go over the Restoration again.  When we asked if the first vision was something he could believe in, he said "I feel like it happened to me."  It was so neat!  We set a baptismal date with him for July 22.  It was a really good day.

I love you all!  Like my dad would always say, "Remember who you are, and what you stand for!" The world is crazy out there, but as you remember that you are a child of God, and he loves you, you'll recognize and want to obey the commandments a little bit better, and then we'll be blessed.

Have a great week!
Elder Martin

Kora with Elder Horito and Elder Martin

"If today you are a little better than you were yesterday, then that's enough."  
David A. Bednar