The Lord is always in the details and willing to help, if we put forth the effort.

Hello everyone!  This week the miracles started on Tuesday!  We went on exchanges with some Elders in our zone.  I stayed in Wiley Canyon and Elder Smith (Canadian) came with me.  We were able to teach a lot of people.  We felt to go by one particular investigator, but he wasn't home, but his little brother, who is 22 was.  We taught his brother and he was so receptive.  He prayed for the first time in his life in front of us.  It was so neat!  Such a cool experience and opportunity to help someone make that connection with Heavenly Father.  He is now praying whether he should be baptized soon.

Wednesday we had mission leadership council again.  Being that the building that holds MLC is our, we had to set up.  Beforehand, we decided to drop by an investigator that was on the way.  He wasn't home, so we just spent 20 minutes of so around the area and knocked a couple doors.  We knocked into a guy named Marcos.  We taught him the Restoration, but he was under the influence, however he accepted a return appointment.  He was a good guy though.  MLC was good, learned some good things!

We were paying attention to MLC, I promise!

Elder Clark- goes home this week. 😢😢

😭😭😭 Elder Jensen- goes home this week.  😭😭😭

Elder Nielson- goes home this week. 😢😢

We filled the font again for another baptism afterwards, too.  The zone is killing it lately!

Thursday we had another lesson with Matthew, one of our baptismal dates, and he's still good to be baptized soon, if he gets to church.  We had district meeting afterwards.  The last one of the transfer! We had a really good knockout, but nothing huge came from it.  Talked to a cool girl name Xante who wasn't too religious, but listened to us.  We left her with a pamphlet with our name and number on it just in case.

Friday we went to our return appointment with Marcos, and he kept it!  He was there waiting for us. That's something cool about the mission.  It solidifies the principle of not judging others.  He was under the influence when we set the return appointment, but still kept it, and read the pamphlet.  It's our privilege to go back.  We never know if they actually are ready.  Turns out, Marcos had a lot of questions, and when we invited him to be baptized, he was so excited and accepted without hesitation.  It's so awesome to see people want to change.  At the end of the lesson, he said "You're going to keep coming over and helping me, right?"  So cool to see the humility of someone who wants to come closer to Christ.

Saturday we didn't do too much.  We did have a BBQ with one of our investigators, so that was really cool.  He had us come over and he cooked us some good meat!

BBQ with investigator Bob

We also got transfer calls: Elder Hale is leaving and I'm staying.  I received a text from President Henrie that said "Elder Martin, call me."  He told me that I'm not only staying a zone leader, but that I'm training a new missionary too.  Last time a zone leader trained a new missionary at the same time, was two years.  Now there are 4 of us in the mission doing it.

Sunday was church.  Sacrament meeting was so good!  There were two Elders giving their farewell talks that leave this week.  They were both so good.  They had a lot of their non-member friends there as well.  We were able to talk to a couple of friends of these kids.

After church

Both families were hosting an open house later in the night for everyone to come to, so we went, again to talk and meet all the non-members.  We had a couple of really good conversations with some people.

At open house

While at one of the open houses, we get a call.  It was the girl Xante from knockout the other day. She said she read the pamphlet, and asked that we come back and teach her more, specifically about the Book of Mormon! The Lord is always in the details and willing to help if we put forth the effort. We also had a member text us saying that he just reconnected with an old friend, and set up an appointment for us to teach them in his (the member) home.  This new missionary is gonna be jumping in quick!

So far today, we've had a screw in our tire, so spent some time at Firestone, but decided to walk to the mission office instead of waiting.  We talked with a guy on the way named Miguel.  His car broke down so he had walked to AutoZone and got a new battery and was walking back, and we were able to teach him the Restoration and teach about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  When we got to the office, we ran in and got him a pamphlet in Espanol, and El Libro De Mormon.  We also got to witness Elder Nielson getting picked up by his family at the mission office.  Such a good missionary!

It's gonna be a great week with a new missionary!

I love you and miss you all!

Elder Martin

Overlooking Valencia

Brother MaCleod

Brother MaCleod  drew me in under 3 minutes...pretty crazy.

View from a member's back porch.

Elder Haws hates pictures, but we love Elder Haws

Elder Martin, Jeremy Reeves (priest in the ward), Elder Hale

"My brothers and sisters, the Lord's purposes are often accomplished as we pay heed to the guidance of the Spirit.  I believe that the more we act upon the inspiration and impressions which come to us, the more the Lord will entrust us to His errands."  President Thomas S. Monson