Roller Coasters! (Not the Real Ones, Sorry!) - Letter 07/28/14

So, this week could easily be classified as the craziest, most stressful week of my mission haha. I've learned a lot, but it was more of the "stop complaining and listen to the Spirit, stupid!" kind of learning. It had a lot to do with getting sicker than I've ever been in my LIFE!

So it all starts with my knee problem haha. Some of you guys know about it, it's over now so I'll talk about it a little. It was bugging me, so I saw some docs and got an MRI. But, so far nothing showed up on the images, so it's all good!  What wasn't good was the meds that my doctor gave me. We're still not sure exactly what happened, but they messed me UP. So all night Sunday and Monday morning I was drinking water like crazy, so dehydrated. Then at about 3:00 in the morning I got these crazy stomach pains and I couldn't sleep at all. The next day I just sucked it up, did the normal P day stuff, but couldn't get myself to eat anything. That night we went porting, and I almost passed out like half way through the night. I went home to bed, but thought it was a 24 hour thing and I'd be on my feet in the morning. NOT! About 2:00 in the morning my kidneys started going crazy and I was throwing up hard. We thought it may be kidney stones, because the first symptoms are usually vomiting and crazy lower back pain. Luckily, that's not the case :) But, Tuesday morning I wasn't even able to get out of bed. I was stuck there, barely able to move, until Wednesday morning haha. So, that was a little tough. But, Wednesday we went to District Meeting, (I still couldn't put down solid foods). So this had been 2 and a half days of nothing staying down inside my body, and I was feeling it. I had already dropped 7 pounds, and this was just between Monday and Wednesday. After District Meeting we had an exchange, so me and my District Leader went and used the mission blue card to buy a blender and some fruits and stuff so that I could do smoothies and shakes, just to keep something down. That's been going pretty well so far. So now, I still can't really do solid stuff for the moment. I've tried a couple things, and I've kept them down, but I always feel awful after. So, shakes it is! I've had to start adding peanut butter, spinach, egg whites, anything I can to get some other nutrients into me haha. But, it's working! 

Now for the other details of the week. First off, some bad news with Jean Pierre. Wednesday morning at District Meeting we got a text from him. He's been trying to sell his business and everything and I guess he made some bad investment with somebody. Basically, he ended up with a fake check for 25,000 euros and is now ruined. He said that he's pretty broken right now and needs to get back on his feet. He wasn't strong enough to take the blow in the first place, and then there are his health problems too. He loves the gospel and the Book of Mormon, but he said that for right now he has to get out of the hole he's fallen into before he recontacts us. I'm praying he'll be able to recover soon, but either way, I'll be gone. 

For Ferrid, we've had to really get on him this week. He's been frooging us a little this week, and not keeping his commitments. He also didn't show up to church yesterday, and we haven't been able to get a hold of him. We'll see what happens, we'll have to push back his baptismal date for sure. 

Our exchange this week went so well! So I was with Elder Alex Miller. He's in that group two transfers older than me (With Bates, Mattson, Stucki, Christensen, Logan Miller, pretty much half the Mission) and he's from Caldwell! Also, he was one of Ben's old comps! So, needless to say, we get along super well haha. He took super good care of me haha, and we just worked our tails off with every spare second we had. This is proof that Ben and I would be great together, because when you put twoIdaho boys together, work gets done! We've both written to Président Babin to ask if we can serve together next transfer, so we'll see what happens :)

Oh! I forgot one thing. You remember Frank, the ami we had that was friends with Hakim, the recent convert? He had moved to Alençon's area, so we passed him to them. Turns out he was in Le Mans during our exchange, so Elder Miller and I taught him here. After, he told us that he's here more often than he's in Alençon, so we're going to restart teaching him this week! 

That's about it this week, sorry it's not much! Nothing much happens when you're stuck in bed for a couple days, it definitely hurts the week. But, we made the best of the time we did have! Have a great week, love you guys!

Elder Tyler Martin

Quiet Miracles - Letter 07/21/14

So first off, French Independence Day! Yeah, it was pretty similar to the US. We didn't actually get to see much, but Elder R's girlfriend is doing a mini mission in the Lyon mission, and she said they got permission to stay up till midnight and watch all the fireworks. I had permission for that for New Year's, but I was too tired haha. Missionary work is tiring! What do the missionaries at home do for 4th of July?

Ok first off, tell Trist I'm SOOO jealous of him driving the Motor Fist monster haha. We all dreamed of that in high school. Tell Kaden to keep pushing through, I understand. No Fun! 

Yes, Elder R and I started our 40 Day Fast last week, so it should be pretty fun! Other things I've sworn off for 40 days are meat, spending personal money, and other stuff that distracts from missionary work haha. 

Ferrid is doing well, we were able to see him the other day with a member, Anaël. He accepted a baptismal date for the 9th of August! We'll have to work our tails off for that day, but hopefully we won't have to bump it back a week. Either way, I'll be here for his baptism :) It's cool to see the change, and I think it's because we've changed the way we approach our work right now. The past 3 transfers, I've worked harder than ever before to have members at teaching appointments. I've also never had so little success with it haha. Something always went wrong, and we had barely any lessons with members present. I think God was holding out, waiting to see how patient I would be with it, because now we teach almost as much with members as we teach other lessons! We've only taught Ferrid one time without a member, the rest members have been there. It's awesome what a difference good, solid members can make in someone's conversion! 

Things with JP were sketchy for a few days, we couldn't get a hold of him and he never called us back. I was so worried! Then the other day we were waiting in a park for a rendezvous (we got frooged) but we saw JP walking up the sidewalk with his dog! He flagged us down and apologized, he said he had been in Bordeaux for a while and didn't have his phone (I think it was a health induced vacation, free of everything haha). He had just gotten home a few hours before and had to walk his dog after the drive, and found us! So we're seeing him Thursday. He told us that he was reading the Book of Mormon the whole time that we couldn't see each other, he's so good! 

We had our Week 2 District Meeting this week, which means the whole zone comes together to do district meeting and a zone training for the transfer. That was fun, I got to see some of my friends I've made here in the zone. 

That's kind of the only real news this week. We didn't find any new amis this week, which kind of stunk. But, that happens sometimes. We're still teaching, and our amis are progressing :) The mission is doing really well right now, we're all kind of at the bursting point for August, which is typically the big month for baptisms (when I came into the mission at the beginning of last August, everyone was baptizing like crazy!). And now we're gonna do it again, with Ferrid and JP the 2 weeks before I leave Le Mans! Have a great week guys, love you!

Elder Tyler Martin

On our way to Week 2 District Meeting!

Saying goodbye to Soeur Whisler, she got transferred to my old ward in Bruxelles!

We got SOAKED coming home the other day!

Me and Logan!

Mattson and Miller

Elder Ward during conference!

(P.S. Keep Elder Ward, my old comp, in your prayers. One of the bars in his chest came undone last week, and he's home getting surgery in Boise to get it fixed. He's planning on coming back out asap!)

Rednecks exist here, too!

Kind of an old picture, but I made a Title of Liberty out of an old ruined shirt for my year mark!

At home we have SmashBurger... Here, we have SmashKebab

Last time with Poznanskis!

Rue Saint Martin... People love me here!

Vive la France! Letter 07/14/14

First off, Elder R and I saw the results of the match last night and our jaws dropped. Brazil lost, to Germany? WHAT?!

Also, today is France's Independence Day! That means that it took eternity to get here to the church to write emails and it'll take eternity to get home haha.

 

It was great to hear about High Adventure, how fun! Those guys are so lucky to have the fun leaders they have haha, it must have been a blast! Tell Connor good luck at Scout Camp, and that he'll have a great time and I love him!

I want to see that video of Soeur Poznanski some day, I miss her and President Poznanski so much! But, the Babins are AMAZING, so it's all good :)

The story with Ferrid has gotten even cooler this week. So last Sunday, lots of members told us "He comes every few months, sets up a rendezvous with the missionaries, blows them off, and doesn't come back to church again for like 10 months". He's been doing this for about 15 years! But, we succeeded in seeing him again during last week, and he totally accepted the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Then, he showed up to church half an hour early yesterday to greet all the members with us at the door! We taught him again and he's progressing really well, trying to find out what his next step is. It's been really humbling to be able to help him move forward like he hasn't been able to do in 15 years. I feel like this is such a big part of why I've stayed in Le Mans so long, I'm pretty sure he'll get baptized before I leave next month! 

JP- This week we can finally see him again after all his health problems and work problems, so I'm pretty pumped! I'll give you an update next week. 

This letter isn't very long this week, sorry! Nothing too exciting, just keeping on keeping on! Have a great week, I love you all!

Love,

Elder Tyler Martin

New Mission President! Letter - 7/7/14

Hey!

I'm glad you like my letter, it's an idea I actually stole from other missionaries haha. But it's a good one! It's true that time is passing quickly. This past transfer was easily the fastest one of my mission. 

So, like you said, France's loss in the Cup this week was pretty hard to swallow here. We taught a family that night that was pretty let down about it, we showed up about 15 minutes after the match was over haha. 

Sounds like you guys had a crazy week, that's fun! Tell C-Mack congrats, that's so cool that he's rocking the pitching so well! He has some serious natural talent, plus he practices and works his tail off haha :)

Meeting with the Babins was so cool this week! We got about 5 minutes to meet with them and introduce ourselves, so that was pretty fun. They also gave a training on their mission goals for the next 3 years, which was awesome! They have some big plans for us and for the Mission, they're great! I also got to spend some time with some of my friends, I've made some really good friends here in this zone the past three transfers. OH! I forgot, we got transfer news, I'm staying here with Elder R for a 4th transfer! Also, one of my good friends, Soeur Lutsy, got transferred here, so that should be pretty cool! Also, Elder Alex Miller is our District Leader. He's from the Boise area, and he served 2 transfers with Ben.

This week was a good one, we had a super cool miracle yesterday! So, we've had trouble finding people the past 2 weeks, and we've had a really hard time getting people to church and getting members to teach with us. It's been the big struggle here. Then yesterday morning, this guy we didn't recognize showed up to church with a Book of Mormon in his hand. Turns out, it's an old ami from before I got here. So after church we sat down and had a talk with him, with Frère Tréhet, our Ward Mission Leader. We basically told him that if he came back, it must be for a reason. We told him we were going to work together to help him progress and figure out if our message is true. Afterwards, Frère Tréhet asked, casually, why Ferrid, (the ami), decided to come to church that day. He admitted that, a couple days ago, he was praying to know which church was right and where to go with his life. He said that after, he picked up the Book of Mormon, opened to a random page and started reading. He said he got overwhelmed by this feeling of peace! Then he said, "That's why I came today, because I know that your church is true."

It's amazing how God can really do the 'finding' all by Himself, He doesn't need us! He just waited for us to put in our own best efforts before taking over.

Have a great week guys, I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Tyler Martin