Sup :) February 14, 2011

ALRIGHT!!!!!!! This week was pretty slow in work but one of the best ever haha! I received 7 LETTERS between thursday last week and today! I have never been so happy in my life! knowing that everyone is doing so great and wonderful and that everyone is still hanging around and not kickin me to the curb hahahaha! But thank you everyone for the letters it lifted my spirit so high this last week and it is still going haha!

 

Well to Start i want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MY DAD!!!!! I should have gotten a letter out earlier but im still falling behind on getting B-day letters our early so they are there on time haha but one is coming!!!!

 

Then i want to ask about my Priesthood Authority Line? And was hoping that you could do some research and put that together for me haha cuz i would really love to have that! Also i Want EVERY EVERY EVERYONE to find this talk online and listen to it! Holy cow is it an amazing talk! It is called Saftey for you Soul by Jeffery R. Holland. Aww so good! Then want to know how That sewer line that i dug up and fixed is coming along haha! Im so happy everytime i think about it cuz it makes me feel like i actually did something before i left instead of sitting around being lazy before i left:)

 

Now for the real news stuff!!!!!!!

 

Sister Pandleton got in a car accident this last weekend and it was a head on collision. She broke her sternum, had a concusion, broke something else i think and then scrapes and bruises. Well while she was laying on the ground with everyone around her she was letting everyone know she was a mormon and so proud to be one! She asked both the First Officer there and the Medic in the back of the ambulance both if they were mormon, they said no, so she asked them if they would like to be and would like to follow christ's example and be baptised. I want to be like her! The Amazing thing is the whole mission fasted for her that next day and then tht day after she was up walking around and back to her normal activities! She is one tough cookie! Next later that next night which was monday night. i gave my FIRST blessing out here! it was so amazing! it felt so so good! Finally having a super solid testimony and giving a priesthood blessing was so great! I learned why i always felt scared to give one before, it was because my testimony wasn't strong enough and i had doughts. Well not anymore! This church is true and i hold the priesthood and it is so great!

 

I want everyone to know im sorry for not sounding so up beat a couple weeks ago! I lost track of being out here and was just picking out every negative thing and not smiling and not being happy and just not being me! Well all of your letters helped me see that i wasn't being myself! i was letting contention into my life and that just isnt me! I forgot my favorite scripture! 3 Nephi 11:29. So me and my comp sat down and discussed everything and i have prayed strongly for help and GUESS WHO IS BACK!:) Aww i am so happy to be happy again haha! I was just thinking the other day how hard it is going to be to come home. A member left their tv on and i watch a bit of it and it just felt so weird and i didnt want to even watch what was on tv. IT WAS BAD! Im scared to come home haha cuz there are alot of movies out there that arent good and its hard to stay away from everything out there! Haha Im becoming weird!;) And its only been 2 and a half months! i can't even imagine what im gonna be like at the end haha! hopefully not to to weird;) So things with me and Elder Dowling couldnt be any better;)

 

Well running out of time now but a few more things.

 

I LOVE MY BIKE HAHA!

Darrell is being assigned home teachers now! he is basically a member! just waiting to be able to get baptised! We only had 11 lessons this week but we talked to 60 PEOPLE that turned us down haha! But its getting so frustrating haha. Some people that want to bash are so STUPID!!!! They will sit there and try bashing with us and then all we say is have you read the BOM and they say well enough to know, so we ask it again and they say bits and peices. And i just want to tell them they are stupid! You can't bash the BOM if you havent even read it!!! and then this tiny little lady tried bashing to, even after we started walking away she was still coming haha! just picture that haha...............yup exactly as you can picture it:) She kept saying to oh i got a bible and thats all i need, i wanted to be like well look and 2 ne 28&29. LADY THAT IS YOU!!!!!!!! haha aww the nerve of some people:) i am learning so much out here holy cow! i never thought i would know this much about the scriptures or just the gospel over all!!!! and there is still just so much out there that its frustrating B/C i can't learn it fast enough! But i love it out here and it is so great! im enjoying it cuz it also will be the easiest i ever live in my life again haha!

 

Well i love all of you guys more than you can imagine! and yes that goes for those to that aren't just family and i think they know who they are;) but i love all of you and thank you so much for the support from everyone. i wouldnt be out here if it wasn't for you ALL!!!! The letters are so great and amazing!!!! Haha i felt like a spoiled kid at the candy store with no limits when i got all those letters:) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

ELDER ROBERT LOUIS MARTINDELL

Hey February 7, 2011

Ok this week was so great! We set a zone goal for every companionship find 2 gators a peice. well we found 6 just us 2 and then our zone found 24 all together! So it was such a great week! so many people we got to teach this week! We got to teach 17 different lessons this week and it was so great! we should be able to set a bap. date with one of them this coming week! and im almost positive she is going to say yes!

 

i did my first baptism invitation this last week too!!! haha aww it was so great and failed so good haha! well the guy thought i was talking about that day. so he was like umm today? No. haha then we had to explain to him what we really meant and he said oh ok. well i need to talk to my wife about it first and so we sent another appt. for tuesday and we are going over there to see what him and his wife have decided? his wife i guess has had some bad stuff with religion before so im hopeing that we will just even be able to teach another lesson with them. I think if we can just get them to church even just once, and the whole family, cuz they got 2 kids. i think that they will change their minds. cuz she wants it good for her kids and doesnt want them to go through the same thing. so im really hoping that she will even just give it a chance!

 

Holy Crap! I finally decided i think i might need to actually just read through the BoM and not just look up scriptures and so thats what i have been doing this last 2 weeks. Holy Crap! if everyone would just give it a chance and read it......gosh there is so much in it! and i have only read through 1 nephi! i have spent 2 weeks just on 1 nephi and there is so so much in it! i still have 1 more chapter to read and go through before im done with just the first book haha! Its so amazing tho with some of the scriputres i already know how everything just ties together! its jsut so so great! i am marking a smaller separate book that i will study for all the time and then send it home towards the end and i will explain more when that time comes cuz i want to to be more of a surprise kind of thing haha! and ya there is just so much in it. If people would just give it a chance and not say no at the first go they would know that its true! almost without having to pray! it is such a great book and has so much knowledge for us in it!

 

So my commitment to everyone is to read through the WHOLE BoM this year. Join with me in studying it good and hard and it will make every day you read from it that much better and easier to go through. I Still love you all so so much haha and miss you all! I love this chance to be out here and get 2 years just to study cuz EVERYONE knows I NEEDED IT!!!!! hahaha!

 

Love you all so much! The Book really is blue and the church really is true! We have a prophet for us today and show us in these modern times what to do! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

Elder Martindell

Hey! January 31, 2011

Haha well alright! I will be looking forward to it! You really dont realize how much you enjoy letters until everyone else is getting them and your not:) Haha there for a little while i was thinking i might have to stop writing home just so that i could finally get some letters, and no not just saying this to you mother haha but everyone:) haha i figured this was a 2 way street right;)

 

Well we can get all of those things but we only get 130 dollars a month. and thats for anything and everything. but almost all of it goes into food. cuz its got to be for breakfast and lunch and dinner here and there. and paper towels and TP and dish soap and hand soap and hand sanitizer. haha there are just so so many things i have never had to buy before or even think about haha but I have been doing pretty well tho manageing money haha ya i know suprising huh! Well i think about it everyday. I know i have said this before but you really got to learn how to manage time and money out here. you learn just so many things that are really going to help in life. There are just so many things also to learn and learn to control haha for sure is the wants from the needs. So its great cuz you learn alot from just being out here. Not just gospel related things but huge life related things that will help you have a better and great life.

 

Haha well i still love my comp but after so long you really learn how to be patient and put up with people haha. He is a good guy and good intentions but is exactly what i said i wanted haha! a super strict comp that follows EVERY rule to a T pretty much haha! So i went through a couple days where he really jsut bugged me, but then i finally sat down the other day and noticed that i had changed so much from being out here. My attitude in just life had changed. I wasn't choosing to be happy, and was choosing to let everything and anything bug me and bother me instead of just laughing everything off and just enjoying life. Haha so i have been making consious efforts towards going back to being laid back and just laugh about things haha and i dont think he is liking it to to much haha! cuz he will say something thats just stupid first of all, like i will make a joke and no its not dirty or anything but just about breaking a simple rule or something which wouldnt be big in the first place even if you did. and he goes way over board and says ya we might as well do ......... whatever and its like some of the biggest sins you can make and takes it way out of proportion haha and aww its so funny cuz now i just agree with him and make it sound like we should do that and then it makes him mad and ya haha its so great! So you definately learn how to handle people and just brush stupid things off haha! The other night tho was the farthest he had ever pushed tho. i was sitting there playing with this v_ball and it slipped and hit something but didnt do anything cuz i wasnt doing anything intense and so nothing happened and after i was like oops my bad. it was an accident im sorry. well i went to pick up the ball and he hits it from me and then takes it and wouldnt give it back. and then says ya well its stupid little things like that that stupid people break and do stupid things. i just laughed and asked for it back quite a few times and then he kept saying things and so i started getting irritated and he said you want it then come take it from me. you will be so happy tho i just turned around and went to my room haha and had to calm down before talking to anyone for a while. but now its funny haha but he is jsut not very smart. He is like a solid 6'2" if not 6'3" and 170 pounds. and he is just skinny. i out weigh him by 30 pounds! but i didnt say anything haha just went to my room calmed down and then the rest of that night was ok haha so yup! thats how things are with us right now haha! im ready for a new one but transfers are tomorrow and we are staying together haha! so another 6 weeks with him which i new we would cuz trainers normally train for 2 transfers anyways.

 

Well Darrell committed to baptism haha but cant for about 6 months cuz of probation and we picked up a new family! but they are spanish so we get to give them to some other elders who cover the spanish branch. but we got some new investigators haha thats all that matters! we are still trying to pick up more cuz the rest of the investigators are moving really really slow. not much is happening right now. Still get some great things said and yelled at us tho haha its so awesome! but nothing to new with the work but ya.

 

oh i got to go on exchange tho with my DL and we ended up doing drywall in the members home he is living with! its all hung but we got to do all the taping haha and it was alot of fun! doing something i havent done in a while and now knowing a little bit more wasnt terrible and just being that much smarter and grown up haha it was fun! i was treated like a saint tho cuz i knew some what about it so i had to teach everyone what to do and how things went haha so that made it that much funner to haha! good thing i learned that! i learned it for a reason:)

 

i love all of you guys so so much and miss you all! The Book Is BLUE & The Church Is TRUE! And i love it everyday! This gospel is just so great and i love it so so much!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Your Elder Martindell

 

It's Great!! January 19, 2011

Well time is flying by so so fast! already into my 5th week out here! Almost done with my first tranfer! how crazy is that! its going by so so fast! in a week and a half it will have been 2 months out! time flys by when your having fun haha! Well things are still going well....sorta. we are starting to get in a stump with our investigators. its crazy how you can have 6 investigators and all be having different problems haha! yes we are at 6 now. we lost 1. he loves us coming over and visiting but wasnt progressing anymore and is pretty set in his ways. so that was kinda a downer. but everyone else isstill progressing well. All kinda slow but still progressing. So our goal is to start pushing more on baptism and our purpose and reason for meeting and what we are woking towards and all of that good stuff! So we are praying really hard for help on where to start going with our investigators and how to eep helping them progress.

 

Well i got to have my first sick day! never thought i would get sick out here! laying in bed just felt so wrong! the whole time i felt like i was disobaying and doing bad but then thought it was best for me to be sick a day and get back to work than get out investigators sick and them be out a week if not more. but it sucked really bad. i learned be careful what you wish for. i said i wanted a p-day where i could just sleep and rest instead of catching up on everything still. and also a 0 mile day on the car so we can get a cushion just incase something happens. well i got both yesterday just not the way i wanted it haha! im out of time. i didnt get much time today. lots of people! but nothing to much new going on. cuz we are in a stump. but hopefully there will be some good progress to report for next week. I love you all and it sounds like everything at home is going good! sounds like the lord is taking care of all of you guys! He will continue to do so as long as you keep him right there in your everyday life and not jsut when you need him. i miss you all and still kickin strong out here haha! actually i love it! im finally getting more confident on tlaking to anyone and everyone ha which is pretty fun cuz i LOVE the reactions you get from some people. haha its what makes the work more fun and enjoyable. its kinda funny to listen to some of the excuses people give to not let you in or cancell and appointment. but its great cuz this is what im out here to do which makes it that much better! i love you all and keep pushing forward! and yes we have a cd player in the car and in our appartment. so love ya and cant wait to hear from you guys!

Robby's first area in the California Roseville Mission!

Robby is now serving in Auburn, California.  Here is an introduction to his first companion Elder Dowling!

Here are some pictures that he has also sent of his apartment and various other things!

Looks like his companion got a boo boo!

Mmmmm...wonder what this means :)

Looks like he has enjoyed our package!

......and then some!

Definitely a place of study!

"Gosh....got caught!"

Sara....I think these are for us!

Just chillin'

Hanging with the Bros....love the Christmas Tree!

Ooooh....what did his companion find?!

"Uh Oh....I got caught agian!"

Not sure the first Elder's name and Elder Boyter

Elder Martindell and Elder Boyter

Elder Martindell, Elder Boyter and Elder Dowling

Arriving in California!

I feel very lucky to have these photos.  They are from the California Roseville Mission blog.  I emailed the Mission President and asked if I could have these....and they said I could have all I wanted!  So here are pictures from the day Robby and his District arrived in the Roseville California Mission!  

A Gift for their Instructors

Robby and the Elders in their district put together a little something for their instructors and here is a video and some pictures of it.

Robby and Elders in the MTC singing A Child's Prayer and Introducing themselves!

OK I loved this video and had to share here are some of the missionaries in Robby's district singing a Child's Prayer.

This video introduces the missionaries in Robby's district.  I am guessing they did this a day or so before they left for their prospective missions.  Now....I am not responsible of course for the things that these boys say or do on this video...watch at your own discretion...boys will be boys...I guess even if they are in the MTC!

MTC Pictures

Ok so yesterday we received a package from Robby which was wonderful with post cards, pictures, videos and things that I will be trying to post on here because they are so neat!  I am going to start with some pictures....although I have no idea who most of the Elder's are...Robby will have to fill us in on that information, but just know they are coming.

Ok this was the first picture Robby took with his camera.  We were sitting in IHOP in Orem just waiting for our breakfast the day he entered the MTC.  (Note:  For those of you who will be having missionaries going out, IHOP will give your missionary a free meal the day he enters the MTC.  So eat and enjoy....we did!)  The cool thing is there were probably 10 other missionaries and their families in the restaurant when we were there!

Well this looks like his room at the MTC the day he entered...I'm guessing, because it looks like they are still unpacking!

Hall shot into the Bathroom!

Robby and his Elder Room mates.

Robby and his companion.

I think he said these were the guys in his district.

Guessing class room?

His Instructor

Cafeteria

I know...a lot of these speak for themselves!

I do know this one....This is Elder Kartchner from Thatcher that Robby was good friends with before his mission.

Ok this one cracked me up....and there were a couple more where he was taking a pictures of other Elders taking pictures....?

Alright Elder.....keep your mind on the work!