Week 15 February 9, 2015 Bleu's Conference in Lyon

I sent a package today! You will probably get it in about 10 days if customs doesn’t stop it. I really wish it wasn't so expensive!! It’s stupid! It cost me 36 euros to send 1.8 kg! Outrageous!! I might have to just hang on to the stuff that I buy.... I sent home a bunch of Swiss chocolate! Can’t really hang on to that for two years though haha :) 

Dad really is a great guy and I am lucky that through the plan of God that I ended up with him as a dad and you as a mom.  Aww poor grandpa! Tell him that I miss him!!

The French is coming along haha I am not perfect, but it is a miracle of God that I can understand the amount I do! They teach you French in the MTC and then you have to relearn it here in France because they speak so differently!! Haha but I keep getting better every day! I can sing, but not that well... My comp makes me sing fast songs. At first it was hard to say the words, but it helps me read faster and not have to be slow and sound out every word like a first grader haha so yeah! But I will sing to you on your Birthday/ Mother's Day! :) The next time we Skype! It’s only like three months away! Crazy!!

The weather was bad for half the week but now it is sunny again! Super sweet and warm! Sweater weather. We tried to go to a fort today, but it was closed on Monday’s lol so maybe some other time! I want to show you all these awesome pictures but I don’t know how to get Dropbox to work!!

I sleep on the mattresses now. They do help a little. I was really tired and grumpy this week. Well tired and broken. I was depressed all week.... but then Sunday came a long and now I am happy. I wrote about it in the letter I put in the package. It will explain everything.

I went back to Lyon for my bleu's conference! It was very cold and very snowy! I slept in a robe on the first night because there were no blankets! I am so glad that a parting elder gave me that robe because the parts of my body that weren’t covered were absolutely freezing!!! But it was nice to see Elder Landry! MTC reunion haha

This is a picture I took today! How do you like the haircut I gave myself?

Well I am off!! I got to write a lot of people today!! Thank you for your love and support. I really need it always.... I am weak without you. 

Tell everyone that I love them  :)

Talk to you later!!

Elder Nick Benjamin Martin

A cathedral in Lyon, France.

Apparently there is a movie/film festival every year or so in Cannes! the whole town has these murals and pictures of famous celebs everywhere!! (if he only knew how famous it is or is he just joking with us??)

A cool tower in Cannes!

Week 12 January 19, 2015 Missing Family and Home

You guys have been spending a lot of time over there in Puyallup! I miss it over there! Honestly, I think Puyallup is prettier than the countryside where I am at now. The sea is beautiful, and the mountains, but I am so far away from any trees and stuff and what I have seen really hasn’t been all that spectacular... I miss trees and the green. Everything is still in bloom here, but everything is brown.... it makes me a little sad actually. I miss the green forests of Priest Lake and Puyallup! That is where my heart is! I have trouble staying awake when I am indoors, too. Oh my when I am outside and moving do I feel fully awake. I think my job will have to have a lot of movement or else I will be falling asleep quite often.

I miss the forests and the memories and the reading. Every time I read out loud at the mtc, all the sisters told me how much they loved my voice haha I miss reading out loud in English and I miss being able to speak English. It was so much easier and I understood everything and I could actually speak what I felt in my heart. Now I have to spill it in broken French... 

Honestly... I am having a really hard time right now... I am very discouraged... I miss you and dad and the family and home and Julia... I feel so alone over here. My comp is really a good guy, and I feel like a brother; he is a brother; but I long to come back home where everything was nice and easy and fun and full of love and good memories... I am not going to quit.. I will figure it out...

 

Yay!! Go SEAHAWKS!! :) go prayer circles!!! :)

So the weirdest thing happened this week... my jaw locked in place for about an entire minute... I couldn’t close it, finally I tried to talk and it loosened up.. But that was very scary... I try not to yawn now haha

 

We had a baptism this week! Well not our investigator, but the sisters in our district. He is a really cool man. He will make a great contribution to the ward! I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture with him... really stupid!! But I will get it next Sunday or this Saturday when the sisters baptize another one of their investigators!! So cool! :)

 

Well I will talk to you later! I have some stuff to do... We didn’t go to Grasse today to the perfumery, but we probs will next week. So I will be carrying around perfume for a while haha oh well!

 

Talk to you next week!! Love you!!

 

Love

 

Elder Nick Martin

 

Week 5, December 2, 2014 Last Week at the MTC

I'm doing good! Really tired. I got really good at falling asleep during class lol! But when I get out to the field next Tuesday I will be constantly active and won't be sitting much, so a lot harder to fall asleep! The language is coming along. I think I should do alright.... I just can't hear French and understand it well, so I need to hear the language more before I can instantly respond instead of taking ten seconds to figure out what they said lol! 

This week we got to hear from Elder Dallin H Oaks for our Tuesday Devotional, Elder David A Bednar for our Thanksgiving Devotional, and BYU Vocal Point for our Sunday night devotional! We have been pretty blessed with good speakers and devotionals! Choir for the devotionals were really good too! I have gotten the opportunity to sing in every choir since I've been here and it is so powerful! 

I got my flight plans!! I leave Monday December 8th from SLC Airport at 11 AM and go to Chicago and from Chicago to London and From London to Lyon! And then I will end up there at 11 AM! So with the eight hour difference and the four hours of layovers, I have about 12 hours of flying!! Super fun! :) I am nervous about the language... I've heard that about on average it takes 6 months for the language to click so I'll just keep enduring!! :) 

I have seen Elder Austin Forsyth and Elder Jason Hopkins! Hopefully I can see Elder Chance Carver this Wednesday when he comes! Also met a Sister Beo from West Richland!! She's going to the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission!! Super awesome Sister :) 

Other than the language, I'm excited to leave the MTC and get into the field! I've already seen so many miracles, but I know that it will increase tenfold in the field! I miss you all and am excited to hear from you in the future!!

I love you lots and miss you so much!! Keep supporting me! I need it!

Love always,

Your son,

Elder Nick Benjamin Martin

We have a picture of Nicholas Cage baptizing the man from Lonesome Dove!!!

In the Christmas Spirit :)

Week 4, November 25, 2014 Thanksgiving Week

So this week was rather interesting.... It snows, but it never sticks! I got released as a zone leader, so I have a lot more time to focus on my French now! That's going pretty well! There is no way that I could be learning this fast were it not for God helping me! He really loves His missionaries! 

We have been teaching an actual investigators hired by the MTC, and they love us! H and J are their names and they are from Guatemala and they just adore us! They are constantly telling the other missionaries that they love us. We teach with the Spirit and are reverent and have touched them more than any other missionary they have ever been with! I have truly grown to love them and strive to serve them to the best of my abilities! We invited them to be baptized in our lesson today and they agreed!! So we set the date for the 6th of December. And hopefully we can be the ones to baptize them! 

Other than that, I'm tired... I get very little sleep... Always waking up in the middle of the night multiple times.... And then I fall asleep in class sometimes.... Oops! I can't help it!! I'm sorry haha :) but I love my teachers and they love me! One said that my comments saved some of our lessons. It goes to show that teaching by the Spirit is more important than being fluent in French! 

I love my skinny jeans!! Haha they have become a part of me now :) I didn't think I would ever like them, but now I do! But just these ones! Hopefully I don't come back too European ;) haha you know how much I love America!! Anyway, All is well! I am alive! Like a pitri dish! You have no idea how many illnesses have gone through me!! haha but I will live ;)  

Oh yeah...Happy Thanksgiving to you mom and to all the rest of the family and friends!!!