Week 30 May 25, 2015 Putting on some Armour of the Lord

Week 30   May 27, 2015

hey! so I am sorry I have not gotten to email you. We had a zone meeting on Monday and we are just now getting to the emails. If you have not sent the package yet, do not send it. I am not sure that I will be staying in Antibes, so do not send until I give the go ahead.

I just want you to know I love you all!! talk to you soon. Just sending pictures right now! love you!

This was at a less actives house haha he has a huge collection of swords, armor, and weapons

This is one of me and Elder Rellaford at Eden Roc where I finally found a heart roc for mom :) we got kicked off the beach though because that was where all of the stars were having the after party of the film festival haha who knew??

Week 29 May 18, 2015 Gelato on the Rivera and Cannes Film Festival

Week 29   May 18, 2015

Yes this week was better, I would say! I ate some gelato for you :) I will send the picture on Wednesday because I don’t have any of my picture stuff with me right now. I also bought you an official key chain of the Cannes Film Festival! I have been able to go these past few days. it is a really cool experience!! just like being in Hollywood!! so thrilling and... oh man words don’t even describe it! there is nothing else in life like it! so cool! but I haven’t personally seen any stars and I really don’t have a chance, either... we are pretty far away and there are a lot of crazies in the good spots! oh man haha but it so cool!

We have been getting a lot of sun recently and it is really great :) well halfway great. I like being darkened, but man I have a horrible tan.... right at the elbow and then half way up the neck because of the collar.... talk about ugly haha then again I am not going to be going around without a shirt, so I guess nobody will ever know! and I will come back during the winter when everyone has lost their summer tans! it will all be ok haha but gosh I am so tired.... the sun drains you, that's for sure.... 

I have found a really big project to see if I can’t work on! I want to try to get the name of the church out into the public eye, in a good way. I have a guy who has connections with the city and some nonprofit organizations here in town and I want to try to get a giant service project for us to happen. I will have to be the one to start this because the members in my sector drag their feet. I hope they will get on board, because it would work so much better if the church members here did this and continued doing this. (we have about 35 less actives and about 11 active members in my sector.) but this has excited me and I am pumped and I hope that I can get the permission from the right people to do this!!

well I really miss you though... I have thought more about you all more recently then I ever have... I even have dreamed about you guys. I really miss you... I love you a lot! I will talk to you later!!

Love

Elder Martin :)

This is me eating the gelato :)

Just some STAGED walking.

Week 28 May 11, 2015 Elder's Birthday, Mother's Day & Mom's Birthday

Week 28   May 11, 2015

I LOVE YOU MOM :) YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

Haha you ended your email too soon!!! I don’t know what Dexter did!! haha but I am assuming when somebody jumped into the pool, he went wild haha

Happy Birthday :) I love you!!

So how was having the whole family over? good I hope!!

This week was alright. nothing special, nothing big. I did some service and I got to eat a lot of cake and I got to Skype!! That was the best part, I think :) I really miss you guys.... I am having a hard time right now, without you.... I have a robot companion and he is cold.... and freaking awkward.... it stresses me out and today I had to take a pill to stop the acid in my stomach... I think I might have an ulcer.... But yeah.... That is life, I guess....

I really miss having somebody cook for me.... That is really nice. But I have been making some really good meals with chicken and rice or pasta. I have impressed myself often! if you have the right seasonings, you can do anything I guess!

So I bought a blanket today. It is a lot thinner than the giant comforters they have in all the apartments. I will see if that helps me sleep in the heat so I can get some more rest. It was a really cool blanket! huge and it looks like the field of blue on the American flag :) I was like "oh yeah!"Murica!" haha so it should help me! it has the American spirit in it!!

I went to Nice on an exchange and I got to visit this group of Philipino Friends (see photo)! It was just like being in the big bang theory TV show haha they are all drs and in school and working in the universities! they are so witty and I felt right at home! I was there joking and laughing with them :) made me smile so much! just like being with the gang before the mission :) There was Jethro, Kate, Jasmine, Emanuel, Ricky, Elder Wilits, and another guy. This was a really good night!

Well, I am out of time!! talk to you later! I love you!!

Big Bang Theory Doctors

Elder Martin

Week 27 May 4, 2015 Picnic in the Park

Week 27   May 4, 2015

I'm tired... I have an inexplicable sense of tiredness and a weight that is on me pressing on me.... but I am good other than that :) I love you too!!

I forgot to tell you that I got the other two cards that you sent in the mail! I haven't read them yet! I will read them on my birthday this Saturday! I have two meal appointments this Saturday on my birthday! That is insane for France!!! Haha and these people are known for feeding you a lot so I will be well taken care of on my birthday haha 

Skype, though!! That will be on Sunday at about 7 or 8 am your time! you send me an email on which time you prefer and I will check on Wednesday :) I am super happy for this!!

So last week was alright. I got my new companion and I have been showing him the ville. We are assuming that we will follow the pattern that has been set in Antibes and I will stay four transfers (so this is my last) and then I will leave. I hope I leave... I am tired of this ville.... it is killing me... I put so much work into this and all I can contact are tourists...those missionaries in the north of France, Italy, and England better be getting these guys we are talking to!! 

Actually we have ventured into the ville, into the suburbs to try and knock on the doors of those who are permanently here. We had a little luck. We knocked on a door of a 14 year old girl and she talked with us for a long time and eventually took the Book of Mormon from us! Now I can here you all saying "wow, he swooned a 14 year old girl!" haha well not really! We actually offered it to her; she said she wouldn’t read it, but to offer it to the old woman across the way. We worked out a deal with her and said that if they wouldn't take it, she would gladly take it. God had a plan for that girl, because every single woman across the way shot us down faster than a lead zeppelin! So I would like you to please pray for this girl, Alice, and that she will read the Book of Mormon and know for herself that it is true!

We got to eat at the F. Family this Saturday for lunch. They live in a house that as soon as you enter, you feel like you went back 500 years haha He is a huge man with a huge beard (like a dwarf) and the house looks like a medieval cottage! And it is so cool! He also had a knife collection, and let us take what we wanted! That was so cool! haha

I got to go to a ward picnic on Friday and it was at an abandoned airbase that the city of Saint Raphaël salvaged and turned into a giant park. It was the perfect place for kids! we played soccer had a meal and hung out! the ride back was fun because I got to ride in the back with the bishop's kids and joke around and take selfies with them! Oh my gosh I love those kids!! I got to hang out with them more at the ward meal after church. They do one for every fast Sunday! I love that idea! we need to do that in America! but I got to teach these kids a lot of cool things and most importantly be a good role model for them. their parents tell me all the time how much their kids love me :) it makes me smile to know that I am at least doing some sort of good work in my sector, even if I can't see it :)

Well that is all for now!! Know I love you all! thank you for your prayers! keep them up haha

Have a good week!     Elder Martin

These are the Bishop's kids. M and C in the back, and D between me and Elder Rellaford

This is Antibes

Week 26 April 27, 2015 Live Where Your Feet Are

Week 26    April 27, 2015

Good news: I am staying on my mission! I also am staying another transfer in Antibes as well. My new companion is Elder Rellaford from Utah. 

So I just want to apologize to everyone for stressing everyone out. It was really... Selfish the way I acted. After that email session, I went home and I cried and then woke up the next day and couldn't stop crying. I was wrestling with God in prayer on the floor, crying, unable to do anything. I was just going to lay there and do nothing... Pathetic. Thankfully God took pity on me. There is really no other way to put this, so I will just say it: I had a conversation with God. I heard His voice and He helped me realize that Julia still loves me, that I still love her, that God still loves both of us, and that He will keep His promise that He made with us. He also told me that the reason I was going through what I was going through is so that I am prepared for the work the He has for me.

This prayer was such an uplifting experience. It helped me realize that I have nothing to be sad about. It also helped me realize some other things, too. I realized that Elder Lago was not out to get me. Elder Lago is my brother, now. I realized he had only been trying to help me, and that he, like me, is only human, and has weaknesses. It makes me sad that he is gone now. He went back home. It was his last transfer. Oh gosh we both cried as we hugged each other. Gosh... I cry now just thinking about him. 

And as I talked with him about my enlightening experience, he helped me realize that I need to have “no drag” and LIVE WHERE MY FEET ARE. I am here in France with these people for only two years of my life. I am only fully serving God as a missionary for these two years. I need to be here in France doing the work. Julia was right. I was distracted. But now that she has helped me by refocusing me, I have never been more happier, more focused, nor more sure in God and His plan for me. I made a family here in the Cannes Ward, and especially with the missionaries here. They are my family for these two years. Well, year and a half now. And I am being me. I am being fun again! No more serious-all-the-time-Nick. I hate that guy. He wasn't fun to be around. Now I will always smile and express my joy with those around me.

This week was crazy! Me and Elder Lago did a lot of awesome stuff together! But I think the best part was just being with him. I really miss him, and it is not the same without him, but now I get to make another happy life with the new missionaries in my life! I am excited!!

I love all of you and I am so eternally grateful that you pray for me and love me, too. I miss you all, but we will have time in plenty in this life to catch up and to be together in the life to come.

Have a great week.       Elder Martin :)

PS: That is me and Elder Lago at the Mission Conference with Elder Kearon and Elder Nielson of the 70. I spoke at the thing, they gave me a mike and I made a comment, and I embarrassed him in front of the whole mission! lol! oh I love Elder Lago! I am gonna miss him!

Week 25 April 20, 2015 Feeling Alone

Week 25    April 20, 2015

So this weekend I get an iPad for the mission. all the missionaries are going to Lyon for a conference and we are going to learn how to use the new iPad minis.

I am really depressed right now. I feel horrible and useless. I really want to go home. It's not because of sin. I just feel like nobody cares about me or what I think or have to say. Never before have I felt so unloved. Never in my life. I don't know how long I can do this anymore.  Nobody listens to me. 

Only one elder and one sister have been genuine with me, but other than them, I feel ignored and neglected. Unloved. Here in the field, ALL MY LIFE, I will say something, and it will go through one ear and out the other. I once stopped an elder from speaking during a lesson because I felt something different and he told me later that he thought "What the freak is this Bleu doing?" I am only 4 weeks younger than this elder is in mission age. That tells me everything I need to know about what the people here think about me. 

I will be talking and my comp will cut in with some stupid comment and change everything so that the attention can be on him. It kills me. I feel so worthless. My comp will take over lessons and conversations and I know that it will never come back to me for me to add something. I talked about it with him, and so did all of his other comps. The same thing happened to me in my first two transfers. Why am I even out here? I can go home and read my scriptures and walk around and attend a French class! I don't need to come to France for two years just so people can ignore me!!!! So what I need is some time alone for awhile. Since I am alone here in France anyway, I guess that works out just perfectly. But the next time I email, I will tell you whether or not I will be coming home. 

Week 24 April 13, 2015 Nothing much

I love YOU!!