Surprise!

Well lets start with yesterday. I wake up and find out im giving a 10 mintute talk in sacrament meeting. I prepared a decent outline on how to recognize the spirit in our lives and how to differenciate the spirit and our own thoughts. Well sacrament meeting is about to start, its killer hot, and i find out that mine is for 15 minutes instead. Turns out i can get really nervous in a different language if i dont know what exactly im doing. It is crazy though. I dont remember half the things i said while i was up there but many people came up to me afterwards and said it was great. Half of me believes maybe it was good and the other half of me thinks people felt bad for me. But it all turned out well.
Now on thursday all four of us missionaries were eating at a members house, who is a chef. :). Well towards the end, Elder Neal all of the sudden put his hand in front of his mouth and his cheeks puffed out real big. You see him put on a sour face and swallow. He does that two more times and on the third he couldnt swallow again so he finally asked for the bathroom. All of us were trying so hard to hold in laughter. Turns out it bit me in the butt because i got sick after that but the other way... lol.
One quick thing, on tuesday we took a bus to our far out area to eat lunch. We get there and the member calls and cancels on us. We didnt have any coins to get back. Everyhing was closed except one store. We asked if they had coins, no one has coins anymore, and an old man gave us just enough to where we could get back. Then we had two other set lessons fail on us..dang.
Oh and monday i saw with my little eye something that made me scream. We were walking back from that far out area doing some contacts and we saw a very large house with big fields. We say a llama, a flamingo, some ginormous rabbits, and.....a monkey!!! I went up to go pet it but the owner came out and i got a little scared. But, I saw a Monkey!!
Now i have one question for every one. I have to put on a big ward Family home evening in a couple weeks and i need some good ideas. Please help me out.

Love you!

Elder Martino

No letters on the keyboard!

all of the letters are wiped off the keyboard so i will try my best.

Well a family came back from vacation this week and brought us back a gift. They brought us back these sweet hats but turns out yes it is confirmed that i do have a big martino head. It sort of fits. The good thing is we cant wear them in the street so its not too bad, but i promised this family i would take a picture with the hat after the mission so yall might need to remind me.

Well it wasn't toooo hot this week but it is going back up. The other day I had an oopsie. We were at a members house and they gave us haircuts. I went up to there bathroom to wash my hair. there sink was already hanging on barely and a stick holding it up. Well like 5 minutes after i came down we heard a big crash. Good thing is the wife had been waiting for that to happen so she could buy a new one. Still felt real bad but oh well. They get blessings for feeding my i hope and therefore they should still get blessings for me breaking the sink .

Saturday night we had a big family home evening that we put on for the ward and it turned out really good except all the kids cheated and it ended real quick. We had a big treasure hunt with Scriptures and all. Now we are doing another one in a month and i will need help with it so if anybody has ideas please send them in!!

I apologize that this letter will be short but this keyboard is killing me!

Now for yesterday. this will go in the books for one of my most embarrassing moments on the mission. Church has started and i am sitting ready to bless the sacrament. We pray and then go in for ward business and confirmations..... Usually the bishopric does it and i was just fine until, "Vamos a empezar con Denice Laticia Nicole Fuentes Castro, y Elder Martino va a hacer la confirmacion." I had a couple people make fun of me afterwards for the look i had on my face at this point. I had done it once before a while ago and forgot it all and i was super nervous. Turns out the had to tell it to me the entire time until we got to the blessing part. Ya it caught me off guard pretty bad.

Anyways i love yall.

Elder Martino

Another great Week!

Well i hope yall enjoy these photos!! This was new years eve! It was different then every other year but it was great!

A couple things this week that i thought i would share with you. So we had a good week. We had a decent amount of lessons and found some new people. We had 2 service activities and a dinner with one of my favorite families. I dont think any of you will understand how much you can love the people here. The people here are amazing. Truly some of the best people or friends i have ever known.

Friday we had a baptism for a child of two member parents we taught. They wanted us to teach him the lessons but the father baptized his son which was very good. That night was interesting too. So we live on the second floor of a building and there is a timbre(i cant remember what that is in english) but at 2 in the morning it started going off. Oh, doorbell, but ya it started going off and it happens pretty often. Usually its just kids in the street or drunk people. I woke up, which is hard to do, but i looked over and Judd was awake too. I asked him if i should go get it but he also said its probobly just some drunk kids. Then it kept going off and both of us thought that if we went down there that someone would be waiting behind the door with a gun. (Many people know where we live). Finally we went in the other room and checked the phone. We had 8 missed calls from some members. Turns out it was memebers and they didnt have a key to the church which had been left open. We walked over and locked it then went back to bed.

Next was yesterday. We had a couple amazign investigators come to church. They have a crazy story but have been changing so much. It was great to see them there. I also got to teach primary class for a couple minutes which was fun but the most amazing part of church was preparing the sacrament. Such a simple weekly task right? I thought so too. Hermano Fernandez is the one who always does it and sometimes i get to help him. Today it was my first time to help him from the beginning. I have never seen so much care put into the sacrament. Never in my life. He always starts with a prayer and the entire time he prepares everything so carefully with such careful exactness. It was a true lesson and testimony builder to me. This man is a farely recent convert and it took his wife many many years to convert him, but now he has one of the strongest testimonies i have ever heard.

Yesterday we had 2 baptisms. Two little girls in a family of all members. It seemed and hopefully it continues to be a way to reactivate the family. I dont have pictures yet but i will get them soon.

It was a very good week. This week will be better though. I dont know why but i know it will. I love all of you.

Elder Martino

END OF THE WORLD THIS YEAR?

Elder Martino's Address is :
For packages or letters:

Elder Drew Martino
Argentina Buenos Aires south Mission
Quintana 447
1846 Adrogue
Buenos Aires
Argentina

For letters via the Pouch:
(Write on one side of the paper and then tri-fold and address on the blank side)
Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Ut. 84130-0150

NOW ONTO DREW'S LATEST LETTER!



END OF THE WORLD THIS YEAR?

Well this week was good. Kind of rough but turned out good. After Christmas Eve it got hot again. And it is definately very hot. I am sweating about every moment of the day and night but its wonderful.

The highlight of the week was new years eve. We had to be in by 6 and we definately enjoyed ourselves. Judd and I saved about half of our mnthly allowance and made a very good meal. An asado with carne, chorizo, and chicken. A tomato and lettuce salad. boiled eggs. a large fruit salad, and some kool-aid!!! I took pictures but this machine doesnt work. Maybe next week. We played card games, ate our hearts out, and enjoyed a rest. At 12 we headed up to the roof of our apartment and watched fireworks. Its pretty awesome when fireworks are shot from every side possible for about 30 minutes. We had some drunk people shooting some off on the street below us and it was really funny til some of them almost hit us.

We found a couple new investigators this week and worked hard with the ones we have. This Sunday we have 2 baptisms, too bad its a holiday here. Dia de San la Muerte (day of the grim reaper). Kind of interesting but hey, everyone has there own beliefs.

We have talked to alot of people about making goals for the beggining of this year and how it can help them so much. I sat down the other night myself and wrote down some goals for this year. This will be my full year in the mission and its a little daunting to look at but the time flies by. The time flies by and it scares me. Shoot, i have been here for almost 6 months and still feel way new. Back to the goals though. When i was studying the other day about goals i read a quote that talks about dominating the basics in life. We need to learn to dominate those little things; studying, praying, church, charity. If we set goals to dominate these things then we can move on. First off, if i want to accomplish anything in this mission and in life I am going to need help and the blessings to help me. If i set a goal to get all A´s in school, I better be mastering those basics first. This is kind of jumbled, but the point is to set goals. Many people look back on life and say they could have done this and that. Your goals are the desires of your hearts and if your desires are righteous, God will help you. Set a goal. Figure out how you will achieve it and when you will achieve it. If you set a goal, you have no excuse for not reaching it. Any excuse you make lessens your character and weakens you. A goal is set to achieve, not to dream about. Make a plan and get your butt busy and do it. I want all of you know that i love you. Make this year great and achieve the desires you have.

Love,

Elder Martino