Slow, Hot & Good!

This week was good. We were working really hard to reach a goal of 10 with member lessons. We have been working all week to get it. We ended yesterday with 9... Kind of a bummer. We had so many fail on us all at the last minute. I know there was some things we could have done better but we were working hard.

Both Lopez and i havent felt the best since wednesday. We both have a small fever and of course my athsma is going crazy but its nothing too bad. It just makes it that much more fun to go out and work. The good thing is that as they say the harder it is to go out and work and you do it, the more beautiful your wife will be. We are trying hard to get our butts outside working.

We have been focusing alot on have Family Home Evenings here. Our goal right now is to have one every night with a different family we are working with. We did farely good this week and i think it is working well.

I apologize this is all jumbled but not a whole lot happened this week. It finally rained the last couple days andit helps alot at first until the sun comes out and it kills!

Now for the main topic. The missionaries have been working with a family here for over a year now and ihave since i have been here. I love the family to death although there is alot of problems. The parents arent married or baptized and as of now will not get married.
I love all of you!

Elder Martino

Hot Hot Hot!

Well it has been rather hot lately. I am definately ready for fall to come soon.

Well this week was rather slow and rough. In our planning we plan for 4 different people every hour. On Saturday from 3 til 7 absolutely every single person failed. Either we couldnt find us, they werent home, or they wouldnt let us in. Today was one of those days we were exhausted. We did have a good family home evening with 2 families and got a new investigator. Interesting, but i was the oldest person in the room. One family the parents are 19 and have twins, the other is his brother and he has a little boy. Its interesting to see where i am right now in life at 21 and where i would be without certain people and events in my life. The lesson went well and he had some good questions but still wants us to lessons all together and not in his house. We will work up to it.

Almost every other day last week was like saturday. We planned though. I dont know if its because im doing something wrong ( because im making tons of mistakes every day), or none of the people want to listen, or i just need to be more patient.

We have been running intoa problem here in Argentina. We have to take the bus many places we go or it will take at least an hour and half to get there or more other places. Well we have to use coins in the bus. Turns out they came out with this bus card called sube to use in the buses and they are making it mandatory. They raise the prices on the bus double starting yesterday and will keep it going up. There are 3 problems with this. First, coins are hard to come across sometimes especially that much. Second, that is very expensive to travel everytime. Oh, and third, we got rejected by sube because we are foreigners. sweeettt!! Luckily though we ran into a new member family in our area and they gave us one. So we do have a card but we need 3 more. For now that will do!

I apologize. Not much happened exciting last week. It was a rather slow week. Hopefully this next week will bring more surprises.

I didnt mention the most exciting thing of the week. I AM AN UNCLE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very proud to say that i have another nephew, Rowe Mads Peterson. I hear he is a healthy big boy.

I love you all. Life gets hard. It gets freaking hard sometimes and you feel like you just want to give up. I dont know about you, but that feeling hits me all the time. I was thinking this week why the crap am i out here and the first thing that came to mind was,
¨It doesnt matter Drew. Just return with honor.¨ Well that is true for me and for all of us. Return with honor after this life is the goal. Another life just came into this world and i know for a fact he is a good family forever. He has a guides for his life on the right things to do. He is lucky though. Not many people in this world do. That is why i am here. I am very very far from being their guide, but i am giving them the opportunity to find that guide for the first time or to find it again. It gets hard but how amazing of a job that is to be able to help poeple return to live with their entire family. I seem to loose the vision every so often but i know why i am here.

Elder Martino

Elder Martino

The Baby Bird has to fly!

Well today i got a new companion. I am staying in my area and bringing in Elder Lopez from Mexico who got here a transfer before me. Well he doesnt speak a lick of english so i guess its about time i learn spanish. poop. Good news is he sounds like a really good kid and i think we will get along.

Now for the week. I was told by a member here that she put our pictures up on facebook.(She had to get on mine to do it. :) )
Well for lunch on Tuesday we went to parque peyera or however its spelled. We grilled hamburgers, played with the kids, and climbed that tree you saw to the very top. When it got real windy and started to sway really bad with 4 of us up there we thought it might be good to come down before i come down not on my own will. That day also ended well because we recieved 10 references from the relief society. We have been teaching them every week and they went out the other day looking for people.

By the way this letter is going to be all over the place.

Well Friday we were walking around and this little girl chased us down on her bike and told us her parents wanted to talk to us. Well we went over and the parents asked us if we could take the father of the mom to church to get him out of the house. Well they seem super nice and so we said yes. Went Sunday and picked him up in his wheel chair and wheeled that man right over. Oh, and i was pushing him and due to a couple things in the street i almost tipped the poor man over. Well right before we got to the church he threw out his cig and enjoyed a good hour.

Well we had some good lessons this week. We had a family home evening with a family last monday and we are doing it again tonight. They are doing very well. The kids are completely insane but i love them to death. Tonight we are watching the book of mormon animation video of Lehis dream. We will see how it goes.

I want to share a Scripture with you and i only have it in spanish. sorry. ¨Pero he aqui, El Señor ha redimido a mi alma del infierno; he visto su gloria, y estoy para siempre envuelto entre los brazos de su amor.¨(2 nephi 1:15)
This is one of my favorite scriptures of all time. In english it is something like, ¨but behold the lord has saved my soul from hell. I have seen his glory and am forever in his arms of love.¨ Something like that. Through God we were given the plan and given justice. Justice in the final judgement and justice now in life. But, through Jesucristo we have been given mercy. I know that I have seen his love in my life and i know each one of you can see it to. We have happiness in life. It is amazing the happiness you can have. If you look in mosiah 2:41 we see how we can have happiness. Now the funny thing is it tells us how we can have it forever. Ya sometimes you just want to be angry and hold it in. But it always feels much much better to be happy. Who in their right state of mind wouldnt want to be happy forever? Never get down or feel like you will lose yourselve. Not a whole lot is asked of us if you really think about it. Just think with your mind and heart at the same time and youll be okay.

Now for the title, fly or fall. I started out writing this to talk about myself. Now with a new companion, only spanish, no older comapnion to guide me, i have been wondering if i can keep growing or if i will fall because i cant understand the kid and everything goes bad. Well, reading that last sentence it makes me sound really dumb. Stop being a baby and do what i know i can and become who i know i can become. The same goes for you. Stop being a baby and making excuses. Do what you know you should and become who you really can become one day.

Love

Elder Martino