Single to the Glory!

Kind of a lower week this week. Yesterday was really upsetting. I have been trying so hard with certain families to come to church and they do once. Saturday we passed by all of the baptismal dates we had and called all of them that night an they all promised to go. well all but 2 didnt come. We lost 7 baptisms yesterday and im hoping we can regain a couple. It was really a frustrating day. The good news is we did have an awesome couple come with us and a less active girl who came for the first time in a long time. Her whole family is active so they are excited to have her back. This week had a lot of walking. It was a beautiful week but the majority of our citas failed on us. I will admit yesterday in church i was sitting in sacrament and i was really upset. I was thinking about how transfers are coming up soon and i could move on to a new area. Well heads up to future missionaries, you shouldnt ever have that attitude. You look on the bright side and keep working. The good days arent good without the bad days being super super crappy. Another thing that has caught my mind is the fact that i cant help everyone. I do my part but then it is up to them. I show them where to step but they are the ones that have to lift up there heavy foot and make the step. Last wednesday we are a meeting for all district leaders in the mission. It was really good at first. The point when the elders started to ask too many simple questions was when it went wrong. Thats th point when having no meeting at all is better then having one. Besides that part the meeting helped me think alot about what i can do better to help these missionaries. The problem is just finding out how to do it. The mission is going well. Its difficult right now with little success and sickness but we just keep moving forwardj with our eye SINGLE to the glory of god. You gotta love it!! Love, Elder Martino

Experience of a Life Time!

Well im going to start out with the best part of the week, Wednesday. They called me monday asking if wednesday we would be willing to go to the temple and help clean it from the open house. My response was heck ya! We got there at 9 in the morning and were working with a guy named Drake Hill. He is the head architect and designer for over 80 temples now. It is amazing how he could remember EXACTLY where every little thing belonged. Well 8 of us spent the day being his little ducklings following him around everywhere he went. I got to hang paintings, put the furniture and set it all up in all of the sealing rooms, celestial room, and confirmation room. We got to walk upstairs and see EVERYTHING. It was really really cool. We spent almost the entire day with him til President came to pick us up. We even got President a couple little gifts...OH!! Best part! So i had the opportunity to, with permission, break vases from the temple anterior. I told Bro, Hill that in a year if he needed an assistant helper to just give me a call and id be more then willing to help him! Besides this day we had a good week. We had two service projects on saturday that kind of wore me out. Now this week we are preparing for this weekend. Friday we have a fireside With Elder Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Christofferson. Saturday we have the temple culture activity and then on sunday we have the dedication. I have a feeling it is going to be a very good week. Have a good week!!!! Love, elder Martino