The Week I Needed!

This was a week i have been needing for a while now. From my interview with a President Stapley a couple weeks ago i had asked him what i could do in the ward i am at. This ward was absolutely dead and wasnt sure what to do. More then 600 innactive members. He told me find new people. We have really started to just look for new people. This week we found 16 in total which is double the standard. Thursday i was actually pretty nervous because we were going to do divisions with our ward mission leader and the truth is we didnt have any set lesson for two hours. I decided to make some plans for old investigators and it was amazing. Earlier that day i found a sticky note with a ladies name and her address but nothing else. We passed by and it was great. We didnt get to teach her but we just talked with her for about 10 minutes outside and it went great!! We then found an elderly lady and her 40 year old son who showed up from work and listened to us. He turned out to really like it and decided to read the book of mormon. We then found a very catholic man has some type of leadership in the church. I started talking to him and it went very well up until my mission leader started to argue with him about the bible. I tried to shut him up and the guy agreed to come to the church this wednesday and watch a video with us. (Pray this lesson goes well) He is a very good man. After words we taught the cousin of a member family that we are baptizing soon and we brought his other cousin to listen to us. So yall have seen the movie August Rush right? I dont remember too much about the movie but a little. We found a family who has a son that is 11 years old. He has read the entire bible alone. He pulled out an acordian and guitar and started to play all sorts of farely difficult songs. He also plays the violin and piano and a couple other instruments. Its crazy teaching the kid. He understands things so quickly. He is super weird or different but he is such a cool talented kid. This week we also had a fireside with Elder De Giovanni and another day a meeting with him only as missionaries. It was really good but not what i was expecting. Last year Elder Aidukaitis dropped the cane on us and it turned out changing our entire mission. In the meeting this year, there was no sort of cane dropping and very short. This week turned out to help out alot. The best part is that we have 2 great baptisms this sunday coming up that should be GREAT!! The most amazing thing is that answers to prayers do come. Not exactly when we want but they do come. The mission really is a great experience. I never imagined how hard it would be and how lazy i could possibly feel at times but it is all worth it. I wouldnt trade it for a thing!! Love, Elder Martino p.s. Grandma and grandpa, yall are the best. Yall are the only letter writers i have and i really apreciate it!

Summer is Coming

It was a quick week but a definite difficult one. We have pretty much decided to drop almost all of our investigators we have and find new ones. We spent almost all day everyday looking up old investigators and clapping houses. We found some farely interested people but all of them need to get married... Thursday was specifically a really tough day. I have never before waken up in the morning here and literally not desired to be here at all. I honestly did not want to leave at all and above all i felt like crap and it was raining. I am proud to say we dragged ourselves out the door and went to work. No success and lots of contacts all day long. Comes to 7 oclock and we are looking for an old investigator. We finally find the house and they let us in. AMAZING. Mother and 2 kids. The mother is member from a long time ago and the moment we stopped by was perfect. They needed a change and both kids want to get baptized. They came with us to stake conference on Sunday which was great. I sat with them while my comp sat with another family. Wife is member aand husband no. He has heard from the missioanries for many years and recently with us put his own baptismal date for the 9 of december. He is progressing amazing. Saturday we went and did a service with them and afterwards went and did another service. Probobly not the best for my hands but definatley fun and worth it. This week we were gooing to have a couple meetings with Elder Arnold the president of south america south but we just found out he isnt coming but someone else is. This last week we had aa bunch of riots in the whole area. Everyhting shut down trying to prove something to the government. Bad news is we have to very careful in where we go. Goodnews of the week is my plumbing came in handy. The new sister missionaries finally moved into there new apartment with our help. (Goodness. I have no clue how the sisters get around with all the crap they had.) Their water heater was leaking and i was able to fix it. Woo! Love, Elder Martino