End of the World Today!

Sorry about last monday, the power went out in our area for a storm that passed through so thats why i got it off Tuesday. We ended up leaving after all the wind and everything stopped but dont worry we still got soaked. Tuesday was interesting. We left for a couple hours to work but we had to be back and take the train to Glew for a meeting. President Stapley wanted us to accompany him in a meeting with the stake president and all the bishops in our stake. It was really good all that was shared and i hope it can really help are stake improve. President dropped us off at the train station but all trains were stopped for a couple murders that had just happened on the bus. That made for along wait, but the bad thing its not the first time its happened since ive been here. Wednesday and Thursday not too much happened. Friday was a great day. I was able to spend some time helping Hermana Nina, who lives in front of us and is our mommy, with her geneology. The bad thing is im having to learn while teaching her. It really is fun though even though i have no idea what im doing. if someone could help me out, she asked me to help her find something out about a Palmina Fanizza. Oh, and the hermana is going to start reading the book of mormon in Italian with me :). That afternoon we headed off to Brandsen, where we used to work part-time, and had two baptisms. I apologize i forgot my camera today to send photos but next week i will. And, as you will see int he pictures, i got to baptize in a tiny portable plastic pool. I wasnt sure the man and I were going to enter...Then we had an end of the year dinner with them. The best part is the 2 baptisms were 2 people we had found and it was great to see the seeds sometimes we plant! Saturday we got our chapel ready for Sunday and spent the time trying to teach as many people as possible. Oh, we went way out in our area but the mosquitos were literally eating us alive. i had never seen so many in my life. The good news is being way out in the country we saw a wild peacock. It was kind of weird but super cool. Now Sunday :). We had church and right afterwards three more baptisms. My comp was to first baptize Clara theni was to baptize Diego and Zahira. Well Clara got really scared with all the people there and ran to the bathroom crying. Well we went ahead and I baptized the other two and when she came out she was still super nervous. Im not sure why but i was changing and all of the sudden my comp came in and said she wanted me to baptize her...Well i got in the water and helped her down and they opened the doors. Before i started she asked if she could give me hug which i guess in a situacion like that im not going to say no while everybody is watching. Good news is it allworked out! :) Now the thought of the week. We have an investigator, or boyfriend of innactive member, that is a really great guy. We is growing so much and loves sharing with us. He asked us an interesting question the other day. ¨Why is it that most people only go to God when things arent right? If he is our father, wouldnt it make sense if we talked to him all the time?¨ I had never heard someone answer there own question like he did. Then on Sunday it was my turn to talk about our heavenly Father. I focused in mainly on that topic. Why is it, even us members some times, go to other people, doctors, or even family before our father in heaven. The truth is someone who believes he is our heavenly father but doesnt talk to him before anybody else really doesnt understand our relationship with him. It is a lack of faith on our part if we dont. We can give the excuse that we forgot, and if that is the case then i dont believe we really understand who he is...I am not sure that we even comprehend a portion of his love for us, but i know that should be our goal. What better way to get to know someone then to talk with them. Love, Elder Martino

That's what I needed!

Well lets see... Monday, nothing really happened. Tuesday neither. Wednesday, all the zone leaders had a meeting with President that lasted just about all day. It actually helped me a whole lot. It was a good moment to think about everything going on in the mission and in our zone. We got home and tried to run and go talk with a family but on the way my chain on the bike broke...We made it there and they couldnt even meet with us. So then we hurried back to the church for a lesson we were going to have with a new investigator, the catholic guy i told you about. Turns out something similar happened. We watched the Restoration and it was really good but afterwards some argueing started going on as i just stayed quiet. Long story short is we wont be teaching him again. Thursday we had a zone meeting in the morning and the streets were completely flooded up to the church door. All afternoon it poured and we literally couldnt enter into the majority of our area. Friday we had exchanges and i went with Elder Hoagland who is from....Dallas, Texas. I went to his area in Guernica and the bad part is that they didnt have a single thing planned all day except contacts...Good thing is i promised my self we would find someone. We went ALLLL day contacting houses. We ended up finding an innactive family who in turn went to church for the first time in a very long time yesterday. We afterwards continued clapping houses and still nothing. It was 830 and we have taken the bus to get back and gotten back right on time but we decided to pass by one more house. I know this is a common story you hear from missionaries, but it happens. We took the second mile and found someone. We taught her and she accepted to prepare herself to be baptized on the 23. Hopefully she will make it, but the best thing that happened was that it was the very last house. It wasnt even a plan that we had but it worked. Saturday we changed back and i came back to my area. We did a service in the morning washings walls with bleach which really helped with my hands :). Then we spent the rest of the day teaching. Yesterday was a good day. We baptized Marcelo who is the father of a family and has listened to the missionaries for years and finally felt it was time. It was a great baptism!! Last night we even went to there house and I made tacos for them. Next week we have 2 baptisms on Friday and 3 more on Sunday. As for right now it is pouring again outside. I was doing some thinking the other day and being in the mission over christmas can be difficult for a missionary. Sometimes its hard to think, ¨What would i be doing right now if i was home?¨ The truth is it can be hard if you let it, or it can be one of the best experiences ever. In Acts 20:35 it teaches us something very important about Christmas. Being a missionary as far as i can understand is the only moment a person will have the opportunity to give everything. It is better to give then to recieve but the truth is when you give yourself to this work, you recieve more then any other person in the world will recieve for Christmas. Thats my thoughts at least. Love Elder Martino

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

November Pictures

Oct. 29th

I honestly dont know what to say about last week. We had a service with an innactive member and we put in a new concrete floor for him which was fun work. He thought it would be easier to mix it all at once instead of parts at a time, so on a large piece of tin we had about 30 buckets of rocks, 40 of sand, 10 of cement, and water. I was tired afterwards. Im not sure if its because it was actually tough or that im just a baby since ive been here. On Saturday we went to go contact a reference we got of a man and 10 kids who want to listen. Bad news is we went on our bikes, about15 miles on a very skinny highway where people aim for you, and we wasnt there. The good news is we are going to go back one of these days. This last week we found some great people. Really amazing. The problem is its so sad sometimes to hear some of the trials people go through. I know my job is to teach them the truth that can bring them a new hope but its hard. The message i share I believe with all my heart, but sometimes I even wonder if some poeple can make it through these trials. I have wondered and am doing alot of that wondering right now about myself but thats just when he step back and let my faith take control. I love the people in this branch but while i am here there is alot of work to be done. I´m willing to do it except for the fact i just dont know what to do. We met one guy Miguel, turns out he was baptized when he was little, 50 years ago, but never been back. We leaves alone with his mom. We went the other day tohis house and he was completely different this time. At first he was a happy big man. We listened to him this time and he just looked like he was fighting with all he had with no affect. We cant leave his mom who is blind home alone or many things could and most likely would happen to her, but because of that he cant work. He is fighting between the love for his mom and the need to work to have money to live. He is a great guy and i really know something good will happen to him and he will be able to get out of this ditch. Everything is going well for me. Its getting nice and warm here, except for today. Last night it rained and everything is flooded so it cooled down quiet a bit. Well have a good week. Dangit, it just started pouring outside and i didnt bring my rain coat... Love, Elder Martino

22nd and Muddy

Exciting news, we got new bikes on Friday. Bad news, they dont work to well in the mud and i already got it super dirty. This week was a tough one. It flew by most of it and i didnt even feel like i was in my area at all. I spent one day on exchanges in Longchamps and another 2 days on splits with a youth in my ward working Brandsen. The good news is we have 8 baptismal dates out in Brandsen so at least the work out there is going alright. On saturday i had a wonderful surprise. Ruben, Jacqui, Hno. Berta, and Carlito (all members from Acevedo) showed up at our church building with a cake to celebrate my birthday! :) That was actually a nice surprise and they told me many people wanted to come but couldnt. Yesterday was a rough day and exhausted me. At church none of our investigators showed up which was rough. We left and ate lunch in the pinch that the hna. Nina gave to us. (she lives in front of us and is amazing). Speaking of her, i met her mom the other day who is 102 and still kicking. Well when it came time to leave and work it started pouring and we pushed through the fiaka and left. We went down a one-way dirt path about a mile and a half but when we turned around we couldnt get back... the rain made the mud so thick that the mud built up on the bikes and we couldnt ride back. well we finally got back (mud everywhere) and as we were biking to take the sacrament to an elderly woman we saw a guy in his car that slid into a ditch. Well, it was kind of fun and took a while but we got it out. When we showed up at the house to give the Hermana, who is 98, the sacrament they just laughed but felt bad because it was raining, cold, and we were covered in mud head to toe. Well i got the mud out of my hair and face the best i could and we gave her the santa cena. we got back and washed the bikes off a little and then i took a nice warm shower. It was definately and interesting day and im waiting for the blessings to come from this one.... Really we are working but this area has a lot of work to go. This is one of the challenges in the mission that you have to love. If you dont that just sucks because your still gonna be here. You might as well be optimistic and it will help everything. Love yall! Elder Martino