pictures sent 12.07.09

nato mmmm:

lights:

kirei:

companion:

zone conference:

letter sent 12.07.09: konshu

aisuru kazoku to tomadachi,

this week has been crazy, little long but good. we had zone conference in fukuoka, which was amazing. well the lesson with tsunenari did not go as planned, actually ended up being pretty frustrating but everything is ok, on a better note, i did see a miracle this week to start of the christmas holidays. i think i told you last week about a lesson we had with brother and sister kuroda. Sister kuroda has been inactive for some time now. and through our visit last time she came back to church yesterday. all we had to do is help her feel the spirirt and she remebered the happinees that can be felt only through this gospel. sometimes i think we can forget past experiences and get carried away. but im glad me and elder reyes could be there to help sister kuroda out. i was super excited when she came to church yesterday and all the members were surpsrised and they all fellowshipped her really well, they were happy to see her. It was no baptism or anything but probably one of the best things ive been able to be involved with on my mission so far. it was amazing.

so christmas is right around the corner. thats pretty hard to believe. i think it will be a hard and good christams all at the same time. it will be cool to be celebrating as a missionary of the lord, its going to be a special christmas but, im def going to miss all of you. but ill be ok.

well our zone conference was centered on Christ for Christmas. it was really good. one thing i would like to share is a message from Pres Margetts. he talked about giving a gift to jesus. prob something we should do everyday but this Christmas lets give a gift to Jesus. He gave us the greatest gift one can give, his life for us(greatest gift given, alma 7: 11-13). we cant repay him but we can give him a gift for christmas this year by serving someone else. a stranger, co-worker, a friend, a family member. It was a good thought something i want to work on this christmas!

well thats about it for me, enjoy the holidays,
love elder martinez

pictures sent 11.30.09

the nagasaki district

welcome to eikaiwa

this is the place

The Christmas display I made

mmhmmm

bike fun

sukiyaki

i made these oishikattayo

my apato

soccer with tayo

mmmmmmm

pic for the honbu

before

after

paper crane girl

letter sent 11.30.09

minasan konnichiwa

genki yo. this week has been really good i prob cant remeber all the good thats happened. i taught lesson one to a pi sitting on the curb. my japanese is improving, weve found lots of potential investigators and have helped or are in the process of getting people back to church not to mention the baptismal commitment im going to extend to tsunenari at 5 today.

so the work is going well here in the isahaya and the lord is really guiding it and leading us to people that need our help. heres a couple highlights. thursday night we visited kita shimai and she made us dinner. it was werid soup and stuff but delsicous. we taught her about thankgsgiving and being thankful so i invited everyone another member was there to say what they were thankful for, it went relly well and the spirit was really strong, great lesson. so no turkey or not much food but an amzing thanksgiving.

another highlight is going to a restuarnt with takayama an eternal investigator we met for the first time. shes way nice and loves the missonaries. she says to call her taka mama cause shes our japense mom. anyways she took us out and i had sukiyaki, way good and some raw egg stuff and this miso soup with a weird fish in it. it was all so good haha. shes really cool and im loking forward to lessons with her to come.

so i have a lot more stories and good stuff but ill share one that happened yesterday. a memeber yamasaki took us to the kuroda family that live far away. brother kuroda is active but the wife is not, anyways we vistied them and had an amazing lesson. elder reyes and i gave them the lesson we had to do for combined relief society and priesthood(which we only had 20 minutes to prepare for btw haha) anyways i shared one of my favorite scripts which ive already shared but mosiah 24 13-15 especially, Sister kuroda really need it. i shared my experience with that scripture, then reyes shared with her D&C 121 a great scripture as well. at the end we both gave our akashi(testimony) by the end both sister yamasaki and kuroda were crying. they were surprised and impressed with the power we had when we spoke and how strongly they could feel the spirit. they were impressed with how i could speak and the power i had. it was really cool, nobody has ever told me that before. anyways i didnt really do anything the spirit is what touched them, not me. i think thats an imprtant lesson. the spirit is the real teacher in any lesson desho? anyway that was areally a cool experience and sister kuroda was very genki afterword and promised us to come to church next week! it was so sweet.

its great to be a missionary her in isahaya. to be working as the instrument of the lord among the japanese people. what an amazing thing. life can be hard, it will be hard for absolutely everyone, theres no away around it, but we have the gospel the scriptures and our heavenly father to help us through hard times. it is our ONLY constant. and when those dark times of mist come and we cant see, we must blindly hold tight to it. i have a very strong testiomony of this. I know that God is our heavenly Father. that he loves each and everyone of us and wants to help us. he is there and he will comfort you, he will give you strength to keep going. we just have to ask. this is my testimony in the name of jesus christ Amen.

愛しているよ
martinez長老

letter sent 11.23.09

well another week has flewn by. Today Im in nagasaki again for junkai tonight but were spending the pday in nagasaki. were going to go to the atomic bomb museum and the batting cages so that should be a lot of fun. i like this city alot.

anyway thanks for the letters this week and it sounds like everyone is doing well.

well im doing very well, this week has been a little slow but good. Tsunenari our main investigator has been gone hes in kobe this week but we have an apt set with him in one week from tonight. so im looking forward to that. other than that we have been working with kawabata a less active. we had lesson with him this week about keeping the commandments. we shared with him in mosiah 2 the blessed state of those you keep the commandments, the eien no shiawase eternal happiness we can obtain. i love this scripture. its so simple and really helps us put things into perspective cause often times i think we see everything as temporal, but if we kept an eternal perspective life would be a lot easier. anyways it was a really good lesson.

My japanese is getting a lot better esp this transfer. im understanding a little more and speaking better, but still have a long way to go. but im doing well. i understand the jist of whats being said so thats helped me alot so that i can bear testimony and talk about things which are actualy relevant.

saturday was a pretty crazy day. we tried to visit a less acvtive and got lost (my comp is not very good with directions). we got lost in the middle of nowhere, completely inaka. but it was a fun bike ride i guess, we ended up finding the LA though so that was goood.

other than that we have done a lot of housing. we found 3 really good potentials this week so that was good and hopefully we will have more lessons next week.

well time is flying by, its the last week of my second transfer in the field which is crazy. i cant believe it. but im slowly getting a hang of things and slowly learning how to be a missionary haha. but im getting into it. i love it here, i love being a missionary. its been a good week sorry i dont have much more to say. thanks for the love and support,

愛しているよ
martinez 長老

letter sent 11.15.09

genki?
well this has been another amazing week. its been pretty busy. anyway it started off with eikaiwa on wednesday. eikaiwa is so much fun. i love it. its fun to have a good time with the japanese people and i think that they like my class. its been good, i teach them pretty hard enlgish actually and random things.

well on thursday i went to fukuoka for zone conference. Elder stevenson of the seventy did all of the training and stuff. it was really good. i leanred alot and had a good time catching up with some of my doki (mtc friends). it was good. elder stevenson is super cool. he said a lot of really cool things and i think all helped us become better missionaires. he also talked about the history of the book of mormon. heber j grant was the first to come to japan in like 1901 or something he and a few other came to be missionaries, after like 3 to 5 years alma translated the first book of mormon, called the mormon ke. he ordered them very specially with gold engravings and other features to give to the leaders of japan. today the same copies have been again published and the church is working on giving it to the emperor of japan. its crazy. they have been giving them to a lot of mayors latley but that would be so cool if the emperor had one eh? anyway that was cool to hear.

so saturday we went to the sasebo chapel for thanksgiving. it was cool. all the members of the base made us tons of american food and together we had a real thanksgiving dinner. turkey mashed potatoes gravy stuffing pies and the works. it was so goood. it was cool to talk with people i could understand and my first glimpse of what being a missionary in america would be like, it was weird but amazing. so for 2 hours i was in america, haha. it was a very nice treat.

so this week has also been really cold. but im doing ok, i actually like it.

umm oh so our investogator tsunenari is hokkaido again but when he returns we are going to have another lesson. it might be next week but hopefully this week. but when ever it is im going to be able to commit him to baptism! hes heard all the lessons and seems to have a testimony, were not sure why he doesnt have a baptismal date. this will be our 2nd apt with him so im really excited, please pray for him and for me and elder reyes. i know hell say yes if everything goes well. im really excited to that though.

but this week we have worked with a less active kawabata. hes a really nice man. he needs help with a few things but he loves the missionaries. we have good lessons with him. we also visited a family that we found housing the lady with 2 kids, we were able to teach her prayer at the genkon and talk about families, i showed her a picture of you guys and bore my testimony. this was probably the highlight of my week. i felt the spirit so strongly when i talked about prayer and being away from you guys. it was really cool. i hope she reads the book of mormon. we actually left with a prayer as well,it was cool.

well i think thats about it, weve had some good lessons this week. im happy to be here and that i can be here serving the lord. this work is amazing. thanks for the love and support and ill talk with you next week

love
martinez長老

letter sent 11.08.09

hey i hope this letter finds everyone good this week, especially you dad, i know its a little early but i think your having your party right now anyway so HAPPY BIRTHDAY or 誕生日おめでとうございます　. Hope you have a good one. dont get to old while im gone ok? we have a lot of tennis matches　and stuff like that to ｄo.

Anyway so this week was a nother great week. it started off with junkai or splits with the zone leaders. It was cool to be able to dendou with them. It gave me a new enthuasism for it and we had a lot of fun while doing it. It was a good experience for sure.

well lets see im feeling better today ive been kind of sick the last week and a half with a cold cough thing but doing better. in japan everyone is super paranoid of that stuff so everyone wears these masks as i display very well in my picture.

anyway umm A lady in our ward made us a very good dinner one night as seen in my picture as well, it was really good but i dont know what it was really besides the ton katsu. o and the weird thing i ate this week was raw squid and salmon and shrimp at the 105yen sushi bar. it was all good but the squid was pretty chewy, but i like raw salmon though its good. but im starting to like that stuff alot more.

anyway this week we had a lesson with our only progressing investigator, tsunenari. hes really nice man,about 50. it was our first lesson cause hes been in hokkaido. he started it off with like a 5 minute prayer. it was really cool, hes a nice man and has heard all the lessons, so hopefully we can commit him to baptism in the next month but hes back in hokkaido this week again so its slow, other thant hat i talked to one single mother when housing which was a cool experience. she had 2 kids and we shared with here some scriptures. i bore my testimony about you guys my family. i was kind of blunt but felt i needed to be. i said, ... im only 19, i miss my family alot. your family to is wonderful and this book (bom) hasd really blessed and guided my family. i just told her how i felt and i think she liked that. we gave her a BOM and were going to visit her again this week i hope she becomes an investigator but who knows. Her kids liked us and gave me candy. all three of them were reading from the bom in the genkan though it was a special experience for sure, if all else fails a seed was planted.

oh and one other thing is yesterday i got to shimabara. we drove with brother chikuba and his wife. we went through the mountains and a narrow windy steep road. japanese mountains are beautiful and the leaves are different colors as well. it reminded me of utah, the windy roads in santa cruz mountains and our drives to and from our sweet camping trip. it was an hour drive and was really cool to just sit in my thoughts. anyway thats about it for me this week.

on thursday we have zone conference in fukuoka (elder stevenson is coming, his son is our AP) and saturday i will be celebrating thangsgiving in sasebo with american members from the base so that should be really cool as well. so thats life for me in japan. have a good week!

Martinez 長老

letter sent 11.01.09

konnichiwa

well it sounds like everyone enjoyed there halloween this year and is doing well ... except amy, get better soon! well mine was good, i guess. i celebrated wednesday night for eikaiwa. we had a cool halloween party with people from the ward and our students it was fun. the missionaries were in charge of the games so we did the classic griffin string game and musical chairs and bean bag toss for the kids with my hackysack. we had to be pretty creative cause they dont have halloween stuff or american food so i used these little little dohnuts and dipped them in flour, haha but it still tasted fine, everyone liked that game alot. it wasa fun night, Chikuba kyodai did a haunted house with was just a dark room with glow in the dark things haha it was pretty funny. there was people in it but they didnt scare you the hardest part was making it to then end cause it was so dark. it was interesting but a fun night. on halloween night i just ate my halloween treats with my companion it was pretty good.

well it is starting to get pretty cold, today especially was the first time ive been cold in japan. im happy its winter time though. oh so this week we had district mtg in nagasaki and interviews with the mission president which was good, pres margetts is very nice and is keeping good care of all his missionaries, making sure were eating right getting enough sleep making sure were happy haha. oh and then after district meeting we went to eat as a district and with the APs to an Indian resturant. We had curry and they had a scale of spice ill send the picture anyway, i took the challenge of 50x. the hottest curry. theres not much spicy food so i took it. and it dominated me. It was so hot my mouth was on fire i couldnt taste anything...it was great, gave me bad stomach ache but was fun.

also this week we started practicing for a christmas choir were going to be in. its not through the church but we sing gospel music, its way funny. picture a large afircan american lady singing praises in the south and you get me! haha its pretty sweet. the missionaries do it every year. the teacher is funny african american dude. its cool we get to meet a lot of peopl through this so hopefully it will turn into somthing good. We also met some japanese RMs there. they served in japan one in fukuoka in 05-07. there from the airforce academy. there cool guys it was weird to be able to talk to other gaijin not being missionaries, they were way nice and bought us food from the base. so of course what did i ask for..Tapatio. im was pretty pumped. and the lady they were with bought us twizzlers and marshmellow matys it was a good treat.

we didnt have many lessons this week cause we were pretty busy as ive explained but i did have a couple good experiences. on was that i placed my first book of mormon, like completely by myself. I found this teenager when housing and talked to him about our message why it was important and what its done for me, i asked him questions and eventually placed a book of mormon without help from my companion. It was so sweeet. my japanese is not that great but its pretty cool that in june i did know a word. The lord has def helped me in the last few months, its amazing. its easy to forget but we need to often, take a step back and look at how the lord has blessed our lifes each day. even for the simple things.

so thats about it for me this week. one fav scripture id like to share is alma 26:27, maybe i shared it already but its cool. we need to just put our trust in the lord, even when the next step might seem impossible to take, we need to make those blind steps of faith, and trust in the lord always, and then we will see amazing things happen. i can testify of this scripture, its kind of summed up me in the last 4 months. so just keep that scripture in mind when things get tough. well thats it for me have a good week!

愛しているよマルティネズ長老

letter sent 10.25.09: konnichiwa

hey everyone,

things are going good for me this week, its been actually a pretty amazing week. so ill explain but firts last week i wrote ch. f instead of alma chapter 5 my self evaluation chapter, its sweet. sorry i prob have tons of typos cause im no good at typing.

anyway so for this week it started with last tuesday we went to our district meeting mtg in Nagasaki and it was good, but after word the fufu (married missionaries) took us to the hypo center which is close to the church. the hypo center is the exact spot where we dropped an atomic bomb, of course atomic bombs dont hit the ground but the statue is where the bomb exploded over head. It was crazy being there, a crazy feeling and a special spirit there, it was amazing. we also visited peace park where tons of countries gave statues to for the bomb including brazil haha and this park was were an old prison used to be everyone died and now its peace park, pretty cool art. theres also paper cranes everywhere with a cool story behind it you should look it up, its too long to write, i felt i got a little closer to the japanese people by visiting the place it was really cool but chotto hen (little weird) at the same time. i want to go back and visit the musem sometime on pday.

also that day Elder healy a fufu, told me something about home, he said home is where you are. and thats the first time i realized my home for two years is japan. im home. its hard to grasp sometimes but this helped a little and the visit to nagasaki was pretty specail.

oh and on monday night we had a dinner apt with a family and an investigator it was really fun. i got to talk about family and prayer 2 things that are pretty important to me right now so that was good, a pretty good experience. the power of prayer really does bring comfort even though we are seperated by a huge ocean. The lord i looking over us and is here to comfort us...always. oh and that night i ate a lot of sushi ( just raw fish haha it was pretty good actually.

so the members continue to treat us well. Fujiwara brought us over spaghetti and soup and stuff at like 945 at night cause she thought we were hungry haha it was funny. um oh we had a another lesson with a different investigator saturday that went well but a little confusing for her. lessons are the best though. it builds my testimony as well. so what else oh the branch president took us around to vist some peopl tha lived far away and that was good to have a few lessons. after word he took us to taco place! not taco though but tako. my first expereience with tacoyaki ..octupus! yummy. it was actually in this good batter stuff but it was pretty good, little starnge feeling the tenacles and suction cups (didnt suction to me) but interesting texture but still good, haha

so yea this week has been really good. lots of onteresting things and this week should be good as well, we have a halloween party on wednesday so im looking forward to that. other than that thats my week so far. umm im reading in alma still and its awesome, ammon was the most amazing missionary. he saw a lot of messed up things , even believers burning in front of him, al kind of persucution and affliction he never once questioned th lord. He just focused on the work, missionary work and was truly concerned for everyones salvation EVERYONE, even people trying to kill him. he was fearless . im trying to be like him here in japan but that will take a while a long whil haha. anyway i learned alot from him this week, the scriptures are filled with things to learn, i encourage you to read them daily, and will continue to gain knowledge and help/guidance for your life and others. the BOM is truly the word of god, we can draw closer to god by it than any other book, im a witness of this as i use it to help me with my trials here in japan. use them often.

anyway thats about it for me. have a good week and ill talk to you all next week, thanks for the love and supprt.

peace
elder martinez

pictures sent 10.25.09

letter sent 10.19.09: atarashii

hey everyone, thanks for the letters and such sounds like everyone is doing well. well transfers came and gone and left me with a new companion, well i wouldnt say left, i was transfered to Isahaya, It was surprising to me as well but its good, my new Comp is Elder reyes, which is funny the only 2 spanish names in the mssion, we are both new to the are but things are going well so far. Elder Reyes seems like a cool guy so far, hes actually hawaiin, lives in oahu near waikiki (15 minutes) pretty sweet eh? anyway hes a hard worker so im pretty excited for this transfer, ill be here for at least 2 transfers so that will put me to january, so ill be spending my holidays here as well, anyway we dont know anything about the area but we are slowly learning. its tough but fun. and the members are so far pretty amazing. Last night we visited a memeber and she took us around her area by on here bike, we followed her and she led us to some cool families she new so we cantacted 3 referals that night, nothing happened from it but it was cool, another member named kita took us around to visit people too on sunday, so it was really cool these members seem to love, missionary work and missionaries so im really excited for this transfer. i think im going to see great things happen here.

so everynight that we have been here weve had shokujikai's or meal apts. we have one tonight and one of there daughters is going to introduce us to her boyfriend and hopefully become an investigator, we havent met our investigators yet but it sounds like we have some good ones.

Elder Reyes is a good missionary, he knows the language really well and is obedient and delligent, i think we will work well together here with the members. so thats good, i was a little worried about tranfering cause i　just got used to oita and beppu and am going to miss our investigators and members but thats alright, so yeaIsahaya has a small church, priesthood and relief society are held in the same room and our apato is way small as well but its a cool place, pretty inaka but we have a huge area and tons of people so im excited for that, so yea i dont know what else to say cause im new here and were just trying to get used to the area. but its going to be a good transfer.

so this week i was reading in alma, and its a sweet book, alma both almas were amazing missionaries, help me here in the feild, the book of mormon is truly an inspired book, everytime you read it you can learn new things. well anyway a cool chapter id like to point out is chapter f of alma. Its a big self evaluation for our lives i tying, we can read that chapter and check ourselves from time to time, its pretty cool, so.. dozo, yonde kudasai. well thats about it for me this week, looking forward to this week and excited to be here, all is well.

peace 愛しているよ。 martinez 長老

pictures sent 10.19.09

letter sent 10.13.09: week 6

愛する家族と友達

today was a pretty crazy week and its hard to believe its over already. Sorry for not writing yesterday but we had a ward trip to the Fululoka temple. It was a lot of fun. they rented a bus and we had a little voyage to fukuoka. So i was not able to email but it was a really good experience. the japanese people have a great love for doing work for there ancestors, children included.

So what happened this week? i cant even remember. we had a little typhoon scare, but as you probably saw it missed us completely but we still felt its power, it was pretty dang windy and rained a ton. so it was coool to see but i kind of wanted to see a typhoon.

So our lesson with Noriko was canceled which stinks but we have one tomorrow. Oh yeah our other investigator, or sort off, isnt feeling to well. her name is Ritsuko. Shes really nice and always feeds us tons of food at her house and vacation apartrment. Anyways shes had heart surgery 5 times and her heart is giving her problems again so thats not very good, hopefully shell be alright though.

Oh and this weekend was general conference weekend. So i got to watch all the sessions in english was pretty good. It was super goood. I like general conference more than i thought i did haha, i just have a new appreciation for it now. the talks were pretty good huh? i loved the talk related to a heart transplant. It made so much sense. it is so important to do the little things everyday. i also liked the talks on love and the other on anger, by president Monson. Everything starts with little arguements, and lead to anger. there is way too much anger in the world. everyone needs to chill out eh? Its pretty hard for me at times but like said we control our emotions. No one makes us angry we decide to be angry. Its so hard sometimes but something i def need to work on. replacing anger with love. something everyone can work on i think. two opposites and when it comes down to it its just selfishness vs selflessness. anyway try to go out of your way to help out those in need of help this week. Ill do the same in here in Japan . there were so many good talks i could go on but i hope you guys watched them all. Theres tons of good stuff.

hmm so what else? im not quite sure but transfers are tomorrow. Im pretty sure ill stay right where i am but its likely ill get a new companion so that should be interesting, ill be sure to tell you about that next week, im kind of nervous for a new companion. you get used to one and they give you a new one, ill be a pro at human relationships in two years haha. this week i also went on junkai (split) with mccarthy chourou , hes only been out 4 transfers so were pretty new between the two of us but it was pretty fun talking to the people all the same. some times older people just say wakaranai (dont understand ) and shut the door, its pretty funny.

Umm eikaiwa is good , its always fun. the people really like us and conversation time is the best. werid stuff comes out everytime and their broken english is way funny, do i sound weird like that when i speak japanese? probably

well i think thats about it for the week actually. pretty good week, alot of cool activities. Excited and nervous for new transfer but things are going well here. Untill next week,

Martinez長老

pictures sent 10.13.09

letter sent 10.05.09

皆さん　こんにちわ、

well another week has gone by. it has been a good week and sounds like everything is going well for you guys. Hope general conference has been good i wont get to watch it until next week. But im looking forward to it.

Well a little about my week, the weather too is starting to change and becoming a little cooler but we had quite a few days of rain and i wore my rain suit around it was pretty fun, it was pretty humid and i guess its suppose to rain pretty hard core cause a typhoon might be coming i dont know for sure though.

Anyway so i got a taste of what summer or rain season will be like but im looking forward to winter and being cold haha. oh also this week i got bacteria in my ear somehow and my ear hurt pretty dang bad so i had the opportunity of going to a japanese ear doctor! it was pretty strange but an interesting experience. anyway im fine now i just got some ear drops its the same exact thing i got last year or something and i got the same med nothing big but the japanese doctor was pretty intense.

well our investigator returned from Israel this week so we got to meet with her. She showed us tons of picks like the streets jesus carried the cross through and the tree which is thought to be where the aganai or atonement took place as well as the place jesus was baptized. it was super cool to see all those pictures. she is way nice lady, and she went to catholic school as a girl but doesnt know if she believes in Christ. But the experience was good i got to testify about Christ after she showed us the picks it was a super cool lesson. She brought us some beads with a cross to pray with haha which was interestring but she had good intentions its pretty cool though. she also brought us a bookmark and some candy . its hard people are way nice here but our investigators are way nice but just interested in religion they like learning and reading but dont really believe in anything. So its hard to help them gain a testimony. But its possible.

It kind of connects with what ive been reading in the Book of mormon lately. Im in mosiah reading about abinadi. What an amazing missionary. he shared his message and was spared until he shared his full message. Then after he said what the lord wanted to, he was burned. he shared that message to king noah and the wicked men, they werent ready to receive the message but alma was, alma tried to save him then fled for his life and wrote down the words of abinadi. I wonder if Abinadi knew Alma listened and alma ended up converting many, Did abinadi know that? i have no clue but im guessing not. he didnt baptize king noah or anyone but was killed. In japan sometimes its hard to see what were doing well sometimes. i dont have a picture of a whole family being baptized and often in life we wont, But it shows through Abinadi that if we try our best and are obedient then good will come in Japan wether or not i can see it. I just have to do my best and who knows how many seeds ill plant. i think the same applies for everyday life, just being a good example to others holding the mantle of christ will help others further down the road whether we know it or not. So just an interesting thought. Well thats about it for me this week. have a good week

愛していますよ。
マルティネズ長老

pictures sent 10.05.09

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