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Sunday, September 27, 2009

letter sent 09.27.09: minasan

konnichiwa
元気です。

this week was pretty crazy. On tuesday night we had a shoukujikai (shoukuji= meal kai =apt). It was yakiniku style so they had this bbq and tons of raw meat and fish and shrimp and stuff and you just cook your own and hang out and eat. i ate so much meat that night. oishikatta (oishii=delicious katta =past tense). We played games with the family and shared a message it was alot of fun, japanese kids are crazy. theyre way cool. early that day we went to this all you can eat pizza and pasta place with the zone leaders cause they came for splits that day. The pizza here is not good. haha its terrible, well its not bad but its not like american pizza at all they put weird stuff on it like corn and weird sauce and mayo and all kinds of weird junk. but it was fun. My favorite thing here is still tonkatsu. its so good.


anyway, this week i had my first lessons with investigators. the first one, my first one ever was pretty crazy to say the least. We made an apt with a lady named ritsko after eikaiwa and she said she would feed us, well this crazy lady
overheard and wanted to come to the "party" or so she thought. Ritsuko is way nice so she invited her which was bad. anyway at the apt we ate lunch and thought it would be ok but nope. oh and also we took a pretty crazy member as well. well during lunch she got a call and had to watch her 2 month old grandson so he came over and after we said the opening prayer the doorbell rang and it was the toilet dude who came to fix the toilet so she did that and the phone rang and she did that, and the baby started going crazy and she was trying to do all things at once. so we would say one sentence than something would happen and she got up and ran around the house. and the same cycle kept repeating. well the crazy lady saw this and laughed for like 10 miniutes straight at us because it was like manga to her and we were gaijin, she went crazy i think she was a little typsy as well i saw a schmernaugh or whatever in her purse. so it was bad. kind of funny though i guess now, i was pretty annoyed. then we truned on j smith video anyways and the crazy lady the whole time is just asking ritsko about random things like food and trying to make coffe in the kitchen. when the movie started she broke the coffee machine and beans went everywhere. everything crazy kept happening. haha at the end my comp even said that was his craziest lesson and hes going home in 2 months. what a good start eh? its pretty funny but were going to have another lesson with just ritsuko this week she felt really bad.

anyway lesson 2 went better. it was really short but good. We taught a daigakusei (college student) there's tons because of APU, anyway hes a kendo master, pretty cool dude. I taught the first part of the lesson god is our loving heavenly father and was really cool. i felt the spirirt testifying to him while doing so, whether or not he felt it i dont know. but it was amazing. he had to leave but hopefully we get to teach him again, hes way smart and cool.

so thats my week for you pretty much japan is still way hard. Its so different im not used to it yet, but things are good. i read in mosiah today and came upon a script mastery 3 verse 19. It says to be submissive as a child and be willling to submit to all things which the lord seeth fit to inflict upon you. interesting concept ive never thought of before. Things can be hard but something good can always come from it, but its up to us. we can always learn and grow, which is what this life is all about, and its only through those trials. thinking of trials as blessings is a bit ironic but could be so eh? well anyway this is church is true and god is in fact our father in heaven. he loves us more than we know. he cares about us and wants whats best for us. comforting to know when im a whole pacific ocean away from my family. haha well have a good week じゃね

Martinez 長老

pictures sent 09.27.09


{monkey moutain}


{housing at Buddhist temple}


{eikaiwa class}

{castle in Oita}

{Beppu fun}


Monday, September 21, 2009

letter sent 09.21.09: All is well

愛する家族と友達

this week has been anoither good one. It started off with a bus trip to the west side of Japan. We went to kunamoto for zone conference which was pretty cool. it was cool traveling and seeing more of japan and getting to meet all the other missionaries. It was cool. we had some really good food that the members made for us which included pizza weird japanese pizza haha but it was good. the food is great. Well it was a fun little trip.

Um the rest of the week we have just been doing more housing and streeting and chirashi kubari. Not having too much luck yet, but we do have 1 or 2 lessons with potential investigators this week so that should be fun. i havent taught a lesson yet. Im looking forward to it.

Well we have been housing a lot of danchis there huge apartments like only about 6 stories high but for each floor theres only two doors, every 2 doors have there own staircase so its quite the workout but its fun. super tiring but not bad. we found 2 potential investigators so it was pretty cool. Most people dont want to talk to us or they listen for a long time cause there nice and then say theyre not interested its funny. the old men are pretty grumpy and funny, we meet pretty interesting people.

Yesterday in church i had to give a 5 minuite talk it was kind of scary but i did alright i think people understand me. But one of the councelors came up to me afterward and told me its pretty dame to have your hands in your pockets and thats what i did for my whole talk in front of everybody..oops but he was nice about it. im still trying to figure things out here.

i always joke around with my comp and tell him i suck at japan which is pretty true. haha im just a huge gaijin haha. well thats about it for this week. I taught eikaiwa by myself which was interesting. It was fine beacause everybody is way good at english but sound super funny, it always makes me think, do i sound like that? i probably do haha that stinks. well im not understanding anything much more than last week still cant make out what people are saying, its so hard, but at least they can understand me, so thats half i guess.

yesterday at church i talked to a return missionary from tokyo. he know my senseis in the Mtc and he was way surprised that i was a been cause he said my japanese is good, so that was nice to hear for the first time but it still doesnt help the fact i cant understand anyone. well thats about it for me. this week.

oh yea my talk was about why i came on a mission and ill share a little bit with you. I said it was easy to live in japan its way diffucult for me cause everything is different but the one thing thats exaclty the same is this gospel, as my life keeps changing; the people i surround myself with and where am. the only constant i have is this gospel. And thats exactly why i need to hold on to it. This gospel gave my life guidance and comfort. thats why im here. to share this message with everyone, because what it has done for me. Jesus christ is my savior my redeemer. he lives. and his church has been restored today. This is my testimony and the message i came to share. untill next week

まってね
Elder Martinez

pictures sent 09.21.09






Monday, September 14, 2009

letter sent 09.13.09: greetings from Japan

minasan konichiwa.

so i survived my first week in my first area. It was pretty sweeet. japan is way cool. I still dont understand anything that anyone says but its alright. im studying and trying to learn the language but its going to take some time. The food is way good and way weird though. I dont know what im eating ever but i just eat. So its interesting but good. we had a dinner appointment last night actually, it hurts my legs to sit on the floor for so long. haha. the tables are so low and we sit through dinner and spiritual message. its tough.

We havent really taught anybody but yesterday we had sunday school and lunch at our little eikaiwa room in beppu cause theres no church in beppu. Everyone thought it was a party so we had 4 eikaiwa students come out of like 12 and we have a teaching apt because of it so it will be my first.

i got my bike this week it is sweet, it just wish i could use it on mountain trails, but its cool, so i actually got to see beppu, cause we could go somewhere farther then our classroom. well we do a lot of finding and housing its pretty tough but my trainer is pretty cool so we have fun too.

Theres so many people. We went to this really cool place in beppu and talked to this lady that was buddhist, it was in a place filled with onsens she told us that we should stop studying jesus and study onsens and invited us to go. it was interesting and funny. i made friends with one of our eikaiwa students he likes music hes like 27 but looks way young he plays his guitar at the eki. so maybe someday hell want us to teach him. i forgot his name though cause i cant remember anyones name in japan, there all crazy hard, i think i know only one name of a ward member, his name is okada hes so old but way good at ping pong its nuts, i need to play him.

so my apartment is pretty cool, i like everyone. get along with everyone, its prettty fun. we went to a yakiniku last p day and it was pretty sweet you just cook your meat at the table that was prettty fun. and we also went to a sushi bar, there a little conveyer belt that moves by all the tables and you just take little plates with sushi on them off, then at the end they count your plates each plate is 100 yen like a buck. it was sweet.

So my japanese is coming, its fun to try to talk to people, people listen to me more than my comp cause my japanese is so bad haha but eventually they shut the door on me. haha its fun though. its tough. But there are people here that are ready just have to find them, its hard work but fun as well. its frustrating because they dont get it. they dont even know how much this gospel would bless them if the just listened. I wouldnot be here in japan if these things werent true. if joseph Smith never saw God and Jesus Christ i wouldnt be here. The restored church is on the earth today and that why im here, to share that with them to help them. We know the path to obtain never ending happiness, i wish they could see it that way but everyone has there agency.

anyways I still cant believe im in japan still, its crazy. nothing is the same here. all the people are small and speak a weird language called japanese, it hurts my head oh and tonight we are going to kunamoto for zone conference tomorrow so that should be cool. so thats about it for my week, finally got settled things are good, im so tired everynight i fall asleep instantly, and this week has gone by so fast.

well anyway way i think thats about it. have a great weeek and ill talk to you next week, its a some kind oif holiday so i hope we can find a place to email. we should be able to we just might have to pay anyway, take it easy
愛してますよ Martinez 長老

pictures sent 09.13.09











letter sent 9.06.09

こんにちわみんなさんぉ元気ですか? 私はいいです。にほんはかこい!とりあえず。。。 Well Japan is Awesome. Its completly different than anything ive ever seen in my life...so foriegn but so cool. I love it.

So ill tell you about my first couple days. On wednesday we dendo for a bit passed out flyers for eikaiwa (english class) and that was crazy we did that infukuoka which is a huge city. then we had interviews with president hes a cool guy and then we did more missionary work we placed a BOM which was cool, but i dont really understand anything at all. its to fast and mumbly. So im always confused.

Well, for dinner we went to a restaurant and had some chicken katsu which was way good. Eating with chopsticks isnt too bad. But anyway super good food. then we taught english which was alot of fun. theres so many cool people. Well that night we got our class, and i got my call to Oita its north east on the coast ish. My area is in beppu but we have a sweet appt in oita. we travel by train everyday to beppu .

So on thursday morning i was dropped off at the eki and traveled alone to my area. fukuoka is huge but i saw tons of mountains and forrests and stuff for a couple of hours before my area. It was beautiful. Its an amazing country.

Well i was picked up in oita by Elder Davidson my trainer and comp. hes from Australia. hes a cool guy. hes pretty chill guy. its been fun. we also live with 2 others and between us 4 we're the only 4 elders for a long time for a couple hours. So we have sooo many people.

well thursday night we had english class again. we have a pretty cool investigator i met there but shes in israel for the next 3 weeks so we have a lot of finding and housing to do. Um Friday night we ate a members house. we sat on the ground which is incredibly uncomfortable, the members were really nice. I ate a bunch of things that i had no idea what they were nothing is familar but everything is way good. well japanese kids are so crazy they're funny, they love missionaries. so after dinner all the little kids played with fireworks just sparklers it was pretty funny. japanese kids are so cool.

oh i also bought my bike they had to order it. i got a black Giant. its a rock 1 its way nice. but i have to wait to get it. 
So on saturday we had this concert this japanese lady came and sang and we the missionaries sang one song with her. it was pretty good, alot of our eikaiwa students came which was cool.

um sunday was good too. i bore my testimony which wasnt that bad. I probably messed up a lot but i think i did alright. But yea i dont understand a thing, haha. we went housing last night the old people here are crazy and very proper we met a lot of them, but no one was home, and it was sunday night. weird. nobodys ever home.

well today is pday and were doing emails in this little place. and we might go to monkey mountain, theres tons of monkeys that live in the mountains, so many so it will be cool, they have like 3 clans of monkeys, 2 of the clans had a war they lined off and face each other and the loosing clan left into the mountains and hasnt been seen again. so thats the story behind it and now the other 2 clans just hang out, so that should be fun.

well oita is pretty cool. we live in the big part of the city and are surrounded by mountains, kind of volcanoes maybe i dont know, inactive of course but i think they steam haha. its sweet. its so humid there, im constrantly sticky and we ride our bikes everywhere for long a time so we get pretty sweaty but its good.

Um sleeping arangements are interesting we sleep in futons real ones. Its just a bed and a cover really. pretty comfortable, so we sleep on the floor . its cool. ill take a pic this week, i havnt taken many, been pretty busy, well the bathroom is normal but in the hombu (missin home under the temple) they had the toilets that squirt you in the bum haha its well...interesting, Ive only seen squater in the airport but didnt use it.

umm what else, everything is backwards roads and junk it confuses me, the people are cool, little wierd . well i dont know what else i was supposed to write about, its been way cool so far but this week is the start of the real work. finding and stuff so that should be fun. Japan is legit. everyone rides bikes and is healthy and stuff, pretty weird right? teeth are way bad though, mom you would be terrified. so yea i got a long way to go with the language and all, but it will come, i got an electric jisho (dictionary) so thats helped alot so far well, thats about it for me.

Im here this is real now, im fulfilling prohecy sharing the gospel to the island s of the sea. and its sweet. untill next time 愛しています。魔ってね。Martinez 長老