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