letter sent 6.6.10

how are you guys doing? i hope this email finds you well. im doing great here. i love every minute. im happy and well
Hearing about kyle was cool. i was way surprised to hear about that. it was crazy i didnt expect it. where is time going. thats absolutely crazy. everybody is moving on doing there own thing its crazy i feel like im the same and everyone is aging. i think the mission is a weird time warp or something. like when i come home ill be time traveling to the future. i think thats what the mission is just time travel haha
anyways im doing great this week was sweet. againg Elder lyon and i have been so blessed. the lord is just leading us and guiding the work here in Futenma. We have been really busy this week and found a couple new investigators so thats way sick. so a couple highlights for you this week. i talked to my trainer on the phone. he called me and elder nokes from australia that was way unexpected and super weird. Hes doing well. It just blew my mind again. i cant believe im a trainer still time is flying. well it was good to talk to him. i learned alot from him he really helped me get used to japan he was way chill and helped me relax and not stress about stuff i cant control. hes a good man. James Davaidson.
also this week i called up my recent convert! yea. that was way sweet. it was good to talk with here. she is doing well. she was in the middle of a lesson with elder saito the after baptism ones so i got to talk to him as well that was sweet. its way good to see someones life change . she is happy now. It was amazing and is amazing to see that chage, when we met her she was a heavy smoker. she came to church read and prayed and through little steps quite smoking with the lords help. so that was way good to talk with her.
i also got to play basketball this week. we played with the kids at the park and some eikaiwa student scame so thyat was cool weone of the boys would always say to his friend. "yuusa-ku." it was way funny. its funny to hear people speak japanese english. they have many english words in japanese just pronounced weird youd be surprised. anyway turns out this wasnt one of them at the end of the game we talked and asked them there names. suire enough one boy replied yusakku. haha Elder Nokes looked at each outher and laughed. Good thing we didnt say that during the game. haha
oh another highlight we dendo ing witha 75 year old woman last night haha. Shhe loves the gospel and took us to visit some of her obachan friends/ that was cool. I love the fire that some of the older members have here in japan they truly love this gospel and love sharing it. i have learned alot from them about just going the extra mile and enduring to the end. theres at leats one in each ward that just surprises me.
anyway im just rambling. lastly we had a lesson with our 10 year old investigator naoto. his family is lass active and we are working hard on getting him baptized. once he comes to church i think well be able to make a date with him but he has school next week so that stinks , hes a smart kid and his sister love the gospel its fun teaching the two of them. its kind of didfefernt cause their kids. for example this week we taught the gospel of Jesus christ using a flashlight. Faith being the first battery, repentance the second. baptism is the flashlight and the holy ghost is the head or light of flashlight. we need to endure through adding fresh batteries or the light will diminsh and eventually leave. it was a good lesson and they seemde to have a alot of fun. its been really cool to work with them. i like teaching kids the best. there so innocent. well that was my week in a nut shell i hope you guys are doing well and i hope to hear from everyone next week
Love elder Martinez
ps oh yea mom. yes we attend 2 churchs on sunday still.its long but good haha. and yea im excited for the package!

letter sent 5.30.10

well happy memorials day today we went to the beach with the ysa military people. we played beach volleyball and ate some bbq beef sandwhichs chips and stuff, very americanish and very weird. the water is way clear down here its pretty but we were still by the city but it was nice to get oustide in pday clothes, its been a while since i got of church clothes, we saty in them on pday unless we have an activity.
well anyway the lord has really blessed us this week, we are working hard to find new investigators and hes is leading us and guiding us, we found lots of new people this week including 3 families, they are not all invetestigators yet but its been awesome, lots of miracles. weve been working with naoto a 10 year old, i went on junkai with the aps and we taught him, i learned a lot from the them elder richardson and chamberlain, they are way cool, and great missionaries, what makes a great missionary or just person in general is the love they have...charity, i could def see and feel that when working with them. something im trying to work on. But anyway Naotyo is a cool little kid, hes family is inactive, but he prays everynight and is way smart. we hada alittle act at the church but he couldnt make it on sunday. But he could def be baptized this transfer if he comes to church. its cool. we have also been workingg witha mother of 3 haveing lessoons with her, this week we helped her oldest a 5 year old pray that was really cool. and other than that ive been eating allot...tons. you americans and your food haha cake pizza cookies hamburgers hotdogs bbq sandwhiches the list goes on. haha its cool though
well yesterday was way sweet ill share that with you. 2 things. 1st is we were in charge of giving training to the youth on sharing th gospel. the 4 of us were in charge and all the leaders left. it was combined so we had all the military youth. elder lyon talked about prepraing for a mission and then elder nokes talked about skills from preach my gospel, teach testify and invite. we talked about there experiences and had some role play, elder mergist then talked about love for those around us and elder eyrings talk about sharing it with our friends, it was way good, i have to admit i got the coolest part of the lesson. we ran out of time so i was cut short but i think it worked out perfect. i asked a kid in the front what the gospel was after weve been talking about sharing it,...well waht is it? he had a blank look on his facer, as he thought about everypone laughed. we all know it but its a hard question (3 nephi 27) anyways the center of the gospel is the atonement of Jesus Christ the biggest act of charity shown. i read alma 7 11 -13 and watched that video you sent to me Mom, from elder holland. the spirit beat everyone up. after the movie testify breifly and sat down. i asked a 12 year old little boy to pray the rroom was dead silent. the boy starting crying in his prayer and after everyone reverently walked out of the room. it was silent. i was stoked...haha it was sweet. just what the youth needed. the the spirit of the Lord talked with them, and they felt it. it was sick. The spirit guided us.
also later that night we were comiung home from the mierzejewski house, it was 830 and the other 2 returned home. Elder lyon and i went to visit on of our invetsigators, the lady we met at the bank our first day in Futenma. She came to the door. she sounded and looked terrible. she said she was sick and couldnt talk but thanks for coming. she looked really sad. we asked to say a pray with and for her and she agreed. the spirit was again super strong. we prayed she would get better and for her family and wehn the prayer was done she looked up smiling and crying. it was so amazing. we left again quite. I love beeing a missionary, we literally get to see the Lord work through us and through th spirit act through us. we are tools in his hand as he helps his children in need. he cares about everyone of his children. it was day. well these are just some of the many miracles that happened this week, time is flying here in Futenma and were working hard. thanks for the letters and support and ill talk with you next week,
love elder Martinez

oh and mom i dotnthink i need anything in the package, the americans hook us up with anything american from base. and my clothes are good... i think im alright
oh and Ozaki san got baptized in miyazaki last week!!! ... i hope haha. me and elder saito found her and taught her all the lessons togther and she was baptized! sweet eh. she was awesome, quite smoking way quick and was blessed for coming to church everyweek, remember her?

letter sent 5.16.10

so this week was pretty sweet, alot of things to update you on. so i did in fact get transfered ... i am leaving on a jet plane dont know when ill be back again.... was my them song this week. i am now in Okinawa. i made my way down to a smaller island. I am in Futenma, right by an American base. Yesterday i attended church twice once in english and once i japanese! its crazy its like reverse culture shock. its weird. haha. so yes we work with both wrads, we only work through referals from the military and thats it. but its been pretty cool, it hasnt stopped raining sence we got here. its humid and not too hot yet so its ok, but it will get there soon. pretty crazy news eh? well it doesnt end. My new companion is Elder Lyon, He lives in morgan Utah and his last area was The provo MTC. haha im so stoked for this transfer. im way excited. its been a little weird, im in 4 man aprt and Elder Nokes is here to, he was in the same aprt as me when i was a bean, so its been nuts, time is flying. it wasnt to long ago, i was a bean, and now my companion is a bean. Its crazy! where is time going. Elder Mergist is also here and hes from my mtc district so its a cool set up. so yea im stoked for this transfer.

so weve been working hard these past 4 days getting used to the area and giving some streeting and housing practice to Elder Lyon. its sweet. he has bean power. haha we went housing the other night, i let him start the contact, showed her the book of mormon and asked her if she wanted to see it,. he gave a simple testimony and i felt the spirit strong, she didnt look like she was interested. i then just told here exactly how it was, that elder lyon had just got to Japan this week, and her heartv changed 180 degrees. She was way impressed. we explained the book of mormon a little more and she wanted to read it. this is just one of the few miracles weve seen already. we have some really promising potential investigators and some lessons already set up this week, im way excited for this transfrer as you can prob tell, we are going to work hard and see some sick miracles, poor Elder lyon falls asleep the second his head hits the pillow haha i remeber those days, I really do miss miyazaki. it was pretty hard when the plane took off from Miyazaki, But the lord has another calling for me, and im excited for that.

well it was great to talk to everyon on th phone. next time will be christmas, wow a lot will happen before then eh? well take care, have a good week! love your son elder martinez

letter sent 4.18.10

thank you for your letters. i really enjoyed reading them.well things are going well for me. pday is coming to an end and i start another week.im tired, but its good. anyways sounds like you guys had a good week in Idaho and logan. sounds like fun. thats cool trevor and kristen are getting back into routine again that will be good for them. im excited for the family right now.

anyways this week has been pretty good. things are getting better with the companion and the language. im starting to get back to myself, acting normal and happy andstuff, i was through off for a little while but things are back to normal. My language is getting better and im speaking a lot of japanese and not getting to frustrated lately. haha well this week we taught 15 lessons which is pretty good but we want to get up to 20 lessons soon. that would be better. well this week we taught goichi he is 10 and his parents want him baptized so were working with him. its difficult cause his attention span is limited so we have to be creative we taught all of lesson 1 the apostacy and stuff and turned off the lights and ripped up pieces of the gospel and gave everyone a piece. i thought it was pretty good haha. then we wtached the restoration video. the spirit was def strong. he young so i hope he can recognize the feeling and act on it in the end. but it went really well, then we played prophet concentration which bro petersen brought. that was natsukashii. i remeber playing that game as a child too, remember ? haha we also got to teach our chinese investigator cho san this week hes awesome . i cant wait for him to be baptized some day. hes a trooper and loves this gospel. We watched general conference in mandarin. ...thank goodness for japanese. wow that was nuts. but a good experience we watched part of preisthodd session, *president Uchtdorf and Monson. so that was really sweet.

next we had zone conference. it was great to see president and his wife they are so loving its ridiculus. truly Christlike people. i had a good interview with president and enjoyed feeling the spirit with the missionaries in kagoshima zone. we learned some good stuff. the Ap training was about companionship study. They helped us feel the spirit and showed us a good example of companionship study. They said something that was pretty cool. we have the BOM our whole lives until the day we die. but our companions we only have for 6 to 12 weeks our whole life, whther we love them or not we have a lot to learn in a little time. i thought that was really cool.To learn not only from prophets but from opthers and there testimonies. relationships are very important.

we also taught kadota and ozaki our new investigator. they live close and near heiwadai koen or park. so we rode our bikes through the park, it was so beautiful. i love that park for a second i felt like iwas on a bike trail in california. it was awesome. i dont get to do things like that much, zutto city! but it was nice. ozaki san is a nice old lady and she is lonely. we helped cheer up her day and taught lesson one which went well, we talked with kadota about enos, alot lot to learn from him and his wrsetle with god. the book of mormon uses such amazing words, this week we had the oppurtunity to visit lots of less actives and prev investiogators. i shared ether 12 4 for one message, jeffs fav scripture i think. its amazing, to believe in God is to hope for as better world. to be postive and abound in good works, With out a beleif in a loving Heavenly Father is somnething i cant comprehend. it sure takes the meaning out of life, but the next part is key, the anchor of our faith, an anchor is tiny compared to a huge boat but when rough times come if that anchor is in Christ we are steadfast and immovable. i love the scritptures, hiow its written. recently ive been reading the accounts off mathew mark luke and john. there is so much to learn from the last few days of Jesus Christ life, like that talk in general conference. im impresssed upon the acts of Christ. I think he was better than perfect. you could justify alot of thintgs after how the people treated him but instead he asked Hevaenly father tyo forgive them. he gave his back to the smiter cheeks to them that plucked off the hair and hid not his face from shame or spitting. he still loved those people. he kept going on. he didnt tak a nap after he atoned for the worlds sinm but kept going , and died on the cross, pleading for the forgiveness of the people. this has given me a lot of strength this weel. i want to be a better person, i wish i could show that love. it helps me going when im tired, which is everday and puts a smile on my face.

well im sorry i have been talking so much about scriptures and stuff mom and dad, but as you can see im doing well, to answer your questions i dint think i need a new journal cover just yet mom, ill be okay and if not ill just send the finsished pages home. keep up the hard work at the office. keep strong at seminary and with Todd. dad i still feel like a foreighner haha, theres no changing that, its so different america is a melting pot but here its all japanese. they look at me funny and treat me different. Alot of poeple just stare at me when i say hi on the street but theres also a good aspect alot of people love you too, gaijin power is what my comp calls it. the little school children love gajin and sometimes i feel like a hero. haha its fun to make them laugh and gigle with a simple hero haha. anyways thanks for your letters, your support and your example. truly thank you. things are getting better for me, im happy and pushing forward. have a great week and ill talk with you next week

love your son elder martinez

letter sent 3.22.10

this week has been quite amazing. alot of great things have happened. first it started with a junkai in miakonojo. we hada family home evening with the ward there and i was able to play and sing a song for them there on guitar which was pretty fun. Elder Johnson my austrailan mtc roomate sang whil i played as well. hes a funny kid. so that was a good way to start off the week.

the junkai in miakonojo was really sweet. it was cool to dendo with doki *mtc friends. we found alot of cool people. found a new investigator a potential and a lady who said she was going to come to church. it was really successful and a good spiritual experience. its amazing to see the lords hand in this work. to feel the spirit working through you to find a nd teach Gods children. theres really no feeling like it.now i need to do that in miyazaki now haha. but this week here in miyazaki was also really successful. we visited our golden chinese investogator at work this week and ate some chinese food witch was really good. it ironically reminded me of america. i dont get chinese food here and we ate it more at TSJ so it was natsukashii. Anyways he is aweseome. he is the only chef and has to work everyday to keep the resturant going and to keep his friends employed so he cant quit. its hard. but he wants to baptized and calls us for lessons everytime he has a yasumi or break like once a month. crazy eh? chinese people are so perfect. china is going to explode someday i think. so we have a lesson this week which im looking forward to.

next we met with kadota san, it was a way solid and spiritual lesson. he committed to comuing to church everyweek now., that was way sweet. and in he still wants to recieve baptism as well. just will take time. but someday he will be baptized . so we are way excited for him. he did come to church and hes doing very well, speaking of church this sunday was the homecoming of the shibukaicho branch presidents daughter. it was weird seeing a homeciming and think that that day will come sooner than i think. it was really weird but good, shes so stoked on dendo and wants to joint for us all she can. so thats cool.

but perhaps the highlight of the week was the hayashi family coming to church. it was so awesome i seriously love that family and it was sweet to see them at church. i think that had a relally good time and the members were really good to them. It was so sweet. there 4 kids were way excited to be there too. This week is a big week for them. keito is starting scholl and there expectiung a new baby on the 25th so thats exciting. its a perfect time for them. ther family is so happy and reminds me of me and trevor jaff and brayn as little children. this is what our gospel is all about. families. finding happiness here on earth and making that happiness eternal. so its a really specail oppurtuinty i have to be able to work with the hayashi family.

well thats some highlights of yet another amazing week. thats about it from me here in miyazaki japan. keep it real party people.

love elder martinez

letter sent 3.14.10

Another week has flown by. its crazy, i cant believe it. We hada lot of actvities this week to make it interesting, so it was def fun. on Tuesday i went to a pizza buffet. i miss american pizza! but i have to say i do like japanese pizza as well.im gertting used to the mayonase corn sausage, seaweed, weird cheese pizza. its starting to grow on me. haha.

so i guess the first exciting event was The Petersens American Kindergarden graduation. haha. It was way funny to see a bunch of little japanese children dance, sing and act. they all spoke in english. it was broken, but its crazy, everyone in japan knows a little english. It was funny, they sang some church songs and later Bro Petersen gave a lesson on Gods love. it was really cool. there were a ton of people there and was a good experience. Were able to meet some less actives and a potential investigator so it turned out really well.

Then on Friday we planned a sweet volleyball activity at a gymn. we invited and committed 6 non members to come. as well as several members. Then everyone bailed. so it was stunk. but it made it all worth it when Kota came. Hes 17. a way nice kid. so it turned out to be only 6 of us but everyon had a good time. The members befriended kota well so it was perfect. it was crazy playing volleyball. real volleyball. natsukashikatta. except im 2 feet taller than everyone so its kind of funny.

The third sweet activity was a YM YW activity. they played wii sports on the wall of the inside of the church. of course we couldnt play but that to was natsukashii. it was funny to watch. and of course it was all in japnese so it was extra sweet. i talked to a nice man brother Markam. Another gaijin in our word. it was good to have another good talk in english. hes a nice guy. there was a good turn out to that too, non members and all.

So this week has been really sweet, we had a lot of sweet activities to get people out, who normally dont come and we had a really good turn out to church yesterday so i think it payed off. I dont know if i told you but we had training 2 weeks ago with the mebers from a 70 elder yamashita. the church has put out anew plan for asia. A rescue Plan to help non member part member less actives and people who havnt been to the temple yet, Its a very detailed plan and will be good. It will help us work more efficently with the mebers and help evryone come closer top Christ. So we have been trying to promote that wiht the members and trying to work well with them, i think the mebers like us so thats the first step. i have been thinking about this rescue plan and thought of mathew 18 verse 12 13. about leaving the 99 sheep to find the 1 lost sheep. i think its going really well so far. the ward is working hard, and thats how missionary work succeeds

so this week hasnt been all play, weve been quite busy, im exhausted. we had lot of sweet lessons this week , and weve been working on getting Tsuda friends so its been a crazy week. We also had a sweet lesson with Sadanaga san, our fairly new investigator. hes way funny. we talked about the second part of the Plan of salvation. In the beginning we revewed what we taught last time and he explained to me what the atonement was with great detaiol hes got a really great memory. Anyway the lesson went really well. we talked about the kingdoms, and of course focused on the celestial kingdom, the spirit was strong. it strengthened my testimony. the celestial kingdomwill be so sweet. we shared 3 nephi 28 10 to help describe heaven. it sounds so perfect. a fulness of joy. i cant even comprehend it. We cant, or let anyone else, settle for anything less than making it to the clestial kingdom and obtaining eternal life with our families in a state of complete joy. so we helped sadanaga san see this. and then committed him to baptism. he said he couldnt cause he was a grave keeper, i dont know what exaclty know what that implys but we asked him to pray this week if it was the right thing to do, he said he wouldnt pray this week but tonight tomorrow and the next day haha. then he said once he recieved his answer he said he would happily receive baptism. we later got a call asking how much it costs haha. anyway it was a really good lesson. he ended with prayer and blessed that me and Elder Burnett could get married and make happy children and go to heaven. ive never had anoyone pray for me like that. i think my life will be pretty good.

so as you can see things are going really good here in Miyazaki. Its saiko. im well. happy. and alive. I love the mission and serving the people of japan. Hope everyone is doing well, untill next week

Elder Martinez

Letter sent 3.7.10

hello everyone.

this week has been another good one and has flown bye. weeks do go by really quick its incredible. and thanks for all the letters as usual. i love to hear from everyone. well there were lots of good things happen this week but i will just talk about a few. first is sadanaga san. hes our new investiogator you conatcted us ata stoplight three weeks ago and has been to chruch twice since then. he is doing really. well its amazing . we have had some good lessons with him lately. he does everything we ask him. It really cool to work with people like that.Hes a nice man of about 40. its just especially cool to see the lords hand in this work. Its cool to see people that we are lead to and people that are led to us. i love being able to wittness thes miracles everyweek as we are constantly meeting new people. i love it.

As for tsuda hes having trouble with smoking still but has a testimony so its been really hard. weve postponed his baptism again till Trevor and kristens big day the 17th of march ( the real date is March 26) so i pray he will stop smoking by then. hes had some concerns and doubts lately too so say a prayer for him. Tsuda is a way good person. hes classic.haha so i hope so bad that he can make this next baptismal date.

Next is the hayashi family. they are so awesome. They are investigators. i love visiting them and reading an praying with there shcildren there so funny and the all love the missionaries and love to pray. I love working with them and feeliong the love thats in there home. I want nothing more than for them to becaome an eternal family. they are perfect. reminds me of all of you. this week i shared a spiritual message using my min mag light haha thanks dad. we turned out the lights and read mosiah 16 verse 9 together under the candle lick flashlight. it was cool. a simple but powerful message. the lord is our light and will be there in all times of darkness that come our way. he is a light that cannot be put out. and endless source of light.he is our savior. he is the reason.

Another hioghlight ios working with a another family the Kikuchi. The mother is a recent convert and they have the coolest 5 year old daughter, sakura. there an amazing family as weel. they want to go the temple and are taking preperation classes. This week i made a little card for them with the salt lake city temple on it and wrote a little message. I was able to go visit them with our zone leader (who was here ion miyazaki at the timeof her baptism). Weshared a quick message and testified of the the temples of the lord. i showed them my favorite picture of all of us in front of the oaland temple and was able to testify of the power and sacredness of the temple. I will never forgot the oppurnity we had to fgo to the temple together before i left and cant wait for the oppurtinuites that will be present in the future. I love the temple. i know families are eternal and greatful for this previlige i have to share this message with families in Japan. this is truly the greatest work on the earth.. the lords work.

thanks for your love and support. untill next week

Love, Elder Martinez

Letter sent 2.21.10

whats up?

this week has a been pretty good. i geuss ill just share the highlights, oh it was transfers this week but of course im still here in miyazaki and surprisingly i still have the same companion elder burnett form salt lake. But thats good. we get alopng really well and work well together. we have a good time dendou..ing. so im excited to see what will happen here in miyazaki this transfer. pretty exciting. oh and also i had pizza this week ata a buffet, its been so long, of course its japanese pizza. so its not what you think but it was way good. anyways

so this week we went to the hayashi family (non members, we teach them eikaiwa every saturday) They have 2 little boys and 2 little girls and a baby on the way. there awesome. We brought shimuto a birthdaycake and celbrated his 4th birthday. hes way cool we sang and stuff and a had a good time. its way funny to have lessons with them. everyone has their own book of mormon and the 2 youngest boys love to pray they always want to pray. its really fun working with them. we shared with them a message in moroni 7 13. it was simple for the little ones. it just made me think how blessed we are, how blessed i am. to have been called to japan, sent to miyazaki and get to work with and meet tons of waycool people. I love it hear, and i love the poeple. this was truly a blessing from none other than our Heavenly Father.

we have aslo of course been working closely with tsuda. hes haveing a hard time quiting the last 2 or 3. somtimes he goes a day without smoking but is having a tough time. we shared ether 12 12 with him onee of my favorites. He just needs to have the faith that he can see the miracle and trust in the lord, because with the lords help nothing is impossible, but its still going to be hard. i cant understand that addiction or craving so its hard. but yesterday to help tsuda i am too quitting my addiction. Yesterday i told Tsuda i was going to quite English. Its way hard, and my head hurts, but hopefully it helps and i can understand how tusda feels. its way hard ahving a gaijin companion and all but im trying hard. ima kara, zutu nihongo. its going to be way good for my japanese cause i need it. still i dont understand what people say here. i can get general ideas but its way tough. its crazy how far ive come though. anyways thats that, im done with english. anyways i hope he can quite this week, thats the only thing holding him back from baptism right now.. anyways its been a great week. im tired, i think i will always be tired, its way good though. its not suppose to be easy, just worth it deshou.and it is. its awesome.

until next week,

elder martinez

letter sent 2.14.10

genki? genki yo. saikou

jya this week has been awesome, some pretty sweet stuff went down. its been way good, weve been pretty busy this week also had a long bus ride to fukuoka this week which was relaxing but ill get to it in a second, well this week has been a little hard, we dropped 2 investogators, or i should say they dropped themselves. it was way sad. one lady in particular is always busy and stressed with work, shes like our message and would listen at her pourch but we could never get a lesson at the church with her cause she was always so busy. i committed her to baptism when i first got here and she said yes, she had a great desire to go to the celestial kingdom. but lately like the last 3 weeks has just said go men ne, isogashii. its been frsutrating but this week we just asked her about things and about baptism and she said nows not the right time for her, things are to crazy. she ll call us when shes ready. it was really tough but we respect her decision. we bore testimony of the reasons we came to Japan and left her with that, it was hard. shes looking for this gospel and she needs this gospel, i know it would bring true peace to her life as it has to all of our lives. i know she was looking for this peace and wanted it, but just couldnt quite see it the way i did.life is only hard because we make it hard. if we just focus on whats in important nothing else matters all that much, we just need to trust in the Lord and he will take care of us. i wanted her so bad to know that but i geuss it just wasnt her time, but i still hope she calls again. anyway we have been working with tsuda too. hes doing great . the day befroe yesterday he didnt smoke any. hes trying so hard, he lives with a smoker and is having a hard time but is doing well. he haas to quite this week for sure, it will be way hard but i think he can do it. we havnt set up an interview yet but tentatively it should be a week from this friday. hes prepraing pretty hard core. hes scraed the interview is like a test about evrything in the book of mormon even though we shared with him the same questions that will be asked. hes way cool and im excited foir him.

so now for one of the many climaxs of my week. we went to fukuoka on tuseday. stayed the night under the temple in honbu, a real bed bytheway(and couldnt sleep well)! woke up and met Elder Dallin H Oaks of the quroum of the 12 apostles. it was so sweet, we had a taikai with him, and before got to shake his hand talk to him for like 30 seconds. it was way cool. the apostles are so amazing now since ive been on my mission ive seen elder Holland elder Scott and now elder Oaks. they are all so very different but all hold the mantle of an apostle of Jesus Christ. they have so much power. the spirit was so strong when Elder Oaks entered the room. It was so awesome. We had a good meeting and he addressed many things, even had a question session which was way cool too. it was def an amazing once in a life time experience. Anyways he announced changes that are happening in the fukuoka mission, eacyh year the church consalidates missions and because the decrease in missionaries lately japan is changing. It actually is good for us, anyway The hiroshima mission is done as of this july. It will be split in half and merging with Fukuoka and kobe missions, So now my mission includes the Hiroshima stake! it was pretty sweet we are all really excited about that. anyway its been a great week and amazing to hear from an apostle of the Lord. 1 nephi 10 18. the lord still works through a Prophet and his apostles today. we are so blessed to have President Thomas S Monson and general authorities to lead in guide us through these latter days. thanks for the emails and have a good week. and happy valentines day.

love elder martinez

Letter sent 2.7.10

Well well well. yappari lots of big news these days. congratulations to trevor and kristen! thats way sick. im pretty pumped for them. That will be sweet. crazy. but good crazy

anyways my week has a been way good, miyazaki is still legit. i love it here. So this week our focus has been on tsuda, weve met and continue to meet everyday. Hes way cool. Hes progressing towards his baptism on feb 28th. just needs to quit tabaco this week, which he can def do. Im way pumped for him, we actually had a little scare. he had some worries at the beginning of the week, i was with elder burdge the zl on splits when he talked about them. I thought this might happened so we planned for it, we had a really good lesson. we both bore testimony really strong and the spirit was strong, after ward it got quiet and hes ask if he could humbly partake of us baptizing him. it was so sweet. he orignally had a baptismal date for the 14th but we rescheduled for the 28th. hes been doing really well since then. the other day he aske if the day after the next was too fast to baptized haha it was way funny. hes got to quit smoking and get an interview, so its been really fun working with him and seeing his life change through keeping the commandments and putting his trust in God. So thats been really good. we have been working with lots of people, i love it here.

well yesterday we went to kagoshima for conference steak conference. kagoshima is sweet its on a huge hill, its known for its huge volcano that erupted on staurday we couldnt see the volcano cause everything was cloudy from ash and junk. it was cool. well this letter is going to be short but i want to share Pres. Margetts message. it was way good. he talked about a native american tribe. they have a ceremony in which a boy must pass to become a man. He is lead into the forest blindfoolded and sits on a log the whole night, he cant take the blindfold of until he feels the warmth of the sunrays in the morning. So the boy uis sitting on the log, he hears animals and beasts, people and the wind is blowing feircely. he was very frightined and though he would be injured or attacked by other tribes or animals. but he left the blindfold on and ganbaru-ed. when he finally took it off he found that his dad was sitting right next to him and had been the whole night. we are never alone, in times when we cant see the light at the end of the tuneel, the times when we dont feel like we can go further or at times for others when they simply cant see. He is there and he lives. we need to show our faith in him and constantly draw closer to him, reach for him and we will find him. we will find peace and comfort. Im know this to be true, i have experienced and im excitesd to share this with people who dont have it, and i encourage all readers to try to share or pray for an oppurtunity to share this gospel. truly a blessing. ijyou. until next week

love elder martinez

letter sent 1.31.10

tanoshyugozaimashita.

well this week was way good. lots went down. oh and i made my birthday cake this week except, in japan there are no ovens just toaster oven microwave things, in apartments and stuff, and i really wanted to have some funfetti cake, so i put it into the rice cooker. haha it turned out allright, looked way weird at first but was still good. haha

anywaysthis week i finally made my way to the beach for the first time in japan! it was cool, we played american football with some members and an old invetstigator were trying to teach again. hes way cool, hes like 28 and a pretty solid dude, hes training now for his rugby season coming up so he enjoyed playing with us, we had fun, it was nice to run around on the sand, but made me sore, im out of shape. Anyways we got to met with him at a members house, we ate some good food and made takoyaki (octopus things)had a good time, we shared a pretty awesome messgae so i hope that will turn out good.

As foir our investigators there all doing well, we have some pretty cool investigators. I have told you a little about Tsuda before but this week has been good. we have been talking about the word of wisdom and it has been really hard for him, he was a heavy smoker. hes been doing good but this week we talked and asked him if he thought if he could go without smoking for a day and he said hed try. i asked him to ride to the store with us, i bought him juice and stuff and than went back to his apartment and took all his lighters and stuff (he agreed) The end of the next day we went to check up . he looked alot more genki and happy and we we asked he saidhe didnt smoke that day! we were so pumped and way excited for him. way happy...then he said he smoked 3 his friend gave him after dinner at his house haha. anyways it still was way good, we were way pumped, hes still working on cutting down but hes almost there. he also said this week that his life has been alot better since he started meeting with us, it was really cool, we actually fasted together yesterday and he did awesome. this gospel is helping him change his life around for the better, its really cool to see. weve taught him almost all the commandments and hes still doing well. so thats been the highlight of the week.

last nught we did some home teaching at the shibukaichyo house (branch president) he had a normal meal of rice soup salad gizards and squid haha, it was good. we had a good time with the family as they tried to speak english to us, (there dauighter is studying it in middle school.) it was good. we shared the first presidency's message for january about holding on. and shared on of my favorite scriptures, Doctorine and Covenants 88:63. Its awesome. we talked about how everyday we need to build our akashi by doing the little things so we can "draw closer" chikazukinasai! when need to do the little things averyday so when rough times come we can hold on and not loose hope like some of those in Kirtland. so the messgae trhis week is hold on a little longer. if you havnt read it i would reccommend it. anyways that was a glimpse of my week. hope everyone is well and thanks for the support and prayers

love elder martinez

letter sent 1.25.10

its been a really good week i dontknow where to start. we had a cleaning inspection on wednesday so that took some time to prepare for but we have the cleanest aprtment in the mission now. haha. i geuss thats cool. um we also had zone conference today in taniyama. it was cool, to see more of japan. ive seen almost all of kyushu already and i love it. Zone conference was way good. for the AP training i had my first family home evening in Japan. they talked about our family here in japan, and the realtionships we need to build within our ward, with our companion and everyone we come in contact with. everyone learns something from us whether were teacxhing or not, how we act and present ourselves. so that was pretty good. we need to set the example for others so they can see our happiness and want to feel the samne love we feel as members. So that was cool. and then next day we had a junkai or split with the APs it was so fun. theyre awesome. we had lot of fun with them. we had several lessons with investigators and less actives that day which all went well except for a less active i taught in a crazy hospital, that didnt go to well...oops that night we ate at a mexican resturant in miyazaki! i was so pumped the cheif is mexican, were going to be friends. haha hes cool soo that was awesome. hisashiburi. we got to wear sonbrarros and stuff too natsukashii. after we took out shane, a half gaijin family here in miyazaki, hes home now from byu idaho but going back next semester and preparing for a mission. It was fun to dendo with him and show him how fun it can be. i wish i would have done that before my mission.That night the petersens gave me a birthday present . a huge bag of chips salsa, gaucamole, cheese and stuff. it was awesome..and tortillas. there way nice yous should look them up on facebook and be there friend. anyways that night the 22nd i ate some icecream and blackthunder with the aps to celbrate it was sso good. on my birthday we did service at the petersens house(they run kindergarden( so that was way good to finally be able to work outside, jpanese peopl normally dont let you serve them.

so we had lots of good lessons this week. me and one of the aps, elder stevenson ,the 70s son, had a lesson with hiejima. it was really well. it was on ether 12 12 and taking blind stps of faith, it was really good i extended the baptismal commitment and she wants to but her parents are hantai because there buddhist. so hoepfully something can change with that. and yesterday we met with kadota. we read out of the new gospel principles book about repentance. it was also good, hes on his way to baptism as well. he wants to repent and then be baptized but it might take a while. im so excited for him, hes going to be such a solid member.

pretty much all of our ionvestigators have tobacco problem so thats been tough but i love shareing mosiah 2 41, it really puts things into porportion. temporal sastisfdaction or eternal happiness, god will bless those who keep his commandments, sweet promise and pretty easy to follow the commandments if we just keep an eternal perspective.

lastly today, pday was awesome. tokutome kyodai shimai took us to the worlds longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world. it was so nice to be outside in the wilderness. it reminded me of alma 3044, all things denote there is a god a surpreme creator. it was so sweet, i have good pictures but cant send them here so someday. its to bad cause i have tons of good pictures and theres actually people in them. anuyways the tokutomes drove us out there we stopped at a farm of papaya cabbage cucumbers and other stuff. they were friends of the tokutomes and loved meeting gaijin liker us haha they gave us tones of yasai veggies. then we had lunch, we ate miyazakis very own chicken nanban. so good, and now im here. so its been a long week, but im doing well. its awesome to be here in japan sharing the best message this world has to offer. anyone can find happiness through this gospel, i mean i have thousands of miles away with weird food people language and no family. talk about miracles.

until next week.

love elder martinez

Happy Birthday

This (obviously) is last year. Hopefully he had a great 20th birthday today. We love you Elder Martinez!

Letter sent 1.17.10

so my weeek was well, we were busy and had alot of lessons, tsuda is progressing he came to church but left half way through sacrament and i still dont know why. haha funny man i think everything is all good, well i set 2 baptismal dates this week! me. cool eh. they are not strong so i dont know if theyll keep it but its really helping them progress. i made one with yuki and yuge. there nice people and have good desires but we have a lot to work on before the 14th. i hope they make it. tsuda also has a baptismal date for the 14th. it will be interesting to see what will happen. our srtongest investigator doesnt have a baptismal date but is working on repenting he says hell be baptized after he repents, it may take a while but hell be a strong member when he gets baptized i hope ill be here when he gets baptized. hes awesome. we met with him yesterday. anyway i guess ill right about other stuff about my week in my mass email. but it was good, my companions birthday wasa the 16th i made him cake and junk tried to make it good. he turned 20 as well, on week before mine. also zone conference is this week so ill get to have my interview with the mission pres and ask about the email. oh and this weekend on the 22 and 23 me and elder burnett are going on splits with the APs of the mission. im scared i dont know why there coming normally they just go on splits with zone leaders but im justa junior and brunett is a district l;eader so i dont know why its happening. maybe cause my companion is going zone leader but i dont know, itrs scary for me none the less. well im not sure what to write about . its been a crazy week. lots going on in miyazaki. its a cool place with good place. we have awesome members and a ton of investigators. oh and they have pizza but its not good haha they put like mayo and corn and weird stuff haha but ill
eat something good.

pictures sent 1.3.10

snow dendo

gift of Hawaii

takaMAMA

only lights in Japan

ward party

eikaiwa party

christmas morning

letter sent 1.3.10

wow it has been a long time since i have emailed. my pday was new years but everything was closed that day so i couldnt email, sorry that was a dissapointment for me too though. anyway, thanks for all the christmas gifts and stuff and esp the phone call, it was way to short but it def was good to hear from you guys. well a lot has happened that i can share so i prob will forget half of it, but thats way exciting trevor is coming home this week. thats so crazy to think about, i cant believe it. anyways. so this last couple weeks have been crazy for sure i had a great christmas, it was hard but everything leading up to christmas was great, from our gospel concert to christmas caroling at an orphanage to our church party (making christmas cakes) and our eikaiwa party. so for our eikaiwa party real quick we played a white elephant game, we went to the dollar store and bought some gifts there is a ton of ladys in eikaiwa so we bout this clay vase and a fake flower, so the funny part is im still learning japanese culture. cause when the lady opened the vase sister iwanaga gave me afunny look, the vase was not at all a vase but a sake cup! a cup for alcohol! haha everyone got a kick out of that, everyone was laughing for a long time, oops, that was my fault, haha but they all agreed it looked rather suteki(good looking) and it was a good gift anyway haha.
well anyway, it was really fun and a busy time. it didnt slow down for new years at all. new years is huge here in japan, i dint see any fire works or anything but everything closes people go to their parents house and make tons of food rather interesting food to be exact. the week of shougatsu we made mochi! its steamed rice thats beaten in to a cake, but not at all like cake, a less active member invited us to come help make it. that was a sweet experience. elder reyes and i beat the junk out of rice in a big cement bowl using wooden hammer things for like 4 hours with a bunch of japanese men. haha it was way interesting and way fun, my hand is actually still sore though. it bruised my hand pretty good, but it was cool, ill send some pics but youll have to wait for the videos to get a good idea of what im talking about. anyway that was fun
so because of shougatsu it was really hard to dendou, everyone was with their family which was good but for that same reason they didnt like us intruding. so people were not very friendly, good thing new years day was pday. another custom is to start the new year right so they cleaneverything way good its called osoji or big clean . also on new years they eat werid food thats suposebly really healthy but really weird. we actaully went to sister kitas house and she made us werid food, i had sea cucmber, whale, kelp, devils tongue and tons of other really weird stuff,elder reyes couldnt eat it so geuss who had to pick up the slack! we couldnt be rude so we had to eat it all and there was a lot! haha it was fun, and it really does clean you out. just kidding bad joke, anyway despite the hardness of dendo this week we had a lot of lessons. i finished my lesson mastery (taught all lessons short med and long in japanese with members and stuff.) but more importantly we had a lesson with hamasaki san. she is nice lady, shes a single mother of two children, shes really nice. we had our first lesson with her today. this is the lady that we found ages ago housing, and talked to hyer about families and showed a picture of you guys, anyway the lesson went really well. the spirit was def present in the room, it was amazing. we taught her the restporation and taught her how to pray. she marked moroni 10 3-5 in her scriptures and prayed to close the lesson, which is scary for someone to do that has never prayed, in front of 2 missionaries. soit went really well. we also found out she doesnt have a job which is not good. so plays pray for. i know she can find peace in this gospel as i have. when all is taken away in life..all the gospel still remains. christ is our constant, our rock and through him we can find joy and peace. i know hamasaki san and anyone on this earth can find peace through this gospel becasue i have found peace through this gospel here in a foreign land, without the people i love most, to end ill share a new favorite scripture in the bible, John 16 33. its my favorite. anyway have a great week, start of the new year right! love you all
aishiteiru
eldr martinez