20th Letter

¡Hola Amigos!

This week was pretty much a normal week down here in Paraguay. We had a lot of rain the past two days and when it rains it POURS! The “streets” down here are awesome to walk in when it rains! :·) No it’s really fun! Sometimes down here I feel like I´m going on a Jungle excursion or I´m in the Indiana Jones ride (except the crazy jeep four-wheeling rides are really just with buses). There are cows and horses everywhere and I thought I would never get used to it here, but I love it! This is an experience that I will never have again, so I might as well ENJOY the mud, rain, cows, dogs, humidity, Spanish, mundungo, y otras cosas que voy a experimentar!

¡Me encanta las personas aquí en Barcequillo! Esta área tiene personas que son más humilde y sencilla, el Espíritu es tan fuerte para sentir cuando estamos sentando en un lección o a la iglesia cada domingo. Para compartir el Evangelio cada día es un bendición. Le quiero me compañero Elder Graham. Gracias a él por su guía y las cosas que ha me enseñado. ¡Amo este Evangelio!

I hope that all of you are having a great Christmas (Thanksgiving) season. My mother has told me that FM 100 is playing Christmas songs already, please sing one for me J.

This week I have learned that the Gospel essentials are meant to be simple. Being on my mission, when we find people to teach, we just need to explain things really simple. These people don´t know and probably don´t care about “what is Kolob” or explaining “what is the body temperature of celestial beings” (Elder Holland). Keeping it to the basics is what the Spirit is going to work through. We need to just keep it simple! We teach, bare testimony and apply it to the lives of these people. Simple as that!

I love my mission! I wish I could grab whoever is reading this by the shoulders and just scream it to your face that the “Gran Paraguay Asunción Mission” is the BEST MISSION EVER! For those of you who are debating whether to go on a mission or not- GO! Yes it will be hard! Yes you will struggle! But it is the most rewarding thing to have in your life!

I love you all and pray for you! I hope that you are having a wonderful time and living the principles of the Gospel!

¡Les quiero machismo!

-Elder Martinez

19th Letter

¡Hola de Barcequillo, Paraguay!

What a fast week! I can´t believe the time! We have been working really hard this week to try and find as many people as we can! Faster than we knew it Sunday came and went like THAT!

I´m so excited because this next week we will be baptizing an investigator that I have actually taught and helped get to baptism! He is 12 years old and super smart! I am so excited for him! Not only that but if everything goes as planned his grandmother will be baptized a week after him! AWESOME!

Yesterday I gave a talk in our branch. Its funny because Elder Graham and I have just decided to have a talk ready to go for each Sunday because the President calls us 5 minutes before the meeting starts and asks if we will give a 15-20 minute talk…It was funny because yesterday I gave my talk and everything went fine. Its so awesome to talk in another lanuage!

One thing that is kind of funny is out here in my new area it is classified as “Suburban”. But every day we walk on paths through the grass, see wild cows and horses eating grass, and last night for the first time in my life I saw FIRE-FLIES! SO COOL!

Well we don´t really have any of the same kind of holidays down here except Christmas and New Years. All of the others are just kind of unnoticed. I hope you all had a fun Halloween!

¡Les quiero muchismo y orar para ustedes!

Elder Martinez

18th Letter

WEEK 13

¡Hola Famila y Amigos!

This past week has been CRAZY! I have been transferred to a new area called “Barcequillo” but I am still in the great Asuncion Area. It definitely took some adjusting to get used to it here, but all in all it is a great area. The people here are more willing to listen and invite us to their home. Although it is a poorer area I am excited to work here. We had about 20 people in our branch yesterday and we have an awesome branch mission leader. My companion Elder Graham is from Ohio and has one change more than I do. We are both working together in trying to get things set up and running.

More than anything that I want to talk about is my first baptism! YES, I had my first baptism yesterday with Diana and her brother-in-law Oscar who baptized her! It was so cool to see the final result of what our purpose is out here! I am so excited to bring more people to baptism!

I also want to say how difficult it was trying to leave my first area. I loved the people so much there and didn´t want to say good-bye. Its weird to think that most of the people that I will teach and be with for the next two years, I won´t ever see again. Strange, huh? But I am so thankful for the time I had to get close to these people and to learn from them. I swear I have never been tested more physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually than I have out here. There are not any words that can describe the mission than actually doing it! I have learned that out here you have to make every moment count, because if you deny contacting someone or forget to wake up on time-really anything that distracts from the work, you could have just a soul, or even worse SOULS. I wish that all of you could know and feel the way I feel right now.

The Lord puts us in situations that really try us and makes us sooo humble. I can´t tell you how many of those experiences I have had out here. I am so grateful for this opportunity and am constantly trying to improve to be a better person each day.

Thank you for all of your letters and support! I can´t tell you how happy I get when there is a DearElder or hand written letter in the encomeinda . I really appreciate the words of encouragement and love!

Anyways I want to let you all know that I love you and pray for you. Thank you for all of your examples and love!