APRIL 13, 2012

¡Hola Amigos!

Well it was a very rainy week down here in Paraguay! Let me tell you once again "When it rains it POURS!" How crazy the weather is here! The streets were completely flooded with water and the mosquitos are attacking the people here stronger than ever! The members told us after the first storm (like Wednesday) people started rushing to the "hospitals" and hundreds of cases of dengué were reported. Its alright, we are just taking our precautions with a lot of mosquito repellent and the chemical they give us here to spray on our clothes. If your sick just push along harder because lying down just makes it worse!

On a brighter side, it stopped... Hahaha the rain that is. My companion and I are searching for new people to teach and have found a lot so far. Hopefully in a few weeks we´ll have the baptism and marriage of a couple we have been teaching! Training is going good! Little by little my companion is understanding more of the mission and his progress is going very well!

Spiritual thought for this week is the law of consecration. Our mission president is really hitting this one hard before he leaves this upcoming June. He has counseled that we all should go the extra mile to give up something for something better and more worthwhile. Sacrifice is a principle of the gospel that all members, when baptized, should remember to live. The Savior spent his whole life in sacrifice. The law of consecration should apply to all our life.

Con cariño,

Elder Martinez

APRIL 16, 2012

¡Hola Amigos!

Bueno, Im super sorry that I dont have a lot of time to write you a great long speech, but Ill try and put in a lot with the time I have left! ;)

This week was super great! We have been searching for our futures GOLDEN investigators and we have found a lot of new people. Ill keep you posted as to how much they improve, but I have a lot of hope for the many people we have found this past week. The members are doing well. A case of dengue, the bone-crushing disease, has been going around the ward to the bishop, his sister, and to a lot of other people. My companion and I have taken the extra precautions by soaking our clothes in the chemical the mission has given us to repell mosquitos. Hopefully it works.... and we wont get it.... ;)

One of the things I wanted to talk about is something I have been studying in personal study this past week- our conversion. I was reading in the Bible Dictionary and it tells us that our own conversion comes from our understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or in other words:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ

2. Repentence

3. Baptism

4. Receiving the Holy Ghost (and keeping other covenants)

5. Enduring to the End

More than anything I have been trying to deepen my conversion process by studying each one of these steps in the scriptures and the missionary "library" that we have. The "True to the Faith" book is really helpful and has given me greater insight to each topic. But I would encourage you to search for yourselves each of these gospel principles with the question "how converted am I with/in __________?". It really has helped me understand what I can do to improve and how to become more of what I need to become.

I love you and hope this helped,

Sorry for the shortage of time, like always ;)

Todo esta bien, Les QUIERO,

Elder Martinez

APRIL 9, 2012

¡Hola Famila!

I can´t believe I am 20 years old! I had a great experience down here in Paraguay with the members and them helping me celebrate with cake and lots of yummy food! We ate at the bishops house and had a cake called Budín de Pan with coconut and carmel frosting. It was sooooo good! My new companion and I also bought a chicken with mandioca to finish off the night!

So with regards to changes, I now have a new companion Elder De La Cruz from Lima, Peru. He got off the plane about 6 days ago from the Argentina MTC and I will be training him for the next 3 months! He is so great and I am soooooo excited to learn and help him become the greatest missionary! MY SON!

This past week was a national holiday and a holiday for many Latinamerica countries "La Pascua" or easter. They have a whole week called "Semana Santa" in which they celebrate the life of the Savior and eat lots of chipa and other kinds of food. Out of all of the holidays in the year this is the one (besides Christmas) when everyone comes out of the wood-work to go to Church. We had the highest attendence that I have seen so far here in our ward of about 76 people. It was nice to have a testimony meeting and celebrate with others the life of Jesus Christ.

This past week has made me reflect on what it means most to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Our mission president has talked to us many times on how to be better missionary by developing the Christlike Attributes in Preach my Gospel. In Doctrine and Covenants section 4 we learn that some of those attributes are fatih, hope, charity and love, diligence, patience, humility, and [obedience]." When we want to develop a deeper testimony of Him adquiring these characteristics will draw us nearer to Him.

I love you and hope that you all had a great Easter!

Les quiero,

Elder Martinez

MARCH 27, 2012

¡Hooooolaaaaa!

A great week here in Paraguay as usual! The opportunity to go to the temple, eat at BurgerKing, and find another awesome couple who wants to be married and baptized! Another day of contacting and another future family found!

My companion and I have been working really hard to try and find new people- especially families! We found a woman named Lidia when we contacted a home on the side of the road near another eternigator we had. When we arrived there was loud music playing and this woman came out rockin´out dancing with her hands up doing some kind of funny hokey-pokey looking thing. It was so funny and she was so embarassed but we set up another return appointment when her boyfriend would be home. So we came back later that night and taught them the first lesson. They didn´t understand fully but said that with what they felt they want to go to church and get baptized. Not only that but the boyfriend told us that he wants to get married to her as well. It was all so crazy fast! They came to church with us yesterday and loved it! They´re coming to conference and will be married and baptized hopefully the following week (April 7th)! The Lord prepares!

Spiritual thought of the week is to be a real believer of Jesus Christ. We can find out what is a true follower of Jesus Christ from the last article of faith.

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

I know that when we apply the teachings of both Bible and Book of Mormon we understand more fully the mission of Jesus Christ. To serve, uplift, and help one another.

I´m so grateful to be a missionary in this Church and for the help of the Lord. He lives, he listens and he answers when we call.

Les quiero,

Elder Martinez

MARCH 20, 2012

¡Hola!

Well you are probably wondering why I am writing a day later than
usual right? Well the reason is that our P-Day is today because we
went to the temple here in ASUNCIÓN, PARAGUAY!!! It was such a great
experience and it was the very first time I got to go in almost 1
year! We woke up early this morning at 5 o´clock to take a bus to the
session that started at 9! We took some pictures of the outside
grounds and the coolest is the inside! The inside of the temple was
all dark wood with purple (like the colors of our home chapel). The
workmanship of everything was AMAZING! Although it was small, the
Spirit was super strong!

Anyway I am now writing to you and I hope this all makes sense because
my companion and I are really tired...

We are finding a lot of new people-especially families! We found a new
couple this past weekend and taught them only the first lesson and
asked us, without us even mentioning baptism yet, what they needed to
do to get married and THEN baptized!?!?!!?! WHAT!?!?!? The Lord
prepares people all around, we just need to find them. I believe that
my progression throughout the mission has dramatically improved the
more I look back at the situations I´ve been in, places I´ve worked,
and people I have met. The thing that is amazing in all of this work
is that it has nothing to do with me or my companion. God has
everything planned out for a reason, and when we are prepared he will
guide us to help fortify our testimonies and build our character. Sure
it takes effort on our part, but we are nothing without the name on
our plaques that we represent. We need that faith- our strong belief
that he will help us in any circumstance- JESUS CHRIST.

I am so grateful for the changes and miracles that I have seen. If I
have learned at least one thing from this past change it is that
MIRACLES HAPPEN. From the tiniest little thing to the most
mind-boggeling experience, miracles are real. Lack of miracles are
caused by a lack of faith. A lack of faith is caused by a lack of
gratitude. A lack of gratitude comes from the deepest pit of sin-
egotism. When we strive to improve ourselves through loving, serving,
and caring for others that is when our personal progress increases the
most.

Anyways, things are going great here! Today was awesome because of the
temple. We went to BurgerKing afterwards as well- and trust me we
enjoyed every second of eating it! Hope you can all prepare for
conference in 2 weeks! How cool is it that we´ll be watching it live
with you from all the way across the world!

¡Les quiero muchismo!

-Elder Martinez