A baptism schedule for January

Well mom its already been another week. I believe I have said that about five hundred times since the start of my mission, but it is so true. Weeks fly so fast that I can’t really remember all that happened. Let me tell you, right now that is not the case this week. I have alot to say.

To start off, when we departed from our skype we had dinner with our member family and had a really great time. I met Elder Helbig’s family and then when the time came we went ahead and left for home. We had several appointments throughout the week and most of them were eating appointments. They were all really fun. But I want to talk about one in particular. I told you about a man named Ralph when we skyped. I told you that we hoped to get a baptismal date with him pretty soon. Well, we invited him over to a members house for an eating appointment and he was more than happy to come. He offered to drive us there so we accepted. Right as we got into the car he told us that he prayed and that he wanted to get baptized on the 18th of January. We were so shocked we did not know what to say. All I could do was just smile and thank our Heavenly Father for the great blessing and miracle that happened. We had a great eating appointment and he was bearing his testimony the whole time. That day was amazing. Now fast forward to Sunday he came to church and we had a small lesson with him after church. We showed him the font and then told him how it was going to happen and also went through the baptismal questions with him. He answered all the questions with his heart and it was going so great. Then Elder Helbig told him that he could choose who baptized him. He looked at me and said I want Elder Martinez to do it because he was with me from the beginning and he said that it was my testimony that made him ponder and think about all that we said to him during the lessons. So mom and dad, I will be baptizing Ralph on the 18th of January. I am excited and a little nervous because I will performing the ordinance in German. I have to say and pronounce everything correct. I am so ready. I know that the Lords hand was with us this last week and I am so grateful for all that we have been given. I am so happy right now.

The rest of the week went by pretty awesome and we had a great Christmas. It has been the best so far in my life. We will also be spending New Years with members. I am also looking forward to it.

Mom, about having dads friends over for dinner, that is so cool. You do not know how happy it makes me feel when I hear my own family getting involved in the work of the Lord. But I have one suggestion: when you invite the family over for dinner, invite the missionaries over as well. the missionaries will not be intrusive about the gospel they will show that the gospel is for everybody. Don’t be scared, the Lords hand will be with you and guide you if you decide to do it. Please let me know how it goes whether you invite them or not.

I love you all and I hope that you all have a good week. We are going to be very busy but with the Lords help we do it. I love you all so much and until next week, your son,

Elder Martinez

Our Merry Christmas Skype from Elder Martinez

My Elder, my Poo!

Elder Helbig and Elder Martinez

There always has to be a skype bomb

On Christmas, we got our skype from Elder Martinez. It was an awesome Christmas present. He is healthy and so happy. His German is totaly coming along and was able to share his testimony in both German and English. He keeps very busy doing the Lords work. We love him and are so thankful for what he is doing. So thankful for the members in Augsburg for their love and devotion to the well-being of the missionaries. Merry Christmas everyone!!! 

Saving it all for skype on Christmas

Elder Martinez and Elder Helbig have a love/hate companionship

Hello mom, you are the only person that I got emails from today. This will be a very fast email session today. Probably because I will be talking to all of you in a couple of days. Thats ok, that just means that I am not as rushed to try and write everybody back. But to start, I will answer your question that “no” I have not received your giant package yet. I didn’t know that you were sending one, but i will be sure to watch for it in the mail the next couple of days.

It is so good to hear that Jessi is doing a good job and that she is still living and doing well. That is really interesting to hear that the mission president did not call the parents or send out an email that they all got there safely. I know that each mission president is different but I am sure that they need to do that but, oh well. What can you do?

I am trying to keep most of this short and not to explicit because I am going to see you in just two days. Remember, there is no exact order that we will be going in but I can tell you that Ii won’t be first. I am very excited to see all of you and talk to you. I don’t know how much German I will speak because I know for a fact that you will not be able to understand me but, I will if you still want me too.

All is going well still in this part of the world and I am still alive and still moving this work forward in my little area of Augsburg. I have so much to tell you but I will wait to tell you in a couple of days. So you will have to wait in anticipation. Sorry, but I do not want to spoil it for you.

Mom I love you and I can’t wait to see you and gma and gpa and everybody else in a couple of days. Here are a couple of pictures that Elder Helbig and I took. I don’t know if I can last the holidays! Eating wise!

The German members know how to spoil the Missionaries

Hi mom, let me start by simply answering all of your questions about skyping and all of that good stuff. We will be skyping on the 25th of this month. and we will be doing it starting at about 9:00 in the morning your time. There will be four of us all at one computer so only one of us will be able to go at a time. so it could be at nine or maybe at 11:00. Just have it all ready and I will call you. The only thing that you need to do is send me your account so that I know who to call when it is my turn. I will be calling from Elder Helbig’s account and I will send you his account name next email, so that you can know what name to look for. It does not matter what computer you use, just as long as it has a camera on it which both the ipad and Jessi’s computer do. I hope that all of that made sense. The only thing I need for sure next week is your skype account name so that I can call you. Everything else should work just fine. If there are any problems we still have next week to try and figure it out. Also, I can skype with Jessi. Just her and I for twenty minutes. If you can send me her skype name as well so that I can do that with her as well.

That’s enough of that boring poop, on to more serious stuff, and more important stuff. Mom, my heart took a small little jump when I heard about you and that spot on your nose. I just have one question, is everything ok, and are you going to be ok? From the sounds of it you are going to be ok, but you don’t simply say it. So is everything ok? I am not wigging out about it, but I would like to know next week if everything is ok.

This week in Germany, simply put, was lots and lots of candy and lots and lots of eating appointments set up for the holidays. I won’t complain, it is a really good thing. The members really showed us there love this week and I am really looking forward to the Christmas week because we won’t have to buy any groceries. I am also able to really get a feel for the German Christmas tradition and for that I am very excited.

Many many miracles happened to me and Elder Helbig this week. To just tell you the biggest one that happened to me, because of time, is that we had an investigator come to church finally yesterday and he said that he wants to come back again next week, I know that the Lords hands are in this work and that him coming to church was nothing short of a miracle.

Well mom, I do have to go and I do want to end by saying that I love you and that I am sending you a small birthday package and I hope that it can get to you on time for your birthday. I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you in a couple of weeks. One last thing before I go, is there anything that I can do for you out here in Germany? Just let me know?

I love and miss you tons, you are with me always, till next week, your son, Elder Martinez

This week has been a very long week for me and Elder Helbig in more ways than one. I will get to all of that soon enough. Let me start from the beginning.

We started our week doing all of our proselyting before we have our p-day. We went by some potential and actually got some potentials that day. The reason why we did our proselyting time in the morning first is because it is harder to do it during the end of the day. Its getting darker faster and people are not as likely to talk when it’s dark. We did our time of proselyting and then from there we did our p-day. Last week we, along with the Sisters, went to the weinnachtsmarkt here in Germany. It was alot of fun; got some small things with the little bit of personal money I had left. But I won’t tell you more because I will show in an upcoming letter.

The rest of the week started and the week for us was a little slow. Most of our investigators were all out of town so we could not meet with them this week. Most of our time was spent finding more people that we could teach. We actually did a really good job on that front. Elder Helbig and I found 6 people this week that want to learn more. That was really good this week. We did not get to many lessons.

One of our investigators came back and we had an appointment set up with him for Saturday. But out of nowhere, Elder Helbig got really sick. I mean really sick. He threw up about 9 times the whole day and because he was so sick I could not leave the apartment. That was a little bit harder because we had to cancel our appointment. We did set another one for tomorrow. But then all of a sudden that night I got really sick. I threw up only twice. So I did not get it as bad as Elder Helbig, but I was still pretty darn sick. I was not going to let that stop me. We had appointments to go to and church to go to. So I kept going. Yesterday was a very long day because I was just so tired from the long night that I had. But we had a really good lesson and all went well. I am doing great right now. I am totally back to normal and all is moving forward.

I heard that Jessi is doing great in the MTC and that she is doing well there in her first week. She sent me an email as I am positive she did the same for you. I am so happy to hear that she is doing well. I can’t wait to see the pictures in the mail.

I do have to go. The district is going to the Munich Weinnachtsmarkt tonight and we only have an hour for emails

Till next week, Elder Martinez

Pday in the Augsburg Christmas Market

Thanks, companion for making missionary work fun!

Hallo alle meine familie,

This email will not be as long, simply because I don’t have a lot of time to write really long emails anymore. But I will do all I can to tell you all about what happened this week.

I did get a new companion this week. A lot has changed and a lot has happened. I am now working with Elder Helbig. In just the short time that we have been together, I have learned how to make missionary work so much fun. He is just always making jokes and just being funny. It is so nice to finally laugh. A little bit about him is that, he only has about 3 months left and he does not want to go home. He is so committed to this work that he just can’t think of going back; which is nice because I was really scared that he was going to be hard to work with because he would be thinking of home all the time. But that is the last thing that he does. He is simply the funniest elder that I have been able to work with so far on my mission.

With all of that being said, I did have to take over all the area because Elder Helbig is new to Augsburg. With this week alone I have spoken more German and talked to more people then I did my whole first two transfers. Simply because I need to do most of the talking because Elder Helbig has not been here before. He speaks really good German, but he does not know the people and investigators so I have to talk and explain things to all of them. I can already see my German improving and my vocabulary getting better.

We got another baptism date this week. That means we have two for Dec 28. I was so excited when I got that date this week. I know the Lord’s hand is in all things, especially his work. We hope that in the coming weeks we can get another with a wonderful investigator we have been teaching.

The Elders and the Sisters did have a small dinner with a member. It was definitely not thanksgiving dinner, but it was still nice to sit down and relax for an hour. But then we had to get back to work because we had some people to go by and visit.

I am excited for this coming week, miracles happen every day, you just have to look for them. I love all of you and I know Jessi is going to do well on Wednesday, but I write to her personally. Mom I love you and you walk with me always.

Till next week, your son, Elder Martinez