#4

Hey fam!
Wow another goes by and i'm right back here emailing you guys again. I love to share with you my weeks. I love forward to pday so much cause my experiences here need to be shared to everyone ha ok not really but i really like emailing you guys. Well like i said its been another great with with tons of learning and speaking espanol. I can't believe how much spanish we are learning sometimes i feel like the noggin is gonna explode because there is so much to learn but i know i'll be fine. Thank you all so much for the letters and packages I seriously am so blessed for all that everyone sends me! I absolutely love it when i get back and there 3 or 4 letters wating for me. so keep writing! Well yesterday was my first official day as the zone leader. and before sundays used to be another relaxing day like pday but boy did my schedule just change. haha i love it though and i am goign to love to serve everyone. Well to start off the day i have meetings with the presidency and district leader from 745 to 9. Then we have preisthood at 10 and we always take the first five minutes of that to go over the white bible. But our presdident was really nice to us and let us know that he will be out of town next weekend and that elder bowden and i would be in charge of teaching priesthood. Ha just put in on my tab! Seriously we have so much to do but at the same time we can do it. It's not too crazy just a little overwhelming. We then are in charge of conducting a meeting after sacrament with all the zone leaders in our building. so pretty much its just a baby sitting thing etc... Its funny though to hear all the dumb things missionaries do. Last week a missionary snuck a sister in our building and was hanging out with her. No bueno! But basically we are just in charge when president isn't here to make sure everyone is doing ok and following the rules. We don't have that much but it's an added stress on top of the studying ha but it's all good we will find time for it all. Jacie i know how you feel with becky's kids ha imagine being in charge of 52 19 year olds ha. The firesides this week were really good. This last tuesday Angel abrea talked to us from the 70. that man had a testimony and he told us how much of a miracle it was to be able to see that we KNOW that jesus is the christ and that we Know that joseph smith was a prophet of God. It was really cool to hear him bear his testimony, he was like yelling i know this and i know that and the man just had some serious power. Last night we had a fireside from one of the members of the MTC presidency. Him and his family did the entire program and they did the singing too. He has like 25 grandkids and all of them are under like 10 and all of them were singing I hope they call me on a mission it was so cute and so fun to see kids. ha i haven't seen kids for a long time so it's nice to see someone other than older men and women. Then they had each of their sons get up and tell about one tip they would share with us on their missions. And that was amazing to hear the little tips that are so meaningful to them. But the fireside was really really great. The espanol is coming along it's amazing how much we are using spanish in our daily vocab and we just are starting to replace a new word in spanish with the one in english. Our district is amazingly motivated and we have english fasts during class where we only speak spanish and it really really helps. The more i speak it and talk the more i understand. Each week we teach a lesson to a investigator and we start out for 15 minutes of spanish and then 35 for a lesson and in three weeks the lessons go from english to spanish, so that should be interesting but other than my personal prayers all of them are in spanish and my personal prayers and turnign into spanglish! Its really cool to see the transition. I got that picture book from the imac or whatever, THANK YOU SO MUCH. That is seriously so sweet of you guys to send to me and i love it. I am so happy that we could have so many great memories beofre i left. And many more are to come when i get home so don't worry mom, they'll be tons more to add to it! Your letters are so uplifting and your packages mean so much to me. Thank you thank you i cannot say it enough! Probably the best experience this week was in class on friday we watched a talk that Jeffrey R. Holland gave in 2000 called the miracle of missionary work. Take some time to watch taht if you haven't it seriously gives me the chills just talking about it. Jeffrey R. Holland is amazing and pretty much just laid the law down about what a mission is. I seriously will never forget the things he said in that talk. Sometimes it gets so good here and other times are a little tuff but i swear in all those tuff times the lord blesses me with uplifting things such as this talk. I'm sure nick has seen it but take some time to watch it together as a fam, it might be the most amazing talk i have ever heard. I sure hope you guys know that i love this work. I really am getting into such a groove and i have nothing to do but get to work. Thats all i can really do. i know that if i give it my all this mission will be something that i look back on with no regrets and thats all i want. The mtc gets a little redundant at times but you know thats just how it is and i really enjoy it here. I have got to be really good friends with random people from the gym and eating and i just see a lot of people here and its so great. Archie and Steve nelson got called to be district leaders this week , so i'd say us st. georgians are shwoing the mtc where the church is so true haha. thats a joke i know this is gonna be a humbling calling and experience. I have already been so humbled up here. I literally am nothing compared to what i need to be but thats what is so great the lord makes up the rest for us. I have learned just to put my faith in our savior and we will be blessed thats all i can do. Thank you all for the prayers i can tell that i am being blessed because of your prayers for me. Mom i'm pretty sure i have got everything i could possibly need here. You guys have taken such good care of me but if i think of anything i will let you know. I'm sure you will but tell everyone i love them and tell everyone i am loving it here. Oh guess what they might open up the gym this week for 3 on 3 so hopefully that will happen. i'm ready to dunk on someone! haha ya thats right nick i just said that. Everyday here is another spiritual experience to add to the journal. Don't worry i'm keeeping a good journal and i write init every night. I really love to write in there and it is really good for me to remember the thoughts of the day to write down. Keep praying for me, i know you will but the espanol isn't gonna get any easier and i need all the blessings i can get! But thank you for all your prayers thus far, they mean the world to me. We were able to go to the temple again this morning. Wow it's early when we go but my favorite part of the week is walking out of the temple early morning as the sun is coming over the mountain and looking out, it's an amazing experience. Well fam i love you so much and i hope you know that. Elder Hammer is loving it up here and is doing just great. The work is ture and i know that we will are all so blessed because of this great news we have. i LOVE YOU GUYS!
Elder Martillo (Hammer en espanol)