elder martillo

Hello family!
What an amazing week this has been! I can't believe it has come and gone and i have learned so much and am so excited to tell you all about it. Thank you all so much for your emails and for your love i can always feel the love from the family. Thank you mom for all the post cards from hawaii and jace thanks for the letter too! Thank you grandma and grandpa hammer for that wonderful card and the money and the stamps and gift card thank you so much! And thank you grandma hafen for writing me about the rodeo. Man i can't beleive it's already rodeo time and now it's come and gone haha but thank you all and thanks to my pen pals too!
Well this weekend was the baptism and that was such a sweet sweet experience i don't thin i am going to have enough email time ha to put down into words how i was feeling this weekend and of the things that happened. Man it went so well and i just am so happy and yes alan gonzalez is a confirmed member of the church! Well saturday was a crazy day we had a lot to do to prepare for the baptism and i just wanted it to be perfect. so most of saturday was all about calling and inviting people, making sure those that had assignments remembered and filling up the font, setting up chairs, we had a video presentation etc... But i just wanted it to be so perfect for him. He had his whole family coming who are all non members and i knew that if we could impress him and his parents and family with the spirtiual experience of the baptism that it would be just great. Well one of our speakers bailed on us for something and so we couldn't find anyone to speak on the Holy Ghost, so yours truly did the talk on the holy ghost at his baptism. I was more than happy to do it and i was actually really excited because i knew that i could say some things that others might not say or would say. So i had a little preparing to do for the talk so i did that, and saturday we actually went on exchanges with our district leader elder seegmiller who lives with us. So i went with him and his companion went with elder caballero, so on the day of the baptism elder caballero and i weren't together until about 4 in the afternoon haha that was kind of interesting but i guess that's the blessing of having a cell phone out here. The four of us were all working on this baptism together so it was really good. So the person too that was gonna bring refreshments also bailed on us so thats why there's a ten dollar charge at wal-mart mom. I couldn't stand not having something there for him and his family so we went out and got some cookies and drinks so that after there was a good treat for everybody. Sorry mom i hope that was ok, it was for a good cause though haha. So we got to the baptism pretty early to set everything up and get everythgin going and everything went really smoothe and it all worked out for the best. He showed up at about 5 45 when we had asked him to come at about 5 15 which was totally fine because it started at 6 so we had plenty of time. haha that was until his family didn't show up till about 6 30 haha so we had a lot of prelude music and plenty of time to take pictures, but we weren't gonna start this thing without his family there. But we had a great time. The baptism went so well and this lady from our ward named sister crites who is just a gem! recent convert and would do anythign spoke on baptism and just shared her testimony and was in tears and yeah it was a spiritual experience listening to her and i know that some of the things she said were exactly what alan needed to hear as well as his family too. He comes from a catholic family and they aren't active they just say they are catholic so we are really hoping to not only see alan progress but get his family on board as well! Then was the time for the baptism and that went great Alan is about 5'3'' just about the size of another small person i know haha so we didn't have to fill up the font very high to get him under, but elder caballero did really well and first time was a success. Ha alan was so nervous before the baptism because he only had on black briefs under and he was nervous everyone would see so man after he was up out of the water he jetted out of that font haha it was funny but no one noticed but he came out after changing and just had the biggest smile on and i could tell that he was just a happy happy person. And then it was my turn to speak. I held it together really really well only a few tears and i was pretty proud of myself ha i'm such a boob and i held it together really well so i was happy about that. But after experiencing this baptism and talking on the Holy Ghost it really made me look at myself in the mirror and remember those convenants that i made that day and it all is just becoming to be more and more and more important to me. Along this whole ride with alan we have been teaching him and teaching him but i think the person who is learning and growing the most is me! It's really wierd how that works like that but it does and i am so happy that that is happening! But the baptism was a success for sure, he got up and bore his testimony and cried up there about how tuff his life has been and how he had to learn on his own, and it ripped me up a little because i am so glad that i have never felt alone and no matter what happens from here on out he has his savior and he has this gospel and that is the best part of the whole thing this weekend is that he now is on the path for him, and his family and his families family. I remember talking with someone about seeing that first person baptized and seeing that smile and joy and seeing that happiness and seeing the joy, and it couldn't have been any better. I tried to imagine it that day and i didn't understand at all what this day would actually be like, it was amazing absolutely amazing. Then in sacrament the yesterday i got to confirm him a member of the church and give him the holy ghost. wow what a cool experience that was. I will never forget that day standing up there with alan and him asking me to do that amazing thing. I am so grateful that i got to do that. Words really can't describe it! It really is the coolest thing in the world to see that happen to someone and just know that change that's gonna come from it. And the part that makes me the most excited is that i wanna see that day when alan is serving and doing the same thing that i am doing right now.
And to top that off we had zone conference this week and elder robbins from the first quorum of the sventy was there this whole week with president belliston and wow i learned a lot. We had zone conference on friday and you come out of those things just fired up to get out to work and it was a really cool learning experience listen to him to talk to us for 4 hours and not loosign a breathe. And his wife talked to us as well about not being a casual missionary, and i think that was my favorite part because she said a quote that being sensual and casual is the same thing, because you've already lowered your guard. And i loved that quote so much because really satan works hard out here and he just wants to get you at every angle and little by little and it's sad to see because he gets a lot of missionaries but it's not gonna be that way for me! I can't tell you enough how easy it is to be obedient out here like i really struggle when people tlak about disobedient elders cause i just dont' get how you can be like that, and i am not sayign i'm perfect by all means i am far from that but the rules are seriously what make or break you as a missionary and i can already see that in just one short month of being here. But we have had such an amazing weekend, we have been so blessed to have a general authority in our midst and to have a person like that teach and instruct us was great. He told us one thing that has been stuck in my mind now for a while and that was "That black badge is your license to open up your mouth, not only should you do that, but you have to do that" and i loved that because sometimes i get a little affraid to tlak to some people but there is people all over we gotta talk to them all. President and sister belliston are so amazing and they can talk for two minutes and you can be spiritually overwhelmed! I love president belliston with all my heart, man that guy is a giant! I can't say it enough how blessed i am to be here at this time teaching and talking to this people. Everything happens for a reason and i know that this week was prepared long before i ever came to this earth as well as other weeks to come and i know that more baptisms are on the horizon. We have to get this message to these people because they are lost because they don't know where to find it.
Well i know that there wasn't much else besides that but that pretty much consumed my thoughts for the week haha i am so happy and so blessed to be here and i am so excited to see what else we can get done this week. I love you all so much and i am so grateful for your prayers and for all of your love! I know that you all are praying for me and i feel that love everyday and i am so thankful to you all. I am so excited for conference this weekend and i can't wait to talk about that next week with you all. Thanks for all your letters and me pen pals! Have an amazing week and know that i love you all so much and i love this work.
Tenga buena semana!
Les amo
Elder Martillo