Born to descendants of African slaves in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Martins joined the LDS Church in 1972, despite his knowledge that the LDS Church did not then allow members of Black African descent to hold the priesthood or to receive temple ordinances.

On 9 June 1978, Martins and his family heard of the announcement that the LDS Church was lifting the priesthood ban.

In April 1990, church president Ezra Taft Benson called Martins as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

After serving a standard five-year term as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, Martins was honorably released as a general authority on 30 September 1995.

[1] Martins' son, Marcus, is the chair of the religion department at Brigham Young University–Hawaii.