eMail of September 27, 2011

Hello Family,

Thank you so much for the letters you sent me! Letters are great to get. I can only write on preparation day so niether letters nor email are faster, but if you have questions its better to email because I usually can't remember them by time I get to a computer. Thanks so much for the blonde brownies. They are so good. The food here is good and there is a lot of it, but its hard on the stomach. I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'm gunna have a stomach ache for my time at the MTC. That's alright tho. The blessings outway the trials by far. I have two teachers. Irmao (Brother) Sorenson and Irmao Torgan. Irmao Sorenson served his mission in Portugal so he doesn't know Brazillian very well, but he is really funny and very helpful. He talks in English sometimes to help us out. Irmao Torgan is much more shy and reserved, but he is a native Brazilian so his Portuguese is very good and he knows what the common ways of speaking are. They are both great teachers. Portuguese is like slurred Spanish that sounds like French. It sounds really cool tho. Its not really immmersion. Church and other meetings and stuff are all in English. Normally church would be in Portuguese, but we have a mixed ward with English, Portuguese and Tai. The meetings are so good. So much spiritualness all the time. It's pretty exhausting. I'm starting to sleep a lot better now. I don't wake up during the night anymore. So much Portugese running through my head, it was a little hard to sleep, but I sleep very well now and I wake up refreshed. I know that this is the true church. Its true that a testimony is gained in the bearing of it. I bear my testimony about a million times a day here. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. That is the most important thing that you guys can do is study the Book of Mormon to gain a testimony every day. I love you all so much. The blessing that the stake pres. gave me has been a blessing. I think about home sometimes, but I'm so busy that I never feel homesick. I only have 2 minuets before the computer logs me out so. I love you all! thanks so much for your prayers. They are felt here.

Elder Marc Skiles