eMail of May 28, 2012

Hello Everyone, I´m glad to hear everything is going well at home. It's good that you all will have a pretty busy summer. Sounds like a lot of things are changing. Caleb will be in high school. Janai will be in college. Carlene and Brent moved. David is married. It's crazy how fast things change. Things are going great here in Brazil. We have some possibilities for Baptism next week. We´re praying that it will turn out right. We're also about to change mission presidents. That should be interesting. Apparently a lot of the Areas will change around. At the beginning of the week, we were walking and all of our plans were falling through. People weren´t at home or were too busy. So we decided to go eat Ice Cream and think about what to do next. We started talking with one of the workers there. She said that just talking to us her opinion of us had changed from what it was when she had only seen us passing by. We started to talk about the gospel and she's really interested. Another cool experience that we had was we walked a long way to visit a member's house to teach this member's wife and daughter who are not members. We looked at the house and everything was shut and no lights were on. My companion said "no one is here" and we turned around to leave. I clapped (which is what people do here in Brazil because the front is a gate usually and not a door) just as a weak, partly-joking effort as we turned to go and the door opened. It was the member. We talked with him a little and soon his wife and daughter showed up and we talked with them. I was reminded of something that I heard an Apostle say once. That when we are worthy, sometimes we are guided by the spirit when we don´t even know we are being guided. I didn´t clap because I felt I should and I didn't think anything would happen, but that doesn´t mean it wasn´t an inspired action. I thought that was a kind of cool experience. Anyway. Good luck with all of the changes you all are going through this summer. Remember God loves you. I love you all too. See yah in a couple years. Elder Marc Skiles

eMail of May 21, 2012

Hello Everyone, Glad to hear things are going well. That's great that Janai got another scholarship. And that David got married. That sounds really wierd to me. David got married. David got married. Congratulations anyway, David. Maybe I´ll be an Uncle twice when I get home. Things are going well here. I´m still loving the area. My companion and I are getting along fantastically as well. We hope to have a lot of Baptisms next week. Our new President is coming really soon. Everyone's afraid he will ban Coke. Personally I don`t mind. I´m excited to see what will change though. Thanks for your prayers. Keep firm in the Gospel. I love you all. See yah in a couple years. Elder Marc Skiles

eMail of May 7, 2012

Hello Everyone, Glad to hear things are going well at home. Only about a month untill summer break for all you guys huh. Glad to hear people are finding jobs and working. Things are going great here. I really like this ward. Its pretty great. We are pretty spoiled by the members here actually. We have a few families who have told us that we can come eat dinner or lunch any day at thier house. The members are used to 4 missionaries here so there is a TON of food for lunch. We already have some great baptism prospects. The mother of the elders quorum president suddenly decided to get baptised next week. She´s been going to church forever. Her son is a returned missionary and everything. That was really exciting. The Elders Quorum Presidents family really reminds me of our family. Its nice. They have three boys and a younger girl. Ages 2 to 14 I think. He jokes and plays around with the kids just like Dad. The Elders Quorum President and his Counsilor took us out to visit some less active families they want us to visit. Its was really helpful since we are both new to the ward. This ward seems really involved in the mission work. Its really great. I´m really excited to see how it goes. I love you all. Be good. See yah all in a couple years. Elder Marc Skiles