eMail of September 24, 2012

Hello Everyone! Things are going fantastically. This week was pretty busy. It was me that took that money out. I had to buy a new SD card because the one I had got a virus and a flash drive to put the recuperated photos from the old SD card. Lets just say I´m never going to use a SD-USB card adapter anymore. By the way: Could everyone send me some cool photos in email of everone so I can put them in an album here. Its really great to have to show members and investigators and other missionaries. To break the ice you know. I´m already going to put in some of the photos you have already sent me. Daniel and Maria Luise (Ana Alice´s brothers) recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost this week and Daniel was interviewed to recieve the preisthood next week. That was pretty exciting. I´m so glad to hear Ashley went to the temple! Thats Great! That really is the goal of missionary work. Get as many families to the temple as possible. I miss the Temple. The really hot weather ended and right now its being perfect. Its supposed to rain A LOT this week. We are going to do an activity this week in the chapel. ITs going to be about the Plan of Salvation. The participants will be guided holding a rope and visit all the kingdomes of glory. They start with outer darkness and keep moving up untill the Celestial in the chapel. The rooms will grow gradually brighter and brighter. It should be really cool. We are going to try and get investigators to go as well as some less actives. Anyway. I love you all. Untill next week. Send those photos please. See yah in a couple years! Marc

eMail of September 17, 2012

Hello Everyone, glad to hear things are going well. Wish I could have been there at Deception Pass. I did get the letter from Ashley about her dad a few days ago. Thats good that you are suporting her in this difficult time. This week was great. Ana Alice´s brother and sister were baptised on sunday. The begining of this week was really HOT. It reached 42 a few days in a row. Then at the end of the week we finally had rain. It rained on saturday for the first time in 3 or 4 months. It supossed to start raining a lot now. I enjoyed the rain a lot. I was starting to miss it a lot in the dry season. The work is going well. My companion and I are still working really hard. When President Costa came he talked about how when we are focused on the work we don´t think about the sacrifices. Thats really true. When we weren´t focused on missionary work the sun seemed hotter. When we were thinking about our work, we forgot about the heat because it didn´t really matter anymore. Its cooled off already anyway. Its wierd that its been a year already. When your in the middle of something it seems like the time isn´t passing, but its really going by fast. Anyways. good luck everyone with school. I love you all! See yah in a couple years! Marc

eMail of September 10, 2012

Hello Everyone! I´m glad to hear things are busy. I can´t belive I´ve hit a year already. The mission really does go by really fast. There are 3 other missionaried from my group in my Zone as well with 1 year. This week was good. We have found a few families which is great! I hope that one is the family that is willing to take the steps of faith and eventually be baptized. Thats good that Ashley is still going to church. That makes me really happy. For someone who is entering the church, staying firm can be really hard. We will have to do a camping trip everyone together when I get back. That would be a lot of fun. It can be the first of the Skiles family reunions for just our family. Sorry if that scares anyone. Things are changing, but its good. I love you all and I hope you have a good week. I know this church is true. We are not perfect, but this church is perfect and we will have all the experiences we need to become like Christ. Good luck making new freinds as this next fase starts out. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc

eMail of September 3, 2012

Hello Everyone! Its sad to see the old cars go, but thats cool you bought a new one. Starting school huh? Thats always fun. Just enjoy it. We are still in our search for families. We have found a few already that we are teaching. We went to Cuiabá this week for a meeting with President Costa of the Quorum of the Seventy. It took us about 8 hours by bus to get there because there are a bunch of Indians blocking the freeways outside the city on strike. They´re mad because the governments been taking thier land or something. Anyway its making things complicated for all the busses and trucks to get through. The meeting was really good. It talked about a lot of things that need to be different. The mission is going through a little bit of a focus change right now. Its starting to focus more on finding families and having "real growth" happen. We got stuck in Cuiabá for one more night afterward because of the indians and didn´t get home until 1 in the afternoon on saturday. Anyway, just keep pretending i´m just at College like Caleb said because it will all pass by really fast. Good luck with just Caleb and Nathaniel at home now. It will all be fine. I love you all! See yah in a couple years! Elder Skiles