Email of March 18, 2013

This week was extremely hectic. My companion got sick and went home. That was on Friday. So there is an emergency transfer and I will go to Cuiabá. I´ll be there for a week until the actual transfer happens. We had two families at church including 3 married couples. I´m kind of disappointed not to get to teach and baptise them, but its ok. One of the families is a mom and her 4 children, 2 of which are married. All of them and their spouses read the parts of the Book of Mormon we left and received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. The couples will have to be married civilly, but the rest can be baptised in the next weeks. The other family that came was a couple who have their baptism date marked for next week. We went to teach them after church and the husband was drunk. We will teach the Word of Wisdom next week and help him stop though. Not "we" actually because I will be gone. I would have stayed here one more transfer. I´m really sad to have to leave here. I really love this area and the members here. I am really excited though to get to see a new area and start over again. Every time a change happens we get to start over again applying all the things we learned before and learn new things. The mission president just found out that American missionaries can not stay even a day more than two years. That means I´ll go home like normal. September 2nd. I´m really excited to see my first nephew. He doesn´t know it, but he´s gonna be a missionary some day. That's something I love to think when we teach families with little boys. I tell my companions and they think it's funny. Anyway. Thanks for all the emails. Especially mom and Carlene who are exceptionally diligent. I love hearing about what's going on at home. It is the best thing as a missionary. I love you all. See yah in a couple years Marc

Email of March 11, 2013

Hello Everyone, This week was pretty great. We are teaching a few families now that I´m pretty excited about. Not much to tell actually. We are teaching a woman whose husband is a less active member. She and her children are not members. The church attendance fell a little, but it was much better than it was a couple months ago. I´m really excited about the mission work right now. Anyway. I love you all! See yah in a couple years :) Elder Skiles

Email of March 4, 2013

Hello Family, Sorry about not sending a letter last week. I wrote it. I remember typing it out. I must have shut down the computer without sending it. Oops. The work here is going very well. We baptised last week and the other Elders baptised this week. The church attendance is staying high. 81!!!!! yay!!!! We are getting so many references from the members right now its crazy! Its amazing because its the members that are doing all the work right now. This makes our work much much more effective. I had an interview with the mission president last week and I asked him if I could stay 1 or 2 more transfers. He´s gunna let me stay 1 more transfer! yay! so now my mission will go until the 13th of October. More than 30 after the 14th of September would require special permission which is really hard to get, but the transfer ends just within this 30 day limit. I´m pretty excited about that. We are losing 3 branches to the Manaus Mission because it will be split soon. There will be a New Mission: The Brazil Porto Velho Mission. A lot of sisters will be coming here to the Brazil Missions. Brazillians and Americans. Brazil now has the second most missions in the world after the US. The church is growing here. Fast. Its really exciting to see these things happening. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Elder Skiles