Email of July 29, 2013

Hey family! Thanks for the pictures. This week was kind of crazy. I got to Verdão and unpacked my bags when the unthinkable happened. I got an emergency transfer to Coxipó! Now I´m going to end the mission in the area that I started. I´m here with Elder Underwood still. This transfer is being great. Elder Underwood is a great companion and we are working really hard. We are opening the area and we already had an investigator at church. That was a miracle. It's the 9 year old daughter of a less active family. We are trying to reactivate the family through the baptism of their daughter. I sincerely believe that this was an inspired transfer. Elder Underwood is an amazing missionary. The mission has changed him a lot as well. We are both getting along really great and learning from each other. Our goal is to keep working hard and to baptize till the end. I still know most of the members here in the area. It's cool to pass in the area you started because you can see how much you have changed over the course of the mission. I was called to give a talk on Sunday right when the meeting started. The life of a missionary. haha. I talked about some of the things I had learned over the course of the mission about the Atonement. When we are baptized we make the covenant to follow Christ´s example by taking upon ourselves the burdens of others. Sacrificing ourselves for God's children. That is probably the most important thing I have learned on the mission. I guess you all have stopped writing me emails because its so close to the end, but it's still nice to hear from you all. hehehe. I love you all. See you in a couple years! Marc

Email of July 22, 2013

Hello Family! I´m glad to hear that things are going well. I´m glad to hear girls camp was great. I´m really excited to see my neice and nephew. I´ll have to do exactly what you said janai. Maybe I´ll go work in provo for a while if I can´t find a good job in Kirkland. This week was transfer. You will never guess who will be my last companion. I was trasferred to Verdão again to be Elder Underwood´s companion. I´m really sad to have to leave Julio De Castilho, but I guess thats the way it has to be. I´ve already packed my bags and I´m ready to go back to cuiabá tonight. Its kind of weird going back to an area I´ve already passed through, but I´m sure it will be a cool experience. I hope to learn a lot my last transfer. I hope to have some cool stories to tell my future children and grand children. I also hope to have some baptisms my last transfer. My goal is to baptise one more family. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years. Elder Skiles

Email of July 15, 2013

Hello Everyone! This week was still rather difficult,but we are still working hard. We had two investigators at church today that live in the sisters area. haha. Its times like these that we learn that happiness doesn´t come from our circumstances, but from our choices. Its a tricky thing in the mission, because you have to learn to desire with all your heart, might, mind, and strength for something that is outside of your control... That others come unto christ. They have their own agency and so we can only do all we can to invite. This means we must learn to desire that others come unto christ, but be happy and excited even when they don´t. It´s a very phsycological experience. I´m learning to be happy despite the results of our work, even though the desire to have baptisms is still just as strong. The weather is getting really dry. The other day, my nose started gushing blood while we were at a members house to teach an investigator. Luckily it stopped. This week we had a service project in the stake. The city had a little presentation in the park about "Denge" an illness that is spread through mosquitos. They talk about how to clean up your yard so that there is no still water for them to reproduce. We and the members handed out flyers and invited people to come to the park and see. There was also a stand that talked about food storage from the church and we got some adresses from people who wanted to know more about the church. It was fun. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Elder Skiles

Email of July 8, 2013

Hello everyone! What a drastic experience. I´m so thankful no one was hurt. Its a good thing we have such a great family to take care of us. To bad I´ll miss the reunion. Send everyone at the reunion a BIG HUG from me. Especially Grandma and Grandpa and all of our cousins. And the meyers family. This week was good. We have gone quite a few weeks without baptism. We started to work even harder. The baptism we had this week fell through. The whole mission is having some difficulty. Last week we had only 10 baptisms in the mission. (that is very few) This week was a little better with 20, but still not much. I guess god gives us these experiences for a reason. We seem to be meeting more rejection in our area than usual. We asked the members to join us in a fast last sunday and I hope it helps. Times like these more than ever we need to fast and pray. We had two investigators at church that seemed pretty receptive. We will do a family home evening tonight and one of them will be there. I´m sure we will be able to find the elect. We played soccer again today. It was fun. Good to be distracted for a little from the work. I´m trying really hard to learn to control my thoughts. When the end is near your mind tends to wander a little. It starts to dwell on family and what will happen when the mission is over. I´m learning to focus my thoughts on serving the lord because the mission is not over yet. The end is the most important part because we learn what endure to the end means. The runner runs his fastest always at the end of the race. I hope to be able to run my fastest now as well. I´m so thankful to have all of my family in the church. That is the greatest blessing and motivation. I love you all! See yah in a couple years! Marc

Email of July 1, 2013

Hey Family! This week was great! It's been cold and rainy all week. We forgot our umbrellas and rain gear a couple times and got all wet. When we went to do divisions in Aquidauana we got all wet and muddy too. We had two investigators at church this week. Regina and her daughter Carmen. They were a reference from a member. They have their baptismal date marked for this week. I hope all goes well. We will do a family home evening at the member's house with them this week. They arrived at church before we did actually. That's what you call a golden investigator. This week we knocked on a door and the man at the door didn´t want to hear, so we moved on. Then he felt bad for rejecting us. He chased us down on the street and said he was sorry he had rejected us and that we should not get discouraged. That was a first. But it really is true that just our presence on the streets going from door to door is a testimony to others that what we teach is true. This last week we were going to a lesson, but changed our minds and decided to go to a different person. On the way we passed a members house and decided we could ask them to come with us. When we got in Irênio (a member) was really sick with laryngitis and they had just called the Bishop to come and give a blessing. We gave him a blessing. I´m sure that we were guided by the spirit to go to his house. Anyway. I´m glad that all of you are doing well! I love you all! See yah in a couple years! Marc Elder Skiles