Email for January 28, 2013

This week was pretty good. We had lots of investigators at church. I asked the mission president about staying on the mission two more transfers in my letter and he said we would talk about it. I don´t know what that means. I feel so happy on the mission. It's interesting how on the mission you can get rejected the entire day and still feel great. My companion has his ups and downs still. I think he´s doing much better now. It's hard to start out the mission. I try not to talk in English with him, but its hard. This is the first time on my mission that I live with another American. It's weird speaking in English. He´s learning pretty quickly though. Alex Burt took 4 years of English right? If he did, the language should come really fast. As long as he has a Brazilian companion. If his companion speaks English it will take a little longer. It's raining like crazy hear in Lucas. The mission president made some minimums for our mission. Most of them are pretty normal, but the real big one is 42 contacts per week. That is a lot. We got 24 last week. We missed a day though traveling to Sorriso for an interview. 42 is a lot. Its going to take a lot of work, but I´m sure we can do it. Just like Nephi says. The Lord provides a way. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc

Email of January 21, 2013

Hello Everyone! I hope everything is going well. The mission work is going great here. We had a few investigators at church yesterday and the church attendance was much higher than before even though it rained. Elder Edstrom's Portuguese is coming on fantastically. He´s starting to understand what people are saying. It's been raining a lot here. I like the rain a lot, but its not real great for missionary work. Its hard for members to join in the work and for investigators to come to church when its raining. Anyway. I asked the Mission President in my letter if I could stay on the mission for 1 or 2 more transfers. We´ll see how he responds. Most of the people in my group will go home early to start school. I hope he doesn't make me go home 1 early. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc

Email of January 14, 2013

Hello family, This week was amazing. The family that we have been teaching got baptised on Saturday and were confirmed on Sunday. It was a miracle. The mother was having some doubts about being baptised and if she really wanted to make the decision. She prayed and prayed for an answer and couldn´t sleep the next night. In the morning she went to work and saw her co-worker (the Branch President) and the answer just came. She new she should be baptised. It is a very humbling experience to see a family decide to follow the Savior and join his church. I gained a greater testimony that a missionary can´t convert anyone. Only the Spirit can. The family is Vera (mom), Renato (dad), and Renã (son). They have a little girl as well who will turn 8 this year. I attached a picture of their baptism. The ward here has started to get into action. They are going to start doing activities and call branch missionaries. I´m really excited about all the work here. It's hard when you want so bad to help someone, but you don´t know exactly what to do. Anyway. I love you all! I have a year and 4 months on the mission today! See yah all in a couple years! Marc

Email of January 7, 2013

Hello Everyone! I´m glad to hear everything is going well. Especially glad to hear that Brent will stay another semester for us to hang out. So this transfer I have had a lot of responsability put on me. I´ll be responsible for a district of missionaries and another greeny. This will be the second time I train a missionary, but this one is American. Elder Edstrom from Salem Utah. He's really cool. Doesn´t speak a lick of Portuguese. He's learning really fast though. The days are a lot more tiring now. Planning, teaching, following up, studying. When I´m not walking in the street teaching, I´m sitting at the desk. I´m enjoying it a lot. Doesn´t leave any time to sit around getting trunky. Only room for working, eating, and sleeping. I like the fast pace a lot better. It's amazing how the simple faith of a greeny can be so motivating in missionary work. We had two investigators at church today. The family we are teaching didn´t come because the mom got sick and the dad went to Santa Catarina to get medical stuff done. It's amazing how fast time goes by now. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years. Marc

Email of December 17, 2012

Hello Everyone! This week was fantastic! We had investigators at church yesterday! Its a family that we had found this week. A little 7-yearold girl on the street asked us if we talk about Jesus. We responded yes. Then she said "could you come to my house then". We said we would and followed her to her house. We met her mother and her brother and left the message of the Restoration. She said she had been to a lot of churches, but none that she saw that had the truth. We promissed her that if she prayed she would be able to know that what we taught is true. She´s pregnant and couldn´t make it to church alone so we got a member to bring her. She came with her two children. Her husband is in Campo Grande, but he will be able to come when he gets back. She participated in the Principles of the Gospel class making comments and her kids made friends with the other primary kids. It was really great. So I guess the world is going to end here in a little. I wonder what people will do. Some people will do crazy things when they think the world is going to end. Marc

eMail of December 10, 2012

Hello Everyone, It was a good week. We had a lot of people who said they would go to church this week and a lot of dates for baptism marked. Unfortunately none of them went, but we are still excited to work hard. This week we will try to get a member to bring people to church in his car. Our district president is really excited, just he doesn´t know what to do, so we are going to use him a lot to get the missionary work going here. This week was exciting with the wild life. I got to see monkeys, lizards, and an aligator. I´ll send you all some pictures of them. This week everyone will go to Cuiabá for Christmas conference. I'm excited for that. I like to travel. It's a long bus ride though. Anyway. That's all for this week. I love you all. Good luck with all the Christmas traditions! See yah in a couple years! Elder Skiles

Email of December 03, 2012

Hello Everyone, Christmas is coming! It's pretty exciting. It's cool to be here in Lucas for Christmas. It's a smaller, quieter city; so they can put up christmas lights in the park and on the county house without them getting stolen. It's really cool. It's weird to hear about everyone going on missions. None of our investigators where able to go to church this week, but next week we should have lots of investigators at church. We are going to travel to Sorriso for district meeting today. That should be good. Next week will be Christmas Zone Conference in Cuiabá. I´m pretty excited about that. I still haven´t opened my christmas presents yet. I´m waiting till christmas day, but curiosity is killing me. My companion and the other missionaries in our house think I´m crazy for waiting. I don´t know how its going to work with the christmas call yet. I think it will just be on the cell phone though. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc