eMail of October 29, 2012

Hello Everyone! Things are going fantastically. We have an investigator ready for baptism now. His name is Israel. He will be baptised on Sunday. He´s 19 and has been doing pilot school. We also have a couple families that we are teaching. Gilhierme and his family, Alexandre, Carlos and their wives, Márcia and her husband and 2 kids. None have been able to come to church yet, but I´m sure things will work out for them to go this week. Its been hot as usual. Rained a couple times this week. That was good. We were about to teach an investigator on Saturday at her door, which is always the worst because the Spirit is hard to feel on a busy street. Then it started to rain, so she let us in her house where we taught her the lesson much better than on the doorstep. Then her brother showed up and we had the opportunity to teach them both. Aparently it was important that we teach them. That was a cool experience. Anyway. Things are going really well here. Lots of people to teach. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc

eMail of October 22, 2012

Hello Everyone! Things are going great here in Rondonopolis. Still working hard. We are teaching a Boy called Gustavo. He is 16. He would be baptised, but we have to see if his parents will allow him. His family is very Catholic. Another boy we are teaching is Isreal. He´s really excited, but every weekend he has to go out to his families farm, so going to church is difficult. We have a couple families we are teaching a well. Mauro and his family. Also Márcia and Marcos, a couple with two children. Daniel passed the sacrament this week. That was really cool to see. All the members went to the temple this week, so working with the members to do missionary work will be slightly difficult. Thats great that Janai is planning on going on a mission. The church changed the age to make it easier for women to serve missions. Ana Alice liked the Idea a lot. It will make it a lot easier for her to serve a mission and still go to college. Anyway. Glad to hear things are going well at home. Send a hug to Mac for me Caleb. I love you all. I hope you all have a great week. By the way. Christmas music starts this week for me. hahaha. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Marc

eMail of October 15, 2012

Hello Everyone, This week was pretty great. We are teaching a couple of young men and a family right now. They are recieving the messeges very well. Now we have an Elder Siquera living with us in the house. He´s great. He´s really funny. I like him a lot. He´s a great leader. He knows how to gain the trust and respect of people which is a hard combination. Next week will be difficult because all the members will be in Campinas going to the temple. Makes integrating Investigators and members hard when you don´t have Members. hahah. President Reber is changing the mission focus a lot. He´s started to focus a lot more on the importance of the mission rules and working with members. Its an interesting change, but its what the Mission is needing right now. Its great to hear about all the activities that are going on at home and in school. Be grateful for those things because here in Brazil, Extra-Curricular activities at schools don´t exist. Its difficult to find a Brazilian that does some kind of music, art, or sport besides soccer in the street. Soccer was liberated again. We are going to get to play today. I´m pretty excited about that. Daniel (brother of Ana Alice), who we baptized last transfer, made me really happy last week. He´s really shy, but is trying to conquer that. This week he asked if he could go proselyting with us. I got super excited about that. We are going to do visits with him this week. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years! Elder Skiles

eMail of October 8, 2012

Hello Everyone! Wow! Thats so great that Janai is planning on going on a mission. That's awesome! When I get back Janai will be almost 20. Are you sure you want to wait that long? If you went on your birthday now, it would only be 2 1/2 years apart. I´m thinking I will ask to stay one more transfer as well at the end. That's great that Caleb got his Patriarchal Blessing. They really are inspired. Study it well Caleb. There are many things in it you don´t understand yet. Transfers happened! I stayed for one more Transfer with Elder Impa. This will be the third. I´m really happy about it. I really enjoy working with Elder Impa. I´m sending some photos of some cool things I saw this week. Janai, you might not want to look at them. The first one is a beetle we found on the street that was about the size of a small computer mouse. Looks like it has a catapult on its head. The last is a dead tarantula we found on the sidewalk. We also saw one alive in the street running around. They were both bigger than my hand. About the size of a salad plate. It was pretty cool. Ive never seen something like that in the wild before. The second is a turtle we saw in a park as we were passing by. The mission president is pushing much more on working with members. I liked the conference a lot. I really liked the talk by the prophet in the preisthood session. He talked about how we should see people how they can become. That applies a lot to missionary work. I love you all. See yah in a couple years. Elder Skiles

eMail of October 1, 2012

Hello Family, This week was great! We started to work in a new neighborhood that we haven´t worked before this week. Its been going great there. We have already found lots of people to teach. The Mission President came and did a Zone Conference with us here in Rondonopolis. It was really good. It was the first time ever that a Zone conerence happens in Rondonopolis. Next week is Transfers. I would really like to stay here in Rondonopolis with Elder Impa again, but we´ll see what happens. I´ll go wherever. I´m sure Caleb will do fine on his part. I wish I could see it. I´ll be awaiting that package. It won't take so long to get here. To take so long is a rare thing. The last letters I´ve recieved took only 2 weeks and the packages that Americans recieved took only a little more than a month. I should recieve it in November if all goes well. That's great that Ashley might go to BYU Idaho. That's exciting. Anyway. I love you all. See yah in a couple years. Marc

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