Hi

Well hey there, how's everyone doing? Life here is going on as usual. I'm crazy busy trying to be "mom" of a troop of missionaries, trying to find people to baptize, and fight trunkiness all at the same time. So, things are going well. Can you all believe that its December already? Wow, time is flying!!! About the Christmas call home, I can use Skype to talk to you all, I just need to find someone who has a webcam and internet. But when I do, I'll be ready to talk to you guys. Will you guys be all together or split up for this Christmas? Can we do a conference call via Skype so I can talk to you all at the same time (and most importantly see my nephew...)? Lemme know...

Well, this week we had a pretty hard experience actually. This Sunday was the Brazilian equivalent of the Super Bowl, and of course we worked as usual. So, we were standing on a street corner trying to find a street on our map just after the game finished and on the other side of the road we see this guy just drop like someone cut the strings. We ran over to him to try to help him but he was purple already, had no pulse, and was fading fast. We gave him a blessing and did everything we could to try to help him, but there wasn't anything we could do, and we watched him die in front of us, and in the hands of some of us. It was a pretty difficult experience, but at the same time I'm grateful that I know the Plan of Salvation and I know where he is now and that death isn't the end of life. We die spiritually to live physically, and we die physically to live spiritually again and return to the presence of our Father. The knowledge that we have made us completely different from the rest of the people that were there, especially his family when they arrived. I'm truly grateful for the gospel in my life and that I have this knowledge. Its made me re-double my efforts to help as many people as possible so that they can receive this knowledge and that they can return to the presence of God with a cleanliness, free from the spots of this world.

So, like I said, we're in a trio, which is pretty interesting. We actually finally got beds so I'm no longer sleeping on the ground (what a blessing!!), but we're still lacking several necessities, like a washing machin that works and a sink. But we make it work. We're have a few growing pains because we're not used to teaching in trio, but we're working it out. But its all lots of fun being in a group of more than just 2.

So, have I mentioned that its pretty stinking hot down here? In dad's words: "Disgusting!" Its nowhere as hot as Arizona, but in Arizona we have air conditioning...

So yeah, time's about up, so I'm gonna have to run. Hope you all have a wonderful week and in just a couple more weeks we can all have a nice, long, 45-minute long chat... I can't wait.

Love you all!!!!!

-Elder Marx