hey

Hey guys,

So I realize that last week I didn't tell you much about my area, so I'll do that now. I'm in a ward called Fazenda Rio Grande. Its a municipal of Curitiba (think suburb) and its about a half hour's bus ride from Curitiba. Its far enough away to be on our own working hard... but close enough to get materials and letters and all the fun stuff weekly. I'm really excited that I'm in with a ward, because its been about 6 months since I've been in a ward. The last time was when I was in Eucaliptos, a very long time ago. Its awesome to be working with members and to be able to ask for help. I especially love that we have a very large quorum of priesthood that can help us out. In Castro we had about 5 priesthood holders per Sunday...

Last week we had Carnaval, which made things rather interesting. There was a lot of iniquity and raunchiness and I'm in the south. Up in the North, like in Rio and Salvador, its so bad that the missionaries can't even leave their houses for a week. Down here we didn't really have any problems, just lots of people drinking a lot and partying like crazy. Its a literal application of "eat, drink, and be merry- for tomorrow we die". We actually had a pretty cool experience. So a few days ago we were out around 8:30 at night. We get home at 9, so we were going to visit a member really quickly, mark a division, and get home on time. As we were walking home, though, I had a strong impression that we needed to turn around and go home. I got kinda confused because it was only 8:30, and we had more time to keep working, but I followed the impression. As we were walking home we passed by a group of the aforementioned partyers who were using drugs (unfortunately, its not that uncommon here. The cops aren't very helpful so people do it right in the streets). We just passed by walking quickly and kept going without a problem. As we were getting to our house I heard a distinctive sound- 2 gunshots (that IS an uncommon thing) coming from where we had passed by about 5-10 minutes ago. If we hadn't followed the prompting we might have gotten mixed up in the middle of all that, but because we followed the prompting we got home safe and sound. Isn't it cool to have the spirit? Isn't it awesome how the Lord protects His missionaries? As a side note, don't worry- this area isn't very dangerous and that's the first and only time I've seen/heard something like that in this area. You don't need to worry, we're being safe and the Lord protects us.

Well, things are going well down here. The work keeps going and we found some really good people that we're teaching and preparing for baptism. I'm excited to be in this area and we're going to work our tails off and help lots of people. My time's about up so I'm going to have to run but I sure do love you all. Thanks so much for writing to me and I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember that the church is true and that this work is the work of the Lord. Read the scriptures!!!!

Love you all!

-Elder Marx