Wow, has it really been two years. It feels like yesterday that I was getting on the plane going to Provo. Have things really changed that much? Am I really coming home? I'm here at the mission office now. I just had my final interview with President. I need to go and pack my bags. Tomorrow, I'll be off to the temple for one last session with just the missionaries who are also going home. Wednesday, well, you know...
So my last week was something that I'll never forget. On my last Sunday as a representative of Jesus Christ, we had the privelege of baptizing a family into the fold of God. After the baptismal service, I started crying. Is it really the end? Will I never get to do this again? Did I do good enough? Never will I have a doubt of whether it was worth it. Indubitably, yes. Someone asked me if I would go back and do it again, I said that I'd be there in a heartbeat. Nothing has ever been so rewarding, so trying, so difficult, and such a blessing in my life. There were times I wanted to give up, go home, desist and go back. I'm not sure why or how I stayed, but it made all the difference. I've been changed forever. My life will never be the same. I will carry these memories with me forever. It has been such a blessing in my life, and I've been able to help others. Wow... what a wild ride its been. I've grown, seen miracles, felt the Spirit like I"ve never felt before, and helped others. I can't describe how I feel with just mere words. Only tears can describe it.
So now, the only question is: Well... what now?!?
Love you all. See you all on Thursday.
-Elder Dallin Marx
Missão Brasil Curitiba
Maio 2010-2012
Well, I'm alive. In case anybody was wondering.
Okay, sorry I didn't write this Monday. Hopefully it didn't freak anyone out. P-Day got switched to Wednesday because our zone went to the temple. Then, we found out that there was some kind of accident and the whole city lost internet and it only came up right now so things are going to have to be REAAAAAAALY quick.
Here we go:
-Die trunky? NEVER!!!!!!!!! I'm going nuts down here, Death before trunkiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Our seven baptisms fell down to four, but the four are really strong. We're all fasting and praying that it will all work out. We actually saw a miracle. Its a single mom and three children. She works lots of hours as a nanny for a wealthy family and the family was planning on going to the beach over the weekend and that would mean that she would too. That would mean that the baptism would fall. So we all prayed fervently that the boss wouldn't go to the beach and after several days of prayer and fasting, we found out that they're not going!!!! Miracle!!!!!! Keep them in your prayers.
-So this Sunday the bishop asked me to give a farewell talk in the ward. I'll be honest, I cried at the pulpit while I was giving my talk and bearing my testimony at the end. I looked into the congregation and saw some members crying too. It was a really spiritual moment. That was the monent that it just kinda hit me that its almost over and all the wonderful experiences that I've had over these last two years. I've seen miracles and people's lives change. So, yeah, I cried at the end when I was telling the people about how important my mission is to me.
-So... I kinda might have gotten my airline information already. I'm assuming that you've already gotten it as well from the mission, but if not let me know and I'll let you know the details next Monday. Really quick it'll be like this: Curitiba-> São Paulo -> Atlanta -> Dallas. I'll have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta so I'll be able to eat Reeses and drink Dew and Dr Pepper in the airport!!!! Tee hee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, time's about up, gotta run!!!!!! See you all in a week!!!! I'll write my last email on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all!!!!!
-Elder Marx
Here we go:
-Die trunky? NEVER!!!!!!!!! I'm going nuts down here, Death before trunkiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Our seven baptisms fell down to four, but the four are really strong. We're all fasting and praying that it will all work out. We actually saw a miracle. Its a single mom and three children. She works lots of hours as a nanny for a wealthy family and the family was planning on going to the beach over the weekend and that would mean that she would too. That would mean that the baptism would fall. So we all prayed fervently that the boss wouldn't go to the beach and after several days of prayer and fasting, we found out that they're not going!!!! Miracle!!!!!! Keep them in your prayers.
-So this Sunday the bishop asked me to give a farewell talk in the ward. I'll be honest, I cried at the pulpit while I was giving my talk and bearing my testimony at the end. I looked into the congregation and saw some members crying too. It was a really spiritual moment. That was the monent that it just kinda hit me that its almost over and all the wonderful experiences that I've had over these last two years. I've seen miracles and people's lives change. So, yeah, I cried at the end when I was telling the people about how important my mission is to me.
-So... I kinda might have gotten my airline information already. I'm assuming that you've already gotten it as well from the mission, but if not let me know and I'll let you know the details next Monday. Really quick it'll be like this: Curitiba-> São Paulo -> Atlanta -> Dallas. I'll have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta so I'll be able to eat Reeses and drink Dew and Dr Pepper in the airport!!!! Tee hee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, time's about up, gotta run!!!!!! See you all in a week!!!! I'll write my last email on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all!!!!!
-Elder Marx
Hey guys!!!!
Hey its gonna be a fast email this week, we're going to the city center to buy presents/souveneirs so we're gonna have to hurry on out of here to get there and back in time.
This week started off absolutely miserable. Everything was falling through, nobody wanted to let us in and all the addresses we went to try to follow up with turned out to be fake. It was a really rough week at the start. But then Saturday and Sunday turned it into an awesome week!!!
So here's what happened: The ward is having a monthly activity where everyone in the ward gets together saturday for lunch, eats lunch together, and then fasts together for the missionaries and for the work. So, we had about 40 people together fasting for us and for our investigators and that's when the miracles started happening. So, we finally started to teach the people and we finally started to see success after we all started the fast. We also had a ton of success bringing investigators to sacrament meeting and then we went to follow up with them afterwards. I asked them how they were feeling about the lessons we were teaching them and if they felt that the Lord was answering their prayers- and they said that they recieved an answer! We marked a date with a whole family of 4 to be baptized my last Sunday!!!!! They're a reference from a less-active that we reactivated and both them and they less-active are super excited and super happy (us too). Then we went to teach another investigator. He said that he wants to get baptized but he's having a hard time keeping committments. So, while we were talking to him I felt strongly that we needed to read 1 Néfi 8 with him. So while we read it with him the Spirit was super strong and we committed him to be baptized my last week as well. All in all, we have 7 people who are getting ready to be baptized my last week. 3 of them have problems with smoking, so we're working with them to help them quit before the 29th. Please keep them in your prayers and pray that they will be baptized on this day. It would be amazing to help them all be baptized before I go home. Please pray for them.
And congrats to Neal and Sydney!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy for them!!!!!!
So we gotta run but we're going to baptize everyone!!!!! Please keep us in your prayers!!!!!
Love you all!!!!
-Elder Marx
This week started off absolutely miserable. Everything was falling through, nobody wanted to let us in and all the addresses we went to try to follow up with turned out to be fake. It was a really rough week at the start. But then Saturday and Sunday turned it into an awesome week!!!
So here's what happened: The ward is having a monthly activity where everyone in the ward gets together saturday for lunch, eats lunch together, and then fasts together for the missionaries and for the work. So, we had about 40 people together fasting for us and for our investigators and that's when the miracles started happening. So, we finally started to teach the people and we finally started to see success after we all started the fast. We also had a ton of success bringing investigators to sacrament meeting and then we went to follow up with them afterwards. I asked them how they were feeling about the lessons we were teaching them and if they felt that the Lord was answering their prayers- and they said that they recieved an answer! We marked a date with a whole family of 4 to be baptized my last Sunday!!!!! They're a reference from a less-active that we reactivated and both them and they less-active are super excited and super happy (us too). Then we went to teach another investigator. He said that he wants to get baptized but he's having a hard time keeping committments. So, while we were talking to him I felt strongly that we needed to read 1 Néfi 8 with him. So while we read it with him the Spirit was super strong and we committed him to be baptized my last week as well. All in all, we have 7 people who are getting ready to be baptized my last week. 3 of them have problems with smoking, so we're working with them to help them quit before the 29th. Please keep them in your prayers and pray that they will be baptized on this day. It would be amazing to help them all be baptized before I go home. Please pray for them.
And congrats to Neal and Sydney!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy for them!!!!!!
So we gotta run but we're going to baptize everyone!!!!! Please keep us in your prayers!!!!!
Love you all!!!!
-Elder Marx
hey guys
Hey guys, how's everyone doing? Things are going well down here. Hope everyone had a happy Easter. Did the Easter Bunny come by? Did you guys get chocolate? We dure did!!!! Elder Elias (who lives in the same house as us) got a 30 count box of chocolates from his mom. We have eaten enough junk food to make us all fat and sick (literally) and then this Sunday the sisters in the Relief Society attacked us with even more chocolate!!! I can't even eat more chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, we're starting to get sick so we're just giving it away to our investigators or to the primary or random people on the street (GREAT way to do street contacting- offer chocolate). Speaking of chocolate- I got the packages safe and sound. To be honest- I kept the deo, reeses, and cadbury eggs and gave the rest away to the other elders. I'll be able to eat as much as I want in a little bit- some of them not for another year and a half. Thanks a ton!!!!
So this week we had a pretty average week as far as the work. We spent a lot of time following up on addresses... but people give us fake addresses so we spent lots of time going in circles trying to find houses that don't exist. *Sigh* Oh well, we'll find the people who truly want to find the truth. We had a TON of success bringing investigators to church this week. The members are getting really excited about the work and they're getting more involved so things are really going well in that department. The bishop really likes us and he's excited to work with us so things are going well there too.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention this to you. A week or two ago, I finished Revelations. That means I have read the whole bible in Portuguese. How cool is that? It also means I succeeded in my goal to read every page of the standard works in Portuguese and also the mission library (including Jesus, The Christ). Pretty neat, huh? Not many people can say that, can they? Now I"m just terrified to have to switch back to English and lose all the markings and notes that I made. I think I'll just keep studying my scriptures in Português.
Well, time's about up. Gotta run. I sure do love you all. Just a little bit more and I'll be home to see all of you. Who's excited? Who's trunky? Not me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So this week we had a pretty average week as far as the work. We spent a lot of time following up on addresses... but people give us fake addresses so we spent lots of time going in circles trying to find houses that don't exist. *Sigh* Oh well, we'll find the people who truly want to find the truth. We had a TON of success bringing investigators to church this week. The members are getting really excited about the work and they're getting more involved so things are really going well in that department. The bishop really likes us and he's excited to work with us so things are going well there too.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention this to you. A week or two ago, I finished Revelations. That means I have read the whole bible in Portuguese. How cool is that? It also means I succeeded in my goal to read every page of the standard works in Portuguese and also the mission library (including Jesus, The Christ). Pretty neat, huh? Not many people can say that, can they? Now I"m just terrified to have to switch back to English and lose all the markings and notes that I made. I think I'll just keep studying my scriptures in Português.
Well, time's about up. Gotta run. I sure do love you all. Just a little bit more and I'll be home to see all of you. Who's excited? Who's trunky? Not me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey
Hey guys! How's everyone doing? things are going great down here. Well first things first: my comp got transferred and I have a new comp! His name's Elder Trevisanut (say that 5 times fast...) he's from Washington and he's fairly new. We're getting along really well and we're working hard... I'm helping him with his portuguese and we're going to work our tails off and baptize people this whole transfer!!! Elder Trevisanut was in Prudentopolis, which is a tiny branch out in the middle of nowhere in a town that's 75% catholic. Its a very tough area. Actually when he was talking about it, it reminded me of Phil talking about Ireland. But then he shows up here where we have lunch every day and we have members who are giving us references and he's in seventh heaven. Seriously, he turned to me and said he was transferred to the promised land. So yeah, I'm happy, he's happy, and things are going to get rolling now.
So who liked conference? I did! We had some technical difficulties and we had to watch a few sessions in portuguese (not a problem for me- but my comp had a hard time. Even worse for the greenie who got here last week and lives in the same house...) I LOVED Elder Holland's talk. Well, come to think of it, I always do lol.
Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY AND BRONSON!!!!!!!!!!!! Too bad I can't be there but I'll be home soon (no trunky!). I'll bring the presents up with me when I come home.
Oh, and speaking of trunkiness, do you know who won't let me forget about going home? The other flipping missionaries!!!!! I'm doing my best to forget about it and work hard until the end but its the other missinoaries in the zone who keep talking about how I just have one month or how I'll be able to drink Coke or listen to music. They're driving me crazy!!!! Just let me work hard!!!!!!!!! (Just had to get that off my chest. I'm not really annoyed, but it is fairly chato.)
Okay, well time's about up. I'm going to have to run. I sure to love you all. I'm happy, we're working hard. Things are just gravy right now.
Love you all!!!!!
-ELder MArx
So who liked conference? I did! We had some technical difficulties and we had to watch a few sessions in portuguese (not a problem for me- but my comp had a hard time. Even worse for the greenie who got here last week and lives in the same house...) I LOVED Elder Holland's talk. Well, come to think of it, I always do lol.
Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY AND BRONSON!!!!!!!!!!!! Too bad I can't be there but I'll be home soon (no trunky!). I'll bring the presents up with me when I come home.
Oh, and speaking of trunkiness, do you know who won't let me forget about going home? The other flipping missionaries!!!!! I'm doing my best to forget about it and work hard until the end but its the other missinoaries in the zone who keep talking about how I just have one month or how I'll be able to drink Coke or listen to music. They're driving me crazy!!!! Just let me work hard!!!!!!!!! (Just had to get that off my chest. I'm not really annoyed, but it is fairly chato.)
Okay, well time's about up. I'm going to have to run. I sure to love you all. I'm happy, we're working hard. Things are just gravy right now.
Love you all!!!!!
-ELder MArx
Okay really fast
So, time's up and I had to write pretty much an essay to Prez, so I don't have enough time to write the big family email. Life's going well here. I love you all. I love the mission. The church is true. I sent personal emails to everyone and if you want more, just wait to talk to me when I get home. (No trunky!)
Love you all!!!!!
-Elder Marx
Love you all!!!!!
-Elder Marx
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