Well, just that. I SAW it, I did NOT watch it. We had lunch with a member family and as we were waiting for lunch to be ready, the kids were watching it. It was weird. And trunky. I was reading my Book of Mormon most determinedly trying NOT to listen...
So how is everyone doing? I'm glad to hear the the Utah trip was fun and that everyone got to see each other. How was the graduation? Has college football started? If so, I haven't decided if I want to hear details or not. We'll see... So I guess its "já era" for Arizona, huh? I don't think my mind has truly accepted that I'll be coming home to Texas yet, and it probably won't until I'm back. Okay, enough trunkeza.
So, this week wasn't the best week we've had. I actually got pretty sick and got a case of the "Brasil Belly" and had stomach pains the whole week. It wasn't very fun, I had stomach cramping and lots of other problems and we actually didn't get to go to the new missionary training meeting for my comp because I got sick. The Assistentes weren't happy with me but oh well, what can you do. We're working hard and seeing some fruits... So we're having the fun "finding people" phase of the work. But its actually going well, 2 days ago we were walking down the street in a hurry trying to make it to an appointment on time and a guy from the other side of the road stopped us and asked us what exactly we do. So, we explained the first lesson to him in about 3 minutes and marked to pass by the next day. The next day, (actually we were in a division, I had to do a baptismal interview) we went there and taught him. He's a golden prospect and we marked a baptismal date with him for the 28th of this month. We're going to work like crazy trying to get him ready for baptism. Actually, the best thing that happened this week wasn't in my area, but actually in my district. So, my district had been working hard but not seeing many fruits here but we finally are starting to see success as a district. One companionship baptized 2 people this last week and the other area in my district will baptize this week as well. Actually, we saw a miracle happen. For 5 months, the elders were trying to get permission to baptize this you man named F. He has been going to church every week for 5 months, goes to seminary, does all the activities and is an absolute stud. However, the mom never would give her permission for him to be baptized... Well, finally after 5 months of trying everything we knew to do, the mom finally gave her permission for him to be baptized. We all were SOOOOO happy. It was a serious miracle. The Lord truly blessed the missionaries and F and he'll be baptized this week.
So, yeah, the work is going along well. I truly know that this IS the Lord's work. He truly is guiding and blessing us as we are faithful to him. Christ Lives! This is his church! And I'm proud to share this, his gospel with the people of Curitiba.
-Elder Marx
Hi!!!!!
Well howdy. Has it already been another week? Wow, time's flying by. So, this week was both really fast and really slow. We're working hard trying to find new investigators and people that we can teach. To be honest, its going kinda slowly right now. I love my investigators... and we're trying hard to get them keeping their commitments and going to church. We're also trying to find new people that we can teach that we can help out to start investigating the gospel. Please don't think that I'm complaining or talking bad about my area. I love where I'm at and I love my investigators, we just need to get them keeping commitments so that we can help them progress and be baptized... So, right now we're working trying to help them out to do just that- its not always the easiest and you don't always see the fruits that you're hoping for, but its all worth it.
So anyhoo... how is everyone together in Utah? Hving fun? How is my little nephew? From the pics it looks like he's getting HUGE. I don't want to think how big he'll be when I get back in another 9 months or so. He'll be a tank... Well, my visa expired about a month ago. I was sitting at lunch and for some reason I pulled out my visa to show to the members and I looked at the expiration date and thought, "AACK!!! That's today!"... Well, I called the secretary and reminded him... Well, after ONE MONTH of being an "illegal" I finally went down to the federal police and renewed my visa. It was actually way cool, a group of elders that I knew in the CTM were all there too renewing their visa and we all were amazed at how much we've all changed. They agreed that I've changed the most, after all, I've lost like 50-60 pounds. It was pretty cool to see how much we've all changed and progressed and we're all Zone Leaders or District Leaders or Trainers and how much things have changed from the greenies that we once were. Its strange to be the "experienced" one here on the mish. Well, I guess that just comes with time.
Well family, I love you all. I hope you all are having a lovely time together up in Utah. Send my love to everyone and before we know it I'll be back with you all (no trunky!!!!!) The gospel IS true! Jesus IS the Christ!!!!!! This IS His Church!!!!!! And I'm proud to be here to help others know these things that I know.
Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!! Buy Ice Cream or Pizza for the missionaries!!!!!!!!
-Elder Marx
So anyhoo... how is everyone together in Utah? Hving fun? How is my little nephew? From the pics it looks like he's getting HUGE. I don't want to think how big he'll be when I get back in another 9 months or so. He'll be a tank... Well, my visa expired about a month ago. I was sitting at lunch and for some reason I pulled out my visa to show to the members and I looked at the expiration date and thought, "AACK!!! That's today!"... Well, I called the secretary and reminded him... Well, after ONE MONTH of being an "illegal" I finally went down to the federal police and renewed my visa. It was actually way cool, a group of elders that I knew in the CTM were all there too renewing their visa and we all were amazed at how much we've all changed. They agreed that I've changed the most, after all, I've lost like 50-60 pounds. It was pretty cool to see how much we've all changed and progressed and we're all Zone Leaders or District Leaders or Trainers and how much things have changed from the greenies that we once were. Its strange to be the "experienced" one here on the mish. Well, I guess that just comes with time.
Well family, I love you all. I hope you all are having a lovely time together up in Utah. Send my love to everyone and before we know it I'll be back with you all (no trunky!!!!!) The gospel IS true! Jesus IS the Christ!!!!!! This IS His Church!!!!!! And I'm proud to be here to help others know these things that I know.
Love you all!!! Have a great week!!!! Buy Ice Cream or Pizza for the missionaries!!!!!!!!
-Elder Marx
Well, I almost killed my mission president today.
Well, now that I have everyone's attention. How're you all doing? I LOVED getting pics of my nephew (Thanks BoB!!!!!) Oh, you asked about how and why I almost killed my mission president. Well... let me tell you. So, the Stake President invited all of the missionaries in the stake to come and have a meeting with him. We all sat down and talked about how we're going to work more closely together to get the members excited and he also invited President Cordon to come and have a part in the meeting. Well, after that he invited us all to eat Churrasco (Brazilian Barbacue) and while we were waiting for lunch to be ready we all started to play futebol (soccer). Well, we all started to play (Including President Cordon) and then went to do a corner kick and President Cordon went to head the ball into the goal but I felt reckless and went to head the ball before he did. Well, it wasn't like Phil and that German in the MTC but almost. We narrowly avoided a collision, which was good because we're both pretty hard headed. But yeah, I came pretty close colliding with my mission president. But then we had Churrasco, which was amazing. I LOVE churrasco, especially grilled chicken hearts. I'm going to have to learn how to do it properly so we can eat it when I get back. But yeah, now I'm completely exhausted but it was totally worth it.
So... the work in our area is going pretty slowly right now. Our baptism fell again. I'm getting kinda frustrated because we're working hard but the baptisms aren't working out. Oh well, we'll keep working at it and we'll start seeing success. We're working hard and I know that the Lord will bless us with success. We just need to keep working as hard as we can and we WILL see success and the baptisms will come.
So, actually this week was full of shenanigans and I don't have time to write about all of them but you're going to get LOTS of fotos this week!!!!
Love you all!!!!
-Elder Marx
So... the work in our area is going pretty slowly right now. Our baptism fell again. I'm getting kinda frustrated because we're working hard but the baptisms aren't working out. Oh well, we'll keep working at it and we'll start seeing success. We're working hard and I know that the Lord will bless us with success. We just need to keep working as hard as we can and we WILL see success and the baptisms will come.
So, actually this week was full of shenanigans and I don't have time to write about all of them but you're going to get LOTS of fotos this week!!!!
Love you all!!!!
-Elder Marx
hey!
Hey so we went to the temple and the session took WAAAAY longer than we expected so this is going to be a super quick email.
-Life's going good, the weather's great.
-Our baptism didn't work out but we have another one marked for this week and we've got several people that we're getting ready
-So I'm going to try to make a Quad in portuguese by paying a bookmaker to put together a bible and triple combination, if it works out it should be pretty sweet
-So I haven't seen it yet, but what I've heard is that my leather scripture cover is turning out pretty dang sweet
-So this week I finished up reading the Doctrine and Covenants cover to cover for the first time in my life (and it was in portuguese even!) I'm now going to read the Pearl of Great Price so that I'll have read my entire triple combination cover to cover. Then I'll get started on the Bible, we'll see if I'll be able to read the whole standard works while I'm on my mission!
-So, my new comp (and second son) is doing well, he actually got a really bad cold and was completely out of commission but we're super excited and we're going to baptize everyone!!!
-So on friday we're having a Mission Tour by an Seventy so everyone's getting ready and practicing so we all don't look like a bunch or retards in front of a general authority.
-The packages came in (thanks a ton Mom and Court). I LOVED the American Deo and Laffy Taffy. Not to mention the Beef Freaking Jerky!!!!!!!!!!
-Okay, gotta run. Love you all! The church is true! We're going to baptize everybody!!!!!]
-Elder Marx
-Life's going good, the weather's great.
-Our baptism didn't work out but we have another one marked for this week and we've got several people that we're getting ready
-So I'm going to try to make a Quad in portuguese by paying a bookmaker to put together a bible and triple combination, if it works out it should be pretty sweet
-So I haven't seen it yet, but what I've heard is that my leather scripture cover is turning out pretty dang sweet
-So this week I finished up reading the Doctrine and Covenants cover to cover for the first time in my life (and it was in portuguese even!) I'm now going to read the Pearl of Great Price so that I'll have read my entire triple combination cover to cover. Then I'll get started on the Bible, we'll see if I'll be able to read the whole standard works while I'm on my mission!
-So, my new comp (and second son) is doing well, he actually got a really bad cold and was completely out of commission but we're super excited and we're going to baptize everyone!!!
-So on friday we're having a Mission Tour by an Seventy so everyone's getting ready and practicing so we all don't look like a bunch or retards in front of a general authority.
-The packages came in (thanks a ton Mom and Court). I LOVED the American Deo and Laffy Taffy. Not to mention the Beef Freaking Jerky!!!!!!!!!!
-Okay, gotta run. Love you all! The church is true! We're going to baptize everybody!!!!!]
-Elder Marx
Well, this caps off the strangest week of my mission...
No joke, strangest week I've ever had on my mission. Murphy's Law (if you don't know what it is, look it up) was truly in effect this week with the whole zone. First off, like half of the missionaries in my zone got super sick...Yeah, it was bad. Also, we had the kid of one of our investigator families get kidnapped. Not kidding...
Well, I'm pretty sure the biggest question that was on everyone's mind is: Did I get transfered? Well, I was almost positive that I would be transferred but when the Transfer Call came, it turned out that Elder Deivid got transferred and I'm staying here, and I'm training again!!!!! Yeah, that was about the last thing that I thought would happen, but hey, the Lord called. My new companion is Elder Camargo, he's brazilian as well and from the interior of São Paulo. He's a stud and we're totally going to tear it up and baptize like crazy. So, I'm going to stay in this area for at least another month and a half and its probable that I'm going to stay with him for 2 transfers because of the new training program of the new missionaries. So yeah, its a good thing that I really like my area, because I'm going to be staying here for a while longer lol. I'm actually pretty stoked and we're going to go nuts and baptize everyone that we see.
Speaking of baptism, we have a baptism scheduled for this week!!! His name's A. We've been teaching him for about 6 weeks now, he's about 70 years old...We're way stoked and what better way to start a mission than baptizing someone, neh? Also, so we had another FHE this night and I offered to make more food. This time, I made french toast. It turned out pretty well, and everyone liked them. Actually I discovered that down here they actually make a type of dish very similar to french toast down here for Christmas so everyone was giving me a hard time asking me if it was Christmas and if Santa Claus is coming and stuff like that....
But yeah, so that's pretty much it. The weirdest things imaginable happening, new companion, second son, and baptism. Life as a missionary, never a dull moment, neh? I love this life. I love being a missionary, I love helping other to come unto Christ by helping them have more faith, repent, and be baptized. There's nothing more important than this work and I'm glad and grateful to be doing it. I'm sorry I don't write that much in these emails and don't write many letters (well let's be honest, I pretty much don't write any) but its because I'm trying to keep my mind focused on the work. I can't afford to let myself get distracted, I need to focus on baptizing people. I love you all. The Church IS true. Joseph Smith WAS a prophet of God and this is the work of the Lord.
-Elder Marx
PS
Pics:
1&2- Me and my sons
3&4: Making french toast.
Love you all!!!! Until next week!!!!!
So guess what I ate this week...
POP TARTS!!!!!!!!!
Yup, this week an elder in my district got a package and decided to share with everyone. He got 2 boxes of Pop Tarts and since he's only got a few months left and is worried about losing weight and coming home skinny he gave me like 5 packages of Pop Tarts!!!!! It was REDONKULOUS !!! So, before I realized it I had eaten like 3 packages of them lol. I was in 7th Heaven... I also didn't realize that they're so fattening, I was looking at the nutrition and man, these suckers are unhealthy! Oh well, I walk bastante every day so I don't really have to worry too much about getting fat. Speaking of losing weight, I now discovered that I can put on and take off my dress pants without having to unbutton or unzip them. How's that for losing weight?
Anyhoo... This week was a good week. We didn't have vomiting or falling into sewer lines... so it was a pretty calm week. We're working hard trying to get our investigators ready to be baptized, and we've got a few with a lot of potential. We found a women whose name is L... she actually has a lot of experiance with the church because of her mother-in-law. She'd been going to church fairly regularly a couple years back with her mother-in-law (who's now moved to another ward) and knows quite a few of the ward members already. It was pretty cool because when she came in to Sacrament meeting she saw an Irmã in the ward who she hadn't seen in quite some time and the two of them went and hugged. It just makes me kinda sad that the people that we're finding I probably won't see get baptized because I'm probably going to get transfered next week. I've been in the area for 3 transfers now and 2 with my filho so its looking pretty likely that next week I'll be writing to you from a different area. I'm actually pretty sad to think about leaving this area. We've seen tons of success ahere and I feel like the people that we've baptized are really going to stay strong. I'll probably be coming back to see some of them go through the temple and get sealed. Just saying, if you come down to pick me up, we'll most definitely be passing through this area so you all can know all the special people that are here.
So what else? Well, I did 2 really special baptismal interviews this last week. The mom had been really struggling and praying to know what truly was right and which church is true. That night, she had a dream about 3 people dressed in white, with ties and nametages at her front gate. The next day, com certeza, the Elders knocked her door and they accepted the missionaries in. They had a LOT of challenges... but 4 months later I was sitting in there with them and they were ready to be baptized. Its amazing to see how much the Gospel can change lives... now, they're clean and pure and they're going to continue strong and recieve all the blessings of the Lord. The Gospel truly does change people for the better. It moves and helps people reach their true potential. That's why I'm here. The power of the Atonement cleans any and all lingering wounds and there's nothing better in the world than to see a person before and after the gospel and the Atonement have taken affect and they're now full of the Spirit and feeling the Lord's love. I love being a missionary, I love helping people and seeing the changes that happen in the people who want to follow the Lord. To me, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing the blessings of the Gospel and the Atonement take affect in someone's life. This is the Lord's work and I'm humbled to think that I'm so richly blessed to help these people recieve these blessings.
-Elder Marx-
Photos
the zone with our nifty special zone t-shirts
my comp completely soaked because of the rain
shots of our nifty special zone t-shirt
Yup, this week an elder in my district got a package and decided to share with everyone. He got 2 boxes of Pop Tarts and since he's only got a few months left and is worried about losing weight and coming home skinny he gave me like 5 packages of Pop Tarts!!!!! It was REDONKULOUS !!! So, before I realized it I had eaten like 3 packages of them lol. I was in 7th Heaven... I also didn't realize that they're so fattening, I was looking at the nutrition and man, these suckers are unhealthy! Oh well, I walk bastante every day so I don't really have to worry too much about getting fat. Speaking of losing weight, I now discovered that I can put on and take off my dress pants without having to unbutton or unzip them. How's that for losing weight?
Anyhoo... This week was a good week. We didn't have vomiting or falling into sewer lines... so it was a pretty calm week. We're working hard trying to get our investigators ready to be baptized, and we've got a few with a lot of potential. We found a women whose name is L... she actually has a lot of experiance with the church because of her mother-in-law. She'd been going to church fairly regularly a couple years back with her mother-in-law (who's now moved to another ward) and knows quite a few of the ward members already. It was pretty cool because when she came in to Sacrament meeting she saw an Irmã in the ward who she hadn't seen in quite some time and the two of them went and hugged. It just makes me kinda sad that the people that we're finding I probably won't see get baptized because I'm probably going to get transfered next week. I've been in the area for 3 transfers now and 2 with my filho so its looking pretty likely that next week I'll be writing to you from a different area. I'm actually pretty sad to think about leaving this area. We've seen tons of success ahere and I feel like the people that we've baptized are really going to stay strong. I'll probably be coming back to see some of them go through the temple and get sealed. Just saying, if you come down to pick me up, we'll most definitely be passing through this area so you all can know all the special people that are here.
So what else? Well, I did 2 really special baptismal interviews this last week. The mom had been really struggling and praying to know what truly was right and which church is true. That night, she had a dream about 3 people dressed in white, with ties and nametages at her front gate. The next day, com certeza, the Elders knocked her door and they accepted the missionaries in. They had a LOT of challenges... but 4 months later I was sitting in there with them and they were ready to be baptized. Its amazing to see how much the Gospel can change lives... now, they're clean and pure and they're going to continue strong and recieve all the blessings of the Lord. The Gospel truly does change people for the better. It moves and helps people reach their true potential. That's why I'm here. The power of the Atonement cleans any and all lingering wounds and there's nothing better in the world than to see a person before and after the gospel and the Atonement have taken affect and they're now full of the Spirit and feeling the Lord's love. I love being a missionary, I love helping people and seeing the changes that happen in the people who want to follow the Lord. To me, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing the blessings of the Gospel and the Atonement take affect in someone's life. This is the Lord's work and I'm humbled to think that I'm so richly blessed to help these people recieve these blessings.
-Elder Marx-
Photos
the zone with our nifty special zone t-shirts
my comp completely soaked because of the rain
shots of our nifty special zone t-shirt
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