Happy Birthday Jordan!

First of all I want to say that the daily letters are awesome.  Its super fun to open them every night!  Elder Lopes da Silva says thanks! Every night he translates the letters by himself and will probably be speaking English by Christmas. And I love the picture book.  Pictures from Yellowstone are way cool! Thanks so much!

I’ve been told that the traditional birthday celebration here is to break a raw egg on the head of the person whose birthday it is.  I’m going to try to avoid that. 

Things here are going super well.  The language is coming along very well.  I can almost pretty much understand everything that people say but sometimes they can’t understand me.  I get really excited in lessons because I love teaching about the Restoration and sometimes I start talking way too fast and then no one can understand me haha.  I’m working on controlling myself and slowing things down for other people.  Brazil is awesome right now.  It’s super hot which weird for the Christmas season, but you can still feel that the people are getting all excited for Christmas. I love the people here.  They are incredibly laid back and super nice.  The "mineiros" have a reputation throughout Brazil of being super chill.  And the food here is so good.  We eat pretty much the same thing every day.  Beans, rice, spaghetti and meat. Try it someday!  The spaghetti part took some getting used to but its good.  Also, my companion can cook really well.  Last night he made carrot cake, and I made banana and cinnamon smoothies.  Try that! Frozen banana, milk, cinnamon, and sugar.  Fica bom.

We have an investigator who comes to church every week by herself named Ana Lucia.  We teach the Gospel Principles class at church, and she is the one who talks the most and helps us out.  She’s been coming to church for the past 2 months now, but we cannot ever teach her during the week because she is always "too busy".  Usually we have a few minutes after church to teach a little to her, but then we don’t get to talk to her until the next Sunday.  Yesterday we talked to her about how she was feeling towards the church and the Book of Mormon.  She told us she knows that it’s true.  She said her husband is not very receptive though.  Ana reads the Book of Mormon in the bathroom because she can’t let him see it.  She’s so solid!  I’m certain things will change for her soon.  She’s doing what she knows is right and she’s going to be so blessed for it.

I love you guys, Elder Marsh

Thanks so much for the letters! Seriously they are awesome.  I love hearing about all the updates in your lives.  Keep them coming.  Merry Christmas!