Merry Christmas Skype call

It was so good to see and speak to Jordan today!  He spoke with a little bit of an accent but we loved hearing from him in person!  What an awesome experience it is to be a missionary and to have a missionary in the family!  We appreciate his service and dedication to the Lord and to the people in Brazil.

Merry Christmas to my family!

Merry Christmas!

December 20, 2014

Today we don’t have much time to write email because our p-day was moved to Christmas day.  I'm so stoked to talk to you!  

We had our Christmas conference this week and it was awesome. Sister Fortunato does a really great job with all the mission events!  We spent a while putting the conference together but in the end I think all the missionaries really enjoyed the musical and the food!  The theme was "Our Legacy".  Sister Fortunato put together a program all about the birth of Christ and the pioneers, which really went well.  

We have been having a lot of success lately with our investigators and we are excited about their progress!  Ailton stopped smoking and I've never seen anyone so excited and determined to be baptized like he is!

I love you family. I'm excited to see on Christmas!

Elder Marsh

President and Sister Fortunato

Good Week

This week passed by really quickly.  Things have been going super well recently in our area here!  Last week was general conference and it was the best conference that I've been to on the mission.  President Fortunato gave a talk on Saturday night about hastening the work with members too. In the middle of the talk he called out a few random members and paired them up with missionaries. We then left for 10 minutes to contact everyone in the street and invite them to the conference the next day.  It was seriously inspired to do that activity, because the next day a family of 5 showed up who Elder Bellini and the ward mission leader had invited the night before.  I've never seen a member get so excited like this man...it was as if in that moment he realized, "Hey! Missionary work is awesome!" 

We have been teaching a family recently who are really cool.  Ailton and Silvania have two daughters and are really loving the gospel.  They went to the conference and felt the spirit strongly. Last night we had our ward's Christmas dinner and before, we were giving the family a little tour of the chappel.  We ended by showing them the baptismal font.  He looked inside and just sat there thinking. After a few seconds he looked at us with a sad face and said, "I really want to be baptized Sunday, but I can't because I'm still addicted to cigarettes."  We promised him that he would be stronger than the addiction through the gospel of Christ, and he decided in that moment to never smoke again!  I really love this family.  

Birthday resents from Sister Fortunato

Rafael, our recent convert, is also being a great missionary.  He has been bringing a few friends and his family to church!  Missionary work always goes so much smoother when the members really get involved.

I love you all,

Elder Marsh

#ShareTheGift

PS What is your skype address and what time can we call you on christmas?!  Have you sent a package to Leonardo Monteiro?

Cake! Sister Fortunato is an amazing baker

In the picture with the cake, we didnt have a "1" candle so we had to use a match haha

Lots to do

 

This week was pretty awesome.

On Tuesday night we had a Family Home Evening with our investigator named Helena.  She has been coming to church for a while now with her friends from the ward and is one of those people that the Lord has been preparing for a while now.  When we started teaching her, we found out that her English tutor, maid, and friends from school were all members of the church!  They had all been helping her learn about the gospel little by little, and now she is ready to accept it.  Tuesday, she accepted a baptismal date for the 20th of December!  It would have been this weekend but her family and she will be in New York all this week and next.  We are so pumped for her date.  

 

 

I had a chance to go back to my last area in Progresso to watch the zone meeting this week.  It was awesome!  Elder Bravo and Elder McNiel are killing it there, and the missionaries are excited to work. They did a fun activity to help the zone learn about working together to reach goals and our full potential.  During the meeting they talked about how every missionary plays a huge part in the mission.  If any missionary decides not to do his part, the whole mission suffers the consequences. Elder Bravo chose a companionship and told them, "Yesterday, Elder McNeil and I hid 65 candies in the chapel.  You have one minute to find them! GO!" They went searching but after a minute only came back with about 10 candies.  Then they got all the missionaries together and made plans.  Each companionship had a room to search and had one minute to find the candies.  After all the companionships had searched, all the candies had been found.  It was a fun way to learn how everyone needs to work.  The candies represented people baptized and you can imagine how the example relates to the everyday work.  If any companionship decides not to try their best for a day, or a week or a month, then God's children will be left unfound and without the blessings of the Gospel. There really is no time to rest and take a break on the mission!

 

 

I love you!

 

Elder Marsh

 

Sorry I couldn’t write much today.  We have P-day to work on the stuff for our Christmas conference, so we're kind of busy today!  I sent a photo too.  Elder Bellini and I found some sweet sweaters in the office ha.