World Cup Madness

School is officially on break until July.  Why? THE WORLD CUP.  It’s madness in Brazil when the "Seleção Brasileiro" is playing… We don’t get to watch the games but we definitely know what’s going on.  Loud explosions and high pitched cheering means that Brazil made a goal, and curse words coming from our neighbors’ homes means that the other team scored. We have to stay inside when Brazil is playing because it’s basically impossible to get inside someone’s house during the game.  Soccer is life for many people in brazil.  It’s really cool to see the people get excited about the games.  The streets get painted blue, yellow and green and the people hang flags over the streets.

Crazy World Cup Madness

That’s enough about soccer though.  What really matters is the missionary work right? This week was awesome.  We had lots of people in sacrament meeting who are progressing well.  I’m excited about a new family that we're teaching.  The mom's name is Andrea and she has 4 kids.  We found them when we were knocking on doors Friday. When we walked into the house their daughter told her mom,  "Hey ask them if I can be baptized!"  That’s just something that every missionary wants to hear. Her daughter is six so the answer is no but they went to church on Sunday!  They are fun to teach because they have lots of questions about the doctrine of the church: baptism, worship, sacrament, etc. It’s a challenge, but I enjoy trying to answer all their questions.  It helps to have a way smart companion too.


I included a picture here of a boy that we baptized after reactivating his family.  His name is Adam and he loves Naruto, a Japanese cartoon. He is 12 so he'll get the Aaronic Priesthood in a little bit.  The young men in our ward helped us out a lot to integrate Adam into the church.  It’s not easy to join the church or to return to activity...its almost impossible without a friend to help stay strong.


I love you,
Elder Marsh

Baptism of Adam with Elder Aguiar

Elder Scott speaks Portuguese?

This past week was awesome.  We stake conference and the spirit there was very strong.  The area authorities spoke, and then Elder Scott and Elder Ballard gave talks for the Brazilians of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.  Elder Scott Speaks Portuguese apparently! I had no idea.  The members here told me that he always records his general conference talks in Portuguese before he gives them live at conference and then plays that recording.  What was really cool was the reaction of a recent convert named Jaqueline.  She told us that she had loved it and that she felt the spirit very strongly. Before she had been a member of the church, Jaqueline always liked to study the Apostle Paul and had always had a desire to meet him.  She told us after, ”Today I heard an apostle of God speak.  I know he was called by Him, and I felt as if he spoke directly to me."  Elder Scott spoke about the gift of prayer and the importance of searching for divine direction.  He said something I really like.  "Heavenly Father didn’t send us to earth to weaken us but to strengthen us."  That’s so cool. He really does want to help us, but we have to ask in prayer.

The Saturday night session of conference went well also. The theme was missionary work!  The first talk was given by the 1st counselor in the stake presidency.  He asked 2 questions "What is missionary work?" and "Why do we serve?" Two things to think about.  He quoted the church manual, that says something like this: "Every member was SENT to earth for the work of the salvation of souls."  We have a divine purpose to help others return to the presence of our Heavenly Father!  Few things are more important than that.

We had a cool experience teaching a group of gypsies this week.  We pass by their tents every once in a while but we had never stopped to actually talk to them until now.  Their life style is different than you’d think.  For one thing, they have their own language called "Shibe" It’s not written, just spoken.  They do live in tents...but they enjoy all the normal luxuries of life: running water, electricity, hd tvs, washing machine, fridge, microwave, and even cars.  Apparently the palm reading and fortune telling businesses can bring in some money.  They dress traditionally in full length dresses and still ride horses to the super market.  Oh, and the older gypsies all have golden teeth.  I don’t think any of them really wanted to join the church but they are very nice people and received us very well.

I love you,

Elder Marsh

UPS and downs

We had a cool experience this week teaching a Haitian family.  They have made a lot of sacrifices just to come to Brazil to work a little for their family.  We taught a family of 3 brothers who are living together here in Belo Horizonte.  All three of them left their wives  and children behind in Haiti.  One of them speaks Portuguese but the other two just speak French Creole which makes teaching them a lot more difficult than usual.  We planned out our lesson the night before and decided to talk about how families can be eternal and we printed off a few copies of "A Proclamation to the World" in French so that everyone could actually understand the message.  There is a paragraph that is so awesome to teach to people.  It basically lays out the whole plan of salvation 20 seconds.

"In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."

I love it. The Haitians were way into it too.  They are really missing their families right now and the chance to live with them forever and never be separated again really hit them!  The gospel is great. Everyone NEEDS it.

Ah, we had a disappointing Saturday though.  We had the baptism of 2 brothers, Gustavo and Daniel, planned for Saturday night.  They were interviewed and passed with flying colors!  Everything was perfect until about 30 minutes before the baptism when neither of them were home...We had to cancel the baptism. I still don't know what happened. It’s frustrating, but everything will be fine because the games not over yet.  There’s always next week!  A member of our ward said something I like.  "If things aren't well, don’t worry, it’s not the end.  In the end everything will be alright." We fight until the finish.

What am I eating here?  Lot of beans and rice.  Every day.  My favorite meal is stroganoff.  It’s different than the US.  They fry little pieces of chicken and then boil the chicken and then mix a ton or cream and milk together with onions and green olives and mustard and ketchup to make a super delicious cream.  MMMM It’s so good to put of rice.  Try to find a recipe, I’d recommend it.

I love you all,

Elder Marsh

The Nag

We had a very busy week.

One of the best feelings is be led by the spirit to the right place at the right time.  Nothing happens by accident on the mission.  The Lord is always in charge.

This week we were trying to visit some street contacts before lunch...no one was home or could attend us at that time, so we decided to head in the direction of lunch and talk to some more people.  We passed an apartment complex that had an opening for rent, so we just clapped our hands (the Brazilian way to knock doors because every house has a gate or big wall in the front) to see about the apartment.  A 16 year old kid came out to see who was there.  We asked him about the apartments, and then asked him if we could share a message with his family.  He let us in to talk to him and his 22 year brother.  Their names are Daniel and Gustavo.  They are way cool and are keeping all the commitments so they can be baptized this Saturday!  At church they felt a difference and loved it.

As a missionary, I have learned to not take no for an answer. Seriously, sometimes you really have to fight for the salvation of the people you teach.  Yesterday morning, we had a marked with an investigator named Claudiene to go to church with us.  We told her we would pass by her house at 8:10 to walk together.  When we got there she wasn't home, but her neighbor told us she went to the bakery, so we followed her there.  We found her sitting on the sidewalk with a bag of bread drinking coffee.  "Claudiene, what are you doing?! We have to be in church in a little." 

"Oh Elder, you know what, I think I woke up sick." (Everyone says that when they don’t want to go to church for the first time.)

"Whatever… you’re up and walking!  Let’s get going."

"No, I'm sick."

"No you’re not."

"Yes I am."

"Well you’ll feel better once you get to church! We are going to pick you up in 30
minutes with a car ok?" 

"I don’t know..." 

"We’ll be at your door in thirty minutes even if you’re not ready." And then she went to church!!!! Sometimes I seriously feel so naggy. But I do it because I love these people.  It’s totally worth it to see
the change in their lives.

Love,
Elder Marsh

Recruiter/Pastor/Missionary

This week was really interesting.  It started off with an emergency transfer on Monday night.  Elder Queiroz left Lagoa, and I got a new companion, Elder Aguiar.  He is from São Paulo and is 4 months out on the mission.  I'm excited to have him as my companion.  He is a goofy guy and super forward with people.  I think he just enjoys calling everyone to repentance.

We had a funny experience this week.  We are teaching a great family who is liking the lessons and the Book of Mormon.  The dad, Marcelo, has a soccer "project" where he coaches about forty  18 year olds for free so that the can maybe go pro one day (Every Brazilian's Dream).  He invited us to come to his practice and give the message of the restoration to all the players.  I was getting pumped up all day to teach this huge group of guys about the gospel!  I kept imagining the apostle Paul teaching the multitudes.  When we got there, everyone looked at us wide eyed.  They started shaking our hands and introducing themselves to us.  I was thinking, "Wow, these guys are great...we're going to have about 30 investigators in church on Sunday!"  but then I realized..."they think we are soccer recruiters!" All the players were running around, kicking the ball like crazy to show off to us.  We just sat there and watched the show haha.  After, Marcelo introduced us to the team as the "pastors who are helping my family."  The players were a little disappointed but the lesson went well.  There will be a group of them going to visit our church next Sunday!

I hope you have a great week.  Missionary work is great.

Love, Elder Marsh

Happy Mother's Day

May 12, 2014

Mother’s Day was great.  I was so excited to see all you guys.  The time seriously passed so quickly.  But hey, Christmas is just around the corner!

Our week went super well.  We had a great zone conference that lasted all day on Thursday.  Our mission president is super spiritual.  When he talks, you pay attention.  He teaches with such ease and power.  I learned a lot about our attitude as missionaries.  He told us at the beginning, "When you accept your mission call, you lose you free agency.   You accepted to live a new life style with new rules If you don’t obey, then you are not a missionary.  You really don’t have a choice anymore!"  I liked that. Obedience is so key.  He told us that we need to change our mind set about the rules.  We can obey to just obey, or we can learn the principle behind the rules and obey to receive the blessings that come.  For example: We have a rule where we have to do at least 10 street contacts a day which means just talking to a random person in the street about the church.  The principle is that if we talk with people, then we'll have people to teach every day.  What I need to change is to not look at the number "10" as the goal, but make the goal "as many people as possible." With more contacts, come more lessons, and more investigators, and more baptisms in the end!

This week we had a really cool experience with the members.  We have an investigator, Valeska, who got baptized on Saturday because of her friends talking about the church with her.  This is cool. We have a member in our ward named Valeria who got baptized 12 years ago with her family.  She is super cool, a little crazy, and always talks about the church with people.  Two years ago she met her husband, Gilberto, and taught him about the church and he got baptized and they sealed in the  temple.  Gilberto's kids all have their own families now, and two months ago his daughter, Debora, and her family were baptized because Valeria and Gilberto invited her to an FHE.  And because of  Debora talking about the church, Valeska was baptized.  Things happen when we share the gospel!

Mom and Dad, I want you to know something......The Book of Mormon is true.

I love you,

Elder Marsh

Elder Queiroz and I getting ready to call mom

Elders Eskelson, Elder Marsh and Elder Miller who was in MTC and Pocatello
with Jordan, and he just arrived to Brazil.

FHE with Gloria and some other really fun members

Elder Leite de Souza and Elder F. Oliveira with Jake

Cleaning the font is hard and hot work.

Elders Marsh and Queiroz with Rosalia and her mom and daughters

Elder Marsh, eite de Souza and F. Oliveira hanging with the people

Mate with Elder Leite de Souza

Working hard in Brazil

Making homemade peanut butter with Ygor.

Funny Baptism

The week went really well again.  We had an interesting experience at our baptismal service on Saturday.  We have been teaching an awesome lady named Sueli.  She used to drink a lot.  Every day she would drink a bottle of "cachaça" which is basically the same thing as the ethanol that they put in cars here.  But a month ago her grandson was born, and she decided to stop drinking suddenly.  Since then we have been working with her to stop smoking and teaching her all about the gospel.  Actually, she had already been taught by missionaries before, but she was really drunk the whole time so she didn’t remember anything.  Saturday was her baptism, and she was very excited.  She told us before that she has a phobia of water and was a little worried, but we assured her that everything would be fine and that the water would be nice and warm and we would be there to help her the whole time.  On Saturday morning though, we found out that the gas tank that heats the water in the church building ran out.  The weather has been surprisingly cold, so the water for the baptism was super cold as well.  We decided that it would be better to not tell her about the problem and go through with the baptism as planned.  The service went really well until the part where she would be baptized.  First, Elder Queiroz got into the water and waited for Sueli to follow.  She put one foot in and said, "Oh no! Its icy cold! I won’t be baptized today in this water!" Elder Queiroz grabbed her arm and pulled her a little so that she would step down more,  ”Oh you boys (she calls us "boys" not elders) said it would be hot!" Elder Queiroz kept pulling her until the water was at her waist. She was screaming quietly the whole time, "Oh my! Mercy! Ah!"  Her sister, who is a member, told her to be quiet, but she responded quickly, "But the boys said the water would be nice!!"  Elder Queiroz explained to her that he would baptize her.  "Are you kidding? I have to lay down in this water? Queiroz please..." He said the prayer and baptized her as she let out a little scream going into the water.  There were a lot of members there.  Lots
of them just trying to hold back their giggles.  She was confirmed yesterday and now is very happy.  She said she feels so clean and pure.  It was totally worth the cold water.

I’m excited to talk with all of you this week!  It’ll be great to see everyone.  I’ll probably try to call you at 3 o’clock Brazil time.  I think that will be best for us here.  I hope you have a great week.

Elder Marsh