New Companion!

Dear Mom,

This week was a great one. We were busy with transfers, but in the end, after 4 trips to the airport, we brought all the new missionaries to the field and all the oldest ones were taken to the airport to be shipped home! Elder Bruxel was one of them, and it was super sad to see him leave. He had some mixed feelings, but he seemed happy to be going home and starting some new things in his life.

I got a new companion! He's a Texan named Elder Juergens, and he's super cool. He was already the financial secretary for 9 months and has come back to the office for his last 4! He's going to spend more time in the office than in the field by the end of his mission. He's awesome and extremely excited about missionary work. The zone that he was taking care of before he came to the office was going really well, and the missionaries loved him.  For sure he's going to help the mission achieve its goals. I'm stoked to be his companion now!

A lot of things changed this week in the mission, but unfortunately we didn’t have much time to work in our area and teach a lot of people. We still do lots of street contacts wherever we go, and it’s fun to find people who are willing to listen all over the place whether it be in taxis, at the bus station, airport, restaurant, elevator, etc.! 

Try to stay warm in the sub zero temperatures there! It’s nice and warm in Brazil!

Love,

Elder Marsh

Elder Marsh and Elder Juergens

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Mom,

Happy Valentines Day! Happy birthday to Mason and Anna too! Anna congratulations for swimming prs!

 

Elder Bruxel and Elder Marsh on Hike 

I'm super healthy now! We spent the whole week working and traveling in the mission, so I'm basically feeling awesome. After getting a little bit of sun, my yellowish color quickly turned to red burnt color which is a little more natural looking. You talked to Elder Bunch when you called the office. He was the perfect person to talk to, since he stayed in the hospital with me the whole time. They actually thought it was my gall bladder, but after doing an ultrasound (I thought that was just for pregnant ladies) and some other tests they assured me I was fine.

This week was super fun! We went on four splits. We're trying to finish up Elder Bruxel's mission with power!  He goes home next week but hasnt really said anything about what he's going to do next. Way focused.

We went to three areas outside of the center of the city Guarani, Floresta, and Nova Serrana.  Guarani and Floresta are neighborhoods in the suburbs of BH, but Nova Serrana is a city that’s about 2 and a half hours from here that has many shoe factories. The church was opened there last July and already has more that 60 people attending the sacrament meetings! We had a great time there! The Elders had been having a hard time teaching people in the afternoon before 5 o’clock because "all the men in the city were in the factories." President has been talking lately about the importance of referrals, so Elder Bruxel and I made some plans for the day.  We took some Liahona magazines and pamphlets so that Elder Bruxel with one of the other Elders could put up a table in front of the "chapel" (It’s a one room shop with chairs and a pulpit...so awesome) and do street contacts in the afternoon. They ended up setting baptismal dates for 2 people that stopped to listen to them and learn about the church! The other Elder and I went looking for people to teach. I didn’t buy it that literally NO ONE was at home so to find the men at home we asked everyone in the street to point us to the houses that had men at home that would want a message. We ended up finding three lessons to teach and 2 people accepted a baptismal date! One lady told us that she had already been to the church and loved it! Referrals are so important. I have no doubt that the Lord blesses us when we work the way that He asks us too!

I love you,

Elder Marsh

Hiking on Pday 

Late Email

So my email is coming two days late due to the fact that I turned yellow last week!  Yeah, so I found out that I have "Gilbert’s Syndrome" where I turn a yellowish color if I get sick or stressed.

Last week was a great one.  We had an awesome leadership council meeting about desire and focus, which was seriously powerful.  Here’s the summary: We get what we desire most!  I love how President Fortunato is so able to help us missionaries be better every time we meet with him.  He's super humble but understands the potential that we have to be the best we can.

The day after, Elder Bruxel and I went on splits with missionaries in Riberão das Neves. We were really blessed and found some new investigators there and also put a baptismal date on a very old investigator for this last Saturday!  It was an awesome time until that afternoon when I started getting a little sick. I ended up throwing up in the middle of the first lesson, right when I was explaining the importance of prophets! Luckily I made it to the investigator’s bathroom in time. I ended up spending Saturday and Sunday in the hospital because the doctors thought something was wrong with my liver, but there wasn’t, and I'm perfectly fine.  Missionaries are basically protected by the hand of God at all times!

I have just a little bit of time to write today, but I love you lots!

Elder Marsh

Airplanes

This week was super fun!  The conferences ended yesterday with a trip to Montes Claros.  It’s the longest zone (8 hours on a bus)  from Belo Horizonte so we went by plane! Pretty cool right?  

The conferences were great. It’s great to see how inspired President is for our mission. In every zone he talked about different things depending on what the missionaries were needing.  He even asked every missionary to write down questions they had about the work or their area or their investigators and promised them that all the questions would be responded. All of them were in all the zones. It’s a miracle really. I love seeing miracles.

This week we are working a lot with Ailton and Silvana's daughter, Pamila!  She didn’t really want to hear the messages with her parents but after their baptisms she has really started to open up. She likes the Book of Mormon and is close to receiving an answer I think!  We are hoping that Ailton will be able to baptize her next Saturday!  

Good things are happening here!

Love,

Elder Marsh

Conferences

What a busy week!!!

I'm so tired!  We did 4 7 hour zone conferences this week and then went on splits with the elders in the zones we went to.  GOOD STUFF!!  On Tuesday we were in "Sete Lagoas" (Seven Lakes) and I went on splits with an awesome missionary named Elder Molinaro.  We found out that he had lived in dorm right above mine while we were at BYU.  Crazy!  We lived super close to each other, but I had never met him before.  The time we spent together was awesome!!!! Every conference that we are doing we talk about the importance of teaching the people by following the spirit and asking inspired questions.  It’s probably one of the most important things we need to do in order for the people to feel conversion and the importance of the Book of Mormon, The Church of Jesus Christ, baptism, etc. in their own lives.  Elder Molinaro and I totally applied it in the 3 hours we spent together and had some awesome results.  The only appointment he had in the time fell through, but we kept looking and talked with everyone in the street until we found a few people to let us in. In the end, we taught 4 lessons and found 2 new investigators who had already been to church before and had just never been invited to be baptized...the Lord is so gracious.  The last lesson of the night was the greatest though.  It was a man and his daughter that live behind the chapel and have just had problems accepting a baptismal date.  We conversed about the plan of salvation and I could tell that he knew that the church was true and wanted to be baptized.  I asked him, "Why aren’t you baptized yet?"  And he responded, "I don’t feel worthy yet because I used to drink and smoke."  Elder Molinaro came in and said, "When we look at you, we don’t see who you were, and neither does Christ.  He sees you dressed in white being baptized with your daughter. He sees you leading your family to the celestial kingdom." He looked at the ground and thought for a little and then accepted a baptismal date.  It was a good feeling during the lesson.

I love being a missionary.

Love,

Elder Marsh