5/19/14

Week 19

Hello friends and family! This week was really good!! So Wednesday my companion went to Cuiaba for a couple days for a district leader training. While he was there, Elder Smittenaar and I were companions again! It was good to catch up and see how he is doing. On Wednesday we did service at the Branch Presidents house. I sent a picture of us after. He is getting part of his house redone, so we pretty  much threw out all the trash and stuff. Haha I love doing service!

Then Elder Pacheco returned Friday morning. Then Saturday, I went on exchanges with Elder Hatch. He is another american, from Arizona, and he has been here in Brazil for 4 months. I love him! He is awesome. We can actually relate on pretty much everything, and he speaks ENGLISH! Haha so that was alot of fun. We didn't know everything people were saying and when we didnt we would just look at each other and laugh. But we actually got alot of stuff done. 

Then yesterday, we had a baptism!! I baptized a 8 year old girl. She is so cute!! When we back to go into the fount, she started crying because she was scared. it was adorable. So I got on my knees to get eye level to her and I held her hands. Then the branch President talked to her and calmed her down, then he said at the end ´´Elder Marstella will protect you.´´ I loved it! Everything went well after that. 

This week was really fun and I loved it! Elder Pacheco and I are getting along and no arguments. He is pretty cool! He loves soccer too so we talk about that alot. 

I love all of you at home and i hope you guys have a wonderful week this week! I love yall!!

I love you mom!

Elder Marstella 

    

5/12/14

week 18

Feliz Dia Das Mães! 

So I just talked to my family yesterday, so this email probably wont be as long, but here is what happened this week. We made a goal with Erotilde to stop smoking for 24 hours. And guess what... she did it!! And then she said she hasnt smoked since!! She did it!! And to make it even better, we had her baptism yesterday!! The spirit was so strong!! Ahh, I love it! So before I talked to my family, I baptized her, then I got to talk to my family!! I love them so much!! Its only been 4 months, but I miss them dearly! So my Ecuadorian companion doesnt speak any english, so my portuguese is probably going to get alot better since we have to talk in it all the time haha 

I love helping people become an eternal family so they can experience as much joy as my family! I hope we have another baptism this saturday, Erotildes daughter, but we will see! All is well here and the internet is really slow right now so im not sure if ill be able to send the photo of Erotildes baptism. 

I love it here and brasil! And i loved talking to my family yesterday, i hate saying goodbyes!! But in 7 months ill be able to skype them again! So long away haha.

I love yall so much. Thanks so much for all the emails! 

Elder Marstella 

5/5/14

week 17

Oi Friends and family!! This week was pretty good! To start, we had another baptism yesterday! Her name is Ester and she is the grandma of Hyrum, the boy i baptized a couple weeks ago! She has been smoking most of her life, and we taught her about how Christ can help us overcome addictions. After 2 weeks of smoking less and less each day, she stopped!! How wonderful is that? We told her dont stop smoking for you, but stop smoking for Christ. 

Herotilde needed a little more time stopping smoking, so her baptism is this Sunday! When we first started teaching her, she smoked almost 25 cigarettes a day! Saturday, she said she only smoked 2!!! Miracle for sure! Her daughter is going to be baptized too this Sunday! Woohoo!  

This week was fast and testimony meeting in church here. Its pretty cute with a branch becuase usually the same people go up everytime and the youth love to bear their testimonies. I did as well! I like to see my progress every month when i go up there. Sister Grant told me to bear my testimony every fast and testimony meeting on your mission, and thus far, i have! 

Today is transfers! I am staying here, but my trainer is leaving to Sorriso to become the new Zone Leader. So he is my zone leader now so ill talk to him all the time still haha. He was awesome. My new companion is getting here tomorrow at 8 am. He is from Ecuador so im sure ill learn a little spanish while im working with him! 

This week I studied mainly on the life of Christ and one thing that I loved was, Peter asked how many times should we forgive someone, 7? And in my life i know that 7 times is alot! Forgiving over and over again can be hard! But Christ said even unto seventy times seven. wow! Its hard to forgive, but i know that when we forgive, we build humility, a characteristic of Christ, and start looking at ourselves and see how we arent perfect either. 

My portuguese is still getting better, and over these next 6 weeks itll probably get even alot more better because my companion probably doesnt speak english!

I love missionary work and I love this gospel!!

Next week is Dia das Mães so ill be skyping my family and my mom!! Im not sure the exact times, but look for emails saturday and Sunday morning! 

I love you guys and i love you Mom!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

4/28/14

week 16

This was really good! First, we had zone conference in Cuiabá! Cuiabá is 10 hours away... Wednesday morning we left at 10 am, picked up the missionaries in our zone in each city where they serve, then finally got to Cuiabá at 9 PM. Then we spent the night there, had conference the next day. Then left that night at 10 PM and arrived back in Sinop at 5:30 Friday morning. 

Then that day, we did service at a members house for 3 hours. oh and his house was seriously 2.5 hours away walking! so 5 hours walking there and back all together. haha But I love doing service.

Then on Saturday, we started doing missionary work again. So we had another lesson with Herotilde again, and she told us about a dream she had. She said last Sunday night, the night of her first time going to our church, she had a dream about her son who died in a motorcycle accident. She said her son said ´´Mom, I need your help.´´ And she said, ´´Wait, im starting to go to church now.´´ And he was really happy. She said they were all in white, and other people in the room were reading books. After we taught her, I told my comp that im pretty sure she just had a vision about the Celestial Room in the Temple. And her son was talking about baptisms for the dead, and the he accepted the gospel and is waiting for someone to get baptized for him!! Super spiritual and super awesome. Her and her daughter accepted baptism this Weekend so more baptism pictures should be coming! 

Yesterday when we woke up, seriously it was raining like a hurricane. It was intense. And alot of people ride bikes here. And when it rains, usually not alot of investigators come to church. We had one come. And she wants to be baptized, we are just trying to help her stop smoking first!

I love you all so much! Good luck this week!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

  ^ McDonalds in Brazil!!

4/21/14

week 15

Minha familia! Feliz Pasco! Esta semana estava bom. Yesterday we were planning on 20 investigators coming to church, but only 6 came. I was really happy, but wanted more! One of the missionaries in Dallas told me ´´to be happy, but never satisfied!´´ Heritilde (the woman I talked about last week) and her 15 year old came to church! They both loved it! They should be getting baptized in a couple weeks if everything goes according to plans! So our branch has sacrament meeting for the 3rd hour, and during the 1st hour the Branch pulled my companion and me into his office, and told us we were giving talks today. So for sacrament meeting, I played the piano and gave a talk. I based my talk on faith, and how faith is really important in our lives and our relationship with God. I then said that Miracles do not create faith, faith creates miracles. I felt really comfortable with my Portuguese during my talk. Im far from fluent, but people can understand everything i say, so now I have to work on the grammar and vocabulary! 

Easter here was pretty good. We didnt do anything out of the ordinary, well other than eating alot of chocolate! haha 

We taught alot of people this week that said they couldnt come to church yesterday, but they can come this Sunday! So hopefully this Sunday we have even more investigators coming to church. 

This week we have Zone Conference in Cuiaba. We will travel Wednesday day to get there, sleep over that night, have the conference on Thursday, then travel through the night wednesday/thursday, then get hereThursday morning. 

I love yall so much and pray for yall often! Thank you for all your emails! I love it here in Brasil!!

Tchau!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

4/14/14

week 14

Meu amigos e familia!! Tudo bom? Esta semana estava muito bom! This week we had a couple of miracles happen! Like, real miracles.

 

1st miracle- We were walking down a street making contacts about 45 minute walk from our house. We were both kinda in a sluggish mood, but we kept on working. Then boom miracle. We were about to go to a different area and a woman saw us walking and called us over. Usually when that happens its to tell us how our religion is horrible, but we both went over there with smiles. She asked us if we were mormon missionaries, and we said yes. Then she said is your purpose to share the word of God. And my companion said, kind of, our purpose is to baptize people into the only true church on earth, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the same church that Christ established. She then looked at us and said she wants to be baptized. Woo! That doesnt and probably wont happen that much on my mission. We walked with her back to her house, and she told us about her. She said her sister was baptized in our church, but a couple years ago she died. She said she wanted to be baptized since she has died, and she has a friend that wants to be baptized too!! When we finished teaching her the 1st time, my companion and I just looked at each other and knew God brought her to us. He brought us to her. I just keep thinking, what if we did one thing different that day. One thing. We would of missed her. This was a miracle for sure.

 

2nd Miracle

We are teaching this sweet old lady and we have taught her 3 times already. The 2nd time we taught about the Book of Mormon, and gave her some chapters to read. We came back the 3rd time and she read it!! She asked a couple questions, and i shared my testimony that the Bible bears witness of the Book of Mormon. I shared John 10:16, when Christ says he has other sheep that havent seen him yet. and After his ressurection where did he go? We go to the Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 11, and learn his other sheep were the people in the Americas, The Nephites. The Spirit was so strong, and then she asked when is the baptism?? It was awesome. Then she really opened up to us. She started crying and told us that her 22 year old son died 2 years ago in a motorcycle accident. And every religion has told her that her son is going to hell because he wasnt baptized. Why would a loving God do that? We then told her that he isnt there, he is somewhere much better. And we have a message just for that that we will teach next time, the Plan of Salvation. Every gets a chance to accept this gospel. People who dont get a chance to accept it here on earth because they died early, never lived in an area to listen to missionaries, ect. They have a chance to accept this Gospel in the next life. I know that to be true. And then she said since he has died and religions have told her that her son is going to hell, she has been just hanging out in her house cause she never wants to go out there in the world. I know its a miracle that we found her at her house. Its a tragidy turned into a miracle. What if her son was still alive, she might not of been at her house. But she was at her house. And I know the whole purpose of everything that happened, was so that she could meet us.

Remember, Miracles dont create faith, faith creates miracles.

 

We had a district conference yesterday. Kinda like a stake conference, but with branches. The branches were Sinop, Boa Esparança, Sorriso A and B, and Lucas. It was really good and i played piano for the choir!

 

This week was good and we should be having a couple baptisms these up coming weeks! Ill keep yall posted for sure.

 

And my Portuguese has really improved. well, mostly my accicent, but life is good down here and I love it!

 

Love you mom!

 

Com Amor,

 

Elder Marstella

 

4/7/14

week 13

Wow! What a great conference!! haha well... i think... It was all in Portuguese so i didnt understand much. Haha now during Pday im going to watch it on YouTube every week until i finish. But I still could feel the Spirit and have a small understanding of what the speakers were saying. We ended up having 4 investigators come to conference!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER DILLON!! I think he turns 6 this week. jkjk He turns 14! Happy birthday dillon, love you!

So this week was a long one. Last week we had transfers, and the missionary that came here last week came in at midnight, so we were all tired. Really tired. haha We found a cool bird on our way home so we had some fun times with it until we had to let it go. haha The missionary who just got here is Elder T. Nascimento. He is from Sao Paulo and goes home in June. But he is a hard worker, and a few transfers ago he was assistant to the president. He is awesome and he is really funny haha. 

I didnt understand much, but during the saturday conference I could understand that Pornography is getting worse and worse as technology is improving. Stay away from that stuff!! 

Yesterday we had another baptism. He is 10 years old and is super cool! I love him! 

I hope everybody had a great week and enjoyed conference in english. haha

Love you all, and Love you mom!!

Elder Marstella