2/24/14

Wow wow wow... what a week and a half! I was so sad when i heard i couldn't email home last Wednesday. Anyways this is how its been. the day before i left the ctm we had a all Portuguese orientation... the Americans didn't understand like any of it haha. we left the ctm at 630am the day after for the airport. left at 9, got to cuiaba at 10:30 cuiaba time. the flight was actually 2 hours because their is a time zone difference. We had orientation at the mission house in Cuiaba, and that night at 1030 i was on a bus towards Sinop. It was a 10 hour bus ride and the seats layed all the way back so i pretty much slept the whole time. I met my new companion for 12 weeks. His name is Elder M. Machado. He is from Esprito Santo, Victoria, Brazil. He knows English pretty well so he is able to help me a lot. 

So this week in Sinop... I absolutely love it here! The people are awesome. and oh my goodness, this place makes me humble myself. To me they pretty much have nothing, but they are all happy and love it here. No house has ac, other than the main roads here its all dirt roads. Lots and lots and lots of walking everyday. haha Oh and i forgot sunscreen so the 1st 2 days i just got fried. then we had lunch at the branch presidents house and he told us that we need to go get screen right away. so i got some. haha but it was R$39. which is like $18 American. Its crazy. We contact (knock on doors. well clap at gates. here they leave their door open but they have a gate so we just clap at the gate and they come out) for probably 3 hours a day. sometimes more. We have run into amazing people. We have one investigator that we met on Friday and he came to church yesterday. He is 18 so we can relate. My Portuguese is improving but right now its seriously so little haha but I'm trying not to get discouraged. Hopefully in these next couple weeks we will have a couple baptisms. here in Brazil they have to go to church twice before getting baptized so that's the hard part. but we have faith in our investigators!!  My companion is super funny and loves singing. Starting this week we are only going to talk in Portuguese so that'll force me to think in Portuguese all the time! 

I love it here and wouldn't rather be anywhere else!! I think about home when i pray, but I'm so glad I'm here!! Everyone should read Alma 33:4-11 this week. It talks Zenos talks about prayer and that God always does hear your prayers. I know God hears our prayers, that's why I'm here on a mission!! I love the scriptures, i love Brazil, i love the people of Brazil, i love my companion, i love my mission, i love y'all, and i love my mom!! I'll talk to you next week and tell y'all how I'm doing. Thanks for all the love and support!! Everyone have a good week and pray everyday, morning and night!! Tchau!

Love you mom!!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

2/12/14

Oi familia e amigos!! Tudo bom? This week had its ups and downs, but I love it here!! So just so everyone knows, I will be flying to Cuiaba this Tuesday morning!! It's crazy how fast time has gone being here. I'm so excited to go out into the field and help real people!! I love this gospel so much!!!

 

We will do the downs first. Last week one of the sisters stole an elders water bottle as a joke after lunch and he couldnt find it. He got super mad and talked to all security and stuff like that. So when we saw him get mad we put it back when he was out of the room and then the security of the President of the CTM came and talked to us about not playing pranks. Ohh and the elder that got mad is always playing jokes and then the  one time we do that to him he freaks out. We were just like, seriously?? but that's past us now haha. And then a couple nights ago one of the elders in my district punched another elder in my district. I talked to both of them and told the zone leader and the President of the branch. but other than those 2 incidents, this week was all good!! haha

 

My district volunteered to sing a song for the devotional last Sunday, so last week we practiced a couple times then we performed it!! There was 3 elders and 4 sisters. We sang the song ``He sent his Son´´. its in the childrens hymn book. We sang it in Portuguese, and then we sang it in english. I think we did really well!! The devotional on Sunday was by President and Sister Swensen. They are both amazing people! But I forgot what they spoke about and i dont have my journal with me. haha

 

Then we had a devotional last night. Elder and Sister Jafek spoke. They are the ´´medical team´´. Elder Jafek is the CTM doctor and Sister Jafek is always helping haha. They are adorable. They talked about forgiving others and when we dont forgive we dont have the full love of christ. They both had really good talks!

 

This week in our district we are starting to do spotlights since its our last full week here. Each night, a member bares their testimony and we all go around and say something that we like about them. And we all write letters too. Ahhh I love my district!!

 

Next week I'll be writing from Cuiaba!! Thats so exciting!! so every time I email I forget what happened that week. so I don't write all the things that happened. but I do write in my journal everynight so in 2 years y'all can know everything haha. Well time is almost up. I Love y'all!!! See ya next week!!

 

Love you mom.

 

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella

2/5/14

Oi amigos e familias!!! Como vocês estaõ?? This week has been pretty good!! The highlight of this week was when my 8 person American district went proselyting  for the first time. We each had 3 Book of Mormons to hand out. Our instructor took us to a park in São Paulo and just told us to start!! I was nervous but I wasn't really scared. Me and my companion handed out 3 really fast then we found a guy who spoke English and was trying to Bible bash us for like 30 minutes. We kept saying we needed to go but he kept saying read this verse real quick. Anyways haha we ended up giving 1 away on the way back to the bus and then we gave away 2 on the bus! It was really cool and people could tell that spirit was so strong even with our broken caveman Portuguese. I cant wait til i can do that everyday!!

 

So I heard about the Super Bowl... I wanted the Broncos to win but it just fell apart. haha its funny when you're a missionary and none of that stuff really matters to you. Next year will be the Cowboys year for sure!! Somebody let me know how the mavs are doing though! On Sunday we had a devotional from some guy with a weird last name so I'm not sure who it was. haha but his talk was about faith. faith faith faith. I love talking about faith, that's why I'm here. Faith brings the power that we need to have as missionaries. Then he said to end his talk, ´´dont let anyone lessen your faith.´´ I loved his talk a lot!!

 

Then we had another devotional last night. When it was suppose to start, President Swensen came to the pulpit and said the taxi driver forgot to pick up the area 70 elder from the airport. We all just laughed. We sang hymns until he arrived so that was kinda nice to just relax. Then he arrived and started talking right away. His talk was about Don´t be afraid. Just BELIEVE.   I loved his talk a lot. his last name was difficult to understand as well so i didn't get it either, but he is an area 70. One thing that stood out to me in his talk was no matter how hard you are struggling with the language, everyone understands a smile. I was like that's just for me!! I love to smile and I'm not that good at Portuguese yet!! It was an awesome talk.

 

My district is awesome. I love my district so much. Each one of them is amazing. We still got a lot of work to do towards Portuguese, but learning Portuguese with people you love much more enjoyable. We get along too well... haha we get distracted really easily but we can work on that.

 

Ohhh this week in our district we had a testimony meeting. It was one of the strongest feelings of the spirit I've ever felt. I talked about Grandpa and his amazing example to me and i shared his favorite scripture in proverbs. Trust the Lord with all thine Heart, lean not unto your own understanding.

 

Well i love you all so much!! I love you MOM!! Ill talk to y'all next week!!  Boa sorte essa semana.

 

Com Amor,

 

Elder Marstella

1/29/14

Oí family and friends!! So this week has been pretty good! Nothing too exciting. It wasnt too exciting haha. Portuguese is coming along, slowly but its improving!! The standouts for me were 2 devotionals we had. One was on Sunday. We got a new MTC president last week, his name is President Swensen and he is really funny.

 

Anyways, on Sunday he talked about the mission age change in October of 2012. The mission age changed for elders from 19 to 18. And for sisters it went from 21 to 19. He said 10 years ago he got a phone call to make a plan to change the age to be able to serve. He presented it and the Quorum of the 12 said it was good, but not now. Then 18 months after that, it happened again. Same thing, they said it was good, but not now. Then in 2011, they asked him again to do the same thing. He said he presented to plan and they said it wasnt good, but it was time. So after the next couple months, he worked with a couple Members of the 12 to change the age. They worked for months to make it perfect before presenting it to all of the Quorum of the 12. All the members of the Quorum of the 12 liked it and wanted to preside it to first presidency. They presented the plan to the first presidency, and President Monson said ´´What about the Sisters??´´ President Swensen said the plan was only to change the age of elders!! I had no idea. So the age change of Sisters was President Monson´s idea. Holy cow, how great is that?? President Swensen got sit front row of the Oct 2012 general conference when President Monson annouced the change. Only the 1st presidency, Qourum of the 12, and a select few of the 70 knew about the change. He said when President Monson annouced the Elders change their was a few quite whispers but when President Monson annouced the Sisters age change, is was going crazy. Every one had their phone out texting each other about the age change! He said bishops all over the world were getting texts to see if they could give interviews between the 2 sessions! That talk was awesome. Then he went on to say, we have 83,000 missionaries out in the world right now!! The Lord´s work is going forward, and there is evidence from that!! He then went to say, 2 days after the mission age change, the mexico area called the church to tell them that the church owned a high school and they could turn it into a MTC. So 6 months after that, the Mexico MTC was finished. From a high school to MTC. Its pretty crazy! Then the church had to open 58 new missions. holy cow.

 

Then we had one yesterday. Elder Costa was suppose to come but couldnt make it. So we watched a devotional from 2011. Elder Holland spoke so it was awesome. He talked about how missionaries need to convert themselves before converting other people. I love this gospel and im so glad im here! But i know i still have a lot of learning to do. Then he talked about the Apostle Peter. Before Christ died, he had only been an apostle for at max 36 months. Then when Christ died, we know that the new prophet was the Apostle who has been an apostle the longest, just like today. And that was Peter. So Peter was in charge of the church after christ died. He didnt really know what to do. So he went to go back to what he knows how to do, Fishing. After a long night and morning of not catching anything, the apostles saw a man on the beach making a fire. Then the man said cast your nets back into the water, and they did and they couldnt even pull the net back out!! Then John told Peter, ´´its him.´´ The apostles went back to the beach. And Cristo asked Peter, ´´do you love me?´´ peter said yes. Then Christ asked again, Peter said yes. Then Christ asked a 3rd time, ´´Peter, do you love me?´´ Peter looked at him and said ´´Yes, i love you. I would do anything for you.´´ Christ then said well then go out and preach my word! Being a missionary and apostle is every moment of the day. His message was about missionaries going home and continuing to do whats right even when they are off their missions. It was a really strong message.

 

We got a sister yesterday from the Provo MTC. Her name is sister Marsezzella or something like that. its close to Marstella so i thought that was pretty funny.

 

Anyways I love all of you and i keep you in my prayers daily!!

 

Love,

Elder Marstella  

1/22/14

 Hey friends and family!! so this week went by a lot faster than the first week. This week Portuguese is coming along a lot better. But i still have a lot of learning still to do. This week we got a new CTM president. President and Sister Degn´s time is up. They have been awesome these last two weeks, ill miss them for sure. But the new CTM president is Presidente Swenson. He gave a talk last night and was super funny. He´ll be awesome. Also this week, the Brazilians that came in the same day as my American district left Monday. I had 2 Brazilian roommates and one was fluent in English and the other one didn't speak any English. Anyways, Elder Assis, the one who spoke English is an amazing guy. He is a convert of 2 years and has an amazing testimony. I took alot of pictures with the Brazilians that left and ill be sure to send them when i get to Cuiaba.

Every pday we get to go out around the CTM and shop and stuff so that's pretty cool. Last week i got a Brazilian soccer Jersey. Pdays are awesome, mostly because i get to email home!! Portuguese is tough. We literally wake up, study for an hour, breakfast, study for another hour and a half, exercise, lunch, 3 hours of class, dinner, then 4 more hours of class. It is literally the hardest part of the CTM for sure, but it will all be worth it. On Sunday, we got to watch 17 miracles, needless to say that I cried pretty much the whole time haha. Did you guys so Saratov Approach yet?? if not, you need to go see it! its amazing and i saw it before i left! Thank you guys so much for the support and love! i appreciate it so much.

My comp and i teach 2 lessons everyday to fake investigators and I'm using my notes less and less, its awesome haha.

My district is awesome. we get along so well and we are always laughing, which is sometimes a bad thing. But i love each one of them already. I love it here and wouldn't rather be anywhere else right now in my life. I love it i love it i love it.

Eu sei que Jesus Cristo e meu Salvador. Eu amor vocês. Eu amor minha mai.

I love Brazil and i love the people here. Thank you guys!! Ill talk to yall next week!

Elder Marstella

1/15/14

Looks like Mason will be emailing on Wednesdays! 

Here is Elder Marstella's email from this morning!

So this week has been crazy to say the least. Starting with the plane rides over to Brazil. From Dallas to Miami i sat in the middle of the 3 seat side. I was like come one!! I landed in Miami and was able to call my mom to tell her i landed safely. Then from Miami i was just hoping not to sit in the exact middle. and guess what... I sat in the middle of the middle row. I was in between 2 Brazilians on each side. And none of the spoke English so that definitely was hard haha. The plane ride was about 8 hours. It was the toughest thing ever. lol well anyways i landed and went through customs and got my bags and met up with some other missionaries, then we drove to the CTM.

So this week has seemed like its been a month. Not even kidding. Every day we have to be doing something. And its either learning Portuguese, eating, or sleeping. But our teacher keeps saying dos das linguas. Which means 'gift of tounges'. I can definitely tell the lord is working that on me. I have been here a week and I can bare my testimony in Portuguese and also say my prayer in Portuguese. Its awesome but there is a lot of things still to learn.

So in my district, there is Sister Forsyth, Sister Stout, Sister Craig, Elder Gardner, Elder Coombs, Elder Smittennaar (my companion), and me. and guess what, on Sunday I was called to the district Leader!! Woohoo haha its been such a long weeek. So my companion is from Maryland and is 18.  So its been fun here. Ohh and in my room there are 6 of us, we have 2 more Brazilian roommates. One of them speaks English, and the other one we are teaching English. They are seriously the best. Elder Assis helps us a lot in Portuguese. The first couple days were the hardest. I have to admit i was a little homesick and i missed my mom. But the next couple days when i lost myself in the work, I wasn't homesick anymore. After the 2nd day we weren't allowed to talk in English anymore so that was tough. But it helps us think in Portuguese. Well my time is running down, so i love all of you!! Y'all are amazing. I miss y'all but I'd rather be here serving the Lord. Brazil is awesome and i cant wait to here from y'all next week!! Thank you! Tchau!

Elder Marstella 

***Remember, Mason is only able to email once a week, and isn't able to make ANY phone calls. So letters and emails are very important to him, since it is his only connection to home. So, if you have spare time, send him an email or letter! The addresses are off to the right of this post! :)

1/8/2014

Mason's first Email! 


And the adventure begins! 

Mason left last night (1/7) at 6:30pm and flew to Miami. His flight took off from Miami at 11:45pm and he landed at 11:00am Brazil time this morning ! He is in São Paulo at the Brazil MTC and he is 4 hours ahead of Dallas! 

Mom!!!! I made it to Brazil! I love it! It seems like ive been at the CTM for forever!!! We only have 10 minutes to email today, so i just wanted to let you know i made it safe!! I love you and im not sure when my p-day is. Its 730 right now. I love you so much!!!! Portuguese is coming along, most of our classes are only in Portugues, so that helps. I need to shower though, its been like 2 days since ive showered. haha but its hot down here and I think of you and the fam alot! But i know this is where i need to be! I have taken some pictures but im not sure how to upload them lol. Ill email you this next upcoming pday. Tell everyone to write me!

Oh and i got my name tag and i love it!!! This keyboard is so weird haha i dont know how to make a question mark. I LOVE YOU AND IM SAFE.

 

TCHAL

 

Love,

                            Elder Marstella 

So, Mason is safe! See the right column of the blog to see his address and email address! Take a minute and send him a letter or email! He would love it!