8/25/14

Week 33

Ok, so this week was the busiest week of the mission yet. We had an american recieve his visa, so president changed some things around to fit him in. My comp recieved a phone call Tuesday and the LZ´s said that I would go to Lucas. And i am the District Leader here now. And im training a peruan! I was a little nervous, but this week was pretty good! I traveled all day Wednesday to get here. I got things unpacked wednesday night and thursday morning. We went to work right away.. Lucas is so beautiful! It´s cool to see the difference in cities here in Brasil.

Anyways, my new companion´s name is Elder Chavez, from Peru. He has been here for 3 weeks so i am his ´dad´ on the mission. haha He is my first ´filho´! We dont talk alot, but we work really hard! Yesterday, we worked and set 3 baptisms for  Setember 6th! Here is the story of 2 young men we are teaching.

Saturday we went to an investigators house. His name is Junior. He is 18 and when we started teaching him he didnt seem very interested. After the lesson we invited him to church on Sunday. He said he would go with his cousin, Anderson who is 17. We had a member pick us up and we drove by their house, and they were ready! during church they had some good questions and they really felt the spirit. Later that yesterday night we walked by their house. We talked with them for abit, then started a lesson. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and focused on baptism. I tried to help them realize why they felt so much peace and happiness at church. After the lesson, i was focusing on Anderson and asked if he would prepare to be baptized on setember 6th, and Junior, who was sitting next to him said ´´I will.´´ The Spirit was strong! And they both are preparing to be baptized on Setember 6th. They are awesome!!

So in this district we had 4 sisters and my comp and me. 2 Sisters left this week. One for BYU, and the other was transfered out because of an emergency transfer. So now there is only 4 of us. But I love it here in Lucas and all the members here are excited!

I love you mom!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella

PS while i was on the bus going to Lucas, a truck driver drove off a bridge and i tried to take a picture of it. it wasnt a good picture but it was all i got haha.

8/18/14

week 32 

Well to start off, Happy Birthday to my dad and myself! haha I´m 20... can yall believe that?? thats hard to believe!! 

Anyways, this week was pretty good! We focused on one neighborhood this week and we found 2 really cool families, neighbors! haha How we found them is actually kinda funny. So we were walking down the street one day and 3 probably 14 year old girls started saying pretty much pick up lines to us while we were walking. One of our lessons dropped and we decided to go back and pretend we were lost and make a contact! So we did that and we came back another day and taught their families! haha it was awesome. We taught one day about the Restoration and the spirit was really strong. Then we came back another day and taught them about the importance of church! 

 Ohh and this week i started getting some wierd thing on my pinky toe and started hurting. I showed a member here and he got needle and after about 20 minutes messing with it, it came off!! haha 

So my mom sent a birthday box and it arrived in Cuiaba about 10 days ago, but since we are in a really isolated area, not many missionaries travel here. So my birthday box is still in Cuiaba. But the Zone leaders will bring it this week!

friday night the branch had a baptism for the branch president´s daughter. And the  BP asked me to lead the baptism. I was like ive never done this before, but ill try! haha it went pretty well i think.

And that was my week!!

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! Yall are the best! We are going to a members house tonight to celebrate my birthday! Ill send pics next week! Love yall!

Com Amor,
Elder Marstella

8/11/14

week 31

This week was pretty good! Well last Monday after I emailed, the 4 elders and I went to a small beach by a river here and threw the frisbee around! It was pretty awesome! I took pictures but this computer wont let me upload photos right now. 

This week we had Zone Meeting in Cuiaba! Traveling there is always fun. The zone meeting itself was pretty good! We have a couple new people in our zone so that was cool to meet them. One activity we did to become better friends was get into groups and answer these questions:

1) When did you get a testimony of the Gospel?

2) Why are you on a mission?

3) What was the funniest moment of your mission?

This week we focused on finding new people to teach. We met alot of really cool people. One was a family of a grandma, a mom, a daughter, a son, and granddaughter. We taught about the restoration and the spirit was really strong! And that family reminded me of my family before i left of my mission! 

Friday we had Cowboy party at the church. A ton of people came and it was really fun! Thats all for this week!

I love yall and happy birthday to Aly, Miley, and my dad this week!!

Com Amor, 
Elder Marstella

PS Congratulations to my sister Aly for being pregnant!!!

8/4/14

week 30

This week was pretty good! My new companions name is Elder W. Rocha from Fortaleza, Brasil. He arrivedmonday night. and the other 2 american elders arrived 3 am and 10 am Tuesday so to say the least, earlier this week I was pretty tired. haha The other americans are Elder Spencer and Elder Bowers.

Me and my comp recieved a reference  from a Cuiaba. Her name is Ellen and she is 17. She is super cool and we taught her the 1st lesson and she accepted a baptismal date! Yay! She looked like she was about to cry because she was feeling the spirit really strongly! She wasnt able to go to church this week. Ohh she went to church once in Cuiaba with her friend and she felt really really good there so she decided to start talking to us! 

This week W. Rocha wanted to focus on the members and meeting them. So this week I took him to the members houses and he met alot of members. This week was really good! 

Yesterday we had a churrasco at the members house behind ours with all 4 missionaries. Elder Bowers´ birthday was on Friday so we celebrated that! I took some pictures of that!

This week we have our Zone Conference in Cuiaba! Ill be sure to take alot of pictures! I love yall and next week ill have more to write!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

PS congrats to Elder Thorsen making it home!! 

7/28/14

Week 29

I dont have much time to write because today is transfers and my comp is leaving. This week was super cold. It was 50 degrees here and everyone was freezing!! me included. haha and It was cloudy and rainy this whole week too. This week we helped at the members school with her class again. I love helping teach english. They kids are so funny!!

This week the Branch President, a member, and us 2 elders went deep into the forrest to cut some branches and bamboo sticks for an activity we are having next week. It was super cool and i felt like a indian brasilian haha. Then we rode on the back trialer until we got to church. 

So its time to go already, but my area included 2 sisters and 2 elders. 2 hispanics, 1 american-me, and my brasilian comp. Now we will have 4 elders and 0 sisters. 3 americans and 1 brasilian (my comp). haha so ill be getting my english back. haha ive been forgetting it little by little these last couple months. haha i love yall and ill be sure to write more next week!!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella

ANd congratulations to my cousin Alicia for getting married this week!! I love you!!