3/9/15

week 60

Family and Friends, first of all congratulations to my oldest sister Aly for her new baby!! I saw so pictures of baby Raina and she is absolutely adorable. I wish I could be there, but I know I need to be here and help these families that still dont know this gospel and the truthfulness of that families can be together forever!! I am so happy baby Raina has now just joined our forever family!! 

  so time flies here in the mission! Ill start from monday after i emailed yall. So we went to center here in campo grande. And we ate lunch at Burger Kings! haha BK has a restaurant here! Its awesome. ITs super expensive, but it was a cool experience. Then we came back home, went to a MAs house and taught them. This MA family has a 9 year old son who has never been baptized, which we found out that day. So this week we visited this family a bunch and focused on this kid, Wendel. He ended up not being baptized this week so we will see if we can set a date with him this week.

Tuesday, all the ZLs from the south and the assistants from the south had a meetings with Pres. and Sister Reber. This meeting is super important and it happens once a transfer. Pres Reber talks about things we need to focus on with our zone and things he wants to change. During this meeting he talked about daily exercises. He asked who could do 40 push ups and 2 elders raised their hands. and Pres told them to show him. so during the meetings, these to elders did it. haha then Pres. Reber who is 63, went to the ground and did 40 push ups himself and we were all in aw! haha it was super cool! So now one of the focuses on our mission is doing exercises everyday. I was able to pull out 30 Wednesday, but now im doing push ups everyday!

Thursday, Elder Albuquerque and I lead our Zone Meeting. It was my first one so i was kinda nervous the day before, but when the meeting started i could really feel the spirit give me comfort. The meeting went pretty well and the spirit was present for sure. After the ZM, i did and an exchange with the assistant, Elder Leão. We had some things to do other than teaching, so we didnt teach much on Thursday. We had to take a Sister to the Hospital clinic and it took 3 hours. THen we came back to the church and I taught an english class.  And that was our Thursday.

On Friday, I stayed with elder Leão and we went to another zones Zone meeting. He told me he brought me there to see how other elders run a ZM. it was a pretty cool meeting.  We stayed for lunch there, came back and went teaching. Nobody was home, so we ended our night at a home where the mom is a member and the dad isnt. They made us dinner  and i loved that family! Elder Leão is awesome, he gave me really good advice! 

We switched companions saturday. Saturday was a normal day. 

Sunday we had church and we did exchanges with the youth after church.

This week was a busy week!

I love you all!

I love you Raina!
I love you mom!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

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3/2/15

Week 59

Hello family! 

Ok so this was a long week for sure! I arrived in Campo Grande at 7 am Tuesday morning. A member brought me to our house, and i unpacked a bit, took a shower, and laid down. This week I met some of the members here! The members here are really awesome, just like in every other area. 

We are teaching a couple that the husband is returning to church, and his wife wants to get baptized. Its just that he was married with another wife, they split up but never actually got divorced on paper. So he has to divorce with his ex-wife, then him and his actual wife right now will need to get married. Its kinda a complicated story, but it´ll all work out in the end. 

Ohh this week we taught a pastor from the Assemblia. A church that I dont think exists in the US. he said he wants something new to study, so we taught him the book of mormon and invited him to pray about it. He said he would! So we will see what happens.

So my comp is Elder Albuquerque from São Paulo. He is pretty cool. We live in a house with Elder Friedel (from St. George,Utah) and Elder A. Santos from Fortaleza. We are always in a good mood together! haha 

So my comp and I are the Zone Leaders of Zone Monte Libano here in Campo Grande. We had 18 missionaries (including 4 sisters) in our zone. The Zone Leaders from the south  have a meeting with the assistants and president Reber Tuesday, then we have a zone meeting thursday, then we do exchanges with the assistants Thursday-Saturday. 

Campo Grande is ´heaven´because its alot cooler (weather and city) than Cuiabá. haha Im loving it so far. Ohh here they have Burger King so we will be going there right now! haha I love you all and ill send pics next week!

ohhh and yesterday we talked with some of the members here to start a schedueled FHE with the youth every Sundaynight. Our vision is to do splits with the youth on sundays and to meet up and do a FHE with a RM telling a cool/spiritual story from their missions. It should be awsome! 

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

2/23/15

Hello Family and friends, i dont have much time to write today because today is transfers and im going to Mato Grosso do Sul. Campo Grande to be exact. President Reber called me yesterday to ask if i accept this calling and i said ´´Ill go where you want me to go President, ill do what you want me to do.´´ Of course I accepted this calling. Itll be a great opportunity to continue growing and becoming a better person. I was also asked to be zone leader for my new zone. I'll be over 20 missionaries. 

My new comp is from São Paulo, Brazil. I dont really know him so we will see how things go! Im excited for this transfer! 

So ive been in Cáceres for a total of about 5 months. My relationship we these members here really have grown. They are like family to me. Its going to be hard to leave them, but its part of the mission. I hope one day after the mission i can come back to this city and visity them once again! 

I looked at the pictures from Poppys funeral. I wish i could of been there, but I know the Lord needs me here right now. Ill have a sacred moment with Poppy after the mission when i can go visit his grave. Ive been thinking alot this week about Poppy and my family. I am so thankful for them and that really seeing their smiling faces helps me be happy too. This week i had some moments when i started thinking about poppy, and i started to tear up. Then the Spirit would come and comfort me and just let me know htat he is happy right now. And he wants us to be happy right now too. I love you all! I am so thankful for all of you :) Alright, thats all i have time for. Ill try to send photos next week! 

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

2/16/15

week 57

Well, this week was one of the toughest weeks on the mission. This week I had to stay in bed for 2 and a half days with a fever of 102.2 degrees. Then Saturday night, I recieved a phone call from Chase that my Grandfather, has passed away. When I recieved that phone call I became really sad and was kinda depressed. But on of the elders in my district, Elder Neves, came over and started to talk to me. He lost his grandma 2 or 3 weeks ago, so he knows these feelings. He really helped alot. Saturday and Yesterday I was thinking about the Lord´s Plan of Salvation. His plan is perfect. Just in the moment of hardships or death, it seems sad. For us, yes, because we love him it is sad. But its not that kinda sad when you lose someone, its that kinda sad when you say ´´ill see you later´´, but just in that moment when they leave (for example your child going to college) its sad. We will always be thinking about Poppy and the legacy he has left us. Through our Heavenly Father´s Plan, he has given all of us the opportunity to live with our beloved family members again. In Matthew 16:19 Christ gives the keys to the Priesthood to Peter. Whatever he did with this authority, this power of God would be bound on earth and in heaven. But unfortunately this authority was lost in the Great Apostasy. Now, a marriage is only til death do we part. Thats because any marriage that ends here on earth was made with this Priesthood. But through the Prophet Joseph Smith, who recieved this Priesthood from Peter, James, and John, we have this authority and power again here on earth! How wonderful?! Here on earth, a marriage in the Temple isnt just ´til death do we part´, but literally for eternity. We can sealed to our kids. Our Parents. To our Family. I know this is true. I know we have a Loving Heavenly Father who wants all of us to return to him with our families. I know ill see my grandfather again. Our family is forever. Im so thankful that the missionaries so many years ago taught him about this sacred gospel. And im so thankful to be here in Brasil, spreading this same messages with the families we are teaching here. That death isn´t the end. 

I know that Christ died for us, and 3 days later he rose. I have a huge testimony of the Atonement of our Savior. That through His Atonement, we can all be saved and live with him. He did his part, now we need to do our part- Follow the Path He showed. 1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 2) Repentance, 3) Baptism, 4) Recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and 5) Endure to the End. 

To my family, I love you all. Have a wonderful time at his funeral and make sure to tell him for me that I love him, and before he knows it, we will all be together again!

I´m so grateful for my family, especially this week. I hope all can become a little closer with their families throught this message. 

Com Amor, 

Elder Marstella 

2/9/15

week 56

My family and friends, I swear weeks on the mission just fly by! You´re just so busy you cant keep the track of time! It´s crazy. haha it feels like I just talked to yall yesterday! 

So this is what happened this week, Tuesday we had a good working day and a family invited us to eat with them. So Tuesday night we were able to go to eat with them on a praca. It was pretty cool to eat out in public with members haha 

My comp bought chlorine so we do the baptism example alot. We have water in a cup. The cup represents our body and the water represents our spirits. As we go along with life, we commit sins. And he pours a little juice powder into the cup. So when we commit sins and dont repent, our spirit stays unclean. But throught baptism, and he pours in the cholorine, our sprit becomes clean again! We love doing this during visits becuase most people are just like ´´wait, how´d you do that?´´ haha 

Ohh Wednesday night we had a FHE at a members house, and Elder and Sister Harris from Cuiabá came and supported our branch here! It was pretty cool. I love the Harris´! 

Friday night the branch put on a Just Dance activity! It was actually really awesome. Us missionaries couldnt dance of course but watching other people have a good time made us have a good time. I forgot to bring my camera, so I didnt take pictures :( 

We have a family that we are teaching that consists of Fatima (the mom), Andreira (20, daughter), and Adrenny (16, daughter). They commited this week that if they recieved an answer they´d be baptized. So now we are helping them recognize an answer.We taught them The Book of Mormon Saturday, so if they read we know they´ll recieve an answer! 

Then on Saturday we made a lot of visits and then a Less-Active invited us over for dinner so that was wonderful. 

One funny experience, Thursday night I started a baptismal interview with Raissa, she is adorable. The other elders told me she was 11, but when i started the interview she said she was 8. And her moms a member so in this case, the branch president would do the interview. When she told me she was 8 i was like ahh this will be awkward, but i was like hold on one second.... I went out and talked to the branch president and he said he would finish it. Raissa was baptized Saturday night and we werent able to attend it! I was sad, but im so happy for her!

Ohh yesterday we were walking to church (45 min) and a lady on a wheelchair ´´elders, take me to church!´´ We´ve never seen her before so we were like ok... she started talking to us and she said she was baptized in another state but passed through Cáceres bc she was traveling. A member drove up next to us and brought all of us to the church. At church she stayed with the relief society and the women there helped her. Then she had to leave early and a man with a car from the elders qourum brought her to the bus station. This experience reminded me of the talk in General Conference when we all come together to help other people. It was an awesome experience.

Thats it for this week. I love yall!! have an awesome week!

Com Amor,
Elder Marstella 

1/19/15

Week 54

Hello Friends and family!! This week passed by super fast! So we had transfers on monday. My previous comp left monday in th afternoon. I stayed with the other elder that his comp left too. Monday night his compion arrived and we worked together on Tuesday. That night my new comp, Elder Freire arrived. He was in alta Floresta, which he traveled a whole day (24 hrs) to get here in Cáceres.

This week I showed him our area and the people elder johansson and I have been teaching. He has only been on the mission for 3 months, but he already is super prepared. He teaches really well and we work well together. He taught me a technique that you share matthew 16:19 with a person that let you in and bare testimony that families can be together forever and talk a little about the apostasy, a then a little about the restoration. It only takes about 5 minutes. then you mark a return visit and share the restoration complete. We tried it this week and a liked it alot.

We also got a list of members in our area, and lets just say we have alot of less active searching and reactivitating to do. But we our ready and willing to do it!

Our Zone Leaders, Elder Gibb and Elder Cole are coming this week to have a zone meeting with us and then to do exchanges. This week was a good week!!

Also a member told us that she wants to start learning english. She teaches english, so I´ll focus on helping her accent be more american! haha

I love you mom!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella

1/12/15

Ok, so this week was an eventful one... Thursday was my 1 year mark on the mission! I´ve officially been out for a year! As well, that same day I broke my hand playing soccer with the young men here... I was playing goalie, and the ball was shot to me, so i got on the ground to get it. And a young man here still tried to kick it for some reason and he kicked my hand instead... at first I thought he only bruised it, but then it swelled up. We went to the hospital the next day, and they said i didnt surgery, so I only have to wear a cast for 3 weeks. Ohh and it was my left hand again, the same hand i broke 2 years ago... but its all good.

So the guy that kicked me was actually an investigator of the other elders here. And on Saturday I interviewed him for baptism. When we talked about repentance I rose my broked hand to mess around. haha we bothed laughed and he apologized. That night he was baptized!

Ohhh we got our transfer calls last night. Elder Johansson is going to Cuiabá and my new comp is Elder Freire. His last area is so far away that he´ll get here tomorrow. I dont know him but im excited for another new transfer! 

Josiane is still the same way. She wants to be baptized and we have taught everything, its just that her dad wont give her permission... We are going to pray and fast a ton for her!

Thats all the time i have today, I love yall and ill talk to yall next week!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella