4/14/15

Week 65

Hello Friends and Family! This week was transfer week! Tuesday and Wendesday we had to make sure everyone in our zone got here safelty and what not. We have a new missionary straight from the CTM from Peru! i wasnt able to talk to him very much but he is very excited to be here at Missão Brasil Cuiabá! Here in the mission we recieved at think 8 greenies! yay!

This week we focused on Gabriel who baptized Saturday. When we teach he usually he has a friend or family member over thats not a membeits a perfect situation! Who are meeting new people to teach because of his example! We love it! Oh so we have an english class i teach every Saturday. Last week one of our students, Rodir, 33, came to General Conference and came yesterday as well!! He has a wife and 2 kids. We are going to visit him this week to meet him and his family better! He is an Elect!

Nothing else really excited happened this week.  But i cant beleive ill be able to skype again in a couple weeks!! time really flies! This week we have Zone Conference so ill be sending a lot of pictures!!

I love yall!!!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

4/7/15

Week 64

This week was another week that passed by super fast! We didnt teach much this week because we helped a bunch with the wheel chair program the church has. We had to help Wednesday and Thursday a bunch then the ceremony was Friday. It was awesome to see all these people so happy seeing that they´ll recieve a free wheel chair. I loved seeing their reactions.  That is what service is all about, making other people happy. 

And it rained so much this week... Like really hard rain haha When it rains really hard we just have to wait until it stops, so it slows down our missionary work. But we are still all excited! 

Saturday and Sunday we watched conference all day. haha we went to the church Saturday at noon, and didnt leave until 10PM after the priesthood session. But on Saturday we baptized Gabriel! This kid is super cool!! One day he´ll be a missionary too! His grandma (who isnt a member) felt the spirit super strong so we will talk with her this week and set a date with her for her baptism!! But the baptismal service was awesome.

General conference was awesome! one missionary said ´´dude, this conference was the best ive ever heard. I dont know if its because it is actually the best one or im paying attention now!´´ hsaha i loved it! Every General Conference is special! paying attention is key! But for sure they are always getting better! I loved President Monsons talk! Its just that his voice and the voice of the portuguese translator arent anything alike... There is so much more meaning in President Monsons voice! 

That was my week! Today is transfers and ill be staying here for at least one more transfer in Coopharadio as Zone Leader!  Thats all i have time for today! I love you guyss!!

Ohhh and Happy birthday to my brother Dillon who will have his birthday April 12th! Love you dillon!!  

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

3/29/15

week 63 

Hello Family and friends, once again this week flew by. We have a couple ivestigators that are really progressing! One is a boy named grabriel. He is 10 and both him and his gma are interested in the church. This boy is super smart, but crazy too. He just has alot of energy and its hard sometimes to keep him interested in our lessons. haha We have a baptism date with him for this Saturday. His grandma still doesnt have that desire to get baptized, but we have faith that when she sees her grandson enter the waters of baptism that she´ll feel the spirit super strong and that the spirit will testify to her that she needs to get baptized too. 

On Friday I had my last interview with President Reber. He´ll leave in June so it was a good last interview. I told him how grateful i am for the leadership he has shown me and the love he and his wife have given both to me and my family. He really is the best President in the world! 

Oh and yesterday we had conselho da ala and it was awesome. The ward he is super excited to help us out. ohh and saturday we had english class and alot of people came! there were a couple people that came just because they saw the banner outside our church thats say english class, taught by american missionaries. next time ill take a picture!

thats all the time i have today! But i love yall!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

3/21/15

week 62

Alright so this was one of the craziest weeks for sure... Monday and Tuesday we were doing exchanges with a companionship from the ward Coopharadio. I was with Elder Goodrich, he´s from North Caroline and we get along super well. We worked the whole day together but we were always laughing in the street. I like him a bunch. We visited a 10 year old and his grandma who are preparing to be baptized. And then we tried visiting Less Actives in his area. That night we got a phone call from President Reber that something happened and that Elder Goodrich and his comp were going to get transfered. 

The following morning we went to a service project and helped a irmã paint her walls. It was pretty fun. haha While we were there we got the update on were the missionaries were going. Goodrich went to Cuiabá, his comp went to another ward in our zone, and elder Albuquerque (my comp) and i both got transfered to this area. Last year i only served in 3 areas, in 4 weeks now i already have 2. But Wednesday we went to our house, packed our things, and Wendesday night we returned to the house where we stayed when we did exchanges. My comp served in this area at the beginning of his mission, so he knows the area, kinda. haha but Friday we met with the bishop to talk about some goals and visions he has for the ward and how we can help accomplish these goals. Saturday we made some visits the elders before us had. And yesterday we had Stake Conference which was really good. Then we had a Recent convert make visits with us, but nobody was home... :( but this week we will work a bunch!! Thats all the i have!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

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3/16/15

week 61 

Hello my beloved family and friends. This week was a good one! This week I did an exchange with Elder Ellis. Elder Ellis is from Kentucky and went BYU so we had alot in common. We worked a bunch and taught some really good lessons. We have 2 families we are teaching that we have faith that they will be baptized this transfer or next. And we are teaching another family, but only there 17 year old daughter is interessed so far. 

The first family: Adão and Ana. We met them ´´knocking on doors´´. They are an awesome family and in their house they also have a son (19), daughter (16) and a granddaughter (10). They werent able to go to church yesterday and we arent sure why... But we have taught the Restoration and they liked it alot. We also taught the book of Mormon and they really liked that. They live pretty far away, but we are willing to visit them as much as we need to to help them! 

The second family: So yesterday, a non member family came to church! Mom dad grandma and son. They are looking for the true church and remembered an invited a member gave them once to come to church. So yesterday they came and we visited them after church. They all really liked it, including the 9 year old son. haha They felt the spirit really strong and they want to return for sure! They said they just had a feeling to go to church today. They´ve never been to the Church Of Jesus Christ of LDS, but they just had something tell them to go. Theysaid they had no idea what to expect and what church was like,but they went. Ill update yall for sure next week with this wonderful family! 

Jennifer: Jennifer is the 17 year old that is interested. So she has gone to church a bunch with friends but never got baptized. We had really spiritual lesson Saturday night. We were teaching the book of mormon and telling her if the BoM is true, The Churhc of Jesus CHrist of LDS would be true! She said she felt the spirit really strong while reading it and we are helping her recognize that this could be an answer that the BoM really is true. She went to church yesterday and really liked it.

Itstime to go! We are going to do a zone Pday with 2 zones a park here in the city, so it should be lots of fun!!!

I love you Mom! 

I love you baby Raina!

Com Amor,

Elder Marstella 

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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