Another great week

Everyone, what is up? (Jim Rome...?)   Sorry for sending some pretty lackluster letters lately. So first off, our mission broke the area record for baptisms in a week this week, 85! Whoa. That was cool. And our new mission president is changing a LOT of things up, for the better I might add, this week to help us be more effective. (Like zone P days). Hollaback! Okay, so, taking my mom´s advice, I started writing stuff down that happened this week so I could remember it for the weekly letter. Well, it mostly ended up as a bunch of funny quotes from my companion and I as we make astute observations about the world around us. So I´ll just kinda throw them in this letter as it happens. But as for the good stuff, we picked up two new families this week. They´re Jehovah´s witnesses so they were really tough to start teaching, they invited us in to bible bash, which we don´t do, and jokes on them because they´re marked for baptism on the 7th of August. Oh, also, Eric´s dad wants to be baptised but the thing is he´s just living with Marlí, ( a normal thing here), and she´s not divorced from her first husband here yet... and Renato´s a little crazy. But hopefully they can prayerfully consider what to do and get things moving in the right direction. They have this awful dog, ironically named Alegria (Joy), that is ALL OVER THE PLACE, and bites the crap out of my ankles all the time. So I mildly hate going over there, but it´s been really cool seeing their lives change as they´ve re-opened to the gospel. We also are teaching two exceptional young men who go to the church to play volleyball with the ward twice a week, Felipe and Caique, and they´ve been going to church lately. They really love Gospel Principles class because it´s so easy to understand. And yesterday they showed up at church with a shirt and tie and everything! Imagine my surprise. The only thing is these guys grew up without a christian background so we have to teach them starting with who Jesus Christ is, and why he´s important and everything so it´s a little slow, but they live in the ghetto so it´s always fun to go teach them. Oh, one of the people we´ve been teaching for 40 years, Volquiria, will be baptized finally this coming week. If all goes according to plan. Last time she was supposed to be baptized, they had a VERY SERIOUS family emergency and she went into limbo (yes, like Inception) and pulled out for a little, so I hope she can step up this week and follow her faith into eternal bliss. Here´s something that´ll make Mom laugh. This week we were walking down the street with all the car dealerships and saw a motorcycle. It was really sweet. Flat black, with auburn accents and everything. Just like, boom. Then at a closer look it had a name on the side of it, and that name was... Motard. Haha. Motard! Does 6 year old Brad own that motorcycle? It was hilarious. Elder Holmes didn´t get it. Also, we celebrated the release of the Dark Knight Rises this week by eating yogurt. Don´t ask me how it relates, because it doesn´t. Also, the streets here are dangerous to cross so we often just run across the street out of instinct and Holmes did it once with absolutely no traffic, and when I got to the other side of the street he said, "Speaking of uneccessary run..." but I thought he said uneccessary nun, because there was a nun on the other side of the street so now whenever we see a nun we say "speaking of uneccessary nun.". I don´t really expect anyone else to think that´s too funny. But let me just say we have quotes that would make Paul Sorenson proud. Last awesome experience of thwe week. Last night we went to have a family home evening with our favorite family (Barbara´s) and Barbara invited her new boyfriend, Leandro (yes, I baptized him too). Let me just say, I could not be any more proud of anyone up to this point in my life than I already am of this whole entire family. They did the whole thing. Prayers, maessages, spiritual thought, everything, and it was literally spiritually ground shaking. It was nuts. Barbara was just testifying on one side of the room, Dulcemir was sharing her conversion story on the other side of the room, Wellington was talking about serving a mission neext year, and they ALL (including Leandro) have set a goal to get to the temple next year. I can not adequately communicate the feelings I was feeling in that house last night other than that family already has made this mission worth it. And in the end of this life, seeing them on the other side, will be the greatest reward I can imagine, for my short, and sometimes falting service to my Lord. I am not perfect. I have a TON of weaknesses and difficulties. But these difficulties are making me the man I need to be in the future. But, I will keep working hard because experience has taught me that I´ll be grateful for this stuff in a bit. Thanks everyone. Have a great week.   Elder Marley

Happy 4th!

Okay America, Buckle up, This week was hardcore parkour in Brazil. First off it was July Fourth (Go America) and me and my US comp did America stuff all day. We made 12 eggs for breakfast along with 15 bacon strips, 10 pieces of toast and two liters of chocolate milk. Go America. We called it the Great American Breakfast, and it was the follow up to Panini fest 2012. Oh and of course right after the GAB, we had lunch at a members house, I haven´t eaten that much since Jake and I were at college during post class grub sesh at Crappy Teriyaki in Rexburg. But the real deal on July fourth was that there was a HUGE soccer game in town. The Corinthians (Most popular team in São Paulo) were playing Boca Junior from Argentina in the Libertadores which is the American championship that determines who plays Chelsea for the world championship later this year. Corinthians has never been to the final so the whole country was buzzing and people were going absolutely nuts. You could feel it in the air, and the day of the game, there was fireworks all day (normal), and people just prepping. We had to be hoe at 5, before dark because it gets really, really, dangerous at night during REGULAR games, let alone one like this. Corinthians won, and we didn´t sleep at all that night because of the firworks and bombs going off all nigght. It was hardcore! We just pretended it was people celebrating Independence Day in America. Go America. Also we had more trouble with Dulcemir and her drinking this week and we can´t really do anything about it. We have a ton of other people to visit so we´re going to try to leave her with some members to help, so that´s kinda rough right now. She isn´t a huge fan of us at the moment because we don´t stop by as often. Also, two of the people I baptized, Leandro and Barbara, are dating. Holla-freaking-back. Just a side note. This week was also Festa Junina in Brazil and in our ward. They threw a huge party that´s hillbilly themed and there was tons of food, dancing, and games. But, like a genius, I forgot to take pictures. Just take my word for it, it was fun. We FINALLY baptized Daniel yesterday too. Wow. It was awesome. I´ve been working with him since I was with Elder Atkin and he finally was baptized. Now he can marry his wife in the temple, and have a complete family. His brother in law was so crazy happy (he served a mission in Santa Catarina) and it was great just to see everyone so glad to see him taking this first step towards eteranal life. Anyways, thats the big news of the week. We met President Ferrin too, and I think things will be great in this mission with him. I´m really looking forward to working with him. It is crazy to think this will end someday, but I still have a long time to go so, no worries. Thanks for all the support and I will be back on next week with some more good news. Amor e Bençãos do Brasil, Elder Marley

Amor do Brasil

Okay okay okay. This week was nuts. Elder Toala got transferred and became ZL. I now have Elder Holmes with me as my new comp! He reminds me of Elder Vang a lot haha. He´s a huge duck fan, so we get along well. We had LOTS of trouble this week with Dulcemir (our recently baptized missionary mom) because she´s been drinking and smoking again... and she was absolutely trashed like twice this week when we were there. So we´re going today to go leave a message with her and hope she gains a conviction to not do that anymore. It just kills poor Barbara. So we´ll see how that goes. Oh and surprise! Leandro got baptized on saturday! The first baptism of our new mission President! I haven´t met him yet, so I don´t know anything about him but I´m assuming he´s good. Why not right? Leandro was baptized and confirmed and it was really cool! I got to baptise him, he is so cool, he always has the best questions about the gospel and has a great desire to learn more. It´s really cool. This week Elder Holmes and I had great success. People were showing up to church on their own yesterday, which has never happened while I´ve been here. Seriously all of our investigators showed up alone and stayed for the whole thing, including a contact we did that seemed very uninterested. He showed up. What in the world?? I think it´s the blessings of TWO obedient missionaries working hard. We also had some great improvements in some of our ancient investigators and one is marked to be baptized on the 15th... I can´t explain how it´s working, but it is. Our days feel unsuccessful, but then just happen to be fruitful. It´s pretty cool. I´m really glad I got to stay here for another transfer because I really like the people we´re working with and I think we´re doing a really good job out here. Weird story of the week is that yesterday after church we went to a member´s house (the same one that fed me and Elder Atkin pigs feet) and we ate beef tongue suasage. Weird huh? It wasn´t to bad, just the idea of what it was was weird. And they invited over their friends for lunch and the man is in the mafia. So that was a little uncomfortable too haha. But hey, I hope this week turns out well too. I really appreciate the letters! I will be back next week to fill everyone in again! Have a great week! The Church is true. Nos temos uma grande responsibilidade para compartilhar o evangelho com tudo mundo! Cada membro um missionário! Não esquece!   Amor do Brasil! Elder Marley   P.S. SIX MONTHS