It's More then a Drizzle down here

Opá Família!

Okay wow, this week was all over the place. I would be sending pictures of my first four baptisms today but, SUPRISE! Nobody showed up for the baptism, so it was me, Elder Atkin, the ward, and a font full of water, with no family to be baptized. That was the worst feeling I´ve had in my life, bar none. Talk about devastating. We hope to figure their issue out and help them maybe this weekend or next, depending on what the problem is. Other than that, the week was relatively good. I still only get about 1 and a half hours of sleep per night, and that makes things really rough after a few hours of walking, but I´m still alive! Blessing.

 We have been working really hard to find people this week and we find them, but people are too nice for their own good and say yes to our faces then don´t show up at the door the next day or on sunday. It´s quite rough because it´s so important that people keep their commitments! Hopefully things shape up a little better this week.

 Unfortunately I only have one funny story this week and it´s mostly sad. We contacted with some folks in the park and we went over to talk to a group of kids (it was about 9:20 on a Wednesday... sketchy) anyways, they were like 14 years old max. They were heckling us and being really obnoxious and rude because kids are kids everywhere in the world it turns out, so Elder Atkin decided it would be fun to talk to them. After a little bit of talking and enduring some rude remarks we came to find out that one of the girls was the mother of two. And that her boyfriend was wait for it... twelve years old. Yikes. We didn´t have anything to say to that so we left them with a law of chastity pamphlet and went home. It was more surreal than funny. Oh and fun fact of the week, I identified what favela water smells like! About 500 dead camels. I can hear Cassidy laughing about that but it´s true! Oh man it reaks. Also, I thought I knew what rain was living in Oregon, but man was I wrong. The rain here is unreal!! Seriously! Anyways. Basically what I learned this week is that, the will of the Lord isn´t always what we want, but if we submit to His will we are promised blessings in return. I will continue to work my hardest until my body either sleeps, or falls down again, haha. I hope I have some baptism pictures for you all next monday! I really love the work here, there´s a lot to do, and knowing that Christ would do the same thing if He were here, keeps me going everyday. I love this gospel and I´m so glad I decided to remain faithful when the choice was placed before me. I love you all and thank everyone so much for the love!

 

Eu amo Vocês,

Elder Marley

 

P.S. We got to see Elder Holland speak on saturday at our mission conference and he spoke about the will of the Lord and the importance of remaining faithful, aka, exactly what I have been thinking this week! It was incredible!

1st Letter from the Mission Field!!!!

Oh do I have a lot to pack into this email. haha. First off everything here is even better than I expected, except we haven´t really had any success yet. The weather is pretty hot usually in the mid 80´s during the day and super humid, we walk about 12 miles a day and the days go super fast. Everywhere smells bad here but it´s always a different kind of bad smell and it just makes it feel authentic. My trainer´s name is Elder Atkin, he´s from Chico California and is 27 years old. I´m super grateful to be serving with him because he´s super good with the language, doesn´t hardly speak English to me, and is the district leader so we work probably the hardest out of anyone in our zone. He has a year left in his mission and is still loving it.

 The food here is perfectly fine, I haven´t gotten sick once, and memebers feed us lunch here because they only eat one meal a day here. I´m losing weight pretty quick, it´s funny. Anyway I have a few funny stories. First, we went to the ward mission leader´s house for a meeting and while we were talking to him his son walks in and starts watching a movie, I look up like 15 minutes later because I heard a ton of " f" words in english... this 9 year old was watching Paranormal Activity 3! hahahahah. I was like, oh my gosh, that´s one way you can tell nobody in the house speaks english, they let a  9 year old watch rated R movies with no idea that they are rated R. haha. It was hilarious. We HAD like 5 investigators we found and taught a few times this week but they all fell through yesterday and weren´t there when we went to pick them up for church, talk about heart breaking. This is eternal salvation we´re talking about! People just don´t understand. It was a little discouraging but we just have to rememeber that people will always have their agency to accept or reject the gospel and we´re doing all we can do.

 Oh this place is called Monumento and it´s where Brazil declared its independence from Portugal! Pretty cool! Except now it´s all industrial and reminds me a lot of what Detroit Michigan probably looks like. It´s pretty darn sketchy. I love the ward here, they´re super friendly and all the kids call me Elder Marley e Eu. Marley and Me haha. It´s pretty funny. Oh and I met my first Brazilian Rastas yesterday and they were yelling at us because Americans are racists and they were mad because the pictures in opur pamphlets had ´White Jesus´´ hahahaha. So funny. Then the guy who was totally stoked, figured out my last name was Marley and literally laughed for 15 minutes non stop while we taught hi wife. hahahaha. It was SO WEIRD! Anyways there´s a couple funny stories. I really like the area, it´s quite impoverished and people, like whole families live in a place the size of Sammi´s room, two beds, a kitchen, and a television. Seriously, and there homes are just dug into the side of an alley way. It´s pretty intense. But the people that live here are generally really nice. Except the guy that was screaming at us about being fake and hating all the other christians. That was the night of the big gang shootout. The cops killed like 8 people. CRAZY! 

It´s been a great week and the work here is tremendous, this mission is the busiest mission in the world (288 baptisms last month) and it looks like it´s gonna keep going. We get to meet Elder Holland this week so I´ll definitely write about that soon! Love you and tell everyone I Love them too and hope maybe someday I can get a letter like I used to when I got my last one a month ago. haha. Love you,

Love

Elder Marley

Last Letter from the MTC Provo

Oi!

Ok, so this week was crazy and a lot happened. First off I leave for Brazil on Tuesday. CRAZY! I'm so excited but I have no idea what it's gonna be like. It's a 23 hour trip total and will definitely be nuts.

  The other big thing that happened this week was that we were able to hear an apostle at the devotional one last time, Elder Dallin H. Oaks. It was such a cool experience. He spoke about the sacrament and about worthiness. Elder Oaks is one of my very favorite apostles and He spoke about the importance of us remaining worthy in all things if we expect the Lord to be with us. It made me think a lot about what I'm thinking about during the day and how much I can improve on keeping my thoughts loving and happy. That's the first step to a negative or positive life, after all. Other than those two things nothing really out of the ordinary happened this week. We didn't really get to teach much and I had to say goodbye to Irma J, which was rough, but she promised she would make feijoada for us when we return so that's fun!

 Getting to talk to Mom and John and Grandpa and Grandma Peterson was seriously the most wonderful thing ever and I'm STOKED to do it again tomorrow. I had the opportunity to go to the temple this morning with my great friends in my zone that are leaving for Portugal tomorrow. They're so awesome! Elder Fry, Barton, and Rhodes. It was great and I will DEFINITELY miss those elders a lot but I know they're going to do incredibly in Portugal. This whole experience at the MTC has allowed me to grow so much emotionally and spiritually. Dealing with happiness and discouragement and growing in charity and in patience has blessed me a ton. I can already see how different I am just after two months. Onward and upward! I'm very very grateful to have had the opportunities I have had already and for all the ones that are on their way. The next email will be from Brazil. I love you all and am so grateful for everything that all of you have done to get me here, friends, family, and everyone I know.

Ate proximo semana

Elder Marley

Oi familia e Amigos!

WOW. This week has been CRAZY!!!

 So obviously it was my last week with my English district because they left on Tuesday. Our last classroom meeting on monday night with Brother Dopp was so incredible! Talk about a spiritual feast! I really loved each missionary in that district fully. They're all going to be incredible missionaries and I'm sure they already are doing great things in Minnesota. I also had to say good bye to the Man I have been friends with my whole life, Elder Clawson, on tuesday night as he departed for NC. That was pretty tough actually. He traded ties with me and left. It was a little heart wrenching, not gonna lie. Saying goodbye was tough but it was great. I got my new Portuguese district and they're all from the Northwest, and are all extremely nice guys. I got two new companions Elder Coombs from Puyallup Washington, and Elder Royster from San Francisco. They're really cool guys. Elder Coombs is a stud. He's such a soft spoken guy but he's extremely humble and very powerful in the Spirit. Elder Royster is exactly like Kurt Mooney, for a reference. It's awesome. Elder Smith and Elder Bond aka the A-Team are another companionship and they're awesome. Elder Bond looks and acts like Tyler Robson and I love it! Elder Smith is really laid back and nice and looks just like Brother Emmet from Mt. Scott ward! There's also Elder Jensen and Willard. Both from the same ward in Washington, best friends their whole lives and now companions. Weird. They had a huge wave of visas this week and Elders Coombs, Bond, Smith, and Jensen leave tomorrow... on their first day... FRUSTRATING! But I'm glad for them. Mine should be on it's way so I may spend some time in the CTM if I'm lucky still. So yes, mathmeticians, there will be three people in our district tomorrow... I was called as District Leader, but it's one companionship so it won't be tough.

 The Portuguese it's tough. The way they teach here is like trying to drink water from a fire hose. It ain't pretty. But after about 5 days we're really picking it up well. Our teacher is Irma Jacobs from Brazil and she's so cool. She's been in America for 10 months so she actually CAN'T speak English to us, which explains why our Portuguese is so accelarated. We learned how to bear testimony, pray, and hold a basic conversation with someone already and I can read and understand Portuguese pretty well. Overall it's going well. All the elders in this new district are headed to Joao Pessoa (where Elder Paul is headed) except for Elder Willard (Porto Alegre South) and I. The portuguese is so intense we don't even have time to think here, but I like it. I apologize if I've been slow to return letters this week, my mind has been on overload. Last tuesday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Holland. He spoke on being a missionary forever. It was super inspiring as Elder Holland typically is. It was funny because we had to wake up at 3 to drop off my english district so we were thinking about not going to the devotional. What a mistake that would've been. Last night we heard from soul singer Alex Boye. He talked about his conversion and the importance of our call and our power as representatives of God. It was so incredible I can't even describe it. The spirit was so strong we left the fireside feeling like we could literally move mountains. It strengthened my faith so much this week just going through some tough changes and trying to grasp why I can't just go to Brazil. There is clearly a reason I need to be here, whether for my benefit or for others I don't know yet, but I will continue to follow God to the end and endure in faith. I'm very glad I'm a missionary and can bring glory to God and honor my family by doing this. I've been out a month and it's flown by! I have a feeling this will go by fast so sometimes I just need to stop and savor the moments. Eu sei que da Igreja e verdadeiro. Eu sei que Joseph Smith es um profeta de Deus. Eu sei que amar de Deus e eterno. Eu sou grato por minha familia e meu amigos. I love this gospel. I can't wait to hear from everyone this week and to finally get to brazil in a few.

I love you all.

O evangelho restaurado es verdadeiro

Elder Marley

Latest Update

Note:  Brad's Visa has moved to "authorized" so he will be leaving for Brazil very soon.  Until he leaves, his new MTC box number is 223 and his P-Day is changed to Mondays.  Thank you for all of your love and support of him.  He is thrilled to receive any and all letters and packages you feel so inclined to send.


Ola Familia!


I haven't gotten the PACKAGE yet but I did get the photobook yesterday and it was amazing! My district was so happy they got to see y'all before they left! Elder Pauls leave in like three hours and it's freaky! This week has no doubt been intense. It's our last week as a district and everyone is feeling kinda weird about it. I think there's something wrong with me though because last night we had an extremely spiritual last class with Brother Dopp our incredible teacher, and everybody was bawling... except me... again. It was a little weird but it was still fantastic. I got a little discouraged about not getting the visa this week but I guess there's a reason I'm supposed to stay here for a little while longer so I guess I'll exercise some faith and follow the Lord's plan for me, even though it's 100% unknown and a little weird. So before I forget my new mailbox number for my new Portuguese district is 223 and it starts tomorrow. I get two new companions and I hate the thought of moving my stuff for only a week, it's a little bit of a pain but oh well. By the way, I LOVED getting letters from everyone and finally getting one from Dad! It was a nice surprise!




I feel a little nervous to start Portuguese tomorrow but I had an interesting temple experience last week that really helped and we get to go again today. I can't explain how good it feels knowing that the Lord is watching out for me so closely and He wants me to succeed so badly. It was really interesting last night as well (during the same lesson with Brother Dopp) that I couldn't help but feel that the Lord is and has been preparing me for something great. I don't know what or how it will be great, but I can just feel it. All the ups and downs in life and the trials and afflictions, are for our benefit and as we are promised in Doctrine and Covenants 121: If we endure it well, we will be exalted on high. This whole week has been ridiculous. It's been up and down but overall just one huge incredible spiritual experience. It will be tough to say goodbye to my district tomorrow morning and to Elder Clawson but we should always be moving onward and upward. The song Lord, I would follow thee meant a lot to me this week. It just made me think about what I would do to follow God. If we have the faith to follow God through the fire and back in this life, that we will never have to experience it in the next, but we have to go through fire at some point, whether here or there.: No matter what happens in your life, no matter what terrible things have happened or what is happening, if you endure it well, and follow your Savior out of the fire, it will be for your benefit. It will never be easy, but it will always be worth it." I'm so proud to be serving the Lord and even though it's super tough I know that if we live the commandments and we keep the faith that the Lord will never forsake us. I know that as I continue to live obediently that I will be able to teach and serve with all the authority of God and I will be worthy to act in His name. This church is the true church restored to the Earth today, this really is a marvelous work, and for the next two years as I work my heart out to serve the Lord, I know countless lives will be touched and the Glory of God will be praised forever. I love you all, thank you so much for everything and for all the support. This is a miraculous experience.

Elder Marley

P.S. Sister KNIGHT will be at the visitors center in Portland in 3 weeks. I told her to look for all Beans and Marley's and that my Grandma Peterson will no doubt initiate a conversation with her.




Also, I hope you got my pictures!

Week 2

This last week was incredible. Our district successfully got away from the sophmore slump where the second week districts enthusiasm drops. We did get a new district of elders headed to Virginia and Texas and they're super rowdy but I am sure next week it'll be a different ball game. At devotional last Tuesday we were able to hear from Elder Clarke of the seventy and he gave an incredible talk on being a successful missionary. It was just a roller coaster week. Sometimes I get down because I feel like I'm not progressing but that usually lasts only about 5 minutes and then I feel fantastic again. I sent some pictures this week and I hope you get them soon! So I was thinking the other day about something that's really cool. I'm the fifth Marley to serve a mission and all five of us have had different languages on our tags! Engliush, German, Spanish, Chinese, And now Portuguese. I just thought it was cool. Anyways this week Elder Paul and I made great progress with a few of our "investigators" and committed two of three to be baptized. It's super crazy to be able to feel the spirit so strongly all the time. We went to the temple today and after the session I had a little time to think and pray and I was so moved by the spirit. I feel so incredibly blessed to be serving and especially to have met these wonderful missionaries. It's crazy to think that I almost didn't take the opportunity to meet all these guys. The Lord really does work in mysterious ways. I love this whole experience and it's really going to be incredible. This is my last week as an English missionary and I start Portuguese next wednesday! Unfortunately that means my whole district and Elder Clawson leaves for Minnesota, Brazil and North Carolina on wednesday too. That day will be so rough. But on the plus side this upcoming wednesday we get to train new elders and sisters in our zone and one is a Sister Knight who is going to PORTLAND OREGON!!! She's going to work in the new visitor center so everyone go there next month and tell Sister Knight you're my family! Way too awesome! I just feel the blessings of living obediently so much and I'm so grateful for it. I'm so grateful to know that my heavenly father has forgiven me for the stupid kid I once was and that He trusts me with this work He has for me in Brazil. I know what I'm doing here is the work of the Lord and if I serve Him with all my "heart, might, mind, and strength" that I will be able to rest well in two years and that I will be able to have success in the next 23 months. I love everyone so much and I am so grateful for all the love and the support. What an amazing experience. Everything that will happen in the next two years, good or bad, will be for my benefit and the benefit of those I serve. I'm really growing close to the missionaries I'm serving with and I'm growing even closer to the Lord. Stay faithful and strive to feel the Spirit everyday because it's possible.
Muito Amor Familia,

Elder Marley

Brad's First Letter Home!!!!

Oi Familia!

Yep. The amount of Portuguese I knew when I left is the same amount I know now! We''re doing the pilot program so we learn our gospel stuff here then leave for the CTM in Sao Paulo on February 29th, in theory, to focus on language. This week was so nuts. The first day, I was just losin all my stuff. I got my companion, his name is Elder Paul and his twin brother and him are in our district. My Elder Paul is going to my mission and his twin is going to Joao Pissoa Brazil up north next to Nick Anderson. This whole week has been one spiritual punch in the mouth. We have the most incredible district ever. Elder Pauls by the way mom, are the ones from the missionary mom website. So yeah, I don't know how that worked out.

Anyways, day one I was feeling down and doubtful, but I had a life changing spiritual experience the next day that turned everything around. I explained it in my letter. The missionaries in my district are Elders Paul, Elders Barker, Johnsen, and Yorgason from Utah, Elder Mattison from Arizona (reminds me exactly of Craig Burwell, mega stud) Elder Winkler who is easily the most inspiring person alive, but I'll get to that later. We have four sisters Sister Morgan from NC, Sisters Briggs and Fitisemanu from California, and Sister Rider from Florida. It's true that Sister missionaries are what keeps the church together. They're incredible! Sister Morgan is the Zone coordinating sister which means she runs all the things that concern the sisters in our zone. Elder Paul and I are the Zone Leaders which is the same thing but with the Elders.

It's funny being here because all the Brazilian missionaries come up to us and try speaking Portuguese and we're just like, “Uhhh, we don't speak Portuguese." Then we have to explain why. Oh! I've run into Elder Clawson and Hermana Layton a few times! Makes me SO happy to see them! I'll try to get a picture with them soon. Anyways. One Elder in our district, Elder Winkler, is the most inspiring guy on the planet. He has been homeless and in and out of foster care since he was four years old. He ran away from his abusive aunt and uncle for the last time at age 13 and literally ran away to join the circus... he played drums for Cirque Du Soleil and has worked as a professional drummer since. He is a former drug addict and alcoholic, and received the gospel at 17 when he was living in the attic of a strip club in West Hollywood. He's so hardcore, but his testimony is truly amazing. I wish I had more time because there's so much to write about him alone!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the missionaries in our district are all going to Minneapolis Minnesota. Which is funny because they're all from hot climates and Elders Paul and I are from cold climates going to BRAZIL. It's been so good getting those letters and I sent one last week so it should be there soon. Our devotional on Sunday was given by Brother Heaton an exec here at the MTC and then we watched one of Elder Bednar’s talks. Like I said, it's just been one huge spiritual rollercoaster this whole time and I've only had one day when I was being a pooper. Not bad for me! Hmmm what else? Oh Elder Paul and I get to teach a few mock investigators and two of them are really tough cookies but we work so well as a companionship that our lessons often end in tears. My teachers’ names are Brother Dopp and Sister Itri. Brother Dopp is really close friends with the Kunzler boys! Small world AGAIN. I just love this place and it's sad to see some of the Elders that you can tell just hate it because of their bad attitudes. Come on guys. I love it, the Spirit is so intense here, and the food is mediocre but does terrible things to your digestive system, and it's true I laugh at EVERYTHING now! I don't get it!

Anyways, I came here knowing nothing and my testimony has been strengthened so much since I got here. I know this gospel has the power to change lives and even though it's tough, I know every second of the next two years will be so worth it for me, and for everyone I can touch. I love all of you so much and thanks for the few letters I've been getting they really make my day and I love writing back. If you sent me a Dear Elder I've already responded - it just has to get to ya! Once again I love you and thanks for all the support!

Love,

Elder Marley