...For my birthday I placed 4 more dates!!!

Oh my gosh!!! Russi is such a little drool monkey lol!! (Mom sent a picture of Elder Marquis' nephew...Shaun's baby...sooo cute!!)


And taco bar sounds soooooo good!!! I usually just eat rice lol for dinner these days.
Thank you guys soooo much for writing, that was way cool! (Had the family over for dinner and they all wrote a note to Brandon before Mom's letter...)

...Elder Marquis' birthday was August 26th...Mom asked if anyone knew or if they did anything for his birthday...

Yeah, there was actually a surprise conference for the leaders in the mission and president and his wife made some jokes about some ugly looking missionary and then all of sudden the whole room started singing the spanish Happy Birthday song...still don't know that one yet...and she hooked me up with a ton of candy, so cool!

And then that night we went out and visited the family that we´ve been teaching, and I really wanted to place a date with them because I still haven't baptised a complete family yet...and the few days before I had been fasting and praying un montón (a lot) for them and we went and right after the prayer was finished I just asked them...."What are you guys waiting for?...You know you're ready and I know you believe what we´re telling you" ...after an awkward silence, they said "You're right we are ready!" and for my birthday I placed 4 more dates!!! Fun little present for my birthday, lol.

1. Do you need batteries for anything? I didn't know if you needed them, or if you can get them if you do...
No I can buy batteries here when I need them, but thanks, lol.

2. I got the Proclamation to the Families and The Living Christs...I will be sending those out next week or so...is there anything else you need? (Mom got some Proclamations and Living Christs in spanish for Brandon)

The only other thing I need is a photo album of everyone in the family. All you guys, the kids, Callie (the dog :), everyone, lol.

3. Do you have any investigators? Can you tell us about them?

Yeah, we´re acutally teaching like 12 teenage boys that are friends with the members here. They always hang out with us, so we´ll see how that goes.
And this other lady, Juliana Gonzalez, she's super friendly and her family is awesome. We actually found out that one of her kids is a convert Mormon living in Texas. So we´re going to try and teach off of why he was converted and how this has to be the right thing, lol. Right now she is Catholic.

5. Spiritual experience you can share?

My spiritual experiences definately came from the 2 day seminar with Presidente! I don't know how he taught us about our Preach my Gospel´s, but he taught them in a way that it's like I've never read that book before! It was amazing! It felt like the spirit was literally beating a hole into my chest, so cool!

6. I was considering having a subscription to the Ensign sent to you. You might get several copies at once. Is that something that would be good, or do you already have access to them?

Yeah that'd be cool. I don't know how I'd get them though...I'm in Guatemala, lol. And seriously, I don't want you spending a bunch of money on all this stuff, if your pushing it, DONT DO IT!!!! ($10.00 subscription...what a sweet guy!!)

7. Any cultural or food observations to share?

Lol yeah, just a funny observation...Only in Guatemala will you see a drunk man running down the middle of the street in his underwear, in the middle of the rain, holding a screaming chicken...lol...oh these people!!


So yeah that's about it... love you guys un montón!!!
E. Marquis

Happy Birthday, Elder Marquis!!! We love you!!!

Tracting

..I Love My Mission!! (also made District Leader)

This week Elder Marquis just answered mom's questions...but answers are amazing!!

1. So how have you been?
Been doing well, lol.

2. Do you use an electric razor or your straight edge...I can't remember and some moms were asking...
I still have the straight edge, electric razors are really expensive.

3. When you got to the Mission home, did they take a picture of you with your mission pres and wife. I always see these of elders and sisters and wondered if you have one somewhere. If you don't have one with your new president...make sure you get one...K??
Yeah i have two, since i was there for two groups of latinos.

4. How was your Sunday? Any investigators come to church?
Yeah, actually, yesterday was branch conference so we had about 96 members there and a bunch of inactivos and menos activos. So cool!

5.Do you have any investigators? If so, tell us about them...
Yeah, more or less, lol, we´ve been working with these two familias that are super cool! Mirna, Osberto, Osberto Jr., and Carlily are so cool. The two kids came to church but the mom didn't and the dad had to work so who knows. And the other is really cool too, the family Lopez-Lopez. We just contacted them and they were like, Hey white people, cool!"!! lol. so we´ll see how that goes.

6. Do you have a microwave? I doubt it, but just a thought...
Nope, only mission central has microwaves.

7. When are transfers? Do you have any feel if you will stay in this area, or if you will get a new companion?
....Read in the letter....

8. Can you tell me how you feel about your mission? Is it what you expected? How do you handle the trials and such? Do you love it, or is it just really hard? Tell me....

My mission is life. Sometimes it's good and other times you really would like to just quit and go home. And honestly, I don't remember what I expected before the mission. It just seems like this is all I've been doing my whole life and when I think about home or my life before, it just seems like a blurry dream. I guess thats the hardest part, trying to still feel connected with what's going on over there when in all honesty, I don't have a clue and can't really imagine, lol.
Like you guys being able to open your fridge and have ice cubes lol, that just seems like a dream to have ice cubes. The way people live in the states and they way people live here is completely different. Nothing is the same. But overall yes, I love it! At times I hate it, but overall I love it! I love who I'm becoming, I love what I can do, I love the dangerous jungle atmosphere, I love having to shower with a bucket every day, I love not having air conditioning, I love how everyone walks around with machetes, and I love how I can speak another language!
I'm living a life that most people will never even be able to grasp, to even think of. I'm changing people's lives and for this short period of time I have been given the opportunity to act in Christ´s name and give salvation to the people of the Earth. At times its hard, but if I didn't have those times of difficulties I would never appreciate the times when I have blessings and happiness!
I love my mission, all of it, the good, the bad, the rain, the mud, not having power and running water, the people and their simplistic view of the world, I love it!!!!


9. Cultural observation?
Cultural observation is that the family stays together! All of them. They live together, eat together, sleep together, everything is done together.



10. Spiritual experience for the week?
My experience happened yesterday. It was late in the afternoon, about 5, me and my companion have been wanting to do a prayer excursion for awhile now and yesterday we had some time. We just started walking and walking and walking and we found this huge corn field next to a river where you could see the most amazing view of Guatemala.
He went of by one tree and I walked more toward the center of the field. I sat down and began to offer up a prayer. Then I looked up and the sky was an amazing blue and orange and I could see the moon and just one star and there was a fog rolling in and I asked God every question that I have ever had, about the gospel, my life, and everything else. About an hour later I finished my prayer and as I stood up I was hit by the most amazing peace and joy I have ever felt in my whole life and I began to cry from this. In this moment I received my answers and I can tell you that this is the gospel of Christ and we will return to live to a real Heavenly Father and that everything that we have been taught and will learn are all true!

Ok, so I don't really have any time now to write but what I want to say is that Pres. Maravilla (Mada-vEya), just called me with my changes and I have been made an official District Leader. So hope that goes ok, I'm still in my area and I don't know who my new companion is yet, so yeah, lol.

And my camera is a Kodak EasyShare M381, it probably would be a good idea to send a new power cord and wall charger. lol. Sorry....

Love you all,
Elder Marquis

El Tumbador- Satelite Picture

Hey all,

Ok, so this past Saturday we had an activity to where we would teach the people down here how to play volleyball, since they really only know how to play futbal. The activity was amazing and we had quite a few investigators show up and some of the kids even brought their friends. We had that activity and we were only planning for the activity to be maybe 1 or 2 hours and it went out into 5 hours of volleyballing, and it also just so happened that there were no clouds out that day for cover and needless to say it was hot!!! So when we went back to our house to make up some lunch I noticed that I was a little red, lol.

My trial this week was definately coping with the worst burn I have ever had! But, now, I'm actually pretty dark, even had one guy the other day ask me what part of Guatemala I was from, lol, I think it was more of a joke, but still pretty funny lol.

Mom's questions:

1.Any investigators? If so...tell us about them.

This week was pretty slow. Not really anybody to talk about.

2.Most interesting contact of the week?

The most interesting was probably one of the member´s boyfriend. We did like a little movie night and had a pretty good turn out of inactive members.

3.What kind of socks do you need? The ones for boots that we got at Dicks or ones for dress shoes...the gold toes ones?? Or both??

The ones from Dicks were definately awesome but yeah the gold toes would be SWEEET!

4.Some of the moms sent their sons out with those Microfiber towels. Have you seen them? They are supposed to dry off well, but they fold up really small to fit into your bags. Is that something you would like??

Yeah, that would actually be amazing cause right now, one of mine got lost so I'm having to constantly wash the one towel I do have, lol, on a rock...lol...I actually do wash all my clothes on a rock lol.


5.Any new cultural thing to share?

ummm...culturally almost no one here can read. It's definately a culture shock. Something else, the kids, if they don't want to go to school, they don't have to. So everyone doesn't learn and thats pretty sad. BUT, it has made me really realize the importance of a good education and as soon as I get home I'm definately going to start saving to put my kids in a private school!!!


6. What is your ward like? Do they have YW? Primary kids?

Well I still have a branch...don't know if I'll ever have a ward, lol. But we have YW, primary, and all that good stuff too.


7. Spiritual experience for the week?

OH! well I would have to say, while tracting in El Tumbador, we bumped into one of the less active members up there and come to find out...he still had his celestial smile around his neck!! So that was so amazing to know that even though all that stuff went down up there (read a few posts back...bad experiences for ward members causing ALL of them to stop coming to church) he still has an amazingly strong testimony!!!


8. Should I write you a real letter, or does that just take too long to get to you? I would feel bad if all the other elders are getting mail and you never do, but I didn't know if you are fine with Monday emails. (Mom doesn't send letters, only packages and emails on Mondays..)

Letters are nice, but we only get those when we get boxes. The weekly emails work just as well for me, so no worries.

And yeah! Besides that it was a pretty uneventful week,lol, sorry.




Love yall,
Elder Marquis

Faith without works is dead....

Dear Family and Friends:

For this week Presidente Marivilla held a special 3 day seminar for a group of 11 missionaries, unfortunately my comp was chosen to go and I wasn´t. So again I went on splits with a member. We went up to Tumbador to look for a new house to live in , but I don't think we will be moving up there. Pres. said we can't start another church in Tumbador until we make Amparo a ward which is pretty much just going to be trying to reactivate the members down here.

We did some contacting up there since we had some time and the very first house we knocked on were these 2 snakes (girls that try and get missionaries sent home...) and we were like, well...we´ll come back another day when your parents are home, lol. Then the second door we knocked on were these two brothers both of which were priesthood age. They didn't have time to let us in they said so we just gave them the message about the restoration and after the lesson was over they were actually pretty excited about our message so we set an appt. for another day.

Then right before we left we contacted one other house and there was and old looking man, probably in his 60´s. (Smile from mom...) Anyways we started talking to him and he told us how his old evangelico pastor kept bugging him for money and also how he didn't really think that church was the correct one and also how his wife had died about 2 months ago and how much he missed her. And we were like, brother! we have the perfect message for you, lol.

And yeah thats about it for this week....actually the other day I was in a trio with 2 other gringos and we were contacting and we found this one guy that looked just like Johnny Depp from the secret window, lol, he could definately be his double, lol.

One other huge thing! I got my birthday package too!!!!!!! Thank you so much for everything! That dvd player is going to be such a great teaching tool and also that classical music, is so awesome I love it and wish I had more, so good!!!! And for the ring! All the elders are like, WOW thats so cool, lol!!! Thank you all sooooooo much! Love you guys!

Now for mom's questions:

1. Tell me about your toe. Did they really take the WHOLE toenail off? Dad had that done in the Philippines, but they just cut up the side and took some of it off. (Elder Marquis had an ingrown toenail and went to the Guatemalan doctor)

Yes, they really took it all off, lol, it looks and feels really weird.

2. How is the work going? Were you able to find any more of the old members? If so, were they excited to see you or like the first guy?

Nah, this week we just tried to contact and find some new investigators.

3. How many people did you have at church on Sunday? Does the whole area go to one church, or do you have one in each city....Or will have when you get them all active again...

This week we had about 50 members there. There aren't really any members in Tumbador since the accident awhile ago so only one church in Amparo that everyone goes to.
(See previous blog about "accident" )

4. What is Elder Roan's first name? Where is he from?

His name is Timothy Roan, from Austin Texas.


5. Do you teach or do other ward duties on Sunday's ,or be the missionaries there for investigators etc?

We teach some Sundays, but usually we hang out with our investigators as much as we can.

6. Do you have trouble with dogs in your area? How do you keep them off of you?

No, I don't really have any problems with dogs in this area. But when I do, I either beat them off with my umbrella or I shoot them with the sling shot I bought, lol.

7. When is your next zone conference?

I don't know when my next conference is going to be, they dont really tell us, but I did get your package, thanks so much!!!
(..Mom sent Elder Marquis' birthday package early so he would have it for a zone conference the first part of August and he actually received it in about10-14 days!...there was alot of prayer accompanying this package...it was expensive, but we took the risk and prayed alot...yea for prayer!!)

8.Any cultural experience to share?

ummm....well, there´s always the women breastfeeding, the loud latino music you would here in a restaurant, almost everyone here walks around with a machete, and there is this thing here called the ojo (o-ho) .. little babies get it when someone who is angry holds the baby and the anger goes into the baby and the only way to get rid of the ojo is by rubbing an egg over the body, lol,... these people are so simple.

9. Any new foods this week?

Nothing to wierd this week. sorry.

10. Tell me about a typical day..how far do you tract, etc?

A typical day starts with prayer, breakfast, working out, showering ( by bucket), pray before we leave, and then we walk about 15-20 miles a day trying to find someone who can actually understand the importance of our message, lol.


11. Should I find you a new camera cord so we can have more pictures?

Maybe. It all really depends on whether or not my old comp remembers to bring it next transfer.


12. What else do you need that you lost?

The camera cord. The wall charger for my cord and camera. lol And socks, they just kinda disappeared lol.


13. Best contact of the week?

The best one was with this woman named Mirna. She has two kids and a husband, Osberto. Anyway, we started contacting like normal and then we began talking to them to find out more about them and what we should teach them. So we asked her what church she goes to and she is an Evangelica, but she doesn't like how her pastor keeps asking her and her family for money so she stopped going. So, we taught her how anyone who preaches for money is wrong and is not of Christ. Then we taught her about tithing and fasting and how it's really a personal thing and how its not for the bishops or pastors but for the building of churches and helping other people. And yeah she was super positive and her family is probably one of the first ones that have actually come off as being a possible happy, laughing family that could become mormons, lol. So that was super fun.

14. Spiritual experience to share?

Spirtitual experience this week is about fasting. I was feeling like none of our investigators were progressing and none of the inactive families that we were teaching would ever come back so this past week I fasted and prayed super hard for a partiular family to come back. About 10 min. into church none of them showed up and then one family that I really love walked in and I was like yeah!!!! so that was super cool. But just like in all things... Faith without works is dead.

P.S. And in the future if you all send another package you guys should definately throw some shells and chesse in there too, my comp got some and they are soo good, lol! And I have received grandmas letter... just got it the other day!! (Thanks, grandma!!)

Anyways thank you all for everything that you've given me and for your prayers just over all everything!!!!

Love you all tons,
Elder Brandon Marquis