Hey everyone!!!

So I´m not really sure what happened last week. I thought that I sent my letter off last week but I guess not, lol.

Anyways, last week was really fun. We did enough work and completed enough goals that we got to go to this really cool Marvel, DC museum. It was pretty sick. And apparently they have a place here where you can play paintball, we´ll see if we can hook that up, hehehe!!!

I´d really like to load up some pictures because this week we also got to go to this really ligit resort area and play some mini golf. The place is called IRTRA and if I ever come back to Guatemala I´m deffinately going to stay here, lol, they have some much cool stuff and peacocks just walking around!!!

Also, I don't know what it is about this area but man I have been eating the groooooooooossest food I have ever eaten in my life, lol!! Just this past week I´ve eaten cow tongue, intestines, head, and some really wierd pieces of meat that are completely BLACK and filled with veins and having the texture of a mud, dirt,with a blood taste.....needless to say I have never brushed my teeth sooo many times in one week!

Oh! Then yesterday after church one of the members invited us over to eat and when we showed up they forgot or something. And it´s not that I don´t enjoy eating with some of these members or anything like that, but a lot of these people have absolutley nothing to eat here and then they invite us over to eat....I have never felt so bad in my life. While we were sitting there, and the mother was searching high and low to make something, one of her kids started crying saying.."mom I'm soo hungry"..and it wasnt like a, I haven't eaten since breakfast hunger cry, but a, I haven't eaten in a couple days cry..Then the sister brought out a soup type dish that reaked of the most awfull smell, but you have to eat! I felt so bad the entire time, like we have food in the house, and could have easily just gone home to eat but here we are taking what little this family has and knowing that it wasn't the best, eating it knowing that this little boy would die to trade spots with us...its such a different life down here.

As far as baptisms go...not this week. We had planned to marry a couple and have the husband baptized the following weekend but when all was said and done the husband backed out of the baptism and the way we work down here is that we can marry you without you having to pay, and its a little expensive to pay on your own to get married. The 17 year old husband backed out and the 18 year old wife was more than displeased with us, lol, but there wasn't anything we could do. We marry to baptise. We don't just give away really nice expensive gifts, when the other party doesn't come through with their part. Hopefully, later on we can make it work but for now we are going to have to drop this investigator and continue on.

It's like everyone wants to get to heaven and receive all of the blessings that the Lord has to offer but they aren't willing to give the very little that it takes to receive them..then we get angry because we don't receive the blessings.

In life I've come across what I like to call ignorant people...you know its right, you know what good things will come from doing these things, and yet you won't do it...you're just shooting yourself in the foot bud, and I can't help you with that!

But we did find a few someones really positive. One lady named Rosario, she used to come to the church when she was younger but was never baptised and now has two kids and isn't married but would like to follow Christ now. It is very positive and hopefully we can put a fecha with her this Tuesday!!!

Then there is sister Maria Ester, pretty much the same story but she is married and was baptised in another church and wants to follow in our religion because she feels it is correct. Hopefully we will be able to place fechas with both familys. In total the Lord would gain 5 more souls.

(Two letters combined...now the info about this week :)

I can't wait to get home to play with grandpa, sounds like you guys are having fun!!

Looks like everything is falling into place for school and work and what not, lol.

This week was pretty cool overall, we had four investigators in church yesterday and one family. We are going to do a little family home evening with them and a few other member families to try and get them all pumped up and hopefully get them baptised by the end of the week, WOOO!!!

LOL, last night was pretty fun too. We were going to go to one of the members house, the one that washes our clothes, and right when we were turning the corner to there house, out of the shadow walked out this drunk guy and was like ELDERS!!! And me being the super macho man that I am...jumped back a little freaked out, lol, but it turned out to be the husband of one of the members in our area. So we picked the poor guy up and took him back to his house and the wife, I guess felt a little embarrased that the Elders had to bring her husband back home and offered us breakfast today in the morning, which was pretty cool, I´ve never had anyone make me breakfast in the mission like that, lol. But man, the husband gave us a glass of coke and kept filling it up and we kept telling him thank you hermano but we can't drink coke....after all was said and done I can now say that I never want to have another glass of coke...ugh, so much!!!

But yeah, there is ton more I´d like to share with you guys and a whole lot more stories...some really funny, and others more spiritual. But most of these are going to have to wait...mostly because everytime I come to write....I cant remember what to say, LOL!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DANNY!!!!!!!

Hopefully I can send some pictures off later!!,
Love you tons,
Elder Marquis

...we had 2 more baptisms!!

¡¡¡DANG!!!!

Looks like after this week Michelle has a whole new bag of material to write a new book, lol!! (We had a family reunion last week with SEVERAL injuries...one with a fall, broken bones, surgery and long term physical therapy!) Mine wasn't anywhere near as entertaining lol, but I did have TWO more baptisms, WOOOOO! One of the guys name is Braulio, he has 72 years!! The oldest I've baptised yet and the other is called Leonardo, he has 17 years.

Today was pretty cool though because we got to go back to Reu. and play around at a private club down by where President Maravilla lives and play some sand volleyball and ping pong and later Elder Pictum and our companions are going to go play some pool at a resaurtant we found, I love pool!

Sounds like after this weeks letter I've got a lot of stuff I need to think about. I'm not really sure whats going to happen right now. But this past week I got a call from Elder Thorley, the new travel agent in the office and he hooked me up to come home early enough to where I can be home for school without losing a lot of time in the field.........I will be coming home on...........................................the 5th of January 2012!!

Today when we were coming back to San Felipe from Reu. I talked to a nice woman heading to Xela and just visiting with her and sharing parts about my life and what it is that we do here. She stopped me and just mentioned how good my spanish was and I'm not going to lie, that was really cool to hear that and it made me chuckle a little bit. I know that if it wasn't for the work that I'm here to do and for the blessings of the Lord and the prayers from all of you I would never have been able to communicate with these amazing people. I can remember the countless days and nights praying for help when I first got here and now it is just a blessing. You really don't see the blessings or receive a testimony of the trials of life until after the storm has passed!

But yes, that makes me very happy that I'll have a bed somewhere, whether in GOOD OLE TENNESSEE or CALIFORNIA!!!

A few thoughts Elder Marquis had on education and life:

I visit people every day, people who have never received the opportunity to receive an education and for this many of the people here cannot even read or write. Serving here and personally applying what I've learned throughout my time here, I have had the chance to overcome my personal disabilities and further more have gained an infinite appreciation for my education. Having come in contact with many of these unfortunate people and seeing the complete hunger that they have to gain any type of education has affected me deeply. Never again will I turn away from my studies and my education for foolish endeavors. I have a deep appreciation for education and learning and also of the gospel. The Lord has completely changed me through my mission.

One of the most fulfilling experiences for me was being able to attend early morning seminary. Although waking up early in the morning may seem like an impossible task for a high school student, the chance to increase my knowledge of the gospel was one opportunity I could't miss. It contributed a large part of making the decision to serve a full time mission to study of the scriptures during the four years of early morning seminary.

When I turned nineteen, the opportunity came to serve a mission for the Lord. This decision would be affecting the next two years of my life. I could either stay and continue my schooling or give this time to the Lord. I am eternally grateful and happy to say that I chose to serve a mission. On the 10th of February 2010, I reported to the MTC where I would be trained to serve in the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Mission. About seven months later though the Lord gave me a new set of plans and reasigned me to the new mission of Retalhuleu Guatemala. Serving a mission has been the highlight of my life and has completely changed who I was and what I want out of life. There is no greater joy than that that comes from being able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord and to help His children make covenants and receive a remission of their sins. Not only that, but to be able to serve with the amazing people here in Guatemala is amazing and humbling. Sadly many people here have zero chance of a decent education and even worse for work. I've learned many things while here in Guatemala and have changed myself. Never again will I take my work, family, home, freedom, and especially my education for granted. While on my mission I have had the opportunity of being both junior and senior companion and a district leader, but by far the most rewarding opportunity that I've received is being a trainer. When I was chosen to be a trainer, my mission President, President Maravilla, asked to have a personal interview with me, where he explained that my companion was someone very special and that he had been praying and fasting over me and ten other missionaries, trying to decide who should train this Elder, and he chose me. This indeed really was a humbling experience for me. I don't know if he knew of my love and interest of the Polynesian people and culture, but he told me that Elder Hafoka Langi, was to be the first of many Polynesian missionaries to enter the mission and that I would be the best companion for him. During the next three months with Elder Langi we baptised and taught each other many things. I thought him the doctrine, culture, and language. He taught me the history of the Tongan and Soamoan people, the deep love and respect they have for the Earth, and I'll be honest I was hooked. The way he described his family, life, and home, I have a hunger to know more of his culture. His way of living is very similar to those of here in Guatemala and I love it and want nothing more than to make it apart of my life! Elder Langi is one of the kindest, most humble, and happy people I've had the pleasure to know and I am grateful to have been his companion and to have learned a small part of who he is and where he comes from.

Another of the greatest accomplishments or awards I've received is yet again, from my mission, which is learning a new language. This was not easy to do. I can remember many days and nights of praying, fasting, and studying, trying to get a hold of the Spanish language. Learning a new language is quite a humbling experience, especially when your'e in Guatemala. I've come to learn like most good things in life, vale la pena, it's worth the pain! Because I didn't give up and quit and say, I can't, this is too much for me, now an entirely new world has been opened to me and opportunities without end. Before I learned Spanish I was completely content with just English but now that I've acquired the Spanish language, I want to learn more, and I will!, I now have a hunger for all languages and cultures and little by little hope to learn of them and apply the very best parts to my life, because I know now that learning and gaining a great education realmente vale la pena, really is worth the pain!


Anyways, love you all, and hope everyone heals quickly from the family reunion!!!

Love,

Elder Marquis

I can't tell you how happy I have been....

¡¡¡¡ HAPPY FREEDOM DAY !!!!!!!

So me and the rest of all the gringos here in Guatemala are just flippin out down here, startin the day off listening to the national anthem, doing the pledge of aligence, and Elder Roan, our zone leader, calls up and gave us a truly patriotic good morning shout and funny history lesson on how we stuck it to King George and his fancy little army, lol!!!

MAN I LOVE THE FOURTH!! We had planned to have root beer floats but the store in Xela that sells AMERICAN products was closed...so not today...but we do get to go to MCDONALDS in Reu, which is AMAZING!!!! And later we are going to have some AMERICAN cake, its in the shape of the flag of GOD's COUNTRY! AMERICA!!!! YEAH!

But yeah I just can't tell you how happy I've been these past few days! This past week I found out that one of my very 1st converts, Angelina Villatoro from Pueblo Nuevo, went to the temple this past Saturday and got her endowments!!!! And her husband that we were teaching finally got baptised and is also doing vicarious work in the temple!!! The zone leaders let me and my comp go up there last night and it was so great! I got to visit most of my converts up there and am so pleased to say that 4 of the 5 converts are still active and getting ready for the temple or recieving their endowments!!! AHHHH! This is so cool. I can't even begin to describe the joy I felt when I heard that she was going to the temple!!!! So amazing!

Questions:

Do you have any new investigators?

Not exactly, but we did almost have a near miracle, lol. Leonardo, the guy we've been teaching for the past 2 weeks, finally accepted to be baptised and his mother gave him consent to do it but the father at the last minute said no. Leonardo has 17 years, and we almost had a baptism this past Saturday but now we have to work on the dad so his son can get baptised..

Have you received your package I sent you yet?

I think so, the one with the cliff bars and tootsie pops, so good!!!! And that Donald Trump tie is AMAZING, lol!!!! YOURE FIRED!!!


I looked up "San Martin" on the map and there were a couple of them...is your's the one up above Coatepeque?

I believe so, Coatepeque is like half an hour down the road. LOL, if you look at all my areas, all 3 zones are right next to each other on the same road, good stuff!

If you can...we would like to see a picture of your new suit?

Yeah.....................next week, lol, I have to right that down to do that or I'll forget, lol, hopefully next week!!!!

Do you have any tracting stories to share?

Why yes, as a matter of fact I do, lol.
So while on divisions with the zone leaders, we went out to the middle of nowhere in their area to try and find some lady named Teresa, Mother Teresa, and we finally found a little bungalo, with a laday named Teresa, don't know if it was the right one or not... Anyways, she wasn't home at the moment so we just decided to teach her husband...so annoying. I'll just skip through it real fast, so we decided to teach about the structure of the church of Christ and how if you didnt have Prophets, apostles, Jesucristo guiding the church, and the God given authority to direct and do the necessary ordinations for salvation....you weren't in the right church. When all was said and done the man looked like he had absolutley no thought process going through his head so I gave him a question one referring to the urgency of changing to the correct church with your family and following christ.
The question was more or less like this...."If you were on a walk with your family and your daughter wanders of to the train tracks and you see a train coming, what do you need to do?" ..He replied, well....I guess I'd pray...UGHHHHHHHHHH....I was just sitting there thinking to myself, well geee thats just swell, but I hope you'd do just a little more than that! Lol, overall, it was a good lesson and a fun story to through in the book and hopefully one day he will see the urgency of just following Christ. LOL.

If I send more CTR rings...how many would you need?

I couldn't say really...Those babies are like hot cakes down here, everyone wants one. So just a good amount you know. LOL.

Any new spiritual insight or testimony to share?

Just how important the temple really is. I have a goal of when I get home to try and go there at least once a week! After seeing Angelina again, and hearing that everyone in here family is now a member, my joy trully is complete! I never thought I'd see the day where one of my converts would go to the temple it really is something amazing!!!

But yeah I want you guys to go out drink all the root beer and mountain dew that you can and blow some stuff up and have the best AMERICA DAY ever!!!!

Love you all so much!

Elder B. Marquis