...we had another baptism this week...

Hey everyone!

So sounds like turkey day this year was amazing! Lol, but to be honest I forgot that it was a holiday until the 25th when I looked at my calender lol...woops!

But we did have a pretty good weekend. Ernesto was baptised and confirmed this past Saturday, which set us off with 2 baptisms with one family for the month of November.

We also had two more investigators come to church this Sunday...my new favorite, lol, her name is Dedi...but we just call her Daddy, lol, is going to be baptised this weekend hopefully with her son who just turned 9 so this will be really cool.

Then the other investigator, Hugo, would really like to be able to receive his baptism but unfortunately he's still only 17 and his parents don't want to give him permission...yet, we are going to go to his house tomorrow to talk with his parents...more or less about how important it is to support your children when they are trying to do good things with their life...I'm sure by the end of the month they will be good enough to at least give their signiture, if not get baptised with him, lol.

But yeah we got the Christmas packages this past week...SOOO COOL!!!, we set up that little tree and put the boxes and eveything around it, lol, it was so funny!, And we took a bunch of photos but....as usual, I don't know why, the computer won't let me upload my photos....sooo....maybe later, lol, sorry,,lol!!

Thank you so much for that! The kids are going to flip! A lot of them won't be getting anything else for Christmas this year so it'll be super fun! We're going to put the coolest little activity to give away the gifts...so far it's just going to be like a talent night with all of the members doing their acts and then a little dinner thing. Then we will end it all off with Santa Marquis, coming in with the bags of goodies for all of the kids and then end the night with a Christmas movie or something. It should be a lot of fun! Also I know a member down here that has a ligit, Santa costume that I'm going to try and borrow to make it even more ligit, so I hope everything goes well!!!

Man, we were traveling the other day in a tuk tuk, and I was talking to the guy and just trying to be nice with him and was like, Man! You ready for Christmas? This time of year is so awesome I love it! And he just kinda looked and me with a dirty look and said, there's no money, and if there's no money there's no point to Christmas....And I'm not going to lie...I macheted him, or sternly repremanded him, lol,...just telling him how much I envied him and how even though there's no money for Christmas at least he gets to be with his family which is a luxury that I wasn't going to have and how the only thing that matters in this life is family. He just kind of sat there quiet and said that he was sorry and didn't know that we couldn't see or talk to our families....it just bugs me sometimes how everyone takes family for granted and it's the only thing that I want, lol!

But more than anything I just want to wish Michelle and Mom a SUPER HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hopefully, I will be able to find some pretty cool little goodies to bring home for a late gift for you all!!!!

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and thank you all for everything!! Love hearing about all of the funny little stories, and secrets store rooms, lol super cool!!!!

Love you tons,
Elder Marquis

..for a day the veil is lifted and they can see...

Alright everyone, so this week was super cool!

We did end up being able to go to the temple in Xela, which is sooooo cool! You can see all of Quetzaltenango from on top of the hill. Something else that was pretty cool is that when we were there the stake from Coatepeque was doing their service that day so I also got to see all of my buddies from La Blanca and Amparo, so fun!!


Also we are getting a lot of hits off of all of the visits to the temple...I think that we are actually receiving more than any other area...this past week we got about 100 references. We've only been able to contact a hand full of them though, but 3 of them want to get baptised so...we're definitely going to have our hands full in these next...45 days hahaha.

It's amazing how powerful these visits are. But it's kinda like everyone that's going there never knew that all of this stuff existed and now it's like for a day the veil is lifted and they can see everything that they have been missing out on their whole lives...pretty good time to be in the mission!


We contacted one guy that went to the temple and his wife is a member but he's not...anyways, we got to his house and taught him a little bit more and he is going to be baptised this Saturday. We found another woman who her whole life has been against the church...mostly because of the FALSE rumors she's heard but she really enjoyed it and going to start going to church with us this week and wants to be baptised..

There is so much work to do right now...one of the biggest challenges that I have right now is trying to make a good organization system for all of these referencias so that no one falls through the cracks or doesn't get contacted! It is pretty fun I like to have work to do with out having to try and make work for myself to do.

Anyways, Dad reminded me that this week is Thanksgiving, but this year we're not going to be doing anything too special...but hey, if we can get a few more baptisms out of the day, I'd say its worth it lol..You guys just need to takes lots of photos so that I can see all the family!!


LOL, just a little funny story...so that area Ayutia that's like an hour away, we found another way to get there and we have been borrowing bikes to get there faster, but the trail to get there is SUPER narrow and there are A LOT of rocks...Anyways, my comp was taking the lead and we were cooking just running the trail to get there faster...and to have a little fun while we had the bikes....and I looked over my shoulder for a second to check out the scenery for a second when BOOM!!! My bike smashed into a rock and I went flying over the handle bars and landed in a nice pile of rocks, haha. Man I got a good little shiner by my rib cage and my leg was looking a little yellow after, and my shirt, hahaha, well....it's not much of a shirt now, haha!! But yeah.. I was just laying there for a minute because I had the breathe knocked out of me. Looking back it's a lot more funny than when it happened, lol....then on the way back we decided to take the main road because we forgot our flash lights and again my comp was in the lead...when all of a sudden BOOM!!!! I just see my comp flying through the air and his bike doing like a million flips in the air, lol!!! The poor guy ran off the road, lol..good times, but all is good...just haven't been able to go to the gym this past week...but this week back to the schedule!!


It's so crazy this change passed by soooo fast and now....I'm starting my last change...it feels a little weird to say that one day I'm not going to be a missionary...I feel like I've been doing this my whole life....but supposedly one day...approximately 45, this is all going to come to an end...weird!!!


Anyways, I did get the pringle cookies, ( mom sent Snickerdoodle cookies, wrapped and put into a Pringles can ) lol, pretty cool idea! And they were good!! Thank you so much!!!


Love you guys!

Dear Family:
Those gift bags sound pretty sweet. Looks like we're going to be having a pretty sweet christmas this year!!! (Our family is sending lots of gift bags for the children in the branch and villages)

I really do plan on going out with a bang, and having another 50 baptisms and being Santa Claus might just do the trick lol! (Elder Marquis has one month and 3 weeks left of his mission...but whose counting :)

We had another baptism this past Saturday which was pretty cool...it was my
25th...not the highest of numbers but compared to when I came into the mission and only wanted to get to 7...lol..

It looks like we're going to be having a lot more success down here also because the Xela Temple is now doing the open houses and just from our ward we are sending out about 4 busses up to Xela, twice a day....needless to say..THERES A LOT OF REFERENCES, lol!!!

Just with the past 2 days we have received more than 20 family references and each family has about 3-4 people....this is going to be a GOOOD Christmas, lol!!!!

Anyways, it's been a pretty cool week and this Wednesday, we got permission to go to Xela to do a session of the open house which is really coool! My whole mission has been focussed on this temple and at last I get to see it!!!

Love you tons, and keep up the good work back home!
Elder Marquis

We get to go to the temple open house!!

Man this past week has been pretty special!

With all of the brujos y brujas...witches, celebrating their holidays...needless to say it has been a little different around here...lol...I never thought that I'd ever meet a real witch but hey...ITS GUATEMALA!!!!

We also had a special conference with Presidente Maravilla this week and it was pretty cool...at last!...He told us that the Elders get to go to Xela to see the open house for a day!! And maybe to the dedication also which would be amazing!!!

Supposedly we are going to be having interviews this week to see if we are worthy enough to go there...lol...man this is so cool! My whole mission has been wrapped around the Xela templo and at last I get to see a few more fruits of our labors!!

As far as baptisms go we are going to be having another one this Saturday for Andrea...she's pretty cool and the missionaries supposedly were teaching her for one year...so pretty cool, to be a part of that!

I'm pretty confident that with all of the people that are going to be going to the open houses these next few weeks, that we are going to be able to baptise a good part of them...at least the part that really want to find Christ and that will feel of His spirit there...even though it's not dedicated yet, it's still the house of the Lord.

We are bumping into a few rough spots with a couple of our families here but I'm sure that with a lot of fasting and prayer we can find and teach what it is that we need. We just need to study a little more, and we will have the success that is awaiting....More than anything in these last two months I just want to try and work my behind off so that when I get home, I'm just completely exhausted, LOL!!!, WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Anyways, love you guys tons!!!
Elder Marquis