Oba! Bom dia de Brasil!
Thanks for sending the pictures of everybody. It’s so nice to see familiar faces and everybody seems to be doing great! I am way jealous that you get to enjoy the cooking of Kevin and Grandma and everybody. Mmmmmm. Food that isn´t rice or Raman noodles..... (Mouth water). So, there are some announcements to be made:
Primerio: Ryan got his mission call! Woo hoo!!! That is the coolest thing I´ve heard since the song “greatest man that ever lived” by Weezer! Congratulations demais! Brazil as well! Way to pick a good place to go. Maybe you can even stopover in Nebraska for a little bit too! Teasing of course. Get your visa. Now. Just do it. Baptize......
Also, there have been some birthdays of really awesome people. I would send birthday cards, but #1 it’s really expensive, and #2 you won’t get them until about half-way through the millennium, so please accept my humble e-shout out!
Happy birthday to Grandma Elaine! Thank you for always being such a wonderful example and a great missionary! I love you so much and you are a great example of diligent service family and the Lord. Parabem!
Also, Happy Birthday to my favorite Uncle Scott! May your days be ever full of Dollar Bills and Cafe Rio. Great work at the Tri-Plex!
Finally: Happy birthday War Machine. You know who you are with your birthday all this week and almost are as old as me. Keep being 2-legit-2-quit. Keep on saving the world and take luck!
This week has been full of stuff. I will start typing really fast and hope my fingers do not fall off.
This week has been really really hot! Today is great because we had a big thunderstorm to cool things down. This week Papai Noel arrived here in Cambé riding on the faithful Coca Cola truck. Since we live right in the center of town, he passed right in front of our house and there was a huge party and everything was all Christmassy! Our only problem is they built a huge stage in the square right in front of our house and they are having concerts every night until Christmas! Issh!!! It’s really loud and there are a ton of people, so it’s not always ideal for sleeping and planning and such. On the brightside, it looks like I´ll get to hear some Brazilian rock concerts! Did I say brightside..... haha.. ha... ? (It’s totally cool) We also want to go sit on Papai Noel´s lap and ask him for baptisms. I wonder what he would say. The same night that this happened we had a secret Santa party with the youth in our ward. Elder De Souza got a sweet tie and I got a new wallet of Brazilian leather which is cool. I drew one of our investigators (Gustavo) and gave him a hacky-sack (holly´s hacky sack actually, I hope you don’t mind!) He liked it a ton! The ward also gave us a free pizza which was better than gold! Well, maybe not because gold can buy pizza... Hmm. I´ll think about that one. It was way fun. We also had a zone conference with an area 70 for Brazil. It was a way spiritual meeting. He taught us a ton of good stuff about how to teach and work with members and he is also really funny. The biggest thing he said is that we need to be more courageous here in Brazil Londrina. Never be afraid to invite someone to action for fear that they will say no. Invite always! The three most effective ways to spread the gospel are 1. Abri a boca, 2. Abri a boca and last and possibly most important 3. Abri a boca. I definitely want to be less shy and share the gospel with lots more people. The next day we had a Christmas conference with our zone again. It was waaay fun. We had a white elephant swap (called amiga da onca. Go go Google!) And it was hilarious. I got a chess set and Elder De Souza got a fake rat. Somebody got a statue of a Catholic Saint. Haha! Too funny! We had a cake building competition and ate tons of candy and had a treasure hunt and I felt like I was 6 again and it was totally awesome!!! We got to eat lots of good food too. After, President Tavares gave an awesome talk about the Atonement of Christ. It needs to be the focus of everything that we do. I felt such a strong spirit there that because of Christ and His sacrifice, we can become exactly what God wants us to, It doesn´t matter what weaknesses or hardships we have. If we follow Christ we WILL reach our righteous goals. He was willing to die for murderers and liars and addicts. Are we willing to do the same? He gave everything to save the one. Do we reach out to those near us that we can lift? I know that Christ is our Savior and that he atoned for our sins. I know the gospel is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I have felt the spirit testify of these things and every person on the earth can receive the same answer if they open their hearts. At this time of Christmas I really want to learn to be more like Christ and love others more. I know the Church is true and I love my family so very much.
Ohh! One more exciting thing is that yesterday we marked another person to be baptized! He is the son of a part member family named Juan and he will be baptized this week or the following, depending on a few small things. How great is this work! Thank you for your support and love. I will be praying and thinking about you every day!
Love you so very much!
-Elder Markham
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