Oh, that’s weird that it is Valentine’s Day there! It is in March here in Brazil so I didn´t even think about it! (And I don´t have a valentine, so tanto faz!)
That is so awesome that you guys got to go down to Las Vegas for a little trip. It is cool to see Amber married in the temple and please tell her that I wish her all the best with her family! It really so true about all the contrast we can see in the world. On the mission you run into a lot of people living the wrong way and sometimes it seems like the whole world is beyond saving, but then when you see someone pray sincerely for the first time or accept baptism everything seems so much more worth it. Thank you for the updates from Joe and Nils too and the pictures you sent. I really do love seeing pictures of the family!
This week has been another week of miracles. We set really high goals for lesson taught this week and then DESTROYED them! Yeah! We taught 43 lessons this week which is 10 more than last week. We are speaking with everyone and being very well received and in all; the work here is going terrific!
Also, do you believe in miracles? Because this week we totally had another baptism. YES! We baptized the girl named Stella that we have been teaching for about 2 1/2 weeks. It was really a miracle! She was introduced to the church by the awesome rapazes (boys) in our ward here and we found her at a family night in a member’s home. She learned everything super quick and received and answers and basically just fell in the water. It was a super spiritual meeting and we also baptized a little girl whose sister we have been teaching for a while. It was the ward´s baptism, but still super awesome! Stella´s family is pretty against the church and they are giving her a little bit of a hard time, so we need to pray for her a lot, but she is SO elect! It was an awesome week.
We are also teaching a guy named Pedro and his girlfriend. We got let into his house only because it was raining super hard and we forgot our guardachuvas (umbrellas) and he saw us and felt bad for two drowning Americans and invited us in. He said he was having tons of doubts about his religion and had stopped going and praying. We showed him some really specific answers in the Book of Mormon and he wants to come see the church next week. Way cool.
Cícero got the priesthood this Sunday and he is more happy than I´ve ever seen him. Our goal is at least one more baptism this month and it is TOTALLY possible for the Lord. We also found some really good ice cream here called Torta de Alemã. Mmmmmm.
We are also teaching several other families close to our house and saving a lot on the whole walking deal. Today we were talking about how much we missed microwavable food.... Mmmm. This computer spell checks in Portuguese and so it says everything I´m typing is wrong, but it thinks ´´today´´ is a word.
I might have to ask you for some more peanut butter eventually because we had a division with the Zone leaders and I accidently got Elder Pinho addicted to peanut butter. He is way cool. He is the drummer in a band and loves American rock music just like me! And he calls every night to check on our numbers and ask for peanut butter :)
This week we found a dog that likes to chew on bricks. Elder Lee took a cool picture of it that I´ll have to get from him. Who knows? Maybe bricks taste good? I don´t know, I just kind of feel like 4th Nephi right now. It is the happiest book and also the shortest! I don´t have too much to say other than things are terrific. Thank you so much for your prayers because I know that they are helping. Being a missionary is really great. In summary, you want to know the truth? Ok. I am Iron Man. Mom, I love you so much for than I can say. Family has really started to mean a lot to me now that I know more of how lucky we really are. I know we have the spirit of the Lord with us as long as we are worthy and that with God´s help we can really do anything. I know that this church is the only true church in the universe. I know God lives and Jesus is the Christ. I am honored to be counted as one of the warriors for the Lord in this day and age. The Book of Mormon is completely true and it is such a powerful tool to cut down false doctrine. Now if I could only get hold of a light saber because sometimes the Book of Mormon doesn´t cut through all the cathedrals here... but joking aside, this really is God’s work and Glory. Keep up all the good work back at home and always stay true to the faith. I don´t know what I ´d do without you Mom and I pray for you and Sharon every day without fail. I hope you have a terrific week and write back soon!
Love you!
-Elder Markham
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