Bauru March 7, 2011

Hey Momma!

Thank you so much for your letters and updates. It’s great to hear what is going on with you and my friends. I am really so very grateful to have such a terrific family and momma like you. So yeah, Bauru is a pretty big old city. We have Estaca Bauru with 7-8 wards + algums ramos (We have Bauru Stake with 7-8 wards and some branches). Our companion situation is pretty similar to Nebraska. I am companions with Elder Crosbie, but he is gone a lot doing divisions and leadership trainings and meetings and stuff, so I spend a lot of time with Elder Neal. He is another American who is on his second transfer. I actually was in a couple of math classes with Elder Neal back at BYU. It’s kind of cool

This week has been pretty tough and hard work, but we are still excited and today will be nice to relax a little and chupar tereré! This week we are working with several good families. One lady named Yara we found just randomly knocking doors and within 3 days she has read until Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and decided to quit smoking! There are several other young people who are children of less-active members that we are working with. Sheesh, it’s getting harder to type in English every week!

To help with our zone’s baptisms each of us are making personal sacrifices for this entire month. One of mine is to not speak any English other than e-mails. we are teaching a couple other complete families too. It is really cool to teach whole families, but it is harder too because everybody has individual concerns and they are never all home at the same time etc. etc. Bauru is a pretty nice city. I miss Cambé, but I’m getting used to here. The ward is really great here. They like to fazer actividades e integração (make activities and integrations) for all the new members and pesquisadores (investigators). They are feeding us really well too which is awesome. They even like to send food home with us for the night. We just got a new ward mission leader, so we will need to work with him to get things moving, but I am excited and I hope we can have a lot of baptisms as soon as this week! Working with the members is a lot harder, but waaay more effective.

Anyhow, thank you so very much for everything that you do. I am grateful for the letters, packages, updates and everything. But even more than that I am forever grateful for the great example you left me. Thank you for your faith, prayers and dedication to the gospel. I know that this is the work of the lord and that we as missionaries are very protected by the Lord. Please don’t worry too much about me because I am great and will keep on working hard! I know that this church is true and has a living prophet. I know that Christ lives and loves us individually. I know the gospel leads to happiness. I love you so much momma and I will continue praying for you every single night.
até mais!
-Elder Markham