Foz do Iguacu November 28, 2011
Oi Momma!
Thank you for the letter! I love to hear from you! It’s kind of cool that I will be turning 21 as well. Now I can drink and buy cigarettes! As for the age we will be resurrected, I just think it’s funny that we will be twinkled at the age of a tree in the millennium. Maybe we will be Ents. Tell grandma super thank you for the birthday money! I will go shopping today and buy something nice. I got kind of sad that we don’t have thanksgiving in Brazil thinking about all of the great food. We eat really good here in Foz and the food is excellent! But if I could trade out rice and beans for a nice sandwich or casserole, I think I would! The best thing about food here is called Churrasco. I learned how to make it and its sure good!
That cool that Mary Ann and Randy are going on a cruise. Mary Ann and Camille are famous in our mission because I showed everybody how they are in the Ensign for conference that one time. As for Tyrel being engaged....... wow weird. But tell him congratulations and to save some cake for me!
This week was......hot. The temperatures here are starting to be about 100 the whole day long. This would be tolerable except for the fact that everyone keeps on saying that we haven´t seen nothing yet. *gulp*. I hope the Word of Wisdom protects against skin cancer and dehydration! If you feel like sending any more SPF 100 sunscreen I totally accept.
With all this work we have to stay in the baptismal font more often to keep cool! This week we saw another tender mercy of the Lord and Ana Carolina the sister of Viviane was baptized Saturday! Her brother Rafael is also progressing well and we found a great family (Edson, Igor, Filipe and Sara) this last week. There is another man named Filipe who is going to church strong now and with lots of prayer he will be baptized very soon! We had Stake conference yesterday and Presidente Tavares visited us her in Foz. There was a very funny old man who used to be in the temple presidency and he made everyone laugh by saying that the 2 things we need in a good marriage are trust and ketchup in case our wife doesn´t cook well. There was also a returned missionary from New York who said a line that I really liked. He said in New York there are more that 8 million people and only 170 missionaries. He wakes up everyday thinking I have 8 million people to convert today! I liked this attitude. Let’s baptize Brazil; all of it. Elder Folland is super awesome and already speaks Portuguese really well. The members are giving us tons of food and references and things are going pretty well. In 2 weeks we will have a Christmas conference which will be cool. The week of the conference our P-day will be on Tuesday so don’t freak out that my letter comes late.
I know that God live and loves and guides us. This is the work of the lord and no unhallowed hand can stop it. We have the fullness of truth and access to the blessings of heaven. Our family is forever. I love you and so do Sharon and Dad. Keep on reading the Book of Mormon every day.
And most important: Never give up. NEVER surrender.
Love you
Your year older son:
Elder Iron Man Markham
Foz do Iguacu November 21, 2011
Thank you so very much for your 2 letters this week! It was good demais! Elder Folland and Sharon say that I speak English really weird now. I was dumb struck happy when I read that Zack gave a talk in church! I have been praying for him for a long, long time! Holy cow! Also I was a little sad to hear about Bro. Merrell, but at least now he will be able to play organ all he wants! Take good care of Sister Merrell, they are such good people. I am happy that Sharon´s play went well! She must be very good. Thanks for the counsel as well. I am being happy but the zone is in a pretty hard spot right now. Vamo lá! Desanima não! (Let’s go! Not be discouraged! The great news was that this week........ 3 baptisms! Waahhoo!
We really saw the hand of the Lord Foz miracles this week. We ran like crazy. We did so many divisions this week that I felt like an assistant again. You can’t get too used to sleeping in a bed now can you? :) The people who were baptized were Aline, Maria and Viviane! It was so special to see Elder Folland baptizing for the very first time. He loved it and we have another 2 marked already for this week. Sometimes it takes a while, but start us and you can’t stop us! HA! The Lord has really blessed us a lot. I recognize like you wrote that baptism is not everything, nor how we measure our success, but I am so happy when like Ammon, I see many of my brethren truly repented and showing forth their faith making covenants with Heavenly Father, In Doctrine and Covenants 20 we read, an Apostle is an Elder, and the calling of an Elder is to baptize! God has really blessed us this week, so let keep on working. This week unfortunately we had to stop teaching a lot of our investigators because they stopped progressing or don’t want it, but we will work super hard to find a bunch of new people this week. It should be pretty awesome. In our divisions, we taught 4 more people that accepted to be baptized this week, but it didn’t work out, and so they will probably be baptized next week. Hurrah for Israel.
We had some super good food this week to. I am going to learn how to make Churrasco and it will be bom demais! (so good!)
I love you so very much mommy! Thank you loads and load for the prayers advice and thoughts. Tell everybody that I love them in the family and back at home. And Happy Christmas Harry! I know the work in the temples is true. I know that the prophets today can lead us like the Liahona. I know that prayer is really communication with God and that He hears and answers us. Never give up! NEVER surrender. Have a great week!
-Elder Markham
Foz do Iguacu November 14, 2011
Hiya mommie!
So this week there isn´t all that much to say. I spent most of the week doing transfers and sitting on the bus. But first off, I´ll start by answering your questions:
It’s going ok. Josmar is ok, but not super great. Guilherme is doing great. I do not know how many missionaries there are in the Londrina Stake. Yes our mission has 2 councilors. They are good but I don’t remember their names. I’m not really sure what they do exactly, but it must be important!
That is super neat that they finished the broadcasting building and everything. I think Jessica works there now. It must be super fun to mess around with all the cool stuff! Haha! Also here are the pictures from last week. I will be praying for Grandma for sure and the surgery. Please say hello and give a hug to everybody back on the ranch.
So this last week was like this:
Monday: p-day
Tuesday: Transfers, which turned out to be a giant mess and we spent pretty much all day trying to receive people and straighten everything out.
Wed: 12 hours on the omnibus to Londrina
Thurs: Leaders council that was pretty good and we learned how to train other leaders and Elder Dewey, Kaelin and I sang a sweet version of Hie to Kolob.
Fri: 12 hours on the bus returning to Foz
Sat: Running around crazy to catch up on the work
Sun: Rained like crazy and everybody got real, real wet.
Good week!
The only thing is that I am a little frustrated that nobody was baptized here yet. President sent me here to turn the zone around and help everybody out, but since I got here nothing has changed. Any suggestions?
This is the true church of the Lamb. Families are forever and ever and ever! Yeah!
Love you lots!
Let’s use SKYPE again on Christmas ok?
-Elder Markham
Foz do Iguacu November 7, 2011
Howdy howdy hi!
So this week has been pretty great. I am glad to hear that things are going so well back at home with you guys! Testimony meeting was great in our ward as well! Also I liked the story about the missionaries in Ireland. Sometimes you have to do crazy stuff! First off to answer your questions: Guarnani is the language of the lamanites and they speak it in many regions close to here. Guilherme leaves Nov 13 for Maceio Brazil! YEAHH!!!
So, this week started off good. We had a family night with a great member named Carlos who helps us out a whole ton. Then we worked real hard all the week long and we taught a lot of lessons with the members here and everybody is getting pretty excited. We had district meeting and discussed all of the needs of the zone and it was great. Elder Hodges and Elder Fonseca ended their missions today and we are having some crazy transfers!
Saturday we went over and helped Josmar build his house. As you can see houses are built very different here in Brazil. You should show Grandpa the picture. And so, Sunday was pretty crazy as well. Sunday morning was raining. This would be ok except that in Brazil if it rains everyone gives up on everything and just sleeps. When we got to church 0 of our investigators were there. At first we just ran out into the road calling everybody who passed to come to church. Although this didn’t work to well it was fun! Then we called a member Valmor who is bom demais who drove us back to the house of a family that we are teaching. We knocked and knocked and nobody came out, but just as we turned we saw them coming back from the supermarket in pajamas and everything. We shouted come on! Let’s go to church! They all complained about the rain and being early and everything but we just kind of shoved them in the car and went. The testimony meeting was super spiritual and they loved it and want to come back next week! Miracles are real and can be quite funny! Also a litter of cats was born in the neighborhood that has been invading everybody’s houses! haha! Josmar has agreed to stop drinking coffee and we should be having some more baptisms here soon! Transfers are today and there will be 4 people training in our zone. This is pretty crazy and will be a great chance for us to work super hard and baptize a whole ton! YEAH!!!
I will also send you the letter from our zone for you to know what is happening here. Should be great! I know that the Book of Mormon was written for us. I know that God will try our faith in all things, but will never leave us. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know that this is the true church of Christ.
Til´later!
Love, Elder Markbacon (because it’s really hot and I think all of my ham is fried)
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