Hey Family!

How art thou all? I hope that you all had a great week and that things are going well in all of the different activities and goals. This last week for us was really good. We had some good things happen and there is a lot of potential in the month of June.

First things first, we had a wedding for Otto and Sara this last week, and it went great! Not a lot of people came which was good because they did not want a bunch of people there, really just family members and us. #privileged.

It has been super cool to see Otto change so much. He has been a member for all of his life but for a while walked away from the path a bit with some poor decisions. His grandma, who is basically his mom because Otto’s parents died when he was little, was at the wedding and was so happy of him! She was so grateful for what we are doing to be able to help him. Seeing her cry out of joy for her son made me reflect on the pure love that a mom has for her kids.

Sara was not baptized on Saturday but she might be baptized this Saturday. Tonight we have a lesson with her so see how she is feeling now about baptism. Otto had an interview with bishop and is cleared to be able to finally present his daughter and also to be able to baptize Sara when she is baptized. I might be coming back to Guate in a year when they go into the temple.

Diego is still a beast! He baptism is a 100 percent go for this Saturday at 4 30. We should have great attendance because all of the ward knows him and want to support him.

Another person that we are teaching is Erick Molina, who I think I told you a bit about last week. He went to church this last Sunday and really wants to get baptized on the 8th of June. We are going to be trying to work a lot with him over the net two weeks to see if we can make it happen. He is 22 and also has lots of potential.

Another two people who are very probable for this month is Jaime and Maria Colon. They are in their 60’s and have gone to church the last three weeks, and they went to a marriage class that is being offered in the church right now. They have big desires to get married, get baptized, and they are starting to take an English class. PLIAS! (Awesome)

Something random: This last week I was in a paca, which are little used clothing stores in which all of the clothes come from the states, and I bought a suit vest and jacket for 6 dollars, but it did not come with pants. Dad, I don’t know if maybe you could find pants online? The brand is Vitarelli, made in Italy. On the inside of the jacket there is an information tag that says that the name is SB'V2 and the color is Charcoal. I don’t know if this part matters but it says that the shell is 65POLYESTER and 35 polyester. I don’t know why it doesn’t just say 100% polyester. I guess it is an Italian thing. :) It would be awesome if you could find some pants to go with it, it fits me great!

Another thing, I think I might end up using the money that Grandma Hughes gave me for my birthday to go towards buying a new camera. You will see in the pictures below that there are parts of the pictures that are a little blurry, and it’s due to that little part that broke. Also, tomorrow I will be going to the eye doctor to get my eyes checked. We will see if I have to get new glasses or not. I think I will because things at a distance are little blurry, I’ll let you know how it goes.

THOSE IDAHO POTATOES WERE GREAT!!!

I got the package yesterday, and wow there is a lot of great stuff. I opened what I knew to be the watch and headphones but the other wrapped package I haven’t opened although I really want to. Thank you for all of the cads and food and snacks, its perfect.

Oh, and just so you know, elder Rebeiro and I did not have changes so we will have another change together.

Reading the book Saints is going great, I am now on page 230 and still going strong. It really is worth reading, and is a testimony builder of the church.

Revelations 3:20-22 says:
 
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
 
When I was thinking about this scripture I realized that maybe the missionaries are the knock at the door in some cases. When we knock as representatives of Christ, the person chooses to let the good word in or not. But many times for members of the church the knock at the door is a spiritual knock at the door of our hearts. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him. When we allow the spirit to enter into our hearts and into our home we receive those promised blessings. The biggest is that one day we will be able to return to the presence of God, with our families. I know that every one of us wants to have that great blessing, but sometime we take our eye off the ball a little. The invitation for everybody is to not wait for ways, but look for ways to invite the spirit into our lives, and be like little children who are always humble enough to do the will of the Father. I love you all so much! Thanks you all for being such great parents and siblings!

Love, your brother and son,

Elder Marks

Hola family!
 
This last week was full of some good things. There are some changes to the plans for the end of this week but I think that the plans that we have now are the best that they could be. We were able to see the Lord manifest clearly to Diego in the temple, and good progression with Sara and Otto. 
 
Last Saturday we went to the temple on Saturday and had a great experience together with Diego and his girlfriend Lucia. While inside the temple he prayed to be able to know exactly what day he should be baptized. He prayed with very specific questions and felt super strongly that he needs to be baptized on the 1st of June. He is super awesome and super smart and he has a little bit of money so he invited us to dinner afterwards. ;) So after we left the temple he drove us all to taco bell and bought us dinner. Then he took us home in the car. 
 
With Sara and Otto, they are going to be getting married this Saturday for sure. They are going to be getting married in front of our house because where we live is also an area for events that is owned by a member, so she is letting us use it without paying. We also talked with a lawyer lady who is a member who is going to do all of the legal stuff without charging us also, so there are lots of blessings waiting for her. I think that when we talked with Sara about there being a baptismal interview it kinda startled her and now she "does not feel ready". I put that in " " because the day before she told that she was not ready, she said that whether Otto said yes or no she was going to get baptized that day. We are going to talk with her tonight and see what she says.
 
Marilin dropped off the face of the map. But we did have some people come to church last week and also this past Sunday named Jaime and Maria. They are an older couple but have a lot potential.
 
I started reading the book Saints this last week. It was authorized that we read it as missionaries. It is a very interesting book and well worth reading. Or listening to the audio on the Mormon channel. I was doing some thinking this last week and either had a quote come to my mind or came up with of my own. :) I imagine that I have heard it before... but it goes like this. "The motor that drives our actions is our thoughts". This is so true with whatever it is that we want to do! Whatever we are doing, it all starts with our thought. Even in the Book of Mormon we can find this principal being taught in Mosiah 4 verse 30 that says,
 
But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.

Although there are distractions and lots of things going on at home, keep in the mental fight! The physical might be a tough battle but the mental is the first and most important that we have to fight. 

I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week!
 
Love, your brother and son,
Elder Marks

Well Family!
 
Well after talking on Sunday there really is not a lot of things that have happened in the last two days. So it might be kinda of a short letter. 
 
On Sunday after the calls is when we started being in our trio. On Monday we really did not do anything because we had all of our Monday meetings and planning, and when we got back to the house, there was a bunch of water in the house because a small water line broke under the sink, so we had to call the landlord lady and she sent over the handyman and he got it all fixed. So we ended up loosing the whole day to meetings and water problems. 
 
Yesterday we had interviews with President Shumway, which was great. The interviews did not talk at all about the changes that are going to happen or nothing super special. But the Zone Leaders are always the last ones to go and afterwards President and Sister Shumway decided to take us to dinner. So we went to Burger King and we all bought our burgers, and after we ordered but before we paid Sister Shumway asked if we bought shakes, we said no and she said, “you gotta get a shake also!” So that was kind of a fun experience.
 
Also, last week on Saturday we went to the temple with Sara and Otto, Sara is the non-member and Otto is the member who is now active but was inactive. Things went super well in the temple and they are now planning on being married this month on the 25th and also she wants to be able to get baptized on the same day. 
 
Diego is also progressing really well. He has completely stopped drinking coffee and he wants to be baptized on the 25th also. 
 
And Miguel Angel from Las Margaritas is planning on being able to enter the temple and get sealed on the same day. 

With the new big focus in the name of the church I had a scripture come to my mind that talks about the name of the church. The scripture is in 3 Nephi 27 the verse says, And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel. 
 
This scripture really reminds me of the talk that the Prophet Nelson gave about 8 months back that had a massive focus on the name of the church. Christ himself really hit the nail on the head by saying the things that he did about the name of the church and how if the church has the name of a man or even a prophet like Mormon it means that it is the church of that person. 
 
I know a lot of people kinda joke around about having to say the whole name of the church but it really is not a joke. It is what we have been commanded to call the church and through being obedient to the things that we are supposed to do we will be blessed greatly. 
 
I know that this is the true church and that through being exactly obedient to the commandments of God we will find more joy in doing what is right! 

 
I sure love you all and hope that you have a great week! Just remember to keep the main thing the main thing!
 
Your Brother and Son,
Elder Marks

Hey Family!
 
Well this week we had some kinda cool things happen with people that we are teaching, as well as some changes for the month of May. 
 
In the mission council last week, and then also in the multi zone, we were informed that during the month of May we would be working without numbers at all. Every six months there is a little missionary survey thing that all of the missionaries take. Although Guatemala City South ranked number 1 in almost all of the categories, we still weren’t making it above 50% in almost all of the questions about teaching. So to make a really long story short, there are 0 numbers during this month, meaning there weren’t goals put as a mission for baptisms, every zone didn’t put goals, and every area didn’t put goals. Also, in mission council we made a self evaluation card that has 10 questions that have to do with the way we teach, that we now do after every lesson.
 
Flor was suppose to get baptized this Saturday but is now living in Baberena, which is a little far away and it is part of a different area. We passed the reference on and hopefully the sisters that are there will contact her and she can still be baptized soon. Obviously I wish that she was still living here so that we could teach her and have the baptism here, but the important part is not that we teach her and that she is baptized here. The most important thing is that she can still get baptized and that she can be faithful to the covenant of baptism. 
 
Diego is progressing very well! He knows so much about the gospel and really does want to get baptized. The only thing is that he has a girlfriend who is a member of the church, and he wants to make sure that he gets baptized for himself and not just because his girlfriend is a member . We are planning to try to go to the temple with him on Saturday the 18th.
 
On Sunday a member brought her friend to church, her name is Marilin and yesterday we had our first lesson with her. In the lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon because she had questions about it. At the end of the lesson she offered the prayer and was really able to open the heavens and not just talk to the ceiling. Ñ= Her prayer was very awesome. In the prayer she gave thanks that we were finally there to teach her as she has wanted for so long. And she also prayed that she would be able to continue going to church, and also that it wouldn’t just be one or two visits and then no more but that she would be able to really follow God and be able to learn a bunch. It is still super early in the teaching process and a lot of things could happen, but we are feeling super positive about the possibilities with her. 
 
Two of the big focuses in the mission right now is the way that we are praying, and reading in the Book of Mormon. Although these things are really focused on the person being taught they also apply to our lives. A prayer is not just simply talking, but rather, when we pray we have the opportunity to open the heavens. When we pray we truly should go to our quiet place like is says in the scriptures and then really express all of our thoughts, concerns, and also ask of God. When we read in the BOM we should not just simply just read the words, but rather, we should learn how to savor the scriptures. Learn how to read slowly, and with pauses, really taking the time to allow the spirit to teach us. After all, the spirit is the best teacher that there is. I know because I am personally trying to make these changes, that if we apply these two basic principles to our life that we will have a deeper, lasting conversion to those things that we know to be true. That truly when Christ returns for his own he will have no problem recognizing us, because our banner will be clear, our banner being that of discipleship.  
 
I love you all so much and hope the best for you all!
 
Love,
Elder Marks

 
Hey Family!
 
This week we did divisions with the AP’s of the mission, so that was exciting. It was kinda cool because at the end of the day they ask a bunch of questions about the zone and we can just tell them exactly how things are, they are going tell president and he will get things organized the way that they should be. 
 
We had our lessons with Diego this last week and that went really well. He has almost a year of exposure of the church, he understands a lot about church doctrine and wants to learn more. He is 25 and works a lot and also studies, so we can only teach him on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday when we has our lesson with him, we left him the cover page, intro, 2 Nephi 31, and the first pamphlet to read, and when we talked with him the next day at church, he had already read all of the reading assignments! We have high hopes for him, so we will see what happens. 
 
This week we also went to the temple with Flor and had a great experience. Before hand she wanted to be baptized but now she really really wants to get baptized. Her programmed baptismal date is for the 11th of the month of May. In the picture attached below Flor is the very short one:)
 
Well, that’s really all that happened this week. It was just a nice normal week of missionary life. Actually, the highlight of the week might have been dinner last night. You know those frozen been and beef burritos? Well, a family gave us those for dinner and it made me really happy. We were just missing the Pace salsa and the melted cheddar cheese!
 
 My spiritual thought is, "Oh be wise; what can I say more?" (Jacob 6:12). Short but sweet. Lots of messages we can pull out of the scripture, everyone will pull out the teachings that are needed at this time in your life.
 
I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week and that you can MAKE lots of things happen in your life.
 
Love, 
Elder Marks