We are in week 5 of the change! Only this week and one more week till we will be having changes. We had interviews with president this last week and he said that I would be leaving. I cannot believe that by the end of this change I will have been in my first area for 6 months. It does not feel like I have been here for half of a year! I guess time flies when you're baptizing souls! :) 
 
Elder Segovia really is a decent missionary... One of the best days this week was when we did splits this last week, and feeling the spirit guide both of our thoughts to the same house. It was really interesting to think back on the experience and think of how it felt to literally have the spirit guide us to the house. This type of experience would be easy to deny and say that it was just our thoughts. However I know that it was the guidance from the Holy Ghost. In the house there was a family, one of whom is a member! The other three were not, but we will be working closely with them. 
 
The members are fairly good at taking in newly baptized members, but as missionaries we still try to visit them at least one time a week. Miguel Angel, the convert from the beginning of June, received the Melchizedek Priesthood this last Sunday! Mariela has three kids: Velvet 13, Andy 12, and Christian 8. Christian has autism or something of that nature but I believe that he is in the picture that I sent home last week.
 
We have been teaching Christian (different from above) for a while and we are hoping that he can be baptized the first week of this next month. Manuel is doing good but right now he and his girlfriend want to wait until next year to get married, so we will need to work with him on that. Once he has a stronger testimony I think he will speed up the process.
 
Mom I love that part of the talk that you shared this last week! The importance of dong the small things, I feel, are very easily overlooked. We all must work continually to develop the spiritual pattern of doing the small and simple things. 
 
I did not realize that Sherry was dealing with cancer in her arm again. Hopefully she will recover quickly, my prayers are with her.
 
Life is crazy! There are so many things happening in the family, both with Kylie and Erika traveling and getting ready for school, buying cars, etc.! That looks like a good first car. Dad, you have always been so good at talking people into the right deal. Whether it is playing monopoly or buying cars. :)
 
So if somebody here has a laundry machine, they have pisto! Or money. I suppose you could say that we use a laundromat. :) The neighbor next door happens to be a member and she is the one who washes our clothes for us. She does it by hand. I know that when missionaries are serving outside of the capital, they just wash their own clothes. I might be doing that in a couple of weeks. I am excited to see what happens in this next change!
 
All right, the scripture that jumped out to me this week is in Romans, 1:16-17. It says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." I love the beginning part, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Me neither! Just a reminder to people to never shy away from taking the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
I sure love you all! Keep doing good and remember your different goals, both physically and spiritually!
 
Love, your brother and son,
 
Elder Marks 

 
Hey Family!
 
Well first things first for sure, Mariela got baptized this last Saturday! She had a date for the 14th, but after Elder Fogg did the interview for her she was convinced to not wait but to go ahead and get baptized one week earlier. It was a really nice baptism and the spirit was there. Both of her kids were so happy that she finally made the decision. After ten years it was finally her time to be baptized, then confirmed on Sunday.
 
The man that we found last week, Manuel came to church also, which was really nice, however he was about 35 minutes late:) Christian also came to church for the second time, he has all of the lessons and has read all of the chapters in the Book of Mormon, so after one more Sunday he will be ready to be baptized. We just really need to make sure he wants to be baptized. He is one of the people who’s really hard to actually teach, he is usually not home or sleeping. Brandon now has a date for the 21st of this month also, we are trying to focus on visiting him a lot or at least talk with him every day or two to make sure he is doing good. 
 
The ward here is good at supporting the new members and everything, and now it is a rule in our mission that a new convert needs a calling or assignment within the first thirty days. The internet cafe guy is Manuel. We were able to teach him a couple more times this last week and we have another visit with him Friday.
 
The rain has been kinda weird this year, usually we get a lot more, but this year we really have not received all that much. It still seems to rain every few days, but not as much as I thought that it would. 
 
I think that really was a CDA bus. Way to get some Scare Boxes cranked out! I am looking forward to getting some pictures or videos when the shop is all done. The shop has been the same layout for so many years that it might take a little bit to get use to the new set up. 
 
That is sad about Buddy, I hope he either shows up or we have a feeling of comfort that he is in Heaven now. 
 
Things here are going good, I am settling to having a new comp. We had our comp inventory this last Monday so that was awesome! :) Just kidding, it was actually good, we now have a better plan to work better together and to make sure that we are being more effective with our time and so that we teach like we are on a team. I love being able to be a bit more of a leader! I have always kind of liked that pressure as a leader. I know that if I don’t work, we really will not get that much done. I guess the pressure is on! I feel like that past 6 months have gone by quite fast. I feel like I should still be just starting on my mission but I have already been in Las Margaritas for 5 months. I am looking forward to getting a new area in about another month. The mission is going to be getting a bunch more missionaries in the next few changes so there is a good chance that I will be training or end up as a DL somewhere. I guess we will see what happens.
 
“And it came to pass that they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul” Just a reminder of how the Holy Spirit works, and that we need to listen to this still small voice. Even though every one of our lives is full of noise, when we listen and try to follow the spirit we will have more peace and direction in this life. I love you all so much!
 
Love,
Elder Marks​

Hey Family!
 
I have good news! Mariela’s boyfriend is now out of the picture! She will be baptized the 14th of this month. The first time that she went to church was 10 years ago. I feel super happy for her and we hope that everything continues to go well these next couple of weeks. We were trying to get her to be baptized the 7th but for some reason she really wants to wait until the 14th. Since we started visiting her five months ago she has stopped drinking, smoking, and now she is obeying the law of chastity.
 
This last week we were in a Internet cafe getting a couple of pictures printed and the guy who owns the area said, “tell me about you religion". And so I began, one night sitting around the camp fire one of my friends said, “Hey Jack, tell us a story”, and so I began.  Sorry:) That popped into my head for some reason. So we taught the Restoration and answered a couple of questions, he also had questions about what happens after this life so we left him with the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet, as well as a Book of Mormon, with 2 Nehpi 31, 3 Nephi 11, and Moroni 10. When we came the next day to see how he was doing, he had read the 2 Nephi chapter and little parts of the other ones. It is hard to visit during the week because he is really busy with work, so we have visits with him for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hopefully he can get married and come to church. 
 
Honestly this last week was a little rough, being the first week with a new companion. I might be in for it for a little while. Elder Segovia is a good teacher once he can get into the lesson, if I say something like “now Elder Segovia will explain”, or something like that. He also has no problem with just wasting time with members. So, it is a little difficult but now I am learning how to start lessons and end lessons better, so we don’t end up wasting time with members. Really the missionary purpose, and president is really clear, is to baptize.  
 
I loved getting the pictures from Oregon, looks like you guys had a good time. I hear you though on the time of year thing. When I went with Kylie it was that way too. I like when there are more rocks, bigger agates and a little moodier.
 
I am drinking lots of good clean water. Honestly I am not sure how my Latino companions are surviving. They really do not drink hardly any water. As far as the food goes... not too bad. Members usually do a good job at having veggies with lunch and everything. For breakfast I usually eat oatmeal or make a smoothie.
 
I loved watching the videos of the shop, it looks like it is going to be awesome to work out there, and even nicer without all of the compressor hoses everywhere. I am looking forward to painting the truck together. I think you should plan out a wacky paint pattern to do. Maybe look up some Guatemalan buses and take one of their designs. 
 
Thank you also for taking the time to share your testimony with me. I feel the strength that you have when I read it. It really is a matter of a lot of small moments that build up one strong testimony.
 
I love you all so much and hope that everything is going well for you all! 
 
Love,
Elder Marks

Hey Family!
 
Well first things first, changes. Ready - I am still in Las Margaritas. I was really hoping that I would get another change with Elder Fogg, but he is now serving in Lo de Bran as the zone leader. So we are still in the same zone, just not companions. My new companion is Elder Segovia, he is from Chile. I really do not have enough time with him yet to say what I think of him. I’m sure the change will go well. He has just over a year in the mission and has been a DL for the last five changes.
 
This last week was kinda a tough one. It felt a little slow and we had some problems with the parents of Henry and with Brandon. Last Thursday when we were talking to Henry’s dad, he said that he would not sign the paper because Henry’s grades were down and the dad wanted to make sure that the church was something that he really wanted to do. Then we went to visit Brandon and his mom was saying that she did not want him to get baptized yet, and that she feels like he needs more time going to church and making sure that this is something that he wants to do. Which is unfortunate, but we knew that Brandon wanted to be baptized so we invited her to talk with Brandon and see what it is that he wants to do. So all of that put a damper on things but we were still feeling good. 
 
The next day we visited Henry again and it was no problem to get the signature from the dad and everything went smoothly. Then we went to talk with Brandon, and we could tell tat the mom did talk to him, but really just filled his head with a bunch of doubt, that he was not ready and that if he sins or does not go to church for a week, then there are huge punishments. So then he was not sure if he wanted to get baptized or not. After talking for sometime with the mom, she said that Brandon had her support but that it is his decision. But all of the thoughts of his mom were already in his head. So were weren’t able to baptize him this last week, but he accepted the seventh of July to work towards his baptism.
 
But we still were able to baptize Henry on Saturday! We should be able to baptize Brandon and Mariela this month. Honestly the whole baptism run around experience was a good reminder of where our success comes from and the need to be humble in all situations of our life.
 
Kylie, I love getting the pictures and it sounds like everything is going really well for you in Fiji! Keep me updated ;P
 
Overall people really are short, I do feel tall at times which is really nice because in the states I’m average height. Now we always just write here at the church so we do not have to pay to use the internet. We just have to pay five quetz for a taxi. I write in my journal every night. I have the goal to write every night for my whole mission. Usually the entries are shortish, but sometimes they are longer. 
 
Dad, I love the little Spanglish that you threw in there. Mucho bettero now! Made me actually laugh out loud. Thank you for the pictures and the music. The shop really is looking better, starting to look like a really nicely set up shop. That is awesome that you modified the sander a little. It really should be mucho bettero now. The new mower looks sweet! I’m looking forward to when there is grass to mow again! The yard is looking amazing, that new tree is going to be sweet! I think that you should wait to paint the truck till I get home! I have always wanted to try to paint a car or truck. Speaking of trucks... Mom’s truck is looking awesome! It is so shiny, and it looks brand new again.
 
I had forgotten that we bought the tile for the bathroom last year. What color did Erika paint the bathroom? That is one of the last things that needs to happen in the house, that bathroom and maybe the masters (Yes, the masters not the master) :) bathroom.
 
Happy Anniversary! That is awesome that you guys are going to the Oregon cost! That should be fun for you guys to have some time to chill over there. It is probably a good thing that you guys are taking Erika and not making her stay at home. :) I cannot believe it has already been a year since you guys went to Alaska!
 
Keep doing what you guys need to do. I love you all so much!
 
Love your brother and son,
Elder Marks
 
P.S What is up with the spider in the jerky. I even saw the cut in the back but just assumed it was an accident. Totally caught my funny bone, I know that that one must have came from dad. It didn’t startle me too bad but it was a little shock to see a big yellow and black spider in my hand.