Pictures!

MTC laundry room. Writing letters during the rinse cycle.

Cafeteria or House of Beans & Rice

View of Sao Paulo from the roof. Under the metal roof is the indoor gym

View of Sao Paulo from Scott's MTC room.

Mr. Cheneys across the street. The missionaries can go here on p-day to get American items, cookies, and email.

Week No. 7 July 30, 2008

hey elder marx here.

ctm life is good now that the strike is over. i got some letters (9) from my mish and a package(2) from her just some tapes and some really fun stuff like markers and postit notes, she is wonderful. along with the package from sis hig i got a package from the iron mountain ward primary. it was so fun. i was hoping i would get something like that. tell sis leavitt i haven’t read all of them but i will.

um... nothing too exciting except i leave in two weeks, yeah ya. i fly to belo like a 1 hour flight at 5 in the morning. i hope to call you from the airport cause the rules say i get 2 calls home a year one christmas and another day ( useally mothers day) so I’m going to talk to pres frei about seeing if i could call but no promises. if i do it will be at like 2 in the morning.

um... yeah proselytizing again this week. teaching experience was good. taught a bishop lesson 2 so it was pretty cool. i did well, i think. he smiled and nodded his head the hole time so whatever.

oh we just ate lunch as a district out side the ctm at this really good burger place for cheap, like i got fries and burgar and the avocado concoction for 8 reis pretty good except for the drink

um.... im doing good and studying hard omg..... thanks for jinxing me, mom. elder housley made ap in our branch so, yeah, now on sunday i have to go to meetings instead of lunch. i know, i know, i can hear dad agorda" thats what he getts for being obedient" but now i have to suffer ... jk its not that bad, plus i really like our branch pres so i just use it as an opportunity to learn from the branch pres.

god be with you

elder marx

Week No. 5 7/16/08

well another week down and 4 or so to go. time is really starting to pick up. O templo foi otimo hoje. o temple de são paulo is like the best. There’s stained oak and just awesome, just wished devon could have been there with me. so last week i got my first hair cut from the ctm barber yeah, he like doesn’t look when he is cutting and just talks and sings the whole time but he has cut hair at all four of the ctms that have been in brazil. but its funny cause like elders will come to class with missed spot in there hair, i don’t have that problem cause i was like ‘hey focus on my hair’ but he doesn’t speak english so it’s funny to try and talk to him.

we taught a family last saturday it was kool, but not at the same time. like there’s 12 in the district and only enuff rooms for half so we had to split up so me and doogy had to teach with others. i taught with elder coats (idaho) and elder halgren (montana) they did awesome. i stumbled but got my message out. it was awesome cause there wasn’t a word that i wanted to say that i didn’t know, so i totally had everything i needed to say in my lesson. there was some divine help with that cause me and housley tried to teach our lesson the night before and we couldn’t keep it under 15 mins.

all is well aqui the language is ok i feel a lot better EVEN THO ELDER SNEEZE-ALL-DAY (housley) GOT ME SICK so yea, I sleep better even tho I’m sick, weird.

can’t wait to leave the place they call spirit prison love you all, elder marx
sure, dad, you can use my 47 inch tv while I’m gone…LOL

(note before I start Scott’s email. Most people hanging around our family will end up with a nickname. After the first week when we heard Scott’s companion, Elder Housley, was a pretty studious kid, we were a little concerned. Scott, to say the least, isn’t. We’ve nicknamed Scott’s companion Doogie Houser. So that’s who Scott’s referring to when he says doogie, his companion. He also is DYING to meet an apostle in real life. When he read Devon’s letter about all the apostles at the mtc in provo for missionary president training, scott was bummed. That’s the explanation for another reference he was making. And finally, with 45 cousins in the Vegas valley, our kids are constantly meeting people that know a cousin or aunt and uncle, the first thing every body asks is …are you related to…)


Ok, so you were right. i think i told you about this other missionary serving in the SP north which covers the ctm and all the teachers live close to the ctm and this elder marx is in their ward. so guess what i get every time i see a new teacher "marx, marx are you related too?" not kidding. It’s crazy, i can’t escape it! I’m in another hemisphere and i still get it. but it’s all good. so for the 4th of july all the americans totally played it up. I’ve never been so patriotic in my life. for lunch we did get burgers and fries and what the brazilians could call ice cream it just wasn’t the same, but I’m grateful for their effort. on sunday we had ctm conference cause of it being fast sunday (have them every fast sunday and tell brian that not even the water fountains work let alone the vending machines) plus if you see someone go even a inch toward a water fountain your like HEY its fast Sunday, cause if i have to fast so do you. i sang in a quartet the star spangle banner it was pretty good.

ok last friday we went tracking. IT WAS AWESOME. it was the first time i really felt like a missionary. so much fun. tell devon to keep his apostles, i talked to people in my mission language. Shnazzberries! (i told my district about shnazzberries at first they thought it was stupid but soon enough one was like shnazzberries! Yeah, that’s right, spreading the word.) we must have talked to like 60 people. most of them were like what ? no, get away, cause i guess the missionaries go to the same place every friday and so they were prepared by the wrong person. i even talked to a anti in english from north Carolina. Yeah, he said that we’re a really good business and we were doing good coming and talkin to all the poor gullible people takin 10 percent of there money. he also said that’s what a bishop told him in north carolina (good job brian... jk) but me and doogie just bared our testimony and left. it was sad that his heart was hardened. hopefully we softened it a little . that’s what we keep hearing "just leave a good impression for the next missionaries" if that’s the case, do i get to count it to my total if they get baptized? Jk. wrong attitude i know, but funny.

so this saturday me and doogie are teaching a member family in the ctm like all memory no papers and all in Portuguese, so plaese pray for doogie so he can talk the whole time and I’ll just testify.

Um, i think that’s it. oh we went to the são paulo temple today so we got back a lot earlier than usual so I’m looking forward to chillin. so today is a holiday so I wasn’t even sure if the email place would be open. i guess like in 1878 or some stupid year brazil almost had a civil war so now they celebrate an almost fight ... sounds to me like some lame excuse of a day off work.

Email June 25, 2008

Well, another week down I’m technically on my 3rd week, I leave August 12th um... i totally forgot what i was going to write but i hope i can remember... every thing is good at the ctm or centro de treinamento missionãrio.

As I am sitting here in the computer place I’m sitting next to a one elder marx from Oregon. yea crazy. he said his family is from utah. crazy crazy

ok so the schedule goes as follows
630 arise
7 personal study
730 comp study
8 breakfast
830 class
1230 missionary directed study time
1245 lunch
145 class
515 dinner
615 mdst
825 gym
930 shower
10 quiet time
1030 light out
thats monday wed friday; tues day no gym but devotional, thursday no gym just mdst for 3 HOURS!!!!! and saturday large group meeting at 8 sunday church in the morning free time between 11;10 an 6 when i go to choir and yes mom we sing in Portuguese and fire side at 7 the district meeting then night time as followed

so i now know why elders get fat in the ctm cause theres a lot of food and they just sit in class all day i think i weight like 160 kilos or something i cant remember

just remember James E. Faust said that there’s two missionaries ones who went to brazil and the ones who wish they did. hola

Email June 18, 2008

hey every buddy im doing good in the ctm its way fun. Yes is true straight from a missionary we eat beans and rice ever MEAL!!! not kidding. Irmo calvocunte /kow-vo-cunche/ or we just call him captin crunch he teaches us in the afternoon and we have such a good time. To my brothers and sisters just remember what the stake president said that i need letters and he is right im not kidding, you cant disobey a man called of god can you... didnt think so. its kool. some times we talk about deep doctrine in between class and mdst. some pretty intresting stuff. my district is the best in the whole ctm. and im so lucky to be a part of it. just me and my companion are going to belo horizonte but its cool most of them are going to the curachiba. well times up and got to go be i talk to you next week peace

WE RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM THE MTC PRESIDENT

Dear Parents,
We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time.
They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study.
The branch presidents and their wives, who are usually a senior missionary couple or mature Brazilian couple, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.
The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife.
We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.
Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on individual assignments.
Important information is attached for communicating with your missionary through letters and other mail while at the MTC. Your missionary's district is 24-B and the mail box number is15. Too many packages are arriving after the missionary has left to the field, so we ask that you send a package only in the first 4 weeks and after that send any packages to his or her mission home.
We are also parents of children who have served as missionaries. And we have been missionaries who have left family. Please know that we are mindful of you and know of your love for your missionary.
Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: "There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children."
Please accept our love,
President and Sister Woodward
Brazil