Hey!

Hello my people,

So, this week was up and down.  Whats new on the Mission right? So here in Rond. its a lot more metropolitan but my area is pretty ghetto not gonna lie.  But we have church in a house cuz we dont have a building here yet.. which is a little different, but at the same time its all the same which is a cool experience.  Same spirit, same church, same truth.  But after church we found a house with a huge sign that said Jehovas Witnesses, and my compainion went to take a pic and while he was posing I starting clapping my hands ( which is the same as ringing the door bell here) and he had to stay and talk with them for a while... It was really funny, tho he was so mad at me. 

But lets see what else.. oh and as if being colorblind wasnt confusing enough, oranges here are green? Yeah, I know my world just got more confusing. Also Uno is a difficult game sometimes.. Well only with the yellow and green, but I still won. Brazilians arent good at card games.

So there were a few short things from this week, but would like to focus most of my email on Rogerio.  

My first contact, investigator, and best friend here that was in my first area. He was my investigator that was progressing incredibly. So this week I recieved a call from his Mom and she told me that he had died. 

Rogerio had died of a heart attack.. at first I didnt believe it, it just didnt seem real.. And then she said I really wanted to call and tell you because you changed his life.  She told me that after every visit, and everyday he would talk about `Elder Phipps`all the time and how much he was starting to love the gospel.  It then got really real for me, because I knew I meant so much to him and he really meant a lot to me. He had finally quit smoking and was on his 5th day of smoking 0 cigarettes, and finally had a baptism date that he was beyond excited for, because he had finally met his goal to quit smoking.  At first I took the news pretty hard because he was so close to recieving so many blessings of the gospel.  But then I began to think.. God truly has a plan for all of us.  And because of this plan, and through the Savior these types of things arent the end. I know that he has a special work for Rogerio and that he has a plan specific for him. I learned a lot from this experience but also I really learned a lot from him. He taught me how to love more, how to focus on the happiness of life. He was amazing father to his 4 yr old Samuel. Please keep Rogerio and His Family in your prayers.

Not much more has happened this week. We are starting to work really well with the members here, and recieving lots of contacts through them which has been great! Help the missionaries in your ward, its hard to do it alone, and the influence of the help of members goes a long way for investigators! Make a goal to give a reference a month to the missionaries.. think how many people you know. How many firends you have on the face book.. Pass one to the members and work with them you will be suprised of the miracles that will occur! 

Well I love you all and hope you have another blessed and safe week!

Elder Marcus Phipps

1st Week here in Rondonòpolis!

Sooooo I am here in Rondonòpolis..  Finally!  The travel turned out quite interesting so I will start with that.. 

SO,  I was told 7 hours by bus to arrive there and I thought okay, not terrible. Beleza.  I can do 7 hours.. Well, about half way we were traveling through these smaller mountains and literaly we were out in no mans land!  Like everywhere you look there was trees and small mountains.. But anyways the Bus broke down and at first I am thinking ´hmm this is a weird place for someone to be getting off the bus´ but it was broken down.. And so I am just sitting there and decide well this could be a while, I will just take a quick nap here.   I woke up 3 hours later, still there.. and waited and waited.. and got really hungry and thirsty and waited and we were there through the day and through the night.  Out no where to be found and I was just thinking man I am probabaly going to die here.. this is it for me.. I am a gonner.. No, but finally the next day another bus passed through ( a REALLY SMALL BUS) and stopped for us, and all of us crammed onto the small little bus with all our stuff.  And keep in mind here that I am traveling alone in a foreign country knowing nothing about the area.. Yeah it was terrible. but we finally arrived and I got off with all my stuff and sit and wait to get picked up... and then I realized wait no one knows where I am.. why I didnt show up when I was supposed to.  I dont have a phone and then a miracle happened.. a member of the ward that I am being transfered to was leaving to travel to Campo Grande and he called his brother and he came and picked me up and took me to my companion.. AND after 2 and a half days of wearing the same clothes.. and not eating or drinking anything I had arrived! But I am extremely lucky for the member and I never want to go 2 and a half days without food or water again please! But I am here and the area is awesome!!

My new house is extremely Ghetto! I went to plug in the iron and the wall started smoking really bad so I dont think I will be ironing my shirts for a little while, until I can figure out a new method haha.. But I really like it here already! My companion is awesome! He is from Curitiba and only knows the offensive words in english and he says them all the time and doesnt know what they mean.  I am working on explaining them to him haha its bad but really funny. He plays the guitar really good and is teaching me. Everynight we sit on our roof drink tererê and he teaches me guitar.. I am already pretty good if I dont say so myself.. No, I am terrible but I will get good just wait and see! Also!! here I talked Prez Reber into giving us permission to go to the Gym, down the street because my companion has bad knees and it would be great to do workouts to help, and so he gave us the okay! And what did i do? yupp we went and bought gym memberships to the Gym of Brazil and its awesome! So I am really excited about this area cuz I get to use the GYM!! I missed the gym so much. But the first day a lady there made us take a physical test...?  Like okay haha, and made me run a mile, and ride the bike for 30 mins.  And I am just like wait a sec here lady I want to lift not run... and to enter they scan your finger print so its pretty legit, they dont mess around.. But I met a Huge dude there named Françisco and he wants me to come over and teach him and work out together so even at the gym I am a missionary! 

Well, other than that I dont have a lot.. the work was really slow because of the travel here and the problems with the house and getting to know the new area but this week should be a great one and I am excited to jump back into the Mission work!

Thanks for all the support and I love you all! Hope you all have a safe and blessed week!

Warm regards, 

Elder Marcus Phipps

What up my people!

Sooo, might as well begin with the big news.. I am getting transfered today!  So I am just as suprised as everyone else.. 

But, I leave in an hour for a 9 hour bus ride to.... duh duh duh duh duh duh duh!!! Rondonòpolis Brasil! Dont really know too much, but my new companion is a Brazilaro! And it gets better I am almost 80 percent positive that they told me I am training him...? But I think they meant another Elder because why would I train a Brazilaro when I have only had half of training..? So I will find out later today I guess! But due to me leaving in less than an hour I dont have a lot of time to email, which makes me sad because I love the email and my pday is going to be spent on a crammed bus..

But this week was good, Rogerio is extremely sad I am leaving.. cuz I was going to baptize him next sunday.. but its been a great transfer here in the Jungle. I dont think my new area will be as thick jungle but I hear its a little colder which means 110 maybe, so that will be nice! 

To start the week my investigator that tells extremely animated stories gave me a legit palmeiras soccer jersey with marcus written on the back.. and it was worn by him during a game and valcenil gave it to me cuz we have the same name! 

Its awesome, will send a pic next week! Also my companion and I went running one morning this week.. yes I actually went running just to run.. and we got attacked by dogs so I have decided to give up running again for a while. Neither of us got bit bad, just scratched and stuff.  But lets just say the fake rock throw only worked on two of the 3  attacking dogs haha But all is good, so no worries!  Other than that, was a good weeek!  Taught a bunch of lessons and had 7 investigators at church last sunday. So it was a great last week here in Morada Da Serra! Well i dont have time to send any pics but I will send a bunch

next week to make up for it! Love you all!

Com Sinceridade,

Marcus Phipps

Heyy!

Whadupp My People!

Soo today i bought a blow dart gun.. We went down to the jungle jungle where legit tribal people live and well yeah i bought a blow dart gun.. i know what your thinking.. ´´why in the world would he buy a blow dart gun´´ and well right now i am thinking the exact same thing. BUT, in the moment i was only thinking two things. 1. holy smokes its a real blow dart gun.. how many times in my life will i come across one of these. and 2. i only had the thoughts of protection and well being of my companion and district. so yeah i bought it. i also bought a crocodile tooth necklace and a basket woven baseball cap which is also way sick looking. So yeah today i went down to chapada which is where the waterfalls are and really cool views i have some awesome pics this week!

So last Pday i played basketball with all the elders in the near bye areas and it was really fun. I dunked and to a bunch of brazilians that is a miracle so i had a lot of fun playing around with all them cuz they all play soccer. Also here everyone thinks cough drops are candy...? uhh no they are not but everybody loves them so why not eat them with them right? 

This week was a great week! well not really too great but got to always stay positive! Our really firme baptism fell through.. we cant figure out why she says she truly believes everything and knows she needs to be baptized but doesnt think she can right now...? but we are just trying to show our love and support because pressure wont help anything, we cant make the decision for her. Our other baptism his dad changed his mind after signing the paper saying his son could and wont let him.. His name is pedro and he is pretty sad he wants to be baptized so bad but we are going to continue to work with them! and as if that wasnt enough dissapointment our other baptism fell through becasue she said she has been faking everything because she just wanted us to keep coming over to teach becasue she thought i was really cute... and my companion is really funny.. so that was all really sad.. BUT it was still an awesome week..? why? becasue we still have a bunch of progressing investigators and the work always goes on! and we had conference so it. was. a. great. week!

How great is conference? So this week before conference i got a copy of the may sessions and marked up the talks like scripture becasue they are like scriptures for us in these days! i would suggest doing the same get a copy of the talks and mark them like scriptures and save them and read them like you read the scriptures.. i have learned so much and improved myself so much from doing this! I mean think about it.. WE HAVE A PROPHET! another thing that struck me that i think i always took for granted a little bit.. Just like Moses or Noah or Isaiah.. Thomas S. Monson is the same kind of prohet! i always use this when teaching our investigators.. say moses lived down the streat.. the same moses that split the red sea and conversed with god face to face to recieve the 10 commandments.. and this moses started a church.. how easy and clear is it that everyone would join and follow him.. becasue he is Moses!! We have the same thing today.. a true living prophet of god that talks to him directly for us to guide us and our families.. thats as big of a blessing as it comes my friends. 

Also during the week i wrote a talk just in case i had to give one and i wrote it about alma chapter 59 when moroni commanded to build dirt mounds and various things for protection along with all their armour. well Rich G. Scott basically gave the same message i had prepared so i am feeling pretty good i wrote a talk like an apostle but also a little dissapointed becasue now i have to write another haha. But in mine i focus on in one verse it says the lamanites had prepared with armour too. I drew a prallel that the adversary knows us now better than ever and he knows we put on the armour of God and so he is trying to put on armour too. This is what makes the dirt and others preparations important. It isnt enough in this day in age to only put on the Armour of God but we need to build preparations with wearing the armour of god to prevent the firey darts of the adversary from even reaching our armour. it is not enough to only read the scriptures.. we need to feast upon them and conference talks too. it isnt enough to just pray anymore.. we need to pour out our souls daily morning and night! we need to not just attend church but go to be edified to learn more OF christ not ABOUT him and renew our promises with him.. This is how we can build our dirt walls of protection!

Also i thought it was really funny when.. i forget him name.. and dont have my notes.. but he spoke sunday afternoon. but he was english i think but he had a fly pestering him the whole time he was trying to talk i thought it was hilarious i couldnt stop laughing!

Well this email is quite long already but know i love you all and miss you every day! Hope you have another great week!

Much Love to my people!

Big Marcus