Live the Gospel Joyful

  I hit 4 months this week! How is that even possible? My training also ended today which is crazy. I`m on my 4th transfer of my mission. And in 2 weeks I hit 1/4 of my mission. Time flies when you`re having fun!

  I was super happy to find out that I`m staying one more transfer in my area! I love it here and wasn`t ready to leave. Also my area more than doubled with this change. My ward was split into 2 areas with 4 hermanas sharing the ward boundaries, but they took the other hermanas out, so it`s just us! Our area is gigantic. 

  This week I was super sad because my convert, Maria, left me and moved to Cusco. We had our last lesson with her on Saturday and at the end she bore her testimony and told us how grateful she is for us and everything we`ve done for here and I couldn`t stop crying. She kept saying "no llores hermanita!".  It was so sad, but she`s called us everyday since then and we`re going to keep in contact with her to make sure she stays active.

  We have baptism this Saturday! Marilu! She`s so great and has a really strong desire to change and draw closer to the Lord. 

  Also yesterday at Church a 20 ish year old girl walked up to us and said "I`ve been in Cusco for the last 2 months and I had all the discussions and I want to get baptized, can you help me?". Hahaha heck yes we can help you! So we have an appointment with her tomorrow and hopefully she`ll get baptized this Saturday with Marilu. 

  That`s about all I got for this week! Which is a lot! We have a lot going on now, especially with our area doubling, so this week should be super busy and great! I love you all!

P.S. Go read President Uchtdorf`s talk from the General Women`s Conference "Living the Gopsel Joyful". I love it! Remember what a huge blessing it is to have the gospel in our lives and share that joy with others!

Hermana Marshall

Someone in Peru loves you

Another great week in Peru! 

 

  This week I really realized how far I`ve come in my Spanish. I understand pretty much everything! And I can speak without thinking most of the time. I`m really just lacking vocab and my wording isn`t very sophisticated. Haha. This week a friend from the CCM and one of my teachers emailed me and I read and replied to their emails without even thinking about it. And yesterday I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting. And I was just hanging out and talking to my zone leaders a couple weeks ago and they were telling me that they`ve really seen the gift of tongues in me. When I got here I couldn`t understand anyone and I could barely say the most simple sentence, but now I can converse without having to even think about it. I know that the Lord is helping me to learn this language, I wouldn`t be learning it as fast as I am without His help.

 

  For all of you who know how picky I am, you`ll be happy to know that this week I was fed a cow tongue sandwich. And tuna spaghetti (tuna is my least favorite food on the planet). Oh also I`ve gotten over the whole cheese thing. For the holidays we went out to eat twice at Papa Johns and I was so happy to eat pizza that I didn`t even think about taking the cheese off. And guess what? I liked it. The pizza, not the cow tongue or the tuna. Haha. My cow tongue was casually thrown behind me into the trees and half of my tuna spaghetti went right into my bag when the lady went to get something from the kitchen. Haha I`m the worst I know.

 

  I went on divisions this week with the sister leaders, which means that one companion stays in the area and one of the sisters leaders come to replace her comp, and the other comp goes to the sister leaders` area. I stayed in my area, which was a little weird because they almost never leave the trainees to direct their area, and I was super nervous to be responsible for my area and to have to know all the directions (everyone knows that I`m severely directionally impaired), and Hermana Waldron came to be my comp. IT WAS THE BEST. I learned so so much from her. My companion is great but never really gives me an opportunity to talk and because I have her and I know that she`ll do all the talking, a lot of the time I just let her do the majority of the lesson. But Hermana Waldron wasn`t like that at all and I did pretty much everything! Which was terrifying at first but I realized that I`m a lot more capable than I thought. Now I feel a lot more confident and comfortable and am taking a bigger part in the lessons.

 

Okay well I love you guys! Have a great week and know that someone in Peru loves you!

 

Hermana Marshall

Navidad!

  Merry late Christmas! I hope you all had a great Christmas and got to spend time with your family remembering the birth and life of our Savior. Christmas really is the best.

 

  This week was so great! We had a lot of Christmas activities with our zone, other Hermanas in the mission, with President, and with all the other zones here in Arequipa. Which was so fun and great but also meant that we didn't have a lot of time for missionary work. But this week we´ll just work even harder to make up for it!

 

  It was amazing being able to Skype my family! It gave me motivation to keep working hard and to really put all my strength and energy into this work.

 

  So my family asked me about all the people that I´m visiting and teaching and I realized that I never write about them! So I´m gonna try to work on that.

 

  First we have our niñas. Heidy (11), Ale (8), y Guade (8) were baptized a few months ago and they´re the sweetest. Their parents, Marlene y Richard, just won´t get married which drives us nuts. And they can´t get baptized until they get married. Marlene really wants to get baptized and comes to church every week but her convi just doesn´t want to marry her for whatever reason. We´re working on making that a goal for them. But their daughters are seriously the best. The sweetest girls ever. I think I sent a picture last week with 2 little girls? If so that´s Ale and Guadelupe. These girls have soo much faith and such strong testimonies. I wish you guys could hear them when they pray. Their prayers are so sincere and sweet. They literally pray for everyone. They teach me so much.

 

  Marlene and Richard are 1 of 3 couples we have that want to get baptized but just won´t get married.

Karin and Dela both have fechas for the 7th of February but need to take care of some personal/work stuff first.

We have some more people but those are the people that we´re really focusing on right now.

 

  I can´t believe that in this week we´ll end 2014 and begin 2015. Dos mil quince holy frick. This year flew by and it´s scary because I know that 2015 will fly by too! And then I´m home the beginning of 2016! Crazy!

My goal in this year is to give all that I have to the Lord and to the building of His kingdom. I have the wonderful opportunity to spend every single day of 2015 as a missionary working to bring others to Christ. What a blessing. I hope that I can take advantage of every day and give all my time, talents, and energy to this work.

 

Merry Late Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Hermana Marshall

 

Merry Christmas!

Another absolutely great week!

  The highlight of the week was definitely Maria`s baptism on Saturday. She was so so nervous before so I was freaking out a little bit. After I was waiting on the side of the font with her towel and I asked her how she felt and she just said "so so happy". And that was all I needed to hear. I am so grateful for Maria and for her testimony and her willingness to follow the example of our Savior.

  Wednesday we got to have a Christmas Devo/lunch with President Zobrist and 4 other zones in Arequipa which was so great! President and his wife are so awesome. And it`s always great to meet up with other missionaries and eat delicious food and have fun.

  This week my super cute sister Brooke got her mission call! She has been called to serve in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission! She is so so happy and I`m so happy for her! I`m so proud of the decision that she has made to serve the Lord as a missionary and I know that Charlotte, North Carolina is exactly where the Lord needs her. She will be such a blessing to the people there and I know that it will be such an amazing experience for her.

Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all and I`m so excited to talk to my family in 3 days!

Hermana Marshall

Cuy en mi boca!

I have no time this week to write out a long email but I`ll try to sum up my week really quick.

 

  Yesterday was the last day of my first transfer! I survived my first transfer in the field and the first half of my training! it`s hard to believe that I already have almost 3 months in the mission!

 

  This week I ate guinea pig so that was an adventure. Luckily my pensionista loves me and understands that some foods are just too weird for me so she gave me chicken and they only made me taste the guinea pig. haha.

 

  Maria´s baptism is on saturday and I`m so pumped! She`s so ready and excited and i`m super happy for her.

 

  2 of our other investigators have baptismal dates but they want to wait until Februrary, so we`re working on that. She has some addictions that she needs to take care of first.

 

I have no idea but I love you all! Have a good week!

Maria!

   Another great week here in Casa Blanca! The work is finally starting to move forward, slowly. Haha. We`ve decided to focus a little less on the ancient investigators who have been listening to the missionaries for months but haven`t been progressing, and focus more on finding new people to teach.

   Oh also WE HAVE A FECHA! Hallelujah! If everything works out Maria will be baptized on December 20th. A Christmas miracle. We actually found Maria at Church. She`s been attending for a while now with her cousin and everyone just assumed that she was a member, including us. Until last week when her cousin told us that she isn`t. So we called her and she said that she`s been wanting to be baptized but the missionaries have never really contacted her. So that was easy. Haha no but she`s so great. She really has a desire to change and to come unto Christ. And she wanted to be baptized before Christmas, kind of as a Christmas gift to herself and as a way to start the new year. We`re so excited and hope that she will be ready by the 20th.

   As missionaries of course we do a ton of service. It`s a great way to meet new people and gain their trust. And almost always when we ask them if there`s anything we can help them with they look at me and say "You can help my son/daughter with their English". Hahaha so I do a lot of that. It`s great and helps me to learn as well. We do a lot of cleaning too and that`s a little less fun but it`s still good. A lot of people just have us come over and clean cause they know we`ll do it so that`s great. Haha. But service is great and I know that as we serve these people they can see the love that we have for them and that eventually their hearts will be softened.

   Also I wasn`t sick at all this week! Which is such a blessing because we`ve been able to work all day every day and focus on the work.

I love you guys so much! Thank you for all your love and support! It means a lot. Have a great week!

Hermana M

Testigos Arriba!

Another great week in the field!

   I feel like a ton happened this week but at the same time everything is kind of just a blur so I have no idea what to tell you guys. Haha sorry. Plus I used to write out all my emails before hand so they would actually be decent but I haven´t had time to do that the last couple weeks.

   I was sick again a few days this week and confined to our lovely cuarto but after a round of miraculous antibiotics I´m good to go! They wanted me to go to the hospital to take tests and stuff but I said that I think I´m good. Hahaha no thanks.

   I´m sure at least a few of you are wondering how the pickiest eater in the world is surviving in Peru. She´s cheating. Luckily my companion is the sweetest person in the world and if she can tell I don´t like something sometimes she´ll eat it for me. Also I always always have a little plastic baggy in my bag and when our pensionista or whoever else gives us food leaves the room I really quickly put the food that I don´t like in the little baggy. Also the dog in our pension is my savior. We´ve become pretty good friends. At every meal he just sits by my feet and whenever I feel like I can get away with it I throw the food that don´t want to him. Hahaha. I´m the worst.

   This week we found a golden family! Well we hope. We contacted Gerardo in the street one day and made an appointment to meet with him and his family later that week. When it was time for the appointment we went to his apartment building but we couldn´t get up to the top floor because the door was locked. We didn´t have a phone number so we couldn´t call him, so we left a picture of Jesus with our names and number in his mailbox and left. A few days later on Sunday Gerardo called us wondering why we hadn´t come to teach his family. He said that he and his family had been waiting and were disappointed when we didn´t show up. This NEVER happens. Almost always our appointments with street contacts fall through and they don´t really want to hear our message. Anyway we made another appointment with him for Saturday. That night we went to his house and had the BEST lesson with him and his family. They´re so great and I really think they will progress. We´ve been praying to find a family and I think this family is an answer to our prayers.

   This week when I was sick I had plenty of time just resting in our cuarto and I watched the movies that I had purchased from the mission office. I absolutely loved On the Lord´s Errand, which is about President Monson. I encourage all of you to watch it. A quote that I absolutely loved from the movie:

"The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it, and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone´s prayer or someone´s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, I will run that errand for Him". Thomas S. Monson

   Also I´m sorry that I haven´t sent pictures in a few weeks. It´s a little complicated because I need some adaptor thing to put my camera´s memory card into the computer that I don´t have. But I´ll try to figure something out so that I can send pictures.

P.S. "Testigos Arriba!". Many people confuse us for Jehovah´s Witnesses. Which we definitely are not. Hahaha

Anyway I love you all and as always I am so grateful for all of your love and support!

Hermana Marshall