The shortest five months of my life

  So today I hit 5 months! I feel like yesterday I was freaking out about hitting 4 months, and 3 months, and 2 months. It is so crazy. And we only have 2 weeks left of this transfer. If time could please slow down that would be great. 

  This week we had divisions and I went with one of our sister leaders to her area in Zamacola. It was my first time working in an area other than Casa Blanca and it was a really great experience for me. I have it so lucky here in my zone, yeah my cuarto is super tiny and I share a bathroom with a bunch of randoms, but I´ve been really blessed here in Casa Blanca. The people, and especially the ward members, are so great. 

  Also I went to do a few tests at the hospital this week and found out that I officially have parasites so that´s disgusting. Haha always an adventure here in Peru. But that´s what I get for eating street food and drinking parasite infested water. Hahaha. 

  Yesterday at Church was seriously so great. We were in sacrament meeting, and just as background as missionaries during sacrament we just sit there watching the door hoping that our investigators and the less active members will show up. When the meeting started there were almost none of our investigators or MAs. And then suddenly a huge group of people walked in, one of our investigators and like 10 of the less actives. I was soooo happy. It hit me that many times I don´t have faith in the people that we are teaching, some of them I don´t even expect to show up, even if they say that they will. But I sure learned my lesson yesterday as I sat in sacrament meeting and just looked around sooo happy to see all of those people there. 

  God is great and I´ve seen His hands in this work every single day. I know that He is preparing me, and the people who I will teach, to be ready when we find eachother. I know that there are people just waiting desperately to find the truth and the joy that we have found in this gospel, and it´s our job as missionaries to help them find it.

  I love you guys and am so grateful for your love and support. Have a great week and remember that there´s a missionary in Peru who loves you!

Hermana M

Parasite life!

Holy cow how is it already Monday again. 

  This week was super fast and super great! We had 2 baptisms planned for Saturday but they fell throught because Karin and Dela haven`t been attending Church. Which is a bummer but we`re going to keep working with them and I know they`ll progress!

  On Tuesday I was drinking out of my water bottle and after taking a sip I looked down and saw 3 parasites happily swimming around in my water. And when I looked in the big water jug that we have in our room I found more. So that was digusting and I literally was gagging with my head in a plastic bag for like 30 minutes because we had been drinking out of that water jug for almost 2 weeks. But I`m still alive so I guess drinking parasiting and their pee and poop isn`t really that bad for you.

  This week was a little bit tragic. Haha on Thursday night we were at the chapel and in walks an Elder with his parents and siblings. He had just flown in from Mexico. He was super cool but looked super sad. We went and had our lesson in one of the classrooms and came out and he was standing there with his family and the Stake President, without his missionary plaque. I was talking to him and said something like "You arrived with your plaque and you`re leaving without it." And he was just so sad and I was so sad for him. And I realized right then that I don`t want to go home. I don`t want to be released and have to take off my plaque. I never want to stop being Hermana Marshall. 

 

   That same night Hyrum, one of my pensionsista`s 5 sons, got home from his mission in El Salvador. He was so devastated to leave those people. He shared his testimony with us and his family the next day and he said something like "I`m happy to be here with you guys, but I´m sad to have left my family and my home in El Salvador". And then he cried and I was crying because I realized how true that was. These people, especially Mama Irma (pensionista) and her kids, are my family. And I absolutely love our ward and each person that we have been teaching in these 4 months. And I know that leaving this country and these people in 14 months will be be the hardest thing I`ll ever do. 

  Anyway I`m sorry that this email is so long and I`ll cut it off now so you guys don`t hate me. Just know that I`m happy and loving the work! The Church is true. :)

Hermanita Marshall

We can help you with that!

  So I maybe procrastinated writing my group email a little bit so I don´t have a whole lot of time left. Whoops.

  This week went by so fast and in such a blur that I honestly can´t remember much of what we did. But that means it was a good week and we were working hard!

  First of all, it´s been POURING rain here in Arequipa for the last 2 weeks or so. Absolutely pouring. Usually it´s either cloudy or just barely sunny in the morning, and by early afternoon the rain starts, and then it rains and rains until we´re soaked and frozen to the bone. But it´s all good! I have my umbrella, and my scriptures and folletos in plastic bags in my backpack. And by the time we get back to our cuarto at the end of the day we´re soaking wet and so cold and just curl up in our blankets and plan for the next day. So is the life.

  Yesterday at church a little girl that´s 9 years old walked right up to us and said "I want to get baptized". And I said "We can help you with that!". Her family is inactive and came to church yesterday for the first time in a long time. So don´t worry we´ll be working on that. Haha the Church is so true life is great. 

  Okay that´s about all I got. Life is good and the gospel is great.

  I love you! And sorry that I´m not sending pictures, next week I promise!

Hermana Marshall

Blessings

  This week was AMAZING! Seriously one of the best weeks of my mission so far. On Saturday we had 2 baptisms! Marilu and Carelya! They`re so amazing and I love them so much. They were both miracles because they both came looking for us. 

  And then yesterday at church a couple that we were visiting a while ago and then stopped because the appointments always fell through and they weren`t progressing, randomly showed up at church and talked us and the bishop and said that they want to get married/baptized. 

  The Lord is blessing is with so many people just ready for the gospel. I can`t even imagine how many people are ready or looking for the gospel but don`t know where to find it, but that`s why we`re here! We just need to trust in the Lord and He will send them to us, or us to them, when they`re/we`re ready. 

  It has been raining like CRAZY here in Arequipa. Yesterday it rained harder than I`ve ever seen in my life, even in Portland. But we kept going! I fell and cut up my knee pretty bad but we bumped into an investigador and she cleaned me up and reprimanded us for not being more careful and not having an umbrella/rain boots. 

Okay that`s about all I got for this week! I love you guys!

Hermana Marshall

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