Friday, June 26, 2009

These letters might be a little out of order sorry.


Dear Family
So I'm on an airplane right now. We should be getting to Huston in about an hour now. It was kind of weird going to the airport this morning. There was a big group of people that even started clapping for us as we walked by. Everyone has been really friendly to us especially in Salt Lake. We are just taking off from Huston. I wanted to tell you some stories about Elder Fjerstad. He likes to sleep a lot. A couple of weeks ago, I was in an interview with the branch president. When I came out. he was standing in the middle of the hall with his head back and his mouth wide open. Lol. He had fallen asleep standing there. He was getting a lot of funny looks from a lot of people. The branch president had to shake him awake.
Elder Fjerstad also talks in his sleep. We have full conversations with him. He can answer all kinds of questions when he is sleeping. We can ask him how to solve all kinds of math questions and scripture questions. He always gets the right answer.
About a week ago we were reading out of Preach my gospel to each other. He was reading out loud, and he fell asleep half way through his sentence. I smacked my hand down on the table and he woke up pretty fast. Lol. He even fell asleep this morning while he was standing in the shower. Lol. But we only got about 2 hours of sleep last night so I can't really blame him. A coupe days ago, he had been nodding off in class, we were walking between classes and he walked right into 2 poles and a group of sister missionaries. He didn't remember it after though. I think I already told you about what happened yesterday at breakfast.
One time we were getting ready for Gym. I was down the hall from our room, and Elder Steed and Elder Baron started to lave for gym. They just started running out the door and Elder Fjerstad followed. I didn't know they had left. I guess when they got half way to the field Elder Steed asked Elder Fjerstad "where is your companion." Then Elder Baron asked "Elder where is your shirt?" Lol. He had forgotten to put a shirt on and had ran all through the MTC in his garments. Lol. He was pretty embarrassed about it.
Everything is pretty flat. Well I better go.

Love
Elder Marshall

Steven's Letter June 22

Dear Family
So I'm in the Pocahontas Area of Arkansas. Its a pretty big area. We cover Pocahontas and Walnut Ridge, but i think we are going to start going up to Ash flats and Mountain View. They are both in our area, but we don't usually go there because they are so far away from Pocahontas. I think Ash flats is about 50 miles away, and Mountain View is about 100 miles. If we start going there i think we will stay with a member in those towns for part of the week and just spend a couple days a week in each area. I think our area is the biggest in the mission. We have to go to ash flat sometime this week any way because the branch president has a list of names who he wants us to talk to. My companion is Elder Hansen. He is from Idaho Falls. He has been here in Arkansas since just before Christmas. We are the second set of missionaries in this area. It has been closed for the last 10 years and was just opened again in January. The branch is pretty small. I think there were about 25 or 30 people here yesterday. I think there were only like 4 young women, and 3 young men. They are really nice people though. Everyone has been really friendly. The food is really good here to. They deep fry everything. I even tried deep fried broccoli and Cauliflower on Friday. We were at a part member family's house. three of the kids are baptized, but the parents aren't. We are going to commit another of the kids to be baptized tonight when we go over. Her name is Joy. I haven't met here yet because she has been at her Grandma's house for the last two weeks. Her brother Kevin was just baptized a few weeks ago. He received the priesthood yesterday. They have 21 dogs and a lot of cats. I haven't been to a house yet that hasn't had some kind of animals. There are some senior missionaries that live in the apartment next to us. They stay here in Pocahontas permanently. That's where I'm at right now. We get to eat over at their apartment a lot. I haven't had to worry about any meals but breakfast so far. They are from Utah. Elder Fjerstad is still in my district. He is down in Jonesboro. So I get to see him every Tuesday at district meeting. We have been teaching a lot. We had lessons the first day i got here. I know Sister Mondaca. She was one of the sisters in my district. Her and Sister Sloan, and Sister Flukiger. They should all be there at Temple square. How was she? did she give you a tour?
O on Friday we were knocking on some doors. We were talking to a mom out on here front porch while her kids were playing on a slip and slide on the front lawn. We were asking here when we could come back to teach her family. all of a sudden the 8 year old started spraying me with the hose. Lol I got soaked. The mom was pretty mad at the kid. I bet he got in pretty big trouble after we left. We are going to try to come back on Wednesday or Thursday. Sounds like the hike was a lot of fun. You even had Ice on the side of the tent? Was it the same hike that I went on? Well i better go. I hope you are having fun in Salt Lake say hi to the sister missionaries for me.

Love Elder Marshall

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dear family
Every thing is going good here at the mtc. Elder baron started to feel sick a couple of days ago, but he feels a lot better now. no one else has gotten sick in my room. We had another Departure devotional last night. I think it was the same as the one we had 2 weeks ago. Besides that there hasn't been a whole lot going on here. We have been spending a lot of time in the referal center, We have been doing the chats online. I have had a couple of really good ones. There are also a lot of prank chats that we get too. I really like doing the chats because between chats we have a lot of time to just sit and study. I think i am really starting to like the time we have to study. It is the most relaxing part of the day. I can't believe we get to go to arkansas tomorrow. Hopefully this time we will make it. We all have our fingers crossed. So far we think we are going. We haven't been told otherwise so we are going to go pack right after we are done here doing our laundry. I think i already told you but we are leaving at 3 tomorrow morning. We get to Huston at about 10:30 i think. Then we fly out of Huston to Arkansas at about 1:30. I think. I'm not sure what time we are suppost to get to Arkansas.
So thismorning before we all went to the temple, We were eating breakfast around our table, We were just getting up to leave for the temple. Elder fjerstad was already standing, and he had his tray right over Elder Steeds head. Elder Steed was in a hurry to stand up and hit his head on the tray that was over his head. Lol, the tray and everything on it went flying. Elder fjerstad had a bowl of half eaten cereal and a plate on the tray and it ended up all over the place. I was glad i was sitting on the other side of the table from them. Elder Millet got milk all over him though. Lol he wasn't verry happy. Elder Fjerstad and Elder Steed were both pretty emberaced, but everyone else thought it was pretty funny. We have a lot of fun with Elder Fjerstad. i think alot of the funny stuff that goes on here has something to do with him. Well I hope everything is going good there. I hope Dad and corey have fun on their Hike. I guess they probably already left. I was glad i got to talk to all of you yesturday. It was good to hear your voices. I'll call again tomorrow, but i'm not sure when ill be able to. Probably after 10:30 when the plane lands in huston. any way i better go. Tell everyone i say hello and that i miss everyone. I think i'm sending a package today and ill put my memory card in it to. I hope i can fit everything back in my bags.
Love Elder Marshall

Monday, June 1, 2009

Steven's letter June 1, 2009

Dear family
I leave for arkansas tomorrow. I cant wait to get there. We leave at 4 in the morning so its going to be an early morning. I'm really excited to get there. it sounds like everything is going good there. It sounds like your having fun going hiking. I was glad to hear that my package is going to get there by the time i get there. thank you. we had a devotional last night for all the missionaries leaving this week. i think thats my favorite part of the mtc. the devotionals. i really enjoy them. every tuesday there is a general authority that comes and talks to us. and on sunday evenings there is a devotional as well. last night elder fjerstad and i watched the new joseph smith movie too. it was a really good last sunday. well i better go. there is a line for the computers and i still need to pack and get a haircut before five. i hope everything is going good there. i love you all and miss you.
love elder marshall
there are a lot of people getting sick here at the mtc. I'm not sick at all and as much as i have enjoyed my time here at the mtc, i'm really glad we are leaving. there have been 3 people in my district that have gotten sick so far. today we have heard that a lot of the people that were supposed to be leaving soon can't leave now. We havent heard anyone say that we cant leave yet and two missionaries from our district left this morning so hopefully we will be able to leave. if we hear anything it will probably be tonight in our class. So would you  pray for all of us here at the mtc? I think we would have heard something by now if we were staying too. anyway i just wanted to let you know what was going on. I hope everything is going good there. Im not sick at all and neither is any one else in my room so hopefully the next letter you get will be from arkansas. I think i might be able to call tomorrow. An anoncment just came over the intercom and said that all leaving missionaries will be delayed for a week. they said that there was a news release going out so you will have to let me know what it says. so now i don't know whats going on. any way i better go. I just wanted to let you know i was ok and healthy
Love Elder Marshall