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