Monday, October 26, 2009

Steven's letter Oct 26

Dear family
Hey how is everyone doing this week? So how is Corey likin the new job? It’s been an awesome week here. It started out real slow though. Elder Perza was sick for a couple days. So we couldn’t go out and work Wednesday and Thursday. It was a slow couple days with not much to do. We did a lot of studying. It was good to start working again on Friday. Tanara did it. She quit smoking and drinking coffee. She got baptized yesterday after church. It was so awesome. Tanara has had to change so much to get to where she is. We have been talking to her a lot this week. She has been having really bad headaches because she is used to having a pot of coffee every morning, and she has been really struggling with not smoking any cigarettes. There were a few nights when we called her that she was having problems not giving in, but she was able to quit. Last night when we talked to her, she said it was the first time this week she hasn’t had any headaches or cravings for cigarettes. She is going to be an awesome member of the branch up there. We have been working with another guy up by Eveningshade. Elder Perza drove on a dirt road for about an hour to get to his house. He lives way out in the middle of no where. I thought I could understand people with strong southern accents, but I have to really concentrate to understand him. He is a really good guy. Elder perza and I are looking forward to getting to know him. He doesn’t know much about Christ or what a prophet is or anything about the bible, but he knows he wants to get baptized. He has a date for the 7th of November. We were pretty excited to find him. His name is Eugene. Well hope everyone is having fun. Love yall
Love Elder Marshall

Monday, October 19, 2009

Steven's letter Oct 19

Dear Family
How was your week? How is Grandma Winsor doing? How is Corey liking the new job at lins? This week has been pretty good here. It has been raining a lot here. It has been real nice the last few days though. This weekend has been awesome. We havebeen up in ash flat a lot. We are probably going to start spending more time up there. I think we are going to have to stay at the senior couple’s apartment acouple nights this week. We’re still trying to figure that out. Elder Perza doesn’t think we should sleep in the church. We have been meeting a lot with Tanara lately. She is the single mom that used to be into drugs and gangs out inWashington. She has made a lot of changes in her life. She has been in jail 32times, but has been off drugs and out of gangs for the last 3 years now. We have been working with her to help her quit smoking. Well last night we set a date with her to get baptized next Sunday. It was a really neat experience. We told her she couldn’t get baptized until she quit smoking and drinking coffee though. It took her a little while to make the commitment, but she finally gave us all of her cigarettes, her ash trays, all of her coffee, and both of her coffee machines. It was an awesome night last night. She says if she doesn’t have any coffee orcigarettes in the morning, she gets really bad headaches and it makes her sick so itwas a pretty big commitment for her. We called her this morning though to see how she was doing and she was pretty happy. We are going to be talking to her a lot in the next few days checking up on her. I love doing missionary work. Well hope everyone is having fun there. Thanks for the pictures. Have a good week.
Love Elder Marshall

Monday, October 12, 2009

Steven's letter Oct 12

Dear Family
How is everyone doing there? Everything has gone pretty good this week. Elder Hansen and I just went around so he could say goodbye to members of the branch here in Pocahontas on Monday and Tuesday. Then Wednesday we drove to Memphis to the big transfer meeting. 41 of the 51 companionships got split up so it was a pretty big meeting. I haven’t seen so many missionaries since I was at the MTC. Elder Hansen is in Conway now. My new companion is Elder Perza. He’s from Idaho too. He is a pretty cool guy. There is a whole lot I can learn from him. He said he was Weiser Idaho. I think its west of Boise. He is a good missionary. Hopefully Ill get to stay with him for a while. We have been working pretty well together. Jacky has a baptism date for the 24th. She is the one that came and asked us if she could be a Mormon after the first session of General conference. We have been seeing a lady up in Cherokee Village. We helped her move a couple Saturdays ago. She has been trying to quit smoking. She even told us she knows that God doesn’t want her smoking. She has gone from smoking 2 packs down to only a few every day. She says she really wants to quit. We are hoping to set a baptism date with her and that maybe that will help her want to quit even more. We only get to see her once a week though because she lives so far away. So that makes it hard. We have been able to see quite a few people. It has been raining a lot. I think it’s supposed to be raining all this week to. Well I hope everyone is doing good. Are a lot of sick people from school sick? I love you all and miss you. Have a good week.
Love Elder Marshall

Monday, October 5, 2009

Steven's letter October 5

Dear Family
Hey how is everyone doing this week? Is it starting to get cold there? I heard it snowed in Idaho this week. Elder Hansen is mad that he can’t go snow boarding. Its been getting cold here already. Its been a pretty good week here. We had two baptisms this week. One on Friday night here in Pocahontas, and one on Sunday between sessions of Conference. They were both really neat baptisms. Elder Hansen and I have been working really well together. We are getting split up though. He got a call from the mission president on Saturday morning. He is getting transferred and is going to be a new Zone leader. So Wednesday I'm getting a new companion. This transfer was huge. Every companionship in our zone got split up. There are 9 new missionaries coming out and 9 going home. It’s going to be a busy week. I think the next couple days we are just going to be going around so Elder Hansen can say good bye to all the members. No fun. Do you remember the lady that Elder Hasalam and I gave a tour of the church to last week? Well she came to all 4 sessions of conference. She really liked all of them. After the 1st one, she came up to Elder Hansen and i and asked us if it was ok if she became a Mormon. That kind of cot us by surprise. she is getting baptized on the 24th of October. She is a pretty cool lady. She is 79 years old. She used to be the treasurer for the Lutheran church here in Pocahontas. The first time we met her she was trying to give another one of our investigators anti-Mormon literature. We asked her if we could come talk to her. She has changed her mind about the church since then. Well thats about all that has been going on here. Hope everyone is having fun in school. I miss you all
Love Elder Marshall