family letter

O quote of the week
"There is danger in the word someday, when what it means is not this day.  The thought "some day i will" can be a thief of the opprotunities of time and the blessings of eternity.  If you choose to serve the lord this day, i make you 2 promises, hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the lord this day.  By choosing to serve Him this day, you will feel his love and grow to love him more."   - President Eyring

Have a good week
Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Nov 30

Dear Family
How was thanksgiving? I hope it was a lot of fun.  Did you watch a movie over at the shop?  Is it still nice and warm there?  Its been a pretty good week here.  Elder Morris and I have been staying pretty busy.  We have a lot of fun together.  He has been out almost 11 months now.  He’s from Logan Utah.  I’ve learned a lot from him.  We spend a lot more time walking than I’m used to.  In pocahontas, we had a car the whole time.  Now we have a car every other week.  I think I like walking more.  We get to talk to more people while we are walking.  The ward here is a really nice ward.  There are a lot of nice people here.  We have a baptism coming up on the 12th.  We found him last wednesday.   Its an older guy.  He is 79 years old.  He is probably one of the most humble people I’ve met while I’ve been out.  We talked to him about the restoration of the gospel and watched the Joseph Smith movie with him.  He told us he felt the spirit stronger then than he had in a long time.  That’s when we challenged him to be baptized.  He came to church for the first time on Sunday and loved it.  We talked to him about being baptized again and he told us he didn’t feel like he was ready yet, but said he would keep praying about being baptized on the 12th.  He believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the book of mormon is the word of God.   He is a really great guy.  Elder Morris and I are excited to be working with him.  Thanksgiving was a lot of fun We went around and talked to a lot of members.  I think we saw 16 families.  We had dinner with the Rees family.  They had a bunch of family out from Utah.  It was a lot of fun.  We are going to go buy a little christmas tree today.  Well I hope everything is going good there and everyone is having a lot of fun.   Have a good week. 
Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Nov 23

Dear Family 
I think that’s  a new record getting pulled over three times in one trip.  And I thought I got pulled over a lot.  Its been a pretty good week here.   Elder Morris  Is a really good missionary.  He has been teaching me a lot about how to be a better missionary.  Its been kindof hard coming from a little branch to a big ward.  There are a lot more names to remember.  There are a lot of nice people here in the ward.  We had a fireside at the ward mission leader’s house last night.  That was a lot of fun.  We have a new investigater because of it.  It was for the youth to bring their friends to.  There was only one non member there, but she really liked it and I think we are going to try to see her again on Wednesday.   She told us that she wanted a copy of the book of mormon so she could give it a chance and find out for herself if it was true or not.  Elder Morris and I are pretty excited to get to teach her. We get fed a lot more here than we did in Pocahontas.  That’s going to be nice.  We have only had to cook dinner twice since we got here.  I miss the little town life style though.  Everything is really big here.  The people here in Collierville are a lot more wealthy than the people in pocahontas were.   A lot of the buisness people that work in Memphis commute there from German town and collierville.  We go down into mississippi too.  The people there are more country people.   I had a lot of fun going out there.   It was a lot more like what I was used to.  One house even had the cocroaches running all over the walls in the living room.(and the floors… and even one on the kitchen table.  No joke)  That grosed out the member that went with us.  Thanksgiving is going to be a lot of fun.  They have a turky bowl here.  There are two wards here, so we get to go play football with them in the morning.  We are going to be going out like a regular day besides that though.  We do have 2 dinner appointments already though.  So Elder morris and I are planning on being pretty full by the end of the day.  Well I hope everything is going good there.  Hope every one is having fun in school and corey is having fun working at linns.  Have a good thanksgiving.
Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family
Hey just letting you know im in Collierville.  Its right down next to Memphis Tenessee.  It looks like its a pretty wealthy area.  I don't think i've ever seen houses as big as the ones here.  I thought they were appartment buildings.  My new companion is Elder Morris.  I'm looking forward to serving with him.  He says the people here are really wealthy so I think its going to be different than Pocahontas and Ash Flat were.  He was serving with Elder Baron before me.  Elder Baron was in the MTC with me.  I got to see him and Elder Steed today at the transfer meeting.  It was good to see them I haven't seen Elder Baron since we got to arkansas.  Well i better go.  Hope everything is going good there.  Talk to you on Monday.
Love Elder Marshall

Here is my mailing address:
396 ramport lane
Collierville, TN 38017

Steven's letter Nov 9

Dear Family

How is everything going back home?  Everything is going really well here.  Elder Perza and I are staying really busy.  We work really good together.  We have been spending a lot of time in ash flat.  We have a guy here that is going to get baptized in the next two weeks.  We don’t have an exact date yet though because he and his girlfriend have to get married first.   They know they need to do it though and said they would be talking to the branch president in the next couple days about getting married.  Elder perza and I are pretty excited for them.  We have been spending a lot of time with him in the last week.  We met him about 2 weeks ago.  What first interested him about the church was when he found out Glen beck was a Mormon.  When he heard that he thought there must be something to it.  He really likes Glen Beck. We got a pretty bad call Saturday night.  Tina called us at about 7.  She is the lady who has the two little kids whose husband just died about 4 months ago now.  Her house was on fire.  She lost everything.  She and her kids weren’t hurt though.  They weren’t home when it started.  They were driving in their driveway and they noticed there was a glow under one end of their trailer.  I guess it burned pretty fast.  She lives in Ash Flat so it took us an hour to get there from Pocahontas.  It was done burning by the time we got there.  She has gone through a whole lot in the last few months.  The branch has helped her out a whole lot though.  She really appreciates it too.  She is staying with her sister in law right now.    We are going to go over in a couple hours to see how she is doing.   Transfers are next week.  I’m probably going to be moved next Wednesday.  Elder Perza talked to President Drewes Saturday night.  He told him that was probably what was going to happen.  I’ve gotten pretty attached to the people around here though.  Especially Tina and Tanara.  I’ve loved working with them and seeing them be baptized. I’m going to miss this area a whole lot.  I guess I’ll let you know for sure whether I get moved or not next Monday.  Well I hope everyone is having fun.  I miss you.   

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Nov 2

Dear family
How is everyone doing.  Are you starting to feel better?  Hey sorry I didn’t email earlier today.  We had a couple service projects that we did today so we weren’t able to come email till now.  We helped Carla (she got baptized a couple months ago) paint her front porch.  We got introduced to her husband.  We have been trying to go over to see him for a while now, but this was the first time we were able to.  This week has gone pretty fast for us.  We have been staying pretty busy.  Tanara was confirmed yesterday. That was a great experience for her.   I feel really blessed to have been able to know her and watch her make changes in her life.  We started working with a new investigator this week.  His name is Kelly. He is about 40.  He has already told us that he wants to join the church.  He knows a lot about the church.  He got interested in the church because Glen Beck is a member of the church.  He is a pretty funny guy.  We are having fun working with him. 
It finally stopped raining.  Its been nice to see the sun the last couple of days.  The rivers are still pretty high though.  I think the water level is starting to go down though for most of the rivers.  We had to help one of the members move everything in his house up on tables because his cabin is right next to the river.  We talked to him today and he said that no water was in his house, just up to the steps that go to his front door. I’m not sure if its supposed to be raining more or not.   Well hope everything is going good there.  Hope everyone is having fun in school.
Love Elder Marshall

O I only see my mission president every 6 weeks.  I’m not sure if that’s just because we live so far away from everyone else or if that’s how much all the missionaries see him.  We don’t see any other missionaries except for district meeting(Tuesday s) and zone meeting which is the same day as the interview.

These pictures were taken last year at our Trunk or Treat

Rebecca was really trying to do a nice job.


This is the pumkin that Kaitlyn carved. She really got into carving this year.

This is Corey's pumkin. He did a good job too.

Rebecca got up Thursday crying because it was costume day and she had no costume. I completely forgot about her party at school. I had been so caught up in the homecomming ordeal. Rondalene to the rescue. She was able to find a costume that Rebecca was happy with. Thank you Rondalene!!

I took a class on making this table runner. This is just one end. The other end has the same witch facing the other direction. Isn't it cute!!

This is Heather's sister, Rebecca, and Kaitlyn.


Corey was so excited to be riding in the parade. Probably just as excited as I was.

All the students tied these ribbons on this float. The part that has the heart on it was made by the construction class. They will be displaying it at all the school funtions. Assemblies, game, and even graduation. Right before the homecomming game started they brought this float onto the field and they had 30 sec of silence.