Dear family

Hey how is everything going there? How has your week been going? When does everyone get out of school? Is it this week or next? So you are doing a lot of work on the hall? That will be neat to see. Everything has been going good here. It’s been a good week this week. Zone meeting was really good. I was kind of glad when that was over. It went good though. The zone as a whole is kind of struggling right now. We are getting down to the last of the year, and we have a long way to go to reach our goals. So this week Elder Cowan and I are probably going to be doing a lot of exchanges. So it will be another quick week. I think I’ll be down in Benton Arkansas sometime, but I’m not sure. We haven’t really decided anything yet. We have a big Christmas zone conference on Tuesday. That is going to be great. There are two of them this week in the mission. One here in Little Rock and the other in Memphis. So half the mission will be there on Tuesday. So I’ll get to see Elder Levitt. I haven’t seen him yet. He is in North Little Rock. It isn’t in our zone, so I haven’t been able to see him yet. It should be a fun day tomorrow. There were 28 people at church yesterday. I am really loving being here in the group. I think there are two of these little groups in the US right now. What they did is they took a little chunk right in the middle of little rock, and put a set of missionaries there. It’s like we are starting completely from scratch. Everyone in the group is a convert to the church except the missionaries. There is a group leader from the Little Rock ward and his wife that come and help, but they are converts to the church too. There is a really neat feel to this area because everyone is learning together. You can tell that the new members here love each other and rely on each other. Like yesterday, two of the new converts were blessing the sacrament. Well they forgot they were supposed to wait till the sacrament song to start breaking the bread. They started right in the middle of the opening prayer. By the time the prayer was done, they were half way done. I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday, and sometimes people will Amen or Halleluiah praise the lord. When you say good morning brothers and sisters, they say it right back. It’s a great place. We are working real hard to find new men who are potential for the melkezidec priesthood. They have a goal to become a branch sometime this next year, but to do that they need 6 to 8 Melkezidec priesthood holders. I think there are potential for three right now that come to church every Sunday. It’s a great place to be serving though. I’m really grateful I have the opportunity to serve here. At the first of this next year, we are going to be starting to have priesthood and Relief society every Sunday. So far we have been having it every 2 or 3 weeks at our house. That’s where bible study is too. It gives us a little more incentive to keep our house clean. Thanks for everything you do for me. Thanks for the package you sent and for the letters and the cd. I hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's new address is

Elder Steven Marshall
2504 Maple st.
Little Rock, AR 72204

If you are sending a package Steven has asked that it be sent to the mission home at

905 Kierre Dr.
North Little Rock, AR 72116

He does not want the packages just left on his door step in the City. He is close enough to the mission home that he will get them from the mission office.



Dear Family



Hey how is everything going there? So everyone is getting sick? That’s no fun. Everything has been going great here. I’m back in little rock again. I’m in down town little rock. It’s a pretty neat area. It’s the Maple street group. It isn’t even a branch yet. They just started it about 9 or 10 months ago. They were meeting in our house for a long time. Our house is a dedicated church building. We can have lessons there and everything. We have a bible study class there every Wednesday night for anyone to come to. Now we are renting the seventh day Adventist church just down the road from us. Its a lot smaller congregation than even Pocahontas was. Yesterday there were 26 people at church. Including 6 missionaries and 6 other members from the little rock ward. I had heard about the group when it got started, and have always thought it would be cool to go there, and now I’m here. My companion is Elder Nield. I’m pretty excited to be serving with him. He came out with Elder Arnold. I saw him his first day in the mission field and have been serving around him since. Our area is really small. It’s about 8 square miles. We can walk from one end to the other in about 45 minutes and there are 4 missionaries and the assistants that all work in this area. We had a baptism on Saturday. For a lady named Sandra. Her mom and son are hopefully going to be getting baptized on the 18th of December. It is going to be a lot of fun serving here. We will be getting a lot done. This week has been pretty hectic for me. Transfers were on Wednesday, but I didn’t get to work in the area till Friday night. Wednesday at the transfer meeting, president drewes called me aside and told me that he needed help in one of the Spanish areas here in little rock for a couple days because one of the missionaries was having some health problems. So as soon as I got to little rock, we went and dropped my stuff off at our house, then we had a dinner and after that, I had to meet President and the Spanish elders at the church. I was with them till late Thursday night. It was a good exchange. It wasn’t the area I was serving in when I was here, but the one right next to it. Then Friday morning, the other zone leader and I had a meeting with all the other zone leaders in the mission and president drewes. We didn’t get back from that until in the evening. So Saturday was my first real day in the area. It was great. Especially having a baptism. This week is going to be a great week. We have a zone meeting tomorrow that Elder Cowen and I are in charge of, but after that its going to be good. I hope you liked the pictures. Lol the elder that always has his belly hanging out is Elder Arnold. He was my companion for 6 months. It is a lot of fun. If you saw the video of someone jumping off the roof of a house, that is who I’m with now. Well I hope you have a great week. Thanks for everything.



Love Elder Marshall

Hey how has everything been going this week? I didn’t know you had church at 1:30 wow that pretty late. I bet no one has the excuse that it’s to early to make it to church though. Your temple trip sounds like it was pretty amazing. I always love going to the temple now. It makes the rest of our week go great. So how is every one liking school? I bet everyone is ready for the Christmas break. It will be here pretty quick. Everything has been going great here. April got baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a great service. She was real excited for it. Her mom and sister came to the baptism too. They thought it was great. We are going to be starting to teach them now too. We had already given them a copy of the book of Mormon and they liked it a lot. It’s been a really busy week for me. Elder Ulrich and I left Memphis on Tuesday night and didn’t come back until Thursday morning. It was great being out of the city for a while. I miss being out in the country. It’s been a year now since I left Pocahontas and went to Collierville. I haven’t really gotten to serve in the country since. Senatobia is bigger than Pocahontas was, but it was still real nice. We went to their district meeting and then we spent all of Wednesday with them. Thursday was a pretty crazy day for us. We left Senatobia by 7, and had to go to South Haven. The set of missionaries there didn’t answer their phone the night before during call-ins, so we had to go make sure they were still ok. We got there and we found out one of the missionaries there wanted to go home. So we talked to him for a little bit (He is doing a lot better now. They had a baptism Saturday.) Then we drove back to Memphis. When we got there, Elder Andreasen told me one of the members needed our help to finish one of the cakes she was making that she had to deliver in a couple hours and couldn’t find any one to help her. She lives down in Mississippi. So we had to take Elder Ulrich and his companion all the way up to Walnut Grove, Then drive back to Memphis and finally get down to the members house to help her. All that before 10:00. The cake she was making was huge. It was over 4 feet tall and took Elder Andreasen and me both to carry it. And it took us two trips. Sister Browder told us it probably weighed about 200 pounds. It was huge. And it was all for a 1 year old’s birthday. That took most of our day. We didn’t finally get back to our area till about 5. Sunday was really great for us. We had 7 investigators at church, and a whole bunch of kids. There were a couple less active families that came that we have been working with too. We just started teaching a new family. That was 5 of the investigators. We are real excited for them. We are going to be inviting them to be baptized on Tuesday. It’s been a great week for us. I’m going on exchanges with Elder Hansen this week. He is one of the Assistants to the President. He is going to be with us for a couple days. That will be fun. Well I hope everything is going great there. Thanks for everything. I hope ya’ll have a great week.

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Nov 8

Dear Family

Hey how is everyone week going? It sounds like everyone has been real busy. I didn’t know Aaron Dally was getting married. Wow that’s great. I bet about the whole valley was at that one. Everything has been going pretty good here. We just got back from going to the Temple. That was the second time since I was in the mission I have been able to go to the Temple. I don’t know if we will be able to next month. Hopefully we will. We have been staying real busy. We have a baptism coming up this weekend. For a Lady named April Jones. She is real excited to be getting baptized. She talked to us Sunday at church and told us that her Mom’s preacher has been doing a lot to make sure she doesn’t get baptized. He has called her up in front of the Bible study class she went to at the church and told her she was making a horrible decision. And then Saturday night after we met with her he came to her house and had a good talking to her. Both times she told him she had already gotten her answer from God and that she was going to get baptized. She is staying strong to that no matter what anyone tells her. Elder Andreasen and I are pretty excited for her to be getting baptized. We have a busy week this week. Elder Ulrich and I, the other Zone leader are going on exchanges down in Mississippi with a couple sets of missionaries. We are leaving Tuesday and going to be getting back on Wednesday night. Then Friday we have April’s baptism. I’m betting it will be a pretty quick week. I got to go on an exchange with a set of Spanish missionaries this last week. That was a lot of fun. I really like going on exchanges with them. It gives me a chance to practice my Spanish. So I have a question. What is the best way to get rid of roaches? We have Roaches everywhere in our apartment. We keep our apartment really clean, but every time we come in our apartment after it gets dark, when we turn on the lights, there are cockroaches all over in our kitchen and living room. We aren’t sure how to get rid of them. We think the whole apartment complex is probably infested with them. If you have any ideas let us know. Well I hope you have a great week. Thanks for everything. I love you.

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Nov 1

Dear Family

Hey how is your week going? Is it starting to get cold there already? Its been getting a lot colder here. Have you been doing anything exciting lately? Can you believe its November already? It feels like October just started and its already over. Everything has been going great here. Elder Andreasen and I have been working really hard together. Erica didn’t get baptized. She has gotten real hard to get a hold of. We will keep trying though. We have been working a lot with a lady named April. She has a strong testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. She told us the first time she walked into the building she knew she was supposed to be going to church there. She has felt the spirit a couple of times since telling her that she needs to get baptized. We are pretty excited for her. She just needs to keep coming to church. She is going to get baptized on the 12^th. There is another guy named Octavius that we just started talking to this last week. He is going to collage right now at University of Phoenix. He is real smart. He has prayed about Joseph Smith and knows he is a prophet too. He just needs to come to church. That seems to be the problem that a lot of people have. Coming to church. Lol a lot of people around here get a “Sunday sickness.” He is hopefully going to get baptized on the 19^th. We have really enjoyed talking to him. He and Elder Andreasen get a long really well. We are also trying to work more and more with the members here in the ward. We are trying to get them to be more involved in the missionary work going on here. So far there hasn’t been a whole lot of involvement from them. Elder Graham, Arnold, Andreasen and I are hoping to change that a little. Well I hope everyone is having fun there. Good luck in school. I love you all.

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Oct 25

Dear Family

Hey how is everyone doing this week? Has it still been raining there a lot? It rained here last night. It was real nice. It’s supposed to be raining tomorrow too. It’s been a really good week here. My new Companion is Elder Andreasen. He is from Brigham City Utah. Everything has been going pretty good. We had a great weekend and we have a great week planned this week. We are both pretty excited for this transfer. We have been working a lot with Erica this week. We aren’t sure if she is going to be able to get baptized this weekend. We are hoping she will be able to, but she isn’t sure if its something she should do yet. And as much as we tell her that it is important, she is gonna have to find out for herself. She has been to a lot of different churches before looking for “The one true church,” but every time she thought she had found it, she got disappointed. So she is nervous about committing herself again. She came to church yesterday. She really liked that. It was the Primary program. She was really impressed with how much the kids knew and how they acted. She was going to leave after sacrament meeting, but a few of the members surrounded her and got her to come to Sunday school. She ended up staying all three hours. Her son didn’t want to stay at all either, but by the end he said he really liked it and he wants to come to the Wednesday night activity. We have been doing a lot of finding this week. We are trying to find new people to teach. We found a Cambodian family. I was on an exchange with the Spanish elders, and we stopped to talk to them. They got all excited and told us they were Mormon. They moved to Memphis 10 years ago from Florida where they were baptized. When the moved here, they didn’t know there was a church here, so they haven’t been back since. They said they had seen missionaries ride by a few times, but none had ever come and talked to them. We were pretty glad we did. They don’t speak much English, but it’s a great family. Well I hope you are having a great week this week. Have fun.

Love Elder Marshall

Steven's letter Oct 18

Dear Family



Hey how has your week been? How was the trip to Logan? I bet it was pretty nice weather up there. How has everyone been liking school? Is everyone getting ready for Halloween? The ward here is doing a big trunk or treat and a chili cook off. Are they doing that again there this year? We are going to be trying to get a lot of our investigators to come. Elder Graham is getting transferred. He got called this morning. He is leaving on Wednesday. It doesn稚 feel like it has been that long since we first got together. I知 not sure who my new companion will be. I guess I値l find out on Wednesday. I hope he is ready to work hard. We just got done with a lesson at the church this morning. We were talking to a lady named Daffney and her husband. She had come to church a couple times, but this was the first time we had actually been able to have a lesson with her. We had a less active member that agreed to come with us too. Brother McCormick. He really enjoyed it. He has been afraid to come back to church because it had been so long since he has been, but he said that was the ice breaker and that he would be there on Sunday. We are pretty excited. His daughter just got baptized a couple months ago so it will be good to have them all there as a family. Its been a good week here. We are still working a lot with Erica. She has had a lot of questions come up about getting baptized. She is going to miss Elder Graham a lot. She had a really great connection with him. They have had a lot of similar experiences. Well I hope you have a great week this week. Have fun.



Love Elder Marshall



quote of the week: "A testimony is not thrust upon you; a testimony grows. We become taller in testimony like we grow taller in physical stature; we hardly know it happens because it comes by growth." - Boyed K. Packer

Steven's letter Oct 12

Dear Family

Hey how is everything going this week? It sounds like a lot has been happening. We have been having a great week here. I’m glad all the meetings are over for a while. I won’t have another one until the first part of November and that one will be here in Memphis so we won’t have to drive clear to Little Rock again till December unless I get moved over at the transfer. That’s coming up this week. We will be finding out on Monday if one of us are getting moved. I think we have a pretty good chance at staying together another transfer though. Elder Graham has only been here for one transfer longer than I have. We are working really great together. He is a great missionary. He really wants to work hard. We have been working with a new family lately. We saw them earlier today. It is a great family. We read a little from 3^rd Nephi 11 with Zane today. Star, his girlfriend had read the chapter 3 or 4 times since Saturday since we last saw them. They asked us to come over again tomorrow and talk to them again. We are going to teach them the Plan of salvation and Commit them to get baptized. O I heard someone speak in tongs a couple days ago. I had heard a lot about people doing that, but I had never heard anyone do it though. It was right in the middle of our closing prayer with Erica. She was praying and she kept on getting louder and louder until she was about yelling, then she started speaking in tongs. That was a new one. I guess she felt the spirit real strong. And that’s what happens when she feels the spirit. Elder Graham and I weren’t sure what we were supposed to do. Ok so another story from this week. So Elder Arnold and his new companion decided they wanted to catch a squirrel a couple days ago. He wanted to find out what they tasted like. The neighbor always feeds all the squirrels every day, so we have a lot of fat squirrels around the apartment. So they decided to take a fishing pole and put a piece of bread with peanut butter on the hook and leave it as bait. Then when the squirrel bites, just reel it in. The things missionaries do when they get bored. Well instead of catching a squirrel, the neighbor’s dog came over and started licking the peanut butter. Then it ate the piece of bread… hook and all. They caught a dog with a fishing pole. The neighbor wasn’t to happy. Lol Some people’s kids. Well I hope everyone has a great week this week. Have fun going to Logan this week.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear family

Hey how are you doing this week? How is grandma doing? That’s good that everything is doing better now. So the barn is coming down? Wow it’s going to look a lot different when I get back. It’s good to hear that it is finally cooling down there. It has gotten pretty cool here too. When we left our apartment this morning, you could see your breath. It is a pretty big change from a week and a half ago. It’s still cool outside now. I think its supposed to warm back up though. Everything has been going pretty good here. . The exchange with Spanish went pretty good. I wasn’t able to add a whole lot, but I could understand most of what was being said. I thought it was pretty good for not speaking Spanish very much for the last 7 months. I can’t believe it’s been that long. It’s been a good week this week. Not a whole lot of excitement. I went to little rock on Friday. It is a 2 and a half hours drive. So five hours driving, and then a 4 hour meeting in between. I was ready to be done sitting by the end of it. It was good though. We left Memphis at about 7 in the morning and we didn’t get back to east Memphis until after 6. Elder Arnold and I have 2 more meetings this week, but they are both here in Memphis and shouldn’t take so long as the last one. We have been working a lot with a lady named Erica. She is a really nice lady. She is getting baptized on the 29^th. We haven’t been able to meet with her very much this last week because she is going to school up at the University of Memphis, but she has been reading a lot out of the book of Mormon. She really likes it. We are going to drive up there a couple times this week to read with her on campus. We also have a trip to Mississippi planned for Saturday. There are a bunch of people down there that we are hoping to see. We are pretty excited to go down there and get out of the city for a few hours. Well I hope you are having a great day. I love you. Have a great week.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family

Hey how is everyone doing this week? How is school going with everyone? It sounds like the trip to Boise was a lot of fun. It’s weird to think that David is home now. I’ve heard that it’s hard going home and going back to regular life. Well everything has been going great here. Elder Graham and I are working hard together. We went down into Mississippi a couple days ago. That was really nice. It had been a long time since I had been out in the country. It’s been about 10 months now I think since I left Pocahontas. It was real peaceful. It felt good to be out away from all the noise and traffic in Memphis for a little while. This area covers a lot of area out in Mississippi. I like it a lot. Most of the active members in the ward live out in Mississippi too. We haven’t had the baptism for Ray yet. He is getting baptized on the 24^th. We are all pretty excited for him. He is loving having the missionaries come over and talk to him and his wife. I wish I could still go over and see him. I’m glad I’ll get to watch him get baptized though. Most of the people here in East Memphis are a lot like the people in Orange Mound. The only difference is that most of them have jobs or are going to school. So it’s a little harder to catch people home here. They are still great people though. Its still pretty hot here too. Has it cooled down there yet? We got told all this week is supposed to be real hot. It will be nice when it cools down. Well I hope you have a great week this week. I love you.

Love Elder Marshall

Quote of the week: “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth” -1 Ne 4:6-7

Dear Family

Hey how are you doing? How is everyone liking school? It sounds like Rebecca really likes school. That’s great that she does. That’s great that Kaitlyn likes playing Tennis so much. I bet she will do great at it. The motorcycle trip sounds like it was a lot of fun too. Bet it was a great ride. It sounds like there is a lot going on there. So David goes home tomorrow doesn’t he? I think that’s what he told me. Wow that’s crazy. It doesn’t seem like it has been long enough. I’m glad President messer got up and said that about everyone needing to go on a mission. I’m so glad I came. I would always regret not coming if I hadn’t come. I think all the young men would regret not going after it was to late to go. It will be something that they will always remember and bless the rest of their lives. Well everything is going great here. I’m in East Memphis now. Melisa Browder is a member of the ward here. She has us over for dinner sometimes. We were over there last Friday or Saturday and she started talking about face book and told us she would look our parents up. The missionaries have been working with her for the last year or so helping her start coming back to church. She is really nice. Its pretty nice being in the same ward. I know all the members still. Its kind of weird not being with Elder Arnold though. Elder Graham is a great missionary. We are getting along pretty well. This area is a little bit different than orange mound was. It’s a good area though. O by the way. I got a call from President Drewes today. He got a letter from the first presidency and Ray got the approval to get baptized. We are pretty excited for him. Elder Arnold and his companion will be going over tomorrow to set up his baptism. I’m really glad I will still be around to see him get baptized. I saw him at church on Sunday and he was talking about how he was excited about how he finally found Christ’s church. His family owns a few different churches. He wants us to go over and start talking to his mom now. He has been talking to her about the church and how much he likes it. I think it is here in this area. That would be really neat to be able to start teaching her too.

I got asked to be a zone leader. I’m pretty nervous about it. I call into Elder Hansen every night though. He helps me out a lot. I’m still not sure what all I’m supposed to be doing. I guess I better learn fast. Well I hope you have a great week. I love you all and miss you.

Love Elder Marshall

O and yes I did get the package with the 4^th of july t shirt. I thought I told her thankyou. Maybe I didn’t though. I’ll tell her again.

Dear Family

Hey how has everything been going? Thanks for the package you sent. That was great to get that. Thanks for the pictures. They are great to look at. Everything in the package was great. Thanks so much. We have been listening to the talks. Well everything has been going great here this week. Elder arnold and i have had a pretty good week. We have been working alot with Tyree. He is getting baptized on sunday. He is pretty excited. He is inviting a lot of his friends to come watch him. It is going to be great. We have also been talking a lot to a guy named Ray. He is hopefully getting baptized on Sunday too. He has to get interviewed by the mission president before he gets baptized. so hopefully everything goes good with that. He is a really great guy. His wife is a member. They have a goal to go to the temple together and get married in the temple. She has taught him a lot about the church. When we first met him, he already had a testimony of Joseph Smith. He said it made since that God would call prophets today, just like he called prophets thousands of years ago. He really enjoys reading the Book of Mormon too. He is always trying to learn. I think he will really like the Doctrine and Covenants too. He is really smart. probably one of the smartest people i have talked to in a long time. We are excited for him to get baptized. Transfers are coming up this week. One of us are probably getting moved. We have both been here for the last 6 months now. I'm thinking its going to be me that is going to get moved. I think Elder Arnold is going to train a new missionary. It will be good for him. We will find out a week from today what is going to happen. We are taking Elder smith to the temple on Monday too. He is going home. He flies home on Tuesday. It will be sad to see him go. the three of us have been around each other for the last 6 months. Well i hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Marshall

Quote of the week: “We are given the gift of the Holy Ghost after our baptism, but often we leave this gift on the shelf, forgetting that He will help us in the most important judgments of our lives. The Lord gave us this gift, knowing we would face difficult decisions in life. Listening to this voice is vital in developing good judgment. A relationship of listening often requires a quiet environment in which we can take time to ponder and hear the still, small voice. This peaceful environment is both external and internal.”

-Gregory A. Schwitzer

We had a really fun Summer this year. Here are a few pictures. While we were at Lagoon Corey was able to go to the National Scout Jamboree in Virginia so he is not in the Lagoon pictures.

We got to see a Moose in Island Park

We were able to go to John and Susan's cabin for a few days.

We were able to take the girls to Lagoon this summer. We all had fun but Kaitlyn is excited for Steven to come home so he can go on some of those "exciting" rides that the rest of us don't do anymore.

These pictures are probably out of order a bit but it will kind of give you an idea of what we got to see on our Alaskan cruise.

We are walking back to the boat after visiting Victoria.
I got these next pictures mixed up. When we went to dinner the night of the 17th our waiter brought us a little dessert and sang us a love song for our anniversary. It had a candle in it and we got to blow it out. We thought that was nice of them.

Every night (actually every meal) we had fruit. It was the best fruit especially the pineapple.

We got our cabin door decorated for our anniversary.

This is one of 6 pools on the ship.

Dinner time. It seems like we were always eating.

The second day on the boat I was not feeling very well...

These are just some fun things that they made there on the ship.

This is Gregory and I in front of Mendenhall Glacier. This is just outside of Juneau Alaska.

This is a big chuck of ice in the water. The ship had to go by a whole bunch of these to get to the Glacier.

We were able to go to a State Park that was full of totem Poles. This was in Ketchikan Alaska

This picture was taken in Ketchickan. We are just getting ready to get back on the ship.

This is a picture of part of the inside of the ship. Very nice!!

Dear family

Hey how has your week been going? How has getting ready to go back to school been going? Is it still pretty hot there? It hasn’t been to hot here. Its supposed to be getting cooler this week too. That will be nice. So when does school start? Is it this week or next week? It started a couple of weeks ago here. Everything has been going good here for us. We have been staying real busy. I was with Elder Smith again this week. We had meetings again. We had the last one on Friday. They were really good. The missionary department is putting a lot of emphasis on teaching skills. So we were doing a lot with that. Pete went to the temple on Friday. He got baptized back in April. The ward did a trip for all the new converts and the youth in the ward. We weren’t able to go, but we heard it was really good. Pete said he had a great time. We have just sarted working with a new family. The Martin family. The wife has been coming to church for a couple weeks now. She is the granddaughter of a member in the ward. The husband came for the first time this week. We went and saw them yesterday. She is a member already. She has been to the temple to do baptisms and everything. Its just been a while since she had come. The husband though isn’t a member. When we went over yesterday, he started telling us how he wants to go to the temple with his wife and get married there. That kindof surprised us. Most people we talk to don’t know much about the temple at all. Before we left, He told us he wanted to get baptized too. He wanted to set a day that he could get baptized before we left. It was great. We are hoping to see him get baptized before one of us gets transferred. That’s coming up in about two weeks. I think the 4^th is the last day of the transfer. Well I hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Marshall

Quote of the week: “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”

-Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Steven's letter written July 26

Hey how is everyone doing this week? Are you having fun in Idaho? Isit pretty nice weather there? There is a missionary here in the wardthat is from Pocatello. He is going home at the end of the transfer.He says it has been pretty nice weather there lately. His name isElder Brandon Smith. I don’t know if Grandma Smith knows him or not.Its been fun serving around him. Well Elder Arnold and I are stayingtogether at least another 6 weeks here in Orange Mound. We thoughtfor sure that one of us was going to leave. At the end of thistransfer we will have been together for 6 months. So Steven Jensen isback from his mission? Wow I didn’t know he was coming back thatsoon. I bet his homecoming was pretty good. Everything has beengoing pretty good here. We had a few less actives at church that wehave been working with. It was great to see them there. We have beenworking a lot with one less active family. The Malone family. Mostof the kids are baptized, but none of the adults are baptized. Thereis a bunch of little kids there. We have been trying to get them tocome to church for a while now, but they don’t have any way to gethere. And they live about as far away from the church as they couldso it makes it hard to get members to go out to pick them up. That’sone of our goals for this transfer is to help them get back to comingevery week. One of the kids wants to get baptized too. Her name isNa Na. The first time we went out to see them she came up to us andtold us she was 8 and that she wanted to get baptized. Oddessey isdoing good. She wont be getting baptized on the 6th though. We arehoping she can get baptized by the 13 or the 21 though. Her aunt’sfamily just got baptized. They have an awesome family. Elder Arnoldand I are looking forward to a great transfer together. We willdefiantly be working hard. Thanks for everything you do.Love Elder Marshall
Quote of the week: “You can know the things you need to know. Praythat you will learn to receive that inspiration and remain worthy toreceive it. Keep that channel—your mind—clean and free from theclutter of the world.” -Boyd K. Packer



I have been a little behind sorry......This is Steven's letter written July 19

Hey how are you doing this week? It sounds like you had a great weekin Alaska. What all did you do while you were gone? I bet it wasreally neat. Did you go anywhere around where David is? That wasgreat that you got to see Corey before he left. I was wondering whenhis trip was going to be. Was he pretty excited to be going on that?Is there a lot of people going on that trip? Everything is going goodhere. Elder Arnold and I had a great week this last week. Sorry Ididn’t write yesterday. We are having P-day on Tuesday this week.We’re going to the zoo today. Its free for anyone that lives inMemphis every Tuesday. So for our last week together, our district isgoing to the zoo. I’m pretty excited to go. Its been a while sinceI’ve been to a zoo. This is the last week of the transfer. ElderArnold and I are thinking that one of us are getting moved next week.We’ll know on Monday morning. If we get moved, we’ll leave onWednesday. Its been a fun 4 and a half months together. Elder Arnoldhits his 6 month mark today. So he is going to be burning a tietonight. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when I burned a tie. Wehave been really busy this last week. We have found a lot of newpeople we are starting to work with. I think I already told youabout Oddessey Clark. Well she is getting baptized on the 6th withher mom. We are pretty excited for her. There is another lady wehave been working with for a while now who has a baptism date for the6th to. We stopped teaching her for a while and just started teachingher again last week. She said she is ready to start making changes.She is the only white person I have taught since I got here. We hadquite a few people at church on Sunday too. It was good to seeeveryone there. So your going to be in Idaho the next couple weeks? What all are yougoing to be doing there? Well I hope you have a great week this week. Thanks for everything you do for me. I love you.Love Elder Marshall
Quote of the week: “To gain a testimony, you must nourish it step bystep. Your testimony will increase as you make decisions to keep thecommandments. As you lift and strengthen others, you will see yourtestimony continue to develop. ” -Mary N. Cook

Dear Family

Hey how has your week been?  Your going on a cruise this week huh?
How is everyone enjoying their summer?  I was sorry to hear about warm
springs.  Wow. Do they know how it started?  That’s to bad.  Do you
know if they are going to rebuild it?  I hope they do.  It sounds like
you had a good Fourth of July.  The Wollenburgs sound like they are a
fun family.   Every thing has been going good here this week.  We had
a pretty good Fourth of July. There were a lot of fireworks going on
around where we live.  We had a pretty good time.  There are a couple
videos and some pictures I think you will like.  We had Zone
conference.  That was really good.  There was a lot about how we need
to be doing more with the Recent Converts and the less actives here in
Memphis.  There are a lot of them here, so we will be kept really
busy.  Elder Arnold and I are staying pretty busy.  We don’t think we
are going to be staying together another transfer though.  He hits his
6 month mark this month.  It’s weird to think that I’ve been with him
most of his mission.  He had only been out 6 weeks when he came here
to Orange mound.  The time has been flying by.  It seems like its
getting faster.   We have been working with a less active sister named
Sister Johnson a lot the last couple weeks.  We talked to her
yesterday.  She has opened up to us a lot in the last couple of weeks.
We are hoping to start teaching her daughter and her Grandson.  The
daughter isn’t really interested right now, but we are hoping that
will change soon.  We are also working with a recent convert family.
The mom’s name is Patricia.  They have been going through a lot
lately.  I never knew there were so many people struggling before.
She just got evicted out of her apartment.  She is a single mom and
has no job.  She got a little house that she thought she could afford
if she could find a job.  She hasn’t been able to find one though.
The area where she lives doesn’t have much business around it and
there are a lot of people looking for work around there.  She doesn’t
have a car either so she can’t look to far away from where she lives.
She is such an awesome person though.  She was baptized in February
with her 4 daughters.  They are a great family.  The ward really loves
her and her family.  Well I hope you’re having a great week this week.
I love you.  Have fun.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family
>>
>> Hey how has your week been going?  It sounds like the Manti pageant
>> was a lot of fun.  And the shopping afterwards too.  Is Rebecca still
>> liking the swimming lessons?  I kindof wish we could get in the water
>> sometimes here.  The swimming pools look really good here on really
>> hot days.  So you got to sit in the chapel for stake conference?  Wow
>> I don’t think we have ever done that before.  That must have been
>> pretty neat.  Especially with a member of the seventy there.  Well
>> everything has been going good here. Elder Arnold and I have been
>> doing good.  We have been working a lot with some of the Less active
>> and recent converts in the ward this week.  We got a sister to come
>> that hasn’t been to church in the last year.  We were pretty excited
>> to see her there.  We didn’t have any investigators there this Sunday.
>>  Her name is Sister Johnson.  She was baptized when Elder Baron was
>> here in this area.  He came out with me.  He’s from Pahrump.  I talked
>> to the missionaries in Pocahontas this morning.  I was asking about
>> some of the people that we were teaching when I was there.  Do you
>> remember Kelly Newcomb?  He got baptized right when I left.  Well I
>> guess he is running for mayor up in Ashflat Arkansas.   Its been a
>> while since I talked to him.  They said he was still doing great and
>> that he was teaching Sunday school now.  I think its really neat
>> hearing about the people that I got to meet there.  Carla Baily should
>> be getting ready to go through the temple pretty soon.  Im hoping when
>> she does,  Elder Hansen and I  will be able to go through with her.
>> It would be the first time I have been able to go to the temple in
>> over a year now.  Well I hope everything is going great for you there.
>>  I hope you are having a great week.  Tell Rebecca Happy Birthday for
>> me.  I miss you.
>>
>> Love Elder Marshall
>>
>> Quote of the week:  “Always do your best, and the lord will do the rest.”
>>                      - My branch President in the MTC
>>

This picture is a little late but I thought it was a good one. It was taken in Dec

Dear Family

Hey how is everyone doing?  So you are going to the Manti pageant?
That would be a lot of fun.  I remember going there once with the
ward, but its been a long time.  I remember it was really neat though.
I bet everyone would love going to that.   So how has your week been
going?  When is Corey going on his big trip?  Is that coming up pretty
quick?  Everything has been going good here.  Elder Arnold and I have
been working pretty hard this week.  The week flew by too.  If all the
weeks go by as fast as this week did this transfer, its going to be a
real fast transfer.  We have been trying to find a lot of new people
to teach.  We find plenty of people to teach first lessons to, we just
have problems ever finding them again.   There was a missionary
farewell on Sunday.  It brought back some memories.  He is going to
Germany though.  He goes into the MTC on Wednesday.  I went back and
read in my journal that first day in the MTC.  I had forgotten a lot
of what went on that first week there in the MTC.  Reading the journal
helped me remember a lot though.  The first two or three days were
pretty hard but after that it wasn’t too bad.
 Elder Arnold is from Washington state.  From a little town called
Ellensburg.  He has been out 5 months yesterday.  He had only been out
one transfer when he came here to orange mound.  It doesn’t seem like
it was that long ago, but it has been three months now.   I have two
flags, the confederate flag and a Arkansas flag.  I’ve been having my
companions sign the confederate flag.  I didn’t at the first of the
mission, but I just started.  Elder Perza signed it before he went
home.  Now I just need to get Elder Contreras and Elder Kelly to sign
it.  Everyone else has.   Well I hope you have a great week this week.
Thanks for the letters this week in the mail.  It was great to hear
from everyone.  Thanks again for everything.

Love Elder Marshall

Quote of the week:     “In the end, the central purpose of all
scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His
Son, Jesus Christ—faith that They exist; faith in the Father’s plan
for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness;
faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to
come to know ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent’
(John 17:3).”            -D. Todd Christofferson

What happened to our Steven that should be dressed in a suit and tie?!?!?

Dear Family,
>> Hey how is everyone doing this week?  Is everyone liking being out of
>> school?  It sounds like it is good and hot there.  It isn’t getting
>> that hot here yet.  It hasn’t been over 95 or 96 yet.  It feels pretty
>> hot though.  A lot of the houses and apartments we go into are old and
>> run down and don’t have air conditioning.  My companion is having a
>> pretty hard time of it.  Lol He is always sweating.  Our air
>> conditioning went out a couple weeks ago.  I didn’t think it was too
>> bad.  It was only out one night.  I slept fine, but I guess he didn’t.
>>  He said he was up most of the night.  There was a sweat outline of a
>> body on his sheets when he got out of the bed.  He keeps telling
>> everyone that it was -15 when he left Washington and it was perfect
>> there.  It not real hot, its just real humid.  Even when I’m not hot
>> I’m still sweating.   We are having a great time serving together.
>> Transfers are coming up next week.  We should be getting a call next
>> Sunday night.  I’m kindof hoping I get moved this one.  I’m ready to
>> get moved back out of the city.  I miss being out in the country.
>> What ever happens will be good though.  I’m hoping I get switched back
>> to Spanish this transfer.  There are two Spanish elders going home
>> this week and none coming back out.  I guess we’ll see what happens.
>> Its been a good week here this week.  Elder Arnold and I have been
>> staying busy.  We are having trouble getting the people we set baptism
>> dates with, keep their dates and get baptized on that day.   Right now
>> we are trying to figure out how we can help them keep their
>> commitments better, or what we can do better to help them.  We have
>> been working a lot with Tina and Jerry.  We found Jerry while he was
>> watching a guy get arrested.  They have a great family.  They have
>> been coming to church for the last couple weeks in a row now.  We have
>> been trying to get them married for a while now.  Well on Sunday we
>> finally got them to go set up an appointment with the bishop.  They
>> are going to meet with him on Tuesday to talk about when they can get
>> married.  I really hope the get married and baptized pretty soon.
>> They are my favorite family that we have been working with.  They come
>> play basket ball with us every Wednesday night.  They bring their 4
>> kids too.  O so Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi showed up at sacrament meeting
>> yesterday.  That was pretty neat.  He spoke for about 10 minutes.  It
>> was really great to hear from him.  We came and shook all the
>> missionaries hands.  Our investigators that were there really felt the
>> spirit while he was talking.  Even the ones that hadn’t been to church
>> before were really impressed by him and the things he talked about.
>> It was awesome.  Well I hope everything is going great there this
>> week.  Have a great time out of school.  I love you
>> Love Elder Marshall
>>
>> Quote of the week:  “Elders, keep working hard.”
>>                                             - Elder Kikuchi to Elder
>> Arnold and I.  it was pretty cool meeting him.
>>
>>

Dear Family

Hey how has your week been going? So only two more days till school is
out?  Wow its coming up pretty fast.  Is anything fun going to be
happening after that? Its been a pretty good week here.  Memorial day
was a lot of fun.  We were over at a members house during the day.
That was  a lot of fun.  We got to do a lot over there.  We went
fishing, played basket ball,  had a barbeque,  lol and we got to shoot
elder Arnold in the stomach with air soft guns.  That was a lot of
fun.  It was his idea too.  He has some nice red welts now.  We were
invited to a few dinners.  It was a fun P day.  Ya I didn’t used to
like playing basket ball.  I do now though.  I’m getting better.  I
wasn’t very good, but that’s what a lot of missionaries like to do for
Mondays and then we do it Wednesday night and invite all of our
investigators to come play at the church.  And we play with people on
the streets and in the parks. We find a lot of people to teach when we
play with them.  Lol we have to go easy on people on the streets
though because the don’t like getting beat by a couple of white kids.
Elder Arnold is pretty good at basketball.  We don’t get to play
soccer very often though.
 Well Temeka still isn’t doing very good this week she found out that
her Liver is enlarged and she has a lot of extra fluid in her stomach
where she got shot.  Ya Satan works hard against all of the new
converts.  I don’t think there has been one person that I’ve seen
baptized that had an easy time before or after they got baptized.   We
are teaching Temeka’s daughter right now.  Her name is Shameka.  She
is getting baptized on the 19th.  She got her jaw broken a few years
ago in a fight. They put metal plates in her jaw. Well she has been
tasting rust in her mouth when she eats and drinks.  She says it
tastes like she is sucking on a penny.  Well she went in and got it
checked and the doctor told her whoever did her surgery put iron
plates.  They are rusting and she has to have them taken out and new
ones put in.  I think she said that was going to be happening in the
next week.  Ya Satan defiantly doesn’t want any of these people
baptized.  They will though.
Well I hope you have a great week.  Thanks for everything.

Love Elder Marshall

Quote of the week:   “Now is the time for each of us to work toward
our personal conversion, toward becoming what our Heavenly Father
desires us to become.”
                     -  Dallin H. Oaks

Dear family
Hey how is everyone doing this week?  Is everyone getting excited to
be getting out of school pretty soon?  Everyone is out here.
Graduation was today. That’s awesome that the family just got
baptized.  There name is the Garcias?  Is it a Hispanic family?
That’s great to have a new family in the ward.   It hasn’t been
raining very much till today.  We still haven’t been anywhere close to
seeing a tornado.  Today its raining though.  We were over by the
church playing soccer in a field with a bunch of missionaries.  It
started raining about half way through.  We decided to keep playing
though.  It was a lot of fun.  We were all soaked by the end of the
game.  There were a lot of mud spots too so that was a lot of fun.
Last Monday night we got a pretty crazy phone call.  Temeka has been
trying to move to another house, but she hasn’t been able to get a
truck to help her move. We had set everything up for the ward to go
help her move on Thursday. She and her family have been living in the
new house though.  They just had her beds there.  Well the land lord
for the other house got told that it had been abandoned so he decided
he was going to go and take all of her stuff out so he could rent it
out.  He tore everything out of the house.  Beds, fridge, clothes,
pictures, social security cards, everything… He threw everything out
in the street. It was in the evening time too.  We got a call from her
at about 7:30.  People had already started digging through it taking
what they wanted.  Nicer things like her fridge were already gone.
She was pretty upset because they didn’t have much to start out with.
We couldn’t go over until Tuesday morning and we helped her get
everything that was left.  She has been through a whole lot lately.
She is doing a lot better now though.  Besides that everything is
going great here.  Elder Arnold and I are doing great together.  Well I hope everything is going great for you.  I hope everyone is having fun in their last
couple weeks of school.  I love you

Love Elder Marshall

This quilt is my Mom's. It is called "Blooms" She finished it this last week. We started them at the Cedar City quilt retreat.(I am still working on mine)Both pictures are the same quilt the coloring is just different because of the flash.

This quilt is one that I got started with my sisters on a weekend trip to Salt Lake a couple of years ago. Yes this one is actually quilted.

This quilt is called the Hunters Star. The Black, White, and Red one is mine. The Blue and White is Mom's(she does not blog so I get to show of her quilts too)I hope to get this one quilted this summer also. (I have a lot to do this summer)

I thought I would show off some quilts that I have been working on. These are just quilt tops I plan on quilting them this summer. The 2 top quilts I worked on with my Relief Society sisters. "Oh my stars" and "Stars and Stripes" are quilts that I learned how to do at the Cedar City quilt retreat.

Steven's letter May 17

Dear Family
 Hey how has your week been going this week?  Did you get the
pictures i sent? It sounds like the trip to Idaho was pretty fun.   So
the family got baptized?  Thats awsome.  How many people are in their
family?  Elder Arnold and i have been doing pretty good this week.  We
have been doing a little bit of service, but it wasn't because of the
storms.  We helped a recent convert move.  We have been working a lot
with Temeka's family.  We have been talking to them a lot about how we
want them to all go to the temple and be sealed together as a family.
four of the family are already baptized.  We have been working with
three others trying to get them ready to be baptized.  We are working
with another youger family too.  Tina and Jerry.  They have 4 little
kids too.  All under 5 years old.  They are a really great family.
They are a great family  we found them when we went up and started
talking to Jerry.  He was watching a guy get arrested so we went over
and started talking to him and invited him to come play basket ball.
He ended up coming and bringing his whole family.  They have come to
basketball everyweek since.  They have only come to church once
though.  Tina works all but 2 sundays a week and Jerry doesn't like
bringing 4 little kids to church by himself.  They want to get
baptized on the 4th of june.  Elder Arnold and i love going over and
talking to them.  The members of the ward really love the family too.
Well i hope you are haveing a great week.
Love Elder Marshall
Quote of the week:     “We should learn to be patient with ourselves.
Recognizing our strengths and our weaknesses, we should strive to use
good judgment in all of our choices and decisions, make good use of
every opportunity, and do our best in every task we undertake. We
should not be unduly discouraged nor in despair at any time when we
are doing the best we can. Rather, we should be satisfied with our
progress even though it may come slowly at times.”       Joseph B.
Wirthlin