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

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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.

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Love Elder Marshall

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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