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?!?!?