Dear family
Hey how is everyone’s week going this week? Has it been raining there at all? It’s been raining a lot here. We still haven’t seen any tornadoes on the ground yet though. It’s still raining off and on today. Has anything exciting been going on there? Well everything has been going good here. Elder Petaia and I are working hard together. We had someone at church on Sunday which was great. She was the first Investigator we have had so far come to church here in this area. We were pretty excited about it. We have been doing a lot of finding this week. We found a yesterday that we are pretty excited for. The mom let us come in and talk to her and her son. As we were taking to her, she told us about how her son died a couple years ago, and it still bothered her a lot. We were able to teach her about the plan of salvation. She really liked it. She had a lot of questions about everything. During the lesson, we were putting a lot of emphasis on her need to get baptized to live with her family forever. At the end of the lesson, she told us she wanted to get baptized, so we set a date for the 21st of May. She can’t though because she is going to Mexico for a week. And she can’t do it the week of the 14th because She is going to be in North Carolina. She said she wants to as soon as she gets back though. We are pretty excited for her. I wish I could be there to see her get baptized. It is going to mean a lot to her. We are still teaching Adela. She still hasn’t come to church yet. That seems to be the biggest challenge we have in this area. That and it’s a really small rural area. Everyone here knows who we are and a lot of people have already studied with the missionaries in the past. We have been trying to find new people who haven’t met with missionaries in the past. We will definitely be doing our best to help everyone we can. The Spanish still isn’t the greatest. If anything, I’m still figuring out how hard it is going to be to learn it all the way. Elder Petaia says that it’s getting better, but it doesn’t seem like it to me yet. I can understand most of what I hear now, but talking and expressing myself is a lot harder. Hopefully it will come though. It gets a little frustrating sometimes not being able to talk very well and not being able to help Elder Petaia as much as I wish I could. O well though. Thanks for everything you do for me. I don’t think I need any more clothes or shoes. One of the pairs of shoes, I only wear on Sunday and still look brand new. And my other pair aren’t real bad either. I still have lots of socks still too. Thanks again for everything.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear family

Hey how is everything going this week? How is your week been going? Anymore snow there? I still can’t believe it snowed there last week. Everything has been going pretty good here. Elder Petaia and I have been doing great together. We are striving to get a lot done here. It did storm pretty good here this last week. I didn’t really get to see too much of it though. I slept through most of it. I guess there were a couple tornadoes that never touched down and everything. I slept through it all. Elder Petaia said he heard the tornado sirens going off for a little while, but I didn’t hear them at all. I remember feeling the apartment rattle a couple times because of the thunder, but I slept through everything else. I wish the storms would come during the day so we could watch them. Its supposed to be raining all week this week, but I don’t think any big thunder storms. It was kind of a slower week than we would have liked. We didn’t have any investigators at church this week. Adela couldn’t come because she had to move a bunch of stuff out of her old house into her new one. She told us she will defiantly be at church this next week though. We are hoping to have a lot of people there this next week. We are both ready to work hard this week. The Spanish is coming ok. Not as good as I hoped it would but I’m learning. Elder Petaia and I are trying to speak Spanish as much as possible. I am starting to be able to help more in lessons. I wish I had had more time learning Spanish. We have been working a recent convert named Fausto. He is a great guy. He would make an amazing missionary, but he is married. He is only a year older than we are. He got baptized in February, but he has a very strong testimony of the gospel. He has invited some of his friends over tonight to meet with us at his house. We are pretty excited for that.
We went fishing this morning. It was a lot of fun. There were 6 of us that went. Elder Leavitt was there too. We had breakfast with a family and then they let us use their pond for a little while. It was fun. Well there isn’t a whole lot else going on here. Dardanelle is a great place. Its nice and small. We are starting to work more in Russellville too. There are a lot more people there. Thanks for everything you do for me.
Love Elder Marshall

Dear family
Hey how is your week going? So it snowed this last week there? Wow That’s crazy. It has been pretty warm here. I’m in Dardanelle Arkansas. It’s a real small town a couple hours north of Little Rock. It’s nice and quiet. I forgot all my Spanish though. My companion is Elder Petaia. He is from California. He is full Samoan. He speaks really good Spanish though so he is helping me a lot. We get along great together. He goes home at the end of June. I would have gone home with him if I would have been able to extend. Not much has been going on this week here. We have been working hard together. The ward is excited to have missionaries again. They haven’t had missionaries for a while now. It’s a little different. Benton was kind of hard starting out, because neither of us knew anyone. But the missionaries before us had been doing a lot of work so it wasn’t to bad to get started. Here though we are starting brand new. It’s good though. It is defiantly keeping us busy. The Spanish is coming ok. I have forgotten a lot, but I feel like I’m learning a lot faster with Elder Petaia than I ever did with Elder Contreras. Starting today we aren’t speaking any English while we are away from the apartment. Then hopefully in a couple more weeks we are going to speak all Spanish. Hopefully I will be able to pick it up fast. The members here are great. It is almost like being back in the maple street unit. There aren’t very members here. On Sunday, there were only about 30 people there. We are hoping to get that up though. We set a date for baptism for the 30th with a lady we met on Friday. We are pretty excited for her. Elder Petaia made me do it. He is good at getting me to talk during lessons in Spanish. It was great though. Well not a whole lot else going on here. This next week will be a busy one. I am hoping to be able to go back down to Benton to watch Bill and Jenny owens get baptized. Thanks for everything.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear family

Hey how is your week going? So the fair is going on this week? Is corey and kaitlyn working there this year? Does that mean spring
break is this week too? Its been a pretty hectic week this week. We
have been running everywhere. Tuesday night we went on exchanges. I went with the elders in Spanish North in Little rock. It was a great exchange. I got to see a lady named Carmen Ramierez. Elder Contreras and I were teaching her when we were in that area. She got baptized about three weeks ago. It was great to see her again. We got back from the exchange Wednesday night just in time to go out ith one of the priests from the ward here. We had a great evening with him.
Then Friday we had to go to memphis for a meeting with all the other zone leaders and the mission president so that took all Friday between the meeting and the 3 hour drive each way. Then Saturday and Sunday were conference. I loved this conference. The were a lot of good talks. I think the big thing I got out of it was the need to act. Like when Elder Eyering was talking about having sentimental feelings when disaster or trials happen in other lives. And that we needed to turn those feelings into actions. I liked Elder Uchdorf’s talk in priesthood session too. There were a lot of great talks. A lot of talks that will be usefull t a lot of people. I’m getting transferred. I got the call from president Drewes. He told me that I’m getting moved up to Russleville to be a spanish missionary. I’m excited but pretty nervous too. There haven’t been any missionaries in Russleville spanish in a while now. So me and my new companion will be opening the area. It will be a great transfer. Im excited for the challenge. I was hoping I wasn’t going to get transferred though. There are a lot of great people here I am going to miss. We went and saw Shawn Barber and his family last night. He is still doing great. He and his wife told us they have started to read the Book of Mormon every night and he is loving it. He didn’t think he would. They are a great family. We are going over to see bill and Jenny owens tonight. They are the other family that I’m going to miss a lot. They are getting excited to be baptized. They just need to get married first, but they want to already so its just picking a day.
That’s about all that is going on here. We probably aren’t going to do a whole lot today. Just pack up some stuff. I’m going to be sending a box home this week. Thanks for everything you do.
Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family

Hey how has your week been going? It sounds like the priest’s Camp helaman was a lot of fun. Why wouldn’t anyone go on the zipline? I remember those trips were always a lot of fun. Everything has been going pretty good here. We have been staying very busy. We are trying to figure out how to best use our time between the two wards. We were in church for about 8 hours yesterday. Both of the wards meet in the same building. We have to be there at 7 30 for meetings before church for Benton, then as soon as we get done with Sunday school in the Benton ward, we go to the Little Rock ward for 3 more hours. Then we have another Correlation meeting after that for the Little rock ward. It was a lot of sitting. Between the 2 wards, we don’t have much down time anymore which is realy good. I like staying busy. Its just that now we don’t have to look for things to do. Now we have to plan out how to fit everything in. This next transfer, we should be having a few baptisms. I’m pretty excited. Transfers are coming up this next week. I’m really hoping Im going to be staying here my last transfer. I really love this area. It is probably my favorite area. Shawn Barber’s baptism went great on Saturday. It meant a lot to him. I think the confirmation meant more to him though. We went and talked to him about the priesthood last night and he was telling us about how he felt something very strong when he received the Holy Ghost. He felt that a lot of weight had been lifted off him. I love talking to recent converts about their experience when they get baptized and confirmed. I think we as lifelong members of the church take the gift of the Holy ghost for granted because we are so used to always having it with us. I love talking to new members because they can feel the difference before and after. Shawn told us he didn’t want to “sound corny or anything” but that he had actually felt some very strong impressions and emotions when he was getting confirmed. It meant a lot for him to tell us that because he isn’t very open with how he is feeling. He told us that he wants to get the priesthood and a calling now because he feels like he needs to contribute something back. He is such an awesome guy. I’m really grateful we were able to help him to get baptized. It was his father in law that baptized him. After the baptism, the mother in law came up and talked to me for a minute and told us that it was a huge step for him. That he had told her that he didn’t think he was ever going to be allowed to go to heaven because of the things that had happened in Iraq. She told me that it had surprised them a lot when he had called her husband and asked him to baptize him. Elder Kelly and I are very grateful we were able to be there to watch it all happen. There is a different feel in their house now from what it used to be. I remember the first time we went to meet them, it was a very serious meeting, and he told us that he had been through a few sets of missionaries, and that he was getting frustrated with us coming over because he didn’t feel like he was getting anything out of it anymore. There was a huge difference between that first meeting and the lesson we had last night after the confirmation. The whole family was there. Everyone was happy, and you could feel the spirit in the room. I know that the Gospel changes people’s lives. I’ve watched it happen. I didn’t really see the blessing of having the gospel in my life when I was back home, because I’ve always had it. But being able to come out here and help other people find the gospel has helped me see all the blessings that are there for us because of the gospel. I’m so grateful that I was able to come here. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now without this great experience. Thanks for the great example you have always set for me.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family

Hey how is your week going this week? Anything exciting going on?
Its been kindof crazy here. Where do I even start… Elder Kelly and I have been working really hard this week. We have been working a lot with the barber family. The dad of the family is getting baptized on Saturday. He has been kindof hesitant saying that he isn’t ready yet.
He spent a lot of time in Iraq and wants to be able to have a new start that baptism would give him, but he has wanted to be completely ready for it. To make things even harder, they have a very busy work and school schedual and we have only been able to meet with them once a week. Last week he said he wasn’t ready at all. Then by the time we left he was sincerely thinking about it. Then we saw him yesterday and he told us he wasn’t ready yet. We read 3rd nephi 11 and started talking about how important it was for him. He told us that he really wanted to be baptized, he just wanted to be completely ready. We went over the baptismal interview and set up an interview time. Then thismorning, his wife, who is a member, called us and told us that she had already set up a couple of talks for the baptism, he had said her dad could baptize him, and she wanted to know who she could talk to about playing the piano. The baptism is going to be at 1 on Saturday.
We were pretty excited to get that phone call. It was great. Our
other baptismal dates for this weekend aren’t looking so good though.
I’m pretty confident they will go through eventually, but probably not this weekend. We have had a crazy weekend though. We got a call from our mission president on Friday telling us that the little rock elders were needing to stay with us for a little while. That something had happened whith where they stay that they couldn’t stay there anymore.
So they were with us Friday night. Then Saturday, we were cleaning the church building and Elder Baron and Elder steed, the Aps, came and picked up the younger missionaries. He was supposed to stay with them for a few days, and the other missionary was supposed to stay with us.
Well we were finnishing up cleaning everything, putting everything away, and we noticed that the missionary wasn’t with us anymore. We figured he was just somewhere else cleaning stuff up. So we started looking for him. We couldn’t find him anywhere. Then we went outside
and our car was gone. He had just left. He didn’t have a phone or
anyone with him, so we had to call our mission president. It turned out to be a chase trying to find the kid again. There aren’t any missionaries in the little rock ward. We found out yesturday that we are covering it now. Our area just went from Benton, Bryant, alexander, and all the areas around them, to that and all of Little Rock too. There are a few sets of missionaries up in North little rock and pinacle mountain, but not in Little Rock. So our area went from big, to Huge. So now we are trying to figure out who all there Progressing investigators are and where they are. Its going to be a busy couple weeks till transfers. Well that’s about all from here.
Everything is going great. We are working hard and loving being able to serve here together. Everything is great. I hope everything is going great there.

Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family
Hey how has everything been going there? How is everyone liking school? So did corey go on splits with the missionaries? I bet they liked that, Especially if they’re on bike week. Its been a great week here. Elder Kelly and I have been working great together. We have been riding our bikes a ton. Yesturday we didn’t start riding until about 6 in the evening, and by the time we got back to our apartment, we had ridden 17 and a half miles. I took my gps with us because I wanted to know how much we were riding. I’m going to start keeping track more. It has been a great week though. We have 4 people who are hopefully getting baptized. We are real excited for all of them. Lisa is still working towards her date. She has been going through a lot this week. Her husband might be having to go back to Mexico. We are working with a part member family named the Barbers. The dad of the family is the one we have been teaching. He has been putting off getting baptized because he doesn’t know if he is ready yet. He was in Iraq for 3 years and has been going through a lot since because of it. It has been great being able to see the change that is happening in him as we go over and read out of the book of Mormon with him and talk about the plan of Salvation. He says he really wants to get baptized on the 26th. We are hoping that he will. Another person we have been working a lot with this week is a friend of one of the members here in the ward. Her name is Jessica. She has been coming to church for the last couple weeks and has been starting to come to mutual and work on her personal progress. She says that she has been to a few other churches, but none that have felt like this one does. We have been working hard and have been seeing a lot come from it this week. It has been great. I had an interview with the mission president on Friday. The first thing he asked be about was if it would make me nervous to go back to Spanish speaking. It was a pretty big surprise. I didn’t think I would be going back to Spanish speaking. Right now there is a shortage of Spanish speaking missionaries here. We had 2 go home in the last couple months that weren’t supposed to go home yet. So one of the areas got closed. I told him that I would like to go back to Spanish speaking. Hopefully I will get to. A couple weeks ago when we were in our zone leader council, we had been talking about not having as many missionaries as was needed. I had had a really strong feeling that I should ask about extending so we wouldn’t have to close one of those areas. After President told me about maybe going back to Spanish speaking up in Russellville, I told him that I had wanted to ask him about extending. The transfer after I am supposed to go home is only a 5 week transfer. It’s the transfer when the new mission president will get there and President Drewes goes home. So instead of coming home May 17 I would come home in the end of June I think. It feels right to me. President Drewes said that before anything else I should talk to you and ask what you thought of it before he called the stake president and talked to him about it. Hopefully you’ll get this before I have to go. If not that’s ok too. That’s about all that has been going on here. O ya in the interview, I also had to get a new Temple Recommend. Mine is about to expire. Can you believe its been 2 years since I went to the temple. It doesn’t seem like its been that long. Well I hope everything is going great there. I love you.
Love Elder Marshall