Steven's letter Feb 22

Dear family
Hey how has your week been going?  Anything exciting going on?  Everything has been pretty normal here.  Its warmed up lately.   I am still trying to learn Spanish.  Elder Contreras is helping me a lot.  He speaks English so we are doing pretty good together.  So far I haven’t been able to do much helping in the lessons. I can’t understand much.  This week  I am going to start trying to add more into the lessons though.  We don’t have a ward or a branch here.  There is just a little group.  We are trying to help it become a branch though.  The stake president came last week and told us that hopefully soon it will be able to become a branch.  The Memphis area has a branch, but most areas here are just little groups.  They haven’t grown enough to become branches.  I had to give a talk in church yesterday.  The group leader called me and asked if I liked challenges.  Then he asked me to give a talk in church.  I think that was probably the hardest talk I have ever given.  It was defiantly the hardest one for me to say yes to.  I don’t think I did that great.  I’m glad its over with now.  I have been worrying about it all week.  I found out that we play soccer and teach English classes every Tuesday night.  Those are a lot of fun.  We invite all of our investigators to it, and a lot of other people that we meet.  A lot of the branch comes to it too.  It’s a great activity.  I never thought I would be playing soccer here on the mission.  It’s a lot of fun.  It’s a good way to fellowship the investigators and to find new people to teach.  The members in the group  sometimes bring friends and introduce them to us.  Its great.  O  This week we got fed pig feet again.  We got invited over for dinner on Thursday and the family had taken pig feet,  dipped them in eggs and fried them.(like you would to French toast)  Then they boiled them in tomato juice.  That one was hard to eat.  I never thought I would be eating anything like that on the mission either.  Elder Contreras wouldn’t eat it though.  I guess he doesn’t like any kind of pork.  So he just wouldn’t eat anything.  I don’t think the family was to happy with him.  They just said  “the American will eat it but you wont?”  Well every thing else is going great.  I’ll be doing a lot of Spanish study this week.  Hopefully I’ll be able to start doing better with that.  Well I hope you have a great week. 
Love Elder Marshall   
O and I haven’t been able to go to the temple at all in Memphis.  I haven’t been able to go since I was in provo.  About  8 months now.  I won’t be able to unless I get moved back over into Memphis.
Quote of the week:
"We are commanded to 'pray always' (2 Nephi 32:9; D&C 10:5; 90:24)—'vocally as well as in [our] heart[s]; . . . before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private' (D&C 19:28). I testify that prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude, and as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart. I witness Heavenly Father lives and that He hears and answers every earnest prayer."            - David A. Bednar

Steven's letter Feb 16

Dear family
Hey how is everyone’s week going?  Its going pretty good here.  I got transferred.  Im in Little Rock now.  And I got switched to Spanish speaking.  There are 4 spanish elders in Little Rock, 16 in the mission.  It’s a lot different than classroom Spanish was.  My companion has only been out 6 weeks.  His name is Elder Contreras.  He came out with Elder Kelly.  He is from mexico though so he is a native Spanish speaker.  Its been a pretty crazy week for me.  I cant understand a whole lot of what is being said.  I’ve asked a few of the other missionaries how long it took them to get to where they could understand everything that is going on in the lessons.  They said about a month.  I hope it doesn’t take me that long.  I can understand more when other missionaries are talking than I can when the investigators are talking.  The missionaries talk slower.  I’m excited to be learning Spanish though.  It will be a huge blessing even after the mission.  We are working with a few families that are very close to being baptized.  There are a couple families who want to be baptized, but the parents aren’t married.  They know they need to get married though and they want to be baptized.  I think they will be baptized really soon.  I am Loving serving in the Hispanic communities though.  The people are very humble and easy to talk to.  Hopefully pretty soon I will be able to help Elder Contreras teach.  So far I have mostly been sitting and listening, saying prayers, and reading scriptures.  Well thanks again for the package.  I’m not sure what my address is, and neither is my companion.   I’ll have to find that out.  You can send anything to the mission office though and then they will forward it on to me.  Its 
905 Kierre Dr.
North Little Rock, AR 72116
I hope you have a great week
Love Elder Marshall

O so missionary story.  So like I already said, I don’t understand a lot of what is being said during the lessons.  Well its been really neat because even though I don’t understand, I can still feel the spirit really strong while we are talking to people.  Like two days ago.  We were talking to a guy named Jose Hernandez (there are a lot of Jose s  :)   I could tell they were talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, about how we need to have faith in Jesus Christ, Repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy Ghost, and endure to the end.  I kept on feeling like we needed to ask him to be baptized.  Well at the end of the lesson Elder Contreras asked him to be baptized.   He said yes.  No hesitating or anything.  It was Awesome.  He is getting baptized on the 27th.  We are both pretty excited.

Dear Family
Hey its been a great week here. It snowed about 4 or 5 inches last night.  We woke up to a lot of white. Thanks so much for the package. Im getting transfered. i got the call today. I can't write much right now. I might be able to come back later hopefully. We are taking a missionary to the temple pretty soon. He is going home. O when the president called he told me to bring any spanish liturature that i have. So i think i'm getting switched to spanish speaking. Ill know for sure on Wednesday though. If i do get swithced could you take some money out of my accout and get me a set of spanish scriptures?  hopefully ill let you know if i need them on Wednesday. Elder Kelly is getting moved too. Well I better go. I hope I'll be able to get on a little later and email more. If not Ill talk to you later.
Love Elder Marshall

Dear Family

Hey how has everyone been doing there this week.  Did it rain again?  I forgot the farm show was coming up.  I bet that is going to be a lot of fun.  Everything has been going great here.  Elder Kelly and I are both pretty bummed to be getting moved.  I thought for sure one of us would be staying here.  O well.  Life goes on right.  It’s still storming outside. We woke up to snow.  It’s raining/hailing right now.  The news says there is supposed to be another Ice storm tomorrow.  I had never seen those before.  I guess what happens is its to humid for snow,  so when it rains, as soon as the rain hits something it freezes.  So the tree branches and leaves had about an inch of ice on top of them.  When the tree limbs get to heavy, they break.  There are still a lot of broken branches.  We got to help a few people move branches out to the road We have been asking people about it and it sounds like this almost never happens here. 
I have really come to love reading the scriptures.  I wish i would have taken more time to study them while I was there at home or in Rexburg.  There is so much to learn.  So many things that we can apply to our own lives.  Morning study is one of my favorite times of day now.
Love Elder Marshall
Quote of the week:  This was one of my favorite scriptures before i came out  It has helped me a lot of times when i didn't think i could do something by my self

"Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Steven's letter Jan 19

Dear Family
How has the week been?  Its been a great week here.  What did everyone do on the day off yesterday?  Sorry I couldn’t email yesterday.  All the libraries were closed.   Its been a pretty good week.  Its warmed up a lot since last week.  Its been pretty nice all week.  I think its supposed to be raining this next week.  Elder Kelly and I are doing great together.  I am loving being his companion.  He is a great missionary.  .  I got a call from one of the AP’s yesterday morning.  He gave me kindof a Spanish test over the phone.  This is the second one I’ve had since I’ve been out.  He told me President Drewes is looking for a couple new Spanish elders.  I guess I’ll find out in a couple weeks whether I’m getting moved to Spanish speaking.  I hope I am.  Then last night Elder Kelly and I were walking home, and we stopped and talked to a guy on the sidewalk.  He wouldn’t really say much when we introduced our selves, then he told us he didn’t speak English.  So I tried to give him a pass along card and explain what it was in Spanish.  I didn’t do so great.  So my question is:  is it like an omen?  Like you better get ready cause here it comes?   I duno
We went back and saw Mikey on Tuesday.  It was great.  He knows so much about the bible.  We were talking to him about Faith Vs. Works.  Because Baptists believe that its by faith that we are saved.  There is nothing we of ourselves can do to be saved.    He was quoting all kinds of scriptures and different things to us.  Almost like he was trying to convert us to his way of thinking.  It was really amazing what happened.  After he was done talking,  Elder Kelly and I and a former stake president that went with us started talking about how works are very important.  It was really neat.  The spirit was so strong as we were talking with him.  At the end of the lesson, we could tell that he was really thinking about the things that had been said.  It was amazing.   Elder Kelly said it really helped his testimony to grow.  We  are hoping to go and see him again this week. 
So I tried some new southern food this week.  Neck bone from a pig.  It looked grose, but it was pretty good with a little hot sauce.  Then I tried Cow maw.  That’s the bottom part of a cows stomack.  It wasn’t as good as the neck bone.  Really rubbery.  Then… Elder Townsend and I tried Pig feet.  That was grose.   They just threw the whole pig foot in the oven and cooked the whole thing.  We ate  it right off the bone.  I guess its one of those things I’m glad I can say I’ve tried it, but I probably don’t want to try it again.  Well I hope you have a great week. 
Love Elder Marshall
Quote of the week:
"What may appear initially to be a daunting task will be much easier to manage over time as you consistently strive to recognize and follow feelings prompted by the Spirit. Your confidence in the direction you receive from the Holy Ghost will also become stronger. I witness that as you gain experience and success in being guided by the Spirit, your confidence in the impressions you feel can become more certain than your dependence on what you see or hear."
 - Richard G. Scott

Steven's letter Jan 11

Dear Family
Hey how has the week been?  Is everyone enjoying being back in school? It sounds like Stake Conference was really good. That’s interesting that they talked about complacency.  That is something that our mission president has talked to us a lot about in the last couple of months.  The goal for baptisms for the year was 409.  We beat the goal, but president Drewes thinks we can do better.  The goal for this year is 712 baptisms.  Its going to be a tuff goal to get to, but we will be able to do it.   It will defiantly stretch us.
Its been a good week here.  It got real cold though.  It snowed and everything.  Just enough to turn the ground white, but they shut the schools down for a couple of days because of it.  Some of the businesses were closed too.  This week was our walk week.  We were able to talk to a lot of people.   We were able to start talking to a guy who was unloading groceries out of his car.  We started talking to him about families and how they could be sealed together in the temple for time and all eternity.  He asked us to come back and teach him and his family next Sunday.  Elder Kelly and I are both pretty excited to go talk to them.  We also went back to talk to the Baptist minister.  He and his wife are such nice people.  They both know a lot about the bible.  A lot more than Elder Kelly and I do.  We ate dinner with them last Tuesday.  They are very nice people.  She has had a lot of good friends that are LDS.  We are going back tomorrow to talk to them again.  I think we are going to watch the restoration DVD with them that we give out to people.  
Elder Kelly and I are doing great together.  I love serving with him.  This week is the half way mark for the transfer.  It feels like we just started the transfer.  Time has really started to fly by.  Well I hope you have a great week.  I miss you all.
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…”
1Ne. 4:6-7

Steven's letter Jan 3

Dear Family 
How was the new year?  Did everyone make it to midnight?  It was just a regular day here.  We went to bed at 10:30 and were up at 6:30, just like every other day.  The holdays were a lot of fun.  It was hard to get ahold of people though.   I think I told you,  but I got a lava lava for Christmas.  Those Hawaiian skirts.  Ya one of the sisters in my district is Hawaiian.  We had a white elephant gift exchange and that’s what I got from her.  Its pretty neat.  I bet there aren’t many missionaries that go to Arkansas that can say they got a lava lava on their missions.  Elder morris had to get a picture of me wearing it because he thought it was funny. 
 Elder Kelly and I are doing great together.  He is a  great missionary, and being with him is defiantly breaking me out of my comfort zone.  I’ve had a lot of fun with him.  Hes from Salt Lake City, and he is about 2 inches taller than me.  I’m starting to feel a little short, there are two missionaries here in Collierville that are taller than me now.  Elder Cox is in the first ward.  He is about the same height as Elder Kelly. We have a tall district.   This week we have been doing a lot of finding.  Elder Kelly and I are both getting good practice at tracting.  Yesterday, we tracted into a family that let us come in and seemed really interested when we started talking to them.  They asked for a book of Mormon and said they would read and pray about it.  We are going to try to go back a little later in the week.  We have also started teaching a Baptist minister.  Most of them don’t really like talking to us,  But this one does.  His name is mikey.  He and his wife are really nice.  They told us we should come over for dinner some time.  Both are very nice.  They went out to Utah a couple weeks ago and ordered a free video when they went on a tour of the tabernacle.  We have a lot of fun talking to him.  I’m not sure if he is really interested in making changes, or if we have just sparked some curiosity.   That’s something that still amazes me is how nice and friendly most people are here.  Every once in a while we meet someone that doesn’t like us, but most of the time everyone is very friendly.  Almost everyone has a church they go to.  Sometimes it makes it hard because a lot of people are set in their ways.  Their parents were Baptists, so they are Baptists.  Very good people though. 
Chruch is starting at 11 now.  That’s going to be really nice.  This will be the first time on my mission I will be able to study before church starts.  I have always been at 9 or 9:30.  It will be easier to try to get investigators to church now too.  They don’t have to wake up as early.  We had a couple of less active families that we have been working with come to church this week.  It was great to see them all there.  They’ve made the goal to start coming back to church again.  Both families have been inactive for 10 or 15 years.  They both live down in Mississippi. 
Well I hope you have a great week this week.  I hope everyone has fun going back to school.  I love you all.
Love Elder Marshall
Lol  and nope I haven’t eaten it all yet.  There is still a lot left.  Elder Kelly are working on it though.
Quote of the week:
“As we go about our daily lives, we discover countless opportunities to follow the example of the Savior. When our hearts are in tune with His teachings, we discover the unmistakable nearness of His divine help. It is almost as though we are on the Lord’s errand; and we then discover that, when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help.”                       - Thomas S. Monson