January 29, 3015

Hola mi familia :)

THANK YOU for all of the birthday wishes!!!!! I really feel like the
most blessed missionary in the whole entire world. I have been spoiled
rotten by the ice cream with members, lunch and surprises with the
missionaries, and of course you guys. Seriously thank you so much!
Today is a day I'll never forget!

I want to start off this week with Susi. She is doing great! We were
able to meet with her this week and we were planning on teaching her
and her 2 daughters, and there ended up being 9 people there. Scary!!!
We shared the restoration though and I think it went really well. She
came to church, the relief society activity, and had a visit from the
relief society stake and ward president. She's doing great! Her
birthday was yesterday so we're going over tonight to have a little
birthday party :) so fun!

We had an absolutely incredible lesson with Elena this week. She still

has her family situation going on that is stopping her from coming to

church, but we had a great lesson about the atonement. The lord has a

plan for her and I know she will get baptized! She's incredible it's

been a joy to teach her.

We have been trying really hard to find new investigators this week.

One week we were being bums and complaining and joking about how we

were lacking a little and literally that second a man came up to us

and asked us if we were missionaries. We said yes and he told us that

he has read the Book of Mormon and loved it. He wants to hear more

about our church and we have a lesson set up this week. There ya go!

Heavenly Father has a plan, and a sense of humor as well. I was

reminded this week how important trials really are. They make us

stronger and I really am so grateful for them.

I just need to tell you about Yami even though I know I talked about

her every week! She is going to the young single adults conference in

Madrid in August which means she is going to the temple!!! So excited

for her. She is incredible :) She and Sandra made my birthday so

special yesterday. The cutest!

I think that is about it this week. I can't believe that this is

Stephs last week!!! She is the best example for me it will be weird to

be out here without her. It's time though! I'm very grateful for this

opportunity to be here and to help bring people unto Christ. There

really isn't anything better in the world. I love you guys!!! Un beso

grande.

Xoxo

Hermana Marsh

Sent from my iPad

 Missionary day in primary :)

 Sandra and Yami surprised me with a birthday cake :) so delicious!

 :)

 Llaollao with my favorites :) so fun to spend my birthday with these two!!

 Susi lives right by the stadium. We are moving to the first round!!!

Go gran can haha!

June 22, 2015

Mis cariños :)

Hi everyone! So fun to hear about your weeks. I'm sorry that I am a

little late, but I can't let another minute go by without wishing my

cute dad a happy Father's Day. I love you dad!! I am so thankful for

your incredible example. Thank you for being my biggest fan and best

friend. I feel so blessed to be your daughter.

This week was a great one! To start off- we had the best family home

evening this week! We do it every week, but normally don't have that

great of a turn out. We are trying to change that and tried to make

this week a bigger deal and it was a success! We had more

investigators there than we do at church... Hahah something needs to

change in that! So fun though it was a great way for our investigators

to get to know the church a little better.

Our investigators are doing well! I'll start with Susi :) we were able

to meet with her this week and we reviewed the plan of salvation and

even used some videos too :) yay iPads! She was able to share her

testimony with us about her faith in The Lord as well as the Book of

Mormon. She is an incredible woman. And her daughters are darling!

They dance at Willy's dance studio and we went to their year and

concert to help out with programs and other things like that. So fun

to watch them! And the best part of all- we left with 2 more families

to teach. The Roka's are awesome!

We weren't able to visit with Vanessa and her family this week, but

Corry (her 16 year old daughter) went to mutual and absolutely loved

it. We have an appointment with them tonight and are very excited to

see their progress!

Even though the elders are teaching them, Sandra's son AND  husband

have now come to church twice and have a baptismal date for the 18th

:) they are the cutest I am so happy for them. They are so good to the

missionaries I feel so blessed to have people like them in my life.

One highlight of this week was the visit from the jacksons. We had our

last interviews and I just sobbed. I love the jacksons! I feel so very

grateful to have served with them the first half of my mission. They

are incredible people. It is so great to be with them, we got hugs and

everything :)

I think that wraps it up for this week. Thank you for all of the love

and support! You guys are amazing. Thank you for letting me do this! I

love my Heavenly Father and for the blessing that he has given me to

be his missionary for a little bit :) I love you all to pieces! Have a

great week!

Xoxo

Hermana Marsh

The last supper with Elder Ruiz. He left this morning for Madrid to go

be a.p.!!! He is an amazing missionary he will be great. Fun fact- out

waiter was from Palermo :) and yes my pizza has fish on it. 

I have been in Europe too long!

 Last time with the Jacksons!! LOVE them!

We visited the cathedral today in las palmas. So cool!

 View from the top! We are one man down now.

June 15, 2015

Hi cute family!

So fun to hear from you guys! You all sound like you are doing great

:) I especially love all of the pictures and videos! My littles are

the cutest. Thank you thank you!

This week was a great one. I feel like I always say that, but we saw

lots of great miracles this week. First off though, we received our

iPads this week! I have been surprised at how much it really hasn't

changed the work. Our purpose is still the same, we just have some

extra tools to help now :) For example, this week we had planned to

share a talk that we had printed off a few weeks ago with one of our

less actives. We got to her house and I turned to Hermana Rossberg and

said, "No!! We forgot the talk what are we going to do!" And she goes,

"Hermana we have iPads now, we can share whatever talk we want!" Right

haha I forgot :) it's really great though to be able to use Mormon

Messages and talks in lessons. And my bag isn't so heavy ;)

Now on to the good stuff!! We had the greatest miracle I want to tell

you guys about. One of Yami's friends, Sandra, came to her baptism

last week and loved it. After talking to her, we found out she is

actually a member and was baptized in Colombia when she was 14.  She's

been in the islands for a long time and lost contact with the church.

Then Yami invited her and her son (16- not a member) to English

classes and FHE and they loved it! Her son wants to listen to the

lessons and they elders are going to start teaching him this week.

They came to church ester say and really are such great people. And it

was all thanks to Yamilka inviting them!! She is the BEST.

Next miracle. Remember Vanessa and her family? It turns out that her

dad, Rafael, has been inactive for about 16 years which is why she has

heard everything, but isn't a member. We had the chance to meet with

them a few times this week and had some great lessons, but the best

part was yesterday. Vanessa couldn't come, but Rafael came after 16

years and brought his 2 granddaughters as well. They loved it!!! His

granddaughter are seriously so cute and are such an example. Love this

family already!! I can't even describe how happy I was when I saw them

walk in. Miracles!

We also met with Susi this week and she is doing great. She has such a

strong testimony about the Book of Mormon and loves the values of the

church. She is going through some really hard things right now, but I

know the gospel can help her. She can only come to church every other

week because of work, but she will be there this week and I am really

excited to teach her.

Happy thought: my principles of the gospel teacher is pregnant!! She

has been for a long time and tried lots of different options, but in

the end she got pregnant naturally. She is the cutest and I love her.

We are so excited for her!

I think that is about it for this week. Being a missionary is really

great, especially here. The Lord is preparing these people and it is

so wonderful to be a part of it. What a great time to be a missionary.

Thank you for your love and support while I am serving my mission. I

couldn't do it without you! I love you and hope you have a great week!

:)

Xoxo,

Hermana Marsh 

Sent from my iPad

 I'm 9 months!!! Thank you so so much for the package! from my

favorite treats and exercise clothes to the camel shaped sugar

cookies, I was definitely a very happy missionary :) THANK YOU

 iPads!

 Now we can take selfies. Yay.

  It was Elder Bartholomew's birthday this week and he of course picked

sushi. We weren't mad about it!

 Pulpo yum 

June 8, 2015

Mi Familia :)

Cutest pictures this week. Thank you so so much! So fun to see your darling faces. This week was incredible I can´t wait to tell you all about it!

First off- Yamis baptism :) Everything went perfectly. The program was seriously so nice and I still can´t believe that I was able to be apart of her conversion. You guys- Yamilka is seriously something else. I have never felt The Spirit more strong in my whole mission than I did at her baptism. My testimony is that much stronger because of that and I am so grateful for Yamilka and her wonderful influence on me. You have to meet her one day!! She´s the greatest.

We had the coolest miracle this week! We were freaking out a little bit because Yami got baptized which is amazing and everything, but we didn´t really have any other investigators that were progressing very much. It was fast sunday, and we fasted for how we could find news. Yesterday at church, an old investigator of the hermana´s and her 2 daughters came to church. They loved it! One of her daughters even bore her testimony.  We met with them after and set up an appointment to see them this week. Last night we were looking in the carpeta to find some information about her and it turns out that she met with the missionaries in 2013 and loved everything, but her ex-husband told her daughters that they had to do their communion in the catholic church in spring 2015. She didn´t want to confuse her daughters so she asked to not have anymore visits until June of 2015. And the first sunday in June they showed up :) WHAT?! Seriously so great. I am so excited to teach them!

Elena is also doing really well. We had a lesson with her this week about the Holy Ghost and talked to her about baptism. Her situation is really hard right now with her Dad being so sick. She told her that if her situation were different, she would get baptized. She is incredible though I am not worried about her one bit. The Lord has a plan for her and I know everything will work out great! She finished the Book of Mormon for the first time and when we asked her how she felt she said, "Great, but I need to read it again!" Made me smile :) 

One more investigator then I swear I´m done. We were calling old investigators in the phone and came across Vanessa. We met with her once, but didn´t have a ton of time and told her we´d come back again a few days later. When we went, her 10 year old daughter was there and told us that she wants to get baptized. So we did what missionaries do when people want to get baptized and we started teaching her the lessons, but I´m not kidding you when I say we hardly taught. Her mom Vanessa knows everything!! She answered all of the questions so well and I really can´t figure out why she´s not a member haha! She really is awesome. So we´re going to figure out a little more info and get back to you on that one haha :) Lots of miracles though!

And for the funny thought- there is cow stomach in my stomach right now. I wanted to die a little bit last night. Cow stomach- not yummy. Also, we went paintballing this morning and I have a welt the size of a golf ball on my arm. But things could be worse, I could have 6 like my companion hahah :) 

I love you guys and am so thankful for your wonderful examples in my life! Thank you for your prayers and support. I love being a missionary and am so thankful for this time I have to serve The Lord. Have a great week, i´ll talk to you soon! 

xoxo,

Hermana Marsh

The mission changes you... Steph likes chicken and I like sushi! 

 Best thing happened this week. We were teaching a less active family and they have this darling little 2 year old girl. I showed her the picture of madden and said that he can be "su futuro esposo" :) She help on to that picture the rest of the lesson! When it was time to go I took the picture from her and she started bawling hahaha!!! Madden already is a hearbreaker ;) 

 We got rained on on baptism day. The worst!! 

 Yami´s baptism!! :) 

 One of my favorite pictures. 2 of some of my favorite people here in Las Palmas! 

 Vanessa´s family has a pet ferret... I didn´t want a repeat of the cat incident so I didn´t hold it, but I just needed you guys to know that our investigator has a pet ferret and it stresses me out a little bit. 

 PAINTBALLING! Didn´t hurt as much as I thought it would and was way more fun than I thought it would be! 

 Paintballing before and after:)

June 1, 2015

Hola mis cariños!

Oh it is so fun for me to read your emails every week. Mondays are the best! You all sound great thank you so much for the updates. Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet sister Allie! You are such a blessing in my life and I love you dearly! Hope you have a great birthday :)

This week was crazy haha missionary life is never boring that is for sure. I want to start with the highlight of the week- we went over the bautismal questions with Yamilka and she is good to go. We are having a baptism in Las Palmas this week! And it is one of my best friends :) I seriously love Yamilka so much I am so excited for this saturday. 

I also wanted to tell you about one of our other investigators named Elena. She is golden!! She started meeting with the missionaries in September by requesting a book of mormon from mormon.org. She has such an amazing testimony about the book of mormon! The only problem is her dad is really sick and she needs to take care of him which prevents her from coming to church. We are praying really hard for her, because she really is incredible. 

We also made it a goal to find lots of news this week because we were kind of lacking in that department. We found a few that I am excited about and I want to share the story of one of them. We were talking to this girl on the street who was super cute, but only really interested in english classes. We left her with one of her cards and a few days later we got a call from one of her friends that wanted help with english. We set up an appointment to go meet her and she had so many questions about the gospel. We have another lesson set up this week to go teach her and I am really excited about it. It is amazing how the lord puts people in our paths!

For the fun note- This week was dia de canaria! It was so fun to see everyone dressed up in their canarian clothes and try all the yummy food that this island has :) There were parades and everything it was so fun. And we were actually able to get some work done too which was a miracle! The highlight was the ward party haha so fun! 

Spiritual thought that I wanted to share. I was reading the talk that President Uchtdorf gave in priesthood session and he was talking about why he was there at conference. Even though it´s not about missionary work, I felt like it related perfectly to the situation I am in. He said, "I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my master, Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all htat he asks of me in this great cause... I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ." That really is why I am out here serving a mission! I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and the strength and joy the give me. I am so grateful to be a member of the church and to share the great news that it brings. I love you!

xoxo

Hermana Marsh 

My favorite p day activity! Ice cream on the beach :)

We go running in matching shirts :)

Dress up at Delia´s :) This member knows doug! I didn´t even have to say anything she just recognized my last name. So fun! 

Dia de canaria!! Everyone was dressed up in the cutest clothes. 

 Gabi!! Love this little boy. 

 LOOK AT THIS PIC! One of the members served with liz haha!!! 

 Family Home Evening Games :)