October 26, 2015

Hola Familia!

So fun to hear from you this week. I know I sound like a broken

record, but I seriously love mondays! You guys are the best. I am

currently writing from... Toledo! We came here as a zone for p-day,

and I am staying for 24 hours to do an intercambio with Hermana Finch.

Could it get any better?! I love her and I love Toledo. We had an

awesome week this week in Barrio 3 filled with lots of miracles with

our new friends.

First off- Lourdes. Oh she is my miracle! We met with her this week to

go over lesson one and she literally recited the first vision with

us... Who does that?! She is so prepared. She expressed some concerns

about her husband because he doesn't believe in God at all, but we

explained how we have the gospel to bless our families not to make

things worse. We're hoping and praying that all goes well with that.

She really is amazing though!

Calixto is also doing really well. We were able to meet with him at a

members house this week and he still continues to have no problems! He

loves everything we are teaching and has desires to be baptized, he

just is waiting to receive his answer. He is doing his part though,

and I have no doubt it will happen soon!

We had a huge miracle with Nemesio this week. He is very spaniard and

sometimes it's a little hard to have the spirit in our lessons, but he

was so calm this week. He expressed doubts about Joseph Smith and

tithing, but said that when he receives answers to those doubts he

wants to get baptized. These three are the most progressing right now

and we really are just walking by faith! The Lord has done His part,

we are trying our hardest to do ours, and now it is up to them.

Praying hard for these three! Elena and Ramber are still doing well :)

Just waiting for December!

We also have 2 new investigators that I wanted to tell you about. The

first one is Marcos. He is from Argentina and from the beginning he

told us he is just around to get to know the mormon culture better.

But he absolutely loves church and loves the lessons we have. I have a

lot of faith that something in him might change! We also taught this

guy named Danny this week. We contacted him my first week here and he

wanted nothing to do with us, we didn't even get his number. We gave

him our card though and 4 weeks later we got a call! That NEVER

happens! We taught lesson 1 and it went really well. I am excited!

I got to go on two intercambios this week and they were both awesome.

I stayed here in Barrio 3 for both. One was with Hermana Valencia and

she is such a great missionary. She is from Chicago, but her parents

are from mexico so she speaks perfect spanish and I learned so much

with her. The other was with Hermana Shurtz and that is one of the

funniest sisters I have ever met! She has the sweetest testimony too

it was so fun to get to know her. I feel so blessed to serve with such

great Hermanas!

I think that is about it. I didn't eat anything too weird this week,

but a bird did poop on my companion this week while we were contacting

a spanish man and that just about made my week haha!! Also seeing my

people from Alcorcon was the greatest. I am doing good :) Very happy

to be a missionary! We had interviews this week and I still just feel

so blessed to have the Packs. The Lord takes care of his missionaries!

Thank you so much for all the love and support you send my way. I love

you and hope you have a great week!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

 Toledo

 Halloween shirts!! Thanks mom :) Your packages are the BEST!

 ALCORCON! Oh I love them. It was the best thing to get to see them

again! My darling young women :)

October 19, 2015

Hello family!

Thank you thank you for all the great updates! Happy to hear that all

is well on your side of the pond :) Things are going really well here

in Madrid. We had an awesome week in Madrid. I'm excited to tell you

all about it!

First off, we had two of our six intercambios this week and they were

awesome. For the first one, Hermana Hinton came here with me in Barrio

3. She is in training with Hermana Rossberg (I'm a grandma!) and

she is awesome. I asked her what made her decide to come on a mission

and she said, "The gospel is just the best and everyone needs to hear

it!" haha I love it :) Fun to work with her. Then I went up to

Villalba with Hermana Stephenson and oh I LOVED it. If I ever move to

Spain i'm living in Villalba. It is up my the mountains and it is

absolutely beautiful there! And only about 30 minutes from Madrid :)

Hermana Stephenson is an awesome missionary too it was fun to work

with her.

We had lots of miracles this week in Barrio 3. The first I wanted to

tell you about was Lourdes. So in our piso, we have this chest of

drawers with all sorts of things in it. It wasn't that bad, but from

the first day I got here I have been dying to organize it haha! We

don't have much free time as missionaries and everytime we had a spare

minute or two, something came up. One morning this last week I had had

it and opted to organize it over doing my hair (Hermonie hair yayy). I found a carpeta in it from about two years ago that hadn't been

touched in two years! This is gold for missionaries!! We opened it up

and the first page was Lourdes. She had heard everything and was ready

to get baptized 2 years ago, but she wasn't married. We called her and

set up an appoinment and guess what... She's married now!!! She said

she got married in may and has been thinking about the missionaries

and baptism since then. She wants to hear everything again since it

has been 2 years, but so much potential there! Not sure if it was the

Spirit or my OCD that made me clean that morning, but i'm very happy I

did :)

Next miracle- Calixto. He is a 30 year old man from Ecuador and he is

awesome. We met him at the ward party last week and were able to teach

him lessons 1 and 2 this week. He loved it! Especially lesson 2. The

plan of salvation is that best! He wasn't able to come to church

yesterday, but wow that guy is prepared. I'm excited to see what's in

store for him. We were able to find a few more new investigators this

week and now we just need to make the change from new to progressing.

I am amazed at the blessings we are receiving over here!

Our other main investigators are doing pretty well. Elena is solid, we

are still working on helping Aga quit smoking, and Ramber and Leidy

are still kind of in the same boat. It's really hard with a mom that

isn't supporting them at all, but there brother gets home from his

mission in December and i'm excited to see if anything will change

with that. I forgot to tell you guys about Nemesio too. He is a

Spaniard man married to one of the members and he's tough. I love

spaniards with all my heart. They are so caring and sincere, but they

are also very blunt and a little stubborn. We met with him last night

and i'm hoping something we said touched him. Pray for that guy!

Fun fact- I think I might have eaten horse this week. I don't know if

I really did or if the elders are just enjoy stressing me out, but

either way I ate some type of meat that was not bee, pork, or chicken

haha. It was yummy!

Also, this week is Stake Conference and guess who is in my stake...

Alcorcon!!! I get to see my family from there!!! I am so so excited :)

I think that is about it for this week. It is raining like crazy

almost every day, but The Lord is blessing us with lessons in a warm

chapel so it is all good :) I absolutely love my companion. She is

doing so good at not getting trunky! She's so much fun to be around

and i'm learning new things from her every day. I still love being a

missionary :) Thank you for all of the love and support you send me. I

couldn't do it without you guys! Have a great week 

xo,

Hermana Marsh

Villalba!!! You are supposed to be able to see the mountains in the
background. I don't really know what happened, but there ya have it.

 Can you see the cross from the apartment window?? It's right next to villalba!! 

Remember when dad fell?? 

Oh you guys are the best hahaha I love you!

 Yep my umbrella broke in half hahaha that was a fun rest of the night!

We got our hairs cut

October 12, 2015

Hi cute family!

Monday's are the greatest. I love hearing about all your adventures!

Happy to hear that everyone is doing well. What a great week we had in

Barrio 3. My testimony of the power of prayer was strengthened so much

this week. I know that if we pray with specific questions or needs

then do our part, The Lord does his. We saw so many miracles this

week. I'm excited to tell you about a few!

The week started off with our concilio at the mission home and I

always leave so ready to work! We talked about the plan of salvation,

keeping the sabbath day holy, and finding with faith. The thing that

stuck out to me the most was finding! Hermana Pack talked about the

importance of asking specifically about what we want to happen, then

going and doing it. We put that to the test and I am so grateful for

it. I know that Heavenly Father lives and listens to our prayers. This

knowledge has made my prayers more sincere and my relationship with my

heavenly father stronger. How grateful I am for prayer!

After concilio I was able to go on our first intercambio for the

transfer (we have SIX!). I stayed here in Barrio 3 with Hermana

Freestone and it was great. It was only my second week here so it was

an adventure trying to get around, but it all worked out! She is an

amazing missionary. Hermana Toone trained her so it was fun to share

stories and to learn more from her.

I got to meet a few more investigators this week that I wanted to tell

you about. The first is Aga. She is from Poland and has been through

SO much. If I told you you wouldn't believe me! She has a long way to

go, but she absolutely loves coming to church and meeting with us.

She's so cute she is trying to quit smoking and it is really hard for

her, but she makes sure that no matter what she doesn't smoke sundays

so she can come to church clean. It's a start! Like I said it will be

a while, but I have faith!

I also wanted to tell you about a family we found, the Claure Family.

The dad is a less active, mom anti-mormon, son on the mission, and we

are teaching their other kids Leidy and Ramber. We had a lesson with

the whole family and it was very clear that the mom did NOT want her

son to be on a mission or for her other kids to be going to be

baptized any time soon. We left a little discouraged thinking there

wasn't much hope, but Ramber walked in to church all alone sunday.

This guy is amazing!

The greatest thing happened this week. We were walking to pass by for

some investigators when we saw this woman carrying home groceries when

her bag broke. We went over to help her and long story short we ended

up in her house teaching the restoration and have an appointment to

see her again this week. A million and one things happened so that our

paths crossed and it is so evident to me that The Lord is at the helm!

Last story sorry we will be here all day. Yesterday we had 2 lessons

set up with people that seemed a little sketchy. We were walking to

the lesson and I pulled out my iPad to look up an address of a less

active the bishop told us to go visit soon. Right when I found it my

companion said, "Hermana I think we should go visit that family Bishop

told us to go see." I turned my iPad to show her what I just looked up

and we just smiled and were off! She let us in and ended up teaching

her sister who isn't a member. It went so well and have an another

appointment this sunday to go and see her and well as tuesday to meet

her husband who isn't a member. What!! The Lord is so great.

I could go on and on. This was a really great week. Really fast though

we ended the week with a ward activity and it was so great. The

majority of members brought their friends and we have a few that are

interested in hearing a little more. So excited! I feel like the work

is picking up a little and i'm excited to see what is in store. I

don't know how to describe it other than saying that I know that God

lives and answers prayers. We have struggles to make us stronger and

even when they are hard, we turn out better because of them. I am

grateful for the hard days because they caused me to turn to my

Heavenly Father and know him better. And I can't think of anything

better! I love this gospel with all my heart. As President Uchtforf

said, "It works wonderfully!" Have a great week!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

Concilio! :)

 Zone Conference!

October 5, 2015

Hola Queridos!

Oh it's so great to hear from you all. Happy that everyone is doing

well and enjoyed conference :) Wasn't it amazing?! I still am in awe

at how blessed we are to get to experience that twice a year. It is

amazing that even though there are thousands of members all around the

world listening, it seems like the words were prepared just for me. I

came to conference with LOTS of questions and I was able to receive

guidance and direction from The Lord with all of them. I want to share

some insights with two of my questions, but first I have to recognize

my cute grandfather. He did amazing! I absolutely sobbed the whole

time haha! So very proud of him.

My first question will help you fill in a little bit about how my new

area is. Precursor though: This experience is not to complain! I feel

so incredibly blessed to be serving where I am and with who I am with.

I am doing great and am happy, this experience will just help the

miracle of the story :) We have a couple of friends that are

progressing and are ready to accept the gospel, but other than that we

are basically starting from square one. We have spent a lot of time in

the streets which has actually been a really great experience for me.

My weaknesses are becoming stronger and I have never given so much my

in my entire mission which is a great feeling when we get home every

night. We talked to everyone we passed and have had some amazing

conversations, but it is a little disheartening when the numbers turn

out being false or promised people don't show. My question was, "How

can I find happiness in trials and make sure I am giving it my all?"

After watching General Conference I was overwhelmed with The Spirit

and received my answer- love! Whether that means serving my companion,

seeing the people in the streets as children of God, or a simple smile

to the members here. Looking back I realized that that really is when

I am the happiest and i'm excited to put it in practice this week :)

My second question had regards to the spirit and how I can better

follow its whisperings. I had all types of different thoughts and

ideas running through my head throughout the conference and i'm not

going to lie, I felt a little confused by the end. My emotions were

all over the place, then cute President Eyring started. I think he

wrote that talk just for me! It was exactly what I needed to hear and

I can't wait to reread it. I LOVE conference! I love our dear prophet.

I am so grateful that someone like him is willing to give literally

everything he has so that I can be closer to my Heavenly Father and

Jesus Christ. The church is so true!

Okay there was my general conference rant. I love it!!! I really am so

happy to be here in Barrio 3. It's fun to be back in Madrid! :) The

members here are so great i'm so excited to get to know them better.

We do have one friend that I wanted to tell you about, her name is

Elena. EIGHT years ago she was praying to know which church she should

join. That night she had a dream and she saw a church and the plaque

was blurred except the last words: "ultimos dias." The NEXT DAY

missionaries came knocking at her door. How great is Heavenly Father?!

She has had problems getting divorce papers from Bolivia so that she

can marry her boyfriend, but all the papers are done! We are know just

waiting for them to be mailed here and her and her boyfriend are

getting married and baptized December 24th :) She is great!

My companion is a machine. This is her last transfer and you would

never guess it she is on fire! I am so grateful for her hard work, she

makes me a better missionary. And she helps me SO much with my spanish

ah!! So grateful for her. I am so excited for this transfer and to see

what The Lord has prepared for this part of his vineyard. Being a

missionary is my greatest blessing. I love it! Thank you for all of

the love and support you send my way. Have a great week!

xo,

hermana marsh

Some are missing, but a few of my cute companions! :)

 This woman got baptized one month ago and you would never believe it.

She is a rock! Her kids will be old enough to get baptized soon :) 

She is amazing and her kids are DARLING.