December 28, 2015

Mis Queridos :)

Oh I'm still on cloud 9 from Christmas. It was so great to see your

faces! Fastest 40 minutes of my life. Thank you so much for making it

possible that I could talk to everyone! I'm happy to hear that you all

had a Merry Christmas. It really is something special to spend

Christmas as a missionary. I love it! Although I will say I'm happy

that that was my second and final one... I don't think my stomach

could take it a 3rd year haha! The families here are SO good to us and

we were definitely taken care of this year. I love it here in Barrio 3

and feel very blessed to have been here for the holidays!

Okay I have lots to update you on. I was sick two weeks ago and skyped

instead of wrote last week, so I have 3 weeks to fill you in on!

Lourdes is doing GREAT! She's probably the person I am most excited

about. I don't know what it was, but she has a completely different

light about her then she did when we first started teaching her. She

has come to church every week and she even brought her daughter

yesterday. The members adored her it was the cutest thing. I'm so sad

she's leaving in just a couple weeks, but she'll be back in February

and we'll get everything ready for her baptism :)

Ramber's brother gets home from his mission TOMORROW! The moment we

have all been waiting for! We had a noche de hogar last night with the

whole family and I'm not going to lie I was a little nervous. Last

time we went it was very clear that we weren't wanted there by his mom

and sister, but last night was completely different. I don't know if

it's because there son is coming home in two days or not, but they

were happy to have us there and I think we were able to establish a

better relationship with them. We have his homecoming this week and we

are praying for a miracle so Ramber can get baptized! He's so ready

and i'm excited for him to have a little more support from home.

I don't know if you remember Sonia, but she has progressed SO much the

last couple of weeks. She's been coming to church, reading, and

praying. We also finished teaching the commandments and although she

has a few problems with some of them, she is willing to make the

changes she needs. We are preparing for her baptism the 16th! And as

long as she keeps progressing the way she has been, I have no doubt

that she will be ready. She made us a little Christmas dinner the day

after Christmas and it seriously was the cutest thing. She is so good

to us!

Nicole is doing really great as well. Still working on Sundays so she

can't come to church, but she came to the ward party and a movie night

that we had. We watched the best two years and she loved it-

especially the part where he got baptized. She had so many great

questions after and I am really excited for her.

Calixto got the priesthood yesterday and Nilo is still one of my

favorite people on the planet. Just so you don't forget about them :)

We have had a lot of miracles here in Barrio 3, but i'll stop there or

we will be here all day. I CANNOT believe that 2015 will be over this

week. I feel robbed a little!  My full year of being a missionary went

by so fast. I'm so thankful for this year and the opportunities that

my Heavenly Father has given me to grow here in Spain. There is no

where else I would have rather spent it. I love it here! I'm excited

to apply the things i've learned so that 2016 can be the best year

yet. I love you and hope you have a Happy New Year!

xo,

Hermana Marsh
One more from Christmas. My sweet ananda! These are the cutest kids on
the planet.

 My face looks a little creepy, but here's sonia at our christmas

dinner :) She got me caja roja for christmas... She is the nicest to

us!!

Also my christmas outfit :) Skirt from Emma and mel and cardigan from

mom. Thank you!!!

Merry Christmas from Madrid

Madie's email day on Monday was traded in for our CHRISTMAS PHONE CALL!  So today, Christmas day, she sent these pictures and we get to talk to her shortly!

Merry Missionary Christmas!

 We celebrated abuelita's birthday this week. She is my angel!

 District and Calixto Christmas breakfast!

 Christmas party in Pavones! I got a flamenco apron for our white elephant gift haha :)

 Christmas Eve dinner and sleepover! :)

Here's the cutest little boy on the planet for you. Love my Juan Carlitos!!

December 14, 2015

Hi Family!

So fun to hear from you all and that you are doing well. This time of

the year is the best and i'm so happy that you are enjoying it! This

week is probably going to be a short one. I don't know if that's a

good thing or a bad thing, but there ya have it. I almost made it my

whole mission without getting sick, but it hit me this last week and

it was terrible! And of course when you are with someone 24/7, they

catch it too. We spent a couple days at home and when we weren't we

were a little bit on the miserable side, but we are feeling a little

bit better today. I am grateful for health though!! The mission is the

worst place to sick, but we did see a few miracles.

We met with a lot of new investigators this week and I wanted to tell

you about one of them. Her name is Nicole and she is the cutest. She

is 18 and has a friend who is a member in Pavones. We have had two

lessons with her, and she loves it! She has the best questions and

seems so prepared. She works Sunday mornings, so we'll have to work

with that, but she did come to the YSA family home evening last night

and she LOVED it. And is already planning on helping them with the

ward christmas party Saturday :) She's great!

We celebrated Caixto's birthday this week and he is doing great. He

literally asks us every day what we have planned the next day to see

if he can help with lessons. There are 6 missionaries in this ward, so

I hope he doesn't regret his offer haha :) We will use it! He's doing

great though. Our other investigators are doing well Johnny came to

the family home evening last night too it was great. We received a few

member references with a lot of potential, so we are excited to see

what happens with that.

Sorry this e-mail is kind of short. Looking back on it, this whole

week was kind of a big blur haha! We have nice elders that gave me a

blessing though and a really do feel a lot better. We are ready to hit

it hard this week. And then i'll see you NEXT WEEK!!! Wahoo!! Our

P-day will be changed to Christmas, so talk to you next Friday :) Love

you!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

p.s. We went to the store this morning and the milk we bought expires

after my release date... Granted the milk here in Spain is nasty and

has ridiculous expirations dates but still, I cried a little bit. The

mission is the best I'm not ready!!!

Zone Conference! My bad about my big hair covering Elder Mayah's head haha

 Hermana Marsh esta inferma!

Dec 7, 2015

Mi Familia 

What a great week to be a missionary. Time is going by so ridiculously fast. I really can't even describe how blessed I feel to be where I am and with the people I am with. And the best part is... No changes this transfer! Hermana West are staying the same and we are so excited. They took out the other set of hermanas in our area so we have SO much work to do. A little stressful, but we are ready to work hard. Also, we are still sister training leaders and Hermana Toone is coming to my Zone! That means Intercambios wahoo! Greatest news I am excited for this next transfer. 

The biggest news of the week would of course be Calixto. He was baptized and confirmed a member of the church yesterday. He is one of the most grateful people I know and shared the sweetest testimony. Yesterday after he was confirmed I asked him how he felt and he was talking about how grateful he felt and the only thing that was making him sad was that it took so long to get him here. It made me take a moment to realize just how much the gospel blesses people's lives. There are people that are looking for the answers and the happiness, they just don't know where to find it. Calixto has given me more of a drive to work harder and find those people who are ready. He's amazing! 

Our next miracle is Ramber. He has kind of been on the back burner since we are just waiting for his brother to get home, but we decided this week to apply what we learned in Zone Conference and see if we could get him to come to Seminary. At first he was a little nervous to ask for permission from his parents, but we fasted specifically for him and he got permission! He is starting this week :) 6 in the morning and everything- this guy is awesome. 

Lourdes came to church yesterday again!! Oh I really am so happy to see her coming back. She leaves for Ecuador in a few weeks for the month of January, but every time we go over she is talking about her baptism. We will get her ready for February! Sonia also came to church yesterday and is making progress on quitting smoking. Lots of potential there. 

We have a new guy that I wanted to tell you about. His name is Johnny (30) and he is so great! We have been teaching him for a couple weeks now and every time he talks about how bad he wants a family and more peace in his life. Hello that's what the gospel is for! He gives us great summaries of the Book of Mormon every lesson and has the greatest questions. The only problem is he works at a grocery store and the hours are crazy during Christmastime, so he can't come to church. But we will figure something out! 

We had concilio this week and it was great as always. I am so thankful for the Packs! Every time I leave I feel so grateful to be a missionary. The Zone training went really well too. The only sad part was I had to say goodbye to Hermana Finch. So weird! She's a great missionary and I feel very blessed to have served with her. 

Okay that wraps up this week! We have lots of work to do and my body can't really catch up haha! I have a little bit of a cold, but don't worry mom! Show up to church with no voice and you leave with 3 people offering you soup for lunch. And lots of meds :) the members here are incredible. I love being a missionary and I've reached the point where I'd really like it if time slowed down. There really is nothing better than being a missionary. I am excited to see your faces in a couple weeks though for Christmas :) I love you and thank you for all you do for me! Have a great week and go cougars!!! 

Xo,

Hermana Marsh 

Baptism day!!

 

 We all got to be sister training leaders at the same time!! Love these hermanas.

 I got your Christmas package! 

We are ready to go with matching sweaters and everything :)

 New Back Pack  (she wore her old one out!)