January 25, 2016

 Mi Familia!

Hi cute family. Happy to hear that everyone is doing well. I have to

start off saying thank you for your thoughts  and your prayers....

Ramber's  mom gave him permission and he is  getting  baptized this

Sunday! Oh it was the biggest miracle and the whole ward is  so

excited.  They announced it in church and the  whole  ward just gasped

haha it was the cutest thing.   We are so excited! So that  was our

big  miracle this  week. Stay tuned for pictures  next week!

The other miracle that happened this week was Sonia. We met with her

this  week and since last saturday she  has only smoked twice! And the

miracle is that she couldn''t even finish the  two that she started.

She has tried  quitting before,   but never had much  success. This

time  though,   she said that she literally felt sick  after and now

no longer  has the desires. So happy!! Sad that she is sick, but

prayer really does work! Her brother has been in  town and they have

been traveling   all over Spain so she  couldn't come to church. BUT.

He leaves tomorrow so she should  be  ready to go pronto :)

I  was spoiled rotten this week. After over a year I  got to be with

Hermana  Toone again! Oh I  love intercambios. We teach a lot better

than we did 16 months ago ;) She is such a great missionary and I feel

so grateful to have had her by my side through my whole mission. We

got to teach Nicole and Lenny when we were together and both lessons

went so well. Except they didn't come to church yesterday... We're

working on it though. We don't have much time with Nicole though

because she is going to Peru to visit her family for 2 months.

AWESOME. That's okay though she can meet with missionaries there with

her family.

We were very blessed this week with the worldwide missionary

devotional. It was amazing! One of the things I wanted to share with

you was what Elder Oaks shared. He was talking about repentance and

how when we repent, the Atonement not only CLEANSES us, but

STRENGTHENS us. It all clicked for me when he said that! Heavenly

Father knew we were going to make mistakes and guess what- we grow

from them! And that's why we are here! Heavenly Father's plan is

perfect. And I'm very grateful for repentance and hoping that I can

teach it better so my investigators understand the blessing that it

is.

That wraps it up I think. We were very blessed to find lots of new

people to teach this week that I am really excited about. We are ready

to work hard this last week of the transfer so Hermana West can finish

strong. I'm grateful to work with her and everything that she teaches

me. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

Sleepover pics... :)

Our member failed on us so we met on their porch hahah Ramber!!! :)

 Llao Llao with one of my favorite people in the whole world!

January 18, 2016

Hi Family!

YAY OLIVIA!!!! She´s coming to Spain!! I totally called it. Oh I love

this country and I'm so excited to share it with her! Paella, churros,

and tortilla parties will definitely be happening. Best news of the

week :) Happy to hear that everyone is happy and healthy. It's always

the highlight of my week to hear from you guys. This week was a great

one!

The highlight this week was... the temple! We were supposed to go this

week, but the temple is closed so we assumed that we wouldn't get to

go this transfer. It's my companions last transfer though, so we got a

phone call from the AP's one night asking us if we wanted to go the

next day. Of course!! I don't know what it was, but this time was SO

amazing. I mean it always is, but this time was even more incredible

for me. I love the temple!

We had concilio this week as well which is always a highlight. I feel

like a broken record, but I always leave feeling so grateful to be a

missionary. It's so fun to be with other missionaries and the Pack's

talking about the things and people that we love. And we even stole

the Gijon hermanas (Santiago and Rossberg) after to help us with our

work and for a sleepover :) It was exactly was I needed. So grateful

to be a missionary!

Our people are doing great. We visited Sonia a few times this week and

as of Saturday she is cigarette free! Her brother is here visiting and

that was the biggest blessing. She's having a hard time dropping

smoking (as anyone would) and he is keeping her distracted and busy.

The only sad part is she didn't come to church yesterday... and I

don't know why! The worst. Still excited about her though. Nicole is

kind of in the same boat. Great lessons during the week, but something

always comes up on Sundays. We had a really great lesson with her

yesterday though, so hopefully she'll make it more of a priority.

We still have faith with Ramber!! The answer is still kind of up in

the air, but it's not a no! We had ward council yesterday and

seriously the whole ward is praying for him.  We love him and are

praying hard for him.

We have our English class miracle... Lenny. He is my favorite right

now! He has been coming to english class for months now and we've been

trying to meet with him, but it's been a little hard over the

holidays. Things have settled down a little bit more though and we had

an AWESOME lesson with him this week. He's active in the catholic

church, but there are things that he doesn't like. He really wants to

know what church is true and is willing to act. He came to church and

everything!! Funny story though. We were walking to our lesson and I

was talking to him and not paying attention where I was going and ran

RIGHT into a pole. I have a bruised face and everything hahaha! So who

knows if he's coming out of pity for me or not, but we'll see :) I'm

excited!

I think that's about it for this week. We found a few new menos

activos that we are really excited about. And we are so excited for

the missionary devotional this week! We are very blessed missionaries

and are trying are hardest to make our Heavenly Father proud. I know

this church is true. My testimony is strengthened everyday by sharing

it and I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me

serve Him in Spain. It has changed me! I love you and am praying for

you.

xo,

Hermana Marsh

 Toledo!

January 11, 2016

Familia :)

Wade!!! Oh that was the best news I heard all week! And half of Spain

heard about it too :) Welcome to the world baby wade! Can't wait to

snuggle you soon. And Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet Daddy! I'm the

luckiest daughter in the world. Thank you for all of the pictures,

videos, and updates this week. Happy to hear that everyone is happy

and healthy. The best news of the week is that festivos are over!!!

Los Reyes was great and everything, but wow am I excited to get back

in to normal mode. Still a wonderful week though!

We have been focusing a lot on Ramber this week and I honestly still

don't know if he will be able to be baptized this week or not. We had

a Noche de Hogar with them last night and he volunteered to offer the

lesson. Without us saying anything, the topic he picked was baptism.

He is the best! It was a great lesson, but his mom wasn't too happy.

It's so hard because everyone in the room was on board except her! We

are praying for a miracle. We left the room laughing so i'm not

worried about any hard feelings, I just really want this for Ramber.

Yamil has helped a lot though. He has such a strong testimony and it's

been fun to talk with him in English!

Sonia is great. She has officially quit smoking, stopped drinking

coffee, broke up with her boyfriend, and is coming to church every

week instead of the Catholic church she went to before. Who is this

girl?! She is the most willing and determined person I have ever met.

We are planning her baptism for the 22nd and I know she can do it! We

just need a couple more weeks to make sure she is free from her

addictions. Pray for her!

Nicole is doing well. She hasn't been keeping up with her commitments

though, so we decided to just read with her this week. It was

incredible she understands everything! I seriously am shocked I don't

know where it is coming from haha but I think we made a big change

this week. She wasn't able to come to church this week though which

was a little disheartening, but we're working on it. She's so cute she

made a cake for my companion for her birthday, but it burned while we

were in the lesson haha whoops! It's the thought that counts :)

Remember Aga? The woman from Poland? She has a lot of things going on

and it is going to be a long road, but we taught the gospel of Jesus

Christ this week and it was such a powerful lesson. She wants to get

baptized but has SO many things in her past and doesn't believe that

she could ever be worthy of such an amazing thing. We assured her that

the Atonement was made for EVERYONE and that could be forgiven for

everything. She asked for a blessing of comfort and it went really

well. Thank you Elders! She has cut down her smoking in half and

stayed for all of church yesterday for the first time (she normally

can't go that long without smoking). She's the most selfless person I

know. She gave me shoes for absolutely no reason this week. I can't

handle how nice the people here are sometimes!

So there's just a few of the miracles we've seen this week. We're very

blessed that is for sure. Hard things happen every single day out

here, but we always come home feeling grateful for the experiences we

have been given and for the opportunity to learn from them. We have

fun things coming up too! We have concilio this week and then a world

wide missionary devotional the next. We are excited! It's a wonderful

time to be a missionary. Especially in Spain :) I love you guys and am

praying for you every day! Thank you for everything- have a great

week!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

I present: Roscon de Reyes and THICK spanish hot chocolate. We
couldn't get more spanish haha Feilz Reyes!

 Nilo! He took us out for milkshakes for my companions birthday :) HE

IS THE BEST!

January 4, 2016

Mi Familia :)

Happy 2016!!! That means Birthday week for so many of my favorites!

Happy Birthday Steph, Oliver, Tisha, Dad, and Baby Boy (come

already!!). I love you all and am so grateful for your positive

influences in my life. I'm the person I am today thanks to you guys! I

hope you have great days and are spoiled rotten :) Today, I feel

really grateful. The miracles that happened this week were amazing and

I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for them.

I look back at the week, and I really am astounded at the work we were

able to do. It is SO HARD to work with people during this time of the

year. Between Christmas, New Years, and Los Reyes (Jan 6th holiday

here in Spain that is bigger than Christmas) not very many people are

exactly excited to meet with us. I'm not going to lie when I was

absolutely dreading this week, but Heavenly Father is SO good. I am

amazed that we had things to do all week! We started the majority of

the days mainly blank, and come home with a day full of lessons. Every

time. I don't understand it, but Heavenly Father is just so good! And

the best news is- after Wednesday the holidays will be over and the

work will be normal again! But seriously I can't say it enough. I'm

astounded by the work we were able to do.

Before I get into the spiritual stuff though, the greatest thing

happened this week. I went to Costco! And oh is it beautiful. We had

interviews with President Pack, and then they let us tag along after.

Costco is great. Everyone go this week for me. Also we went bowling

today and I WON! Elders included! Not bad for not having bowled for a

year and a half ;) Okay now back to missionary things.

The best news this week... Yamil came home!! And Ramber is so excited

it is the cutest thing. He came home Tuesday and we have met with the

whole family twice since then. I still don't know if his mom will give

him permission, but she invited us over for lunch this next week which

is HUGE! We are hoping to get to talk to her about the baptism. But we

have been fasting and praying and I have faith that Ramber will do it

the 16th!

Sonia is also doing SO well. We pushed her fecha back a week so she'll

have a little more time to get out of the habit of smoking, but wow

that woman is determined. And so excited! I love it! She really is so

good to us. It was my companions birthday yesterday and she threw her

the cutest party. Complete with a Hello Kitty cake and everything haha

:) She's the greatest.

Lourdes goes to Ecuador this week- AH. We are going to get her ready

to go to church there though so she can come home to a BAPTISM. My

only worry is that her family isn't really on board with the whole

mormon thing, but she'll be okay. She's great and her daughter is the

cutest thing!

Nicole came to church for the first time this week and she loved it!

She finally didn't have to work this week and it was the greatest

miracle. A lot of the members already know her since she has come to

lots of the activities and they were so cute with her. I love this

ward! She has made a lot of progress this week i'm really excited for

her.

Remember Angel and Elena? The ones that are waiting on papers and were

supposed to get baptized Christmas Eve? Well obviously that didn't

happen, and we found out some good news and some bad news this week.

The good news is the papers are basically done and will be here at the

end of February when her daughter comes to visit. The bad news is

Elena does NOT want to get married/baptized in March because that is

when her and her ex-husband got married. So the ball is rolling which

is good! Sad that I won't be here for it, but i'll get some pictures

:)

I think that is about it for our investigators. We are teaching some

others, but those are the ones that are really progressing. And I am

so grateful for them! They make being a missionary a dream. Of course

it is still hands down the hardest thing I have ever done, but every

time I leave a lesson with them I am happy. This gospel makes me happy

and sharing it makes me even happier! Like I said earlier, I feel very

grateful today. Thank you for all you do. I love you and miss you!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

Happy Birthday Hermana West!!! Sonia is the greatest.

 New Years Eve UVAS! 

You have to eat 12 the last 12 seconds of the year. Harder than it looks, but fun!

 Birthday Breakfast! I made orange rolls :)

 P-day bowling, Madie sent us a video and she bowled a strike!