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!