November 30, 2015

Mis queridos, 

Happy Monday! So fun to hear from you guys. It looks like you had an

amazing thanksgiving! We had a great one here in Madrid. We had a zone

conference and Hermana Pack and Hermana Larsen are incredible. They

made a full thanksgiving dinner (pictured below) for ALL the Madrid

missionaries. That's about 150 people! It was sooo good. Then on

thanksgiving day we had a thanksgiving dinner made by missionaries.

Was it my mothers cooking? No, but we made it work :) We invited our

friends to come too which made it fun to be all together. A

thanksgiving to remember for sure. 

This week absolutely flew. Now that I think about it though this whole

month has flown. I can't believe it's December!! I'm excited

Christmastime is the best. But anyways! This week was so great.

Between the Zone Conference, Thanksgiving, and the miracles we got to

see, I feel VERY thankful to be a missionary here. During the

Conference we talked about the importance of working with members and

it was SO good for me. I always knew the importance to work with

members, but I never really knew how. We learned a lot though and I'm

excited to see the results.

Here's your Calixto update and funny story for the week. One of the

things they talked about how to work with members more was using

Seminary and Institute. So, we invited Calixto to come to institute

and had everything ready to go. It was 5 after, so we called him to

see where he said that he was at the church, so we hung up and just

kept waiting. Another 15 minutes passed and he was NO WHERE so we

called him again and he said that he was at the church waiting by the

TEMPLE in PAVONES. AHH!! I have no idea how the miscommunication

happened, but long story short we were late to institute :) Luckily

the temple isn't too far. He loved institute though the members here

are so awesome. They spent about 15 minutes planning everything for

his baptism. THIS SATURDAY! We are excited :)

Our next miracle this week was Lourdes. She was the woman we found in

the carpeta about 2 months ago. I haven't written about her in a

little bit because things have been a little slow with her husband not

really being on board with the whole thing. We had a lesson though and

she told us that her husband really isn't the problem, more she just

needs to make church a priority. She told us she didn't care if the

ceiling fell through, she would be at church. And for the first time

she came :) Biggest miracle!!! She is going to Ecuador for the month

of January which puts things on hold a little, but i'm very grateful

for the progress she is making.

I wanted to tell you about one more of our investigators that we met

with this week. Her name is Sonia and she is a machine. This week she

read 2/3 of the book of mormon. What?! She is literally is at the end

of Alma! Who is this girl?! I don't know how much of it she

understood, but she told us she knows that it is the word of God. She

has problems with the word of wisdom, but we set some goals and I have

faith that she can do it. She has come to church twice now and loves

it. Excited for her!

Oh one more thing. Nilo is still my miracle. With work he can only

come to church every other week, but he has come 3 weeks in a row! And

he made us ceviche again this week :) I told him that my parents were

coming in a few months and he said he'd make you guys some ceviche. So

get ready for some raw fish mom and dad :) It's delicious.

I think that is about it! I love you guys and am so thankful for each

and every one of you. It's hard to be away from home during the

holidays, but it's also the best time to be a missionary. What better

time of the year to share the gospel than Christmas?! I love it and am

very excited for this month. Have a great week! I love you and am

praying for you!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

 I forgot to send this pic of Beatriz and me. I LOVE this woman and am

so excited for you to meet her!

 Missionary thanksgiving! :)

 The pumpkin pie was a success!!!

November 23, 2015

Hola Mi Familia 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I'm so thankful for each and everyone of

you and for the blessings you are in my life. I'm thankful for the

gospel and for the opportunity to share it with the people of Spain.

I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that leads and guides this

work and that I get to be a part of it. This week was a great one and

it absolutely flew!

The highlights of the week were definitely our temple visit and the

meeting we had with Elder Christensen and Elder Dyches. I love these

men and their darling wives! They brought such a great spirit to both

of the meetings we had and they gave me the words I needed to here to

make me a better missionary. Sister Christensen especially stuck out

to me. First off she speaks Spanish perfectly so go her, but she was

so interested in our personal lives it was the cutest thing. She also

told me that I reminded her of Grandmother which might be the best

compliment I've ever received. I just cried! I absolutely loved the

meetings we had and the greatest part was Martin and Nilo came too :)

Our people are doing great. The biggest news is Calixto! He had his

interview and is good to go :) there is a stake dance this Saturday so

we have to push it back until the 5th, but he's going to do it! Oh he

is the best. He has a lot of stuff going on right now and it amazes me

how he finds time to read and prayer every day, meet with us, and come

to activities and church every week. The man is great and so ready for

his baptism. Prayers were answered this week!

Our other friends are doing the same. Frustrating a little, but we are

doing are best I'm trying to help them. Life in Spain is just hard!

People have to work ridiculous hours for hardly nothing and it doesn't

leave much time for anything else, but we are working with it. We were

able to find a less active this week and she might be the greatest

person. I don't think I've laughed that hard in months! Her name is

Pilar and she came to church yesterday :) love her already.

We have been contacting and working with members like crazy and this

week we were able to see the fruits of that. We have lots of new

people to teach and we are really excited about them! I'm not going to

bore you with all the names and details, but stay tuned :) we taught

the restoration a lot this week and wow I love that lesson. My

testimony is strengthened every time! There is power in it. If you

haven't read the Joseph Smith story lately- do it!

I think that's about it for this week. I'm currently on a train to

Alcorcon to go visit my people there :) oh I love the people here in

Spain I feel so incredibly blessed. Don't get me wrong I still miss

you all like crazy, but wow my heart is so full for these people. I

hope you all have a wonderful week! Os quiero 

xo

Hermana Marsh

Look who I got to see today!!!! 

The trio was back in action and we got to see one of my favorite people :)

 Temple!

November 16, 2015

Hi Family!

Happy Monday! So fun to hear from you all and your fun adventures.

Except Steph going to Celine Dione without me but I'm getting over

that. Also happy happy birthday to madden Michael! Love you Geezer!

This week was a great one. I am obsessed with my companion! I just

laugh at her all day she is hilarious. It's going to be a great couple

of transfers :) We have lots of work to be done we are excited.

Our main thoughts and concerns are with Calixto right now. We had a

really great lesson This week and he feels the spirit and recognizes

that it is an answer from God, but wants to feel it stronger. He has

heard everything and is preparing for his baptism next Saturday. Very

exciting, but lots of prayers on his part so he can feel prepared and

ready to go. Oh he is great and I'm so grateful for him but the stress

I feel! I've learned that the lord really is in charge because there

is no way I could do this alone. He's the best companion!

We are still teaching our people and they are doing great, but they

are hard! I don't know if it is because we are getting a little older

or what, but everyone has things going on that are stopping them from

progressing. I will say that it is making me rely on the spirit a lot

more during lessons and that's making me a better missionary! So it's

all working out. And I can't complain because they really are great.

Satan is just working hard, but we are working harder!

We did have a funny experience with a new investigator we met with. We

were looking through the carpeta and found a woman named Yasmine and

set up a lesson to go visit her. We showed up and she told us that she

was living with a member named Janet. I didn't remember who she was

so she pulled up a picture of her on Facebook and I was in it haha!!

Weird having my face in strangers phones but it's all good :) she's

cute I'm excited to teach her.

Highlight of the week was my intercambio with hermana rossberg. She is

the cutest! I really feel so lucky with all of the companions that I

have had. She has grown so much and it was so fun to learn from her

again. She's the best!

I don't have a lot of time today so I need to wrap things up, but

really fast I have an update on my las palmas people! Yamilka made it

to the states, Susi was called to by the secretary in the Primary, and

Danny got baptized this weekend!! Oh my heart is so full for them I

can't wait to visit soon!

Things are going really well. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and

the help that He gives me everyday. Being His missionary is my biggest

blessing! I love you all and hope you have the best week. Talk to you

soon!

xo,

hermana marsh

Her trainers are companions all in the same district! 

We're a happy little family.

 Intercambios with hermana Rossberg! Apart from sleeping in on accident all went well

 I have a cute comp :)

 Dropping off Hermana Irigoyen and picking up Hermana west! 

I have the greatest companions.

Shopping in the ginormous primary!!! Heaven for this Hermana.

November 9, 2015

Hi Family!

Happy happy birthday Lydia and Doug!! I love you two and am thinking

of you on your days! Another transfer has come and gone and Hermana

Irigoyen is done. So weird! I feel so lucky to have served with her.

That is one incredible missionary. She taught me so much and I am the

missionary I am today thanks to her positive example. I'm going to

miss her!  I am so excited for my new companion though... Hermana

West! We were in the MTC together and she is AWESOME. She is from

Canada and served a transfer there before, so she'll go home one

transfer before me. I'm so excited for the next 2 transfers!

We had a great last week in Barrio 3. I'm overwhelmed by the miracles

I get to experience every day! Being a missionary really is the best

thing in the world. We had concilio this week and the mission home

full of missionaries is seriously one of my favorite places in the

world. Only second to the temple :) And maybe disneyland. :) We talked

about the importance of working with members and talking with everyone

and I always leave those meetings ready to be a better missionary.

Our people are doing awesome. We had the funniest thing happen with

Calixto this week. We had a lesson planned at a members house and we

were going to teach tithing. We went over and the elders were there

with their recent convert and her 4 kids and guess what they were

going to teach... tithing! It was an inspired noche de hogar :) And

calixto loved it. He came to church yesterday and is still doing

really well.

Miracle with martin this week... He felt the spirit for the first time

AND he came to church!! I can't even tell you how hard I have been

praying for him and he finally felt the spirit! It almost made me cry.

And believe or not the mission has turned my heart into stone it takes

a lot to make me cry! He is one of the most intelligent people I know

and I'm so excited for his progression.

Our other investigators are doing well. Aga is still coming to church,

it's just really hard to have a good lesson with her. There is always

a million things going on and it's hard to have focused lessons, but

we'll keep trying. Ramber is doing great. His mom still doesn't like

the fact that he is coming to church and wanting to get baptized, but

his dad is supporting him and his brother gets home from his mission

next month. He wants to get baptized sooo bad and we are praying hard

that his mom will give him permission.

Side note- I am writing from my piso and listening to christmas music

:) They don't celebrate thanksgiving here anyways haha!

Nilo is awesome. Seriously!! We had the BEST noche de hogar with him

and his family this week. Complete with ceviche and everything :) He

shared his testimony and the spirit was so strong and I left that room

feeling better than I do leaving baptisms. Seriously this man is

incredible. I love his sister too they really are the greatest family!

We are continuing to work hard with some other people we have found

and are always looking for more people to bring unto Christ. There is

lots of work to do here! I'm very grateful to be here in Barrio 3. And

grateful that i'll probably be here for a while :) Except that they

are making my play piano for the primary program... Wow those spanish

kids sing fast. I'm getting better though!

I think that is about it for this week. I want to end telling you

about my experience in church yesterday. Ever since conference I have

tried to set the goal of going to church really prepared to take the

sacrament. And I can't even tell you the difference I have seen in how

much I LOVE going to church. I am literally filled with the spirit

after taking the sacrament and i'm so grateful to get to participate

every week. And the talks and classes too I learn so much from these

people. I love sundays! And I love being a missionary :) I can't say

it enough. Thank you for all you guys do for me I will be praying lots

for you this week. I love you!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

 Ceviche!!! Raw fish is my favorite :)

 

   Sisters in B3 :)

November 2, 2015

Hi Family!!

Wow I just can't believe it is already Monday again and it's NOVEMBER.

Where does the time go. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I

dressed up as a sister missionary it was pretty great. We had a roller

coaster week full of lots of ups and downs, but the highs were high

and I'm excited to tell you about them.

At the beginning of the week, I got to stay in Toledo and do an

intercambio with Hermana finch. It was so nice to be with her again!

I've met the most amazing people on my mission and I will forever be

so grateful for them. Not to mention I got to work in Toledo. That

place is beautiful!

The next day we got to go to the temple. Wow I can't even express how

great it was to go there this week. 7 months is a long time! I don't

know how people do it there whole missions. As the session progressed,

the spirit increased so much and I just didn't want to leave. I love

the temple, especially the Madrid temple. It is my place here in my

mission and I'm so thankful for the chance to go once a transfer.

Now on to our people :) we had the greatest miracle with an inactive

member named Nilo. He is the brother of one of my favorite members and

hasn't been to church in 15 years. We met him this week and shared 3

Nefi 18 about when Christ administered the sacrament to the nefites.

My testimony was strengthened about not only that the lord prepares

people, but about how great of a teacher the Book of Mormon is.

Because guess what? He came yesterday! And we are meeting with him

tonight to eat ceviche my favorite Peruvian food :) he's a miracle!

Our investigators are progressing along! We saw Calixto 4 times this

week haha bless his Heart! The members have been helping so much with

him and he has now come to church 2 times in a row :) we need to

change is fecha, but I have faith that he'll get baptized soon. The

members have also helped us so much with Martin and he loves them. We

taught about the sacrament this week and he normally works sundays,

but he promised he'd come next week. Praying hard for him! That guy

loves the Book of Mormon it's the best.

Lourdes is doing well, she is struggling a little bit though. Her

husband is Spaniard and he really doesn't like the idea of her meeting

with us or getting baptized. That makes things like seeing her or her

coming to church a little difficult, but she knows the church is true

so we'll keep hoping, praying, and doing our part. Elena and Ramber

are still doing great though :)

I have to tell you guys the worst thing that happened this week. You

need to understand first though that we talk to so many people every

day and it is really hard for me to remember everyone's faces. We had

set up an appointment with a future investigator named Jose in a park

and when we showed up he called us and said he would be 20 more

minutes so we went and contacted. We were talking with a guy and all

of the sudden this random guy comes up and is just creeping on us. We

finished our conversation, said hi to this creepy guy just staring at

us contacting, then ran back to the park thinking we were late. We got

to the park and called Jose to see where he was and he said, "You just

said hi to me then ran away!" The creepy guy was Jose!!!!! I feel

terrible. We were bad representatives of Jesus Christ right there we

totally forgot about him. Hopefully he will give us a second chance

haha! So terrible.

Happy note though- I don't know if you remember Roberto (investigator

from Alcorcon) but he got baptized this week!! He always had a

testimony and the desires, but he didn't have permission from his

parents. He turned 18 though and now is a member of the church! He's

planning on a mission and everything :) I love it!!

I think that's about it for this week. This is my last week with my

companion before she goes home and it breaks my heart!!! People ending

their missions is the worst. We are ready to give it our all though so

she can finish strong. I love you all and am so thankful for your

wonderful examples. The church is true! Have a great week!

xo,

Hermana Marsh

 Recent convert Smith. He's the best hahaha!

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