Dear Family!
So as you already know, I am officially in Ann Arbor. The transition from Belle Isle to Ann Arbor was the hardest thing of my life. I've never been homesick until I left Detroit haha! But everything is going well. Still praying as hard as I can for my visa. Hoping it comes soon!
I'm trying to think. It's been a long week. It's cool having my comps. I really like them. One is Sister Jory MIller, and one is Sister Hoskisson. They're both super cool, so that's awesome. Let's see. So on Sunday I got up and bore my testimony and I bore part of it in Portuguese, telling them that I'm a visa waiter. After Church, I got bombarded by tons of people who came up to me and started speaking Portuguese. I'm in Ann Arbor 1st ward. It's like the married student ward. So there are tons of RMs who served in Brasil. One of them asked me where I am serving so I said Goiania, and he was like...NO WAY! I SERVED THERE!!!! So we went over to their house later, he told us about it a little bit, and we just got to know the family better. His wife is the funniest person I've ever met, and they plan on going to Goiania for World Cup next summer. Another guy who came to Ann Arbor for a baptism also was a visa waiter when he was waiting to go to Brasilia, and he waited for his visa in Tallahassee. That was super cool. He served up in Marianna. We're really just trying to get to know families in the ward right now. That's the goal. Really getting to know the families because we don't know anyone in the ward. But it's super cool.
We met this guy, E, when we were getting lunch. He was talking to us. He's from Mexicantown in Detroit, but works construction in Ann Arbor. Sister Jory Miller speaks Spanish, and he asked if I could speak spanish, and i said no, but I speak a little portuguese. It was weird though because I can understand almost all of what he was saying. And then he spoke some portuguese to me. He talked about how his girlfriend is from Recife, Brasil and so he can also speak Portuguese, then he talked about the similarity between the two languages... all in portugues, and I could understand what he was saying. That's happened multiple times here. Seriously. Gift of Tongues is real. I still speak very slow and mostly just gospel related things, but I casn understand a lot of it, and I can read it fluently. There are tons of Portuguese speakers in these parts, one of them is in our area and less active. I haven't met her yet, but I'm excited. We've just been doing a lot of service and helping people out.
We met this really cool man, M, from Jerusalem, We helped him weed his garden because he is really old and was fasting for Ramadan, and so we talked to him for a few hours about religion. He knows a lot because he is an archeologist who knows all about Jerusalem's history. We're going to give him a Book of Mormon, because he said he had one in Jerusalem, but we figured we'll give him another one. We had some cool tracting experiences this week. We were going to visit, Marcia, the portuguese less active lady, but Sister Hoskisson had this gutt feeling to go to this random street and tract. So we thought if she had that feeling we should do it (even though I hate tracting with a burning passion), so we get to this street, and we're driving down the road, and I see this house. And I thought, that house! But I wasn't really sure if that was me just psyching myself out, or what. So I ignored it. But then I still felt badgered by stopping them, so I was just like. "PULL OVER!!!!!!!" So we went there. It's this beautiful house. Beautiful garden. We go, knock on the door. NO one answers. We knock again, no one answers. Finally, we're about to leave and a man walks out of the garage, andI think we scared him because we were on his doorstep, and he was like.. whoa, can I help you? So I was just like... We're missionaries, and did the whole shpeel on missionary work. And I asked if he was religious at all and he says no. So we keep talking for a little bit, and he asked if we had a pamphlet, and so we gave him one with the church's address, and hewas like.. thanks! I'll definitely have to check this out.
So then we keep walking. And there are these kids playing basketball, and naturally... I just take the basketball from them, shoot, and miss because I'm terrible at basketball. But it was cool, we just talked to them about the gospel and things and the bible and book of mormon. Super cool stuff. I did that to another bunch of kids and related basketball to the gospel. Defense being Satan, and the net being our goal. Those kids love us, and so whenever we see them they want to talk to us.
Thats about all I can think of. I'm still having a really hard time transitioning, but I do what I can.
Love, Sister Marshall
So as you already know, I am officially in Ann Arbor. The transition from Belle Isle to Ann Arbor was the hardest thing of my life. I've never been homesick until I left Detroit haha! But everything is going well. Still praying as hard as I can for my visa. Hoping it comes soon!
I'm trying to think. It's been a long week. It's cool having my comps. I really like them. One is Sister Jory MIller, and one is Sister Hoskisson. They're both super cool, so that's awesome. Let's see. So on Sunday I got up and bore my testimony and I bore part of it in Portuguese, telling them that I'm a visa waiter. After Church, I got bombarded by tons of people who came up to me and started speaking Portuguese. I'm in Ann Arbor 1st ward. It's like the married student ward. So there are tons of RMs who served in Brasil. One of them asked me where I am serving so I said Goiania, and he was like...NO WAY! I SERVED THERE!!!! So we went over to their house later, he told us about it a little bit, and we just got to know the family better. His wife is the funniest person I've ever met, and they plan on going to Goiania for World Cup next summer. Another guy who came to Ann Arbor for a baptism also was a visa waiter when he was waiting to go to Brasilia, and he waited for his visa in Tallahassee. That was super cool. He served up in Marianna. We're really just trying to get to know families in the ward right now. That's the goal. Really getting to know the families because we don't know anyone in the ward. But it's super cool.
We met this guy, E, when we were getting lunch. He was talking to us. He's from Mexicantown in Detroit, but works construction in Ann Arbor. Sister Jory Miller speaks Spanish, and he asked if I could speak spanish, and i said no, but I speak a little portuguese. It was weird though because I can understand almost all of what he was saying. And then he spoke some portuguese to me. He talked about how his girlfriend is from Recife, Brasil and so he can also speak Portuguese, then he talked about the similarity between the two languages... all in portugues, and I could understand what he was saying. That's happened multiple times here. Seriously. Gift of Tongues is real. I still speak very slow and mostly just gospel related things, but I casn understand a lot of it, and I can read it fluently. There are tons of Portuguese speakers in these parts, one of them is in our area and less active. I haven't met her yet, but I'm excited. We've just been doing a lot of service and helping people out.
We met this really cool man, M, from Jerusalem, We helped him weed his garden because he is really old and was fasting for Ramadan, and so we talked to him for a few hours about religion. He knows a lot because he is an archeologist who knows all about Jerusalem's history. We're going to give him a Book of Mormon, because he said he had one in Jerusalem, but we figured we'll give him another one. We had some cool tracting experiences this week. We were going to visit, Marcia, the portuguese less active lady, but Sister Hoskisson had this gutt feeling to go to this random street and tract. So we thought if she had that feeling we should do it (even though I hate tracting with a burning passion), so we get to this street, and we're driving down the road, and I see this house. And I thought, that house! But I wasn't really sure if that was me just psyching myself out, or what. So I ignored it. But then I still felt badgered by stopping them, so I was just like. "PULL OVER!!!!!!!" So we went there. It's this beautiful house. Beautiful garden. We go, knock on the door. NO one answers. We knock again, no one answers. Finally, we're about to leave and a man walks out of the garage, andI think we scared him because we were on his doorstep, and he was like.. whoa, can I help you? So I was just like... We're missionaries, and did the whole shpeel on missionary work. And I asked if he was religious at all and he says no. So we keep talking for a little bit, and he asked if we had a pamphlet, and so we gave him one with the church's address, and hewas like.. thanks! I'll definitely have to check this out.
So then we keep walking. And there are these kids playing basketball, and naturally... I just take the basketball from them, shoot, and miss because I'm terrible at basketball. But it was cool, we just talked to them about the gospel and things and the bible and book of mormon. Super cool stuff. I did that to another bunch of kids and related basketball to the gospel. Defense being Satan, and the net being our goal. Those kids love us, and so whenever we see them they want to talk to us.
Thats about all I can think of. I'm still having a really hard time transitioning, but I do what I can.
Love, Sister Marshall