Hey guys, It has been a crazy week. But I'll be honest. Every week as a missionary has been crazy. It is hard. So so so so hard. You just meet so many people with so many problems and you just want to fix them. But I know that I can't. There's only one person who can, and they have to ask for it themselves!! It's rough.
O.....'s baptism date got pushed back because he's having a hard time quitting smoking and we're trying to get him in the habit of always praying and reading his scriptures. But he loves church so that's good. Then there is T..... I can't remember if I told you about T.... or not. T....'s wife died a year ago, leaving him with 4 kids. He is one of the most positive people I know. He loves meeting with the sisters and talking about God and reading the Book of Mormon. Our problem that we face with him is that he WON'T COME TO CHURCH. We ask him why and he tells us that "when two or three are gathered in His name, the spirit is with us" and he considers that Church. He is such an awesome person, but so stubborn!!! But we'll get there.
Then there's S... is 40 years old, has 8 children who are all in adopted homes right now.. or jail. She knows that she's made mistakes in her life and she really wants the best for her kids but it's really hard for her because the adoptive mother of her daughter doesn't want her to have contact. She's just praying that the mother's heart is softened, but if not, she knows that she can see her daughter again in 3 years. That's just hard. S... is getting baptized on Saturday, but she is battling a huge addiction to her cigarrettes. Me and sister decker almost DIED because we had scheduled to meet with S... and k.... around 6, but we got caught up with a few other appointments and then we were starving because of fast sunday, so we went home to grab something to eat, and visited her around 8. We asked her how quitting was going, and she had given in an hour earlier and smoked again! You could tell she was so depressed about it, and we were too! You just want the best for those you teach, but you can't force them to do anything. We are given choices. I wrote on her lighter BAPTISM, and we gave her a bandaid that said baptism on it (our nicotine patch haha), and we're hoping that we can get there. She's come a long way though, so we're really proud of her. K... is the best. We don't even ask her to keep the word of wisdom or anything. S....s just like... if we're going to become mormon, we can't drink coffee or smoke anymore! And we asked K..., "we're like... K....! You want to be mormon?" and she's like... "well... give me a minute to decide..." but she's quitting and she's reading the Book of Mormon daily and we showed her mormon.organd lds.org, and she came to a baptism on Saturday, and thought it was the greatest thing ever.
We also have M...._. Her husband just passed away as well and today is his birthday, so she's having a really really really hard time. She's checking out several churches, but so far I think she really likes the spirit of ours, so that's good. It's just so hard, because you find these people who want these changes so much in their lives, and we're working really hard to help them the best that we can, but we can only do so much. But we're given these trials for growth. It's just hard.
Most families don't have much support, so we just go and serve them with what we can. There are several members in my branch who went to medical school in Grenada. So I thought that was kind of cool.
Also, my branch president wants to know where we lived when we lived in portland. He worked in I.T. at Nike for 20 years. His name is president watson. I don't know his first name. But he's a computer guy too.Okay... Lets see. I'm still fasting and praying for my visa. But I know that there are no coincidences, and I know that this pit-stop in Detroit is what I need or what someone else needs. I'm just trying to figure out what that is! It's been awesome though. Elder Brooks, one of the elders from my district in the MTC is in my district here as well!!! DETROIT ZONE!!! It's been way fun. My companion had her year mark this week, so we lit a blouse on fire to celebrate. Like I mentioned earlier, there was a baptism this week. A girl named Brittney Branch. She was introduced by friends to the church. She is on FIRE. She rocks. WEll that's all i have for now. Love you guys.
Sister marshall
Update:
We were going to go to a tigers game this week, but we have exchanges that day... BOOO!!! did you see my cool tigers hat that I got? I know, it's kind of cool. you should look up my church building on google maps. belle isle branch. maybe don't. it might scare you hahahahahah. And brother deason served in Detroit??? Freak! Tell him that I'm loving it so much. Belle Isle is SO LEGIT!!! And Grand Blanc was pretty cool too! I didn't know he served here.
O.....'s baptism date got pushed back because he's having a hard time quitting smoking and we're trying to get him in the habit of always praying and reading his scriptures. But he loves church so that's good. Then there is T..... I can't remember if I told you about T.... or not. T....'s wife died a year ago, leaving him with 4 kids. He is one of the most positive people I know. He loves meeting with the sisters and talking about God and reading the Book of Mormon. Our problem that we face with him is that he WON'T COME TO CHURCH. We ask him why and he tells us that "when two or three are gathered in His name, the spirit is with us" and he considers that Church. He is such an awesome person, but so stubborn!!! But we'll get there.
Then there's S... is 40 years old, has 8 children who are all in adopted homes right now.. or jail. She knows that she's made mistakes in her life and she really wants the best for her kids but it's really hard for her because the adoptive mother of her daughter doesn't want her to have contact. She's just praying that the mother's heart is softened, but if not, she knows that she can see her daughter again in 3 years. That's just hard. S... is getting baptized on Saturday, but she is battling a huge addiction to her cigarrettes. Me and sister decker almost DIED because we had scheduled to meet with S... and k.... around 6, but we got caught up with a few other appointments and then we were starving because of fast sunday, so we went home to grab something to eat, and visited her around 8. We asked her how quitting was going, and she had given in an hour earlier and smoked again! You could tell she was so depressed about it, and we were too! You just want the best for those you teach, but you can't force them to do anything. We are given choices. I wrote on her lighter BAPTISM, and we gave her a bandaid that said baptism on it (our nicotine patch haha), and we're hoping that we can get there. She's come a long way though, so we're really proud of her. K... is the best. We don't even ask her to keep the word of wisdom or anything. S....s just like... if we're going to become mormon, we can't drink coffee or smoke anymore! And we asked K..., "we're like... K....! You want to be mormon?" and she's like... "well... give me a minute to decide..." but she's quitting and she's reading the Book of Mormon daily and we showed her mormon.organd lds.org, and she came to a baptism on Saturday, and thought it was the greatest thing ever.
We also have M...._. Her husband just passed away as well and today is his birthday, so she's having a really really really hard time. She's checking out several churches, but so far I think she really likes the spirit of ours, so that's good. It's just so hard, because you find these people who want these changes so much in their lives, and we're working really hard to help them the best that we can, but we can only do so much. But we're given these trials for growth. It's just hard.
Most families don't have much support, so we just go and serve them with what we can. There are several members in my branch who went to medical school in Grenada. So I thought that was kind of cool.
Also, my branch president wants to know where we lived when we lived in portland. He worked in I.T. at Nike for 20 years. His name is president watson. I don't know his first name. But he's a computer guy too.Okay... Lets see. I'm still fasting and praying for my visa. But I know that there are no coincidences, and I know that this pit-stop in Detroit is what I need or what someone else needs. I'm just trying to figure out what that is! It's been awesome though. Elder Brooks, one of the elders from my district in the MTC is in my district here as well!!! DETROIT ZONE!!! It's been way fun. My companion had her year mark this week, so we lit a blouse on fire to celebrate. Like I mentioned earlier, there was a baptism this week. A girl named Brittney Branch. She was introduced by friends to the church. She is on FIRE. She rocks. WEll that's all i have for now. Love you guys.
Sister marshall
Update:
We were going to go to a tigers game this week, but we have exchanges that day... BOOO!!! did you see my cool tigers hat that I got? I know, it's kind of cool. you should look up my church building on google maps. belle isle branch. maybe don't. it might scare you hahahahahah. And brother deason served in Detroit??? Freak! Tell him that I'm loving it so much. Belle Isle is SO LEGIT!!! And Grand Blanc was pretty cool too! I didn't know he served here.