Dear Family and Friends!
This week has been crazy. But for real. I've been on a lot of exchanges this week. I spent two days in this area, Walled Lake, and I'll be up there for another day this week. It's frustrating because there's so much that we need to do here, but it's okay. I love the Sisters up there, so it's fine. I've had to sleep on the floor a lot, because their apartment doesn't have four beds, and it's been like I really just observe these companionships, and I don't know what happened this week, but they all had a serious companionship melt-down. But it happens I guess. I've just been fortunate to love my companionships.
It's been crazy. P has been in California for a week. But we've been praying really really hard for her. She's amazing. Conference was amazing. P watched the last session in California yesterday, and the talk that Elder Nelson gave really struck a cord, she sent us a text saying that because of conference, she knows that she is supposed to be a mormon. that had never happened before because she wanted to be baptized. But Conference resolved her concerns, and she told us that everything we believe is everything that she stands for. P rocks!!
Another one of our investigators, C, watched a few sessions at his home. We don't know how that went, but he was very impressed by it according to the text he sent us.
We watched one session with this cute 9 year old girl, S. Last transfer, we struggled to get in the door of this house, but then we decided to stop by one of this less active lady's son, A. We stopped by and asked if we could stop and teach him, and then he told us that he wants to come back to church. It's a family of 8, and only 2 of them have been baptized, and several of the kids want to be baptized. The most anxious is S, and she will be baptized on October 26th.
The kid who stopped us and told us to meet his mom- We stopped by that house, and the mom told us that he talked about us to his mom, and she said that was funny because she had told him the day before that she wanted to start going back to church and told us that we could start teaching her and D. That's cool.
We also got several new investigators this week. One of them is named N. She is from Trinidad, so that's cool. Another is S. I haven't met her yet, but apparently she's really cool. Then there's this other lady, Jane. The funny story about Jane is that I street contacted her several weeks ago, and gave her a Book of Mormon. Sister Graham and I went tracting and the FIRST DOOR WE KNOCK, she opens it.. and I'm like... J? And she's like.. how do you know my name? We just told her that we're disciples of Christ and want to share a message about him. She let us in and we talked to her for a while. It was really really cool! She loves us. She's this wonderful elderly lady with no teeth, but she loves talking about Christ. Jane rocks.
Conference was really cool. I love General Conference! I can't think of one that stood out in particular, but a lot of them stood out to our investigators, and so it was really cool. I did really enjoy President Uchtdorf's talk in the Saturday Morning Session. I felt a definite theme about conversion, missionary work, and being prepared! What an exciting time that we live in!!! Glad you guys are doing missionary work out there! I love being a missionary so much. There is nothing quite as awesome as sharing HAPPINESS with everyone we meet. Ann Arbor is having a lot of success right now, and it's cool because I've watched it go from a struggling area to a blossoming area. We have so many people to teach and I know that it's with help from our members. We CANNOT do this work without everyone involved.
For anyone who might be reading this who isn't mormon, I'm not serving a mission to help the church grow. I am serving a mission because of the happiness that I feel that cannot be found anywhere else. I want to serve because I have felt my Savior's love, and I want everyone to know the love, power, and strength that I've felt through things like reading the Book of Mormon. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon, I invite you to pick it up, read it and see for yourself. It will make all the difference in the world.
Anyways, thanks for everything. I can't really think of anything else. I don't know how much money I have in the bank, but I think I'm still okay. I'm buying lots of socks and warm things because a cold winter's a comin'! How many people can say that on their mission, they experienced a Michigan Winter and a Brazilian Summer? My mission rocks.
Well, love you guys,
Sister Marshall