Week 48: Humility

Hey guys!  Super quick email, everything is going good here in Villa Javier!  This week was a lot tougher than the rest.  We’ve been doing a lot of contacting and the results haven’t been coming out very well.  That’s okay, we have some future investigators that we’re going to contact this week. 

As a mission we’re learning the Christ like attribute of humility.  And I’d like to share a real quick scripture with you guys :)

In Mosiah 21. 

14 And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions.

We all need to be able to humble ourselves unto our Father in Heaven.  Knowing that in whatever trial that we have, we need to humble ourselves and look to Him for guidance and comfort.

I’ve been able to study and learn so much from the scriptures.  They have been my guide and my comfort here on the mission.  And I know how much power they have to change you.

Love you all and I hope you’re safe this week!

-Elder Marsh

Week 47: Service Project!

Hey!  How is everyone doing?  This week wasn’t too great but no worries, it’ll get better! haha. 

We had some really bad luck this week.  We were supposed to have the baptism of Sandy Cuesta, but it fell through. It was a real bummer.  So we found out from a lady in the ward that she’s been looking for a job for a while now. And that Sandy is planning on leaving Bogotá to go find work.  But the church isn’t going to be in that part because it’s super small.  I’m not really sure if she’s really going to go.  Her cell phone got stolen so we haven’t had too much contact with her.  She also wasn’t able to make it to church yesterday so we’re not sure what’s going on.

We did a huge service project this week with all the missionaries in Bogotá!  Which is about 90 or so of us!  It was super awesome!  We cleaned a river like canal that was super long!  We found some super interesting stuff and a lot of really gross things as well.  But it was for sure a cool experience!  It was the first time in a really long time that I got to wear normal clothes outside in the real world, and to be honest I felt like an apostate! hahahaha! But it was chill because it was allowed xD!

There were some Elders that came in from Villavicencio this week and stayed in our house because they had a training with the president, and one of them was from Utah.  His name was Elder Thompson and he’s a way awesome guy!  It’s always sweet to have someone from your same state to talk to!

Those were some of the interesting things that happened this week.  Sorry it was so short!

Love,

Elder Aaron Marsh

Ready to work hard!

A few of the missionaries that worked on service project in Bogota

Week 46: COW STOMACH??!!!

How is everyone doing??  This week has been a pretty good week!

This week is going to be a little bit shorter, but we were able to find some new people to teach and help out Sandy as well!  Sandy is planning on getting baptized this upcoming Saturday the 30th.  It’s not a 100 percent surety that she’s going to get baptized, but we’re pretty sure.  We will do everything we possibly can to help her be ready.  I’m super excited for this upcoming week to see what happens!

We’ve been teaching Diana Velasquez for a little while.  We had a super awesome lesson with her about the Sabbath Day and she’s accepted to keep the Sabbath Day holy!  She hasn’t committed to baptism because she hasn’t been married yet, even though she will need to be married before she can accept the baptismal covenant.  She’s honestly got the sweetest soul I’ve ever met, and she is such an awesome lady. 

This last Tuesday, we had lunch with the Villalva family.  I am so grateful for them they are so generous.  They are members of the church and they live WAY up on the mountain.  They’re house is mostly made of metal scraps.  They don’t have any electricity.  For lunch we were given rice, garbanzo beans, and COW STOMACH??!!!  I couldn’t help but think about the last time I ate cow liver and got super sick at the beginning of my mission.  I just couldn’t bring myself to eating it.  I was afraid of getting sick again!  I knew my comp wouldn’t eat it either so I typed a text on mission phone saying ´´paseme su carne´´ (pass me your meat).  When they weren’t looking :/, Elder Sotowski threw the cow stomach on my plate, and I put it in a rag and threw it in my bag.  Phew!!! That was close! When we left the house, I decided to leave it somewhere on the road so a cat would eat it! ;)  It was super funny!  My companion thought it was the funniest thing he’s ever experienced (haha).

Anyways, we have a family home evening tonight with Sandy!  Things should run smooth!  I love you all and hope you’re all being safe!

Elder Marsh

Hermano Villalva, he is a shoe shiner

The view from their house in the mountains.

Eating COW STOMACH!! Just kidding!

Week 45: Patience is a virtue!

Hey everyone! This was a pretty good week with my new Companion!

My companions name is Elder Sotoski and he’s from Brazil!!  He is an awesome guy!  We work really well together and I am super grateful for the chance that I have to be able to teach him the ways of the mission!

This week, not a ton of stuff happened.  On Tuesday, I had to go to the Mission Presidents house to have a training meeting and pick up my new companion.  I had to wait like 8 hours to be able to find out who my comp was, and when they announced who our companions were, President Baquerizo said that my comp wasn’t going to be arriving until Wednesday at 3:30.  After the whole day of anxiously waiting, I had to wait a whole other day! haha I was super excited to meet my new companion.  I could see that the Lord was truly testing my patience! haha! But I met him!  He’s just starting to speak Spanish, so a lot of the time he will throw a lot of Portuguese in there and it confuses me! haha but it’s great, because I’m starting to learn Portuguese as well! haha!

We have this thing called 12 semanas (weeks) that we use to help out the new missionaries, and I challenged Elder Sotoski to put a baptismal date in the first lesson.  Last night we had the chance to put a date, and my stud of a comp totally did it without any fear! It was awesome!!  Can’t wait for what’s ahead!

We ended up giving Sandy a new baptismal date for the 30th of July.  I explained that it was my boy- Elder Wilson’s birthday and that she needed to make that day a special one!  I don’t think she thought it was as funny as I did!

This upcoming week should be a good one!  I’m excited to see what happens!

Love you all and I hope you keep reading your scriptures!

-Elder Marsh

My new companion, Elder Sotoski!

"Yummy Peanut Butter!" (Thanks Almond Family!)

Week 44: End of Transfers

Qué más todos???

This week was a super difficult week but I mean we’re doing the best that we can! We have our investigator Sandy that is supposed to get baptized this upcoming week, but she doesn’t feel ready.  She has the faith and we’ve taught her all the lessons but there’s just something that’s holding her back. But we will continue trying to help her out!

Diana and her family are super awesome!  They came to church this week and they keep loving it!  We had a lesson with them, and we explained they needed to get married before they could get baptized.  We tried giving them a goal for a date to get their marriage and everything in order, but both do not feel ready.  The thing is they want to get baptized, it’s just the marriage that’s the big issue with Diana.  Her “husband” Johnny isn’t working right now. He is in school.  And I guess he hasn’t really actively been looking for a job.   Diana says she doesn’t want to marry someone that at least tries to find a job. 

There’s another investigator that we have, named Diana Roman!  So many Diana´s! They’re all so awesome too cause they have my mom’s name :) haha  Her kids are members of the church, she just hasn’t been able to get baptized because of work!  So we are super excited to start working with her and getting her prepared to get baptized.

I had a companion exchange with Elder Mueller from my district and things went super well!  He came to my area, but we weren’t able to do hardly anything.  Our visits fell through and everything, but I mean no worries!  That’s the mish! It happens…haha.

I have some good and bad news.  The Bad news, is that the Dynamic Duo has been split apart.  Elder Damiano is going to the other area here in Villa Javier.  It’s not very far so we’ll still be able to dynamic duo-it at times.  The good news is, we will both becoming “DADS!” (just another mission term ;) ….when you become the trainer to a new missionary).  It was a great 3 weeks together, but now we’re going to be able to progress and be able to have “kids” (referring to the new missionary we get to train)!  We’re both waaayyy excited for this opportunity to grow and help a young missionary out!  What a blessing!

I’ll let you all know about my son next week! Have a great week!

Elder Marsh

Sad face, will miss his companion but excited for new adventures!

Week 43: Utahns have an accent???!!!

Hey friends and family!

Happy Fourth of July!  My companion, Elder Damiano and I have been super stoked for this day and it went super well!  So this week was a super successful week.  We were able to have a lot of lessons as well as references from the members!  The members are seriously so awesome here in this ward.  I am loving it!  We set up a baptismal date with an investigator named Sandy.  She’s super awesome and has been very accepting of the gospel.  She didn’t end up coming to church this week.  I’m not sure why.  I guess we’ll find out this week!

Diana, another investigator is doing really well!  Her whole family was able to go to church this week!  We were so happy that her husband came to church!  He told us that he really liked it a lot, so we’re super excited for him and the family!

Our area includes part of downtown Bogota.  Every P-day we get to go whenever we want and look around and buy some cool things!  Everything there is super cheap but really cool.  There’s like half of it that’s super rich and super nice, then you cross the main road to the other part, and it’s like a 180 flip!  It’s crazy! It’s a really cool experience! MY companion and I want to go back one of these weeks to take pictures.  I’ll have to send you all of them because it’s super sweet!

Three weeks ago I wanted to try an experiment.  I decided to cut my own hair!  It was hard as heck but it actually turned out pretty good!  I don’t know if I’ll EVER do it again because it was super stressful but we’ll see! haha Then just last night, I had Elder Damiano cut my hair! Double experiment!  It turned out really good though! It was a great companionship unity building project to gain some more trust! haha. We have a blast together!!

Today for the 4th we went to the temple!  I decided to show my American pride with the tie that I wore.  Later, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings!  We for sure thought we deserved everything American today because I mean hey, we can haha. BWW isn’t the same here, but it was still super good! haha!

Apparently people from Utah have accents.  My comp is from the Georgia and doesn’t have a southern accent but he actually didn’t grow up there.  He thinks that all of us from Utah have the same accent.  Which was really new to me haha. I guess we say ´´way`` a lot instead of so, or super.  So little by little I’m trying to convert him to the best Utah ways hahaha.

I’m having a blast here on the mission! Every day has its ups and downs but it’s so worth it!  We are working like horses ;) and doing everything we can to help others come unto Christ.  

I hope everyone has a great week and chooses the right!  And read Alma 36 this week!  I found a lot of answers and great things in this chapter!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Marsh

Temple grounds with Elder Damiano

Funny video of a dog outside our window

Week 42: Mini CCM

Hey everyone! 

We had an awesome week this week! We were able to find a lot of people and also help the ones that we have progress! My companion, Elder Damiano and I are having a blast together but most importantly with the work!

The members of the ward here are SUPER awesome! It has been a huge blessing to get to know them better and to be able to do the work with them.  Our relief society president is a straight up stud but for a girl! haha!  She is always giving us names of people to go visit.  We have been trying to help Diana and her husband (they’re one of our investigators.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned them before) get married.  We are hoping to do a family home evening with them and present the Proclamation to the World.  We have been working with our Bishop and his wife, the a lot.  His wife is the Relief Society President.  They’re super awesome and get the work done!

This week we did like a mini MTC thing with a ward in our stake!  It was super fun!  At first we did a training, then ate, then afterwards went and contacted people!  We had Josh Camacho, go contact with us.  He is only 14 years old but looks much older!  He was like a mini missionary.  He did a super awesome job!  We would give him a contacting card and would challenge him to contact someone and he would do it!  He was learning how to be a missionary.  I think he learned a lot.  It was a super cool experience to have and help out the future Elders!

A funny thing that happened this week:  I’ve been sneezing like crazy.  When I was with Elder Ibañez I would sneeze 3 or 4 times in a row.  Then my new Comp Elder Damiano started saying ´´salud´´ (health) after the first sneeze, ´´dinero´´ (money) after the second sneeze, and then bautismos after the third sneeze.  But, ever since Elder Damiano got here, I’ve only been sneezing two times!  It’s been a super funny joke, cause I’m like trying to sneeze on purpose so that we can get baptisms haha.  So this week, please pray that I can sneeze three times, so we can get some baptizms here! haha! Just kidding!

Anyways, this week has been super good!  Love you all and hope all is good!

-Elder Marsh

Elder Damiano and I with Josh Camacho...mini MTC

Elder and Sister McGinnis are going home soon