Week 64: Forgiveness, A Week of Lessons

Hello everyone!  

This week was a great week of work in Neiva!  We were able to find many new investigators like Adriana, Andres, Dimitrio, Bran, y Horacio!  They are all super receptive and willing to listen to the gospel!  We set up their baptismal date for the 17th of December but will need to postpone because they couldn’t attend church.  It's a requirement they attend church before they can be baptized.

One lesson that I learned this week was about forgiveness.  I got a haircut from our upstairs neighbor, which is a member, and she cut my hair SO short!  I felt so bald!  I was seriously so upset with how it came out!  You all know that my hair is one of the most important things I have to take care of! ;)  When I would look in the mirror, I’d feel so sad.  I felt like a baldie haha.  Anyway, this week we had stake conference and three of the talks that were given were about forgiveness.  I felt that they were all talking right to me!  After the third talk, I sat thinking that I needed to forgive and forget -the secret in life.  From then on I changed my attitude about it, and decided that it’s all good!  My hair will grow back and everything will be okay! haha.  It sounds pretty dumb, this whole story, but I learned that there’s no point in staying upset with something or someone.  Just forgive and forget, and move on.  The Lord taught us to forgive and so should I.  Besides there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. ;)

Sorry for the short email again!

Love Elder Marsh

This poor dog has a problem with its two back legs where the joints of the knees and ankles don’t bend.  It seriously looks SO funny especially when it walks!  I’ll try to get a video of it one of these days!

Week 63: Week 1 of Transfers!

Hey so this week was a little crazy with the transfers and everything but we have everything under control now.  It’s been an awesome week for the Neiva zone!

As a zone we were able to find a bunch of people, and not only that, but baptismal dates with them!  My comp and I are super proud of what they’ve done for sure!

Sorry for the short email this week.  Time is really an issue!  One sad thing that happened this week is that my bike got stolen!  We were at the church teaching Eliana and her kids for only 30 minutes.  When we came out my bike was gone. L My comp's was still there.  We thought someone was playing a joke on us so we looked all over the church property just in case.  As it turns out it was stolen.  That bike I sent a picture of last week was jacked!  I was super sad that day.  We had another appointment we needed to get to and I had to ride on the bar between the handle bars and the seat.  Wow, it was sooo uncomfortable.  It all turned out though.  I had an awesome tender mercy after we got to our appointment.  The family we were visiting is a less active family we are helping to activate.  We told them what had happened and they offered to let me use one of their bikes.  So I’ve been using that now!    

Thanks for everything and all you guys are doing!  

Have a good week!

Elder Marsh

The new district

Week 62: Cambios!

Hey everyone! 

So this week was a pretty good week here in Neiva!

We had a bunch of really good lessons this week especially two with my boy Isidro!  But I have some sad news… Isidro left for Villavicencio this last week and he’s gonna be there working for almost a month.  He asked if he could keep receiving the lessons in Villa-o and get baptized there.  So, we passed the reference over to the Elders there.   Now, he is out of our hands :(  He is such an amazing guy and has the greatest desire to just learn.  He was really just soaking everything up like a sponge.  He started to share the gospel with his brother!  So we’re super pumped to start teaching him the restored gospel!

The Gutierrez family nor Eliana and her kids were able to make it to church this week.  We’re still working hard with them and trying to prepare them even more! We had an awesome lesson with the Gutierrez family about marriage!  We were able to get two married couples to be able to testify about marriage and how it’s really going to bless them!  It was such a wonderful spiritual experience.  They committed to get married! So woohoo!  We are so happy for them.

Last week there were a group of college students dressed in scrubs that came to church.  One of them is a member of the church but less active.  They had a huge questionnaire for my comp and I.  It went really well!  At the end we asked if they wanted to listen to our message and they accepted!  So the following Saturday we passed by their place and taught them about the Restoration of the gospel.  We extended a baptismal date, which they accepted for the 10th!  They’re all super awesome and we’re excited to work with them!

Anyways, transfers came and Elder Amaya and I are staying here in Granjas, Neiva together!  It’ll be another great transfer of work!  I can’t wait!

Love you all!

Elder Marsh

The university guys! (Leidy, Andres, Maria Paula, Duvan, Elder Amaya y yo)

Biker Gang ;)

First DP I’ve had in 14 months

Week 61: Service and a Surprise Along with It!

Hey everyone!  

What a roller coaster of a week, with lots of ups and downs!

First off, we had a service project this week.  We helped dig holes and put old tires in them.  I know it sounds weird but that’s the best explanation I can give haha.  It was great serving which was the upside.  The downside was that there were a billion baby mosquitos and they seemed like they were starving or something because they just about had a feast on my legs, not my arms, ONLY my legs!  They were after the good meat or something, I don’t doubt it was due to my muscle-ly-ness ;) .  The next two days, I kept waking up in the middle of the night (around 2:30) with the worst sensation to just scratch my legs!  But don’t worry mom, I didn’t scratch.  I ONLY rubbed.  I tried just about every trick in the book to help them stop itching!  I rubbed on a mix of lemon water(Colombian trick, anything with lemon gets healed apparently), alcohol, lotion, I took a shower and rubbed my legs with soap, some powder, and anti-itch cream.  Yeah let’s just say I tried everything!  I was able to get some pills and some antibiotic cream to put on my legs.  They have been feeling better ever since!  So yeah I’m feeling great now :) 

My comp and I had one of the most amazing experiences happen to us this last week.  We were going to the chapel for a visit with Eliana and her kids.  They have their baptismal date for this upcoming week!  But when we got there, there was another guy there that just happened to show up on his own.  His name is Isidro P.  We started to teach him and Eliana at the same time about the plan of salvation.  After getting to our purpose here on the earth, we invited Isidro to be baptized and he accepted!  He then started telling us more personal things that have been happening in his life.  That he was separated from his wife and he hasn’t been seeing his daughter.  He said he’s been looking for an answer to all of it.  He started searching for God and one day he showed up at the church!  He then attended Sacrament this last Sunday.  I’ll never forget 2 things that he said to me.  One being after the sacrament was passed, he said it was the most beautiful experience he had ever experienced in any church.  It was the perfect time for the Spirit to talk to Isidro’s heart.  Second, towards the end of the meeting, he asks me, when’s my baptism? The 3rd of December? I responded yes.  He said okay, pulled out his phone and added the date on his phone calendar.  He told me he is excited! How amazing!  Our Heavenly Father prepares his children to receive the gospel.  I am so grateful for everything He has done for me.  And I’m so grateful for my mission!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!  You’re all the best!

Love,

Elder Marsh

-Front and back of my legs from the bites!!

Week 60: I'm So Grateful!

Sorry for the short letter already, but this week was super busy! 

We started off traveling to Bogota (6 hours) for a leadership meeting and it was a long but short trip! haha Everything went well and it was so good to hear from President Baquerizo.  He’s seriously the best and I love participating in his trainings!

Also, SURPRISE!  More Baptisms! woohooo!!  All the kids were baptized this last Saturday and it was a great experience!  I’m so grateful for this gospel and the joy it brings to our lives.  It has helped me so much on my mission and it has given me a 180 degree turn.  I thank my Father in Heaven for everything He has done for me.

Read your scriptures daily and say your morning and nightly prayers and I promise you will constantly feel the spirit!

Love you all!

Elder Marsh

Just being his goofy self!  Oh how I love this kid!!!

Saturday Baptisms!  :)

Week 59: Iguanas and Crocodiles, OH MY!

Hey everyone!  This was a super slow and not so eventful week, but hey the mission life is the best life and I’m enjoying every second here in the hottest place ever! NEIVA! 

I had some exchanges with Elder Luizaga from Bolivia!  He just finished his training this past transfer.  He is a super cool guy!  At the end of the day we were giving feedback to see what we did well and also what we can improve.  I asked him what I could do better, and he sat there thinking for about a minute, and then he said, ´´you need to be more careful on your bike.  About 50% of the time I was freaked out thinking that you were gonna get hit by a car and I’m actually really surprised you didn’t.´´ hahaha  I started laughing but I promised I’d be more careful when riding my bike!  That’s what you get for being a stud bike rider hahahaha.

We couldn’t find our investigator Eliana for a week.  She doesn’t have a phone.  Then, one day she called us out of the blue from a minutes(track) phone and we were able to set up a visit with her!  It was for sure a sweet tender mercy!

Sorry for such the short news.  I’ll do better next week.  But here are some cool pics of iguanas and crocodiles for you guys!

Con bastante amor y agradecimiento hacia ustedes. (I’m so grateful for you. With much love..)

Elder Marsh

An iguana just strolling around town!

Crocodile near a neighborhood pond. What??!!?

Elder Marsh says he zoomed in and not to be worried.  Really??..NOT AT ALL possible! 

*Note from mom:  An uneventful week???  I think NOT!  He actually sent these pictures last week without any explanation whatsoever.  It wasn't until this pday that he told me more about the pictures.  I was on pins and needles all week.  I'm not really sure I felt any better afterwards though!  

Week 58: Two Surprise Baptisms!

Hello! Once again it was a super hectic but super fun week!! 

On Monday and Tuesday we had interviews and capacitaciones (meetings) with the president and the assistants.  It was a great capacitacion of course coming from our mission president which is such an awesome and inspired man!  After, we had intercambios (exchanges) with the assistants and I got to go with Elder Garong!  He’s half Philippine and half American and he’s from Utah!  So of course we had a blast together!

The last thing that happened this week is that we had a baptism!  It was of Rubi and her son William!  The have seriously for the past two weeks just been asking us WHEN they were going to get baptized!  It was super awesome and such a spiritual experience.  It was all like really last second because she had her interview at 5 and she was going to get baptized at 7!  So after the interview, we had to run and fill up the font, later bike to our house and grab our baptismal clothing, come back, teach a lesson to an awesome investigator, then get changed and get ready for the baptism.  It was all super hectic but super fun and a great experience!

I’ve been developing a lot of patience these days learning how to manage everything and not get all stressed out!  I was able to turn to my Father in Heaven in silent prayer and ask him for the comfort to get through everything.  I’m so grateful for his help, and everlasting love that he has shown to me.  I hope all of you can pray earnestly.

I hope you all have a great and blessed week!

Elder Marsh

Note from mom:  No pictures this week.  His new calling as zone leader has been keeping him extra busy.  He is loving every second of his service, challenges and all.  I'm so very proud of him.