4/22/14

Happy Easter!!!

     I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter!  It was so good to talk with everyone especially on Easter and to testify of Jesus Christ......that He lives!  

     Thursday we had the opportunity to watch this movie called "Meet the Mormons" for Relief Society.  It is a movie that EVENTUALLY will be playing at Temple Square in the Joseph Smith Building.  Anyway, the movie is geared towards non-members, to help them understand the basic beliefs and to get an idea about a variety of Mormon families around the entire world.  They took 6 different stories that are INCREDIBLE and so touching.   It is amazing; I want to watch it every day and I’m so anxious for it to come out. I think it will be such a great tool to help people become interested in learning more.  

     And Saturday was the best!  We taught Bobby (Ben's friend) with our RM Sam on the phone as well.  We had an awesome lesson and it was so good to have Sam there to help and to make sure we understood everything Bobby was saying. Sometimes LIberian English is hard to understand.  :)  Anyway, we invited him to be baptized and he said YES!!!!!!  Then Sister Ye and I had the TC desk for 2 hours and there was hardly anyone there. We were getting super antsy.......then in the corner of my eye I saw MarLeice!!  I was sooo happy to see her!  Then, time could have stopped; it was soooo slow until it reached 5:00, but it finally came!  I was at the Visitor's Center and heard my name and turned around and saw my ENTIRE family including babies :) I was so happy to see everyone, especially the little ones that I have been dying to see!  Pictures are great, but it does not do them justice....they are the cutest niece and nephew!!  

     The Easter weekend was crazy.  Maybe some of you are aware that the church produced a movie, “Because of Him”, and “He is Risen”.  Well, because of the movies and the links to mormon.org <http://mormon.org> , chats were coming in left & right  24/7!  We were even given scheduled times to ONLY take chats, (which we have never had before).  It was awesome though, because we received soo many new investigators.  Some who are very sincere and very interested in learning more.  

     We talked to Bobby again on Monday and he went to church and got a Book of Mormon and is enjoying it a lot! What more could I ask for??  We then called Ben to have a lesson with him and see how he is doing.  He is recieving the Priesthood this Sunday!  WAHOO!!!  We still had Sam with us on the phone and as we talked and I said, ”Hey Ben, I am just going to teach all the Liberians ok?”  And he said, "Well I have a friend named Darlink that I want you to teach and to help!"  So he sent me his number and told me him to be expecting my call.  I was at the Humanitarian Center and it was our lunch time so after lunch I called Darlink.......WOW!  Talk about a miracle.  He told me he already looked up where the church was located and that he was going to go this Sunday!  I then asked," Are you familiar with the church at all, and would you be interested in learning more?"  This was his reply, "I have been SOOO interested for the longest time, but I had NO idea where to go or who to talk to about it until you came along."  UMMMM, OK, yes  I can work with that!  So I made a reference to baptism with him during our first conversation, and he was so excited!!  He lives close to Boston and he is amazing.  He is very prepared and so so interested........I have now decided I ONLY want to teach people if they are from Liberia!  :)  Just kidding, but they are the nicest people and so willing to listen.  

     Anyway, I think that is all.  This week has been wonderful! We Have a lot of new investigators that I am excited to teach this upcoming week.  I hope that everyone is doing well & I love all of you!  I can not believe how fast time is going.  I love this work.  I love being a missionary and this has changed my life completely.  All I wanna do is do missionary work and love and teach everyone around me!  

The church is true!

Sister Mindy Marsh

4/17/14

Family! 

     Well this week has been really busy and super good!  Lots of good things have been happening and working out for us!  

     This week we had a miniature Zone Conference!  President Poulsen is really really great, I love him even though I don't know much about him yet.  My interview with him is in 2 weeks. I do know that he is a powerful teacher :) He talked a lot about what we individually will do with the opportunity of serving a mission.  He had a cute little analogy about a wicked king who was holding a little bird only letting the head stick out so you couldn't tell if it was dead or alive, and the king wanted to test his wisest servants.  The king tells the servants if you tell me the bird is dead I will open my hands and the bird will fly away but if you tell me it is alive I will crack the little neck and it will be dead! President told us just like this story, we are given the opportunity to serve missions and "It lies in OUR hands" what we do with it.  No mater what the servants said, the answer lied in the King’s hands........and so do our missions.  WE make of it what we want!  That hit me pretty hard and I can't believe it, but I only have until October left; so I really want to make sure that I make the best of the time I am given to serve the Lord.     

Saturday I ran into the “Reno” Marsh's and that was soo fun!  I had no clue they were here and I turn around and there was Rusty!  We also got a text about a tour with 40 people; so me and Sister Ye decided to take it.  Well, it was a Samoan ward and Gabe Reed was the bishop.......hopefully you know that he was a NFL football player!  Well, it was awesome.......and I would have had no idea except in the South Visitors Center we play mormon.org <http://mormon.org>  videos and he is on it, so we all know him so that was awesome!  

Also, Ben who you all know about is awesome and he gave me his friend's number who lives in Liberia.  His name is Bobby.  So I called him and he is sooo receptive to the gospel and Ben told him “this is the only true church and you need to be a part of it!  Way to go BEN!! 

     And Sunday one of our Chinese investigators came to music and the spoken word.  We actually have never had the chance to actually teach her a lesson so we took her around Temple Square and taught her all about the Restoration.  She is atheist and from Beijing.  But she was awesome and she was going to church that same day but she didn't feel comfortable going alone so President allowed us to go to her ward.  So we went to her ward, which is the YSA ward from the University of Utah.  They had a special Easter sacrament meeting with all music and professional musicians from New York came and it was incredible....the other cool thing is the bishop's name is Whitney Clayton just like the President of the 70 because that is his dad!  So, Elder Clayton was there in the meeting! SO COOL!!!!  

     So get this, today we had our first lesson with Bobby Ben's friend in Liberia!  We learned a lot about him and that he was in refugee camps in Ghana together and then moved back together to Liberia and they are just best friends! Well, the lesson went great and then later after the lesson I was trying to think of all the people that I could call that we could have as a member present in our lessons.  I wanted the perfect match for him......I would ask Ben but he is too recently a new member.......so we were about to go start p-day and these 3 people start talking to Sister Ye (because they are from China as well) so they know Mandarin. Well the one guy didn't speak Mandarin and was African.......so I started talking to him. Come to find out; he is also from Liberia and just finished his mission!  He is from the same city that Ben and Bobby were from AND was in the same refugee camps at the same time!  They speak the same dialect and have almost IDENTICAL stories!!! So.......he asked if he could help with some lessons....... prayer answered!! I am sooo happy and so excited to be able to teach Bobby with him there.  “Connections” are good for people investigating the church.  :) Anyway lots of good things are happening right now! 

     I am soo excited to see you all this weekend!  :)  I hope that everything is going well for everyone.  I love you all and I am so grateful for all of the things that each one of you do to help and strengthen me!  Love you!!

The church is true.

Sister Marsh