Where is Seminole, Texas?

So this week was transfers..

I was moved down to Seminole. It's a beautiful little po-dunk town. I love it here! So Monday I E. Pentecost and I went out to work. We went to a less active members house Mojo. This man is so funny about everything he talks about and does. He had us do some service for him before we left. He pulled out a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. It's from the 1970's and he asked us to clean it for him. So we went back in and went for lunch, and we got a call from our zone leaders. 

They had transfer info. So I went first since I had the phone and all I was told was to report to the church the next day at noon and I would be headed up to Lubbock. and then E. Pentecost was told to report to Ammarillo. 

So we went back out to work with a member from the ward. He is a really awesome guy. So We went and saw Kenny and Jennifer. They are investigators that we have. We told them that we were getting double transferred out. They were really disappointed. There's sister in the Odessa 2nd ward now. I really hope things transition over smoothly from us to them.
Later that day after packing we went to see the Kaio Family. I LOVE this family. They are a lot of fun. We were there for about an hour. We were able to help clean their house. Sister Kaio was having contractions and getting ready to go to the hospital. Brother Kaio gave me a hug before we left and told me that I was a great missionary and that I have a lot of potential. I will miss them.

Oh  BTW mom he should be sending me some songs on my hotmail. it's his rap cd. I would appreciate if you could keep an eye out for them. They might possibly end up in junk mail cause he's not a contact.


That night when I went to go to bed I found a little bug crawling around in my sheets and I just about flipped!!!! I thought it was a bed bug. So because of procedure I called housing and they said to pack everything anyway and move and they would have insecticide for me to wash all of my clothing with as I unpacked.. I took a up close picture of the bug for the guy over housing and he said it wasn't a bed bug, but to be safe I had to was all of my clothes and sheets and spray my suitcases anyway.

So Tuesday we transferred. Wow! It was ridiculous. LOL. We went to get on the transfer bus and apparently president decided to move just about everyone and white wash most areas.... So The bus was PACKED there was a ton of missionaries on there and so much luggage you can't imagine! We got to the transfer site and I found out who my new companion, it was E. Pentecost last comp, now I'm companions with Elder Krizin. He's a pretty cool guy, and we seem to get along just fine. 

When we got together we found out we were white washing Seminole and other outlying towns. We for the life of us could not figure out how to get out of Lubbock and down to Seminole. Finally we got a map and headed out. We were able to help 2 different people change their tires. We got pretty dirty in our suits. So we got to seminole, and we realized we don't know where we live.... So I gave Elder Carbine a call, he's the elder over housing, and his wife is the secretary for the mission. We finally found the apartment after wandering around for about 30 minutes.  So we got there and it was 10:30 and opened the door and the apartment was DIRTY. So we unpacked what we had to to go to sleep and went to bed.

Yesterday, Wednesday we cleaned ALL day long... I had to wash all of my laundry because of the bed bug possibility and we couldn't leave so we just cleaned. We cleaned for at least 11 hours. The place was so dirty we even had to clean walls.. The worst part about that day is the AC stopped working and it was 90 degree's all day long.. It was SO HOT!

So we went out to eat dinner since we don't have food, and we have to get food all the way up in Lubbock... It's terrible.. I can't remember where we went, but it was a mexican restraunt. It was so good! We were able to talk to the owner and a few of the patrons eating there. They gave us a bunch of the food that they were just going to trash :) But E. Krizin is a vegiterian and he can't eat any of it.

So this morning an AC guy came and fixed the AC. We were just low on refrigerant. Our apartment is comfortable now :)
That's pretty much where we are now. We're trying to get the work going here, so we're going to be doing a lot of knocking and contacting.

I'm so grateful to be out here doing the Lords work. I love it.
I miss you all.
Love
Elder Marshall

PS.
Please write to me!!!!!!!
My new address is....................
Elder Devon Taylor Marshall
P.O. Box 543
Seminole, Tx 79360

Please let everyone know to send my letters here now.

First Zone Conference

HEY!

So this past week was full of exciting things. I met Cassie's Aunt Roselyn. She lives like half a mile from our place. It was so cool. We're trying to get her to come back to church. She is a lot like Cassie. We laughed a whole bunch when we realized we knew the same people. My comp just sat there quiet... I feel kinda bad about it..... but I was really excited :D

So last Thursday we met with a newly wed couple. They're members of church of christ, but don't think we've figured it out haha, The Husband wanted Objective evidence that the Boof of Mormon is true reather than subjective. I know the spirit was with me, because I would have never thought to have him look at the 3 witnesses and the 8 witnesses in the beguinning. SO COOL! They're having a hard time reading and praying to ask if what we teach is true just cause I think they're affraid they'll have to change their life style.

Friday we knocked into a mans house and he said the only way he would listen to us if we would take a glass of wiskey. I was going to take it and dump it, but we just left. I thought it would have been cool to teach him.

Sunday we did a lot of knocking. Which I really enjoy doing when the sun is setting. because a lot of people are either out or it's cool enough and people will come out and listen to our message. One of the homes we knocked into a man came out and I could tell he didn't really want to talk to us and I asked him about hunting. I saw a deer rack in his garage before we knocked. So he stood out and talked to us. :) We didn't get to share much of a message with him, but I feel like his attitude about "The Mormons" has changed. 

We also picked us up a black man named Jamal.  He's really tight and love to hear our message. We also knocked into a lady. She's really cool, she knows a first wards recent convert. She is really interestewd in learning everything, but is afraid her husband doesn't want to convert. He's the kinda guy that still lives by momms rules.

Monday I had my first interview with President Augustin. I love him!  He's such a great man and is really easy to talk to.  Towards the end of my interview that he said, "Sister Augustin and I feel this sort of kinship with you." That was so neat to hear. Tuesday we had our zone conference. It was way good!  We learned about christ like attributes and how to become stronger in those. At the end of the day when we went to leave Sister Augustin almost gave me a hug haha! That was pretty funny, cause when she started to she realized like half way that she's not allowed to. She just ended up putting ane arm around me.

Oh how do you use that 5 times in a sentence correctly? I know that, that that that that boy used in his sentence was used correctly.

I am loving my area and having a lot of fun working. To answer boo's question we didn't have a dinner calender tuesday president put it back into effect. So I haven't found one yet who has huge meals and lots of fun conversations, but there is a couple families that are really great here.

I love you all and I am so glad to hear from everyone all the letters I get sent and emails and cards. I really appreciate all the support!

Love,

Elder Marshall

Hello everyone!

So my past week went fairly well. We went to the temple Saturday. We did 3 sessions and then a bunch of other things after the sessions. I was so exhausted. 

Then Tuesday was really exciting. I really wanted to knock a neighborhood and we kept putting it off and finally at like 7:30 I told e. Pentecost that we were going to knock it right then. So we went and started at the beginning of the block. We were going to start half way through.. which didn't make sense to me so we knocked on 3 doors and on the 3rd door a man opened up the door and was like oh we're having a bible study right now and opened the door up really wide and we saw a bunch of people inside. He invited us in and E. Pentecost just stood there. I walked right past him and went in. Because what's the worst that could happen? A bash? So we sat down and they told us what they were studying and explained that they are an addiction recovery group. SO COOL!!! So they went around and would ask a question and then everyone would put in their input, and when it came around to me I would tell them my thoughts and feelings and bear my testimony and teach them a little and we kept going around. So finally it was 9 pm and we told them that we needed to go and they bombarded us with some AWESOME questions! So we answered them left them a couple copies of the Book Of Mormon, Some pass along cards and left. Afterward I was so excited. They told us to come back next Tuesday and share with them more, But E. Pentecost when we got home was like "We're not going back there again. They don't really want to hear the gospel." I was so mad I want to go back there and teach them and sit through another meeting. 

Yesterday E. Martinez, a Spanish missionary, and I were able to go on exchanges! He's so much fun. We laughed pretty much the whole time we were together. I learned so much from him in just one day! He taught me how to do door approaches that are not "Roboticised". 

He also taught me how to crochet last night also. I'm going to try and crochet a scripture cover. :) 

We had the coolest thing happen to me also. We were out knocking on doors, and we saw someone outside. So we walked over there, because it's easier to get someone when they can't slam a door on your face. When we walked up to him we could see him fighting and with his wife, they were yelling and swearing at each other. So we talked to him and his wife walked over to the other side of the trailer and sat down and he was like "If you want to talk to someone talk to that B." We just stood there and got to know him and talked. He started walking around picking up trash and we were getting ready to leave, and both of us turned around and kept teaching him, and helping pick up all of the trash. So he was over by his wife and we started teaching them about eternal families and how the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives can help them be happier with each other. He pretty much sat down right next to her and they both listened to everything we taught. They are committed to read and pray about the BOM. They are both excited to meet with the Elders again. I know that God will always provide. We just have to promise we will act upon what he provides us with.

Things are going well with me. I'm learning, slowly but surely. I want everyone to have this gospel in their lives.
I love all of you back home. You are all in my prayers. Each and every single one of you, individually are prayed for. My knees can prove it.

Keep me up to date on everything.
Love,
Elder Marshall

Hey

Sounds like things are going well :)

There's a guy that lives down here. Brother Perry. He says he knows uncle Keith. They were friends when they were in their teens or so? He was super excited to talk to me about it :) lol So that is something you could share with Uncle Keith.

Something cool that I found out from our new GOLDEN Investigator is Odessa is named after a city in the Ukraine! So apparently Tyler and I are both in Ukraine. Just his is super cold, and Mine is SUPER HOT and awfully dry. All the lakes down here are drying up.

So friday it rained.. Rain drops here are the flippin size of water bottles! It DUMPS out of the sky here! It was the first rain they recieved in almost a year. Odessa is in such a drought that you and only water once a week.

So there's this guy who we got a text from church head quarters for. So we got to his house and nobody was there. So we called him that night and talked to him. He said he had a million questions about our religion. So we set up to see him Saturday. We spent 2 hours at his house discussing everything on his mind. So we asked him to come to church with us. When Sunday rolls around we got to church and he wasn't there. So I called him and he said his son was in the hospital, the ER, and was really sick. He felt really really bad, but he couldn't have come to church with how sick his son is. So we set up a time to meet with him on Monday. So we went about our day had dinner at a families home in our ward. After dinner we were planning on just going tracting and we got a call from him.  He was breaking down and having a terrible night.  So he was planning on calling his minister and was ready to dial the number and he couldn't do it.  All he kept thinking about was talking to us.  So we went over to his house and talked to him calmed him down and he started to express to us how he wanted to know what he had to do to be a member of the church and that he knows what we're teaching him is good. We taught him the word of wisdom and he comitted to stop smoking right then and there. He's set for baptism on the 14th. He is meeting with us everyday and doing everything he needs to do to come closer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so excited for him and can not wait for his baptism. To see the Joy it will bring into his life. I can not wait.

I know that Heavenly father loves me and does watch over each and everyone of us.

I hope that everyone is doing well and I appreciate everything that I've recieved for my birthday.

Especially the harmonica, thanks Grandma Marshall.  I just need to figure out how to play it now :D

I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support.

Oh austin I loved your be the boss. I will do it :D oh I hear you've got lots of girls chasing after you ;) That's what I like to hear.

Love,

Elder Marshall

 

p.s. Thank you for the talks, you can send more!   I really appreciate them.  Also be proud of me I didn't open my birthday package until this morning :D

Highlights From My Week

I'm so glad to hear from everyone I love you all SO MUCH! I really really enjoy all of you letters.

So my past week has been really interesting haha I will just hit some of the highlights for the week. :D
So last Friday Elder Pentecost and I were out knocking doors and we saw 2 women out smoking on their porch. We were just going to go up a different street and just not worry about talking to them.  I just walked over there. :) So we went up and started talking to them and they let us teach them right there on the spot. These two were so accepting to what we were teaching them. It was an awesome lesson.

Saturday I got attacked by a HUGE dog. Once again we were out tracting and to make a long story short we walked around a car and Elder Pentecost stopped right in front of me and said "Is he nice?" and next thing I know this beast comes bookin after us. It went right past Elder Pentecost and went right for me. It had it's mouth around my leg at the same time I kicked it. It was SO SCARY! I could have got rabies or something! then that night we had the best steaks EVER. and it was super easy to make.

Sunday Elder Pentecost and I got to church and the zone leaders came and grabbed me and brought me to a class room. The was this 15 yr old kid that had flown in from Florida at 11:45pm. We came to find out that he was here to move in with his brother. His birthday was June 3rd and his mom passed 2 days later. He had been meeting with the missionaries in Florida and his mom said she really liked how he had been living his life since he started meeting with the missionaries. So this kid flew in town at 11:45 pm and found church so important that he was there at 9 in the morning the next day. He has so much faith. I can not wait to keep teaching him.

For the latter part of the week not to much else happened. I'm so happy to be out here and am having so much fun. Elder Pentecost and I decided to start working harder everyday to the point to where we get home and collapse. I Don't want to waste a single second out here.

I love you all so much and I am so glad to hear from everyone.
Love
Elder Marshall