Faith Needs Action

Hey,
Things are great! I love my new comp! We are having a ton of fun and working really hard. We are teaching a few people. Z and her two kids. They are great! They always have good questions and love listening to the lessons we have prepared for them. They have a date planned for their baptism right now. We may have to push it back a week because of church, but we are praying that she will be able to make it to church the next few weeks. Her kids are brilliant! Z says their shy ,but they talk just fine and don't mind coming out of their rooms when we come over.

We are also teaching C-------. He is super! He is reading like we ask him to and is learning fast :) He has come to church and loves it. He says it feels like everyone is family.

The ward is doing great and they are excited to have Elder Pennington here. This last Sunday was stake conference, a lot of the ward members sought us out and introduced themselves to him and expressed how happy they were to have us. Hopefully we will start having dinners again soon.

Elder Robles is in the Spanish branch in the area here. He just got his calling as senior companion, trainer and district leader. The mission calls it the trinity call. He is excited, and besides him having a little cold he is doing a great job. I am glad to be able to keep working with him. 

Jason should do a great job as ward mission leader. He was great as the Elder Quorum President so I'm sure things will get done with him. 

I'm excited to hear where Austin is going!!! I know he will be a great missionary

Happy Birthday Lars!!! I know it is next week.

There are some great people who live in my apartment complex.  We love spending time with them!  Most nights we are able to spend out in the courtyard with them after we plan and relax and joke around.

That is sad to hear about your cousin dying. I wish things turned out better for him. It is sad to see how controlling Lucifer is. He is so powerful! We all must be on our guard. His only desire is to destroy us. It is also sad about Dlyan's Grandma Graff.

I love what you had to say about faith being a verb, it requires action. It is neat to think that without faith we have absolutely no reason to act. Why would we go out to start our car if we didn't have faith it would work. Why would do so most things if we didn't have faith. It gives us reason to act. Reason to believe. It is the first principle we teach in the Gospel. There is a reason for that. If we did not have faith we could not repent, we would have no desire to be baptized, or endure to the end. I know that faith is one of the most important principles we should have. It gives us reason to have desire. I know how powerful faith is. There is a quote by Elder Baxter of the 70 who came here a while back he was asked "How do we gain more faith?" He replied, "If we are to gain more faith we are to act as if our faith is already to the magnitude in which we desire it to be." ...or fake it till you make it! :) i know that it is true. I have tried it. I started acting as if I had that faith, and I have started to receive so many blessings.

I love you! I miss you so much! I hope all is magnificent!
Love,
Elder Marshall