Got my travel plans!

Bonjour tout le monde!

       This has been a crazy week! We've been super busy with lessons, we have had two or three lessons a day, and lots of really good devotionals. On Sunday, we had Chad Lewis come and talk, and that was really cool. He talked about his mission, his career, his chance to do this hike up Kilimanjaro with a bunch of wounded soldiers from Iraq, kinda all over the place. It was more like a slide show than the kind of devotionals before. It was still good, but I definitely preferred Elder Oaks. We watched A Consecrated Missionary, by Tad Callister, for our film after, it was really good. I really love the Sunday films, gunna miss that in the field. 

       I also finally meet some other people going to Halifax! There are 4 sisters, and one other Elder, I'll be flying out with them on the 26th. I'm pretty sure I get to call you guys before I leave the airport on my flight, but I think they talk about that next week in infield training, so I'll tell you more about it next week. 

       Tuesday was also a pretty big day. We said goodbye to all of the Montreal missionaries. They were the guys we were closest too, and when we were singing Souvien-toi I was getting a little choked up. But after they left, Elder Hable and I haven't gotten any other roommates, so it's just us two in the room, and that's really nice. It's super quiet, we can just write in our journal, play a conference talk, etc... Everyone's super jealous. We just tell them "Thou shalt not covet."

       We also had Elder Kearon for our Tuesday devotional. He and his wife were awesome. He's in the Presidency of the Seventy, and they both gave really good talks. Sis. Kearon talked about prayer, and read some from the Bible Dictionary about it, and that was really good. Elder Kearon talked about how we have trials as missionaries, and even though we have opposition, we have the opportunity to choose to be happy. We read from 2 Nephi when Lehi is talking to Jacob, and eventually to all of his sons, where it talks about how God has given all men the chance to choose happiness. He doesn't say we can choose not to have trials, but he does say we can choose to be happy. Remember, we are beings who act, we're not acted upon. He talked about how we can use our difficulties to draw closer to God. One thing he said was, "Mormons thrive on difficulties." We draw closer to God when we pray, and learn through our difficulties. 

       It actually really matched the song for choir too. "We sang Nearer my God to Thee," It was really good, I had never known where the lyrics came from, but it's actually a really cool story. It's about Jacob suffering despite him being righteous. His brother was going to kill him, and he had to leave with nothing. But all of his experiences pushed him closer to God. A lot like Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. 

       I loved your guy's emails/letters. I didn't realize how much I missed sports till this week. Utah won, everyone was checking Siri until 10:30 at night. We actually can't see the football field, or the scoreboard from the 4th floor. I did see some big event going on by Helaman Halls, but no idea what that was. Then, as I was reading the live updates of the Brighton game in you letter dad, I really missed it. And then this morning, walking from the temple, it totally reminded me of walking to football games in October, it was just the perfect weather. I'm glad Ainsley is loving water polo. Hope Boo has fun on his date, everyone in my room was amazed and disgusted at his afro.(Also, that first picture in the book, WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME HOW BAD MY HAIR WAS?!?!?) Hope Ellie is having fun with French! 

       Anyways, love you all! Vous me manquez!

Elder Marsh