This one's kinda all over the place, sorry!

Hey everyone! 

Couple quick updates from my end. One of the members in Caribou is a dentist, and used to do checkups for the missionaries, haven't talked to him about it yet, but he'd probably be down. Probably won't need the exercise equipment. My money's doing fine, I haven't really needed to buy much of anything, and I have plenty on the mission card to buy groceries. We could probably buy the meat. I think one of the greatest things that the mission has taught me is how much food we really had, and how easy it would have been to fix it. I seem to remember complaining about how we never had anything to eat. I've definitely have gotten more creative with food. We get by quite easily with the food we have. The only things that suck to buy here are eggs and milk, which are ridiculously overpriced. You can buy 60 eggs in the states for like 12 bucks, and 18 in Canada for 6. Just goes to show that America really is the land of the free. Been healthy. No colds. 

I am pretty excited to get the phone. I'll we get them in zone conference week three of the transfer. I'll make sure to remind you the week before so you don't panic when you don't see an email. 

It's been pretty cold. It was -15 C a couple days ago, but with the wind chill it brought it down to -35 C. That was COLD. We also stopped the practice of getting into our car every twenty minutes, so we had to walk to our finding area, walk between houses, and walk back. When I compare it with today, a balmy -4 or so, I can already tell that I am going to be sweating buckets back home. 

Heard about President Low, should be pretty cool. Apperantly he's related to Elder Pierson. We've heard he's super awesome, so it should be cool. Slightly sad that President Pratt is finishing though, he's the best!

Also, I wanted to send home some little Christmas presents for everyone, but I was way too lazy. I'm going to send it off next week. I got something "practical" for the kids. I also threw in something for dad, that I hope gets used for the next Marsh Christmas party. It's no Obama chia head, but it made me laugh. Consider it a "6 months away" gift. 

One thing that I thought of this week is how loving and forgiving Christ is to repentant people, but to those who willingly chose to reject him receive no easy words. I feel like it relates very closely to the people I meet here. There are people like the Pharisees, who reject the "why" of the law, or the big picture. And there are people ready to change, those repentant sinners and publicans. It stands out to me that Christ spends his time with those ready to change, not trying to change the pharisees. 

A particular instance (Mark 12:28-34) stood out to me, when a certain lawyer questions Christ, and admits that Christ was right, that he answered well, to which Christ responded, "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven." This interests me because while this man knows this is right, to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven is to live the commandments as well. Knowing is not enough, rather it is obedience that brings the blessings. 

I encourage all of you to live in obedience to what God has revealed. Love you all!

Elder Marsh