Elder Robbie Marsh

Hey all, Sorry if this one's the shortest yet. We're busy picking up the new missionaries, and the schedule has been crazy lately. Monday and Tuesday we had to create a system for everyone to get transferred, and then to transfer them all. We spent 24 hours planning, it was crazy. I've loved my mission. It's been so amazing. I wish I had more time, but there is more to do. I'm excited to see you all.  One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon on my mission has been 3 Nephi 5:13. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." I can testify that sharing his word brings us joy too. Love you all. See you later! Elder Marsh

Hey all, It’s been a great week in Montreal. Literally it’s been the busiest time on my mission. Maybe some more experienced people in life could tell me, but it seems to me that the longer you live, the busier you get. That’s how my mission has been at least. Because we have a four man companionship, we almost kinda feel like we have superpowers, because we can be in two places at once! Thank goodness we’ve had that, because I do not know how anyone could do what we’ve done without it. We most days both teams teach all day. We have 5 people preparing for baptism this Saturday, so between them, our other on dates, progressing friends, recent converts, and mission merge business, it’s been pretty full.  I’m grateful for a little quote dad had sent me at the start of my mission. I’m glad I feel like up to now, I’ve left it all in the pool, so to speak. I’m definitely going to keep it up. Nothing is more rewarding than serving our Heavenly Father.  Heres some advice ...

Hey all, Congrats Boo! I’m so happy you went to the temple. Wish I coulda been there for it, but that’s so cool. The temple’s been a big blessing to me on my mission, so I hope you get to go some more.  So my week. Soooo crazy. Thursday we flew over to Montréal .  Sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we were pretty excited. We arrived and met President Philips and the assistants. The assistants here are Elder Wilson and Elder Newman. Elder Wilson was in the MTC with me, and Elder Newman went to Olympus! So that was pretty cool. They’re both super awesome. Very hard workers. We got straight to work together.  What we do is we split into two teams in the morning, just rotating who we’re with, and then going out and working. Our area is crazy busy. We’re both normally out teaching most of the day, we get a lot of work done together. We work in one of the English wards, and so we work with a lot of immigrants, which is really fun. The people are so humble and read...

Hey all, First off, I’m so sorry to hear that Bob Sweeten passed away. Please let Deyanne know that she’ll be in my prayers, and that I pray they feel comforted. It is a big blessing to know that death’s not the end, that just as birth is a part of our eternal experience, death is as well. Sending lots of thoughts and prayers from Canada!  You’re a really good friend mom. I’m glad you can be there to help out people who need you.  I leave for Montreal on Thursday. So like in 2 days. It’s pretty crazy, I’m packing up all my stuff. We’re flying. I wish we were driving, that would be sooo much fun. I think it’s like a 14 hour drive, something pretty crazy. But no, we’re flying, and then at the airport the assistants there are going to pick us up and we’re just getting to work, with the thousand things we need to do after the merge. We’re going to be pretty busy, haha. I don’t think our p-day will change, but I don’t know yet... Also, you did NOT tell me that Jake...

Hey all, Happy Father's day! Hope you had a good one dad + grandpa's. I didn't know if you would've wanted to waste part of your trip to DC calling me, so I didn't try calling. Besides, I want you all to actually be glad I'm home when I get back.  So you're right, my p-day does get messed up because of transfers, but the majority of it was on Monday (not Tuesday) and the rest today (Wednesday). It's ok though because I do have enough time to write some. (This whole week has been so busy I don't even know if I could include everything that's gone down.) We'll start with zone conference. Elder Hamilton didn't have enough time in his schedule to go to Newfoundland, and so we combined the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia zone conference. It was really good, Elder and Sister Hamilton gave some fantastic training, as well as President and Sister Low. I don't know if I've told you about this, but in our zone conferences we normal...

Hey all, Man, it looks like you’re having a great time in DC! Also, that schedule looks great too. I know lots of people who have said morning classes stink, but I think it would be totally the other way around, morning would be way better. Do I not have a math class? I mean I figure I’ll use math in Econ, but I would have thought I would have needed some math.  This week’s been pretty crazy. So this last week has been pretty busy because we’ve been trying to get ready for our devotional and everything, Elder Hamilton did agree to come and speak to everyone, which was super cool. (He’s super nice and cool, he talked with everyone who came for probably 30 minutes just getting to know them.) We made invitations for everyone, and we had like 20 people commit to come. The day of the event though, 2 people showed up at the start, and 2 more came during it. It was kinda disappointing so few people came, but it was super spiritual for the people who came. It was definitely worth ...

Hey all, Glad to hear there’s been a good first week of summer for everyone. Sorry if this email is a little shorter, we had a bunch of car stuff to do at the start of the morning, and then we had scheduled to go seaglassing with the Lows this afternoon, which was really fun. I found a couple cool pieces, some are kinda rare, so it’s pretty neat. Peggy’s Cove is really pretty, there’s lots of beautiful parts of the maritimes, and it has a big place in literature. Ann of Green Gables (which he obviously has never read, since he spelled it without an e!)  is the most well known, but another popular figure is Evangeline. She comes from a poem about the Acadian removal, I want to read it when I get home, cause it sounds really cool.  Highlight of my week was definitely the baptism. Nadia got baptized on Saturday, she was someone we found in Moncton through the members there. Elder Holman and I started teaching her, then I got transferred to Halifax, and then Elder Hol...

Hey all, Sounds like this week’s been a blast! I remember it being really nice to just relax a bit at the start of the summer, so I hope you’ve been enjoying it. This week’s been pretty busy for us, but it’s been very enjoyable. Congrats Boo on graduating! When do you leave for DC, next week? That came quick. Still doesn’t feel like I’m coming home in 7 weeks.  Tuesday after p-day we had dinner with a less active member, Matthew. He’s been getting more active, but we’re working with him on it. He made teriyaki salmon, it was super delicious. Dad would’ve loved it. I snagged the recipe from them, and it looks like it’s pretty simple, so I’ll have to make it sometime when I get home dad!  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty standard days. We had a really good institute class on Friday, President Cartier (the institute teacher) is one of the best I’ve seen, he’s pretty incredible.  Saturday was a so nice outside, probably one of the first really warm ...

Hey all, First thoughts, stake conference seems legit. That seriously sucks with polo though. Straight bummer. It’s not just a game mom, so totally ok to feel upset. Also my emails are never short because your emails are too long mom, it’s meetings that cut out the time, so never worry about a long email! Our week was pretty sick. We taught a bunch of the Congolese people here in Halifax, I’m pretty sure I talked to you about them before. We taught Didi and Cefa (they’re the couple Elder Boardman and Elder Olsen met, the ones who had the preacher in Africa who knows the Book of Mormon is true), and it went really well. The thing holding them back is they aren’t married. Didi needs to pay a dowry to Cefa’s family to get married to her. We’re trying to get them to talk to the family to see if they can negotiate the payment to come after the marriage. They pay the dowry in cows, like Johnny Lingo. Pretty crazy to think that would affect my mission in Canada. We also set up a ...

Here are the questions Robbie was responding to this week: Tell us more about Elder Holman and why you guys get along so well. How often do you teach English classes? How many students are there? You said some of your English students have turned into investigators, tell us about them. You said Mondays are a pretty set schedule, what else in your weekly schedule is set? Spiritual highlight this week? Is it harder to have a spiritual highlight when you're busy with administrative stuff? Hey all, It really doesn’t seem that long, haha. The posters look sick. Looks like cap 4 has a good rep.  (The varsity water polo team has banners hanging at the high school...cap 4 was Robbie's number. :) I don’t know what it exactly is about Elder Holman that makes us get along really well. I think part of it is that he’s American. The American elders are all really cool. Most of the the time the Canadians spend WAAY more money, it’s definitely helped me realize tha...

Hey all, Man, sorry I sucked at writing this week. P day was pretty weird, this email should be pretty short. (Sorry mom.) His p-day was split between Monday and Wednesday, since he had to attend multiple zone conferences this week. So yeah, I forgot something from last week. We were playing basketball with some non-members, and another guy and I both went up for a rebound and we collided. I broke my arm. Jk I didn't, I just broke off the little nose nub for my glasses (the Spencer's). I was wondering if Liingo fixes those or if I just took it into a place here would they fix it? Or if they just replace them too that would be nice. :) This week just flew by. We did a lot of stuff trying to get booth supplies ready for missionaries to take and keep organized, so that should move forward super smooth come zone conference when we'll be getting those out. Speaking of zone conference, it won't be till week 5 this transfer, as Elder Hamilton in our area presidency...

Hey all, Thanks for the pics. I’m excited for when I can be back in the pool, it’s been a long time, haha. Although I totally agree, being 100% focused on one thing is super super nice. I love that I just don’t have to worry about anything going on except other people. Also, hope the movie was nice. We'll definitely have to watch a bunch when I get back.  Sorry if this one's a little shorter, today was a district p-day, every so often, President can approve the mission to spend a p-day together with their districts, so we got together and played ball hockey. So much fun. I’m not too bad either, it helps to have long arms, haha. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to play in the future. President Low came and played with us, which was super awesome. He’s a pro at ball hockey, so it was lots of fun together.  My week's been pretty good. I have to recap a bit though. Remember when I wrote and told you about the booth that we had done? Well one of the people I met th...

Hey all, Man, you sure worry about my packages mom. :) it literally came the day after p-day, like I thought it would. Thank you for it all, you’re great. Funny note too. Elder Benson liked his stuff too. Sounds like your Easter was a whole lot more fun than mine was, haha. We didn’t do anything too crazy. Since we work in the YSA branch everyone’s a dirt poor student who can’t really afford to feed us a bunch, so we didn’t eat with anyone or anything. Plus we did some service during dinner time, so people couldn’t really feed us. I did want to make something better than normal, so I started making Alfredo chicken, when I realized we didn’t have any flour. The only thing we had I could use was pancake mix, so we had pancake mix chicken Alfredo. Not my finest dish, and sure makes for a lame Easter dinner.  Church was nice though, we had a less active come to church. Her name is Alexa, she is from Toronto, has a brother on a mission, and is going to school here, and basi...

Hey all, My week was pretty busy and boring, for the most part, so I guess I can relate. Thursday was zone conference for Nova Scotia. Friday morning we flew to Newfoundland, and did exchanges there for 3 hours. I got to teach this French guy, and we had a pretty good lesson. He really loved having someone to speak French with, so I think it helped. Saturday was Newfoundland zone conference, and the elders there had a baptism late that night. Sunday we went to church in Saint John's, it was their fast and testimony meeting. Got back Sunday night, Monday was full of meetings until the evening, and then we had the YSA FHE, it was karaoke, which was lots of fun. Everyone had a great time. And now you're to today. Pretty lame. I did hear about Notre Dame, the YSA keep me way more updated on everything than other areas. Pretty nice, most of them probably remember what it was like in their missions not getting updates, and they're paying if forward. That's sad new...