Oh wow. Big week, and small time! It sounds like you're loft is coming along great! I'm dying for some pics though! Please send them, even if it's not all done, I love seeing the process, you know that :). It's so good y'all finally got spring! It sounds beautiful. Hopefully the rain won't flood anyone and the sun will come out! ☀️

Anyway, I love Trophy Club! It's seriously just a hop skip and a jump away from Azle. I feel like I barely transferred, except that Trophy Club is about as opposite from Azle as you can get! Definitely a very rich area, and tiny geographically, especially compared with Azle! It's weird, and very foreign to me. Luckily, the members are awesome, you can just tell they're well off. I'm emailing right now in a straight up mini mansion. It's a beautiful home, I just miss the space back home. I officially can't live in a close neighborhood, I need my space! Haha - apparently I'm not social. The bishop is awesome, and from England (southern, I asked)! And the WML is great, super involved in the work, and the nicest family. They've already fed us twice since we got here:)

My new companion is Sister Asay. She's from Tooele, UT and the oldest of 5 girls... and that pretty much tells her personality! Haha:) I love her, and it's been the usual transition of companions. Some stuff requires patience on both of our parts, but what's important is that she's here to work, and that's what we've done! She is 19, almost 20, and it's been a crazy week. The whitewash has gone well. We're not actually opening the area. They just transferred the old sisters and put us in. The ward is super supportive of the work, but it's always interesting trying to incorporate ourselves in when we're both new. There have been a few times this week I felt super overwhelmed, but overall it's been great. Sometimes I forget that I hadn't actually been out that long, because it feels like it's been forever. But the thing is, when I'm thrown into a situation like this, my many weaknesses as a missionary become quite obvious. I have to remind myself to be patient with my own weaknesses, or else it'd be too easy to just shut down. I have to take it one step at a time to be able to move forward and grow. I do trust that the lord will guide and provide. This is His work, and so I move forward with confidence in Him.

We do have a family that we're excited to work with! Their name is the Smiths, and we meet them tonight, but the notes make them sound pretty golden:) and they were tracked into! Anyway, I'll keep you posted with them.

I love you so much!

All my love,
Sister Erika Marks ☀❤

I got y'all's Easter package! I appreciated the PEC, and the new gnome! His name is Gnolan Ryan. Bro Calaway named it after a famous Texas Rangers pitcher. I'll probably just call him Gnolan.

Anyway, first things first! Jennifer was baptized on Saturday! She is such a sweet woman, and was so prepared from the Lord. She was confirmed on Sunday, and has had a warm ward welcome. I've attached some pictures, and I feel so blessed to have been able to teach her before I leave! Sis Day and I were able to sing, Savior, Redeemer of My Soul for the baptism, and it went well! I was hoping to get a recording of it, but wasn't able to. Anyway, the spirit was so strong that morning, and if I wasn't singing, I would have been crying! What a miracle the first covenant on the eternal path is!

Speaking of leaving, I got a call from President Whitney last night, and I've been called to train again! I couldn't believe it! I've been called to "whitewash train" in Trophy Club. It's only about an hour to the north east of Azle, right next to Roanoke. I actually have a Roanoke address,  so I'll send that to you later. Anyway, I'm super excited for the change! I can't believe I'm going to be whitewashing and training at the same time, I just plan on having an awesome new companion because she's going to have to be a full fledged part of our companionship right away if we're going to whitewash properly. I am super excited to train again. It'll be great to be able to really go back to basics with a new sister. I am also super excited to whitewash. I feel like it gives a great opportunity to start from scratch and form great relationships with the ward. If they have had bad experiences with missionaries, then I can change that, and if they've had good ones, then I can build on that. What's kinda nerve wracking, is that I'm doing both at once! My one consolation is that I am not really the one that is doing this, the Lord is. He has called me (and my new companion) and it is His work, which means that I don't need to be nervous. It feels overwhelming when I think about it all at once, but I know that whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. Pretty much faith will always overcome fear, and it's no different now. The Lord has called me, which means that he will qualify me as I rely on Him and remain humble! Haha  Nah, I'm excited. ❤☀

I am going to really miss the people of Azle, though. They're amazing, and I love them so much. I have full faith and trust that everyone will be taken care of (even if my TypeRed personality is kicking in) haha! No, Sis Day is awesome, and I've been able to say goodbye to most of the people I really connected with, and got a good commitment out of Joe to keep on keeping on and work until he can be baptized. He is a good man, and I have high hopes for his future. I am excited to find how much I will love Trophy Club, because I really love Azle, and I can't wait to feel the love the Lord will give me for my new area. I already love them!

I guess the next topic is, "anniversary" haha! This week Sis Day and I had our 6 month anniversary! It was super fun to be companions for it, and we got some good pictures together. That night, we ate with the Wood's and it was so great! We weren't able to do a spiritual discussion, because they had boiled eggs for us to dye with them! It was so sweet of them to think of us, and it was so fun to dye eggs with them. I did an egg with "Sis Marks" written in it, since I couldn't do my classic, "E". I also did one that said "6" for out six month "anniversary" and another classes multi color one. It was fun. I'll attach pics. It's crazy to think I just have a little over a year left! (Transfers fall so I should come home early May).

And Easter. What a joy! I absolutely LOVED Easter as a missionary! When I really think about the miracle of the resurrection, my heart sings, and I wanted to cry out in praise through song! It's so amazing to think that He rose again! Literally. He did that do that we can all rise again, and to all come before the pleasing bar of God, and be able to be united as families for eternity! How can you keep your heart from exclaiming in joy? I can't believe I have the privilege to be a missionary at this time. I dearly love the spirit I have the privilege of feeling as a missionary, and cherish this time so much. I love the work! I love Jesus Christ! I love y'all!

It sounds like y'all are doing great. I'm so happy to hear it. And it's exciting you were able to get another queen bee and hive. Hopefully it'll live and you'll get lots of honey! It should bee great! And it's crazy to think sometimes how close William is to me. So close, yet so far away! Everyone down here is super polite, for sure! He'll love it. And he'll love the heat J

I love you all sooo much! I hope you have a great week! Pass my love to everyone, I don't have time to email anyone but you this week:)
❤U!

Love,
Sister Erika Marks ❤☀

Thank you for the poem! That's exactly the one I've been wanting :) I think it's so funny, "the prayingest prayer I ever prayed" truly, sometimes prayers are that informal plea, but the Lord hears them just the same, and there is definitely a role of those informal prayers, though they can't overrule the formal ones we pray daily.

I'm glad William was able to be home, and I'm grateful for the emails I've received :) everyone (besides Kylie at this point) has emailed me! Hopefully I'll be able to respond to all of them, but if not, tell them I love them, and that I'll respond when I can! ❤

The Wood family is awesome! They're the Catholic family we had dinner with Friday, which was super good (wow, they're great cooks!) and it was a great experience. After dinner we had a mini talent show on the piano (all the kids take lessons from a local ward member). We joined
in, and played a few hymns and sang them. The spirit was strong, and we eventually got to the point where the two older daughters and us were singing together, various songs from the hymn book. What a fun evening. When it came time for the lesson, we shared the #PRINCEofPEACE video the church has produced for Easter. It's such a good video! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. Anyway, they loved it. They said they hadn't read from the Book of Mormon yet, but when we re-explained what it was, and why we were asking them to read it, they all recommitted and said they would. Bro Wood even said, "I hadn't thought of it like that before. I will definitely read it." He repeated that a few times before we left, so YAY! We are going back on Wednesday, and they said they'd feed us again :) yum! Anyway, they're super sweet, and I love working with them!

With transfers coming up, I have really mixed emotions. I love the people here, and so don't want to transfer, I just feel like I have so much that I still need to do! However, I know I'll feel that way in every area, so I just have to let go (#typeRED) and trust the Lord and the sisters that come after me. I know it'll be good. Part of the problem is that I really don't have a sense of what is going to happen, in every transfer up to this point, I've been able to pretty much feel what was going to happen, but this time it just feels like anything could happen. If I do get transferred, I trust that that is where the Lord needs me more than Azle, so I'll be fine with that. It'll be hard to leave, whenever that time come though, because I so love the people here. It'll be like leaving all my family again.

The loft and the door sound awesome! I would love to get pictures when you can! It sounds like quite the project y'all have started for yourselves! It cracks me up because both of you wrote about how nice it is to have spring there, and the new blooms and stuff (yay!) then, when Garrett wrote me, he called it "snow". He said it started snowing again in April! So close to spring, yet still so far! We are loving the weather down here. We had some awesome thunder storms recently, and those have been fun to see. I love storms.

Last week we were able to go to the temple! We went on Wednesday with a less active we have been helping to return. I guess she's not less active anymore, but it was so cool to be able to be with her as she went through the temple for the first time! It was amazing, I got to do a session, and the spirit was soooo strong (as always, I guess). In the Celestial room, the sisters of Sister Parr (who was going through for the first time) came up and thanked us so much for helping their sister come back. They said they never thought they'd get to see their sister go through the temple, and were just so thankful for the little bit we had done (there were a lot of missionaries to get Sis Parr to this point) to help their sister. I realized that if this is how happy we all were together here on earth, how much greater will be our joy when we are all in heaven together! Truly, the temple is our goal. It's important that we missionaries don't forget that. Baptism is only the fist step. We have to help our investigators see the temple as their true goal, because ending in the water is not enough. We have to endure all the way.

Well, I think that's it for me this week! I love you all sooooo much! I hope you have a great week. Thanks for all your love and prayers.

All my love,
Sister Erika Marks ❤☀