Hey!

That's so cool your new sister straight from the MTC is from
Fort Worth! That's crazy! And that means we were actually in the MTC
at the same time, at least for a week of overlap or so.

Also, I got your package! Thank you sooo much! I guess I shouldn't be
surprised it was Garrett's idea to individually wrap everything :)
he's such a goof, I love him. And it was super fun to unwrap
everything as I went. Oh my goodness, I laughed soooo hard at my
little traveling gnome 😂😂 he now sits at my desk. What's even
funnier, I actually named him Gnorman, which is that new sisters name!
Haha! Oh my goodness, thank you for the brownies and tortellini. The
brownies were a huge hit (they truly are the worlds best) and we're
planning on having the tortellini soon. I can't believe you sent me
frosting :) it was soooo good! And that diffuser is a life saver! You
know I wanted one anyway, but this apartment I'm in has a perpetual
stink to it, so now I love it even more! (The problem is the person
next door smokes, and you can sometimes smell it in ours because of
the venting or thin walls or something. Ech!) and Grandma was so sweet
to get me those two oils, they're my favorite ones :)

Oh my goodness! The landscape is coming along amazingly! I truly won't
recognize it when I get home! I cannot believe the way it's all coming
together, I wish I could help! But I'm there in spirit. There's a man
in our ward that does construction, and I think we're going to go out
sometime this week to help him paint, which should be fun. He's also a
hilarious man, but I don't think he tries to be. The other day at
mutual someone asked him how he was, and he replied, "I am fat, sassy,
and lazy. But don't hold it again' me" hahaha!!! Sister Poulton and I
could barely keep it together right in front of him! 😂😂 and you have
to read that with a classic southern twang :)

I love Sunday's, but they always make me think of home. The ward here
is great! They love the missionaries, and are quite involved in the
work. We've had dinner with members almost every night that I've been
here. There are some total characters in the ward. They've been here for a hundred years, and
they're great :)

The weather here has been soooo nice! At this rate, I'm not sure I
believe the locals when they say it's going to get cold. It's totally
sunny and probably almost 75 outside. It was raining for a bit when I
first got here, but it's cleared up nicely now. I love it, but if I'm
being honest, I miss the threat of snow and the crisp air at home. And
the fire! I miss that natural heat, I love that y'all have been
burning one for a bit now.

There's a family we're teaching that reminds me of Kylie's mission.
Their name is the Ruiz family. She's a less active, and her two kids
aren't baptized, so that's the goal. She wants to come back though,
and we're really hoping! The reason they remind me of Kylie is their
first language is Spanish, and though they speak English, there's a
bit of a language barrier, and I wish I could habla español! 😄

There's another cool family we've met that just moved into the ward,
named the Johnson's. It's awesome though, because it's a part member
family, the dad's less active and the wife is super sweet. They have a
little boy who's almost 2, and are expecting a little girl in March!
We helped them move in on Saturday morning, and they invited us back
that night. We were able to just chat for a bit and get to know them a
little bit more. We then showed the video "Because of Him" (which is
one of my favorites) and the spirit was sooo strong in the home! We
think we may have seen them tearing up a bit too. So, we're really
hopeful that they're prepared to come back to the fold and learn about
the gospel! We've yet to follow up and see if they want to take
lessons and stuff, but we will this week, and I really hope so! At any
rate, they're super nice, and I've loved meeting them a bit!

I honestly can't even say I'm surprised y'all are thinking about
getting hogs.... I think that's so great. Maybe you could name one of
them Pepper? Hehe. And I love the smell of fresh bread! I'm sure it
turned out great, at least if you remembered the salt! 😂

Each morning we work out, and we use this app called 7 min workout,
which is actually really awesome! I get a sweat going every morning!
And it's good because when we got here, we were warned about the Fort
Worth 40, and I really am NOT going to come home weighing 40 extra
pounds! Haha!

I had my first Zone Conference which was so great! It wasn't what I
was expecting, but I loved it! One thing president told us (I don't
think it was at Zone Conference, but it's still great) is "I don't
know how the atonement works. I don't know how the telephone works
either, but I use it anyway". I love this because it's so true! I
really don't know how the atonement works, but I know that it does
work! We have to use it everyday, and I know that even with our
questions, he will strengthen us and give us the strength we need.

I love you all soooo much! I miss you, and pray for you everyday.

Love,
Sister Marks

Hey! I like don't even know what to tell everyone! I love you all so
much, and thank you for your birthday wishes! I love hearing about
everything happening at home, I think it's so great that y'all have
got the raspberries done, and mom, what a great picture of dad and
Garrett putting in the border.

As far as my week in the field, it's been great! We were going to go
tracting right away my first night here, but the STLs that were going
to come out with us actually had lessons, so we didn't go out.
However, my first day with my trainer we went out, and that was fun!
We were let into this crazy women's house, and she said that she can
see Angels, and send them to fight ISIS... Anyway, that was
interesting, so we left pretty quick. Haha!

We've had the darnedest time trying to schedule anything to get in to
people. Everyone is super nice, but just won't keep commitments or
appointments! So, we've done a lot of finding, and stuff, but I've yet
to meet anyone as a solid investigator. The ward is awesome! Many of
them seem to really support missionary work, and they're super nice,
though I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to remember so many
people! Luckily, I'm pretty good with names, so it'll come.

Dad, I can relate in a way I couldn't when I was home about feeling
too weak to do the work. However, I know that God has called each of
us to where we're called for a reason. I've been dealing with feeling
too weak for the magnitude of the call, but I know through the
atonement Christ will truly qualify whom he calls. That scripture, "be
not afraid, only believe" has been a true strength to me as well. I
also draw lots of strength from everyone at home, I feel your prayers,
and y'all are in my prayers every day also. I love you all so much!

I've been writing down random things I've wanted to tell you
throughout the week, so this next part may be kinda random, but it's
stuff that's made me think of home over the last week and a half.
Something I heard in the MTC and really liked was this idea, "it's not
bad to be tired, it's bad to give up" so that's something I've been
working on. When describing how the spirit is so hard to describe with
words, I thought this was a cool idea - it's hard to express Celestial
feelings with Telestial words. Isn't that an interesting thought about
the game that is our language?

Dad, I need you to go on ahead and listen to the Happy song:) I
thought the song today, and life is happy happy happy! And you
also cracked me up when you said that Gned says hi! Sis Lutz told me,
and I had to tell Sis Poulton our *joke:) Sis Poulton is great! She's
really sweet, and I think we'll be good friends. She's an awful driver
though! We're in a car area, and only the senior companion can drive,
so that's painful. At any rate, I'm excited when I'll be allowed to
control the car.

One of my favorite things about being a missionary is how everyone,
even just random strangers, feel like they need to tell me all the
good stuff they're doing. "I raise my kids well" " I went to church
last week!" "I've been reading the scriptures every day" and so on.
Usually these comments are really out of the blue, and it's like by
just seeing us, people start to reevaluate what they're doing in life.

I'm not really sure what else to tell you, sorry if I forgot to answer
some of your questions! I love you all so much! And you're in my
prayers:)

Love forever,
Sister Marks

P.s. Moroni 7:48
p.p.s. "Is this a good activity?" :D

*This summer, as a joke, Erika purchase a garden gnome and placed it in the yard as a joke for her Dad (they had previously been discussing how he didn't really like gnomes as yard decor). The gnome was later named Gned, and Gned will disappear for awhile and then suddenly pop up somewhere - like in your car or bed! Gned is currently sitting on top of the piano.