April 8, 2013

Dear Everyone, 

Everything is going amazing I am doing so good and yup I am in Philly! My new companion/trainers name is Elder Mason and he is from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He is so amazing and is such a great trainer for me. I am so excited that you could guess my e-mail. The field is great here so much better than the MTC and 20 times harder this is so hard to find people. Me and my companion are re-opening a new area call Souderton (Spanish) I live in this small town called Hatfield just south of it. But we are the only Spanish elders in our whole area so we have to cover a lot! But we do not have the miles to cover all of it which is hard to explain. But I get to drive this sweet 2013 Subaru it only had 15 miles on it when I started to drive it. (I think it is a Hybrid but not sure) I live in this apartment that still does not have a table or chairs we use our suit cases for our desks. But we hopefully sometime this week that will change I heard about this whole e-mail thing and now I am getting e-mails from all my friends its super nice. There are some things if you want to send me a package you need to send it to the address at the bottom of the e-mail that is the mission office and that is where I can get it from. We have like no food it's about as much as the Other Side of Heaven in Philly that you can get. For the first 2 days we were with out a phone and that was rough because we just tracked all day long. It is really hard to find where the Hispanics are in all of these cities but once you find one Hispanic then you find like 40 more. This work is far from easy it is probably the hardest thing that I have done all my life but I feel so blessed to be able to do it and to have the opportunity to serve the Lord our Savior for 2 years. The work is going well though we are starting to meet members now and finding our who the Spanish speaking people are. Me and my companion are trying to only speak Spanish to each other all day long every day but that is super hard when I don't know that much. But I have faith that I will figure it all out sooner or later. It will be on the Lords time not my time for he knows when it is best for me to learn everything. In my mission this is the year of Miracles and we are trying to find miracles every week which this past week as I think about is hard because I did not see very many miracles and I actually had to diligently seek to find some. The first on more of a joking matter it was a miracle that I did not throw up on the plane ride from Detroit to Philly because the plane was the smallest one and it was so so shaky and by the time we landed my and my companion and about 3 others were all pale as can be and just dying to get off that plane. This second miracle is a lot more serious and very close to my heart. As I was thinking about the miracles this past week I was looking for the small and simple things and realized that I had forgot about one of the biggest miracles in my life that is still a miracle today. This miracle is the miracle that I am on a mission right now I have been through so much in my life and you all know that I am still fighting the battle with Satan everyday. Just because you are serving the Lord does not mean the Satan will leave you alone he attacks you more than ever. But I have realized that, that is the miracle for my week. I am here on a mission in Philadelphia serving the Lord in Spanish where he called me to serve and that is a miracle by its self. I love this Gospel so much and am learning more and more about it everyday. I right now am on the PPM (Philadelphia, Penn. Mission) Spiritual Diet and the number one thing that want me to have done before the end of my 12 weeks of training is to have re-read the Book of Mormon. Are you kidding me I already wanted to do that anyways and what a blessing it truly is I learn so much from it and am frequently marking new scriptures that I probably have read multiple times but now I see it a different way. I know that the God helps you in mysterious ways that you may not be able to understand or even see but make sure you always are searching to see these miracles and find one each week and thank God you Heavenly Father for that opportunity to feel His love and to see Him blessing your life. I have had the door many times in this past week shut in my face but do you think that gets me down? No, it makes me stronger and reminds me that I am not here to baptize everyone I am here to find the elect there are people here that have bee prepared for me and are ready to receive our message about the restored Gospel on this earth today. Hey mom I am sorry about the phone call on Tuesday but guess what Mothers day is coming up so I can talk to you then! I love all of you so much and can someone please get me Mandis e-mail address so that I can send these e-mails to her. And let her know that I truly love her no matter what she does and so does Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Till next week love you all.

721 Paxon Hollow Rd. Suite B

Broomall, Pennsylvania 19008

(All Letters and Packages sent here)

Elder Kenneth Marse