Week 3

HELLO FAMILY!

ohh maan... i dont even know where to begin. I am out here in my first area! Called Muscatine(muss-ka-teen). Its right by the mississippi river! So that is awesome! I cant believe that i am a missionary!! Its so weird to think about! I have already had my fair share of doors slammed in my face.. Its soo funny.. I have met some of the craziest people ever. Some places we go to are pretty white trash. But the people here really are way nice and usually willing to listen. I already have a love for them thats pretty strong.. And it will just continue to grow.

Anyways.. The first house that i visited ever was a family named the Bickett Family. Ohh man. It scared me pretty bad. The house smelled TERRIBLE... The mom and dad have no teeth.. and the kids are crazy.. hahaha! it sounds terrible i know.. but as we sat down and talked i learned that they are sooo funny. and i love them to death. One of there sons names is Austin. And his baptism was on saturday! When we met with him we interviewed him for baptism. He is really really shy.. And doesnt kno to much about the gosel. It was a hard situation. He's almost 10 years old and has a very poor education. But me and my companion/trainer Elder Ferrin felt strongly that he was ready. So we went ahead with it.

MY comps name is elder ferrin!! SUCH AN AWESOME DOOD!! seriously.. i am so blessed to have him as my trainer! he works so hard and has such an awesome desire to spread the truth. We contact almost everyone that crosses our path. We are trying not to waste any time or opportunity to talk to people. We are out the door by 10 and dont come back till 9 or 9:30. So awesome. He's training me well.

We ran into a lady named Mary tracting! She has 7 kids with 4 different husbands. Pretty rough life to tell you the truth. We could tell that she was looking for a change in her life..! We are teaching her the first lesson tonight!! :) so excited! i will let you kno how that goes next week! I love being a missionary. i could change her life forever!! :) and that makes me soo happy to think about. So pray that i will teach with the spirit and help this poor lady out!

my address is 3403 Steamboat Way Apt # 7. Muscatine IA, 52761! i am living here for probably 4 months! so send stuff here!! :)

I love you guys!! im sorry im almost out of time! i love you all so much. keep writing me and emialing me. love you all!

LOVe Elder Russell

Week 2

FAMILY!!

2 weeks down here in the MTC and 1 more week to go!! I cant believe it! I also cant believe how much i have learned here in the MTC.. Pretty crazy... I have grown spiritually so much! And also just grown up! hahah.. This week has been filled with the spirit so heavily! We have a branch presidency and the first counselors name is Brother Stice.. He teaches over at BYU and let me tell you... He is a man of God. Everything he says is soo awesome and it makes me want to be a better missionary!

Last night we had our Tuesday night devotional.. A member of the 70 spoke. His name was Kevin Pearson.. I think. His message was soo powerful! He said "our goal as missionaries is to show light to others.. And to do that we MUST have light ourselves.."

I loved that thought! Its soo true you cant just go around pretending to be a missionary.. Because you wont be able to have that light! The light comes through the spirit! And to get the spirit we must be obedient! And to be obedient we MUST have faith! Its soo simple. I love learning from our teachers and speakers! They are so awesome.

We have a teacher named Bro. Bellistan. He is married and going to byu. We have him usually once a day for a couple hours.. and every single time i hear him teach i get the chillls and it pumps me up to get into the field! He makes me want to be a teacher here in the MTC one day.. But you have to go to byu so tahts probably not going to happen.. But anyways.. Life here is great! Im really sick of the food.. I think i ate so much of it in the first 2 weeks that it all tastes like plastic to me! No good.. But my district is probably thee best district in the world. Testimony meetings are soo powerful.. And we study soo hard! And when we have a break or lunch we all sit together.. Tell stories.. And laugh soo hard. I love it. Without these guys my MTC experience would not be nearly as good as what it is! To tell you the truth i think i will be sad to leave this place! haha crazy i kno..

MOM-thank you for the letters! and the valentines package! I got john and marsha's card so tell them thank you so much! i miss you! i love you! Send me brown and tan socks! i think you got my letter from earlier..!

DAD- i loved your letter! Those 16 hour days have gotta be tough.. Thank you for the huge example you've been to me. I hate it so much that its taken me to be out here to realize that you've been my best friend for my whole life. So thank you! I'll work extra hard out here because of your example!

I love you all soo much! And miss you too! im running short on time! Thank you for all the packages and letters! They mean so much to me! Its always a better day when you get letters and packages! hahah next time i write you i could possibly be in DES MOINES IOWA!!!! pretty crazy.. ill let you kno whats upp next week! IM learning so much! And i really do love to be here!

Love Elder Russell!

Week 1

Hello Family!!

How are you all? i hope all is well! My first week as missionary has been soo great. The mtc really is a great place.. My first few days seemed like they lasted a whole month tho.. but now its a new week and it is so much better! I feel the spirit so strongly here every single day.. Thats probably my favorite thing about this place.. Also the food.. haha The first day i entered the mtc i weighed myself and i was at 153.. i weighed myself yesterday and i weigh 160!! haha thats a pound a day... pretty great.

I have a pretty cool to share with you tho.. My companion is elder Nackos.. He is the man! We get along so great.. My district is so awesome as well.. We have 4 sisters... 2 of which are going to Iowa.. And 6 Elders.. Me, Elder Parkinson, and Elder Jewett are going to Iowa along with the 2 sisters.. The others are going to Baltimore! So thats pretty cool.. But the cool story i have to share with you is.. One of the sisters in our district is very shy... She doesnt like to read outloud and she doesnt like to be asked questions or anything like that.. We made it our goal to make her feel as comfortable as we possibly could as Elders and help her be herself.. Then last night we were having discussions on moroni's last words in the book or mormom.. About if we are perfected in God the can have his power and things like that..Then she stood up for the first time and gave her insight to the few verses that we were studying and then she bore the sweetest and most gracious testimony i've heard in a long time. We all felt the spirit so strong.. That was definately the highlight of the week! And the packages and dear elders i have been recieving.. Those are seriously like gold out here.. ha SO KEEP SENDING THEM! they make each day soo much better.

Anyways i have got a quick funny story for you... We were sitting in devotional last night with all the missionaries in the MTC.. This guy was talking from Paraguay and it was pretty hard to understand and feel the spirit cause his accent was soo thick! Me and Elder Dobson(a elder in my district who's going to baltimore) were just kind of whispering and we heard this little kazoo thing.. Where you blow into it and it makes that weird funny sound.. So we found the elder who had it in his mouth. he was this tiny little elder with huge glasses and he looked like he was doodling on a piece of paper.... Then like 45 seconds later he sneezed and blew into the kazoo at the same time.. Funniest sounding sneeze i've ever heard. the 40 or 50 elders and sisters around up starting busting out and laughing so hard.. It was great..

Ha anyways.. I am beginning to love it here.. Its so much fun.. I love my comp and my district.. But i miss you all so much! Just know that i am working my but off down here in provo.. and lets just say i cant wait to get out to iowa! haha when we were walking to the temple on sunday i had major flashbacks of hangin out with my friends.. and taking bike rides around the temple and stuff! It made me kinda homesick! Its great tho! haha! Love you guys!! Hope your all doing well!

Love Elder Russell

PS.. Check out D&C125! It gives a shout out to Iowa!! ahahaha heck yeaa!!