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!!