Week 11

Hey Family!! :)

How is everyone doing?

First off Mom.. Thank you for the letter and my patriartical blessing :) your the best! And yes.. I got the package you sent a while back! Thank you very much! Packages are the best..

Second.. Yes.. We have Kashes bike. Its a kind of gray color.. With baby blue writing on it! Proabaly in the garage somewhere.. THe chain is pretty rusty if i remember right! So its that one! Sorry i kept forgetting to answer that question.

Third.. Can you send me the "reflections of christ" DVD and Soundtrack? that would be soooooo sweet! We can do a awesome thing with Investigators if we have them. So please send them!

4th.. GRANDMA'S! I love and miss you both..! You guys should email me sometime! And grandma wright.. i never really said thank you for the package you gave me in the mtc with the banana bread! that was great :) thank you! Love you both! Email me please!

This week was great. We are continue to try and work with her.. And now..(cant remember if i told you this last week) she has a Jehovah Witness boyfriend.. Who is pulling her to even further away!! Haha.. NOthing is really going our way with her. But anyways.. We're meeting with her tomorrow. She has such a hard time keeping commintments and its sooo frusterating sometimes! We know that this gospel will bring there family soo much happiness!

Anyways.. We are continuing to work with Madison.. THe girl that i talked to you about last week. (i think) Anyways.. She wants to get baptized very badly.. But she says that there is no way that her dad is going to let her.. So pray for her.. And that her dads heart will be softened.

We taught a lesson to a woman named Margarita(haha) who is soo cool. We taught her the first lesson and she said she definately felt something! And she said she'd come to church.. But of course she didnt show.. So we will meet with her tomorrrow.. And see how things go! We committed her to baptism of May 14th and she said its something that i would be willing to work towards! So we have high hopes for Margarita! :)

I was reading in 2 Nephi 33 and it talked about how nephi's "pillow is watered by night" because he just wants the people to understand the gospel and except it. And it brings great anxiety to his soul when people wont listen. When i read that i thought.. wow.. Nephi was the best missionary! ha i want to be like him.. THen i thought about the song that we sang at Kashes farewell.. And it was an awesome moment. I now have a new love for the people of iowa. Its great.. And i am already seeing more success and softened hearts because of it!

I got 3 weeks left with Elder Ferrin.. Then he is headed home! haha craaazy!! Then i get a new companion! IM gonna miss Elder Ferrin.. IT makes me sad to think my trainer is goin home! haha!

Love you guys.. Miss you all! Please send letters and stuff! That would be great.

Love Elder Russell

Week 10

Hey Family!

This week was great! :)

I had the opportunity to go to Des Moines for leadership training! It was awesome! We were taught by the AP's and President Jergensen. We ended at 6 and they sent us to Ames for the night to stay with the Elders working there.. I wasnt feeling to good during the leadership training and then when we got to Ames and had our dinner appointment at the Branch Presidents house.. To make a long story short.. I spent the whole dinner appointment in the bathroom! Hahaha! I think i got some type of food poisoning or something and it was nooo good!! But it was fun and different to work in another area for a night..! Anyways..

Somethings have happened where we cannot teach Billy anymore unfortunately! He is a pretty crazy guy! haha! and our president said that if we ever felt in danger at anytime then never go back! And nothing really life threatening happened. But he's just a craaaazy dood is all! Haha! :)

We have made no progression with Mary so far. Her sister is just killing our work with her. It makes me so sad and brings me to tears every night because she was doing soo well. And then her sister and her old preacher at the Jesus MIssion church is destroying all our work for the last 8 weeks!! I still believe in her tho.. And we're not giving up yet.:) So everyone please pray for a miracle to happen with Mary and her family. Because we need it.

Anyways.. We had a HUGE blessing come about this week.. We stopped by this girl named Madison on the streets tracting last week.. We gave her a Book or Mormon and told her to read 3 Nephi Ch. 11 and 2nd Nephi 31 and pray about these chapters to find out that they are true for herself.. She came to church and said that she hadnt prayed about it. Then after church we got a text saying that she knows that the book of mormon is true!! and she got her answer!!:) me and elder ferrin were jumpin around soooo happy! haha! it was great. WE have a meeting with her tomorrow night so im hoping things will go well there!

Haha VERY funny story that happened to us yesterday knockin doors after church. This little 80-90 year old lady(she couldnt really remember) answered the door. We had the same conversation 4 times in a row!! hahahhaha! By the end Me and Elder Ferrin were just laughing sooo hard and this little lady was laughing with us! And then it got quiet and then said "what are we laughing about?" and then we just started to laugh even harder. hahahhahah! funniest moment on the mission thus far. She would ask us if we're married and then we'd say no we're not! and then she said well go get a good looking young girl and marry her! But dont rush it!! We had this conversation 4 times.. Too funny. We left her with a card and our number and said we would be able to help her with yard work and she just thought that was great!

The People of Iowa are the best! :)

Anyways.. On a spiritual note.. I had the spirit testify to me that I need to bear stronger witness of the Book of Mormon! It hit me very strongly that the Book of Mormon is the answer to EVERYTHING! It reforms the soul and changes lives for the best! The words in it are so true and can help anyone and everyone! I love that about the Book of Mormon. So this week i have made it my goal to bear the strongest witness about the Book of Mormon. Because that is literally what decides if somebody knows that our church is true.

I love my family and friends so much. I miss you guys! Being a missionary is the best! Thank you for all the encouragement! It means so much!

Love Elder RUssell

Week 9

Hey there Family!

THis week was a great one! First off i want to start by a craaazy thing that happened to us.

Ha so we were tracting in this place called drug town. All the thugs that get kicked out of Chicago come here to Iowa and a gang originally from Chicago called the Latin Kings new home is here in Muscatine. They cause all the problems and they have all the drugs and stuff that is here in Muscatine. We were just walking through and we felt prompted to knock on this door. So we did. And this guy started putting down God and saying all this crap.. Then inside around the corner comes this HUGE(muscles) guy and says i cant listen to this anymore im going back up to my apartment. He leaves, and we just tried to stop this guy from yelling and putting down God, and we eventually just bore our testimonies and left...

THen we were just going to go back to our car and that huge guy was like hey guys come over here for a minute.. We were kind of hesitating... But we said ok.. what up. He invited us in and he had all these questions.. He was talking about how he is in this gang life and all this stuff and he feels like when he wakes up he doesnt have any purpose anymore! Soon enough we found out that he runs the gang here in Muscatine. He's like the head honcho gangster for the Latin Kings! haha it freaked me out a little. This guy is like 6 foot 4 inches.. and 240 pounds of pure muscle. We soon explained to him that we come around and give people that purpose to live! And this gospel changes lives and reforms the soul. He began to cry.. And said he wanted to change.. And all this stuff. The spirit filled the room so strongly.. We asked if we could come back but he says if the other gang members knew that he was talking to the mormons he could get in some serious trouble with his gang. And they wouuld do something really bad to him. But he says he wants to meet with us and we're going to make it work some how! It was so aamazing to watch Heavenly Father work on him right infront of us.. I just hope he provides a way that we can teach him (Billy) and help him change his life.

Who would have thought.. Such riff raff could be going on in the city of Muscatine IA, hahaha!!:)

Ha.. so i have no idea if your going to understand that story.. but just know that it was crazy..! hahahh!

I have some kind of sad news about Mary Hadessah and PReston. Mary's sister Lizzie is working pretty hard on her to NOT be baptized in our church..! There family did not go to church yesterday.. Which just about killed me.. I was so sad. We are having a lesson with them tonight and we're going to figure things out.. Hopefully everything will work out and they will realize that the authority that resides in our church is that of Jesus Christ. And the way to be saved is being baptized with that authority.

I love being a missionary. Its crazy.. The closer i get to Jesus Christ the more i realize how far away i truly am from Him. But the closer i get the easier it is to block out temptation.. And things of the world. And soon enough i will be as close as possible to him. I love the process of life.. And feeling myself grow closer to him. Its amazing! haha!

THank you my family and friends for being such good examples to me. You all mean so much to me! I miss you all!

Sorry this email is all over the place!

I am moving into a members home today! So thats pretty exciting.. Ill let you kno how that goes next week!

Love ELder RUssell

Week 8

THis week has been totally thrown off because its transfer week! And P Day is moved to Wednesday! So sorry about that!

THis week has been a good week! Testing at times.. BUt none the less i've learned a lot! Confrence was THE BEST EVER!! I have a new attitude towards my mission! There was a talk by NEil L Anderson and in it he said.. "its not about what you can get out of your mission... But what you can give to your mission" which was kind of a shock to me! i have thought a lot of times how my mission will make me a better person.. But i really shouldnt be worried about that. And i should just give it all i got. And then the rest of my life will be taken care of if i continue to follow the lords commandments!

Anyways.. I cant remember if i told you last week or not.. BUt im coaching a soccer team!! Co-Ed.. 6th to 8th graders! They are soo awesome! hahha! Soo funny! It takes some SERIOUS patience to work with them but its great! We had our first game before confrence on Saturday! We won 6 to 1! We gotta a pretty sweet team! And we get some pretty funny looks when we show up to practice in our suit coats! haha! its always a fun time! And the kids say that they have never had coaches that make them do push-ups when they swear! haha! :) so its great!

This last week we have met with Mary and her family a lot! They are getting serious about baptism! ITs soo awesome! There old pastor from the Jesus Mission church is kind of holding them back.. And telling them things that arent true about our church. But Marys slowly realizing that we really do have the proper authority here on earth! and that our church is the actual Church of Jesus Christ! We are meeting with them tonight, so hopefully we will work out all kinks and set a baptismal date! For reals this time! haha!!

We had another awesome lesson at a members home! It was after conference and we ate dinner at the Fillmore Family Home. They are such an awesome and missionary minded family! And thats the key to having success on a mission, to have ward members being active in the work! So there daughter invited 2 of her friends over for dinner that day. After conference we drove over and had dinner at the fillmore home! we sat down after dinner and talked about testimonies! And how they grow.. And how when you ALWAYS put Christ first.. The rest of your life seems to just take its course as it should! It was awesome! The spirit filled the room so strongly!

MOM! i need you to send me my patriartical blessing as soon as you possibly can! PLEASE! thanks!

This last 2 days has been CRAAAZY weather!! We had Tornado warnings and all sorts of awesome lightning and thunder! Lightning storms out here are waay cool! The lightning never seems to stop. The sky is always purple! Pretty sweet! haha!

I love you and miss you guys! Thanks for all the letters! Mom i got the letter but never got the package?? So hopefully its coming today or something! haha ill let you know next monday on P day!!

I GOTTA GO! THanks for everything! MIss and Love you guys!!

Love
Elder Russell!