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