Week 29

What a week!!

Haha.. Its been an awesome week and i don't even kno where to start!!

I guess i'll start with the funny story..

So Iowa used to be world famous for Pheasant hunting.. And its not anymore because farmers have destroyed the land that they live on! So.. There is a guy in our neighborhood,(who reminds me a lot of Steve Erwin/Bear Grylls by the way..) who owns a bunch of land and is trying to get pheasants to come back and populate his land! And there cant be any trees on the land. So he asked if we would help him go chop down tree's with him so we said that we would! The next day we went over and he told us what to do and we went into this field and we were chopped down tree's! We were going along and all of the sudden i saw something black start running towards me!! Haha.. And Steve Grylls saw it too and he was like "TAKE COVER!! ITS A SKUNK!!" so we all three took off back towards the car! It was Hilarious. We were tripping over each other, all so terrified to get sprayed by the skunk, and laughing so hard. Good times.. And then..
We got out of the field and Steve Grylls was like "hold still Elder Russell, dont move" And there was a spider, that was honestly as big as my hand right on my chest!!! I freaked out and then he caught it and took it home! hahha funniest day of my life.

On a spiritual note..
The Lord has blessed us with 2 baptisms this past week!! :) They were the first baptism's here in Fayette in over a year!
Shacari and Tyson Losee were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was an AWESOME baptismal service. I had the opportunity to baptize Tyson! And also to confirm Shacari.. And that was very very special! That family has come such a long way since the first time that we met with them! And they all have such a strong and special spirit now!! For the baptismal service, i had asked Shawnda(T&S's mom) to say the closing prayer. Her prayer was sooo awesome. She kept saying thank you for the angels that you have sent us to get us back on the right path, and to teach us, and to be our new friends in this gospel. Then she said mine, and Elder Girvin's names.. And i realized that the angels that she was talking about, were us! That blew me out of the water, and i just started crying.
I looked back at my mission and specifically the times where i asked myself why i'm out here.. And i promised myself that i would NEVER think that again. Because now its more clear that it has ever been. I am out here to bring people the blessings that God has in store for them! And there is nothing better!

The college here is in full force, and we have some new investigators that are 19 and 20 year olds! Which is pretty cool. I like teaching kids that are my own age. I feel like i can relate to them much easier! One of their names, is Nick Acoba. He is from Hawaii and has had a small past with missionaries in Hawaii. He is an awesome kid and we are going to try and arrange a trip down to Nauvoo with him! That would be SWEET! He knows the Book of Mormon is true and its already helped him in his time away from his family!

Anyways.. I'm lovin being a missionary! Its a blast! And a life changing experience! The gospel is so unbelievably true! And i know it!

Thank you for the emails! Dad, those scriptures in Kings are pretty sweet! And i will definitely use them! Along with the other ones!

LOVE ELDER RUSSELL

Week 28

Yoyoyo Fam! Whats up?


This week has been a blast!

A mission is definitely an emotional roller coaster.. And sometimes its hard for me to remember that people have their agency! Haha..

Anyways.. We went to that Amish Haystack dinner again.. and this time it wasn't too bad! We didn't get as many weird looks.. And the whole place didn't break into quiet whispers.. "the Mormons are here" hahah! It made me happy.

Anyways.. We have had some very solid lesson's this week. We seem to rely much more on the spirit to tell us what to do and we can see a huge difference in the lessons and in the people we teach!

We had a lesson with Jennifer and she expressed a desire to be baptized. She says that she knows its true and she wants a good path for her and her 2 youngest kids. But.. Unfortunately some things have to happen first before she can get baptized. She's living with her boyfriend.. And they have to get married!! But before that she has to divorce the guy that she's still "legally" married too! Haha.. You can only imagine how crazy it was committing her to get married.. And then baptized! But the spirit told her that its something that she needs to do and she has already started the process. They say that divorce takes 90 days to file and complete. So it will be a while! But i know that the Lord will help in this process and help us get this worked out!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to help people. We are trying to align people's lives with the Savior's teaching so they can be blessed! Its pretty cool!

We have run into a lot of people that wanted to argue about religion with us. And instead of trying to reasonably show them scriptures.. We ask them one question.. We ask them if they would be willing to read the Book of Mormon with real intent and an open heart. And if they say yes that's great(which never happens).. But if they say no.. We tell them sorry but we have people who are! Its been awesome!

Thanks for the emails! I love you all! Things are going great and we are so close with so many people! I know that the Lord will bless us! I pray for you all!

Love Elder Russell

Week 27

Thiss week was SWEET ! So many blessings coming our way.. And i'm so grateful for it!

The past 3 weeks have been good.. But hard because our investigators have not been keeping commitments! But this week was different...
Last week i fasted for the investigators that we have to keep commitments and yesterday we had 7 investigators at church!! That was unbelievable!! I'm pretty sure that's never happened here in Fayette! Haha.. They Lord blesses us for sacrificing on his and others behalf! It was amazing! And as a bonus.. The talks that were given in sacrament meeting were perfect for our investigators! What a good day..

We had a lot of opportunities to use the priesthood this week as well.. A lot of blessings of comfort and counsel.. And also of healing! I love using the priesthood! Its the most powerful tool that God has put on this earth.. And it amazes me that we have it! A less-active member lost 3 family members in the same week.. Due to car accidents and drugs! He was soo depressed and had mentioned a few times how he thought life wasn't worth really living anymore! I offered to give him a blessing and he accepted. The spirit was so unbelievably strong in that little room we were in.. And he wouldn't stop saying thank you and gave me and my companion like 3 hugs each! Haha it was an awesome experience!

Hahha.. So we had a REALLY funny experience this week as well. There is a member here.. Her name is Joanna.. And her family really doesn't like the church.. Or anything about it. They needed some extra hands around their farm and so we offered our service. We were milking cows and livin the farm life.. Haha it was a really fun couple hours! We were laughin, telling stories, and we got to talk about the gospel a little bit too! The family really warmed up to us too! It was fun to get to know them and they said that we could come back sometime and help aagain! Haha.. So that was awesome service and the member, Joanna, was so grateful.. She said thats the first time that her mom or dad had even talked to the missionaries without a bad attitude.

Haha.. So at least once or twice a week we get come crazy people telling us things that they think about our church.. We had this older guy come up to us and start telling us that in the spires of the SLC temple we have missles and any day now we are going to launch them off and destroy the whole world! We tried to take it seriously and explain to him... But i just started laughing SOO hard and i let my companion do the explaining! He was still pretty convinced that we were going to take over the whole world.. Haha..

This weekend in Fayette county.. It was Watermelon Days.. Kind of like Draper Days back at home. We went contacting around the city block and tried to meet some new people. Haha and some people were just absolutely disgusted with us. They would give us the dirtiest looks and tell us to basically.. Get out of town. We decided to take one more lap around the block.. And all of the sudden this college kid comes yellin... "Elders, Elders!" Haha.. it was the weirdest thing in the world.
He was from Hawaii and he had talked to the missionaries from Hawaii and wants to meet with us! So we are going to meet with him tonight! And hopefully some good will come from that!

On P-Day last week.. We got to go to this place called Backbone State Park.. It was pretty fun. Really pretty place! Northeast Iowa is pretty sweet. I really do love it here and im really glad that i am here! Today we are going mountain biking with a less active member who loves to mountain bike! Im so excited! It should be a lot of fun. Although.. The so called "mountains" here aren't very mountainous.. ha!

Yesterday we got to go out to a place called Lansing IA. Its about 1 and 1/2 hours away from the church.. But its still in our area. Its a AWESOME town right next to the Mississippi river! So pretty there. We visited the families that live there and we had really awesome visits. They never come to church because its so far of a drive.. But they are really cool people and i was glad that we got to meet them. One of the families had a really nice house.. And a sweet barn with these horse's called Fresians. They are 40,000$ horses and they had 6 of them! It made me want to have a horse when im older.. Hha..!

This week has been one of the most spiritually uplifting weeks i've had in a while! Its so different here than it was in my last area.. But we are finding the people that are ready to accept the gospel. Its been a process, and the Lord has tested me. And i am now beginning to feel his blessings! And they are great. I love the church and this opportunity i have to serve! Its pretty sweet. Nothin like it really!

Shacari and Tyson are ready to be baptized.. We are going to talk about it this upcoming week. We are excited to finally get them going and ready!
Jennifer and her daughter Marilyn loved church.. And we are going to work out a day for them as well. Things are going great. I'm loving the life of a missionary..

Thank you family and friends for the support! I love you all!

Kash what was the name of the missionary that met me on the ski lift?

Love elder russell

Week 26

Hey Family! I'm sorry.. Today i don't have much time.. But this last week has been a good one!

This Sunday we had a new investigator at church! Her name is Lexi Cichey! She is awesome and was introduced to the gospel by her neighbor who is a solid member!
We taught her and extended a invitation to be baptized and she's accepted! Pretty cool! We will continue to work with her and get her ready!

For our other investigators.. Tyson and Shacari's mom decided not to come to church this week for the 2nd week in a row.. And that was really frustrating! We are going to have a lesson with them sometime this week.. That will probably be a little more serious! So that will be good. Jennifer was in Arkansas this last weekend! She actually just called us told us that she made it back safely and that she wants us to come bowling with her and her family this Wednesday! So that will be really fun! Im looking forward to that!

We have so many people that we are teaching that are so close to truly understanding the gospel! I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for these people! This week could be a very successful one!

If there is one thing that i have learned this week is.. It would be that to get people interested in the Gospel.. You have to find common ground! And the bible is NOT common ground!! Ha ha every time someone try's to talk with us about the bible.. It does no good! So many mis-understood scriptures.. So me and my companion decided to only talk about the Book of Mormon. No matter what the circumstance! And it turned out to be really cool! People get a taste of what the Book of Mormon is really like and how it clears things up! We've given out quite a few copies this last week and i think some good will come from that!

Anyways.. I've gotta go! Im glad to hear your doing well! Thanks for the updates!

LOVEYOULONGTIMEFAMILYANDFRIENDS!

Sorry i dont have much time this week! Ill email more next week!

Love Elder Russell

Week 25

Hey Fam!
This week has been a good one!

Yesterday.. Sunday.. Was a rather disappointing day tho.. We had 4 investigators lined up to come to church who seemed pretty solid and none of them showed up to church.. It was brutal! As a missionary, church without investigators is so hard!! So hopefully in these coming weeks it wont happen again!

On Wednesday i had an opportunity to do ex-changes with a missionary that was in the MTC with me named elder Parkinson. I love that guy.. He's from Mapelton! Ex-changes were soo fun and we had a good ole time. We'll be friends forever and i hope that we get to serve together sometime!

We had a lesson with Jennifer and it was SWEET! We asked her how her Book of Mormon reading and praying was going and she's is plowing through the Book and praying about it too! She says she feels so peaceful when she reads it. She also said that "for the first time prayer wasn't awkward!" She actually felt like she was talking to somebody instead of herself!! When she said that the spirit was so strong! It was an awesome experience! Its amazing how helping somebody come to know their Savior strengthens your knowledge and testimony that he is in fact, really there!

When i was on ex-changes with elder Parkinson.. We had an opportunity to teach about 25 people(members and non-members) the Doctrine of Christ! It was awesome! We had a few non members ask for a Book of Mormon and hopefully we will get some new people to teach from that! The only time i had ever taught that many people before was at a baptism.. I was pretty scared but it turned out to be an awesome experience. I relied on the spirit pretty strongly there and i'm glad that God helped us out! hahaha

Anyways.. Unfortunately.. Because of some crazy things that were going on in the apartments that we live in.. We are moving this week! We are renting out a small little house here in town and that will be kinda fun to have something new..

Well thats it for this week! Thanks for bein a great family and support system! I love you all..

Some members are taking us golfing today.. And im really excited about that! it should be fun!
I love you all! Tomorrow is my 6 month mark! woot woot! pretty crazy

Love Elder Russell

Mom.. Send the package to:
111 Washington St.
Fayette IA, 52142.

Its best for YOU(only family) to send stuff there! If you send it to the mission home, make sure it is only sent through the united states post office! Because if not, they cant forward it to me and it'll be sitting there for a while before i get it!