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