Week 36

Haha Hello Family!!

This week was great. I love being a missionary!

I want to start off with an AWESOME story!! So me and Elder Parkinson, the guy who was in the MTC with me, who's serving in Manchester which is like 45 minutes southeast of Fayette, were on ex-changes and we got to teach a whole Presbyterian Church, of like 40 or so people!! Haha it was one of the coolest experiences of my life!

They were spending some time learning about different religions and they invited us to teach them about our church! So we taught them the Restoration of the Gospel and people were firing soo many questions at us! It was so cool. And it was starting to make sense to a lot of people! Haha we had a good discussion for about a hour or so.. And the Pastor of the church was ready to get us out of there!! He was like "ok people, times up! Lets say a closing prayer" but people just kept asking questions and wanting to learn more. Haha and when we told the congregation about how we don't have a paid ministry, he just about lost it! It was soooo funny! I loved it soo much! Me and Elder Parkinson are gonna be best budds for a long time! Haha..

We also are teaching a Family tonight!! Which is going to be awesome! I have been searching for a family forever and still not been able to find one.. But im hoping and praying this is the one! :) They are the Erickson family and they are very nice! I hope we bring the spirit to their home tonight!

We are still teaching Francine! Which is great! She's soo funny. She has soo many questions. She has a notebook that she writes her questions in and all the ones she's asked us so far and its like 3 and 1/2 pages long! So funny. I love it!

We were knocking doors last night in a town called tiny town called Clermont. And every single person we ran into was not being very nice to say the least.. Haha we knocked on this door and this one lady said "I'm a Lutheran and I don't have time for your silly religion. Get off my property." At this point in the night.. My tolerance for these people was very low. Haha and so i kindly replied "oh so i guess that's how the Lutheran church teaches you how to treat people... " And she just looked at me with the funniest look on her face ever. And she took a pamphlet and let us talk to her for a couple minutes! It was hilarious! Me and Elder Wilson walked away and when she shut the door behind us we looked at each other and quietly laughed! haha it was great. Dad it reminded me of your comment of how the majority of Americans call themselves Christian but only about 25% are active in there faith! It was pretty interesting!

I wanted to tell you guys about a scripture that hit me very hard this last week. Its in Matt 24:14. The Apostles are asking Jesus Christ about signs of the 2nd coming.. And he talks about diseases and sicknesses, and then he talks about people will lie and deceive and things like that.. But then he says that the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven will be preached to all the world. And it hit me so strongly, that I am anxiously engaged in the work that The Savior himself so boldly prophesied of before his 2nd coming. It brought so much peace to my heart. I've never felt anything like it before.

For P-Day today we get to go down to Dyersville Iowa which is in Manchester missionaries area! I'm very excited for that! Field of Dreams baby!! :) I've been wanting to go there for a long time!

Anyways i love you all Family! Thanks for all the support!

Mom i have a favor to ask of you.. will you pleeeaase send me a University of Utah sweatshirt of some kind? Large!
And also Peter is moving to Davenport this week and i wanted to get him a University of Utah shirt! But you cant find those around here.. So i was wondering if you could send me a shirt for him too.. He's taken us golfing like 3 times and paid for us.. So i figured its the least i could do! He's probably size XL.. And send it to the house here in Fayette ASAP!! :) Thanks so much!

I love you fam! Thanks for everything!

Ill talk to you next week!

Love Elder Russell