Week 40

Hello Family!

It ceases to amaze me how many awesome experiences a missionary can have in one week. I love it!!

Ha we just got done playing basketball and i jammed one of my fingers and its beginning to look like a sausage! And typing isn't very fun.

Me and Elder Wilson have been working so hard this last week and it payed off!! We had a good amount of our investigators attend church and we set a few dates for people to be baptized! They are finally starting to keep commitments, and its the best! We've been patient.. And the Lord is now blessing us! We have also found 2 more people that have been SOO prepared to receive the gospel. I don't think there is a better feeling in the world when you are guided by the spirit to find those who are ready!

Ha i want to tell you about a CRAZY but awesome experience that we had and that i'll never forget... So we received a referral from church headquarters and it was for a less-active member..We called and set us a lesson and the night of the appointment we went to the address where she lived and it looked like a big apartment building.. We walked in and were looking at the people and all around and we realized that something was not right.. The lady at the front desk was like you must be here for so and so.. Let me go grab her for you! Then she said "if anyone tries to bug you just tell them to go to their rooms." At this point i was like what?? And then i looked to my left and saw a sign that said "Prairie View Mental Hospital." We sat down and soon enough a couple people were trying to take our backpacks and our name-tags and it was a mess. And FINALLY this guy came out of the room and stopped them and made them give our stuff back. It was crazy. We had no idea what to do.
Ha then the Lady brought back the girl we were supposed to meet with and she had Schizophrenia. We began teaching her and all the sudden after 15 minutes or so we had 15 or 20 people who lived in the Hospital listening to us! It was cool. The hospital workers said that that was the most calm those people had ever been. And that they had never sat down for more than 2 minutes at a time let alone for a 30 or45 minute lesson! They invited us to come back each week. So hopefully some good will come from that!

On Thursday.. We had a member of the quorum of the 70 tour our mission! And it was an awesome experience. He taught us all about covenants and about our calling. It was incredible how strong the spirit was. I have never felt it like that before. It made me have a whole new desire to keep the covenants i made when i was baptized and in the temple and so on..

Anyways.. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a privilege, and i don't think that we will ever understand how truly lucky that we are to to have the fullness of the Gospel. It gives us not only the desire, but the ability to wake up tomorrow, a better person than we were today! It comes down to 2 things for me. The Gospel that we teach is first a gospel of Logic. Meaning that it just makes sense. And second, its a Gospel of Hope like its talked about in the 13th Article of Faith. I love the church and i love how its blessed my life! It means the world to me, and i can't ever see myself without it. Its now more apart of me that i ever could have hoped for! The "sacrifice" of going on a mission isn't so much of a sacrifice anymore. Because the blessings i am receiving and will receive in the future are far better than anything i'd ever have to sacrifice.

I love you family and thank you for all the emails! They mean a lot and i love hearing how the family is doing on both sides! And remember the words of Paul "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Have a good Thanksgiving week! I'm excited! Haha.. We will be at the Jolleys house Mom! The guy that you met that one time! I'm excited!

Dad thanks for the email! I am going to start to read Psalms and Proverbs more often! They have good stuff!
Mom Thanks for the Card! :) I loved it! Haha!
Grandma and Jake Shaw thanks for the email!!! I loved it! Keep em coming!
Thanks for the Pictures court! :) Behr looks like he's growing! And i'm very excited to see Parks! Haha..

Love Elder Russell!