Man oh man this week has been full of crazy experiences!! I have knocked on SOO many doors this week its not even funny. Ha. And unfortunately we have no new investigators.
So way crazy experience.. We were on ex-changes with missionaries from Story City and we were tracting this apartment building. We knocked on this door and this lady answered the door and she said hold on one second. She went back into her apartment and got her boyfriend who kinda looked like Popeye the Sailor man. Haha he was pretty buff too! He started off by asking this crazy question that neither of us understood.. So we were like "sorry sir could you repeat the question?" And then, out of nowhere, he started to get super hostile!! He was acting like he was gonna try and beat us up and stuff, and making the stupidest comments in the world.. When he calmed down a little bit, he ended up letting us tell him about our beliefs, and we went on our way.. It was crazy!!
Sad story.. We ran into this awesome lady and explained our beliefs, and we had a super awesome conversation with her. She agreed with everything that we said, she was very excited as well. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she told us to call her in a couple days.. We were SO excited about it. We fasted for her and we included her in every prayer that we said. We gave it all we had. I was sure that a miracle was going to happen. We gave her a call and left a message and got nothing.. And we even went to her apartment and she would look through the eye hole thing on the door and walk away. It was last night, while i was praying, that i finally accepted that we weren't going to be able to teach her. I just broke down and started to cry. I kept on asking God why we couldn't teach her and why people were rejecting us.. I was so confused.. I did everything i could. Then all of the sudden a scripture popped into my head. 2 Nephi 2:27
Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
I had a warm and peaceful feeling come over me. It hit me that God could and would not take away the agency of this lady. He knew that i had suffered, and my heart was broken, but he comforted me and i knew that it would be ok. It was pretty cool...
i have gotta go!! I have no more time. I love you all.. So much. Thanks for the emails.. I haven't read them yet. But i will print them then read them. :) Thanks for everything!
Till Monday.
Love Elder Russell
Elder Madison Russell
Des Moines Iowa February 2nd 2011-2013
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Week 53
Hello Family!
It has been a really good week. I'm really short on time because we are going up to Ames IA for a zone p day today! Haha I'm really excited!
Anyways.. Our investigator was baptized on Saturday. Her name is Nicole and her baptism was so special. She loved it and is so excited to be a member of the church. She was just glowing on Sunday when they announced her name and asked her to stand. Moments like those make all the trials and hard times of missionary work go away! Special special week! :)
Well.. Our teaching pool was just baptized. Haha.So we are going to be doing a lot of finding. We do a lot of that anyways.. But now thats really all we will do. I know i've said this before.. But Ankeny is SO different than any other area i've served in. Everybody is very well off. Everybody has already got their church they go to. We always pray before we leave the apartment and we truly do feel like we are where we need to be! I just hope that there are seeds being planted that are beyond my sight. Cause its hard to feel effective as a missionary when people won't even give you the chance to bear your testimony!
And the fact that the 3 biggest churches here hand out anti literature against our church doesn't help our cause either. Haha Thats something that has been so hard for us to overcome. We find somebody who says that we can come back, then we come back and they don't answer even when we can hear them inside! Its super frustrating!!! They hear something that's not true about our church and won't give us the time of day anymore. I hate it. Haha.. But the quote from Joseph Smith always comes to mind when he says "there must be opposition in all things" and that is SO true. And i know that Satan knows how true the work is and he will do anything to stop it from progressing.
Please pray for us to find new investigators this week! We really need them! I hope your all doing well and i'm sorry this email is kinda boring. Haha but hopefully next week will be better. I love you all!
Bishop Jensen!! Thanks so much for the email. It was awesome to hear from you! Tell the family i say hello!
Dad thanks for that story. I'll print it and read this week sometime!
Love you all!
Love Elder Russell
It has been a really good week. I'm really short on time because we are going up to Ames IA for a zone p day today! Haha I'm really excited!
Anyways.. Our investigator was baptized on Saturday. Her name is Nicole and her baptism was so special. She loved it and is so excited to be a member of the church. She was just glowing on Sunday when they announced her name and asked her to stand. Moments like those make all the trials and hard times of missionary work go away! Special special week! :)
Well.. Our teaching pool was just baptized. Haha.So we are going to be doing a lot of finding. We do a lot of that anyways.. But now thats really all we will do. I know i've said this before.. But Ankeny is SO different than any other area i've served in. Everybody is very well off. Everybody has already got their church they go to. We always pray before we leave the apartment and we truly do feel like we are where we need to be! I just hope that there are seeds being planted that are beyond my sight. Cause its hard to feel effective as a missionary when people won't even give you the chance to bear your testimony!
And the fact that the 3 biggest churches here hand out anti literature against our church doesn't help our cause either. Haha Thats something that has been so hard for us to overcome. We find somebody who says that we can come back, then we come back and they don't answer even when we can hear them inside! Its super frustrating!!! They hear something that's not true about our church and won't give us the time of day anymore. I hate it. Haha.. But the quote from Joseph Smith always comes to mind when he says "there must be opposition in all things" and that is SO true. And i know that Satan knows how true the work is and he will do anything to stop it from progressing.
Please pray for us to find new investigators this week! We really need them! I hope your all doing well and i'm sorry this email is kinda boring. Haha but hopefully next week will be better. I love you all!
Bishop Jensen!! Thanks so much for the email. It was awesome to hear from you! Tell the family i say hello!
Dad thanks for that story. I'll print it and read this week sometime!
Love you all!
Love Elder Russell
Monday, February 13, 2012
Week 52
This week has been epic! Thhats for sure.. Haha! Its been full of fun and spiritual experiences that i'll never forget!
There is a Less-Active member that we are working with and we are finally making headway with him!! We had such a spiritual lesson with him. This man had been the Elder's Quorum President for many years, had a great family married and sealed in the temple, and suddenly, one year, everything in his life crumbled to pieces. His wife had an affair, he lost his job and his kids, and everything that could have gone wrong did. And now..5 years later, with a deteriorated testimony, he is at an all time low. When we were meeting with this man i had an amazing experience that i'll never forgot. I had a overwhelming feeling of love come into my heart, and a indescribable desire to do anything i could to help this man. I sat in silence trying to understand why all of the sudden i had this rush of emotion and it suddenly clicked in my head. I was feeling the amount of love that the Savior had and has for this man. And i sat straight up, and i told him. I said your Savior loves you. And he knew it!! It was so awesome. I'm freakin out in my seat while i'm typing this because it was such an awesome experience! Hahaha!
I feel as if God is much more concerned with where a man is, rather than where he has been, and who he can become, instead of who he is now. I know that if the Savior loved this troubled man in a small town in Iowa, that he loves everyone. Because he suffered for us all. And he wants everybody to rely his mercy, so we can get through this crazy world.
I just about DIED.. Haha the members that took us just started to laugh as they saw our faces. But we had the funnest time in the world. It was a way rough crowd of people! Big huge guys with burly beards, all with huge pitchers of beer. We were talking to a bunch of them and they were all skeptical at first.. But we became good friends within a hour! And by the way. The oysters were waay good! You can deep fry anything and make it taste good. Haha. And for those who are reading this and who don't know what a rocky mountain oyster is, dont worry about it! hahahaha! :)
Such a good week.. Very memorable. Once again the Lord blesses us with a good and successful week. We knock so many doors, get 95%of them slammed in our face, but i'm still happy and i wouldn't want to do anything else!
Love Elder Russell
There is a Less-Active member that we are working with and we are finally making headway with him!! We had such a spiritual lesson with him. This man had been the Elder's Quorum President for many years, had a great family married and sealed in the temple, and suddenly, one year, everything in his life crumbled to pieces. His wife had an affair, he lost his job and his kids, and everything that could have gone wrong did. And now..5 years later, with a deteriorated testimony, he is at an all time low. When we were meeting with this man i had an amazing experience that i'll never forgot. I had a overwhelming feeling of love come into my heart, and a indescribable desire to do anything i could to help this man. I sat in silence trying to understand why all of the sudden i had this rush of emotion and it suddenly clicked in my head. I was feeling the amount of love that the Savior had and has for this man. And i sat straight up, and i told him. I said your Savior loves you. And he knew it!! It was so awesome. I'm freakin out in my seat while i'm typing this because it was such an awesome experience! Hahaha!
I feel as if God is much more concerned with where a man is, rather than where he has been, and who he can become, instead of who he is now. I know that if the Savior loved this troubled man in a small town in Iowa, that he loves everyone. Because he suffered for us all. And he wants everybody to rely his mercy, so we can get through this crazy world.
Haha so waay funny story!! We went on a few ex-changes this week up in Marshalltown Iowa. Pretty nice town. But while we were up there some members were planning on taking us out to dinner in this tiny town called Vining Iowa. Population 200 maybe.. We were all asking ourselves what is there to eat in Vining Iowa?? Hahh.. So we drive 45 minutes to Vining IA, and pull up to this big white building with cars lined up and down every street in the town. We walk into this waiting room JAM PACKED full of people and the first thing this guy says to me, as he is reading my nametag(probably drunk) is "Elder Russell... Are you ready to eat some nuts??" Haha so i am like what in the world is going on! And we go in.. And there is a huge banner says.. "ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS"
The Biggest Testicle Festival on the west side of the Mississippi! I just about DIED.. Haha the members that took us just started to laugh as they saw our faces. But we had the funnest time in the world. It was a way rough crowd of people! Big huge guys with burly beards, all with huge pitchers of beer. We were talking to a bunch of them and they were all skeptical at first.. But we became good friends within a hour! And by the way. The oysters were waay good! You can deep fry anything and make it taste good. Haha. And for those who are reading this and who don't know what a rocky mountain oyster is, dont worry about it! hahahaha! :)
Such a good week.. Very memorable. Once again the Lord blesses us with a good and successful week. We knock so many doors, get 95%of them slammed in our face, but i'm still happy and i wouldn't want to do anything else!
Love Elder Russell
Monday, February 6, 2012
Week 51
Haha it finally looks like winter outside! Everybody tells me that i am so lucky to have this as my winter here in Iowa! Its usually 10 degrees below 0 this time of year with 100% humidity! Its only dropped below 0 for 1 or 2 days now!! I'm loving it tho! I missed the snow and its good to have some!
On Friday we got a HUGE storm! It was crazy.. 8 to 12 inches of snow in roughly 4 hours! While it was snowing we decided to go out and shovel people's driveways and try and clean people car's off and just help out where ever we could! It was so funny to see people's reactions when we said we just wanted to help! They would say things like "your going out in a blizzard just to help people? your crazy!" Haha i love it so much! Serving people is my favorite thing to do! Everybody was very appreciative tho! So that's good!
While we were out walking in the snow.. We came across a 29 year old guy who's face was all bruised and scraped up! We started talking to him and asked him if he could use any help! He asked us if we could help him find his glasses! We said of course! He seemed super depressed and very sad. We started walking down this little path and he began to tell us his story of how he lost his glasses. He was drunk, driving this mo-ped/scooter thing around and had crashed on this walking trail and his glasses were no where to be found. We tried to help him find his glasses but it was snowing like crazy.. And there was already 5 inches on the ground and he couldn't exactly remember where he had crashed!
We began to talk about God and he expressed how he had lost his faith in God when his grandfather died. He said as a 9 year old kid, he knelt down and put everything he had into a prayer and asked God if he would save his grandpa! 2 hours later his grandpa had passed away! It was very emotional for him and for us as well. I related to him and told him that I too had lost both of my Grandpa's at a young age and it was tough for me to deal with as well. We bore testimony that God needed his grandpa on the other side, and that his work on this earth was done, and that he could be with his grandpa again! Then i had a huge prompting, from the spirit, to ask him a question.. I asked him "would your grandfather be proud of the way that you have represented his name?" There was silence for about 2 minutes and he said "No, he would be ashamed."
So here we are in the middle of this crazy snowstorm, talking about God and his plan for us. This 29 year old, who had no faith in God began to say things like, "wow, i've got to start living better.. and i should start going to church.." It was such an awesome experience! And in the freezing weather, we were warm and filled with the spirit!
Its amazing the change that takes place inside you when you have amazing experiences like that one! Thats why i love my mission so much. I feel as if i am being changed into something better than i used to be, but most importantly i am slowly being changed into who my Heavenly Father wants me to be. Its hard sometimes, to accept the change, but i know that in the end, what He wants is all that matters!
Unfortunately the snowstorm was so bad that it pushed back our baptism!! Family coming in from out of town could not make it in the weather, and the earliest they can get here again is the weekend of Feb 18th.. So we are going to wait until then! Its always scary pushing a baptism back, but it had to be done! And i know that she will stay strong! She is awesome!
Thank you so much Family and friends for the letters and emails and support you give me! I'm so lucky!
You are all in my prayers and i love you! I love you all!!
Mom i found a super cheap suit so we're good! And a lady in the ward is going to tailor it! Thanks tho!
Diana W! Thanks for the update! I tried to send you a christmas card, but it got sent back cause you moved! Send me your new address! :)
Love Elder Russell
On Friday we got a HUGE storm! It was crazy.. 8 to 12 inches of snow in roughly 4 hours! While it was snowing we decided to go out and shovel people's driveways and try and clean people car's off and just help out where ever we could! It was so funny to see people's reactions when we said we just wanted to help! They would say things like "your going out in a blizzard just to help people? your crazy!" Haha i love it so much! Serving people is my favorite thing to do! Everybody was very appreciative tho! So that's good!
While we were out walking in the snow.. We came across a 29 year old guy who's face was all bruised and scraped up! We started talking to him and asked him if he could use any help! He asked us if we could help him find his glasses! We said of course! He seemed super depressed and very sad. We started walking down this little path and he began to tell us his story of how he lost his glasses. He was drunk, driving this mo-ped/scooter thing around and had crashed on this walking trail and his glasses were no where to be found. We tried to help him find his glasses but it was snowing like crazy.. And there was already 5 inches on the ground and he couldn't exactly remember where he had crashed!
We began to talk about God and he expressed how he had lost his faith in God when his grandfather died. He said as a 9 year old kid, he knelt down and put everything he had into a prayer and asked God if he would save his grandpa! 2 hours later his grandpa had passed away! It was very emotional for him and for us as well. I related to him and told him that I too had lost both of my Grandpa's at a young age and it was tough for me to deal with as well. We bore testimony that God needed his grandpa on the other side, and that his work on this earth was done, and that he could be with his grandpa again! Then i had a huge prompting, from the spirit, to ask him a question.. I asked him "would your grandfather be proud of the way that you have represented his name?" There was silence for about 2 minutes and he said "No, he would be ashamed."
So here we are in the middle of this crazy snowstorm, talking about God and his plan for us. This 29 year old, who had no faith in God began to say things like, "wow, i've got to start living better.. and i should start going to church.." It was such an awesome experience! And in the freezing weather, we were warm and filled with the spirit!
Its amazing the change that takes place inside you when you have amazing experiences like that one! Thats why i love my mission so much. I feel as if i am being changed into something better than i used to be, but most importantly i am slowly being changed into who my Heavenly Father wants me to be. Its hard sometimes, to accept the change, but i know that in the end, what He wants is all that matters!
Unfortunately the snowstorm was so bad that it pushed back our baptism!! Family coming in from out of town could not make it in the weather, and the earliest they can get here again is the weekend of Feb 18th.. So we are going to wait until then! Its always scary pushing a baptism back, but it had to be done! And i know that she will stay strong! She is awesome!
Thank you so much Family and friends for the letters and emails and support you give me! I'm so lucky!
You are all in my prayers and i love you! I love you all!!
Mom i found a super cheap suit so we're good! And a lady in the ward is going to tailor it! Thanks tho!
Diana W! Thanks for the update! I tried to send you a christmas card, but it got sent back cause you moved! Send me your new address! :)
Love Elder Russell
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