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