Week 74

Hello Hello Hello.. I've began a new phase of my mission and i'm pretty excited..

I'm not going to lie to you.. My heart is still in Quincy.. And I really miss it. But that seems to be the case when I leave every area! So we'll see how it goes!

I am now in Knoxville IA! Pretty exciting! Haha! Its a tiny little branch, we also cover this little town called Pella IA, which is way sweet. Haha.. It was settled by the Dutch people.. And its very pretty and they have the worlds greatest tasting pastries and cookies. And they also have HUGE tulip festivals in the spring.
And my new companions name is Elder Wally. He's a good guy. Big heart for sure.. He's struggled quite a bit on his mission so far. But we're workin with him :)

We've got good things going on! And i'm pretty sure its the first area that I've walked into that actually has something going on! Which is good.. We are teaching a lady named April who's been investigating the church for 5 years.. And she's finally decided to be baptized. Haha.. And also a guy named Scott who's been investigating the church for 28 years and also who teaches our Gospel Doctrine Class! HAHA crazy huh!! He's not a member yet.. But he's going to be baptized on Sunday.  he's been teaching Gospel Doctrine the whole year! I find that super funny.. Way cool tho! He's super excited! Haha..!

THank you SO much for the emails.. They were especially good this week. Haha! I'm happy that the family is doing well..!

Dad thanks for sending me the talk! I will print it out later this week and read it! :)
Mom your the greatest. THnaks so much! :)
Lexee! Thanks for everything as well! 

LOOVE YOU ALL! SO much.. I'm sorry this is short. I'll write more next week when I know the area a little better!

LOVE ELDER RUSSELL!

Week 73

Wow.. This week has been wonderful!! :)

 

I have mentioned just a little bit about a girl we were teaching named Sam Nelson. She was baptized this last Saturday and it was marvelous. :) It was a very unique baptism due to the fact that the baptismal font at our church was under construction so it took place in a pool. Haha..  But it couldn't have worked out more perfect!

        We held the service in the backyard of a members home, and it was BEAUTIFUL. The weather was perfect, and there was a beautiful lake in the background of the people givings talks. We had a speaker system and it was picture perfect. As people were trickling in to come sit down, we had Mormon Tab Choir playing and it was so cool to see how the spirit was so strong in the backyard and people recognized it. Then when it was time for the baptism we went over to the neighbors pool (who are non members) and Sam was baptized by her good friend Nick. SOO sweet! Haha!

        Sam's father has been an inactive member for 14 years.. He felt as though he was pushed into the church when he was young. Sam's mom is not a member, and also her little Brother Nathan is not a member. As we closed the baptismal service and sang Hymn #301 I am a child of God, I watched Sam's dad's eyes fill with tears. He was moved by the spirit in a way that he has never felt before.. After the service he gave me a big hug and told me that he had never felt that way before. I told him it was the spirit telling him that this is true. And he knows it is. SO powerful. One of the great experiences i'll remember for the rest of my life. We are working with her Mom and little Brother to help them be baptized. Its going to be near impossible to say goodbye to them.. I get knots in my stomache even thinking about it. :(

 

This baptism was very special.. (As they all are.) I prayed day in and day out that I might be able to baptize at least 1 person while I was serving here in Quincy. And as Sam was baptized the Lord answered my prayers..

Then about 15 minutes after the service had ended I received a call from President Jergensen telling me that I was being transferred and released from my calling. I sat there in silence realizing how timely the baptism was and how perfectly it all worked. I looked back on the last 3 months, an realized how great God had been to me at times when i didn't even know it.  Then I thought about how literally the exact same thing happened to me in Ankeny. An over-whelming feeling over came me and now i know more than ever that the Lord truly does help us reach our richeous goals and desires. It was so amazing. Its amazing how blessed we are.

 

Mom thanks for your package. It was wonderful!! Don't send anymore stuff to that address though because as of this Thursday I will no longer be in Quincy.

I'm really sad to leave and I have gained some wonderful friends here in Quincy. I can't wait to come back and visit someday.

 

I think thats all I got this week.. I'm excited to enter a new phase of my mission. Its new, exciting, and adventerous. Thanks for all you do for me! I loooooveee you all!

 

Love Elder Russell

Week 72

Why Hello Everybody! Another week has gone by, and here I am doing the same thing I do every Monday.. Haha pretty funny..

 

I'm getting some funny looks right now.. Haha Lexee sent me this AWESOME tie made out of Lego's so i'm wearing that.. And my contacts were really bugging my eyes this morning so I brought the glasses that I got before my mission out in public.. And they are big, round, and straight from the 70's.. So i'm not to sure anyone can take me seriously right now.. Haha probably won't wear the glasses again in public.. But people LOVE the tie! Haha especially little kids!

 

Anyways.. This last week I had a few teaching experiences that were very memorable! We were teaching this Mom and Dad about our church. They are good friends with the Bishop of our ward and his family, and they had taken them to Nauvoo to see the pageant not to long ago.. She invited us in, so we could drop off this free CD that you can order if you come to the Nauvoo Pageant! So we went it, and she then began to tell us how wonderful every Mormon person is.. She said "I think in order to be a mormon you have to be very talented, extremely loving and friendly, very prosperous, and have a minimum of 5 kids." It was pretty funny.. Haha! Then she said this.. She said " I love you guys, and I envy you, but i'm VERY firm in my baptist church, and I do a lot of things there, have a lot of friends there.. and I plan on staying that way untill I die."

As our conversation went on, we began to mingle Gospel Principles into our conversation, and that led to her asking questions.. Which led to us answering them.. Which led to a mind that was blown!! Haha.. She was so taken back at the simple truths that we taught her.. Soon enough her husband joined in the conversation and his mind was blown away! We taught them about the Book of Mormon.. And we said to them that if they wanted to know if this was true.. They needed to pray and ask God. Because he's the one who will never lead you astray. We said " Us 20 year old kids can tell you all we want.. But your never going to know if its true unless you ask God." Then the Father of the home said.. " You've got us pointed in the right direction though.." ANd when he said that chills ran up and down my spine.

A few days later, the Mother was on the phone with the Bishops wife, who's her good friend, and she said, " I can't leave my church! I have so much going on there!" And Sis Seaman said.." are you trying to convince me, or are you trying to convince yourself that that will never happen.." I believe a big change is ready to take place in their home.. We'll see how they react to the opposition of a baptist minister.. It can be brutal! Hahaha! :)

 

Thats one of 3 awesome stories I really want to tell you.. And I think I only have time for 1 more!

 

We have began to teach an In-Active member and his girlfriend.. We went over there, and it was cool to see how the Lord has been preparing them! They asked questions about the word of wisdom.. "Why not Coffee? Why not Tea? Doctors say that Tea can prevent heart problems! And plus.. Jesus drank wine!!" We taught the Restoration and don't ask me how.. Because I really can't even remember what we said.. But at the end of the lesson, we walked away and they had a determination to live the word of wisdom. It was SO cool.. They each said " I get it.. It makes sense now.." It was a very rewarding feeling to have! LOVE IT!

 

Haha one thing I forgot to tell you guys about last week! So the Pageant ended on a Saturday night.. And they asked our Mission President if he could let all the missionaries come and help clean up after the pageant. And it was a project!! Holy cow.. The Pageant is amazing.. And I never realized how much goes into it untill I was taking it all apart piece by piece! Haha We stayed up untill 3 in the morning taking all the stuff down, and they still weren't done when we left. It was crazy.. It felt really weird being in normal clothes arounds people. I felt naked.. Haha!, and also staying up untill 3 was super weird..! Haha.. But anyways I thought that was cool and i wanted to tell you!

I LOVE YOU ALL! I GOTTA GO!

talk to you next week!

LOVE Elder Russell

Week 71

Haha so.. I think that some people already know this.. But you'll never guess who I just went to Breakfast with... Kevin and Natalie Gleave!!! Hahah!! SO awesome.. I saw them at the pageant on Saturday night when we were getting ready to take everything down, and they came to Quincy this morning and took me and my comp out to breakfast.. What a treat.. I LOVED it! Haha! So cool :) I love them.. haha!

 

Anyways.. This last week has been SOOO much fun. Haha I got to do so many things that missionaries usually don't get to do so it was fun.

 

 On Wednesday we headed to Des Moines to have an ex-change with the AP's.. And that was a blast.. haha It was a pretty good drive tho thats for sure.. 4 hours! If i was in UT it would be like we drove to St. George for a day then came back.. Haha and i'm pretty sure me Kash and SKy have done that before.. So not the first time :) But anywyas.. Downtown Des Moines is a pretty crazy place! Haha.. So many funny things happened. I loved it! Then the next day we drove to Nauvoo and worked the pageant and then came home that night. It was waay fun!

 

I want to tell you guys an experience that I had on Tuesday before that.. We set up an appointment with this family, and the mom of the family has had a SUPER rough go these last few weeks.. She had surgery, and I have to idea how to spell it, but it sounds like this: ahurnea?? Haha.. its the same surgery that Kash had before he left on his mish.. Anyways.. She had one of those and she got MAJOR infection inside and has been going to and from the hospital is St. Louis like mad.. Her husband is a truck driver which only puts him at home usually 4 days a month. As you can only imagine, this mothers stressors were off the charts.

As she stressfully explained the hardships and trials that she's been facing and is still yet to face, my heart wrenched and I wanted to do anything I could to help her..  So we asked her if we could give her a blessing, and she agreed. As we sat a chair down in the living room, her kids got really quiet.. (which is a rare thing) and we gave her a blessing.. When it was over, she was in tears and told us that she couldn't explain how she felt inside. She said she knew from the second that we put our hands on her head that it was all going to be ok. She said it was as if the Savior spoken those words himself. It was another one of the strongest spiritual moments of my mission.. And I love the Priesthood because it allows us to help others in ways that nothing else could.

 

Ha so another lady that we're teaching asked us to come over and help her out with her yard. She told us she wanted us to get things ready because she was going to pay someone to have some tree's trimmed that were hanging over her roof.. So we asked her if we could just trim the tree's for her instead of her paying for it.. She didn't really know what to say.. And so we called our Bishop and he brought a latter and some saws and we took care of it for her right there.. Everything worked out perfectly.. Haha and she was blown away.. Her heart is being softened and she says that she see's something different about the people of our church. Its SO fun and she is so much fun to teach. I really hope that she comes around..

 

Dad.. Thanks for that email.. That story was AWESOME!! Haha i love tender mercies! I'm glad that it all worked out and everything is going good! And to answer your question, I'm not sure if they have  an exact location of the Mississippi crossing. But next time we go up there i'll look into it for sure!

 

I love you family! So much thanks for everything! I'm so blessed.

 

Love Elder Russell