Week 85

If I were to tell you everything I really wanted to tell you guys, this email would probably be 6 pages long. Haha.. I'm pretty sure this week I witnessed more miracles than I ever have before! It has been so cool. I'll do my best to tell you about them.

I got a call from my Mission President on Saturday, and he has asked me to train a brand new missionary coming in for my last 2 transfers. Pretty exciting! I'm looking forward to it. So on Thursday i'll have a new companion.. I'm ready for a new one! Haha. So i'm excited! And dad to answer your question. I will stay here in Knoxville till February.

I want to tell you about a CRAZY experience that I had tho. Really cool but crazy.. Haha.

One day after driving back to Knoxville, we pulled into our apartment complex, and out front was a couple who were very intesnsly arguing, and especially the woman seemed very angry.. Vulgar language was flying, and soon enough the woman's fist began to fly too. She connected a couple times. I asked myself why isn't he stopping her? It was then that I saw His hand tied down to a hand that was much smaller than his.. A little 4 year old boy with tears streaming down his face was clinging onto his Fathers leg and hand. He poked his head out behind his dad's leg, and at that moment my heart sank into the bottom of my stomache. I've never felt so sad for anyone before. The Father began walking away from the woman, and actually walking towards our general direction. The woman began to follow, and I yelled out "ma'am this better stop or i'm going to call the police" She looked at me, and stopped following the guy and then tried to justify herself and gave me all these excuses why she was acting like this. I could smell alcohol on her from 5 feet away. It was bad.

I asked her if that was her son.. And she said yes.. Then I said.. No kid deserves to see his mother act that way.. And then she once again tried to give me excuses. She talked about how she really was a good parent, and "took such good care of her babies" and all this stuff.. She seemed to be really scared. She tried to tell me all this stuff, but what I had just witnessed was the total opposite. So I said " ma'am parenting is a 24/7 responsibility, its not something you can do when you please. If your such a good parent then why are you drunk and saying all sorts of words that a 4 year old boy should never hear?? She got quiet, and said that she was sorry.. And that she knew she was in the wrong. Then she walked away with her friend that she was with. It was NUTS!!!!

But the most amazing part of this story is, is later that night, me and Elder Wally were tracting, and to make the story short.. We tracted into this Father , and the 4 year old son. (thats how I know he's 4) It was so cool. He said that he was scared.. And he didn't know what to do when the girl was hitting him.. He said he would have done something that he would regret. But he said he saw us get out of his car, and he knew that everything was going to be alright. Then by us tracting into him was a sure sign for him. It completely re-knewed his faith in God.. And he knew God was looking out for him. SO cool. We're going to teach him on Thursday.

Another quick story.. We had just got done teaching Saturday night and it was like 8:45. We didn't have breakfast or lunch so we were STARVING! Haha.. So we decided to go to Subway for dinner. (I'm tryin to lose weight. haha) Anyways.. As we were paying for our food, the cashier put a scripture from the bible on our subway bags. It was cool. We started talking about God, and she said she needed a new church. So we invited her to ours, not thinking much of it, and the next day, SHE SHOWED UP! Wow.. I don't think that's ever happened before. Haha! And she LOVED it. We taught her after church, and she said in her prayer at the close of the lesson "Lord thank you for sending these 2 Elders to me to lead me to your church." It was so powerful. Thats my favorite thing to hear someone pray after they just learned about the church. Great day. Haha

This last week we went on ex-changes with missionaries from Centerville Iowa. They have a pretty tough area, and we saw an amazing miracle while we were there on ex-changes.

We went to this guy's house who was known to try to bash the missionaries and prove them wrong using the Bible. I wasn't sure why we were going there because I usually avoid confrontation and people who want to bash.. But we knew we were supposed to go. We knocked on the door, and he was hopping in the shower and his Fiance was there too. So we stepped outside on the front porch and we taught her about our church. It was awesome. She was so prepared. Halfway through the lesson the guy came out and tried to argue and bring up scriptures against us, but the Fiance, who we were teaching told him to be quiet or leave! HAHA! So we got to finish teaching and then she asked me politely to show her scriptures in the Bible to back it up. And she LOVED IT! The fiance left, and she wanted to know more.. So we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing. We found out that she had a mother and brother who had died in the last 2 years, and the Plan spoke peace to her heart. It was so truly amazing.

Haha.. So thats all I got time for today.. I really wish I could tell you one more story.. But thats ok. :) Its been a great week. It truly has. So much growing has been done. Love it. I love you family! SO much. Thanks for everything!

I'm glad the wedding plans are underway!
Lexee I liked the engagement pic! That was sweet!

MOM AND DAD! Did you get my email about my passport!!?? Please let me know ASAP!!

Love Elder Russell

PS I will email on Tuesday this next week.