"Elda? das my name!"

Man, we need some members like mom here! Those are the kind of people
we pray for haha. Did she really have refugees over at the house? When
I come home I'm going to have to go to the refugee centers just to
talk to all of them and feel like I'm in Houston again.
Scott and the scouts went to bountiful mountain? Huh, I didn't really
know there were a lot of camping sights up there. that's really cool. Who's driving the gold taurus now by the way (or did you
sell it to get Moroni on his mission?).. (just kidding--from the RM if
you didn't catch on but I think you did). Anyway, sounds like the
missionary work is going great in the area. How often do you meet the
missionaries and how often do they--if they have--come to visit?
School's all started up today huh? Man, the summer went by pretty
fast... that's weird to think.
Mom, That's really good to hear about Chloee's mom. I will add her and
CC to my prayers. I can't believe how much missionary work you're
doing! We need some of that fire with our members. We do have some
good members in the area but it's just really awesome what I hear
you're doing.
So this week has been really good. I'm trying to think back of when
the beginning of the week was and it feels like it was a month ago. We
got to do a lot of service with the members of the ward. One of the
projects was another Eagle project for a young man. It was in an area
called 'Third ward' (or 'Sunnyside') (It's a lot like the 'Sunnyside'
from Toystory 3 haha). It was fun though. We scraped paint off of this
house and then repainted the whole thing. It turned out really good.
With another project we got to help put together packages for homeless
Vets. The packages has tolietries and some kitchen supplies and stuff
so when they go to the homeless Vet center and are given a room they
have something to start out with. (here's a link for some pictures and
stuff: http://blot.chron.com/mormonvoice/2013/08/mormons-aid-community-in-helping-homeless-veterans/
).
On Saturday we got to help a member in our ward with some gardening at
an Elementary school. It was pretty fun. Those pitctures I sent in
that earlier message are from it.
So I don't know if y'all remember Hilario, but we'd been working with
him for quite a while. The other day he texted us and said that he
made the choice that he wanted to be Baptized. He had been thinking
about this for at least a month. It was an amazing miracle.
I'll tell you a couple more highlights before I gotta go. The other
day I was with Elder Lupton (not my normal companion because we did an
exchange, which is when you switch companions for a day). and we were
talking to this lady about the church and Elder Lupton was doing a
really good job and I looked over at him and saw this huge crazy
looking ant on the middle of his collar, right above where the knot of
the tie is, and he was like, "wait, is there something you wanted to
say?" (because he noticed I had something on my mind.) and then the
huge ant crawled into his shirt so I knew it'd be kinda weird if I
described what happened so I just said, "...uh no"... and then when we
stopped talking to the lady I told him a huge ant just crawled down
his shirt and he started patting everywhere and finally we found it.
it was funny in the moment though.
Later while I was with him we were teaching this cool guy we met the
Restoration in his home and at the end of his lesson he was asking us
about our names. (we always get the people like, "whoa, is y'alls
brothas? ya both had the same names Elda?) so I started to explain the
usual answer we give, "No no, we're not, we just go by "Elder" while
we're on our missions. It kind of means, "missionary", (then I said
something I shouldn't have) "It's not a real name of course haha".. ..
then his girlfriend peeked out around the corner and was like, "Elda?
das my name!".. ya, I haven't met anyone else whose name was Elder
even though I've heard every other crazy name you could think of so
... whoopsi daisy. I guess I won't assume things like that anymore.
And then we also got to teach the word of wisdom to our drunk
Investigator and his high roomates.. that's always interesting.
So it was a good week. Thank you so much for the package and the
email. Mom, that granola was AMAZING! that is the best granola I've
ever had. thanks for the letters too. I love hearing from y'all.
Love ya guys, Have a good week!
Elder Russell