The happiest person I know / getting ready for baptism

ahhhhhhh thanks for all the pictures it looks like you all had a really fun time, so did I. by the way I dont have a better tan i think  that you guys are casting judgement to soon. I was in a computer place that is not well lit, so it only appears that way. it sounds like you all enjoyed the season as i did as well, the usually things are good, i dont think i enjoyed them enough but i am enjoying my life now that is what is important. I think I waisted time trying to look forward to the future before loving the present, but not a big deal to most people, i am just saying this because i think its pretty hard to change unless you choose to. well i hopé you all enjoy the wonderful marvioulous glorious season-  this was a good week we got to teach the lesson in church and that is one of the things I learned. The lesson was on,  basically work. I learned that our work is important because it is not just our work, we can work for something better than our own purposes and get better blessings. The happiest person I know works a lot I am sure, He created the earth. I have a testimony that we will be most happy as we serve the Lord. there is that one scripture that says -if you lose yourself you will find yourself- basically I know we will find ourselves as children of God if we keep the commandments, I have shared this but I love this scripture D&C 93:28 (He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light , until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.) it is cool because it tells just one of the blessings we can have if we keep the commandments. I know that Heavenly Father wants us to serve because He knows it will bring a good deal of happiness to a lot of people Moses 1:39

Love you see ya

Elder N. H. Seffker

not a lot of time for a long update today.Ya it was good to see y'all too! I Don't think I had much of a chance with the "tanness" contest with Nate. Haha, Maybe on P-day today we'll have to go to a tanning bed (just kidding). 

It was a good week. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! 

We've been working a lot with Mike lately. He's doing good. He's getting ready for baptism. Well haha, I don't have a lot of time sorry. But I love y'all! 

love, Elder Russell

a few pictures...

one is a large lemon a member gave us a lot of

another one is a random thing I drew on a missionary's pillow case who was leaving (he wanted everyone to draw something

another is of me and some missionaries I came out with.

good Samaritan / have a "blessed day"

I like the quote that is a good Christmas quote, are you guys doing the "He is the Gift" thing? it seems really cool that the Church would try to tell everyone about the whole meaning of Christmas. I really love that video even though if I wasn´t a member it would seem a little interesting. You guys can watch it on your ipads as you drive around in your spaceships, I think it will be a little bit before we get ipads here. I know they are going to do some kind of change soon in the mission starting January, I have no idea what it could be.

     This week was another good week, I really feel like I am learning how to follow the Spirit better and I still have a lot to learn. 

This week was good, but regularly good, like every week. One thing I remember is we help a hobo guy yesterday, we were just walking and walked past a guy just laying on the sidewalk and I think we said hi but then my companion said we could get his reference and teach him later, many times these kind of people want to change, as we were talking to him we noticed his arm was bleeding and a little part of his foot seems to be missing, so my companion asked him if he needed help obviously he did, he had the look of that in his eyes- they were red, so we offered to call the police and stuff but we ended up getting him some water and brought him some food from our house. that was all yesterday and we saw him today on a park bench a couple benches away than the one yesterday so I guess he is making progress, the sad thing is the police and some of the people that walked by already know him as a drug addict of some sort and he drinks too so they don´t bother to much to help him. that is what is sad is if you want to help him like a good Samaritan you have to help heal his head not just his body., I thought that was cool that we could at least help him a little bit, we gave him our number so he could call us if he finds a phone i guess he doesn't really have a house either, i dont think he cares that much but he probably does want to change and he can if he has faith in Christ, we were talking with two other people like that after we gave a blessing to a sick guy the day before I think. we were just walking along and they called us over to share some of God´s word. They had faith to change, we invited them to church and they never came so we just need to follow up. We got to share some scriptures with them and explain that it is possible through Jesus Christ. one thing cool about that is they happened to be on the very edge of our area, I was really hoping they were in our area and I figured that out after the lesson. and this lady has a daughter that wants to be baptized that is 9, we will see how that goes. It is good to here what is happening up there. it is hard to imagine snow, I was thinking about that today as I grabbed something out of the freezer.
love ya, Elder Seffker

This week we had our ward Christmas party. It went really well. I love our ward. The members are awesome. I feel like I know the ward well now. Sometimes it's hard to get that feeling after being transferred. The members are so helpful though. 

We had a challenge given by our stake president a while ago to finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas and when I got transferred here in this area I had to make some goals so that would be able to happen. I love reading and learning in the little spare time we get as missionaries--I have a binder full of cool ensign articles by Hugh Nibley and a bunch of other good talks and excepts from manuals and I always read out of it. The other night I had a little time and I wanted to read an interesting article or something before we had to get ready for bed but I felt that I should read the Book of Mormon instead even though I had read the portion I needed to read for the day to hit my goal to finish by Christmas. I decided to read and read Ether 4. I felt after reading that there is such an amazing power in the Book of Mormon. Articles, talks, and manuals are great! but nothing can produce the effect that the Book of Mormon has when the Spirit is there. I love that Book. Ether 4 is an amazing chapter too! I hadn't realized that before. 

this week we've been working a lot with less-active members. I've felt over and over again that that's where we need to focus at this time in this ward. We've been trying to work with all the families that aren't coming but are close--many of which have family members who aren't members. We're helping a non-member husband of a lady in our ward with some Christmas decorations this Friday. He's really against the Church but he's a great guy and really nice. 

Well i'm outta time but ya'll have a "blessed day" (as Texans say).

love, Elder Russell

God has everything all worked out / learn to enjoy facing your challenges and trust in God

This week I'm emailing on Tuesday because we went to the temple this morning. I loved it. It's always great. We have had some great days this past week. I love being a missionary. I love everything about it. I was thinking about it the other day and the missionary schedule is so awesome! being able to study so much and have time to keep things organized and set and track goals. It might sound odd but I wish I could continue to have this kind of schedule ( i think I'll definitely keep a lot of parts of it). Anyway, on to the update for the week: We have this couple we've been teaching. They're a young newly wed couple and the girl is pregnant and they're having a rough time right now it seems. Their apartment when you walk in is completely empty. We wanted to help them out and the other day we were riding our bikes down the road and stopped to talk to a guy who was in his driveway. He started, "I don't need Jehovah's Witnesses." we told him we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and he said, "I don't need help from Mormons." We started talking to him more and found out he had rented out the house he was in front of and the tenants left some of their furniture in it and he said things were going really rough in life for him right now and nothing was working out. He said the problem was that he didn't know how he would get rid of the furniture. He wanted to throw it away. We told him we could help him out. We called up President Monson and he helped us out and drove a truck over on saturday to load up the furniture. (by the way, President Monson is our Elder's quorum president). We gave the furniture to Maria (the girl whose apartment was empty). It's awesome how God has everything all worked out. We had a great lesson the other night with a guy named Mike. We have this awesome member (Brother Allison) who came with us. He is such a good missionary! He fellowships investigators really well too. Mike accepted to be baptized and I think he will get baptized. He has good intent. He's a great guy. On Sunday we had dinner at the Allison's house and invited an investigator named Abla and a less-active named Nathan. It was great. After dinner we watched the Christmas Devotional on tv. That was a great Devotional. 

Well, I hope y'all have a good week! Don't forget to read, pray, and be your best.

 I love y'all,

Elder Russell

Today is kind of an interesting day, lots of people go to this place to adore the virgin Mary, i think they think she appeared in that city

Yeah the language is coming along good, my new companion is from columbia, for some reason when I translate what he is saying in my head, sometimes it sounds like he is British, he is pretty cool. I am still in the same area as I was with my last companion. it seems like it was a while ago when I changed companions it really was like 5 days ago. I am learning probably at a faster rate now than I ever had at home, at least in weeks of time, the Lord has really blessed me. I am not just learning Spanish, as you have said living the gospel seems to sharpen all of your abilities. one thing I liked about my last companion is he seemed to visit people because he loved them not so he could write another tally mark, I remember visiting a few people with him that we just visited because they were old or crazy or something, not so we could get higher numbers. I thought I would be more scared or stressed if I ended up getting left here with someone new because I would have to remember things about the area and people. but the time came and I felt more ready, it is interesting how that happens because sometimes a while back I would have the same feeling unless me having the responsibility wouldn´t fall through, I remember before the change I just felt calm kind of cool because I was talking about grace in my prayer the night before, that really is a blessing to feel calm like that. To live a happy and peaceful life here on earth your not going to be able to just avoid every problem you are going to have to learn to enjoy facing your challenges and trust in God. I feel that over this past while I have become just a little bit more brave or faithful, better at not believing in the lie of fear and all that. One thing I like about my companion now is that he likes to obey an important rule in missionary work, a rule that some missionaries who are known to obey the rules seem to skip out on sometimes, the rule to enjoy the rules. the rules are the blessings but we cant enjoy them if we dont look around, if we dont try to have a good atitude it is like we didnt do anything, I think there is a scripture about that somewhere. 

Love you

Elder Seffker

The weather today is really good, it sort of looks like it is about to rain and has some wind. My companion speaks english as good as me  and is from Orem, Ut.  another cool thing that has happened this week is that I have started to think some words in Spanish naturally, and my english is changing very slightly

  yeah our culture is actually pretty different it is funny because my comp talks fluent spanish too, his family is from mexico so he has sort of two cultures it seems like.

This week was a good one we did this thing they called ´´casa abierta´´ it is just our chapel´s official name i guess but anyway it was pretty cool, we got to give people somewhat of a tour through the church and then ask them for some references. We didnt have too many people come but I still thought it was fun, this week we did that and mostly the regular stuff, finding people. After the casa abierta thing this lady dropped a cane on the members needing to do more missionary work, me and my companion thought it was alright though it is true, if every one were like mom the church´s attendance would explode but the thing I guess i am saying is just take the little opportunities to do missionary work and you will find it is not so hard or even scary.  Love ya Elder Seffker

We finally got a picture of Elder Seffker and the missionary in front of him has his arm in his face.. Oh well, the rest of him looks good! Ha Ha 

A frog from Paraguay!!

This week was great. We had a good thanksgiving. We started it out by playing some football at a park with some guys from the ward. We were going to play soccer and I was way excited too--especially because our friend richard from nigeria (who played professional soccer div. 1 in Nigeria) was going to play with us.. but no one brought a soccer ball. But it was still fun. It's pretty embarrassing but I was a little bit sore from it the last few days. Anyway, then we ate with the slack's. They're an awesome family. It was fun to be over there. Sister slack is amazing at the organ. She plays it really well in church. She's really good. She even knows the Mormon tabernacle organists and stuff. 

We had a good lesson with a guy named Diego this week. He had some good questions when we met with them and I feel like they were efficiently answered (sometimes I don't feel like that happens haha). I love the scriptures. We also met with this guy named Jesse. He's really old. We met with him the first time and went over to meet with him yesterday and he was out racking leaves. He's 87 so it was surprising to see what he had done. He was over by his neighbors yard doing it. He's a really good guy. We helped him out. Later we had a lesson with him. He's kind of interesting. He says he gets letters from aliens and he mostly reads from the Urantia instead of the Bible and hasn't opened up the Book of Mormon yet (the Urantia is a book that I guess would best be classified as psuedopigrypha--kind of an interesting sounding book). But he's a good guy. Pray for him. Well sorry I gotta go. Love y'all. Check out christmas.mormon.org. It's a new thing the church is doing. 

love, elder russell

uh.. maybe a little / feel the Spirit again

So now my companion is Elder Sika! He's from Tonga. He's awesome. We had a good week. it's been kinda rainy but luckily it got a bit warmer. It was back in the 70's and the 80's. On thursday we had dinner with this awesome family named the Trevino's. They made a ton of really good spaghetti. They loaded up our plates and I didn't think I would be able to eat half of it when I first saw it. But I endured a finished it off and was soooo full! My companion ate as much as me and they said, "elder Sika, do you want more?" He was even full but said, "uh.. maybe a little." they gave him a lot more. so anyway, when we left we were sooo full! and then we went to our next appointment who was this awesome guy named Basil and it was at his girlfriends house who is a member. I had forgotten but they said they were going to feed us as well. So by the end of the night we were really really full. well, great update huh? haha we also did other stuff besides eat but I don't have time.. whoops.. sorry

love, Elder Russell

This week has been another good week, we had some good lessons, I think I learned a lot. We ended up teaching a less active member in a really cool lesson, his name is Carlos. he still has not gone to church even though it seems like every time we go he says he will, I think really he is just scared of going back to some of the members but all in all has a desire to come back and feel the Spirit again in his life. anyway we ended up taking a member with us he is a really cool guy, he was baptised when he was ten or so and went inactive after about 7 months, later he got a girl friend and eventually one time they pretty much asked each other why they weren't living the Gospel so they became active years later but now they seem to be strong in the church, any way we took this guy to visit carlos and it turns out they actually knew it each other, they might work together and they happened to be active at the same time, both when they were about ten or so i think, im pretty sure carlos is in the same situation he just hasnt yet decided to come back. they both could relate really good and we had a good lesson, this week was just a really good week as always so far my spanish is getting better and the things I am learning I wouldn't have imagined myself knowing now just a week or two before. the Lord really blesses us with things as we are able to receive it. also this week i almost stepped on a stick bug, they are really cool bugs, that was i think the first time i have seen one ever in real life, it looks simply like a stick, a little twig, i am glad my companion told me before i stepped on it.
they dont have healthy cereal here at a cheaper price it, another interesting thing is they dont have peanut butter here, if they do it is really expensive. i have never seen a tortilla shell here either. yet they do have something here i really like, mangos, they have a ton of them except they are a bit different here, they are more like celery, they have some cool fruits, they other day I ate this watermelon,cantelope,pumpkin looking things juice it is pretty good, they have another fruit that a lot of people like i am not sure how to spell it but it looks like a tiny watermelon and it grows on trees.
  we go to the mission home pretty much for changes only, when we get mail it is typically from the president and his assistants bringing the mail to our area every month, i actually got a package recently with some cool Christmas things so I only used the things that were already unwrapped, but I checked the side and it sounds like there is some pretty cool stuff in there, i liked the pen!! 
Thanks so much!  
Love ya all.
Elder Seffker

It's the best way by far! / gift of faith

This week turned out really good! It has been a huge pay-off of the work and efforts we've been putting in. God's blessed us a lot this week. We had two people come to church. One is from Jordan, he's cool. The other's name is Demitrick. He's awesome. We have the best member that fellowshipped him. His name is Brother Allison. He is actually the one who we live with. Him and his wife build our apartment (a room above their garage) for the purpose of being more involved with the missionaries. They're an awesome couple. Anyway, brother Allison was with us when we taught Demitrick and he was great to have at the lesson! He was able to relate to him so well and share a lot of good things with him about eternal families and the blessings he and his wife have had from the gospel. It was really touching hearing him talk about those things. He's such a good guy. He then invited Demitrick to church and gave him a ride. after church on Sunday we ate lunch with the Allisons and Demitrick came then we taught him. It was a really spiritual lesson. We had another really good experience with another member. Brother Alexander came with us to teach a guy named Kelly. It was amazing how close he could relate to the person we were teaching. Members have to be involved in missionary work! It's the best way by far! I love working with the members too. We have awesome members.

Well, we got transfer calls this morning and my companion Elder Chamberlain is getting transferred. I will find out who my next companion will be on Wednesday at transfer meeting. I'll let y'all know who it is next week.

Love y'all!

Elder Russell

p.s. It's getting cold now! it was 49 degrees the other day and with the humidity it feels pretty cold. Luckily this week it's supposed to go back up to 70's.

My week was really good, We had a division on Thursday so I stayed in our area as we switched companions for a day, I really learned a lot, I think it was a good lesson of  confidence for me. We all have a huge capability to serve and I think most times we are just too satisfied where we are at and not happy enough where we are at too. Well anyway on the division I wasn´t sure I could navigate around the area that well but actually I just tried to have a good attitude and do my best and it turned out that I didn't really get lost ever. Also I ended up seeing another blessing when we found a house that we have been looking for for a while. She is a new investigator where we just forgot where she lived. That tends to happen in a place without addresses. I found the house because we happened to pass by her on the division while she was walking past her house. Her house is sort of hidden behind two trees. A day or two later we went by to see if she was at her house and she wasn't so we went to the next house, and tried there, usually that doesn't happen but my companion said these people were looking at him in a different way so that is why he tried it. We ended up finding two more investigators. One of them seems to be really interested in the Gospel. She said it was sort of like a sign to her that we came because recently she has been thinking about some of the bad things going on in her church. She also seemed fairly excited to pray to know if the church is true. It is always great when you meet people with a gift of faith. Also this week I gained a greater testimony of fasting, and that we have the commandments to help us. That is how we should feel when we keep them. The best way to keep them is with love for Heavenly Father. We can always learn more by keeping them until we know everything. I don't have too much time but that is something I was able to share with a less active member on the division that I think might really help him D & C 93. 28 is a scripture that talks a bit about that and the scripture I shared with him was in alma 32. We need to keep the commandments to progress. It is that simple!!
Love ya Elder Seffker 

Saviors love for him / learning things still but in a greater quantity

 I ended up giving a talk on Sunday it went pretty well. It was about five minutes short of 15 min. but I felt like it was okay for only having a couple hours to prepare. Back at home it would have taken me more than that. The topic I felt like doing was interesting. Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is what I felt like doing.  I think the first commandment I remember learning was this. I was really little but I remember it pretty well. I was waiting around on a Sunday thinking about the new mario kart game we got for the n64 the day before. I remember that it looked really fun so I asked Mom if I could play it even though it was Sunday. She told me to say a prayer.  That is the part that I remember well.  I said, "can I play this game today?" I got the answer no so I asked again. Again, "no" so I just said yes in my head and persuaded myself I got the answer yes. After that all I really remember was blurry... because I got in a fight with someone else that wanted to play probably. That experience seems kind of dumb but to me it actually taught me a lot about keeping the Sabbath Day and of course about praying with real intent.

     An interesting experience...we were going to Estanizlou´s house. He is a recent convert. He said he had a surprise for us which is not surprising at all around here. He said to come over to his house. We get there and he has a little bag hanging up. He tries to dump out what looks like a dead frog. It was alive barely. It was a special kind of frog that looks cool. It inflates as its defense and it is poisonous.  When at his house  we get a call, it is one of the sister missionaries crying and it sounds like she got robbed or something. She is talking to my companion here on the phone but I can hear. Some preacher guy went to these two elderly people´s house and has been there since yesterday. Now remember these people are like  85 so I´m pretty sure maybe 90 and this Chinese preacher is staying at their house. He won´t leave even though they told him to so me and my companion leave the frog thing and go there. The sister missionaries were doing the arrangements for them to get married soon and this week we were going to go to the interview.  We start walking toward the house and meet up with the Hermanas. One of them is crying and the other looks the same way. Of course we have seen some over reactions in the past so this doesn´t exactly say the preacher is violent or anything like they explained it to be. Then a gold car pulls up and this Chinese preacher guy and his caddy boy or assistant start telling us a bunch of annoying things that barely make any sense. We pretty much watch him and then my companion says a few things and eventually he gets back in his car and drives away. Our branch president shows up on his motto. He was going to the interview too. Now before this happened I could feel the Spirit tell me things are all good. At this time the Spirit prompted me that now we would go to the more important part. We showed up at their house, sung a nice hymn and talked a little bit. It was a completely different feeling than before. You can´t really feel any love during contention. In the gospel we preach all about that. Christs love is the sort of light that shines out things of darkness. Serving is the way we teach that I would say. Anyway, they will get baptized later. They still have to get ready with some things. Hopefully they choose to do that.

     

    Also I had a cool experience a couple days earlier. It was really a simple one. The gospel is simple. Truth by itself I believe is simple but the lies are what directs us away from the truth. That is why we need to live on the pure truth and the important truth. Anyway though, we were in a visit with a really cool member, her name is Agueda. I´m not sure how to spell her name. She recently has started to activate and I think she has a strong testimony but we were talking with her and some one passing on the street said something interesting like, ´´I need to eat the devils leaves´´ something weird and probably slightly innocent due to some mental problems. This guy asked if he could come in, apparently Agueda had known who it was because she let him come and visit with us. We ended up listening to him quote some scriptures or something that sounds similar. It was hard to tell but eventually we went to the scripture in the Bible where it talks about the lost sheep and how the Savior loves everyone. I remember thinking about the life of the man who was visiting with us. He probably doesn't have a lot of friends and doesn't understand what is going on well. He walks the street with his walking stick and in his head probably does well at his job. Maybe he has a family that helps take care of him maybe not so much. I think I felt just a little bit of the Saviors love for him, I know that He loves all his sheep and I am glad that He came and talked to us. Life as President Monson says is ´´perfect for none´´ so basically the thing we should be focusing on is what can we do that the Savior would,  rather than what we see missing in other people. Well I love you guys see ya later 
Elder Seffker

This week I'm just gonna give a brief update. It was a fast week.

One of the highlights was that we went to the temple as a mission. We had to divide our mission into 4 groups and go 4 different days. We went on Friday. It was really good. I love the temple. I have been reading a lot of scriptures about the temple that have helped me learn a lot. I've also been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately. This stake that I got transferred into was committed by the stake President to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year and so it pushes me a lot to read more than usual. I love that book. I am surprised that it seems I'm learned more now as I read through it than I learned last time and the times before that I've read it. Not only am I learning things still but in a greater quantity each time. Last night we had a ward mission fireside put on by our ward mission leader at a member's house. A member taught about biblical evidence of the book of Mormon. It was really good. We had a couple non-members there and some less-actives and others. I love the members in this ward. They are so great.

Well, I love y'all and hope you have a good week!

love, Elder Russell

perfect timing / Spirit is the teacher

This past week has been great. It went way too fast. It's getting a lot cooler now down here. One morning it was 50 degrees! But then during the day it gets back up to the 70's. Man, that's too chilly!

So this last week we got to do some good service. One project we helped sister Shong (a member from my first ward on the mission) at a prairie behind a school. It was so good to see her! Her and her husband were some of the most amazing members in that ward. It was really great to be there again. I don't know if I mentioned that my area is next door to my area that I started out in the mission in. Another project we helped out with was at a girlscout program thing. We were at a station teaching the girls how to do lashing. Elder Chamberlain and I had to brush up a bit on how to do it before. I can't believe how many knots I forgot haha. I guess I didn't know a ton before but... It was really good though except we didn't get any girlscout cookies.

We also had a really good lesson with a guy named Adrian. We had an awesome member there with us. Adrian really wants to change his life around but he seems to be wanting to talk about it more than do it.

The other night we had a really cool experience. We had previously gone through some really old records of people missionaries had seen in this area. We pulled out a few names that we felt we should try. One of those names was a lady who we tried lastnight. We stopped by and she welcomed us in. She said she didn't know why the missionaries stopped coming but it had been about a year. She was going through a really hard time in life and it was perfect timing for us to come by.

On Saturday we ate dinner at brother Ajayi's house. He fed us Fufu. (I don't know exactly how to spell it. It's a food they eat in Nigeria). It was really good. It's a type of potatoe thing mashed up into a substance with a similar texture to bread dough. You put meat and sauce over it. The meat included some other intestines and stuff but it was way good. It was pretty spice which made it even better. Brother Ajayi is awesome.

We also had a ward trunk or treat on Wednesday. That was good. It's great to be around everyone in the ward.

Well. I love y'all! Have a good week.

Elder Russell

So  Mom yeah the missionary work is going really good, I would say you are right, you can not teach people unless you love them, because really the Spirit is the teacher and if you dont try to really help them then it is not going to go as well, yeah Daniel is doing really good i think, i fasted that he would be able to come to church and he came it was really cool, him me and my companion and another recent convert named estanizlou fasted for that last week too. this week estanizlou got to pass the sacrament for the first time. ha i hope that retainer makes it someday  love you Elder Seffker

The Book of Mormon particularly teach all men to do good/ knowledge is often or always is one of the blessings of obedience

I loved this week but it went by way too fast.

Early in the week we were out at this one apartment complex with brother Ajayi (he's a member from Nigeria and he's really awesome). we saw some kids playing street soccer. Brother Ajayi had to talk to them. He loves soccer. He played soccer in Nigeria professionally division 1. Later that night with him we went and saw a guy named Mike. He's a cool older guy. We were able to talk about the blessings of the restoration and eternal families. Brother Ajayi has such a good testimony. It was really spiritual. Later during the week We had some other really good lessons. On Friday we had sister ward out with us to teach a lady named Lauren. She really liked having sister ward there. They were able to talk a lot and relate a lot during the lesson. Things work out so good in missionary work when members are involved. We're really focusing on doing that in the work in this ward. We have at least one member lined up to come out each day this week. Our ward is really supportive. We also have a really awesome ward mission leader. On Saturday we helped 2 people move and on the second one we crossed paths with another guy who was moving so we helped him move a few things and got his info to come teach him later. He was a really awesome guy. It's cool how you can always find ways to do missionary work. Some people think you need to be out proselyting or wearing a white shirt and tie to do it but I've noticed that successful missionaries have a missionary attitude and you don't have to be a full-time missionary to have that attitude. One of the members that was moving with us is really good at having that personality. He just talks with everyone and somehow the gospel seems to have came up when I heard him doing this. He's awesome.

The other night we were out trying some people and as we walked by this guy he yelled out, "do y'all get payed?" We told him that we volunteer and that we were missionaries and then he started asking more and more questions and we started to notice he wasn't really sincere in them--more just trying to argue. As we talked and he asked the questions in an argumentative way we were actual able to answer them all really well and he stumbled over his words a bit and got frustrated and after a little more talk he walked away. He left upset and didn't seem to have listened to the testimonies we had given him or the invitations. We left a bit confused at why or how people could be so full of anger. Elder Chamberlain said he noticed that the guy was recording the conversation on his phone I think he was thinking he would ask us really hard questions and go and post it on his facebook or something...  I guess it was kind of funny. One thing I was thinking about though is just that even the simple testimony that comes from a witness of the Holy Ghost can confound the world and cannot be taken away by anyone. I think it's in 1 cor. 2 probably verses 8-12 or something that talks about how the things of God are taught through the Spirit of God. The gospel is so good and if studied and applied it only brings greater inner peace and a greater understanding of God and His plan and His love for us. It brings so much good! It's odd how much opposition there is against it. I love chapter 33 of 2 nephi verses 10 through the rest of the chapter. Nephi puts it well when he says that the teachings of the Book of Mormon particularly teach all men to do good. I hope just like he did that everyone can learn these things and have the blessings that come from them. here are a few good scriptures on my mind:John 12:35-36; D&C 50:24; 93:28; Alma 12:9-10; 1 Nephi 10:19.

well, love y'all!

Elder Russell

So this week was good, I ate crocodile and parana they are both good. if they didnt tell me what they were i would think they were just meat and fish

 we find dead frogs on the road all the time. it is still pretty hot here i think they said it was 51 degrees celcius about a week ago, yeah i guess they do know what Halloween is here they just dont do very much and not everyone knows about it, today we carved watermelons, they have a ton of interesting fruits here and the nice thing is they are almost ripe so we will be able to eat mangos and things when we walk down the street, a couple of days ago me and my companion grabbed a fruit from a tree because we didnt know what it was and are hands are blue still from touching it!! All is good.

I know that we all have a Heavenly Father or He has us because we are part of His plan, we can live the way He wants us to or use our agency to mess ourselves up but we won´t mess up the plan, the only bad we can do to others is temporary and the good we do can last forever. This week I have learned more just like every week here. I would say I learn more when I try to obey more, I think knowledge is often or always is one of the blessings of obedience.yeah that reminds me of a scripture in D and C 93:28 I think that is the one thing that goes well with that. Elder Francis M. Lyman taught: “Every Latter-day Saint is entitled to this witness and testimony. If we have not received [it] … the fault is ours, and not the Lord’s; for every one is entitled to that witness through faith and repentance, forsaking all sin, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. Now, if any of our brethren and sisters have lived for years without really knowing, being thoroughly satisfied and thoroughly convinced, just as positive as of anything in life, that this work is of God, if they have lacked that witness and testimony it is their fault, for it is not possible for a man to do the will of the Father and not know the doctrine.” I think that would be really cool if everyone knew that, they are the ones who put in the effort, Heavenly Father never leaves you it is always us who have to choose to leave. I have seen that in a few of the people we have been teaching, I feel the Spirit prompt me often as I teach and I see often that what I think is not nearly as good as what the Spirit prompts me to do in teaching. I am beginning to see more that the plan includes many chances for us to learn, we just have to exercise faith. Being a missionary is actually simpler than many people think you basically just have to invite people. 

Well I love you all,

Elder Seffker

families can be so happy from this gospel / hang on to your testimony

So I guess it wasn't too long since I emailed last so I'll just give a little update.

We had a pretty funny thing happen last night. It was pretty late but we had time to try one more person and so we went to go see this guy named Leon who had requested a Bible. He soon pulled out his "family bible that [had been] passed down from generation to generation" (but it probably wasn't more than 30 years old at most). It was the king james version special edition--blackness in the bible. We were looking through it with him and he was telling us all the things he learned from it that most people didn't know. It was pretty interesting. haha, just ask me about it after my mission cuz I can't say it all on here. I am so glad we have the Book of Mormon along with the Bible to confirm important truths. I love the gospel. Recently I have been extra committed to reading the Book of Mormon and studying it each day. I love that Book!

The other day we had this awesome member out with us named brother Ajai. He's from Nigeria. I could tell when I first met him and from special skills I gained back in my first area of the mission I asked him, "do you speak Yoruba?" He was really excited and said, "Yes! How you know that?!" We loved being out with him. He is so positive. we have been spending some good time with the members. Yesterday we had out two youth with us and got to teach some people with them. The other day we met with a family from the ward and they are so awesome! They remind me of y'all. They have 8 kids in there family under 16. They are an awesome family. Elder Chamberlain and I were talking about them after and we were just thinking that families can be so happy from this gospel. oh and that reminds me of the Alexanders. Their confirmation went so good! Brother Alexander also was ordained a priest on Sunday. They told us they didn't know they could ever be this happy as a family. They loved that Book of Mormon that was sent. Thanks.

Well, I love y'all! The gospel is great. I know it's true. We can learn more about who we are, about how to become better men and women, and how to have greater joy in this gospel than any other source in the world from this gospel.

Love, Elder Russell

Hello how is it going the s key works so this should make some more sense. It looks like you went rock climbing I hope you all had fun. So about packages and letters like I have said they come usually in 6 week periods because we live about 4 hours from the mission home, so the last letter I read was the one where Jared went to RYLA camp, when I got that letter I also got one at the same time that was of him asking what RYLA was like ha ha. 

You want to know what the houses are like here, well they are just like Elder Russel´s new apartment, just kidding!!!

no actually they are pretty simple, most have doors at least around here, lots of them are made from wood and some sort of cement or bricks, most of the houses have floors. mostly houses are for living here, when they want to do something fun they usually go out side and play. I wouldnt say that there is tremendous poverty here, most people have the basics and are pleased with that.  

So do a lot of people here drink? yep they tend to waist time here drinking beer on the weekends, at least a lot of them and then pretty much everyone drinks another thing called dedede. Its a combination of water and this sort of herb which is pretty much grass. they waist time just like people in america waist time watching t.v. and other things like that. actually a lot of them have a small t.v. too. yep a lot of people with smart phones live in dirt floor houses. 

   Also thanks for writing your testimonies on your letters too, it seems like you have a good testimony of Joseph Smith, hang on to your testimony.  I miss you amigo Johnny but before you know it you´ll be on a mission too. so they tell me that your doing good stuff, just keep doing what you have been if you follow to close in the footsteps of the person in front of you, it is impossible to see what is happening, I think you are doing good at following Jesus Christ, I love to read the testimonies on your letters, He is the only person you can trace the footsteps and never mess up. I think you are a good example of that John. Scott If I could give myself advise for when I was your age I might say just relax and be yourself, the important things will come from good choices. what is funny is at that time the Spirit prompted me with that same advice, something that I didnt really understand at that time, to be yourself is super important, I know you are smart enough to understand my advice probably better than I did, so yeah there you go. keep on doing good things, that is really good that you are doing drawing lessons now with Becca I know those are things that get remembered, remember that. Are you accustomed to your new living quarters now, its pretty nice to have your own pad eh?  

Family thanks for your letters and praying for me so much, in a way that is like missionary work because you are helping a missionary. well love you guys  Elder Seffker

sshare our testimonies / He loves his family so much.

well how are you doing, I am doing good, right now I am typing on a ssssskeyboard that is broken so everys time I hit the sss keys than it typesss a ton of sss sssso ssss. thanks for sending pictures it is fun to see how you sguys are doing, you must be getting ready for halloween, they don´t do that here I am not sure what they sssssssssssssdoss sbut I dont really like candy that much anyways. this week has sbeen a good one sa couple of days ago I sgot to be a witness for a baptism, I scould sfeel the ssSpirits befores the ssbaptism then in church the next day we got to see her get confirmed. sMosms sorry sI swill buy a cameara soon ssI just need to find one  ssssyesterday ssssI ssaw ssa pretty cool thing the moon was completely red, we were helping a sister with her suitcases at night because she is going home today and her bus left at 11:30 something interesting was that searlier that day well actually I will tell you later but that is one of the signs of the times and its seems there are many that are happening and have happened. It is really a cool thing that we can live now and sshare our testimonies of the gospel as ssthe second coming is getting close,  This week has been a good learning experience for me sssssssssssI ss am learning to focus more on others and the Lord blesses me as I sdo this. sjust the other day we were out contacting and we went up to a house and clapped( they sdont knock here they clap) and no one was theres but sI shad a feeling to cross the street, I sloosked over and there were some speople talking at the house across the street, they were talking in Guarani so sit sounded like stwo old people ssfighting ssssbuts we swalked around athe tree and saw these three sprobaby ssssss18 or sso year old gusys sbrake dancing on some cardboard in their yard, sssthey must of been pretty good because my companion said something and then sone of them sjust jumped up and did a back flip ssshe sdid sssnt even have to run or anything it was cool and suprising ssbut i feel like wwhen syou are a missionary you slearn to expect the usnexpected things more, ansywasy sssssssssssssss we started to talk to them about the Restoration and they seemed pretty sssssreceptivesssss, swe have taught some people ssjust like that also this week. Yesterday ssssssssssswe taught a bunch of ddrunk guys in about a ten minitue lesson because they just could not listen very ssmuch ha ha it swas sssssssort of funny ssssssbut smabye it stinks when you see people waisting money to make themselves look and act wsorse, hopefullsy they read some of the spamplets that swes gave thems, they each asked for one. the gospel helps with all problems, we also taught a family, it was actually more like three adults but I thinsk they are relateds, it was a really great lesson, Ism pretty sure it was syesterday that we taught it. sssssssssss one of them shad a beer too ha ha but his daughter walked ssby and knocked it over on accidentssssssssssss, he didnt sseem the care though, I swonder if it is because he was feeling the Spirit. s

sssssssssso  just a couple of days ago we bought some watermelons from this lady, I was thinking wow carrying these watermelons all the way to our appartment is rough but it will all be worth it because we can eat these pslus its missionary work ssbecause she is less active haa ha. so when we started to eat them the first half was good but sby the time we were able to eat the other halves it tasted like manyonase, sso leason learned dont refridgerate watermelons also another fun fact dont refridgerate bananas too. ssoh yeah yesterday I smade some banana milk stuff the recipie sis pretty rigourous but ill take the libery of explaining it if any of you advanced cooks want to attempt it. s1.s freeze some bannanas 2. ssssget some cold smilkss3. sblend them together 4. if your dad you add lots of cream or sugar 5. serve it up 

so sssssssssssssssshopefully Melissa can send me some recipies some time, there ahave been some instances when it would have been useful to know how to make bread or pancakes, actually walfless. ss

also another fun fact they have glow bugs shere the ssones I have seen are green. they also ahave a lot of frogs, you find them shriveled up on the road all the time. 

the church is true, it is cool to hear about the miracles and cool things going on with you all. hopefully I dont have to use this keyboard again. Love sysou Elder SSSSSeffker

One of Elder Russell's suitcases!! He loves to study!

The Alexander Family

So this last week for a little update I'll start by telling you where I got transferred to. I'm now in the Memorial Park 1st ward. We're the only missionaries in the ward and the ward is awesome! They are so solid. the members are on the ball in this ward. 

It was really hard to leave my last area though. I love those members and the people in that area. I've been there since December last year. That's a while. This will be my third area of the mission. So, this area is right next door to Herman park--which is the area I started my mission in and was in for a really long time. I love it! Seeing some of the familiar faces that i've missed will be soooo good! I know the area a little bit but some of it I'm still really really unfamiliar with. My area has a bit of downtown Houston in it and is mostly city. I love the area. Everything is great in it! IT was really hard to leave Elder Theis.  I love him. He was so good to serve with. We had the best time of our lives! My new companion is really awesome too. His name is Elder Chamberlain. He's from the Delta area of Utah. He's really mature so that might be good for me because i'm not really haha. He's a brand new missionary. He's older though. He's a genius. I think I'll learn a lot from him. We wants to work hard, he wants to be obedient, and has great desires. We're going to have a great time. 

I got to go back to my old ward on Sunday because of the Alexander's baptism (you get to go back for baptisms), and I'm actually going to go back this sunday too because they want me to confirm some of them too. I'll tell you how the baptism went. Really, looking back it seems like one of the most happy times of my life. It was such a good peaceful day. I don't think I'll ever forget all of us dressed in white there together. There was a lot of ward support and the service was good. The Alexanders were so ready and prepared for it. Brother Alexander is amazing. I love their whole family but he just has some of the greatest love I've ever seen someone have. He loves his family so much. I baptized Bobby and Donna and Elder Theis and Brother Hayes (a member) baptized the others. After each were baptized when we were getting ready to go back in the room where we were meeting we talked with Bobby. He felt the Spirit so much. I can't explain how incredible that was. When we met back together again we sang the song, "Nearer My God To Thee" for the closing hymn. Me and Elder Theis couldn't sing because of the emotions that were there. I don't think words could put how amazing that experience was but the music of that song described it best. I love that family. They are such a great example to anyone who will look at what they have done recently in their lives. They sincerely sought for truth and found it. They considered it, prayed about it, and when God showed them the path lighted up they followed it. It we could all be more like this amazing family the world would be zion. I love this gospel.

I don't have a ton of time to explain much more about the week now but I might have time next week haha.

We also had a seventy come this week. His name was Elder Schwitzer. He was great. He was really cheerful, that's what I noticed about him. He taught us some great stuff. Mom, sister Schwitzer said to tell you thanks for having me take piano lessons.

faith leads to obedience / I felt my thigh twitching a little bit

hello yeah I listened to conference in english it was all good.

did you like the talk by Elder Bednar, I liked that and the one by Lynn G Robbins they were all good though, When you are on a mission conference is really exciting, some people compare it to the super bowl. It sort of is like that, we all gather around the TV and start to cheer when someone drops the cane. ha ha except it is a bit different because when someone says something profound we all drop are heads to write it down. and the Spiritual parts are more intense than a football game.

This week has been a good one my Spanish has improved a bit, not a ton but as I have opened my mouth and the Spirit prompts me with things I know how to say. Even with my limited vocab, and when I listen to the Spirit my abilities increase. 

 It is funny, so much happens every week but when i look at the computer screen the week disappears I can´t remember anything.

One thing I do remember , yeah Daniel was baptized he is just working a lot now so it is really hard for him to make it to things like church and conference, sadly his dad tries to make sure he is at work and not church, but his dad is a nice person he just wants his son to work hard and help with the family. we actually are teaching him about the Priesthood now but he needs to go to church more. 

We have met a lot of good people and like you said I guess they don't understand for some reason they don't want to change, but we have also met a bunch of people that do want change, maybe for a lot of people they will change when the time is right.  Sort of like the church, I wonder if the church was restored when it was because the other times would not have worked right. I think also we are what makes the time right,  time doesn't matter to God in that sense we choose with our faith and our faith leads to obedience , sorry i don't have very much time now, love you 

Elder Seffker

Hey,

Ya the Alexanders accepted a date! They are so prepared and amazing! They're getting baptized next sunday! I can't wait. I'm actually getting transferred. We found out Friday. I guess we almost expected it but it's pretty sad. Elder Theis and me have become best friends. I'll miss being his companion. It was really an amazing blessing that we got to be companions. The way we found out on Friday was because President called and told Elder Theis that he'll be training. That meant that I would be transferred. It's also sad because I've been in this ward since December! I love it! I love the people, the members the people on the streets... Its crazy to leave it. But I know the Lord has something good in a new area. We've loved this area. It's been amazing! I can't believe how many people God had prepared for us to teach and know. The Alexanders and Erica and Dennis and Lyndon and Michael are all going to be baptized in the coming weeks and I get to come back for each of them. (we can go back to an area to see the baptism of someone we had taught) So I hope to be coming back to this area a lot!

     This last week was awesome. I did a few exchanges with some other missionaries in the zone (that's when you switch companions for the day). I went first with an elder in his area. He's in a bike area and it rained really hard. My white handbook (the little white handbook we carry everywhere with us) is still a little wet in the pages. Things don't really dry very well here in Houston. On that day something kind of funny happened. When we had gotten out of the apartment after studies we got on our bikes and started riding down to the far point of his area (that's where the person we were going to try was). As we were riding I felt my thigh twitching a little bit. It was weird but I ignored it. I felt it again as we rode and so I slapped my leg. I felt something in my pants and thought, "oh this must be a big cockroach." I stopped and shook the darn thing out (or so I thought) and kept riding. We rode about 2 miles down the road to our destination and I felt the same twitch. I put my hand on it again and felt the cockroach again! I yelled to Elder Harrop and we stopped on the side of the road and I pinned the spot where the cockroach was in my pants on the front of my thigh and grabbed around it so it couldn't crawl anywhere. Then I asked Elder Harrop, "How am I going to get this thing out of here?!" he suggested that I roll up my pants from the bottom and grab it. I started to do so and realized that the roll got too tight to put my hand through (by the way the cockroach was a big one, probably 3 or 4 inches). I asked Elder Harrop  again for another suggestion and he said, "I guess you could try going through your front zipper." I decided that was the only option so here on the side of the road I put my hand through my zipper to grab it and realized that there was a layer of fabric that separated the roach from my hand. It was in between the two layers. I started to inch the thing down my leg and as I did that I realized this roach had a little head and a tail and then I poked it out of the bottom of my pant leg and realized it was a little lizard. Kinda weird huh? we were laughing so hard. haha I probably looked like an idiot, but oh well, we're missionaries. 

We also had a cool miracle. ... eh I'm outta time but I love y'all! Have a great week!

Elder Russell

The Priesthood is real / faith urges you to keep the commandments

So, this week I'll have to do a quick little update but if I type fast it might be a long one (hopefully! There's always so much I have to tell y'all!)

One person I have to tell you about is Myran. The other day we had President Ashton out with us (he was in the area because he was doing interviews with the missionaries in the zone and he asked me after if we had any appointments he could join us at). We went and taught Myran. It was a great lesson. He's an awesome guy. He's probably about 5 foot 6 inches--pretty short, and he seems really sober whenever we talk with him but he's also a professional boxer. He was telling us about how he got into it and it's pretty cool. He was hanging out at a boxing gym one time and at this point he hadn't really boxed ever and didn't have any amateur experience but a pro boxer was warming up and needed someone to spar with. Myran offered and as he was sparring with him myran hit his forearm when the guy was trying to block a punch and it broke his forearm. The coach didn't know what to do because this guy had to go into the ring pretty soon so he talked with myran and he was able to be the replacement. He did really good and won the match. He said he punched the guy so hard that he literally knocked the snot out of him haha. Anyway, he's a really cool guy! We hope he's able to progress. 

Last night We were knocking on a less-active member's door and right before she answered a guy walked past and said, "I need a pamphlet." right then the lady answered the door so I started talking to her and Elder Theis started talking to the guy that had just walked by. The lady I talked to had been going through a really hard time and it was really good to talk with her and invite her back to church. While I was talking with her Elder Theis talked to the guy walking past, it was kinda weird, the guy told him how he'd just been jumped and stabbed in the arm three times and it looked really bad. But he hung around and Elder Theis taught him a lesson and prayed with him. The guy told him about his kids back home and cried as Elder Theis prayed with him. He said he was walking home after we met with him (which was about 15 miles away). He was a really cool guy.

We got a text earlier this week from the Alexanders and they asked if we could give their daughter a blessing of comfort (we didn't know how they really knew about a priesthood blessing, they said they just researched it. They are amazing with that stuff, they subscribed to the Friend magazine and the Ensign before we told them about them. They also watched the District (those reality missionary videos). They are amazing!). The blessing was really good. We really felt the Spirit. They are an amazing family. After the blessing they told us that they wanted to be baptized. Elder Theis and I just prayed and thanked God the first thing when we got outside. They have so much good ahead of them. I love that family. 

I don't know if I told y'all last week but Virginia (the lady who just got baptized) has had some health problems with her back lately and has had to be on bedrest. She couldn't even really move. It was really serious. She was constantly in pain. We gave her a blessing last week and I really felt the Spirit confirm to me that she would get better. This week when we stopped by she was sitting up more and said she can walk now. The Priesthood is real. It was a cool miracle.

Well, I love y'all!

Elder Russell, have a good week!

Well how are you guys doing? I am really doing good, this is a picture of me if you couldn't tell. the man on my left is my boy marvin breton and to my right is the boss . just kidding on the left is president McMullin and his wife, as i said they are really nice people, my companion Elder Breton has told me some really funny things about them. He told me once that president went up and asked a random teenager if he sent him a text about the lds church, and then when he was finished he was proud that he got the reference, he isn't that crazy though and he and his wife are really nice. i know i said that but everyone says that, they actually are really nice people. My companion is really cool, he has been out here for a bit longer than a year and he really is a good missionary. I have learned a ton, not just of Spanish, i have really learned about the Gospel, yesterday when i was studying, i read in d&c and it sort of seemed repetitive and i started to wonder what Joseph Smith was doing while He received the Revelations,  i opened up in the book of mormon to one of my favorite chapters, alma 34 and i read around there and other alma chapters, it talked about faith and i could really feel the Spirit strong. the gospel is simple. The first principle of the gospel is faith, then of course it is repentance then baptism so on, but you start with faith, that faith needs to be in Christ, alma 32, D&C 93 talk about it, Christ is the word, or truth you need to plant in you heart, the faith nourishes it, your faith urges you to keep the commandments as you grow, you grow in all sorts of things including knowledge even until it is perfect. I think i had this experience so i could understand better how i gained a testimony so i can help others to gain it. We often challenge people to learn the gospel is true for themselves, now i get it better, if they exercise only a tiny bit of faith they might figure out why they are here and who they are, also what to do in life. lately i have been reading the book Jesus the Christ and D&C, especially section 93 it is really awesome there is no way Joseph Smith ever could have come up with that. 

right now we are teaching someone named Daniel he is really cool,  he is a great kid, he is humble and usually does what we ask for him to learn and know for himself, you can tell he is developing a testimony by the sacrifices he makes for the gospel. he has become my friend along with others we are teaching, This guy that lives across the street to him named Estan is really cool, they both have been baptized and Estan showed up at Church yesterday even though he wasn't feeling very good. if there is one thing i am learning right now it might be to have faith, 

it takes faith to understand why people don't except your message sometimes and why an angel doesn't appear to people when they pray all the time, i am also learning that this life is all about faith, we need to walk with faith rather than sight, anyone remember this "feel don't see" from that guy at olive garden a  little while ago, i think his name was justin, 

By the way something maybe some of the boys might find pretty cool is i think i saw a cicada, it was dead on the road, we noticed it because it was huge it is probably as long as my palm and half as wide and that is when its wings were not open. they make noise at night, they have a bunch of cool bugs here. i think it was Mom that asked me about the rain, it rains a lot it is nice that it does that because it is hot and very humid, at times it rains while the sun is out and it just gets more humid, also the roads are dirt so a lot of times they are muddy, it is sort of like in elder Russell mission when he talked about wearing his shoes out on  the way to the mission home to make it look like you've worked hard, because my shoes are always muddy and some of my books get wet on the cover so it looks like they have been used a ton

hmmm what other things have happened, a yeah  i was thinking the other day about a dream i had, jacob was in it and i was helping him and then he started talking to me in english, in the dream i remembered the scripture when Christ came and the babies could talk and they said things that were to great to be written so i decided not to ask jacob about that. Ha Ha It is funny what you know in your head without learning it,  here is an example sometimes when people learn the plan of salvation they say it is like they learned it for the second time, interesting.  i have had a lot of cool dreams, i want to tell you about another one i had, i was in my dream and i noticed i was dreaming, in my dream i thought it was interesting how i could think and watch my dream, in the dream when i noticed that i realized i had control of my dream and i started to move things around. i moved the walls out of the way and there was a landscape i started to destroy everything and then i had a good thought, what is the point of destroying things so i started to create things then my dream ended interesting i feel like i should tell you when i started to create things i saw a picture of the temple and then everything went white that is as far as i remember i think my dream was over. but anyway i found a cool scripture  about it the next day i think, I'm pretty sure that it is in D&C 93  the last part. yeah verse 35, well love you guys, i really like it when i get your letters most people don't get that many in one envelope, it takes a while for letters to get sent around, as i said just so you know it takes around a month or so for letters to get here.

Love ya,

Elder Seffker