Missionaryman: i really do feel like angels are with me at times! /Don't forget to read the Book of Mormon every single day!

oh yeah here is a report yesterday we ate at the branch presidents house it was good food, the culture is not to crazy sometimes you just need to expect the crazy, we talked with him on dinosaur theories and deep doctrine it sounded interesting but it was in Spanish so i started to zone out after about 15ish minutes or so
emailed Mike
ha ha ok well yeah he is really a cool person, mikes water jug, he only takes pictures of random things it is pretty funny
so this week was really cool, my companion is really great, he speaks English and Spanish and i am learning a lot.ha ha i bet the people here are wondering why i am laughing so much, that reunion thing was really funny in your letter, yeah that thing you were talking about at the first is interesting, how the Spirit just tells us what we need, i guess it is the same principle as parent, you know, parents that always tell their kids what to do and the kids cant do anything.
also what is going on at the house
so do you have any questions, maybe like why i haven't sent pictures, well i don't think the camera is working but ill probably give you some soon from other peoples cameras
well yeah p days are on Monday, the Spanish is going good, want to know something interesting Monday in Spanish is lunes sort of like moon day. so i can speak very little and understand little, i can probably understand more than i speak. oh yeah there is a temple in Paraguay it seems like it will be nice i haven't seen it in real life yet, my mission president and his wife are really nice, thanks for putting my name in the temple, i really do feel like angels are with me at times, the living conditions are really nice,thanks for your example. love ya
Elder Seffker

Re: letter from Mom

Elder Mike Russell

9/15/14

To: harry and Patti seffker

BLOG:

Hey thanks for the emails and letters. I love em!

So this last week was a great one as usual! I'll just go through the update in random order.

The other day we were out trying some people we had talked to and we were in Ray's apartment complex (the same Ray that told us he didn't want to meet anymore that we had been teaching a lot) and while trying some people we saw that his car pulled up and his door opened. He seemed to be waiting to get out so Elder Theis and me just knocked on his neighbor's doors (luckily we knew all of them), we were able to stall enough time to catch him walking in and got to talk to him. He invited us in and had us sit down. We were able to talk and he told us how he has had a hard time sleeping because he told us he didn't want to meet anymore. We learned a lot of the reasons for why he had done what he'd done and it makes a lot more since. Shortly put he's had a very hard life which has cause a lot of skepticism with anything or anyone good and that was a big factor for him telling us what he had. He said now he wants to learn more and start reading and meeting again. It was a really spiritual lesson and at the end he gave one of the most heart-felt testimonies I've ever heard. It was amazing.

Another night we were out and it was getting close to the time when we needed to head back to our apartment and we had been trying to find another person to teach because we had prayed the night before and felt that there was someone we would find to start teaching consistently. We only had a little bit left in the night and wondered how we could find that person. We felt like trying by a girl we had passed by a few days previously. Her name was Celeste. We went over to her complex and apartment and as we walked up to it the lights were off and as we approached the upstairs neighbor of her was on the porch and said, "she's not down there she's up here." Then she walked inside. (this neighbor happened to be the wife of a man we had met the week before and had taught a little bit). Out came that man (David). He started talking to us a little bit and mentioned that Celeste was sick and probably wouldn't be up to talking. He started asking some questions about missionaries and the church though. We were able to talk about a lot. David is very intelligent and really likes to thoroughly research things. I love him. He knows more about the Bible and our church than some members haha. We explained the whole organization and structure of the church and explained the line of authority of the Priesthood (which he asked about). He has read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and the testimony of the 3 witnesses and the 8 witnesses and the testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. Next he's going to read 3 Nephi 11. As we were teaching Celeste came out and joined us. We were able to talk a lot about their experiences with gaining their testimonies of what they believed and it was great. We set up return appointments with both of them.

We also helped Brother hammond this week with tiling again. It looks good.

On friday I was on exchange with Elder Kemp (an exchange is when you switch companions for a day and one of the missionaries goes to the other area of the other missionary). I went to Elder Kemp's area. It was a good day. his area is a bike only area and that day it down-poured so we got soaked. My planner and handbook I had with me are still a tiny bit wet or damp from it. haha I love biking. When it was raining me and elder Kemp were having a blast and surprisingly there were still some people we were able to talk to outside. I loved it. We had a great day.

Well I gotta get goin. I love y'all! Have a good week! Don't forget to read the Book of Mormon every single day!

Love Elder Russell