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