"Too fow six"

well I kinda forgot what I was going to say to finish the letter from last week so sorry ya have to deal with that cliff-hanger. But ya for the update this week... We did quite a bit of service again. It's great I love it! We helped scoop and spread mulch at a park called Bell Park. It was really fulfilling seeing the park when it was all done. That same day after that project we helped distribute food at a senior/retirement center. We kinda got attacked by old asians there because when we brought the food up the elevator and the door opened they would all be waiting there and we'd try to explain "we have to bring it to your apartment door to drop it off" but most of them just spoke chinese or vietnamese so they just followed us tapping our shoulders saying "Too fow six", or "too sixateen" (their apartement numbers). It was a really good project though. we parked by this ice rink and there was a pile of snow outside of it and I got to throw a snowball (it felt so good!) it's weird how the weather isn't really changing here and the trees aren't dying or anything haha. On friday we helped a member and their neighbor take out the old fence in between their houses and put in a new one. 

We had a good lesson with a family we've been teaching. Their names are Silanche, Videstae, and Beltray. They're from Zambia. They're really fun to teach. We had a little trunk or treat with our ward (I'll try to send some pictures from it to y'all). Beltray was wearing this weird blonde wig. African + Blonde Mullet is a kinda weird mix. He's funny. We also had a good lesson with this awesome guy we've been working with. His name is zack. He's doing a music major in college right now and has played the violen pretty much his whole life so he's way good! at our lesson yesterday he played a fugue by Bach and it was so intense! I've never seen anyone's fingers move so fast. He's read the Book of Mormon and is starting on the D&C. 

Well that's pretty much the update for the week.

Love y'all.

Elder Russell

PS Thank you for the classical CD's! I love them! you guys are great!

Plan of Salvation

OK so I have a ton of stuff I wanted to update y'all on but the computers here at the library are being very slow so I'll have to sum it up a bit. 

So I have a cool story about Eli and his family (that 7 year old kid i was telling you about). We went by there house on Wednesday and knocked on the door and his mom answered and said it was a bad time. We asked if there was anything that we could do for them and they said, "Well I guess if y'all don't mind you could take the trash out" and so we told them we would. right before the mom shut the door the grandma (Nancy) said, "could y'all pray for me before ya go, I'm having some problems at work?" so we went in and listened to her and one of her daughters talk about how at work some of the employees are trying to get them fired and stuff like that so it's making it really hard on them because they are struggling to get by as it is. after listening we taught them a little bit trying to comfort them and then offered to give them Priesthood blessings. Nancy got one and then her daughter that works with her (Amanda) got one, then her other daughter and son wanted one as well (they're all older than 25). By the end Nancy was pretty touched. We said a prayer for the family then and for Eli who was asleep. They invited us over the next night and as we were leaving they asked if they could feed us sandwiches. So the next day we came by and they had prepared an amazing meal for us. It was really touching because they don't have much to give. They were all so nice to us. While we were eating Elder Iloilo was talking to half the family on the couch and I was talking to the grandma (Nancy) and she said, "Ya, know, I wanted to ask you a question, because I was talking to my son the other day and he was talking about where we go after this life" (we had planned before meeting with them to teach them the Plan of Salvation so I was thinking, wow, she's been prepared for this lesson, but it got even better). then she said, "as I've thought about it more and more I don't think that we go straight to have because there's a space in between when we die and when we're judged and resurrected." then I was thinking, holy cow! we were planning to talk about that today! and then she started talking about how she thought from what she read that there are actually three heavens. God had prepared her and her family for the lesson on the plan of salvation--I'll try to send the rest of this later cause I'm outta time. just wait to post it

King of the hill! :)

Priest. Hood. -Blessing

Hey Fam,
So, Thanks so much for the letters and the packages. I was so happy to
get those! It's so good to hear from you. I almost forgot about
Halloween coming up until you sent that stuff in the package. so, you
said some of the stuff in the package was for Eli, or was that another
package that's coming? I hope you weren't talking about the spider
rings and the fairy-wand/glowstick. I'd rather keep those for myself.
(Just kidding) But thanks, it means a lot.
This week was good as always.
So I don't know if I told you in a letter or an email, but one time I
told you about a guy named Bob that hasn't gone to church in a really
long time (probably around 20 years or more). He's the one that is a
trucker that does canning and dehydrates fruit. He's a really cool
guy. We've been meeting with him more frequently and reading the
scriptures with him. This Sunday he came to church and sat with us. It
was really cool. A huge part in bringing him back has been his
roomate--who's also named Bob (but we call him Robert). This room mate
of his is a guy who was recentally baptized within the last 2 or 3
years and he's pretty funny. He's one of the biggest rednecks I've
ever seen and is one of the most humble people I've met. He rides this
little motorized scooter he rigged up to church every Sunday because
he doesn't have a car. Every Sunday he shows up and had told us, "i've
been trying to get Bob out here but he just aint comin. We'll get'em
next Sunday though." The other day we were visiting with Bob and
Robert and the Bishop was there with us and Robert said,
"Now lemme tell ya Bishop, I'm no testimonial teller, but let me tell
ya a story. I one time at work was changing a cleaner--purple
industrial--so I stick a hose in the bucket and started to sift it
out. So I put my moulth on the hose and I sucked some up and got a
moulthfun, den I spit it and started throwin up. I went to da Hospital
and they said my asophagos was clos'n up so they wanted to drill
somethin. I told'em, 'now wait a minute here doc, I wanna wait a
minute till my friends get'er'. Then I called up my buddies and they
gave me a Priest. Hood. -Blessing. The doctor then came in and said,
'your asophagos opened back up.' "
He's an awesome guy. Now him and Bob are coming to church together.
Then later this week on Tuesday I think I already told ya but we went
to the Temple. It was great.
We were able to participate in a ton of service this week. I think
there were 5 projects we did within 3 days. One of them we helped a
lady do some gardening at a school; another one we helped put together
flyers for a company that fundraises money for MS; another we helped a
lady and her neighbor do some gardening; another one we turned the
dirt over in some medians (Here in Houston there's a strip of grass
and trees inbetween the two lanes of traffic on most rodes and they're
called medians), and we put moulch over it after; --I never would have
thought that all of that weeding I did at dad's work would have come
in handy, doing these projects with the weeds reminded me of the good
old days weeding there-- And the last project we did was we
voulenteered at a festival thing for a 'national neighborhood night
out'. We ran the activities. I was over the fan making booth. We
colored pictures of Mulan and glued them to another peice of paper,
then put a popsickle stick on the back... it felt like the same stuff
we used to do for Youth Council. It was pretty fun.
Oh and we also had a general authority come to our mission this week!
It was so awesome! His name is Elder Christoffel Golden. He spoke to
our mission about quite a few things. He expounded some really
interesting doctrines too. It was way cool meeting him.
Well Love y'all I gotta get goin.
Have a great week.
Elder Russell

"I'll take 3 Popsicles"

This week was awesome. We had a meeting for the mission where our President told us we're going to start opening the church buildings for the activities and things like that during the day (basically enacting the announcement from the mission president leadership broadcast in June or July (whenever it was)). So we're starting to plan the activities and things that will occupy the church building during the days.

Oh and I have to tell you about these cool desserts we had at a member's house this week. They're called banana boats I think. You just peel one strand of a banana out and scoop some of it out like a canoe and then fill it with chocolate and marshmallows then put the peel back over and wrap it in tinfoil and put it in the fire for a few minutes. They're way good.

On Wednesday we did some service with on of the members in the ward (That lady that sent you those pictures). It was way fun. We did some weeding at a school garden she works at. It might sounds weird but it felt good to pull some weeds. It's always good to have a little change once in a while.

On one day last week (I forgot which one exactly) we were going to an appointment for someone at 10am and they weren't home so we were hoping we could find someone else around them that would be around and available for a lesson and we tried a guy we've been working with lately and he was home and we read 2 Nephi 4 with him. Later we ran into this little kid named Eli that's probably like 6 or 7. He's really really hyper and is usually running around bugging people. Every time we see him he has asked us for pictures or books (because we had given him pass along cards with Christ on them). Then he usually runs away or hits us with a little twig or threatens to steal all our money and holds up a finger nail file. He's always getting into trouble. But we decided we'd ask him if he knew anyone that we could teach our message to. He told us we could teach his mom so we went over and they let us in and we taught them the Restoration of the Gospel. His mom and grandma had a lot of questions and it turns out they've had a really rough life. Eli's dad left his mom when she had a baby which died shortly after being born. Then Eli's grandpa passed away. I felt the Spirit pretty strong there. Later we were in that same complex and Eli told us to follow him to this random apartment that sells candy and he pulled out a dollar that probably meant a lot to him and said, "I'll take 3 popsicles". he then asked us what our favorite colors were and gave me and my companion each one. It softened my heart a bit that he would be willing to share some of the very little money he gets with us.

Anyway, Conference was amazing!! I loved all of the talks. All of the sessions were full of great messages. Y'all should let me know of your favorite lines and/or talks that ya heard. I loved Elder Russell M. Nelson's talk at the end of the Sunday morning session. It was great. Thanks for your email and everything. I love y'all. Have a good day, and week!

Elder Russell

Spirit was really strong

Fam-
> So as I told ya last monday, my old companion is in Austrailia now. On
> wednesday I got a new one. His name is Elder Iloilo. He's from West
> Valley. Man, he is awesome! We get along great! He's Samoan. We've had
> a good week. The other elders in our apartment are now Elder Lupton
> and Elder McCleave. Elder McCleave is new and he's way awesome too.
> He's really musical. We sing a lot in our apartment, it's way fun.
> Y'all should send us some good quartett music for us to sing. Elder
> Iloilo plays the Ukelele (I forgot how to spell it and this cpu
> doesn't have spell check). He's way good. So here's a kind of funny
> story about him. On Thursday we were driving home at the end of the
> night and in the middle of the rode there was a car with it's hazards
> on and so we pulled over and found out the guy had ran out of gas. He
> was driving an SUV and there was a gas station pretty near. It was
> right in front of a stoplight where he was. Elder Iloilo was like,
> "just follow behind me" and he got out and pushed the SUV by himself
> to running speed all the way to the gas station. He's pretty big.
> Later this week we've met quite a few new people and hopefully will be
> teaching them all this week. One night we were on our bikes and we
> were locking them up at this apartment and this girl was walking by
> kind of out of our path so I thought we wouldn't talk to her but Elder
> Iloilo started talking to her and we learned that she was a
> non-practicing jew and has been slowly going through life. By the time
> I got over (I wasn't over there at first cuz I was locking up our
> bikes) we told her about the Book of Mormon and about us being God's
> children and Him being our Father. I guess it's kind of hard to
> explain on email but the Spirit was really strong there. She was
> speechless and started to tear up. It's kind of interesting the places
> and times that the Spirit works on people. Sometimes in a place where
> I think the Spirit wouldn't be there, He testifies the strongest to
> people.
> We've been doing a little bit more biking now that I'm with Elder
> Iloilo. He likes to and I like to so why not right? In the morning for
> exercise we go on bike rides and they're way fun but there are a
> million misquitoes that end up going in our eyes and moulth. At least
> we don't have to eat breakfast after but I think we're going to have
> to get safety goggles and a bandana so they aren't as bad.
> Well, I gotta get going. I love y'all so much! thanks for the emails
> and packages. Have an awesome week!
> Elder Russell
> 

Bible study with the Book of Mormon

It's been a good week. I don't have a ton of time on email today
because I'm dropping my companion off at the mission office. He got
his visa and is going to Australia today! Crazy right? He's been my
companion for 12 weeks so it'll be sad seeing him go. I get a new one
on Wednesday ( that's when our transfer meeting is). In the meantime
(between after I drop off my comp. and until I get a new one) I will
be in a trio with the missionaries in my apartment. They're awesome so
it'll be way fun.
This week we went to the funeral for that guy I mentioned last time.
It was pretty sad thinking he won't be around anymore. He was an
awesome guy. He had some pretty crazy stories about things he went
through (he kind of seems like someone that would be from Grandpa
Hicks' side of the family). It was really great how hopeful the
funeral was though. LDS funerals are great in that way because we have
a hope of where they are and know that we'll see them again.
We've been working a bit with our friend Asefa. He's awesome. He works
crazy hours. The other day we went over to teach him and he had just
walked in the door from work. It was about 7:30 and he started work at
3 that morning and didn't even eat anything all day. He's a really
good person. He's already telling all of his friends that he Bible
studies with about the Book of Mormon.
On friday we were walking around trying some people we had been
working with and it started to sprinkle rain and we were headed back
to the car but then my companion said, "oh man, can you see that wall
of rain coming at us?" and then we started sprinting to the car and by
the time we got there (it was only like 30 seconds later) we looked
like we'd just jumped into a pool. It rains really hard. And we were
in a hurry to get to a meal appointment with some members so we just
had to go straight there in wet clothes. On the way we had the AC on
full blast so it kinda helped..
Man, I wish I could tell ya more but I gotta go now. I hope y'all have
a great week! Love ya!
Elder Russell