why do we need another book?

So here's the update for the week. I'll start off with tuesday. We met with a guy named Frank that hasn't come to church in quite a while. We've started out just teaching him the basics and the lessons have been going pretty good. We're putting a big emphasis on working with the less-active members. Later that night we had a ward gathering at this pizza place called Cici's. It's a pizza buffet. We had a contest to see who could eat the most pieces. I ate like 14 I think but I got last place. my companion ate like 21 I think.

We met with Hilario again during the week. He's doing great. He's really excited for his baptism this week. (I am too). He's made quite a few changes in his life lately and he seems really happy. He's reading every day out of the Book of Mormon, he's stopped playing soccer on Sunday to obey the Sabbath, he's stopped drinking coffee to obey the Word of Wisdom. He's got a lot of faith.  I'm trying to learn a little bit of Hebrew every time we meet with him but it's really hard so I haven't learned a lot haha.

We met with Nancy and her family (Eli's grandma) and when we came in and asked if they're read and prayed about the Book of Mormon she told us how she had only read the Bible and wouldn't read the Book of Mormon and won't read it or be baptized. We talked for a while and shared scriptures and bore testimony. It was a very spiritual lesson. They said that they would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It's interesting with all of the concerns she brough up of why she wouldn't read it (the usual one's like, "the bible says don't add or take away" and "why do we need another book?" and other common concerns), I answered all of the concerns with scriptures and tried to prove things but until we just bore testimony and left the Spirit to prove to her she wouldn't commit to read. The answer to the questions all lies on if the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, then Joseph Smith was also a man of God, a Prophet, and the Priesthood was brought back to the earth. If these things are true, nothings else matters. I love sharing with people what Nephi said, "hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good"( 2 Nephi 33:10).

Well I gotta get going. I love y'all and hope ya have a good week!

love, Elder Russell

He loves reading

Hey thanks for the email. It's really good to hear the updates on everything and to see the pictures.Ya, I have a bit of time in the mornings and at lunch sometimes to practice on the keyboard. I tried to make a little morning schedule so I could work out time to practice sightreading Hymns I don't know. It's kinda worked out so far haha. And ya Hilario should have been baptized last week but he hadn't set up an appointment with the Bishop yet. We talked with him last night and decided on Either November 30 or Dec. 7. He's doing really good though; we gave him a True to the Faith book and he loves it, he reads through all of the topics that he doesn't know. Lastnight we brought our friend Brother Alonzo with us. This guy is awesome I have to tell ya about him. He was baptized last year one Dec 22 (I know the date because he tells everyone he meets). He had lived a pretty bad life before then and made some really big changes. He used to ride his church 8 miles every Sunday and he's really solid now. He moved into our ward temporarily because he had lost his job. We're lucky to have him. When we came over to his place last week (which was a tiny room in his brother's house) it was all really clean and he had a little bed and a small desk in there with The Book of Mormon, The Bible, the Doctrine and convenants and the Pearl of Great Price and the Gospel Principles manuel all spread out perfectly on his desk. He loves reading them. When we took him out teaching with us this week he was--at first--a little scared because he's still really new and hadn't ever taught before. He wrote down notes and printed out papers from Lds.org to share with the people we were teaching. It was awesome. He's just a good humble guy I wish y'all could meet him. 

We did some service at a lady's house who was recently widowed in the ward. She had a backyard with a bunch of overgrown trees that were getting a little crazy so I had to take the chance to climb all of the trees and cut down any branch that needed cut. It was a really fun. I love service.

On Sunday we had dinner with an awesome family--the Stays. Brother Stay had invited some friends from school over. They were a chinese couple. Their names were Feng (or Ben) and Ruya. They were awesome. We taught them the restoration and at one point Ben was telling us about a little spiritual experience he had that led him to marry his wife. He saw her in his class at grad school in China and he heard something say to him "this is your wife." As he was telling this story it would have been pretty cool or romantic or whatever but his wife was making this face like she just ate a snail or something and was like, "Ya I didn't even know him, it is very weird!" they were a funny couple haha. They really liked the message though. We gave them a Book of Mormon and Brother and Sister Stay are going over to their place soon to talk to them about it again.

Well, Thanks for the email. I love y'all! have a good week! Share the Gospel with EVERYONE!

Elder Russell

He loves us and wants all men to partake of His salvation (2 Nephi 26:24)

So the update for the week.
It's been really great. We're starting to see some awesome
improvements with things in the area. We got calls this morning
telling us whether or not we'd be moving to another area (or be
transfered). I was certain I'd be transfered because I've been here in
this area for like 9 months! But I'm staying! I'm so glad. I love the
people in the ward and the people we're teaching and my companion's
awesome!
So earlier this week we had our district meeting and it was great and
then we were going to go eat lunch but the other missionaries had to
go somewhere else so Elder Iloilo and I went to eat at this awesome
restaurant down here called Jerry Built, we just ate with the owner of
the place cuz we're pretty big hot-shots around here. Just kidding,
but the owner really did eat with us, he knew some members of the
church and talked to us about how much he respected the church and
stuff. He was a really nice guy.
We've been spending some time teaching Hilario still (I've talked
about him in the past a lot) he's doing great. he should be getting
baptized within the next couple weeks. It's amazing seeing the growth
he's had since i've known him. He also gave me this keyboard last
week. it's been really good to be able to play the piano more, we
don't have a ton of time to play it but when we do it's great.
On Halloween we had a normal day. It was a good one though. To start
it off we did some service with that fence I mentioned about helping
with last week. we put it up all the way. During that morning it was
raining really really hard and some of the streets were flooded with
about a foot of water. We were so drenched by the time we were done
putting up the fence. It was actually way fun. Later we were about to
head in for the night (we had to be inside by 7 on halloween night)
and some people had started trick or treating. They were like, "hey
it's the Mormons like from the play!" (the Book of Mormon Musical was
recently shown here in Houston) so we got to talk to them a little
bit.
Eli's family is doing pretty good. They're really busy so it's kind of
been hard for them to read and do some of the other things we're
teaching them about but they are progressing. When we went over there
on Friday Elder Iloilo was teaching the lesson and I was trying to
keep Eli entertained (I don't know if I told you but he don't focus on
one thing very well haha) so he pulled the pass along cards out of my
pocket and gave me half of the deck. They were all pretty much the
same and all had pictures of Jesus on them. He put a card down and
said, "alright who are you going to use now?" (I think he though of
them as pokemon cards) I kept putting down my cards and I thought we
would tie since we both had cards with Jesus on them but somehow he
won. We've been trying to help his mom and grandma to quite smoking.
We're going to focus on that this week.
We taught out investigator Zach on Saturday. He's doing great. He
knows the lessons pretty well and learns really fast. He came to
Church with us on Sunday and most people thought he was a member, one
guy asked him if he was an RM. He wore a suit and answered questions
and everything. He's doing really good.
On Saturday we went to a young women in excellence award night or
something like that because one of the girls we've been teaching was
there, her name is Silanche. Her and her two brothers (Videstae and
Beltray) are from Zambia and are an awesome family. Her brothers were
sitting with us during it and taught us a little bit of swahili (Thank
You: Asante, How are you: D'iambo, Goodbye: quede')
We also stopped by at the apartment of a guy we'd been teaching. His
name is Chris. We'd been teaching him a lot about the Word of Wisdom
and we'd made several plans to help him quit smoking. He'd had a hard
time with it but made a little progress. When we stopped by on
saturday his friend answered and she was crying and told us Chris got
caught with some drugs and hanging around the wrong people and is in
jail. She was picking up everything in their apartment and throwing
away most of it because she had no where to stay now that he was gone
and the rent wasn't payed. The sad part was seeing his little toddlers
wandering around in the house, the situation was pretty rough. I was
just thinking "if only Chris would have realized the saddness he could
have been saved from if he'd done more to follow God's commandments.
God's commandments really do free us. They save us from the cords the
devil binds people with (2 Nephi 2:22) The only reason God wants us to
follow Him is because He loves us and wants all men to partake of His
salvation (2 Nephi 26:24)."
Well sorry to end on kind of a sad story. here's a better one to end
on. So Bob (that guy that does canning and he's a trucker and
less-active) is now coming to church in a white shirt and tie. He's so
nice to us. Yesterday we shared a message about become like Christ
with him and he loaded us up with homemade bread and bread pudding and
rootbeer cake. He gave us this really good shepard's pie last week.
He's one of the most generous people I know.
Thanks for the email. I love y'all.
Elder Russell

"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