pictures

                               This is Mike's new area! He loves the people and his companion.

K so I'm not sure the story behind all the hair missing off his leg....ouch!

transferred into another area

So I can give y'all a quick update I don't have a lot of time today. So I got transferred into another area. I'm now in ClearLake kind of by League City. It's just south of Houston. My new companion is Elder Baird. He's from Provo, Utah. He's awesome! We're loving the new area. It's a new area, the ward used to be just sister missionaries but now we hopped in too. The Ward has some awesome members! We've only met some of them but I love it already. It's good to see some full size families now! 

So this week has been a really really long one. So much has happened but it's been all good! We had a really good Christmas meeting as a mission yesterday. it was so fun! I got to see Ephraim's rescue. That's an awesome show. Mom, I remembered some of the stories you had told me about him when I watched the movie. I loved that movie though. 

Well, I gotta get going but I love y'all. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Elder Russell

hard to leave

Ya soooo I've been in this area for ten months and I love it! but this morning we got transfer calls (they tell us who's staying in their areas and who's leaving) and I'm getting transferred! It'll be hard to leave this ward and the members and the people we're teaching. It'll be interesting to be in a different area though. I don't know where or who with yet but I will find out Wednesday. So I don't know for sure what I'll be doing to skype y'all but maybe a member or someone will call you and work that out. haha Sorry it's hard to tell right now because I don't know exactly where I'll be. we'll figure it out. 

This week was really cool. I don't have a ton of time to talk about it but I'll tell ya a cool thing that we helped with. There was an organization that is called 'elves and more' and they donate bikes to kids who work hard in school and can't afford them or something like that, but anyway. We helped load 8,000 bikes into semi trailers. We would tightly fit a row of bikes together and then stack cardboard on top of them and stand on top and stack more. It was really cool. I wish we got some pictures. Well I'm outta time but I love y'all! Have a good one! 

Elder Russell

He takes us out of the 'hole' that we dig for ourselves if we do everything we can. He loves us so much

So first off, those pictures I sent are from a relief society thing we sang at. It was really good. We've taught some really great people this week. Zach is doing great as always. He's progressing really well. He's really smart. He's going to get baptized on January 11th. He's going to be out of town for a few weeks but he gets back on the 11th. He said, "Hey Elders is there any way that I can get baptized right when I get back from the airport? We're blessed to be teaching him. Some other people we met this week are Richawnda and her daughter Arisia and their neighbor Princess (cool names huh?). We were going to teach her son as well but I think he got kicked out of the house. They're a great family though. I'll update you on them next week. We also taught a really cool lesson with this guy named Heribel. When we met with him we were talking about baptism and challenges he's going through. The lesson was really guided by the Spirit. Every time we'd pull out a scripture or something he told us how that hit him really hard. He told us how he was hesitant to make a big choice or to be committed to baptism or church because he felt like he would just fail.  We were prompted to give him an analogy of how his life was at that moment and I started explaining it, "Heribel, so think of things this way, imagine yourself in this hole and.." and then he interrupted and said, "Exactly! I kept thinking of that" and he told us how he had been thinking that before. Then I explained, "you don't want to try to climb out of the hole because you know that on your own you can't. You know that you'll just fall back in. But I want to tell you that when you do every thing you can, you'll get almost to the top and right when you may feel you're just about to fall in Christ will reach out His hand and pull you up. He fills in where we cannot. He takes us out of the 'hole' that we dig for ourselves if we do everything we can. He loves us so much He will do that for us." (this may not sound as good as it did in the moment, when the Spirit is there touching all of our hearts it makes the analogy make more sense and it was really spiritual haha:) We had a really good week. Anyway, I gotta get going. I love y'all and hope ya have a good week!

love, Elder Russell

shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge

So this week...

I'll just give a few of the highlights.

So on thanksgiving we first at with some of the people we've been teaching (Eli's family). It was really good. Earlier on in the week they had planned just to be eating normal thanksgiving dinner because they didn't have any money but this lady at their work gave them some money to have a dinner. It was really good. It was all of the usual Thanksgiving foods with a little mexican style to them. (very good). Later we ate with some members--the Hunter's (I think Sister Hunter called you [mom], she's awesome, she made the yams with your recipe I guess and they were really good!). Ya those dinners were back to back so we got pretty full. 

I also need to give y'all an update on Zach. Man, that guy is awesome! we had a lesson with him on Saturday morning and we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. When we started teaching him the word of wisdom I asked, "so have you heard of this principle before?" and he answered, "Oh, yeah. Actually I've been living the word of wisdom for about a year now. I used to smoke a few years ago and my girlfriend suggested to live it and so I did and I even stopped drinking caffeine." We were pretty surprised. We then read through the blessings in the Doctrine and Covenants, "And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments shall receive health in their navels and marrow to their bones," and Zach said, "oh yeah I've seen that for sure," then we'd continue, "and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;" "Oh I've definitely seen that as well." "and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint," "yep", "and I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen."... he noticed all of the blessings in his life. Then we taught the law of Chastity. After going through it he told of how he was living it with his girlfriend now and how it's enabled them to have a deeper love and trust and how it's been so much better than past relationships. After that we asked him about his baptism and if he had been thinking about it at all (he had previously dropped his first baptismal date because he felt like he needed to learn more). He said, "ya, I actually wanted to talk about that. I think I'm ready for baptism. What's the procedure?" So we're planning for that pretty soon. He reads the scriptures every day and really thinks about what he reads. He even reads additional things like the gospel principles manual to help him learn. It's a perfect example of just doing the simple things like coming to church and reading and praying and how those lead to blessings and to a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. Some other people I've taught that haven't gained a testimony didn't do these things. They didn't read the Book of Mormon, they didn't pray, and then they are surprised when they don't get the witness that we teach them about. I wish everyone would realize how great the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It only brings happiness. It only brings peace. It only brings you closer to Heavenly Father. Every single one of the people I've taught that sincerely have read and sincerely have prayed and act on the truth they gain by coming to church have had the Spirit testify to them of the truth of the Gospel. I love the Gospel! 

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

Elder Russell

health in their navels and marrow to their bones

So this week...

I'll just give a few of the highlights.

So on thanksgiving we first at with some of the people we've been teaching (Eli's family). It was really good. Earlier on in the week they had planned just to be eating normal thanksgiving dinner because they didn't have any money but this lady at their work gave them some money to have a dinner. It was really good. It was all of the usual Thanksgiving foods with a little mexican style to them. (very good). Later we ate with some members--the Hunter's (I think Sister Hunter called you [mom], she's awesome, she made the yams with your recipe I guess and they were really good!). Ya those dinners were back to back so we got pretty full. 

I also need to give y'all an update on Zach. Man, that guy is awesome! we had a lesson with him on Saturday morning and we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. When we started teaching him the word of wisdom I asked, "so have you heard of this principle before?" and he answered, "Oh, yeah. Actually I've been living the word of wisdom for about a year now. I used to smoke a few years ago and my girlfriend suggested to live it and so I did and I even stopped drinking caffeine." We were pretty surprised. We then read through the blessings in the Doctrine and Covenants, "And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments shall receive health in their navels and marrow to their bones," and Zach said, "oh yeah I've seen that for sure," then we'd continue, "and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;" "Oh I've definitely seen that as well." "and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint," "yep", "and I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen."... he noticed all of the blessings in his life. Then we taught the law of Chastity. After going through it he told of how he was living it with his girlfriend now and how it's enabled them to have a deeper love and trust and how it's been so much better than past relationships. After that we asked him about his baptism and if he had been thinking about it at all (he had previously dropped his first baptismal date because he felt like he needed to learn more). He said, "ya, I actually wanted to talk about that. I think I'm ready for baptism. What's the procedure?" So we're planning for that pretty soon. He reads the scriptures every day and really thinks about what he reads. He even reads additional things like the gospel principles manual to help him learn. It's a perfect example of just doing the simple things like coming to church and reading and praying and how those lead to blessings and to a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. Some other people I've taught that haven't gained a testimony didn't do these things. They didn't read the Book of Mormon, they didn't pray, and then they are surprised when they don't get the witness that we teach them about. I wish everyone would realize how great the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It only brings happiness. It only brings peace. It only brings you closer to Heavenly Father. Every single one of the people I've taught that sincerely have read and sincerely have prayed and act on the truth they gain by coming to church have had the Spirit testify to them of the truth of the Gospel. I love the Gospel! 

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

Elder Russell

well, you're gonna have a --- of a time trying ta get me back together, ma wife's gonna cremate me and pour me over the Atlantic ocean

This week was really good! 

I'll go through the highlights

So Monday was a great day but I don't remember much of the details except that when we got home and were about to start planning the other missionaries that start in our apartment came in and we usually try to get straight to planning for the next day but if we have really good stories to tell each other we hurry and do and this was one of those times. Elder Lupton and McCleave came in and Elder McCleave had weird green stuff on his pants and they told us how someone did a drive by and shot him with a paintball gun. They were on their bikes and they were waiting for something and they just pelted him in the pants with a few shots. haha I was laughing so hard for a long time. It was pretty funny. Elder McCleave is so funny so it was ironic that it happened to him. Tuesday we taught this redneck guy named Dave. We were teaching him about the resurrection and after we read a few scriptures he said, "well, you're gonna have a --- of a time trying  ta get me back together, ma wife's gonna cremate me and pour me over the Atlantic ocean." 

Wednesday we helped sister shong weed that prairie that we've sent some pictures from before ( I think I sent some).

Friday we had a cool experience. We'd been working with a lady that hadn't come to church in like 30 years and she's started coming back now and is loving it so much that she invited all of the sets of missionaries over to her house for dinner. (There are 3 sets of missionaries (2 each)). Her husband is Jewish and I guess regularly they eat bread and juice and say some prayers to usher in the Sabbath (sundown of Friday to them is technically the beginning of the Sabbath--which to them who follow the law of moses is Saturday) It was kind of cool to see. Then we had a good meal and sang a lot of songs together. We sang a lot this weekend.

Saturday we had our friend Zach that we've been teaching come to the 'turkey bowl' with us with some of the Elder's quorum. He wasn't too much into football but we had a ton of fun. later was Hilario's baptism. He decided to attend a Spanish ward so that was the one that he got baptized into. I said the baptismal prayer in Spanish. It was also a cool experience (I couldn't understand any of the talks or anything so it was different haha, the Spirit was still felt though). After I baptized him while we were changing he told me that he wants to serve a mission. He's such a great guy. I'm excited for the good things he's got ahead of him. We also met with Zach on Saturday and he told us about some of the concerns or questions that he'd had. We were thinking they were going to be the usual concerns about the Book of Mormon or the Priesthood but he had just read through a lot of the Gospel Principles manual and his questions were like, "was there a gender of our spirits in our pre-mortal life?" he's a really deep thinker. He had a full page full of questions. I loved talking with him. We read a lot out of D&C 88, and 93 and the Book of Abraham and Moses. On Saturday we also had the adult session of Stake Conference. four of us sang 'brightly beams our Father's mercy.' it was really cool. I loved that meeting. It was all geared towards missionary work. On Sunday we had a musical/dessert night with the Rees' (I think you've met them before). We had a cool family from India come and Zach. Zach is AMAZING at the violin. He's studying Music at a school around here. He played some pieces by Bach. It was really good. Then we sang a few songs. The family from India plays Indian music. I think y'all could probably find them on Youtube if you looked up this, "David Courtney and Chandra Kantha" he said they were on there.

Well I gotta go, I love y'all.

Thanks for everything y'all do. I pray for you every day.

Elder Russell