Day 301 as a Missionary

Dear family,                                                                                      

Dad, when you asked if the weeks are flying for me, yes, they are flying very fast. Where have these past 300 days set apart as a missionary gone?!

Well today was fun! Elder Plata and I got permission from our leaders to go to Las Lomas to check it out and take photos. We went with Hermano Pio (Alfredo) and it was great! All of the members we talked to said it was like 10-20 minutes, but it turned out to be about an hour. haha whoops! And while we were there Pio said to us another hour and a half bus ride and we can go check out Ecuador. I was like "Yeahhhh maybe someday…" hahah that might be a little out of our permission. :)  But Las Lomas is home of the famous Tortas de Canela (Cinnamon cakes) Where it is 1 sol per cake. That is like 3 cakes for one dollar. We bought 8. hahaaha and MAN are they tasty!! I also bought Algarrobina, which is like honey made from the algarrobo tree, but that has a rather interesting taste... not quite as sweet as honey. hahaha  but we are having a lot of fun out here in the mission! Hopefully I can get the pictures sent to y'all.

As for the T family, their 7 year old son and 15 year old daughter came to church!! But the others didn't... Sounds like L went to work in his Moto taxi... And the mom was doing laundry, from the reports of those who did attend. They gotta start keeping that Sabbath Day holy if they wanna hit their baptismal date! This week we will be working on that.

But good news! We now got 2 other investigators with a baptismal date! H and J!! They were former investigators that were going really well with the missionaries about a year ago, then they changed houses like 3 times in the same month and the missionaries could never find them again. But we found them!!! And with them they have set their own date for marriage AND baptism!! So the 26th of July should be a powerful day for them! The thing with them is H is always working far from Tambo Grande and it has been hard to get lessons on a consistent basis, and they are also visiting his family in Sullana pretty often since his mom sounds like she is struggling with cancer. They are super awesome, they told me they want me here for the marriage and baptism, so hopefully all goes well, because it is looking like the 26th of July will be my last weekend here. But they can make it as we work smart and keep them in our prayers. :)

Oh! About the weather. We are in a phenomena down here. Normally now it is cooler, like last September in Sechura I would use a sweater at night. But this year it got super hot for summer and it hasn't gotten cool again! They say it looks like Summer will be until about August here! So as for the weather, for a time it was cloudy for like 3 weeks and I was getting my hopes up that is was starting to cool down, then BOOM the heat came back!! So that sure is nice ;) But I think I heard they also expect a lot of rain coming the next year, since this year there was hardly anything at all!! The weather is going crazy, you can see that the second coming is not too far away.

As for the World Cup, it is on everybody's TV. We have lost Pio as a member helper in visits because of it. hahah so we hear a lot about it and I even use it sometimes as a conversation to get people to get more confident in us. I also give everyone here and my companion a lot of teasing since Peru and Bolivia didn't make it to the World Cup, and USA did. That has been really fun. And for that I really hope they make it to the next round.

For new investigators, we are finding a few! We found a couple that quit going to their old church because the atmosphere and the people were not exactly loving. So we came in and explained how our church meetings are and tonight we are going to teach the restoration. They aren't married but they seem like a sincerely interested couple. Also we got a family that the missionaries used to teach and we passed by yesterday. They said they would love for us to come visit and talk and teach but they said, "Look, I will tell you right now I am not going to church. When I told the last missionaries that they quit coming, so just a heads up." And I was like, "OK. Yeah no worries!" Just like Ali mentioned in her letter, when the holy spirit touches their heart, their heart changes. We've just got to build their desire and their FAITH to act. So that will be a fun family to work on that and see how it goes.

This work is awesome, I feel my abilities and knowledge grow daily. I also am growing in my ability to recognize and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, due to the teachings of my companion to me. And I am very grateful for that. Every night I pray for the ability to receive the energy to work just as hard the next day, and I pray in the morning that I may work with diligence. I just gotta get up on time and I have felt the Lord bless me with the ability to fulfill my calling. This is His work and we cannot do it without His help.

The church is true, and I love it! I LOOOVE the scriptures, I hope you are all reading them DAILY. My hour personal study is never enough time to study and read all I want to. I hope you all study them daily!

Love you all, talk to ya next week!

Elder Collin Russell

Our visit to Las Lomas

Sunday is "Game Day" for Missionaries

Dearest family!                                                   

Happy, Happy Late Fathers Day!! Dad, sure love you! You're letter about hot air balloons sure got me thinking. I just might start searching for a great new P Day activity, even though I have not seen a single one yet in Peru.

Sunday is always game day for us missionaries to see how things are going in the work. This Sunday morning we passed by a couple members and investigators to invite them to church and check up to see if they were getting ready. But the main focus was once again the T family. We passed by with 15 minutes until church started. We are walking up to the house and L is outside on his Moto Taxi. We walk up and say "Hey you ready to go to church?" He said "No... I'm going to work." We kinda went "...oh, alright." And he told us to go knock the door that his family was getting ready. So we went up and yep! Two of the kids were all ready. Then the wife came up and she said she was getting all set and ironing the clothes for her other daughter. So that was a good sign! We turn around and L was about to head off and man I was REALLY wanting to get him to church but didn't know what to do. I asked "Can you attend just for the first hour?" "No Hermano..." "ah, yeah ok…" And he left. And honestly he looked rather bummed out or weighed down from that encounter. But he left. We told his wife we would wait for them but they needed to hurry, they said no, just wait at the church and she walked back to get ready. So we were sitting there... do we wait? We are also two of the very few priesthood brethren and we bless the Sacrament every week so we couldn't be late. So we called over a moto to leave. Right as we tell the guy where we are going, we get in and start to leave. And then L drives over and stops and walks into the house not saying anything to us. Then we were off to church.

We started Church. I was honestly convinced they weren't going to come, but I still had a little hope. Then BOOM! In walks the three kids! Then walks in L!!!! The bummer is his wife didn't come though. But we got L finally with a church attendance to work with!

It seems like he wasn't too thrilled to be there for 3 hours... I think he was kinda preoccupied about needing to work, but we had some good classes and us Elders gave some spectacular talks in Sacrament ;) haha and at one point there was something super awesome that gave me hope for the family:  L wanted to go after the 2nd hour. He actually called out to his daughters in YW class saying "hey let's go", and they SHOOK THEIR HEADS NO!!! WOO!! I was doing a lot of mental fist pumps. We got very good reports about the girls and it looks like they loved church! Now we got to work on a more spiritually edifying time for L. I mean he seemed to learn a lot and enjoy the classes, but when you got your mind focused on work it is a little harder for the spirit to touch your heart as strongly. But there is the first step.

I am super excited and thankful they attended. We are starting to get great results from the whole family. The husband and wife have the baptismal date set for the 12th of July, and I think a baptismal date set for their daughters could be right around the corner. We are also going to teach their older daughter and invite her boyfriend to start taking the lessons too. Pray for this family!!

And other good news, I am staying here in Tambo Grande! It looks like I will have 6 months here in Total, so 6 more weeks. I am super glad. Also that is perfect because H wants me as his best man or something like that for his wedding for the 26th of July, so that is rather exciting :)

Things keep rolling along! Elder Plata and I are working really hard! I hope we can find a lot of new investigators and baptize families. I love this gospel.

My talk in Sacrament was about the Book of Mormon. I know that book is true. I love that book more than anything, it helps me so much. If you need help with ANYTHING. Anything at all, spiritual or temporal, trivial or life changing, the Book of Mormon contains everything necessary to bring true happiness and joy in this life and the life to come.

I love you all! Keep being awesome!

Atte:

Elder Collin Russell

My recent trip to Lima...

 Pizza with the gringos

 Living the good life with Elder Miller

Agency

Hello Dearest Family!                                         

Things are going well here in Tambo Grande! We are in the final week of the transfer sessions, and man did it blow by!! There is a chance I will be leaving, but more likely is that I stay to finish training Elder Plata. And that is what I want to do, even though 6 months in the end seems like so much time to have in one area. But I don't want to leave just yet! So we will see.

Elder Plata and I are facing some rough times... L and his family didn't make it to church yesterday. So his baptismal date for the 28th fell. I think Elder Plata was on the edge of tears, and I was honestly feeling crushed myself. We even passed by their house before to make sure they were coming and they were all getting ready to go!! We couldn't go with them because we told a blind member we would take him to church (a member used to take him weekly but it has been about a month since he got to go, so I thought that would be good for him, (and it was) but maybe it was that extra attention the family needed in order to attend. We have to respect their agency and give them the opportunity to show their personal desire and diligence, but it was heartbreaking.

With this goal of 6 baptisms for the month, our big plan fell so we are trying to see what else we can do. This goal has really upped my diligence and emotion for the work. Like the prophets in the Book of Mormon would mourn and weep for their cities, I have found all of my thoughts and prayers turning to them and when they don't keep the commitment you understand why the prophets wept. You feel sincere love for these people and the desire for them to participate in these covenants fills your entire being. We are continuing to work hard and keep our diligence full throttle.

We have been finding new investigators and hidden less actives and that has been good! We found H and J, two former investigators. What happened with them is they were all set to get married then baptized, then H's mom got sick and they had to use the marriage money for her. Then they moved several times and the missionaries lost track of them. We spent 2 hours one day asking the town for where they lived and we finally found them!! And they are AWESOME. They have everything set to get married, they just need to set the date, and they have super strong testimonies from before and want to be baptized! The thing is they want to wait until August 24th for marriage, for the 1st birthday of their daughter. But we are starting to work on getting them married and baptized before. The last lesson I mentioned I think I will be leaving Tambo Grande in the end of July, and they said that they will get married before I go, so that is super great!! I think they want me as one of the witnesses! haha so they are super great and fun to be around and I think they will really start to progress more and more now.

Oh!!!!!! LATEST NEWS!! ELDER INOCENTE IS NOW ENGAGED!! 

Well gotta go! Love you all!!

Elder Collin Russell

Tacos with Hermano Morales on P-Day

Fearless

Dearest Family,                                                                              

Well it looks like Elder Plata and I have found a faster internet site here in Tambo Grande!! So good news, you will be getting more photos Mom! At least I think so. haha the bad part is this space bar is killing me. If I start typing without space bars, it is because this one doesn't move too easy... haha

But this week has been good!! The bummer deal is we only got 3 full days in the area. With Lima, Interviews, and New Missionary Conference, it was a little busy! But still we are seeing progress!

First off, we now have an investigator with a date for the 28th of June. We've just got to get him to church and he will be golden. The problem is he works in Paita Sundays recently, so the plan is to teach the Sabbath Day real solid this week so we can get that settled and help him work on that. We also invited his oldest daughter and wife to be baptized. We learned that his wife was baptized around 20 years ago in the church "Dios es Amor" and she doesn't want the same experience. With that, her parents and siblings were pressured into it, went to a river and got baptized and really didn't understand what it was all about or really anything about the church. So now she isn't accepting because she wants to understand. So I am really glad she understands the importance, honestly we shouldn't baptize people who don't understand! So we are going to work with her answering all of her questions. So she is really starting to open up, which is great! She knows the date is still open for her too to be baptized the 28th. We also need to keep her motivated to read, for now she isn't reading too effectively. But she finally prayed for the lesson and that was AWESOME!! So step by step. :)

Their daughter also said not yet, she isn't fully "convinced", but she said she believes she will later on! So there is a growing seed we can see. We will be working for a later date with her. But she is growing a testimony!

This week we got lots of new investigators planned to visit!! And FAMILIES! So in order to get our goal of 6 baptisms, we've got to find them this week so they can attend church enough beforehand. So pray for us, we are going to work real hard! :) I am loving how we are working! I have honestly been missing investigators progressing for baptism, it has been a while.

During our weekly planning we have companionship inventories. This week my companion's point of strength for me was that I am fearless. HAHA! Here is the story: I had been thinking this week, man, we really got to work hard in these few days if we want to get those baptisms! And since I got out on the mission I have been thinking about proselyting on a bus. So Thursday coming home we are on the bus and the classic guy selling his chocolates walking down the aisle does his performance, and I was there thinking, we should do it today. So he gets off the bus, and I look over to my companion, "you have pamphlets?" He had 1. I was like "All right, we are up! Come on!" And I found myself getting up and walking to the front of the bus! And my companion is a shy kid and he didn't believe what I had just said! We get up front and I introduced who we were and a little about our purpose. I explained we would be passing around pamphlets and for people who were interested or had questions, I explained the direction and time of our church services. Then we handed out the pamphlets and we ran flat out! haha Sadly none of them have come to church yet, but it was a good practice and now we are planning on how to do it better and be better prepared. It was a fun experience!!

Well, I hope all is well back home!

I love you all!! Keep up the good work!

Con amor y felicidad,

Elder Collin Russell

 Norky's!

Hmmm…. Can you guess which side is Collin's? (oh, my goodness!!)