Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello family!!

THANK YOU so much for the Halloween packages from Mom, Dad and Logan, as well as the Hales family!! I got them today! That was a real sweet suprise!! Lots of goodies and I put up those Halloween decorations today just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving. :) But lots of awesome awesome stuff! Sadly here in Tumbes, packages seem to take more time to get here.

Well, R and M went back to church!! Just for the first hour this time, because M actually was NOT a fan.... She had to go do homework with a friend but when we showed up that morning, her Mom made her go with us. This Sunday was the primary program!! And for some of us, that is the best Sunday of the year, but for others, like M, she was hitting her leg with her fist like the whole hour bored... haha But R had a good time!! He was telling his Mom that he likes church, he would even like to become a missionary he told her!! And his mom was like, "well, you are 18, you can make your own decisions. If you like the church, go for it!" BOOM!! That was nice to hear. But yesterday we had a visit with M and her mom where they both told us that they just like to learn and listen but they don't want to go to church, just stick with Catholic. Luckily we had a stellar R.M. with us and we are just going to be working to get them reading the Book of Mormon, and with that they can see if it is true or not, and we can work from there. But great progress with R, but M hit a patch. But we are also getting her some friendships set in the church.

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Do you ever get the opportunity to play the piano?

About once every month and a half they ask me to play in the District Leader Training Meeting. I keep telling them, after over a year of areas without a piano makes a pianist very rusty. Maybe one of these days I will have an area with a ward piano... haha

How are things going with the plans for a big Ward activity?

a Big Ward Party not quite anymore... but we finally rescued Missionary night! Where the ward holds activity Friday night to help get all the members together along with any investigator or friend or anyone. We haven't had one in all of my time here, but we finally got it back and this Friday we will be holding it!

Do you have an example of when you really felt guided by the Spirit this week?

Well, this week I was on exchanges with Elder Cisneros in his area and they have an investigator who is just like Brother Rodriguez, for all of you who have seen The District 2 videos (Missionaries should know it, and it is also on BYU TV). It is an investigator who knows this is the true church, he is just scared to make the baptismal committment. But we taught an awesome lesson and the spirit was so strong both us missionaries felt it and really to hear what he felt, afterwards talking with Elder Cisneros we talked about what Elder Cisneros and Elder Moses need to do to help him get baptized. And we both felt that he can do it for the 20th of December. We told him to go to the temple grounds (he went on the stake temple trip to Guayaquil) and think and pray about baptism, and he went! But the spirit was so strong, I felt Him helping me in my form of teaching and what I was saying what what was really needed to be said. I just hope that man makes the decision.

Well, this week I am determined to get somebody with a baptismal date. The Tumbes stake is having a white night (group baptismal service) and President Rowley wants at least 25 baptisms that night. I want to find people for that date, and there is still a little time but we need to work super hard. This week I think we are going to go through all of the less actives in our area we can find, searching  for part member families and asking all of them for references. We also have a couple quality couples I think we could get in there. We have a couple options already but I need to pray hard about them. Pray that we can receive revelation this week and find those golden people and families.

Today for lunch we ate Sudado de Pescado (it means something like sweated fish) which is fish in a broth with tomato and onion and such, which is served with a side of rice. Well today our pensionista served it but it wasn't just fish, but also calamari and octupus!! like those little bitty octopus' whole alongside the fillete. THAT was a quality meal. I will send pictures. :)

Well, I love you all! I invite you all to continue studying and reading your scriptures and the words of the prophets. I am learning more and more how much I DON'T know and how much I WANT to know, with so little study time. Take advantage of every single day to learn something new, espeically of spiritual value. I seriously LOVE the scriptures. Recently I cannot get enough of the Bible, lots of treasures I never knew about in there! And seriously this week I studied the Book of Mormon for a half hour every day, but studied in SUPER detail, I barely passed 1 Nefi chapter 1!! I will be doing more studying like that when I get home, MAN there is LOADS of stuff in there!! So take advantage of your scripture studies! That stuff changes lives and grants testimonies.

As for Thanksgiving, in the morning I will be on exchanges with Elder Wilson. Maybe we will have to do something to celebrate. :) But I will be sure to cook me a burger or something!! :) But recently I am accepting more and more Peruvian Christmas and eating Paneton. So good. haha ask Jason, I think it is an Italian thing too!!...?

Well, I love you all! Have a GREAT week!!!

Elder Russell

We Must Give Him our ALL

Hello my dear family!!

Well this week was a dandy week! Having all of Friday and Saturday's proselyting taken away due to travel was a little bit of a bummer deal, but the conference was SPECTACULAR and the week still went great!

So about the mission conference with Elder Evans and his wife. I actually don't have my notes with me but holy smokes there was a MOUNTAIN of things he taught me. He talked a lot about repentance. If someone has not repented of their sins, we have no authority to baptize. And nobody can repent until they have faith in and understanding of the Atonement. We talked a lot about Mosiah 18, Alma 5, and D&C 20:37.

He also wanted a lot of participation. Luckily, at one moment, nobody else in the 200 missionaries wanted to participate so I raised my hand to answer a question. We were talking about Preach my Gospel chapter 9, talking about ways of finding. I raised my hand to talk and converse with him about the section "Hablar con Todos" or "Talking with everyone". He then commenced to burn us all (especially the Elders, we are terrible with this...) that we are talking TO everyone, not talking WITH everyone. We just want to get in our message and GO GO GO. But we need to show our love or they will just not care what we have to say! I needed to learn that lesson. Recently knocking so many doors and so many people saying "Oh, well I am Catholic" "Yeah, my parents aren't home" (you mean that gentleman who just ran to hide in the other room...?) "We already have our religion" and everyone always "busy" I sometimes get frustrated and forget the part where we need to love these people with ALL of our hearts, and they need to SEE it!

He also taught about how to ask referrals in ALL interactions. We teach to find, and find to teach. If we listen to what the people say about their friends and family, we can even receive the ability to SUGGEST the people they can refer to us! Teaching to find, as I have been trying to apply it more and more these past days, is an amazing mentality we should have. And I am already seeing the fruits!

Another thing he taught was from Mosiah 18:30. Piura/Tumbes Peru will be beautiful to me, even though it is hot and desert and very different from home, because it is where I came to the knowledge of my Redeemer.

I know you all live in a place VERY highly populated with active members, but always look and strive to find people to refer to the missionaries or who you can personally help get to church. I know the missionary work over there if far different from mine, but try to figure out what you can all do to help in the work.

What was the most delicious thing you ate last week? And...the strangest?

Probably the strangest was... I don't even know what it was. A member gave us, is was ciruela (a fruit, "plum" in english, but very much different here, it has a taste like plum mixed with tomato...) but the member made like a... I dont know how to describe it... I have more left over in our fridge maybe I will send you a picture next week.... but it is like a cobbler more or less. But suuuper sweet. I mean it was good! But a new food. :) hahaha and the most delicious? hmm... last night I cooked that Annie's mac n cheese! That always is tasty after such a long time! And also I love the yogurt here. Especially of Lucuma fruit flavor. :)

 

What was your best moment of the week? And… your worst?

The best, was probably the conference with Elder Evans and then seeing the fruits of applying it Sunday. The power of quality referrals will make the wards explode with new converts, it has been promised to us.

The Worst was probably when we had a follow up visit with a man that I really felt the contact got to his heart, then when we showed up his wife lied to us from the window saying his husband wasn't home... He was home, we saw him through the window before knocking the door... That always gets ya a little down. But OH!! Another AWESOME part was R and M came to church!!! Just for the first 2 hours but seriously it was the BEST! They liked it too, the ward was perfect helping them out and fellowshipping (we were asking everyone to go tell them hi, and we asked a young woman to be Maria's friend that day and that was the perfect match it seems like!) And then that afternoon when we passed by their house I told Maria "if you want, next time you can even invite a friend or two" and she was like "Really? Yeah I have a friend I want to invite!" BOOM!! Seriously, stuff like that is what keeps me going. So awesome. The parents didn't go. Mom, you asked about the mom, I think a lot of people just feel good with following their traditions... She does go to the Catholic meetings quite frequently, which isn't very common among Catholics here, but she does like the visits and I really think we can get her to check it out. That is the goal.

What is the area you are in (Tumbes) most known for?

Seafood. Here lots and lots of people work in the Shrimp, Lobster, Clam, etc producing. Here there are like Shrimp farms, which look like greenhouse ponds. Here all fish and seafood are high quality. Also tourism beaches. The best beaches in all of Peru are here in Tumbes or upper Piura.

A fun little pastime thing I did within the 10 hours of bus rides this week... I learned how to solve a Rubik's cube! Not that there is much time to play with those, but it was a fun little thing this week.

Another fun little thing about church with R and M attending, I was a little nervous about how Sacrament would go for them. During the Sacrament Meeting we had a wonderful boy (active family) sitting in front of us reading his Jehovah's Witness picture book. When I saw that I nudged and motioned for Elder Encarnacion to look, and we both got a kick out of that. And another kid sitting in front of us kept showing us how he can pop his nose (like someone would crack their knuckles... he can do something of the sort with his nose...) But in the end Maria actually got a kick out of that. And when the spirit is there, everything works out great. And I really think this Sunday was a success! A good deal of people in attendance, and we are really starting to figure out well how to all work together to hasten the work.

As for temperature, here we stay pretty close to 36 C during the day, maybe a little hotter, but around there. I would like some snow.

And I just keep celebrating Christmas here! This is my second week buying a Paneton to eat for the week (that is like a Peruvian culture of Fruit Cake, but you would all actually like this I think, haha!) and I listen to Christmas music a lot. You have to send me more Christmas music! Speaking of, Dad, Bar J Christmas sounds like a stellar show, ENJOY!! That is some good music there. :) 

Again, I had a dream last night that I was returning home from the mission after the 2 years were up and I could not speak English for the life of me!! Those dreams are crazy... haha

Well, I think this week I am going to start over my Book of Mormon reading, I figured out a better way to study it so I might try it out, my last form has fallen a little ineffective.

But the church is true!! Jesus Christ leads this church. This is His Church. We are children of God and He loves us. We must give Him our ALL. All of our heart, might, mind, and strength. And if we do, He will bless us now and for the eternities.

I love you all, I wish you the best for this week and that you may grow to know and love God even MORE this week!

con mucho amor,

Elder Russell

Taxi Rides and Haircuts

This week has been very great. I think the quality of the week is easily related to the quality of taxi cars you've used. This week I got to ride in TWO taxis where the speedometer and other gauges actually functioned. Let me tell you, THAT is a high score.

And so was this week!

Except for barbershops here. I got my hair cut today. Today they did it well, but let me tell you, even the most faithful of prayers are put to test there. You have to just go expecting the unexpected. hahaha

So how are you all this week? I hope you are doing well! Dad, I hoped you enjoyed your hamburgers and banana cream pie! When I get back home I will be sure to fry you a Peruvian burger, here they put the french fries inside the hamburger! Or other times it comes with grilled bananas and a fried egg.

So this week was great, you remember that couple I told you about last week who we have activated and got their temple recommends? Well this week we have helped them with their family history and together we got them set with 4 names ready for the temple! And they got more to send, they say they will go with at least 8 names! So I am excited for them!!

Another young man Elder Corpona and I reactivated told me Saturday that he is also getting his interviews to go to the temple trip!!!! I was so excited! He is a return missionary but he hadn't been feeling too set for going back to the temple just yet. But I think the Bishop helped him out and that is just so awesome for him!

This week we had interviews with President Rowley. I love those interviews. He sure does know how to help a missionary out. He really gave me more enthusiasm to keep running hard.

Another thing that was really cool was Elder Encarnacion and I setting up the goals for December for reactivated members and baptisms. We got some good goals and plans alongside. I sure hope we can make it happen. God has his plans, we just gotta give it all we got to make sure it happens.

Well, a new plan that Elder Encarnacion and I have is do more tracting. We visit a LOT of less actives and we could easily have 20 visits with just less actives within a week. But we need more investigators. So we have selected like a 4th of our area and this week we are gonna knock all their doors! So hopefully we get something outta that! We have already knocked a few and got a few fruits for the efforts!

R and his family are getting better and better! Their children want to come to church! We just gotta help the mom who doesn't seem to want to drop the Catholic tradition and the dad just seems to be holding something back. But they are reading and praying and hopefully we can get them to church this week!!

Well, this week we have a mission conference with Elder Evans, a General Authority! He is a Seventy, and something like the head of the Missionary Program, so it is a really big deal! And he only speaks English and Japanese, so that will be interesting to see how that goes! I will be sure to keep you informed on that awesome deal!!

Well, I love you all!! Have a great week!! The Church is true and Jesus is our Lord and Savior. I love him and am really starting to understand His eternal importance. This mission has changed ALL understanding I have about the Plan of Salvation. I KNOW God loves every one of us.

Love you all!! Adios amigos!

Elder Russell

 Scenes from a Banana Plantation...

Awesome Peruvian Birthday Traditions :)

Hello family!                                                     

Well this week was a good one!! A District leader training meeting, the Bishops Banana Plantation service project, a couple new investigators and members all set for ETERNAL MARRIAGE!

SO about the eternal marriage, J and Y who we have reactivated got their temple recommends and on the 23rd are going on the Ward Temple trip to Guayaquil Ecuador to seal themselves for time and all eternity. That is so crazy awesome. Also a recent convert hit his one year mark as a member today and he will also be getting sealed with his wife. We are working hard with a couple families to get more and more names sent for the vicarious work and I just love teaching that so much.

Halloween here was actually Elder Cisneros' birthday!! So in the morning they had to come over to our apartment so Elder Moses could make a call to report English scores of the Latino companions and while they were over we cooked pancakes and we also smashed 2 eggs on his head with a bit of flour too. I got it on video for you all to check out in a year. and for now I will send a couple photos.

SO this week the mission made a couple changes to help us all focus more on finding new investigators. It is really interesting and we are really starting to get a hold of it. We have so many different forms to find new people to teaching and a mountain of ways to street contact. That is a goal of mine for this week to find more ways to street contact. We talked about how Jesus Christ would do a street contact. I just thought about when he told his disciples "Come, Follow me." And they followed!! We as missionaries can have that same effect, we just gotta prepare ourselves right. So hopefully we can reach at least a little closer to that mark.

1) your trip to Piura last week

As I explained, the meeting was superb. It was also an awesome opportunity to go to Chili’s with Elder Robertson! We got chicken fajitas and they were spectacular. A pure southwestern USA meal. All the way here in Piura Peru.

2) the Ward Halloween Party

It didn't happen... We could never get much help of the members. But now we are going to really start and be smarter for an activity around Thanksgiving. I would like to try out a Turkey Bowl of Football. Elder Wilson is all in. haha but we are yet to plan. :) But yeah, we didn't do too much for Halloween other than Elder Cisneros's birthday and I also went on Exchanges with Elder Moses. That was really fun. The next day we also had a glorious breakfast of Dinosaur eggs. I got those packages this week!! haha that took like 2 months!! But that was tasty.

3) the best thing about your week :)

I love going to the Banana plantation. I also get "the Lord's vineyard" references thrown to mind. This time I pondered a lot about the classes of servants. There are really 3 types I focused on. 1. Those who don't work. 2. Those who work, but inefficiently, and 3. those who work efficiently. To work with real efficiency, you gotta keep learning daily. And I really realized that this week, and I am now working to learn more and more daily, especially about the lesson of the Restoration. That is key as a missionary. And I really do love to learn.

Well, I am out of time!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!! I wish you the best and a tasty pie or cake!! I will microwave myself a cake in your honor. I sure love you Dad, thanks for everything!

I love you all!! Keep learning and studying the scriptures! Doctrine and Covenants, that's awesome family!!! Let's do the New Testament when I get home!! And always study the Book of Mormon daily! :)

Keep up the great work!! Love you!

Elder Russell

 Celebrating Elder Cisneros' Birthday 

(looks like a lot of fun? :)