A Superb Week!

With Elder Villalba

Hello family!!                                                    

This week was a superb one! Yes, I am feeling much better! This week we really started to get to business!

Remember a couple weeks ago I was telling you all that I need to get better about street contacting? Well this week we finally got it. Our mission we have Normas de Excelencia, which are like the ideal goals in what we should be doing and such. And one of them is contacting at least 20 new people every day. Which honestly was crazy to me. I get in the habit of just teaching. I love to teach and not so much contact. But to teach you gotta contact!! So we got to work this week and we contacted TRIPLE of what we contacted the week before! And we gotta do more. But it has been awesome!! You get so tired and you want to just take it easy instead of pretty much running person to person, but THAT, my friends, is the dedication we need.

The RM's wife is doing great. She is preparing to be baptized on the 21st of February. She is so awesome. An ideal investigator and will be a strong member. And it looks like from her family we might get some other baptisms! Her parents are strong Catholics, but there are others that might like to listen!

Can you think of a "tender mercy" that you recognized in your missionary efforts this week?

Well, in contacting more, I think God is helping me realize some of the gifts he has blessed me with, along with helping me realize that I need to be searching to receive and apply other gifts he has promised me. I just need to pray and work in order to receive them. But as a missionary, I have many many gifts available to me, I just need to do my part and I have seen that God always does His part of the promise.

What is something new that you learned this week?

Well, today something just hit me. I have known this, I have grown to LOVE this fact with all my heart, but again it hit me and has given me a new goal of studying this week, but I learned that really the key to EVERYTHING that I am doing, or really the key of EVERYTHING in life is the Atonement. We all need to know what the Atonement is, why we need it, what must we do to personally apply it, and where or by what authority (The Restored Church) can we receive the application to our lives. If we do not understand the Atonement and our relation to it, we cannot live this life to our fullest potential or receive joy in its fullness. So I learned how important it is that I make that message known to EVERYONE.

How are you spending your P-day today?

This P day we had a Multi-Zone activity of dodgeball, soccer, and water balloons. haha Afterwards my companion and I went searching to buy really big cardboard boxes (that story shall come next week. And if all goes as plans, it just might be a mission highlight) and now internet and then hopefully we will be cutting the cardboard or finding where we can get someone to spray paint for us, if we have time... haha today a little more busy than usual. Normally we get to play soccer with the ward. But today we are still at work!

In my District now, we are 3 companionships: 2 Elder Companionships in the Lopez Albujar Ward, and 1 Sister companionship in the Piura Central Ward. And we are the best District ever.

Well, i love you all!! have a wonderful week!! I know that my Redeemer lives.

Elder Russell

Some photos from Christmas Eve...

 With his beloved Panetone :)

Short and Sweet

Hello family!!                                                      

This week was pretty good! I was sick for the majority, but we plugged along and worked hard!!

This week we were able to talk to the lady who came to church last week, she is SUPER AWESOME! We taught the first lesson and she accepted the baptismal invitation. At church a couple days later, her husband was like "don't be afraid to give her a baptismal date. I've been preparing her, she is ready." It happens that Elder Machaca and I already got the plans and this week we are going to set her with a baptismal date. it is hard because she doesn't have a very open schedule for work, and sometimes works on Sundays, so we will work on that. But she is SUPER awesome. Learns real quick and has great support.

You mentioned Carnival last week…Will you tell us more about that?

Well this south American culture comes from Brazil I believe, but around these months is where ALL of the youth are playing with water balloons and filled buckets and water guns. They normally don't mess with the missionaries, but sometimes they even try to soak US. It is a fun activity.

What have you learned about your new companion this week?

He is a great companion, he is dedicated to get running right off the bat in this area. He is a convert of about 5 years. He likes soccer. He is helping me be better at contacting. He is always walking up to the person, and we are helping each other be better in the quality of the contact. He is helping me learn that I need to be humble and patient. He is super awesome, a different personality, but we get along well and we both have the same strong desire for success.

What is the weather like now?

Hot. We are in the summer now. But I mean it stays within 80s and 90s I think. But I hear it might start raining in a couple months... but for now it is just hot. haha

Wow, time FLEW by this internet time today... sorry!! And mom, I brought the wrong memory chip, so I didn't get photos sent this time.... sorry! NEXT WEEK I promise.

Have a great week!! I LOVE the Book of Mormon and I know Joseph Smith restored the true church.

Elder Russell

Time Flies by...

Hello family! I hope you are all doing well!

Well this week FLEW by. Sadly the solid plans all are kinda flopping... D returned to live in Talara. We got her number so I think we will call and set it up so she can get the missionaries to visit her there. We called P and he said he was still stuck in the plantations but would get home yesterday and he would call us. Maybe we will be giving him a call tonight. But the Wife of the family we have been teaching is accepting visits and is receptive! But that family is now hard to reach for work and such, but hopefully this week we get back into constant contact!

We've also got some great new deals coming up! Like in church a man showed up with his wife to church. We didn't recognize him so we walked up to introduce ourselves and get to know him, and wow!! He is a RM from around 2001 of the Lima North Mission and was there with his non member wife! He has been inactive for work for several years but now he is back and wants us to teach his wife (who is also willing!) So that could be a sweet deal there. I just love it when God puts prepared people in our paths. And here I have seen it more than anywhere!!

Well, sad news... Transfers. Well, more like bittersweet news. Because now Elder Villalba is in Tumbes! We were both hoping to have more time together. What we did together was top notch. We seriously spent like 4 weeks studying how to effectively teach the first lesson. Hopefully with my new companion we can swing right into all that we have learned and figured. We were AWESOME. And we became super good friends, lots of laughing too!

But the great part is now I have a new AWESOME companion!! His name is Elder Machaca. He is from Arequipa, Peru. He has 8 months in the mission, and he left Sechura to come here. And right off the bat we are rocking it. We have spent all day laughing! And he is upbeat, humble, and we are gonna baptize thousands. I think we are going to start building baptismal fonts for P day, because the 1 we've got just isn't enough. haha But I really hope to see some miracles this transfer. And I feel so prepared to do it.

Oh! Elder Spencer also left from the district (he is off to Sullana!) And Elder Volcanes came! He is also from Utah and he is a super awesome Elder! 

To answer questions:

What was the funniest thing that happened to you this past week?

Well... Carnival is starting up again here in South America. So all the kids walk about with water balloons in their hands. Sunday, walking away from a family we visited (the 4 missionaries) there was a group of kids with a bucket full of water balloons and others with their hands full of them. Then Elder Mallo starts telling them (jokingly) "Hey!! Soak the gringos!!" Then the kids look over and get super excited and started yelling and starting towards us. They decided to attack the 4 of us. But Elder Spencer and I just booked it as they threw the balloons. We didn't get wet, a water balloon even bounced off my arm that they threw at me! (I remember comparing myself to Samuel the Lamanite. Elder Spencer later started quoting Moroni as the last Nefite :) And our Latino companions got water balloons thrown at them and got their backs soaked! Then they got after the kids and they left. But THAT was a fun little experience.

What are the greatest strengths you and your companion have as a companionship?

Well, of Villalba and myself, I would say our shared desire to improve. It was the first time where my companion and I sincerely and consistently walked out of every lesson and start to analyze "what went well" "What can we do better" "We need to study this topic" "We need to plan how to teach this topic better" "How did applying this teaching skill go" and so on. And we improved SO MUCH. But now I am blessed to have all of the investigators actually UNDERSTAND what this is all about. They know what they need to do and the importance, and it is just up to them if they do it or not. So that was the greatest and my favorite strength.

Best or strangest thing you ate recently?

Last week our pensionista made a soup that was DELICIOUS. It was a little out of the ordinary for the culture here, but it was exactly like Mom's Taco Soup. To the exact. So I downed that soup. Like normally soup doesn't get me excited, but this soup was great and rather like home. haha

Well we've got a good week ahead of us!! Time flies by when you're having fun and working hard!! Hope all is well back home and always keep working to build your testimonies!

Love you all!!

Elder Russell

 With Elder Machaca (my new companion) and Hermano Fasabi (Branch Mission Leader from Sechura)

6 Steps

Hola familia mía!

¿Cómo están? Bueno, esta semana pasó bien rápido pero en serio me siento muy bien, tuvimos mucho éxito.

This week was really good! The whole district really shot up and did well this week! I sure am proud of all us. As for us as a companionship, it was also one of our best weeks.

How many lessons do you teach each week?

Well, I will give this week as an example. We taught 7 lessons to investigators with a member present, 3 recent convert lessons, 6 less active lessons. Those are some of our key indicators. We hit around 20 visits a week I think.... which isn't too bad.

How large is the area that you are working in right now?

It is fairly big... I don't know how to compare it actually. Walking from one corner to the other... 20-30 minutes I'd say... Not too big really. When you are in the bigger city the areas tend to be smaller.

What was your best/happiest experience of the week?

Hmm... actually lots of really awesome stuff happened. Finding people who sincerely want to figure out which is the true church, being able to teach POWERFULLY when the investigator needs to hear it how it is, God letting me know through His servants that he is proud of my efforts of being Obedient, it was just a week full of best/happiest experiences. But I will go in more detail now. :)

We met a new young gal who is a friend of several members in the ward, but finally one brought us to visit her. She has seen that there are so many churches and so many are there for personal gain, and she knows that is wrong. Teaching the Restoration she understood great and is all excited to go to church next Sunday!! Woo!!! We are going to try to invite the whole family to listen now too. The bummer with her is that she is only free Sundays due to studies and all that.

As for P, he got stuck in the Morropon countryside on irrigation duty, so he comes back Tuesday, and there we will start working with him.

With the other family we are visiting, the whole family is doing great! But the father didn't read the Book of Mormon, he keeps pulling out the craziest facts and questions and things that don't really matter. So during one of his big topics about a different church and why they act the way they do, but we then all told him straight: They key is the Book of Mormon. Just read, ponder, and pray. Myself, my companion, the members helping us, even his own family members (also investigators) all had to tell him! haha He is such a great man, tonight we are going to see how he is going with his investigation.

This week we got 2 investigators with baptismal dates! for the 31st of January! But we gotta work real real hard. They are D and M. They have been attending church for a long time now and love it and came to us asking about what you have to do to be baptized. So we've got a goal, but we need to work to help the family really. Pray for them!

Well, I did some big thinking this week about what I told you about, the 6 steps to finding where to be a missionary. I am still fixing kinks, maybe I will get it all golden in time for a homecoming talk (haha) but here is what I've  got:

1. Do I lack a saving ordinance or need help in renewing my covenants?

(It always begins with ourselves. D&C 11:21, I Nephi 8:11 (Lehi ate it before he could invite his family to come too))

2. Who in my immediate family is in need of a saving ordinance or need help in renewing their covenants?

(D&C 75:28, Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

3. Who in my extended family is in need of a saving ordinance or needs help in renewing their covenants?

4. Who of my "Friends of Consistent Contact" is in need of a saving ordinance or needs help in renewing their covenants?

(A "Friend of Consistent Contact" I consider to be someone you interact with face to face at least once a week. ex: Coworkers, Classmates, BFFs, Neighbors, etc. St Mark 5:19)

5. Who of my extended friendships is in need of a saving ordinance or needs help in renewing their covenants?

("extended friendships" I consider to be everyone you would consider a friend or acquaintance who doesn't fit the Consistent Contact requisites. ex: How many of your Facebook friends know you are a Latter-Day Saint?)

6. Who else does the Holy Ghost invite me to help that is in need of a saving ordinance or need help in renewing their covenants?

(Who says that only missionaries can street contact?! :) But the Lord will put in our paths people who are in need of what he have. And if we pray and seach for how we can help them, the opportunities will come naturally. 1 Nephi 4:6)

Read through that one and hopefully you can get a few ideas of people to help out!! Like I said, I am still working on it, and I need for scripture references, but hopefully the Spirit will help you discover what you need to do. If you need help in what to do, "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" :)

I love you all, the church is true! Have a great week!!

Elder Russell