Buenos Dias!

Buenos días mi querida familia!

Bueno, this week went real well!! This week we took a whole new turn. Pretty much all of our visits were with people we have street contacted. We are really starting to search for the people waiting for this message. We just need to be prepared to share this message powerfully and clearly so they can receive it. We keep working on how to improve how we teach the first lesson of the Restoration. In my last area a return missionary explained that we need to learn how to NAIL that first lesson down. and from then on I realized that I was teaching weak and now we are really starting to get it down better. Hopefully we can find some new golden people.

So hopefully V will be getting baptized this weekend!! We got her interview set and hopefully all goes well. They have both grown a lot. We sat with them in Stake Conference and they liked it! There was a special conference session in the night (I think it was about the temple) and they decided to go!! V has started to put a lot into it. Pray lots for them so she can get baptized and that all goes well!

Today for part of P Day we watched Ephraims Rescue as a zone. I have become a well loved missionary for having that video. haha but that is one of my favorite movies of all time. It really helps me see what potential all of us have and really what I can personally achieve if I try hard.

What is the most unusual thing you saw this week? 

You know what? We actually saw 2 other tupperware trees YESTERDAY!! But this time we stood there for 5 minutes and watched them chop it down and set off fireworks. Wow, those people go CRAZY for a plastic bucket or plate! They were tearing down those branches! What a fun tradition. I was thinking it would be a fun Homecoming activity if I was still SBO Pres. Maybe you'll have to pass that idea over to Shasta. hahaha

What was the best thing you learned or experienced?

This week? I learn lots of things and they are all the best. haha

But this week my companion and I were talking. We sometimes ask one another questions about doctrine and principles as if we were investigators that make us study and try to find how to answer the questions. For example, we once had a man who told us that Tithing is no longer a thing because Jesus fufilled the Mosaic Law or Why did the church practice polygamy or so on. And I had gotten to the habit of searching obscure proving scriptures from the Bible or something, but yesterday we both kinda got woken up when we brought up the point "Do you believe that Joseph Smith restored the gospel and church of Jesus Christ?" THAT is such a key, because if we learn that this is the RESTORED church, that helps us find the answer to the majority of questions about our practices in the church. So that is nothing too spectacular or new, but that was a key thing I learned this week.

What are you currently focusing on in your personal scripture studies?

Right now I am starting to do that Preach My Gospel attribute activity weekly and focus on 2 or 3 attributes. I am also loving the Book of Mormon (I am starting Alma) which I mark my scriptures in 5 colors for the 5 missionary lessons. and I am trying to get work down on Jesus the Christ. I just get filled with Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon sometimes I don't get time, but I have learned a lot from that book!

Well, gotta go!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Russell