More stylin' ties :)
Hello family!!!
to quickly answer some questions:
Do you get many dinner appointments from members?
No, dinner is not a big thing here, so just every now and then
when we do a FHE or something, but more often we get lunch appointments.
Do the wards have a mission prep program to prepare kids that
are getting ready for missions?
They did have one going on before, but I honestly am not sure if
it is still going on or not, the teacher moved away.
Do you ever attend those classes?
We haven't actually. But the priests help us in visits a lot.
Do you eat much fish and if so what kind?
in my current area not too much, more chicken. and I honestly
don’t know what kind it is... especially in English... haha
Is there anything green where you are at or is it as dry as the
last places you have been?
It is rather dry, but there are several grassy parks where I am
currently at, and that is nice.
Do you have to think about what you are saying in Spanish
anymore or is it just like speaking English to you now?
Not too much, every now and then I switch back to English but I
get along just fine now with Spanish. It will be a shock to dive back into full
English, honestly.
Were you able to meet up with J? How is he doing?
Yes!! He is great, we just saw him for a solid 2 minutes. We had
a visit set up but he had to cancel on us because he traveled away again. Now he
is in Santo Domingo working, but I think he gets back today. So we are going to
try again, but he is excited to get back to talk with us!
And how about E?
Really good! We are teaching his mom now too and she is
progressing as well, slowly but surely. E is preparing for the 22nd for his
baptism and he is accepting really well the commandments we are teaching him.
Do you have any other new investigators that you are working
with?
We got T who has pretty much already become family with the
ward. He is only 15 but really a big kid and mature, we are trying to help his
family but they don't come to church. But T already has like a month
attending. We are still working on them!
We have a new family, the H family, who the father is a
less active and the wife and kids are not members. He wants to return to church
and the whole family are just starting to receive the lessons!
There is also a RM who just barely got back this week and he
introduced us to pretty much ALL of his non member family and we are starting
to teach several of them so that is a fun new thing this past week and coming
week!
You mentioned before that you often eat dinner with the members
on the weekends... Is this a regular occurrence? Is it usually the same members
each week, or do you rotate through the Ward?
We eat lunches on the weekends, yes. This is every weekend,
there is an assignment a church member receives and they assign families to
feed the missionaries. Normally the people volunteer and they set that up
during Relief Society or Elders Quorum at the end of the month. we rotate
pretty well within the active ward members.
How are you coming on your Book of Mormon and New Testament
reading?
I am in Ether and 1 Corinthians. This is my first time really
getting solid in my New Testament reading I am sad to say, I wish I had done it
sooner because I am learning lots! I will have it finished before I get home.
:)
What was the best thing about last week?
hmm.... wow I don't know. We had LOTS of good work done with the
members this week. the RMs are working real hard and we are also getting to
work with several people and everyone is getting more excited. Also, yesterday
the Stake President talked in our Sacrament Meeting and invited every member to
pray about who they should give a Book of Mormon to and what they will share to
them about the book. They were told to do it yesterday or next Sunday. He
promised that if every member there did it we would have 15-20 baptisms in
August. So I started talking to lots of the members who live within our area to
get them Book of Mormon copies and we have several people excited to do it! So
THAT is a great thing this week.
To invite lots of people to be baptized and work hard! I also
look forward to learning a lot of new stuff from the New Testament and Book of
Mormon. and we've got a couple less active families who are finally starting to
progress and we got visits set with them, etc. I am just looking forward to
being a missionary!! haha and we are finally making good progress in helping
people reserve names for temple work. They have a temple trip here on the 27th
so we are helping people with their family history, and I really enjoy that
stuff!
It is true that ending
the mission can be a sad thing, but I have come to realize that it will just be a new chapter. Elder Perry (I
believe it was...) came home after serving a mission he had several successful
moments sharing and preaching the gospel. In a missionary training video set we
have one of the missionaries says that the last 6 months is really the
missionary's time to shine because he's been trained, he's experienced, etc...
well for the last 2 years I have been trained and experienced and I will be
able to go home and be a great missionary still!! I am actually in process of
setting goals for when I will be home and for my future and one of the goals I
am setting is to be able to give at least one referral to the missionaries each
year. Maybe, if I will be living in Utah my whole life, that will be a real
challenge, but I plan to make missionary efforts a constant mindset of my life.
I know that God has great things he needs me to do, and during this time doing
all I can to be a good missionary He is preparing me for all the other tasks in
the future he will need of me. I have come to know my Savior a lot these past 2
years, and I don't want to go home and have it stop there. That isn't how it
should be, but I have learned what I need to do so I can continually grown to
know Him even more, even though I won't have a black plastic nametag on. These
past 2 years have been hard and stressful, but I would not take it back for all
the money in the world, these past 2 years will be a treasure for me. I know
I'll be home in 2 weeks, I forget sometimes, but I know it is coming. And I
know it needs to come. I am excited to come home, even though I am very sad to
leave this place, but I find a lot of peace knowing that God has a need for me
back up there.
Well, have a great week!! I love you all!! Share the gospel!!
Elder Russell
Shopping in Catacaos
Dinner at Chili's!
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