Now is the Time...

Hey there family!! 

Sorry I don't have too much time today, the internet has been a little slow... but hopefully I can get a little good info to ya!

Thank you all for your advice and prayers about church attendance, I am learning a lot from you all, and actually this week was a LOT better! We had a good turnout with less actives and 3 investigators, one of them with a baptism date so that was REALLY good we got her there, and she later said she loved it, especially that she learned a lot in the Gospel Principles class and she loved the trust and bondship within Relief Society and the service they provide to one another. so that was a success!! Thank you all!! We hope to keep up that good work!

Also, this Sunday was a big one for me! I gave a talk in Sacrament, and played the intermediate hymn on piano, then taught Gospel Principles (the teacher wasn't there, so we are who fill in when that happens) (aka the class that our investigator said she loved and learned a lot from, no big deal... haha) and then Primary! So yep, all within very short notice. The life of missionaries! Hopefully we taught ok! It was fun!

Oh, this week´s big thing that I started doing... We really are working to improve our area book and information we have of the area. Our map of the area isn´t very good... so I got my thinking cap on. I went and printed a little map of Sechura, and then copied it to a transparency and made a projection setup! I am now finishing up a giant homemade map of Sechura to put up on the wall. It´s been a fun thing to do!

We are really getting to work well! We are starting to focus on less actives. And like our mission president promised, when we start to focus on them, our success will increase. We are starting to know more and more less actives and they just pop up out of nowhere!! One day we flagged down a moto to get to the other side of town. The Moto slowed down and this raggedy man yells out "ELDERES!!" and Elder Tamani goes "Los Rosales. how much will it cost?" and he goes "Don't worry about it! Get in!!" Which then resulted in a free moto ride and a less active reference for the other Elders in Sechura! It is awesome, Sechura is full of them!

Always look out to help your fellow members!! Now is the time to rescue those who have drifted! I know that we can bless their lives.

Well gotta go!! I love you all so much!! The church is true and I LOVE THE GOSPEL!

Collin downloaded more pictures today, including this...

"Come Join With Us"

Well Howdy family!!

This week was a good one indeed! And thank you all for the emails, I get so many!! I love hearing how everything is going back home, even if all you say "it's about the same..." I LOVE to hear that!! It's just always great to hear from y'all. :)

Well, some highlights... We had an awesome multi-zone conference! I always get so much extra enthusiasm after those things! I am realizing that I get times where I really start to slack off and this week is the week where I got goals set to really snap back and be the best missionary I can be!! The branch council this week gave us a BUNCH of people willing to help in lessons and visits, so I really think this next week will be a good one with real success!

This week was a little cloudy so it got a little cooler! It felt so nice, but I still found myself sweating... I think I'll just have to get used to that. jaja

Well, this week was a real success for the other missionaries! They had a marriage and baptism, so that was great! I think this week we will be able to place a couple of baptism dates with some people, our last lesson with one investigator I really felt like she was ready, she even told us she wants to be baptized on her birthday, which is in March, but I think we might try to get it sooner. 

By the way, that conference talk, "Come, Join with Us", is the best. I have used that talk and applied it in more lessons than any other talk and especially in working with less active families. It is golden. So my challenge for all of you this week is to go and read it. I promise if you do, you will learn how to strengthen your testimony and how to help others also. Always look for those less active members. Retaining the members is a focus of this church in these days. Come, Join with Us in serving our fellow members remember their way back!

Also, all of the missionaries received family history pamphlets for us to fill out and share with our investigators! So family, I need your help. Will you send me pictures of our family to put in the pamphlet? I also need individual photos of Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, and so on going back. Like a 1 inch by 1/2 inch photos. And also, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, what would you like me to write in my paragraph space about who you are? What you like to do? Hobbies, personality, etc. This will be for my posterity to read in the future, and for Peruvians to read during my mission. :)

But a little about that, we are really starting to put more effort in using Family History as a way to get investigators interested! So we are working on the folleto and also we have been asked to have 2 visits with the stake family history consultant every 6 weeks. So this can be great help for our members and investigators, and I'm excited to learn more myself!

This week I have grown to learn how powerfully I have grown to love the Book of Mormon and my testimony of it. I know that our Testimony of

this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will grow every day that we read it, and that any doubt or question we have can be answered through the doctrine of that book. I love it, I read it every day, and it is a book written specifically for me! I am reading it and I am realizing that it is the PERFECT handbook on how to be a better missionary. And I believe that for all of you non-full-time missionaries, it will teach you how to be a better member, member missionary, father, mother, sibling, friend, teacher, WHATEVER YOU ARE! It will help, and I can promise you that with all of my heart because I have seen that in my life and the Holy Ghost bears testimony of this to me.

Well, I know that this church is true, I love it and hope to always be a member who is a helper in the work. I know that the gospel blesses the family and that its doctrine and teachings can bond the family regardless of all the tempations and tribulations striving to tear it apart in these hard days. Apply the gospel daily to your lives! It will bring blessings and the spirit!

I love you all, have a great week!! And Katie, I keep thinking of where you are going to go! I even had a dream about it last night!! haha! So... I just have to narrow down my 4 guesses to just one this week. But it will be the best thing ever to serve a mission!

Well, I'm off! Love you all, keep being awesome!

Con amor y felicidad,

Elder Collin Russell

No NEW pictures this week, but he did send us some from the CCM!

With Elder Mason Rich (his long lost cousin :)

 With Elder Darrin Nielson

 With Elder Gabe Preece

The group he traveled with from the CCM to Piura -- with President and Sister Rowley

Howdy Y'all!

 Howdy y'all family!!

Things are going so great!! Elder Tamani and I are doing great, I think we have worked out all kinks, that honestly we didn't have many to start out with! But now we are doing well!

Today we went down to Catacaos for a zone activity, so we went down a little early and did some shopping before and after the activity. I bought a new bag that's a little smaller than my other black one, which is nice to have, and Elder Tamani and I did something AWESOME. The mission allows us to proselyte in hats and sunglasses that are appropriate to serve in, so like sombreros. So yep, Elder Tamani and I bought cowboy hats. Matching too. I know I never really ever wore cowboy hats too frequently back home, but I don't ever want to take this thing off! When we got dressed in proselyting attire when we got back from the activity, I matched it all down to the cowboy hat, and when we flagged down the moto to get a ride to the town center, it took everything I had not to pull a Texas Western accent. So that has been a pocket of simple joy to me! hahaha! The mission should always have fun things like that!

So yeah, things between Elder Tamani and I are great!! He is working hard to be a good missionary and district leader, since this is his first time with that responsibility. And he is doing really good at it!

We are getting new progress with our investigators and less active families we are meeting with, or at least finding new areas that we need to work on. Our progress honestly could be going better but we just gotta keep doing our best and not get too discouraged! Hopefully this week we should have an investigator with a baptismal date. The branch members are starting to get new excitement to help us teach our lessons, and that is GREAT and we should find spectacular improvement from their help this week.

One thing I have learned recently, we have been reading chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel. There is a section about the light of Christ. When we talked about that in companionship study, I brought up the scripture that says "light cleaveth unto light" and therefore we need the light of Christ so people looking for the truth will be drawn to us. Yes that is true, but then yesterday I learned an addition to that! We went to visit a family where just the kids are members. But everyone had gone to the beach except for the visiting grandmother from Piura. So we visited and talked to her. And WOW! She is GOLDEN. She is reading the Book of Mormon, she has recieved amazing answers to her prayers, she has desires to follow the commandments and she said she would attend our church if she had the money to get there. Elder Tamni later said to me he felt like she was just asking to get baptized!! So we are going to visit her again while she is still here until Thursday, then send the reference to the missionaries where she lives. But about the light of Christ: we need the light of Christ so WE can be drawn to OTHERS that have been truly prepared to hear our message. That elderly lady was such a blessing to me this week, I felt so uplifted talking to her! So that was an awesome thing this week.

Well, the church is true!! I love you all! Stay obedient, and keep on enduring to the end!!

It is so great to hear you are all doing well up there!! I'll try to send some sweat up your way! :)

Oh!! And Aunt Cathy thank you so so much for that package, I got it this week! The music CD ROCKS!! I love it so much, I listen to it like every night as of recently. haha!

I love you all!! Thank you for all the prayers, I think and pray about you all lots!

Con amor y felicidad,

Elder Collin Russell

Celebrating Hermana Mara's Birthday

Happy Birthday Hermana Mara!

Filled right up! :)

And another Birthday celebration...

Be Bold in Commitments

Hello my family!

Alright, oh things are going great down here! It's so hot down here, I never knew it was possible for me to sweat this much. haha! But you gotta love it, I sure am treasuring this experience! :)

Yeah, New Year's was sweet!! Here in Sechura they have this tradition. They make life size dolls and set them out in the streets. Then at midnight everyone lights them on fire!! and they set off fireworks and its quite a deal! I woke up at midnight and went over to the window to check it out. I sure did want to go out and about, Hermana Mara invited us to eat at their place and light off their doll (yep, the doll of Elder Inocente, dressed in a missionary shirt pants and shoes, was set to flames New Year's!!) but we have rules here in the mission, so of course we could not go. But from the window I could see like 5 dolls burning in the street, right outside our house they were shooting off some big fireworks, and you could see the glow from the fires in every street!! It was such a cool thing to see!! I am totally wanting to bring the burning doll tradition back home…(burning the doll signifies getting rid of the old and starting new)

Elder Tamani and I are doing good!! It's been an interesting week as we figure out how to mesh our different working styles. I'm learning how every missionary has their distinct style of work, and that has been good to learn and see! Elder Tamani is great at being on top of things! And one thing I especially LOVE about him, that at first just took me back in shock was his boldness to commitments. I have been more about building confidence and friendship then getting into the lessons and commitments, but this has been a wonderful thing for me to learn! We are here to invite people to come unto Christ, and we need to be bold in commitments and help people understand up front why we are here. So I love that about Elder Tamani.

This has also been a great experience as I have been like a senior companion this past week as I show Elder Tamani around. Having to take a lot more initiative has helped me learn how prepared I really am! My Spanish is feeling AWESOME! Elder Tamani says he thought I had more time in the mission based on my Spanish, and I feel like I am very close to being able to speak freely anything I need to say. There is one investigator who says she has troubles understanding me, and that has been frustrating to me, and I think it's just making a downward spiral sometimes. I have learned that good Spanish comes when I am positive, happy, and have the spirit with me. It's like 100% gift of tongues, I have a strong testimony of that gift. :) But when I asked Elder Tamani about my Spanish and why she can't understand me, he has no clue, he says I speak great! But maybe he was just lying to make me feel good... haha But really I do feel confident in the language and I still am improving every day! I hope to be very fluent when I get home!

More about Elder Tamani, he is from the jungle of Peru, he loves fruit, he has served in Piura city, Paita, and Talara. He always says "Claaaa-a-a-a-aaaro" and talks with a bit of a sing, it's the accent of some Peruvian areas, it's awesome. I am trying to pick that up. :) This is his first time as a District Leader, and I think in this companionship we are going to learn a lot together and both progress a lot. He has a strong desire to be obedient and be a strong missionary. And he is!!

Things are going well in teaching, getting people to come to church is the big thing to work on right now. But this last week we had a full Sacrament Meeting, which was AWESOME, the first I've seen! And a lot of people didn't come that said they would, and when we asked them why not, a lot are blaming it on the water. Sechura hasn't had water for a couple days to wash or bathe with, so some people didn't quite feel clean enough to come, I guess. But now the water is back so no worries, next week with water back and running and lots of extra effort on our part, we will get some ROCKING attendance!!

I hope these emails make sense, I just type fast and hope it can be interpreted. haha

But things are great, I am feeling very great and hear all the time that I am noticeably gaining weight! I'm noticing too and I love it!! :)

Well, that's all for today, hope all is well for all of you over there!! Read your scriptures every single day!!! They will change your life, I know that because I'm seeing it in my own life right now!

LOVE YOU ALL! Talk to you next week!

con amor y felicidad,

Elder Collin Russell