Stay Obedient!

Hello family!!

Well, today I will be off to Piura! Another District Leader Training Meeting that I love. 

So this week was good! We keep working hard. So I have never really told you about my area. Our area has been a little rough finding families to street contact, which is the new goal to street contact every single couple or family you see. And all the missionaries are to find where the families are, like parks or plazas, for example. In my area we keep having a bit of difficulty because we have not been able to find a family friendly walking area… We've got one park in our area, then the rest is pure residential or bars. I mean it is safe and all, it is just everyone in our area leaves for work or goes to the town center outside our area. so have you all got any ideas on other types of places that we could look into to find families?

But this week I studied a lot of the first lesson and the Restoration. I am so pumped now to teach it effectively. I think sometimes I focus too much on other key aspects of the mission but you really do need to improve constantly your ability to teach the missionary lessons.

Elder Moses had his birthday this week!! His investigators invited his companionship and me and my companion for a birthday lunch! It was awesome!! Such a great family, once they finally get married I am pretty sure they will get baptized. But it was a Peruvian birthday deal, so it included the egg to head smashing and also pushing his face into the cake. He has some fun pictures (I had totally forgotten my camera.... SORRY MOM!!!!)

I attacked Elder Moses with an egg for when he completed his one year mark in the mission. We ran over to their apartment before studies and threw them a breakfast of my special huevos rancheros. I will try to send the video but those things take a long time to send... But I am trying!

Also my companion this week read the Book of Mormon in 3 days!! He became quite a reader! I, however, am in Mosiah. My current study plans are 20 minutes daily of Book or Mormon study marking only the themes of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then 20 minutes of Preach my Gospel studying especially the Resoration lesson. Then 20 minutes of Jesus the Christ. I gotta control myself with that book, I could just read it all day if I could. And I am also putting in 20 minutes of the Bible as my language study. I rotate between the New and Old Testament, mostly I read the New Testament. Genesis has been a little rough. But right now I am in the story of Joseph so the musical songs come into my mind and help me out. haha

Well, we keep searching! This week one of our recent converts got his temple recommend so he and his wife are going to get sealed this next month! Also J and Y that we got back to church got their recommends and are going to get sealed too!! So that was a highlight this week.

Well, this next week hopefully we can hit with full force! We gotta find more familes ready to accept the gospel. Hopefully this week we can really follow up with some of the good couples we have run into on the street and invite them to baptism!

I love you all!! The Church is true! Jesus is the Christ!! Stay Obedient! And have a great week!!

Love you!

Elder Russell

Deer Hunting... and Missionary Work :)

                                                        

Hello my dear family! Things are going well down here in Tumbes Peru!!

We had transfers today, but our district went untouched!! So that was a groovy deal and so it is all steam ahead from all of us!

As for the Halloween activity, we've really got to get rolling with that. Our Ward Mission Leader left Saturday for a trip to Piura for like a week and a half and told us to work on it all without him... But we've got an excited Bishop and Tuesday we are going to try to get all the church quorums and organizations on board. If all works out well it should be a great activity!

We are continuing to find families! We've got a few couples interested this week so we will see if they start to really progress. Tonight we've also got a FHE with three member families who all said they would bring a friend to the event. Us missionaries like that. A LOT. :) So hopefully something good comes out of that!

to answer some questions:

What about your mission president?

Presidente Rowley is awesome. Very, very helpful and supportive. He is from Santaquin and works growing and selling cherries. Very powerful in his dedication to the Book of Mormon, Obedience, and Hastening the Work.

Do you see him often?

Here serving in the Tumbes region of the mission, I get to see him normally 2 times every 6 weeks: The District Leader Training, and the Multi Zone Conference or Interviews (one of the two takes place in every 6 week transfer session). In Piura you see him much more often, but Tumbes is a rather far away land... haha

How long has he been out?

He has a little over two years. From what I hear, he ends his mission one transfer before I end mine.

Are you finding new people to teach?

We are! Now we've just got to see which of them really start to progress.

And is anyone coming out to church?

We are working on that, but right now we don't have attending investigators other than J, but his is on and off. Hopefully within two or three weeks we will have a couple of these new families attending...

What is something new you learned this week?

This week I learned a new way Deer Hunting has helped me as a missionary:

When we would go hunting, the guides driving the truck would be able to spot a Buck from a very, very long ways... I was always super impressed with that and trying to be like them, I would start looking harder.

Now in the streets of Zarumilla we are trying to contact couples. And our area has pretty much nowhere where the couples naturally gather, like parks or the plaza. So I find myself searching the streets and locating couples 3 or 4 blocks away sometimes to contact. And sometimes in the process of walking up to them (hunting them down really...) my companion has given remarks that he feels like the lions that attack the gazelles on Animal Planet. haha it has been fun to find and seek out couples.

What have you learned from your companion during the past six weeks?

That we can really make a difference. My Companion during weekly planning inventory told me that I am helping him realize a little better in how to be Obedient. That really helped me receive more strength to keep up with it. He is also helping me learn how to be calmer. Sometimes I start to melt when all the visits don't go through or we aren't fulfilling the goals, so he is helping me be a little more Hakuna Matata.

How are things going with the Ward Halloween Party plans?

As a missionary District we are all gung-ho. Now we've just got to get the ward involved and informed, so there is a good goal for the week since it is coming up Reeeeeaalll quick. hahaha

Well, sorry but I gotta go now!! Busy stuff! But I love you all!! The church is true! Keep praying and reading the scriptures!! I am really flying through the Book of Mormon this third time around in the mission! After two weeks I am already in Mosiah!! Love that book! :)

Love you all!!!

Atte:

Elder Russell

P-day at La Playa

Well another week that just flew by! Holy smokes, and this week ends the 6 week transfer session. We will see if I get transferred, but I think it is more on the unlikely side.

General Conference was awesome! So the first session I watched in English! The stake secretary was like yeah, yeah we have it in English! But they didn’t end up knowing how to set languages. So we all hurried into the Family History room and put it up on the computer. But it took much too long to load the video. So we tried bit by bit to sync up the audio in English on the computer with the muted TV screen. haha I mean it worked, but the volume was also terribly quiet. So I just decided to be the Peruvian I am and watch the other 4 sessions in Spanish. But it was super awesome! And my favorite was listening to the native Spanish speakers there! That was a real cool new feature to general conference.

My favorite session was probably the Sunday PM session! Elder Scott seems to always talk about prayer, but this time it stuck out to me and I am working to improve my prayers and really tell my Heavenly Father everything I've got on my mind. And in this short time putting that to better practice, I do feel his promised Peace. Also, Elder Bednar's talk was stellar. I liked that one, naturally, seeing how us missionaries can easily apply his teachings.

One thing that really lifted my spirits was last Monday. We had a FHE with 4 member families. And there were 4 less active members that are reactivating. Well, they are active, we just need to finish teaching them the lessons to help them learn a bit more and for one of the couples to help them get to the temple. But during the FHE, a member from BOTH of these families gave testimony about how grateful they are to be back in church. One of them told a story where they woke up to get ready for church then just decided to go back to sleep because she was tired. She then said that moment was when a certain missionary knocked on her door to remind her to go to church! That was Elder Corpona and I!! haha but it was quite a nice feeling to see the fruits of the missionary efforts we are doing here in reactivating people.

As for investigators, we are working on it. M just doesn’t seem interested so I think we are going to just go full steam ahead with J, but I don’t know where he escaped to Sunday! He said he was going to go to the Conference, but when we showed up to his house, his door was locked shut. So we will see what happened there. He seems to need things bit by bit, but he has a desire to learn so we are working.

Another goal this week is to follow up with lots of the families we have contacted this week. We have a goal to baptize families, and we are working towards finding at least 3 new investigator families each week now. So we will see how all that goes!!

Oh, and Mom, so here Serpost is the postage services. I heard they have been on strike... so I have not yet received the packages. But hopefully I should receive them before too long!

As for weather, actually it rained like 4 or 5  days this past week!!! Like drizzling... But one morning it started to Pour for like 20 minutes!! It was super awesome!! I miss rain and snow. haha

Dad, you said I should eat a cheeseburger, but here in Zarumilla I am yet to find where they sell burgers. But I had exchanges with the Zone Leaders and there they've got a quality burger shop and I ate what they call here a "Texan Burger" (not quite Texan, but they are tasty! haha)

Well, I thank you for all of your letters! I hope all is well back home! Holy smokes, I didn’t even recognize little Luke in the photos!! Crazy how you are all growing up back home! Keep up the good work! And apply General Conference! Especially the 4 things Elder Scott told us to make as habits, I did like his talk. :)

Love you all!

Elder Russell

Sure LOVE this boy! (and his jumping pictures :)

Apply What You Learned in Conference!

Dear Family,

This week was a good one! I sadly, did not get to see all of General Conference yet. The deal here is that the country of Peru had elections for region and district leaders and it is like against the law to hold public reunions that day, so by law we were not allowed to have church. And every single person by law has to vote before 4 pm. So Sunday we actually were advised to stay in our apartment for the morning, but our whole district went to the Pensionista's house and watched the Sunday morning session on BYU TV (yep, they have that here and actually LOTS of people watch it!) So from what little I have seen so far it's been great! A lot about follow the prophet and receiving personal revelation. I liked it all so far!

Sadly, J's wife still hasn't accepted to listen to us. She doesn't know how badly she needs this message!! She's been quite engulfed with all going on in her life and doesn't accept making time to relax and listen. But we are still working. And J is doing great! Excited to keep going to church, we taught him the word of wisdom and prayer and once he understands it, he is all for it. So I am thinking we need to focus a whole lot more on him and then his wife will follow.

We keep talking to more and more couples in the streets! And we are finding some quality people! We found W this week, a less active that really wants to get back to church, he just has problems getting over past sins and mistakes, we are working on teaching repentance and forgiveness with him. I am so so glad we found him, a super high quality guy! He is already inviting us to hang out at his house some P Day and cook pizzas and all that! He actually used to be a YSA and YM councilor it sounds like, a very active and involved member! So awesome!

To answer some questions:

You mentioned in your last letter that the area you are in now is very different from Sechura and Tambo Grande... HOW is it different?

Well, Zarumilla is a much bigger and more sophisticated place. Tumbes in general is fairly more advanced than Piura. For example, it seems like everyone in Piura has the same beliefs - the Bible, Catholic tradition, accept everything you tell them. But in Tumbes you find more, we contacted a lady who believed in reincarnation, and a less active we teach lives with an Islamic believing Brazilian. It is much more developed in everything.

Tell us more about the Ward that you are serving in...

There are around 700 baptized members, but our attendance normally ranges between 110 and 140. The Bishop is awesome, he reminds me a lot of Uncle Daren actually in how he talks and interacts with people. It is a good ward. The strongest in all of Tumbes. I like the ward a lot, it is a whole lot of fun. I think us missionaries are going to plan a Halloween activity here too!! Here they don't do too many activities, or at least they have all recently died off. So we are going to try to plan something big and awesome. I am thinking and using the Littleton Ward Trunk or Treat for a few ideas. :)

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

Ok. Sunday, we were walking down the street all normal. We walk passed a couple we have talked to before sitting outside their house. I am walking in front of Elder Encarnacion. I say "hola". Then my companion does the same, right as their big dog JUMPS out of the house barking and BITES my companion's leg!! He didn't bite him too hard, it was more of a scrape, but that incident came out of the blue.

That night we were reporting, and the other missionaries were over reporting to me. They heard that Elder Encarnacion got bit by a dog and started talking about rabies. Elder Moses said, I hear that if you have rabies you have to get 8 shots in the stomach... And Elder Encarnacion's starting freaking out a bit, trying not to believe it. So we call out to Hermana Teo our pensionista (our apartment is like an annex to her house) and ask if it was true. She calls out "YES. 14 SHOTS IN THE BELLY BUTTON!" Elder Encarnacion's reaction was quite comical. He kinda freaked out. But in the end we called the mission health adviser (Hermana Rowley) and she said to just apply anti inflammation cream for now, and the next day everything was totally fine. But it was quite a deal I find quite comical now. :)

Here in Peru recently it has been rather cool but now it is starting to heat up again. I heard that here in Tumbes in the summer it stays right up there close to 100 degrees, but hopefully I get sent somewhere cooler before that comes around. haha

SO next week I will see Conference! Hopefully we can get J to come, and we've got a couple other investigators to come too. Hopefully this week we will find some super stellar new investigators too and invite them! Now that elections are over, this next week won't be so crazy with all the campaigning in the streets and whatnot.

Today we went to the beach again! I got some super awesome pics, but this week I am sending the birthday pics to you! I finally got them from the Q family!! Sorry they didn't turn out too well.. it was all from a phone camera... haha But there ya go!

I love you all!! Have a great week and apply what you learned in Conference!!

Oh and keep reading the Book of Mormon!! I finished it this week, Holy smokes I LOVE Mormon and Moroni. High Class Men right there. and now I am right back in 1st Nefi! Keep reading that book!!!!! It is true and changes lives!

Hear from you next week!

Elder Russell

( Pictures from Collin's Birthday in August :)