June 23, 2008

Hey Everyone-

I just got done with a huge email where I put a lot of details about our week and then it shut down! So I will try to include as much info as I can with the time I have left!! This week has been great but way busy as always!

On Monday after I emailed you I played racquetball with Bro Avery. I loved it and it was a lot of fun, he played well for being 70 yrs old! Ha-ha. The rest of our P-day was a blur and they always go way too fast! I did try to catch up on my letter writing, I have been slacking! Sorry.

On Tuesday we had exchanges and I went to Mercer Island and Newport with Elder Small, he is from a tiny town in Colorado. We did a lot of service that day especially pulling weeds!! We also did a lot of tracting. Mercer Island has been known to be hard and unfortunately we didn’t have any luck despite how hard we worked. There is a strong Jewish community and everyone is very wealthy and not interested! We did talk to one very nice girl who was Muslim and she told me all about her religion! The District leader Elder Anderton went to my area and after having a lesson with Katie said I know President Moffat was inspired because you both have the perfect personalities for Katie" I thought that was cool!

Wednesday was a typical day and I can’t remember what we did or if anything stuck out that day! But Thursday was our Zone Conference which I loved! My companion and I gave a lesson to our Zone and President Moffat sat in! I know the Lord sustained me that day! I taught beyond my own natural ability and President also wanted to listen to everyone role-play the lessons (with me being the evaluator) and again the Lord helped me give appropriate advice and encouragement! I am grateful for the Lords Hand that continues to hold me up!

On Friday we got to go to another Zone Conference because we are the backup office Elders! We were asked to inspect all of the mission cars, it was a lot of work but I enjoyed doing it and we got another great meal out of it! That night we had a great lesson with Katie at The Lathrops home (young couple, both converts) we taught her another lesson The Atonement. It’s always enriches the lessons when we have members there who add great thoughts and testimonies of what we teach! I can’t emphasize enough how important ward members are to the success of missionary work!

Saturday went by fast as well, we tracted all morning in a beautiful area and that night we went on a mini exchange with some other missionaries! Which was fun? I think it’s so important to show them that they can have fun and work hard while doing missionary work! I love getting to know each missionary and developing that friendship! We had a lot of success that night as far as numbers went!

Now Sunday! Wow it was very busy and I was at church for a total of 8 hours! I love attending all of the meetings and learn so much. I love it when they have musical numbers during sacrament; it always touches me in some way! Maybe because I wish I had developed a musical talent. We had the Privilege of teaching the entire Young Women’s about missionary work. We talked about the Who, What, Why, and How. In other words, we told them who we were, what we do, why we do it, and how they can do it. We made it very fun and they are all now inspired to bring their friends to church! One girl afterward told us she will introduce us to one of her friends who is interested! Then to top it off, we got a bag full of cookies and a caramel apple! I wish we could teach Young Women’s every week!! Ha-ha

As you can see I am busy as ever but loving every minute of it! My companion and I are having so much fun and have developed a strong friendship already and we truly are united in everything we do! I continue to learn a lot from him and hope to become the leader the Savior would have me be! I am now more aware of my weaknesses and imperfections but I get to depend on the Lord to help with that!

Well I love each of you so much.

Elder Russell