July 21, 2008

Hey Everyone-
Well I can’t believe how fast the weeks are going! I feel like I just emailed everyone and once again I have to try and remember all the events that took place this week. On Monday we said goodbye to Katie and you got to say Hello to her! She is so thoughtful, she bought us both ties as we left and gave us some pictures along with a note. These are things I will always cherish! Later that night we had dinner with the Gaag family, he is from Germany and very nice. I love member meals, because we didn’t know anything about Brother Gaag. During dinner we found out he is hilarious and has a great family and very missionary minded!
Tuesday was transfers; I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that. I got to just sit back and enjoy the whole experience without being nervous about a new companion or area! We got a great group of missionaries in the zone. I have been thinking so much on how to improve this zone! Bellevue South has been known to be a dead zone and so we are doing all we can to try and change that reputation! I just want to have our zone to be united, have faith, and a desire to work hard! I see a lot of potential this transfer!
Wednesday was our Zone meeting, my companion and I spent a lot of time on what we could say to our Zone to get them excited and spiritually motivated! I lead a discussion about heroes in the Book of Mormon and the challenges that they faced! I then asked them to think of things they struggle with either in life or on their mission. I then bore my testimony that we can all overcome them the exact same way our heroes in the Book of Mormon did and that is through the Saviors atonement! If we but come unto him he will make our burdens light and make our weaknesses strong! I have such a testimony of that, I see him sustain me every day!
Thursday we did service for the Torgusons family. She is a member and her husband is not. I had a good conversation with her about that and she told me her husband is a Lutheran by tradition and if it weren’t for that he would join our church! I thought of the talk from conference, Faith of our Fathers and told her about it! We loved doing service, especially driving his tractor lawn mower! We are going back tomorrow to finish it! We hope to be able to sit down and talk to him and hopefully ask him how we can help him to be baptized!
Friday was my 21st Birthday; I received a lot of letters and packages in which I was thrilled about! So thank you all for caring about me and wishing me a Happy Birthday. It was a unique birthday for me, I thought about what every other young man would do on his 21st birthday and I am so grateful I am out serving the Lord! There is nothing that I would rather do! We had Zone Leader Council at the mission home and Sister Moffat made it special for me. We were unable to go to cheesecake factory; my companion wasn’t feeling the best. So the rest of the night I studied while my companion got better! (I am planning on going to cheesecake factory Wednesday!)
Saturday my companion was still sick so he slept half of the day, I didn’t like it too much. I was grateful to go out that night and get back to work!
Sunday was as busy as ever, we are doing things non-stop the entire day, after 8 hours of church and meetings we ran to a dinner with the Adams, and then ran to a lesson with Ingalisa! Now Ingalisa is 12 yrs old, her parents are members but not active. The Sister missionaries tried teaching her a couple months ago but she didn’t like it. So we have been trying to build a relationship with her family, they are very nice. Ingalisa is very shy! Well Sunday night we had a lesson planned with her and we decided to put her on date! We weren’t sure how we were going to do it but trusted the Lord would fill our mouths! We both felt the Lord’s help and we had a wonderful lesson and she accepted to be baptized in August!! We are so excited!! Well that’s about it for this week, I finished the Book of Mormon again, how I love that book and its truthfulness, I can’t deny it. I encourage all to read it daily!!! Well I love you all thanks for your support. I hope all is well with each of you
!!!
Elder Russell

July 14, 2008

"Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

14 Jul 2008

Hey Everyone-

I am so grateful that its summer, it is so gorgeous every single day! Well I don’t have too much time; we have a very busy day. Last Monday we again went as a zone to Triple X burger, this time I was smart and decided to just get a normal size burger. We did have something great happen while we were there. While we were all sitting down a man walked in and said Elders, everything is on me, get all you want to eat. He is a Bishop from California and comes up here every week and whenever he sees Elders he buys their lunch. We got a picture with him and he came back later with two other men, one of them looked very familiar to me. He was one of the founders of Costco! His name was Scott and the nicest man ever, I thought that was very neat he took the time to find out where we were from and I got to tell him how I had worked at Costco before my mission!

The most important thing that happened this week was Katie was baptized on Saturday and it was a wonderful Baptism. The spirit was strong and a lot of her family showed up! Katie was so happy afterward. On Sunday I was able to confirm the Holy Ghost on Katie. Normally I would have been very nervous since this was the first time I have had that privilege, but I wasn’t nervous at all. Katie is now moving to Utah on Monday to teach Kindergarten. I thought I should share the story of how she got the job. She graduated from Central Washington with a teaching degree and then she met the missionaries, two weeks after meeting with us, she went to a job fair for teachers. She had only given her address to potential schools in Seattle. But the next day she somehow got an email from the Jordan School District in Utah. That really surprised her because she had no plans to teach anywhere but Seattle. When she didn’t get the job in Issaquah she decided to take a chance and apply for the teaching job in Utah! The next day she had numerous interviews over the phone with some schools in Utah. After interviewing with the Principle of a school in Herriman Ut they offered her the job right then! It has been amazing to see the Lord’s hand in Katie’s life. So here it is a number of weeks later and Katie is getting baptized on Saturday night and then leaving with her Mom to drive to Salt Lake on Monday. Elder Stapley and I are both excited because she will be able to meet both our parents.

Well I am about out of time, but I did have Transfer calls last night and I am staying another one with Elder Stapley! We are very happy with this; we have some challenges in our Zone but we feel the Lord will bless us. I am so blessed to be able to be an instrument in the Lords hands and I love seeing his hand play apart in my life each and every day. Thanks so much for the Love and Support you show me.

Yes Happy Birthday to me! Haha I can’t believe I am 21! Well love you all!

Elder Jason Russell

July 7th

Hey Everyone-

Again we had another very busy week and it went by way to fast! I will try to remember what I did over the week but it won’t be as detailed as before considering one of the Assistants forgot to give me my planner back!.

On Monday as you know we went to Triple X burger with the Assistants, it was a lot of fun and those were the biggest hamburgers ever! I wasn’t man enough to finish it ha-ha. The Root beer is one of the top 5 in the world and I loved it. We took a lot of pictures and videos; we had a lot of fun. That night we had a great lesson at Bishop Kinghorns house with Katie. It was all on the Prophet Joseph Smith, the spirit was very powerful as we watched a movie about him and everyone went around and told their favorite story about him. We each had the opportunity to share with her our thoughts about the Prophet. It was a great lesson!

I honestly can’t remember what we did on Tuesday or Wednesday, that’s kind of sad but that just shows you how fast our weeks go by. I do remember Thursday though since it was interviews. My companion and I also gave a great workshop and then we got to evaluate our zones teaching skills. President Moffat also talked to us and I again felt his inspiration, he talked about some things that were perfect for our missionaries in the zone to hear. I am so grateful that he is so inclined to the spirit and knows our needs, it’s a great blessing to see the Lords hand work through him in so many ways! My interview with him was very brief but I felt his love that he has for me. I love being able to support President Moffat in any way for I know his burdens are heavy, and yet he loves this work!

I feel sometimes that’s how I feel; this is the hardest thing I have had to do in my life, and yet I have never been so happy. But the one thing it teaches me is that I need to depend upon the Lord for everything I do, and it’s amazing to see how he sustains me, he truly does make my weaknesses and short something that I can overcome! It all starts with sincere prayer everyday! My favorite scripture that I love sharing is Alma 37:36-37.

Friday was the Fourth of July; it really didn’t feel any different, probably because we don’t take holidays off. But everyone was home with their families, which is what we love. We talked to a lot of people and will be teaching some soon! That night we went on exchanges with the Assistants, and since it doesn’t get dark here until later, I wasn’t able to see any fireworks!

Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Siggard from Heber, Ut. We had so much fun, we pretty much tracted the entire day! But that gave us an opportunity to really get to know each other and for me to learn from a great leader. We had a lot of success and found some people to start teaching mostly people from South Korea! The day seemed to go by fast, that’s what happens when you’re working hard.

Sunday, wow it was the longest day ever! We were in church for 8 hours and we also taught two classes and spoke in the primaries of both wards! I was exhausted after that! Oh one thing I forgot to mention is President Moffat brought back member meals but only on Sunday and Monday nights! So last night we had dinner at the Kinghorn (bishop) family, I had my first steak in 10 months!!

Katie surprised us and came to church (she was in Oregon for vacation during the weekend) She brought us back tons of salt water taffy. Her baptism is scheduled for this Saturday and she is doing great! I just talked to her and she got a job offer in Utah teaching Kindergarten, in the Jordan School District! Crazy huh!!

Well again I am almost out of time but I want you to all know I am so happy and couldn’t be better. I am so blessed to be able to testify of the Prophet Joseph Smith every day. This is the Lords work. Love you so much!

Will you give Aunt Judy my love and tell her I will keep her in my prayers.

Elder Jason Russell

June 30, 2008

Hey Everyone-

It has been so nice the past couple of days; they have been filled with blue skies and hot weather! As always it was a busy week! I love this area so much; the members are very giving and full of love. I can’t tell you how many times the people in Bellevue offer us food or water while we are tracting; the community is so friendly. Today will be a busy day as well, full of activities. We will be playing racquetball again and maybe going to Snoqualmie Falls to take some pictures. We are also going to Issaquah with the Assistants. It was one of their birthdays and so they decided to take my companion and I to lunch at a place called Triple X Burger, they are famous for huge burgers and amazing root beer! Then tonight we have a lesson with Katie at Bishop Kinghorns house. She wants to learn more about Joseph Smith; we have a great lesson planned!

Last Monday while we were shopping we ran into Bishop McCredie’s wife and she paid for all of our groceries!! It was a huge blessing since we pretty much were out of money! Tuesday we attended a District Meeting and later on that night we had a lesson at the Avery’s house where we talked about President Monson and heard some wonderful stories about him. Bro Avery had President Monson as his Mission President in Canada! Wednesday we attended another District Meeting. I have been so pleased with the progress that some of the Elders have been making especially in their teaching skills!

Thursday was probably the busiest day I have experienced since being a missionary. We began our day attending a leadership meeting in Renton. I loved going to that and seeing all the missionaries. During the meeting we spent a lot of time discussing the many needs of the missionaries and how we as leaders can become better in all aspects of the work! That meeting took up half of the day. We then went on exchanges with Elder Khai (first missionary from Burma) and Elder Unbedacht. It went well and we had a lot of fun and some success while tracting. Following the exchange we then went to a meeting where the Zone Leaders from four Zones attended a Multi-Stake leadership training meeting on Missionary work. We then had a follow up with Elder Tom Perry’s initiative. I don’t know if the stakes back home are getting trained for this, but I am very excited about it because it stresses the importance of having entire wards focus on missionary work! We also got to hear from Presiden t Moffat as well as Elder Walker, who is the Area Seventy. The meeting went until 10:30 at night! We didn’t get home till past 11:00 which is something that never happens.

Friday was a full day so I’ll just give you a couple highlights. We had a lesson with Katie about temples! After that we got invited to a Stapley Family Reunion. Ha It was pretty much all of my Companions second and third cousins whom he has never meet including his Dad’s first cousin, who is in the Bellevue South Stake Presidency. It was a fun reunion! We then stopped by Bro Adams house. He is one of our Stake’s High Counselors. His house is breathtaking. Brother Adams has a gorgeous view of Lake Sammamish. It was fun to learn that his next door neighbor is an MLB player for the Seattle Mariners (Ichiro!) and across the street is the Basketball coach for UW. Bro Adams is an amazing man and has a wonderful conversion story!

Well I am about out of time but as you have read we had a very fulfilling week. I am so pleased with how the work is going and I am always full of thanks and joy because of it! One of the greatest things I can do as a missionary is during my nightly prayer give an accounting to the Lord of my day’s activities and pray that it’s acceptable! I love this work and this gospel; I wouldn’t be able to do what I do were it not for the Lord sustaining me! Thanks for all your support; I love my family and friends so much!!!

-Elder Jason Scott Russell-