Nov 24th

Hey Everyone-
Well it has been such a great week and yet so busy! My new greenie is Elder
Bogle. Right when I saw all the new missionaries introduce themselves at
transfer meeting I knew he would be my companion! It has been an answer to my
prayers serving with him! He Is From Atlanta, GA. He was baptized 4 years ago
with his father and younger sister. He has a big family of 11 kids. His parents
are divorced and his father has been in the Military and is originally from
Kingston, Jamaica! So far I am loving my new companion and can already tell he
will be one of my favorites! I have felt the responsibility of this calling and
I know its importance but he has been so easy to train because had has a great desire to serve and he
already does a great job teaching. I have felt a huge difference already in the
wards and their attitudes towards us and I know we will be able to gain a lot of
the members trust this transfer! Bishop Gordon bore a powerful testimony of
missionary work and expresse
d to the ward that WE (the Elders) have been working hard and have been obedient
to the rules and that the ward needs to find people for us to teach! I have
loved serving around Bishop Gordan, he has taken the lead in missionary work and
has made one of his top priorities, despite not having much success in years!
Speaking of Melissa, we know that there are always challenges when you
prepare someone for baptism. Melissa and her sister and brother in-law have
moved out of our ward and luckily the Sister missionaries have been able to
start teaching her where we left off. Unfortunately, she had a tough week last
week and so we have had to postpone her baptism. It is hard because we don’t serve in her new area and therefore we can’t
randomly drop in to see how she is doing. She did come to church at the Tiger
Mountain ward and it was good to see her. She promised us before she left that
she would call us if she ever feels like that again and we will cheer her up and
give her scriptures to read. We are still praying that the Sisters will
continue to teach her and that she will be able to gain a testimony of the
truthfulness of this gospel.
Our Zone didn’t go through a lot of changes during transfers and luckily
most of the Elders still stayed! I love our Zone. On Wednesday night we have
continued to teach a recent convert, Sis. Stanley, the new member lessons and it
went very well. Later that night we had our weekly scripture study with the
Cahills! I found out on Sunday from Moe (the Daughter), that her brother Charlie
wants to receive the Priesthood and wants us to be a part of it! I was thrilled
because it was unexpected! Thursday was a normal proselyting day and that night we actually went home teaching with the High Priest group
leader! It was genius, because we got to spend some time with ward members and
they had the opportunity to get to know us. He then spent the night driving us
to our appointments and that really helped us save our miles!
Sunday was a great day! I have noticed the ward made an effort to come and
introduce themselves and we also received a lot had of invites for Thanksgiving
Dinner! We are going to try and do two of them!! I prepared a lesson on the
Atonement for the Tiger Mtn ward. But in May Valley the teacher didn’t show, so
I stepped up and taught the lesson! It was very powerful and I know the spirit
was with me because my mouth was loosed and I could feel the Spirit of the Lord
was teaching this class. I was edified and so was the class! Now when it came to
Tiger Mtn I was excited to teach this lesson again because of how well it went
in the previous ward, but that was far from the case! I felt a huge contrast and
could barely teach. I kept stumbling over my words and felt like I hadn’t touched
their hearts, despite having asking the same questions. I left frustrated and
continued to ponder the question WHY?? All I have come up with is that one
class had been ready and willing to learn
with their hearts open to the message while the other class had come to class
filled with distractions and weren’t paying attention! I have developed a
greater appreciation for my own teachers and I would invite everyone to be
reverent and come to church or seminary wanting to learn!!
Well as you can see I have had a busy yet fantastic week! I hope all is
well back home and hope you all have hearts full of thanks this week!! Enjoy all
the food!
Much love,
Elder Jason Russell