the Adventures of Sister Russell: August 19, 2013

I'M GONNA TRAAAAAIIIIINNNNN!!!!!!!!! woooooo!!OOOO!O!!!!!!!!!! guys i'm training :) sad news..... me and hna judd are splitting.... man. it's gonna be rough. the routine is perfect.... she hands me chapstick before the words even leave my mouth that i need it.... she always lets me eat her leftovers..... she even played all my favorite songs on repeat today.......... hahaha but it's okay! we will survive.

GUYS I LITERALLY HAD THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE ON SATURDAY!!!!!!

............ because jose was baptized :)

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well i just can't freaking out about it. so. yeah. it seriously was like christmas. it was better. IT WAS AMAZING.

okay. let me just... can i just tell you all a little about how much i love him? haha just a little backround on him.

JOSE GUTIERREZ. the english missionaries appointment fell through, and jose walked up to them and he spoke a tiny bit of english, well, they went to check in their car for some reason, and FOUND a spanish book of mormon AND a pamphlet on the restoration........... they literally have never had any spanish material ever. so that was a miracle. jose looked at it and was like... what the? this is important!!! christ was in the america's? why does no one know about this? anyways then he came to church with us!

after that we set a date and had a lesson every day with him! haha he is SO CUTE every lesson he would arrange a plate of fruit for us and make us take it all home, pina and grapes one day, apples and grapes, etc etc, anyway.

ALSO he was talking one day and stopped and said... "but. the only person i love, and will love to the day i die, is augustina." and he just stopped and smiled a little with a sad look in his eyes. AWWWW my goodness so cute. that's his x wife. we're rooting for them to get back together :) he is SO desperate for his family to accept this message. he talks about it ALL the time :) they will! he has faith :)

ANYway. ALSO! he rides that little scooter in the picture, hahaha, but before i forbade him to ride it cause he didn't have a helmet, and he was like oh come oooon, i don't even go on fast roads! and i was like jose! no! you get a helmet first! so he said okay... haha and then he told us he was praying for a helmet so he could ride to church, and then he went to go talk to a friend and someone else came up and the helmet came up and the guy he didn't know said, hey i have three helmets! do you want one? WHAAAAAAT???? hahahaha SO AWESOME. he was so happy.

ALSO he has two cute birds that he had us name so he'd always remember us :) ALSO he made us promise to call him before we get married so he can talk to the guy and make sure he's a good kid. hahaha

ANYWAY. the baptism was amazing. he has this cute little giggle he does whenever he's excited, this grin, rubs his hands together, and goes, he he heee! i can't describe it well enough but he was doing that all day. he was so excited and nervous. he showed up like two hours early. haha

I for sure thought i was gonna cry, cause the spirit was way strong, and then he was dunked and he forgot where to put his hand and didn't plug his nose and got water in it and was coughing a bunch getting out so right before a TEAR DROPPED i started laughing.... hahaha ruined it. but it was so funny, he's adorable. ALMA 29:10 is how i feel about it. go read that scripture! get your scriptures out! it's a good one.

okay MAN i could talk about that for forever, sorry! i'll move on :) he's just AMAZING! and already fellowshipping! i mean he has a lot to learn still, but WHAT a blessing right? we were so blessed to be the ones to teach him and see him get baptized. so grateful for that.

okay. well let's see! we went back to that ADORABLE mexican family and honestly i was expecting a eh we didn't read, don't have time, come back? not too interested, BUT the dad had read a lot!!!!! and remembered what he read!!! and had SUCH GOOD QUESTIONS! he was basically setting his own date :) WOO! haha updates on them in the future.

oh here's a funny thing! not that funny but it was for us! haha we were teaching a less active and she was talking about all the things she'd heard about joseph smith and the church on the internet, and sister bench said hey could we go to this scripture real fast? well i flipped there for her, cause she didn't know where it was, and i swore she said 28:26, and it said something like, don't listen to the wisdom or preecepts of men, stop denying the holy ghost. hahaha but it was the wrong scripture! it was 25;26, how ironic.... :)

NOEMIIIIIII is moving.... :( BUT! she's still planning on the baptism :) in kissimee, but it's okay. i was a little bummed we wouldn't see her get there, BUT I AM JUST SO EXCITED FOR HER TO EVEN GET THERE!!!! she is so ready. she is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in love with all of it. the spirit is always way strong with her.

she is always still very dead serious and head strong about me marrying her son...... hahaha guys... i'm not kidding... she said after my mission her and her son would be at my door with roses and a blueberry pie. so funny. i love her so much, haha

well it has been CRAZY humid. haha you walk to your car and you're sweating already!! i couldn't imagine how it would be on bikes right now! grateful for that car!

okay well basically jacob 4 is the best chapter in the universe. i think that about every chapter i study. haha i didn't appreciate the book of mormon NEARLY enough. holy MOLY.

i love this chapter though, in vs. 8 it talks about the marvelous deep works of the Lord, and how it LIT'RALLY..... impossible to understand it all. vs. 9, God can make a world by his words alone, and man, you don't think he can do WHATEVER else the heck he wants with everything on this earth??

vs. 10, do not counsel God.... he is a lot smarter than you, take his counsel! and trust him cause he's merciful AND just AND wise. and he loves you :) so much.

vs. 11, simply, repent, have faith, use the atonement, be saved!

vs. 13, the gospel is simple.

basically.... don't overthink the deep doctrine. the gospel was made simple so that we could understand it! it is impossible to understand everything right now, so take it a step at a time. i've been trying to apply that in my studies!

okay. now open you scriptures to alma 29:6, 9-10, man some of my favorite scriptures. especially 6.

i love this work so much. i love you ALL so much. i know it's true, I wouldn't be so happy if it wasn't. like alma says in alma 30:33-35, to korihor who is saying the leaders of the church do it for money and to keep the people in bondage and be naive so they can control them.... we don't do this for money. you think we trick people into being happy? you can't do that. the gospel works. if you honestly apply it's principles to your life, you will feel that happiness. without fail.

WELL. to end. my favorite quote ever. that i've probably said before.

"you haven't failed until you quit trying." -Gordon B. Hinkley

it's true. don't give up. EVEEEEEER!!!!!!! the point of life and the gospel is NOT to be perfect and do EVERYTHING immediately, it is to try. continually, just try. that's all, you are not held on a standard higher than you can reach! but God knows you, and he knows if you are trying. so just keep trying. don't quit. it's okay if you mess up. we all do. that's what the atonement is for. it's not a bad thing to repent! it's a beautiful thing :)

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!! every last one of ya.

hasta la vista baby.

love hermana Russell :)