Week 15

Monday July 1, 2013

ANNOUNCEMENT: to all the people in the world that know my little brother, name? AARON THOMAS RUSSELL. he has sucked at writing me, and alTHOUGH he did write me two sentences the other day in the family letter which is all i requested of him, i am still unhappy and WANT MORE. so if you know him, or even if you don't! write him, text him, call him, bug him about it when you see him, until he announces on facebook that he wrote me at LEAST a page long letter about his life and how much he loves me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! okay thank you. goodbye :)

HEY GUYS!!!!!!

well let's start out with THE BEST NEWS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VLADIMIR CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

seriously you do not even understand. HOW LONG we waited for this!!!!!! haha he walked in those doors................ and i almost died. i held back a SCREAM and jumped up and down and freaked!!! man...... it was like. if i got to hold a monkey. basically that. i was so happy. haha and he loved it too!!! he loved everyone and he has been missing that friendly love since his wife left him and so it was so good for him!!! he's coming again next week too :) I SEE A BAPTISM IN THE FUTURE YA'LL!!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!

okay anyways. whew! just so happy :)

let's see! NOEMI is still progressing great but things are complicated with if she's moving or not! so uh we dunno about her baptism date when it is now but she still can't get enough of the BoM! she went out of town and i asked if she would bring it and she said ooooh BABY are you kidding me? it's like a little kid getting a piece of candy! i can't leave it behind! aw man :) what sweet words to the ears of a missionary. haha

okay let me just tell you how well the Lord is doing in testing my patience with people this week. Me and Hna Judd have been working on listening when it's hard and being patient when people won't stop talking or are being stubborn or whatever. and we're getting lots of opportunities to fail and get better..... haha

i'll only share one story though! we were looking through old investigator records and went to go visit a house, and the investigator had moved but it was a cute family! so we went in, did a prayer with them, the dad cried! it was great! and then.... we brought out the book of mormon.... explained it... and then suddenly a sweet quiet family turned into CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!!!! just kidding not crazy. but oh my GOSH. you guys i could not take it. hahaha they talked 2308463890237612837541234 miles per hour and for basically 23804237 minutes straight every time!!!!! we were an hour late to our next appointment because eeeevery time we started saying anything immediately they would take what they assumed we were saying and go off for 500 hours and then we would say that wasn't what we were gonna say... they'd say oh okay! explain? we'd get two words in and... asdjfasdjfasuidyfawneflaksdyfiasdbfkjasdhfiasbd, (that's fast spanish if you didn't know) hahaha my brain was SO DEAD. in the end we couldn't handle it anymore, we kept our cool the whole time though! but we challenged them to just read it, which they didn't want to do, but they are going to! and we're actually going back! so yes :) they'll be baptized guys DON'T WORRY!!!

anyways.

OH! nirsa and mike :) cute wonderful couple. we were challenging them to pray and read to see if Joseph smith was a prophet and the BoM was true and mike didn't want to cause he was a little put off about how we explained that we recieved that authority for baptism, meaning his pastors didn't have it, but Nirsa went off on him saying it's just a book! i can read about the news but i can't read this? what's it gonna do to ya? haha she's so great. she loves the lessons. Mike will get there too :)

oh and we met this sweet lady Vanoni, she's this AWESOME black lady, we told her we were missionaries and she was like ooooooooh my WHAT?? we asked her if she believed in Christ and she said "baby do i EVER!" in a black sass pursed lips way, hahaha she was like oooooh girls we are gonna have so much fun! ooooh man... i wish you could all meet every single person we meet every day. it is amazing.

well here's some random awesome things. we are on wendy's wall :) they love us cause we go in so much and took a picture!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!! they even know our names!!!! i feel so cool. also it has poured EVERY day this week! i love it SO MUCH the lightening and thunder and rain oh my heck... guys. I could move here just for the rain. it's the best. we get soaked every day!!!

hey! here's cool story!!!

so uh we were dropping the other sisters off and before we drove away i realized MY NAME TAG WASN"T ON!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! i looked all over the car and was like NOOOOOO!!!!!! it's probably somewhere in the other neighborhood! well.... SUDDENLY. i had to go to the bathroom... so bad..... you guys... SO BAD. i was gonna literally pee my pants. ...... wet my skirt i mean. haha anyways so i got out of the car while hna judd still searched and started running around it in circles screaming cause i HAD TO GO!!!! and after three circles i kicked something and saw....... MY NAMETAG!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was dark so i couldn't see it before!!! and suddenly i didn't have to go to the bathroom anymore!!!

MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!! hahahaha it was so funny. anyways.

k guys this is LONG i feel like i gotta go! love you ALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm just gonna leave you all with a quote cause i don't have anymore time but here it is!

"Hope grows out of faith and gives meaning and purpose to all that we do. It can give us comfort in the face of adversity, strength in times of trial, and peace when there is EVERY reason for doubt and anguish."

oh man everyone i love that so much. if you have nothing else remember there is still hope. always there is hope, because we have christ, because we have the atonement. because we have God and he is always on our side. fighting for us, crying for us, working hard for us. don't give up that hope. never ever ever.

it is CRAZY how many doubts every day we confront from other people, how many times we hear why our church isn't true and the reasoning and logic behind it and everything, we are faced with not only our doubts but every other doubt about the church any other person could have and yet our testimonies have never been stronger. when I testify that this church is true it is because I have learned it for myself, and no one can take that away from me. no doubt, no words, nothing could change that. this church is true, it is. I know it, and I love it. and i love YOU GUYS!!! so much.

i have to go. BE STRONG EVERYONE!!!! go say a prayer or something! k bye :)

MOM dad and aaron :) I LOVE YOU GUYS! i have no time i wrote too much but thank you SO MUCH for you package!!! seriously! also how does my debit card get filled? also i need scripture cases for my spanish Bom and bible... haha also seriously THANK you for the package it made me so happy! i'll reply soon! gotta go!!! LOVE YOU GUYS! BYEEEEEE!

p.s. mom io'm becoming a clean kitchen natzi.... it's all your fault. hahaha

BYE GUYS! :)