the Adventures of Sister Russell: June 10, 2014

oh my heck NO TIME EVER!!!!

okay let me just cut to the chase...

WE HAD AN AMAZING MISSION CONFERENCE YESTERDAY!!! it was half the mission, south zones yesterday, so i got to see ALL THE PEOPLE I LOVE!!! okay you all have no idea.... how happy it made me.... TO SEE THESE PEOPLE!!!

I got to see Sister Kenagy, hermana Judd, Hermana Miller, Hermana Despain, hermana meldau, ETC!!! and SO ON!!

there was a point in the conference when i was just looking at all of them and thinking to myself... man. NEVER would i have been able to become so close with all of these people if i hadn't come here to serve. they are all so different, and yet we are all best friends. I love them with all my heart, and man... I am just truly grateful for the people that have been put into my life out here.

So let me tell you about a huge tender mercy that Heavenly Father gave me this last week and a half.

last saturday, i went to one of the members houses before our baptism, the grobergs! it was late, but we decided to drop by really fast for some reason, there at there house was visiting the family of brother groberg from a couple cities away! the wife has never visited down here before and it was just a one day thing, and they were all about to get ready to go. Well We started talking and I figured out the ward that she was from, which is the ward that I knew that Noemi had gotten baptized in! (noemi is the one me and hna judd found last summer, who was always in the hospital, who wanted me to marry her son, and who we fell in love with, who got transferred from the ICU here to kissimee, so we didn't get to say goodbye, who we called the elders up there to go teach and she got baptized when she got healthy enough :)) and mind you I only knew that she was in that specific ward because our new district leader came from there and he told me he had met noemi there and everything! but anyway, so i freaked out!!! and said, WHAT!! so then you know Noemi right???? well she stopped and looked at me, her face dropped and she told me, Noemi passed away this morning...

man... MY face dropped, I tried to bit my lip so I wouldnt cry but SURE enough I started to cry pretty hard. she hugged me and just.... hugged me. she was the relief society president, and had just found out... we both just cried for a while. she told me what happened, how she had gotten a blessing that said she wouldn't be here much longer, and then she passed away the next day. she told me about how much of a strength she had been for the ward, and then i started flippin crying again and so she hugged me again and she just thanked me over and over again for teaching her the gospel... I cannot tell you guys, what it meant to me to be able to find out that way. She was in shock as well, the odds of her coming that day were not high and me coming as well? not high, the morning that she passed, this relief society president happened to be the same place at the same time with me, and we lived hours apart, it was a miracle. I know it was, and I know how merciful heavenly father was.

Well this week, yesterday, as i said, we got to have that mission conference, so i got to see Hna Judd. after the conference I pulled her aside and was able to tell her in person that Noemi had passed away, she started to cry and then I was the one who got to hug her. and THAT was a huge blessing as well, we just got to take some time and talk. ya know the cool thing though? for the first time in my life, the death of someone did not effect me the way it usually did. It wasn't a deep sick feeling, or despair or devastating in the pit of my stomach, it was just the shock or the fact that she is gone now and i never got to say goodbye, ESPECially cause I had just looked at her name in the phone that morning and thought about how I needed to call her soon. but even though we cried and it was sad, neither of us felt hopeless. I have never felt so calm and at peace with someone leaving this place! I know that she is okay, and i know that is because of the gospel. I know where she is right now, and that is because of the gospel, and I can smile thinking about her now because I know that she isn't bound by her sicknesses anymore, but she can do everything she ever wanted to do so badly, she can teach the gospel. SHE can help others now, she can fulfill her purpose. and man i am grateful to know that. I love that woman so much, and i am so grateful to have been the missionary who got to find her and teach her, what a blessing. what a huge blessing. AND what a huge blessing that i was able to find out the way I did, and that I got to tell Hna Judd myself. I will NEVER FORGET THAT! ever. tender mercies of the Lord. they exist.

anyway, I can't remember much else in this moment, i don't have much time today, but I just want you all to know that I know that this gospel is true. I know that it is, and I know that the priesthood authority is way more than any of you truly understand. It is eternal and it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, that I know. I know that sometimes we want to live the way WE want to live. we want to sin the sins we think are acceptable, and judge others for the ones they think are okay, we want life to be easy, trial free, MAN. If I could just shout to the world that that is NOT the purpose of this life. I know why we came here, and it was not for life to be easy. it was not for us to be able to do whatever we want, and still gain eternal joy! please do not miss the point, please do not put your desires above God. i promise you, that he loves you. I promise you, that he wants you to be happy, he does NOT do things in your life to make you suffer, he sees the big picture, he sees it all! we forget that so often! I just feel so strongly right now, that it is all true. I bear pure testimony of his love for us, and of the Book of Mormon, it is true and if you sincerely read it, ponder it and pray, you will know. Do not glide by in life, doing what you want because you want it. there is more, there is SO MUCH MORE.

MAN DO I LOVE YOU ALL!!! love, love is the best. and love is so important. stop being mean to people! stop gossiping, stop judging too harshly, just love :) LOVE LOVE LOVE!

adios amigos :)

woohooo!!!

we had the best night with the Osorios, well the parents never showed up, so we taught the kids a lesson on the porch and then we played ninja attack with them!!! WE LOVE THEM!!! it was so awesome.