the Adventures of Sister Russell: April 28, 2014

OH MY heavens what a week.

okay so i think i forgot to tell you all that me and hermana Perez are the Sister Training Leaders! they didn't tell us till almost a week into the transfer... haha! but i'm excited, it's gonna be awesome.

it's a good motivation to be the best missionaries we can be. We always have a lot we could work on, none of us are perfect! but we do our best.

so last pday we played basketball and MAN YOU GUYS I AM SO OUT OF SHAPE. it is.... not funny. haha i gotta hit the GYM!

uhhhh man what happened this week!

let me just say. That my journal is SEVERELY suffering! me and hna perez use up all our time at night messing around. hahahahah if ONLY we could be recorded every night.

The other night I taught her the art behind ugly faces.

Also we've been practicing our opera and banjo singing a lot. there's a talent show in our zone development day that we have to perform in!!

hmmm.... anyway.

okay LET ME TELL YOU about ESOM!!!!!!!!!

man we were driving one day and these three guys waved to us, and so we stopped and went to talk to them! the one guy, Esom, he was sincerely interested in what we had to say. He said we had a glow about us, and nobody smiled like we did these days. We got a return appt. and went back!

OH MAN! the first lesson WAS SO GOOD! the spirit was so strong from the moment we prayed to the end. and he was SO IN TUNE. his answers to our questions were gold! man, it was awesome. he just was like... man you girls have given me a lot to think about, and ponder. he wants to change his life, and he said yes to baptism, the only problem is that he goes on one month long work trips and is home for a month at a time, cause he works on a ship :( and he just left for a month on saturday... NOOO. but it's okay we're PLANNING on skyping him for lessons! so that would be awesome.

but anyway, OH MY HECK! we also had a bunch of church tours this week, it was awesome. we were able to get an old investigator to the church FINALLY after months and MONTHS OF TRYING!!! we had the tour and stopped at the baptismal font and the spirit was way strong!!! and we talked to him about baptism, he's just been waiting his whole life to be baptized in the right place at the right time, with his whole family. he would be baptized, but his wife is taking a little longer to accept everything. but man he is so devoted to God! he is awesome. I love them. IN TIME! we just need some inspiration and the spirit!

ANOTHER cool thing! we went on exchanges and sis. Jenkins was with me this week. we had some awesome lessons, I love bringing english people to spanish lessons cause i LOVE translating for them cause it shows that even if they don't speak the lesson, they can still be inspired to share certain things or scriptures. so every time she had a thought she would say it and i would translate it, and the investigator teared up multiple times when she shared those things. it was so cool. we also had an awesome lesson with an old investigator who has been struggling a lot with feeling overwhelmed and pulled at by all different angles and people to go this way or that. we had a big lesson with him about just trusting your heavenly father, and going to him personally for guidance when everyone is telling you something different. we focused a lot on repentance, and just love. it was really cool the spirit that we felt.

Man everyone... life is good. Life is also hard. and i am very grateful for that. I am not the same person i was and THANK HEAVENS FOR THAT. haha this life is for progress. so STOP BEING SATISFIED where you are! you should never be content to stay the same! you don't have to kill yourself trying to be better, but just always be working on yourself.

same with your relationships. GIVE UP YOUR PRIDE! man is it hard but do it! it is such a destruction to your SOUL! haha it's the worst.

and most of all remember to feed your spirit. if you stop feeding it, it will die. do not be deceived and think you can go long periods of time without doing the classic things we've all been taught. scriptures, prayer, and church. PLEASE, do not miss those things. make them a priority.

anyway, I love you all so much. honestly I am so grateful for the people in my life. AND for the people that will be coming into my life. there are so many blessings to be grateful for.

Focus on the good.

SMILE!

serve those around you :)

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!