the Adventures of Sister Russell: July 14, 2014

I AM SO ANGRY because time just flew and I have so many good stories this week and still so many emails to reply to! AHHHH!
okay lets do this.

okay so let me tell you the members and the work here is starting to explode for some reason!!! we are getting people involved, they are doing things on their own, we are finding so many awesome people and families and OH MY GOSH WE DO NOT KNOW WHY WE ARE BEING SO BLESSED!!! but we aren't questioning it and are just gonna continue onward, obedient and diligent! it's really awesome though, SO MANY STORIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

something really cool that we are doing also is that we are prayerfully giving a BoM to a member, every sunday in relief society to give to a friend or someone that week, and then the next sunday they report and tell what happened! so far it's a success and has been really cool, it gets people pretty excited about the work as well!

listen this is so cool! so we felt like we should visit a member, and went by and she shared some trials she was going through, and THEN we are also doing this thing where we ask the members about a certain date that we can come by and have dinner and teach someone, and they say sure that'd be great! who will you be teaching? and we say, we don't know! we are all going to find someone together! so we saw these members, and we started by asking them if they had faith... and the husband was like.... don't answer.... it's a trap... hahahaha and they hesitantly said yes, (these members are amazing though in reality, they have SUCH STRONG FAITH and they both served missions, just rock solid) anyway, then we asked if they bleieved truly that Christ could do anything, and they said yes. then we challenged them to that dinner, and the husband was like I TOLD YOU you should've said no to the faith! ahhahaha it was funny, but then it was awesome because i started giving my testimony about how we are called in this very moment to represent the savior himself, and in this moment we could promise them in his name, in his place, that there was someone that he has for this dinner, and OH MY GOSH I DO NOT KNOW WHY but suddenly as i said that we ALL STARTED TEARING UP!!! and i was like what the heck... haha but the spirit was just SO STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was really awesome. man. anyway, it was just a cool story! and now they are pumped up and gonna find someone!!!!

okay here is another great story!!! HOLY MOOOOOOLY!!!!!!!!!

so listen. sunday night, not much time left, we were going to visit Wavaney but as i was driving i remembered something that elder Clark one of the 70 said to us, he had asked us about all our family and friends who were less active, and what we would do to get them back, we all said anything, that we would do anything, then he told us, and said every single person that you pass out there is someone's brother, someone's sister, someone's mom or dad or best friend, and if you do everything in your power to help them, and put them first, the Lord will put your people first as well. SO I REMEMBERED THAT, and i remembered this less active referral that the less actives little brother (who is serving a mission) had sent to us as a referral, well in that moment they were so busy with life, and not too receptive to the spirit or about coming back to church that we couldn't keep visiting, BUT! i remembered, and felt strongly but subtly that we had to go and see them. so we went!!! and they welcomed us in right away, and she said.... AND I QUOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it originally was in spanish.... "we had been thinking about you and were gonna call you soon! (our number had changed so they wouldn't have called us) and right when you knocked we knew it was you, and i said open it open it! to my husband :)" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! how cool huh??? AND! as we were in there talking, they were excited about coming to church and meeting the people, and they want us to teach their son so he can be baptized, AND as we were talking i felt strongly that this was a prompting and answer to his brothers prayer, and when we left i was like hermana i might be crazy, but i felt strongly like us going there was an answer to his little brothers.... (and she cut me off and finished my sentence!!!!) PRAYER!!! and she said ME TOO!!! man it was the coolest experience!! i love being able to follow the spirit, pres monson was right when he said there is no better feeling than that of when you follow a prompting and find out it was an answer to a prayer.

flip so many stories..... okay lets see.

we found a lot of less actives and have miracle stories about them!!!!

I gave my talk and accidentally THREW IT DOWN TO THE MEMBERS!! hahaha listen i did not mean to call them out like i did, but i just called them to the work and said it isn't enough or finished until jesus christ says it is, and he has not said so. hahaha and other things... but LISTEN they weren't mad!!! i don't think, i said it more lovingly than it sounds... anyway!

it was good though i wasn't even TOO nervous!!

hmm lets see.... we had some really cool experiences where we taught the Word of Wisdom a lot in one day... and it wasn't even the original lesson plan! but surprisingly they were exactly what the people needed, and it focused them a lot on being able to live the doctrine and try it for themselves. it was awesome!!!

hey we are STL's again! we got released for a transfer, and called again, haha i don't know why, but i'm happy!!! WOO!

okay man i gotta go, i'm sorry this can't be as long as i had hoped!!

but MY FRIENDS!! AND FAMILY!!! i love you more than words can say. i love my mission more than words can say. i love this PEOPLE and the members and our investigators MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY!!!

IT IS WORTH IT!!! IT IS ALL WORTH IT!!!!!!!
haha this is the greatest gospel in the world. because it's true :)

serve someone EVERY DAY this week and don't forget your daily scripture study!!!