Aug 4, 2014

that's all my mind can think right now... a scream.... hahaha 

weeeeeellllllllllllllll.....  i dunno what to say.........

iiiii......

aammmmmmm.......

IN DENIAL.

okay ANYWAY! 

this week. WHAT EVEN HAPPENED!!! okay listen these last two weeks were weird! they flew by... but.... and we were really busy. but with STUPID THINGS! like the dentist and doctor and a bunch of stuff. we still had success though! and miracles!!!

this is cool! so we had some awesome investigators a while back that we had to drop cause they couldnt ever come to church and they just weren't progressing, well this week we were walking down their street and saw them and THEY SAID THEY WERE GONNA CALL US because he got work off and can come to church now!!! WOOO!!!!! and we wanted to set an appointment for this week but he said no i have to come to church first cause i need to make sure that i am committed and then we can start the lessons again. he is SERIOUS!! WOO! they had a baptismal date and everything :) man i'm excited for them.

this week we played a (so we thought originally) funny prank on hermana sanchez... she didn't think it was veeeery funny.... we then promptly wrote her a rap of apology and love and i rapped it to her while hermana perez beat boxed in a twinkie costume. and now everything is good :) hahaha nothing was bad in the first place, but it was just really funny. i wish i had a picture of us.

hmmm lets see... SO THERE IS THIS family. really adorable, really awesome, from puerto rico! we found them in the roster and went to visit, they came to church the next day!!! when they came here they had been trying and trying to find the church, cuoldn't! put in a request for missionaries months ago and no one ever came, WELL GUESS WHAT! i'm pretty sure we got that referral but didn't think it was in our area and we sent it back to the office!!! (PALM TO FOREHEAD!!!!!) turns out they live in our area!!! hahaha anyway, they forgot a lot about the church BUT! want to come back :)

so we went to see this one less active and her house was HUGE!!!! she was a do not contact but we went anyway... hahaha we felt like giving all the do not contacts another chance!!! well she was really nice but not interested... BUT! her house was amazing, and she had big fountains and lions roaring and all kinds of cool stuff!!! 

man these are boring stories..... i just can't think of anything right now!!!!!!

okay but it WAS funny later that day when the glass pan exploded, almost killed me, then sister perez burnt her hand with her pasta and then stepped on a little shard of glass, when i say little i mean TINY!!! and then blood started GUSHING out of her foot!!! and then i saved her :) hahaha i'll send pictures........... (okay and i know none of that sounds funny but just the choas in the moment and so many crazy things happening at once it made us all laugh really hard. haha!)

hmmmm... HMMMMMM........ we went on exchanges!! it was great!!! their apartment was INFESTED WITH COCKROACHES!!!! i was so scared to sleep cause the other sister had woken up with a cockroach on her face.... so i prayed really hard that they wouldn't crawl on me and..... did any? well i don't know! but i didn't wake up so i'll say no. haha

anyway. hey everyone. life is good.the gospel is good. God is good. Sometimes we don't see the good, and we see the bad. there is a lot of bad! so it's easy! but we aren't meant to focus on the bad, I want to just tell each of you to stop seeing the bad! stop dwelling on it, stop complaining about it, it'll make ya old and miserable in no time! cause though there is bad there is SO MUCH MORE GOOD! and it may be easier to talk about the horrible things, to complain about trials, to talk about the world falling apart, but BY GOLLY we have the restored gospel! we have eachother! we have SCRIPTURES and prayer and a nature and mountains and clouds and rain and FOOD!!! we have someone who loved us so much he died for us, and he felt every horrible thing we felt JUST SO THAT HE COULD RELATE!!! and know how to help us!! now let me ask you, when you are comforting a friend who lost a loved one, or someone who found out news that changes their life for the worst, or someone who is lost and heartbroken or discouraged, i don't think any of us in that moment want to feel exactly what they are feeling and experience that pain willingly, but he did, for everyone, so that he could be the one to get us through it, so he could know exactly what we need to stand strong and conquer the trials. 

just know, that he knows. just know that we have a lot to be grateful for, and not even just things and blessings but just in general! like my favorite talk from last conference, we need a general attitude of gratitude! we see the big picture, we know that after this life there is so much more, so when you start getting consumed in the day to day trials or the big trials or ANY KIND OF HARDSHIP! just remember the big picture, and remember why you are here. do not forget your identity, or your purpose.

i love you all :)

the cool house with lions!!!!

this is just to make it more dramatic.

I LITRALLY COULD'VE DIED!!!!!!! hahaha i was standing RIGHT NEXT TO IT WHEN IT EXPLODED!!! facing the other way thankfully, but i suddenly hear this GIANT CRASH and i thought hna perez had gona crazy and thrown it on the table! turns out..... if you turn on the wrong stove thing, and glass is on top of it, it will explode. hahahahah it wasn't even me!!!!! there was glass everywhere!!

it was only bleeding for like 5 seconds before i stopped it!!

saying goodbye to our car.... :( we had to switch!!

aaaand other pictures i can't remember what i put.....

annnnnnd my favorite family in the universe :) 

aaaaand YEAH!

She's coming home!!!!!!!!!
Jessy will report on her mission twice for your convenience, what a sweetheart,

Sunday Aug 24th at 2:45pm at the singles ward on 800 W and 800 S in Orem (the chapel closest to the corner)

-OR-

 Sunday, Aug 31st at 11:30am at about 175 W 300 S in Orem (Orem Park stake center)

July 29, 2014

Oh my heck time went by way too fast cause I sent so many flippin pictures!!! Hahaha and now I only have 7 minutes to write this awesome amazing email of inspiration and great stories!!! NOOOOOO!!!! Curses!!!

Okay well first things first. We got a new companion!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! At zone conference (first off, he had a big sword that he called 1 or two people to come up and take some action shots with it, haha cause he wants us to be warriors, and secretly I wanted to go crazy with that sword but he didn't call me. And then he asked for a volunteer and EVERYONE POINTED AT ME!!!!!  They betrayed me but really actually it was good. Haha! So I went up.... AND TOOK SOME HARDCORE FIGHTING WARRIOR SCENE PICTURES!!!!! Anyway, so that was cool. Everyone laughed at me. Hahaha) then president called us over after the meeting, and usually when president wants to talk to someone it is not just to chat and see how you are... He is too intense for that! Haha so we we were like... Uhhhh....

And he said, okay you two, Rock Paper Scissors for who gets to stay. And we were really confused... And then he said, go ahead! So we did it and I won!!! And he meant for an extra transfer..... Extending. And he said so Hermana Russell, will you stay? And my heart stopped.... And I was like... Going through all these options in my head. And freaking out. As then I was like. Absolutely. Heck yes!!!, OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!

SO I AM EXTENDING ANOTHER TRANSFER!!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!

Okay then he said... Sorry headquarters won't let us do that actually,.. I tried.... Hahaha I WANTED TO KILL HIM!!!! The real news he had for us is that we were getting a new companion!!! Yaaaaay!!!!!!! So that our area doesn't die!!, she is awesome and we love her already and man I am so mad I can't share any stories!!! We had an amazing lesson with our investigators!!!! AHHH!!!!

Okay let me paste a post from my studies cause I literally am out of time! Dang it!

It's interesting what sister jones said last night. It really impacted me! She said that she has such a strong testimony of God and has had so many witnesses of him, and could never deny him, but still satan will put thoughts into our head that he isn't real. She said she went through a time a couple months ago when she was getting thoughts like, is god even real? What really happens after this life? Etc, and when she was as talking about this it made me realize that every time I get those thoughts, questioning my faith and my belief in God, it is not me. Because I do have witnesses of god! And I have miracles in my life, and I have testimonies that he leads us places and to people and helps us say the right things, and so many little testimonies that build up! And I have witnesses of other people, and nature, and scripture, and everything! Things that could not be explained any other way, so yes I do know that God exists. And I know that he is my father. But satan will continue in my life to tell me otherwise, so it was cool just to be able to recognize those thoughts which I never had recognized before. 

Okay well hopefully you can figure out what I mean by all that!!! Love you all!!!

the harry potter shirts holly sent meeEEE!!! WOO!!!

this elderly man was in love with us... HAHA he kept staring at us and saying a bunch of flirty stuff that i won't repeat but it's funny.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

hahaha hna perez had to get another root canal, and sister bowe left her teeth whitening stuff on too long and couldn't talk it hurt so bad! so when she laughed she had to pull her lip out. hahahahahaha

Birthday Balloons!!

July 21, 2014

heeeey MY dear everyone.

this week was a good one, it had all the emotions in it! 

we saw a lot of miracles!!

LISTEN HERE IS THE BEST ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so remember last week how we went to the members house and we challenged them to a dinner and for them to find someone? WELL! all week... they couldn't find anyone. seriously, and sister metcalf is SO FAITHFUL! and she was talking to EVERYONE! random people literally anyone in her path she would start a conversation and lead to asking them and everyone said no. (side note, CAN YOU IMAGINE how many seeds she planted that would not have been planted if we didn't make this challenge?) anyway so on saturday she came with us to an appointment with some investigators, and it was a great lesson, (with tony and heather, man i love them, they are so awesome, they both want to believe it! he has read the BoM already all the way through and GOODNESS i just love them. it's just slow progress, ANYWAYS!) she testified so well and we felt the spirit and invited to baptism, etc!!! anyway after the lesson, she talked to us and expressed some doubt! she was scared and didn't think that they would be able to find anyone by the next day. we talked to her and were like... WHAT!! you remember that we literally promised you in Christ's name that he would get you someone, right? even if it is one minute before our dinner appt. you CANNOT DOUBT!!! he cannot break his promises. and she was like... you're right... that would be quite shocking. haha! (mind you, she is so faithful. one day on her mission her doctor told her she had to lie still all day cause she had something happen in her stomach and he said if she moved she could potentially die..... and she stayed in for a couple hours and then thought, ya know what my stake president blessed me that if i was exactly obedient i wouldn't have to miss a single day.... so then she got up and they went out!! and she was fine!!! ISN'T THAT COOL??) anyway wow i have a lot of side notes in this long paragraph. SO! long story short. but not really short. 

NEXT DAY! we go... and they have a couple :) TURNS OUT their neighbors are the ones they thought of first but the husband was out of town, or so they thought!! the DAY OF THEY SAW THE HUSBAND AND WERE LIKE OMY GOSH!!! they are home!!! and invited them, unfortunately... they had just eaten dinner... perfect cop out right? FORTUNATELY THEY STILL SAID BUT WE CAN COME AND JUST HANG OUT WITH YOU ALL!!!! and they even knew we would be there!!! so cool. man, AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was great too, we talked about eternal marriage, etc, it was just a good day :)

okay now because time is very short. i want to talk about hope for a second. 

this week, we saw a lot of miracles. we also saw a lot of sad things. 

the week before, we had a miracle story of finding a less active family, another less active lady, and a new investigator, all of these stories honestly SO COOL!!!! like the Lord absolutely did everything so that we could find them and teach them and have the spirit and get them to church and everything. man, experiences that are just SO spiritual. 

well... on sunday, most of these people either turned against us, or bailed out, etc. listen... i've told some stories that were my big heartbreaks of the mission, about people i love and adore, etc, that turned away and i couldn't express the honestly huge amount of sorrow that flooded my spirit. if anyone asks me the hardest experiences of my life, i am not lying when i say that it is when these people i love shut us and the church out. or reject what i know they felt the spirit about, and once wanted. it is SO HARD. and yesterday, when it happened again and so many things fell through after so many miracles... i was just put out for a minute. i was so sad, and so confused and WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING. i was praying and just asking heavenly father WHY do you keep sending me these amazing experiences and people KNOWING MY HEART IS GOING TO BREAK! haha but i wasn't mad or anything at him, don't worry. anyway so i prayed to just understand, and he didn't give me an answer he just told me to study hope. 

so i started studying, and listen everyone.

sometimes we lose hope, we lose hope in other people, we lose hope in ourselves and our own lives, we lose hope in humanity, or in the gospel or even just we lose hope in God. there are so many things we can lose hope in, and be confused about. 

as i studied hope, i focused on how we usually don't understand.... honestly, usually God has us going through trials and things without knowing why, without understanding what is happening, because like we all know, he wants us to be faithful and trust him. 

i don't really know where i am going with this all, haha! but ALL I CAN TELL YOU is that i prayed, i studied hope, and i felt better. i STILL AM SAD! but i feel better at the same time. people still have their agency and i think that is one of the hardest lessons that i am learning, hna perez talked to me about that during comp study and it hit me hard! I think heavenly father is teaching me, that there will be so many times when i do my very best, when i DO everything i could've done, and they still fall away. I think he teaches us this, because we blame ourselves a lot, and we can't do that. He is the perfect father, and his children fall away from him all the time. because he respects their agency, though it is the HARDEST thing i am sure he does, he knows it is important. and he is teaching us how important agency is as well. through these experiences. we have to feel a piece of what he feels, a piece of what Jesus Christ feels, and know that sorrow, and allow it to make us work harder. we can't get discouraged whatever we do.

whatever situation you are in, if you have something that your hope is dim in. Pray for help. just know that there is hope, when everything is crazy and you don't understand just go back to the basic principle of truth that keeps all of us above the water. Jesus Christ. When you don't know what else to do, just have faith in him. when there are no answers and you are scared or discouraged, just have faith in him. just trust in him just have any amount of hope in him that you can muster. I know that he loves us, and he is powerful and he knows how to help each of us. those we worry about and ourselves included. he knows what we need, so just have hope when nothing makes sense. He can help us in any situation.

I LOVE EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i do :) 

hasta luego :)

listen there are a BILLION pictures from the batting cages but i will spare you and only send a few... hahahaha SOO FUUUUN!!!

Got my game face on!!

my best Babe Ruth imitation

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!!!

7-11 day!! woohoo!!! free slurpees!!!

man I LOVE the storms here. we had a HUGE ONE the other day, and it came in so crazily!!!

Okay and those origami things are SO SWEET!!!!