Monday: We went to the library and our car didnt break down thank heavens. lol We went to walmart and then we went home i took a nap...*big shocker there*! I wrote some letters and gathered myself for a fun filled week!! (: We went finding and this JW told me all about the mormons and that they only allowed black people in the church because BYU's butt was being whooped on by all the other colleges....and he said they are still racist. I just get so annoyed and flustered when people bring up the whole blacks in the church...like do you not realize what time period it was? I would invite all of you to read the official declaration of blacks in the church on lds.org. 

Tuesday: I read Come What May and Love It by joseph b wirthlin. I love love love that talk. I am reading general conference talks every day until general conference and i definitely feel edified and uplifted! I would also invite you to invite people to watch general conference with you! You never know there could be a talk just for them!! (: We had district meeting and that was seriously one of the best district meetings ive ever been in. It was so spiritual. I loved it. We talked about Jospeh Smith and how he endured so much yet because he did he was blessed and it all was for his own growth. We reflected on our own trials and how we can use them to help those that are around us. I loved it! Sister Despain and i have a fun little treat...ritz crackers and mint chocolate chip ice cream...if you read mint chocolate chip like micheal scott would say it...you totally rock (: We went to the Mullins and they live in the coolest house...Lila you would LOVE IT!! 

Wednesday: We went on exchanges, I went to jonesboro....with....SISTER CHENG! Sister Cheng is someone that my trainer trained...so we are basically sisters! It was super fun! We visited lots of people and we found some people for them to teach! We went to bible study and that was awesome! We read this poem...The Touch of the masters hand. I loved it! (: Elder Gebauer is from gilbert!! I had no idea that elder was from my hometown! Sister Cheng and i went to wendys in honor of sister daffer! King david is a guy at wendys that was persistent on getting my number...and he wouldnt let us leave without some kind of contact so we wrote down our facebook information...so mom if i get a friend request from king david...block that hot mess!!! :P 

Thursday: weekly planning....i dont remember much else. Oh i got a package from my mom and we ate those nasty jelly beans!! LOL

Friday: We went to see sister gwendolyn mcwilliams and she is seriously so cute. I love her. We sang her favorite songs to her and half way through one of them i just broke down in tears. I just really have come to understand the atonement and really what my savior has done for me. "I stand all amazed at the love jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me. I tremble to know that for me he was crucified to rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine." I know that jesus christ suffered and paid the price for me that i may be forgiven so that i as well as all on earth may live again with our father in heaven. I love this gospel and i love that i have the opportunity to build upon the faith i have and help others to do the same. We went to Bishop Cahill's home and i just absolutely love them! They are such a fabulous missionary oriented family!! 

Saturday: I didnt sleep too well. I have been having really insightful personal studies everyday and i love that! I ate popcorn, an apple and pretzels for lunch. LOL Sister Despain has a really hard time sleeping and so she slept all day and i did the best i could to do as much missionary work at the apartment. I made calls. I organized the AB. I went through the ward directory and identified the DNC ( DO NOT CONTACTS). I went to the bathroom 12 times...because i wanted to see how much water i could drink. I read 6 chapters in the book of mormon. I read 7 general conference talks. I wrote a letter to my grandpa. I ate pretzels dipped in pb and nutella. I also reorganized my desk. It was a long day. I just wanted to get out of the apartment. lol but it was effective in many ways.

Sunday: Pres. Foote and sister foote came to our ward! I love them! I love that they are cut throat about number and baptisms like President Harding was. That was really hard for me. At times i contemplated going home but something told me to keep holding on and i know why! There was new direction coming that was inspired!! (: We found a family that is interested in learning more about the gospel and that warmed my heart! We were able to invite them to prepare for baptism on the 19th! I gave the elders those nasty jelly beans...funniest thing ever!! We went to the Austins home for dinner and i just love them! Very down to earth fun family!  

CONCLUSION: TWAS A GOOD WEEK 

 Hair is long enough to put in pony tail!!

 Where is the rest of the sidewalk?

 We are the SAME color!

Weekly Email

MONDAY: The library in snellville is smancy fancy. I love it. Our battery died in our car...unfortunate. We went to an appointment in Tucker. Went to Mellow Mushroom to finally eat some lunch and then we went to pep boys. 

TUESDAY: District meeting was awesome!! We went finding and a man threatened to sue us...that was fun! LOL I also had a lady call and scream at us for being total morons for knocking on her door when she was sick. Not sure how anyone was suppose to know she was sick...but whatever. I had a melt down...I had been holding in all these emotions...i was stressed and it was all building up and resulted in me crying. I just said a prayer and was comforted by my sweet companion. We went to the Odells for dinner and wow! She is such an amazing cook!! :) I love the Odells, they are so fun!! 

WEDNESDAY: happy birthday michelle!! (: We went to olive garden with the nalders! love them! sister nalder sounds just like nonie! We saw tons of people today and that was awesome! ( sorry i am running out of time on the computer!!!)

THURSDAY: weekly planning. ate at the shaffers home! BROTHER SHAFFER CAN COOK! I love the shaffers so much! Then we went to the relief society activity and that was super fun!! (: 

Friday: I got a lemonberry slush from sonic! yum! 

Saturday: MAJOR LIGHTNING AND THUNDER STORM!! we didnt sleep at all...We did a service project that was fun! We went to the tanohs house and she is a so fun!! I love her! She speaks french! fancy! 

I am so sorry that i had little to no time to type this i apologize! i need to prioritize my time better! please forgive me yall!!! Go read Ether 12 (: HAVE GREAT FAITH AND CONQUER LIFES TOUGH BATTLES! 

Weekly Email

Monday: I started packing up all my stuff because i was pretty convinced i was leaving....and sure enough! SISTER RUSSELL is leaving ATL! :( I am also second half training! We went to the library and emailed our lovely families and then we went shopping and then i went home and continued to pack up my stuff. Sister manzer and sister campbell came over and hungout for a bit. Sis. Campbell drew me a picture of a little girl with jesus and ahhh i just love it!! (: We went to the Tillis Family's for dinner and she sang me god be with you till we meet again! I CRIED! :( Gahh! i will miss ATL!

Tuesday: We had district meeting and that went really well. It was very spiritual and I just love the elders in my district! They are seriously such great elders and i know that wherever they go they will be led by the spirit to help bring more people unto christ with their crazy fun personalities! The Benichs made us lunch and it was so fancy. It was delish!! I loved it! The Zone Leaders Elder Dimanche and Elder Bowden put ceran wrap all over our car and I was SOOO happy! Elder Dimanche fails miserably at pulling pranks and i was really grateful he didnt fail this time!! We out Lewis on date for baptism and we just had such a spiritual moment over the phone and I just cant wait for him to enter the waters of baptism!! We helped brother moore with his garden one last time and he gave me some banana peppers and those are delish!! Sister Aiono and i visited Claritha and that was awesome! I will miss her too. We then got to go to the Vandykes for dinner and they are such a stellar couple! I love them! 

Wednesday: I woke up for transfers and I went to brush my teeth and sister aiono put jalepeno peppers in my toothpaste ...so i squeezed them out. But little did i know that she rubbed my toothbrush all over the pepper...I couldnt feel my mouth. I was so proud and upset all at the same time. I couldnt eat anything all day...My new companion is sister despain she is from idaho!! (: whoooo! ALSO super cool Elder Nelson ( grays friend), elder hollingsworth ( in my last area) and elder alade ( my district leader in my first district) are all in my zone/ district!! So crazy!  We got to SNELLVILLE & a member took us grocery shopping! She is the sweetest!! I was so shocked at how cute our apartment was!! (: We went to the HANSENS for dinner and that was so fun! 

Thrusday: Weekly planning and thats always a blast! I felt like today weekly planning could have gone on for days!! there is so much to plan for here in snellville!!!  We went tracting a lot!! We had dinner with the masseys and they are sooo funn!! they remind me of the ellsworths!!! (: 

Friday: I cleaned out the apartment because it was full of tons of missionary stuff that was unnesscary.  We got our planners and we visited the keanums ( awesome fam!) and tracted A LOT again! Sister despain reminds me a lot of christal and so basically its like im serving with family!! (: 

Saturday: Highlight of today. We prayed for the spirit to direct us to which houses to go to and we ended up going to a guy who was a member years ago but goes to another church. He was super sweet! He said we were always welcome here and he gave us tons of refferals!! (: It was awesome!

Sunday: We got up super early because they have ward council every sunday and i love that! The bishop is awesome and they are so on top of it for doing missionary work!! (: I love it sooo much! It is a pretty small ward but its pretty spread out the boundaries. I love all the people i have met so far and i am really relying on the spirit to guide and direct me this transfer. I am training and that really stresses me out...I love sister despain and i want to help her grow into the missionary she needs to be. I love you all and thank you for your emails, letters and prayers. I feel of your love often (: 

LOVE SISTER RUSSELL

Weekly Email

Monday- stood in line for the post office for an hour...no fun. Thats about it.

Tuesday: District meeting is always a HOOT! We did a training and that was pretty cool. We taught everyone to be more effective missionaries while they study!! (: We went around and said nice things about everyone that was fun! I sewed another elders pants.

Wednesday: This morning we went to the tennis courts and i just ran around! lol We had an appointment with Rashad and He was listening to the book of Mormon. He is on chapter 5! I loved how excited he was about the scriptures! It really is such a blessing to see someone find joy in coming closer to Jesus Christ! We went to the vandykes and we didnt end up painting her house but just talked to her for a little bit. We went to the church and i put a few things on my usb like talks and coloring pages for kids. We went to Kamilah's for dinner and i just love her! (: She gave us both dresses that she made! She is soo talented! Yall need to go on her website! KGRACEDESIGNS.COM!

Thursday: I did Jillian Micheals workout videos and that was intense! I love em! We had planning today...I HATE PLANNING. I just wanna go to work..any who. I dyed my hair because it was some weird colors...its pretty dark so im washing it a ton to lighten it. It started to pour so we went to the greenbriar mall and met some pretty funny people.We hungout with brother moore and he is a crack up! We then made some fun videos in the car and then we went out to dinner with Angela Johnson! She is incredible! I love her! (((: We met this crazy lady who believes that only certain people are children of god...Only black people are children of god. Everyone else is followers of the devil...I quickly walked away because i was not about to hear that hogwash!

Friday: We went to Rashad and we finished teaching the plan of salvation and that was VERY interesting!! I chuggd 60 ounces of water before the appointment and 15 mins into it i had to pee. So by the time we were done I was crying tears....I had to pee so bad!!! We went to the church ate lunch and i watched some videos on families! We saw Diamond and sister holland! I love them! We went to smoothie king and i have met two davontes since ive been here!! I got a letter from my family! I loved that!

Saturday: We worked out!! (: We then went to the park to have a picnic for lunch but there was a butt load of peopole there for a family reunion so we sat further away. Then we had time left so i suggested we take a nap in the car & i know that was revelation from god because that was such a heavenly nap!! I drooled! #RIGHTEOUS We met some more members and that was a blast! We hungout with the jones family and i love them! Tyson is such a cutie!! Sister Aiono and i talked about the kind of talents we want our husbands to have and i want a man who is good with numbers and can be financially smart, handy man, and if he could cook that would be GLORIOUS!!

Sunday: Rashad came to church! (: We found out that one of us is leaving...

SISTER RUSSELL IS GETTNG TRANSFERRED SO DON'T SEND ANY MAIL TO 3113 ADDRESS! I will email my new address next week! I LOVE YOU ALL (:

Sister Russell