Weekly Email October 26, 2015

First off I need all of you to add the Lund family in your prayers. A sister missionary in my mission just lost her dad and they need some support. THANK YOU! :)

monday: Just call me sister plait. because well...i got braids. I love them. I want to give a HUGE shoutout to mama and brother samuel for buying everything for me. They love me as their own. speaking of i got to talk to helen supposedly my twin...which i totally love her! missions are miraculous, you get spiritual experiences, new friends, new family and a newfound love for the savior. i mean why wouldnt you go on a mission? 

tuesday: we got 4 pizzas delivered to our apartment. we also had a dinner appointment with the odells...which i love them so dearly! sister odell is so blunt and striaghtforward. #muchrespect

I met this guy lindsay and he asked me why i belonged to the church of jesus christ and i said well the peace and the comfort that the bible and the book of mormon bring me is unreal. I told him that when my sister died it brought me great peace that in the book of mormon it talks about doing baptisms for the dead as well as teaching the dead...so spirit world. ALMA 40-41 & 1PETER 4:6 He told me that i was foolish for believing that my sister was up in heaven and being taught about jesus christ and his gospel. It was something that i did not let knock me down but build me up. I knew that what i was saying was true and there was no denying it. It was a knowing that was hard to deny. 

wednesday: We saw lots of members!!!!! We ate lunch with the nalders and she gave us pumpkins....i love the nalders! We helped sister parker with her food storage. We visited the corona and massey family. We had a lesson with franklin and sister christopherson over the phone and then we saw sister facer who reminds me so much of mrs. gould! (: so sweet!

thursday: we had zone conference with elder zwick and half of the missionaries at the conference didnt even recognize me. it was hilarious. elder zwick told me he loved my hair...so him and elder parker are a tie for my favorite members of the seventy. we sang a childs prayer and that was really sweet. I loved it so much! i had bojangles and that was a total hot mess. IT WAS NASTY. never again. i didnt get home til 11:15 that night. 

friday: we were on exchanges with stls and i was with sister nau. we went finding and we invited this man named frank to church. he had met missionaries before in puerto rico and he thought so higly of them. we also talked to this couple and they were both rolling up a blunt. lol we went to the samuel familys home and that was super fun...well because i had to pee and i dont have a key to the church. 

saturday: CAELYNS BAPTISM! i was filling up the font and i thought i was draining so i hiked up my skirt and closed the drain...and i got drenched...anyways the baptism went great! so many people attended and it was awesome. TRUNK OR TREAT!!! THE PICTURES SAY IT ALL.

sunday: primary program. it was incredible. they are now my all time favorite. frank came to church, he remind me a lot of papa. he said this is the church for him. <3 i am excited for the work we are doing and i am grateful for the spirit that i feel. 

hope yall have a great week. i invite each of you to do some missionary work this week..in any way shape or form! 

love sister russell

xoxo

Weekly Email October 19, 2015

Monday: We went to sister youngbloods to email and as soon as i went to email the internet crashed. so therefore...that is why i did not email a weekly update because i was just not having it. the world was against me. I need more skirts and shirts that match and we didnt find much. We went to the samuels and i emailed my mom and thats about it. 

Tuesday:We had District meeting and that was interesting...more than spiritual. We were able to teach Carrie and that was very spiritual. We were really grateful for sister oliphant coming out with us. We have been doing lots of finding and following up with potential investigators.  We went to the ward bbq and that was delicious! We hungout with my little bro josh and all the young women! (: sister lawson taught bible study to me, elder nelson, elder platt and sister corona. That was interesting. 

Wednesday: I ATE PAPA JOHNS AND A PIZZA COOKIE. thats all you gotta know. #delish

Thursday: We found out we are getting a new car. we are planning caelyns baptism this upcoming saturday. I got a halloween package from my mama andshe made me cookies, that was delicious!  (: Bishop made us delicious grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon...so delish! We went through a car wash and that was fun. lol we went to a family's home they didnt speak much english and so we sang a song for them and bore our testimonies. I could feel the spirit so strongly, they werent interested but it was such an incredible experience. 

Friday: I had a dream that pierce wagner told me that he loved me and asked me to marry him with a one size fits all ring. he told me he came to the realization of the love he has for me while reading matthew 2. we had new trainers meeting and then we went to a european deli and we went and huungout with sister samuel! (: i ate butter cookies which were delicious! (: 

Saturday: went to super saturday made mama samuel a scarecrow thing and then we had soup and it was yummy! (: 

Sunday: sister lawson spoke in church had a lots of less actives at church and that was incredible! I love sundays, but i always get headaches which is unfortunate but i'll figure something out. 

I am so sorry everyone for being so crazy with my emails. I promise next week the emails will be back to normal. Also i got braids! :))))

Sister Russell

Weekly Update October 5, 2015

Monday: Pday was just kinda weird. nothing out of the ordinary just straight weird. We went to the Austins home for dinner and its always delicious. We talked about General Conference talks that we loved in the past and how excited we were for this upcoming one. 

Tuesday: We went over to the hansens home and i just love them so dearly. i love the sweet spirit that is in their home. Then we went to visit sister nalder and we invited her to reflect upon her day and try to see the lords hand in her life. We then went tracting around her home and that was fun. We met a guy who collects jeeps he had over 10 of them! Sister lawson and i talked about our top movies tv shows and musicians we'd listen to for the rest of our lives so here is mine.

MOVIES: THE HELP, HEAVY WEIGHTS, BACK TO THE FUTURE, RUSH HOUR, MULAN

TV SHOWS: THE OFFICE, PSYCH, FRIENDS

ARTISTS: FRANK SINATRA, SAM SMITH AND US THE DUO 

Wednesday: We went and helped a member unpack her home and they got us lunch. They got us hot wings and sister lawson took one bite of it and started to cry. It was hilarious. Everyone was dying laughing! (: They were inferno atl wings! 

Thursday: Weekly planning and then we went and helped a sister "move a few pieces of furniture"... it was two huge storage units packed full of stuff. We moved it all in skirts. We said a prayer because there was this ginormous couch and we didnt think we could move it and then we go back upstairs and they had moved it!! MIRACLES! WE ROCKED THAT MOVE! Sister youngblood called us about her toe and she told us to come over and see it. It reminded us both of the office episode where micheal grilled his foot on his george foreman grill because he likes to wake up to the smell of bacon in the morning. HAHA! It was hilarious. Sister youngblood always knows how to crack us up!  We went to Santanas to teach her. She bought us dinner at ZAXBYS! She is seriously so incredible her baptism is on october 10th and we are excited! (: 

Friday: Got up really early and drove to the temple. we talked about zombies and vampires. talked about mel gibson and nicholas cage...they are not the same yall. I was able to go through the temple for a lady named Joan Arnold and i couldnt help but feel so excited for her to receive her endowments. As i was sitting in the celestial room i felt an overwhelming peace that everything in my life and my familys life..it would all work out. We had zone training afterwards and that was very good! Kristi and brother moore are planning on going to the temple for baptisms for the dead! yayy! (: I am so excited! (: Elder Gillespie is from Queen Creek, he is in my district so we have 3 people reppin' the good ol' state! We went to the Samuels for dinner and that was super fun! I love them so much! I am being adopted into their family and i am claiming josh as my fourth brother (: 

Saturday:  oh my heavens. General conference was exactly what this sistah needed. I loved the saturday session. It defintley applied more to me in my life right now. I had lots of great things i received. my favorite talks were by robert d. hales, bradley d. foster, and jeffrey r. holland.  Everyone was bawling their eyes out...except me and sister lawson were the only ones who didnt. Everyone missed their mamas. We missed em too just not to the point to cry. I felt like that talk made me kinda of fearful and really inadequate to become a mother so i am still really stoked to not have children for another 5 years. i took on the challenge and asked the lord what is stopping me from progressing or improving and i got 4 things i can improve on! we had an incredible lesson with sister christopherson and her boyfriend franklin. something i didnt know is that blind people dream and man are they vivid dreams! 

Sunday: I am taking on the challenge to ponderize for the next 20 years and my first scripture is Mosiah 4:30!  (: we went to dinner at the Ta Family's home and it was delish! I love their family. Their cat's name is lila. therefore...lila your spirit animal is a cat. :) 

I love yall! thanks for all the support and prayers. I love this work and it is whizzing by. 6 lovely, hard, exciting, eventful, trying, faith building, months down and 12 more to go! (: 

xoxo 

Sister Russell