Weekly Email August 29, 2016

Hey Y'all! 

This week was pretty fast and Its hard for me to remember all that happened so i will highlight the important stuff! I have one transfer left and i am leaving Newnan! I am getting transferred! I am really excited and look forward to my last companion and area! Its fun to see that i need to benefit from someone else before i go home so that i can be who the lord needs me to become. 

We went on exchanges and honestly i really look forward to going on exchanges and it just wasn't anything that i thought it would be. I was really bored and i didn't learn much. I did love that we were able to help this lady that was really struggling. She thought that when people said "FEAR GOD" it means to literally fear him and his wrath. I explained to her that i had felt that when people said that i took it literally, but it made no sense. I explained to her that we should be more into what god thinks of us rather than man, we should care what god think rather than the world. I told her it is a good thing to fear god because that means you respect him and what he thinks of you! (: We were able to go to a ysa activity that night with Ivan and everyone was so welcoming towards him! It made me really excited to go to a ysa ward...but as a missionary i think its super weird. I felt like everyone was flirting with me and i would just walk away so they probably thought i was super rude. HAHA. 

Every Wednesday and Friday morning we do a district call and we will talk about what we have learned that week or who we are working with. I had read in Luke i think it was 18 I'm not completely sure but its when the man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit the kingdom of god. Jesus tells the man you must forsake all your riches and follow me. That man just couldn't do it and left...but later in the chapter a blind man hears a bunch of noise and asks whats going on. Someone tells him its Jesus Christ he has come! The blind man believes that he can be healed by the savior and he tells him he has faith to be healed! Straightway (good word!) he follows the savior and gives praise to his name! I expressed that I have been reading a lot lately about people forsaking all that they posses including their natural man tendencies to follow the savior. I have been truly blessed to work on a Christlike attribute every transfer of my mission and i want to continue to follow his example! I want to take up my cross and follow him, yes i will go through my own Gethsemane and Golgotha but i will be walking paths that have already been paved. That's the beauty of it! We covenant or promise to follow the savior and he will make a way for us to do it! We just have to have the faith to do it! We can if we are consistent in our Sabbath day observance, scripture reading, and communication with him. I want to follow the savior not just for 18 months and when its convenient but ESPECIALLY when its inconvenient. 

Ivan was baptized this weekend!! (: It was an awesome day for him! He said he felt so good afterwards and then you wont believe this! He then went out with the elders and helped teach someone about the restoration and he invited the guy to church because the elders didn't!!! He is so awesome! He loved receiving the gift of the holy ghost! This week was really great and I'm so grateful for the opportunity i had to come to Newnan and be able to help so many people in a short span of time!

Love,

Sister Russell

Weekly Email August 22, 2016

Hey Y'all! (:

This week was full of great miracles one in particular! So a member signed up to feed us and then with us being in the car with her for like 5 mins she got a call and had to take us back home. We then followed our physical prompting to go to five guys because I was super hungry!! We went to Five Guys and there was this adorable girl there! She took my order and we were going to give her a card after we had our food but then she left on break! GAHHH! it was so tragic. So then the next day we are planning and sister Thompson gets the prompting we should go to RUSSELL CIR....I mean do you really think i'm going to turn that down?! (: So we went finding and we talk to this sweet lady on her porch, got a return appointment and then CHELZEY FROM FIVE GUYS WALKS OUT!!! AHH! It was so cool. we gave them both a book of Mormon and invited them to read and pray! It was meant to be! she needs the gospel and we were given another chance by the lord! it was magical! 

Sister Thompson and I have been watching cheesy lds movies and its been fun. We have been just doing our best over here! Its hard to balance everything but its sure been fun! I'm sorry that this update is short and brief. But i am so grateful for this gospel! I know that god lives and that he loves each one of you crazy cats. He will never forsake you or forget about you. Make sure you are doing all you can to remember him and when you do you'll see the blessings! and when you do...you better snatch em up! :) 

love yall!

Sister Russell

Weekly Email August 15, 2016

Hey y'all!

I am so incredibly tired! Sister Thompson and i have been running around with our heads cut off. We are just trying to get to know everyone and make sure our efforts aren't going in vain. Its been fun for me, when we will be at church sometimes i feel like people aren't going to their right ward i get all turned around! haha.

The relief society president and i had the opportunity to go out and teach! It was super fun, she is fabulous! We were able to contact a referral from the elders. We invited her to church and explained the book of Mormon to her! We then went out and contacted many less active members. In the next three week we are going to try to contact as many as we possibly can!

We were able to go volunteer at a nursing home and paint fingernails. A lady there told me that she loved my hair and then we started talking about where she goes to church and we invited her to come check ours out! I invited her to the relief society activity they are doing soon! 

We have been really focusing on helping people recognize that it is their choice whether they receive an answer or not. They must put forth the effort! I love that god respects us and loves us and will never override our agency! :) 

I was studying Alma 37 and Alma is the ideal pops in the book of Mormon. He is just so solid. He gives the greatest advice to his kids and does it in such a loving way! I love that he is so engrossed in his sons salvation and testimony of the gospel! He want Helaman in chapter 37 to know that he needs to take care of the scriptures. I love that he closes with this 

"For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

 46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.

 47 And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. My son,farewell.

I testify that we have been entrusted with such sacred truths. We must treat them and use them accordingly. If you aren't happy with your testimony, do something about it. Don't blame others or your lack thereof. Just pray for the courage to take the necessary step and be patient. If you don't read the scriptures daily, i plead with you please do! It will bless your life, it will give you strength! I love the lord, i love that he has given us this wonderful gospel so we can have JOY! :) Please pray for SISTER CHRIST, SISTER TRACY AND PRESIDENT AND SISTER FOOTE( they are the best!)

Love,

Sister Russell

Weekly Email August 15, 2016

Hey y'all!

I am so incredibly tired! Sister Thompson and i have been running around with our heads cut off. We are just trying to get to know everyone and make sure our efforts aren't going in vain. Its been fun for me, when we will be at church sometimes i feel like people aren't going to their right ward i get all turned around! haha.

The relief society president and i had the opportunity to go out and teach! It was super fun, she is fabulous! We were able to contact a referral from the elders. We invited her to church and explained the book of Mormon to her! We then went out and contacted many less active members. In the next three week we are going to try to contact as many as we possibly can!

We were able to go volunteer at a nursing home and paint fingernails. A lady there told me that she loved my hair and then we started talking about where she goes to church and we invited her to come check ours out! I invited her to the relief society activity they are doing soon! 

We have been really focusing on helping people recognize that it is their choice whether they receive an answer or not. They must put forth the effort! I love that god respects us and loves us and will never override our agency! :) 

I was studying Alma 37 and Alma is the ideal pops in the book of Mormon. He is just so solid. He gives the greatest advice to his kids and does it in such a loving way! I love that he is so engrossed in his sons salvation and testimony of the gospel! He want Helaman in chapter 37 to know that he needs to take care of the scriptures. I love that he closes with this 

"For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

 46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.

 47 And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. My son,farewell.

I testify that we have been entrusted with such sacred truths. We must treat them and use them accordingly. If you aren't happy with your testimony, do something about it. Don't blame others or your lack thereof. Just pray for the courage to take the necessary step and be patient. If you don't read the scriptures daily, i plead with you please do! It will bless your life, it will give you strength! I love the lord, i love that he has given us this wonderful gospel so we can have JOY! :) Please pray for SISTER CHRIST, SISTER TRACY AND PRESIDENT AND SISTER FOOTE( they are the best!)

Love,

Sister Russell