Happy New Year!!! December 28, 2015

Oh my goodness, 

so we have to push back Larry's baptism because of word of wisdom issues but he is doing great! Continue to pray for him:) He has prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he says he knows it is true:)

We have a lot of potential baptisms coming up and we are very excited! Christmas was so much fun! We got to spend time with the Members and it was Sister Espinosa's Birthday on the 24th! It was awesome:) We had a lot of fun. And I got to talk to my amazing family!

Holidays are great, but it's difficult time to teach so I'm so glad they are over so we can get to work!! So excited:)

Craziness here in C-bad, NM, it snowed and people are acting like it is the end of the world. It's pretty hilarious. We had to go to the store and buy a bunch of stuff to "prepare" for the storm. We couldn't go out and teach all of Sunday and church was cancelled. We went out at one point and taught a less-active. It was good and then the ZL told us to stay inside. Man it was crazy. What am I gonna do when I get home? We were so bored! Can't wait to go out and do missionary work today!

Thank you so so much for all the Christmas wishes and I hope Y'all have a Happy New Year!! Tenga seguridad en el nieve:) haha

Chao and Love you ALL,

Hermana Russell

 Our car

Walmart Packed preparing for zombie apocalypse.... or the snow.

My companion pushed me in the snow:) haha Angels making snow angels!

Merry Christmas!! December 22, 2015

 The greatest gift is the Birth of the Savior this Christmas! 

Hola! Christmas is this week! Whoo hoo i am so excited!! We have already had the best time here in Carlsbad and its gonna get 10x better when Christmas comes along. 

Larry wants to get baptized the day after Christmas so pray that he will be prepared by then! He is hard to meet with because of his schedule but God will make everything work out:) We want to make sure that he is totally prepared though so he will probably be baptized the next week. But pray for him:) He is so awesome!

And we had an amazing lesson with a women with 3 kids and her husband isn't a big fan of religion. But she cried so much when we shared the First Vision because she had a dream like it!! So cool!!! We were all crying. She agreed to be baptized but after the craziness of the season. Ugh so many miracles! 

We taught a Spanish lesson to an awesome guy and he said yes to baptism but he still has some questions about the priesthood and what not. But he is awesome:)

They are all reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! Ugh i just love the Gospel so much. Being on a mission is probably the Best Christmas present you could have. 

Also the little young girl I talked about last email, She and her mother came to church for the Christmas program! It was beautiful and many less-active/potentials came to church! The members are awesome! They bring all their friends and family to church who aren't members! It was a beautiful program too. Sister Espinosa and I got to sing in the Choir and it was just awesome. We were crying. 

Y'all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Love all of you so much. And i hope not only the Spirit of Christmas will be going around your home but the Spirit of Christ:)!

Con amor- Hermana Russell

#ASaviorisBorn

Sister Tyckson! MTC compa

Got to see my Trainer at the Jingle Jam!

All the Missionaries who came out with me!!

Lubbock Temple after the Jingle Jam

December 14, 2015 Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

How are Y'all doing?! How is the Holiday Season treating you??

So craziness this week. we got 7 new investigators which is bomb because Mi companera has been sick this week:/ We also taught lots of Spanish Lessons! I love speaking spanish but ugh it is so hard. I ain't perfect at it.

We saw so many miracles this week. Yesterday we went to the Frestons to eat dinner, when they had a little neighbor girl who plays with their kids come over, and she wants to get baptized so bad!! We shared a message with her and the Frestons and then she said, "Will ya'll share a message with my family?!" And we said, "uh ya sure why not" (on the inside, "Yes!"). hahaha And we went and met her family. Come to find out the mom is a member but in-active but she wants to come back to church. It's just the Husband that has a hard time with it. He has to give permission for the Daughter to get baptized. Please say yes!! 

Also L who has a Baptismal Date on the 26th is preparing for his baptism! So we met L on the street and we shared with him about the message we have and then invited him to the christmas party that was the next day and he said he would love to go. And we also taught him an hour before that the Restoration and then last night taught the Plan of Salvation and he has come to church twice now. He is super awesome. He is kinda shy but he is really excited to get baptized!  He has been coming to church and taking the lessons so he can be ready by then! He is setting a huge example to his family. We are so excited for him!:) He is truly asking Heavenly Father if this is the right path for him and he says he has felt the spirit and knows that this is the right path. So pumped!

https://youtu.be/q_TEOyhy7Bg

Check out the New Christmas Video the church has put out! So awesome and tear jerking:)

BTW its like 80 degrees here. Its so warm

Love Y'all

Happy Holidays!!

The Savior is Born Video

Went to the Temple on Saturday!! It was awesome!! Members to us to eat at Hibachi after, YUM!

The Rosales's! They are the Bomb. They are the ones who took us.

#ASaviorisBorn December 7, 2015

Feliz Navidad!

I love the christmas season! It's just so awesome. There is just something about it that brings everyone together and I know for a fact that it is the Light of Christ:) 

We have had a very successful week.We found a few new investigators and one has a baptismal date on the 26th of December! Day after Christmas:) And we found this family and they want to get baptized but they first need to understand why their past baptism wasn't "valid". But hey they will learn by the spirit and have the desire to be baptized with the Priesthood authority:) -The authority of God. Who wouldn't want to be baptized by that?

We had the Carlsbad Caverns Ward Christmas party last Saturday and it was so much fun! We have the best ward ever! Santa came and everything. Oh and our investigator with a baptismal date came. We literally met him 3 days ago. He is so ready. Oh and he came to church Yesturday:) Just pray that he will be able to understand everything that we teach him and he will have the desire to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter- saints.

We also had Exchanges with the Roswell Sister Training Leaders! Ugh they are so awesome! So I got to go spend 24 hours serving in Roswell, New Mexico. It is a goofy town. But so cute hahah I was with Sister Wood and she was in my Zone before in the past and i just love her! I learn a lot from her:)

Everyone check out the new video the church put out for christmas and share it with each other!!

Christmas.mormon.org #ASaviorisBorn 

Happy Holidays!

Con amor- Hermana Russell

Thank you for the awesome christmas tree MV5th Ward!

Cute lady in our spanish branch

Sister Wood!!

Roswell, NM

Happy Holidays!! Christmas is Coming! November 30, 2015

Hola!

This week has been crazy. A ton of people were dropped before i came and so we have been working our bums off to find a new teaching pool. The cold weather is freezing here and there isnt even any snow yet. But Y'all should see the Pecos river here in C-bad. They put christmas lights all along the bank and its gorgeous at night!!! They call it Christmas on the Pecos.

So we found this family and they are Baptists. We taught the Restoration and gave a book of Mormon and they said it made a lot of sense. Pray for them that when they pray about the BoM, they will receive that spiritual witness that it is true and act on it. Usually people do the first part and then get scared.

The cold weather is a great proselyting tool because everyone feels bad for us so they let us in. Its perfect:) Everyone loves the missionaries and there are a lot of people here who are at least willing to listen. That is all we need and then The Holy Ghost and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do the rest:)

We have had so much happening. We ate at a members house last night who lives on a ranch in the Middle of no where. It so so much fun! And we are also working with getting the Spanish branch to grow! Miracles are going to happen here in C-bad! I just love y'all so much and Hope everything is going great. I have been readying a talk by Thomas S Monson and its called, "The Gift of Gratitude." Here is one thing he said that i love especially for the Holiday Season.

"Do material Possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cant buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we recieve from those around us. Unfortunately, those are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted." -Thomas S. Monson

I just love that quote because its so true. It opened my eyes to really see the true meaning of the Holidays:) Ill let y'all know how everything goes with finding those who are prepared for the Gospel! El Evangelio es un don que Dios nos dio entonces podemos ser felize:)! 

Chao and Love you ALL,

Hermana Russell

P.s. We went to chilis to eat lunch and this super nice couple bought our meal:) Blessings!:)

Tenga Exito esta semana - Succeed this week

Thanksgiving with the Rosales's!

 Christmas is coming!

C-bad! November 23, 2015

Good old Carlsbad. I love it so much already and so many miracles!

We found this new family:) We were out riding our bikes when we came upon this young boy.  Usually we don't talk with younger kids because ya, idk, we just don't. But I felt an impression to for some reason. We were just talking about his school and asking about his religious background.Then all of a sudden his cousin came outside to smoke. We said, "perfect!" and we went over to her and started to talk to her. She is so awesome! She said she was praying that morning to figure out what church she should go to because she knew she had to go to one. Well she found it:) It was awesome. We taught them The restoration the next day and they are just solid. Her boyfriend wanted to meet with us too because he used to meet with the missionaries and then they disappeared. He always wondered where they went. Hahah God always finds them again:) The other missionaries probably got transferred. It was a miracle how we found them:) 

We also taught these other solid people the Plan of Salvation and we were all crying! It was a great lesson. But they actually just dropped us today because they said they were comfortable being catholic. Ugh! Satan! But we aren't giving up on them.

My new companion Sis. Espinosa is awesome! She is such a great, hard working missionary! She is still pretty new to the area so we have been working really hard together as a companionship, figuring everything out. It has been so great. And there is so much work here in Carlsbad, NM! So pumped! Definitely hard to leave Sister Wimmer and Alpine but i know that she is taking good care of that area with her new trainee:) 

Yesterday we went to 7 hours of church because we had 2 meetings and We are in charge of the Carlsbad caverns ward and the Spanish branch. Holy Molly! I was all churched out but it was awesome:) We speak Spanish 24/7. It is awesome! I love having a Hispanic companion. 

We just have the best ward and Branch ever! The spanish branch is tiny like 20 people but we are gonna make it grow! And the ward is 200 plus. Soooo, we are never gonna be bored, that's for sure. The Holidays are gonna be the Bomb!!

Here is my new address!

1402 w church st. #B

Carlsbad, NM 88220

Write me:)!

" The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not knowledge, its a feeling:)"- Alvin R Dyer

" Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." - Peter Pan

Chao and Love you ALL,

Hermana Russell

 Hermana Espinosa y yo.

She made platanos machos. It was good. I couldn't have all the dairy in it but it was still good. It's some kind of Mexican dessert.

Transferred!! November 16, 2015

I'm getting Transferred:( To Carlsbad, NM! I'm both so sad but so excited!! My companion will be Hermana Espinosa and we both came into the mission together!!! Seriously right off we became buds and now we are gonna be companions! Whoo hoo:) She is so awesome and she is fluent in Spanish so we can speak with one another!

My trainee is now a trainer! Sister Wimmer will be Training Sister Vargas here in Alpine! She is going to be awesome. I taught her everything I know and now its her turn to pass it along. Man training is super hard but so fun:) Alpine is going to grow with these awesome sisters here. 

I have learned so much, all in 6 months of my mission. It's so crazy how it just flies by! Im so ready to meet those in Carlsbad, NM and meet those who want to grow! The Gospel is blessing families and people all over the World! It is truly amazing and people are so blind to it. Help them open up their eyes to it!

Chao and Love you ALL,

Hermana Russell

This is one of our Neighbors Habib. He is Muslim but will come to church. He is awesome:)

We do service at the Methodist church for a lunch for the High Schoolers and others. It was so great meeting all of them. And Pastor Jay is so awesome (Cowboy hat). In Fort Davis, TX

My nasty spider bite I got this week. Sorry but I had to show

Got to go to the Mcdonald Observatory with some members. In Fort Davis. It was awesome!

lkj

These two troopers drive 2 hours to church every sunday with their husbands. They live in percidio. Sister Andrews (Left) Sister Kolb (right)

This is one of our investigators who is living the Word of Wisdom. She is awesome!!

They were these cool Humongous Telescopes!

 

 Cute miss Ellis:) The piano player

Transfer Next Tuesday! November 9, 2015

Where in the World does the time go?! Like seriously. We have been super busy this whole transfer. There is soooo much to do and people to convert! I love missionary work :0)  This email might be a tad bit short so sorry but I'll try my best.

We had Exchanges with our STL's from Midland. It was so fun! I got to be with Sister Turner who is the best sister missionary alive. She was actually in the same stake as our mission President. Ya super crazy. The other sister is Sister Kreitzer. Oh my I swear we were best friends in the Pre-mortal life. All of the Sisters here I feel the same way about. Sister Kreitzer leaves back home this transfer:( So crazy. Time literally flies! A few of our investigators are having hard times because their spouse's aren't wanting them to get baptized. Ugh! Agency! Please pray for their hearts to be softened:) Bret is doing so awesome. He has been really cutting down on the smoking but still hasn't nailed it yet. His desire to gain faith in Jesus Christ is getting stronger. He is so awesome and I know that he is going to be one converted member of the church because of how hard he has worked and so long it has taken.

I can't believe transfers are coming up and its crazy because everyone is praying that I stay so I better stay! I love Alpine way too much. 2 of our investigators came to church which was great. One of them is really hard to catch home but he is super awesome because he knows that church is so important. He works a ton so hard to fit a lesson in. But the people here are just amazing and this Branch is going to grow!! we are heading down to Percidio this week. So we will get to use our spanish a whole lot! Yay!

A new family moved into the Branch and they are so cute! Brother Mcnew shared his favorite scripture with us. 1 Nephi 2:15 Lehi and his family suffered through so much and he gave up everything to the Lord. Is that something that we are all willing to do?:)

Le amo muchisimo!

Con amor- Hermana Russell

Went to Marathon the other day and found this in a Pagan Guys yard. He wants to meet with us this week. Pray for us.

STL's! Sister Kreitzer and Sister Turner

These people are probably the funniest people you will ever meet. Ever.

Their dog sammy:)

Mission Tour with Elder Bradley D Foster

Zone Conference

Howdy!! November 2, 2015

 Oh my gosh. K so my companion and I had a late lesson and we were walking home when we saw this huge habilina. They are so mean! (or so we have heard) It was right in front of us and just stopped and looked at us. They can't see you unless you move so we stood very very still. It was terrifying. We thought it was going to kill us. Our hearts were pounding out of our chests. We could hear each others heart beats haaha. This was like a couple days before halloween too, ahhhh!

Anyway's, we are pushing Bret's baptismal date back because he had to go out of town and he is really struggling with the Word of Wisdom. We fasted for him this past sunday and so did he! So we will see how it all goes:) He will get there:) 

We taught one of our investigators the word of Wisdom. The one lady with the 3 year old and she is awesome! Right after we taught it she went over to her cabinets and she threw out all of her tea! ALL of it. She was like, "I don't even know why I did that but I am willing to keep the word of wisdom:)" It was awesome! The spirit truly works miracles. Her husband still won't allow her to come to church though:/ Pray for his heart to be softened.

We have another investigator who is working on coming to church. He is older and he has been to many temple marriages but has never really learned anything about the church. He is willing to read the Book of Mormon and attend church. He has been praying as well. We are going to set a baptismal date for him. Ahhhh we are so excited! He is so awesome:) Pray for him to receive his answer from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true.

We went to a mission Tour last Friday in Midland, TX. It was awesome! There is a new plan coming out! Ill have to tell y'all more about it next week. Elder Foster came and spoke to us. It was awesome.

I know that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment of God that He has revealed to us to protect us. The Blessings from living the WoW are so great. I never want to do anything to break the Word of Wisdom. And people can truly see those blessings in you and they want to live it as well. We are so lucky to have this commandment from God. I also know that if we are obedient to this commandment we will receive so many blessings! So many!

 

I love y'all so much! There is so much to do here in Alpine. Transfers are in 2 weeks! I cant leave Alpine! Oh and BTW we got 2 new families who just moved into the Branch. They are so awesome!! Alpine Branch is growing.

Ponderize Quote: ""The Gr8ter the Agency, The Gr8ter the Growth" -Elder Bradley D Foster

Chao and Love you ALL,

Hermana Russell

These people are amazing! The Leonardsons. They head back home to Montana:(

Saw Sister Sadie Hughes at Mission Tour!!

Did some service at a carnival on Halloween! So much fun. The scarecrow guy gives us fresh Apples like everytime we go by his booth. SOoooo good.

Hola mi familia y amigos! October 26,2015

Como estan?? We have been working so hard this week. Bret is still working towards his baptismal date but still doesn't believe he is ready. He needs to have that desire which is all up to him. There is only so much we can do. Please pray that he will have that full desire to quite smoking and become a member of the Lord's church. 

We had a miracle this past week. We were out contacting some refurals and figured out that it was the wrong house. We saw some people outside next door and decided to go talk with these 2 women. They were very kind. Besides her satanic dog who tried to eat us. But one lady(K) was so hilarious and she is so nice. We talked about and shared how we love to do things like service. She perked up and said, "Your kidding, You guys are angels sent to me and I have a friend who needs your help!" She calls us her miracle:) Her friend is pregnant and the husband doesn't help out much because he is taking care of the Ranch and working other jobs as well because the ranching business ain't going too well. They have the 2 cutest kids I have ever seen!!! K told us that her friend needs help right away and she lives in marathon. Well it happens to be that we had planned to go to marathon the next morning. Man God is good. This is our first time going to marathon this transfer and we always pray where we need to go at what time. Its truly amazing how we got the confirmation of the Holy Ghost to go to marathon that saturday. K gave us all the information we needed and we went up the next morning to help this lady. Okay we drove 15 min out of marathon and then got to the fence of the ranch. We had the code to open it and then drove 5 miles until we got to this cute house. At first we thought we were being led to our death but we both prayed and felt really good about it. We came up to the fence and like 10 dogs starting barking at us! It was scary. We were about to just leave when these two cute cute kids came out and settled the dogs down. Then a cute pregnant lady came out and they were soooo sweet. She really appreciated us coming and we helped organize and clean some rooms. It was so fun. The kids helped and gave us some Gatorade and made sure we had everything we needed. The little girl is home schooled and sooo smart. We helped for a couple hours and then needed to go.

When we were leaving we got 3 long hugs from them. The mother was tearing up and the kids didn't want us to leave. They said come back when you get the chance! They were the sweetest family and we hope to go back up next week sometime. It was truly the work of the Lord and we hope they saw that in us. We were told not to (by K) to not talk about God because she doesn't like it but we are going to share at least something with her next time. We hope we at least soften some hearts and opened some doorways. Gah it was a cool experience and their Ranch is absolutely beautiful! Please pray for them:)

That's all I got for this week. Sister Wimmer and I gave talks this past Sunday.  I love giving talks and sharing the Gospel to help our members become stronger. Seriously, sharing your testimony is a huge deal even when you may not know it! Love yall. Tenga seguridad and yo se que este evangelio is la verdad. Dios siempre es nos mirando.

Con amor, Hermana Russell

I got the package

Hola! October 19, 2015

Holy moly!  This week was Crazy!   The work here is truly amazing.  We found a lot of new investigators to teach and we went to Marfa on Saturday.  We always pray for when is the best time to visit our different areas and that was the day to go to Marfa. There was the film festival going on there so there was a lot of people! Perfect! Also our members planned a service project up there for a less-active member. No joke, we couldn't have planned it on a better day and we met a lot of people we can teach. We have a hard time with all our investigators in Alpine and now we have 3 other areas to worry about. But it is all good. We are NEVER bored. I hope it isn't too much for my trainee. Sister Wimmer is a trooper:) I just love Alpine so much and we never want to leave! There is too much to be done!

 We set a baptismal date for Brett for November 7th! The one who is trying to quit smoking. Please pray for him! It is really hard for him but he got the neon sign he had been looking for. Seriously, God is truly merciful towards that man. He said he was out on the road driving when some lights went out. He tried everything and then he said, " Alright God I need some Help"(or something like that) and the lights immediately turned on. He was like, "Wow." hahaha we got so excited and we said there is your sign! And he agreed saying, "I know I know" He said we went back later to see about the lights and the wires are separated but the lights still worked. He says he knows there is a God! That is huge progress for him and he is just getting closer and closer to the truth. He will get there! He is just awesome. 

The lady with the 3 year old boy is doing great. Her husband is finally back so that we can talk with him! We have a lesson tonight and we are so excited! He is a less-active member and I can picture in my head him baptizing his wife and then later on their 3 year old boy. It truly brings tears to my eyes and I can't wait for that day:)

We are teaching many people but there isn't a lot of time to share everything about each of them. I wish I could. But Alpine is great. We are great. The world is great. Just everything is great! Tenga suerte esta semana con todos! 

".....with God, nothing is impossible" -Somewhere in the Bible. I think Timothy sorry.

Con amor, Hermana Russell

P.S.
The Youngbergs are members here and they are exactly like Meg and Brant. Brother Youngberg is hilarious and so sarcastic, like Brant. Hahaha and he is bigger like Brant. They are the cutest couple and Tommy is adorable.

Went to big bend national park which is beautiful! The Youngbergs are moving:(

The Rio Grande. And Mexico is the other side of the river

 "I'm the One" (family inside joke)

Gorgeous! By the Santa rena bank?

October 12, 2015 Zone Conference!

We are heading off to Carlsbad NM tonight @6. We have a zone conference in Artisia so we stay the night in Carlsbad and then go to artisia tuesday morning. After that we head down to Monahans and stay with the sisters down there and then drive home wednesday morning. Alpine is so far away from everything!! But i love it for that reason:) 

We have so many investigators that are so close to baptism!! Our one investigator is having a really hard time with not smoking. But we continue to pray and he will get there! He is reading and praying in the Book of Mormon and he will get his answer that it is true:) 

Our other investigator with the 3 year old son is sooo cute. She called us one day and asked if we could babysit because she got called into work short notice. Hhaahaha it was cute. We were at a members having dinner which was perfect because then the member gladly volunteered. She ended up finding the Babysitter but it would have been a great fellowship. We were just glad that she has that trust with us to call us:) It was awesome. And she love it when we come over and share things from the bible and book of Mormon with her. She is such a hardworking mother. Hopefully her husband comes home soon from his business trip so we can teach and talk with him! She is also reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.

We are teaching our golden family on thursday! Pray that it goes well and they will want the Gospel in their lives!!

 So much going on in such a short period of time! Missionary is crazy and can be hard but it is so rewarding i love it!:)

Y'all have a great week and Here is my quote for the week!

" Regardless of what you have done in the past, great Blessings are available to you if you begin now to live the Gospel:)" Love it!

Con amor- Hermana Russell

Aliens haha someone told us that God is an Alien. We agreed with him. It's true.

Went on a Hike this morning with one of our investigators. She has some awesome property in Alpine and its beautiful. She reminds me of Jodi Russell