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.