Merry Christmas from the Jungle

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I can`t believe Christmas is here!!  I have loved this Christmas
season.  It has been one of the hardest times on my mission but I have
felt so close to the Savior.  I will be calling at 6 o clock peru
time.  I hope this isn't very inconvenient because I know you guys have
things going on but this was the best time.  We will be skyping from
ipads and mac computers in air conditioning.  So holler back!

Well I don`t have much to say this week.  The work has been hard but I
have the best comp ever.  Hermana Alailima is so great!  She makes me
laugh and keeps me going on.  We laugh a lot and we also see a lot of
little miracles.  I have love watching her grow up.  She speaks super
great now and teaches like a boss.  She has a love for the people that
is just amazing and loves being a missionary.  Although sometimes we
do say this line when a the tenth appointment falls through “well i`m
going to start walking back to the states…”  But its only a joke.  We
don`t really want to go home.

This week I got attacked my a thousand ants under my desk.   I really
hate ants now.   They always get me really good.  I didn`t turn the
lights on and didn`t see them.  I noticed the trash was fallen over so
when I went to pick it up I got a thousand hungry ants on my hand and
feet that bit me like crazy.  I can`t believe a small ant can hurt
that much!  But seriously I`m alright now.   Also we had a guy come
and spray for bugs all over our house.  So that will be really nice
and probably will be the best Christmas gift ever.  Also the
landlord´s dog was found sleeping on my bed.  He happens to have blood
sucking sand leeches all over him and so I serisously had to strip my
bed and now I get the heebie jeebies every time I look at it.   Oh man
I love the jungle. ..

This week we visited a very special lady who told us we were wasting
our time and that the Church should pay us for going on missions and
that its stupid that we don`t gain anything blah. Blah blah.  It
didn`t make us to happy especially because when we tried to explain
why we were here and why it wasn`t a waste of time she just talked
over us.  We ended with our testimonies and left but it left us
talking and it left quite an impression on me.   Mostly because I
don`t feel at all like that.. and I was dumbfounded that someone would
say that to us.  I studied the next couple of days about sacrifice and
it helped me a lot.  The church requires a lot of sacrifice.  But I
read a talk that said at the end of it all we will say “Was that all
we really had to do for all of this?”  Isn`t that wonderful?  We are
sacrificing now for something so great and so beautiful that we won`t
even feel like we sacrificed enough.  I found this line that I have
hung onto  you all week that says “The blessings you receive are
better that you could ever give up”  I love this.  I love being a
missionary.  It may be a sacrifice but I feel like I am getting so
much than I give or could ever give up.

I also studied about eternal families this week.  I know that families
can be together forever.  I am so grateful for our Savior that makes
this possible and for the Restoration of the Gospel.  Without those
two things we would never ever be able to be eternal.  I found a
scripture that I absolutely love in D&C  130:2  “And that same
sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only
it will be coupled with eternal Glory, which glory we do not now
enjoy.”  I LOVE THIS! The same family that we have now will exist
forever.  I am so grateful for you guys.  I love you with all my heart
and think the world of each one of you!  HAVE A GREAT WEEK and a very
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LOVE, Hermana Russell

Faith

Hola familia!!

So this week has been better.  I felt your prayers and support and

love and it lifted me.  Things are getting better.  Hermana Alailima

has officially finished her training.  It’s pretty sad but we are

both staying here for changes  J  I am pretty pumped because we are

going to have lots of success for this change.  This hard but its so

worth it J

I received another package this week! It was amazing!  I loved all the

Christmas cards and especially the conference talks!!! Yes I had been

dying to receive them.  Anyways thanks for all the love!  I really

adore you guys.

Oh my bleeding foot.  Stepped on a staple.  It didn´t hurt at all but

when I pulled it out it was like a dam broke.  Hahah we just had to

take a picture.  And the turtle.  Yes there was a turtle inside of

there.  He was pretty grumpy and didn´t want to come out.  Just so you

know turtles weigh a lot more than you think!  They also do move

really slowly!  And mom yes there are Christmas trees in Puerto.  More

than in Abancay so its good J

Um so for the funny stories this week.  You  may have to edit this

part out.  Lately I have been having some problems in the shower.  One

night I was showering just normal like and all of the sudden the

lights just went out.  It was pitch black and I couldn´t see my hand.

I waited awhile but my eyes still weren´t adjusting.  I could hear

Hermana Alailima in the other shower.  I think she turned off her

shower and got out.  She grabbed the flashlight and came and found me

in the other room.  I got out , wrapped a towel around me and we

searched for matches to light the candles that we had bought.  Then

after we lit the candles we went back to our showers and had a candle

lit shower.  It was pretty great.  Haha sometimes the lights just go

out for no reason here.  Its especially awful when the fan shuts off L

 and another shower story. Oh man I don´t know what’s been up lately but its like a mini

adventure.

Oh this week we found a pension!!! For dinner. Her name is Gloria and

she is the best!  I love love love being in her house more.  She is

less active but has been to the temple!  She is just the greatest and

its just great to now have all three meals now. J

This week we were at a members house

waiting for her so that she could come to an appointment with us.

While we were waiting I guess I walked to close to a monkey and it

jumped out and just clung to my leg!!  It would not let go!  And when

I tried to pull it off it tried to bite my leg and I definitely do not

want to get rabies shot sooo it just clung on my leg.  I was so

scared!!! Even though it was a smaller monkey it was still scary.

Slowly we coaxed it onto my arm and then with a little better angle I

pealed it off of me real fast and ran away.  And so I successfully

escaped from a monkey and avoided the rabies shot.

This week has been hard as well but its better now.   We had a really

slow week and our numbers were super low.  In church this week there

was not one single investigator when it started.  I felt really bumed

but I also accepted it because I believed that really no one would

show up.   Shamefully I didn´t really have an ounce of faith that

anyway would show up.  Well after sacrament Hermana Alailima looked

around and she saw an investigator named Lucy.  It was her first time

coming to church and she had brought her little boy.  She whispered it

to me and It just made me cry.   I didn´t have any faith that anyone

showed up.  I think the Lord taught me a lesson that It really is His

work.  I am just His hands here in Puerto.  It taught me that I should

never lose the faith.   Faith is so vital and so important.   It

really is an anchor for our souls.   As I sat there I heard the words

in my head “I love you, keep going”  I know that it was the Lord and I

know that even though there are times where I forget it, I know he

loves me and I know he loves us.  He is so aware of every one of our

needs.   Its so amazing.

This week I also read in Ether about faith and weakness.  I was

reading in the famous verse in ether 12 27 and asked myself what

weakness has to do with the gospel of jesus Christ.  I learned that

without our weakness of our natural man we would not need the gospel

or His doctrine.  His doctrine his designed to show us that we are

weak, but it is also designed to show us that we can make weak things

strong.  Never in my life have I seen my weakness so blunt and so laid

out in front of me, than in my mission.  But never before in my life

have I applied the doctrine like I am doing out here.  It helps me see

my weakness, but the doctrine gives me the tools I need to make the

weak thing (me) strong.   I love the doctrine because it allows us to

progress.   I am so grateful that because the Savior lives we can

become better.  There is hope for everyone and this is why I love

being a missionary J

Love you all,

Hermana Russell

Update

Well I am not going to lie and say this was the best week ever.  I

really don´t have a ton to say.  It’s been a super hard week in terms

of the work.  Hermana Alailima is great though and we just keep going.

I decided because I am usually very scattered in my email that I will

just say one funny thing and one spiritual thing. :) that way they

won´t be so long!

   This Sunday we had a terrible lightning and thunderstorm during

church.  It was so loud that it was hard to hear the 80 year old

sunday school teacher and then when the lights went out it was hard to

hear over the squeals of all the little children.  haha. But the

thunder did keep all the sleepers awake so I guess that was a

brightside.  Anyway I was seated next to our pension, Hermana Eusebia

and next to me was a new investigator.  I was trying to help him by

following the scriptures that the teacher wrote on the board, but after

a couple of minutes Tomas the investigator told me that he couldn´t

read or hear.  So then I stopped trying to help him and he just sat

there. I didn´t get a chance to talk to him after priesthood so

hopefully he had a better experience there.  Or at least learned

something.  Anyways next to me was Hermana Eusebia.  She is very

faithful and loves the gospel.  She had the lesson manual with her and

was reading and highlighting the scriptures as she basically taught

herself.  I was asked a question by this 80 year old teacher and you

can imagine that besides the thunderstorm, the age factor and language

factor made it a little hard for me to understand  I think I rambled

off something about God´s love because after all he had written "God

is love" on the whiteboard and after I was done speaking I turned to

Eusebia and told her that I didn´t understand the question very well.

She whispered back that the question was in fact not understandable

and that she didn´t really understand anything he was saying.  So she

then proceeded to teach me the lesson with the manual.  It was pretty

funny.  We would read the scriptures alone and then she would

highlight it and point to a question that the manual asks.  I could

just picture her answering in her head.  It was pretty great.  ahh

Peruvian Sunday school class.

      This week we visited a less active member who is having a really

hard time.  She feels like when she was a faithful member of the

church she had more problems and that its better for her just to leave

the church alone.   She told us that she didn´t really think God loves

us and that she didn´t even know if he exists anymore.  We talked to

her about the plan of salvation and it was super hard at first because

she said that she´d just hopes that after this life that’s the end.

She didn´t really even want eternal life.  When she was telling us

this I offered a silent prayer that God would help me have the words

that would comfort her and help her.   I find myself bearing a

testimony about the atonement and all Christ did for us.  I felt the

spirit enter into her little room and even though she didn´t say

anything else I could see that for a moment she was truly reminded of

how much our God really does love us.  He loves us so much that he

sent his only son to suffer and die for us.  THis week I gained a new

perspective on the atonement when I asked this less active to think

about someone she knows and loves, suffering like the Savior did.  I

pictured my father suffering like that and felt overcome with a love

for the Savior.  There is no way to repay him.  All we can do is

accept his sacrifice and come unto him. That is all he asks of us.

Without Him the plan of salvation would include the spirit world,

life, and death.  There would be no eternal life. There would be no

eternal families.  But he lived and he still lives and because he

lives we have the opportunity to go, if we are obedient, right back

into the outstretched arms of our heavenly father. I am so grateful

for the Savior.  He  carried me this week and I am so grateful for the

opportunity to serve Him.

Hope you all have a great week!  Love ya guys!

Hermana Russelll