Mom, Dad, and Family,
I woke up this morning...and had toast. With jam. It was great. Thank you. Yes! I did get the package and the cookies with it. I'm doing my absolute best to eat them in moderation and not glut myself. But it is not the easiest thing. Thanks so much for the package.
This week was nuts. I guess I should start off by telling you why I didn't email you yesterday. I slept in. No just kidding. I would never do that. The real reason was because President Hobbs cancelled P-Day for most of the valley. Yeah, weird right? But just like with everything else President Hobbs does, there was totally a reason for it. All of the Upland Zone, and some of the Rancho and Ontario Zones were asked to cancel P-Day and go help victims of a mud slide on Mt Baldy (Upland). On Sunday, there was a terrible mud slide and it destroyed a lot of homes, completely buried some cars, covered roads, and even took the lives of some hikers and drivers. So we were pulled out at around 9am and were up digging until about 5pm. The house that I mainly worked on was filled with mud in the kitchen and had water and mud damage throughout the rest of the house. There was so much mud that in the part next to the door, mud had piled up all except for maybe the top two feet of the door. We started near the front door and slowly made our way through the house toward the back. We shoveled the mud into wheelbarrows and then had to carry the wheelbarrows down a flight of stairs outside to wheel them to a dumping point. There were about 56 missionaries up working there in total and it was a truly humbling experience. The residents there bought us lunch and asked us who we where. They managed to keep smiles on their faces while we were there and were very kind. I guess you really can feel the Spirit digging in the dirt. It was an incredible experience and I wouldn't trade it for any P-Day.
As for the rest of the week, it was a blast! I got the stomach flu! It was great! Well, other than the fact that we couldn't go out and work it was great. It was intense, because I vomited so much that I would dry heave because there was nothing left in my stomach. It was the bomb.
We've also been finding some more. This week we found three investigators. It was pretty rad. One of them came out of nowhere. It was weird because Elder Depew and I are doing a sweep of the area with tracting. But one day it looked like we weren't going to have all of our time filled up. Well, we wanted a small street to fill up that time so we could tract the whole street in the half hour extra we had. So we decided to tract a little area--but we didn't actually get to it. I had had some thoughts about it during the week and anytime I would think about something to do in a small time frame I would think about tracting that street. Well Friday came and we had two service projects AND weekly planning. It was about an hour and a half into weekly planning and we were just about fried. We hadn't done any contacting, teaching, or anything but service all day. The Spirit wasn't there and we couldn't focus. So we decided to go out an work. We tried to see everyone we had planned to see that day in about a 5 minute time frame. Then we came back and ate a quick dinner and I still was feeling out of it, so I begged Elder Depew to come out again and he said "What do you want to do" instantly I got the impression (though it seemed like just a thought at the time) to tracted this small street. So we went and started that street. In 10 minutes, we found an investigator and sat down and had a lesson. We asked her if we could share a message "Sure," she replied. "Well is there a good time we could come back and share it?" we asked. "Now works." So we went out back and taught her for about an hour. It was pretty awesome because I know missionaries who are going home who have never had that happen. She may not be the most solid, but she's willing to learn. It was a blast, and we were actually late for exchanges because of it.
Saho sounds like a blast. Tell her I say hi. Ask her all about running for me and what kind of shoes she wears and everything. I kind of miss running...like...a lot actually. I know a few runners that are probably still around over there in Grantsville that she could probably go with. And if I don't I know people who do. So we can get her running again. Haha! Wanna know what else she probably hasn't had too much of? Mexican food. And I know dad can make some killer Mexican food. Which is saying something, because there was a lot of really good Mexican food in Ontario. I would know.
And Rylie's at a Cougarette Camp huh? Sounds like a ton of fun! I bet she'll love it and I'll have to follow up with her on that. I bet her dancing skills are pretty awesome considering how much time and effort I've hear her put into it. And oh my gosh, she's getting so pretty. When you sent me pictures last we I thought it was Cambria in the pictures, no joke. It was nuts.
All in all, the week was just great. Lots of success and lots of fun. We have our first progressing investigator, as of yesterday, in months. It's not a fast progression, but it's progression. Haha, whatever fast means. When compared to Maggie and Erik, there aren't a lot of people that are 'fast' progression. But it's totally the bomb here.
Some facts: I've seen the Robbins family 3 times in the past two days. And then also on Saturday. They're all over the place. That and I tracted into the guy that Brother Robbins bought his practice from a decade ago. I sang in Zone Meeting today. The Zone I'm in is one of the finest on the planet. Life is good. I get to see Elder Russell M. Nelson three times in a week from Saturday. Reading the scriptures and praying are super super important.
In fact, I was thinking about the simple stuff (like reading scriptures and praying) we read in Jacob about looking beyond the mark and I was reminded of a talk Bednar gave. He was talking about being led by the Spirit and how sometimes it's way over thought. Pretty sure he's right. He said that to be led by the Spirit, all we need to do is to keep the commandments, honor our covenants, go to church, read our scriptures, pray, and just try and be the best person we can be and if we do that--we will be led by the Spirit naturally. I have a testimony that that is true.
I love and miss you all. I pray for you guys. Thanks so much for all you do. For the ties, jerky, jam, and the cookies. You're all the best!
ILYMTLI,
Elder Russell
Don't Forget to Look Up
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