March 9, 2015

Mom, Dad, and Family,

It sounds like Chandler and Bryce's birthdays went well.  I went to church...that's how I celebrated.  I did that...and planning.  Yep.  Planning is the best.  But I wish them both the best and hope their birthdays were great!

Phedipides (I don't actually know how you spell his name, it's pronounced "feh-dip-eh-deez"--we just call him P-Diddy) was the runner for the original Marathon.  From Marathon to Athens is actually 24 miles, not 26.2.  Now the myth (as I've heard it) says he died at Athens after delivering the message.  But that's just what I've always heard.  Where we get the extra 2.2 miles is actually really weird.  Some Olympics in England one year (in I believe the early 1900s), the Queen wanted the finish of the race to be in front of the castle (or wherever she was at) so she didn't have to move in order to see the end of the race.  Now for some reason, they decided that instead of moving the starting line 2.2 miles up, they just extended the race 2.2 miles.  So actually, a full Marathon is 24 miles.  But they extended it for the Queen.  Hank Smith talks a little bit about it in his talk "Running Down Your Dreams."  It's a great talk, you should listen to it.

Now that race kind of reminds me of something Elder Keller (one of the assistants to the President) was telling Elder Gooch and I about last night.  They're changing the standard of excellence starting tomorrow and they were telling us about them.  They're very very high for the mission average, and that can be kind of discouraging and daunting for those who are doing their best to reach them.  So we were kind of confused as to how we would pass this information down to the other missionaries and motivate them do reach for the standards of excellence.  Elder Keller was mentioning that the standards of excellence aren't a quota.  They're a tool to help us build our faith and raise our expectations.  We were discussing about how to view the standards and he asked me if I did track.  I told him yes.  Then he asked "When do you stop running?"  I told him "AFTER you cross the finish line."  He said "Right, so the way the standards are going to work is, these are not the end goal.  These are numbers that we can use to increase our faith to fulfill our purpose.  Our goal is that we will eventually reach far beyond these numbers.  Our goal is to find teach and baptize more than these numbers indicate.  This is a baseline for how the work will develop."  A lot of the time, I believe, when we set goals, we set them too low.  We're afraid of not being able to reach them, so we don't set them very high.  As a result, we don't even accomplish those goals.  I believe we can do a lot more than we think we can.  Especially when we involve God.  So with the standards of excellence--those are high goals.  In order to reach them, we have to be looking beyond the standards of excellence.  In order to reach the standards of excellence, we have to know that we don't stop running until after we've crossed the finish line.  That's the only way we're going to be able to succeed.  In order to reach them, our faith has to be in something bigger than numbers.  Our commitment has to be in something greater than tracting.  Something better than teaching.  Something more infinite than just coming to church.  Maybe I'm not making sense, but it's awesome to be out here and part of this work.  We listened to a talk recently by President Hinckly called "Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep."  Listen to the way he sets goals.  Think about his faith.  Take a look.  Set goals like President Hinckly does. ;)

I love this work.  I love being a missionary.  I love the gospel.  I know it's true. I know the Savior lives.  That He loves us.  That He wants us to be happy.  The Atonement is real.  The Gospel is real.  They blessings are real.  The Priesthood is real.  I know it for sure.

ILYMTLI,

Elder Russell

March 1, 2015

Mom, Dad, and Family,

Thanks for praying for Jazmine and Athena.  They're doing great.  But we're a little concerned for them.  Keep the prayers coming for them.  They're great and they really are trying.

Sounds like things are going great back home.  Just trust the Elders though.  I know sometimes it's hard when it doesn't seem like they're doing what they're supposed to.  But I guarantee if you wait to prepare people, people will never be prepared.  God will take care of our friends and neighbors if we do our part.  And we can't delay anything because we think someone ought to be more mature.  Please don't wait to have the missionaries teach those we know.  I promise that's not a good idea. ;)

Elder King is from Colorado (my second companion).  He's in my Zone Now.  He's still a District Leader!  That's a long time to be a District.  He had one transfer where he wasn't, but now he is again.  That's crazy.  But he's awesome.  I learned a lot from him.  I don't know if he lives anywhere close to where Corynne and Bryce are moving too.  But he does live in Colorado.

Things are going well.  We went to Rancho again for another meeting (Rancho is forever away.  Okay not really.  But like 45 minutes) and that took forever.  And we have another meeting again this week.  But the meeting last week was good.  The Spirit was so strong and it helped me so much.  So I'm so thankful we got to go.  And that we were kept safe.  Because you never know what might happen when Elder Gooch is driving the truck.  Actually, funny story about that.  We drove to Rancho for the meeting with another set of Elders.  We were on our way back and Elder Houston kept saying that there was another way we could take back.  There really isn't much to look at on the way back from Rancho, so we decided we'd punch it into our GPS and try it out.  Well, it was a lot more beautiful than the normal way.  But we think we ended up going pretty far out of the mission (on accident--and you have to go out of the mission to get to Hesperia anyway) and it took a long time.  But it was so beautiful.  We were up in this mountain and ended up driving through this mountain town (no one knows where it was) and it was so cool.  But yeah, we were lost for a while and probably won't do that again.

But clearly things are going great!  I love being out here.  I learned a lot this week.  One thing I learned is that every time I figure out something I need to do better at and how to get better at it, my prayers gain a clarity that they don't normally have.  Anyway, that's all for this week.  I love you all and hope none of you have to have two ingrown toenails removed in the near future.  Remember to read your scriptures and keep the commandments.  All of them.  Literally all of them.

ILYMTLI,

Elder Russell

February 23, 2015

Mom, Dad, and Family,

I miss you all and think you're awesome.  This week sounds like it was great.  Preach My Gospel is probably my favorite book on earth, aside from the Hugly series.  I study that book (Preach My Gospel, not the Hugly series) every day, and it gets better and better.  I think as our understand of the Gospel increases, so does our desire to learn more about it and live it.  We're studying (focusing) on chapter 2 as a mission right now.  I've been thinking a lot about the Live What You Learn section at the end, and about how important it is to do what God tells us when we're learning.  We focus on one chapter of PMG each month starting in January and Chapter 1.  But we skip Chapter 7 (because it's language, and most of us are English missionaries, and so we can get to Chapter 13), it's a lot of fun.  Build those library.

This week, we taught Carlos on Monday and he rescheduled twice for our next appointment.  So we'll see him tomorrow.  But we also met with Jazmine and Athena twice this week.  Athena came to church, but Jazmine was at her dad's for the day.  So we visited them after church (when Jazmine got back) and we set a baptismal date with Athena.  Jazmine said she would pray about it, and if it felt good, she would be baptized.  She gets some flack from her dad's family.  Pray for them both.  They're awesome and they want to do what's right and they're so close to baptism.  Pray they will be okay and safe spiritually.

Things are great here in Hesperia.  Offroading is still crazy, but we don't get as lost anymore.  We know most of the dirt roads, where they are and where the 4-wheeling trails come in so we can avoid them.  But sometimes, our GPS takes us the weirdest ways.  I swear, Sally (our GPS) is better at locating lost things (or maybe just loosing things) than any missionary I know.  We get lost all the time.

I love you all and pray for you.  Keep doing the things God wants you to and life will always be great.  That's a promise (Mosiah 2:41).  I know the church is true and I'm thankful for the Gospel.  I love my Savior and I'm thankful for the Atonement.

ILYMTLI,

Elder Russell

Feb. 17, 2015

Dad, Mom, and Family,

Thanks for the update.  In response, I actually don't hear a lot from my older siblings.  I mean, members here have told me about the snow back east, but I don't get much mail from the first four.  Which is understandable, their lives are probably busier than mine.  And I don't feel let down because I'm pretty sure I only emailed Austin twice on his mission.  So I guess it comes back to me.  Sounds like a lot of snow.  Hesperia needs snow.  Or even rain.  Or water in general.  Or even clouds.  It's super desert here.  The hottest day last week was about 85 degrees.  And it's February.

Our area is...massive.  It's probably about 10 times the size of my last area.  But...we have a truck, so it's okay.  We didn't get the chance to teach anyone last week.  We didn't know what we were doing what with all the white wash and meetings in the stake and what not.  But we did get a lot done.  We live with two of the craziest missionaries in the mission.  The Elders (our ward mates) are always cracking jokes and Elder Fausett is always messing around.  He's a blast.  We love them to death.

As far as the baptisms go.  We may not get as many as some missions, but the number isn't what worries me.  What I'm concerned about is making sure I don't miss anything.  In Zone Meeting today, we talked about serving God to our fullest potential--putting our all into the work.  My biggest concern is that when I get done with my mission, I just want to make sure I didn't miss a person I could have helped or shared the Gospel with because I wasn't as obedient or diligent as I should have been.  And I know I'm not the most obedient missionary.  I know I'm not the hardest working.  But I just want to find and help as many people as I can.  In the District Videos (the TV show we watched before I left for my mission) the two missionaries I want to be like are Elder Bott and Elder Hepworth.  They're awesome missionaries.  They just truly love their callings and work their hardest.  They might not be as skilled, per say, as some of the other missionaries like Elder Christensen or Elder Moreno, but they love what they do.  And their desire is so sincere and their faith is so strong.  Those are missionaries that the Lord can trust.  And that's all I want to be, is just a missionary the Lord can trust.

Now I'm not saying that baptisms don't happen in my mission.  They do.  They're hard.  It's not easy to prepare someone for baptism.  But my job isn't to count numbers.  Satan can compare us, but Christ can improve us.  It is true that the harder we work, the more we keep the commandments, and the more faithful we are, the more people will come into the fold.  But the number of people coming into the fold is not my focus so much as doing my part in it.  I want to be the best missionary I can be.  And that's what matters to me.  The people matter to me.  The work matters to me.  The Spirit matters to me.  I just want to make sure I let the mission go through me, not just me through the mission.  I love this gospel and what it can do.  I love the power it has and the love it brings from our Savior.  The church is super true.

I'm glad to hear everything is going well.  I love you all and miss you loads.  I pray for you every day, you know.  I really do want you all to be happy and have the joy the gospel brings.  Keep doing your best to do what God wants.  God wants to bless us.  Follow the Savior.  If we want top know Him, we have to do what He does.  We gotta be on His heels, as President Hobbs said in MLC.

ILYMTLI,

Elder Russell