Aug 11-18

 Mary Poppins Bag of Maggots


Yes, you read the title correctly and I will unfortunately explain later in this email… In the meantime while you steel your stomach I will provide the awaited updates and accurate presentation of data in regards to my service as a missionary thus far. Account recorded covering 12th-18th of August. Written on the 18th day of the eight month, being August, in the year of 2025 at 10:31 A.M


(Trying to hit the word count of an essay)

☀️ FIRST WEEK IN BASINGSTOKE! (A.K.A amazing-stoke). I love this area so much and I have been having so much fun, especially with my companion sister Shahid! She's from Pakistan and we have been having so much fun together! Running around the streets like maniacs, talking to every person we see, getting to know the members, and Sister Shahid teaching me how to sing ✌️😎 ( She sings the Urdu cover of “Look unto Christ” on the youth albums…WHAT?) I am but a humble worm 🙏
☀️ I had to part ways with my dearest sister Shanmugam after I finally learned how to say her name (Shan-Moo-Gum) but I know she's going to continue having so much fun in Bracknell and her mother has demanded I come to India to visit so she can't rid of me no matter how Many times she sings “ding dong the witch is gone”. 
☀ ️ Indecisive Weather… it's England. What more can I say?
☀️ We have the coolest friends right now and Tatenda especially who is preparing to be baptized on the 31st! Prayers for him 😁
☀️ I now can sympathize with the civilizations who have had fire rained down upon them. Our water thermostat something or another (plumbers almost exact words), is broken so I have been perfecting the art of speed showers. The clock begins as the water is turned on, and you have 1 minute of freezing cold water before you experience the third level of Hell and the skin is melted off of your bones… (No I'm not dramatic, just descriptive). Any tips on beating my previous record of 1 minute and ‘ouch that's hot’, please let me know.
☀️ I got to humbly recount at a lunch with the members about the time I was dumb enough to try and catch a 5ft black snake and how it caught my finger instead. I never realized how entertaining my stupidity can be but I'm glad that it's amusing.
☀️ I'm bored of writing now so onto the story you've been patiently waiting for. Missionary flats are like a box of chocolates, you NEVER know what you're going to get… On Tuesday evening as we are settling into the flat, I lift the trash bags that were still in the bin because I needed to throw something away (obviously). I can tell you my first thought as I lifted this bag was “Wow, that's a lot of rice”... it was not rice. There were HUNDREDS of Maggots living in the 5 bags that were piled into the bottom of this small bin. How so much garbage could be fit into one can, I will never know, what I do know is that they were now all over the floor, the molding of the wall, and lining the inside of the bin. Needless to say I immediately set it on fire… kidding Missionaries can't use flames. We took it out immediately and as I was shaking this bin out, this can only be described as Mary Poppins bag of maggots. In the words of ALLSTAR, “They don't stop coming”. Once back in the flat, the remaining few experienced first hand the lava water from the shower and the bin has now been restored. Thank you for your concern and the battle has been won 🙏

I guess I will give you a spiritual thought to wrap it up today

As Jesus Christ becomes the focus of our lives, what we desire, and how we desire it, is forever altered. Conversion changes everything! It changes our nature “that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”
  Thou Art the Christ- Amy Wright (April ‘25)

I am such a fan of the work conversion! This lifelong process of conversion is something that means we get the opportunity to grow everyday. Conversion is Change and to change is to repent. Embrace the changes as they come because they are leading to a transformation that can't come without them! 

Love you all dearly And hope you have a stupendous week!

CHANGE YOUR TRASH, 
    Sister Russell 






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