March 16-23

 Here I am, once again ”

 -Victorious 

You guessed it voice to speech once again because if not for this feature , I would have stopped these a long time ago.

 Monday, we… Sister Byrne is trying to hijack my email but nevertheless, on Monday, we went to London for an appointment that was pretty alright. We got subs, but couldn't eat them so they were cold. It was kind of sad, but they were good, we also made the flat sparkling clean and I felt like a new person. It was amazing! 

 Tuesday, we got to have a 3 and a 1/2 hour finding Sesh, and it was great. We met some really cool people and saw several miracles that day, got to testify, boldly about baptism under the proper power and authority and shocked this man to his core. We also got to meet one of our friends who's been having a hard time and got to share scripture with him, which was really beautiful. We went to go talk to our friend Barry at his home again. He's an old man who's lost a lot of people who lives alone now, so he just needs to talk. Then we had lessons with our new members in the evening, including going to see Tanya in person and just getting to catch up, which was so great! We also ran into this man from Oklahoma again. The first time we met him, he looked so scared of us and said he did not want to talk to us at all. This time though, we had a good conversation and we bonded over biscuits and chocolate gravy, who knew that this meal would be doing the Lord's work.

 Wednesday, not much happened in the morning, but we did go and have exchanges! I got to Stay in Stevenage with the lovely Sister Hardy from California. It was so much fun and we got to go read with my favorite woman, Sister Ossei-Kissi and it was precious. We then went back to the chapel to talk with some members and to teach and then we finished the day with some good old dave's hot chicken and card games.

 Thursday, we had our district council meeting and afterwards we went out to do some finding in a flat building that was recommended to us! Lo and behold, we got into this flat building by saying we had a delivery, (a.k.a. the book of mormon).They buzzed us in and as we knock on doors, we realize it's an old person's care home… However, nothing can stop the work from progressing so we continue on our way, sharing the gospel with the senior citizens. Until we heard one of the people who were quite upset with us on the phone through the very thin walls of England and we heard someone on the phone saying “it's good, you've reported this. Thank you”. The Spirit of discernment told us that security had been called on us, and we needed to leave quickly. So we evaded security, mixed up our exit strap, and left the building without being caught. We thought we were pretty good until about an hour later , someone pulled up next to us in a car and said, “were you two in that building earlier”. Obviously we say yes, cause we cannot lie and they say “don't ever come back…” God has a funny sense of humor. But it all works out for good, because we met a woman on her doorstep, who has been wanting to come to our church for years but has been nervous to know how and now we're teaching her. Their family is coming to church next Sunday! Close up the day by having dinner with the Garnham family! So much laughter my sides hurt! They're so fun, and we got to share some really great mission stories.

 Not much happening on Friday. We had an in person lesson with our friend Sophie! She's so cool and a new member Tanya came and bore her amazing testimony. 

 Saturday was mi mum's birthday. Everyone say happy birthday to mi mum. We got to meet one of our friends in person and we've been having a lot of in-person lessons recently, which has been so fun. It was really great getting to teach him about the restoration, and it was so cool to see how his desire to learn came from talking with his friend about the gospel. We visited our referrals that day and cut to one of the best interactions ever as we walk up to this woman's home and ask her “hi is this (insert name here)?” She looks us dead in the eye and says “no I don't know who you're talking about.” Not even 1 second later, the spirit of honesty entered the conversation as 1 of her friends yelled from across the street. “Hey, (insert name here) how are ya? Are you coming to our place for a cuppa later?” Our friend bless her, she looks at us with the exact face that shrek makes in that one meme. She just looks at us and says,” I'm just very busy right now.


I can't talk” and closes the door. 10/10 experience. We called her later and surprise she was still not interested.

 Sunday was chaotic, as always. We ended up planning to take the train with our friends to teach them how to get to Church, but alas, all of our friends were struck down by opposition with different problems and ailments. So many of them weren't able to make it but we had 4 people come and we got to spend a lot of time speaking with her members which was much needed  We did our studies and had hot chocolate porridge for lunch. A true missionary meal if I ever seen one, and then we go to go to the Ribeiro family once again, which is always so fun. Their little girl Sophie (who's around 2 by the way), has now learned 3 languages. So when I speak with her, it's a mix of Portuguese, Spanish and English. Needless to say , I do not follow the conversation well but 

Text-to-speech is such a hack. All I have to do is edit and its done. God is good, God is great in case you forgot! 

I want to tell you all that I love my mission and I love being a missionary. This truly is the Lord's work and every effort counts. I'm grateful for what I've learned on my mission. I'm grateful for the experiences I've had, I'm grateful for the companions that I've had, and most importantly, I'm grateful for my savior, Jesus Christ who has changed me into a person I didn't think I could become. This gospel is great. Keep moving forward and don't look back. 

I'm going to watch how to train you dragon with the members now  

Have a great week!

Wash your Scarf, 

   Sister Russell