Letter 4/15/2013

Hey everyone

So I haven´t really read any letters yet, but I´ll read them all after my hour of email. So we had a huge announcement the other week in the mission. So for the last year and a half or so our entire mission hasn´t had the opportunity to play soccer. And we are in South America. Soccer is crazy huge important here and every mission in South America could play soccer except us. But the other week we finalllyyyyyyy got permission to play soccer so the entire mission is like going crazy. So last week our President decided to have a tournament between all the zones in Arequipa. It was awesome!!! So on Monday last week our zones took like 3 taxis over to this soccer field and we were all super pumped. It´s pretty far and the traffic is absolutely insane in Peru it´s like The Fast and Furious movie all day long here. So we jumped in 3 taxis and zoomed off to the field like 30 minutes away. So We are sitting in the car when the other Elders from our zone pull up next to us in a taxi and are like egging us on to race them to the field. So we are like We Will DESTROY YOU. So we are like pumping up our taxi driver giving him inspirational messages. And the light turns green and off we went and as the light turns green the song "Play that funky music white boy" goes on. So yeah it was awesome. We raced Fast and Furious style through the streets of Peru while the song "Play that Funky Music White Boy" was playing in the taxi. Then we did work in soccer. We beat every zone that we played against the first 6 games. Then we got tired and lost every game we played after. Definitely is a day I will not forget.

So the pictures I´m sending you guys are some baptisms we had this week. We had 3. Unfortunately none of them counted as Missionary Baptisms because the kids were all 8 years old and had a member of their family that is a member. The two little kids in white in the pictures are Louis and Fabricio. Their families are inactive and we are helping reactivate them and I baptized one of them. It was a really good week. Our numbers mission wise are pretty horrible for that last week. But we helped 2 souls come to the waters of baptism and helped 2 families come back to Christ. So it was a good week. So I don´t have much else to say I´ll read the letters in a few minutes though. Well I love you guys. Thanks so much for all the letters and support they meant the world.

Love Elder Russon

Letter 4/8/2013

So this week was General Conference. It was sweet. Oh and we had a baptism also sweet. Hope you guys watched General Conference I learned a ton of really cool stuff from it. So for GC this week I got to watch in English which was awesome. So me and 2 other gringos sat in a room together just chillin while we watched GC in english. It was really fun. 10 hours hanging out with two other people who spoke english while listening to the prophet and apostles in english while watching tv. Definitely the first time I have ever watched a full session let alone all 5 of them hahaha. It was just a really awesome 2 days. But something cool happened between conference sessions while we were waiting for hours in the Chapel. So we had an investigator who attended the conference. So in between he was getting interviewed by our leader. So I was sitting there with his cousin who accompanied him to the conference he is 16 years old and not a member. So I was talking to him just making regular conversation about his school and home and what he wants to be when he grows up. Then I slowly started to run out of things to talk about with him, so I was thinking to myself and I was sitting there with him so I just decided what the heck I´m going to teach him the Doctrine of Chris and commit him to baptism. So I started giving him the lesson and everything and it was going great. So I finished the lesson ( more of a conversation) and I explained to him what his cousin was going to receive in a few hours and I explained what he felt while he was watching conference and everything. So I asked him if he wanted to follow in Christ´s footsteps to be baptized and if he believed the things I taught him were true and boom he was like " Yeah I want to get baptized." When I was explaining the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost he actually said "COOL" like in the lesson. Ahhh it was just awesome. Unfortunately he doesn´t live in my area and he is moving a little farther away to our Zone Leaders area. But I brought one of our Zone Leaders over and got them signed up to visit him and get permission from his mom and everything. So needless to say I was a little proud of myself since I did all of that by myself while my companion was across the room talking with some other missionaries. But I definitely didn´t have much to do with it all. The conference and what he felt there had everything to do with it and the example of his cousin too. So later in the day (yesterday) we baptized his cousin and confirmed him in the Church. I don´t have any pictures of the kid I taught but the boy we baptized Joni is in the pictures I´m sending.

Well I love you all. Thank you so much for all the support and everything. Keep writing me thanks!!!!

Letter 4/1/2013

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven´t written in a while. Some things happened and I just couldn´t. So anyways last Monday I got changed to a different city. A city in Arequipa, it´s called Dolores or Satelite, which means "pains". My new companion is called Elder Palacios. He is from Chili. He´s really really cool. He´s our District Leader. This past week we´ve been living with the Elderes of the city next to us. Elder Cook from Idaho and Elder Dias from Peru. This last week has been really really fun because we have 4 missionaries to every week which is a ton of fun. Unfortunately all of the fun ends today since we  moved houses today a few hours ago. The city we live in Satelite is really rich. It´s almost like America. I´ve actually had hot showers this week. Unfortunately because the people are really rich they pretty much don´t want anything to do with anything we say. It´s pretty crazy how stubborn these people are. I imagine it´s a lot like this in the States. It´s pretty cool though because at the same time the members of our ward are very cool and want to feed us which is a first. We had a visit Saturday where we were going to eat pizza but we had to fast so we couldn´t which was sad. So also there is a street in our area that is called Estados Unidos which is United States of America street. It´s got tons of cool stores and restaurants from America so it´s really cool because I have my own little piece of America in my area. Like last week we had burgers and fries, it was really cool. I think today we are going to go eat some more burgers and fries and also there is a cake store so I think I´m going to down a cake today.

The other day we had a really crazy awesome experience but then we realized something which didn´t make it super crazy awesome, but still cool. So yesterday we were talking with some members and they gave a reference to this house with a kid whose parents were requesting the missionaries which is like unheard of here. So we went to the house and we meet this 8 year old kid and his aunt who takes care of him. So we talk with them and we teach him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and commit him to baptism the next Saturday  And he´s like "Yeah I wanna get baptised really bad, I know it´s what I need to do in this life to follow Christ." His aunt is a member and she bore her testimony and everything and she was crying in the lesson. It was awesome. All of this is like unheard of in this part of Peru. So we end the lesson we are talking and the Aunt is telling us about his parents. So we find out they are separated and the dad isn´t a member but want´s to learn more, but the bad part. So the mom is a return missionary and inactive. So yes it´s a little sad that she´s inactive, but it´s also sad for us because since she´s a member this amazing lesson his baptism and everything that we received doesn´t mean anything for the mission. So yeah we we´re a little sad since it´s like impossible to get anything done in the past of Arequipa. But it´s still cool because maybe we can re activate the mom baptize the kid and even maybe baptize the dad.

Yeah that´s all for this week. Chillin in Satelite in Arequipa. It´s smack dab in the middle. Thanks for all the support and everything. Well thanks for everything. Thanks for all the emails and letters and support. Love you guys a lot.

Love Elder Russon

Letter 2/25/13

Ok so I want to share a story about giving people blessings. So a few months ago with my other companion Elder Salvador, we were walking home at like 915 at night and we HAVE to be in our room at 930 or we will get struck by lighting or something, idk. Anyways we were walking home and we we´re like a good 25 minutes from home so we were like getting ready to run, and out of no where a sister in our ward saw us and asked if we could give her a blessing. So we were like... Well we can´t say no so we went into her house and gave her a blessing. She was basically begging us so there was now way we were going to be like ¨"Oh sorry we have to be home right now or else". So we finish the blessing and it´s like 925 and we leave the house and we start booking it. Also in our city after about 830 at night there is no buses no convis nada. So we´re booking it and we run by this house with a taxi parked out in front. And we run by the taxi and out of no where this guy pops up in the seat of the taxi. He sees us and he´s like "Elders!!! Need a ride? Where you going?" We´re like ummm yeah! So this guy that was sleeping in his car and woke up as we ran by is a return missionary and saw us and felt the urge to help us. So he drives us home all crazy fast because hes the only car out and we make it into our house at 929. It was awesome.

Then this past week with Elder Lozano we were in the city Pocollay. Which is like our second area. It´s also like a 30 minute walk from home. So we were walking home at 850ish and we we´re walking fast because we had a lot to go. Then the mother of one of the investigators we were teaching saw us and starting yelling "Hermanos Hermanos!" So we go over to her and she´s crying saying her son who we have been teaching needs help fast. So we run over to her house and we see the son out front and he´s crying of pain. So we ask him what´s wrong and apparently he was gluing something in his house and he glued it wrong and he ripped the thing he was gluing up so he could re glue it and as he ripped it the super glue he had flew all over the place and a bunch of it got into his right eye, and he couldn´t open his eye and was dying of pain. So we have him start flushing out his eyes while the rest of his family is looking for his brother who is the only person that can take him to the hospital. So as we are helping him wash his eyes we ask if we can give him a blessing. So we give him a blessing and a few minutes later he´s calmed down a ton, so his brother comes and we all leave. So me and my companion are walking home and it´s like 920 and we have at least like a 35 minute walk home. So we start booking it again, and out of nowhere a convi pulls up behind us. This convi was the 3A convi and it is NEVER out past 830. Never!!! So we flag it down and jump in. So we are riding home and instead of going to the regular bus stop it keeps going and drives up super close to our house and we make it into the house at 929. It was crazy because convis and especially that convi are never out past 830 and it was 920 and on top of that it basically drove us to the foot of our house.

So yeah that was my awesome story for the week. Well I gotta go. Thanks sooo much for all the letters and the support. Oh these pictures are of me and my companion last week. Well I gotta go. Love you all!!

Love Elder Russon

My companion, Elder Lozano

Letter 2/18/13

This week was kinda sad. So many people just completely shut me and my companion down these last couple days. I feel like I´m becoming such a better teacher but at the same time not as much success and we´re running into more adversity. We have been working really really hard. Our numbers are way higher than they have been in weeks before but I don´t know we have just ran into a lot of problems lately. I was reading the BoM today in Moroni 7 and there´s like 100,000 crazy awesome scripture in this chapter especially about faith. So I wanted to share this chapter with you all. I also love Moroni 7:33. Through faith everything is possible. So just remember that if you have faith and if you are asking with sincerity and for important things that you sincerely need Heavenly Father will help you. Well I love you guys a lot. I´m doing good out here. Time is moving pretty fast. It´s crazy how much has already passed. Well I love you guys thanks so much for writing me and all the support. Oh and technically I could write you guys letters but it costs about 4 bucks for a letter so If you guys want to send me a few extra dollars I could send some written letters to you with some more details about everything. Love you all.

Love Elder Russon

Letter 2/11/2013

Holy cow I got like 30 emails this week. And last week I only got like 3. Well I obviously haven´t been able to read them all. I only read a little of everyone's letter then I spent about 30 minutes of my 45 taking pictures of all the emails so I can read them later. I have no idea what most of the letters said, but I´ll write about my week and read them all later today.

Okay first on my wish list for my next package. No rush don´t worry. By the way I still haven´t received any packages because the Office can´t send them to me without my Power of Attorney or whatever so that´s taking forever. But So I would love some type of exercise band with like handles and is relatively hard to pull. There´s really not much we can do for exercise and I want to do more. Also some gel soles for my  heels specifically would be awesome. 

Glad everyone is having fun. Saw all the pictures you sent me. Can´t wait to hear about the Peruvian restaurant. I think the food in America is more foreign to me than the food in Peru, so also I can´t wait to try some American food.

Not much happened with me this week. The days are really flying by though it´s pretty crazy. I´m a lot more used to my companion now, and we get along really well. Oh the other day we were teaching with a member and it was like 830 and we were in a convi driving back to our house and he didn´t need to be with us any more. So I was thinking and then it popped into my head I should probably tell him he´s ,free to go, before we pass his house and he has to walk extra far. So i yell across the convi "Roy! Está libre". Which means you´re free to go. So like right after I said this every person in the convi all in one motion turned their heads at me and looked at me like "what in the world". Roy (the member) is also looking at me like what? And I turn to my companion and he´s laughing sooo hard. So I just sit there for the rest of the ride thinking to my self "what in the world did I say". So after we get off i ask my companion what I said and apparently It´s like a phrase you use if you´re like a cop and releasing someone from prison or if you´re holding someone hostage. So I guess everyone in the convi thought I was holding him hostage or something. Also he paid for our convi fare so that didn´t help my cause either.

What else... Oh well I don´t know if I wrote this yet but English is soooo hard for Peruvians to speak. For example they can´t tell the difference in work and word. But every single non English speaking person in the mission is learning English. It´s hilarious because everyone is trying to learn it but they say the words soo funny. I have so many funny stories with them trying to speak English  So be glad that you all speak English already because it is sooooo hard for them to even say the word "work" correctly. I'm sure they think the same about me.

We´ve also been teaching this 13 year old kid lately. He´s awesome to the max. We gave him a book of mormon and taught a very little lesson about baptism to him. And the other day we were talking with his neighbor and apparently he´s like telling his parents he´s going to get baptized. He´s so awesome. Also we stopped by his house to see if he read and he read like 3 chapters more than what we left him and he´s been drawing like crazy good pictures of Jesus in his spare time when he´s bored. Yeah he´s a champ it´s awesome. Also we´re teaching his friend and now his friend is also starting to keep his commitments. Both have been committed to baptism and it´s all because he started reading the Book of Mormon.

So yeah I can´t wait to read everyone's letters. Sorry I don´t have much to write about today. I just didn´t have much time and not much really happened this week other than our awesome investigator Jose Gabriel. Well thanks soooo much for all the letters and emails and pictures and support. Oh also I couldn´t send any pictures this week my computer wouldn´t let me but it´s ok because I didn´t have any new ones anyways. Oh also could I get put on Oliver´s email list if possible. I really want to see how he´s doing. Well I gotta go. Love you guys sooo much. Hope everyone is doing great. Keep me updated with everything back there I love to hear how everyones doing. Well gotta go later!

James 2:14-17

Love Elder Russon

President and Sister Fernandez

Letter 2/4/2013

Hmmmm what to write about this week. Oh yeah. YOU CAN´T JUST TELL ME ABOUT THE SUPERBOWL PARTY AND NOT TELL ME WHO WINS!!! (This is a response to Nancy's email where she only told him about the party and nothing about the game.)  Ok soooooo First off so I don´t forget again. The food in Peru... The food is interesting. I pretty much eat everything I´m given. Usually when I get spaghetti though I ask my companion to eat some of it. Don´t know why but I do NOT like it at all. And it has Davey´s green sauce on it too, just can´t do it. Don´t know why. So my taste buds. Haven´t changed all that much. If anything they are just more dull. I don´t really like any of the new foods. I LOVE fruit though. Like crazy. We get fruit every lunch and it´s DELICIOUS, especially bananas. I do actually like fried rice a lot more and scrambled eggs. I have nothing against chicken. It doesn´t taste bad at all. Just harder to eat with all the stinking bones. My favorite food (besides Paneton, my addiction from Peru basically a fruit  cake) is still rice. I get rice with 99% of my meals. This is not a lie or over exaggeration  Rice with every meal. Every breakfast I get 3 rolls with some warm juice or sometimes oatmeal in a glass. Then I get a feast for lunch. Then for dinner I get a smallish meal. Every since I got here the meals have been getting smaller and smaller. OH I REMEMBER. I do like a new food. PIZZA. So my first day in Arequipa I ate Pizza with the President. I ate like 30 slices. I hadn´t eaten in like 24 hours but it was delicious. Especially with some peppers on top. Ohhhh man it was good. To bad there isn´t a Pizza shop within like 2 hours of me...

Ok so my new companion. Well first off. My first companion was Elder Salvador. I loved him he was the best. We had so much fun together. I was sooo sad he left. He was too, but he´s doing work as a Zone Leader right now. My new companion is Elder Lozano. He is giant. Well in the eyes of a Peruvian he is. He´s like an inch taller than me, but he´s pretty big, not fat. We get along pretty well. Our companionship isn´t perfect, but hopefully we´ll warm up to each other soon. I´m definitely learning things that I didn´t learn with my other companion. He´s from Peru also. Oh funny fact about all male Peruvians that I´ve encountered. They love to use perfume. They´re obsessed with it. It´s hilarious. So these pictures are from our baptism this week. His name is Jorge Louis Terrones Sanchez. I don´t know how but he had been attending church for 10 years and never was baptized. Then he attended a baptism last week and starting reading the BoM and after that he told us He wanted to get baptized and he knew the BoM was true. He´s awesome. He drives taxis. His taxi is called the ElderMobile because after our lessons he always drives us around town to wherever we need to go.

I´m super glad everyone is doing good. Can´t believe Mikey is almost 15 and Sam is almost 13. I´m extra happy about Davey also. I know that my prayers were answered. I´ve been praying for Davey so that he could be more prepared for his mission, and the fact that he went on splits this last week and liked it is a testament to this. Because I know for a fact that the Davey I knew NEVER would go on splits. So I´m very happy that Davey is starting to become more prepared for his mission.

So yeah what else. Um well tell me the stinking score of the Super Bowl.

Love Elder Russon