Letter 4/7/2014

 Drinking water with my new filter-straw

This week has been pretty awesome. Today is actually changes and I´m losing my comp which makes me very very very sad. But my new comp is coming in a few hours his name is Elder Priebe from Idaho. I knew him from when I started the mission. He´s a great guy and we should get along very well. 

Well this week we had the baptism of Eva which i´ll be sending pictures of. Also we had General conference which was SICKKKKKKK. I loved it.

General Conference is soooo cool in the mission. It´s like the best thing ever. Saturday all day long just chilling in a room in the chapel with alike 6 other American Missionaries, a bunch of soda, snacks and goodies plus some awesome talks. It´s sooo much fun. Well anyways I hope you all watched at least one of the sessions.

Well I´m short on time because of changes today but I love you all and thanks for the letters 

Here's lots of pictures of everyone who just left and the baptism. CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

4/4/2014 Earthquake Letter

Hey fam and friends,

Well this is my internet for this week. Sorry I couldn´t write monday. It was a pretty busy day. We were in Arequipa and I didn´t have enough time to write, but I did send a bunch of pictures of the missionaries in Moquegua and of my old pensionista when I was in Arequipa. I visited her on monday and we ate breakfast there with her.

Well I´m sure everyone has heard, but there was an earthquake that hit Chile and Peru pretty hard on Tuesday. Our entire mission got the earthquake too, but luckily it wasn´t nearly as strong when it got to us. I think it was an 8.2 in Chile and a 5.6 by the time it hit us. We´ve also had a few other small ones since then. No missionaries got hurt from it as far as I know, none in our mission at least. We do have 3 zones that are beach zones and all three of them got evacuated from the beaches because of Tsunami warnings. But all that has passed so everything is pretty calm now. But dang reading Moms letter she said there were just a whole bunch of earthquakes in Cali and then the next thing you know there's a few in Peru also.

Me my comp and the 2 sisters in our zone were actually in Arequipa when the Earthquake hit. We had just finished a leadership council and we were eating in the mall before getting on our bus for a 4 hour bus ride Moquegua. It was pretty crazy because we were in the food court of the mall on the second story and there was like 300 people in the food court. Then out of no where some people starting running and then EVERYONE started booking it for the doors. We didn´t I was positive it was going to stop any second so we just waited. But it actually didn´t stop we felt the earthquake for like 40 seconds straight it was sooo weird. But we were inside of one of the strongest buildings in Arequipa so I wasn´t worried. But Peru has had a history of some pretty strong earthquakes that have done LOTS of damage so everyone in the food court went pretty crazy for a few minutes.

So the New York trip is tomorrow and Mikey is also on his Puerto Rico trip right now? Lucky ducks. Hey we´re going to have Peru trip when I get back right?!?!?!?!??! PLEASE!!!!! I wanna show you guys Peru and all the people I´ve met here and what it´s been like on the mission here.

Well sounds like Mom is having a blast on her new job and that Search and Rescue has kept Dad pretty busy too. With all this things happening around the world with earthquakes and all the rumors of war and stuff I hear (that might just be the peruvian newspapers that make me think there are sooo many rumors of war) makes me think of all the scriptures that talk about these things. Well it sounds like everyone is doing great having fun.

Well changes are this sunday. I´m probably going to lose my comp Elder Astle from Logan Utah. I´m super sad. I fricking love him sooo much. I´m worried my next comp wont be quite as cool as him. Hopefully my next comp is awesome too though. Oh also tomorrow and Sunday are GEN CONF I CAN¨T WAIT. Hey you guys better watch them!!

Well I love you all a ton. Oh and a HAPPY HAPPY BDAY TO MOM!!!!  Oh and Rene is getting baptized the 15th but we have another baptism tomorrow at 5 her name is Eva. Pray for her and Rene. Well love you all thanks a ton for the letters and for worryying about me. Gotta go CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

4/1/2014 Letter

***Ryan's emails have become short and not a lot (none) content but he keeps sending pictures ***

We did get a text message from him Tuesday night after the earthquake to let us know he was fine.

Letter 2/18/2014

HEY FAM!!!

Well this week was pretty dang cool. Did lots of fun stuff and had lots of success. So I sent a BUNCH of pictures.

So the pictures. Last PDay we went to the highest hill in Moquegua where there is a giant statue of Christ. We took some pictures of it and also some pictures on a bridge connecting two mountains in Moquegua and a super cool park on top of the mountain.

Also we did a service project for the family of the boy I baptized the other week. Super awesome family. We shoveled a BUNCE of dirt out of the house. It was a ton of fun. The kids are absolutely insane but a ton of fun to mess around with. They loved my camera so they took tons of pictures of a whole bunch of random things hahaha. Then walking back home we found some interesting houses in the street. A house with a door half underneath the earth then another with a second story outside door to the street with absolutely nothing underneath it, just a drop of like 10 feet. Then with our pensionista and a bunch of members from our ward we did a gift exchange and ate dinner at a nice pizza shop here. It was awesome. I love pizza. I got a sweet new tie. Yep and that´s it for the pictures.

We have a family of 3 that we are teaching that are getting baptized this Saturday and also we have a bunch of people that might get baptized with them. We´re super pumped. Oh and yesterday we had 142 at church. It was AWESOME! and we brought 7 investigators which was also super cool.

Oh the entire mission has cell phones now, FINALLY. I swear every mission in Peru had cell phones except us. Now our entire mission does which is awesome. Well that´all I got for this week. Pray for the Lily Aracely and Anthony that are going to be getting baptized this Saturday. They need it! 

Well yeah i love you all. Gotta go CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon 

Letter 2/24/2014

Heyoooo

So I sent a bunch of pictures.... 

SO last week. We got permission to watch a Pixar Movie so we watched Despicable Me 2 as a zone at a members house. It was fun. Awesome movie. Dang I miss movies. 

Then I sent a bunch of pictures of the baptism of Lili (mom) Aracely (daughter) and Antony (son). They rock. 

Yeah and then this week was changes. So we sent one missionary home Elder Cristalinaz from Mexico. And sent 3 others to other zones in the mission. Changes always suck. Makes me sad to say goodbye to everyone. But luckily me and my comp didn´t have changes which is sweeet WOOOHOOO.

Well other than watching despicable me 2 and the baptisms of the family and the changes the only other thing we had was a barbecue. Which was cool. I forgot my camera so I don´t have any pictures of the barbecue but my goodness was it a sight to see. A nice simple grill with coals and some chicken grilling on top and then our pensionista standing there with a hairdryer in her hands pointed at the grill HAHAHHAAA Oh man I almost died of laughter. It was a ton of fun though. Well other than that not much has happened this week.

Well sorry that this week the letter isn´t super jam packed with stuff. But thanks a ton for all the letters they rock and mean a lot to me. Well I gotta go love you all CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon

Letter 2/10/2014

Hey Everyone!

Well this week has been pretty normal but cool. So for Pday last week we went to the nearest zone to us like 2 hours from here and had a Pday with them. They are a beach city called Ilo and it was a ton a fun. We rented a van and drove over there and played soccer in a super cool stadium with turf for a few hours. We then chilled on the beach before we came back home. We obviously didn´t go in the water incase anyone was wondering. The first beach I´ve seen since I was in California though. 

Also this week me and my comp got invited to speak at a Catholic Funeral. It was very very interesting. The funeral was completely full and everyone just sitting there waiting when we got there. We had no idea it was a Catholic funeral until we walked up to the door and decided not to go in yet. Luckily while contemplating if we were in the right place the sister missionaries walked right infront of us so we called them over and asked them. They then informed us that all Funerals here are catholic and that we were in the right place. Luckily they are both Peruvian and knew what they were talking about while me and my comp are just two gringos. So we got in there and talked with the family for a few seconds and then my comp and I stood up in front of everyone and talked about God´s plan for us. We only talked for about 15 minutes but it was still a super cool experience. More than anything just asked us to speak some words of confort for everyone. It wasn´t a giant funeral of like 200 people but there was a good chunk there.

Then I got to baptize a boy named Luis the other day. He is super cool. The sisters have been teaching them and I got to do his interview so he asked me to baptize him. An awesome little kid, so pure.

Other than that not much happened this week. It was a good week though. Had lots of fun and it went by SO FAST. It´s ridiculous how fast everything goes by sometimes. I´ve been in Moquegua for almost a month now and i feel like I just got here the other day. Well I gotta go Love all of you and thanks for the letters. Gotta go CHOU CHOU

Love Elder Russon