Spanked by the Ocean

Kasalehhhlie everyyyone!

This week was a GOOD one! (I swear I say that every week but really this one was!)

The language is finally starting to not be a burden, me and my companion are becoming bessstt friends, my investigators are progressing, and life is just good! 

So you guys wanna hear the cutest story ever? Sooo on Thursday night Sister Pokipala and I were SUPER late to get out proselyting because Zone Meeting went late! So it was about 7 o'clock and we had a whole lot of people to see! So we just kinda made the decision to go see our investigator who lives wayyyy in the middle of the jungle. So as we are walking to go see Leoline I get this overwhelming feeling to turn around! So I look back at Sister Pokipala and ask her how she feels and she explains to me that she feels we need to go back to the main road! So (obviously) we pray and both have overwhelming feelings that we need to go see a new family that we've been teaching, the Albert Family! So we went there and we decided to teach simply about Jesus Christ. It was BY far the sweetest and most powerful lesson I've been in since being on Pohnpei. The spirit was so strong and I was so grateful to see the blessings from following the spirit. The whole family is now on baptismal date for the middle of March :) Heavenly Father is so dang aware of his children it's insane. 

Another coooool thing I got to do this week was go out to an outer island of Pohnpei called Parem!! like 10 of us missionaries all loaded up on this tinnnyyy boat and drove out to the island (it was so dangerous holy crap) and it was SO fun! We were all soaked by the time we got to the island! The island of Parem was opened up to a set of elders last transfer and it was so so crazy to see how the Gospel truly is spreading to everyone! OHHHH and on this island I got to hold an octopus!! so hahahah perks of living on a crazy island! and also driving on a little boat with in the middle of the ocean at sun set is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done! 

Ohhh and if you are wondering where the title of the email came from, that's Elder Glauser for ya! hahahah. But really. I'm SO dang grateful for the blessing it is to be the Lord's servant on this island. There are some realllyyyy hard days and some realllyyyy good days! But the good days always outweigh the tough ones! always! 

Udahn Kalanghan Kumail!!

LOVE. Sister Russell

Bucket Showers Brings Blessings...

 

Okayyy you're probably wondering what the heck I mean by bucket showers bring blessings! But really it's nothing! I was in Guam this weekend for MLC (a really loooong 9 hour meeting) and I was eating dinner with the other STL's and ZL's and president and sister Zarbock and all the sisters kept saying how they were taking hot showers! Sooo of course I'm laughing because not only am I taking cold showers but they are with a pump and a bucket! (President Zarbock wasn't real impressed that sisters were bucket showering) BUT something I thought a lot about after that conversation was truly how BLESSED I am to be in a mission where I get to experience these type of things. When else in my life will I be eating rice on the floor with my hands, or be trudging through the jungle just to find that one prepared investigator! I'm SO grateful to serve in Micronesia! 

Soooooo me and Sister Pokipala saw loooots of blessings this week! And one of them had to do with our cute investigator, Marlinda! So Mar is having a HARD time getting permission to get baptised and come to church. So me and Sister Pokipala thought and thought of ways to help her! So one thing we thought about was to ask her family to help us! So we went there one day and asked if there was any way we could buy some bananas from them. They were so grateful that we asked and immediately went to go get some. We bought the bananas and sat and talked with them for a little while annnnnnd we walked out of their house with permission to come to church! wahooo! We haven't gotten permission to be baptised yet but just you wait!

But this weekend was the beeessttt because I got to see Sister Zarbock wahoooo! Oh my goodness it's like seeing my mom. She's so cute because she always talks about how as missionaries we are blessed with this love for people like never before! Which is so so true. I could walk into a first lesson with someone and instantly love them. I think that's a special gift given to missionaries to be able to feel just a little bit of how Heavenly Father feels about His children! Being a missionary is the BEST. 

Sorry this is so short! We just got back from Guam and I'm rushing!! I sure hope you are all doing goooood! And thank you so so much for the support from home! LOVE you all SO so much!

limpppoooak, Sister Russell