Goodbye Pohnpei, Hello Guam....

Sunday morning around 8:30 a.m. I received a heart wrenching phone call from my Zone Leaders informing me that I would need to pack everything, say my goodbyes to my sweet Pohnpeian family, and be to the airport at 11:00 p.m. for my flight that would be departing at 2:00 a.m. for Guam.  

I'm not sure I've lived a day as difficult as the one I lived yesterday. My heart clenched and a whole lot of tears were shed. However, as the plane took flight and I said one last goodbye to the island that changed me my feelings of frustration and anger turned to feelings of overwhelming gratitude to an all-knowing and all-loving Father in Heaven who gave me those 16 incredible months with strangers who became  family in the Sapwalap ward. They taught me how to love unconditionally and how to walk by faith. They taught me where true joy comes from and how to wash my clothes in a river with just a wooden paddle and a rock! I love them. They are humble. they give unselfishly. they are patient and kind and I LOVE them. I know how to give my will and heart to the Lord because I've watched it be done. These sweet Saints mean everything to me. But how blessed I am with this change! a new opportunity to learn and love and serve the people of Guam. 

How incredibly BLESSED am I to have something that was so hard to say goodbye to?

love, Sister Russell

A funeral and a baptism......

okayyyyy here's a good story from this week. So on Thursday we went to our very first Pohnpeian Funeral. I was straight up dying. We had heard that a member had died and they told us where he lived so we just tagged along! I've been in this ward for almost 17 months and had NO idea who this guy was. So we low key find out that this was a man who was a member foreverrrr ago who fell away from the Church and built his own church that uses everything that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints uses. I'm not kidding. The Book of Mormon, Sacrament prayers, everything! he just for some reason believed that he was a prophet annnnnd he was not the biggest fan of us missionaries! Soooo what did we do? we decided to go and support him! Funerals are so different here! They last like 10 days (no idea why) & they leave the body in the house for the first day and if you go into the room with the body you HAVE to cry. So Sister Bowers and I see Suleen and she asks if we wanna go see the body and DUH we did. sooooow e're walking into the house and I see this huge pig chopped open, guts flying and I straight up thought I was going to pass out. We get into the room and they told us to kneel and put our heads down and when I saw the body ohhhh geez it was a good thing I was't standing or I would have gone down! So I started pinching Su's leg so she would get that I was done. hahahah took her a second but she got it and we were out. hahahaha I love Pohnpei. 

Saturday KATHRENE got baptized! best day of my mission for sure. Before her baptism me and her were sitting on the steps and I asked her why she wanted to be baptized and she looked at me and said "Because this Gospel brought back my happiness and my hope." As I walked with her from the chapel to the font she was squeezing my hand so tight I thought it was going to fall off! Seeing her enter the waters of baptism was one of the sweetest experiences I have had here on the island of Pohnpei. I'm sure I told her in the pre-earth life that I would come find her and I'm sure grateful that we did! love her soooooo much.

it was a GOOD week. 

love. Sister Russell

Ripped Pants...

hey hey heyyyyy! holy crap time could slow down. I have ZERO idea where the time is going. 

-Wednesday we were able to teach Kathrene about the Tree of life and it was super cool! It was weird teaching it. It was actually my first time teaching it because it isn't translated into the Pohnpiean Book of Mormon so it was a neat experience to be able to teach it! We kinda got stuck at some parts but heyyyy the spirit made up for it!

-Saturday Suleen came with us and she was straight up doing our job! We pulled into our house and our land lord was there and she just walked up to them and started teaching the gospel and then as they were leaving she gave them a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet HAHAHAHAH gosh I love her...I felt really bad...need to step up my game!

-Soooooo we were eating dinner with our ward mission leader his wife asked him to get us a bowl so that we could wash our hands and he stand up and faces away from us and as soon as he does the elders start laughing and I couldn't figure out why! So then we look up at Brother Albert (ward mission leader) and his pants were ripped, not just a little rip but from the belt down to the seam! Hahah oh man it was so funny! We all just died laughing! I haven't laughed that hard in my entire life. bless up that he's endowed and had garments on. YIKES that would have been awful. hahhahahah I'm still laughing. 

-We were able to teach Kathrene about the Sabbath day and symbolism of the Sacrament! As we taught her about the sacrament and she already had such a deep understanding of the importance and the sacredness of it. She didn't take it the week before but she took it this week and she explained to us that she knew she wasn't clean because she still was having word of wisdom problems so she didn't want to take it, but she took it this week because this was the week she was clean totally from chewing beetlenut! Bless her heart. She then explained how much sweeter church was when she was able to partake of the Sacrament. I love her so much.

I love my Pohnpeians so much. These big dorks have my whole heart! I'm the luckiest missionary ever.

LOVE. Sister Russell

Vince

So here's a few of our little miracles from this week!

A few days ago Sister Bowers and I decided that we needed a little bit more of heaven's help! So wee chose to fast for those things which we needed & along with that we decided to fast for a miracle and boy did we get one! We closed our fast and went to the church to pick up our member present & when we pulled up Pohlo came running to us telling us that her nephew was staying with her and how last week he came to church & explained to her that he had felt something different at this church than he had felt at other churches. Soooo we taught him & in the first lesson he explained to us his desires to join the church! He's now on baptismal date for the 28th. God is good. 

Next miracle. Kathrene! Gosh I love her.

I'm pretty sure at least half of the Sapwalap Ward was fasting & praying for that cute girl & we saw another miracle because EVERYTHING is now fine! The Lord is not going to let anyone stop His work not even Kat's mom! We're praying that everything will work out with her baptism on the 28th.

Soooo what else happened this week?

- Me and Sister Bowers had a total freak out this week when we ran into Suleen in town. Sister Bowers was yelling and I was honking but the windows were down and we both just looked like total idiots and everyone was just staring at these two white girls having freak outs in the car. It's the little things on a mission. We probably laughed for 3 hours after that. yikes. 

- We walked around in the rain ALL DAY on Friday and President Zarbock said there were blessings that come from walking around in the rain but we didn't real see those because no would let us in their house because we were too wet. Thanks President. We tried.

- OHHHH so these men from the Church are making a "Light the World" video on Pohnpei and they came and filmed our English class last night so HECK YA. Go look on FB (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Micronesia) to see a little bit of that! 

love. Sister Russell

Katherene

I don't talk about this girl enough. Kathrene Usar. Our 18 year old investigator who I love with my whole heart.  

It was like Heavenly Father was saying "Hey you two, thanks for working hard! Here's a perfectly prepared person. Please help her!" 

In our very first lesson with her she just broke down in tears. & though we had only known her for about 15 minutes she explained to us many of the trials and tribulations that she had been experiencing over the past year. Nothing about this girls life has been easy. & because of this her heart has been humbled and prepared to have the joys of the Gospel in her life! Every time we meet her she just cries and tells us how grateful she is for the peace that comes into her life when we see her. and EVERY time she prays, she prays that she will be able to receive the Holy Ghost so that she can have this peace in her life all the time. I LOVE HER. oh my goodness. and not only that but she has the cutest little daughter and last night we taught her about how she would be able to be with her for Eternity. HOW sweet is that? Kathrene has strengthened my testimony so much that this truly is the Gospel of HAPPINESS and this is the only way that we can have peace in this life and in the next. Bless up.

So here's a good story. So the other night Nohno Elies gave me and Sister Bowers this chicken that was AWFUL. I mean I love Pohnpeian food but this was something else. & on top of that is was HOT. and neither of us could get this chicken down so both of us just held it in our hand behind our backs for like 10 minutes hahahah. my hand was about to burn off and also was COVERED in this nasty sauce. ahhhh it was so awful but so funny because then we had to leave and hug everyone so then we covered each others backs while the other one hugged everyone AHHAHAHA only on a mission. 

I LOVE Pohnpei and I love this Gospel with my whole heart. I PROMISE this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the only way to have JOY in this life and in the next. 

LOVE. Sister Russell

& A Scabies Treatment...

THIS WEEK: 

- We were in a trio the whole week with Sister Taunauta because her companion had some weird disease and got sent to Guam!

- soooo along with that all the sisters on the island had to do a scabies treatment hahah.

- We had a fireside last night on service and the new elder in the ward, Elder Laughter, gave his talk in English and then at the end decided to say "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" in Pohnpeian BUT he totally forgot to say Jesus Christ so he sits down and realized what he had done so he runs back up there and just says "Jesus Christ" in the mic and then runs and sits back down HAHAHAHAH I died. 

- My girl Kathrene (favorite investigator of all time) chose a baptismal date.

- Remember my stolen shoes? yaaa saw that Pohlo wasn't home and totally got those back. BDE.

- Had the funnest family home evening everrrr with my family, the Ludricks!

- Nohno Paulis left for America and OH GEEZ was that sad. 

- TEAM WEITAHTA is still going STRONG. We play in the finals on FRIDAY SO HECK YA. 

this week was just a normal pohnpeian week. dang I love these dorks.

LOVE. Sister Russell

My Week...

MY WEEK.

1. Big news. As of today I've been in Mesihsou for ONE year. been in the Sapwalap ward for even longer. bless up.

2. Volleyball update: Team Weitahta (red) came out on top. BUT there were a few ladies who left that chapel in tears and some harsh words said hahahhah. dang Pohnpeians.

3. President Poston asked Sister Bowers and I to go see the Kitti branch yesterday. Long story short. Sisters haven't been there in a LONG time and those members LOVED us. down side: had to give a talk on the spot. nailed it.

4. So there's this Pohnpeian legend that if you see a sting ray in the ocean and you talk to it that it will come and listen. SO TRUE. I saw a sting ray the other day & Suleen told me if I talked to it that it swim right to me. & it TOTALLY worked. then Sister Taunaunta threw a rock at it and it swam away hahhah.

5. Watched how Pohnpeians kill pigs. never wanna see that again.

6. Did "service" with Nohno Rohro washing her clothes in the river. Funnest service hours of my life.

7. My member presents thought it would be a cute idea to match their outfits, BRIGHT red skirts and blue shirts with a BIG butterfly on it. They are both in their 50's hahahah.

8. Was DANG sick (I don't know why sicknesses are 10x worse on Pohnpei) for about 10 day. Drank some "local medicine" and got a Priesthood blessing, the next day I was dancing around. BLESS.

9. Got this local drink at a store in town that looked like a coconut something. Oh gosh no. It ended up having like corn and beans and whatever in it. BLEH. not the best thing I've had on Pohnpei.

10. Spent the WHOLE day with my favorite person ever, SULEEN, yesterday. It was the best day ever. I'm not quite sure how but somehow I'm gonna have to figure out how to get her in my suitcase :)))

good week. LOVE. Sister Russell