"Today was a Miracle!"

I am doing amazing! And Yes I did get the Package! It was so
awesome!!!! Thank you so much! I am not even done with the first box
so those can wait, thanks though! Whitney looks amazing with her new
hair cut and Bridger is getting TALL!!!! sounds like Megan is showing
off her awesomeness and also Alicia! She has an awesome smile! You
Look amazing as usual and Dad, well he has always been cool! Haha
Sounds like you guys are staying super busy! I am excited to see y'all
faces on the 11th! I Love you Lots and here is my week!

So I am going to switch up this letter, I am not going to do my
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday thing this time because I want to share an
amazing experience with you guys! So this week we have seen many
miracles and one of them is that we just got 4 new investigators this
week and we had stake conference with Elder Balobela from the Seventy
there! And now I will share this cool experience with you guys! Oh and
Deonn is still on Date for the 3rd of May!

I will just type it how I wrote it in my journal!

    " Today was a Miracle! First we had stake conference and Melanie
(I), Deonn, and Mike Galager were there! Then we went to our
appointment at 2 pm and it is a potential investigator and her
birthday was yesterday and she turned 23, but they celebrated it today
(Sunday)! And we were there and there was a party going on and her
friends and pretty much her second family was there. so we started
teaching the Restoration and 30 other people were sitting in it! We
taught most of it and then dinner was ready so we were eating and it
has been 2 hours and Elder Bowen told me that we should schedule a
different time to come back and I told him that I feel prompted that
we need to stay and finish teaching the lesson! So after we ate we all
went back to the living room and we continued the lesson! The spirit
was so strong! Everybody could feel it, I mean the force of that
spirit pushed Satan back like 200 miles! It was getting to the end of
the lesson and the thought crossed my mind. " Should we invite her to
be baptized?" And I kept on telling myself "No, I don't think she is
ready" But then I pretty much got a huge punch to the face by the Holy
Ghost, and telling me to invite her now because she is ready! I opened
my mouth and I began to testify, and I cannot even remember the words
that came out of my mouth except this part! " Janessa will you follow
the example of Jesus Christ, and be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood authority of God?" After I asked that question she
immediately answered or screamed "YES", "we will be holding a
baptismal service on May 17th will you prepare yourself to be baptized
on that day?" again she immediately responded "YES", I then testified
that while she is going down this path that she is taking that Satan
is going to work hard on you and that when he does attack because he
will, kneel down and ask God for help! Then I told her that story of
Peter walking out to Jesus on the water and he started to fall and
Peter pretty much well saying help and Jesus Immediately stretched
forth his hand and lifted him up" I told her that that will happen to
her if she asks for help from God!

I love you guys so much!

Elder Chad Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Memory Lake and Susitna YSA Wards
Wasilla Zone

I cannot explain the feelings that I had this Easter Sunday!

My Easter was pretty amazing! Nothing really big happened it was just
the spirit that I felt so Strongly! Wasilla is awesome! It got up to
61 degrees!!!!! TOOO HOOOTTTT!!!!! Here is my week, not to much
happened.

Monday- So for P-Day we went on a hike to the Beutt!! You can see all
of Wasilla! Had dinner with the Winn family! The Mom and Dad both
served in the Army and that is where they met! He was in some serious
stuff!

Tuesday- We were not feeling so good that day but we still went out
because we had a lot to do! We took one of the Priests with us and we
saw a lot of single ladies! Super awesome! The priest showed us some
houses to go knock on! Haha he is way awesome!

Wednesday- Nothing really happened this day, just pretty much knocked
on some doors!

Thursday- So on this day we met with our Progressing Investigator Deon
in the YSA and he is solid! He is being Baptized on May 3rd! But when
we went over, there was this one lady that we asked to sit in the
lesson with us and we taught the Restoration! She wants to meet again
on Tuesday of next week!

Friday- We had Zone meeting which was entertaining I guess! haha then
weekly planning! That took up about 5 to 6 hours of our day! Then we
went over to meet with our investigator and he said that he moved to
his moms house and he told us that they are soooo Anti Mormon and so
we asked for the Address and he hesitantly gave it to us and we went
over! The family was shocked! They let us in and we clicked instantly!
We had an awesome lesson with those guys! They want us to stop by
again sometime next week!

Saturday- So we borrowed the Zone Leaders truck and Drove all the way
up to Talkeetna which is a 2 hour drive and we went and had a lesson
with this Less Active guy and we started talking about the Atonement
and then we felt prompted to talk about the temple and he wants to
become an elder and to go through the temple! So we invited him to
call his bishop and make a 2 hour drive to talk to him about some
things that he needs help with! We promised him that he would not
Regret it! I found out that my companion from last transfer just hit a dog
with our car!  We helped move some (again)  Really anti Mormon
people and we clicked with them and we are having dinner with them
tomorrow!

Sunday- He is Risen and He lives!!! 7 1/2 hours of church was amazing!
I cannot explain the feelings that I had this Easter Sunday! The
Spirit was so strong!

This week was a pretty good week!

I love you guys!

Elder Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Memory Lake and Susitna YSA wards

Pictures From Wasilla!!!

This is Talkeetna

Hello Moose!!!

This view is from our hike in Wasilla

Elder Bowen and Elder Russell on a wonderful hike in Wasilla Alaska

Moose, Moose, Moose!!!

Hello Sun!!!!

The Elders right after zone conference in Wasilla Alaska April 18, 2014. Happy Easter!

Elder Chad Russell's 19th Birthday!!!

Elder Chad Russell helping at the Iditarod in Alaska!!!



Elder Chad Russell and a fun group of Elders!!!

We sat in the Celestial room until close, we didn't want to leave!

I have been awesome! Just been super exhausted but its all good! I
have only been getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep every night! The days are
getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. It does not get
dark until 10 and it becomes light at  5:30 in the morning.
 I just lay there and think of all the people in my
life and on the mission like who we are teaching and what to teach
them and what questions I can ask them. Just a million things running
through my head at 100 miles per hour. But I somehow have the strength
to continue with the Lords work! So here is how my week went!

Monday- So of course it was P-day! And My companion and Elder Cooper
smashed into each other during basketball and Elder Bowen is like the
same size as Gavin, maybe even a little smaller and Elder Cooper is
like my size and he got a knee to his shin and he now has a tumor in
his leg! Exactly what I had like 5 or 6 years ago! Later that night
Elder Cooper calls me and Elder Bowen at 9:30 and he asks if we can
give him a blessing because he is in serious pain and he told us that
he might have to have surgery on it the next day! So He lives clear
out there at the base of Pioneer Peak and so it is an hour drive from
where we live and it is 9:30 at night, so we called our Zone leader and
our district leader and asked if we could go give him a blessing this
late, and they said no because of how far he was but they called Elder
Cooper and Elder Cooper said that he will let nobody else give it
unless it was me and my companion. So the Zone Leaders call back and
said to head out there and give Elder Cooper a blessing so we did and
it was a 2 1/2 hour round trip so we did not get back until midnight!
But the good thing is is that he does not have to get surgery!

Tuesday- So we had District meeting and then we drove out to Willow to
meet with this YSA guy and it was a 2 hour round trip! And Guess what
he was not there! He told us that he would be there but was not! Ugh!
Haha

Wednesday- Guess what? we made it to the Temple! The day it re opened!
Oh yeah! Me and Elder Bowen sat in that Celestial room until the
temple closed, and i am not kidding we did not want to leave!

Thursday- Helped out at the food bank at the Lords Shepherds church
and we loaded 5,000 pounds of food into the truck! that was a work
out!

Friday- So we found out that Stake conference was on the exact day
that Deon was supposed to be baptized which was the 26th so we met with
him and it is now May 3rd! He is so ripped! Haha! Had
interviews with President!

Saturday- We went to Bobby D Smiths house and he is blind and partially
deaf! So we pulled up and we see him with a chop saw cutting wood for
a project that he hopes to sell to make money! That crazy guy cant see
anything!

Sunday- We had our 7 1/2 hours of church and Elder Bowen was so dead
tired, I am used to it so it doesn't really bother me! haha! We got 2
new Investigators today! And they are wanting to get baptized!

There is my fantastic week! I love you Guys!

Elder Chad Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Memory Lake and Susitna YSA ward

General Conference! It's like super bowl sunday for missionaries!

 Monday- I Got my New Companion Elder Bowen! He just came out of Rangle
and He is from Draper Utah and we are both 19 and we were in the same
MTC group Together and He played LACROSSE for Alta High School ( Ugh I
miss Lacrosse)! At YSA FHE we sat down with these two sisters that are
the Relief Society leaders and we went through the Whole YSA Roster!
CRAZY! That took lie 2 and a half hours!

Tuesday- We had transfer meeting so we traveled down to Anchorage for
that! And I took Elder Bowen around to pretty much all of the ward
Leaders!

Wednesday-  We helped this homeless guy find a home and I will explain
the story when I get back Home! So make sure you remind me! Hahaha ;)

Thursday- So me and Elder Bowen for this transfer are going through
the Whole YSA List and the Whole Memory Lake list! They need to be
updated and we are also doing it because the missionaries before just
got in a routine of just seeing the same people! So we started on this
day! Busy Busy!

Friday- We met with our YSA Investigator Deon and me and Elder Bowen
have been praying really hard on what to share with him, and this came
into our minds that we need to share the Mormon message that is
titled, " You Know Enough" it is Neil L. Anderson saying that you don't
know everything but you know enough! And when we showed that to Deon
he was like, I totally needed that Message! We invited him to be
baptized on April 26 and he said yes! And what was also cool is that
this Less active member that was there told us after the lesson that
she would like to bring over a friend to take the Lessons with Deon!
So Awesome!

Saturday- General Conference Baby!!! Boy was it amazing! It went by
way to quick but it is a good thing that I took Notes! In between the
Morning and the Afternoon Session we put our service clothes on and we
had the Whole Zone that are close by to come help one of our Less
Active YSA people move! While we were helping her move she starting
crying and Me and Elder Bowen walked up to her and we talked with her
and she said that she is so grateful for all the wonderful help,and
she told us that she has been so stressed out that she has not eaten
for 2 days and so we asked if she would like a blessing! She said yes!

Sunday- General Conference Again!!! Its like super bowl Sunday for
missionaries! I am so grateful to have a Prophet to help lead and
guide us in these later days! I have another story but I will save
that for Later!

I love you Guys!!!!