I studied patience this week.

My week was alright, My head hurts because this ward is sooo behind on
things and we have been trying to get them caught up for 2 transfers
now and no body wants to help out, its just me and Elder Bratt and the
Lord. I studied patience this week, because Daulton and Jaxon passed
away and because the ward still wont do anything. So what have me and
Elder Bratt been doing? We have been meeting with sooooo many active
members!!! but it sounds like you had an awesome week! Good luck at
Laurels conference! Tell Grandpa that I said hi and that I love him!
This Saturday is Transfer calls! Should be interesting! I love you
sooo much! Oh and I just barely gave Elder Bratt a high five!

So this week Me and Elder Bratt went on Exchanges a lot this week with
the district and the Zone Leaders. There was this one ladies house
that we went to and I walked into her home and guess what she had? she
had 6 boxer puppies, 4 geckos, 5 Thorned lizards, 1 leg less lizard
that looks like a snake but its a lizard, 3 anacondas, 1 Parrot, and 1
predator frog, and she just barely got rid of her 7 1/2 foot
Crocodile. Oh and it felt like 100 degrees in her house and I fed
every single one of those things! And Then Saturday we went and helped
this artist guy set up a 30 foot space needle like the one in Seattle
made out of cardboard! Well that was my crazy week! Transfer calls
come Saturday! Love you guys!

Elder Chad Russell
Anchorage Alaska Mission
O'Malley Ward

It's 80 in ALASKA!!! HOT!!!

Hi I'm KEN the (Barbie doll) I mean Elder Bratt! Ok which one is it? Isn't it beautiful in Alaska!!!

WOW!!!!! that's weird! Ken REALLY!!!! (real funny mom!)

MOOSE!!!!!

The same MOOSE!!!!! AWESOME!

It's 80 in ALASKA!!! HOT!!! July 2014

It's kind of intimidating when a moose walks into your path!

Well this week we just went tracting, and tracting and more tracting!
Its kind of intimidating when a moose walks into your path while you
are knocking on doors or when you go to go knock on a door there is a
moose standing on the porch! I wish I had my camera! haha but a really
cool thing happened, we thought to our self how we can be more
effective tracting, and we thought and was like anybody can go door to
door as a missionary, so we said to ourselves that we are going to
walk down the mountain and walk past houses and listen to the
promptings of the spirit. So we walked down the whole street and back
and all of a sudden the spirit told us to go knock on that door to
your right, so what did we do, we did exactly that and when the guy
answered his door we had a good conversation with him and that he is a
fighter pilot and he said that we could not of come at a more perfect
time because it is really rare to catch me at home because I am a
fighter pilot! We gave him a restoration pamphlet and he said that he
will give us a call and told us to stop by whenever and see when I am
home!

sorry this is a short email this week! Elder Bratt has been sick but
is now feeling better!

I love You guys!

Elder C. Russell
Anchorage Alaska Mission
O'Malley Ward!

BEAR!!!!!!!!!

I saw a BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bear in Alaska no way! Ha Ha

I cant believe it's been a year....

 I cant believe it has been a year.... its
going by way to fast. I kind of want it to slow down, but you guys
want it to speed up haha but I will be honest! I love serving God and
 he's always watching over me and protecting his missionaries and going
out and serving his children 24/7! I am scared for the time when I get
on that plane to go home, I thought going out on a mission was
terrifying. Home is what I am scared about. Its not you guys, its the
world and it is so much harder to live and to serve others when you
are back at home. I don't know how it will be but that is what I have
heard as I have talked to Return missionaries. They plead for us to
take them out with us and they plead for blessings and ask for our
prayers. That's what I am so grateful for as a missionary is that I
get the prayers of my family and friends and most importantly every
temple session! I feel the power that comes from it! So thank you for
praying for me it has helped me get through those hard times that we
all go through! Please let me know how I can serve you! I feel like I
can do more, not only here but back at home! I pray that when the time
comes that I will be ready with full body armor of God with the sword
of faith and prepared for that day when I get off that plane heading
home! Thank you for all that you do mom, I wish I could just give you
one big hug right now! Because you have been such a great example and
motivation for me to work harder! I see what hard things that you are
going through and so does dad and Heavenly Father! He will be at our
side forever and ever! Do what is right and let the consequence
follow, we are battling for freedom! keep up the good fight mom you
are doing awesome! Let your light shine forth to all the people that
surround you! Keep Heavenly Father in your Thoughts because thoughts
lead to action! Think of God in EVERYTHING that you do! I love you
mom! Here is my week!

Monday- was a crazy P-day! President and sister Robinson called us and
asked if we could help them out with something and that they would
like to talk to us! We were like man what did we do?! Haha all he did
was ask us some questions about the mission. That lasted for like 2
hours! They are awesome!

Tuesday- Well today was a fun and eventful day! So today we had
District Meeting and it was my first district meeting as a District
leader. And it went Amazing! The spirit was so strong! we then went
and helped this lady and her best friend cut some wood and they have a
pit bull named buddy! And Buddy likes to chase cars and so when we
were cutting wood I saw this big truck pulling a small trailer. I hear
from behind me, BUDDY NOOO! and the dog gets hit hard by this truck,
and IT DIDNT DIE! It popped right up and sat next to me and I said to
him, "Well I hope you learned your lesson, and I bet you wont chase
any more cars." He just was sitting down looking up at me and I could
tell what he was saying to himself. "Man Elder Russell, that flippin
hurt!" And I then said "Well duh Scooby doo what were you thinking!"

Wednesday- It was poring rain today and we helped this lady move and
guess what we found!? 2 LACROSSE STICKS! (Sorry Braxton). Me and Elder
Bratt both played back at home! Man we played for like 15 minutes
while we were waiting for a truck! Well I am now going on exchanges
with Elder Kettle who is from American Fork Utah and he has only been
out for 2 weeks!

Thursday- My year mark! Man crazy stuff! Time flies, I want it to slow
down a little bit!

Friday- Well Happy Birthday Eric! Love you man!

Saturday- Today we just went and tracked! We got a couple potentials
out of it! We then Mowed down this ladies forest in her front and back
yard! Why would you let weeds grow to be like 7 feet tall!? I felt
like I was in Narnia fighting all these animals with my weed whacker
and I also felt like Ammon, cutting off all those arms!

Sunday-  Boy was this a spiritual day! I will tell you about it some
other time! :)

I love you guys so much!

Elder Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
O'Malley Ward

Oh how could I forget!!!!!!!!

Oh how could I forget!!!!!!!! I went to the temple with my Recent
Convert Janessa! She was doing baptism for the dead! Holy cow was that
awesome!

Sunday we had an awesome day at church!

 Well we got our new mission president and his name is President
Robinson and he is from Bear Lake Utah! This week he has been calling
us and asking for me and Elder Bratts help this whole week! So this
letter is going to be short.

Fourth of July was fun! We helped in the office pretty much all day
but when we got out of the office we went and taught Terrence our
investigator and the only thing that he needs a testimony of is Modern
Day Prophets, so we taught him about Modern Day Prophets and he said
that he will pray about it! We then went and saw the Hells Angel guy!
He was fun! He got a calling to be a family history guy! We then got
invited to a BBQ at bishops house!

Sunday we had an awesome day at church! Bro. Leach who is a returning
member passed the sacrament today for the first time ever and his baby
was blessed by his wife's dad! Then Bro. Pintar (Also a returning
member)(80 yrs old and the last time he attended church was when he
was 8!) He has been to church for a month now and he is progressing
like crazy) He got ordained in the office of a priest today and he is
the 2nd assistant in that quorum! We then lost our keys to the truck
and we looked everywhere and after 20 minutes of looking Elder Bratt
was like "Ummm we should probably pray" Well why didn't I think of
that! haha so we prayed and of course we found it! And we drove
happily ever after to our next appointment! haha Well sorry that this
letter was not a long one but its been a crazy busy one!

I love you guys!

Elder Chad Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
O'Malley Ward!

P.S. I cannot believe it will be a year on the tenth!