Alaska Anchorage Temple 2014

Alaska Anchorage Temple Sept. 2014

The Northern lights!

Awesome week! I am glad that you were able to spend some time as a
family and with Grandpa as well!

Again this is going to be a short email, sorry about that. but to
start it off, we got chased by a moose, but it was a good thing that
there was a fence to climb and jump. "Elder Modlik you cannot touch
the moose! Elder Modlik get back here! I know that you don't have moose
in New Zealand, but don't touch it!" Haha that was intense! The northern
lights were insane a couple days ago! I will send some pictures of
that! It snowed again today. We have been working really hard up here
in the Interior of Alaska where it gets to Negative 60 to 70! We
picked up a couple new investigators. The Ward is trusting us a lot
now and they are just giving us a bunch of people to go see! Oh and
somebody signed us up to sing at a persons wedding! And we cant get
out of it! It better be MOTAB! Should be interesting! Well I love you
Guys! Sorry that this was a short Email!

Elder Chad Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Delta Junction & Tok

 

I just wanted to send you a quick picture of your incredible sons!

Dear Sisters,
I just wanted to send you a quick picture of your incredible sons! And THANK YOU for sharing them with us here in Alaska.
Elder Modlik and Elder Russell are both very special young men and we love them. I am so happy we could have them in our home last night. They carry the Spirit of our Father and it is wonderful. We wish we could have them every day!
Thank you for raising these worthy, faithful missionaries!
Much love to you both!
Sister Andrea Lemons
Delta Junction, AK

Elder Russell, Elder Modlik and the Davis family!

Elder Russell With his new companion Elder Modlik from New Zealand And the Davis family

What a crazy bunch!!!

hmmmmmmmITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!UGH!!!!!!!!haha

Well this one is going to be short. I am starting my email off by
saying. hmmmmmmm ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!!!!! haha

So Tuesday was the day that I picked up my boy! Fresh from the MTC! So
I will type what I wrote in my journal this time.

The missionary I am training is Elder Modlik, home for him is far away
in the land of New Zealand! Man I need to get used to his crazy
accent. He is 20 years old and he is super awesome! We just click! Man
its a good thing that we are not in a YSA Ward with this guy because
man, girls dig his accent! Haha! He is so cool! He played Rugby and
Basketball! He is excited to get to work! His older Brother was an
Assistant to the President in Australia for 13 months! Haha he is
already a way good missionary, I fasted for that and hey I got it! We
are staying the night with the Zone Leaders in Wasilla! On our way to
Wasilla we drove by a car accident and guess who it was , it was the
sister missionaries, Sister Whitbe and Sister Torgison, So we pulled
over and stayed with them and waited for help to come! They totaled
the car but they are Okay! The one guy that was the person that was
driving and hit them was a drunk driver, and he tried to hide his
drugs by throwing it under a tree before the cops came, haha good one!
The cop put him in hand cuffs and me and elder Modlik had to Babysit
him the whole time! We then got a call form the Wasilla Zone Leaders
telling us that someone tried breaking into the sisters apartment and
they are changing there lock so they told us that they wont be in
until like 11:30 PM. We said us to! Elder Modlik was like does this
happen all the time? Haha! Fun first day in the field for Elder
Modlik!

We have only been in Delta for 3 days and we have picked up 4
potential investigators and 11 Referrals! We are teaching one of those
Potentials tonight. And guess what she is Russian of course! Haha

Well I love you Guys! Sweet/ cool in New Zealand is called Skux!!!! He
is teaching me some Hakas!

Serving a mission is so Skux!

Elder Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Delta Junction & Tok

3250 Strawberry Rd
Anchorage, AK 99502

The Moon Finally!

1 Million dollars in my hand!

Oh yeah Eric check out my tires!!! HaHa love ya man!

The Moon FINALLY!!!

Just one of the many Glaciers on our drive today!

I'M TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!!!

Well this is going to be super short because I left Delta at 7:30 in
the morning and just got into Anchorage. I drove! It is warm up here,
its like 60 degrees! I think I am good about the Hand warmers, but
thanks though. I Love you!

So this email will be short because well I just had a 7 and a half
hour drive from Delta to Anchorage! Why am I in Anchorage? hmmmm well
I got my transfer call on Wednesday and President Robinson said, Elder
Russell the Lord wants you to stay and he wants you to train a brand
new missionary from the MTC, you will be driving down to Anchorage
Monday morning and you will need to be at the mission home at 9:20 in
the morning so that you can receive your trainer training, and then
you will find out who you are training and then you will go to
transfer meeting and then to the temple! You will drive up to Wasilla
right after that and stay the night with the Zone Leaders There and
then the next morning you will drive from Wasilla to Fairbanks and
stay the night in Fairbanks and then the next day you will be getting
a training from Elder Evens from the 70 and it will start at 10:30 in
the morning and go until 4, then you can drive back to Delta! And So
here I am in Anchorage! haha oh and last week I held a 5 pound Gold
Nugget that is worth 1 million dollars, I cant believe that they
trusted me holding it! haha RUNNNNN!!!! Well I will talk to yall next
week! Love you guys!!!!

Elder Chad Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Delta Junction & Tok
Training a new missionary

MOOSE!!!

EWWW AHHH

We are going to TOK baby!

 So guess what we are doing today!? We are going to Tok Baby!!!!!! We
will be staying in a Bed and Breakfast that  a Members owns and the
Branch President has been setting up appointments for us! The Branch
Presidents name is Presidents Goulsbee! He has a beard! haha only in
Alaska! We will be there Monday night, all of Tuesday, and head back
Wednesday! The Branch President will be flying and going trapping in
the Yukon on Tuesday and Wednesday so we will only see him today!

Tuesday- We had an awesome district meeting, and it was Elder Perkins
and Elder Wilsons Birthday, they had a cake and guess who didn't get
some, Delta Junction (us) and Healy. Why because we are both 100 miles
or more away from each other, so we Skype in to district meeting.

Wednesday- Exchanges with the Zone Leaders, both of the Zone Leaders
came to our area because of the drive. So my Zone Leaders are Elder
Brown and Elder Mccusker. I came out with both of those guys to the
mission field. Elder Brown went with Me and Elder Mccusker went with
Elder Menlove. In the morning we had biskets and gravy and spruce tip
jam at this one members home and we went and helped her stack her
wood, feed her alpacas and goats and cows, filled in some holes around
the house with dirt, loaded and unloaded some hay, and the last thing
that we did for her was help her with her bees! We had to go and face
the bees and she smoked them and used the shot-vac to suck them all
out so that we can get the honey. I had pants and my BYU hoodie on and
I pulled my strings tight on my hoodie and it made a really small hole
for me to see out of, and so I would run in there and bees would be
all over me and I would grab the honey and run out of there, I was
safe for the first couple of times but then the bees just got super
mad at me and guess what they did, a swarm of bees went inside of that
little hole of my hoodie. I got stung on my face so many times, I ran
away and ripped off my hoodie! Man that sucked! haha. But sticking my
finger into that honey and then into my mouth was totally worth it!
We then helped Laretta with her pigs, we went and caught 5 more pigs!
Haha. She has an electric fence that keeps the pigs in and guess what
I did when I was running away from mama pig, I tripped over the
electric fence and got shocked like crazy! haha I think if you were to
touch me right now you would get shocked! haha

Thursday- We helped the Wrigley Family Chink (feel in all of the
cracks of the log cabin so they can stay warm for the winter) there
Log cabin. Guess who was at the Wrigleys? My assistant Ward Mission
Leader from my last area! Man we talked for days! hehe.

Friday- We went and helped the Rhile family (LA) chop some wood so
that they will be ready for the winter, we will be helping him next
week to put tar on there roof so that it will stop leaking.

Saturday- We helped Sister Bundy move her food storage from outside to
the inside of her cabin. So sister Bundy has the evil evil beastly dog
that just wants to kill you. Missionaries in the past have tried to
pet him but he bit there hands. A missionary has not yet succeeded in
petting this devil dog. So what did I do, haha well I went in there
and showed that dog who is boss! I walked towards him and I made sure
that I did not show fear, and I went and put my hand right on the dogs
head and just started to pet it and then he jumped up on me and we
started to wrestle! Man that dog is strong but I pinned him! Hurrah
for Israel! Haha now that dog loves me! Elder Menlove went to pet him
and guess what happened he growled and barked at him and when he stook
his hand out that dog leaped at him trying to rip his hand off, but
good thing that that dog has a chain on to stop him! haha I then go
back in there and that dog stilled loved me! haha so funny! I pretty
much had to pick up Sister Bundys jaw from the ground! she was so
shocked! She told me that I am the first missionary ever to touch that
dog! Booya!

Sunday- At church today we had 2 less active families show up, one of
them being the Mcneal family and the other, the Rhile family! Brother
Rhile went up and Bore his testimony! Booya again! Mom and Dad I will
write a letter to you about an experienced that happened this day!

Well I know that my entries are boring, but I love you guys!

Elder Russell
Alaska Anchorage Mission
Delta Junction and Tok!

Pictures!!!!

TATONKA

Elder Russell at Dana Lake

Elder Russell and Elder Menlove

Look at that view!

Roasting marshmallows on our P-day 

Alaska!!!!

OHH YEAH!!!!

I just cant stop taking pictures of myself! haha

We gave a book of Mormon in Russian!

Sounds like you guys had a pretty sweet week! I cant wait to go to the
Ogden Temple when I get back! I love you so much! and thank you for
everything that you do!

28-29 August 2014
On the 28th we gave a Book of Mormon to Nickleye in Russian well
because he is Russian I marked 2 Nephi 29 and 3 Nephi 11, so hopefully
he reads it and gains a testimony of it. Had dinner with the Lemon
family, they are pretty sweet! Brother Lemon had like a 3 to 4 foot
beard. (a lot of people in Alaska have beards) The Lemon family took a
picture of me and sent it to my mom! My mom should be pretty happy
when she sees that, she will probably cry to haha! I am probably going
to pay for that one later, but hey it will be worth it!

On the 29th we did some service at sister Marlyns house then went to
the Delta High School Soccer game against Wasilla. We have permission
to go because everyone in the small town of Delta goes to those soccer
games! FUN! Then had dinner at sister Marlyns home! We got permission
to have her show us this movie about Evidences of the Book of Mormon!
Pretty sweet. If you look at 1 Nephi 16 it talks about Ishmael dying
and being berried at a place called "Nahom". What is really cool is
that the place Nahom was discovered in 1994. Now how could Joseph
Smith know about the place Nahom if people didn't know what it was
until 1994. Hmmm haha its pretty awesome! There is this guy that we
were talking to and we started talking about guns because that's what
people up here in Alaska love and I told him about my 220 swift that
my grandpa gave me. When he heard that he was like, can we make a
trade! haha he wishes!

30 August 2014
We went and helped our investigator Brother Murphy cut and put base
boards down in his house. We then went and helped Joe Erickson unload
3 pallets of pellets for his stove so that he can heat his house for
the winter. He is such an awesome guy, I could talk to that guy about
hunting all day if I could. Dinner at the Barnards home and we had
moose ribs. Ugh so much moose! haha I really enjoy it though! Had a
way spiritual lesson with Jeff (LA). Felt prompted to just invite him
to focus on his family and that's it! You probably are wondering why i
didn't invite him to do more stuff, let me just say that you dont
question the spirit, the end. Haha.

31 August 2014
Well being sick on the last day of the month of August is not a good
way to end the month. I have had one of the worst Migraines yet today
on my mission. The pain was so bad that I threw up a couple of times
and I kept on throwing up so I just laid down next to the toilet! I
was not able to go to church today or do anything because of the
terrible pain in my head! It had to be Sunday!? Writing in my Journal
was the only thing that I did that day and taking medicine and
sleeping. I didn't even have the energy to eat, so I didn't eat at all
that day.

1 September 2014
Well this day the skies were blue and clear and it was such a good
day. I turned to Elder Menlove and I said, hey man its an awesome day
today, lets go hiking. He said no. Like 20 times. I was like are you
serious? Today might be the last p-day of good weather before the snow
flies. He said no, so I was like alright well then we are going bird
and squirrel hunting with Brother Taylors dog, with our sling shots. I
killed one bird and one squirrel and Elder Menlove killed nothing. The
Dog ate the bird and the squirrel so it didn't go to waste!

Well that was my crazy week. The leaves are falling and the nights are
getting colder, Elder Menlove had not been through a winter up here
yet and he is freezing his butt off and it is only 40 degrees and I am
still wearing a short sleeve shirt. Haha so funny. Well I love you
guys. The Zone Leaders are coming up today and we are going to go
catch some pigs in the rain tomorrow! Love you all!

Elder Chad Russell
Delta Junction and Tok Branch
Anchorage Alaska Mission