A Baptismal Date :)

Dear family and friends,

Jacqueline has a baptismal date! We are so excited for her. :) We still need to meet her children and she hasn't told them yet that she is getting baptized, but we are excited that she is planning on getting baptized the 19 of April. She is doing well, but we have a lot to teach her before then.  This sunday, Bishop Caussé was here along with other leaders of the church and the ward members were extremely excited about it. They talked a lot about missionary work and I remember that one of the leaders (who is, if I remember correctly, in charge of temporal affaires for most of Europe) told the members to start preparing to receive new converts, and baptisms will be increasing because the work here is hastening. What an amazing experience we have to be here. And now in Aix we have a teaching pool that is increasing bit by bit. It is also positively hot here. I'm working up a sweat sometimes. 

Oh, also this week, we were teaching Nihat, when he asked an awesome question about staying worthy and whether or not God punishes us. He was very concerned about repentance and mistakes that we make. So, Soeur Robison thinks for a second and says, I actually have a scripture that talks about that. So we open up to 2 Nephi 28:23 Please open up to that scripture. And please read that scriptrure. Feel free to laugh. I'm still laughing. I especially like how it repeats the first part twice and adds on the devil at the end. I also love that, not only is it extremely terrifying, but it even applied to the question he asked. At the end we were all laughing, but I think he was a little freaked out at first. But he did say he would stop drinking :) (don't worry, we explained what we meant to say) 

Quickly, I got a lovely package from the RS. Tell them thank you!!!!!

Je vous aime!!! Et Dieu vous aime!!

Vraiment!!!

Soeur Russell

Chateau d'If, bowing men with turbans, and unneeded pizza charity

Dear family and friends,
Yesterday, I didn't write because we changed our pday to tuesday (just this week) to go to Marseille. :) We took a bus there this morning and we went with the senior couple there and some other missionaries to visit Chateau d'If ( Yes, the one from Counte de Monte Cristo, cool huh :)) and a couple other islands nearby and we got gelato. It was really cool. The gelato was delicous, the islands were gorgeous and covered with wildflowers, the sun was out and it was warm/tshirt weather ( sorry usa, I know you haven't had you fair share of weather lately) and the Chateau was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I still can't beleive that I'm in france sometimes. All in all, today was great. :)
That is so cool that Zach will be working at the zoo, just like I did. I'll have to write Zachy a letter of what I learned from there, handy advice, fun facts. First piece of advice, take advantage of your breaks. You'll be working at a zoo ( which is super cool) during breaks you can mosey over to the polar bears or elephants and hang out there. I really miss being able to wander around the zoo.
So highlight of this week besides today. We learned that Bishop Caussé will be coming to Aix-en-Provence this Sunday, along with a few other church leaders. We are really excited about that. This week, also, I was making a phone call while my companion contacted someone, when an arabian guy suddenly appeared in front of me, with a turban and beard and everything ( he was just missing the cool shoes), smiled, turned to me and gave me a very formal bow, stayed in that position for 3 seconds, then turned and left, all while I was talking to someone in french on the phone at the side of the road. Still trying to decide what that means. ( Maybe he's a genie? Or Arabian prince who bows at all the redheaded people he sees? Or maybe we met before and I am not remembering this trunbaned man who bows to people?) Also, we passed one man, holding a piece of pizza and soeur Robison said bon apetit and next thing we know this man is trying to give us his pizza in this very determined act of service and is showing us his new shoes and asking us if we can work for his wifes cleaning service. That was interesting.
I gotta run for reals!
JE VOUS AIME!!!!!!
Soeur Russell

Bonjour!!!

Dear family and friends,

This week, I 'm trying to remember what happened and literally almost nothing is coming up, besides doing an exchange in Carcassonne and a Baptism in the ward. At the begining of the week, we took a long train to Carcassonne ( I got to see Soeur Bounnanotte(I think I spelt that wrong) who is there) and we did a short exchange there. It was strange to be in my blue ville. On the cabinet door, there is a log thing of missionaries who have been in Carcassonne and I can remember clearly writing my name on it and now there are like 11 sisters names below it. Has it really been so long? Today actually is the 11 month mark of my mission. I don't feel like I have been out for that long.  Craziness. But while I was there, I was walking down streets that I walked down dozens of times, but now I can actually speak french. What a wierd feeling that is. 

So later this week, we had the baptism of the other sisters' ami who is named Michel. We got to teach him once and all of the missionaries here have kinda adopted him. He is an absurdly kind middleaged man who gives the missionaries the best chocolate cake I have ever had. The night before his baptism, he invited all the missionaries for a BBQ at his house. He is a scout, so he has the coolest house ever. He has literally 70 knives on the walls, and a whole lot of paintings and wood and coral and stones and antelers and scout type stuff( the elders were in love with his house). Michel is super cool and his baptism was extremely touching. he asked me to sing at his baptism, so I sang I know that my Reedemer lives for the second time on my mission. I really do like that song. Oh and we got transfer calls and I am staying in Aix another transfer with Soeur Robison. That is good because I love Aix and Soeur Robison. At the end of this transfer, I will have been here in aix for a third of my mission and as much time as all my other villes combined. I gotta run!!!!

I love you all! Vraiment!

et, comme toujours, Dieu vous aime!

Soeur Russell

Raccoons, steaks and nuts, and cake the size of a workout mat

Dear Family and friends,
This week, We started out by going to Montpeiller for en exchange, which was lots of fun, where I ate lunch in an old manor filled with old paintings and statues and chickens in the back yard ( It looked like it came from a period movie) and later, ate nuts with a french couple that lived right next to the beach. Not a bad exchange.
Then, we came back to aix, made cookies with an asian member and a muslim potential, got an awesome valentine's day banner from my mom, had district meeting, where we ate burgers, taught Jacqueline ( she says she will be baptized, she wants to talk about it with her kids first before she chooses a date) and our new ami Nihat.
 Nihat is really cool. He has been praying for the first time ever this week, and he says that he feels a huge sense of peace and relief in his life. He also has had huge miracles falling out of the sky this week for him ( more chances to work, a loan offered for him to start building his own house) and he says that everything he has read in the Book of Mormon seems to be truth. He is sooooooo cool. It is a little hard teaching him though, because we have to be extremely simple and he has a really hard time understanding our accents ( and we have a hard time understanding his), but already his life is changing so much because of the gospel. later, We gave cookies to about 7 people, did a lot of member visits. We visited one recent convert who lives out ville. We went to her place and she was showing us pictures in some of her nature/ traveling books. In one of hte pictures, there was a fuzzy little racoon, bouncing through some leaves. I have never seen a racoon here in france, and most french people don't see racoons either. So our member, Suzanne, is looking at the sweet little racoon, when soeur Robison leans over and exclaimes, " Il est une mechant!" ( she probably meant to say they(racoons) are evil, but instead what she said meant He is a villian) Suzanne and I looked at the cute little fuzzy racoon/ the villian and started laughing so hard. Especially Suzanne, who probably isn't too used to wild racoons. ( I kinda understood ( they can be evil) but villians were the last thing on my mind) Ever since, Suzanne has been texting us random Racoon facts and threatening to buy a racoon pet. :) Later, we had a baptism for member in the ward who just turned eight. There was a cake the width of a large table and a mini crepe maker, as well as twenty other desserts and hot chocolate. That I what I call a french baptism. Then we taught Nihat again 5 he gives us nuts and fanta every time we go over). Then we had church on sunday, where I sang a song and started it accidentally in english ( that is the second time I have done that on my mission), after we had a geneology activity and then we taught jacqueline ( we showed her the church website, she was soooooo excited about it and started watching like 20 videos right there), and after, went to Nihats and ate dinner. He made like 50 steaks ( ok only 12, but there were four of us) and Luckily, we had to run out ( to meet some other missionaries to grab our keys) after only eating 3. ( 3 steaks! Big ones!) And we were running late, so we stared running ( with 3 steaks in my stomach!) It was not a pleasant feeling.
Je vous aime comme tout!!!
et dieu vous aime plus!
Soeur Russell

Snow and Burnt Cookies and Flying Squirrels

Dear family and friends,

This email might be a little short, because I am exhausted. This morning, we climbed up to the top of the Sainte Victoire with most of our zone. I think one of the only reasons that I got up to the top at the same time as everyone else is because halfway up, we started walking through snow and ice and that slowed everyone down, so I got a chance to rest. It was so beautiful. The reason that we did it is because President Roney told us to bless the ville (kinda rededicate it). So this was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The way down was covered with ice, so at one point, I just sat down and slide for like 5 minutes straight. At point, I slipped and started tumbling down part of the way down, but I caught myself quickly and I just have a couple small bruises. Because of that, I now have the nickname flying squirrel. ( it doesn't really make sense to me either) And we have just come from that, so I feel very drained. Otherwise this week has been good. We taught Jacqueline twice. Before one of our lessons with her, we tried to make cookies for her, but bothe times we put a tray of cookies in the oven, we forgot about them and they got burnt. We told jacqueline that we burned our cookies that we made for her twice and she laughed and laughed.She then lectured us on how to use the stove and was saying " put it on a lower tempature and then get a chair and sit in front of the stove with a book of mormon to read" I love her so much and she has progressed a lot since we met her. I'm gonna reposer for a moment, but I love you all. Je sais que l'evangile est retabli et je sais que Dieu parle avec ses enfants toujours. Je vous aime!!!!

Soeur Russell

fingers, blind dates, and turkish people

Dear Family and friends,

This week we got another new ami and we got to do a lot of finding activities. Our entire zone got together on doing a game sort of thing and we got to see some really cool experiences because of it. We contacted almost 300 people in one day and The other sisters contacted 1000 people in one day. I didn't even know that was possible. Soeur Robison has a pretty good wardrobe now, so everything is good there. We've been finding lots of potentials ( Soeur Robison is amazing at that) and we are working on helping them become amis. Funny story, Soeur Robison contacted a guy who just so happened to be waiting for a blind date. Of course he thinks the girl coming up to talk to him is his date and starts greeting her as his date with an almost biz. Thankfully she was able to avoid it and even , after explaining that we were missionaries and what we do and that she is not his date, got his cordonees and ended the contact right before his real date showed up. We laughed a lot about that one. :) Our new ami is named Nihat. He is from Turkey and he has really hard time understanding our accents. He is so nice though. He has a muslim backround, but he has never been practicing and he says that he beleives in Christ. He might not understand truely why Christ is important, but that is so huge that he beleives in him. We are going to have to teach very very very simply for him, because he doesn't speak or understand too well and he doesn't have a christian backround. But I'm excited to see how he progresses. 

This week I also lost my planner, thankfully all the numbers I took down were written down elsewhere too, but I have been feeling so lost without my old planner. I've just started a new one. Its kinda funny thinking about how before my mission, I never wanted a planner, and now on my mission I feel lost without one. 

Tonight, we are taking a train to Montpellier to do an exchange with the Sister training leaders. So I'll get to see Soeur Modersitzki ( I still have trouble spelling that) and I always like visiting other places in the mission. 

Oh and this week, I sprained my finger. The missionaries have a saturday sport activity (samedi sportif) that they do every week to invite potentials and amis and members to and we played basketball ( the first time I have played basketball in about a year). And of course I sprained my finger. :) it doesn't hurt when it is bandaged up though. and it looks really wierd and for some reason it amuses me to see how wierd looking it is ( as long as it is temporary) 

Yeah, that's it for this week, mais à la semaine prochain!!!

Je vous aime et Dieu vous aime!!!!!

Avec amour,

Soeur Russell

Hickory, Chocolate Cake and Crazy Amounts of Food

Dear family and friends,
the SLC story was really cool! The Lord really is creating missionary oppurtunities for our family left and right.
This week, on tuesday, we did geneology with one of the sisters in our ward and that was really fun. after that we had a lesson with an old man named Antoin who was very nice, but he certainly likes talking and discussing. We're thinking he will need a much more structured and focused Lesson this week. The next day we saw another member named Soeur Tennoun and had hot chocolate and a spiritual thought with her. On thursday we had a language study with another member, where she gave us a wierd drink ( it was like hickory something or other). it made us nice and warm, but it tasted unpleasant. On Saturday, we had an awesome zone conference. The members came and prepared food for all the missionaries and just about stuffed us to death. right after the conference, we did a lesson for the other sister's ami, Michel, and he brought some small gateaux. It is about the best cake I have ever tasted. It was chocolate and smooth and crunchy too and with chocolate mousse. So good!!! The lesson went well. We taught with a sister in the ward who is about our age( we started with her because our original member was late), an older sister in the ward( the original member who was late), and the Au pair of the Roney kids ( she randomly  jumped in at some point). So it was 5 women and this one really kind old man. It was kinda a funny picture. after that we taught a recent convert, who is amazing. And then we had church on sunday and afterwards wome members forced us to eat the left overs of the conference meal. It was very yummy. But one elder, our zone leader, who is as skinny as a twig, ate four plates of salad and tuna, three plates of chicken currey and rice, another plate of ham and rice, three cookies and a big chocolate cake drowning in vanilla sauce and an entire baguette.Unbeleivable. one of the members there is from tahiti and she said she has only seen islanders eat that much. I can't imagine that. And today is Soeur Robison's birthday!!!! But we are celebrating it next week, because that will be easier.
Well my times up, but I hope you all know I love you! and I know that God loves you and He always will!
Je vous aime!!!
Soeur Russell