HEY sorry it's been so long since I have sent one of these! Let's see where to start!
The transfer started slow but now time is flying by! It's already been a month, and we are planning for week 5 (of 6) tomorrow! Time really does fly by.
We currently have 3 people set with a baptismal date, and a forth one soon to come. we also have about 4 people who are progressing towards baptism! This area is on fire!
Elder S. (new companion) and I are working really well together and finding great joy in this work. I cannot think of a better time that I have had on my mission than right now.
What I really love the most is that I'm trying my hardest and the Lord is opening doors that previously were closed. I know that this is his work because the blessings I am experiencing are not things I could make happen on my own.
I want to share a couple stories about member missionary work.
we are teaching a lady named N. who is progressing towards baptism. a few years ago she was in a very bad car accident and she woke up only remembering her name. Now she is doing much better, but she is still trying to find peace and happiness. Here's something that really struck me, she said, "All the happy people I know are mormons!" And I thought about it, Why? Because we have the gospel and we know who we are and who our Heavenly Father is! She's beginning to know and understand that, and it's because her Physical Therapist (who is a member) helped her to open her eyes to the truthfulness of the gospel.
The other example is D. I don't know to much about her, other than she lives with a member, but she was invited to take the missionary lessons. She loves the church so much and wants to embrace the gospel, and it's all because of the example that the members set.
Example, more powerful than what you say, is who you are (*note from the sister: Russell didn't put that in bold type-it just really stuck out to me and made me think about the kind of example I am setting for others. ). I know that this is true and that people notice everything about "the mormons."
I also had a really neat experience. I have a friend who is going to BYU and works at the bike shop who is in the same position I was in last year (trying to go back on his mission.) I had the awesome opportunity to have him join us for a few hours last night and to go and teach some lessons. Something that I learned last night is that Heavenly Father provides a way for us to embrace the gospel and have spiritual experiences. How grateful I am for that, and I hope my friend had as good as an experience as I did!
I love being a missionary, and doing this work!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Russell's Email 8-13-09
This week has been nuts.
Saturday we baptized our last investigator. Tragic experience because now we have no one to teach. Elder s. and I have been trying to come up with different ideas to help us find some more people and guess what?! We have gotten no where! Of course that hasn't discourages us, we are still working hard. We have been using Preach My Gospel to try to find those things that will help us, and one of the things we are doing is fasting! Now, recently I learned that I'm not supposed to ask you to join in special fasts, so I won't! But I do ask that you remember this in your prayers! If you can be really specific, we are fasting to find new investigators that we can teach, who will progress and that we can baptize!
The Lord knows our hearts, and I know that. Yesterday we had the zone leaders down from Elko and we went on splits. Because of our lack of investigators, we did a lot of finding, and we even did some stuff that was totally foreign to the Las Vegas mission. WE WENT TRACTING!
All I hear is about ineffictive tracting is. It's no fun, it's hard, no one gets baptized as a result, blah blah blah. Tracting is awesome! We found three new investigators (but we need more!) and taught several lessons yesterday! I wouldn't want to tract all day every day, but I really enjoyed myself!
Saturday we baptized our last investigator. Tragic experience because now we have no one to teach. Elder s. and I have been trying to come up with different ideas to help us find some more people and guess what?! We have gotten no where! Of course that hasn't discourages us, we are still working hard. We have been using Preach My Gospel to try to find those things that will help us, and one of the things we are doing is fasting! Now, recently I learned that I'm not supposed to ask you to join in special fasts, so I won't! But I do ask that you remember this in your prayers! If you can be really specific, we are fasting to find new investigators that we can teach, who will progress and that we can baptize!
The Lord knows our hearts, and I know that. Yesterday we had the zone leaders down from Elko and we went on splits. Because of our lack of investigators, we did a lot of finding, and we even did some stuff that was totally foreign to the Las Vegas mission. WE WENT TRACTING!
All I hear is about ineffictive tracting is. It's no fun, it's hard, no one gets baptized as a result, blah blah blah. Tracting is awesome! We found three new investigators (but we need more!) and taught several lessons yesterday! I wouldn't want to tract all day every day, but I really enjoyed myself!
Russell's Email 8-6-09
HEY!
Things in Ely are kickin'! We have almost no one to teach, but some how we have mangage to still do awesome work!
Last weekend we had a baptism in Lund NV, their second baptism this month. We had the baptism at the "Waters of Lund" aka, the most beautiful spring in the world. It looks about a foot deep, but where the baptism took place was about 3.5 feet deep. It reminded me of Mosiah 18:30. I think about this because, no one has been baptized in the spring in years, but many people came and it stirred a lot of tender memories. It really was a beautiful place and an awesome baptism.
This weekend we have another baptism, this one is equally awesome. This lady has been working to this point for over 6 months and finally she will be able to enter the waters. I'm so excited, especially to be the missionary that sees her to this point because so many have crossed her path.
My other huge excitment is this. (Hold onto your hat Dad) I love doing service. This morning for our preperation day exercise, Elder Swank and I went and cut firewood for a recent convert. I love cutting wood! I don't know if I would enjoy it as much if I always had to do it, but I really have fun cutting it for service!
I also got to go out to the Church Ranch in Garrison NV. We had our district meeting out there, had fresh steaks and corn on the cob, went driving around and took lots of pictures (I'll send those next week too.) Our last stop was a really neat creek. Story has it that a man from the south didn't want to give up his slaves so they up and left to NV and this was the settlement they established. It's a really neat little place but the spirit there was awesome. While we were there it just felt like paradise. So pretty... I'll send pictures.
I love serving my mission and having fun here. When you serve the Lord with the right attitude, and the best obedience you can, you really feel the Spirit and enjoy the work. I know that this is the best decision I've ever made, and to live this gospel is the best thing you can do. I love being here and, despite the difficulties, it's the greatest experience in my life. I hope that everyone who reads these can feel the spirit in their hearts, for I know this message is true!
Elder Hitchcock
Things in Ely are kickin'! We have almost no one to teach, but some how we have mangage to still do awesome work!
Last weekend we had a baptism in Lund NV, their second baptism this month. We had the baptism at the "Waters of Lund" aka, the most beautiful spring in the world. It looks about a foot deep, but where the baptism took place was about 3.5 feet deep. It reminded me of Mosiah 18:30. I think about this because, no one has been baptized in the spring in years, but many people came and it stirred a lot of tender memories. It really was a beautiful place and an awesome baptism.
This weekend we have another baptism, this one is equally awesome. This lady has been working to this point for over 6 months and finally she will be able to enter the waters. I'm so excited, especially to be the missionary that sees her to this point because so many have crossed her path.
My other huge excitment is this. (Hold onto your hat Dad) I love doing service. This morning for our preperation day exercise, Elder Swank and I went and cut firewood for a recent convert. I love cutting wood! I don't know if I would enjoy it as much if I always had to do it, but I really have fun cutting it for service!
I also got to go out to the Church Ranch in Garrison NV. We had our district meeting out there, had fresh steaks and corn on the cob, went driving around and took lots of pictures (I'll send those next week too.) Our last stop was a really neat creek. Story has it that a man from the south didn't want to give up his slaves so they up and left to NV and this was the settlement they established. It's a really neat little place but the spirit there was awesome. While we were there it just felt like paradise. So pretty... I'll send pictures.
I love serving my mission and having fun here. When you serve the Lord with the right attitude, and the best obedience you can, you really feel the Spirit and enjoy the work. I know that this is the best decision I've ever made, and to live this gospel is the best thing you can do. I love being here and, despite the difficulties, it's the greatest experience in my life. I hope that everyone who reads these can feel the spirit in their hearts, for I know this message is true!
Elder Hitchcock
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Russell's Email 7-23-09
This week has been a different week!
I got a new companion (my second comp in Ely) and he is Elder S. from Maine. The only thing about him is he scares me with how similar we are. Other than that, it's soooo awesome to be serving with him. He is about 18 months out, and so this is probably his last stop in the mission, but I'm leanring a ton from him.
I almost feel like we are reopening an area. When we baptized B. last week, we almost emptied our teaching pool and now we are searching from new investigators! (Calling all RM's, you should write me {contact the sister by way of comment for the address}and tell me your finding ideas for small towns. How did you do the work in your "Ely"?) When Elder Swank came in, I realized, we are teaching a ton of people who aren't do anything! So now we are trying to change how we do missionary work in the area. We shall see how it turns out.
I had a super neat experience last week. We attended Lund ward on Sunday. The first big highlight was they had homemade bread for the sacrament. I felt like a was in a Joseph Smith movie or something. AWESOME...
But no, the big highlight was this. There is a governement funded ranch outside Ely that is owned by a member. About 6 boys from the ranch come to church almost every week and they were expressing desires to learn and join the Church. The boy's ranch is basically a jouvie alternative, and it's neat to see kids want to change after seeing the life they were heading towars. We are trying to find a way to get permission to teach them right now, but it's sooo neat. I love being here in Ely!
This weekend is Lund Pioneer DayS! (yes, DAYS. This is Lund we are taking about.) They have team sorting and branding, rodeos, fireworks, parades, etc. We are going to try to do service and do some less active work down there this weekend because that's where everyone will be.
I'm having fun in Ely. The work is true and it presses forward in Sin City or in little old Ely. I love being a part of this work. I hope these things inspire you to strengthen your faith and to share this message with others.
Elder Hitchcock
I got a new companion (my second comp in Ely) and he is Elder S. from Maine. The only thing about him is he scares me with how similar we are. Other than that, it's soooo awesome to be serving with him. He is about 18 months out, and so this is probably his last stop in the mission, but I'm leanring a ton from him.
I almost feel like we are reopening an area. When we baptized B. last week, we almost emptied our teaching pool and now we are searching from new investigators! (Calling all RM's, you should write me {contact the sister by way of comment for the address}and tell me your finding ideas for small towns. How did you do the work in your "Ely"?) When Elder Swank came in, I realized, we are teaching a ton of people who aren't do anything! So now we are trying to change how we do missionary work in the area. We shall see how it turns out.
I had a super neat experience last week. We attended Lund ward on Sunday. The first big highlight was they had homemade bread for the sacrament. I felt like a was in a Joseph Smith movie or something. AWESOME...
But no, the big highlight was this. There is a governement funded ranch outside Ely that is owned by a member. About 6 boys from the ranch come to church almost every week and they were expressing desires to learn and join the Church. The boy's ranch is basically a jouvie alternative, and it's neat to see kids want to change after seeing the life they were heading towars. We are trying to find a way to get permission to teach them right now, but it's sooo neat. I love being here in Ely!
This weekend is Lund Pioneer DayS! (yes, DAYS. This is Lund we are taking about.) They have team sorting and branding, rodeos, fireworks, parades, etc. We are going to try to do service and do some less active work down there this weekend because that's where everyone will be.
I'm having fun in Ely. The work is true and it presses forward in Sin City or in little old Ely. I love being a part of this work. I hope these things inspire you to strengthen your faith and to share this message with others.
Elder Hitchcock
Russell's Email 7-16-09
this is an old tire shop/chicken coop down in lund.
someone has a freakin lion! actually it's a dog, shaved like a lion
this is an old car in some weeds. I thought it looked almost pretty...
Hotel Nevada! there is a mountain bike race I am going to do after my mission and you get to ride through the hotel nevada casino
backgound of #305 is the 60x40 garage we did a huge service project for. Took about 20 hours (oh yeah, and they don't like harry reid)
look at the elk that I shot! just kidding, a guy found the elk (natural causes death) and then packed the skull and rack 3 miles. It was HUGE
Russell's Email 7-9-09
I love serving my mission! I had some really neat experiences this week that I want to share.
The first is our investigator down in Lund, B., who is going to be baptized on that 18th! She is so awesome, and her husband is getting the priesthood on Sunday so that he can baptize her! I'm so stoked, she's one of those that will be to the temple in a year! I'm really pumped for that! We also took a member with us to her home, and this member is friends with B. but she added so much to the lesson! I love teaching with members and seeing them have a spiritual experience. There's really not much better than to see a member get excited, because then they share the gospel even more!
The second was an answer to my fast. Saturday night I knelt down and began my fast, and maybe 5 minutes later (I was shinning my shoes) the phone rang and it was the Bishop of Lund ward. He told us about someone he had just met, J. He had recently moved to Lund with his brother, J. (who is a member of the Church.) He had been taking the lessons down in Vegas and he wants to get baptized. I'm so excited for this to happen. There are tons of little details to figure out, but no worries, we will figure it all out.
Ely is a great place and I love serving here. Right now we are at a little bit of a low point. I want to ask everyone at home to pray for us here in Ely, and also pray for the members, that we might have more people to teach. Ely, we can't do much here by our own efforts. We have to have the members help, and I could use some extra prayers!!!
Those are the exciting things. Oh yeah, the Tour de France started. I was trunky. There's a family here who is keeping me posted, and it's driving me nuts. I'm trying to avoid them so I don't get distracted... I hope everyone has a great week!!!
The first is our investigator down in Lund, B., who is going to be baptized on that 18th! She is so awesome, and her husband is getting the priesthood on Sunday so that he can baptize her! I'm so stoked, she's one of those that will be to the temple in a year! I'm really pumped for that! We also took a member with us to her home, and this member is friends with B. but she added so much to the lesson! I love teaching with members and seeing them have a spiritual experience. There's really not much better than to see a member get excited, because then they share the gospel even more!
The second was an answer to my fast. Saturday night I knelt down and began my fast, and maybe 5 minutes later (I was shinning my shoes) the phone rang and it was the Bishop of Lund ward. He told us about someone he had just met, J. He had recently moved to Lund with his brother, J. (who is a member of the Church.) He had been taking the lessons down in Vegas and he wants to get baptized. I'm so excited for this to happen. There are tons of little details to figure out, but no worries, we will figure it all out.
Ely is a great place and I love serving here. Right now we are at a little bit of a low point. I want to ask everyone at home to pray for us here in Ely, and also pray for the members, that we might have more people to teach. Ely, we can't do much here by our own efforts. We have to have the members help, and I could use some extra prayers!!!
Those are the exciting things. Oh yeah, the Tour de France started. I was trunky. There's a family here who is keeping me posted, and it's driving me nuts. I'm trying to avoid them so I don't get distracted... I hope everyone has a great week!!!
Russell's Email 7-2-09
So I'll start off this with a joke that one of the young women told to open her talk.
Okay, Imagine you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you find you are sinking and there is a big hole in the boat (and there is to much water to bail out...) What do you do????
STOP IMAGINING!!!
Anyway, Dad your sense of humor is still very much a part of me. This week has been really good. I think Lund is my favorite place in the state of Nevada. We are still working towards baptism with our investigator there, and we were teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ on Monday and we were teaching her about baptism and the sacrament, how they are connected. Well, turns out she knew the whole time what we were talking about, and it really took me off guard. I asked her how she knew and she said she had read it in her "Converts guide to mormonism" My mind=blown. It was pretty crazy.
A quote that Sister B. (from Cookeville TN) shared this week has really stuck in my mind. "There is not faith or growth in convience, only in sacrafice." Over the past few days, I feel I have grown some and my mission is becoming more joy than sacrafice. I think, what am I giving up? All I am doing is gaining....
Another neat experience is one I want to share. In Lund and Preston (about 500 people between the two towns, seperated by a two lane highway) there are only a few nonmembers. Of course members try to work with most of them, but one member said, "I feel like I need to invite her to something." We challenged her to figure it out and take action, we left her with a book of Mormon, a couple ideas, and told her to pray. This past week we found out that she had given her the Book of Mormon. The Lord is preparing people to hear this message, and it's up to us to act. We can share this message that blesses families for eternity, or we can selfishly be missing in action (as Elder Perry talked about in conference) while others perish without the gospel. Jospeh Smith said, "After all that has been said, the greatst and most important work is to share the Gospel."
I hope everyone will keep their eyes open for missionary opportunities.
I love you all, and good luck this week.
Elder Hitchcock
Okay, Imagine you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you find you are sinking and there is a big hole in the boat (and there is to much water to bail out...) What do you do????
STOP IMAGINING!!!
Anyway, Dad your sense of humor is still very much a part of me. This week has been really good. I think Lund is my favorite place in the state of Nevada. We are still working towards baptism with our investigator there, and we were teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ on Monday and we were teaching her about baptism and the sacrament, how they are connected. Well, turns out she knew the whole time what we were talking about, and it really took me off guard. I asked her how she knew and she said she had read it in her "Converts guide to mormonism" My mind=blown. It was pretty crazy.
A quote that Sister B. (from Cookeville TN) shared this week has really stuck in my mind. "There is not faith or growth in convience, only in sacrafice." Over the past few days, I feel I have grown some and my mission is becoming more joy than sacrafice. I think, what am I giving up? All I am doing is gaining....
Another neat experience is one I want to share. In Lund and Preston (about 500 people between the two towns, seperated by a two lane highway) there are only a few nonmembers. Of course members try to work with most of them, but one member said, "I feel like I need to invite her to something." We challenged her to figure it out and take action, we left her with a book of Mormon, a couple ideas, and told her to pray. This past week we found out that she had given her the Book of Mormon. The Lord is preparing people to hear this message, and it's up to us to act. We can share this message that blesses families for eternity, or we can selfishly be missing in action (as Elder Perry talked about in conference) while others perish without the gospel. Jospeh Smith said, "After all that has been said, the greatst and most important work is to share the Gospel."
I hope everyone will keep their eyes open for missionary opportunities.
I love you all, and good luck this week.
Elder Hitchcock
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