Life is Great!

You know, when you stop and say, 'Life is Great,' no matter what situation you're in, you immediately feel super pumped and happy. Pretty much every day, walking with my latino compañero, I start saying, Man, Life is Sweet! Viva la Vida! Hoy es un bonito día! Ha ha. He says I have a lot of energy. But in all seriousness, if you're having a bad day, just stop and say 'Life is Amazing' with sincere enthusiasm, and you'll feel great. (God loves you, He wants you back, Pray about it, ha ha - a very simple form of the gospel).

Anyway, this week has been good. As y'all probably know, there's a lot to learn on the mission. This past week I struggled a bit with the language, but I knew it was gonna be hard, so estabien. I also want to work harder with my companion. His name is Elder Juarez, he's Latino, and from Chiapas en Mexico. He's been out for 16 months. He teaches really well, but we could work harder to give our absolute all to the Lord and those we serve. In my jumbo casa, there are four of us that permanently live here. The other two are Elder Burbidge, from American Fork, really cool, he's the financial secretary. The other is Elder Villareal, from Mexico, knows no ingles whatsoever. He's funny, unique, and he's also a secretary for the mission. But sometimes we have other Elders that are leaving or arriving to other places in the mission, so were basically home base for them.

Today is P-day obviously, and we always go the Canchas and play soccer and basketball. Mission president always comes and plays aggressively (he gets way into it) its cool. I actually played horse with just him in b-ball and won him, haha. Its gonna be very sad and different when he leaves for the next change of the new mission president. We also walked around the Centro of Queretaro and checked some places out. This past week I went on splits or divisiones with other Elders, that was nice. We taught some more lessons this past week. On the mission, its always important to be obedient, and to give your ALL - heart, might, mind, and strength- its amazing. 

So I've seen a lot of Elders with Rubiks cubes and deacons collars, haha funny. Lately Ive been reading el Libro de Mormon in Spanish a lot. And I can get a pretty good idea of what I'm reading. The Spanish is coming, little by little, day by day. Sometimes I'd like to know what Latinos would feel like if they served an English mission, haha. I understand more from White people speaking Spanish than Latinos with a severe heavy thick accent, haha. But with time, Ill get it, I'm understanding more every day.

So in our mission, we baptize about 15 every week right now. But for June, our mission goal is 100 for the whole month, I hope we can do it. So far, I've seen four baptisms, so that's cool. Its really quick, a few spiritual thoughts, songs, the baptism, and congratulations, and meetings here are hardly ever on time. 

So in a normal day of life right now for me: I wake up, exercise (sometimes go run up the street about 3 fourths of a mile to play B-bal!, shower, eat breakfast, and start personal study, which I love. Then Comp study for 2 hours, and then language study for one hour. Then by 12 we leave, teach or contact people, have lunch with a member about 2:30 or 3. Then we go teach and proselyte more until 9 and we return to the casa. I eat something, write in my journal, hang out, and go to bed before 10:30 most of the time. The 8 hours is the fastest 8 hours of sleep ever, feels like 10 minutes.

So I was thinking, Eternal life is Super Awesome. How incredible of a fact that we can live with our families (which brings the most happiness) and God FoReVeR in complete happiness! Super amazing, my mind can't even wrap around that.

Also, the people down here are like direct descendants of Lehi, and its common for them to have dreams about the gospel, which is really cool. 

Also, if any of you ever want to write me a physical letter, it only needs one American Stamp, send it to this address (always to the mission office for my entire mission):

Avenida Pie de la Cuestra No. 102

Esq. Boulevard Desarrollo San Pablo
Colonia Colinas de San Pablo
C.P. 76125 Querétaro, Queretaro
Mexico

Sometimes it takes like a month for the mail to come, but estabien. 

I KNOW THE CHURCH AND ALL OF ITS TEACHINGS ARE TRUE. Things are great right now, and I'm excited for another great week, and hope y'all have a wonderful week!

From,

Elder Russon

May 30, 2016