Hey Everyone!

The first part of Russell's letter is about Justin Robbe who graduated with Russell, he died in a plane crash last Monday. Nick's Father, Richard Johnson, died in the crash too, Nic Johnson is a friend of Aaron's, he graduated with Aaron. Hey Everyone! 8-22-11 At first I would like to talk about Justin and Nick's families. I know what just happened is super sad and it makes me sad, but I know that right now that family needs the gospel in their lives and this could be just the thing that can bring them closer to Christ. I know that they can see each other again someday and that we have a life after death I only wish now that I would have shared the gospel with Justin but I know that is in the past and all we can do is go forward in the present. We only have a short while to live on this earth and this life is unpredictable. It makes me want to teach everyone the gospel so they can feel of Heavenly Fathers mercy and love for us. I know it is only because of Christ that our families can be together forever and that he loved each and every single one of us to Atone for us I feel so blessed to know this sand feel it is so important to share it? We have such a wonderful message that we should be willing to share to everyone to show the world. This week was another great week and we have been working hard and doing good. Our Zone training went well we did a role play on how the spirit can guide people. We set five stones out and told the missionaries that they were the steps to Christ: 1st rock was faith in Christ 2nd was repentance 3rd was for baptism 4th was for receiving the Holy Ghost and 5th was for enduring to the end. We had two missionaries come up and help us, one was acting as a missionary and the other as an investigator and the investigator was blindfolded. We had him start at the beginning and the first time we just had the missionary bring him to baptism tand was not blessed with the Holy Ghost the missionary came and held his hand . Then we said the missionary that baptized him got transferred testimony wasn't strong enough and he didn't have the spirit to help him stand on his own. The second time we had the missionary bless him with the Holy Ghost and extend commitments and I was acting as the spirit and guiding him until the point when the missionary was transferred he wouldn’t be led away by the devil. So I thought it went well and so did the rest of our training. Hearing what everyone had to say just made me want to go out and work and the message we had was about finding families is so important. So that was the training we had this week and it was great! This week we had one baptism with Moro, Steven wanted to wait for his dad to see him baptized so we decided to postpone his baptism so his dad could see him. Lillian came back to church after 7 years of not going so that was super cool. Now I'll just continue to pray that she keeps coming to church.. We have been teaching two boys Geofry who is 19 and Kennedy who is 20 and both have friends in the church and are super powerful they both want to serve missions and do what their friends are going to do! Those two will be baptized next week man I am excited for Steven, Geofry and Kennedy they are all amazing and are even bringing their friends to church and have started doing missionary work already! After Moros was baptised he bore his testimony and it was super powerful he is only 10 and he talked about how after the baptism he felt so clean and holy and perfect and it was the coolest thing ever and I felt so happy for him and I know that that kid will be amazing. He is Esthers son and he is really funny and really cool. Sunday before church something great happened we were walking and Elder Cook contacted this one guy so I decided I should contact someone as well so I contacted this guy who had a family and gave him the Family a Proclamation to the World pamphlet and told him a little about it. Well on our way to the Ballyjusa family that evening Elder Cook saw him and talked to him and he told him he really liked what the pamphlet said and that our church said this and he has been looking for a church like this and he wants to go to church next Sunday so that was super and it felt so great! I feel that we have been working hard and now the Lord is giving us blessings and guiding us to families that can be blessed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this is the true and everlasting gospel I love this mission and I am so grateful to be among such a great people and to be with such wonderful missionaries such as my companion Elder Cook and My district. We had Mormon Helping Hands this week which was super wonderful and I loved working with these guys we helped clean up Ktoro and it was really messy and it still has a ton of work but we swept shoveled and raked for like 5 hours and we had a pretty big group it was fun too and really tiring I got super tired for the rest of the day mostly I think because I forgot sunscreen that wasn’t a good idea but I'm all good and it was such a good experience. I am glad to hear the family is doing good and having fun I love you guys and am so grateful I was raised in the gospel by such loving parents and my brothers and sisters and grandparents aunts and uncles and friends that have helped me. You guys are all so wonderful and I love you guys very much. Everything is going great here! I am doing wonderful and I am trying to learn more and more about the gospel and how it can help me in my life and how I can bless others. Love Elder Hildreth