MTC Week 5

December 13, 2011

Hey Hey Hey,

How’s it going?!?!? How is everyone?  Man, oh, man it’s so good to hear from you guys!  I will say it a million times but I LOVE MAIL , ha-ha!!!  I’m writing on a keyboard that has all of its characters scratched off so sorry if this email may have letters where they are not supposed to be.

Anyway, I’m doing pretty good.  Elder ---------- (Rachael) decided to head home so guess who got stuck with his equally as annoying companion....yeah, me and elder Zulauf.  I think getting Elder ------ is like God saying to me and Zulauf,  "You guys have been getting along so great, how ‘bout we give you this really annoying kid to drive you guys crazy”....in a sense.  So please, PLEASE pray for me that I won’t punch this kid.  Other than that, this week has been okay. It was kind of dull and I wasn’t really all that excited ‘cause now we've got Elder ------.  But yeah,  it was okay, nothing really new.

Thank you for all the mail and packages and mail! It was great! And Mom, I was so glad that Sis. Littlefield talked to you.  She is cool! I just want you to know that I am happy and that I am okay.  Yeah, there are some days that I just want to crawl back into bed because it's so hard but the moments where I really am happy and excited are the best.  I will talk more about this in my letter home (along with the answers to questions from your emails). 

This Christmas I just want everyone in the family to be happy.  As I have been thinking about why I decided to serve a mission the thought always comes back to me, I want others to have the same happiness I have felt in my life—the happiness that Families are forever, the happiness that we can have peace in this life, and the happiness that we have a Savior who loves us and wants the best for us and will never let us down. I just want people to be happy and that includes you guys. So this Christmas I just want for us to all be happy.

I know it's hard being away from each other for Christmas but as we really reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, knowing that we are all happy is just about the greatest gift ever. Would that be okay? I know it's a hard thing to be happy sometimes. This last week here it’s been pretty tough for me to be optimistic but I know that everything will get better soon and that if we both pray for each other to be happy then we will be. It's tough but really, just keep praying for me to be happy and I’ll do the same for you.

 I really love you guys.  I really do miss you guys but I’m really grateful to be where I am and I’m really grateful this mission is blessing you guys.

Well it's about time I log off because my time is running out but now I will go write you guys a letter.  Just know I love you guys so much and that it's all good and I'm having a blast here.  It's tough but do-able. I love you guys!  It's all good

 Con amor,

 Russ