March 21. 2011

I know how much suspense you have been sitting in waiting for this
email home :) Maybe. But yes, the .............. did get BAPTIZED!
Could anything cooler happen? Nope, I don't think so. The fact that
we baptized an entire family still hasn't sunk in yet. I feel like
I'm living in the Twilight Zone. It is such an amazing blessing and
it was a wonderful experience. They were way excited and everything
went really well. Satan always works his hardest on people the week
before they get baptized, and although they did have a few interesting
things happen, they were as solid as a rock. What a cool family! The
baptisimal service was at 11 o'clock on saturday. Lots of members of
the ward showed up and it was so cool to see all of the support that
this family had. A man from the ward baptized the parents and son and
then Elder Farnsworth baptized Brieanna the youngest daughter. Such a
cool experience. The spirit was so strong. President Howell also
came to the service as well, but it sounds like you already know that
since he called you. He spoke after they were baptized and his
testimony is always so strong. The Plymouth Ward here is the BOMB and
they really know how to take care of their converts. The Bishop
bought every person getting baptized their own complete set of
scriptures with their name engraved and all along with some other
gifts. And then President Howell gave each of them a white
hankerchief with their name on it too. This is an unbelievably
amazing family and are going to rock Satan's world, that is for sure.

And then there was Sunday. We confirmed them at church and I was
scared out of my pants. I actually ended up confirming both the son
and daughter. Fortunately, it went pretty well and I don't think I
ruined their eternal salvation or anything. Let's hope not. It
actually felt really great and I loved having the opportunity to do
the confirmations for them. The spirit was really strong in the
sacrament meeting and it was so great for the whole ward to see this
family because now the ward is PUMPED about missionary work.

Elder Farnsworth and I have actually really had some major promptings
that the Plymouth Ward is about ready to explode with missionary work
and that a lot members have people that they know they can bring to
the gospel. We are just trying to figure out the best way to push
this ward along and get them to start making steps to intriduce their
friends to the gospel. Hopefully, the baptism of this family was a
nice wake up call for people.
Elder Farnsworth and I were actually both asked to speak in Sacrament
Meeting on Sunday as well. So that was nice for us to quickly just
discuss missionary work and try to explain to the ward how important
it is. Everything turned out pretty well and I think that the ward is
excited.

So that baptism obviously wins for coolest thing that ever happens in
my Mission. But some other sweet stuff happened this week too! I
actually went on two exchanges this week. THe first one was on
Tuesday and it was my first REAL exchange that actually went for 24
hours. I went to Uptown with an Elder up there and it was dang fun.
The best thing that happened was we went contacting in Downtown
Minneapolis! It was so sweet!! I love big cities and I took a super
cool picture. It was also funny because we ran into some Born Again
Christians who were also out preaching and got into
some...interesting...conversations with them. Actually, the guy I was
talking to was super nice and listened to me a lot and I really
enjoyed my discussion with him. I couldn't Bible bash with him
because I don't know many Bible references. So it was easy! I just
bore my testimony and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was a cool guy.
My Companion, on the other hand, didn't have as good of an
experience. So he got very frustrated and he had a pretty heated
conversation with some guy. Eventually, we just left because things
weren't going anywhere. And as we were leaving, something odd
happened. This random Somalian guy with an eye patch came up to us
and told us some scripture references we should use next time. We
were a little shocked and so we got talking to him and it turns out he
is Mormon. Very interesting but cool! I wonder what his story is
like because missionaries can't teach anyone that is Muslim unless
they are incredibly sincere. And even then I think you have to have
approval to teach them from Salt Lake. This is because if they go
back to their country and have converted to Christianity then their
family will kill them. A little psycho!

The next day, Wednesday, we did one other exchange and I ended up
being back in Plymouth with one of our Zone Leaders, attempting to run
the area. Scary? Totally. I was way stressed out but the day went
pretty good. Nothing bad happened at least! Which is good.

On Friday we finally got to teach ...............! He is the man that
we met with at the Bishop's house that first week that I was here. He
is the nicest guys you will ever meet and I was amazed at how
spiritual he is. One of the most spiritual people I have ever met and
can very easily recognize the Spirit. I was impressed. I was also
really nervous for this lesson because Elder Farnsworth forced me to
take the lead but it turned out going really really well somehow. The
spirit was really strong as we talked. We taught him the
restoration. Infact, he said that he knows he needs to be baptized
before we even invited him! That was amazing! He is super great
friends witht the Bishop's family and he can see the difference in a
family that is part of the church. He loves the spirit that Mormon's
have. Such a neat guy. So we committed him to baptism but didn't
actually set a date because he has many health difficulties and so we
want him to set the date himself so that he can shoot for something he
knows he can do. It might be quite a while before he ever gets
baptized but I know that he will eventually. Some things just take
time.

Guess what else happened on Friday that was freaking awesome??? I
will give you time to think but I can guarantee that you will never
guess it. I went to see a MUSICAL!!!! Now don't get all crazy on me
and think that I'm just getting all rebelious and breaking the rules.
This was a musical at the middle school in Plymouth. The bishop's son
was in it and so the whole family was going and our investigator was
also going. Because of this, the Bishop's wife invited us to come
along. So we called President Howell and he was totally cool with us
going. It not only gave us the chance to bond more and become better
friends with our investigator, it gave us the chance to get closer to
the Bishop's family too. We want their trust and friendship so that
we can all work together in the most effective way possible. Plus,
musicals are just the best thing of my life. They were doing
Seussical the musical and I was incredibly impressed. For a middle
school play it was dang good! Oh man, talk about awesome. It was
relaxing and wonderful to just have the chance to remember my actual
life for a minute. I miss the good ol days of musicals and choir.
Good times! But don't you worry, it did not let me get distracted
from the work in any way.

It has been a DELICIOUS week. Full of excitement and fun. The
member's we are living with are out of town and so they put the mail
on hold and so I wont be getting any mail you sent until Tursday
unfortunately... But I will survive!

Thanks for all of your love and support. I am going to send home some
pictures soon. And jonny, good luck on your play!! I expect you to
dominte like crazy! You'll do great. And michael, keep singing your
face off.
Grandma is always in my prayers! You guys are the best family ever.
Love,
Elder Morgan Ruesch

March 14th

Guess who get's baptized this week?

Yay! I cannot belive that this week I will see my first Baptism. Things are going great with the ................. They are totally mormon and people in the ward that meet them for the first time keep telling us that they thought the .......................... were members already. I just can't believe that we were able to find this amazing family so quickly. The bishop of our ward (who is unbelievably good) said that if all I did was find this family on my mission it would be a great success. So that's it, I'm satisfied. I'll be coming home on a flight in a week. Ha! Tricked you. But really, this family is amazing! Kingdom builders for sure. And don't worry. I will make sure to take pictures with the family at their baptism

And guess what? The ..................... want mostly members of the ward to perform the baptisms and confirmations, which is good! However, the 8 year old girl, asked if Elder Farnsworth would baptize her and if I would confirm her. So that will be AWESOME! Speaking of .................. She needs to send a Flat Stanley to someone somewhere outside of Minnesota and so her mom asked if she could send it to my family. Sweet huh? I gave her the address to home and she should be mailing it today. So mom, expect a Flat Stanley from the McGuire's in Minnesota. There should be instructions as to what to do and then you just send it back. If you could do that it would be great! Thanks!

Pictures. I've taken some pictures and was going to try and upload them onto the computer when I realized that I left the cord at home. At least I think I did because I don't remember packing it. Could you send the cord to me? That would be great. I'm sorry that I keep on making you send packages but I guess I'm not actually that sorry because getting packages is the best! So the cord I need is in mom's office in the cupboard above the desk. The same cupboard where we keep all the thank you cards and stuff but it should be on the top shelf. You will know it is the right cord because it should have a USB connecter as well as the 3 video/audio plugs that you can put into TV's. And it should say SONY on it.

This week was a week with a lot of tracting. It started out slow and we weren't really seeing any success but the Lord knew that we were working and he took care of us! This is an important principle I am learning and one that you should keep in mind MJ for your missions. ALWAYS be working. If you have 30 minutes of time open and don't know what to do, find something effective to do. Go tracting, contracting, call people and try to set up appointments, whatever. You can not afford to stop. Then what happens is that you show the Lord that he can trust you with his work and you are doing everything you can. Like I said, we did lots of tracting this week and we didn't find anyone directly from knocking on doors. But then on Saturday (Notice that it is the end of the week) we went to have dinner with an awesome member family and guess what? They gave us a potentially really solid refferral! We are going to try and work with it. And then on Sunday we were leaving an apartment complex after teaching a first lesson to a guy. As we were leaving the elevator this lady stops us and was all excited to see us. It turns out that she has tons of Mormon friends and knows a lot about the church. She was even really good friends with the family that we ate dinner with on Saturday (not the same person as the refferral though). So we helped her take her groceries back to her apartment and we talked for a bit. She told us that she liked our church but didn't really want to learn from us or anything. She was SUPER talkative and also told us that Sister ............. had told her about a young couple that just moved into her same apartment complex that was Mormon and she wanted to go meet them. It just so happens that this new couple are the ward missionaries in our ward and they have come teaching with us several times. But wait! There's more. Coincidenally, we were having dinner with them that night! Anyway, one thing led to another and we got Sister ............. to invite her to dinner. She came and we all had a very nice time. We can tell that she is very friendly to the church and knows a lot about it but just doesn't necessarily want to go to a church and so the lesson we shared wasn't anything super special. She is the type of person that will get baptized eventually, all we have to do is just help her along slowly until she is ready. So no, we didn't get a new investigator out of this experience but we did find and meet a person that we can slowly work with to help open the door to the gosel. Hopefully, she will eventually be willing to let us teach her and get baptized. Who knows! But isn't that story cool? Everything was too much of a coincidence for it to be a coincidence. The Lord takes care of you when you are willing to work!

The ..................... aren't really progressing. They want to be a part of this church but wont show any commitment. The wife has been ill recently and they went out of town over the weekend so they couldn't come to church. I'm sure they'll get baptized but who knows how soon and how active they will be. That's why we're really trying to get them to have a doctrinal conversion. The Book of Mormon is SO important!

Sunday was great. We had the family getting baptized at church plus several of the less actives we're working with came too. Oh it felt so nice! So relieving. Sunday's are stressful.

I don't think I ever mentioned this but the missionaries before us in this area were not obedient and so this area was dying. That is why we are seeing so much success because the Lord was wanting to bless the Plymouth area but he couldn't because of the missionaries disobedience. And then when we came, all we did was follow the rules and things exploded in the area! Obedience is THE MOST important thing on a mission. It is key to success and your faith. Oh the many delicious things that you learn on a mission.

A fantastic week! I'm sure in an hour I will remember all the things I forgot to say and it will not be cool. But for now, it sounds like everyone's lives are awesome. I love getting letters and emails from you! I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time to write long reply's back. Oh and thanks for the package!! It makes me so happy and my companion so jealous!

Here we go for another great week :)

Love,

Elder Ruesch

March 7, 2011

Holy smokes, these weeks fly by at light speed. This week went pretty well. I had my first Zone Conference on Tuesday. We went down to the mission office and recieved some training from our zone leaders and then from President Howell and his wife. President Howell is seriously unbelievably amazing. And so is his wife. They are the kindest people in the whole world and are incredibly close to the spirit. When they are released this summer they are going to live in Alpine in our stake most likely. Which means he's going to be the next stake president! Most likely. It will be awesome.

Last Monday I said that I needed a shoe horn but after I emailed you we stopped at a Nordstrom Rack and they actually had FREE metal shoe horns. So I took one. I feel bad since you sent one off already. But now I can have two? Ha ha. I haven't gotten the package yet that you said you sent but I'm sure it will come soon. Also, mom you probably noticed but I did use the credit card. Elder Farnsworth and I went to an outdoor store last P-Day and I bought some thick socks and super intense mittens. All the winter stuff is on sale now that winter is near it's end. I don't actually need the mittens or anything now but I will in the dead of winter next year so I figured I would buy then when they are on sale! Yay! Hopefully that is okay with you. I'm sure it is.

I was also thinking about pictures. I took several pictures in the MTC and a few so far out in the field. Actually we went and walked out on one of the many frozen lakes the other day and took a picture. Pretty cool! But I was wondering how we want to work this out with getting the pictures home and all that jazz. Elder Farnsworth will just move all of his pictures onto a flashdrive and then sends the memory card home. I think that is a pretty good idea. I will probably do that same thing but send the flash drive home every once in a while because I only have one memory card. Sound good to you? If you have any other killer diller ideas just let me know!

Oh! I also went on my first exchange this week. It was fun! Elder Farnsworth is the District Leader and he had to go to a leadership conference so I spent the first half of the day with an Elder in the East Bloomington area. Another Elder came with us too. This was fun because this area is a BIKE AREA! It was awesome! We did our studies in the morning and had some lunch and then we had to go to an appointment with an investigator. Riding a bike around made me feel like a real missionary. So great! It was a party. The lesson went well and I had a blast. Plus the two elders I was with were pretty cool and so it was a good experience for my first exchange. Quite excellent.

Yesterday was Stake Conference which was cool. It actually was a multi-stake dealio of stakes from 6 or 7 states in the midwest. Because of that we had a broadcast from Salt Lake City where Elder Eyering, and Elder Cook both spoke to us. Also the Presiding Bishop and the General Young Woman President spoke to us. It was a really good meeting. But that wasn't the only exciting part. This stake conference was special for our stake because the Stake Presidency needed to me reorganized. Our old stake president has been called to be a mission president in Guatemala. So we had Elders Jensen and Payne from the Seventy come down and they called our new stake president and all that business. It was cool and the fella that had been called to be the new stake president is supposed to be this unbelievably amazing guy. I don't know him, but I'm sure he is awesome.

We taught the......... family twice this week and it went really well. The dad was in Mormon 6 on Saturday when we met with them and so I'm sure that he is done with the Book of Mormon by now. They just love the BoM and it is so fun to discuss things with them. They came to stake conference yesterday too and liked it a lot. They just rock this world! Their baptism is a week from this saturday which is really exciting!

We finally met with a family on Thursday that we have been trying to meet with for two weeks. They had a lot of questions for us and so we taught them about the trinity and also we got really deep into the premortal life. They asked us questions about where we believed Lucifer came from and things. He is a devout seventh day adventist and she is a floater who just goes wherever to church. They seemed to think that our beliefs were interesting and made sense to them but I don't see them ever wanting to give up the way they do church now. But we'll try to meet with them again sometime soon and see if they are still open to learn.

We met with ........... on Saturday but his wife couldn't come because she was in a lot of pain. I guess her tooth is cracked. Sounds not fun. But we taught him more about the Book of Mormon and emphasized how to come to know that it is true. He is such a great guy and I think it made sense to him. They are already dead set on becoming mormon and so we are just trying to do everything that we can to make sure that they have a true doctrinal conversion. Oh and we pushed their baptisimal date back to April 9th so that they can have the chance to come to sacrament meeting a few times before they are baptized. They were totally cool with it. Such nice people!

On Saturday we also had an interesting experience. Elder Farnsworth and I went to go help a woman in our ward move some heavy things into her house. She is a member but her mom and sister are not members and they came to help as well. We did the work and the mom and sister started asking us questions about our missions and things and we eventually got into a very intense discussion on some of our beliefs and the structure of our church. The mother has talked with millions of missionaries and thinks that the prophet is just running this authoritarian system over us and that the whole structure of our church is just wrong. It was weird. The thing that I found interesting was that, just like any other missoinary we put everything on the BoM. And has she read it? No. So of course she doesn't believe that President Monson is a Prophet. Same thing goes with the sister. If you don't give the Book of Mormon a shot then you are never ever going to discover that our church is right. The problem is that people don't want to leave their tradition or change their ways and so they don't even care to test it out. I think it is so weird how many people just pick and choose what doctrines they want to believe in their church instead of look for a church that has it ALL right. Crazy. But anyway, this discussion was good for me because I was reminded of how important the Book of Mormon really is.

We did quite a bit of tracting this week and it was fun. We have been trying really hard to find new investigators that we can start teaching but all of our finding efforts have not been very successful yet. But it's okay, we will keep looking for those who are ready to hear us! And I'm getting more comfortable with talking to people and all that business. It's starting to turn into a game a little bit. Every person is different and you can find some really WEIRD people. It's hilarious. Yesterday this lady answered the door and she obviously was drinking or something and so we talked to her for a bit and asked when we could come by and meet with her (obviously knowing that she didn't care at all) and she said very maturely, "Maybe in a hundred years!" And then slammed the door. We could then hear her running back to her friend and they were both laughing their heads off. Elder Farnsworth and I also couldn't stop laughing too because she was definitely six years old still in a 50 year old body. It's people like her that I just feel bad for in life.

Oh and you asked about the man who we met with at the bishops house. He is still really interested but he has had to cancel the last two appointments because he was sick and he had to work so we haven't met with him since the first lesson we had with him. He is such a nice guy and he actually is very intrigued with our church. Things just haven't worked out yet for us to meet with him again. But we're supposed to meet this friday.

Minnesota is awesome. It's been pretty warm lately, like 25 degrees! Seriously, that is warm. It snowed again yesterday and is supposed to again this week but fortunately it is still warming up. I love it here. Obviously, you can find some pretty mean people but for the most part the people in minnesota are so nice. I really love it. Life it great! Missionary work is hard but unbelievably rewarding. This church is freaking true!

Love,

Elder Morgan Ruesch

P.S. I keep forgetting to tell you that it is a rule to part your hair and so I look like a total goof! i'm surprised anyone takes me seriously. I will send pictures eventually. You should send me pictures of life at home too! Please.