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.
