Well hey! This has also been a most excellent week. The last two weeks have been incredibly successful at finding new investigators to teach. Which is exactly what we needed. The amount of lessons with investigators we are teaching now each week has gone from like 3 a few weeks ago to now 12 this week. Awesome? Yes. Talk about super blessings!
First off, ________ is doing excellent. We met with him on Friday and he commited to live the Word of Wisdom. He also came to church yesterday and had a fantastic time. He is really doing well and we are all so excited for his baptism. We did have to move the day of it back a little bit though to May 7th ish. It isn't set in stone yet and Charles is deciding on a definite date that he can do. The only reason we had to change it was because there are a few people he wanted to come that couldn't be there on the 30th of April. If you're excited and you know it clap your hands!
I think I mentioned______ last week. She is the one that has a really hard life. We met with her again and the lesson went much better than the first one. We had a pretty good lesson about the Book of Mormon. And we also gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and commited her to read it. And guess what? She likes it! That tends to happen when people will actually read the Book of Mormon. Funny how that works huh? She read some of the BoM and the pamphlet with her other half/boyfriend who is in a nursing home and he was like, "where do we sign up?" So it sounds like promising things can come from these too. They really need the gospel because it will provide so much comfort and peace for them.
Also, last week I believe I quickly mentioned a cool young couple that we had found. Maybe? Anyway, they are awesome! They are engaged and will be married on Memorial day. We met with them on Tuesday for our second visit with them and she had actually read what we asked her to from the BoM. It was awesome! In fact, she read more than we asked. She decided to skip to the last chapter to see how it ends which was a pleasant suprise. What better chapter for someone to decide to read than Moroni 10? So she liked it and thought it was interesting. He hadn't read anything and felt pretty bad about it actually. They are both just very open and willing to learn about other religions. They are like the coolest people in the world though. He is RIPPED and actually does training for like UFC fighting. He doesn't actually fight but he trains with people that do. It's just his hobbie. And he is a pretty successful contractor too which is impressive in these tough times. She is a kick boxing instructor at a nearby gym. They are just way cool. It's so fun to visit with them. I hope they get baptized!
We met with ________ again this week too. She is such a neat lady! The great thing about her is that although she has a million concerns with the church, she is very open with those concerns and so we can just talk about it with her and help her to understand where we are coming from. She doesn't want to change at all and she is very set in her religion. But she is very open to learning about the things we believe and actually considers the fact that it could be true. So that is a start at least. It's all down to the good ol' Book of Mormon now. As soon as she starts to feel like the BoM is true then that really solves every concern that she has. Heavenly Father is seriously so cool. The Book of Mormon is everything and it is just absolutely amazing that he has made it available for us to use as the biggest tool in conversion. Missionary work wouldn't be possible without the Book of Mormon.
We also got a referral last week for a woman named _________. This whole story is very interesting. Her boyfriend that lives in Indiana is seriously investigating the church and so he referred her to us. Side note: keep in mind, when we get a referral it comes in a text and has VERY LITTLE information. So when we call or stop by a referral we are usually doing it blind without any info. Anyway, back to the story, we went to her house and she invited us right inside and let a teach a quick lesson (which rarely happens). Very nice lady. Come to find out she has an atheist background and has never been a church goer. So even the basics are very foreign to her like prayer. And that is what we taught, just a quick lesson on prayer. We had a very nice conversation with her and she is pretty interested in learning everything that we believe. We're really going to work with her and try to help her gain her own testimony. It is going to be interesting teaching someone that not only doesn't have a Christian background, but doesn't even have a background of a belief in God. And I'm really excited for it!'
Many other good things happen everyday and I wish I could tell you about them all! We see little miracles all the time. But those are the main people we're working with. Also, we are working with several less active people. The work is going really good and we are seeing lots and lots of wonderful success. I love it! I wish everyone would just join the church and live it. They don'y know what they are missing!
As for Minnesota, guess what? There is this green stuff that some people like to call grass. And we can see it! It's a miracle! Also, the lakes actually have movement now and have some real water instead of being frozen solid. It's great! Minnesota is freaking gorgeous. The weather is awesome too. It will rain occasionally but also has some beautiful sunny days. Oooo and guess what else? Yesterday we had our first tornado warning. That was fun. It didn't get serious at all but the sky was pretty dark. Apparently when a tornado is coming the sky gets horribly black and green colored. That will be fun to see. And don't worry, mom! I do have brains. I will be safe. Besides, the Lord is on my side! And we caught two frogs the other day. That was fun.
Minnesota is great and I am having lots and lots of fun. I feel like I have been out for 25 years but at the same time it feels like 4 seconds. It's crazy how that makes sense.
By the way, mom, I do like getting the updates from my other missionary friends. I like hearing how they are doing!
The work is great and hard and great and fun and also hard. But it's great! And I love it. Thanks for all the support and love! Can't wait to talk to you in a month.
Love,
Elder Morgan Ruesch
