October and April General Conference. And now that conference is
done, today we get to whip out the short sleeve shirts and slacks. So
now I'm rockin the short sleeves with out a suit coat and dang I look
good! Ha ha. Not really. But it sure does feel good. Yesterday was
really warm. It was in the 50's. Unfortunately, there is this
horrible thing that I like to call wind and it tends to cause some
problems and pulls the temp. down. Oh well. Pretty soon it will be
unbearably hot and so I'm going to enjoy the time I have where it is
almost warm.
Conference was awesome. I'm pretty sure this is the first Conference
that I made it through every session without falling asleep. That is
an accomplishment. And it felt good. The talks were excellent like
usual and I loved it. And geez, I even felt bad for not being married
and I'm a missionary! What do they expect me to do? Ha ha. I did
think it was interesting how much they talked about it. No wonder so
many RM's get married so fast.
For the first session on saturday we went and watched it with the
McGuires at their house. It was way fun. Their first session of
General Conference ever! Pretty awesome. And they enjoyed it. It
was also super great to see Mike and Quiton at the priesthood session
that night. They are just full blown mormon already. They adapted to
the church super easily and they just love it. So cool!
We watched the second session with some members and that was fun. We
have made some really great friendships with a lot of the members
here. The Plymouth ward is the bomb. That picture that you got of us
from was actually after the Priesthood Session at Smash Burger. It
was so sweet because the entire ward went there. Talk about sweet!
Smash Burger was flooded with at least 60 random mem at 9 o'clock at
night. They must have been a little confused but it was way fun.
Also! Charles and his son Amery came to the Priesthood session with
us too. Charles loved the session and he is doing really well.
Infact, Charles also came to the Bishop's house yesterday and watched
the final session with us too. It was so great to have him there. We
taught Charles on Friday. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it went
pretty well. I really hope that Charles will be baptized on the set
date. His baptism is tenatively scheduled right now for April 30th.
But I think I already told you that. He is progressing well so far!
And he really is such a good guy. And things are going well. I think
the only thing that might hold him up is his health. But the Lord
will provide a way!
We actually picked up a few new investigators this week. It was
great! The week before went pretty slow and then this last week
finally picked up quite a bit. We found a lot of potential
investigators actually and 5 of them have turned into actual
investigators. One woman that we started teaching, her best friend in
the world is Mormon. We tracted into her and she had a lot of
questions so we got an appointment and taught her this week. She
could potentially be very solid. The biggest thing will be if she
reads the BOM. If she does then honestly, I think she'll get
baptized. She is a busy mom though and life is crazy. Things will be
especially good if we can involve her husband and kids too. So we
have another appointment this week and we will see how she is doing
and let you know! Elder Farnsworth and I are actually very excited
about her!
We also got a referral for a woman who has a really hard life. Her
other half/boy friend (they never actually got married) is in a health
center and has been for many months over the past couple years. He
had a stroke and that began all of the problems. There is no way I
could go into it all, just know that she is an emotional wreck. We
met with her and some pretty amazing things have happened. Her other
half actually had some sort of a vision to not worry and that people
were on the way and then that is when we called her. We met with her
once and she has been doing better emotionally since and we are going
to meet with her again soon. The hope is that we can help her to gain
a testimony and she can notice the effect it has on her life and
she'll want to be baptized. Let's hope!
We also met with this really awesome young couple yesterday. They
were so open and willing to listen. We actually found her by just
talking to her in a parking lot of a grocery store. Benefits of
talking to everyone! So we are excited about them too. We'll see how
everything plays out.
The last investigator we picked up is a girl we also tracted into.
Man, tracting actually works and it is awesome! She is a little
interesting but we have a couple appointments set up with her already
and we'll see what happens. It is so suspenseful to have to wait to
teach all these people. Ha ha.
The work is going awesome! Missions teach you so much about people
and about the world. I love it! Plymouth is really a great area and
a lot of awesome success is coming from it. I love it here.
Minnesota is the bomb. I could totally live here someday. I wonder
if they make any rockets around here... ha ha.
Life at home sounds like it is great. I am still praying for grandma
and I'm glad to hear she is doing okay. There is a woman in the ward
here who had ovarian cancer and had to get surgeory and do chmo and
stuff like that but it's all gone now and she is still alive and happy
and healthy! That was comforting to talk to her :)
I miss you guys tons! Things are going really great in the land of 10
BILLION lakes. Minnesota is awesome. By the way, no one really has
much of an accent. I was disappointed. The only difference is that
everyone says beg intead of bag. Other than that most people have no
accent at all! Someday I will find a person with a thick Minnesotan
accent and I will let you know. That will be a good day.
Elder Farnsworths BDay was Saturday and his dad sent him some steaks
in the mail. It was hilarious. So today we are going to grill up
some steaks and play ping pong with two other Elders. I'm excited!
Love you so much! Thanks for all the updates.
-Elder Ruesch
