talked to you guys but it has only been a week. Geepers. Talk about
intense.
My new companion's name is Elder Hirschi (pronounced like the
chocolate: Hershey). We are going to have a good time together. He
is a good kid. He is from Layton, Utah. The funny thing is that he
is actually older than me and so it feels kinda weird to be training
him. But oh well. It's not like I have much to teach him with all
the massive amounts of experience I have gained. Ha ha. But we are
working hard and, boy, did he sure get thrown right into the work.
This was one of the busiest weekends I've had and so he got the full
experience. Fortunately, he is courageous and willing to jump right
in and so he's had no problem getting involved in the lessons and
everything. It will take time for him to get used to the missionary
life but hey, he's doing really well. I'm excited to work with him
for the next three months. We're going to party AND baptize!
Before I build up too much suspense I will start by letting you know
that the baptism didn't happen. Last weekend he kind of fell off the
boat for a while and we couldn't get ahold of him. However, we
finally caught him at his house on tuesday and got back in contact.
Finally, on Friday Elder Hirschi and I had a really really great
lesson with him. We discussed the concerns that he had and worked
through them and I know he is all set to move forward again. He
really does want to be baptized he just had a few things holding him
up. But now we're good. In fact, yesterday before church he had his
baptisimal interview and he passed with flying colors. So his baptism
is set for May 28th. We're excited and so is he. Speaking of
________ and church. Yesterday I sang in sacrament meeting. It went
okay, thank goodness. It was really great though because _________
accompanied me. It was neat. I really enjoyed it. I sang Be Still
My Soul. ________ is such a great guy and we had a good time.
Well, Elder Farnsworth is gone. He is now in the far distant land of
Winona, Wisconsin. The ward surely misses him but I'm sure he is
going to dominate in Winona. The weird thing is that this is his last
transfer. Weird.... I can't even picture myself in my last
transfer. It's too far away. I have a hard time believing that I'm
in my third transfer. It feels like time has gone by at light speed.
I had three different companions this week. That was kinda fun.
Elder Farnsworth left wednesday morning and I was with another Elder
who is training on wednesday. And then I picked up Elder Hirschi on
Thursday. Pretty eventful.
We met with __________ this week. She is so intelligent and asks so
many questions that we can never get through a whole lesson. But hey,
that's alright. We want her to ask questions. We have such good
discussions with her. Unfortunately, she has some sort of concern
that is keeping her from coming to church. We need to find out what
it is! I know that Church can help her. You know, that is one of the
coolest parts about being on a mission. You meet with so many people
and you have to kinda put a puzzle together from what we learn about
their life and try to find the specific part of the gospel that will
really affect them. It is such a hard thing to do. But the challenge
is fun. I've learned that everyone has some sort of concern about the
church whether it is big or small. The thing you have to do is help
them overcome that concern and then see the blessings that come from
life in this church. Good ol' missions.
The ___________ Family is progressing slowly but still progressing.
_________ came to church yesterday and he loved it. Unfortunately,
his older brother and mom didn't make it this week. But next week we
will try even harder to get them to come too! If we can just get the
whole family reading, praying, and coming to church then I know
they'll be baptized sometime in June. Easier said than done. We do
our best though.
Sunday was the craziest part of the week. We had three unexpected non-
members come to church making a total of five at church. It was
awesome. There is this older, less active lady who we visit every
once in a while and out of nowhere she brought her son's next door
neighbor with her to church! We had a good little chat with him and
hopefully will be able to teach him. That would be excellent! Also,
there is a girl in our ward who went to prom on saturday and she
brought along her prom date to church. He had some questions for us
and so we got to meet with him during the 2nd hour and teach him the
Restoration and gave him a BoM. He even started reading it during 3rd
hour and being an insanely fast reader he got through a ton of pages.
Now let's just hope he sincerely wants to know if it is true. There
is also another lady who we missionaries call an Eternigator, meaning
an investigator who has been investigating forever and probably will
forever. Nevertheless, she came to church today which is awesome and
maybe she is making closer steps to baptism. That would be great for
her. So then on top of those enexpected investigators at church we
had ________ and _______ come. It was great. The hardest part was
trying to make sure that everyone was taken care of and welcomed by
the ward. It was fun. I like busy stress much more than having
nothing happen.
Training a new missionary has been an interesting experience. It
isn't as hard as everyone makes it sound but that might be because I
got a good companion. It sure has pushed me harder though to be a
good missionary. For the first couple days I have to really lead and
control the area. Eventually Elder Hirschi will catch on though. One
of the nice things about this whole training at 3 months thing is that
it isn't too difficult to bring him up to my skill level. Ha ha.
Pretty soon he'll pass me up with all his skills. That will be fun.
Well, life is good. Now begins a new era in the timeline of my
missionary experience. It is exciting and fun. But a little scary
too. There are a lot of exciting things happening here in Plymouth
and the area is really starting to boom. Let's hope it doesn't go
anywhere but up from here!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MJ!!!!!!!! You guys are old foggies now. It's gonna
be fun.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I also hope that the
weather is good over there. It is beautiful over here! The trees are
all finally starting to get green. Minnesota is the bomb. I love it.
Love you all!
-Elder Morgan Ruesch
