everything collapsed on me and the email was lost. So now I have to
start all over again. But I will survive!
So the transfers are in! Are you ready to hear some craziness? I was
really surprised! Elder Neeley is getting transfered and is being
sent to the Lake Nokomis Ward. It is over in South Minneapolis. And
I am staying here in the Twin Cities YSA ward again! Craziness! I
was definitely not expecting it but I am really excited to stay here
longer. My new companion is going to be Elder Truman. He is from St.
George and has been on his mission for 4ish months longer than me. He
is going to be my first companion that has been on a mission for
longer than me other than Elder Farnsworth. Coolness! I am really
excited. So we are going to party it up here and try to have a few
more baptisms. Elder Truman is an awesome missionary and so hopefully
we can see some good success. We'll see what happens! I am really
sad to see Elder Neeley leave though. I have had a blast serving with
him! We have gotten along really well and had a lot of success
together too. It's been fun. But this area is really different than
any other area in the mission and so it is good for him to get the
boot and have some more experience in a different area. He's going to
have a lot of good success on his mission!
Other great news! TX and TS were baptized on Saturday! Hooray!
Elder Neeley baptized TS and I baptized TX. It was really fun. After
I baptized TX, we were walking up the steps into the bathroom and he
was like, "That was awesome!" Ha ha. I thought it was funny. It
really is awesome though! Both TX and TS are students at the U of M.
TS is a girl and TX is a boy. They didn't know each other until the
day of the baptism actually but it was good for them to have another
person being baptized at the same time. There is a really strong
spirit at baptisms. It's amazing. We had two investigators at the
baptism and there is no way you can't feel that special spirit as
these people are participating in this ordinance. The Church is so
true! The next day in church, I confirmed TS and then a member of the
ward confirmed TX. It was really great! It was a good way to finish
off the transfer.
Did I mention a _______ last week? Probably. She is the one that
called the institute when we were in the middle of ward council. She
wanted to change her life back around. Yes I did mention her because
we have a baptismal date with her set for Ashley's wedding day! :)
Anyway, we are facing many adventures with her. She has a lot of
difficult struggles in her life and so we are helping her work through
them. It's interesting learning to deal with all of the challenges
you are faced with. She knows the church is true and wants to be
baptized really bad but has other obstacles that she needs to work
out. Other people have a really hard time coming to know if the
church is true or not. And other people have family struggles.
Something I have learned a lot about in the last few months is that
everyone is going to have problems as they head to baptism. So the
key is to not sit back and pray that no challenges come, but to
instead plan on challenges and then learn to deal with them when they
arise. And this is a similar principle of life! And I really believe
that that is one of the reasons we need the full gospel of Jesus
Christ. It is the only rock in our life that will help us to deal
with all of the problems and challenges that hit us in life. The
gospel is the only thing that can solve everything. It's great!
Yes, it is true. My shoes were either misplaced or stolen. Ha ha!
It was so funny. But it is a bummer though. My other pair of shoes
are in really good shape though and so they will easily be able to
last me for the rest of my mission. No problem. SO don't worry about
getting me another pair. And who knows! Maybe my shoes will
magically show up again! Ha ha!
Last letter I mentioned that we had just taught a guy and he accepted
the invitation to be baptized. He has done a ton of research about
the church and knows a lot. He is actually from India and was raised
Hindu but doesn't follow it at all. So we taught him for the second
time this week and he is SOLID. He is a definite baptism soon to
happen. It may be in either march or april but it will happen soon.
He also came to watch the baptism on saturday and we will be teaching
him again tonight. So excited!
Unfortunately, not everything in missionary work is always happy.
_______ who we had set to be baptized on March 17th is having
difficulties. After the last time we taught her and set her date for
baptism, we didn't hear from her for a week or so because she had a
lot of things going on. Well after that she told us that she doesn't
want to be baptized anymore and she wants to explore other churches
too. Noooooo! We were sad. Because she has totally felt the spirit
in our lessons and as she's read and everything. But something has
happened that we don't know quite what and she backed out. She does
have a lot of pressure from family and from friends and so we are
worried about that. It just makes me really sad. You can't deny the
feeling of the spirit! It's a bummer but we are hoping she will let
us at least meet with her again to talk about it all. We'll see.
I watched the wedding invitation! I just didn't play the music. Is
the music important at all? But it is SO GREAT! Ashley, you are
totally getting married!!! Weird. It's so exciting!
Also, I'm an UNNNNCCCLEEE!!!!! Yes!!! I was so excited when I got
the letter with pictures of little Emilia. Awe man! Make sure she
knows that i am her favorite uncle! Congrats to Brian and Jen!
MJ, good luck in New York! It is the best thing ever! I am so pumped
for you. And congrats to michael for getting to the finals of
sterling scholar. Good luck with your interview!
So many exciting things are happening in the family! Life is just too
good. I am very happy.
I better go. We're going to go bowling! Cool huh? We have several
missionaries here and several peeps from the ward too. It's great!
Love you guys!
-Elder Ruesch
p.s. we're supposed to get a ton of snow tomorrow! WOrd!
