Wuzzup!!
It's been a crazy busy week but really fun. I loved it! Monday and
Tuesday was full of scrambling to get everything ready before I left.
We said goodbye to a lot of people and I procrastinated my packing
until Tuesday night. Typical. Packing is the worst! But I had a
bunch of stuff that I collected over the past 16 months of my mission
and I sent it home in a box. Did you get that? I sent it on
Wednesday morning and so you probably didn't get it yet. But yeah, it
was sad to leave Dinkytown. It has been an awesome place to serve.
But I was ready for something new. And I got it!
So Wednesday we met at the mission home and 5 of us that were going to
the Rochester zone got in a big van and a member that lives in
Rochester drove us all down. It was about an hour and a half drive.
Not too bad. This is the farthest south zone in the mission. We got
here Wednesday afternoon, my companion picked me up, and we hit the
pavement. And we still haven't stopped moving a million miles an
hour. But man, I love it here!
Rochester is a way cool place. It is a decently sized city. But it
isn't really big. Nothing like Minneapolis. And there are a lot of
members here. There are 5 wards in Rochester. Elder Last and I cover
the 2nd Ward and the 4th Ward. There used to be a set of missionaries
in every ward but there wasn't enough work going on so President
started having missionaries cover multiple wards. Each ward is really
cool. The 2nd ward has what we call a YSA Magnet. Meaning, the 2nd
ward is a normal ward but it also acts kinda like a singles ward and
so all of the singles the live in or near Rochester will come to the
2nd ward. Which also means that if any missionaries have a YSA
investigator they will pass the investigator to us and we will start
teaching them. Pretty cool! I think that God knew I was going to
have a hard time adjusting from a Singles ward to a Family ward so he
gave me an ward that had both! It is very nice of Him. :) I LOVE
working with the YSA's. The 2nd ward has some really awesome
members. We live in the 2nd ward Bishop's house. He is awesome!
And then the 4th ward is full of FIREBALL members. Almost the entire
ward is young families. Pretty much 1/3 of the ward is the Primary.
There are SO many kids!! It's crazy. But the members here in
Rochester are all super solid. Most of them came from somewhere else
to work at the Mayo Clinic or to do a Residency there or something
else that is connected with the Mayo Clinic. The entire city revolves
around the Mayo.
When I got here on Wednesday we went to teach a family a first lesson
and they are solid. They didn't come to church this week but they
should next week and hopefully they can progress! There are also two
investigators here that already have a date set for baptism. One is a
teenage girl who's doing really well and her date is set for July 7th.
We also have a date set with this awesome guy! He's so cool. His
date is set for June 30th. He has a cool story. He had a friend who
was meeting with missionaries a long time ago and so he met the
missionaries before but never listened to them. And then a few years
ago he went to prison. So while he was in prison he got ahold of a
Gospel Principles manual somehow and read the whole thing and loved
it! After he got out of prison he called his friend and got the
missionaries number and called them! Now we are teaching him and he
is preparing to be baptized. He is way solid.
We also got a solid referral from a girl in the 4th ward. A girl in
middle school had a kid tell her that he wants to be Mormon and she
thought he was joking but it sounds like he was serious. Ha ha! So
she gave him a Book of Mormon and he is reading it and he came to
church. He also came to a ward activity that the 4th ward had this
morning for Memorial Day. He brought his Grandpa too and we talked to
them and his Grandpa wanted to have us come over. So hopefully we can
teach the whole family! We'll see what happens this week. Yay!
Elder Last is an awesome companion. We are having a lot of fun
together. It is really funny that we ended up serving together
because we've been serving around each other for our whole missions
pretty much. He is a really funny guy and I love serving with him.
Hopefully, we can get a lot of good work done! Oh by the way, it's a
small world but it actually turns out that Elder Last is Adam Kelsch's
cousin. Coolness, huh? It's very possible that I could have played
with Adam while Elder Last was there when we were little kids. I
think it is really funny.
Speaking of cousins, do you remember how Ryan told me to keep an eye
out for an Elder Katoa? Well I met him a long time ago and forgot to
mention it. But he is actually serving in the area right next to us.
Him and his companion are with us and we're about to go play some
BBall. Elder Katoa was good friends with Ryan back home.
I feel like there is so much to say but I don't know what else to
say. There is a lot of really great work going on here and I am so
pumped to be here. This week is going to be a really busy one too.
We have a meeting that we have to go to the mission home for tomorrow
and then Rochester has their zone conference on wednesday. That's
going to be fun! I love hearing from President. He is one inspired
man!
Oh yeah, it is really pretty here right now too. Everything is very
green for the summer. It is excellent!
Have a wonderful week. I know I will!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
