Hello!
This is your favorite Elder reporting again for the week! It has been
a better week. So things are starting to pick up! We saw some
fantastic miracles and so we are happy.
A while ago I told you about our investigator who we were teaching and
had set a date for baptism for May 26th. Well for a week or two he
totally fell off the planet and we were really bummed! But then we
asked one of our members in the ward to call him for us. This member
is super dedicated to missionary work and he is really helpful. Well,
he got ahold of our investigator and asked if he wanted to hang out.
So on Saturday they totally hung out for a while! It was awesome!
And after the member had called our investigator, I don't know if it
inspired our investigator to get back in contact with us or what but
he called us and apologized for not responding to us for a while and
everything. It turns out that his Uncle died not too long ago and he
didn't find out till a long time after because all of his family is
still in Nigeria and they didn't tell him. He was pretty upset about
that and he said he just didn't really want to talk to anyone. So it
was great to get back in contact with him. When he was hanging out
with our member on Saturday they were talking about what happens after
this life and it turns out that our member ended up teaching him the
entire Plan of Salvation! Ha ha. It was super cool and our
investigator liked it a lot. So that was awesome and it gets even
awesomer (don't judge my made up words, Ashley). He said that he for
sure would come to church and our member was going to pick him up and
bring him. But when Sunday morning came, our member went over to pick
him up and he wasn't at his house! Well it turns out that something
happened that morning and he had to run over to his friends house and
he was gone right when our member came to pick him up. Then by the
time our investigator went back to the house, our member was gone. At
that point, most of our investigators would probably just give up and
stay home. But he totally went and got on a bus and came to church
still! He was late but he still made it! We were way pumped when he
showed up! After these last couple weeks he has gotten a lot more
solid and it is exciting! It is funny how trials tend to do that to
you. I have developed a new philosophy for trials, specifically ones
that happen leading up to baptism. We always say that Satan works
really hard to get people to not be baptized. And that is true. But
even more than that, I think that God lets these things happen to
truly test and build their faith. Some of the people that chicken out
and can't handle the testing might not have had the faith needed in
the first place to be baptized. It is funny how much the experiences
we have help us grow. It shows how important this life really is!
Finals week is this week and then the semester at the U of M will be
finished. I will have completed a full school year at the University
of Minnesota! But not as a student. I think it is so funny that I
have stayed here for this long. I am going to enjoy the last few
weeks that I have because I will probably be transferred in two
weeks. Sometimes I like to look back and think of where I was last
year and see how much I have changed. Last year at this time, I was
just finishing up my time with Elder Farnsworth. It is crazy how fast
time goes!
So for the call next week, it looks like I will be calling you at 6:30
PM, Minnesota time. So that would be 5:30 PM for you? I think so.
Hopefully, that doesn't ruin your dinner time. It probably does.
Sorry. And once again, we can SKYPE. Elder Truman and I will just
borrow some of the members laptops and skype with you. And just as a
heads up, our call can only be for 45 minutes! It is quick but it is
good. I am really excited to see and talk to everyone!
One other cool story, last night we got a call to go give a woman a
blessing who is in the University Hospital. Apparently, the Hospital
here at the University of Minnesota is pretty dang good and people
from all over the world come here. So this woman was a member from
Louisiana and so we went over pretty late last night. Anyways, the
blessing went well and it was a good experience. But she said
something that was cool that I thought was worth repeating. She
thanked us for coming and then said, "I don't know you guys, but I
know your authority." Cool, huh? She doesn't even know us and she
actually lives in another state yet she recognizes us as people who
hold the Lord's Authority. I love that! That was a great testimony
to me of the Priesthood. So cool!
Well, I will be talking to you in a week! I best be off.
Love you!
Elder Ruesch
