Hola!
This has been a crazy week! But it was definitely delicious. We
started with a meeting at the mission home in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
So Elder Last and I and two other Elders had to drive up there. It is
like an hour an a half drive, which isn't too bad but it is a lot more
than the 20 minute drive I was used to for my whole mission up till
now. Ha ha. It was a good meeting though and I got to see a bunch of
my old companions. Awesome!
Tuesday was an adventure too. We had a zone conference and it was
really good! Mom asked what a zone conference entails and so I
thought I could go into a little more detail about it. Pretty much
the whole time we just sit and learn things. All day long. Ha ha.
But they are usually very powerful and uplifting. I like them. It
started at 8 in the morning and finished at about 4. They fed us
lunch half way through. There are 7 pairs of missionaries in our
zone and a senior couple. So we have a total of 16 missionaries. We
started with Elder Last and I sharing some thoughts and things to the
Zone that we felt were relevant. And then President Clements gives us
a training. He will sometimes digs into the scriptures and we'll have
a great discussion about a certain topic and other times he will talk
about more specific techniques in our teaching or other aspects of
missionary work that we need to work on. The Assistants also gave a
good training. The format of Zone conference is usually the same but
there is always different content. They are fun. We almost always
will take some time to do a role play of some sort of moment in a
teaching situation. We might practice inviting someone to be baptized
or practice resolving someones concern with the Book of Mormon. This
Zone conference we practiced talking to members on the phone.
Apparently, some missionaries in this mission have had a difficult
time with it. Sounds odd to me but whatever! By the time Zone
Conference is finished I am really excited to get out and work but I
am also always exhausted. Feeling the spirit can be exhausting!
After the Zone conference we had another team work in our area with us
for the rest of the night. It was awesome! We were only working for
about 3 hours in the evening but we had a ton of miracles and found a
bunch of new people to teach! That is the bonus of going on exchanges
with other missionaries - miracles happen!
Last week i talked about the guy who is now preparing to be baptized.
Things are going pretty good for him. He is having a real difficult
time quitting smoking. It is going to be a tough road but he can make
it! I believe in him. We still have some time before his baptism on
June 30th. Hopefully, he can make it. So keep him in your prayers.
We had a wonderful miracle this week too! I think I mentioned last
week about a teenage boy who wants to join the church. We met his
grandfather last monday and he was a really nice guy. One of the
members that lives really close invited the whole family over for
lunch and a lesson. And they agreed! So we all had pizza at a
members home and then we taught the Restoration to this family. At
the lesson the spirit was really strong and it went really well! And
then the mom, the teenage boy, and one of his little brothers came to
church. It was sweet! The teenage boy is already loving the church.
He was planning on being baptized before he ever even met us. The
family has such a sweet spirit about them and I hope that things go
well with them!
We also got one other member referral this week. He is really
interested in the church. One of his co-workers is a member and so we
gave him a book of mormon and gave him a little introduction to it and
we have a return appointment to teach the Restoration. Yeah!
I have one other Awesome miracle that I want to mention. There is a
girl here who is rooming with her sister. Her sister is a really
active awesome member and this girl was not at all. But before I got
here her sister had the Elders over for dinner and they shared a
spiritual thought with them and it sounds like the spirit touched her
heart because she is just on fire now. She has totally turned her
life around. The missionaries started to teach her and she caught
the fire of the gospel and we're teaching her every week helping her
to come to understand more of the gospel. It is so neat to watch
though. I didn't get to see the whole process but I am seeing the
last half. It is cool to see how the Atonement is for all and some
people just need time. So cool! I love this church.
So we have another busy week ahead. I will actually be going over to
Wisconsin on Tuesday. Half of our zone is in wisconsin in a city
called LaCrosse. It sounds like a cool place and we will be going
over there this week. Cool stuff! I am excited. I'll make sure to
get lots of pictures :)
I saw the video that Dad sent me of MJ's graduation speach. That was
RAD!! Nice work fella's! Congrats on graduating. Have fun on
Heritage Tours. When you go to Nauvoo you are going to be pretty
close to me. Yay!
Life is good. Happy Summer!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
P.S. We went golfing just barely and it was so fun!
