Oh hey!
Here I am. Another awesome week. Every week feels like 4 seconds.
But then when I think about all of the things that happened in the
week. It feels like 4 years. That is a good thing though I think.
It is amazing how quickly time flies and the more I think about it,
the more I realize how much time I wasted before the mission. There
is always so much to do and so little time to do it! But that is the
story of life and we all face it.
We went up to the mission home last week and had a meeting there on
Tuesday. That was quite fun. I love seeing all of my friends ha ha.
We are always so spread that we never get to see each other! I got to
see Elder Neeley though and that was awesome! He is doing so good. I
heart that kid. The thing that is no fun about the meetings we have
is I always seem to leave feeling like a total dump of a missionary.
Ha ha. I just have so many things to work on and they teach us so
many things that we should be doing. Sometimes it feels like we are
expected to be the Superman version of a missionary. Elder Last says
he always feels the same way. The meetings we have with President
Clements are always very spiritual though and I love going to them. I
have some good things to work on and some new ideas to try so we'll
see what happens! President also came down to Rochester on Thursday
for interviews with the zone. So all the teams came in and everyone
was interviewed. We had to make sure everything ran smoothly and it
did thank goodness!
I have wonderful news! This week we had a great lesson with the
__________ family. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and invited
them to be baptized. And the teenage son was like "Yeah I was going
to talk to you guys about that today." So we set a date for him to be
baptized on August 18th. Yay! His mom said that she didn't feel
quite ready for that yet. She is progressing well and is still very
interested but just isn't ready to be baptized. Can I just mention
that this boy is like the most impressive 13 year old I have ever
met? He acts like a mature adult. You would never guys that he is
only 13. So anyway, his mom is really supportive of him being
baptized and hopefully as we teach him to help him be prepared for
baptism she will realize that it is something that she wants to do.
There is still a good month before the baptism. There are also two
younger brothers who haven't been too involved in our visits yet but
we convinced one of them to stay last time and the whole family
actually came to church yesterday. This was the first time that the
mom and her 3 sons were there. So great! This family is super duper
special. Seriously. I feel a really deep connection to them that I
have rarely felt on my mission. I just love their guts! And I want
them to have the gospel in their lives so badly. They need it. I
love this church!
CRAZY story. We met a girl who drinks WAY to much alcohol. We went
on exchanges on Thursday and so Elder Last was with a different
missionary when he tracted into this girl. But they sat down with her
for 45 minutes and in that time she smoked 6 cigarettes and drank 3
glasses (not shots) of VODKA! Her life is that she wakes up at 6 in
the morning and starts drinking. She drinks all day long, goes out
and parties in the evening, comes home late at night, wakes up in the
morning, throws up and starts all over. She needs the Gospel
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad. So Elder Last and I went over on Saturday
morning at like 10 am, where we knew she wouldn't be too drunk yet.
We were actually able to teach her a little bit about repentance and
baptism and then invited her to church. And she came!! It was a
miracle. We showed up at her home in the morning before church and
she was totally hung over. Really bad. But we had someone come to
pick her up and drive her to the church and she stayed the whole
time. At the end of the 3 hours she said that she actually really
enjoyed herself and wanted to come back again. I was amazed! It was
a total miracle. She isn't happy at all right now. She just drinks
to numb up her life. But the gospel will heal her if she lets it.
I'll keep you posted!
We're still on the hunt for more prepared families. The __________
Family is in the 4th ward and so we want to find a family in the 2nd
ward. We may have found them! We'll see. We quickly taught this
awesome guy who doesn't believe in God. We gave him a Book of Mormon
and set up a return appointment to come back this week. He was asking
some really powerful questions. We didn't have much time but the
spirit was strong during our discusison and I hope to see him progress!
We're also teaching a couple other young single adults. I think I
told you about the kid who played semi pro football but then got
assaulted and is now severely injured. We met with him but he isn't
progressing very well. There is another young fellow who also doesn't
believe in God. He is a really nice sincere guy and is really quiet.
But we've taught him a few times. He's a little stubborn but he is
reading and should be praying and I have full confidence he will get
an answer.
The Church is true fo sho. It's true. I feel so lucky to be serving
here at this awesome time. I look forward to seeing the miracles that
happen this week too! Hoorah for Israel!
Also, quick shout out to my super old sister! Ashley is turning 30
this week! Happy Birthday Smashley! Please don't have too many
wrinkles before I get home. I hope your birthday is a glorious one. :)
Love you!
-Elder Rueschki
