Jimminie Cricket!
Can you believe that I have been in Rochester for 3 months already?
Man! This is nuts.
Well, the news is hot! Elder Last is being taken away from me. It is
really sad :( He is being sent to an area in the middle of no where
up north to be district leader up there. I'm way excited for him but
he is super nervous. He is going to a struggling area. The fire
begins! So that is a bummer that he is leaving. I have LOVED serving
with Elder Last. He is a superstar missionary and we have had too
much fun together! But on the bright side, my new companion is also
freaking awesome! His name is Elder Carter. He is actually from
Nashville, Tennesse. I think he's been on his mission for a little
bit over a year. When I was in Dinkytown he was in an area really
close to me so I got to work with him a lot. And I LOVE him! So we
are going to have a party like it's 1999. But in a missionary
appropriate way. I have been way to lucky on my mission and I have
had some of the best companions ever! It is great. That is probably
the only good thing about being a zone leader. Most of the time you
get to have a killer diller companion.
Cool news! I thought I could share this. Do you remember Elder
Checketts? When I went to Dinkytown he was my first companion there.
And he was only with me for one transfer and then he left. Well now
it is a year later and he is going back there again! I was really
excited when I heard that so I thought i would tell you. I love Elder
Checketts!
So this week was full of all sorts of awesome moments, as usual. We
taught a couple new peeps. That was great! One lady is a single
mother of 5 kids under 8 years old. She and her boyfriend never
married and just a little while ago he walked out and it sounds like
he isn't coming back. Crazyness. But we happened to show up on her
door and we finally had a lesson with her this week. It was really
hectic but good! Our eternigator has been out of town for a week and
a half but now she is back and we had another good lesson with her
this week. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She is doing so
well. She came to church again and there is something going on I know
it! There seemed to be something different about her. I think she is
finally beginning to realize that this is true. I hope she will be
baptized soon!
The ________ family is having it's ups and downs too. The whole
family came to church this week! The mom and her 3 boys. It was
awesome! I think they all had a good time too. We had an AWESOME
lesson with them this week. The 13 yr old is ready to be baptized.
He is just awesome. We went over the baptismal interview questions
with him and he is solid. He could be baptized any day. The rest of
the lesson landed on his mom. We are really trying to help her gain a
testimony. She is still kinda struggling with the same concerns but
we had a couple ladies from the relief society with us and they bore
powerful testimony and I think it really touched Sister _________'s
heart. Pretty much everyone was crying by the end of the lesson. So
that was neat. However, with a wonderfully spirit filled lesson,
Satan retaliated with more opposition. The father of the boys sent
Sister ___________ an email that was super negative towards the boys
being baptized and he won't give permission. The situation with the
father is worse than we thought. So we'll see what happens next. We
are just praying that his heart is softened. The whole ward here is
praying too. Everyone LOVES this family. They are so neat!
Our African friend is also doing well! Sadly, she is going back to
Nigeria at the end of this month. But it actually works out really
well. This will give her an opportunity to explore the church in
Nigeria too and she needs to speak with her husband about being
baptized. She has so much faith and I am fully confident that she
will be baptized soon whether it is here or in Nigeria.
Funny story, we met with a guy for the second time this week and
taught him the Plan of Salvation. It went well but at the end his
roomate who had been sitting in the kitchen listening for the whole
lesson said he had a question and brought out his Bible. I
immediately thought, oh great, here we go again. So he told us to
open to a scripture that talked about false prophets and then said,
"So who was Joseph Smith?" People like that only want to tell us how
wrong we are. They never want to listen. So I wasn't very excited to
begin a forever long lecture again. But our investigator totally
saved the day! He turned to his roomate and was like, "You can ask
your questions next time. I'm tired." And we left without being
bashed on! Yay!
I can't believe that MJ are going to college! They are all grown up.
And I can't wait for you guys to meet Aiko! That will be super
legit! Thanks so much for being willing to help her out. I am
excited to start another transfer! I only have 4 more left so I gotta
make the most of it. Have a lovely week!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
