Hello the fam fam!
I have some crazy news. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY! So let
me begin with a little bit of background info. In the Twin Cities
there are a lot of refugees from other countries. St Paul has a TON
of Asians. There is a Hmong branch and we have several Hmong speaking
missionaries. Hmong people come from China, Thailand, Laos, etc.
They don't have their own country. There is also a group of people
that don't have a country called the Karen people. We have two
missionaries that speak Karen. And there is also a decent population
of people from Nepal.
About a year ago there were several Nepali people baptized and so
President assigned a set of sister missionaries to do almost all
Nepali work. And they kinda learned the language. But a few months
ago we got word that a member in Nepal got his mission call to our
mission and will be assigned to do all Nepali work! So we have been
anticipating the arrival of this Elder for a long time because he is
going to do a lot of good work among these people. So this transfer
is the transfer that he arrives! Very exciting. So then I got a call
from President yesterday and he has assigned me to be his trainer.
Holy Smokes. So basically I'm being transferred to a whole new mission!
I'm super duper excited and even more nervous. It's gonna be a
culture shock! I am not supposed to focus on learning the language
but I'm sure I will learn a lot. I feel like I'm not going to know
what is going on most of the time. I'm just basically supposed to
show the Nepali Elder how to do missionary work and let him dominate!
I am really humbled but excited. This is an incredibly unique
opportunity. This Elder is the first Nepali Elder to ever serve
outside of Nepal or India. The work we do could make a huge impact.
I've been freaking out ever since last night. Just ask Elder Carter.
I'm pretty sure that he thinks I have gone bonkers. Which is
understandable because I have. And the other great thing about this
is I am being released as a Zone Leader and I am not District leader.
No more responsibility when it comes to other missionaries other than
my companion. Yay! That feels nice.
Also, remember how we cover 2 wards over here? Not any more!
President decided to move us to just cover 4th ward and he is sending
down Sisters to cover the 2nd ward. That is another crazy cool move
that I am excited about. Things are just going crazy over here in the
MMM. But I love it. There are going to be a lot of really neat
things happening in this mission over the next little while.
I am sad to be leaving Rochester but it is going to be a really neat
experience to work with the Nepali people. I feel like I am going to
have some crazy stories. I can't wait to tell them! Hopefully,
everyone gets baptized :)
One more cool story. We taught a guy for the 2nd time this week.
This guy just moved here with his family from California. He used to
have the Elders over all the time. And so when we met him he was
pretty excited to have us over. He told us that he won't ever come to
our church but we are always welcome at his house. So we thought,
what the heck, we can give it a try. We taught his family last week
the Restoration and the spirit was super strong. Then when we came
back to teach this week he was totally changed. He was super
repentant and said that he really wants to read and pray because he
might come to our church. That was neat. So the moral of the story
is we need to believe that people really can change. Being a
missionary for so long I have seen so many people harden their hearts
and not change that you start to lose faith in people. But we still
need to believe in every different person that each one of them can
change. Because sometimes they do. Sometimes the spirit touches
peoples hearts. I hope something continues with this guy and he
accepts the fulness of the gospel!
Well life is happy and good. I am nervous and excited. Keep me in
you prayers!
Love you all!
-Elder Ruesch
