Namaste!
This has been one crazy week! The time has flown by but at the same
time it feels like it has been a century. That is how new transfers
always are. So my new companions name is Elder Shrestha (pronounced
Shrehs-tah). It is so funny to serve with him because he is just in a
whole new world! His story is really quite amazing. There is no
proselyting allowed in Nepal and so the way he became a member was his
Dad took some sort of a business trip to Nepal and miraculously met
the missionaries and was baptized. He returned to his family in Nepal
and eventually over several years, all of his family except for his
wife was baptized as well. His wife knows the church is true and
everything but she is waiting to be baptized till after her parents
giver permission or pass away. It really is quite amazing. And now
Elder Shrestha is here! He is the first missionary from Nepal to ever
serve anywhere in the world other than India. Pretty much all Nepali
missionaries serve in India because they don't need a visa there. The
only way his mission to here in Minnesota is possible is due to the
help of many senior missionary couples that served in Nepal that are
helping him to pay for his mission. Elder Shrestha is very needed
here in St. Paul. There are a lot of Nepali people that are open to
the gospel but have not learned because they can't understand.
It has been a whole new ball game doing missionary work here though.
It is crazy different! We are always on the hunt for where Nepali
people live. Fortunately, there is a Senior Couple here that has also
been assigned to help the Nepali people and they are helping us to
meet all of the people that met with missionaries in the past. I LOVE
NEPALI PEOPLE. They are the most kind, loving people you will meet.
Every door we knock on they meet Elder Shrestha and are amazed he is a
missionary from Nepal and so they let us in and always try to feed us
or give us juice or something. And these people are so poor but they
will give you everything they have. The challenge we are provided
with is Nepal is very similar to India and so everyone is deeply
rooted in the Hindu faith and they really know nothing about God our
Heavenly Father. So we have to start from square one. It is a neat
experience to teach these people the Gospel because the spirit is
always so strong in the lessons. But we have a lot of work to do.
Another new thing to me is we are 100% on bikes. That has been fun!
Now I feel like a real missionary when I'm only riding around on a bike.
Funny Story! A member took us out to dinner and he took us to a
chinese buffet. Elder Shresta had a hay day! HIs first time eating
"Chinese" food and his first time at a buffet. He tried everything
and ate a ton. Ha ha. The blessing of serving with Elder Shrestha is
I am constantly reminded of the blessings we have in this country.
We also had an appointment with two ladies. When we went over to
teach it turns out that one of the ladies daughter was throwing a
birthday celebration for her two kids. Ha ha! So we didn't do much
teaching but we were able to Celebrate the birthday with them and eat
some delicious Nepali food! Ha ha. I don't know what happened on my
mission but just so you know, I now love to eat Pho and Curry. Ha
ha. :) But they made some curry and rice pudding and some other
things for everyone at the celebration and it was really good. But
there was this one dish that was really HOT. Even Elder Shrestha
couldn't finish it! I like Nepali food though. Hopefully, I don't
get fed anything disgusting over the next few weeks/months. But I
guess it would make a good story. Ha ha.
The most difficult thing for me here is trying to teach these people.
President told me to not take extra time to learn the language. But
the problem is once the people learn that Elder Shrestha speaks Nepali
they don't want to talk in English even if they can. So Elder
Shrestha is forced to talk almost the whole time while I sit there
quietly with no idea what is going on. It is kinda hard to teach your
new missionary how to teach powerfully when you don't know what is
going on and can't be the example in lessons. Ug. But that is
alright. We are figuring things out. I am sure he will learn
eventually. I had a bunch of questions for President Clements about
how he wants us to work with these people and he basically told me,
"It's between you and the Lord on this one. I have no idea what to do
either." So I'm kinda winging it. It makes this a great adventure!
By the way, before I left Rochester we met with the Dad of our 13 yr
old investigator and it went really well. He wasn't ready to give
permission yet but it seemed to me that he was totally fine with it as
long as he got to sit down with his son and talk about it one on one
again. So I think it wil be very soon that permission is given and he
is baptized. I am sure I will hear about it soon. I love the
_________ family! I was sad to leave many of the investigators we had
in Rochester but it was for the best.
I feel like I could just ramble for years. Just know that I am having
the time of my life in this last stretch of my mission. I feel so
blessed to be able to work with these people. Hopefully, we can bring
many of them to faith in christ, repentance, and baptism!
Everyone have a glorious week!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
P.S. I did get the package with the pancakes. They are delicious! I
made Elder Shrestha some and he loved them. Feel free to send us
anything that you think Elder Shrestha would find is new and
fascinating. He loves trying new things.
