Namaste again!
Holy smokes! I can't believe Thayne comes home this week! That blows
my mind. If you see him, tell him to write me a letter.
I don't have a ton of time so I am going to type at ramming speed.
We'll see how much I get written and how many mistakes I have.
This week was crazy but super awesome! Starting on Wednesday, a
traditional Nepali festival began and it finishes today. It was
really difficult to set up appointments with anyone because they were
all going to other people's houses for food and fun. So that was an
adventure. And as part of that, we got a lot of food too! Ha ha.
Too much food actually. On Saturday a family invited us over to eat
at their party at 3 and then another family invited us other for
dinner at 5. I wasn't sure I was going to make it but somehow I had
enough room in my stomach to pack in all in. I seriously prayed that
morning that I would be able to eat all the food I was given. Prayer
works! Ha ha. The Nepali people are really so gracious. They don't
have much but they will give you everything that they can. So
wonderful. Our dinner on Saturday was especially delicious. The
woman made us rice with soup and goat meat. It was awesome.
Part of this festival is the children go to their parents or someone
older than them and they receive a blessing, which is basically a gift
of money or something else. And with that they put this stuff called
Tika (teekah) on their forehead. It is just sticky rice that is dyed
red. It's cool. So when we went to the party on Saturday they put
Tika on our heads (The Baxters were there too). That was sweet!
Maybe I will have time to include a picture. These people just feel
like family here.
Also, like I said I would, I went to Dinkytown this week! That was
super great! I spent the whole day with Elder Checketts. It was
really fun. I got to spend some time contacting on campus and we got
to meet with several of the recent converts. I was glad to hear that
they are doing well. If you remember AA, he is preparing for a
mission! He is planning to leave after spring semester. It is so
cool. As much as I love Dinkytown though, I was glad to leave and go
back to Nepali land. My time in Dinkytown was so great but now it is
time for something different. I felt almost like I was a return
missionary going back to visit his mission. I'm not a return
missionary yet and I am proud of it! I think Elder Shrestha had a
good experience on Campus too. And when I say good I mean humbling.
Ha ha. That was his first time really contacting in complete English
and it was with college students. It is a great opportunity to
learn! ha ha.
On top of all of the fun, actual missionary work was a tad bit
frustrating this week mostly because of the festival. People didn't
want to meet and didn't want to come to church either. Last week we
had 13 investigators at church and this week we had 5. But hey, what
can you do. I'm sure this week will be a little more fruitful.
Cool experience. I think I have told you about the Family we are
teaching that is progressing really well. We will call them the Adams
family. They have been in America for about 2 months now. They are
learning a lot and doing really well. This week it was so cool
because we spent the whole lesson talking about Christ's life and
watching the video Finding Faith in Christ with them. And they loved
it. Also, we taught the daughter to pray and she said the opening
prayer. I think her little brother wanted to follow her example after
that because he wanted to say the closing prayer really bad. That was
amazing. So Elder Shrestha helped him to say a prayer. It was a
really sweet experience. I love families!
The Halloween party sounds like it was awesome! Super funny. I am
glad i am in the Nepali work this year so Halloween probably wont even
be a big deal for us. I don't know if any of these refugees will
celebrate it. That way we can actually get some missionary work done.
Thank you for the package! Elder Shrestha really wanted some beef
jerky and so I told him I would ask you for it but I kept forgetting.
So it's a good thing you are close to the spirit mom because you sent
it anyway! Nice work! Ha ha. He loved the jerky. He also loves
cheetos, especially the spicy ones. Feel free to send anything
random. He loves to try new stuff. He is doing really well by the
way. The first few weeks on a mission are pretty tough, now that he
is pretty much passed the beginning he is really starting to grow and
become a missionary. It's great to watch the change. Missions are
amazing.
Well my fam fam, it's always an adventure over here in Nepal. I love
it so much! Thanks for all your support!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
