November 19, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Happy Thanksgiving again.  It was a most excellent holiday this year.  We had a blast.  Our Preparation day was changed to Thursday and so our Zone Leaders organized a Turkey bowl!  It was awesome.  So the whole zone was there and we played some football and soccer (the real football).  It was a blast!  Fortunately, I did not break my foot :)  But it was a really good work out and the next two days Elder Shrestha and I woke up SUPER sore.  It hurt.  But it was still worth it.  Elder Shrestha was hilarious playing American Football because he had no idea what was going on or how to play so he just ran around like a chicken with his head cut off letting people push him around.  Ha ha.  It was so funny.  He did a lot better when we pulled out the soccer ball.  Just like a true Asian!

 

After the games we went to a family in the ward for Elder Shrestha's first Thanksgiving dinner.  And it was delicious!  We had all of the classic foods.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and most importantly pie!  It was great.  Fortunately, none of the Nepali care about American holidays at all and so when 6 o'clock hit and it was time to go back to work, none of the Nepali cared at all that we were visiting their home.  They thought it was just a normal day.  Ha ha.

 

So thanksgiving was successful again!  I love that holiday.  And it sounds like it was successful for you guys too!  I'm really glad that Aiko got to come over for the holiday.  I hope she had a good time!  And that service project you did is going to be amazing!  These people really need it.  It will be wonderful to give those gifts out for Christmas.  Thank you all SOOOOOO much!  Sister Baxter told me she got 5 boxes of supplies.  That is amazing!  Thanks again.

 

We got our first decent snow fall this week.  Thanksgiving morning was amazing for weather.  It was over 50 degrees.  But when evening came the weather randomly dropped over 20 degrees and started snowing.  Serving in this area has been full of firsts and it is so fun.  This was Elder Shrestha's first snow fall!  I don't think he was that excited though because he didn't realize that snow also means cold.  He is doing good though.  I've been impressed by how quickly he has adapted to the cold.

 

We had the coolest event this week!  There is a family in the ward that has friends in another ward that are Indian and they are solid members of the church.  So this family in the ward hosted their Indian friends and we also brought an army of Nepali people.  We brought almost 20 Nepali people.  And we had a really nice time having dinner with all sorts of excellent Indian/Nepali foods and mingling with each other.  Afterwards this Indian couple gave a little devotional connecting the festival of lights that we had a few weeks ago to the light of christ.  It was a really nice thing and all of the Nepali people had a great time.  It was a good way to help some of these people see that you don't have to be Hindu forever.

 

This work is so weird!  We have soooooo many people that we teach.  Some are more regular than others.  But for so many of them, baptism seems like it is eons away.  They are all interested in the gospel but the hard part is helping them to experience conversion.  And getting these people to commit to anything is really hard.  We had another army of 12 people come to church. So clearly people are interested but I am still unsure what the next step is to helping these people move from interested to converted.  Any thoughts?  It's going to be a long process I think.

 

I'm excited for Christmas time!  We have a lot of super great activities ahead.  I am worried that the time is going to go too fast.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Ruesch

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

November 19, 2012

Hi!

Well I'm pretty sure that little Millie is the cutest little baby that has ever lived.  Thanks for the pictures of Jen's late Birthday party.  Happy Late birthday Jen!

President Clements sent us a cool video about the Mormon Helping Hands getting to work after hurricane Sandy.  It was pretty cool.  You should watch it too:  http://vimeo.com/53357089?action=share&fb_source=feed&ref=feed&refid=8&_ft_=qid.5810285575497751782%3Amf_story_key.546484545365183 I was secretly looking for Timmy the whole time.  Ha ha.  But President sent it to us so we can share it with investigators.  We sure are part of an amazing group of believers in Christ.

I can't believe that Thanksgiving time is already here.  I'm just going to explode soon because time goes by at the speed of light!  But anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Who is coming to Thanksgiving this year?  Ruesch or Anderson?  Either way I hope you all have lots of fun and eat at least two whole pies by yourself.  For a while there this morning I had Elder Shrestha convinced that the Thanksgiving tradition was that every person get's their own turkey and they had to eat it themselves over the next several weeks.  I probably shouldn't play with his ignorance to American tradition but it was irresistible.  Don't worry, I told him the truth shortly after.  Anyway, for this Thanksgiving we have a super awesome family that invited us over.  Our P-Day was actually changed to Thursday but President wanted us all to still do our emailing today.  It's kinda different in the Nepali work though because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  I think some of them are going to attempt to cook a turkey for the first time but no one knows how to use their oven since they don't have ovens in Nepal.  It will be funny to see how their turkey's turn out.  Ha ha.  And I will make sure to eat a huge meal at the families home that invited us over.  From what I heard there was somewhat of a battle for who was going to have the missionaries over for Thanksgiving during Relief Society today.  Which is funny because there are 4 sets of us and so there are plenty of missionaries to go to various homes.  I guess everyone wanted the missionaries to come!  We are popular!

This week was crazy.  I have too many things to share!  The festival of lights was this week.  It is called Dewali.  And it was super awesome!!!  Except the 7 meals was not awesome.  We didn't realize everyone was going to want to feed us so we ate lunch before we left the apartment that morning and little did we know we would be eating 5 more times that day!  We weren't even intending on visiting several people but they saw us and called us over to their apartment just so that they could throw a plate of rice and meat and break-like stuff in front of us.  Geepers.  I was way too fat and full by the end of the day.  Elder Shrestha actually threw up a little bit halfway through the day.  He he.  It was hilarious.

I'm glad that Sister Baxter sent you the pictures.  She is so awesome.  I guess this festival is about a celebration between the relationship of the sister and the brother in the family.  So a family that we are close to invited us over that evening and the two sisters in the family put Tika on us and the Baxters forehead.  It was just some paint stuff this time and I guess it comes with many blessings.  After that we went to another apartment and a bunch of kids were doing this traditional dance.  It was super cool!  I think I am a Nepali-American now.  Awesome!  I think that Dewali is pretty much equivalent to our Christmas.  So serving in this area I get two Christmas' this year!  Score!

Unfortunately, due to the festival, missionary work was not up to full speed.  We had ZERO investigators come to church.  It was awful.  I never thought I would see the day.  I don't know what was going on!  We even had some people tell us that they were coming that morning but when we went to pick them up they backed out.  Oh well.  Next week will be back to normal.

We had some other crazy experiences too.  There are two young fellows that we visit that are totally ready to be baptized but their family is holding them back.  After one lesson with one of the guys, his mom came barging in right as we had finished the lesson and got SUPER mad at us.  She told us to stop trying to make her son believe our teachings and to not take her son away from her.  It was totally unexpected too because we love his mom!  We thought we were good friends.  And the Baxters do a lot of service for them so I don't know what the deal was.  But it sure is scary to have someone yelling and by their face you can tell they are mad but you can't understand a single word they say.  I definitely knew I needed to keep my mouth shut and leave.  Ha ha.  Family opposition is the main thing holding back almost all of the people we teach.  It is a really strong force.  And we don't quite know how to overcome it.

Well, I need to go.  Time to preach!  Here are a few things i am grateful for:  My family, my mission, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Restoration, the cutest niece in the world, the chance to live in America, the internet, mail!, excellent ties, great friends, and the list goes on and on.  Happy week of being SUPER grateful!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

November 12, 2012

The fam fam!

I'm basically fluent in Nepali now. Not! I still know nothing. But
that's okay. It's not necessary. I will say I am getting pretty good
at Elder Ruesch's version of sign language. The Nepali tend to
understand pretty well.

This last week was great. Elder Shrestha was a trooper! He was
feeling sick and had a small fever one day. So we took it a little
slower but we still went out to work and had several appointments and
he toughed through it. One of my favorite parts of being with a new
missionary is being able to watch the rapid growth that occurs in them
at the beginning of their mission. Elder Shrestha is really starting
to become a powerful missionary. He learns quickly! It's been awesome.
Saturday was delicious! It was 60 degrees! It was amazing. And then
the next day it dropped to 30 and we had freezing cold rain. This
morning we woke up to a tiny bit of snow. We haven't gotten a
substantial amount yet! I think you guys have gotten more snow than
we have. Oh well, I have a feeling that this winter is going to be a
doosey. And we are on bikes!

I can't believe Thayne is home! Thanks for giving him a hug for me.
I got a letter from Lauren and Mandy and both of their mission papers
are in. It is crazy how much life is changing right now. It's
freaking me out!

Guess how many investigators came to church? 12! That was really
neat. I wish that we could have all of those people come
consistently. That is the struggle that we are running into is
getting these people to become consistent. Since there are 3 sets of
Elders in this ward, we had more than 20 investigators at church all
together. This is such a cool ward. There is always so much stuff
happening.

We ran into a very interesting struggle with the ____________ family
this week. Another church chose them as the family that they wanted
to sponsor which means that for 4 years they will pay for this
family's rent and insurance and everything like that if they need it.
It is really neat that they are doing that. But of course they want
the family to come to their church. Ha ha. So this family is kinda
freaking out because they felt pulled between two churches. Oh boy.
It was interesting. And of course we want them to have that
sponsorship. That is an amazing service that the other church is
doing for them. But we want them to find the fulness of the gospel
too. And of course we don't want to compete with other churches for
people to come. That is just dumb. So we went over and had a great
lesson with them where we reviewed the Restoration and the family
seemed to really understand it this time. So the plan is they want to
go to both churches as much as possible.

This is definitely the most unique opposition I've seen an
investigator have to face on my mission but it seems to be totally
within the plan. I am interested to see what the family observes as
they go to both churches. They will clearly see a difference in the
spirit. If they go through the next few months with the right
attitude it may be a huge testimony builder. Something I have learned
hard core on my mission: You can never ever ever progress in the
Gospel without opposition. Period. It is not a matter of if the
opposition comes, it is a matter of when. So be aware! And the
opposition comes in many different ways.

This week is going to be awesome. We have a member of the 70 coming
to our mission. Elder Gaverret. It is going to be super great! I am
really excited!

In the last transfer we went through a ton of Nepali people. We are
going to have met every single Nepali person in Minnesota within a few
months and ask if they are interested if we keep going at this pace.
Ha ha. But the rate at which we are finding new people is slowing
down because we have a lot more people to teach now. Things are
moving along really well. I am coming to realize that this is going
to be a much longer process than I was hoping. These people all have
a long process before they can truly understand the gospel. But
things are moving along slowly. Someday there will be the St. Paul
Nepali branch. Someday SOON!

Well, I need to run. Happy Veterans Day everyone! Thank you to the
people who have fought in the military for our freedom.

Love,

Elder Ruesch

November 5, 2012

Hello!

Sounds like it was a nice weekend in the family. Except that stinks
that Jen got sick! Speaking of Jen, the pictures of little Emilia are
the cutest things I've ever seen! Time just flies at rocket speed.
We're in November! I get a letter from the Vances every once in a
while and Sister Vance said that they have Carson's flight plans home
already. That is crazy! By the way, Mom could you tell them thank
you for all the letters they send me. They are awesome!

And Thayne is home! Give him a big hug for me.

Moving on. Halloween was interesting. The Nepali people kinda
celebrated it. It didn't hinder us visiting people too much. But it
was funny to see little kids running around in the apartment buildings
trying to get candy from the homes that knew what was going on. They
all had excellent costumes. Our Halloween was definitely not as warm
as yours but it was still pretty nice. Elder Shrestha thinks it is
freezing here and I think the weather has been really great all week.
He's going to be so tough by the time next winter rolls around. Ha ha.

We get fed a lot. But I love it. For the most part the Nepali make
really delicious food. And they eat with their hands and so that is
really fun. It's like being a kid again! For living his whole life
in Nepal, I am surprised at how good Elder Shrestha is at using a
fork. I don't really get where he learned that. My next goal is to
teach him how to use chop sticks.

We've been busy this week and it was great. The Assistants are
supposed to do an exchange with all of the new missionaries so we went
to Bloomington one day and spent the day with the AP's. That was
fun! Lots of good learning opportunities. The thing that I hate
about being an old missionary is I keep learning so many things that I
need to improve on! You'd think that by the time you finish the 2
years you would be like Mary Poppins who is practically perfect in
every way. But it's a lie. And it's frustrating because I wish I
knew back in the day what I know now! Ridiculous! Oh well. Life
goes on.

Holy cow we met the coolest family this week. They are Nepali but it
was a young couple who has been in America for about 4 years now and
they spoke great English and were in college! They were going
places. The wife was super interested and was asking a ton of
questions about Christ. So we had a great time meeting with them.
Unfortunately, they were so busy they didn't want to meet again until
mid December! The only problem is this time their "busy" excuse was
actually kinda legit. Don't you hate that? It was a miracle that we
found them though and so we are excited to teach them in December.

Finding Nepali families to teach is always an adventure. Elder
Shrestha and I have mastered the technique of getting into Lock-out
apartment buildings. Then we will go over to the Mailbox area and
look at the names of the people listed on the mail box. If any look
Nepali we will go knock on their door. The incredible thing is that
when they open the door, all we have to say is "Namaste!" (hello) and
they let us right in. They don't even know who we are and they let us
in. I love it! These people are so gracious and welcoming.

Cool story. The Baxters were teaching a family English and the son
pulled Elder Baxter to the side to talk to him. The son is about
25ish I think. Anyway, he is a cool guy and he told Elder Baxter that
he had a dream that God told him that he needed to "join the Kingdom
of God" and asked what he needed to do. That was really surprising to
Elder Baxter. But he explained we need to teach him more and he needs
to be baptized. Miracles are everywhere. God watches out for his
people.

Oh by the way! transfer calls were today and Elder Shrestha and I are
both staying here in Nepali land as expected. Thank goodness! I
would have been upset if I had to leave. I would like to tarry here a
while. Perhaps till the day I die.
We taught the Adams Family the Plan of Salvation this week and I
didn't fully anticipate how difficult it would be. The story of Adam
and Eve really does sound odd until you give it more perspective of
that is why we need Jesus Christ. It actually was a powerful
experience teaching them the Fall because I think it really opened up
their eyes just a little more to why they need Christ. A lot of these
people are very interested in Jesus Christ but they really have no
idea at all why we need him or how he helps us. It is really
interesting. It is a special experience for me to be able to open
these people's eyes up to the most powerful and most important
doctrine in the whole world. That is the doctrine of the Atonement.
Pretty amazing. But you really do need to start from square one which
definitely has it's challenges! It's great though.

We have a huge pool of people that we are teaching regularly and
irregularly but not many are progressing very quickly. I'm learning
that this is going to be a long process. Elder Shrestha has 2
years! :) Well, Nepal is awesome. I am really excited to see what
happens tomorrow with the election. I sent my ballot in a week ago.
Thanks parents for the help!
Don't get too warm!

Love,

Elder Ruesch