Hello!
Although the world didn't end on Dec 21st. Elder Baxter told us that the latest prediction is that the world will end before 2013. So watch out today! :)
2012 has been a really special year. The whole year has been spent as a missionary and it is the best year of my life so far. I can't believe 2012 is over! At least I can report it was a happy one.
Talking to you guys was very fun on Christmas! I still am amazed at how cool it is that Aiko and Wen spent Christmas with you guys. They are awesome people and I'm sure were great guests. And that is so exciting that Wen decided to be baptized! Yay!
After my phone call with you guys the day was filled with a way too full stomach. Sister Baxter fed us a huge breakfast and then a family invited us over for a monster sized lunch and another family invited us over for a planet sized dinner. I ate almost nothing the day after Christmas because I was still so full. With Christmas being our pday though I was able to even take a nap that morning at the Baxters. It was amazing! In fact, all of us missionaries fell asleep that morning for a nice nap. It was so awesome.
The week itself since Christmas has been filled with ups and downs. The guy that is supposed to be baptized on Jan 12th didn't come to church yesterday and so we will probably have to give him a little more time for his baptism. Hopefully, he will still be baptized in Jan. We will see. On Saturday we did take him to go see a baptsm in another ward though. That was nice and I think he enjoyed it. I just pray that these people we teach are experiencing a true conversion. Because there is no point in being baptized if you aren't truly converted.
The last few days I have been getting a little discouraged. We are working so hard to help these people progress in the gospel. And many of them are learning a lot and doing well but everyone is so far away from baptism. It feels like they are all stuck. Most of them have some member in the family that doesn't want them to be baptized and they don't want to go against that family member. Others have something else holding them back. But SO many of these people could very easily be baptized and be wonderful faithful members of the church but they have one major hill that they need to pass over and they can't do it. Ug. It is hard. I guess the remedy is time. Sadly, that is the one resource I don't have.
On a happy note, we took another investigator to visit the temple! It was awesome. This guys is solid. He is one of those that could totally be baptized tomorrow. His hold up is he has a job that keeps him from coming to church on Sunday and he hasn't found a new job yet. I know that this fellow will be a member of the church in not too long though. He is a great guy.
I talked about the older woman who is the grandmother of this huge family that doesn't want anyone in her family to be baptized. One miracle is we are making a little progress with her. Today we will be going over to her home to teach a lesson to her daughter who is her caretaker. The hope is that this grandma will listen too and feel the spirit. The grandmother approved of us teaching her daughter and so that is progress!
Well I hope you all have a wonderful last day of 2012! I know I will. Talk to you next year!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
P.S. Next week we might be going to the temple as a district on Wednesday. Which means that would be our P-Day. So I will most likely be emailing you on Wednesday next week.
