Herro,
Yay for 2013!
We had a great morning. Our district went to the temple and it was delightful. I love the temple!
It sounds like you all had a great New Years! Ours was fun. Last week we all went to the zoo together. There is a zoo in St Paul that is free. It is really small but still fun. They were having all sorts of cool activities for little kids on New years day so we picked the right day to go! It was great. Afterwards we went to eat at one of the two Nepali Restaurants in the Twin Cities but it closed at 2 pm right when we got there. That stunk! Oh well, we'll go again sometime. So we have had 2 excellent P-days in a row now! Woo!
This week was crazy eventful. I don't think I can explain everything. It has been up and down and all over the place! We got totally yelled at again by the father of a family we are teaching and he told us to never come back again. It was totally out of nowhere because this guy has been really friendly too us. That was mind boggling! But whatever. We'll see what happens. We also reset the baptismal date with the guy I told you about for Jan 26th but then he didn't come to church again! He needs to show his committment first before getting baptized. We'll see what happens for him. Unfortunately, I probably wont see him baptized before I go home. Tear. But that is okay, as long as he makes the covenant and is committed to it, I am happy.
But let me tell you the craziest story of all. Do you remember the grandmother of this whole family that many of her posterity come to church? For a long time she apparently was totally against allowing any of her kids or grandkids to get baptized. She didn't want them to change religion. Well we never had a direct conversation about it. And the stars kinda aligned this week for us to talk about it with her. Just the week before we went over and taught her and her daughter a simple lesson about the nature of out Heavenly Father. So last week we wanted to explain the life and need for Christ to her. And President Clements called us and wanted to come teach a lesson with us so we brought him to see this grandma! We had an awesome lesson about Christ and she seemed very interested and then President took over and explained that we love her family and many of them are coming to church and asked if she would allow them to be baptized. And she said yes! So either her heart changed or there was never a problem to begin with. We made sure to explain that culturally you don't have to leave everything behind. The Gospel of Jesus Christ just adds to the truth you already know. So that was a crazy miracle! We all left that lesson floating a few inches off the ground because of the strong spirit. The other thing we said was we will have a Celebration on Jan 26th and anyone in the family who is ready and wants to be baptized can do so on that day and then we'll eat lots of food and celebrate. And the Grandmother agreed to come! So then we headed out to tell all of the family of our miracle.
The first response of everyone is they didn't believe us! Ha ha. That was the funny part. There are two people that have been solid for a long time and waiting to be baptized. One is a grandson. He is super awesome. Very elect. And the other is the father of one boy who is already a member. This guy has been coming to church forever and he said that as soon as he received permission he would be the first one in the family baptized (By the way, the reason his son is a member already is because he was baptized before the grandmother came over to the U.S. from Nepal). As we went out to tell these people we hit road blocks though that I totally wasn't expecting. Although the 17 year old son wants to be baptized really bad and his grandma gave permission, his parents aren't giving permission for him to be baptized. Which is something we never expected. They are claiming that they want him to wait a few years so he can make the decision when he is more mature. I can't figure out the real reason why they wouldn't let him. His parents even come to church sometimes. That has been super frustrating. And then the other guy who is really solid is now saying that he wants to wait and he wants to know everything before he is baptized. So he doesn't want to do it now. Ug! It feels like there are other people that are against it and are talking him out of it. It is a challenge. No matter what this is going to be a real test of faith for these two people. We'll see if they pass. I pray they do! So keep these people in your prayers and pray with everything in you that these two amazing people will be baptized soon. Especially that the hearts of the 17 year old parents will soften.
It has been a crazy week and I hope so badly that we can see some miracles happen before my time runs out. We are working like crazy!
I will keep you updated and let you know what happens on Monday.
Love you!
-Elder Ruesch
