May 2, 2011

Well hey! Geepers does time fly by! I can't believe that Mother's
day is already this week. I am really excited to get to talk to you
guys! I'm planning on using Skype. We will probably be able to just
use the computers in the member's home that we live in. But it might
end up that I will have to call you when I'm getting on skype so that
we can make sure to work it all out. We are planning on calling at
about 7 o'clock PM, which is 6 o'clock your time I think. That will
give us a good amount of time to chit chat :) So plan on that and if
the time changes or anything we will get permission to let you know
somehow. I'm so pumped!

This has been a good week. Many great things have happened. We are
still teaching __________. Our lessons are getting better with her.
We met with her twice this week and for both lessons we had a really
good discussion with her. We were able to teach the restoration and
help her understand it all. We even invited her to be baptized. She
didn't give us a very direct answer but I think that when she really
feels that all we share is true (and she already is starting to) she
will decide to be baptized. It is something that will help her a lot
in her crazy life.

Another awesome miracle! So the first week that I was in Plymouth
(about two months ago) we were tracting in an area and we found a
family. The mom has a lot of health problems and was about to have
surgeory and wasn't super interested. But the thing that really
struck me was her 12 year old son. He was so excited we were there
once we explained that we are missionaries. His mom isn't religious
at all but for some reason he has gotten into religion and really
loves learning about Christ. He asked his mom for a Bible for
Christmas and loves to learn everything he can about religion. He is
a super neat kid. Well, since he wanted to learn from us really bad,
his mom was cool to set up an appointment for us to come by another
time. Unfortunately, that appointment fell through. So we kept on
stopping by every once in a while to try and talk to them. A few
weeks later when we stopped by, he answered and was excited to see us
but his mom wasn't home so we couldn't do much. We just gave him a
Book of Mormon and left. Life continued and we decided to stop by
this family one more time. We did but the mom was having some sort of
meeting and told us to come back another time. But as we were walking
back to the car, he comes running out of the house yelling, "Wait!"
It was very surprising. He wanted us to teach him something and his
mom was okay with it so we went on a short ten minute walk and taught
him how to pray. He just soaked it up like a sponge. Man, he is such
a good kid. So that was neat and when we got back to the house his
mom was done with her meeting and we were able to set up a time to
come by on sunday (yesterday) and teach the whole family. When we
came they were all home and we were able to teach them. Yay! We
taught them the Restoration and they seemed to like it and understand
pretty well. The lesson went well and we committed them all to be
baptized! We scheduled their baptism for June 11th. It isn't the
most solid date though. I hope that they get baptized but a lot of
things can change from now and then. Hopefully things go smoothly!
We are going to meet with them another time this week. I'm excited!
It's been really neat so far! I learned my lesson on persistence.
Miracles happen.

___________ is doing really great too. We were able to meet with him
twice this week. His baptism is still set for the 14th which is less
than two weeks away! He has been totally free of coffee for more than
a week now. He says that he feels like he has been freed from bondage
now that he doesn't drink coffee anymore. Isn't that just amazing?
He is incredibly sincere and we are seeing his life totally turn
around. He is trying super hard to prepare himself for his baptism
and so he is making so many changes in his life. It is cool because
he is not only bringing his spiritual life in order, but everything in
his life. It is super awesome. He is taking his baptism very
seriously. Oh man it is so exciting! When we were over at his house
on Friday it was funny because we he had a bunch of boxes of tea out
and we went through it with him and he just immediately threw away all
the tea that is against the Word of Wisdom. He is doing everything to
follow God's will exactly. So neat! The gospel is just the best.
Because of all these changes I can see a new happiness in him. The
gospel works.

Guess what other super awesome thing happened this week? We went to
the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes! Ah, best thing of my
life. We went on Tuesday night. I don't know if I've already
explained this but Elder Farnsworth baptized a woman a year ago when
he was here. And so her and her husband went to the temple to get
their endowments and be sealed. And we got to go with them! Coolest
thing ever. Th Church is true. I was really needing a temple visit.
It just makes you feel so much better. There is an amazingly strong
spirit there. I love it. In a year I could potentially do the same
thing and go to the temple with the _____________'s. That would be the
best thing ever.

Well, life is good. The transfer is getting close to finishing.
Crazy how fast time fly's. Pretty soon I'm going to be home! Sorta.
Anyway, I'm excited to see if I stay in Plymouth or not.

That is crazy that there could be lots of flooding. Hopefully when I
talk to you next week you wont be drowning in water. The weather here
has been odd too. It's suppossed to be warmer by now. Good ol'
mother nature. Playing jokes like usual.

I'm SO excited to talk to you next week! Remember, plan on about 7:00
PM Minnesota time.
Love you so much!
-Elder Ruesch

April 25, 2011

Hey there! This week went better than last week thank goodness. It
was pretty good. And yesterday was especially excellent because it was
Easter! Very fun. It is kind of difficult sometimes being a
missionary when holiday's come around because you of course still have
to work on a holiday such as Easter sunday but you really also don't
want to bother people too much that it hurts the image of the Church.
Elder Farnsworth and I were kinda worried for yesterday because we had
tried to set up appointments with people but nothing was working out
and so after church we had an early dinner appointment and then
nothing the rest of the day which meant we were going to have to
tract... And tracting wasn't the most ideal thing to do since so many
people wanted to spend the day as a family. But guess what? The Lord
provides! After church we went to a members home for an early dinner
like I mentioned and it was delicious! They fed us lamb which was
kinda cool. I liked it. And then after dinner we ended up going over
to another members home in the ward who is not as active and got to
teach a fun easter lesson to her kids. And then we had to tract. So
we strategically picked an appartment complex where we figured we
would bother people the least. The cool thing was that there was a
lady living in that complex who was in our ward list but isn't
active. So we knocked on her door and it turns out she has been
pretty much waiting for us to come by because she wants to go back to
church but just needed some help. She moved in a few months ago and
was kind of afraid to start going to a new ward. Pretty funny. But
that happens to people a lot apparently. Lucky for her the Plymouth
ward is a freaking awesome ward. So it was neat to meet her! The
reason I share this story is because that rarely happens. Ha ha.
Most people that are on the ward list that aren't active really don't
want to even talk to you or have no desire at all to go to church.
Some people can even be pretty hostile. Anyway, to finish the night
off it ended up that we got to meet with a guy who had just recently
moved out of the ward and came back to visit and also wasn't the most
active. The point is, we were dreading having to tract for like 4
straight hours on Easter but we somehow got to teach 3 unexpected
lessons! Very cool. It was a good day.

Oh! Guess what? So I'm pretty sure you konw that we live in a
members home. We live with the Reid Family. Anyway, I was talking
with them about Alpine and they said they knew someone who moved to
the Alpine area from here. Turns out, they were talking about Carlie
Hansen and her family! So MJ, you should tell Carlie that I am
serving in her old ward and that I live in Medina like 10 minutes away
from where she used to live. I think she'll like that.

While we were tracting earlier this week we met a lady on the street
who was super awesome and was very interested in learning all about
what we believe. We had like a 30 minute chat with her about the Book
of Mormon and Joseph Smith and everything. She already knew quite a
bit because she knows a few Mormons apparently. She was awesome and
we have an appointment with her today. Hopefully it goes well!

__________is doing really well. We had an awesome lesson with him on
Friday and he committed to completely stop drinking coffee. And we
also finally got to go and meet with him at his house on Saturday!
Every lesson up till this point has been at the _______'s house and we
have tried to come to his house and teach him before but because of
his health he always had to cancel those appointments. But Saturday
it went through and we visited him at his home. It was awesome. He
played piano for us for a little bit and holy cow, he is SO good.
Unbelievable. He has to be since that is his profession. And then we
had a nice lesson with him afterwards. He is such a good guy. I'm
excited for his baptism. Speaking of which, we finally set a solid
date for his baptism. We are going to have it on May 14th. It keeps
on getting pushed back a little bit but I think this is the right date
for him. And this gives him a few more opportunities to come to
church. It will be excellent!

It has been a good week. We are also starting to meet with a few
other member families that come to church and stuff but have kinda
opened up and asked us to teach them a little bit more to help them
really gain testimonies. It's been really cool. We have the chance
to work with a lot of recent converts or less active people or people
that are just struggling and really help them out. And sometimes it
really feels like another baptism to be able to help some of these
people. It's really awesome.

The Jimmer Fredette poster you designed is freaking awesome, dad! It
is so cool! Thanks for sending it.

I also like the pictures of the Easter party. It looks like you guys
had fun. It's a bummer not being able to go but hey, now I only have
to miss one more Easter party. Look at it that way, right? :) I
love getting pictures.

MJ, your first prom! Oooo baby! Was it fun? I bet it was. Prom = a
blast. And I was glad to hear that you went with the classic Trio for
dinner. That place is so delicious.

You should send me the cast list of Beauty and the Beast. Sorry you
fellas don't get very meaty parts but I bet the insane asylum guy will
be fun to play. You'll still have a party.

Well, life is going good and so is the work. It is CRAZY to think
that tomorrow is my 3 month mark. It's like I'm a missionary or
something like that. Craziness. In fact, we're nearing the end of
the next transfer. Just 2 and a half more weeks and I could be in a
new land. Weird.

The weather has been beautiful. Sounds like you guys are getting the
usual Utah weather. Our whether tends to be pretty spastic too. Lots
of raining. But I like rain.

The church is true! I miss you guys!
Love,

Elder Morgan Ruesch

April 18, 2011

> Sorrry that this email is coming a day late. Yesterday we had a
> meeting with our zone at the mission home and so our P-day got
> switched to today. I apologize for any grief I might have caused.
> I'm sure this will happen several more times throughout the next 2
> years and there is no need to worry.
>
> I got your easter box! It is great! I already read all of the
> little papers and the scriptures. Oops. Oh well. They were
> awesome. And the little cereal boxes are wonderful! Thanks so
> much. I am super pumped about the Joseph Smith CD's too. Thanks a
> bunch. I wasn't expecting you to get them that fast. You are on
> the ball, mom! Thanks much.
>
> Well, this last week was pretty rough. Probably the most
> frustrating part of missionary work is appointments falling
> through. And this week was just full of that. It was killer. Even
> all the appointments we had with our solid investigators fell
> through. First of all, unfortunately, ________ dropped us. She
> called and said that she loved learning and everything but it is
> just not something she wants to do right now and she is especially
> busy at this time. That was hard because she is like our favorite
> person ever. She is so cool and has so much potential. In all
> honesty, I think that she is afraid to find out if everything is
> true. So we'll make sure the Elders in a few months contact her and
> see how she is doing and try to teach her again.

> Before last week even started we had 24 lessons set up and most of
> them ended up falling through. Rough stuff. Fortunately, we were
> able to pull it together and still teach 19 lessons but a lot of
> them ended up being recent convert/less active work.
>
> I feel like educating you a little bit on the goals the mission has
> for us missionaries. We are suppossed to teach at least 20 lessons
> a week and get an average of 20 ITL's per day for the week. ITL
> stands for Invitation To Learn and basically represents every
> nonmember person that we talk to that we invite to learn about the
> gospel. That can come from tracting, stopping people on the street,
> whatever. Basically, we are given a charge to talk to EVERY person
> that we see and counting ITL's is a nice little way of helping us
> stay focused and getting us to talk to everyone.

> Unfortunately, most missionaries do not complete either of those
> goals. But they should! Many missionaries tend to be lazy. It is
> sad. And as you can see, we didn't even quite complete the 20
> lessons goal but we sure did work our tails off for it. It was a
> bad week. But since everything was falling through, we did a TON of
> tracting. It was fun but A LOT and it got very tiring. There
> hasn't been much immediate success from all that tracting, but we
> will see blessings from it eventually. If you were wondering, we
> averaged 33 ITL's per day from tracting. Which is a ton if it is
> all tracting. Ha ha. Anyway, so now you know a little bit about
> the numbers we use in the mission to help keep us motivated. There
> are a lot more numbers that we report every week, for further
> questions see Preach My Gospel.
>
> The mission is really going well. Although we haven't seen a ton of
> progress this week it is happening slowly. We have to be tested
> every once in a while! Hopefully, this next week will take off a
> little faster and we can bring some souls into the kingdom of God!
>
> That is so freaking cool that Dad got to design the Jimmer Fredette
> Player of the Year poster. Can you send me a picture or copy or
> something of it when it is done? I really want to see it. Way to
> go pops! Sounds like spring break was awsome. I am jealous that
> you guys got to lounge around. I love the hard work of being a
> missionary but dang do I miss naps! I am excited to hear about MJ's
> roles that they get in the play. Let me know. Oh! Happy Easter!
> I wont email you again until it has passed. Have lots of fun at the
> Easter picnic! I wish I could be there. Send everyone my love.
>
> Oh yeah! One other awesome thing! Sometime in the near future I
> get to go to the temple! Yay! I don't know if I told you this but
> Elder Farnsworth actually served in Plymouth a year ago and while he
> was here he baptized a woman who's husband was already a member.
> And now, they are going to the temple to get sealed and we get to go
> with them since we are here in the area. So awesome! I have been
> dying to go to the temple. I miss being able to go so much. So
> yeah, that is exciting!
>
> I'm glad to hear that life is going good at home. I love you guys
> and miss you. Thanks for being the best family ever. And I can't
> wait for Grandma to be done with her chemo. I pray for her all the
> time.
>
> Much Love,
>
> Elder Ruesch

April 11, 2011 email

Well hey! This has also been a most excellent week. The last two weeks have been incredibly successful at finding new investigators to teach. Which is exactly what we needed. The amount of lessons with investigators we are teaching now each week has gone from like 3 a few weeks ago to now 12 this week. Awesome? Yes. Talk about super blessings!

First off, ________ is doing excellent. We met with him on Friday and he commited to live the Word of Wisdom. He also came to church yesterday and had a fantastic time. He is really doing well and we are all so excited for his baptism. We did have to move the day of it back a little bit though to May 7th ish. It isn't set in stone yet and Charles is deciding on a definite date that he can do. The only reason we had to change it was because there are a few people he wanted to come that couldn't be there on the 30th of April. If you're excited and you know it clap your hands!

I think I mentioned______ last week. She is the one that has a really hard life. We met with her again and the lesson went much better than the first one. We had a pretty good lesson about the Book of Mormon. And we also gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and commited her to read it. And guess what? She likes it! That tends to happen when people will actually read the Book of Mormon. Funny how that works huh? She read some of the BoM and the pamphlet with her other half/boyfriend who is in a nursing home and he was like, "where do we sign up?" So it sounds like promising things can come from these too. They really need the gospel because it will provide so much comfort and peace for them.

Also, last week I believe I quickly mentioned a cool young couple that we had found. Maybe? Anyway, they are awesome! They are engaged and will be married on Memorial day. We met with them on Tuesday for our second visit with them and she had actually read what we asked her to from the BoM. It was awesome! In fact, she read more than we asked. She decided to skip to the last chapter to see how it ends which was a pleasant suprise. What better chapter for someone to decide to read than Moroni 10? So she liked it and thought it was interesting. He hadn't read anything and felt pretty bad about it actually. They are both just very open and willing to learn about other religions. They are like the coolest people in the world though. He is RIPPED and actually does training for like UFC fighting. He doesn't actually fight but he trains with people that do. It's just his hobbie. And he is a pretty successful contractor too which is impressive in these tough times. She is a kick boxing instructor at a nearby gym. They are just way cool. It's so fun to visit with them. I hope they get baptized!

We met with ________ again this week too. She is such a neat lady! The great thing about her is that although she has a million concerns with the church, she is very open with those concerns and so we can just talk about it with her and help her to understand where we are coming from. She doesn't want to change at all and she is very set in her religion. But she is very open to learning about the things we believe and actually considers the fact that it could be true. So that is a start at least. It's all down to the good ol' Book of Mormon now. As soon as she starts to feel like the BoM is true then that really solves every concern that she has. Heavenly Father is seriously so cool. The Book of Mormon is everything and it is just absolutely amazing that he has made it available for us to use as the biggest tool in conversion. Missionary work wouldn't be possible without the Book of Mormon.

We also got a referral last week for a woman named _________. This whole story is very interesting. Her boyfriend that lives in Indiana is seriously investigating the church and so he referred her to us. Side note: keep in mind, when we get a referral it comes in a text and has VERY LITTLE information. So when we call or stop by a referral we are usually doing it blind without any info. Anyway, back to the story, we went to her house and she invited us right inside and let a teach a quick lesson (which rarely happens). Very nice lady. Come to find out she has an atheist background and has never been a church goer. So even the basics are very foreign to her like prayer. And that is what we taught, just a quick lesson on prayer. We had a very nice conversation with her and she is pretty interested in learning everything that we believe. We're really going to work with her and try to help her gain her own testimony. It is going to be interesting teaching someone that not only doesn't have a Christian background, but doesn't even have a background of a belief in God. And I'm really excited for it!'

Many other good things happen everyday and I wish I could tell you about them all! We see little miracles all the time. But those are the main people we're working with. Also, we are working with several less active people. The work is going really good and we are seeing lots and lots of wonderful success. I love it! I wish everyone would just join the church and live it. They don'y know what they are missing!

As for Minnesota, guess what? There is this green stuff that some people like to call grass. And we can see it! It's a miracle! Also, the lakes actually have movement now and have some real water instead of being frozen solid. It's great! Minnesota is freaking gorgeous. The weather is awesome too. It will rain occasionally but also has some beautiful sunny days. Oooo and guess what else? Yesterday we had our first tornado warning. That was fun. It didn't get serious at all but the sky was pretty dark. Apparently when a tornado is coming the sky gets horribly black and green colored. That will be fun to see. And don't worry, mom! I do have brains. I will be safe. Besides, the Lord is on my side! And we caught two frogs the other day. That was fun.

Minnesota is great and I am having lots and lots of fun. I feel like I have been out for 25 years but at the same time it feels like 4 seconds. It's crazy how that makes sense.

By the way, mom, I do like getting the updates from my other missionary friends. I like hearing how they are doing!

The work is great and hard and great and fun and also hard. But it's great! And I love it. Thanks for all the support and love! Can't wait to talk to you in a month.

Love,

Elder Morgan Ruesch

Pictures

More pictures

Morgan and Nelson at MTC

Before Priesthood Session

April 4, 2011

Woo woo! It is required for missionaries to wear suits between
October and April General Conference. And now that conference is
done, today we get to whip out the short sleeve shirts and slacks. So
now I'm rockin the short sleeves with out a suit coat and dang I look
good! Ha ha. Not really. But it sure does feel good. Yesterday was
really warm. It was in the 50's. Unfortunately, there is this
horrible thing that I like to call wind and it tends to cause some
problems and pulls the temp. down. Oh well. Pretty soon it will be
unbearably hot and so I'm going to enjoy the time I have where it is
almost warm.

Conference was awesome. I'm pretty sure this is the first Conference
that I made it through every session without falling asleep. That is
an accomplishment. And it felt good. The talks were excellent like
usual and I loved it. And geez, I even felt bad for not being married
and I'm a missionary! What do they expect me to do? Ha ha. I did
think it was interesting how much they talked about it. No wonder so
many RM's get married so fast.

For the first session on saturday we went and watched it with the
McGuires at their house. It was way fun. Their first session of
General Conference ever! Pretty awesome. And they enjoyed it. It
was also super great to see Mike and Quiton at the priesthood session
that night. They are just full blown mormon already. They adapted to
the church super easily and they just love it. So cool!

We watched the second session with some members and that was fun. We
have made some really great friendships with a lot of the members
here. The Plymouth ward is the bomb. That picture that you got of us
from was actually after the Priesthood Session at Smash Burger. It
was so sweet because the entire ward went there. Talk about sweet!
Smash Burger was flooded with at least 60 random mem at 9 o'clock at
night. They must have been a little confused but it was way fun.
Also! Charles and his son Amery came to the Priesthood session with
us too. Charles loved the session and he is doing really well.
Infact, Charles also came to the Bishop's house yesterday and watched
the final session with us too. It was so great to have him there. We
taught Charles on Friday. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it went
pretty well. I really hope that Charles will be baptized on the set
date. His baptism is tenatively scheduled right now for April 30th.
But I think I already told you that. He is progressing well so far!
And he really is such a good guy. And things are going well. I think
the only thing that might hold him up is his health. But the Lord
will provide a way!

We actually picked up a few new investigators this week. It was
great! The week before went pretty slow and then this last week
finally picked up quite a bit. We found a lot of potential
investigators actually and 5 of them have turned into actual
investigators. One woman that we started teaching, her best friend in
the world is Mormon. We tracted into her and she had a lot of
questions so we got an appointment and taught her this week. She
could potentially be very solid. The biggest thing will be if she
reads the BOM. If she does then honestly, I think she'll get
baptized. She is a busy mom though and life is crazy. Things will be
especially good if we can involve her husband and kids too. So we
have another appointment this week and we will see how she is doing
and let you know! Elder Farnsworth and I are actually very excited
about her!

We also got a referral for a woman who has a really hard life. Her
other half/boy friend (they never actually got married) is in a health
center and has been for many months over the past couple years. He
had a stroke and that began all of the problems. There is no way I
could go into it all, just know that she is an emotional wreck. We
met with her and some pretty amazing things have happened. Her other
half actually had some sort of a vision to not worry and that people
were on the way and then that is when we called her. We met with her
once and she has been doing better emotionally since and we are going
to meet with her again soon. The hope is that we can help her to gain
a testimony and she can notice the effect it has on her life and
she'll want to be baptized. Let's hope!

We also met with this really awesome young couple yesterday. They
were so open and willing to listen. We actually found her by just
talking to her in a parking lot of a grocery store. Benefits of
talking to everyone! So we are excited about them too. We'll see how
everything plays out.

The last investigator we picked up is a girl we also tracted into.
Man, tracting actually works and it is awesome! She is a little
interesting but we have a couple appointments set up with her already
and we'll see what happens. It is so suspenseful to have to wait to
teach all these people. Ha ha.

The work is going awesome! Missions teach you so much about people
and about the world. I love it! Plymouth is really a great area and
a lot of awesome success is coming from it. I love it here.
Minnesota is the bomb. I could totally live here someday. I wonder
if they make any rockets around here... ha ha.

Life at home sounds like it is great. I am still praying for grandma
and I'm glad to hear she is doing okay. There is a woman in the ward
here who had ovarian cancer and had to get surgeory and do chmo and
stuff like that but it's all gone now and she is still alive and happy
and healthy! That was comforting to talk to her :)

I miss you guys tons! Things are going really great in the land of 10
BILLION lakes. Minnesota is awesome. By the way, no one really has
much of an accent. I was disappointed. The only difference is that
everyone says beg intead of bag. Other than that most people have no
accent at all! Someday I will find a person with a thick Minnesotan
accent and I will let you know. That will be a good day.

Elder Farnsworths BDay was Saturday and his dad sent him some steaks
in the mail. It was hilarious. So today we are going to grill up
some steaks and play ping pong with two other Elders. I'm excited!

Love you so much! Thanks for all the updates.
-Elder Ruesch

Transfer Number 1!

We did meet with Charles again this week. He is just awesome. We taught a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went very well like usual. He has such good intentions to study hard and prepare for baptism and I hope that things really do work out. We were able to set a date with him for his baptism for April 30. It should be most excellent! He is seriously the nicest person in the world and we are going to do everything we can to help him be ready. I think the only thing that could stop that date from going through is his health. Knock on wood! If he really has a strong desire to be baptized then the Lord will provide a way.

The .................'s are doing awesome. We visited them twice this week and they are just happy as can be. We are most likely going to watch a session of general conference with them at their house on Saturday, and I am pumped. They are pumped too! When you think about it, General Conference is the most incredible idea in the whole world, especially for recent converts. We pretty much have Moses standing there on TV telling us the things that we need to do to be happy. Can you say awesome?

I think I might have mentioned last week that the ......................'s had fallen off the face of the earth. If not, now you know. And so because of that, we went to their house on Tuesday to see what was going on. They are so interesting because they told us that they had found another church with their friends that they decided to go to and they didn't know how to tell us so they just dropped all contact with us. Sad stuff. Let's remember that they contacted us and told us that they wanted to be baptized. They said they had done lots of prayer and study and decided that this was the right church for them. And now they have done a complete change around. So odd. Honestly, we think that their friends anti'd them. And also, I think they didn't realize that this church is a church that you actually had to to do stuff. The best thing is that they think they are done with missionaries. He he. Not even close. We'll go by their home in a few weeks and they will also go into the former investigators section of our area book and missionaries will be contacting them for years to come. This church is awesome.

Speaking of former investigators. We met with a man who is a former investigator and has met with missionaries a lot in the past. We picked him up as an investigator this week and had a very interesting lesson with him. We had a long discussion about the Holy Ghost and about the role it plays in our life and he thought it was interesting. The reason he let's missionaries come over is because he likes hearing different ideas and stuff of our church and finds it all interesting but he doesn't necessarily care to know if it's true. I don't know how to explain the lesson we had with him. We are just going to try and find ways to make the gospel really connect with him and help him to see the need for the church in his life. We'll do our best.

The homecoming/farwell of Timmy and Kenny sounds like it was awesome! That would have been very fun to go to. It sounds like Kenny had a very successful mission, and I am just pumped for Timmy to get out into the field! He is going to have a party. If you give me his address or he wants to write me or anything I would love that.

Well, it's been an interesting week. Not a lot of exciting things to report on. Just the usual good ol' work for God. Sometimes I get sad for the people when we are tracting. Because it's like here we are! We're on your doorstep and all you have to do is listen to us and you will learn how to be even happier. But then they don't listen and I feel really sad for them. On the other side however, Minnesota is a very religious area. Everyone here is either Lutheran or Catholic and a lot of people really are active in their church. It's comforting to know that there is at least a strong faith in Christ among the people. And if they listen to us their faith can get stronger! Too bad they don't know that.

It's sounds like Jonny boy is a babe. I'm sure that even though he is taken, all of the girls flock to him as Mr. Darcy. Nice work!! Keep up those acting skills and good luck these next few shows!

And I am dang jealous of Christie! Bungie jumping in New Zealand?!? Talk about awesome.

You know what's cool? It wont be too long before I will be able to call you. Mother's day isn't too far out! Speaking of that, missionaries are allowed to use skype when talking to their family. So if a member will let me use their skype then I could not only talk to you, I could SEE you too! So set up a skype account and hopefully we can work it out when the day arrives.

Life is good as a missionary. It has been exciting and fun and crazy and scary and everything else. I love it! I got the package from you. Thank you very much. I will probably send home a flash drive with pictures on it pretty soon. I'm excited! And tell sister Smith thanks so much for the hat!! It is way cool. I like it a lot.

I will email again next week and will officially be an experienced missionary because I totally finished one whole transfer :) It sounds like life at home is great. I'm always praying for Grandma and am so glad to hear she is doing well. Thanks for all the updates and have a wonderful week! I miss and love you!

Love,

Elder Ruesch