July 4, 2011

It is pretty sweet that our P-day ended up on the 4th of July. So we
get to kinda relax for a bit and enjoy the holiday. Pretty fun.
There are going to be a bunch of people out tonight getting ready to
watch the fireworks and so we're going to have a really good time
tonight going and talking to everyone. It will be interesting. I'm
excited.

THis week has been really rough. Definitely the slowest week of my
mission so far. Everyone is out of town or partying or whatever it is
and it makes it really hard to get in contact and especially get
appointments with anyone. Not cool. SO to be honest I don't really
have too much to update on. Thursday and Friday were SO HOT. It was
crazy. And by SO HOT I mean it was high 90's. Now you might be
thinking to yourself, "Oh Morgan, you're such a fruit cake and a
wimp. High 90's aint nothin." Oh but you are wrong. You are so
wrong. The humidity was anywhere between 60 and 80 percent during the
day and I was literally swimming. In fact, missionaries aren't
allowed to swim so I'm surprised they even let us go outside.
Fortunately, we have a wonderful thing called air conditioning in our
car. Unfortunately, that didn't help much because thursday was one of
those days where all of our appointments fell through except 1. So we
were tracting all day. Hot. By the time we got home on thursday
night I was totally whipped. I haven't been that tired in a long
time. But it felt good to be totally exhausted. It made be feel like
I was diligent. Things cooled down a little but by saturday and so
that was nice. Brian is a genius by giving me those hankerchiefs.
They were so great to use to dry my face. Thanks Brian!

Although this week was super duper slow we did have two cool
experiences that could hopefully go somewhere. On saturday we had all
day available and so we decided to drive to this little city that is
pretty far out in our area that I have actually never been to and just
tract all day. We didn't have any success at all except for one guy
that we talked to. He left his Lutheran church and is now deciding he
wants to find something else. He said he'd be willing to let us come
back sometime and talk with him more. Hopefully some great things
happen with him!

Also, the other cool experience (this on is kinda funny). We knocked
on a door and this tall guy in a swimsuit comes to the door. The
first thing he does is yell a big sigh, "Ohhh nooo!" Ha ha. It was
funny. But we got talking to him and he invited us to his back yard
to see his pool. We stayed and talked to him for at least an hour!
It was awesome! He is from Ukraine and moved to America many years
ago and got married. Has several kids and is now finishing up going
through a dramatic divorce. I could tell that this divorce really
shook him up and now he has a hard time even believing that God
exists. We told him about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him
and left him a plan of salvation pamphlet and set up an appointment to
come again this saturday. I'm excited about it. He was reluctant but
he really does need our help, even though he doesn't know it. Divorce
is crazy stuff. It has messed up a lot of people from what I've
seen. Hopefully something happens there too!

Other than that, this week was hot and slow. Minnesota is funny
because on friday it was burning hot all day and then this cloud front
moved in at light speed in the evening and started dumping rain. It
was awesome. There is such crazy weather here. Keeps you on your toes.

I got your package. It was awesome! Elder Gottfredson also got a
package of a ton of cookies so we got a lot of cookies to plow down.
Good thing we sweat a millions pounds off while tracting. Ha ha. I
hope that your 4th festivities are fun. Tell the Goss family hello
when you see them at thanksgiving point tonight :) I hope the
fireworks are fun.

We officially have a new mission president and I get to meet him
tomorrow! I am excited!

Love you guys so much and I love hearing all about what you guys are
doing.

Well I got to head out! Playing some Bball. Word.

Love you!
Elder Ruesch

June 27,2011

Hey hey hey! It's been a long week. Everytime we have transfers the
first week is always really long. It is hard to help the new guy
adjust. But things are going well! My new companion, Elder
Gottfredson, is the bomb! He is a really good guy. He has been out
on his mission as long as Elder Hirschi, so still pretty fresh. I'm
just finishing up his training. He is from West Jordan. Not too far
at all from home. We have fun. It's been nice becasue he is very
willing to work and listen and learn. He's a great missionary. It's
been lots of fun. He's super easy going and so I we get along very
easily and laugh a lot. Thank goodness. I need to have a good laugh
every once in a while.

What an interesting week. It's been crazy. We didn't get the chance
to teach many of our investigators this week. It was hard to get
appointments with them for some reason but we're still working with
them. But we got to do other awesome things that just rocked my
world! Thursday was amazing. We got to go to the temple with the
young men and new members. Awesome! We rode to the temple and back
home with _________ and he knows the twin cities really well so as we
were driving the cities he told us all about the many places we saw.
It was awesome just to hang out with him in the car. He is such a
good guy. And then at the temple______ and _________ were there as
well as another recent convert family and the young men. What a cool
experience! Unfortunately, missionaries aren't even allowed to be in
the baptistry at all so we got to work in confirmation room the whole
time. That was exciting. I loved that. ________ brought the names
for his dad and grandfather. That was super neat. He had a great
experience. I wish I could go to the temple every day. The moral of
the story is the temple is the best place in the entire world. Amen.

I think I told you about the family we tracted into who does the Bible
Bee, didn't I? Anyway, we went and taught them last Monday and the
lesson just was horrible. They had a million questions which is good
but it was an argumentative setting. No bible bashing but the spirit
was definitely not there. I don't know if they'll ever let us back.
I feel horrible about how the lesson went. But I have to not beat
down on myself. It wasn't all my fault. I just hope they at least
read the BOM. That's what it is all about. This was really the only
sad thing this week.

Moving on. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday! Yay! There
is an older woman that we taught once who is super cool. She grew up
Lutheran but has been telling us that she doesn't like her church
anymore. She keeps saying she needs something more. She is totally
ready for our church. So we've given her a BOM and she came to
church! WORD! I can't tell you how stinking hard it is to get
investigators to come to church. Seriously, the hardest thing in the
entire world. But she came and had a good experience. It was ward
conference and so she thought that all the sustainings were weird. We
explained it though and she was fine with it. We'll keep you updated
with her. The other investigators that came to church were kind of
unexpected. A less active girl brought her friend and another less
active lady brought her husband and granddaughter. It's exciting.

There is this less active lady in our ward that we visit every once in
a while. She is hilarious. It's so funny. But she took us to the
hospital yesterday and we gave one of her friends a blessing. That
was a good experience. Her friend is not a member and just got
diagnosed with colon cancer. I think that she had a super good
experience from the blessing. I don't know where it could lead to but
it was neat.

We finished the week off well with the most amazing fireside.
Yesterday was the farewell fireside for President and Sister Howell.
it was SOOOO good! The ________ actually spoke in the fireside and
talked about their conversion story and shared their testimony. It
was so powerful. They also had several musical numbers and then
President and Sister Howell each spoke. Man, you would have had to be
a cardboard cutout to not feel the spirit in this meeting. We also
have a tradition that we sing This is the Christ at the end of Zone
conference and other missionary meetings. So all the missoinaries
went up to the front at the end of the fireside and sang This is the
Christ. Ah! Delicious. It was such a good fireside. It doesn't get
much better than that. If you go to the Howell's homecoming I think
that all the RM's there are going to get up and sing This is the
Christ as well. That will be so good.

I am sure going to miss the Howells. They have had a major impact in
my life and I will dearly miss them. I am super excited to meet the
Clements though. They come on Wednesday. I am super pumped! Oh and
guess what. You know how we have this goal to baptize 60 people in
June? Things are going really well and we are only 1 baptism away
from reaching our goal. We're waiting for a miracle! It is still
June and we are going to reach our goal and so I can't wait to see
what happens. Missions are the bomb. The MMM (Minneapolis Minnesota
Mission) is seriously on fire right now. I can't even tell you how
well our mission is doing. It's a fact, this is the best mission in
the world! President got a call from one of the Quorum of the Twelve
the other day telling him that Salt Lake it watching our mission like
crazy. There is so much faith here and so much is happening that Salt
Lake is watching our every move. I am so grateful to be a part of
this mission. I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else. I love it
here. The members are awesome, the missionaries rock, and the work is
dang hard. I love it!

The Lehi round up looks like it was a party. I am sad that I missed
it. I only have to miss one more of them! Sister Ford is here in
Minnesota now. I'm sure I'll see her sometime soon. I am excited to
see her. That will be a fun connection to home. I'm excited.

Thanks for all of your love and support! Love you guys so much!
-Elder Ruesch

June 20, 2011

Woo hoo! This was a really great week. Lots of fun and exciting
things happened. First off, never fear! ________ is now officially a
member of the Church of Jesus Christ! Her baptism went as planned on
saturday and it was a very neat experience. There weren't many people
there at all. Just like 15 or so but it was very spiritual and such a
powerful program. The best thing was that she asked me to baptize
her. So she is the first (living) person I have ever baptized. It
was so neat! Funny story: we thought the font was filled really high
because it looked like it was. And then when I walked into it I
realized that the water level was only just above my knees. Super
low! So it was an advenure trying to dunk her all the way. The first
time I baptized her, her knee came up out of the water. When I pulled
her back up and explained that we needed to do it again she exclaimed,
"Oh no!" She was really afraid of the baptism and so to do it twice
took some courage. But she had a great experience. The second time
was perfect and she was fully immersed. What a cool thing!
Elder Hirschi confirmed her in church yesterday. His first
confirmation! He did a great job and it was super excellent
experience again. I can't tell you many other places where I have
felt as much power as I do when I stand in the circle of Melchezidek
Priesthood holders confirming a member of the church. Ah. So cool.
The church is true. You better believe it.

Speaking of Elder Hirschi. Transfers are this week and believe it or
not, Elder Hirschi is getting transfered! It was very surprising
because we're supposed to stay together at least 3 months. But for
some reason they decided to switch around a lot of the trainees. So
Elder Hirschi is going to St. Paul to be with another trainer where
he'll finish his training and I will be getting a missionary from
Rochester and I'll finish off his training. Kinda cool. His name is
Elder Gottfredson. We've got some really awesome things happening in
Plymouth now though and so Elder Hirschi is really sad to leave. It
was just very unexpected! He will be missed. But he's going to do
really well in St. Paul. He's a good missionary.

We also did an exchange this week and so I went to Uptown for a day.
It rocked. We went tracting up in North Minneapolis where a huge
tornado hit a few weeks ago and the damage was insane! Trees with
HUGE trunks were totally torn out of the ground. Houses had trees
fall on top of them. Sidewalk squares were pulled up. Crazy stuff. I
completely forgot to take pictures. I wish I had. Maybe I'll go back
soon. But probably not. Oh well. It was cool to see, very sad
though of course too. I don't think anyone was killed in the tornado,
so that it really good.

There is a lady who we have taught a few times. We met with her again
and had a fantastic lesson with her. She recently had a friend die
and so we taught her the plan of salvation. It was great and she
commented on how she felt so much better after the lesson was done.
We had been talking about baptism with her in the past and brought it
up again and invited her again to be baptized. She accepted and said
that the first date that popped in her head was September 23...
Really far away, however, Elder Hirschi and I both talked about it
after and decided that it felt good. We were shooting for July but if
the spirit is telling her september then I'm not arguing. And the
more we learn about her the more things we find that she needs to sort
out in her life before she can be baptized. So three months might be
the time we need to help her out. I hope that all goes well. Her
dearest friend is a member of the plymouth ward and is awesome. So
she is helping and so are we and with Baby steps we will get her to
the place that she needs to be.

Guess what! The Young men in our ward are going to the temple to do
baptisms for the dead this week and they invited the newly baptized
members to come along too. So the _______ family , __________, and
another family are all going to go and we got permission to go too!
Word! It is going to be the coolest thing in the whole world to do
baptism with them. _________ is taking the names for his father and
grandfather and is going to be baptized for them. It's awesome.

Things are starting to pick up in Plymouth. We got several new
investigators and have potential to get quite a few more this week
too. We had to drop ________ and sort of drop the _______ family
because they just weren't progressing. We need to have another
baptism soon so that Elder Gottfredson can have one in Plymouth. I
plan to :) I have the faith, now it's time to work.

After __________'s baptism we were tracting and knocked into this
family that were doing their own bible study. Actually the kids
compete in what they call the Bible Bee where they memorize a ton of
bible scriptures and have to recite them in the competition. And that
is what the family was studying for. So they invited us to their
backyard where we sat around the fire and and they showed us what they
do for their study and we shared some principles of our message. They
were super skeptical about our teachings but said that we could come
back to share it all with them. So we're going back today actually.
I'm excited. If they really are true seekers of God's truth then they
will have an awesome experience and will find the truth here. We'll
see what happens! I'm excited.

So it's been a delicious week. I feel like I'm finally learning how
to be an effective missionary. It's taken me a while but I feel more
confident as a missionary. I sure did have to learn fast. Finally
things are moving forward and we were very blessed this transfer to
see TWO baptisms. Amazing! The Plymouth ward is seeing some
wonderful success. It's been really neat. After this next transfer I
will have spent 6 months in the same area. Craziness. That is
uncommon but I love it. This ward is the BOMB.

MJ. It sounds like Engineering state was awesome. That was such a
fun time! And congrats on your scholarships!! Way to go!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! I hope that is was a happy one. I'm glad to
hear that you got the text from Brother McGuire. He was so nice to do
that for me. Thanks for being the best Dad in the whole wide world!
I love you very much.

I think that is a pretty good update for the week. I'm excited to see
where this area will go. So many neat things can happen in just 6
weeks.

Oh and guess what? Elder Farnsworth goes home this transfer. Isn't
that just weird? I can't believe it. But that happens. He's had an
awesome mission. I'm very grateful for the lessons he taught me.

Well, life is good. I love you guys. Thanks so much for your love and
prayers. You are the best!
Love,
Elder Ruesch.

June 13, 2011

Hi!
It's been a pertty good week. We saw some good things happen. And
the weather has been delicious. It really feels like summer. Tuesday
was crazy. I think it was the record hottest day the Twin cities has
seen in a long time. It was 103 degrees. That's different than the
110 that Utah gets sometimes but when you add in the Humidity it feel
like death on a stick. It was awesome but really hot. The funniest
part was hearing everyone complain about it the next couple days
after. Minnesotans love to talk about their weather and they are very
dramatic about it. It's hilarious. But seriously, I think I could
have an hour long conversation with a Minnesotan if I wanted to. So
funny.

Good news! It looks like __________ is actually going to get
baptized! So awesome. She had her baptisimal interview on friday and
she passed. Funny story about that actually. The district leader
came to our church to do the interview and we went on a miniature
exchange afterwards so the DL's companion and I left while the
interview was going on and went tracting and Elder Hirschi stayed
behind. After the interview, I was still out tracting and so Elder
Hirschi, the District Leader and __________ came up with this wicked
plot to pull a prank on me. They all pretended like she didn't pass
the interview. So I went throughout the whole day thinking her
baptism wasn't going to happen anymore and it wasn't until later that
night that Elder Hirschi told me that it was all a joke. What a
punk! But it was hilarious. They did a good job making it seem
real. I was laughing pretty hard after I found out. And, oh my
goodness, you should have heard her after the prank was all done. She
was laughing her head off when I called her on the phone later that
night. It was hilarious how much enjoyment she got out of it. So I'm
glad I could provide her with a little happiness. Ha ha. Anyway, the
baptism is scheduled for this saturday! I'm pretty pumped. This
baptism is going to be a neat experience.

The baptism is exciting news, but as for most of our other
investigators we don't quite know what to do. Dispite all of our
efforts, the ______ family and _______ all didn't come to church
AGAIN. So we are thinking we're just going to have to drop them for
now. It is time to find new investigators who will actually
progress. Right now just isn't the right time I guess and
missionaries can try again in the future.

Last Monday we were tracting and talked to this Hindu family that said
we could come back. We talked to her about how families can be
together forever and that interested the mom. So we went back and
taught them on saturday and had a pretty good lesson with them. We
gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they'd read it. It was
interesting because both parents grew up in India and then came here
later. But the mom actually went to a catholic school in India.
Because of that she is pretty familiar with the Bible and
Christianity. The dad is not as religious. But they have really good
potential. The biggest problem we find with Hindu people is that they
are so open about religion that they are too open. And so they will
accept and agree with everything that you teach but it is impossible
to get them to realize that they need to do something about it. We
were excited about this family though because they were a little more
willing to learn. We'll see what the future holds.

We have been doing extra amounts of tracting and other finding stuff
this week because we really are trying to find new investigators that
we can start working with. So many of the people we've been working
with will only let us help them to a certain point and then they wont
do anything else. And that is when you have to move on. So hopefully
some people will come out of their hiding places for us to find,
teach, and baptize them! Yay

We also got back into contact with ____________ again. She fell of
the planet for a week or two and finally we got back in contact with
her and hopefully we'll be able to meet with her today. She has a lot
of things to get done before she is ready to get baptized but
hopefully we can help her move along swiftly.

Saturday was kinda cool because we had gotten a referral from a member
of the ward a few days before. She just told us to go over and offer
this couple some service. So we went over on saturday and it was the
perfect timing. The husband was just about to start mowing his lawn
and we ran up and talked to him for a bit. We offered some help and
he was kinda excited and gave us some jobs to do. It was fun to help
out in the yard for a little bit. Unfortunately it didn't turn into a
teaching opportunity yet. Maybe someday. The couple was very cool
and we had a good time. They just aren't religious. So someday when
they realize they need religion then hopefully they'll remember us.

So things are going pretty good. At this point we're sort of erasing
the chalk board and starting over regarding the people we work with.
Hopefully we'll see some miracles! We see them everyday. That is for
sure.

Happy summer! I love hearing from you and reading your emails. I
hope MJ have fun at Engineering State. Tell them to not let all of
the geeks ruin the dance. They can make it fun! They should have a
good time.

Parents: I hope you have a very happy anniversary. 22 years! Talk
about awesome. Thanks for being the best parents ever! And have fun
at Antelope Island. That sounds way fun.

Much love!

-Elder Ruesch

June 7, 2011

Well hey there! Yeah, I forgot to mention last week that our P-day
this week was going to be on Tuesday. I apologize! But don't worry,
I'm still alive. I wont be surprised if this happens many more
times. It's a good thing you guys are already used to it.

Happy birthday Christie!! I hope it was a delicious birthday. The
party looked like lots of fun. I'm sad I missed it.

This week was interesting. I think I mentioned an older lady who has
been investigating the church for like 10 years. Well I think she is
actually going to get baptized. We set a date for her baptism with
her for June 18th. She is now consistently coming to church and we
think she is actually serious about this baptism. Have I already
mentioned the goal our mission set to baptize 60 people in June? I
think so. Anyway, we set that goal as a mission because we wanted to
double our baptisms. And so there has been a huge push to baptise in
June and Elder Hirschi and I really wanted to be a part of this goal
and it just didn't look like we were going to have anyone ready for
baptism in June. But then ____________ decided to take things
seriously and it looks like we really might get to help the mission
out! It's totally an answer to prayer. Awesome! So we can only hope
that things continue to go smoothly and she does get baptized in two
weeks. That would rock!

Cool thing. There is a girl who was in Chamber with me and she told
me that her sister was in the same mission as me before I left and I
totally met her the other day! Random. But it is really fun
sometimes to have a connection to home with someone. It felt great to
just talk to her about Utah. Good times.

Things are improving for our missionary work in general in Plymouth.
I sometimes get pretty frustrated because we are both just brand new
missionaries and although I do have some experience, I'm still
learning how to be the most effective missionary I can. There are a
lot of skills that I need to master and I hold such a high expectation
for myself that it can get me down sometimes. Don't worry though, we
are getting better and better each day and I'm not letting frustration
get to my head. We're working our hardest and doing our best. The
task of training a new missionary after 3 months is a difficult one
and I don't know how smart it is to have a missionary do it. But
things are working out well and I hope that Elder Hirschi is at least
learning something from me!

This week we moved into a new house. We were living with a family and
they had several sons coming to live at home for the summer and so
there wasn't any room for us any more. So we moved to live with
another family in the ward. Their house is HUGE! Ha ha. But really,
it's big. We have the whole basement to ourselves and there is a
sports court in the house and all sorts of luxuries. I'll be honest,
I doubt there are many missionaries in the world living such a sweet
life. But we're only here for seven weeks so I'm going to enjoy it
while it lasts!

We had yet another week of NO ONE coming to church. Execept the lady
we are hoping to baptize. All of these investigators we are teaching
just can't take the step to make it to church. We're really focusing
on finding new investigators now. Investigators that will actually go
somewhere! But hey, even if all we can do is help someone build their
faith then we are still fulfilling our purpose as missionaries a
little bit. But in Minnesota we not only do that, we BAPTIZE! Just
have to find the prepared ones.

I'll be honest, MMM is by far the best mission in the world. Nothing
can compare! We really do amazing things here and President Howell
has just sent this mission off at light speed. There are amazing
things ahead and I can't wait to see what kind of growth there is.
The church is growing here in Minnesota like crazy. I sometimes
forget the work that I am a part of and only see what is happening in
my little sphere in my area. And then I look around at what is going
on across all of Minnesota and am just amazed. It blows me away.
This mission makes fantastic missionaries because it is hard. It is
dang hard. But we still are a baptizing mission. I can't wait to see
how the work progresses with President Clements. It's just awesome!

So as for investigators, _________ has been out of town all week and
we haven't been able to get ahold of her recently. Hopefully she's
okay. The _________ family stopped progressing and unfortunately we
don't know how much longer we're going to keep working with them. If
they can't start moving forward then we might drop them. But that is
what happens. We have faith though and for now we're going to still
try and help them. We've taught a lady a couple times who we tracted
into a long time ago. After many tries we finally got to meet with
her twice and she really likes the BoM and is pretty interested. We
invited her to be baptized in July and she said she would definitely
think and pray about it. She is super good friends with a member and
so I think that the member's example is what sparked her interest.
Members help so much!

____________ is doing fantastic. He got the Aaronic Priesthood on
Sunday and that was super neat. We also went over to his house last
week and visited with him and he was still floating on air. So happy
and at peace. And this was a full week after he'd been baptized. He
is the coolest guy ever. Oh and I need to send some pictures of his
baptism. I will do that! By the way, the _________'s are doing
awesome too. Brother M was called to be the assistant scout master
and sister M was called to be a visiting teaching coordinator person.
Pretty awesome. They rock. The coolest family.

So here we go on another week. I keep on thinking that something else
that was awesome happened this week but I can't remember what it was.
Maybe I will tell you next week. Thanks for the love. Happy
summer!! Speaking of summer, it has suddenly gotten really hot over
here too. 95 degress yesterday plus humidity = death. But we'll
survive. Making sure to drink water.

Much Love!
Elder Ruesch

May 29, 2011

Yaaaay! ________________ is officially the newest member of the
Plymouth ward. He got baptized on Saturday at 4:00. It was such a
neat thing. He was SO excited for it and just loved every moment of
it. It was amazing to see the glow in his face. The church is true!
There were quite a few people there too and a few sets of missionaries
brought their investigators and that was very powerful. It was just
awesome. This made the last week REALLY good.

Other than that the week was really just average and on the verge of
not so great. After doing everything that we possibly could, we still
didn't get any investigators to church (other than _________ of
course). Not cool. It can be so frustrating sometimes. It is
seriously one hour of the week and three hours at the most. Does it
have to be that hard? This gives me a good perspective. I think of
what Heavenly Father feels so often about each of us when we do our
daily stupid things. He's probably like, "Seriously? C'mon. I know
that you know better. Now stop being ridiculous and follow what I
tell you!" Ug. Oh well. We can only do our best and love the
people. Things will work out eventually. I hope.

Unfortunately, all of the investigators we have right now have quite a
few life obstacles to overcome before any of them could get baptized.
I'm so glad that I can be here to help them get past it and everything
but it is hard also because missionaries are only in an area for a
short time. So we're going to make the most of what we can. We are
really trying to focus on finding new investigators too so that we can
see hopefully a few more baptisms in Plymouth in the next few months.
As of right now things aren't looking so good for baptisms. But don't
you worry! The Lord will provide.

___________ is doing well. We might not end up passing her over to
the other missionaries because she is moving this summer and so there
wouldn't be much of a point. Right now we are really trying to help
her out with the Word of Wisdom and finding out that the Book of
Mormon is true so that she can make closer steps to baptism. As of
right now she would like to get baptized but obviously has a lot more
to learn and work on.

The _______ family is slowly, very slowly moving forward. Someday I
hope things start moving faster! If only they would just come to
Church!

The other day we had something cool. We were tracting and got talking
to this lady and ended up teaching her the entire restoration on the
doorstep! That doesn't happen everyday. Unfortunately, she said she
wanted to go and research on her own before she ever would meet with
us. It was a bummer. Oh well. The seed is planted.

Oh yeah! My first crazy food experience! There is a family in our
ward who is from Taiwan. Well actually the wife is from Taiwan and
the husband served his mission there. Anyway, they eat a dish there
called the thousand year old egg. It is like this egg that they have
stored and fermented sort of and it turns black. Ha ha. Of course
it's not actually a thousand years old but it is old. I guess this
family has a tradition that they have all of the missionaries eat it
that come over. The texture was really weird but I thought it tasted
pretty good. They must have gone easy on us and prepared it so it was
tasty for us. But it was the first weird thing I've eaten since I've
been out here! I hope it is the first of many to come.

Drunk people are hilarious. We got caught talking to these two drunk
kids that were roller blading the other day and they were just crazy.
Talk about embarrassing yourself. They really had problems and it was
hilarious. And of course they were roller blading. Because that is
the cool thing to do in Minnesota. Ha ha. Awesome.

Well, no recent tornadoes but there is a severe weather warning
today. Pretty great. Oh yeah, and Happy Memorial Day! I hope that
the Ruesch party was fun even if it was raining. Sounds like Utah is
really having weird weather! Minnesota has been kinda weird too but
not super unusual. Utah is just crazy.

Congrats Michael! That is so awesome that you got that internship! I
am totally jealous. Sounds like you are getting a good start on your
way to finding the cure to cancer. Nice work!
And congrats to Ashley too on getting that article published! Word.
I'm so proud of my genius family. I can't wait to get the Nobel Prize
someday :) Just kidding.

Other than ___________ it hasn't been the most eventful week. But
that is okay. His baptism makes up for a million uneventful weeks.
He is just the coolest guy in the whole world! It was so interesting
to talk to him about his journey to the church. 10 years ago he
actually went through the temple open house of the St. Paul Temple.
He also had missionaries come over to his house a few times and they
helped him clean his house and everything. They never really taught
him but did service. So cool! This was before he ever even met the
Smith's in this ward or anything. The Lord's plan is just so amazing.

I think I will sign off for now. Till next week! Thanks for all of
your love and support!

Much Love,

Elder Ruesch

May 23, 2011

Well hey!

Guess what! There was a tornado by my house! It happened on Saturday
night. I was bummed because we were obviously not home. We were at a
dinner appointment and then we went over to teach _______and he had
been watching the news and told us that a tornado had touched down in
Medina. Which is where we live! Awesome. It must have not been a
vey big tornado or anything though because we haven't seen any
destuction. But that is a good thing. The weather here has been
pretty crazy. There will be dark clouds and dumping rain and then 20
minutes later it will be totally sunny with hardly any clouds in the
sky. Additionally there have been quite a few tornadoes in the twin
cities area. North MInneapolis got dominated yesterday by a tornado.
Pretty scary. I still have yet to see a tornado with my own eyes. It
will happen someday. But don't worry mom, I'm being careful. This is
the season for crazy tornados. The cool thing is that Minnesota is so
prepared for tornadoes so when one does come, no one gets hurt.
Houses get destroyed and everything like that, but people keep
themselves safe.

Anyway, moving on. _______ is doing super well! He came to church
yesterday and he is super excited about his baptism. We are all
looking forward to it. I really think that it is going to happen this
time. We already have the whole program set up and his interview is
done and life is good. It is amazing to see the change that has come
over him. Even in just the past two weeks. I'm glad he didn't get
baptized two weeks ago because he wasn't quite ready. Man, the church
is true.

Things are going well with _________. We invited her to be baptized
on June 18th and she accepted! Pretty cool. We're excited. Today
we're meeting with her again. She is way awesome and I think that she
would love being a member of this church. Unfortunately, she didn't
come to church yesterday. It was disappointing but those things
happen! Other disappointing news. We found out just a few days ago
that she actually lives like 2 blocks outside of the ward boundary.
The boundary is messed up and so we thought we were in our area when
we actually weren't. Not fun. So it looks like we're going to have
to start passing her over to the missionaries in the ward next door
and they can continue with her.

Speaking of people not coming to church, yesterday stunk!
Fortunately, _________ at least came. We also had an older lady
investigator come. But other than that, we got the shaft. We were
expecting at least 5 other people and not one of them showed. I've
been starting to notice a pattern. It seems like the most unhealthy
time of the week is sunday morning. Everyone just happens to get sick
for some reason on sunday morning. It is so odd. They usually are
fine by like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. But at least till then they are
just stuck in bed on the verge of death. Where does this odd sunday
bug come from? Beats me. So yeah, that was disappointing. But hey!
We move on. This week we're going to work even harder.

I can't believe that President Howell only has one more month. It
just blows me away that time has gone that fast. What is the deal?
But I am pretty excited to meet the new president too. It will be
full of mixed feelings.

The ________ family is doing okay. There is no way that they will be
able to get baptized in June. They are progressing, but it is slow.
People have their own timing I guess. I wish that they would at least
come to church. People don't realize how much it can actually help
you in your life. Sometimes, I feel like agency is my worst enemy.
Is that horrible? Of course I love agency but I hate doing everything
you can to help someone make a good decision and watch them turn the
other way. But I guess that is life.

Things are growing though. We are continuing to find new people and
hope that things will turn out good with them. Missionary work is
good. It is hard though. Serving a mission is the best thing I've
ever done but I will be honest, it is also the hardest thing I've ever
done. It is really a challenge and takes a lot of motivation. But
with that it also provides the most joy and self fulfulment I have
ever had. Definitely good stuff. The Church is so genius to send us
young guys out on missions.

Well, Elder Hirschi and I are doing good. We're making it work with
what skills we do have. And somehow things are working out okay. We
couldn't do this without the Lord.

I think that sums up the week pretty good. I'm tired. Something that
I've come to learn is that no matter what you're doing or where you
are in life, you are always tired. It never ends. No wonder when God
talks about Heaven he says you enter into his rest. Sure sounds
heavenly to me.

Love you guys so much!

-Elder Ruesch

May 16, 2011

Whew! What a crazy week! It feels like it has been months since I
talked to you guys but it has only been a week. Geepers. Talk about
intense.

My new companion's name is Elder Hirschi (pronounced like the
chocolate: Hershey). We are going to have a good time together. He
is a good kid. He is from Layton, Utah. The funny thing is that he
is actually older than me and so it feels kinda weird to be training
him. But oh well. It's not like I have much to teach him with all
the massive amounts of experience I have gained. Ha ha. But we are
working hard and, boy, did he sure get thrown right into the work.
This was one of the busiest weekends I've had and so he got the full
experience. Fortunately, he is courageous and willing to jump right
in and so he's had no problem getting involved in the lessons and
everything. It will take time for him to get used to the missionary
life but hey, he's doing really well. I'm excited to work with him
for the next three months. We're going to party AND baptize!

Before I build up too much suspense I will start by letting you know
that the baptism didn't happen. Last weekend he kind of fell off the
boat for a while and we couldn't get ahold of him. However, we
finally caught him at his house on tuesday and got back in contact.
Finally, on Friday Elder Hirschi and I had a really really great
lesson with him. We discussed the concerns that he had and worked
through them and I know he is all set to move forward again. He
really does want to be baptized he just had a few things holding him
up. But now we're good. In fact, yesterday before church he had his
baptisimal interview and he passed with flying colors. So his baptism
is set for May 28th. We're excited and so is he. Speaking of
________ and church. Yesterday I sang in sacrament meeting. It went
okay, thank goodness. It was really great though because _________
accompanied me. It was neat. I really enjoyed it. I sang Be Still
My Soul. ________ is such a great guy and we had a good time.

Well, Elder Farnsworth is gone. He is now in the far distant land of
Winona, Wisconsin. The ward surely misses him but I'm sure he is
going to dominate in Winona. The weird thing is that this is his last
transfer. Weird.... I can't even picture myself in my last
transfer. It's too far away. I have a hard time believing that I'm
in my third transfer. It feels like time has gone by at light speed.

I had three different companions this week. That was kinda fun.
Elder Farnsworth left wednesday morning and I was with another Elder
who is training on wednesday. And then I picked up Elder Hirschi on
Thursday. Pretty eventful.

We met with __________ this week. She is so intelligent and asks so
many questions that we can never get through a whole lesson. But hey,
that's alright. We want her to ask questions. We have such good
discussions with her. Unfortunately, she has some sort of concern
that is keeping her from coming to church. We need to find out what
it is! I know that Church can help her. You know, that is one of the
coolest parts about being on a mission. You meet with so many people
and you have to kinda put a puzzle together from what we learn about
their life and try to find the specific part of the gospel that will
really affect them. It is such a hard thing to do. But the challenge
is fun. I've learned that everyone has some sort of concern about the
church whether it is big or small. The thing you have to do is help
them overcome that concern and then see the blessings that come from
life in this church. Good ol' missions.
The ___________ Family is progressing slowly but still progressing.
_________ came to church yesterday and he loved it. Unfortunately,
his older brother and mom didn't make it this week. But next week we
will try even harder to get them to come too! If we can just get the
whole family reading, praying, and coming to church then I know
they'll be baptized sometime in June. Easier said than done. We do
our best though.

Sunday was the craziest part of the week. We had three unexpected non-
members come to church making a total of five at church. It was
awesome. There is this older, less active lady who we visit every
once in a while and out of nowhere she brought her son's next door
neighbor with her to church! We had a good little chat with him and
hopefully will be able to teach him. That would be excellent! Also,
there is a girl in our ward who went to prom on saturday and she
brought along her prom date to church. He had some questions for us
and so we got to meet with him during the 2nd hour and teach him the
Restoration and gave him a BoM. He even started reading it during 3rd
hour and being an insanely fast reader he got through a ton of pages.
Now let's just hope he sincerely wants to know if it is true. There
is also another lady who we missionaries call an Eternigator, meaning
an investigator who has been investigating forever and probably will
forever. Nevertheless, she came to church today which is awesome and
maybe she is making closer steps to baptism. That would be great for
her. So then on top of those enexpected investigators at church we
had ________ and _______ come. It was great. The hardest part was
trying to make sure that everyone was taken care of and welcomed by
the ward. It was fun. I like busy stress much more than having
nothing happen.

Training a new missionary has been an interesting experience. It
isn't as hard as everyone makes it sound but that might be because I
got a good companion. It sure has pushed me harder though to be a
good missionary. For the first couple days I have to really lead and
control the area. Eventually Elder Hirschi will catch on though. One
of the nice things about this whole training at 3 months thing is that
it isn't too difficult to bring him up to my skill level. Ha ha.
Pretty soon he'll pass me up with all his skills. That will be fun.

Well, life is good. Now begins a new era in the timeline of my
missionary experience. It is exciting and fun. But a little scary
too. There are a lot of exciting things happening here in Plymouth
and the area is really starting to boom. Let's hope it doesn't go
anywhere but up from here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MJ!!!!!!!! You guys are old foggies now. It's gonna
be fun.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I also hope that the
weather is good over there. It is beautiful over here! The trees are
all finally starting to get green. Minnesota is the bomb. I love it.

Love you all!
-Elder Morgan Ruesch

May 9, 2011

Well, it's official. I'm going to be tested very hard for the next
few months. Right after I finished talking to you guys president
called and told me that I will be training in a new missionary here in
Plymouth. Crazy. I might die and explode. But it is going to be
really fun and super intense too. I love Plymouth and there really is
no better ward for a new missionary to start his mission at. Whoever
my companion is, he will be well taken care of by the people in the
Plymouth ward. That brings up an interesting point. I have no idea
who my companion is. On thursday all the trainers will go to the
mission office and we will sit in a room with the new missionaries and
President will tell us then who our companion is. Pretty cool. I'm
excited.

It was so awesome to talk to you all yesterday! It's a good thing we
have technology because it was THE BEST to see all of your faces.
Skype is awesome. And since we chatted for so long I don't really no
what to say in my email. It will probably be shorter today. But
that's alright.

By the way, Elder Farnsworth is being sent over to Wanona, Wisconsin.
President likes to give him really difficult challenges to do. It's
funny. So he'll be sent in there with a missionary that has been out
for 6 weeks and they will white wash the area. To white wash means to
be sent into an area at the same time as your companion. So the two
missionaries that were there get transfered out and two brand new ones
come it. This is incredibly difficult to do because you and your
companion have no idea about anything that is going on in the area.
Tough stuff. But Elder Farnsworth will be fine. He has one transfer
left and so he is going to push really hard and I bet he'll baptize
there before he goes home.

As for the area, things are going pretty good. We are having a
difficult time getting hold of _______ still and if we can't get in
contact with him today then we'll probably have to delay his baptism.
That would be sad so let's hope that doesn't happen. I don't know why
but he just has the hardest time answering his phone. And the funny
thing is we know he isn't avoiding us either. Everyone has a hard
time getting ahold of him. It can provide frustration sometimes. But
things will be okay!

We had no investigators at church yesterday. That was not fun. The
_______ family were supposed to come but they didn't make it.
However, we have still been in good contact with them and they are
still doing pretty well. _____ actually read some of the BoM. That
was surprising. We have two appointments with them this week and
we'll see how they go!

Oh I don't think I told you guys about _______ yesterday. She is
awesome. A few weeks ago we tracted into her and taught her a lesson
right on the spot. Unfortunately, she then went out of town and we
weren't able to meet with her for a while. But this week we did get
the chance to meet with her on Friday and Saturday. It was great.
She is very smart and well studied of the Bible and is very interested
in learning what we believe. We have had some great discussions with
her and she understands everything really well. The coolest thing is
that she wants to keep meeting with us often and so we have an
appointment tonight as well. It is excellent. She smokes A LOT
though and so I think that will be the biggest struggle for her if she
decides to be baptized. She'll be fine though. Anyone can give it up
if they trust the Lord.

Well, things are crazy. I can't believe that I am already done
serving my first three months in the field. It has gone too fast.
But I love it here! I'll be honest, I am really nervous about running
this area by myself for a while. Hopefully I get a prodigy new
missionary and things work out really well. I'm sure whatever happens
it will be awesome. Times are changing! It is weird. But Hey! I
just realized that I will be able to see the Ford's when they come out
here for the summer most likely. That would be so sweet. It is
nearly certain that I will be staying in Plymouth for another 3 months/
2 transfers since that is how long the new training program is. Crazy
stuff!

I hope you had a Happy Mother's day mom!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I am going to need all
the help I can get!

Love you!

-Elder Ruesch

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