June 11, 2012

Yo yo!

It has been a crazy week. But it was really cool. We first went to
Wisconsin on Tuesday. The drive from Rochester to La Crosse, WI is
about an hour and fifteen minutes. So it is pretty far away but it
was a beautiful drive. It was an eventful drive too. On the way over
a bird flew right into our windshield. Poor guy. We also got a flat
tire. But all was well and we made it there and back safely.

In that area of wisconsin they don't have anything like mountains but
they have some tall bluffs that are COVERED in trees and it is so
green. Super pretty! La Crosse is basically right across the border
from Minnesota to Wisconsin. Just past the Mississippi river. We had
a lot of fun. I got to spend the day out there with Elder
Gottfredson. Do you remember him? He is my old companion! He was
the last companion I had in Plymouth. So that was cool to spend a day
with him again.

The thing that stunk about this week was pretty much everything in our
own area went bad. Ha ha. We had a lot of appointments fall
through. But that isn't something that I am not used to.

If there is one thing that I have learned on my mission it is that I
HATE SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But really. I do. Everyone smokes and
it is so hard to break. I hate it.

We tracted into a guy two weeks ago and taught him this week. He is
such an awesome guy and has a really sad story. He way playing semi-
pro football for the team here in Rochester. And 4 years ago he saw a
drug deal and so the dealers assaulted him and beat him up hard core.
He ended up with a pretty bad brain injury and is now blind in his
right eye and has a hard time speaking. In our lesson he kept asking,
"Why me?" So we taught him about the atonement and the spirit was
strong. We will teach him more about the Book of Mormon and hopefully
we can help him to understand trials and rely on the Lord. He had
such a pure heart.

Something fun, there was a YSA conference down here this weekend and
so a bunch of the members from the Dinkytown Ward came down and I saw
a bunch of them. That was way cool. Party in Rochester!

Things are going well. We hope to see some more success this week!
If only people were more willing to commit to things. Don't they know
that it is for their good? Ha ha. Story of my life as a missionary.

Tell MJ to have a blast on Heritage Tours! And tell them that it is a
lot easier to bring up gospel conversations with people. I have high
expectations for them to do great missionary work while they are out
of Utah! I hope they give out a bunch of Book of Mormons!

And that is so rad that Ashley is in Minnesota. She will soon be
converted to this land just as I am. It is a glorious place!

Mom and Dad, sorry you are empty nesters. I still love you though!

Love!

Elder Ruesch

June 4, 2012

Hola!

This has been a crazy week! But it was definitely delicious. We
started with a meeting at the mission home in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
So Elder Last and I and two other Elders had to drive up there. It is
like an hour an a half drive, which isn't too bad but it is a lot more
than the 20 minute drive I was used to for my whole mission up till
now. Ha ha. It was a good meeting though and I got to see a bunch of
my old companions. Awesome!

Tuesday was an adventure too. We had a zone conference and it was
really good! Mom asked what a zone conference entails and so I
thought I could go into a little more detail about it. Pretty much
the whole time we just sit and learn things. All day long. Ha ha.
But they are usually very powerful and uplifting. I like them. It
started at 8 in the morning and finished at about 4. They fed us
lunch half way through. There are 7 pairs of missionaries in our
zone and a senior couple. So we have a total of 16 missionaries. We
started with Elder Last and I sharing some thoughts and things to the
Zone that we felt were relevant. And then President Clements gives us
a training. He will sometimes digs into the scriptures and we'll have
a great discussion about a certain topic and other times he will talk
about more specific techniques in our teaching or other aspects of
missionary work that we need to work on. The Assistants also gave a
good training. The format of Zone conference is usually the same but
there is always different content. They are fun. We almost always
will take some time to do a role play of some sort of moment in a
teaching situation. We might practice inviting someone to be baptized
or practice resolving someones concern with the Book of Mormon. This
Zone conference we practiced talking to members on the phone.
Apparently, some missionaries in this mission have had a difficult
time with it. Sounds odd to me but whatever! By the time Zone
Conference is finished I am really excited to get out and work but I
am also always exhausted. Feeling the spirit can be exhausting!

After the Zone conference we had another team work in our area with us
for the rest of the night. It was awesome! We were only working for
about 3 hours in the evening but we had a ton of miracles and found a
bunch of new people to teach! That is the bonus of going on exchanges
with other missionaries - miracles happen!

Last week i talked about the guy who is now preparing to be baptized.
Things are going pretty good for him. He is having a real difficult
time quitting smoking. It is going to be a tough road but he can make
it! I believe in him. We still have some time before his baptism on
June 30th. Hopefully, he can make it. So keep him in your prayers.

We had a wonderful miracle this week too! I think I mentioned last
week about a teenage boy who wants to join the church. We met his
grandfather last monday and he was a really nice guy. One of the
members that lives really close invited the whole family over for
lunch and a lesson. And they agreed! So we all had pizza at a
members home and then we taught the Restoration to this family. At
the lesson the spirit was really strong and it went really well! And
then the mom, the teenage boy, and one of his little brothers came to
church. It was sweet! The teenage boy is already loving the church.
He was planning on being baptized before he ever even met us. The
family has such a sweet spirit about them and I hope that things go
well with them!

We also got one other member referral this week. He is really
interested in the church. One of his co-workers is a member and so we
gave him a book of mormon and gave him a little introduction to it and
we have a return appointment to teach the Restoration. Yeah!

I have one other Awesome miracle that I want to mention. There is a
girl here who is rooming with her sister. Her sister is a really
active awesome member and this girl was not at all. But before I got
here her sister had the Elders over for dinner and they shared a
spiritual thought with them and it sounds like the spirit touched her
heart because she is just on fire now. She has totally turned her
life around. The missionaries started to teach her and she caught
the fire of the gospel and we're teaching her every week helping her
to come to understand more of the gospel. It is so neat to watch
though. I didn't get to see the whole process but I am seeing the
last half. It is cool to see how the Atonement is for all and some
people just need time. So cool! I love this church.

So we have another busy week ahead. I will actually be going over to
Wisconsin on Tuesday. Half of our zone is in wisconsin in a city
called LaCrosse. It sounds like a cool place and we will be going
over there this week. Cool stuff! I am excited. I'll make sure to
get lots of pictures :)

I saw the video that Dad sent me of MJ's graduation speach. That was
RAD!! Nice work fella's! Congrats on graduating. Have fun on
Heritage Tours. When you go to Nauvoo you are going to be pretty
close to me. Yay!

Life is good. Happy Summer!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

P.S. We went golfing just barely and it was so fun!

May 28, 2012

Wuzzup!!

It's been a crazy busy week but really fun. I loved it! Monday and
Tuesday was full of scrambling to get everything ready before I left.
We said goodbye to a lot of people and I procrastinated my packing
until Tuesday night. Typical. Packing is the worst! But I had a
bunch of stuff that I collected over the past 16 months of my mission
and I sent it home in a box. Did you get that? I sent it on
Wednesday morning and so you probably didn't get it yet. But yeah, it
was sad to leave Dinkytown. It has been an awesome place to serve.
But I was ready for something new. And I got it!

So Wednesday we met at the mission home and 5 of us that were going to
the Rochester zone got in a big van and a member that lives in
Rochester drove us all down. It was about an hour and a half drive.
Not too bad. This is the farthest south zone in the mission. We got
here Wednesday afternoon, my companion picked me up, and we hit the
pavement. And we still haven't stopped moving a million miles an
hour. But man, I love it here!

Rochester is a way cool place. It is a decently sized city. But it
isn't really big. Nothing like Minneapolis. And there are a lot of
members here. There are 5 wards in Rochester. Elder Last and I cover
the 2nd Ward and the 4th Ward. There used to be a set of missionaries
in every ward but there wasn't enough work going on so President
started having missionaries cover multiple wards. Each ward is really
cool. The 2nd ward has what we call a YSA Magnet. Meaning, the 2nd
ward is a normal ward but it also acts kinda like a singles ward and
so all of the singles the live in or near Rochester will come to the
2nd ward. Which also means that if any missionaries have a YSA
investigator they will pass the investigator to us and we will start
teaching them. Pretty cool! I think that God knew I was going to
have a hard time adjusting from a Singles ward to a Family ward so he
gave me an ward that had both! It is very nice of Him. :) I LOVE
working with the YSA's. The 2nd ward has some really awesome
members. We live in the 2nd ward Bishop's house. He is awesome!

And then the 4th ward is full of FIREBALL members. Almost the entire
ward is young families. Pretty much 1/3 of the ward is the Primary.
There are SO many kids!! It's crazy. But the members here in
Rochester are all super solid. Most of them came from somewhere else
to work at the Mayo Clinic or to do a Residency there or something
else that is connected with the Mayo Clinic. The entire city revolves
around the Mayo.

When I got here on Wednesday we went to teach a family a first lesson
and they are solid. They didn't come to church this week but they
should next week and hopefully they can progress! There are also two
investigators here that already have a date set for baptism. One is a
teenage girl who's doing really well and her date is set for July 7th.

We also have a date set with this awesome guy! He's so cool. His
date is set for June 30th. He has a cool story. He had a friend who
was meeting with missionaries a long time ago and so he met the
missionaries before but never listened to them. And then a few years
ago he went to prison. So while he was in prison he got ahold of a
Gospel Principles manual somehow and read the whole thing and loved
it! After he got out of prison he called his friend and got the
missionaries number and called them! Now we are teaching him and he
is preparing to be baptized. He is way solid.

We also got a solid referral from a girl in the 4th ward. A girl in
middle school had a kid tell her that he wants to be Mormon and she
thought he was joking but it sounds like he was serious. Ha ha! So
she gave him a Book of Mormon and he is reading it and he came to
church. He also came to a ward activity that the 4th ward had this
morning for Memorial Day. He brought his Grandpa too and we talked to
them and his Grandpa wanted to have us come over. So hopefully we can
teach the whole family! We'll see what happens this week. Yay!

Elder Last is an awesome companion. We are having a lot of fun
together. It is really funny that we ended up serving together
because we've been serving around each other for our whole missions
pretty much. He is a really funny guy and I love serving with him.
Hopefully, we can get a lot of good work done! Oh by the way, it's a
small world but it actually turns out that Elder Last is Adam Kelsch's
cousin. Coolness, huh? It's very possible that I could have played
with Adam while Elder Last was there when we were little kids. I
think it is really funny.

Speaking of cousins, do you remember how Ryan told me to keep an eye
out for an Elder Katoa? Well I met him a long time ago and forgot to
mention it. But he is actually serving in the area right next to us.
Him and his companion are with us and we're about to go play some
BBall. Elder Katoa was good friends with Ryan back home.

I feel like there is so much to say but I don't know what else to
say. There is a lot of really great work going on here and I am so
pumped to be here. This week is going to be a really busy one too.
We have a meeting that we have to go to the mission home for tomorrow
and then Rochester has their zone conference on wednesday. That's
going to be fun! I love hearing from President. He is one inspired
man!

Oh yeah, it is really pretty here right now too. Everything is very
green for the summer. It is excellent!
Have a wonderful week. I know I will!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

May 21, 2012

Holy Skaboley!

I have the news hot off the press! My time in the promised land of
Dinkytown has officially come to a close. Tear. I am being
transferred! It is funny to think that this is only the second time I
have been transferred my entire mission and I am almost a 16 month old
missionary. Weird! So I will be sent to a city called Rochester.
Not Rochester, New York. Rochester, Minnesota. It is actually a
pretty famous town in the Medical World because the whole city
revolves around this giant hospital called the Mayo Clinic. Rochester
is in southern Minnesota. From what I hear, it is about 2 hours south
of Minneapolis. The cool thing about Rochester is they call it
"Little Utah." Apparently, there are a lot of Mormons. It is a
relatively small city but there are 2 chapels and 5 wards down there.
Cool huh? So it is probably the city with the most dense Mormon
population in Minnesota. Everyone that I talk to that has served
there really loves it. So it makes me really excited to go down
there! My new companions name is Elder Last. He actually left for
Minnesota the same day as me and so we have been on a mission for the
same amount of time. I like Elder Last a lot. From what I know about
him, he is from Hurricane, Utah and he loves Basketball. I think he
went to Dixie state before his mission. He is a really cool elder.
We both started our missions in areas that were right next to each
other and stayed in them for a really long time. And then both of our
second areas were really long too. He has been in Rochester now for
three months. So our missions have paralleled each other quite a
bit. I was pumped when I hear that I was going to go serve with him.
It should be a lot of fun. But we will have a lot of work to do. We
will be the Zone Leaders for the Rochester Zone.

I received fantastic news yesterday. We went to a fireside at the
mission president's home and __________ was there! He got baptized in
Plymouth. Anyway, yesterday he recieved the Melchizedek Priesthood!
Word! I was so happy for him and he was really excited too. He is
doing so well. I love that guy!

The work is moving great again! Just in time for me to leave :( Ha
ha. I told you all about the girl who met the member and is meeting
with us. Well she is doing awesome! She came to church yesterday and
then she came with us to the Fireside last night. We met with her
this week too and it went pretty good. She is excited and I know it
wont be long before she gets baptized. I am excited for her.

By the way, ______________ who was baptized in December spoke at the
Fireside last night about her conversion story and it was awesome! I
loved it and she did an awesome job!

This week we also visited a girl who some Elders have been teaching
for a long time and she was going to a family ward but is now going to
come to the singles ward. She is not a member. So we went to meet
her and check her understanding and see where she is at. So we went
to the appointment, started chatting, and we asked her how long she's
been visiting with the missionaries. She said something like 5 months
and she was like, "So now I'm just learning the commandments so that I
can be baptized." Awesome! She is pretty solid and we are going to
set a date with her for her baptism this week. It will be very soon.
Yay! She is really cool

Things are going great again. I am really sad that I have to leave
the town of the Dinky. But it is for the best. It's time to baptize
some FAMILIES! Word. That is something that makes me really excited
and really nervous. It should be great though.

It sounds like MJ are having way too much fun! Congrats on all the
graduation stuff! It sounds like so much fun!

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it!

Love,
Elder Ruesch

May 14, 2012

Well, I don't know if I have too much to say. So I guess I will sing
a song!

You've had a birthday shout hooray. Hooray!
We want to sing to you today.
One year older and wiser too.
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Happy Birthday MJ! I hope you enjoy your lives and adults. You're
going to have to start being mature now. Good luck!

Also, I hope that Mother's Day was delightful for you all, especially
mom. It was sure fun talking to you. I had a good time!

Probably the biggest highlight of the week was the story I told you
about the solid referral we got from a member that goes to BYU. We
have high hopes to see great things happen with her! We'll see what
happens.

So the semester is officially over. Tear. I think that Summer
classes should be started pretty soon. But just walking around the
campus area today I am surprised at how many students are still
around. It is kinda weird but it works for me! There are still
people to work with, thank goodness. So with the end of the semester,
several students are leaving the ward for the summer and lots of BYU
students have come back. It is so funny to have so many changes in
the ward all the time. _______ moved back home to Southern
Minnesota. Hopefully he won't be facing too much opposition to him
going to church on Sunday and everything. He is doing SOOOO well and
he is already planning on serving a mission a year from now. That
will be so cool! Before we left for the summer we had a lesson with
him on important things to know before your mission. It was great.
Also, _________ went back to China for the summer. It is not very
likely that she will be able to go to church every week. She'll
probably be able to go once a month at the least. The Church actually
sent her a letter and told her that she can't proselyte at all in
China. She can't even talk about the church to anyone that isn't
close family or friends. Fortunately, there is an Area President guy
out there that she can contact to get the updates on all the church
stuff out there. So that will be interesting. I hope that all goes
well for her!

That is about it to be honest. Elder Truman and I are working with
several less active people. We have seen a good amount of success
recently with less active members coming back to church. It is super
great to watch them change and come back. There is one guy who is on
fire right now. He has changed a lot and is really humble and is
willing to do anything to get back into the church. There is another
guy who is really trying to quit cigarettes and hasn't smoked in two
weeks now. Both of these guys have a really sincere change going on
and are doing awesome. It is so fun to watch!

That's about it from me! The weather is SUPER nice outside. It is
almost too hot. But it feels great. We're about to begin the
miserable humid summer. Ug! I will enjoy the cooler stuff while I
can. Have a wonderful week! Especially, MJ you guys don't party too
hard!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

May 7, 2012

Hello!

This is your favorite Elder reporting again for the week! It has been
a better week. So things are starting to pick up! We saw some
fantastic miracles and so we are happy.

A while ago I told you about our investigator who we were teaching and
had set a date for baptism for May 26th. Well for a week or two he
totally fell off the planet and we were really bummed! But then we
asked one of our members in the ward to call him for us. This member
is super dedicated to missionary work and he is really helpful. Well,
he got ahold of our investigator and asked if he wanted to hang out.
So on Saturday they totally hung out for a while! It was awesome!
And after the member had called our investigator, I don't know if it
inspired our investigator to get back in contact with us or what but
he called us and apologized for not responding to us for a while and
everything. It turns out that his Uncle died not too long ago and he
didn't find out till a long time after because all of his family is
still in Nigeria and they didn't tell him. He was pretty upset about
that and he said he just didn't really want to talk to anyone. So it
was great to get back in contact with him. When he was hanging out
with our member on Saturday they were talking about what happens after
this life and it turns out that our member ended up teaching him the
entire Plan of Salvation! Ha ha. It was super cool and our
investigator liked it a lot. So that was awesome and it gets even
awesomer (don't judge my made up words, Ashley). He said that he for
sure would come to church and our member was going to pick him up and
bring him. But when Sunday morning came, our member went over to pick
him up and he wasn't at his house! Well it turns out that something
happened that morning and he had to run over to his friends house and
he was gone right when our member came to pick him up. Then by the
time our investigator went back to the house, our member was gone. At
that point, most of our investigators would probably just give up and
stay home. But he totally went and got on a bus and came to church
still! He was late but he still made it! We were way pumped when he
showed up! After these last couple weeks he has gotten a lot more
solid and it is exciting! It is funny how trials tend to do that to
you. I have developed a new philosophy for trials, specifically ones
that happen leading up to baptism. We always say that Satan works
really hard to get people to not be baptized. And that is true. But
even more than that, I think that God lets these things happen to
truly test and build their faith. Some of the people that chicken out
and can't handle the testing might not have had the faith needed in
the first place to be baptized. It is funny how much the experiences
we have help us grow. It shows how important this life really is!

Finals week is this week and then the semester at the U of M will be
finished. I will have completed a full school year at the University
of Minnesota! But not as a student. I think it is so funny that I
have stayed here for this long. I am going to enjoy the last few
weeks that I have because I will probably be transferred in two
weeks. Sometimes I like to look back and think of where I was last
year and see how much I have changed. Last year at this time, I was
just finishing up my time with Elder Farnsworth. It is crazy how fast
time goes!

So for the call next week, it looks like I will be calling you at 6:30
PM, Minnesota time. So that would be 5:30 PM for you? I think so.
Hopefully, that doesn't ruin your dinner time. It probably does.
Sorry. And once again, we can SKYPE. Elder Truman and I will just
borrow some of the members laptops and skype with you. And just as a
heads up, our call can only be for 45 minutes! It is quick but it is
good. I am really excited to see and talk to everyone!

One other cool story, last night we got a call to go give a woman a
blessing who is in the University Hospital. Apparently, the Hospital
here at the University of Minnesota is pretty dang good and people
from all over the world come here. So this woman was a member from
Louisiana and so we went over pretty late last night. Anyways, the
blessing went well and it was a good experience. But she said
something that was cool that I thought was worth repeating. She
thanked us for coming and then said, "I don't know you guys, but I
know your authority." Cool, huh? She doesn't even know us and she
actually lives in another state yet she recognizes us as people who
hold the Lord's Authority. I love that! That was a great testimony
to me of the Priesthood. So cool!

Well, I will be talking to you in a week! I best be off.

Love you!

Elder Ruesch

April 30, 2012

Herro!

Here we are with yet another week in the mission. Too fast!
Unfortunately, this last week didn't get much better from the week
before. But we definitely tried. Ha ha. And Elder Truman and I were
prepared to take the heat. It seems like everyone in the ward had a
bad week last week. All the students are stressed with school.
Others that are just working had all sorts of things happen. It
seemed strange that lots of rough things all seemed to happen at the
same time for lots of people. Ha ha. But we actually had a decent
amount of success on the campus this week and hopefully will have
several new people to teach once the semester gets rolling. We'll see!

We also had a meeting with the zone this week and President Clements
interviewed a lot of the missionaries. And then that night, Elder
Truman and I, as well as a few other missionaries, met with the Stake
President and President Clements to report and discuss how the
missionary work is going. It is really neat to get the opportunity to
work closely with such high class men. And it reminds me that being a
Stake President or a Mission President would be the WORST! It's a lot
of responsibility on their shoulders. That is for sure.

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but the singles ward here
covers 4 stakes. And so that is a lot of area and a lot of people and
it turns out that there are over 1,200 Young Single Adults within that
area, and most of them are not active. It is really sad. SOOO to fix
that there is a huge outreach effort that is being organized to pull
in the less active members that are YSA age and get them coming back
to church. We as the missionaries are trying to bring more people in
but also, there are several members who's calling it is to reach out
to these people and go to the family wards in the area and get their
names and invite them to come back to church. Super cool. I like
this church. :)

At this point, almost all of our investigators have disappeared. It
is the strangest thing. AY, who is the one that we pocket texted and
called, he disappeared again. UG! Even the guy from Nigeria who was
scheduled to be baptized at the end of this month has disappeared. It
can be really frustrating when people stop talking to you. They
don't realize what they are missing!!! Oh well. We do what we can.

All of the recent converts are still doing good right now! For the 3
Chinese students who were baptized, the church sends them a letter
(from Salt Lake) and gives them all the information on what they can
and cannot do in China as for sharing the Gospel and it gives them a
way to get in touch with members of the church out there. It is
really cool! The work is moving forward in China and we really have
no idea about it! I thought that was sweet.

Anyway, I don't have too much to report on. Yes, Mom, I will be able
to Skype. So get that computer ready! I don't know what time yet or
anything. Hopefully, we can do it in the evening. I can't believe
that after this Skype sesh, the next time we skype I will only have a
month left of the mission. That is super messed up!

Love you guys!

Elder Ruesch

April 23, 2012

Hello fam fam!
Welcome back to another episode of the life of Elder Ruesch.
This week was pretty terrible! Ha ha. I guess the Lord has to give
us those every once in a while doesn't he? Bleh! But I am happy to
report that Elder Truman and I are still cheerful and optimistic!
There are a few reasons why it ended up being so bad but it was mostly
because all of our appointments kept on falling through. We had like
8 different appointments set up with investigators this week and they
all fell through. Some just didn't show up and others called and
cancelled right before. It was stinky! We ended up with having only
one of our investigator lessons go through this week.

The worst part about lessons falling through is you get really excited
to have a lesson with these investigators because you plan on them
making significant progress and so you make awesome lesson plans and
everything and then they don't show up or cancel and all you have left
to do is go onto the campus and talk to people. Don't get me wrong, I
love talking to the kids on campus, but it is very exhausting if you
do it all day long because all of your lessons didn't work out.

I think part of the reason for the crazyness is the semester is coming
to an end in a few weeks and so everyone is really busy and doesn't
want to take the time to meet with us. Also, this weekend was OUT OF
CONTROL! They had this weird activity called Spring Jam. It kinda
feels like Homecoming but in the spring. To me it seemed like a big
excuse to party hard and get drunk. Ha ha. They had a huge stage out
on campus and there were bands playing all weekend and they had a
dance Saturday night. And when everyone is in their big groups going
to the dance they really don't want to talk to us! So the week was a
struggle.

On the bright side, we went to Taco Bell for lunch today and got some
Dorritos Tacos! Has anyone tried it? The shell of the taco is a
giant Dorrito! It is delicious!

Anyway, the week wasn't just all terrible though. We did have some
great miracles! The coolest miracle of all was on Thursday. We went
with a member of our ward to go visit a less active guy that lives in
a suburb of Minneapolis that is pretty far away. So we drove there
and had a great lesson. While we were headed back to the Institute
building we were on the freeway when the members car broke down! It
was a blue Volks Waggen Bug in case you were wondering. So we pulled
over to the side of the road wondering what to do. Elder Truman and I
stepped out of the car and stood outside while the member called the
insurance and got a tow truck. We were just kinda laughing at the
situation because we were pretty stuck. Well it turns out that the
tow truck was covered by the insurance and he was on his way but the
truck could only fit two passengers and there were three of us. And
then! We got a random call from one of our former investigators. He
was driving on the freeway when he saw us and called to ask if we
needed any help. So he came over and drove us to the Institute
Building and then the member we were with was able to just go with the
tow truck. And then the whole drive to the Institute we got to talk
to this former investigator and talked about where he's at and how
he's doing. It was a miracle! I actually had been hoping for quite a
while that we could get back in contact with this investigator because
he wasn't responding to our calls anymore. It turns out that he isn't
quite ready to meet with us again but it was definitely good to talk
to him and hopefully he'll be ready again to meet soon. It's pretty
funny that God has to break your car down in order to help you fulfill
his work sometimes. He truly does work in mysterious ways. It is
funny.

We also are working with a couple less active people who are trying to
come back into activity. There is one guy in particular who is just
awesome. We have been meeting with him for a couple weeks now. He is
doing awesome and has a really sincere change of heart. And you can
tell that there is a fire back into him. He now has a light about him
and a new commitment to be better and it is great to see. I love
seeing people bring the Gospel into their lives!

If nothing else, the last week's difficult-ness helped Elder Truman
and I grow closer together in our companionship and closer friends as
we had to rely on each other to still have fun and enjoy our
experience on a mission in the middle of a not fun week. It is a
special work that we get to be a part of and I am grateful for that.
We're still working hard and we are going to make this week better
than last week!

Well, the weather is beautiful. I can't wait to go outside. And we
also have a match set up with our Indian investigator in Ping Pong.
It sounds like he is pretty good. We'll see. Got to get my game on!

Have a great week! Love you!

-Elder Ruesch

April 16, 2012

Today we woke up and there were little snowflakes floating around! It
was randomly cold. But it didn't stick. Everything was just really
wet!

Yesterday we went to the President's Fireside, which is a fireside
where recent converts speak about their conversion story and it is
held in the mission home. ________ was asked to speak at it and he
did an awesome job! It was super great! He is doing so well. It has
been awesome to watch him grow since his baptism. He is already
planning on serving a mission and everything. It is exciting! Also,
Dad asked me how the converts are that got baptized while I was in
Plymouth. I actually saw ___________at the fireside and talked to him
about how everything was going. It has pretty much been a year since
he was baptized. He is still doing really well. Which is really
exciting to hear. I know that the __________'s are doing pretty good
too. They are planning on going to the temple pretty soon to be
sealed. I will be able to go with them when they do! I can't wait!

This last week was definitely another adventure. You guys asked me
how AY is doing (the one that we pocket called) and we don't know what
happened but he didn't show up to our appointment this week. It was
so weird! We had set up an appointment and then that morning we
texted him to see if he could still meet and he said yes but then he
didn't show up to the appointment and we can't get ahold of him.
Hopefully, he is okay! We'll see what happens.

We are still teaching H* that I've mentioned every once in a while.
She is the nicest girl ever and she is doing pretty good but she needs
a lot more time before she gets baptized and the problem is that she
is going back to China next month permanently. It is no good! We are
sad about it but hopefully down the road she will be able to find the
gospel again. Maybe when my son goes to China on his mission he will
find her. Ha ha.

We did start meeting with a new person. Her name is TR. She was a
cool story actually because she actually walked up to us on campus and
started talking to us. She has a friend who is Mormon and wanted to
learn more! So cool! So we met with her and invited her to be
baptized and she said Yes! In case you were wondering, we always
invite the person to be baptized in the first lesson that we have with
them. And you might be thinking, "Wow, that is really bold." And you
are right. It is very bold but it quickly establishes our purpose
with people and separates the solid from the unsolid investigators.
It is pretty intense. But it works really well. Anyway, TR is
actually a high school student. There are a few student here at the U
of M that are part of a program where during high school they take all
of their classes at the University and so they get High School and
College Credit at the same time. It's sweet! So she is a junior in
High School and actually lives far away but we hope to be able to
still teach her and hopefully she can be baptized in her home ward.
There are lots of things to teach still but we have high hopes!

It was a pretty normal week here. The weather was nice most of the
time. There was a hard core storm last night with tornado warnings
but nothing bad happened. Tornado season is always really exciting!

We are still working with our Nigerian friend. We have a date set for
baptism with him for May 26th and we hope to see it go through! I'm
absolutely amazed at how hard satan works to stop people from being
baptized. It is so ridiculous. But it is a true test of faith and I
guess some people pass and some people fail unfortunately. I'm glad
to still be staying here. We have more exciting adventures ahead here
in Dinkytown! Have a delightful week!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

April 9, 2012

Transfer calls were this morning and the big news is that Elder Truman
and I will be staying in Dinkytown for another transfer together.
Woot woot! It is going to be real fun. This will be my sixth
transfer in this area. That is crazy! So by the time I finish this
transfer I will have been here for almost 9 months. Pretty crazy.
This doesn't happen too often but I like it. I love this area and so
I am happy to stay!

We had a pretty great week! Easter is always a nice time of year. I
very much enjoyed sharing the Gospel on the day that we celebrate the
Resurrection. Holidays in this ward are so goofy because a lot of
people leave and so we tend to teach less but it's alright. Yesterday
we teamed up with the sisters and made a nice Easter dinner in the
Institute building and A* came as well as our investigator H* who is
also chinese. It was fun. And when I say nice dinner we had a HUGE
bowl of macaroni and cheese, beans, salad, baked potatoes, and
biscuits. Ha ha. We miss judged how much food we would need and
ended up making WAY too much. It was hilarious. But we had nice time
and it was a good to celebrate some how. Afterwards we went onto
campus and talked to people as usual and were able to find several
people who were interested in learning more about the church. Pretty
Great!

We had a great miracle this week. About a month ago we started
teaching a guy named AY. He is from Oregon and is a student here.
His mom actually just recently was baptized into the church and
referred him to us to teach. His dad died a few months ago and so
he's kinda been lost. So we had two great lessons with him over a
month ago and then all of the sudden he disappeared! Weird. So we
were pretty bummed. And then last Monday, Elder Truman accidentally
called him from his pocket and texted him a blank text too. And we
didn't realize it. But then he texted us and asked if we could meet
that night at 7. Woo! God is totally in charge. When we met it
turns out he has just stayed to himself for the last few weeks to read
the Book of Mormon and the Bible and figure out what he really
believes. So he has read over half of the Book of Mormon now. It was
cool. He loves the Book but he isn't quite sure if he believes it is
true. He also grew up catholic and feels a lot of loyalty to that
church. But we had a great meeting with him on Monday and talked a
lot about the role of the Book of Mormon and then we met with him on
Friday and taught the Plan of Salvation and that was really great
too. He is progressing well! He was supposed to come to church
yesterday but he woke up deathly sick and didn't make it. it was
disappointing. But he'll come eventually! It is quite a miracle that
we met with him this week.

We met with our investigator from Nigeria again and invited him to be
baptized on May 26th. He accepted! So we are excited for him! We
have a lot to teach him and we hope that all goes well on the route to
baptism. We'll see!

On Saturday we were able to go to a baptism of a guy that was in the
area that Elder Truman served in before he came to be with me. He
taught this guy for 6 months and now he finally got baptized. He was
super pumped and it was fun to go to the service. There was a really
great spirit there.

Well, this week is exciting! We have several first appointments set
up with potential new investigators of people we've met on campus. I
am excited! We had a terrible day on Thursday where everyone was
rejecting us hard core, but then we got a lot of blessings on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday and so it made up for the disappointments. :)

It looks like your easter was great! It was fun to see those
pictures. We have the coolest family ever! It wont be too long
before We will be talking on skype again!

Love you!

-Elder Ruesch