March 21. 2011

I know how much suspense you have been sitting in waiting for this
email home :) Maybe. But yes, the .............. did get BAPTIZED!
Could anything cooler happen? Nope, I don't think so. The fact that
we baptized an entire family still hasn't sunk in yet. I feel like
I'm living in the Twilight Zone. It is such an amazing blessing and
it was a wonderful experience. They were way excited and everything
went really well. Satan always works his hardest on people the week
before they get baptized, and although they did have a few interesting
things happen, they were as solid as a rock. What a cool family! The
baptisimal service was at 11 o'clock on saturday. Lots of members of
the ward showed up and it was so cool to see all of the support that
this family had. A man from the ward baptized the parents and son and
then Elder Farnsworth baptized Brieanna the youngest daughter. Such a
cool experience. The spirit was so strong. President Howell also
came to the service as well, but it sounds like you already know that
since he called you. He spoke after they were baptized and his
testimony is always so strong. The Plymouth Ward here is the BOMB and
they really know how to take care of their converts. The Bishop
bought every person getting baptized their own complete set of
scriptures with their name engraved and all along with some other
gifts. And then President Howell gave each of them a white
hankerchief with their name on it too. This is an unbelievably
amazing family and are going to rock Satan's world, that is for sure.

And then there was Sunday. We confirmed them at church and I was
scared out of my pants. I actually ended up confirming both the son
and daughter. Fortunately, it went pretty well and I don't think I
ruined their eternal salvation or anything. Let's hope not. It
actually felt really great and I loved having the opportunity to do
the confirmations for them. The spirit was really strong in the
sacrament meeting and it was so great for the whole ward to see this
family because now the ward is PUMPED about missionary work.

Elder Farnsworth and I have actually really had some major promptings
that the Plymouth Ward is about ready to explode with missionary work
and that a lot members have people that they know they can bring to
the gospel. We are just trying to figure out the best way to push
this ward along and get them to start making steps to intriduce their
friends to the gospel. Hopefully, the baptism of this family was a
nice wake up call for people.
Elder Farnsworth and I were actually both asked to speak in Sacrament
Meeting on Sunday as well. So that was nice for us to quickly just
discuss missionary work and try to explain to the ward how important
it is. Everything turned out pretty well and I think that the ward is
excited.

So that baptism obviously wins for coolest thing that ever happens in
my Mission. But some other sweet stuff happened this week too! I
actually went on two exchanges this week. THe first one was on
Tuesday and it was my first REAL exchange that actually went for 24
hours. I went to Uptown with an Elder up there and it was dang fun.
The best thing that happened was we went contacting in Downtown
Minneapolis! It was so sweet!! I love big cities and I took a super
cool picture. It was also funny because we ran into some Born Again
Christians who were also out preaching and got into
some...interesting...conversations with them. Actually, the guy I was
talking to was super nice and listened to me a lot and I really
enjoyed my discussion with him. I couldn't Bible bash with him
because I don't know many Bible references. So it was easy! I just
bore my testimony and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was a cool guy.
My Companion, on the other hand, didn't have as good of an
experience. So he got very frustrated and he had a pretty heated
conversation with some guy. Eventually, we just left because things
weren't going anywhere. And as we were leaving, something odd
happened. This random Somalian guy with an eye patch came up to us
and told us some scripture references we should use next time. We
were a little shocked and so we got talking to him and it turns out he
is Mormon. Very interesting but cool! I wonder what his story is
like because missionaries can't teach anyone that is Muslim unless
they are incredibly sincere. And even then I think you have to have
approval to teach them from Salt Lake. This is because if they go
back to their country and have converted to Christianity then their
family will kill them. A little psycho!

The next day, Wednesday, we did one other exchange and I ended up
being back in Plymouth with one of our Zone Leaders, attempting to run
the area. Scary? Totally. I was way stressed out but the day went
pretty good. Nothing bad happened at least! Which is good.

On Friday we finally got to teach ...............! He is the man that
we met with at the Bishop's house that first week that I was here. He
is the nicest guys you will ever meet and I was amazed at how
spiritual he is. One of the most spiritual people I have ever met and
can very easily recognize the Spirit. I was impressed. I was also
really nervous for this lesson because Elder Farnsworth forced me to
take the lead but it turned out going really really well somehow. The
spirit was really strong as we talked. We taught him the
restoration. Infact, he said that he knows he needs to be baptized
before we even invited him! That was amazing! He is super great
friends witht the Bishop's family and he can see the difference in a
family that is part of the church. He loves the spirit that Mormon's
have. Such a neat guy. So we committed him to baptism but didn't
actually set a date because he has many health difficulties and so we
want him to set the date himself so that he can shoot for something he
knows he can do. It might be quite a while before he ever gets
baptized but I know that he will eventually. Some things just take
time.

Guess what else happened on Friday that was freaking awesome??? I
will give you time to think but I can guarantee that you will never
guess it. I went to see a MUSICAL!!!! Now don't get all crazy on me
and think that I'm just getting all rebelious and breaking the rules.
This was a musical at the middle school in Plymouth. The bishop's son
was in it and so the whole family was going and our investigator was
also going. Because of this, the Bishop's wife invited us to come
along. So we called President Howell and he was totally cool with us
going. It not only gave us the chance to bond more and become better
friends with our investigator, it gave us the chance to get closer to
the Bishop's family too. We want their trust and friendship so that
we can all work together in the most effective way possible. Plus,
musicals are just the best thing of my life. They were doing
Seussical the musical and I was incredibly impressed. For a middle
school play it was dang good! Oh man, talk about awesome. It was
relaxing and wonderful to just have the chance to remember my actual
life for a minute. I miss the good ol days of musicals and choir.
Good times! But don't you worry, it did not let me get distracted
from the work in any way.

It has been a DELICIOUS week. Full of excitement and fun. The
member's we are living with are out of town and so they put the mail
on hold and so I wont be getting any mail you sent until Tursday
unfortunately... But I will survive!

Thanks for all of your love and support. I am going to send home some
pictures soon. And jonny, good luck on your play!! I expect you to
dominte like crazy! You'll do great. And michael, keep singing your
face off.
Grandma is always in my prayers! You guys are the best family ever.
Love,
Elder Morgan Ruesch

March 14th

Guess who get's baptized this week?

Yay! I cannot belive that this week I will see my first Baptism. Things are going great with the ................. They are totally mormon and people in the ward that meet them for the first time keep telling us that they thought the .......................... were members already. I just can't believe that we were able to find this amazing family so quickly. The bishop of our ward (who is unbelievably good) said that if all I did was find this family on my mission it would be a great success. So that's it, I'm satisfied. I'll be coming home on a flight in a week. Ha! Tricked you. But really, this family is amazing! Kingdom builders for sure. And don't worry. I will make sure to take pictures with the family at their baptism

And guess what? The ..................... want mostly members of the ward to perform the baptisms and confirmations, which is good! However, the 8 year old girl, asked if Elder Farnsworth would baptize her and if I would confirm her. So that will be AWESOME! Speaking of .................. She needs to send a Flat Stanley to someone somewhere outside of Minnesota and so her mom asked if she could send it to my family. Sweet huh? I gave her the address to home and she should be mailing it today. So mom, expect a Flat Stanley from the McGuire's in Minnesota. There should be instructions as to what to do and then you just send it back. If you could do that it would be great! Thanks!

Pictures. I've taken some pictures and was going to try and upload them onto the computer when I realized that I left the cord at home. At least I think I did because I don't remember packing it. Could you send the cord to me? That would be great. I'm sorry that I keep on making you send packages but I guess I'm not actually that sorry because getting packages is the best! So the cord I need is in mom's office in the cupboard above the desk. The same cupboard where we keep all the thank you cards and stuff but it should be on the top shelf. You will know it is the right cord because it should have a USB connecter as well as the 3 video/audio plugs that you can put into TV's. And it should say SONY on it.

This week was a week with a lot of tracting. It started out slow and we weren't really seeing any success but the Lord knew that we were working and he took care of us! This is an important principle I am learning and one that you should keep in mind MJ for your missions. ALWAYS be working. If you have 30 minutes of time open and don't know what to do, find something effective to do. Go tracting, contracting, call people and try to set up appointments, whatever. You can not afford to stop. Then what happens is that you show the Lord that he can trust you with his work and you are doing everything you can. Like I said, we did lots of tracting this week and we didn't find anyone directly from knocking on doors. But then on Saturday (Notice that it is the end of the week) we went to have dinner with an awesome member family and guess what? They gave us a potentially really solid refferral! We are going to try and work with it. And then on Sunday we were leaving an apartment complex after teaching a first lesson to a guy. As we were leaving the elevator this lady stops us and was all excited to see us. It turns out that she has tons of Mormon friends and knows a lot about the church. She was even really good friends with the family that we ate dinner with on Saturday (not the same person as the refferral though). So we helped her take her groceries back to her apartment and we talked for a bit. She told us that she liked our church but didn't really want to learn from us or anything. She was SUPER talkative and also told us that Sister ............. had told her about a young couple that just moved into her same apartment complex that was Mormon and she wanted to go meet them. It just so happens that this new couple are the ward missionaries in our ward and they have come teaching with us several times. But wait! There's more. Coincidenally, we were having dinner with them that night! Anyway, one thing led to another and we got Sister ............. to invite her to dinner. She came and we all had a very nice time. We can tell that she is very friendly to the church and knows a lot about it but just doesn't necessarily want to go to a church and so the lesson we shared wasn't anything super special. She is the type of person that will get baptized eventually, all we have to do is just help her along slowly until she is ready. So no, we didn't get a new investigator out of this experience but we did find and meet a person that we can slowly work with to help open the door to the gosel. Hopefully, she will eventually be willing to let us teach her and get baptized. Who knows! But isn't that story cool? Everything was too much of a coincidence for it to be a coincidence. The Lord takes care of you when you are willing to work!

The ..................... aren't really progressing. They want to be a part of this church but wont show any commitment. The wife has been ill recently and they went out of town over the weekend so they couldn't come to church. I'm sure they'll get baptized but who knows how soon and how active they will be. That's why we're really trying to get them to have a doctrinal conversion. The Book of Mormon is SO important!

Sunday was great. We had the family getting baptized at church plus several of the less actives we're working with came too. Oh it felt so nice! So relieving. Sunday's are stressful.

I don't think I ever mentioned this but the missionaries before us in this area were not obedient and so this area was dying. That is why we are seeing so much success because the Lord was wanting to bless the Plymouth area but he couldn't because of the missionaries disobedience. And then when we came, all we did was follow the rules and things exploded in the area! Obedience is THE MOST important thing on a mission. It is key to success and your faith. Oh the many delicious things that you learn on a mission.

A fantastic week! I'm sure in an hour I will remember all the things I forgot to say and it will not be cool. But for now, it sounds like everyone's lives are awesome. I love getting letters and emails from you! I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time to write long reply's back. Oh and thanks for the package!! It makes me so happy and my companion so jealous!

Here we go for another great week :)

Love,

Elder Ruesch

March 7, 2011

Holy smokes, these weeks fly by at light speed. This week went pretty well. I had my first Zone Conference on Tuesday. We went down to the mission office and recieved some training from our zone leaders and then from President Howell and his wife. President Howell is seriously unbelievably amazing. And so is his wife. They are the kindest people in the whole world and are incredibly close to the spirit. When they are released this summer they are going to live in Alpine in our stake most likely. Which means he's going to be the next stake president! Most likely. It will be awesome.

Last Monday I said that I needed a shoe horn but after I emailed you we stopped at a Nordstrom Rack and they actually had FREE metal shoe horns. So I took one. I feel bad since you sent one off already. But now I can have two? Ha ha. I haven't gotten the package yet that you said you sent but I'm sure it will come soon. Also, mom you probably noticed but I did use the credit card. Elder Farnsworth and I went to an outdoor store last P-Day and I bought some thick socks and super intense mittens. All the winter stuff is on sale now that winter is near it's end. I don't actually need the mittens or anything now but I will in the dead of winter next year so I figured I would buy then when they are on sale! Yay! Hopefully that is okay with you. I'm sure it is.

I was also thinking about pictures. I took several pictures in the MTC and a few so far out in the field. Actually we went and walked out on one of the many frozen lakes the other day and took a picture. Pretty cool! But I was wondering how we want to work this out with getting the pictures home and all that jazz. Elder Farnsworth will just move all of his pictures onto a flashdrive and then sends the memory card home. I think that is a pretty good idea. I will probably do that same thing but send the flash drive home every once in a while because I only have one memory card. Sound good to you? If you have any other killer diller ideas just let me know!

Oh! I also went on my first exchange this week. It was fun! Elder Farnsworth is the District Leader and he had to go to a leadership conference so I spent the first half of the day with an Elder in the East Bloomington area. Another Elder came with us too. This was fun because this area is a BIKE AREA! It was awesome! We did our studies in the morning and had some lunch and then we had to go to an appointment with an investigator. Riding a bike around made me feel like a real missionary. So great! It was a party. The lesson went well and I had a blast. Plus the two elders I was with were pretty cool and so it was a good experience for my first exchange. Quite excellent.

Yesterday was Stake Conference which was cool. It actually was a multi-stake dealio of stakes from 6 or 7 states in the midwest. Because of that we had a broadcast from Salt Lake City where Elder Eyering, and Elder Cook both spoke to us. Also the Presiding Bishop and the General Young Woman President spoke to us. It was a really good meeting. But that wasn't the only exciting part. This stake conference was special for our stake because the Stake Presidency needed to me reorganized. Our old stake president has been called to be a mission president in Guatemala. So we had Elders Jensen and Payne from the Seventy come down and they called our new stake president and all that business. It was cool and the fella that had been called to be the new stake president is supposed to be this unbelievably amazing guy. I don't know him, but I'm sure he is awesome.

We taught the......... family twice this week and it went really well. The dad was in Mormon 6 on Saturday when we met with them and so I'm sure that he is done with the Book of Mormon by now. They just love the BoM and it is so fun to discuss things with them. They came to stake conference yesterday too and liked it a lot. They just rock this world! Their baptism is a week from this saturday which is really exciting!

We finally met with a family on Thursday that we have been trying to meet with for two weeks. They had a lot of questions for us and so we taught them about the trinity and also we got really deep into the premortal life. They asked us questions about where we believed Lucifer came from and things. He is a devout seventh day adventist and she is a floater who just goes wherever to church. They seemed to think that our beliefs were interesting and made sense to them but I don't see them ever wanting to give up the way they do church now. But we'll try to meet with them again sometime soon and see if they are still open to learn.

We met with ........... on Saturday but his wife couldn't come because she was in a lot of pain. I guess her tooth is cracked. Sounds not fun. But we taught him more about the Book of Mormon and emphasized how to come to know that it is true. He is such a great guy and I think it made sense to him. They are already dead set on becoming mormon and so we are just trying to do everything that we can to make sure that they have a true doctrinal conversion. Oh and we pushed their baptisimal date back to April 9th so that they can have the chance to come to sacrament meeting a few times before they are baptized. They were totally cool with it. Such nice people!

On Saturday we also had an interesting experience. Elder Farnsworth and I went to go help a woman in our ward move some heavy things into her house. She is a member but her mom and sister are not members and they came to help as well. We did the work and the mom and sister started asking us questions about our missions and things and we eventually got into a very intense discussion on some of our beliefs and the structure of our church. The mother has talked with millions of missionaries and thinks that the prophet is just running this authoritarian system over us and that the whole structure of our church is just wrong. It was weird. The thing that I found interesting was that, just like any other missoinary we put everything on the BoM. And has she read it? No. So of course she doesn't believe that President Monson is a Prophet. Same thing goes with the sister. If you don't give the Book of Mormon a shot then you are never ever going to discover that our church is right. The problem is that people don't want to leave their tradition or change their ways and so they don't even care to test it out. I think it is so weird how many people just pick and choose what doctrines they want to believe in their church instead of look for a church that has it ALL right. Crazy. But anyway, this discussion was good for me because I was reminded of how important the Book of Mormon really is.

We did quite a bit of tracting this week and it was fun. We have been trying really hard to find new investigators that we can start teaching but all of our finding efforts have not been very successful yet. But it's okay, we will keep looking for those who are ready to hear us! And I'm getting more comfortable with talking to people and all that business. It's starting to turn into a game a little bit. Every person is different and you can find some really WEIRD people. It's hilarious. Yesterday this lady answered the door and she obviously was drinking or something and so we talked to her for a bit and asked when we could come by and meet with her (obviously knowing that she didn't care at all) and she said very maturely, "Maybe in a hundred years!" And then slammed the door. We could then hear her running back to her friend and they were both laughing their heads off. Elder Farnsworth and I also couldn't stop laughing too because she was definitely six years old still in a 50 year old body. It's people like her that I just feel bad for in life.

Oh and you asked about the man who we met with at the bishops house. He is still really interested but he has had to cancel the last two appointments because he was sick and he had to work so we haven't met with him since the first lesson we had with him. He is such a nice guy and he actually is very intrigued with our church. Things just haven't worked out yet for us to meet with him again. But we're supposed to meet this friday.

Minnesota is awesome. It's been pretty warm lately, like 25 degrees! Seriously, that is warm. It snowed again yesterday and is supposed to again this week but fortunately it is still warming up. I love it here. Obviously, you can find some pretty mean people but for the most part the people in minnesota are so nice. I really love it. Life it great! Missionary work is hard but unbelievably rewarding. This church is freaking true!

Love,

Elder Morgan Ruesch

P.S. I keep forgetting to tell you that it is a rule to part your hair and so I look like a total goof! i'm surprised anyone takes me seriously. I will send pictures eventually. You should send me pictures of life at home too! Please.

Feb. 28th email

Hi family,

This week went very well. I can't say that it was as crazy eventful
as last week but that is okay, I'm actually glad that it wasn't. It
was still a good successful week though. We actually ended up
teaching the family (the really solid, awesome family of five) three
times this week. They are so cool. I love them to death. They love
having us over and we always have great lessons because they like to
discuss with us a lot. Whenever we come for an appointment they are
all already sitting in the living room waiting for us with their Books
of Mormon ready in their hands. They don't even give us time to ring
the doorbell because they watch for us to come and then open the door
before we even get to it. It's so cool. We also taught them about
the Word of Wisdom this week and even though they already don't drink
or smoke, they drink coffee and tea. But once we taught them they
were just like: "Dang. But okay." Ha ha and they gave up everything
right then. So cool! They also came to church yesterday. In fact,
they came 45 minutes early! It was crazy. But the ward here in
Plymouth is so awesome and everyone went and introduced themselves to
the family and showed them where to go and were super welcoming. This
family is definitely what we call a kingdom builder family. They've
also said that they are really excited about their baptism! And it's
not too far off, just three weeks away :) (March 19th)

We also did meet with another couple this week. They are a nice
couple that is very excited to be baptized. We gave them a church
tour and then taught the Restoration. It went well and I felt the
spirit. We then invited them to be baptized and they said
absolutely. They ended up not being able to come to church yesterday
but we'll meet with them again this week and hopefully things will go
well.

Yesterday I was also thinking about Michael and Carnegie Hall. It was
fun to think, "He is performing right now." That was fun. I hope
that it went really really well! I bet you have been having a party
in the good ol' New York. Except I'm sad to hear about the Adam's
family! That is a major bummer.

I saw the Pride and Prejudice poster and it looks LEGIT! Totally
awesome. Jonny boy, I wish I could come see you perform. I bet it
will be awesome. Rock that audiences socks off!

I got your letters! And by the way, I totally forgot to tell you last
week. Just send all my mail to the mission home. They want all the
mail to go through them and they just forward it to me. And if you
ever send a package, don't use FedEx. They wont forward packages.
Just send them through UPS or through the US Mail.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Sorry it is a little early. I hope you
have a great birthday. It should be fun I'm sure! March 3 is when
Elder Farnsworth and I move into our more permanent appartment in a
different member's home. That will be fun.

And Dad asked if I like getting letters or email. Both are great.
Getting letters is fun and so is getting emails. Just as long as I
hear what is going on at home! Oh and tell Mike Armatage I wish the
best for him.

I've been staying warm and everything is great! I am learning and
learning and I am having tons of fun. Thanks for your love and
support and I will send another email next week! And thanks for your
prayers.

Love you so much!
Elder Morgan Ruesch

Letter #4

WOOHOO! Guys I'm totally on a mission right now! It's so weird but
at the same time it is totally awesome. I love it. There have been
so many things that happened this week that I don't even know where to
start. This email is probably going to end up being as long as the
unabridged Les Miserables but we'll see what happens. I figure I will
just take you day by day since that will be easiest for me to remember
everything I want to share.

Wednesday: So obviously, I got to talk to you in the morning before
the flight. Well the flight went great. It was a lot faster than I
was expecting. There was a couple sitting next to me that I talked to
a little bit but I should have shared more about our church and
things. I was so scared to talk to them that it wasn't even funny.
So that was kind of discouraging. Oh well. Anyway, after the flight
we went to pick up our bags and President Howell and his wife were
there waiting for us to welcome us and say hello. It was wonderful to
see them. And they already new all of our names and where we were
from. That was inpressive. It definitely made me feel a little more
comfortable. President Howell is pretty much the coolest mission
president ever. I love him so much. He really is focused and knows
how to bring the spirit but at the same time he is funny and fun and
great. His wife is also the sweetest lady I've ever met. She cares
deeply about everyone and is so loving. Don't worry, mom, I'm well
cared for here.

Oh so we got off the plane and then guess what? They took us straight
to the institute building on the U of M campus, quickly showed us how
to talk to people, gave us an experienced missionary to go with and
some pass along cards, and then made us go out into campus and street
contact people. Holy smokes. I'm scarred for life. I was so scared
to talk to people that it was embarrassing. I would get flustered and
jump around in my conversations and everything just went horribly.
The area we were contacting in is called Dinky Town and there were
just a buch of college students walking to class that don't want to
talk to anyone, especially mormon missionaries. I can't even describe
the fear within me. We only did this for maybe 45 minutes and then
met up with all the other missionaries again. Thankfully, I'm still
alive. And it isn't like anyone was judging me or anything, I was
just scared to talk to people. After this experience I was really
discouraged and down as well as emotionally exhausted from all my
nerves. But the rest of the day went much smoother, thank goodness.

We went to the mission home next, did some orientation business, had
dinner, and then had a little fireside thing. The fireside was so
wonderful. Both the President and his wife spoke to us and then we
all got the chance to bear our testimonies. So great. Feeling the
spirit so strong helped me to recover a little from the trajic
experience earlier that day at Dinky Town. And they awesomely also
let us go to bed at like 8:30. Oh man that was awesome! Normally,
that is definitely not allowed but for this one day they wanted us to
get some good rest so we could start off the mission fully recharged.
And I did get the letter from you, mom and dad. Thank you much. It
was so great to read.

Thursday: Today I met my trainer! Word. His name is Elder Farnsworth
and he is sooooooo awesome. Seriously. Parents, you have nothing to
worry about because I am being well taken care of. He has been out on
his mission for over a year and a half. He is super obedient and is a
fantastic teacher. Everytime another missionary talks to me about
Elder Farsworth they always say that I got one of the best
missionaries in the mission for a trainer and how lucky I am. And
it's true. He knows his stuff, his very dedicated, and pushes me hard
to learn the missionary skills that I need. By the way, you know how
I told you about the Pilot Program at the MTC? Well there is actually
also a pilot program for training new missionaries. All of the new
missionaries that came in this transfer are on this program. It is
awesome but also very difficult. It is designed to be twelve weeks
long and by the end of the twelve weeks I am supposed to be able to
train a new missionary myself. That doesn't mean I will, it just
means I should be able to. Insane? Yes. But everything has been
going good and Elder Farnsworth and I are working hard.
The area we are assigned to is called Plymouth. I really love it.
The members are so loving and kind here and they take good care of
us. Elder Farnsworth and I were white washed into this area which
means we are both brand new to the area. Normally, they switch
missionaries out one at a time but they just put us both here at the
same time.

We also did our first companionship study today. Interestingly
enough, since we're part of this new pilot program, there were a
couple of guys here from Church Headquarters who are here to watch how
everything is going as it gets started. Because of this we had a man
sit in on our companionship study and just watch as we prepared for
the day and Elder Farnsworth began training me. It was kind of
interesting but also cool. He also took us to taco bell. That was
great.
We had an appointment with an investigator tonight who sounded like
she was really solid and interested in the church. She ended up
cancelling because all of her kids are sick. So that stunk but I
think we're going to try and teach her tomorrow or at least in the
next few days. I also had my first dinner appointment tonight. Yay!
That was fun. In fact, we've had dinner at a member's home every night
so far since I got here. So awesome! The members in the ward here
are just so great!

Friday: Craziest thing happened today! Background: Thursday we
called a referall that we had and they said that they would call us
back later, which never happens but we went with it and figured we'd
just call them later. However, Friday morning they called us! It was
shocking. Elder Farnsworth answered the phone and it was insane what
happened. The woman basically said, "yeah, we want to join your
church." Well we said we could help her with that! Ha ha. So we
will be meeting with them tonight actually. Hopefully all goes well!

We also had dinner at the bishop's home today. It was so fun. Their
family also has a friend that they invited over too. He is not a
member but he told us that he would be interested in taking the
lessons from us. So we're teaching him this Friday! Yes! He is the
first investigator we have picked up that we can count as an actual
investigator. Awesome!

Saturday: So you've probably noticed by now that we were already
seeing a ton of success out of no where. The Lord is really opening a
ton of opportunities and I think it is because he wants to reward
Elder Farnsworth for being such a dedicated, hard working missionary.
I'm already seeing the blessings that come when you are an exactly
obedient missionary and you work like crazy! But anyway, I mention
this becasue do you think our success ended here? No! We went to
teach a family for the first time that the missionaries before us had
just recently tracted into. So we set up an appointment with them
today. We went in planning to do just a short lesson and then next
time we met we would do an all out restoration lesson. However,
that's not was the Lord had planned. We got in there and the Father
was really interested in the Mormon church because he believed that
God wouldn't just stop talking to his people after the Bible. They
also are a super strong family and they read from the Bible everyday.
They are very Chrtistian and were looking for a church when the
Missionaries came knocking on their door. Gosh! I just get chills
when I think about it because everything was perfect. Perfect timing
and the family was 100% prepared beforehand to have the missionaries
come. So we ended up teaching a full Restoration lesson and the
spirit was really strong. The Lord is totally the one that is in
charge. He takes care of you as long as you are obedient and put your
trust in him. It was amazing! By the end of the lesson we invited
the family to be baptized on March 19th. And they committed to it!
Oh man. I just died inside. My first baptisimal commitment of the
mission! I can't belive it. Goodness! It is so awsesome. I think
I'm going to explode.

We also visited some less active people today. And, I've already been
a part of three Priesthood blessings since I've been here.
Missionaries get tons of opportunities to give blessings. It's cool.

Sunday: Today the snow came. About the same time as church a giant
snow storm started. It wasn't so bad at first but it just kept
dumping and so we got like twelve inches or something today. Because
of that, all of the investigators and less actives that we committed
to church didn't come. It was sad but I understood. Hopefully next
week will be better and they can all come to church. Church was great
though. I met a lot of members who's names I can't remember. It was
fun. It was also nice to be able to feel the spirit and not have to
be the one teaching or participating in the teaching. You know? Yeah
that was awesome.

Crazyness also happened today. The Elder's quorum president is a very
dedicated man. So in the evening he wanted to visit many less active
people and give them an invitation to stake conference in a couple
weeks. And we went with him to meet these people and maybe get them to
let us come back and teach them. Things were okay at first, we only
had to push the car in the snow a couple times. But, it got to the
point where we couldn't push the car anymore and it was just stuck.
So we all gave up and some nice guys gave us a ride back to the house
where Elder Farnsworth and I got our car and drove to our home. Oh
man. The snow was a killer. I was so tired when I went to bed that I
slept unbeleivably well. And now it is P-day thank goodness! And
even though it was an annoying moment, that snow adventure was an
excellent experience for my first week in Minnesota. It really isn't
THAT cold here though. The snow has actually been pretty fun. I like
it. It was funny how quickly it changed though because Wednesday was
sunny and warm in the 40's and now it's just snowy and cold.
Definitely bearable though.
I love Minnesota. Everyone here is really so nice. And the lakes are
literally everywhere and it is beautiful, especially since they are
all frozen Ha ha. I see cars out driving on the lakes all the time.
In fact, there is a mini lake in my back yard that has a Hockey rink
carved in it. Super cool!
It sounds like life at home is going great. I miss you guys!
Thanks for all of your love, support, and prayers. It was wonderful
to talk to you on Wednesday. And I will make sure to update you next
week! I can't wait to see what happens!

By the way, I am getting way more comfortable with talking to people
now. It gets easier and easier everyday. Tracting is actually fun
now. My companion is helping me out so much and everything is just
going better than I could have ever imagined. I'm very happy here!

Love you so much!
Elder Morgan Ruesch

Address in Minnesota

Elder Morgan Ruesch
Minnesota Minneapolis Mission
5931 W 96th St
Bloomington MN 55438-1715


You can also check out the official Minnesota Minneapolis Mission blog:
mmmmiracles.blogspot.com

Last MTC Email

My first holiday as a missionary! Yay! It's been funny to watch the last few days because the amount of packages coming into the MTC has multiplied by like ten. When I went to pick up mine there was a line the size of a T-Rex to get it. And yes, I got the two packages you sent me. Thanks so much! They are wonderful. Also, thanks to Ashley for the package as well. I also got a package from Lauren and another from Tamara/Robbie. Five packages this week! Talk about an awesome life. Thanks for all of your love.

You guys, I'm totally on a mission right now! It's so awesome. And it is weird to think about. But I love it! All of my work at the MTC is now complete :) We taught our last pretend lesson on Saturday night and now all I have to do is just survive a couple more classes and life will be good. Every Tuesday night there is a general authority who comes and speaks at our devotional and hopefully tomorrow is an apostle. It's my last chance!

I am so excited to go out into the field. It is going to be an awesome adventure. There are twelve missionaries total flying to Minnesota this Wednesday. The flight is at 8:30 so expect a call anytime after 7:30 I would say. Hopefully that phone number works. And if not, I've also been told that some pay phones will take credit cards now. We will make it work somehow. I can't wait to talk to you.

So this week at the MTC was pretty successful. Elder Hatch and I officially got released as Zone Leaders yesterday. It was so fun to serve with that assignment. I loved it! It definitely made the MTC much more fun. The MTC is definitely filled with it's ups and downs though. I'm trying SO hard to learn to recognize the voice of the spirit when it is guiding me to teach but it is really difficult. So sometimes I get frustrated and disappointed when a lesson doesn't go well or I just can't seem to hear it. I did have a great experience on Thursday though. We were doing this thing where we practice teaching a couple lessons to the district below us and they teach us also. I was paired with a sister in the district below. Well I started teaching and somehow stuff just went well while I taught. Really well actually. Some would say it was luck. But no! It was totally the Lord. At that moment I learned a lot about what the Lord means when he says it shall be given us in the very moment what ye shall say. And I didn't even realize how guided by the spirit that lesson was until after the lesson was over. The church is true.

Another cool story! Every week the departing district does a musical number in sacrament meeting. So our district decided to sing We'll Bring the World His Truth (Army of Helaman). Anyway, every time we practiced during the week we sounded like dying animals. Lets just say that some of my district isn't very musically inclined. I wasn't really worried about the number because there's only 30ish people in our branch and if we embarrassed ourselves it wouldn't be a terrible thing. But the Lord didn't want that for us! We got up to sing and the piano started. Then we all come in and by some magical force we all sounded good! And I swear to you, there were voices coming from behind me when we started. Voices coming from people that weren't there. It was the coolest experience! There are angles all over this place and you can just feel it. The spirit is always here. It's amazing!

Well i can't wait to fly out on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!! I have learned more here at the MTC than I ever imagined I would. I love it here and am kinda sad to leave but I can't wait to get out into the field! This is the greatest work any person could be a part of. I am so blessed that I get to take part in it. I have a huge responsibility as a missionary but with the Lord I know I can get it done. What a wonderful experience it is to be on a mission. I love you all and miss you tons! Next time I email you I'll be in the field.

Love,
Morgan

MTC: Week Number Dos

Hey!
I have officailly completed one full week at the MTC. I only have
nine days left! Time fly's like crazy.

Excellent news. I got my travel plans this week in the mail and my
flight it on Wednesday, the 16th. I'm trying to remember but I think
my flight is at 8ish. I have to report to the travel office at 5 AM.
Bleh. But I guess that will be okay because I can just sleep on the
plane. It's better than the last group that left, they had to be at
the travel office by 3 AM. There will be twelve of us on the flight
over to Minnesota. And I think I have met all of them. There are two
Sisters and the rest are Elders. From what I have seen of them they
all seem pretty cool. Which means the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission
is going to be the best one in the world!

Thanks for the letters and the packages! Ashley, the cookies were
delish. And the goodies with the other package were awesome too. The
Gooch's also sent me a package with chips and salsa in it. It was
super nice of them! So I am going to mail them a thank you letter.
Also, the shirt from Mr. Mac finally came this week.

Funny thing: I get all stressed out when I write these emails because
I want to type everything so fast but then I looked over at my friend
in my district who has a broken arm and can only type with one hand.
I guess I should be thankful. Count your blessings!

Anyway, I was thinking of a few things I was wondering you could
send. A nice ear band for warmth would be nice like we were talking
about. Then I could keep be ears warm without making my hair go
crazy. Also, I was wondering if maybe you could send me my old
scriptures that are in the drawer next to my bed. THere have been a
few times were I wanted certain markings or scripture chains and stuff
but they were in my old scriptures. So I have been wanting to copy
some of the things in it over to my quad. I don't know if that will
be a pain or not. It isn't a super big deal if it is a lot to send
them.

This week my companion and I got baptisimal commitments out of both of
our "investigators" (teachers). You might say that they are just
going easy on us and maybe that is true. But we have worked really
hard and we actually have had the spirit really strong in our
lessons. So I feel good about these commitments. We still need to
work them through some things before they are baptised but we do have
a date to work towards! Oh boy, I'm nervous about when I have to
teach real people.

Elder Hatch and I are slowly but surely learning. The last lesson we
taught to Mike we had planned to teach about repentance and the word
of wisdom but the lesson went totally different. We ended up teaching
about recieving answers to prayers and the purpose of going to church
and the blessings that come from it. It was so awesome! The lesson
was totally guided by the spirit and it was so neat.

It's been a crazy week of teaching a lot but it has flown by. Only
one more week and I'm pretty much out of here! I hope your lives are
wonderful. Mine is!

Love,
Elder Morgan Ruesch

First Letter from the MTC

Sorry mom. I'm pretty sure that I am never going to want to come home. I love it here and things are going way good! I have been so anxious to write home and it is finally my P-day. The e-mail here is kind of difficult because it has a timer and you have only 30 minutes to do all of your emailing before it logs you out. So I'm going to try and hurry!

The first day went pretty well. I actually was put into a threesome of companionshipness and so I have two companions. Oddly enough, one of them, Elder Kolton Palmer, I already know pretty well. I went to Jr. High and High School with him. We were never really friends but we did know each other and so the fact that we became companions is crazy! He is a way good guy though. Solid in the church and obedient to all of the mission rules. Definite blessing! My other companions name is Elder Adam Hatch. He is from Boise, Idaho area. Good kid. Also very obedient. All three of us are pretty quiet and so we often walk to class or chill in our residence hall in silence. But I really don't mind. Actually I like it quite a bit because even though it's quiet, it isn't awkward. I can study and not have someone always distracting me and we all keep a nice reverence.

On the first day we were sent straight to the classroom that we would soon be spending 3/4 of our lives in. There I met all the Elders in my district and one of my teachers. There are eleven elders in my district, no sisters. The first day or so with my district was always a little awkward because seriously NO ONE would talk or answer questions or anything. I'm not affraid to answer a question that the teacher asks and so I would end up answering half of them in order to break the twenty minute silence. One other elder in our district would answer the other half of the questions. But finally, our district is getting a lot closer and more comfortable and so things in class are more fun now.

Thursay night we met our branch presidency and we all had little interviews with them and they assigned us a district leader. The elder in my district that they assigned the job is named Elder White (he's the elder that would answer the other half of all the teachers questions). He is a way good guy and I'm glad he is our leader.

So here at the MTC my branch (which consists of three districts) is on what is called the Pilot Program. The leader of the church are designing a new way to train the missionaries and this new system is going to be implimented in August. But for now they are testing it on a few districts and trying to work out the kinks. My district is one of the guinea pig districts. The real difference between this new program and the old one is that in the old one the missionaries teach something like 6 times but in the new one we teach 22 times. It's crazy. We have two teachers and they pretend to be investigators and we teach them five lessons each and then there are other actors that we teach as well. We teach like ten different lessons this week and I''m very nervous but excited for it!

Well my time is almost up and so I'm trying to hurry like a ninja to finish! The craziest news of all is that yesterday my companions and I got called to be Zone Leaders for our branch. Insane? Yes. But I am super excited for the job! I get to give orientation to all the new missionaries that come in.

Ah! Hurry! So basically, I love it here. The spirit is so strong and there really is no greater work I could ever be doing right now than serving a mission. I have learned so much and I feel like I am already twice the person I was before.

Love you all! I'll write again next Monday!

Love,

Elder Morgan Ruesch

MTC Photos