Namaste again!
Holy smokes! I can't believe Thayne comes home this week! That blows
my mind. If you see him, tell him to write me a letter.
I don't have a ton of time so I am going to type at ramming speed.
We'll see how much I get written and how many mistakes I have.
This week was crazy but super awesome! Starting on Wednesday, a
traditional Nepali festival began and it finishes today. It was
really difficult to set up appointments with anyone because they were
all going to other people's houses for food and fun. So that was an
adventure. And as part of that, we got a lot of food too! Ha ha.
Too much food actually. On Saturday a family invited us over to eat
at their party at 3 and then another family invited us other for
dinner at 5. I wasn't sure I was going to make it but somehow I had
enough room in my stomach to pack in all in. I seriously prayed that
morning that I would be able to eat all the food I was given. Prayer
works! Ha ha. The Nepali people are really so gracious. They don't
have much but they will give you everything that they can. So
wonderful. Our dinner on Saturday was especially delicious. The
woman made us rice with soup and goat meat. It was awesome.
Part of this festival is the children go to their parents or someone
older than them and they receive a blessing, which is basically a gift
of money or something else. And with that they put this stuff called
Tika (teekah) on their forehead. It is just sticky rice that is dyed
red. It's cool. So when we went to the party on Saturday they put
Tika on our heads (The Baxters were there too). That was sweet!
Maybe I will have time to include a picture. These people just feel
like family here.
Also, like I said I would, I went to Dinkytown this week! That was
super great! I spent the whole day with Elder Checketts. It was
really fun. I got to spend some time contacting on campus and we got
to meet with several of the recent converts. I was glad to hear that
they are doing well. If you remember AA, he is preparing for a
mission! He is planning to leave after spring semester. It is so
cool. As much as I love Dinkytown though, I was glad to leave and go
back to Nepali land. My time in Dinkytown was so great but now it is
time for something different. I felt almost like I was a return
missionary going back to visit his mission. I'm not a return
missionary yet and I am proud of it! I think Elder Shrestha had a
good experience on Campus too. And when I say good I mean humbling.
Ha ha. That was his first time really contacting in complete English
and it was with college students. It is a great opportunity to
learn! ha ha.
On top of all of the fun, actual missionary work was a tad bit
frustrating this week mostly because of the festival. People didn't
want to meet and didn't want to come to church either. Last week we
had 13 investigators at church and this week we had 5. But hey, what
can you do. I'm sure this week will be a little more fruitful.
Cool experience. I think I have told you about the Family we are
teaching that is progressing really well. We will call them the Adams
family. They have been in America for about 2 months now. They are
learning a lot and doing really well. This week it was so cool
because we spent the whole lesson talking about Christ's life and
watching the video Finding Faith in Christ with them. And they loved
it. Also, we taught the daughter to pray and she said the opening
prayer. I think her little brother wanted to follow her example after
that because he wanted to say the closing prayer really bad. That was
amazing. So Elder Shrestha helped him to say a prayer. It was a
really sweet experience. I love families!
The Halloween party sounds like it was awesome! Super funny. I am
glad i am in the Nepali work this year so Halloween probably wont even
be a big deal for us. I don't know if any of these refugees will
celebrate it. That way we can actually get some missionary work done.
Thank you for the package! Elder Shrestha really wanted some beef
jerky and so I told him I would ask you for it but I kept forgetting.
So it's a good thing you are close to the spirit mom because you sent
it anyway! Nice work! Ha ha. He loved the jerky. He also loves
cheetos, especially the spicy ones. Feel free to send anything
random. He loves to try new stuff. He is doing really well by the
way. The first few weeks on a mission are pretty tough, now that he
is pretty much passed the beginning he is really starting to grow and
become a missionary. It's great to watch the change. Missions are
amazing.
Well my fam fam, it's always an adventure over here in Nepal. I love
it so much! Thanks for all your support!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
October 29, 2012
October 22, 2012
October 22, 2012
Well Howdy Hey,
This was a delightful week! We had several super great things
happening. For the first two weeks I felt like we were running around
like a chicken with our head cut off, and now it we are starting to
get our feet under us and know what we are doing. It is great. The
first great miracle I want to mention is we had 13 Nepali
Investigators at church yesterday. 13!!!!! That is crazy! Usually
we have had around 7 people come. But things are getting better! If
you include children and members there were almost 20 Nepali people at
church. Hopefully, that growth can continue and we can have a good
sized solid Nepali group of members after not too long. The Nepali
people are funny and they like to come to church in groups. But none
of them can drive so we send cars to their apartment buildings and
everyone just piles in and we all drive to church. Sunday morning is
stressful trying to round people up and make sure we have a ride for
everyone who needs one. It's stressful but awesome!
We also still are teaching this nice little family with 3 kids that
are progressing well. They have only been in America for 2 months or
so. But they have been to church 3 times now. We still have A LOT to
teach them but they are doing well. This week a family in the ward
hosted this family and us missionaries for a dinner and a short little
family home evening. That was hectic but awesome. It was this
family's first time eating "American food." But they seemed to enjoy
the food and they definitely had a fun time. That was an excellent
adventure.
As far as I know, there are about 1000 Nepali people in Minnesota. So
we really don't actually have that many people to work with.
Fortunately, they seem to live in clusters where several families live
in the same apartment building. So if you can find one family, you
just need to go to other apartments in the same building and you will
probably find more. We are constantly asking the families that we
meet with where other Nepali people live and they usually aren't too
helpful. But we where able to get a very generalized area of where
more families were so we decided to go explore that area and see if we
could find anyone. And it was a total miracle! We went to a random
street in that neighborhood and we saw two teenagers on bikes, and we
thought, "Hey, they look Nepali." And they were! We went and talked
to them and got their address and they showed us where several other
families lived. Come to find out, there are like 20 families in this
area that we can start to try working with. It was awesome! That was
a definite miracle.
Every transfer, the district leader is supposed to do an exchange with
each member of his district. So this week, guess who he had come work
with him in his area? Elder Shrestha. So if you do the math, that
meant that I was with the district leader's companion in Nepali land
with neither of us being able to speak Nepali at all... Ha ha. That
was an adventure. I was freaking out a little bit. But it worked
out! There are 6 Young men that are baptized members that speak
pretty good English and so we used several of them for different
appointments to translate for us. It was awesome. They saved us. It
is so humbling when you can't communicate with the person you are
trying to teach! My goodness.
The days are always up and down. Some are great. Some days, every
lesson we had set up falls through (that happened on tuesday). But it
is all part of being a missionary. All in all, Nepali land is the
BEST! I am still having a party.
Cool side note, the Zone Leaders of our zone are in Dinkytown still.
This week they are having Elder Shrestha and I BOTH come to Dinkytown
to spend the day working with them. And guess who is back in that
area as one of our zone leaders? Elder Checketts! Ha ha. He got
transferred back to Dinkytown in August, which is almost the exact
same time he and I were transferred there a year ago. And this week
he and I are going to spend the day together in Dinkytown just like
old times. I am super excited. It will be so fun. And Dinkytown
will be a great learning experience for Elder Shrestha too. Talking
to college students is a whole new kind of missionary work! Ha ha.
We don't quite have a person for baptism yet, but I don't think it is
too far away. Having all of these Nepali at church yesterday really
helped me to catch the vision of what this work can become. This
little group of Nepali people could turn into it's own Branch and even
a ward someday. It is just amazing to think about. We'll keep
working on it little by little.
I hope the Halloween party goes well! Feel free to make a card board
cut out of me so that I can be there. :) I'm sure it will be fun. I
am also glad you got the pictures. I have been awful at sending you
pictures. Make sure they are saved because I don't know how much room
I have left on my camera so I will have to start deleting some off.
Thanks!
Love,
Elder Ruesch.
This was a delightful week! We had several super great things
happening. For the first two weeks I felt like we were running around
like a chicken with our head cut off, and now it we are starting to
get our feet under us and know what we are doing. It is great. The
first great miracle I want to mention is we had 13 Nepali
Investigators at church yesterday. 13!!!!! That is crazy! Usually
we have had around 7 people come. But things are getting better! If
you include children and members there were almost 20 Nepali people at
church. Hopefully, that growth can continue and we can have a good
sized solid Nepali group of members after not too long. The Nepali
people are funny and they like to come to church in groups. But none
of them can drive so we send cars to their apartment buildings and
everyone just piles in and we all drive to church. Sunday morning is
stressful trying to round people up and make sure we have a ride for
everyone who needs one. It's stressful but awesome!
We also still are teaching this nice little family with 3 kids that
are progressing well. They have only been in America for 2 months or
so. But they have been to church 3 times now. We still have A LOT to
teach them but they are doing well. This week a family in the ward
hosted this family and us missionaries for a dinner and a short little
family home evening. That was hectic but awesome. It was this
family's first time eating "American food." But they seemed to enjoy
the food and they definitely had a fun time. That was an excellent
adventure.
As far as I know, there are about 1000 Nepali people in Minnesota. So
we really don't actually have that many people to work with.
Fortunately, they seem to live in clusters where several families live
in the same apartment building. So if you can find one family, you
just need to go to other apartments in the same building and you will
probably find more. We are constantly asking the families that we
meet with where other Nepali people live and they usually aren't too
helpful. But we where able to get a very generalized area of where
more families were so we decided to go explore that area and see if we
could find anyone. And it was a total miracle! We went to a random
street in that neighborhood and we saw two teenagers on bikes, and we
thought, "Hey, they look Nepali." And they were! We went and talked
to them and got their address and they showed us where several other
families lived. Come to find out, there are like 20 families in this
area that we can start to try working with. It was awesome! That was
a definite miracle.
Every transfer, the district leader is supposed to do an exchange with
each member of his district. So this week, guess who he had come work
with him in his area? Elder Shrestha. So if you do the math, that
meant that I was with the district leader's companion in Nepali land
with neither of us being able to speak Nepali at all... Ha ha. That
was an adventure. I was freaking out a little bit. But it worked
out! There are 6 Young men that are baptized members that speak
pretty good English and so we used several of them for different
appointments to translate for us. It was awesome. They saved us. It
is so humbling when you can't communicate with the person you are
trying to teach! My goodness.
The days are always up and down. Some are great. Some days, every
lesson we had set up falls through (that happened on tuesday). But it
is all part of being a missionary. All in all, Nepali land is the
BEST! I am still having a party.
Cool side note, the Zone Leaders of our zone are in Dinkytown still.
This week they are having Elder Shrestha and I BOTH come to Dinkytown
to spend the day working with them. And guess who is back in that
area as one of our zone leaders? Elder Checketts! Ha ha. He got
transferred back to Dinkytown in August, which is almost the exact
same time he and I were transferred there a year ago. And this week
he and I are going to spend the day together in Dinkytown just like
old times. I am super excited. It will be so fun. And Dinkytown
will be a great learning experience for Elder Shrestha too. Talking
to college students is a whole new kind of missionary work! Ha ha.
We don't quite have a person for baptism yet, but I don't think it is
too far away. Having all of these Nepali at church yesterday really
helped me to catch the vision of what this work can become. This
little group of Nepali people could turn into it's own Branch and even
a ward someday. It is just amazing to think about. We'll keep
working on it little by little.
I hope the Halloween party goes well! Feel free to make a card board
cut out of me so that I can be there. :) I'm sure it will be fun. I
am also glad you got the pictures. I have been awful at sending you
pictures. Make sure they are saved because I don't know how much room
I have left on my camera so I will have to start deleting some off.
Thanks!
Love,
Elder Ruesch.
October 21, 2012
October 15, 2012
Howdy hey!
It's Preparation Day again! There is always too much to update you
guys on that I don't know where to start.
That's so funny that Ashley remembers Mrs Baxter. I will have to tell
her about that. The Baxter's are basically our parents out here.
They feed us, drive us places, come teach with us, and help with
anything we need. It is so great! Most missionaries don't get such
great help so we are really lucky! They are the bomb.
Mom asked about where we live. We live in the northern part of St
Paul. If you were to look on a map we are close to the boarder of a
city called Roseville. It's a descently run down area. Ha ha. It is
right next to the apartements where a lot of the Nepali Refugees live
so it is really convenient since we are on bikes. I love living among
all these people. We meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and
cultures. It is so cool. I'm telling you, I am just living the dream!
We email in a library in a city called White Bear Lake. The other
Elders in our district give us a ride. Our ward here is super
unique. I think I mentioned the Karen people before. They are
refugees from Burma and Thailand that found themselves without a
country. There is a large population of them here in St Paul and a
missionary a few years ago taught himself to speak their language.
It's a crazy story. Now we have permanent Karen speaking Elders that
are assigned to learn the language when they get out here. And they
are in our ward. There is also an English teaching set of Elders
too. So all together we have 4 sets of missionaries in this one
ward. The English Elders, Karen Elders, Nepali Elders and the senior
couple helping the Nepali people. Awesome. So a lot of stuff is
happening in this ward. It's one of the few wards that has sacrament
meeting in 3 different languages. Ha ha. Elder Shrestha translates
into Nepali and Elder Wolz translates into Karen. It is really fun to
be around missionaries so much! They keep me sane amidst all of the
stress and pressure. Ha ha.
This week the mission also had a super cool event. Gladys Knight
organized a choir called the Saints Unified Voices Choir and they have
been going aroung the country doing firesides where they perform
gospel music and then Gladys bears her testimony. We were fortunate
enough to have them come to Minneapolis this week. A ton of work was
put into this fireside and the rumor is that everywhere Gladys does
this fireside there are like a 100 baptisms in the mission that come
from it. So everyone invited their friends and we brought an
investigator even though he didn't speak much English. And is was a
great success. I haven't heard much about what is going on in the
rest of the mission from it but I know there were a ton of referrals.
It was a cool fireside. I even shook Gladys Knight's hand! That's
right, I'm awesome.
I can now count to ten in Nepali and say all of the days of the week.
Plus I know a bunch of other random words and phrases. Ha ha. It is
kinda hard to learn the language when you aren't given time to study
it. But I am learning a little bit at a time. It is fun.
There are some good things going on. We started teaching the parents
of a young man who was the first Nepali person to be baptized in
Minnesota. They are an amazing family and I hope we can see some
success with them. The problem is they are part of the family that
the grandma/matriarch of the family doesn't want them to be baptized.
So it may be a long time before they are baptized but that doesn't
mean they can't live all the commandments and participate as a fully
active member of the ward until then.
I'm learning that this process is going to take a lot more patience
than I anticipated. Ha ha. There are a lot of family challenges for
everyone. And most of these people come from a backround of zero
christianity and so there is a lot to teach them. However, I have
learned a really important principle over the last few weeks. These
people may have a different background but the most effective way to
teach them is the same way you teach an American who is already
Christian. It's helping me to see that everyone is still a Child of
God and we are need the same thing to achieve Eternal Life and the
spirit is the only one who converts. It's so cool.
Elder Shrestha is doing well. He sure has to learn a lot fast because
he does more than half of the teaching. Much more is expected of him
than a normal new missionary. But he is still alive and doing well!
Ha ha. So we are happy.
I know we are going to have a baptism soon! I just don't know who it
is yet. Ha ha. People are progressing but aren't quite ready yet.
It is such a cool opportunity to serve these people.
This is an amazing work!
I need to skidoodle.
Love,
Elder Ruesch
It's Preparation Day again! There is always too much to update you
guys on that I don't know where to start.
That's so funny that Ashley remembers Mrs Baxter. I will have to tell
her about that. The Baxter's are basically our parents out here.
They feed us, drive us places, come teach with us, and help with
anything we need. It is so great! Most missionaries don't get such
great help so we are really lucky! They are the bomb.
Mom asked about where we live. We live in the northern part of St
Paul. If you were to look on a map we are close to the boarder of a
city called Roseville. It's a descently run down area. Ha ha. It is
right next to the apartements where a lot of the Nepali Refugees live
so it is really convenient since we are on bikes. I love living among
all these people. We meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and
cultures. It is so cool. I'm telling you, I am just living the dream!
We email in a library in a city called White Bear Lake. The other
Elders in our district give us a ride. Our ward here is super
unique. I think I mentioned the Karen people before. They are
refugees from Burma and Thailand that found themselves without a
country. There is a large population of them here in St Paul and a
missionary a few years ago taught himself to speak their language.
It's a crazy story. Now we have permanent Karen speaking Elders that
are assigned to learn the language when they get out here. And they
are in our ward. There is also an English teaching set of Elders
too. So all together we have 4 sets of missionaries in this one
ward. The English Elders, Karen Elders, Nepali Elders and the senior
couple helping the Nepali people. Awesome. So a lot of stuff is
happening in this ward. It's one of the few wards that has sacrament
meeting in 3 different languages. Ha ha. Elder Shrestha translates
into Nepali and Elder Wolz translates into Karen. It is really fun to
be around missionaries so much! They keep me sane amidst all of the
stress and pressure. Ha ha.
This week the mission also had a super cool event. Gladys Knight
organized a choir called the Saints Unified Voices Choir and they have
been going aroung the country doing firesides where they perform
gospel music and then Gladys bears her testimony. We were fortunate
enough to have them come to Minneapolis this week. A ton of work was
put into this fireside and the rumor is that everywhere Gladys does
this fireside there are like a 100 baptisms in the mission that come
from it. So everyone invited their friends and we brought an
investigator even though he didn't speak much English. And is was a
great success. I haven't heard much about what is going on in the
rest of the mission from it but I know there were a ton of referrals.
It was a cool fireside. I even shook Gladys Knight's hand! That's
right, I'm awesome.
I can now count to ten in Nepali and say all of the days of the week.
Plus I know a bunch of other random words and phrases. Ha ha. It is
kinda hard to learn the language when you aren't given time to study
it. But I am learning a little bit at a time. It is fun.
There are some good things going on. We started teaching the parents
of a young man who was the first Nepali person to be baptized in
Minnesota. They are an amazing family and I hope we can see some
success with them. The problem is they are part of the family that
the grandma/matriarch of the family doesn't want them to be baptized.
So it may be a long time before they are baptized but that doesn't
mean they can't live all the commandments and participate as a fully
active member of the ward until then.
I'm learning that this process is going to take a lot more patience
than I anticipated. Ha ha. There are a lot of family challenges for
everyone. And most of these people come from a backround of zero
christianity and so there is a lot to teach them. However, I have
learned a really important principle over the last few weeks. These
people may have a different background but the most effective way to
teach them is the same way you teach an American who is already
Christian. It's helping me to see that everyone is still a Child of
God and we are need the same thing to achieve Eternal Life and the
spirit is the only one who converts. It's so cool.
Elder Shrestha is doing well. He sure has to learn a lot fast because
he does more than half of the teaching. Much more is expected of him
than a normal new missionary. But he is still alive and doing well!
Ha ha. So we are happy.
I know we are going to have a baptism soon! I just don't know who it
is yet. Ha ha. People are progressing but aren't quite ready yet.
It is such a cool opportunity to serve these people.
This is an amazing work!
I need to skidoodle.
Love,
Elder Ruesch
October 15, 2012
October 15, 2012
Howdy hey!
It's Preparation Day again! There is always too much to update you
guys on that I don't know where to start.
That's so funny that Ashley remembers Mrs Baxter. I will have to tell
her about that. The Baxters are basically our parents out here. They
feed us, drive us places, come teach with us, and help with anything
we need. It is so great! Most missionaries don't get such great help
so we are really lucky! They are the bomb.
Mom asked about where we live. We live in the northern part of St
Paul. If you were to look on a map we are close to the boarder of a
city called Roseville. It's a descently run down area. Ha ha. It is
right next to the apartments where a lot of the Nepali Refugees live
so it is really convenient since we are on bikes. I love living among
all these people. We meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and
cultures. It is so cool. I'm telling you, I am just living the dream!
We email in a library in a city called White Bear Lake. The other
Elders in our district give us a ride. Our ward here is super
unique. I think I mentioned the Karen people before. They are
refugees from Burma and Thailand that found themselves without a
country. There is a large population of them here in St Paul and a
missionary a few years ago taught himself to speak their language.
It's a crazy story. Now we have permanent Karen speaking Elders that
are assigned to learn the language when they get out here. And they
are in our ward. There is also an English teaching set of Elders
too. So all together we have 4 sets of missionaries in this one
ward. The English Elders, Karen Elders, Nepali Elders and the senior
couple helping the Nepali people. Awesome. So a lot of stuff in
happening in this ward. It's one of the few wards that has sacrament
meeting in 3 different languages. Ha ha. Elder Shrestha translates
into Nepali and Elder Wolz translates into Karen. It is really fun to
be around missionaries so much! They keep me sane amidst all of the
stress and pressure. Ha ha.
This week the mission also had a super cool event. Gladys Knight
organized a choir called the Saints Unified Voices Choir and they have
been going aroung the country doing firesides where they perform
gospel music and then Gladys bears her testimony. We were fortunate
enough to have them come to Minneapolis this week. A ton of work was
put into this fireside and the rumor is that everywhere Gladys does
this fireside there are like a 100 baptisms in the mission that come
from it. So everyone invited their friends and we brought an
investigator even though he didn't speak much English. And is was a
great success. I haven't heard much about what is going on in the
rest of the mission from it but i know there were a ton of referrals.
It was a cool fireside. I even shook Gladys Knight's hand! That's
right, I'm awesome.
I can now count to ten in Nepali and say all of the days of the week.
Plus I know a bunch of other random words and phrases. Ha ha. It is
kinda hard to learn the language when you aren't given time to study
it. But I am learning a little bit at a time. It is fun.
There are some good things going on. We started teaching the parents
of a young man who was the first Nepali person to be baptized in
Minnesota. They are an amazing family and I hope we can see some
success with them. The problem is they are part of the family that
the grandma/matriarch of the family doesn't want them to be baptized.
So it may be a long time before they are baptized but that doesn't
mean they can't live all the commandments and participate as a fully
active member of the ward until then.
I'm learning that this process is going to take a lot more patience
than I anticipated. There are a lot of family challenges for
everyone. And most of these people come from a backround of zero
christianity and so there is a lot to teach them. However, I have
learned a really important principle over the last few weeks. These
people may have a different background but the most effective way to
teach them is the same way you teach an American who is already
Christian. It's helping me to see that everyone is still a Child of
God and we all need the same thing to achieve Eternal Life and the
spirit is the only one who converts. It's so cool.
Elder Shrestha is doing well. He sure has to learn a lot fast because
he does more than half of the teaching. Much more is expected of him
than a normal new missionary. But he is still alive and doing well!
Ha ha. So we are happy.
I know we are going to have a baptism soon! I just don't know who it
is yet. Ha ha. People are progressing but aren't quite ready yet.
It is such a cool opportunity to serve these people.
This is an amazing work!
I need to skidoodle.
Love,
Elder Ruesch
It's Preparation Day again! There is always too much to update you
guys on that I don't know where to start.
That's so funny that Ashley remembers Mrs Baxter. I will have to tell
her about that. The Baxters are basically our parents out here. They
feed us, drive us places, come teach with us, and help with anything
we need. It is so great! Most missionaries don't get such great help
so we are really lucky! They are the bomb.
Mom asked about where we live. We live in the northern part of St
Paul. If you were to look on a map we are close to the boarder of a
city called Roseville. It's a descently run down area. Ha ha. It is
right next to the apartments where a lot of the Nepali Refugees live
so it is really convenient since we are on bikes. I love living among
all these people. We meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and
cultures. It is so cool. I'm telling you, I am just living the dream!
We email in a library in a city called White Bear Lake. The other
Elders in our district give us a ride. Our ward here is super
unique. I think I mentioned the Karen people before. They are
refugees from Burma and Thailand that found themselves without a
country. There is a large population of them here in St Paul and a
missionary a few years ago taught himself to speak their language.
It's a crazy story. Now we have permanent Karen speaking Elders that
are assigned to learn the language when they get out here. And they
are in our ward. There is also an English teaching set of Elders
too. So all together we have 4 sets of missionaries in this one
ward. The English Elders, Karen Elders, Nepali Elders and the senior
couple helping the Nepali people. Awesome. So a lot of stuff in
happening in this ward. It's one of the few wards that has sacrament
meeting in 3 different languages. Ha ha. Elder Shrestha translates
into Nepali and Elder Wolz translates into Karen. It is really fun to
be around missionaries so much! They keep me sane amidst all of the
stress and pressure. Ha ha.
This week the mission also had a super cool event. Gladys Knight
organized a choir called the Saints Unified Voices Choir and they have
been going aroung the country doing firesides where they perform
gospel music and then Gladys bears her testimony. We were fortunate
enough to have them come to Minneapolis this week. A ton of work was
put into this fireside and the rumor is that everywhere Gladys does
this fireside there are like a 100 baptisms in the mission that come
from it. So everyone invited their friends and we brought an
investigator even though he didn't speak much English. And is was a
great success. I haven't heard much about what is going on in the
rest of the mission from it but i know there were a ton of referrals.
It was a cool fireside. I even shook Gladys Knight's hand! That's
right, I'm awesome.
I can now count to ten in Nepali and say all of the days of the week.
Plus I know a bunch of other random words and phrases. Ha ha. It is
kinda hard to learn the language when you aren't given time to study
it. But I am learning a little bit at a time. It is fun.
There are some good things going on. We started teaching the parents
of a young man who was the first Nepali person to be baptized in
Minnesota. They are an amazing family and I hope we can see some
success with them. The problem is they are part of the family that
the grandma/matriarch of the family doesn't want them to be baptized.
So it may be a long time before they are baptized but that doesn't
mean they can't live all the commandments and participate as a fully
active member of the ward until then.
I'm learning that this process is going to take a lot more patience
than I anticipated. There are a lot of family challenges for
everyone. And most of these people come from a backround of zero
christianity and so there is a lot to teach them. However, I have
learned a really important principle over the last few weeks. These
people may have a different background but the most effective way to
teach them is the same way you teach an American who is already
Christian. It's helping me to see that everyone is still a Child of
God and we all need the same thing to achieve Eternal Life and the
spirit is the only one who converts. It's so cool.
Elder Shrestha is doing well. He sure has to learn a lot fast because
he does more than half of the teaching. Much more is expected of him
than a normal new missionary. But he is still alive and doing well!
Ha ha. So we are happy.
I know we are going to have a baptism soon! I just don't know who it
is yet. Ha ha. People are progressing but aren't quite ready yet.
It is such a cool opportunity to serve these people.
This is an amazing work!
I need to skidoodle.
Love,
Elder Ruesch
October 8, 2012
October 8, 2012
Woot!
General Conference was delicious! Since I've been a missionary,
General Conference has been extra awesome. I just get so much more
out of it! That might be because I am paying more attention but I
don't know. The satelite in our building wasn't working for the first
20 minutes of the first session so we missed President Monson's
announcement of the temples and missionary age change. And then later
speakers alluded to it and we were wiggin out wondering what
happened! Eventually we got help from someone who pulled out their
computer and we watched his announcement. That is CRAZY COOL news! I
am super duper excited about it! I am especially excited about the
sister missionaries age change because we need a lot more sister
missionaries. I hope this makes the number of missionaries in the
world go way up! I was wondering if MJ were going to go right away or
wait till the summer. I would love to be able to spend some time with
you fellas before you leave but if it is the right thing to go right
away then that is okay. Just do the right thing!
Things are moving along really well in the Nepali work! The
temperature dropped significantly this week. The week started in the
70's and finished in the 40's consistently. Elder Shrestha died a
little bit. Ha ha. I asked him the coldest weather he had ever been
in and he said about 15 degrees Celsius which is in the 50's or
something for Fahrenheit. Ha ha. So he is going to be pretty cold
for a while until he gets used to it. It's alright though, it will
just make him tough. :)
Service is such a powerful principle. Did I ever tell you about the
senior couple that we work with? There is a senior couple here that
is also assigned to the Nepali work that is SUPER awesome and they
help us so much. Their name is the Baxters. Want to hear something
crazy? Sister Baxter worked as a teacher at Alpine Elementary for
several years. I think she said she taught 3rd grade. But we figured
out that she left when I was in 2nd grade. Small world. They now
live in Provo, Utah. Hey mom, do you know a Mary Baxter? Anyway,
they are so helpful. They just do anything they can to help us teach
people and to serve the Nepali peeps here. Recently they have been
getting everyone quilts and winter clothes that don't have the money
to do it themselves. Because of their service, the Nepali people are
so welcoming to us and willing to listen to our message. It is really
neat.
I don't even know where to start with all the things to tell you. I
don't think that I have had more rice in my whole life than I have in
the last week or so!
It's amazing how powerful the spirit is when people are humble. I
feel like Alma teaching the poor Zoramites. The problem we run into
is everyone tends to be flakey and not remember appointments. Ug. Oh
well we are learning to deal with it. Ha ha. And it's true, I might
not be able to speak the language but I am amazed at how the language
of the spirit is the same for everyone. Everytime I teach, I share
something and then Elder Shrestha translates. And whenever I share my
testimony the spirit is really strong and they can feel it. And
that's about all I can do, I bear my testimony. Ha ha. Basically,
the only thing I am able to do to have an effect on these people is
teach Elder Shrestha how to be a powerful missionary. Hopefully, I
can do that.
We have several families with potential for baptism. The huge problem
is they all have family holding them back from being baptized. Ug!
That is the problem with everyone. We are teaching again a teenage
boy who has a powerful testimony already and he has been helping us to
teach the rest of his family. There is also a woman who's husband is
against it. I guess everyone has to overcome their specific challenges.
I am being a little rushed here. Things are delightful over here. I
am loving the work. The gospel works for you no matter who you are or
where you are from. I love it!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
General Conference was delicious! Since I've been a missionary,
General Conference has been extra awesome. I just get so much more
out of it! That might be because I am paying more attention but I
don't know. The satelite in our building wasn't working for the first
20 minutes of the first session so we missed President Monson's
announcement of the temples and missionary age change. And then later
speakers alluded to it and we were wiggin out wondering what
happened! Eventually we got help from someone who pulled out their
computer and we watched his announcement. That is CRAZY COOL news! I
am super duper excited about it! I am especially excited about the
sister missionaries age change because we need a lot more sister
missionaries. I hope this makes the number of missionaries in the
world go way up! I was wondering if MJ were going to go right away or
wait till the summer. I would love to be able to spend some time with
you fellas before you leave but if it is the right thing to go right
away then that is okay. Just do the right thing!
Things are moving along really well in the Nepali work! The
temperature dropped significantly this week. The week started in the
70's and finished in the 40's consistently. Elder Shrestha died a
little bit. Ha ha. I asked him the coldest weather he had ever been
in and he said about 15 degrees Celsius which is in the 50's or
something for Fahrenheit. Ha ha. So he is going to be pretty cold
for a while until he gets used to it. It's alright though, it will
just make him tough. :)
Service is such a powerful principle. Did I ever tell you about the
senior couple that we work with? There is a senior couple here that
is also assigned to the Nepali work that is SUPER awesome and they
help us so much. Their name is the Baxters. Want to hear something
crazy? Sister Baxter worked as a teacher at Alpine Elementary for
several years. I think she said she taught 3rd grade. But we figured
out that she left when I was in 2nd grade. Small world. They now
live in Provo, Utah. Hey mom, do you know a Mary Baxter? Anyway,
they are so helpful. They just do anything they can to help us teach
people and to serve the Nepali peeps here. Recently they have been
getting everyone quilts and winter clothes that don't have the money
to do it themselves. Because of their service, the Nepali people are
so welcoming to us and willing to listen to our message. It is really
neat.
I don't even know where to start with all the things to tell you. I
don't think that I have had more rice in my whole life than I have in
the last week or so!
It's amazing how powerful the spirit is when people are humble. I
feel like Alma teaching the poor Zoramites. The problem we run into
is everyone tends to be flakey and not remember appointments. Ug. Oh
well we are learning to deal with it. Ha ha. And it's true, I might
not be able to speak the language but I am amazed at how the language
of the spirit is the same for everyone. Everytime I teach, I share
something and then Elder Shrestha translates. And whenever I share my
testimony the spirit is really strong and they can feel it. And
that's about all I can do, I bear my testimony. Ha ha. Basically,
the only thing I am able to do to have an effect on these people is
teach Elder Shrestha how to be a powerful missionary. Hopefully, I
can do that.
We have several families with potential for baptism. The huge problem
is they all have family holding them back from being baptized. Ug!
That is the problem with everyone. We are teaching again a teenage
boy who has a powerful testimony already and he has been helping us to
teach the rest of his family. There is also a woman who's husband is
against it. I guess everyone has to overcome their specific challenges.
I am being a little rushed here. Things are delightful over here. I
am loving the work. The gospel works for you no matter who you are or
where you are from. I love it!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
October 1, 2012
October 1, 2012
Namaste!
This has been one crazy week! The time has flown by but at the same
time it feels like it has been a century. That is how new transfers
always are. So my new companions name is Elder Shrestha (pronounced
Shrehs-tah). It is so funny to serve with him because he is just in a
whole new world! His story is really quite amazing. There is no
proselyting allowed in Nepal and so the way he became a member was his
Dad took some sort of a business trip to Nepal and miraculously met
the missionaries and was baptized. He returned to his family in Nepal
and eventually over several years, all of his family except for his
wife was baptized as well. His wife knows the church is true and
everything but she is waiting to be baptized till after her parents
giver permission or pass away. It really is quite amazing. And now
Elder Shrestha is here! He is the first missionary from Nepal to ever
serve anywhere in the world other than India. Pretty much all Nepali
missionaries serve in India because they don't need a visa there. The
only way his mission to here in Minnesota is possible is due to the
help of many senior missionary couples that served in Nepal that are
helping him to pay for his mission. Elder Shrestha is very needed
here in St. Paul. There are a lot of Nepali people that are open to
the gospel but have not learned because they can't understand.
It has been a whole new ball game doing missionary work here though.
It is crazy different! We are always on the hunt for where Nepali
people live. Fortunately, there is a Senior Couple here that has also
been assigned to help the Nepali people and they are helping us to
meet all of the people that met with missionaries in the past. I LOVE
NEPALI PEOPLE. They are the most kind, loving people you will meet.
Every door we knock on they meet Elder Shrestha and are amazed he is a
missionary from Nepal and so they let us in and always try to feed us
or give us juice or something. And these people are so poor but they
will give you everything they have. The challenge we are provided
with is Nepal is very similar to India and so everyone is deeply
rooted in the Hindu faith and they really know nothing about God our
Heavenly Father. So we have to start from square one. It is a neat
experience to teach these people the Gospel because the spirit is
always so strong in the lessons. But we have a lot of work to do.
Another new thing to me is we are 100% on bikes. That has been fun!
Now I feel like a real missionary when I'm only riding around on a bike.
Funny Story! A member took us out to dinner and he took us to a
chinese buffet. Elder Shresta had a hay day! HIs first time eating
"Chinese" food and his first time at a buffet. He tried everything
and ate a ton. Ha ha. The blessing of serving with Elder Shrestha is
I am constantly reminded of the blessings we have in this country.
We also had an appointment with two ladies. When we went over to
teach it turns out that one of the ladies daughter was throwing a
birthday celebration for her two kids. Ha ha! So we didn't do much
teaching but we were able to Celebrate the birthday with them and eat
some delicious Nepali food! Ha ha. I don't know what happened on my
mission but just so you know, I now love to eat Pho and Curry. Ha
ha. :) But they made some curry and rice pudding and some other
things for everyone at the celebration and it was really good. But
there was this one dish that was really HOT. Even Elder Shrestha
couldn't finish it! I like Nepali food though. Hopefully, I don't
get fed anything disgusting over the next few weeks/months. But I
guess it would make a good story. Ha ha.
The most difficult thing for me here is trying to teach these people.
President told me to not take extra time to learn the language. But
the problem is once the people learn that Elder Shrestha speaks Nepali
they don't want to talk in English even if they can. So Elder
Shrestha is forced to talk almost the whole time while I sit there
quietly with no idea what is going on. It is kinda hard to teach your
new missionary how to teach powerfully when you don't know what is
going on and can't be the example in lessons. Ug. But that is
alright. We are figuring things out. I am sure he will learn
eventually. I had a bunch of questions for President Clements about
how he wants us to work with these people and he basically told me,
"It's between you and the Lord on this one. I have no idea what to do
either." So I'm kinda winging it. It makes this a great adventure!
By the way, before I left Rochester we met with the Dad of our 13 yr
old investigator and it went really well. He wasn't ready to give
permission yet but it seemed to me that he was totally fine with it as
long as he got to sit down with his son and talk about it one on one
again. So I think it wil be very soon that permission is given and he
is baptized. I am sure I will hear about it soon. I love the
_________ family! I was sad to leave many of the investigators we had
in Rochester but it was for the best.
I feel like I could just ramble for years. Just know that I am having
the time of my life in this last stretch of my mission. I feel so
blessed to be able to work with these people. Hopefully, we can bring
many of them to faith in christ, repentance, and baptism!
Everyone have a glorious week!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
P.S. I did get the package with the pancakes. They are delicious! I
made Elder Shrestha some and he loved them. Feel free to send us
anything that you think Elder Shrestha would find is new and
fascinating. He loves trying new things.
This has been one crazy week! The time has flown by but at the same
time it feels like it has been a century. That is how new transfers
always are. So my new companions name is Elder Shrestha (pronounced
Shrehs-tah). It is so funny to serve with him because he is just in a
whole new world! His story is really quite amazing. There is no
proselyting allowed in Nepal and so the way he became a member was his
Dad took some sort of a business trip to Nepal and miraculously met
the missionaries and was baptized. He returned to his family in Nepal
and eventually over several years, all of his family except for his
wife was baptized as well. His wife knows the church is true and
everything but she is waiting to be baptized till after her parents
giver permission or pass away. It really is quite amazing. And now
Elder Shrestha is here! He is the first missionary from Nepal to ever
serve anywhere in the world other than India. Pretty much all Nepali
missionaries serve in India because they don't need a visa there. The
only way his mission to here in Minnesota is possible is due to the
help of many senior missionary couples that served in Nepal that are
helping him to pay for his mission. Elder Shrestha is very needed
here in St. Paul. There are a lot of Nepali people that are open to
the gospel but have not learned because they can't understand.
It has been a whole new ball game doing missionary work here though.
It is crazy different! We are always on the hunt for where Nepali
people live. Fortunately, there is a Senior Couple here that has also
been assigned to help the Nepali people and they are helping us to
meet all of the people that met with missionaries in the past. I LOVE
NEPALI PEOPLE. They are the most kind, loving people you will meet.
Every door we knock on they meet Elder Shrestha and are amazed he is a
missionary from Nepal and so they let us in and always try to feed us
or give us juice or something. And these people are so poor but they
will give you everything they have. The challenge we are provided
with is Nepal is very similar to India and so everyone is deeply
rooted in the Hindu faith and they really know nothing about God our
Heavenly Father. So we have to start from square one. It is a neat
experience to teach these people the Gospel because the spirit is
always so strong in the lessons. But we have a lot of work to do.
Another new thing to me is we are 100% on bikes. That has been fun!
Now I feel like a real missionary when I'm only riding around on a bike.
Funny Story! A member took us out to dinner and he took us to a
chinese buffet. Elder Shresta had a hay day! HIs first time eating
"Chinese" food and his first time at a buffet. He tried everything
and ate a ton. Ha ha. The blessing of serving with Elder Shrestha is
I am constantly reminded of the blessings we have in this country.
We also had an appointment with two ladies. When we went over to
teach it turns out that one of the ladies daughter was throwing a
birthday celebration for her two kids. Ha ha! So we didn't do much
teaching but we were able to Celebrate the birthday with them and eat
some delicious Nepali food! Ha ha. I don't know what happened on my
mission but just so you know, I now love to eat Pho and Curry. Ha
ha. :) But they made some curry and rice pudding and some other
things for everyone at the celebration and it was really good. But
there was this one dish that was really HOT. Even Elder Shrestha
couldn't finish it! I like Nepali food though. Hopefully, I don't
get fed anything disgusting over the next few weeks/months. But I
guess it would make a good story. Ha ha.
The most difficult thing for me here is trying to teach these people.
President told me to not take extra time to learn the language. But
the problem is once the people learn that Elder Shrestha speaks Nepali
they don't want to talk in English even if they can. So Elder
Shrestha is forced to talk almost the whole time while I sit there
quietly with no idea what is going on. It is kinda hard to teach your
new missionary how to teach powerfully when you don't know what is
going on and can't be the example in lessons. Ug. But that is
alright. We are figuring things out. I am sure he will learn
eventually. I had a bunch of questions for President Clements about
how he wants us to work with these people and he basically told me,
"It's between you and the Lord on this one. I have no idea what to do
either." So I'm kinda winging it. It makes this a great adventure!
By the way, before I left Rochester we met with the Dad of our 13 yr
old investigator and it went really well. He wasn't ready to give
permission yet but it seemed to me that he was totally fine with it as
long as he got to sit down with his son and talk about it one on one
again. So I think it wil be very soon that permission is given and he
is baptized. I am sure I will hear about it soon. I love the
_________ family! I was sad to leave many of the investigators we had
in Rochester but it was for the best.
I feel like I could just ramble for years. Just know that I am having
the time of my life in this last stretch of my mission. I feel so
blessed to be able to work with these people. Hopefully, we can bring
many of them to faith in christ, repentance, and baptism!
Everyone have a glorious week!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
P.S. I did get the package with the pancakes. They are delicious! I
made Elder Shrestha some and he loved them. Feel free to send us
anything that you think Elder Shrestha would find is new and
fascinating. He loves trying new things.
September 24, 2012
September 24, 2012
Hello the fam fam!
I have some crazy news. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY! So let
me begin with a little bit of background info. In the Twin Cities
there are a lot of refugees from other countries. St Paul has a TON
of Asians. There is a Hmong branch and we have several Hmong speaking
missionaries. Hmong people come from China, Thailand, Laos, etc.
They don't have their own country. There is also a group of people
that don't have a country called the Karen people. We have two
missionaries that speak Karen. And there is also a decent population
of people from Nepal.
About a year ago there were several Nepali people baptized and so
President assigned a set of sister missionaries to do almost all
Nepali work. And they kinda learned the language. But a few months
ago we got word that a member in Nepal got his mission call to our
mission and will be assigned to do all Nepali work! So we have been
anticipating the arrival of this Elder for a long time because he is
going to do a lot of good work among these people. So this transfer
is the transfer that he arrives! Very exciting. So then I got a call
from President yesterday and he has assigned me to be his trainer.
Holy Smokes. So basically I'm being transferred to a whole new mission!
I'm super duper excited and even more nervous. It's gonna be a
culture shock! I am not supposed to focus on learning the language
but I'm sure I will learn a lot. I feel like I'm not going to know
what is going on most of the time. I'm just basically supposed to
show the Nepali Elder how to do missionary work and let him dominate!
I am really humbled but excited. This is an incredibly unique
opportunity. This Elder is the first Nepali Elder to ever serve
outside of Nepal or India. The work we do could make a huge impact.
I've been freaking out ever since last night. Just ask Elder Carter.
I'm pretty sure that he thinks I have gone bonkers. Which is
understandable because I have. And the other great thing about this
is I am being released as a Zone Leader and I am not District leader.
No more responsibility when it comes to other missionaries other than
my companion. Yay! That feels nice.
Also, remember how we cover 2 wards over here? Not any more!
President decided to move us to just cover 4th ward and he is sending
down Sisters to cover the 2nd ward. That is another crazy cool move
that I am excited about. Things are just going crazy over here in the
MMM. But I love it. There are going to be a lot of really neat
things happening in this mission over the next little while.
I am sad to be leaving Rochester but it is going to be a really neat
experience to work with the Nepali people. I feel like I am going to
have some crazy stories. I can't wait to tell them! Hopefully,
everyone gets baptized :)
One more cool story. We taught a guy for the 2nd time this week.
This guy just moved here with his family from California. He used to
have the Elders over all the time. And so when we met him he was
pretty excited to have us over. He told us that he won't ever come to
our church but we are always welcome at his house. So we thought,
what the heck, we can give it a try. We taught his family last week
the Restoration and the spirit was super strong. Then when we came
back to teach this week he was totally changed. He was super
repentant and said that he really wants to read and pray because he
might come to our church. That was neat. So the moral of the story
is we need to believe that people really can change. Being a
missionary for so long I have seen so many people harden their hearts
and not change that you start to lose faith in people. But we still
need to believe in every different person that each one of them can
change. Because sometimes they do. Sometimes the spirit touches
peoples hearts. I hope something continues with this guy and he
accepts the fulness of the gospel!
Well life is happy and good. I am nervous and excited. Keep me in
you prayers!
Love you all!
-Elder Ruesch
I have some crazy news. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY! So let
me begin with a little bit of background info. In the Twin Cities
there are a lot of refugees from other countries. St Paul has a TON
of Asians. There is a Hmong branch and we have several Hmong speaking
missionaries. Hmong people come from China, Thailand, Laos, etc.
They don't have their own country. There is also a group of people
that don't have a country called the Karen people. We have two
missionaries that speak Karen. And there is also a decent population
of people from Nepal.
About a year ago there were several Nepali people baptized and so
President assigned a set of sister missionaries to do almost all
Nepali work. And they kinda learned the language. But a few months
ago we got word that a member in Nepal got his mission call to our
mission and will be assigned to do all Nepali work! So we have been
anticipating the arrival of this Elder for a long time because he is
going to do a lot of good work among these people. So this transfer
is the transfer that he arrives! Very exciting. So then I got a call
from President yesterday and he has assigned me to be his trainer.
Holy Smokes. So basically I'm being transferred to a whole new mission!
I'm super duper excited and even more nervous. It's gonna be a
culture shock! I am not supposed to focus on learning the language
but I'm sure I will learn a lot. I feel like I'm not going to know
what is going on most of the time. I'm just basically supposed to
show the Nepali Elder how to do missionary work and let him dominate!
I am really humbled but excited. This is an incredibly unique
opportunity. This Elder is the first Nepali Elder to ever serve
outside of Nepal or India. The work we do could make a huge impact.
I've been freaking out ever since last night. Just ask Elder Carter.
I'm pretty sure that he thinks I have gone bonkers. Which is
understandable because I have. And the other great thing about this
is I am being released as a Zone Leader and I am not District leader.
No more responsibility when it comes to other missionaries other than
my companion. Yay! That feels nice.
Also, remember how we cover 2 wards over here? Not any more!
President decided to move us to just cover 4th ward and he is sending
down Sisters to cover the 2nd ward. That is another crazy cool move
that I am excited about. Things are just going crazy over here in the
MMM. But I love it. There are going to be a lot of really neat
things happening in this mission over the next little while.
I am sad to be leaving Rochester but it is going to be a really neat
experience to work with the Nepali people. I feel like I am going to
have some crazy stories. I can't wait to tell them! Hopefully,
everyone gets baptized :)
One more cool story. We taught a guy for the 2nd time this week.
This guy just moved here with his family from California. He used to
have the Elders over all the time. And so when we met him he was
pretty excited to have us over. He told us that he won't ever come to
our church but we are always welcome at his house. So we thought,
what the heck, we can give it a try. We taught his family last week
the Restoration and the spirit was super strong. Then when we came
back to teach this week he was totally changed. He was super
repentant and said that he really wants to read and pray because he
might come to our church. That was neat. So the moral of the story
is we need to believe that people really can change. Being a
missionary for so long I have seen so many people harden their hearts
and not change that you start to lose faith in people. But we still
need to believe in every different person that each one of them can
change. Because sometimes they do. Sometimes the spirit touches
peoples hearts. I hope something continues with this guy and he
accepts the fulness of the gospel!
Well life is happy and good. I am nervous and excited. Keep me in
you prayers!
Love you all!
-Elder Ruesch
September 19, 2012
September 17, 2012
Hey hey hey!
It has been a good week. Very busy as usual. But I would have it no
other way. Zone conference was great! I felt super boosted in my
faith. We all left glowing! It was especially fun because this time
for zone conferences, President wanted each zone to do a zone
activity. So after the conference we all got a special tour of the
Mayo Clinic. Our Stake President is the Chair of the Radiation-
Oncology department and he gave us the tour. It was awesome. He is
an awesome guy. The Mayo Clinic is super impressive. It is
ENORMOUS! So that was cool. And when we came back we have a nice
barbeque, played some sweet games and finished with ultimate frisbee.
It was really fun to be able to do that with the whole zone.
President and Sister Clements even played the games with us. We did
an egg toss. And we also played a game invented by missionaries
called cracka wacka. You tie saltine crackers to your waist with
fishing line and then run around with rolled up news paper and try to
hit each others crackers. Once your crackers are broken off you are
out. Ha ha! It was hilarious! We had a lot of fun with it. So that
was cool.
Sorry I keep forgetting to update you on our investigator who gave up
coffee. She is doing really well! Making great progress. It is
still slow. But it is amazing compared to her past progress. Some of
the most spirit filled lessons I've been in have been at her house.
She still struggles knowing if the church is true but she is willing
to act to find out. The real problem is she just doesn't sincerely
want to know it is true yet because she doesn't want to live the life
style. So we are inviting her to repent by helping her live the life
style with the hopes that her heart with change and she will see the
blessings of the restored gospel and gain a testimony. She is well
on her way to a testimony.
We had a killer awesome first lesson with a guy in his 20s this week.
It's actually quite the miracle how we found him. We were driving
somewhere to go tract and we made a wrong turn into this hidden street
and so we decided to just stop there and tract. The second door we
knocked on we met this guy who said he always wanted to learn about
the church but never got around to it. He even said that once he
learns what we are about he might join the church. Coolness! So our
first lesson was yesterday and it was really awesome. After sharing
the first vision we pointed out the spirit and recognized he felt it.
It was awesome! So we invited him to be baptized and he told us not
yet but will definitely consider that. We have high hopes for him in
the future!
I am just amazed at the presence of the spirit with us as we are doing
this work. I'm starting to notice it more and more that it is with me
all the time. That is the blessing of the gift of the holy ghost. It
is so powerful to think that God would give us his spirit to be with
us always at all times. That truly is one of the greatest blessings
we can have here on earth. And it makes you happy! I love being happy!
I've been learning a lot about our eternal progression this week. I
have always been an obedient missionary and so it is pretty much just
a habit now. But I'm finding that coming to Christ is much more than
not doing stuff that is against the commandments (and mission rules).
There is a whole new level of things to repent of and that is
developing the christlike attributes. As I watch other missionaries
and especially seasoned powerful members like President Clements or
our Stake President I realized how little charity I have and how I
need to be SO much more humble and the list goes on and on. This life
is definitely a very big learning experience. And I am learning a lot!
Well, I better get running! I can't believe how fast things are
going! Next week I will know if anything is happening for transfers.
I am just blown away at how quick these transfers go.
Love you!
-Elder Ruesch
It has been a good week. Very busy as usual. But I would have it no
other way. Zone conference was great! I felt super boosted in my
faith. We all left glowing! It was especially fun because this time
for zone conferences, President wanted each zone to do a zone
activity. So after the conference we all got a special tour of the
Mayo Clinic. Our Stake President is the Chair of the Radiation-
Oncology department and he gave us the tour. It was awesome. He is
an awesome guy. The Mayo Clinic is super impressive. It is
ENORMOUS! So that was cool. And when we came back we have a nice
barbeque, played some sweet games and finished with ultimate frisbee.
It was really fun to be able to do that with the whole zone.
President and Sister Clements even played the games with us. We did
an egg toss. And we also played a game invented by missionaries
called cracka wacka. You tie saltine crackers to your waist with
fishing line and then run around with rolled up news paper and try to
hit each others crackers. Once your crackers are broken off you are
out. Ha ha! It was hilarious! We had a lot of fun with it. So that
was cool.
Sorry I keep forgetting to update you on our investigator who gave up
coffee. She is doing really well! Making great progress. It is
still slow. But it is amazing compared to her past progress. Some of
the most spirit filled lessons I've been in have been at her house.
She still struggles knowing if the church is true but she is willing
to act to find out. The real problem is she just doesn't sincerely
want to know it is true yet because she doesn't want to live the life
style. So we are inviting her to repent by helping her live the life
style with the hopes that her heart with change and she will see the
blessings of the restored gospel and gain a testimony. She is well
on her way to a testimony.
We had a killer awesome first lesson with a guy in his 20s this week.
It's actually quite the miracle how we found him. We were driving
somewhere to go tract and we made a wrong turn into this hidden street
and so we decided to just stop there and tract. The second door we
knocked on we met this guy who said he always wanted to learn about
the church but never got around to it. He even said that once he
learns what we are about he might join the church. Coolness! So our
first lesson was yesterday and it was really awesome. After sharing
the first vision we pointed out the spirit and recognized he felt it.
It was awesome! So we invited him to be baptized and he told us not
yet but will definitely consider that. We have high hopes for him in
the future!
I am just amazed at the presence of the spirit with us as we are doing
this work. I'm starting to notice it more and more that it is with me
all the time. That is the blessing of the gift of the holy ghost. It
is so powerful to think that God would give us his spirit to be with
us always at all times. That truly is one of the greatest blessings
we can have here on earth. And it makes you happy! I love being happy!
I've been learning a lot about our eternal progression this week. I
have always been an obedient missionary and so it is pretty much just
a habit now. But I'm finding that coming to Christ is much more than
not doing stuff that is against the commandments (and mission rules).
There is a whole new level of things to repent of and that is
developing the christlike attributes. As I watch other missionaries
and especially seasoned powerful members like President Clements or
our Stake President I realized how little charity I have and how I
need to be SO much more humble and the list goes on and on. This life
is definitely a very big learning experience. And I am learning a lot!
Well, I better get running! I can't believe how fast things are
going! Next week I will know if anything is happening for transfers.
I am just blown away at how quick these transfers go.
Love you!
-Elder Ruesch
September 10, 2012
September 10, 2012
Sup!
Fall is beginning. The leaves are already starting to change colors
and falling. And most importantly, the weather is flipping awesome.
It has been perfect this whole week. I definitely would have to say
that fall is for sure my favorite season in Minnesota. Closely
followed by the winter, especially during January and
February...maybe. Ha ha.
So basically, yesterday was the worst day of my life. Why you might
ask? I lost my planner! Ug! It's the most awful thing that can
happen to a missionary except for maybe getting hit by a car. Every
transfer we get a nice 6 week planner that is made for missionaries.
It has places to write our day's activities, our goals, our lesson
plans, and most importantly all the people's contact information that
we meet. My brain is my planner and without it I would not survive.
Seriously. I love that thing! I am seriously tempted to be one of
those nerds and keep using it after I get home :) That's how much I
love these planners. And this is the first time on my mission that I
have lost my planner. I'm pretty sure I set it on top of our car and
then forgot about it and we drove away and it was lost. When we went
back to try and find it, it was no where to be found. Fortunately,
Elder Carter has all the info in his planner that I had in mine. And
least we think so. But still, I am depressed that I lost it. So I
got a new one today to finish the rest of the transfer with.
Other than that awful event, life it pretty good! We were really busy
this week. On Monday night we drove up to Minneapolis for interviews
with President and then on Tuesday we had a meeting for most of the
day. We had to give a 3 hour training on Wednesday and Thursday to
the different districts in the zone and for the rest of Thursday we
spent the day in a city called Winona and worked with those Elders for
the day. That was awesome. I had so much fun! Winona is a weird
city because it is really small but it has at least three colleges in
the town. I felt like I was back in Dinkytown! Oh baby it was the
bomb! We spent all day wandering th Winona State University campus
talking to students and tracting near campus too. We had a lot of
success too! We were able to meet a lot of people that were
interested in learning more. Any missionary that gets to work on a
campus should consider themself VERY lucky. Those were the good ol
days. :)
But I love Rochester too!
So we had a lot of fun working in other places this week. Sadly, our
own area kinda suffered because of it. But we made the most of it! I
got frustrated at several times because we had some killer awesome
appointments set up and most of them fell through. I think that that
was partially because this was the first week of school for everyone
and so it was really busy. There seems to be this pattern recently
where we can find people who are interested or curious in learning
what we believe, but they don't want to change. So many people here
are comfortable and not willing to put themselves through a little
discomfort in exploring something new to find something that is
better. It is so sad to me! Every day we stand at someones door
telling them that we have the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have the key to salvation. And everyday, people tell us they don't
want it. It can be saddening but I've learned to not get discouraged
from it. I am just amazed at the patience that Heavenly Father has in
slowly guiding people to his truth and pulling them back to him. I
don't have that patience. I want everyone to accept this NOW! Ha
ha. I wish it could be that way.
This week we also met a 71 year old lady. We taught her on Saturday
and she came to church the next day! It was neat how the spirit
worked on her in the lesson though. When we met she had a bunch of
questions and so we went through all of those and then we had a
closing prayer. After the closing prayer she definitely felt the
spirit and just totally opened up to us about her family life and the
struggles she is going through. We were able to comfort her and teach
her about the Atonement and how she can find strength and peace in
that. But I was just amazed at how a little touch of the Spirit can
really impact people. And she didn't even know it. When she came to
church she hated sacrament meeting because she was "unimpressed" by
the speakers. ha ha. We fortunately were able to convince her to
stay for the next two hours and she loved Relief Society. Whew.
Hopefully, her heart will open up more to the gospel and we can
continue to teach her. If we do i'm sure i'll have some great stories!
Congrats to MJ on being ordained Elders! I thought it was funny that
no one in their email to me said the Melchizedek Priesthood because
they probably didn't want to take the time to find out how to spell
it. ha ha. But seriously, the Priesthood is SUCH a blessing. As a
missionary you give priesthood blessings ALL THE TIME. It is a real
blessing to the people. So consider yourself fortunate! And use it
well.
Things are delicious here in Rochester. Tomorrow we have Zone
Conference. I'll let you know how it went next week. Have a
wonderful week my lovely family!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
Fall is beginning. The leaves are already starting to change colors
and falling. And most importantly, the weather is flipping awesome.
It has been perfect this whole week. I definitely would have to say
that fall is for sure my favorite season in Minnesota. Closely
followed by the winter, especially during January and
February...maybe. Ha ha.
So basically, yesterday was the worst day of my life. Why you might
ask? I lost my planner! Ug! It's the most awful thing that can
happen to a missionary except for maybe getting hit by a car. Every
transfer we get a nice 6 week planner that is made for missionaries.
It has places to write our day's activities, our goals, our lesson
plans, and most importantly all the people's contact information that
we meet. My brain is my planner and without it I would not survive.
Seriously. I love that thing! I am seriously tempted to be one of
those nerds and keep using it after I get home :) That's how much I
love these planners. And this is the first time on my mission that I
have lost my planner. I'm pretty sure I set it on top of our car and
then forgot about it and we drove away and it was lost. When we went
back to try and find it, it was no where to be found. Fortunately,
Elder Carter has all the info in his planner that I had in mine. And
least we think so. But still, I am depressed that I lost it. So I
got a new one today to finish the rest of the transfer with.
Other than that awful event, life it pretty good! We were really busy
this week. On Monday night we drove up to Minneapolis for interviews
with President and then on Tuesday we had a meeting for most of the
day. We had to give a 3 hour training on Wednesday and Thursday to
the different districts in the zone and for the rest of Thursday we
spent the day in a city called Winona and worked with those Elders for
the day. That was awesome. I had so much fun! Winona is a weird
city because it is really small but it has at least three colleges in
the town. I felt like I was back in Dinkytown! Oh baby it was the
bomb! We spent all day wandering th Winona State University campus
talking to students and tracting near campus too. We had a lot of
success too! We were able to meet a lot of people that were
interested in learning more. Any missionary that gets to work on a
campus should consider themself VERY lucky. Those were the good ol
days. :)
But I love Rochester too!
So we had a lot of fun working in other places this week. Sadly, our
own area kinda suffered because of it. But we made the most of it! I
got frustrated at several times because we had some killer awesome
appointments set up and most of them fell through. I think that that
was partially because this was the first week of school for everyone
and so it was really busy. There seems to be this pattern recently
where we can find people who are interested or curious in learning
what we believe, but they don't want to change. So many people here
are comfortable and not willing to put themselves through a little
discomfort in exploring something new to find something that is
better. It is so sad to me! Every day we stand at someones door
telling them that we have the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have the key to salvation. And everyday, people tell us they don't
want it. It can be saddening but I've learned to not get discouraged
from it. I am just amazed at the patience that Heavenly Father has in
slowly guiding people to his truth and pulling them back to him. I
don't have that patience. I want everyone to accept this NOW! Ha
ha. I wish it could be that way.
This week we also met a 71 year old lady. We taught her on Saturday
and she came to church the next day! It was neat how the spirit
worked on her in the lesson though. When we met she had a bunch of
questions and so we went through all of those and then we had a
closing prayer. After the closing prayer she definitely felt the
spirit and just totally opened up to us about her family life and the
struggles she is going through. We were able to comfort her and teach
her about the Atonement and how she can find strength and peace in
that. But I was just amazed at how a little touch of the Spirit can
really impact people. And she didn't even know it. When she came to
church she hated sacrament meeting because she was "unimpressed" by
the speakers. ha ha. We fortunately were able to convince her to
stay for the next two hours and she loved Relief Society. Whew.
Hopefully, her heart will open up more to the gospel and we can
continue to teach her. If we do i'm sure i'll have some great stories!
Congrats to MJ on being ordained Elders! I thought it was funny that
no one in their email to me said the Melchizedek Priesthood because
they probably didn't want to take the time to find out how to spell
it. ha ha. But seriously, the Priesthood is SUCH a blessing. As a
missionary you give priesthood blessings ALL THE TIME. It is a real
blessing to the people. So consider yourself fortunate! And use it
well.
Things are delicious here in Rochester. Tomorrow we have Zone
Conference. I'll let you know how it went next week. Have a
wonderful week my lovely family!
Love,
Elder Ruesch
September 3, 2012
September 3, 2012
Hi Family!
It's been another busy week in Rochester, Minnesota. But it was good!
We took another trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin this week. We were there
on Tuesday and Wednesday and spent each day with a set of missionaries
there. One of the missionaries there is brand new from the MTC and he
is awesome! Now that I am an old fogie of a missionary, I LOVE
working with new missionaries because they have so much faith and
fire. It is really inspiring. So it was great to spend the day with
him! La Crosse is a weird city. I like it but it is odd. They used
to be in the Guinness book of world records for the most bars per
captia in the world. Ha ha. I may have already told you that. They
also have the worlds largest 6 pack of beer. I have a picture of it.
But it is huge! And it smells gross. So needless to say, people in
La Crosse are weird. But that's okay! Weird people need the gospel
too.
We were able to have one last lesson on Monday night with our Nigerian
friend before she left for Nigeria. She is AMAZING! We went over the
baptismal interview questions with her and she is 100% ready to be
baptized. Sadly she is now in Nigeria. It will be a good thing
though because now she can introduce the church to her family and
maybe she will be baptized while she is there. I think that she
will. So that will be neat to hear about! I will say though, I don't
know what church she goes to in Nigeria but it is pretty much true,
except for the Priesthood Authority. But seriously, when we taught
about tithing, we asked if she knew what it was and she said, "Do you
pay 10% of your income? That's what we do in Nigeria." Same thing
when we taught the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. But she was
pretty much living all of the commandments already! It was
incredible. No wonder she so easily accepted the fulness of the
gospel, she was so close already. Super prepared. And her faith is
inspiring. I was always ready to move a mountain everytime we left
her house after a lesson. Being a missionary = the bomb.
We are also super excited about two YSA girls that we taught. We met
one of them while tracting and when we came back for the appointment,
her roomate joined in. We also brought two YSA members with us and
the lesson went really well. I love the feeling you have after
teaching the Restoration clearly. The spirit is SUPER strong. I
don't know how anyone couldn't feel it. We will be going back to
teach them again on Wednesday. We are excited! It's time for another
baptism in Rochester!
Elder Carter and I have to drive up to Minneapolis today. We have a
meeting tomorrow and interviews with President tonight. That will be
fun! I always feel super pumped after meetings. And it is also way
fun to see other missionaries, especially old companions. Party!
Also, the 2nd ward is having a Labor Day picnic! That will be fun.
And a lot of members are bringing their non member friends. SO maybe
we will find a new person to teach today from the picnic. That would
be delightful.
Life as a missionary is the best. I am learning so much everyday.
Being an older missionary has some perks. The biggest thing is it has
given me a ton of perspective as to how the Lord works. He really
does work by small and simple means to bring about great things. I
got a call from the Elders in Dinkytown and they told me that they
started teaching a guy again that I taught there and they set a date
for him to be baptized next month. He was the guy from India if you
remember who was just amazing. He was super prepared and ready to
join the church and then randomly he disappeared. I thought it was
just some sick joke or something. But it turns out he had some
emergency and had to fly back to India without letting us know. But I
was thinking about him a few weeks ago and so I called the Dinkytown
Elders and told them to call him. So they did and he answered! They
finally met with him last week and he is on a straight course to make
a covenant with God. That was a neat experience for me and a total
example of the promptings of the spirit. If he does get baptized, he
will be the 3rd person that got baptized in Dinkytown that I was able
to help teach but got baptized after I left. It is so neat! It helps
me realize that I am a part of something much bigger than I think.
God really is in charge and it is such a blessing to be a tool in his
hands to help move his work forward. I love being a missionary.
Sorry mom but I don't think I am going to come home. I'm just going
to stay a missionary forever.
Hope that you all have a Happy Labor Day! Thanks for the pictures.
Love you!
Elder Ruesch
It's been another busy week in Rochester, Minnesota. But it was good!
We took another trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin this week. We were there
on Tuesday and Wednesday and spent each day with a set of missionaries
there. One of the missionaries there is brand new from the MTC and he
is awesome! Now that I am an old fogie of a missionary, I LOVE
working with new missionaries because they have so much faith and
fire. It is really inspiring. So it was great to spend the day with
him! La Crosse is a weird city. I like it but it is odd. They used
to be in the Guinness book of world records for the most bars per
captia in the world. Ha ha. I may have already told you that. They
also have the worlds largest 6 pack of beer. I have a picture of it.
But it is huge! And it smells gross. So needless to say, people in
La Crosse are weird. But that's okay! Weird people need the gospel
too.
We were able to have one last lesson on Monday night with our Nigerian
friend before she left for Nigeria. She is AMAZING! We went over the
baptismal interview questions with her and she is 100% ready to be
baptized. Sadly she is now in Nigeria. It will be a good thing
though because now she can introduce the church to her family and
maybe she will be baptized while she is there. I think that she
will. So that will be neat to hear about! I will say though, I don't
know what church she goes to in Nigeria but it is pretty much true,
except for the Priesthood Authority. But seriously, when we taught
about tithing, we asked if she knew what it was and she said, "Do you
pay 10% of your income? That's what we do in Nigeria." Same thing
when we taught the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. But she was
pretty much living all of the commandments already! It was
incredible. No wonder she so easily accepted the fulness of the
gospel, she was so close already. Super prepared. And her faith is
inspiring. I was always ready to move a mountain everytime we left
her house after a lesson. Being a missionary = the bomb.
We are also super excited about two YSA girls that we taught. We met
one of them while tracting and when we came back for the appointment,
her roomate joined in. We also brought two YSA members with us and
the lesson went really well. I love the feeling you have after
teaching the Restoration clearly. The spirit is SUPER strong. I
don't know how anyone couldn't feel it. We will be going back to
teach them again on Wednesday. We are excited! It's time for another
baptism in Rochester!
Elder Carter and I have to drive up to Minneapolis today. We have a
meeting tomorrow and interviews with President tonight. That will be
fun! I always feel super pumped after meetings. And it is also way
fun to see other missionaries, especially old companions. Party!
Also, the 2nd ward is having a Labor Day picnic! That will be fun.
And a lot of members are bringing their non member friends. SO maybe
we will find a new person to teach today from the picnic. That would
be delightful.
Life as a missionary is the best. I am learning so much everyday.
Being an older missionary has some perks. The biggest thing is it has
given me a ton of perspective as to how the Lord works. He really
does work by small and simple means to bring about great things. I
got a call from the Elders in Dinkytown and they told me that they
started teaching a guy again that I taught there and they set a date
for him to be baptized next month. He was the guy from India if you
remember who was just amazing. He was super prepared and ready to
join the church and then randomly he disappeared. I thought it was
just some sick joke or something. But it turns out he had some
emergency and had to fly back to India without letting us know. But I
was thinking about him a few weeks ago and so I called the Dinkytown
Elders and told them to call him. So they did and he answered! They
finally met with him last week and he is on a straight course to make
a covenant with God. That was a neat experience for me and a total
example of the promptings of the spirit. If he does get baptized, he
will be the 3rd person that got baptized in Dinkytown that I was able
to help teach but got baptized after I left. It is so neat! It helps
me realize that I am a part of something much bigger than I think.
God really is in charge and it is such a blessing to be a tool in his
hands to help move his work forward. I love being a missionary.
Sorry mom but I don't think I am going to come home. I'm just going
to stay a missionary forever.
Hope that you all have a Happy Labor Day! Thanks for the pictures.
Love you!
Elder Ruesch
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)