December 17, 2012

Mero Paribar (my family),

WHEW!!!!  It happened!  All week I thought that I was for sure getting transferred.  In fact, on Saturday President called and he said he thought he would transfer me but he was really struggling about who should be Elder Shrestha's new companion and asked for who I thought might be good.  After that I thought I for sure was being transferred.  And then last night President called and said he still has no idea who should take my place and asked if we would be okay to stay together in the Nepali work.  And of course I was like HECK YES!!!!  And now it is official.  I will be spending my final transfer here in the North St Paul ward with Elder Shrestha doing the Nepali work.  I am super excited!  This is kinda crazy because Elder Shrestha is now my longest companion!  I am soooooo happy!  And I will be staying here for Christmas.  Yay!

Our whole district stayed the same except Elder Mumford is being transferred to Dinkytown!  That was cool too.  And the funny thing is his companion is Elder Checketts.  Ha ha!  So my two zone leaders are previous companions of mine and all three of us will have now served together in the Dinkytown ward.  Ha ha.  I think it is so funny how things work out that way.  By the way, Elder Mumford and I have been making some plans next year and we think that we will room together at Utah State.  I am super pumped about that!  But enough of that.

When it comes to teaching lessons, this week has been pretty slow.  But we had a lot of other cool things happen this week.  We had a Zone Christmas conference and that was a lot of fun.  We got some training and other things but then we played games and watched a movie.  Guess what movie we watched?  October Sky!  I feel like it was meant just for me!!  Ha ha.  It was really random that we watched that at Christmas time but I loved it!

We also gave out all of the gifts you sent us.  We added some pillow cases to them that someone else sent the baxters and we went to everyone giving them the gift and showing the picture of you guys so that they saw who the gift came from.  And then we left by singing We wish you a merry Christmas.  I think a lot of the Nepali people were confused because they don't know how the Christmas thing worked.  But they all seemed to really love the gifts.  Hopefully they felt the Christmas Spirit!  Thanks SOOOO much for sending those gifts!  It was amazing!  I love Christmas.  We're going to be spending a lot of time visiting people and teaching them about the true meaning of Christmas.  I am excited about it.  I LOVE Christmas time.  There is so much happiness to share!

Things with our friend who wants to be baptized are going good.  He is moving along well.  It is looking like we are going to push his baptismal date back a few weeks because he isn't quite ready.  But he will get there.  We have all the time in the world.  Sorta.  Ha ha.  I'm sure he'll be baptized before I go home.  Hopefully, as well as many other people!

I was just sitting there pondering last night thinking about my mission and Holy Smokes I have been so blessed.  I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had.  I have been able to serve in really unique areas and had a huge range of wonderful experiences.  And I have had wonderful companions too!  I have been so blessed.  I love my mission.  I am going to make these last 6 weeks count!

I don't really know what else to say.  I will talk to you in a week!  Merry Christmas!  Oh and I love the notes that I am reading everyday and the 12 days of Christmas are so fun!  Thanks family!  Elder Shrestha and I are having a fantastic Christmas.  I told this to mom already but because of the time difference to Nepal, Elder Shrestha has to do his call in the morning on Christmas.  So I will be skyping with you at 8 in the morning Minnesota time.  Sorry it is so early.  But hey, I will see you in a month.  Ha.

Love,

Elder Ruesch

December 10, 2012

Hi!

Minnesota really exists!  It really is awesome!  Yesterday is snowed all day long.  It was amazing!  We woke up today with more than a foot of snow.  Unfortunately, that made yesterday a crazy day.  The snow caused the mission to do something we call "ground" the cars meaning no missionary is allowed to drive a mission car.  If we want to go anywhere we have to ride with members.  So we had a lot of hectic stuff but it worked out okay.  The other funny thing is the whole mission set a goal for every team to have 3 investigators at church.  We had all sorts of faith to see it happen.  And then it just so happened that the huge storm came on the Sunday we set the goal.  Ha ha.  There must be opposition in all things right?

We had a miracle this week!  I mentioned the 20 year old kid that is taking care of his grandparents last week.   This week we stopped by him to see how he was doing.  And he surprised us and told us he wants to be baptized!  That was pretty awesome.  We have some concerns however, he does have a sincere desire to follow Christ.  We'll just make sure he is converted before the baptism happens.  We set the date with him for Dec 29th!

The ward had their Christmas Party this week and it was super awesome!  We had almost 30 Nepali people come to the party.  Ha ha.  And only one of them was a member.  That was really cool.  I love the Nepali people!  They love parties.  But they came and tried all sorts of food that they have never had and then watched us sing Christmas carols they never have heard.  And they still had fun.  That was super legit!

The ward itself had two baptisms this week.  The English Elders had a baptism and the Karen Elders had a baptism.  All in all it was just a great week!

I can't believe how fast things are going.  By next week I will know if I am being transferred or not.  And oddly enough I think that I will be.  I have taught Elder Shrestha everything I know and now I think it is time for him to grow from another companion.  That means I might spend my last transfer in a new area.  Ha ha.  We'll see what happens.

We spent all morning after study sledding and fighting in the snow.  It was so fun!  Elder Shrestha's first time sledding.  It has been a glorious day.  I love winter!

Well I need to run.  Have a wonderful life my family!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

December 3, 2012

Hello!

From what it sounds, weather in Utah is too warm for winter.  It is the same here!  I am upset!  Minnesota missionaries are supposed to be tough.  But it's too warm to be tough!  Ha ha.  I just really want snow.  Even Elder Shrestha who hates cold said that he really wants there to be lots of snow.  So lets hope things change and we get a lot of snow!

This week has been great!  We had a lot of really awesome stuff happen.  I saw the boxes of coats that mom sent to the Baxters and it was great to see a lot of that stuff go to the people who needed it.  It was crazy though because I saw MJ's old coat and one of Dad's suepr old coats.  ha ha!  We got a picture of me wearing Dad's old coat and Mom's scarf.  I thought it was really funny.  But believe me, the items were put to good use!  There are a lot of people in need here.  But if the winter stays the way it has been going we wont need coats!  I am excited to give out the little gift bags that you sent too.  Thanks again!

We have a really big group of people that we are teaching and I want to tell you about each one of them because they all have a unique story but there isn't the time!  I need faster fingers.  One of the awesome events this week was we taught a really awesome family about the temple.  It was actually the people that had us over for the festival that put the Tika on our heads.  We taught them about it and then took them to go see the temple on Saturday.  It was really nice.  There is a member of our ward who is a temple sealer and he used to be the temple president and he helped to show this family around the temple and help explain about it.  They loved it.  This family is so special!  I just wish they would get baptized!  I hate patience.

Everyone has family concerns!  This week we invited another lady to be baptized and of course she said that her parents forbid her to do it.  Even though these people are grown and have families of their own, they still refuse to go against the things their parents tell them.  It is a good thing but also can be a bad thing too.  Most of these people aren't willing to choose baptism over family.  Or they are just patient enough to wait until their parents pass away.  The family values of the Nepali are amazing and the strong force it has is really good.  But it holds up a lot of people when it comes to converting.

The Christmas Devotional was excellent.  I enjoyed it a lot.  We took the Adam's family to watch it at the stake center.   This will be a lot of families first Christmas in America, including the Adam's.  So we want to help all of them have a wonderful experience.  I am also really excited to teach people about the true meaning of Christmas, because I don't think that they understand it at all.  That will be really fun!  December is the best!

We are teaching this one young fellow.  He is about 20.  His story is so sad!  His parents birthed him and then seperated and each got remarried.  So he was raised by his grandparents.  Well now he and his Grandparents are here and his Grandparents are super old so he is their caretaker.  He is so busy with that that he can't go to school or get a job or anything.  And he just feels alone.  His parents abandoned him and he has no siblings.  The only close family are his grandparents.  So he opened up to us this week and talked about how lonely he feels.  Isn't it amazing how the Gospel helps anything?  We were able to testify of God's love and the peace the gospel brings.  He's got plenty of sad trials to endure but he can do it.  I hope we can be a help.  He has latched on to Elder Shrestha.  Everyone has.  They all love him!  I'm just kinda the white kid who follows him around and eats food.  Ha ha.  It's great.

Well Merry December!  I look forward to telling you more of our Christmas adventures.

Love,

Elder Ruesch

November 19, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Happy Thanksgiving again.  It was a most excellent holiday this year.  We had a blast.  Our Preparation day was changed to Thursday and so our Zone Leaders organized a Turkey bowl!  It was awesome.  So the whole zone was there and we played some football and soccer (the real football).  It was a blast!  Fortunately, I did not break my foot :)  But it was a really good work out and the next two days Elder Shrestha and I woke up SUPER sore.  It hurt.  But it was still worth it.  Elder Shrestha was hilarious playing American Football because he had no idea what was going on or how to play so he just ran around like a chicken with his head cut off letting people push him around.  Ha ha.  It was so funny.  He did a lot better when we pulled out the soccer ball.  Just like a true Asian!

 

After the games we went to a family in the ward for Elder Shrestha's first Thanksgiving dinner.  And it was delicious!  We had all of the classic foods.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and most importantly pie!  It was great.  Fortunately, none of the Nepali care about American holidays at all and so when 6 o'clock hit and it was time to go back to work, none of the Nepali cared at all that we were visiting their home.  They thought it was just a normal day.  Ha ha.

 

So thanksgiving was successful again!  I love that holiday.  And it sounds like it was successful for you guys too!  I'm really glad that Aiko got to come over for the holiday.  I hope she had a good time!  And that service project you did is going to be amazing!  These people really need it.  It will be wonderful to give those gifts out for Christmas.  Thank you all SOOOOOO much!  Sister Baxter told me she got 5 boxes of supplies.  That is amazing!  Thanks again.

 

We got our first decent snow fall this week.  Thanksgiving morning was amazing for weather.  It was over 50 degrees.  But when evening came the weather randomly dropped over 20 degrees and started snowing.  Serving in this area has been full of firsts and it is so fun.  This was Elder Shrestha's first snow fall!  I don't think he was that excited though because he didn't realize that snow also means cold.  He is doing good though.  I've been impressed by how quickly he has adapted to the cold.

 

We had the coolest event this week!  There is a family in the ward that has friends in another ward that are Indian and they are solid members of the church.  So this family in the ward hosted their Indian friends and we also brought an army of Nepali people.  We brought almost 20 Nepali people.  And we had a really nice time having dinner with all sorts of excellent Indian/Nepali foods and mingling with each other.  Afterwards this Indian couple gave a little devotional connecting the festival of lights that we had a few weeks ago to the light of christ.  It was a really nice thing and all of the Nepali people had a great time.  It was a good way to help some of these people see that you don't have to be Hindu forever.

 

This work is so weird!  We have soooooo many people that we teach.  Some are more regular than others.  But for so many of them, baptism seems like it is eons away.  They are all interested in the gospel but the hard part is helping them to experience conversion.  And getting these people to commit to anything is really hard.  We had another army of 12 people come to church. So clearly people are interested but I am still unsure what the next step is to helping these people move from interested to converted.  Any thoughts?  It's going to be a long process I think.

 

I'm excited for Christmas time!  We have a lot of super great activities ahead.  I am worried that the time is going to go too fast.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Ruesch

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November 19, 2012

Hi!

Well I'm pretty sure that little Millie is the cutest little baby that has ever lived.  Thanks for the pictures of Jen's late Birthday party.  Happy Late birthday Jen!

President Clements sent us a cool video about the Mormon Helping Hands getting to work after hurricane Sandy.  It was pretty cool.  You should watch it too:  http://vimeo.com/53357089?action=share&fb_source=feed&ref=feed&refid=8&_ft_=qid.5810285575497751782%3Amf_story_key.546484545365183 I was secretly looking for Timmy the whole time.  Ha ha.  But President sent it to us so we can share it with investigators.  We sure are part of an amazing group of believers in Christ.

I can't believe that Thanksgiving time is already here.  I'm just going to explode soon because time goes by at the speed of light!  But anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Who is coming to Thanksgiving this year?  Ruesch or Anderson?  Either way I hope you all have lots of fun and eat at least two whole pies by yourself.  For a while there this morning I had Elder Shrestha convinced that the Thanksgiving tradition was that every person get's their own turkey and they had to eat it themselves over the next several weeks.  I probably shouldn't play with his ignorance to American tradition but it was irresistible.  Don't worry, I told him the truth shortly after.  Anyway, for this Thanksgiving we have a super awesome family that invited us over.  Our P-Day was actually changed to Thursday but President wanted us all to still do our emailing today.  It's kinda different in the Nepali work though because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  I think some of them are going to attempt to cook a turkey for the first time but no one knows how to use their oven since they don't have ovens in Nepal.  It will be funny to see how their turkey's turn out.  Ha ha.  And I will make sure to eat a huge meal at the families home that invited us over.  From what I heard there was somewhat of a battle for who was going to have the missionaries over for Thanksgiving during Relief Society today.  Which is funny because there are 4 sets of us and so there are plenty of missionaries to go to various homes.  I guess everyone wanted the missionaries to come!  We are popular!

This week was crazy.  I have too many things to share!  The festival of lights was this week.  It is called Dewali.  And it was super awesome!!!  Except the 7 meals was not awesome.  We didn't realize everyone was going to want to feed us so we ate lunch before we left the apartment that morning and little did we know we would be eating 5 more times that day!  We weren't even intending on visiting several people but they saw us and called us over to their apartment just so that they could throw a plate of rice and meat and break-like stuff in front of us.  Geepers.  I was way too fat and full by the end of the day.  Elder Shrestha actually threw up a little bit halfway through the day.  He he.  It was hilarious.

I'm glad that Sister Baxter sent you the pictures.  She is so awesome.  I guess this festival is about a celebration between the relationship of the sister and the brother in the family.  So a family that we are close to invited us over that evening and the two sisters in the family put Tika on us and the Baxters forehead.  It was just some paint stuff this time and I guess it comes with many blessings.  After that we went to another apartment and a bunch of kids were doing this traditional dance.  It was super cool!  I think I am a Nepali-American now.  Awesome!  I think that Dewali is pretty much equivalent to our Christmas.  So serving in this area I get two Christmas' this year!  Score!

Unfortunately, due to the festival, missionary work was not up to full speed.  We had ZERO investigators come to church.  It was awful.  I never thought I would see the day.  I don't know what was going on!  We even had some people tell us that they were coming that morning but when we went to pick them up they backed out.  Oh well.  Next week will be back to normal.

We had some other crazy experiences too.  There are two young fellows that we visit that are totally ready to be baptized but their family is holding them back.  After one lesson with one of the guys, his mom came barging in right as we had finished the lesson and got SUPER mad at us.  She told us to stop trying to make her son believe our teachings and to not take her son away from her.  It was totally unexpected too because we love his mom!  We thought we were good friends.  And the Baxters do a lot of service for them so I don't know what the deal was.  But it sure is scary to have someone yelling and by their face you can tell they are mad but you can't understand a single word they say.  I definitely knew I needed to keep my mouth shut and leave.  Ha ha.  Family opposition is the main thing holding back almost all of the people we teach.  It is a really strong force.  And we don't quite know how to overcome it.

Well, I need to go.  Time to preach!  Here are a few things i am grateful for:  My family, my mission, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Restoration, the cutest niece in the world, the chance to live in America, the internet, mail!, excellent ties, great friends, and the list goes on and on.  Happy week of being SUPER grateful!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

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November 12, 2012

The fam fam!

I'm basically fluent in Nepali now. Not! I still know nothing. But
that's okay. It's not necessary. I will say I am getting pretty good
at Elder Ruesch's version of sign language. The Nepali tend to
understand pretty well.

This last week was great. Elder Shrestha was a trooper! He was
feeling sick and had a small fever one day. So we took it a little
slower but we still went out to work and had several appointments and
he toughed through it. One of my favorite parts of being with a new
missionary is being able to watch the rapid growth that occurs in them
at the beginning of their mission. Elder Shrestha is really starting
to become a powerful missionary. He learns quickly! It's been awesome.
Saturday was delicious! It was 60 degrees! It was amazing. And then
the next day it dropped to 30 and we had freezing cold rain. This
morning we woke up to a tiny bit of snow. We haven't gotten a
substantial amount yet! I think you guys have gotten more snow than
we have. Oh well, I have a feeling that this winter is going to be a
doosey. And we are on bikes!

I can't believe Thayne is home! Thanks for giving him a hug for me.
I got a letter from Lauren and Mandy and both of their mission papers
are in. It is crazy how much life is changing right now. It's
freaking me out!

Guess how many investigators came to church? 12! That was really
neat. I wish that we could have all of those people come
consistently. That is the struggle that we are running into is
getting these people to become consistent. Since there are 3 sets of
Elders in this ward, we had more than 20 investigators at church all
together. This is such a cool ward. There is always so much stuff
happening.

We ran into a very interesting struggle with the ____________ family
this week. Another church chose them as the family that they wanted
to sponsor which means that for 4 years they will pay for this
family's rent and insurance and everything like that if they need it.
It is really neat that they are doing that. But of course they want
the family to come to their church. Ha ha. So this family is kinda
freaking out because they felt pulled between two churches. Oh boy.
It was interesting. And of course we want them to have that
sponsorship. That is an amazing service that the other church is
doing for them. But we want them to find the fulness of the gospel
too. And of course we don't want to compete with other churches for
people to come. That is just dumb. So we went over and had a great
lesson with them where we reviewed the Restoration and the family
seemed to really understand it this time. So the plan is they want to
go to both churches as much as possible.

This is definitely the most unique opposition I've seen an
investigator have to face on my mission but it seems to be totally
within the plan. I am interested to see what the family observes as
they go to both churches. They will clearly see a difference in the
spirit. If they go through the next few months with the right
attitude it may be a huge testimony builder. Something I have learned
hard core on my mission: You can never ever ever progress in the
Gospel without opposition. Period. It is not a matter of if the
opposition comes, it is a matter of when. So be aware! And the
opposition comes in many different ways.

This week is going to be awesome. We have a member of the 70 coming
to our mission. Elder Gaverret. It is going to be super great! I am
really excited!

In the last transfer we went through a ton of Nepali people. We are
going to have met every single Nepali person in Minnesota within a few
months and ask if they are interested if we keep going at this pace.
Ha ha. But the rate at which we are finding new people is slowing
down because we have a lot more people to teach now. Things are
moving along really well. I am coming to realize that this is going
to be a much longer process than I was hoping. These people all have
a long process before they can truly understand the gospel. But
things are moving along slowly. Someday there will be the St. Paul
Nepali branch. Someday SOON!

Well, I need to run. Happy Veterans Day everyone! Thank you to the
people who have fought in the military for our freedom.

Love,

Elder Ruesch

November 5, 2012

Hello!

Sounds like it was a nice weekend in the family. Except that stinks
that Jen got sick! Speaking of Jen, the pictures of little Emilia are
the cutest things I've ever seen! Time just flies at rocket speed.
We're in November! I get a letter from the Vances every once in a
while and Sister Vance said that they have Carson's flight plans home
already. That is crazy! By the way, Mom could you tell them thank
you for all the letters they send me. They are awesome!

And Thayne is home! Give him a big hug for me.

Moving on. Halloween was interesting. The Nepali people kinda
celebrated it. It didn't hinder us visiting people too much. But it
was funny to see little kids running around in the apartment buildings
trying to get candy from the homes that knew what was going on. They
all had excellent costumes. Our Halloween was definitely not as warm
as yours but it was still pretty nice. Elder Shrestha thinks it is
freezing here and I think the weather has been really great all week.
He's going to be so tough by the time next winter rolls around. Ha ha.

We get fed a lot. But I love it. For the most part the Nepali make
really delicious food. And they eat with their hands and so that is
really fun. It's like being a kid again! For living his whole life
in Nepal, I am surprised at how good Elder Shrestha is at using a
fork. I don't really get where he learned that. My next goal is to
teach him how to use chop sticks.

We've been busy this week and it was great. The Assistants are
supposed to do an exchange with all of the new missionaries so we went
to Bloomington one day and spent the day with the AP's. That was
fun! Lots of good learning opportunities. The thing that I hate
about being an old missionary is I keep learning so many things that I
need to improve on! You'd think that by the time you finish the 2
years you would be like Mary Poppins who is practically perfect in
every way. But it's a lie. And it's frustrating because I wish I
knew back in the day what I know now! Ridiculous! Oh well. Life
goes on.

Holy cow we met the coolest family this week. They are Nepali but it
was a young couple who has been in America for about 4 years now and
they spoke great English and were in college! They were going
places. The wife was super interested and was asking a ton of
questions about Christ. So we had a great time meeting with them.
Unfortunately, they were so busy they didn't want to meet again until
mid December! The only problem is this time their "busy" excuse was
actually kinda legit. Don't you hate that? It was a miracle that we
found them though and so we are excited to teach them in December.

Finding Nepali families to teach is always an adventure. Elder
Shrestha and I have mastered the technique of getting into Lock-out
apartment buildings. Then we will go over to the Mailbox area and
look at the names of the people listed on the mail box. If any look
Nepali we will go knock on their door. The incredible thing is that
when they open the door, all we have to say is "Namaste!" (hello) and
they let us right in. They don't even know who we are and they let us
in. I love it! These people are so gracious and welcoming.

Cool story. The Baxters were teaching a family English and the son
pulled Elder Baxter to the side to talk to him. The son is about
25ish I think. Anyway, he is a cool guy and he told Elder Baxter that
he had a dream that God told him that he needed to "join the Kingdom
of God" and asked what he needed to do. That was really surprising to
Elder Baxter. But he explained we need to teach him more and he needs
to be baptized. Miracles are everywhere. God watches out for his
people.

Oh by the way! transfer calls were today and Elder Shrestha and I are
both staying here in Nepali land as expected. Thank goodness! I
would have been upset if I had to leave. I would like to tarry here a
while. Perhaps till the day I die.
We taught the Adams Family the Plan of Salvation this week and I
didn't fully anticipate how difficult it would be. The story of Adam
and Eve really does sound odd until you give it more perspective of
that is why we need Jesus Christ. It actually was a powerful
experience teaching them the Fall because I think it really opened up
their eyes just a little more to why they need Christ. A lot of these
people are very interested in Jesus Christ but they really have no
idea at all why we need him or how he helps us. It is really
interesting. It is a special experience for me to be able to open
these people's eyes up to the most powerful and most important
doctrine in the whole world. That is the doctrine of the Atonement.
Pretty amazing. But you really do need to start from square one which
definitely has it's challenges! It's great though.

We have a huge pool of people that we are teaching regularly and
irregularly but not many are progressing very quickly. I'm learning
that this is going to be a long process. Elder Shrestha has 2
years! :) Well, Nepal is awesome. I am really excited to see what
happens tomorrow with the election. I sent my ballot in a week ago.
Thanks parents for the help!
Don't get too warm!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

October 29, 2012

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 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.

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