January 28, 2013

Holy Smokes!  I can't believe the day is fast approaching!  Pretty soon I will have to be responsible again!  Yuck.

I've been feeling all sorts of crazy emotions this week sad, happy, excited, nervous, and everything in between.  It has been a fun ride here in Minnesota.  I am happy to say that I gave the Lord my all.  I did my very best and although I made many mistakes, I have no regrets.  That is a great blessing to me.  I have sure learned a lot!  Serving the Lord as a full-time missionary has been the most valuable experience of my life.  I've never worked harder and I've never been happier.

Here are some of the most important things that I have learned (there are many more too):

-What it means to trust in God.
-Heavenly Father LOVES His children and is aware of them.
-God requires us to sacrifice all things to Him, and then he makes our life better than we ever could have on our own.
-The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to be happy.
-God keeps his promises.
-This is truly the Lord's Church and His work.
-Other than God, family is the most important!

Thank you to everyone that has been supporting me throughout these last two years.  I really appreciate your love.

This morning we got the call about transfers and guess who is coming to be with Elder Shrestha?  Elder Mumford!  Ha ha.  I think that is so funny!  So he will be taking my place when I leave.  He will do awesome.  He and Elder Shrestha are going to have so much fun!

Yesterday we went around to people and said goodbye and it was so sad!!  Ha ha.  One amazing lady had made a wonderful scarf for me.  And they all asked me when I will be coming back.  It makes me want to come back next week!  I am going to miss this place.  I love Minnesota.  The way I feel about Minnesota is explained very well in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 18:30:

30 And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

The people who were taught be Alma and baptized in the Waters of Mormon came to know the place of Mormon as a beautiful place because it is where they came to the knowlege of their redeemer.  My feelings are the same about Minnesota.  It is a beautiful place.

One other cool thing was we had an exhange with the Zone Leaders this week and so I got the chance to spend a day in Dinkytown one last time.  That was super great.  And we had an amazing day!  We taught several lessons to some solid investigators.  And a member brought her friend to dinner with her and we were able to teach him too!  That was sweet. Dinkytown is the BOMB!

Well tonight will be my last night proselyting.  Tomorrow morning I go to the Mission Home for my final interview and all the going home missionaries go to the temple with President and Sister Clements and then we spend the night in the Assistant's apartment and we fly out the next morning.  I get to see Elder Last again!  He goes home with me too.  As does Elder Hatch (of course) who was my MTC companion.  I am excited to see them again.

See you on Wednesday!  Have a wonderful couple of days!

Love you all!

-Elder Ruesch

January 21, 2012

Woo! It is cold outside. It sounds like Utah has been way more manly than Minnesota recently, but Minnesota is starting to show it's true self now. I think it is -4 degrees outside with like a -20 windchill. It is the wind that is the killer! On friday we had winds up to 30 miles per hour. COLD! But it is awesome. Fortunately, we aren't always on the bikes. Members drive us around to appointments often so we aren't always biking in the cold. Thank goodness!

This week was funny. We had interviews with President Clements on Thursday. My interview was a total of 45 seconds. He pretty much said, well I'll be seeing you in two weeks! Ha ha. Ridiculous. But it was funny. The real interview is coming soon. Ha ha.

The work has been getting really interesting lately. There are only about 1000 Nepali Refugees in Minnesota and so you can imagine that at some point we would run out of people. Well, that is kinda happening now. We know so many of the people in this population. And the funny thing is that this isn't like working with Americans, so even if we talk to a family that isn't interested they still invite us inside and feed us and get to know us. So we've gotten to know a lot of people. I've been keeping a good record of everyone we met though because a lot of the people that aren't interested now will be interested in the future. And when you only have 1000 people to work with you have to keep going back to the same people eventually. Ha ha. Needless to say, we have had to be pretty creative in how we use our time when we don't have appointments. It's been fun.

When you come on a mission the analogy is that you are "born" and so your trainer is your mission "father." Well, in the opposite sense, the day of my "death" is quickly approaching. And with that day approaching everyone around me has been making WAY to many jokes. It's funny but a little old too. Ha. Yesterday all the members in our missionary coordination went off on these jokes about marriage to me. Oh goodness. The good news is that I'm starting to accept the fact that I am leaving and am getting a little more excited to start a new life chapter. It's hard to go when you have put so much of your heart into this work here for two years. But I know that it's the time so things will be fine.

Yesterday we took an investigator to a fireside. The fireside was amazing and our investigator loved it. It was a little tender mercy for me because there were a lot of people there and I was able to see people I met in every area I have served in. I met people from Plymouth, Dinkytown, and even Rochester. It was nice to be able to say goodbye. And I realized then that I shouldn't be sad about leaving but I should be happy about all of the amazing experiences I have been able to have. And celebrate that! It was a nice moment for me. Missions are a happy thing! So it was a nice revelation.

I need to skidoodle. I'm seeing you soon enough anyway. I am excited to make this week an amazing week! Hopefully, we baptize at least 100 people before it's done. :)

Love you!

-Elder Ruesch

P.S. Can someone please get me a job? :)

January 14, 2013

Namaste,

Well it has been an interesting week. I guess it has only been a few days since my last email. I am sad to report that at this point, we wont be having a baptism this month. Once the grandmother gave her permission for the family to be baptized there were really two family members that are ready right now for baptism. I think I told you about them lest week. The story is the same still. The 17 year old still is being held back by his parents. They want him to wait for a few years and so there isn't much that we can do about it. However, we talked to him about going to early morning seminary and although he isn't a member he started going to seminary just today. Seminary here is at 6 am. So my early morning seminary in Utah makes me look like a pansie to the people here. And they don't have Friday's off either. But as far as we know he loved seminary today and plans to keep coming. That is a good way to show his commitment to his family! The other guy who is ready to be baptized still wants to wait too. There is just too much opposition in the family and too many things pointing him in a different way that he doesn't feel like now is the right time. Although it is sad to us we have to support him. You can't force anyone. That is for sure. To me right now it seems that the main thing these people need is time. In just a few years I could easily see there being a Nepali branch here in St. Paul. There are so many people that I know will be baptized someday but too many things are holding them back right now. And most of those people are part of this huge family that the grandmother is over. Although it is hard and discouraging to not see any immediate success from our hard work. Deep down I know that our effort was not wasted and these people will recieve the gospel someday.

On another sad note, we totally caught our 20 year old friend that had a baptismal date smoking yesterday. That was really frustrating. I don't know why but he talks to us as if he is strongly committed to Christ and this church but does not act that way. It is sad to see. It kinda seems he just reached out to us because it was a community of people that would love him. We'll keep working with him though and hopefully he can experience a true conversion and be baptized soon.

On Saturday we also held a soccer/volleyball game at the church for all the Nepali boys who wanted to come. This was our second one and it was really fun. These kids are hilarious! It is a really nice way to get the kids into the church and help them have a little fun. It is super fun for me too! I love soccer!

It sounds like things have been very cold recently in Utah! Weird. I also heard you got a lot of snow. Minnesota has been super wimpy recently! Last week we had weather in the 30s and on thursday it totally rained! I was disappointed in Minnesota. On saturday the temp dropped to the single digits and it has been that cold ever since. I don't think it's been below 0 yet though. We'll see what happens. Hopefully Minnesota will show us it's true identity.

Well, I need to peace out. Today was awesome. We went to tour the capitol building and then went to a Nepali restaurant in St. Paul and then toured the impressive St. Paul Cathedral. It was really fun! We had a good time. Hopefully, Sister Baxter will send you some more pictures of that :) She has been a fantastic historian of the last part of my mission. Ha ha.

Love you!

-Elder Ruesch

January 9, 2012

Herro,

Yay for 2013!

We had a great morning. Our district went to the temple and it was delightful. I love the temple!

It sounds like you all had a great New Years! Ours was fun. Last week we all went to the zoo together. There is a zoo in St Paul that is free. It is really small but still fun. They were having all sorts of cool activities for little kids on New years day so we picked the right day to go! It was great. Afterwards we went to eat at one of the two Nepali Restaurants in the Twin Cities but it closed at 2 pm right when we got there. That stunk! Oh well, we'll go again sometime. So we have had 2 excellent P-days in a row now! Woo!

This week was crazy eventful. I don't think I can explain everything. It has been up and down and all over the place! We got totally yelled at again by the father of a family we are teaching and he told us to never come back again. It was totally out of nowhere because this guy has been really friendly too us. That was mind boggling! But whatever. We'll see what happens. We also reset the baptismal date with the guy I told you about for Jan 26th but then he didn't come to church again! He needs to show his committment first before getting baptized. We'll see what happens for him. Unfortunately, I probably wont see him baptized before I go home. Tear. But that is okay, as long as he makes the covenant and is committed to it, I am happy.

But let me tell you the craziest story of all. Do you remember the grandmother of this whole family that many of her posterity come to church? For a long time she apparently was totally against allowing any of her kids or grandkids to get baptized. She didn't want them to change religion. Well we never had a direct conversation about it. And the stars kinda aligned this week for us to talk about it with her. Just the week before we went over and taught her and her daughter a simple lesson about the nature of out Heavenly Father. So last week we wanted to explain the life and need for Christ to her. And President Clements called us and wanted to come teach a lesson with us so we brought him to see this grandma! We had an awesome lesson about Christ and she seemed very interested and then President took over and explained that we love her family and many of them are coming to church and asked if she would allow them to be baptized. And she said yes! So either her heart changed or there was never a problem to begin with. We made sure to explain that culturally you don't have to leave everything behind. The Gospel of Jesus Christ just adds to the truth you already know. So that was a crazy miracle! We all left that lesson floating a few inches off the ground because of the strong spirit. The other thing we said was we will have a Celebration on Jan 26th and anyone in the family who is ready and wants to be baptized can do so on that day and then we'll eat lots of food and celebrate. And the Grandmother agreed to come! So then we headed out to tell all of the family of our miracle.

The first response of everyone is they didn't believe us! Ha ha. That was the funny part. There are two people that have been solid for a long time and waiting to be baptized. One is a grandson. He is super awesome. Very elect. And the other is the father of one boy who is already a member. This guy has been coming to church forever and he said that as soon as he received permission he would be the first one in the family baptized (By the way, the reason his son is a member already is because he was baptized before the grandmother came over to the U.S. from Nepal). As we went out to tell these people we hit road blocks though that I totally wasn't expecting. Although the 17 year old son wants to be baptized really bad and his grandma gave permission, his parents aren't giving permission for him to be baptized. Which is something we never expected. They are claiming that they want him to wait a few years so he can make the decision when he is more mature. I can't figure out the real reason why they wouldn't let him. His parents even come to church sometimes. That has been super frustrating. And then the other guy who is really solid is now saying that he wants to wait and he wants to know everything before he is baptized. So he doesn't want to do it now. Ug! It feels like there are other people that are against it and are talking him out of it. It is a challenge. No matter what this is going to be a real test of faith for these two people. We'll see if they pass. I pray they do! So keep these people in your prayers and pray with everything in you that these two amazing people will be baptized soon. Especially that the hearts of the 17 year old parents will soften.

It has been a crazy week and I hope so badly that we can see some miracles happen before my time runs out. We are working like crazy!

I will keep you updated and let you know what happens on Monday.

Love you!

-Elder Ruesch

December 31, 2012

Hello!

Although the world didn't end on Dec 21st. Elder Baxter told us that the latest prediction is that the world will end before 2013. So watch out today! :)

2012 has been a really special year. The whole year has been spent as a missionary and it is the best year of my life so far. I can't believe 2012 is over! At least I can report it was a happy one.

Talking to you guys was very fun on Christmas! I still am amazed at how cool it is that Aiko and Wen spent Christmas with you guys. They are awesome people and I'm sure were great guests. And that is so exciting that Wen decided to be baptized! Yay!

After my phone call with you guys the day was filled with a way too full stomach. Sister Baxter fed us a huge breakfast and then a family invited us over for a monster sized lunch and another family invited us over for a planet sized dinner. I ate almost nothing the day after Christmas because I was still so full. With Christmas being our pday though I was able to even take a nap that morning at the Baxters. It was amazing! In fact, all of us missionaries fell asleep that morning for a nice nap. It was so awesome.

The week itself since Christmas has been filled with ups and downs. The guy that is supposed to be baptized on Jan 12th didn't come to church yesterday and so we will probably have to give him a little more time for his baptism. Hopefully, he will still be baptized in Jan. We will see. On Saturday we did take him to go see a baptsm in another ward though. That was nice and I think he enjoyed it. I just pray that these people we teach are experiencing a true conversion. Because there is no point in being baptized if you aren't truly converted.

The last few days I have been getting a little discouraged. We are working so hard to help these people progress in the gospel. And many of them are learning a lot and doing well but everyone is so far away from baptism. It feels like they are all stuck. Most of them have some member in the family that doesn't want them to be baptized and they don't want to go against that family member. Others have something else holding them back. But SO many of these people could very easily be baptized and be wonderful faithful members of the church but they have one major hill that they need to pass over and they can't do it. Ug. It is hard. I guess the remedy is time. Sadly, that is the one resource I don't have.

On a happy note, we took another investigator to visit the temple! It was awesome. This guys is solid. He is one of those that could totally be baptized tomorrow. His hold up is he has a job that keeps him from coming to church on Sunday and he hasn't found a new job yet. I know that this fellow will be a member of the church in not too long though. He is a great guy.

I talked about the older woman who is the grandmother of this huge family that doesn't want anyone in her family to be baptized. One miracle is we are making a little progress with her. Today we will be going over to her home to teach a lesson to her daughter who is her caretaker. The hope is that this grandma will listen too and feel the spirit. The grandmother approved of us teaching her daughter and so that is progress!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful last day of 2012! I know I will. Talk to you next year!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

P.S. Next week we might be going to the temple as a district on Wednesday. Which means that would be our P-Day. So I will most likely be emailing you on Wednesday next week.

December 24, 2012

Hello!

Today is not our p-day but we were instructed to email our families today. So I am! But I'm sorry it will be short since we will be speaking live tomorrow bright and early! Will Aiko and Wen be there? Because that would be so awesome!
The plan still stands for me to skype you guys tomorrow morning at 8 am Minnesota time. I think that is 7 am Utah times. But who knows. We will be skyping you from the Baxters. They are awesome they help us out so much!

Thanks for the Birthday presents! I had a wonderful birthday. I was hoping everyone would forget about it but Elder Shrestha was jumping up and down in the morning for me to open my presents. And then at our missionary meeting before church Sister Baxter brought donuts. It was way to much attention for what I wanted! The funniest part was all the Nepali people sang to me during Sunday school and it was hilarious because half of them know almost no English and don't know the birthday song very well either.

This week we got totally smacked on by the pastor of the other church that Nepali people go to! Holy smokes! It was crazy. Talk about false church. I will tell you the story in depth tomorrow. It is hilarious.

We set an official date for one of our investigators to be baptized on Jan 12th. We're excited about it!
Thanks for being the awesomest family. I have loved reading the letters and opening the presents every day. Happy Christmas Eve!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

P.S. Happy Birthday Lari!

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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