Week 18 - The Move... (2/27/2017)

Well today we found out about transfers and drum roll please.......... I'm being transferred to Declo. A small town and possibly a Spanglish area for me but, who knows. I'm looking forward to the change from the big city to a small little town like Apple Valley!! Lol. I'm going from one side of the mission to the other. This will be fun. Well as for my last week in Boise, we did a lot of work here. We got in to see a few referrals and will be handing off a few to some English missionaries. But we got to keep one referral which was nice! We are planning to meet with him again and he was really interested in the Book of Mormon so that is what we started off with. As well for this week we got to build a lot of member trust and help members build up their testimonies. We had a really good lesson with a single sister who is investigating the Church and we retaught the lessons and we just taught the Plan of Salvation with her and she was really receptive about it. She really loved the aspect of how families can be eternal and then what the scriptures had to say about Christ. Especially in Alma 7:11-13. That scripture is one of my favorites and it will be for a very long time. Just cause we primarily did contacts this week, I really don't have a lot to write. I think I'm getting a little sick ending this transfer, but I'm being precautious so I don't get others sick. We have seen a lot of success here and I'm sad that I have to leave. Boise will be my home and I hope to return soon. I don't care how I return, but I hope I do return. It's been a really great three transfers here. I really don't have much to say other than that. Just a lot of contacting as missionaries know haha. Well I love you all and I look forward to seeing you all in two years when I return. Sigue Fuerte familia y amigos!! TE AMO MUCHO

Con amor,

Elder Ruesch Sosa

Week 17 - Work...Too much work... (2/21/2017)

Oh this week has been really really interesting. 

Pienso que estoy olvidando Ingles. A veces no puedo explicar mi mismo en Ingles so yo habla Espanol. Pues, horito esto es un examen para ver quien puede entender mi Espanol. Pues Vamos! So este semana fuimos haciendo mucho trabajo!! La obra esta progresando mucho aqui en Boise!! Martes fuimos a visitar un familia que esta el la otra lado de nuestro area en Meridian. Fuimos y enseno ellos sobre la Biblia porque ellos solamente creen en la Biblia. Hablamos de Cristo y todo que el hizo por nosotros pero ellos fue y empezo a hablar de un otra cosa y preguntando muchos preguntas. Y antes que fuimos alla, fuimos en cambios con los Litros de la Zona para hacer un ensenando cambio. Recibimos un referencia de Ingles so quierimos que los Elderes de Ingles puede ensenarle. So fuimos y hizo esto. Fue muy bueno y encontramos que el es en la area de los Hermanas en nuestro distrito. En Miercoles fuimos tratando para visitar families que tenemos pero nadie fue en casa o hablamos enfrento de su puerto. Tuvimos sitas a la fin de la noche y ensenamos la Restauracion a una familia. Fue muy bueno que el Espiritu Santo puede decir a nosotros. Y despues de ensenando este familia, fuimos a tratar para hablar con otros familias que tenemos en nuestro lista. Fuimos y encontramos los dos en casa y hablamos con ellos. Uno que se llama Sergio, quiere asistir a la Capilla con nosotros!! Fue muy bueno!! Y tambien su vecino que es una persona que estamos tratando a ensenar el nos dijo el mismo!! EXITO!!! El dia despues fuimos a planear por la semana que viene y fuimos poniendo muchas sitas. Fuimos tratando a visitar personas despues y visitamos con dos familias esta noche. Y con unos de los familias, fuimos con Presidente Acosta para visitarles. Y esta visita fue bueno. El fue hablando de viniendo a la Capilla y traiendo todo su familia. Ay tenemos mucho potencial aqui! Viernes llego y tuvimos un reunion de nuestro distrito. Aprendemos mucho alla especialmente como podems ayudar nuestros investigadores aver que bautsimo, no es malo pero esencial. Y tambien fuimos visitando personas, compartiendo cosas en su puerto y salimos. Para cerrar la noche, fuimos a visitar la familia Osuna. Ellos va hablar este Domingo y ellos necesitan ayuda so ayudamos. Ellos va hablar de la Plan de Salvacion y como misioneros, sabemos mucho de esto! Ayudamos ellos a encontrar una manera que ellos puede empezar y material que ellos puede usar en sus discursos. Sabado y Domingo fue mucha lluvia. Sabado fuimos tratando a visitar personas como normal, y hablamos con dos familias. Con ellos compartimos un piensemento espiritual de Cristo y como podemos usar la Expiacion en nuestros vidas. Y fuimos y hablo con un persona que esta en su 20's. Con el, hablamos del Libro de Mormon. Estoy fue bueno y el quiere leerlo! Domingo tuvimos la Rama y hablamos en la reunion sacramental. Hablamos de la obra misional y trabajando juntos con los miembros. Yo pienso que esta semana vamos a ver miembros que quiere ir con nosotros. Y por el dia fuimos estudiando mucho y yo encontro algo bueno. En Juan 10 y 3 Nefi 15. No voy explicarle porque yo quiero que ustedes puede encontrarlo. Y ayer, fuimos haciendo mucho servicio. Fue muy bueno. Ejercicio por dias!! Pues este es todo que yo tengo por hoy. Tiene un buena semana familia y amigos!! Te amo muchissimo!!

Con Amor,

Elder Ruesch Sosa

(Translation)

So I think that I have been forgetting my English. At times I can't explain myself in English so I do so in Spanish. Well, right now this is a test to see who can understand Spanish. Well, Begin! So this week we did a lot of work!! The work here is progressing a lot!! Tuesday we went and taught a family that is at the other side of our area in Meridian. We went and taught them from the Bible because they only believe in the Bible. We talked about Christ and all that he did for us, but they changed the subject and went asking a lot of questions. And before we went there, we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders to do a teaching exchange. We got a referral for an English speaker and we wanted that English Elders could teach him. So we went and did this. It went really well and we found out he belongs in the Sisters area in our district.On Wednesday we went to visit families that we have but no one was at home or we talked at the door. We had appointments that night and we talked with a family about the Restoration. It went really well what the Spirit had told us to say. After that we went and attempted to talk to other families we had planned for. We went and found both of them in their house and we talked with them both. One of them called Sergio, told us he wants to come to church with us!! It went well!! As well, his neighbor is someone we are teaching and he told us the same!! SUCCESS!! The next day we planned for next week and we set up a lot of appointments. We tried again to visit families and we visited with two families. With one of the families we actually went with Presidente Acosta. This went really well/ He was talking about coming to church and bringing his entire family. Ah we have so much potential here! Friday came and we had a district meeting. We learned a lot about how we can help our investigators see that baptism isn't something bad, but essential. As well we went to visit families, shared something at the door, and left. To close the night we saw the Osuna family. They are going to speak this Sunday and the needed help so we helped. They are going to talk about the Plan of Salvation and like missionaries do, we know a lot about this. We helped them find material that they could use to start their talk and use in their talk as well. Saturday and Sunday arrived and we got a lot of rain/ Saturday was a day of trying to visit families like normal and we talked with two families. Shared with them a spiritual thought of Christ and how we can us the Atonement in our lives. We talked with a guy in his 20's as well about the Book of Mormon. This went really well and he wants to read it! Sunday we had church and we talked in Sacrament meeting. We talked about the missionary work and working with the members with this. I believe this week we will be seeing a lot of members wanting to go out with us. Afterwards we studied a lot and I found something new. In John 10 and 3 Nephi 15. I don't want to explain it cause I would for you all to find it. And yesterday we were doing a lot of service. Went really well. Exercise for days!! Well this is all that I have for today. Have a good week family and friends!! I love you all a lot!!

Week 16 - Progress! (2/13/2017)

Well this week has been super amazing!! So to start off with Preparation day last week, we played Volleyball and dang it was really fun!! I didn't end up getting my hair cut last week so I will be today. Finally... But anyways Volleyball was so much fun and I got to thank my cousin for helping me learn how to play correctly!! Because of her, I'm actually good. After that we attempted to see people cause our appointment cancelled on us so we went out contacting, but that was difficult enough. So Tuesday came around the corner. We went and actually had some really good spiritual thoughts and lessons with some people. We felt really good that day and intuned with the spirit. Wednesday came and we had interviews with President Bartlett. They went pretty dang well and he challenged me and Elder Rust to ride bikes for two days of the week. It'll be challenging, but doable. We then tried making contact with people which we did and got some appointments set for this week. It's going good. Thursday did we see some big success. So during our weekly planning we put forth just trying to call people to get appointments set and we've got quite a few set for the week and even last week which was amazing!! That night we went and saw three families and helped them out with what they were struggling with. We had a less active family tell us that they know they need to come to church, but they feel uncomfortable coming because they know no one. So we plan on changing that one here soon. Our last appointment for the night is what made our night. We met with a couple who had a lot of questions about the church. She is a member, but less active and he's not. They start asking us questions left and right, and wow was the spirit present in that room to answer those questions. I've noticed that being out the spirit helps all things. She had a lot of questions about happiness and how we can achieve that and the spirit was able to help calm her and bring peace to her heart with the answers that we gave through the Spirit! IT was really amazing to see that happen. The next day we had a really good lesson with a new investigator who we just started to teach and she felt at peace with the message of the Restoration that we shared with her. That same night we gave her a blessing so that she can overcome all the trials that she is having in her life that she can feel peace in her home and all that good stuff. It was really awesome and we had a member with us to that really helped us out in that lesson. And then came the lovely Saturday. Something that I like to call the diligence day. We went attempting to contact a lot of people, but no one was home. Which made us sad a little but it was alright. We got to talk with an investigator on his front porch cause we caught him as he was leaving, but we got to talk to him for a good amount of time. He invited us to come back Saturday again at the same time which is great. We then ended the night with praying with one of our Recent Converts Olga and it was really great. She definitely was in need of a visit that night. And Sunday. Oh we had a great Sabbath day and a good Branch Council too. We finally got to move forward with the new mission plan that we have had written up since January and we are excited to finally move forward with it. As well we kinda guilt tripped the Branch into visiting some families that have been in the Directory for awhile and haven't received any visits from the Branch except for us missionaries. Which is great cause now there will be more friendshipping happening. (I don't care if that's not a word, my English isn't the best any more). Well that ends my week and I'm excited for what this week will bring. I found one of my tags that I lost and that same day, a new order of tags for me arrived which was awesome. I now have the original tags I came out with and a whole new set of tags to represent with. I hope everyone has a stellar week and always remember, Heavenly Father loves you all!!

Love,

Elder Ruesch Sosa

Week 15 - No More SNOW (2/6/2017)

Well this week finally has been looking up weather wise which has me happy. No more snow!!! But the rain has fallen and it will fall all this week. But no matter, the work shall continue. So I shall start off with last P-Day. We went to play bowling as an apartment and I took the win with a total score of 207!! Just barely breaking 200!! I got pretty lucky though I'll say so myself. I got three strikes that gave me the game with the rest being spares. Kinda like a Wii Bowling experience. Well after that we rushed back to the apartment and changed into P-Day clothes to go have our District Activity. We had NERF wars to the extreme!! It was so much fun and I even got battle scars. It was so much fun. That night we shopped and got everything we needed and called it a night. On Tuesday we went to go meet with some people and it was quite interesting if I do say so myself. We had an appointment with a family that has met with missionaries before and still wanted to hear from us, but no so much hear from us but tell us what we believe. They sat with us for an hour telling us what we believed and how he Book of Mormon couldn't be true because there is no evidence of its truthfulness. So we sat there just to get the feel of what they had to say and get to know them so we can come in with a lesson that will invite the Spirit and the spirit can do the touching and softening of the heart. After that we wanted to go see an investigator, but she wasn't living there anymore and we met a member instead which was a very great experience thanks to the spirit. So we walked in started talking to them and shared a quick message with them. They had told us that they had a terrible day at work (both of them, husband and wife) and they really needed that spiritual boost. It was quite awesome. We asked if we could do anything for them and they asked us both for a blessing. So we gave them a blessing and the spirit was definitely in that room that we were in. It was fantastic to feel that strong spirit reside there. That was our day leading into Wednesday with Splits! So on Wednesday we went on splits with the Elders Quorum President and one of the Ward Missionaries. It was awesome. We each had set appointments to go and see people but Elder Rust's list of people didn't answer and he ended up seeing a family that was on my list at 7. I was out visiting with a single sister with Hno. Garcia and we finished shared a thought with her and promised that we will find someone to take her to the Branch. We then went to the family we were set to see at 7, but got there a little late and we knocked on the door and we saw Hno. Quezada with Elder Rust sitting and talking at the table. It was funny to see that happen and we shared a thought with them and went on our way. They tried to contact the names they had for earlier but no one answered and we went to go talk with a part member family. The husband wasn't home who is the non-member and so we shared a quick thought with the rest of the family that was there. So we ended the night with that and had some funny laughs to talk about. And also ideas of what to teach these people when we return. And now Thursday. We weekly planned trying to set up to meet people, what we will teach, and just how our week should go.We did that and then tried to go meet with people. Everyone that we came in contact with, told us to come back a different day or they just weren't home. It was sad, but that's the life. We then tried some other people and we finally got one person that was home. So we met with them and talked and shared a spiritual thought with them about being strong in Christ. It was awesome as to how well we can bring the spirit into people's lives. That was our night leading into Friday. Friday came around and we saw NOTHING happen. We had a set appointment but they cancelled and rescheduled so we lost dinner that night. Luckily we dropping off some English Elders while that happened so they asked their dinner if we could join and they said yes. So we got saved!! After that we tried contacting, but people weren't home which was a little sad, but we try as much as we can to see people. Saturday came around when people said that they were home. So we went to see these people and we only had one fall through. Everyone else yet again said to come back. Sad day. Sunday came. Fast and Testimony meeting. I had the opportunity to bare my testimony in Sacrament meeting cause it felt right to share it. Hopefully there was a reason why haha. But then we went on with the day and got dinners signed up for the month! Oh YEAH! Food!! After church we went to meet a family who told us to come back and see them after Church. So we did, but they weren't home so I became persistent and kept coming back until they were home and we caught them. He was having car trouble and so he asked us to come back at 7 so we agreed and came back. In between that time we ate dinner at our place and and then went to see people. We saw a less active family and talked with them and shared a message with them out of Moroni 10:32. It ted up their day cause their daughters just got sick. It really put a smile on their face that we came and saw them. We then tried seeing some more people, but no one was home again. Or wanted to speak with us. So we called it a night and went back to the apartment. We talked and laughed until we had to go to bed and here we are this morning. This week has been great and I'm looking forward to another awesome week here in the field. As for today, I'll be getting my haircut so I look sharp then playing Volleyball as a Zone. This will be quite fun! But till next week, I love you all and I hope all is well with each and everyone of you!!

Elder Ruesch

Boise at night

Battle scar from District activity (NERF wars)

Boise at night again

Week 14 - WORK (1/30/2017)

So this week has been extremely excellent!! So to start off we have had a lot of changes here in the mission and they have been really awesome!! We now have two extra hours on P-Day to do everything we need, which for us means more fun time. We also have our agency back! We get to choose how our schedule looks and when we do our studies and everything that follows. This allows us to be a lot more flexible when we go to talk with investigators, members, less actives, and even dinners. Which is so awesome!! We get to choose what we get to do!! Once we saw all these changes, we had a discussion on them and they were in play on Wednesday when we had heard about them. We were told by the first presidency to do so and so we did. Also we are allotted more exercise time. Which is nice too. This has been interesting news to hear throughout this week. On another note, we got our car taken away from us. They took the beautiful Corolla that we had and gave it to some sisters. It made me sad cause I really liked that car. They gave us a Cruze for compensation but it's not the same. It feels a lot like the Kia my family used to have. Which is nice at least, but I don't have all the cool things that the Corolla had. Sad day for us :'( But we did get work done!! We spent all week setting up appointments, finding people, contacting, and teaching people which has been really great!! We have set up for this week to go on splits with the Elders Quorum presidency to meet some Less Actives, Part Member Families, and investigators that we have been teaching. This coming week will be a big week of work. We are so ready for this!! As well in some down time that we have I did pick up the guitar and I am slowly improving on how to play it. It's a little difficult, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. It's a good thing I can learn by ear. A lot of stuff is going down in mission and it's exciting to see, can't really say much about it because it will happen in due time. Well some other good news is that my Spanish has been really progressing. I have pretty much been taking initiative since I know the area to start conversations just like my trainer taught me too. Elder Rust is starting to get comfortable with the area and meeting with the people which is awesome. This area has got a lot of potential and we will be getting down to work and getting people to come to church. It may sound bad like that, but we aren't going to steal their agency from them. That's one thing we are not allowed to do. Haha but anyways some other things that happened this week that were awesome is that we finally got in contact with one investigator who we think has a lot of potential. Elder (Brother) Sarabia and I tried contacting and tried to visit, but every time we had caught him at the wrong time or just as he was leaving. We finally did and sat down and just had a conversation with him. He's really open to learn and we feel he might be one that will be willing to take the discussions. Like I've said, this area has a lot of potential. We'll be getting a lot of work done, especially now with the sisters area back in our hands. We will be taking things up a notch and getting things done!! This is really exciting and we are looking forward to it. A scripture to end things off with, is something that we have been hearing all week long with Stake Conference and everything. D&C 64:33 " Wherefore be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week this week full of love, hope, and sunshine!!

Elder Ruesch

P.S. Here is a little clip of Elder Ruesch (Jeffrey) playing the guitar.