Week 35 - Hispanics Come to Play (6/26/2017)

So this week, I have noticed a lot how terrible my English is. You could even ask my companion. There have been times where I start speaking in English and automatically the next few words that roll out are Spanish. So I'm thoroughly enjoying having to watch myself as we are in lessons or as we are talking with members. So to start out, this week we played soccer for our District activity last week and it was fun!! I loved it finally getting back onto the field and playing felt so great again. The following day we had a lot of good things turn out. We had a good first lesson with a 12 year old boy who is interested in the Gospel. He's pretty interested, but we'll see where it goes from here. Then after that we contacted some people, got rejected, and you know normal other stuff. We then had dinner with a family and went to go see another family, but we caught them as they were having dinner so we just dropped in and said hi and saw how they were doing. We then had a first good lesson with another new investigator. We taught him with a member family and this member family let us know about him. We were pretty excited to hear that he wanted to listen to us and see what the Gospel has in store for him. That night we had exchanges and I was with the District Leader. He had to make sure that I was working and not being lazy and a slacker and that I was behaving. You know, the me that I am. 

So Wednesday started out and we went to go meet with someone to do service, but he wasn't ready for us that day so we kinda just talked and set up a return time for us. We then went and tried some people after lunch, but no one was home until we caught someone just before one of our lessons. So this guy we've been trying to catch at home for a long time and we finally caught him on Exchanges. We had a good little meet with him and got to know him a little better and other things. We shared a little thought with him before we took off for our lesson. We got to our lesson and we started right away. So we are teaching this girl who's 8 and her mom who isn't a member. The girl wants to be baptized cause she has a lot of friends that are members and she as well wants to be. Her dad is a member, but not active. So we taught the first lesson awhile back and we were initially going to teach something else, but instead we answered a whole bunch of questions that she had about the Gospel. A lot of them relating to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and as to why it happened, why we needed it, and what does it do for me. It was really awesome to see that desire to learn more from the both of them. We then tried out some other people that we've been trying to see and caught them at home. We then had dinner with a family and we had fajitas which is always good. We then had some of our appointments fall through and we ended up contacting for a bit. We then ended the night with another investigator and we just did the same thing. We answered a doubt that had and she felt at peace with the answer that we gave her.

Thursday strolled around and we had our Zone Conference. A lot of good things came out of that and one them being that we can't take the Book of Mormon lightly. It is an essential tool to help others learn about the Gospel. It's one of the ways we can know for ourselves if this Church is true. Hence why it is called the Keystone of our Religion. Everything weighs on that book. After we had our Zone Conference, we then came back and saw a few people, but nothing really exciting. 

Friday we had a really good lesson with an investigator and from right as soon as we got there, it was question after question, doubt after doubt, answer after answer, and peace. We had answered some of the doubts and questions that she had and a few that we couldn't answer cause at that moment, we couldn't answer here then and there. We are only 19 and 20 year olds. We then weekly planned for our investigators then had dinner and we didn't even finish weekly planning. A chore for Saturday to finish (which we did). We then had two good lessons to end the night. We taught our little boys (as to what we like to call them cause they are awesome) and read with them from the Children's Book of Mormon and it was so amazing to see that desire that they had to read more from it. We then watched an MTC talk with Agustin titled "Feed My Sheep" by Jeffrey R. Holland. It was an amazing talk and wow we all loved it. 

Saturday came and went as we did service, on a roof, in the blazing hot sun, painting it... It was so hot up there I was glad to get down. We then saw some people, but nothing so exciting. We then contacted some people we've been trying to contact for weeks. We then ended the night with a family that is moving pretty soon. I am surprised, we haven't shared anything with that family at all, but they keep wanting us to come back. And they even invited us for after the mission to have dinner with them and see their new house(cause it's outside our area). But wow that was pretty awesome.

Sunday was epic. We had three investigators show up to Sacrament and two of them were our little boys. They enjoyed sacrament meeting and primary especially! It was awesome. We then had lunch with a member family and tried seeing some people after that. We then had a quick correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader from Declo 2nd and dang he's on the ball of helping us out. We then had dinner with a member family whose son just returned from serving his mission. We then tried some people after that and met with Rodrigo and just talked with him. His wife left with her sister for vacation time, before their son comes to visit them. So we talked with him and invited him to the English class on Tuesday. We then ended the night with Agustin talking about missionary work and how we can all do missionary work without the name tag on. We watched a little bit of the First District Videos and he enjoyed those. It was a good week this week. No it was a great week. 

I love you all and I hope you enjoy this week!!!

Love,

Elder Ruesch

Our Hispanic Bench Press

Our Hispanic Bench Press

Week 34 - Here Comes the Sun (6/19/2017)

So this week has been quite an adventure! To start off with last week! We had a great lesson of what the Book of Mormon is and  what stories it contains inside of it to two boys! They truly loved how we presented it and want to learn more. They come from a Part Member Family and they have the sincere desire to learn more. So last night we stopped by again and visited with them and shared the message of the Restoration. They were quite intrigued over the Priesthood Authority. The oldest boy (who's 11) said, "So the baptism I had is invalid cause the church didn't have the Authority to baptize.... Well I wanna be baptized into the right Church that has that Authority!" We were amazed over how he and his brother caught the concept of Priesthood Authority. It blew us away. We extended the baptismal question and they both said yes right away. They are so ready for this Gospel and for them to take this path, will surely influence their family! 

On Tuesday we had a few great lessons. To start off we helped Agustin out with the Sacrament prayers. He wanted us to come over and help him say them cause he wants to be sure that when he reads it, he reads it right. So we read both prayers and he recorded them so he could listen to them and get the annunciation of every word right. We then just went out and tried some doors and ran into some member families and had good visits with them. We then topped the night with a very great lessons with one of our investigators. We went over to help her understand how she can receive her answer through feelings and the Holy Ghost. Cause that is his ultimate goal. To testify of Truth and of Christ. It went very well as we had a member with us and he testified to her that she can receive that answer through the feelings that she gets when we come by, or when she reads the scriptures.

On Wednesday we had a good time. We had our District Meeting and Interviews with President. Everything went smoothly and was just a very wonderful experience. We then did some service around town helping mow lawns, clean up the yard, whatever it may be. Right now my parents are probably wondering why I didn't do that all the time back home. Sorry mom and dad. We then had a good lesson with another investigator that day and we taught The Plan of Salvation to her and taught what is our purpose here on Earth. She grasped it, but is still having a hard time understanding Baptism. We didn't have a dinner that night so we kinda just ran from place to place testifying of Christ and until we came to our last stop for the night. We went to a members home, who they are Less Active, and we started talking with them and they themselves had just gotten home. We were talking and they had asked if we had eaten. Elder Posadas said yea we did and the follow up question came of what we had. We were busted at that point. They made us some dinner cause they themselves had not eaten and we talked with them and then came home.

On Thursday we started off with service again. We did a lot of service before we struggled over our weekly planning session. We had our weekly planning and barely finished in time for our dinner appointment. At dinner we were give a lot of referrals of people we could try to visit. It was really wonderful. We tried some names that night and couldn't catch any of them at home. So we turned to our area book and pulled out a name and visited them. We caught the entire family at home, but just as they were about to leave. We set a time for when we can come back and then tried else where. We then tracted out some apartments and talked with a guy named Bennie. He told us he only has 2-5 years left to live and we just talked with him. He's a really nice guy and has been through a lot of things in life. 

Friday we had a good lesson with an investigator who has definitely been prepared by the Lord. We taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ and before we could even finish extending the baptismal question, she had told us yes I will be baptized. It was awesome to hear that cause it totally threw us off! We were amazed and we extended her a date for when she can be and she accepted. We were amazed by how the Lord prepared her. We then went and helped an investigator paint his trailer and got to talking with him. We invited him to our Preparation Day activity (today) of soccer and he said he'll see if he can come. He's in his 40's but has kids that play and we told him they are welcomed to come as well. We then tried some other people that night and just had appointments set up and a little correlation with one of our ward mission leaders.

Saturday rolled around and we were out contacting all day just trying to catch people at home. A few we caught at work or just before they were about to take off and we had set up an appointment to return. We had some good visits with families and had left them with Spiritual Thoughts to uplift them in this trying time they are going through. We did some contacting and set up appointments. Pretty much all we did Saturday.

Sunday....A day full of meetings...We about died...We spoke in Springdale 2nd during sacrament about Member Missionary Work. It was awesome and we hope that we got the members excited to go out and do some missionary work. We then tried some people after our meetings were all over and caught one of members home in which we haven't seen him in like forever. We talked with him and told him we missed him at church. He told us they changed his work schedule and that he works a crazy shift which has him working Sundays during Church. He's trying to get it switched, but nothing yet. We then had our wonderful lesson that is in the first paragraph. Then we ended the night talking with another one of our ward mission leaders. We talked about the area and what good things are happening. 

So that is my week for you all and I hope it isn't too bad of English. I struggle at times to get my English out correctly. Well I love you all and I hope you all have a good Summer Break to all of you who are on Break!!! I love and miss you all!!!

Elder Ruesch Sosa

Some pretty flowers

When it rained last week

When it rained last week

Cool Vial that a member gave to us

New Craze of the world #FidgetSpinner

Week 33 - Rain, Rain and Sun (6/12/2017)

Well luckily this week I can remember it a lot more. So to start out with Tuesday, we got some stuff done. We did some service for one of our investigators and it was a lot of work. We did a lot during the week with him. We then went and visited a little bit with some single sisters in the ward and we had a good visit with them. We then had dinner and it was really good. We then had a good meet with a Part Member Family and got to know some of the kids and we were invited out to the baptism of the 8 year old. We then ended the night with another sister who is an investigator and we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized on July 1st!! She said that if she gets her answer by then, she'll be baptized. And then my birthday came around. We had inspections and it went well. The inspectors loved our place!!! We then had a district meeting and we gave a training and it was really good. We then went and did service for a sister and it was good thing. We then had a correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader in one of the wards and had dinner with him. We then had a decent lesson with an investigator. And then from there we went to meet some other families. We talked with a family outside as they were wrapping out cleaning their yard and we talked with them for a bit about it and set up a time to come back. Went and met with some other families and called it a night. A good birthday and thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday! The next day we had a really good lesson with another Part Member Family and we taught the Restoration. It went really well and the spirit was so strongly there. We did it outside and when it came time for the First Vision, the spirit was poured out. It was very powerful. The rest of the day was contacting. We then had a good lesson the next day with an investigator and we read with her a chapter in James chapter 2. It was really awesome and she totally is prepared. We then went and met with a less active and he wants to help us in the missionary efforts her in his ward. It's awesome how he wants to help us. Then that night we went on Exchanges and on Saturday we went and met with some families and went to the baptism that is mentioned above. It was really well and we got to talk to the daughter who was baptized and got to confirm the Holy Ghost upon her. It was great. Then the rest of that day we were teaching, leaving spiritual thoughts, all over the place. We then unexchanged and talked about our days. We then had Sunday come around and it was full of meetings. Every other hour we had meetings with different auxiliaries. We were hungry. We Had meetings and then later got to see Agustin and watched Mormon Messages with him. This week has been really great and thank you so much for the support from home! I love you all and miss you!! Hope you're all doing alright!

Elder Ruesch

Week 32 - And it Came to Pass (6/5/2017)

This week was too much like a blur. I hardly recall anything. The only thing I can recall is the temple re-dedication. The re-dedicated the Idaho Falls Temple and wow that was a really neat experience to see. For a moment the Stake Center became a part of the temple which was awesome. We also got to meet with a few people yesterday and had some good meetings with them. The only other thing I can remember is one lesson that we had with an investigator. We went in hoping to teach the Plan of Salvation and all that fun stuff, but she presented us a few doubts and concerns that she had about some things. We addressed her doubts and tried our best to share the Plan of Salvation in its simplest terms to help her understand and luckily the spirit touched her and made it manifest that we were teaching helped her understand a little more. We left her with some homework and  hopefully she'll read it to understand it. Well I'm sorry for my poor memory and all that other stuff, but to compensate I have photos from my boredom lol. But anyways enjoy your week everyone and I love you, I love you, I love you!!! And miss you too!!!

Elder Ruesch

Boredom

More boredom

and more boredom

Mature? Older?

Mature? Older?

Catching Companion off guard