Week 78 - "When ye have done it unto these..." (4/23/2018)

Service

So this week has been awesome. In a sense... I almost died cause of my stupid allergies...But it's okay.  I have made it out alive. But anyways...

We got Pranked

This past week we did a lot of service this week. Hay baled, moved, cleaned, more moving, and roping. Elder Cooke, what a man. He roped one of the other Elders! It was hilarious!! That was literally pretty much our week. Whether got good, so we did some service. But we also did work. In between me dying of my allergies. Pretty self satisfactory. We did a lot of finding and have tons of potentials to go and see! Hopefully one of them will be interested. Transfers are this week too! Crazy that 6 weeks has gone by already. I feel like I'm leaving Rupert and going back to Boise!! But we shall see if that's the Lord's will. It would be nice if that is, but we will see!! I love this work and I love what I am doing here. I know that when we serve others, we are serving the Lord. Minister unto those that need to be ministered too. There are people around us who need our love and support. 

I love you all and I miss you all!!! Thank you for all your love and support!! 

Elder Ruesch

Declo District

Elder Cooke roping another Elder

Rupert District

Week 77 - Satan Strikes Back (4/16/2018)

Restaurant with Squad

So this week has been a really great week for us. To start off where we left off on Monday, it was pretty cool! We got to go and play golf and I didn't do too bad. Elder Cooke is a good trainer at getting me to play well. We then bowled and I made a good comeback to take second place. We then played some soccer and wow I was impressed I can still play. I guess I am not that much out of shape lol.

Going to a more spiritual side note, on Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was amazing!! We had a lot of good training's on Ministering and how we can better serve others and our companions. It was a lot of good things that proceeded from that training and it was really great. I felt so spiritually lifted and it was great!! We then proceeded and had a game where our Zone won!! Rupert Zone is great!! Been here for over a year and I've loved every minute of it!! We came back from Twin and we tried some people, but no one answered. Typical. We tried though. We closed the night out with a meeting with the Stake Presidency and it was really great. 

Add caption

Wednesday was a really great day!! We went on exchanges and I had an Elder with me that is from Argentina. We just straight up worked hard!! We were able to teach a lot of people and actually catch them home. But not only that we were able to get some return appointments and really good lessons. We know better how we can proceed forward in helping those we come in contact with, to come unto Christ. It was really cool.

Thursday we weekly planned and we got things done. We are even prepping to start a Spanish Class for English Speakers to help us out with getting Hispanics to feel welcomed at church. We then had some really good Hispanic Food at a restaurant that Zone Conferenceopened back up two weeks ago. It was amazing!! We then just worked hard and tried sooo many people, but we had no success until later that night. We had an amazing!! I mean AMAZING lesson with a Less Active Family and it was just quite spiritually amazing!! There are no words to really describe how awesome it was. I was blown away.

Zone Conference

Friday we were on exchanges again and I went with an Elder Paul. It was a pretty slow day, but we got things done. I really don't know what more to say...lol....

Saturday we were back together and we had some surprise service come up and we were taking down vines from a chimney and it was really difficult!! These things were just glued on there!! They didn't want to leave!! With a lot of force and strategic thinking though, we got them. We later went on with our day trying so many ideas and so many things that we thought were right. The struggle was real!!

Sunday it was cool, but long. We had a lot of meetings and a lot of good things that came from those meetings. We need to act fast with all of our plans! It was just a day of meetings. We then tried so many people, but yet again, nothing. We ended up closing with our studies and we tried thinking of ways we could use technology a lot better. We are making improvements. 

This was a good week, but I could tell that the adversary was trying to put us down no matter how hard we worked! I love you and miss you all!! I wish the best for you all!!!

Elder Ruesch

Week 76 - It's Been a Long Day... (4/9/2018)

So this week has been a really long week. So we found out Monday that we couldn't leave our house cause the rent had already been paid so we couldn't be kicked out apparently. So that was good news for the time being. We had a good preparation day and just got things done. Got to play some indoor soccer and I was really happy about that. We then came home and tried a whole bunch of people and we were able to contact one. She wasn't interested, but it's okay. No discouragement here!

Depressed photo of leaving the house

Tuesday was an interesting day to say the least. We got up and got ready for our day and we decided we would help our landlord clean out his stuff out of the house that we were living in. We started helping him and we got through a lot of his things and we were able to clean out the basement entirely. We emptied and loaded a trailer a whole bunch of times and we got load after load out and moved. We then get a call around 4:30 from the mission office telling us that we have to be out by that night. Luckily we had one of our suitcases packed anticipating this moment, but we had to rush to get everything else packed. It sucked! It was crazy!! We were told that if we weren't out by that night, we would be arrested the following day. Pretty intense if you ask me. We got our things packed and we were out of there by like 8:30. Did we know where we were going nope!! But we were out! We ended up being moved into the Acequia Elders house cause it is the biggest and the closest to our area. It's a party and the tables have turned (cause we housed them on our floor for months). 

Wednesday was a long day and we just got to work. We had a meeting in Declo and we got there on time leaving from Acequia, pretty long drive. We tried a lot of people after that meeting and we had two good successes. We had a good meeting with a less active and hopefully they will come to church. And later in the evening we met another Less Active and we had a good visit with them. It lasted us through the night and we were kinda shocked. It was kind of a 3rd floor last door scenario. It was pretty good. 

Elder Cooke & I enjoying our day

Thursday was the great and holy weekly planning session and boy, did it suck. It was really quick, but we got good goals and plans set to help all those that we come into contact with to bring them closer to Christ. We then had good lessons later that evening. Best part was that we had planned our day and I completely ignored those plans and went with the spirit on a few of them. It was pretty cool as we saw some great results in meeting with people by doing that. 

Friday was long, but that's because most of our day was spent driving. So we went on Exchanges and I got to go back to Boise for this exchange it was great!!! I loved it!!! I was on Boise State campus with one of the Assistants and we just had a blast contacting people. There are a whole bunch of people that we could talk to! It was such a fun exchange!!! 

Saturday we went and contacted people that same morning and tried a whole bunch of people. We didn't get into any doors, but we did talk to some people. We then made the drive back to Rupert, met in Glenns Ferry and then made the drive back to Rupert. Long drive, but it was all good. We tried a whole bunch of people later that day, but it was pretty rough. We then tried a lot more people and had nothing come up. I just had to be diligent and make it through the day. 

Rain in Rupert

Sunday was church and it was the same thing. We had one person show up to church that we weren't expecting to show up. Translated Sacrament meeting for her, but then she took off cause there weren't any other Hispanics there. I can't really argue with her. We then just worked all day. Skipped dinner (well they were sick and they dropped it off for us) and we just worked. Nothing happened though... It was just a loooonnnnnggggg day... But it was good for me.

This has been a good week and I'm looking forward to what this week has in store. We still don't have our own house, but we will get one hopefully soon. I love you all and I miss you all a lot!! Have a good week everybody!!!

Elder Ruesch

Week 75 - Homeless in Rupert (4/2/2018)

Picture I found of Jesus

We are getting kicked out of our house today and we have no idea where we are going. So if you're going to send mail, send it to the mission office address. 

Some old relics :'(

But other than that this week was pretty good. I was hardly in our area so I really don't have much to talk about. We went on exchanges with Malta and with Rupert and they were both good exchanges. It was nice to be back in that area. I do miss it truly. We had a really good week, but I don't remember much since it was Conference Weekend and I was too excited for it and not only that I got sick...again... It sucks so much. Luckily now, I'm better, but I still have problems. 

I loved Conference so much and one of the things that I loved the most was one of the talks given Saturday Morning. The speaker spoke about forgiveness and forgiving others. I don't have the exact quote since my journal is packed away, but next week I will deliver. 

Some combined studies

This week was really great and really fun, I just have a bad memory right now as to what happened. I will post pictures and hopefully that will make up for what I did not post. 

Elder Ruesch 

Found this and started thinking of you Mom

Week 74 - I See Fire (3/26/2018)

Some sweet guitars
(thought of my brother)

This week has been such a good and fast week. It's hard to remember everything that went on, but we shall see what I can muster up. On Monday we had a great time with Preparation Day and also trying to figure out all the insurance and fixing my phone. Didn't figure it out, but we had good lessons that night and a lot of good invitations handed out that evening. 

Tuesday we had a meeting all day and it was really long and I was tired by the end of it. We got home and had a good lesson with one of our investigators and it was really awesome!! The Spirit was definitely in the room as we were asking questions that were truly inspired. It was a great turn out.

Wednesday we had another meeting, but it wasn't so long so we were actually able to get things done. We went on Exchanges and I got to go back to Declo and it was awesome!! I miss that area soo much!! We tried a lot of Hispanic people and it was cool seeing them again!! I did get to see a lot of familiar faces! Oh how I miss that area.

Some sweet guitars
(thought of my brother)

Thursday we got a lot done! We exchanged back and then we did our famous weekly planning session and got through it pretty roughly. The struggle was real as we let go of some of our investigators to focus more on the Less Actives here in Rupert. But in the end, it will all be worth it. We then tried a whole bunch of names and people trying to see if we could visit them and the struggle was real yet again! It was certainly a grind to go through the day. But we made it!

Friday, another meeting and it again it was incredibly short. We went and had lunch and it was pretty good. We then went and hit the grind again trying to meet with people. We hit a dead end. So we ended up trying to figure out the insurance policies on my phone and we were able to figure it out!! And I was able to get my phone sent out that day!! It was great!! We then just got to work and tried so many people. Had a good lesson that night creating a lesson for a lesson that was going to be given on Sunday (hope that didn't confuse anyone). 

Some sweet guitars
(thought of my brother)

Saturday was just a straight grind. We were working all day trying to invite any Hispanic we could find to this party. All of our lessons cancelled and weren't home so we just pulled every name out of the books and went out on an inviting spree. Thankfully with technology, we were able to message the invitation out to a lot of people. It was cool as we went out and invited cause we saw one of the ladies we invited, show up. It was cool as we were led by the Spirit to her house and to give her an invitation. Spirit is a great compass. The party was a huge success as we saw 26 people show up!! It was incredible!! Elder Cooke was in awe and so was I. A lot more people showed up than we thought. Some from which we didn't know! So that was great!! Say you have free food and people show up!!

Sunday was a good day. It was packed with meetings and surprises! One of the families that was at the party, came to church!! It was awesome!!! We loved it!! Everything was in Spanish and I felt right at home!! It was wonderful!! We concluded the day with a lot of meetings. I was surprised as to how many meetings you could have in one day. 

Bowling score (I'm the top and my comp is right below me)

Well this week was great and it was fun filled. I love the work that I am doing and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I love you all and I miss you all! There's always a special place for all of you in my heart!!

Elder Ruesch  

View from Declo

View from Declo

View from Declo