Week 81 - Confused?? (5/14/2018)

Something that I made out of boredom

So this week has been pretty weird to say the least. To start off with a little catch up from last week. We played some soccer at a park and wow do I need to come out of retirement. I've got some speed still, but not all the way there haha... We then went out and got to work in trying to find some new people. It was rough, but we had a good night to say the least. 

Tuesday as well was interesting. We did studies early in the morning and after lunch we just got busy trying to teach. We had an appointment and when we got there an unfamiliar lady answered. She told us that the lady we had planned to see, is going to the hospital. We were scared and we have been hoping everything was alright. The friend of the lady that also lives there pulled in and we tried talking to him, but he looked upset and just seemed to want to shew us off. So we left without questioning. We went on a finding spree and found houses, just not a lot of people home. Farming season gets tough at times. We met some people who really just weren't fans of Joseph Smith and who he was as a person. It intrigues me when people talk about him, they always talk about him as a person and not as a Prophet of God. We're all imperfect, the only that is perfect was Christ. But anyways, we had a lesson at 4 that we were trying to scramble last minute to get someone to come with us and we were able to get a Spanish Speaking member to come with us to the lesson. What a miracle it was to have them there. We then had an amazing appointment that night with an amazing family!! Spirit was there!!! We extended the baptismal invitation and they accepted! 

A makeshift bench press

Wednesday is when things started to become confusing. It was nice and sunny as the day started. We did a quick study and then off to a lesson that we had. We got there and we had this great plan, but it was really difficult to implement it. I don't know why... We then did the rest of our studies and then went and did some service. We got lost on the way there and it was pretty funny. I almost drove us out into a field... We eventually got to the house we were looking for (should've looked at what the address was instead of the dot on the map) and we were able to pull some easy weeds. This is when things got weird. It went from nice and sunny, to a light drizzle, then to rain, to humid, to cloudy, and stayed at cloudy. It was really weird. We then rushed back to our house to change for an appointment, then got ourselves ready and in we went. Had a good lesson there and then went to dinner. After dinner we had an appointment cancel on us so we ended up doing some finding. Found some good potentials and hopefully they'll be good in the future. To finish the night we had a lesson with a Hispanic lady. It was weird too cause we had this lesson plan and we ended up throwing it out the window and went with what the spirit told us. Pretty neat if I say so myself. 

Thursday...the struggle of weekly planning. We got planned out and I wasn't feeling good when we got up, so it was a bit hard for me to focus. We got planned and right about 12:30 I started to feel better. We headed back home and realized we were running late to get to our interviews and we got there late. We waited awhile cause our President took a phone call and we had to wait that out. Good interview and some good things talked about. We made our way back to Buhl after Elder Livingston had his interview and we hit the work grind. Did some good. Had more work grind after dinner. Then we taught an English Class which was fun. We then went back to finding. 

Friday we had a meeting and it was cool. After the meeting we darted back to Buhl and had a quick, short lesson with one of our investigators. After that we did studies and we did some service for a member. Stacked a lot of wood. It was pretty fun. We then had dinner and we did get lost for a second, but we found out was eventually. While we were at dinner, we had one appointment cancel on us and so we had to figure out what to do. So, by the guidance of the Spirit, we went to Narnia and tried to contact some Spanish names. We found some cool people and some we couldn't find home, but there is always a next time. We then ended up contacting one of our investigators to set something up and we were able to. 

Saturday is when things got weird. We woke up and it was raining. Constant rain. We had some appointments and one of them wasn't there so we went out and tried finding again. We were definitely guided as we did what we did. We were able to find a potential investigator family that we thought had dropped off the face of the planet. It was a cool miracle as to how we found them. We talked with them and we shared what the Book of Mormon is. As we testified of it, it touched them and the accepted a copy of it. We then did some more finding and we found out that a lot of Hispanic families moved out, or just aren't Hispanic, but have that Hispanic last name. Pretty funny. We closed the night after lots of finding with a really cool lesson with another investigator that has a baptismal date. It's hard getting back into the grove of teaching in English. Spanish, no problem, English, give me a second. Don't know why... Little confused, but I'll somehow overcome it. 

Sunday, what a good day. Woke up and it was still raining. We went to church and had a good time in the first ward we went to. In the second ward we went to I ended up translating for a Spanish Sister. It was hard! One of the people that spoke was speaking so fast and would bounce back and forth between stories. The other two speakers, I did alright with. We then went to class and ended up translating again. This time for a different Sister, who is one of our investigators. Elder Livingston said the funniest thing to me, he said, "You translate for her since she's our investigator, I'll translate to the member that knows little English." I chuckled when he said that. As I was listening to him translate, I was thinking, he would've done fine translating for our investigator. He's got really good Spanish. Well after church we did our studies and then we had the great time to call home!! I loved being able to talk to my family. What a treat it was!! After that we went and had dinner and then we met some new people. We looked at where we were and we tried some people. Talked at the door briefly. And then we looked at the map. I had no idea where to go, but I saw this cool house and it intrigued me. Coincidentally enough, Elder Livingston had his finger on the house with some names and we went to it. We got in and we talked to these two awesome guys. Both are members and one of them was just visiting his friend. The awesome part was that they told us that they were literally just talking about us for two hours!! Not us specifically, but missionaries in specific! It was awesome as we talked and shared testimony of what we know to be true. 

This week has just been really filled with miracles and I can definitely attest to that!! This is the Lord's work!! There is no doubt about it!! I love you all and miss you all!! Hope all is well with you back home!! Have a great week everybody!!!

Elder Ruesch