Week 95 - History was Made (8/20/2018)

So this has been a really good week!! Last week on Monday we were able to go on Exchanges with the Elders up in Wendell. I stayed in the area and I was with a Visa Waiter Elder. It was really cool being with him cause he just wants to work!! It was awesome!! We had a really good night contacting people and finding people that hopefully are ready for the Gospel.

Tuesday we had a good start to things. We had to do a bunch of studies first cause he's a new missionary and after we got all of that squared away we went to work. We went to a subdivision that we started tracting, but never quite finished and we went and finished tracting it. It was a nice hot day to be walking. By the time that we finished, we were beat. We met a lot of cool people with interesting stories, but no one that was quite interested to hear what we had to say. We got into our car and we were just about to leave, when we got a text from our recent convert who lives in the area and she asked us if we would like an ice cream to cool down with. So we took up the offer cause all of our cold water was gone and hot. Went over and had an ice cream and we tried asking her for maybe someone we could go see or an idea we could try to find someone. She gave us ideas and we put them to the test. She even gave us challenge to get one of her neighbors to church. I was quite taken by the challenge so we accepted and extended the same challenge. Went and contacted a few more names, had dinner, and then went to a correlation meeting that night. We tried a few more people and then went to Wendell to exchange back.

Wednesday was a pretty good day too. It was a straight work day and we just went on one trying to contact people. It was nuts!! So we switched things up and we tried contacting someone. We didn't find him home so we continued on and tried some other names. It was pretty crazy as we kept going down the list of people. Eventually took a break and we went back at it. Had some studies and tried some people. We had a dinner and then a break for a quick service opportunity. We helped out on of the members move some fruit that they just had shipped in from Washington. Did a few more contact attempts and called it.

Thursday....was pretty boring. We just did a lot of planning... Nothing to eventful. We tried some people and met with someone that we thought had disappeared, but is back in Jerome for the time being. We then went on a little exchange to meet with a Spanish guy. I went with Elder Conner and we had a good discussion with him. We were able to give him a copy of The Book of Mormon to read cause he doesn't have one from when he moved up here. Pretty cool.

Friday. Wow!! That was a spiritually filling day!! We had a quick study session in the morning and then we took off for Twin Falls for Mission Tour 2.0!!! History was made at this one. For starters, the entire mission was gathered together and the icing  on the cake, we had An Apostle and 3 Members of the Seventy with us along with their wives!! It was a remarkable experience and the things that we learned were amazing!! It was really neat to have Elder Renlund visit with us as a mission it was super neat!! We were all so spiritually fed that it was kind of hard to return back to our areas. We had dinner in Twin and then made our way back to Jerome for an appointment that we had scheduled that night. It was a really good lesson as we went over the baptismal interviews with the lady that we were teaching. It was super humbling to hear her personal testimony of the Restoration and why there was a need for a Restoration. 

Saturday was a good day too. Went and tried some people and had a good correlation meeting. We were able to help out our Ward Mission Leader with some flooring in his spare house that they are renovating. It was pretty cool. Then we helped missionaries out with some things. In the midst of it all, we all had an idea of going to the car show here in Jerome and trying to find some people. Someone that we are trying to work with said he'd be there and to find him there. We didn't find him. But we did find some other people and some really nice cars!! I was in car paradise!! They even had two Super Cars!! The Nissan GTR and the Lamborghini Huracane!!! We all took photos with them... We then got busy trying some people and then had dinner. Had a really good dinner and we even got a bike out of it!! Elder Tauanu'u got this bike that a missionary left with a member here almost 2 years ago. So we took it off their hand and brought it back to our place. Tried fixing it up and we almost got it working. Something is wrong with the gear change so we took that in to Twin Falls today to get it looked at. 

Sunday was a good day as well. Full of church meetings like normal. After church had a quick snack. Tried some people. Gave some rides to the other missionaries. Did a study and went to dinner. Really good dinner and we then tried some people. Had some good findings and we even got to talk with someone that we haven't been able to see for awhile. Closed the night with some more contacting which was nice.

It's been a good week. Some news from this morning. So we've got this application on our smartphones that is kind of like a baby sitter monitoring and filtering all that we do and download. Well today, it crashed and removed all the apps that were downloaded through it and has ban listed them. Pretty funny. So the only thing that we really have working is our email, gospel library, and a few other apps. Our planning tool was removed and now we are back to the old school way. Hopefully this gets fixed soon. Otherwise, this will be a long week. Well I love you all and miss you all!! Hope that you enjoy these emails!! Soon, I'll be able to tell all of this in person!!! Love you all!!

Elder RUESCH