I'm doing great! We had a really great week this week! Our investigators are doing pretty good and the family we just baptized is doing great! We had a lot more people come to church this week. And we feel very optimistic about what's going on. I'm super excited about serving here! I'm just a little worried that I'll end up getting transferred but I will let you know what happens by next week. It's been awesome serving here and I feel like I've grown a lot.
It's super hard to see a missionary get sick. Both times when Elder Long hurt himself the first thing that he told me was that he doesn't want to go home. We'll see what happens but I think that he'll be able to stay. We'll probably end up going to the doctor again this week to get an MRI and then we'll know for sure. I'll keep you posted. By the way Elder Strong officially got here on Wednesday. I haven't been able to see him or talk with him but I know he's in West Lake Houston which is about an hour or two away from me.
Padre me encanta hablando Espanol! Aqui dicen que Espanol es el idioma celestial! Estoy emocionado a placticar contigo despues mi mission. Yo puedo ver en tus correos electronicos que todavia hablas bien Espanol. Algo que me ayuda a hablar mejor es escuchando un capitulo en El Libro De Mormon en Espanol y despues leyendo lo en voz alto. Algo bien chido de aprendiendo espanol otra vez es que El Espiritu Santo va a ayudarte. El va a traer todos de estas cosas a ti otra vez.
I have a fishing analogy for missionary work if you want to hear it. "Missionary work is like fishing. When you find out that something isn't working then you try something new. If knocking doors seems repetitive, then try a different kind of bait. If the fish aren't biting in one area, then try a different part of the pond". I told that to Elder Jensen and Elder Long and they both thought it was ridiculous but it is so true! :)
Wow that's awesome that Harry is at Timberline! He's going to have so much fun. I really loved doing Timberline and I know he will have a great year. What's really cool is that the things they talk about really do work. We use a lot of it in the mission and it really helps us to deal with people.
I really do know that this church is true. It just makes sense. Serving out here has been one of the best experiences of my life. It hasn't all been fun and games but I'm learning to have fun even when times get rough. During the party on Saturday we were really worried that not a whole lot of people would show up. It was already time to start and we had about two tables with people on it. My companion and I were really worried and then I felt the Holy Ghost tell me, "don't look at the tables that are empty look at the ones that are full". Then right after I changed my attitude and right before we were about to start we had tons of people show up. It was a really cool lesson for me to learn to be more optimistic about situations that may look bleak.
What tradition do I miss the most? I think just playing games with everyone on Sunday. Either that or my afternoon naps :)
How has geneology been going lately. We've been being pushed by President Crawford to use geneology more on our finding and he wants us all to have our pedigree charts with us.
As promised here are some pictures! I was able to take a lot because the missionaries got put in charge of a ward party and we did a culture night/talent show. I did the haka by myself in front of tons of people.
It's kind of cool how God guides us in life through the spirit. He's able to help us to know what to do when we don't have a clue what's going on. Out here on the mission, you really learn to be guided to know where to go and what to say. One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Nephi 4:6. Elder Ek would always say that we were going 1 Nephi 4:6 when we weren't sure what was going to happen. Sometimes we just do our best and leave the rest to him.
Love you so much!
Elder Ressler
