Denver Harbor - August 18, 2014

This week was a bit of an interesting week. Right now we are really weeding through the people that aren't progressing. We're going to be focusing a lot on finding soon and I'm praying that we find someone really special. We don't really have a whole lot of people to teach right now but sometimes it happens. Something fun this week is that I am going to be doing the Haka again but this time with a lot more people. We are going to do a Zone P day Talent show and I didn't really want to do anything else! I'm excited but it's a little different than the one that I did before. Hopefully everything goes well. Just so you know the bike is holding up pretty well. I may have to take it in for some repairs in a few weeks but right now it is doing fine.

That's really neat about receiving revelation. I've found that it is hard to listen to the spirit if you haven't been doing it all ready. A lot of things in this world distract us and unless we are always trying to pay attention then it's really hard to hear it. It's also really neat how we are always in a calling for some reason. As missionaries we are always in an area for some reason.

I'm 99.99% sure that I am going to be released on August 4th. What will happen is that I'll go to Transfer meeting on Tuesday and then spend the day in the mission home and sleep in the AP's apartment. Then I'll wake up, go to the temple, and fly home on Wednesday. I'll be flying home with a bunch of people I know so that will be cool. If Harrison wants to wait that's fine! I'd love to see him before he goes. It's his decision definitely.

Yeah August is going to be the hottest month. It says 90s but because of the humidity it's like 100. Texas is FLAT. There are absolutely no hills or anything. The most that we have is a tiny hill in our area. It's cool though because you have a great view of downtown, amazing sunsets, and it's not too hard biking.
I had a lot of really cool moments. A lot of it was just looking back and seeing how far that I've come and looking to the future and seeing how much further I have to go. Hey that reminds me... I'm hitting my year mark this week! Man that is so crazy. A year ago I was with y'all getting ready to leave to Mexico City and now I'm here in Houston Texas serving as a missionary. I feel like I knew nothing back then and now I have had my eyes opened in a way.

Well I'm going to ask you what advice would you give me now that I've got only a year left. When I left you told me to "just have fun with it" and that was the best advice ever. Just so you know I've had a really good time and I've learned a lot. I'm becoming a better person though definitely not there yet. Lately I've been focusing a lot on living in the moment and working as hard as I can with the time that I have. I still feel pretty inexperienced I think that I'll always feel like that.

I love looking at the stars. We don't really get to see them because of all of the light pollution from the city but it's okay. Mole is the best but just so you know there is no option. You have to eat it with the tortilla! Rarely do I eat a dinner without a tortilla in hand. I think that I've eaten more meals with a tortilla than a fork.

Love you!

Elder Ressler

Denver Harbor - August 11, 2014

I had one really great experience that I would like to share. There is a less active member in our ward. He's asked us to come over and give his a blessing a bunch of times to help him sleep. Last night he texted us for a blessing. We walked in and gave him a blessing. After the blessing was over he thanked us so much and said that he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of him. It was a great experience and Elder Woodruff and I both felt really happy to have been able to help.

Man that's awesome that you guys got to eat Mole! We had some of it on Friday. I've heard that it is super hard to make but sometimes they sell packets of it at the store. There is this one Hermana in our ward who makes SUPER good Mole. I really want to learn how to so that I can make it for y'all later on.

Hey by the way I had a crazy Spanish experience yesterday. Obispo came up to me 2 minutes before sacrament meeting started and asked me if I could help translate for a returned missionary who only spoke English. I have to admit that it was a little rough but everyone understood and it turned out okay. It makes me want to learn Spanish a little better which will be good because I have a year left to really get it down.

I have to admit that I haven't been the best at keeping a journal but I am getting better. Right now I am writing a couple times a week and I'm trying to take more pictures.

Love,

Elder Ressler

Denver Harbor - August 4, 2014

The mission is going really well. I'm having a really good time with Elder Woodruff and I'm learning a whole lot. I can't believe how fast time has been going by. Lately everything has pretty much been the same. A couple of days ago it hit hundreds which was SOOOO HOT but we made it to Tuesday which rained all day.

Thanks so much for fasting for us this week! That's great that you guys made a family mission plan! We've been working a lot with the ward trying to help them to create their own and they finished it about a month ago. It's really important to plan what you are going to do to be a better missionary. Planning is tough sometimes but so worth it. This week I'll be looking for specific blessings that came from y'all's fast!

I've really seen a huge difference between those who magnify their callings and those who don't here. There are some people who just want to sit on the side lines and watch everyone do the work. Then there are others who are actively trying to help. I've also seen a lot of people try and blame other people for the things that happen and I've come to know that it just doesn't do any good.

That's awesome that your friend got sealed in the temple this last week! I bet that you are super happy for him. It's really tough to see marriages end but I'm so happy that he's been able to get married again! Something interesting that our stake president said is that those who end up going less active usually do not have all of the saving ordinances done. I've learned a lot about how important the temple really is.

This week we had a really neat experience. We met with President Drake on Tuesday for interviews and during that time we were able to learn a lot about attitude. The APs passed out a talk that they wanted us to read that is called "every missionary can baptize" which talks a lot about how attitude makes a difference. It said that a lot of times we as missionaries create doubts that make it impossible for us to act with faith. It used the example of walking into a home and see the husband of a family light a cigarette and then subconsciously begins to doubt that he will want to give up smoking. It's true that a lot of times things like that happen. It's our job to get rid of those doubts and one of the ways we can do that is to have visual reminders of miracles that have happened in the past. We are all going to be making a miracle board and posting it up in our room so that we all can remember the miracles that have already happened in our missions. For me I think that one of my favorite miracles is being able to baptize Cesar and then watching him baptize his dad. I also found out from Elder Ek that Cesar is starting to attend mission prep too and it makes me really happy to know that he is doing well.

I haven't gained too much weight on my mission if any but I would like to have a little bit more energy and feel healthier. In all honesty I don't think there is any specific food that you could send me. Mostly I just miss your cooking but that's okay. Here we eat a lot of meat and things that probably aren't the greatest for us. We eat tortillas at every meal which I'm fine with but it's not so healthy. I've decided on my favorite food out her by the way. My favorite food is called Mole. It's pretty much a chicken leg with this amazing chocolate sauce. It doesn't sound that great when I explain it like that but it is super good. If you ever go to a Mexican restaurant you guys should see if they have some it's awesome.

Love ya

Elder Ressler