Package IMPORTANT

hey can you let everybody know when they send me a package the name has to be

Christopher Ruesch

Do not put Elder!!!!!!

Thank you

Week 18

so this week lots of traveling!! i used to love traveling but know we do it so much its starting to get so annoying!! but it has to be done! um..... so this week is transfers again! so that means Elder Ruesch get a new companion again!!!! Always a scary thought you never know what he will be like. ive been praying god will send me the companion i need. i still have a lot to learn i need sombody who can help me with those things. but i guess we ll see what god has planned for me! because the truth is i can pray and beg for my idea of what i need but i honestly have no idea what i need. just what i want. god knows what i need exactally and maybe what i need isnt for my mission. maybe god wants me to learn somthing for later on in my life. who knows.. oh ya thats right.... God know.. haha

this week i had a really cool experience. i really enjoy reading the new testament. but something ive found to be really cool is when i read a chapter i then go and read my good ole friend Elder Talmages thoughts on that chapter or story out of jesus the christ!!! wow talk about power. i honestly dont think there is any man on this earth that is smarter then him. half the things i read in that book go right over my head but it is still great! so i read a few different stories just about some of the miricles during the mortal ministry of jesus christ.... and when i then read about them in jesus the christ i had the strongest comfirmation of the truthfullness of my brother jesus christ. my heart was so full with so many thoughts and ideas but when i tried to write them down in my journal i didnt know how to explain it. it was way beyond what i was capable to explain.. out off all the things i have gained a testimony on so far during my mission is that jesus christ is my brother and my redeemer he died for me and he loves me so very much... ahhhhh i cant even explain my love for him.

i love you!!!!

Elder Ruesch

Week 17

Hey mom!!! so This is terrible timing for no time to email this week. elder talvane wanted to go on this huge bike ride so we just got back and its actaully when were supposed to be out working.... whooopps!!

but ill tell you about the baptism really quick!!

so yes iascara did pick me to baptize her! so cool my first baptism was in a forign country in a forign language and in the ocean!!! heck ya! so we have the pre part with the talks and prayer and hymns. that was at the branch presidents house. after we got in the car and drove to a part of the beach that we thought wouldnt really have a lot of people. well when we got there there was a few diffent groups of people so we had to walk a little ways to get away from them. but then we started!! i went first. so we entered the ocean. then i asked iascara for her whole name. and it is iascara asdfiojpasiopdfhaopisdhfiop aosdfpiasdoifpu.... ya i have no idea what it is she said it to me and i was like what?????? elder talvane had to mouth it to me during the baptism for me to say it. after i said the prayer part we had to wait for a wave big enough to get her fully submerged. it was so funny it hits us then im trying to keep myself from falling and trying to make sure she goes all the way under. gosh it was crazy!! but after i was on of the testimonies for the other baptism so i stayed int he water and watch the other.

after we took some pictures then went back to the house of the president and finished up! mom it was so cool! just the how i was able to use my preisthood to help somebody else was such an amazing experience!! i cant wait for more!

well sorry its supper sort today. i promise ill send some pictures of the baptism next week!!

i love you so much!!!

Elder Ruesch

Week 16

Alright Family!!!!

Well this week.... not a whole lot . we actually spent most of the week in joinville because we had a zone conference then the next day we had interviews with the president.. so i actually wasnt in my area very much this week. but we were still able to do some good..

my interview was awesome! i have been a little un easy about my president before the interview. unfortunetally my first day in the area one of the elders in the office tried to give me the scoop on every thing about the mission. lets just say it wasnt all good. so he had me worried a little. but my interview went great! president is a very busy guy but he loves every one of his missionaries! and the best part was i think i understood about maybe 70 percent of what he said. so thats an improvment for me.

um ohh before i forget again!!!! mom and brittney and jamie i have received your packages! thank you so much for everything in them! nothing makes you feel better then getting a huge box of american stuff!!!

So we have 2 investigators marked for baptism this saturday!! coolest part...... We get to have the baptism in the ocean!!!!!! i dont know if i get to actually do the baptism but atleast a witness so i get to go in the water!!! um so these investigators are deffinetally a blessing. they kinda just fell out of the sky! they had been taught all the lessons but they work at a bar so they had some problems with some things. and they werent married.. just like every body here in brasil!!!!!grrrrrrr. but one day i hear there getting married. so a couple days after we go over to there house and they asked ok... um ... when can we be baptized..... are you kidding me!!!! um how about in a week... well okay two weeks becuase this week is carnival.... lets just say they were a little busy working at the bar this week. but ya im so excited. oh the best part is because they were progressing any more the missionaries had stopped visitng them. i didnt really even know about them. so even though the missonaries werent working with them anymore they were still working by themselves and they fixed all there difficulties that they had.. so we really didnt have to do anything. they were just ready to go.... what a blessing!!

so ya carnival this week. lets just say a little crazy. it actually hasnt been to bad. just really loud at nights and alot of people here in the little town of itapoá but its kind of a cool experience!!

but ya thats about it for this week.
i love you All!!!!

Love Elder Ruesch

Week 15 - PICTURES!

Week 14

so this week i got a new companion!! yes so that means that is on more transfer done. Elder alison was a great companion. but nothing like my new one. From what i can tell i am going to make some good head way this transfer. in two days i already speak way better portuguese and i under stand a lot more. no where even close to ready but im makeing head way. so Elder Talvane is my new companion. this is his last transfer. that scares me a little. i can already see the trunkiness coming out. but i think he will be pretty good about it. hes trained a few differnt elders in the mission. hes last american companion that he trained has become on of the best missionaries in the mission. right now hes serving in the office and the financial secretary. he speaks perfect portuguese. now i know that doesnt automaticaly mean i will to. i have to put in the same amount of work as he did or more if i want to become anything close to what my heavely father wants me to be. but i know god has given me this blessing becuase he know i will take what he gives me and run absoulutly as far as i can with that. i just feel like god has more planned for me in this mission then just a mission. i feel like i do some very amazing things here.

its so funny how my whole life i have always feared the unknown. i absolutly hated it!!! and still to this day i am not a huge fan of it. but what i have learned is the time i grow on the mission is i am 100 percent uncomfterable. like yesterday. i had to show my new companion how to get to our area by myself. ya okay that means busses reading signs. talking to people. gosh it was so scary!! i didnt not know if i could do it. but i tried to put all my faith in god and ya we made it there without any flaws. and that is just a tiny portion of the expericences ive had here with strange situations i was uncomfterable in. but every one helps me grow to be the missionary i want to be. oh gosh the thought of wanting to go home comes into my mind every day. but i cant even stand the thought of how my life would be without this mission. the thought of not living a life to total capacity seems unbarable. i cant wait to see where i will be by the end of my mission. it will be absoulutly amazing!!

Well i love you all!
Elder Ruesch

Week 13

so if there is one thing i can tell you ive learned here on my mission is god seems to be confusing.. i feel like i can either never get a answer or its never a straight answer. but what ive come to find out... alot of times... we are actually the ones that are making it confusing.. maybe hes trying to tell you both ways will be okay. both ways will work out. i dont know exactally what he has told you or not so far. but i know that every time we teach a first lesson the first thing we talk about is our greatest gift that god has given us is our family.. they really are important. think where you would be without your family.

talk to you again next week

love elder ruesch

Week 10 and 11

[Week 10 was transfers so we didn't get e-mails from Chrissy!]

okay family!!!! so i dont even know where to start.... well my new area is called itapoá. its right on the beach. my appartment is in looking distance but of coarse i never do that because that is not a good place for missionaries. haha so lets see. okay new years. not to exciting. just spent it with a members. we got to her house around 7 pm and i was not having it. i didnt want to be there again until 1 in the morning... then to add to it i found out we werent going to eat for over 3 hours. oh thats cool i just havent eaten since noon. but that was rude of me and i have repented of my sin.. haha well once midnight rolled around we were eating and we watched the firework show on tv... i dont know if that is against the rules but... it was amazing best ive ever seen. it lasted over 15 minutes and it was of the coast and they were shooting the fireworks off of like ten different barges. amazing

um so this week i finally started to actually open my mouth just a little. at times people actually seem like they understand what im saying so thats a positive. or for all i know they just nod their head and act like they know what im saying. oh the other day were walking to contact more like normal and this man says something. so i give him the regular thumbs up like i do to everybody becuase there either saying he retard in portuguese or something else i dont understand. but he says it again. and i barely could make out what he said but it was do you speak english. in english. this man has seribral palsy....sorry mom.. i know i spelled that wrong.... but he was such a nice man. he asked me if he could practice his english with me. and of coarse i said yes. so we walked to this old folks home with him where he live. and he was just telling me all about his friends and where his family lives. he was a little difficult to hear only because he was really quite. but his accent was actually really good. i could have guessed he was american. but that was cool..

um we taught a lesson to a lady we met yesterday while trackting. her name was sandra. she lives alone with 5 kids. but we taught her the restoration and it was amazing. by the end she was just balling her eyes out. probably the best lesson weve had so far. i loved it. i just hope she can remember those feelings for next time.

well im going to send some pictures so that will take me a few minutes so thats it for this week i need to be better at writing things down during the week so i can remember what to write for you guys.. but ill make sure i do better!! i love you all!! thank you for everything you do!!

love Elder Ruesch

Week 9

okay fam!! sorry this is going to be really short!! yes i finally left for my area! it really difficult but it will get better! im learning the language fast. but it will deffinetally take some time!! my area is right on the beach and you can see the beach right from my front door! i hope everything will work out tomorrow with the skype!!! remember to log in around 11 o clock california time and i should call you guys on skype within the next hour!! make sure you stay by the computer so you can answer when i call!! 

well sorry i have to go but i love you all!!! 

Elder Ruech

Week 8

sooooo!!!! this week was crazzzzyyyy!!! we went prosoliting for the first time! on monday we went out for a 3 hours. i was starting to freak out in during the morning. but the worst was when they handed me 2 copies of the book of mormon. when i got those i new it was legit. so we walked out and that was it. kinda interesting. i was wondering if i was going to have the spirit just tell me where to go? but when i did walk out i was pretty normal. i decided which way to go and that was it. we started walking. we would see sombody probably like a mile away walking towards us. we would get ourself all mentaly prepared but when they actually were right in front of us i would just say hi and thats it. hahaha but finally we just decided we had to do it. so we walked up to this guy that was sitting on his motorcycle. i went up and started to talk in my broken protuguese. i said hi then started to tell him who i was and what i was doing. then he said something...... um ya i had no idea what he said. so i just countinued to talk then we says in a little bit of a mad tone that he was working.. i definetally understood him that time. so we moved on. kept talking the little bit that we can. then this guy was walking really fast so i almost didnt stop him but then i kinda just stook my hand out and said hi my names elder ruesch blah blah blah... so we ended up giving away our first book of mormon. i felt so legit. i was sure he was going to be a conversion right there. then about thirty seconds go by and i relize i forgot to tell him our phone number if he had any questions or if he wanted to meet with us to learn more. ahahahaa i felt like kirby on the best two years when he realizes he didnt tell the lady the address and he starts running after her and his companion has to chase after him and make him stop. haha price less

         so we countinued for a little more and handed our two more copies one was really good that other was more like a pitty thing. but good practice. so we walked around for about like thirty minutes and couldnt really get anybody to talk to us. so we moved over to a different area. i stoped this older lady and started to talk to her. she was very nice. turns out shes catholic and very firm in her beliefs. but she let us talk. we talked for about an hour in our very bad portuguese. but we ended up having a very good conversation. she seemed very interested. and you could tell a few time that she felt something during a couple different times of our conversations. i mean i have no idea if she is going to do anything with it. but i know we did our part for her. hopefully she will trust in the promptings of the holy ghost and do what is right.

         so that was monday.... but today is wednesday. so let me tell you what ive done so far!!!!!! today we went to this grill with our instructor because its our last p day in the ctm. so this place was amazing. the food was so good. they would bring all differnt kinds of meat around on these huge stake thing then just cut the meat of for you on to your plate. and it was all you can eat. one time they came around with chicken heart...... i wasnt so sure but i did it anyways. it wasnt to bad until i started thinking about what it was that i was eating. and it was very rubbery so it made it a little difficult but other then that it was sooooooooo good!! best part it was on 20 reals($10) so it was well worth the money. 

        so next week on tuesday is when i go to the field. so i dont know when i will have a p day next. so it might be 2 weeks until you hear from me. actually on CHRISTMAS yayayayaya. i dont know how this is all going to work out. i dont know if its skype or not but im sure they have me tell you before hand so. oh and for mission ties for me to get my letters sent to me when im in the field somebody will have to update me address in the account informations on the website every transfer or else it will get sent to the wrong place. so i  will send you and email with my address and let you know. um probably dont sent any more letters with mission ties after sunday until i give you guys my address to update it with. umm well i think thats it for this week.