Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 12: Odd Fruit

So here's what’s up from my part of the world!

We've had to drop a few investigators this week... I absolutely hate dropping investigators. A couple that we were teaching wasn't coming to church, were having marital problems that we couldn't really help with, so they'll be talking with the Mission President to help them with their problems... And we also had to drop another family. The Husband is already a member, but extremely inactive, and the wife says that she is only taking the discussions so that she can follow her husband... So they aren't too committed to the Gospel. So with these two families we're going to take a break from them for a while... But other than that this week was pretty good! Here are our stats:

14 Investigators with a Baptismal Date Marked

9 Investigators attended Sacrament Meeting

21 Lessons this week

17 New Investigators!!!

So the work here is just going crazy good!

Recently we've been trying to work a lot with the inactive members of the ward. We typically have about 100 people attending church, which isn't too bad. But when you consider that there are 405 registered members of our ward, and we only have a 25% turn out rate, we realize that we have a lot of reactivation work to do! So that is going to be our focus for the next little while!

We're getting nearer to the end of the transfer, and I'm pretty sure that Elder Badger is going to be finishing up my training! But he isn't sure! He has a friend that is coming into the mission this next transfer and is hoping that he'll be able to train him, so he is kind of hoping that he gets transferred to train him. You might think that I am offended by that, but I'm really not! I understand that he's got a friend that he wants to spend time with. But I don't think anything is going to change this transfer!

I'm so excited for the next few transfers and I really hope I stay! We have a lot of investigators scheduled with their baptismal dates in the next couple of transfers! As for the baptism we were supposed to have on September 5, we had to push it back a couple of weeks. Her name is Joanna. She is 11 years old and her Aunt and Uncle that she lives with are semi recent converts who are working to go to the temple! Her Aunt and Uncle are solid members of the church and Joanna loves Church and comes every week! The reason we had to push her back is because she lives out in Trevo, which is the furthest part of our area, and we haven't had a whole lot of time to go out there and teach her. But you'd better believe that we'll be out there a lot in these next couple of weeks!

Our investigators, Bento and Edilta, are just doing great! We've started on their paperwork to get them married so that they can get baptized! They are so solid! They come to church every week; they are super fun to be with! I love them so much! We meet with them about 3 times a week, and see them all the time! I love them so much!

I've had quite a few encounters with drunken people this week, and an Elder in my district almost killed one... This drunken man was walking toward them on the street and bumped into them pretty hard. He went tumbling into the street, and had it not been for a slow moving Choppa, he would have tumbled into busy traffic! The drunken man bumped into this Choppa which sent him tumbling back onto the side walk! Drunken people are crazy here! I love talking to the drunken people just because it is super funny, plus they make for good stories home! Haha! But, for my mother's sake, I'll try to keep those encounters to a minimum!

Congratulations to Tobie and Austin! I'm so excited for you guys! The Temple is an amazing place. Being on a mission and teaching the doctrine that families can be sealed for time AND eternity has really become a huge deal for me. I really wish that people realized the importance that the temple can have in their lives. Marriage in this life is "till death do you part." How sad is that! That is depressing! That is NOT how God intended Marriage to be. When God married Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he intended them to be together forever. If they had not partaken of the fruit, they would have been married together for eternity. Love is not temporary. God intends a man and his wife to be together forever. EVEN after death. Through the blessings of the temple, families can and will be together after death. The same love, relationship, and respect that they have for one another will carry on into the life after death. Death is not the end; I promise. Every time I watch the Mormon Message, "Because of Him", I can't help but feel of the Great Love that God has for each and every single one of us. Imagine sending your firstborn son, like a lamb to the slaughter, to die so that your other children might live. Imagine the suffering, the pains, the ridicule and mockery that Christ endured. He did it for you. He did it so that you can experience happiness. So that you can have the opportunity to return to your Father in Heaven. So that you can be cleansed from the sins and stains of the world that we live in. Imagine the love that Christ has for you. He knows exactly what you are going through; because He experienced it. He has felt every sickness, every worry, every pain, and every heartache. He has felt that sorrow that comes with a miscarriage of a child. He has felt the pain of watching your children make wrong choices. He has felt the heartache that accompanies divorce. He has felt EVERYTHING. You can and should turn to Him. Use His atonement. Turn to God. Trust Him. And He will never let you down. Okay, let me step down off of my soap box.

Today should be pretty cool! We're going to the snake market! Believe it or not, they don't sell snakes there! The missionaries gave it that name because the little shops zig zag in a snake pattern, you know? Like a squiggly line! But they have a lot of traditional wood work there that you can get for really cheap! So we're pretty much going souvenir shopping!

This past week we ate some pretty odd fruit! It's called Masala! Imagine a large caramel apple! That is what it looked like, but then you crack it open like a coconut! Inside is this ball of something green that you have no idea what to do with it! It is slimy, squishy, and all stuck together in one big ball, so you take that out and take a bite. Imagine eating brains, or mushy bananas, and it tasted like mushy bananas! But there are Hundreds of seeds in it as well! They are about the size of marbles that have been flattened a little bit, and they are perfectly smooth! The fruit was delicious and odd! I'm going to bring the seeds home and plant the tree to see if it grows! Haha!

So on Tuesday night we had a meeting at the Church building! When the meeting was over, Elder Stewart heard some rain! So I got super excited and ran outside just to find that it was dry as can be, without a cloud in the sky! I came back inside and could still hear water pouring down somewhere! I opened one of the doors to one of the rooms, and saw water spilling down from the ceiling! After some inspection, I climbed up into the attic and found that the hot water heater had burst somewhere internally and water was pouring out of it. Bishop and all of us missionaries eventually got it shut off and cleaned up, but it was pretty crazy! That took up our entire night, so we didn't have any lessons that night!

Well, that's all I've got for now! I'll let you know how transfers go next week! This transfer has absolutely flown by! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Rash

Ficus Tree that reminded Ryland of Home

Wire and Soda Can Race Car that the children make and push with sticks. Check out Ryland's shoes....no way to ever keep then clean and polished on dusty dirt roads.