Monday, December 28, 2015

Annapolis, MD - December 28, 2015

Merry Christmas Everybody!! Hope you all had an awesome Christmas. I love this time of year. It's been a little bit harder to talk and teach people lately because they have been busy with the holidays. It was super weird riding my bike to dinner appointments in 70 degrees with a lot of humidity. I'm not going to lie, I missed the snow a little bit.

We had an awesome miracle. This young family we lost contact with we found on the street on Tuesday. They wanted to meet with us that day and they want to meet with us again. Prayer works. This week has been good but felt really off, because we have done a lot less proselyting. Christmas Eve, Christmas and Wednesday for a mission Christmas party we just hung out, playing monopoly and basketball. The Christmas party was great because I got to see my trainer and a lot of awesome missionaries again that I haven't seen in a while like Elders Benson and Baucam. Me and my companion Elder Meyer had a blast during Christmas and we went downtown and to the mall.  

We have been getting really close to this less active family where the kids aren't baptized, because they want the kids to decide for themselves. Two of them want to start taking the lessons, and we're working with the others! We got stuffed for Christmas and all this week and Elder Meyer's mom and my mom together gave me so much candy! I don't know if it's just out here, but everyone here has those crazy hover board things where they lean and listen to music.

It was so awesome Skyping you it was definitely the highlight of my week! Man! I miss playing games with you all for Christmas! That was the most relaxing/fun thing ever. Did you eat a ton too? We had a huge feast with some senior missionaries on Sunday and then we went to visit granny and she made us eat a bunch of pie, sweet potatoes, potato salad and fried chicken. I ate so much. I think I gained some weight this week even though we rode bikes a ton.

I don't want to leave Annapolis I'm not going to lie.

Elder Ressler

Monday, December 21, 2015

Annapolis, MD - December 21, 2015

My new companion is the best he's so funny and honestly pretty humble, we really get along well. He's from Arizona. We are making tons of taco meat.

I've been listening to a bunch of Christmas music. I like Michael Buble a lot.

It was really cold here on bikes in the wind, but it's warming up and is supposed to be about 67 degrees for Christmas. I don't think it will snow for two months.

Our newest convert just got the priesthood.

Some cool things that happened are I heard "How Great Thou Art" in Burger King and I gave myself my first haircut by myself. It was super bad and I had to fix it later on in the day. I cut it way too short and forgot to blend it. And older man who was chilling on his porch was listening to "Easy" by the Commodores and I was like, "hey,  I know that song,"  then we talked to him and got a return appointment.

We are Skyping at 2 so that is 12 o'clock for you guys.

I have really tried to be more kind to everyone and I've learned people appreciate it and return the favor.

Love you! Merry Christmas!

Elder Ressler

Monday, December 14, 2015

Annapolis, MD - December 14, 2015


Hey I'm really low on time, it's a long story. I'll send you an awesome email next week. I had some trouble sending pictures, but the card reader works. Thanks so much for the package. You are really the best. Love you, Mom.


Hey so Annapolis is pretty great! We're doing a ton of biking and contacting and tearing it up out here! I'll definitely be safe. I'm like a pro bike rider now, haha. I know right. I'm staying in Annapolis. My companion is getting transferred and I'm going to miss him a ton. My new companion is going to be Elder Meyer. This next transfer is going to be crazy because the district is splitting.


We had a special mission conference where Elder Teh of the Seventy spoke to us. It was legit and so powerful, plus I got to see all the missionaries I haven't seen in a crazy long time. Ya, I talked to AJ and a bunch of the elders at the conference. They are awesome. The gangs are tight with the missionaries and look out for them. It was good.


So the other elders in our area had a baptism, and so they had to fill up the font with garbage cans like we did, but they left the hose unattended and flooded a hallway of the church.


It does not feel like Christmas because it is 70 degrees here! People here love fried chicken, love their flag, love their tims (Timbaland boots) and they always say 'ax' instead of 'ask'.


Good luck on your tests! I can't wait to Skype you, it's going to be good. Thanks. I will preach like cray cray, haha. I did go to a Christmas party one of my favorite ward members with tons of their friends. It was great.


Love you guys a ton. Merry Christmas!


Elder Ressler

Monday, December 7, 2015

Annapolis, MD - December 7, 2015

I feel pretty privileged with my area honestly. Annapolis is an expensive place to live I hear from some people. Hey we have been playing racquetball with this non member for this transfer and I'm getting the hang of it now. We convinced him to come to church this week and he did! We have a member of the seventy visiting us and we have a tri zone conference I'm super excited. I don't think I'll leave this area yet either. I'm guessing one more transfer. We went shopping today mostly to look at stuff and it's hard not to buy things. We helped this member out who has been stuck in a remodeled house for 5 years because the contractors left during the economy crash in 2009 and we've been helping him a bunch and he's so grateful I can tell. It doesn't feel like December here yet because it hasn't snowed at all and won't for months they say. You wouldn't believe how much fried chicken we and everyone eat here haha. Have you checked out the new Christmas website. I really like christmas.mormon.org and mormon.org right now. The church is doing a lot to help us get referrals. We got a really solid referral a few days ago.

I'm so excited for Christmas. I don't know how much proselytizing we do over 23-25 in this mission. Yes they put up lights but there's tons more apartments and they don't. I can't believe how lucky I've been riding bikes so much and having no trouble. Hope I can send some pictures soon. This week was really good for our new convert with new member lessons and an awesome Christmas party. He is getting the priesthood! I can't wait to show you a picture of him. He was Santa Claus for the party and he was pro. We also made some awesome less active friends and they've come back to reactivity and their kids are going to get baptized because they are older than 8 and haven't been. We are teaching some awesome people they are just hard to get a hold of. We have done a lot of service and one day I was so sore. We worked out at the gym remembered we had service lifting 4 literal tons of stone tile, and then rode our bikes really far. I realized I need to start recording how far we ride on the long days. I never realized how much I love reading the scriptures and I know I'm not going to stop studying after my mission. What have all of you been reading. Will you get all the girls and everyone to send me their favorite scripture they read? I like Alma 14 9-11 about why bad things happen to good people. I forgot about that story. I also love Jesus the Christ pg 20 second paragraph and 1 Corinthians 15:22 about why we have death.

I hurt my leg last week and it killed for a while. This week's been cool. We have been teaching our recent convert lessons and planned to go to the temple with him. The DC temple does a festival of lights like temple square kind of. It's such a beautiful temple. This week has been a good week in that we found some awesome new people, had a lot of success with less actives coming to reactivity, but we're having a hard time holding onto investigators. One thing we've been doing a lot of is having family home evenings with young member or less active families and playing Don't Eat Pete and stuff haha.

Love you

Elder Ressler