Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - January 30, 2017

Things here are good. Today's not actually p day they just wanted us to email home, but it's temple week! So on Saturday the senior couple are taking us there. We're going to go to Café Rio too. The new missionary schedule's good, but like I'm not used to it yet.  The new schedule's pretty different, but it's nice having more down time and more time on preparation day. The weather here is decent, but I still can't wait for spring. I do not miss the snow!

We played some hard core basketball at the stake center last Monday. We used a ton of the YSA elders' miles though so we can only do that like once a month.... Besides that it's hard to play sports when you're church is an old office building with no gym. We played soccer one time though when the weather was decent. Most of the time we shop and just hang out. We want to go to the fort its only like $7. I've been to the zoo and the aquarium already and they're expensive so I don't know about again.

Things here are good. We had a member referral that turned out to be hard core agnostic and I could tell she didn't care what we were saying. I made friends with this member whose wife is a nonmember. We're going to go see them and start teaching her. We are still teaching that brother and son in law of a recent convert. They just need to come to church. We also gave this returning less active a blessing and I have been talking with her boyfriend who's been coming with her and we're going to teach him and they want to get married.

Love.

Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - January 23, 2017

This week's finding was crazy, so we got a text from the Jones Falls Elders saying they had a former investigator that we should stop by who moved to our area. I flipped! We called and called and he never answered (we had the wrong #) We bussed all the way to his house at the edge of our area and he was there! The rapper I taught in Jones Falls we went back again and reviewed what he's been taught and he still really wants to get baptized!! He's coming to church this week! It was insane. We also taught a lady and I was super bold that this is the only true church. She read all of 1 Nephi in like 5 days, most people here can barely read. She's coming next week. We also made friends with this guy who's a recent convert's daughter's boyfriend. We taught him at her house and the brother sat in too. We've been having rain, but it's been surprisingly nice this last week or so.

Baltimore's been growing on me a lot lately. If I do the medical route I'll totally live in Baltimore County and work at Johns Hopkins.

I love this ward. There's two Sister with the same last name and one is super funny and the other is super sassy. I asked where she's from she's from Trinidad, but at first she said uh heaven lol.
The missionaries across the street from us got robbed, but lost nothing. We live in a pretty nice well protected apartment though. Their apartment is easy to break in.

I gave an awesome talk in church today. I felt bad because this brand new missionary from Haiti gave a talk right before me and was really nervous and stuttering because he barely knows English. Then I taught the lesson in the gospel principles class, which has like 35 people. I felt really good about it though.

Love,

Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - January 17, 2017

I really like Baltimore. The good thing is that everyone here, for whatever reason, knows the missionaries. They either had a conversation with a member, has a Mormon friend, or is a former investigator. The people are actually very friendly.

It's a lot warmer here. This last week actually wasn't as cold as the previous. It made me way super happy actually. Get this...one day was 70 degrees!

We had some awesome miracles. One's in the making, so I'll hopefully share it next week. Today we felt we should walk to the metro a different way than normal and we ran into an investigator I've never met that we've been trying to get a hold of. We also found two new investigators. One is super solid. He's an older guy and he committed to being baptized and meeting with us often so that's good.

We saw the World Trade Center Baltimore. I also saw a huge Cathedral and George Washington Memorial and Johns Hopkins. We gave like three blessings in the hospital this last week. I have like two friends in the zone, but ALL the missionaries I serve around and see often are starting from scratch. Each of our companionships have someone going through 12 week training which means they're new.

I sang the good morning Baltimore song like twice. There's tons of homeless people. I get asked for money literally three times a day at least. There's one person I helped, but it's like if I gave a dollar to everyone that asked I'd be broke... I like the city a lot there's some good work going here and the members are awesome.

I've learned that Satan is super real. There's reasons we have the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. He knows just how to turn us away from God and focus more on ourselves and things that make us feel good.

Love you,

Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - January 9, 2017

I'm in the Inner Harbor Ward! We cover a good part of the harbor. We're walking and taking buses which is hard because it's super cold and snowed this last week. My companion's name is Elder Sieler (Sealer) from Arizona, he's a hard worker, and still is in training.  My first couple days were crazy! Figuring out the area and walking and freezing. This guy yelled at us on the bus and said we believed black people were going to hell. All I said was we don't believe that. We get tons of referrals. Like three or four Bibles and Book of Mormons every day. We picked up one new investigator. We actually reactivated a less active too. She wants to keep coming back.

We take the metro and the bus. I met a guy I talked to on the metro this last week who isn't religious and says he isn't atheist he just believes there's "something". I think the horrific things some people have done in the name of God to build up personal gain really turns a lot of people away. They don't know what to believe. We did have an awesome lesson this week though where the lady is super excited at the end she literally said "when can you boys come back?"

Love ya!

Elder Ressler

Lancaster, PA - January 2, 2017

Well I'm getting transferred to…Inner Harbor 1! in Baltimore City! I'm pretty excited for everything, except I don't think I'll have a car which will be cold. I definitely will miss Lancaster. I love it here. I'm a little nervous about my new area. My companion's only been out for six weeks...All my areas have gotten exponentially more inner city though, so I'm not worried about that. It will just be cold. There's definitely no Amish. Wow I'll miss the Gpas. They are sooo fun.

It's hard getting back into the swing of things sometimes. I got back into the swing of things after Christmas and then we were told not to proselyte Saturday or Friday because of the New Year. I spent time with the family on Christmas. Jackson was pretty funny. Everett didn't say a word to me like usual. It's crazy how opposite those two are. Georgie was hilarious too though. Honestly I didn't remember him. No there's no snow at all. We had snow on the ground for only two days...Thanks for the sandals and presents by the way! That new shirt looks so much whiter.

Wow! That New Year's dinner looks better than ever! Seriously, I need food now. Everyone here has been talking about pork and sauerkraut for the past two weeks and how it's good luck and don't eat chicken. I actually ate chicken instead because the family that had us over was Asian hahaha.

I'll definitely teach you the ukulele. It's pretty easy if you know music, like rhythm. The hardest part about it is singing and playing at the same time. Sadie is gonna be a senior when I get back do you realize that? I'll be shocked if Sadie doesn’t do better than me on the ACT. Either way I bet she'll still be in BYU with me.

I always will have a deep love for president Hinckley. I'm pretty excited to start learning about him this year. I liked President Hunter, but I grew up with President Hinckley. All my memories in Primary are of him. He's my primary prophet.

Love,

Elder Ressler