Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - February 27, 2017

We put two people on date and had an awesome member present, but they didn't come to church. We didn't teach our one investigator again, because he's been busy, but we read with him for a little bit. Keep praying for him!

For p-days we go shopping and emailing, it takes so much longer because we have to travel. We mostly go shopping and go out to eat somewhere and then go to the harbor or something.

I just won an ice cream and brownie eating contest at the senior missionaries apartment and we were all super stuffed last night I had to go lay down for 20 minutes after dinner.... we got a really good/embarrassing picture. I've been losing tons of weight though actually. I've gotten pretty skinny. I've been doing a lot of pushups and eating get this oatmeal for breakfast, chicken brown rice and vegetables,cream of wheat for lunch, then more cream of wheat apples and then sandwiches or more chicken or tuna and rice with light mayonnaise now for dinner. Pretty interesting right? :D 
With the schedule change we seem to have more time in the morning and at night so I've been reading about President Hinckley in my spare time.

This last week I was in a short sleeve short.... Now I'm wearing a light jacket because we're getting some rain, but it's supposed to get hot again. I taught a pretty legendary lesson on agency and people were crying and like four people said they were really impressed by it. I haven't played the piano.... Not much lately at all actually it's been sad.

I've only played basketball once. Our church doesn't have a gym.... Crazy right? I thought all Mormons played basketball. Everyone here knows the missionaries as good ballers. I made this tie for a super stylish guy in the ward and he keeps trying to get me to start a business on it. He thinks like $50 a tie hahaha.

Love you,

Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - February 21, 2017

You'd never believe it, I convinced eight people to bus an hour each way to Joann's Fabric store up in Towson, because I'm teaching some people how to make ties. There's one elder who has a similar taste in style, but for the most part everyone picked some weird stuff. My companion got like video game fabric and someone got like all space type stuff. You know me, I got the beautiful stuff. I have a lot of choices now. I'm making our investigator an all black tie with lighter shaded treble clefs on it. Pretty cool, right? It was pretty hilarious though our senior missionary, Elder Hyde was like I've never seen any elders do that for their preparation day before. We had fun though. Everyone is excited to learn. They've been bugging me about it for a while.

I ate two egg sandwiches today. The eggs were mixed with this weird green Haitian sauce because the elder who is our neighbor who we have lunch with a lot is from Haiti. He's pretty much my favorite. Another elder I've served around is here now. He served with me up in Lancaster and he's from Orem. He gets home a couple weeks before me.

One of our investigators is doing really well. He read 1 Nephi. He came to church for the second time. And he's already inviting like everyone he knows to his baptism and telling them to come see the church for themselves and read the Book of Mormon before they hear crazy rumors. He's so solid. He's so ready!

Love,

Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - February 13, 2017

It was a great week. I went to the temple on Saturday, and we go to the temple twice a year so I will probably go for the last time right before I come home. This week we were walking and this grown man was waving a light saber and using the force at us. I was like whoa man calm down and he said I'm not a man I'm a god.

We're working with a lot of solid people. The people here in inner city Baltimore honestly treat us missionaries well. Everyone loves the Latter-Day Saints. They do ask us for money a lot though because we're "Christians". They  are humble and respect us on our missions for trying to save souls, they in general though just don't want to change their own actions with like word of wisdom and stuff, but..... here's a miracle. We contacted this Bible referral this last Wednesday and also gave him a Book of Mormon. He asks a lot of questions and so we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and gave him a cliffhanger about the restoration. He wanted us back the next day so we taught the restoration and committed him to be baptized. That first night he got the Book of Mormon he read half of 1 Nephi. He wanted us back on Saturday so we brought a member and taught the plan of salvation. He loved it and we put him on date for March 11. He came to church yesterday and he's so tight! He used to play semi pro football. He's older but doesn't drink or use drugs. He's an electrician. He loved church and especially the classes. My favorite member talked with him for like five minutes and made him feel so welcome. She was like get up and give me a hug brother hahaha. I made her a tie because she wanted one and she gave me a tie back. We're seeing him again on Tuesday! He just keeps wanting us back. I think he's getting baptized. His mom is a former investigator and I've met her and she said good things about the church so he wants to stay for good.

Love Elder Ressler

Baltimore Inner Harbor 1 - February 6, 2017

The temple was super good. The DC temple is one of my favorites. It holds a special place in my heart forever. I've got this area down; I got the bus routes down and everything. We teach a lot of people in this area and then they stop for a while. They kind of treat our meetings like Bible studies. It's not always a big commitment to them. We had a lesson with a lady this week who came outside of her house while we were double checking if it was the right one and said I don't have all day get in here! Then she like would open the Bible up randomly while we were talking and read like about Solomon and his wives.... then ask what was that about?  The inner harbor ward is awesome. The senior couple here drive a lot of people to church. They also fed us again on Sunday. I like the people here, but there's 6 sets of missionaries and people notoriously get transferred in and out fast here so the members just treat me like a normal missionary. I'm only close to a couple people. I have a really good friend who grew up playing in the ruins of Nauvoo and was a nonmember for most of his life. He was THE specialist for electro magnetic stuff in the army. He has so many stories. He was picked out of like 5000 other people who were nominated.

No investigators came to church again they all bailed last minute... But... I'm really sure this new investigator is coming next week. He's 33 and he self referred himself. His step dad who raised him is a member and told him to look into it. He asked a lot of questions about the church. He doesn't work weekends. Has a good job. He's engaged to get married with his girlfriend already. Anyways it really was a sweet lesson. Priesthood really hit home for this guy. I asked him why there's so many churches that are Christian and he really wanted to know. He just has such a desire to know the truth. When we committed him to read the first two chapters by Thursday he was like I'm going to read a lot more than that. He seems really smart. I'm excited. I just hope I stay. I street contacted someone and handed them off and they're going to get baptized. We also found two new people who are really solid. We gave a church tour to an investigator and she loved it. She was complaining at first about needing to go home and get a sandwich and then the senior missionary couple bought her Wendy's it was pretty awesome.  Everyone has grills or gold jewelry here Some people have some really different views on things like the holy ghost and praying....like jumping up, tongues, recited prayers.

Elder Ressler