Spokane!

Elder Ruth has arrived in Spokane! The mission president and his wife are wonderful.  They have taken videos of the missionaries arriving at the airport as well as a variety of pictures.  I can't believe it's only been three weeks since he has left for the MTC.  Time is sure a funny thing.  It speeds up, it slows down, it comes to a standstill.  Regardless, time marches on.

If you wish to write to Elder Ruth, his new address is 2707 East 37th Apt 201  Spokane, WA 99223

Elder Ruth with President and Sister Dymock

Elder Ruth with his first companion Elder Stuart

Bye Bye MTC

Before the missionaries leave the MTC they are required to have a haircut.  I think this is the shortest it has ever been!

When asked if he needed anything, he responds with MEMES!  So I sent him this.

Elder Porcupine Ruth

When asked to send a picture of his hair combed, I get this.

When asked to send a picture smiling with teeth, I am rewarded with this gem.

Packing for Spokane!  Hope everything fits!

Convertin'

Do you guys remember last weeks email where I talked about that really difficult investigator who only wants facts? We taught her an extremely powerful lesson this week. She cried when I told her the story of when I got that priesthood blessing. She was ready to listen to everything we had to say, and she be became very serious in her desire to join the church. She believes in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the power of the priesthood and the spirit. She will be baptized very soon!

I had two more investigators this week. One is an old man whose entire family is dead. He has attended nine other churches, but this one makes him feel great. He even attended the Provo open house temple three times. The third time, it had been dedicated, so he was devastated that he couldn't get in. We taught him all about eternal families and sealing and the temple. On my second lesson, I even invited him to be baptized. He's absolutely ecstatic. He thought you could only be in the church if you were born into it. He's had dreams where his family tells him that they accepted the gospel, so they want him to listen to the missionaries and do their family history work. He is a man who was prepared to receive the gospel, and I loved him.

The other guy is a very quiet college student. The first meeting was miserable because he wouldn't talk. The second was in the restoration. He told us towards the end that he prays a lot and rarely feels like god is even listening. The third lesson, I released the Kraken. He got me talking about why we have word of wisdom and chastity. Then, I gave a powerful lesson on Jesus Christ, the atonement, and repentance. He was deeply moved because I had the spirit helping me every step of the way. He is well on his way to joining the church after living many years in confusion.

My watch which was dead for a week because of the water started ticking again on Thursday. What a trooper!! Mah boi

We are singing "A Child's Prayer" as our going away song on Sunday. I drew a picture because that song is very significant to me. When I was 14, I sat in front of the temple crying, because I prayed and prayed while thinking that song and it seemed like God completely ignored it. Because of that experience, I attribute my unshakable faith to the church. I know how it feels to live without God, so when I was able to feel his love later, I never wanted to live without it again.

I wanted to share a message of encouragement. Jesus was not exempt from temptation. Though He never sinned, I am sure that some things were hard for Him to do. He was reluctant at first to take on the sins of everyone in the world at the garden. Nevertheless, He did it because he loved you. It was impossible for man to do. If he wasn't the son of God, he couldn't have endured it. He took every pain, sorrow, and sin upon himself because He loved you.

While fasting for 40 days, Satan got up in Jesus's face. He said to him, in my words, "Jesus. If you really are the son of a God. Prove it. Turn that rock into bread, then save yourself." The bread wasn't the temptation. The temptation was to show that Jesus was more than human. Later, he is taken to a temple spire. I'm sure many people were watching. Again. "Jesus, now is the perfect time. If you REALLY are the son of a God, jump from the temple. Angels will catch you. Everyone will see it, and they will love and worship you, calling you a God." It must have been tempting, because he might've been able to convert many people from them seeing such a miracle, but Jesus refused to tempt God. Lastly, he was nailed to the cross, in terrible pain in front of those he loved. He asked to have his mother taken care of. He forgave the sins of those around him. They were all crying, "Please, Jesus! We love you! You are the Son of God. Take yourself down from there, end your suffering!" But Jesus refused. He endured all, and it was because He loves and knows you personally. Never forget that Jesus loves you. Anything you have done can be forgiven. Jesus didn't suffer for most of the sins of man. He suffered for ALL of the sins of man, and I promise that if you repent, you can be forgiven.

Boy:  Heavenly Father?  Are you really there?  Do you hear every child's prayer?
Missionary:  Pray!  He is there.  Speak!  He is listening.  

Haircut!  Where did my hair go?

Here I am with the shortest hair ever!

The Dedicated Sick Missionary

A demonstration of why Jonathan did not participate in hymns for the past few days.

Living On A Prayer (or hundreds of them)

I guess I kinda thought that since I was at the MTC, and they would

honor the "day of rest". Instead, we had class after class after

class. I was so tired from previous days and my inability to sleep

(which only strikes at night 😫) that I fell asleep through an entire

class. It was just on the first 15 pages of the missionary handbook

which I had read through all the way prior, so I didn't feel bad. Did

you know that there is a Meet the Mormons two? I didn't. But it's good

stuff!

Monday was pretty rough. I became really sick. I was constantly

coughing and sneezing and trying to breathe. I also had a huge

headache. I plowed through the misery because I knew that I was

blessed before hand to not get sick with a major sickness.

We taught our first real investigator. It was rather hard because she

didn't care about the Book of Mormon or either of our testimonies. All

she wanted was to get cold hard facts about Joseph Smith. After some

going back and forth, I told her that she needed to read Joseph Smith

history. It was just a rough visit. We came back on Wednesday to teach

again. She was really glad that I remembered things she had told me

and addressed them prior to starting. When we started, she told us

that she had read all of the reading and also found the Joseph Smith

movie and watched it. The only thing keeping her back was that Joseph

Smith said, "I saw two personages", instead of saying they were Jesus

and God. She needed us to prove their identity before she'd accept it.

I showed her a passage where God said, this is my son, and then Jesus

appears to the Nephites and says he was sent by God. That didn't

convince her. She then somehow convinced herself, and neither me nor

my companion questioned it. We had just made serious progress with our

investigator, and we didn't need to make her go back on it, because we

know that we were teaching truth, and she was getting caught up on

silly things. I left her with more homework, to pray to God for the

first time in years and to read the testimony of the 3 and 8

witnesses. She is also welcome to start the Book of Mormon. We were

supposed to meet with her again on Friday, but she wouldn't be there,

so we arranged to teach her today, our P day. I have a big story of

something that happened which I'll speak of later, which I think will

rock her socks off.

Me and my companion have been getting into volleyball recently and

have played it three days in a row. On one of them, a person spiked it

and I was unable to stop it. He then started bragging and freaking

out, so I said, "I will not boast of myself, I will boast of my God."

God must've liked that because I proceeded to dominate right after

until the game was done.

On Thursday night, I was feeling really sick. Things weren't looking

good for me. Before going to bed, I prayed that I would be able to

sleep for the first time in a week. I felt a prompting to go get a

blessing, but my introverted self refused to go wake up a leader.

Instead, I got under my blankets and tries to sleep. Little coughs

became big coughs. Big coughs became extremely big. I started to

develop really bad heartburn, and my companion was tossing and

turning. Worried that I was keeping him awake, I went to the bathroom

to go and try and get all my coughs out. The heartburn got worse, and

I was losing my ability to keep my cool. I then threw up in the sink

and kinda fell over. I threw up a second time and pushed myself up to

get a drink. The doors in the hallway slowly started opening and

people were looking st me to see if I was ok. A zone leader came out

and asked if I needed a blessing. I shyly accepted, and instantly,

everyone came out of their rooms to see me. Someone rushed a chair

over to me and had me sit while I waited. I was then given a

priesthood blessing and began to feel better. Within 10 minutes, my

sinus was cleared, my throat stopped hurting, and my headache went

away. They made sure I got back to bed safely and that was that. I was

so grateful that everyone cares that much. This is what I plan to tell

my investigator. The power of the priesthood which the Mormon church

has the authority to use.

The last thing I have to say is, don't trust the term "waterproof". My

waterproof camera died after I took a picture underwater. (Taken in a

sink, and that camera is waterproof up to 9 meters. And my watch is

waterproof up to 30 meters, that died, too, but yeah, that's my week!

The church is true.

MTC Week One

I made it! The MTC is mostly fine. I would like to change dinner time.

It is at around 4:45, and then you don't get to eat again until the

next day at 7:45. How can anyone get fat if they are being starved?? I

have a pretty sweet companion, Elder Hardman. We don't have too much

in common, but he likes Star Wars, so I've been dropping Star Wars

quotes when I can. I like seeing him try to catch it.

I guess I kinda thought that guys would be more mature since we are

all here to serve the Lord. Then again, I'm in a building full of

guys. It can be a bit difficult to sleep at night because of the

burping competitions outside of my room and the potty humor. If

someone is not in the bathroom farts, and doesn't say "no bear" before

someone else calls bear, someone yells it, and everyone is out of

their rooms and starts yelling as the the poor kid is dragged into a

circle. He isn't allowed to leave until he gets down on all fours and

roars like a bear. I don't understand it either.

After the lessons I have received, I feel like I am ready to preach

the gospel to real people. I have many people question me and ask why

I am not scared. I don't understand why they are scared. I may not

know everything, and have only been in the MTC for a few days, but

that doesn't matter to me. I know that if we say our prayers, we'll

have the spirit with us, and that will guide. There is no need to be

scared because we have the Lord on our side. We're basically the 2,000

stripling warriors, and I know that if we remain faithful, not one of

us will fall.

I leveled up thrice on the manliness scale. We had to look our very

best for the branch president. Doing so required shining my shoes. I

had never done that before, so doing it gave me enough experience to

get halfway up a level. I then came to the realization that my stick

for my razor was gone. I didn't want to borrow one, because that's

unsanitary. Instead, I took the shaving razor blades and began to

manually shave my face with just my hand. Not only did I end up

completely clean shaven, I didn't get a single cut. That leveled me up

on the manly scale 2 and a half times.

We went to the gym last night to go exercise. I chose to play four

square because I love it. I was doing really good and quickly made a

few friends because of it. On one of the rounds, I tried to save a

ball and fell down. My watch was in my pocket and one of the straps

broke off. I spent the next little bit trying to put it back on, and

then the handle started to fall apart too. I decided I was being

stupid and should try to pray for help to fix my watch. After that, I

was able to put it back together perfectly. Unfortunately, one of the

pieces is a metal rod that almost ripped in half. I put it back as

good as I could. My watch is now ever so slightly loose, but it works

perfectly and I am so grateful. I've never felt like I've had as much

help from God as I have from this week. It gets a little bit

bothersome to hear the spirit tell me frequently, "don't do that." But

it is ok because I also have help from it frequently. I testify to you

all, the power of prayer does work! You might as well just ask for

help from God whenever you can't do something, because He knows

exactly what you need!

I'll talk to you guys later! I can't wait to tell more about my crazy

adventures of the MTC!

"Hey Elder, betcha can't jump up and hit the ceiling with your head."

Me: "Oh, you think so?" *dents the metal in the ceiling*

Pre-Mission Details

Hey, everyone! I'll be leaving in a few days to the MTC. September 6 is the start date of my Quest. This is definitely the biggest Side Quest that I have taken on in my life, but I hear that the rewards from completion are pretty great, so we'll see how this goes. If I level up enough in the MTC, things should go smoothly when I arrive on mission grounds.

Due to some of the quest's restrictions, I won't have access to this blog, so I've given all posting privileges to my Mom. Hopefully you'll enjoy the blog. It'll contain the letter I send out each week, other stories not in the letter, pictures I took and drew, and more. I'll talk to you guys again once I level up!

If you have any questions for me or just want to talk, you can leave a comment, or you can email me directly at Jonathan.Ruth@myldsmail.net