What Really Happens

This is a post from Elder Ruth's mom. 

Elder Ruth talks alot about his adventures with food.  He seems to keep the heavy stuff out of his weekly letters.  I wanted to include a few of his experiences.  Please continue to pray for the missionaries.  They are young people suddenly thrown out to the big bad world.  I like a quote from Gary E Stevenson, "You have the Savior of the World on your side .  How can you fail?"  We all have Him on our side, but we still have life experiences and sometimes it's not fun one iota. 

At one point, Elder Ruth replies, "But know that things suck occasionally, I just remember that Jesus is with me and all of these challenges are possible to overcome. I know because Nephi told me".

"I haven’t had to use my happy light too frequently. I used it one day when it was the worst day of my mission. We went to an "emergency." At a couple’s house, where they yelled and swore at each other and their house smells like freaking crap and it was awful. We helped them calm down by just listening and helped them clean up the house. They are doing good now, but it was really bad and took a toll on us. We then went with the ward mission leader to a guy who is extremely depressed. His life is trash. He has MS and so his wife left him and stole the kids. Everything is bad for him, and he cried in front of us. He told us the only reason he hasn't committed suicide is because he doesn't want his kids to think that it’s ok. I went home emotionally dead. I drew a picture of me walking while kinda crying, and Jesus is walking with me, pulling one of my arms around his shoulder and His other arm is around me, and He is saying, "I'll carry you if I have to." And then the next day, the song Glorious, from Meet the Mormons came on, and it made me cry when I saw that picture while listening to it. But they were good tears, I promise."

Another time he wrote, "Literally everyone does drugs, even the kids on their way to school. Lots of drugs are legal here. There are cigarette butts all over the place. Way more than I would've ever guessed. There's also a street in my area with a sign that says the area is loaded with prostitutes and your vehicle will be impounded if you pick one up. There's a strip club not far from here. It's even advertised on a bill board. They found a body of a woman in a dumpster a couple streets away. That wasn't good. That was on Thursday. I think where we live is much prettier, looks cleaner and far more friendly. There is so much garbage everywhere. Our home is amazing compared to here. I miss clean streets and air.

He concludes with, "I’m being completely honest when I say that I am 100% good right now. I don't dwell on that stuff at all. I am actually kinda smiling right now because I love emailing everyone. But yeah, through reading the scriptures and listening to good music and seeing the light in the few people we do teach, I am pretty satisfied."