October 21, 2013

Hey Mom,

 

My companion and I are doing good. The language is coming good. With my first two companions we spoke in English most of the time. And the first couple days speaking all Spanish was a little hard. But now I am doing alright, I am using Spanish that I did not know that I had. We communicate really well. 

 

The weather here in Armenia is hot and humid. There are three different temperatures areas in my mission: Manizales 55-75 degrees, eje Cafetero (were I am at right now) 75-95 degrees, and the coast 85-110 degrees. So right now it is hot but not as hot as it could be.

Story time.

 

Well...there is a member named Jairo. He is really cool. His family started to receive the missionaries 30 years ago and accepted the gospel. He did not. Last month he was baptized by my companion and his companion at the time. It needs to be the right time for someone to accept the gospel. Sometimes they can accept it right away or thirty years later. Any way we do service in his house every Tuesday. Right now we are painting his house.

 

Well I am happy to say that I had my first PB&J sandwich this week. The first on in about 8 months. And it was delicious. I also bought a Snickers bar to eat with it because I found a place that sells them for cheap, cheap, cheap.

The missionary that left this area left it in good shape. He and his companion (who is now my companion) had programmed many people to be baptized. And this Saturday 2 of the people with a baptism date where baptized. So, on Saturday my companion baptized them, then on Sunday I confirmed them as members. They are two young men. Both of them are 13 years old. They are best friends. The parents and brother of one of the boys have a baptismal date for the 9 of November and are really excited for it.

 

This Sunday was great. One reason is that I had the opportunity to confirm the two boys members of the church. And on top of that it was the sacrament of the primary. It was amazing. I don't think that it is a primary program without one of the kids screaming into the mic.

 

Last story: I got on the computer and started to write this letter. Then I thought to myself, "I want to look at Mitchells blog". So I did. I read a couple things and then saw the town that he is in is Solola. I thought, "My companion is from Guatemala I wonder if he knows Solola". So I asked him. Turns out he not only knows the town, he is from the town. So I will be telling Mitchell about this. It's a small world after all.

 

That is all for now! 

Until next week 

Love Elder Rucker

P.S. The steps for a PB&J

October 15, 2013

Hey-
Sorry it didn't work out for me to email on Monday. Usually I like to write for 2 hours but since it is Tuesday we only get one hour. Oh well, you have to deal with what you get!

 

Sure wish I could of been with you guys on your cruise. However, I did some traveling as well. So as I told you last week, I got my first transfer.  First, I had to travel North to Medellin (5 hour bus ride) to receive training on how to train. I was in Medellin for one night. On Wednesday we traveled back south to my new area in Armenia (7 hour bus ride).  When you get on the bus they hand out little bags.  They are for if you need to throw up, because the bus ride was really turny. So if you thought you needed one you could just take one. However, one Elder declined to take a bag. Then at about two hours in ....you guessed it, he blew chunks!!!  He tried to make it to the bathroom and did. The only problem was that he could not get the door open. So the bus driver stopped, as soon as he could, and cleaned it up.  Then we were back on our way. Note: The busses were really nice. I had tons of leg room and the seats reclined a good amount.

 

When we finally got to Armenia I received my new companion. I am going to finish his training. Training is 12 weeks. He had one companion before me for 6 weeks and I am going to finish his last 6 weeks. His name is Elder Azañon. He is 18 years old. He is from..... Guatemala. So of course I told him all about Mitchell. He is my first Latino Companion. I am really excited to work with him.

 

Yesterday we had a poorly planned Zone Activity. And when I wrote you yesterday I was mad that I had no time to write. But now I look back and see that it was no big deal. I will tell you what we did. So we were told that we needed to gather together at 10 in the morning to start the activity---we started at 11:30. The activity was to walk to a waterfall and eat lunch. The waterfall was supposed to only be a 30 to 45 minute walk. So we started to walk. And right as we started to walk it started to sprinkle rain on us. Then after 30 seconds it started to pour rain on us. However, we all thought, "This is Colombian rain--it will stop in 15 minutes". Three hours later it was still pouring! And we had been walking in the rain the whole time. Anyway we got to the river soaking wet and then our guide said that from the point we still had thirty minutes to walk. So we ate lunch and called it quits and walked back into the city.  Then we got a cab to our house, cleaned ourselves up, wrote our families and President Pitarch for 15 minutes then headed to the district meeting and then called it a day. Every missionary wants mission stories and now I have one more to put on the list!

 

Thanks for the package! I got it and it was great!!! I finished the Skittles yesterday and now I am starting on the peanut butter. The good thing is that my companion does not like peanut butter, so more for me! I will write thank you notes to everyone next week when I have more time. The notes meant a lot to me.

That's all for this week and until next week,

Love,

Elder Rucker

 

My old zone in Manizales and my new zone in Armenia.

 

 

September 29, 2013

We had a really good week.

 

I forgot to tell you last week. We went to a Family Home Evening at the President of the Relief Societies house. And for the snack she made Morcilla. Morcilla is blood sausage. The next paragraph might make you gag-- just a heads up. But It was not that bad to eat.

Black pudding, blood pudding or blood sausage is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler (rice or onions) until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

Well after the multi-zone activity in Pereira I headed to Chinchiná for a division with the District Leader's companion. I worked in Chinchiná for a day and a half. It is a lot hotter there but it worked out good. We passed by a club that had painted the sidewalk to look like a piano. I played on it. It was fun. Another cool thing is that I got 13 mosquito bites on my legs. hahaha

After the divisions with the district leader I worked with my companion for a day then started a division with the zone leaders. I worked with Zone Leader Elder North. He taught me a lot. We had a great day.

On Saturday we had a baptism. It was really cool. This is how we found the investigator. One day when we were out contacting we started to talk to some people. Then a car pulled up and the guy driving said, "Elders". I had to tell him to wait because we were talking with another person. Then when we finished we started to talk with the guy in the car. Turns out he was a member who had been inactive for a couple of years.  So we passed by his house and started to teach him and his family. His wife is not a member but wanted us to teach her son and baptize him just so he could have a religion in his life. After a couple visits the son lost interest but the mom had gained interest. After a little work and activating the father, he was able to baptize his wife.  It was a great experience.

Sunday was a good day. Right before sacrament the President of the Branch came up and told me I was going to speak in Sacrament. So yeah, I gave a talk on obedience and knowledge.  It went pretty well.

This week is going be a great week,  just because it is GENERAL CONFERENCE. I am so excited. I hope you are excited too. 

I love you lots.

Love Elder Rucker

 
 

 
 

September 23, 2013

Hey Mom

I know that the Lord is blessing our family, more than I can imagine, with me and Mitchell out serving.

It is good to exercise! For a little while I was not doing any exercise because I was lazy. Then Hermano Rendon gave a lesson about exercising. He asked us, "Elders do you exercise every morning?" We said "No". Then he said something that impacted me a lot. He said "Elders we need to exercise, it is our duty to exercise, Will you do it?" I have not missed exercising one day after that!

I will get my package here in about two or three weeks. We get a notification when the office receives our package but then we have to wait for our zone leaders to go get it and they only go once a month. But we have transfers here in two or three week and I will get it then.

In Colombia if you want something to be street legal all it needs is a motor and wheels. But if you want to drive a four wheeler or a motorcycle you have to wear a helmet. And no one drives those things without helmets. I think it is cool that of all the laws they break--they choose to keep the helmet law.

Little story time.

Today we decided to have a multi Zone activity in Pereira. A city about 90 minutes from Manizales. In the rush to prepare to leave I forgot to write in my agenda what I wanted to tell you. So I don't really remembered what happened this week, but I remember one thing.

We had a lesson with the Avila Family. They are a family of investigators. We have been teaching them for about 7 weeks. They like the church a lot. In a lesson we had this week they said that they knew the church was true. However they don't want to get baptized yet because they have a fear of commitment. During the lesson I was feeling the spirit to share what I was thinking. However, my companion and the dad were talking back and forth and I didn't want to interrupt. But the Spirit kept pressing me to speak until I could not resist any longer. I interrupted. They all went quiet......... Because they like they way I speak. Anyway, as I started to speak the spirit filled the room. I did not know what I was going to say I just started to speak. I know the spirit was helping me find the words to teach to the needs of the Avila Family. I felt the Spirit and I know they did too. The mom started to tear up and then I choked up a little too. Maybe we were the only two feeling it, but none the less, the spirit was there. I am so grateful that I acted on the impression of the Spirit. I know that both I and Diana (the mom of the family) were edified by the experience.  We will keep working with the Avila family. And I will keep you up to date.

 

That is all for now.

Love Elder Rucker

Movie time    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdN8rfwW3SI&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0"

 

September 16, 2013

The first thing we did this week was ask for our branch directory. We started to go through all the names to visit the members who we have never seen or heard of. We found out most people have moved without telling anyone. It was kind of discouraging, but then after a day of doing this we found one member who has been inactive for years and they said we could come back this week and visit them!

 

Second, on Wednesday we got back to the house to finish off the night and we noticed our neighbor had company over. They had parked half on the neighbor's lot and half in the street. That was no big deal because there was still enough room for cars to pass. So we went inside and started to prepare for the next day. Then we heard a car honking. A car had pulled up to the car in the street and was honking for the owner to come out and help guide him through. The owner came out helped and got the other car through with no problems. Then a second car came. We noticed him pull up and were waiting for the honk but never heard it. He thought that he could do it all an his own. He got about a quarter of the way through then got stuck.  Then he started to honk! The owner came out to help but it was already too late. He was in a spot that if he backed up he would scratch up his car and if he went forward he might scratch the other car. So very slowly he started to work his way forward. He got about three fourths of the way and the cars made contact. Then everyone in the neighbor's house came out to try and pick up the rear end of the parked car and move it. But they couldn't do it. So I said "Companion, let's go out and help". He said, "No they will get through there in a second just wait". They did not get through. So again I said " Let's go help". This time he said, "If in five minute they are still working on it we will go out". Five minutes passed with no progress. So for the third time I said "let's go out and help" and he said that two skinny Americans would not make a difference. So I told him he could watch me from the window and I would go out and help. So I put on my shoes and went out. And I asked them if I could help. They said yes. And they said they were going to try and move the parked car again. So we all got a spot on the car and moved it. Ha! Ha! A skinny American made all the difference. So I turned and started to walk into the house right as my companion was coming out. He saw that we had moved it and went back inside. By the time I had made it to the door he was already upstairs. Here is where it gets funny. I started running to go up the stairs and I started to say "Captain America has saved the day!" Right as I said it I hit the top of the stairs and jumped......................... and.....................bashed my head on our concrete arch way. Yeah!!! I got a pretty good goose egg.  

 

Third, we have been getting a lot of rain. One day when we left the house it was pouring rain. We started walking and then I had realized that I had left my keys in the house. No big deal because I had bought some keys for my Companion for when stuff like this happens. However he left his keys in the house too. So we were locked out. We live on the second level. So I started to look for a way to climb into our apartment. And I could have done it, but since it was raining everything was really slippery and I could not get any grip to climb. Luckily our next door neighbors were watching us and lent us their ladder. So I used that ladder to climb into our house. In the time it took me to climb the ladder and get in the window I was completely drenched, but I did get in and get our keys. 

 

Lastly, I was feeling a little like having some food from home, so I made some tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. It was good but was nothing like your tomato soup and grilled cheeses. 

The mission now has a Facebook. 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mision-Medellin-Hna-y-Pte-Pitarch/233784420070974 

 

That's all for this week.

Love,

Elder Jayden Rucker

Videos for the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdN8rfwW3SI&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70e1TfN34w&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0

September 9, 2013

So this week was really slow until Saturday, then things started to pick up.  

We started off the day with an activity with the young men and women. We played basketball and soccer and also had a water balloon toss. It was really fun. But I did not take any sunscreen because when we left the house there was not a single spot in the sky where the sun could peak through. But then after two hours it cleared up and I was outside for the next hour. And because we are at a higher altitude it is easier to get sunburned. So now I have Neapolitan ice cream arms.

Then later on Saturday after lunch we started to have great lessons. The first was with a man named Cesar. We found him one day when we were out walking. At first he waved at us and we waved back--but thought nothing of it.    Then when we passed by the same point after 10 minutes he was still there and waved us over. We found out he had been an investigator about 5 years ago. And that through the visits with the missionaries he stopped drinking. But then something happened and the missionaries lost contact with him.  During the lesson he started to make phone calls. And at first I thought that he was being rude. But then after hearing him speak a little with the person on the phone I figured out that he was talking with one of the missionaries who taught him 5 years ago. He passed me the phone and I talked with the missionary. The lesson went really well and I am really excited to continue teaching him.

We then went to visit the Martinez family. We had a great lesson. And their dog Lucas is now more playful and he started to play with my hand after the lesson.

On Sunday, we had a Branch Council. It was really good.  The first two hours my companion and I were outside the gate of the church standing in the pouring rain waiting for members and investigators who were showing up late. We had a great attendance of 150 people to sacrament meeting.

That night we had scheduled two lesson at the same time so we went on splits. I went with the YM President. His name is Julian Peña. He is younger than 26 and he is the President of the Young men, that is crazy. Our lesson went great. But my companion had a really really good lesson. He worked with a priest named Ramon Felipe. They went to a FHE with Luz. She has only been a member for a couple weeks and she has already given us 2 references: her niece and her husband. Anyway, during the lesson my companion said that Luz bore her testimony. And she said something to this affect:

      "When I was investigating the church I was trying really hard to find out if it was true. I     was doing everything that the Elders told me to. I was reading the Book of Mormon and I was praying every night. And I felt good, but did not feel like I had received an answer. Then one night I had a dream. And during this dream I was on a long and narrow path and the Elders were guiding me, they were showing me they way. In the morning when I awoke I went straight to my Sisters house (her Sister's name is Gloria Matilde, she is the President of the Relief Society). And I recounted the dream to her. And she helped me understand that that was my answer."

We started to teach Luz and 18 days later she was baptized. I know that when we do our part to get an answer from our Heavenly Father, He will without fail do His part to answer our questions.

I know I was not at the FHE where she shared this testimony, but when my companion recounted what she said, I felt My testimony grow. 

To finish off, Sunday night we ate dinner with the Velasquez family and the Avila family. The Velasquez family is a family that Elder Sorensen and I helped get active again. The Avila family are the neighbors of the Velasquez Family and they are investigators.

Oh, also I think on about Tuesday we had a lot of cloud cover the whole day. The clouds were really thick. 

I love you a lot and hope you have an excellent week. 

Love 

Elder Rucker

p.s. here are some cool videos that I like, I hope you like them as well.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbFiB7oiQs4&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEfg-Z-TOc8&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0
 

Elder Jayden Rucker's 1st Post

August 27, 2013

We had a good District activity last week and a good one this week. Last week we went to a pool hall and played pool. This week we played soccer. They were both fun activities. I like them both but I need to work on my soccer skills more!

 

We named our District the Avengers. And got some cool shirts made.

 

 On the back we are all different Avengers. I am Captain America. And after playing pool last week I went and found my costume in a store. It is really cool, but don't worry I didn't buy it. I wanted to--but knew that I didn't need it.

 

I also got my hair cut this past week.   I learned to make some Colombian food as well. Well, at least I helped make the patties. I did not learn the recipe. 

We had some things happen this week that were very special. We helped two people enter into the waters of baptism. One had been an investigator for about one year, her name is Yerica (Jerika). She is 16. And the other was an investigator of gold, her name is Luz Edilia. She is 44. We had such a great baptismal service. We called it a Noche Blanca (White Night). We called it that because five people entered into that waters of Baptism. Then after the Baptisms the people who were baptized could share their testimony. Luz Edilia got up and shared her testimony. It was so powerful. Her sister is the President of the Relief Society and Luz Edilia said she helped a lot. Then she said something that I had heard about missionaries but had never had it applied to me. She called us "My Angels". In that moment the spirit was so strong and my testimony of missionary work was rejuvenated. The message we share changes peoples lives, and not just for the better but for the best.
I am so grateful for missionary work.    

 

Another member on the branch got their Mission call this week. Her name is Leidy Ramos. She has been called to the Santa Maria, Brazil Mission. She leaves the 11 of December, one week after her best friend.

 

We got transfers today and I found out that I will be here in Manizales for at least one more transfer.

 

I can't tell you enough of how great of a week we had. I felt the Spirit so much this week. I am so happy that I will stay at least one more transfer here in Manizales. My companion is great and I know that we are going to have lots of success this transfer.

I love you so much.

Love,

Elder Rucker

 

 September 2, 2013

Story time:

Story number one. We went to visit Luz Edilia (our Baptism of last week) and she called us her "Elderes preferidos" or her Preferred Elders. It was really cool. I didn't really understand how important missionaries were to individuals until she said that.  I have heard converts refer to the Elders who taught and baptized them as 'Angels'. And I never understood that until now. From the time we started to teach her to this point, I have seen a change in her life. Not because of what we did for her, but what the Gospel of Jesus Christ did for her.

Story two. We have been visiting the Martinez family a lot to see what we can do to get them to reactivate. They are a great family and we love to go visit them. One because, even though they are inactive they still have an excellent spirit in their family and home that we love to feel. And two, because they have a puppy named Lucas. He is fun to play with and always likes to cuddle into armpits just like Belle. 

 

Story Three. I made a scripture case for my hard cover Book of Mormon and it is pretty cool. It just has to last me until I find a place to get some good scripture cases made. 

Last story, Hermano Rendon pulled his testimony train trick on me again. I was going to share my testimony anyway but the train gave me more motivation. We had a really good fast and testimony meeting.  We went over in time because when we had 15 minutes left around 8 people went up to share their testimonies. But the meeting was filled with the spirit.

 

That is all for this week. Hope you have a great week.

Let me know if there is anything that I can do about anything.

 

Love 

Elder Rucker