February 17, 2014

Hello Mom,
This week was a good one. My new companion is really cool. His name is Elder Villacorta. He is from El Salvador. He is 22 years old and has been serving for 18 months. I have lots to learn from him. He has lots of good things to teach me and I am just trying to absorb everything as fast as it comes. His knowledge of the workings of a Branch will help a lot with the Branch we are in right now.

Here in Colombia there are things called Pinguinos (penguins). They are a dessert cupcake. They are basically a Hostess cupcake. They are not as good as a Hostess cupcake but they come pretty darn close.  

This week was full of really cool experiences in which we followed the spirit and were lead to help a lot of people:

1) During our daily planning one day my comp said, “Tomorrow we are going to find two new investigators and give them a baptismal date.” So the next day we left and we did exactly that. We saw a young couple with their daughter and we went and talked to them. They said we could pass by their house if we waited a couple minutes. So we waited and then passed by. And after the lesson we extended the invitation to be baptized and they accepted. 

2) After we left the house of the family from the story above. We felt the need to pass by a member’s house and talk. The family has had a couple of internal conflicts in the past, but it was in the past so I did not feel it was necessary to tell my companion what had happened. But when we started to teach the family my companion shared a little bit about his family and an experience he had. His story applied perfectly to the family. After his story the dad asked, "Why did you share that story?" My companion told him he was just following the Spirit. Then the rest of the lesson we talked about the Power of the Spirit and how he knows each and every one of us and that he can guide others to help us.

Lastly I want to share my testimony of the power of the Priesthood. I know that the Priesthood was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I have seen miracles here in my mission. And all of these miracles were brought to pass though Priesthood power and through the faith of those around. I know that the power of the Priesthood is unending. I share this short testimony of the Priesthood in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

With lots of love,

Elder Rucker

The Mutts of Medellin

Sue-See

Kona

February 10, 2014

Dearest Mother,

(I wanted to start my letter with a little twist this time so I wrote something different this time.)

After our district meeting last week we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate burritos. It was really good and really cheap!  We paid 3 bucks for a foot-long burrito filled with meat, chicken, beans, and cheese. The restaurant is really cool. It has a Nacho Libre theme. 

This week I worked with Elder Coc for a day. It was pretty cool. We went past a coffee farm so I took a couple photos.

One of the highlights of the week was that......I.......Bought......A.........WAFFLE MAKER! YEAH! Everyone shout. It was a huge impulse buy but it has defiantly been worth it. I have made waffles every day since. (Except Sunday because I had no time.)

As for transfers I don't have anything to say. The rest of the mission received transfers— except us. Our Zone leaders have them but they are not going to tell us until tonight. So unfortunately, I can’t say if I’m going or staying. We will see what happens.

That’s all for now. Love, Elder Rucker

 

February 2, 2014

Today was a good day. We went to Salento, a little tourist town, and had a good zone activity. The two Elders on the swings are from my MTC group. They are really great guys. Their names are Elder Goodman and Elder Gordiano.

Sorry for a short letter this week.

I love you so much. Stay strong and have a great week.

Love, Elder Rucker

January 27, 2014 Letter to Tori

Hey Tori 
I just wanted to send you a quick email to say, “I love you.” 

I also wanted to ask you if you have seen Horton Hears a Who. Have you? Well, if you have I wanted to let you know that it was filmed in Colombia. How do I know you might ask??? The answer is simple. They have the flowers that Horton had when he found the Who's.

Tori I love you. Have a great week. 

Elder Rucker

January 27, 2014

Hey Mom

This week was pretty good.  We did not do a whole lot as in crazy things, we just worked like crazy. Usually after lunch we have an hour or more to study but this whole week we had no time for that. 

There were a couple of highlights for the week. First off, at the end of the day on Tuesday we came back to the house and found a huge spider. In the picture the spider is right next to my toe nail clippers, so yeah it was big. Well we waited for the other Elders to get home so we could show them. Elder Nobre made the mistake of saying he has a fear of spiders. And so, of course, I had to scare him with it. We all had a good laugh for about 15 minutes because when I scared him he screamed like a little girl on Christmas morning.

Second, there is a circus in our area. YYYYYEEEEAAAAAAHHHH! We can’t go in but we did get to take a couple of photos outside. It seemed pretty cool.

That is about it for this week. All-in-all it was a really good week. We worked a lot and found a lot of new people to teach. I am really excited for this coming week.  Love you! Elder Rucker

January 20, 2014

Hey Mom,

This week was really good. I worked with Elder Angulo. He is from Peru. We worked together for this whole week. The Zone leaders wanted to try something so they had us working with different companions for a week. We had a good time. 

Not too much happened this week. But I do want to share a cool experience that I had. Well, one day Elder Angulo and I left to go to work but we had to stop by an internet cafe so that we could print off some forms for our branch council. When we were there I felt that I needed to talk to the owner of the Internet cafe. So I went to talk to him for a little bit and then went back to my seat. Then I felt that I needed to talk to him again. I thought it was weird because I had just talked to him, so I paid no attention. Then I felt the need again. So then I went and talked to him. And wouldn't you know he was receiving the missionaries about 8 years ago and wants to start listening to the missionaries again!!! And wouldn't you know there was a girl who was in the internet cafe with the guy and she was listening to the whole conversation. And when I finished talking with him she said, "Hey I am a member but inactive". It was cool.  If I had not listened to the whispering of the Spirit we would not have found out the man wanted to listen to the missionaries and there was an inactive lady who wanted the missionaries to visit her. How neat is that?

Oh one more thing… very, very important.........Last week I was doing some shopping and found..........KRAFT MAC AND CHEESE. oh boy was it good. It was the first time, in at least 10 months, I’ve eaten mac and cheese. I am going to buy more today.

Love you, Elder Rucker