December 26th Letter

We got to talk to Cassie on Tuesday, December 25th for about an hour. She sounded so very, very good. Miss her like crazy but so happy she is serving the Lord.  --Eden

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!! Oh my goodness it was so wonderful to talk to you all yesterday :) I love you all so much! And sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas! Here are the highlights from the week . . . 

Wednesday there were SO many BYU fans who came through the MoBat. I loved it!! Made me feel right at home, haha. We had a lesson with a potential investigator from Germany. She is so sweet! She had a lot of good questions and she wants to meet with us again soon! She even brought her friend who also wants to learn about our beliefs. We ate real quick and then we went to the BYU football fireside! The team gave like a Christmas fireside and Bronco spoke at the end. It was pretty cool. Oh and I didn't know that one of my friends from high school is on the team so I saw him and we got to catch up so that was fun. Oh and Cecil Samuelson was there! I talked with him after for a minute. After we had to go rescue some sisters whose car died.

Thursday was my 6-month mark . . . what the what?? Time is so weird. I feel like I just left, but at the same time I feel like I have been here for years, haha it's awesome. We had district meeting today and then we met with a member and then we had MoBat which had a lot of BYU fans again. Oh also I took this girl on tour who asked if I had a sister named Megan and I was like yeah! And she was like yeah because you look a lot like her and then I asked how she knew her? And she was like she's in my singles ward! Hahaha I was like uhhh whoa different person, my sister is married! So that was weird. Megan, apparently we have someone else who looks like us and even has your exact name. Leon & Callie and their kids came through, but I barely missed them unfortunately. They left a nice note :) We had a Christmas concert tonight at the mobat that was really good!

Matthew and Matt visiting Cassie at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

Friday was quite the day. First of all the world was supposed to end . . . but that didn't happen, haha and also during one of my tours I see out of the corner of my eye someone walk in who looks exactly like Matt and Matthew!! And what do you know, it is them! Hahah, so sweet! I knew one of my brothers had to be coming down for the game. I took them on tour and chatted after. It was fun :) Matthew is so big! I can't even believe it. After MoBat we had a lesson with our new investigator Keith. He is confused about whether God is real or not. I can't wait until he figures out that He is real! We talked with him about prayer and the Book of Mormon and how if he does those 2 things consistently and then also comes to church, that he will be able to find out that God is there and loves him so much. After we had dinner and then we were getting ready to leave to go contact some people and some elders from our zone called us and said they were having a last-minute baptism and were wondering if I could play the piano and if Sister Pagel could lead and we were like sure! We show up to the baptism and find out that the girl getting baptized is Muslim so they got permission and everything but she had to keep it kind of quiet so it was just me, Sister Pagel, the elders, President Hunt, the girl getting baptized, her husband, and their friend. It was interesting but cool! Afterwards her husband wanted to take us all out for dinner and he is a very wealthy man so it was quite the experience. Haha, we kind of felt like we were in a movie because we got valet parking and we went to this super fancy restaurant and ate fancy food and wow. I had scallops for the first time and they were delicious! I also had crab and corn chowder soup that was super good! It was an interesting experience.

Sister Rasmussen & Sister Pagel with some elders at the mission Christmas party

Saturday morning was our mission Christmas party! It was so fun! We had breakfast and got to visit with everyone for a while and then we had gift exchange and then we watched a slideshow of baptism pictures and then President spoke to us and we also sang lots of Christmas songs! We have such awesome missionaries in this mission. MoBat was good tonight and busy! 

Sunday morning we practiced our song and then I helped Elder and Sister Seegmiller figure out some technology stuff haha I love helping them. We went to a different ward today because ours was combined with another ward at 9am and we couldn't make it because of MoBat so we went to a family ward and it was fun! The members were all excited and thought they were getting sisters in their ward haha. After we contacted a former and had a great conversation with him and he says we can meet with him when he gets back from his Christmas vacation. We had dinner with a member and it was delicious! Then we went to the MoBat for the Christmas concert. I sang 2 songs with Sis Riggs, Davies, Madsen, Miller, and O'Neill. It was fun! I am getting a little less fearful? But not really because I was supposed to have a solo part in one of the songs and at last minute I begged Sister Miller to sing with me hahah. I don't know what my deal is. Sister Day sent you one of the songs though so you could see our performance :) It was a lot of fun! Sister Riggs sang like every song and she did amazing as usual. The MoBat was packed!! 

Monday we had MoBat and it was busy and then the Afflecks bought us pizza! Yum! We went to the mission office to make a last minute run for Christmas packages. We visited some referrals and then we went to dinner! Some elders in our district had some members in their ward who asked if there were any missionaries who didn't have a Christmas Eve dinner and that was us! Haha just because our ward is students and they all went home for Christmas. Anyway so they had us over! It was SO DELICIOUS!! They were the cutest family. And they were so nice! They got all 4 of us missionaries gift cards to Jamba Juice, McDonalds, and some pajama bottoms! So nice of them. They also sent a picture home I am pretty sure :) After we went caroling with our district. After planning Sister Pagel and I had our own talent show hahah and we opened one present each. 

Tuesday we woke up and went running as usual and then we got ready and opened presents! Thank you so much everyone :) And then we read Luke 2. After we had a service project at the MoBat and then we got to call our families :) which was the best ever!! Haha I love you, family. We had MoBat the rest of the day. It was a really great Christmas! 

Cassie on Christmas morning in her mission apartment

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. I am so grateful for Christ's birth, life, and His atonement. Life would be a lot harder without Him and His teachings. 

I love you! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen