January 1st, 2013 Letter

Dear Family,

2013??? Wow!! I hope you all had a wonderful new years eve last night! I thought of you all banging those pots and pans while I was sleeping, haha. All the Battalion sisters had a countdown to 10:00 hahah, that was our New Year's Eve. Here are the highlights . . . Oh actually first of all tomorrow is transfer date! We got word that Sister Pagel and I are staying together in La Jolla!! Woohoo! But it was also said that we possibly are getting another companion so we will be in a trio . . . crazy! I have never had a trio before. It will be an adventure!

Sister R & Sister Pagel at Sunset Cliffs

Wednesday we went to Sunset Cliffs with our zone. It was so pretty and fun! Then we visited some referrals and then we had a going away thing for the sisters leaving. One of the sisters leaving has been a huge example to me and I look up to her a lot. I am so grateful for her example!

Last visit with Wenchao

Thursday I finished the Book of Mormon! I wanted to finish it before the end of the year and it was a cool experience to read it again while serving in the mission field. We had temple all day and it was cold and busyyyy!!! It was cool though we got to talk to a lot of wonderful people. Oh and I saw this kid named Brad Chase from my freshmen ward! He just got back from his mission. It was fun to see him! We weekly planned after and tried to get everything organized for this next transfer.

Friday we had district service. We helped one of our formers move some stuff in her storage and then after we had district lunch. We ate Five Guys! I haven't had Five Guys in the longest time. It was definitely delicious. After we had district meeting. Elder Belt's last district meeting as our district leader! It was so great! We watched a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC called "Feed My Sheep" and it was SO good!! Just what I needed to hear. One of the biggest things that stood out to me was he said, "you tell me how your obedience is and I'll tell you how your mission is going to be." Obedience is crucial! It just motivated me to be even more exactly obedient, and also to really reflect and remember my purpose as a missionary. I am grateful for Elder Belt and all his effort he has put into our district meetings. After we had a lesson with Wenchao. He's leaving back to China tomorrow :( it was a really great lesson and he told us he wants us to keep in contact with him through email so hopefully we can still teach him over chat and email. He is awesome! Next we had temple shift. It was cold and busy again! But fun :) We said bye to Elder Belt! He goes home tomorrow.

Last district meeting with Elder Belt

Saturday MoBat was CRAZY! it was great! So many people came through. After we went to help the zone leaders and then we went to dinner with our recent convert. She took us to True Food Kitchen. Eden, you would have LOVED it. Everything was organic and healthy and gluten-free! Haha, it was awesome and it really was delicious. We said goodbye to our sisters :(

Sunday there weren't very many people at church. People aren't back yet from the break. We had a lesson with Keri after about temples. She is so excited to be able to get married there someday. After that we had dinner with Kristy and Amelia, two of our members. It was wonderful! We talked about President Uchtdorf's talk "Of Regrets and Resolutions" (I love that talk!) and we invited them to make some resolutions for this next year that will bring them closer to the Savior. We had a lesson with a less active after and then a member and then we dropped our stoplight charts off to the zone leaders.

Monday we had a lesson with a guy we street contacted a couple weeks prior. His name is Black Ant. It was a very interesting lesson . . . He said he would never be converted. He did bring a friend though who seemed to really listen to what we had to say. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a cellphone though or email so we told him to come to the Battalion if he ever gets a chance. We met with James after who is a recent convert and we read with him in the Book of Mormon. We had MoBat and it was pretty busy again. We only worked until 6:30pm though because we had to be in our apartments by 6:30pm and we were assigned to create visions and goals for ourselves and our areas for this next year and to study the atonement. First of all, our senior couples are so nice and bought us all Subway!! Second of all it was cool to have that time to think about the missioary I want to become this next year. Also when we were studying the atonement I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love for my Savior. I would not be the person I am today without the Savior and His atonement. I don't think I can ever comprehend what he did or even fully understand the atonement, but I am trying to learn more each day and use this beyond amazing gift that He has given us.

Well it's the new year! I hope you all have had a great holiday and that you have a wonderful week! And I challenge all of you to make some resolutions for this year that can bring you closer to the Savior and to utilize His atonement.

I love you all so much :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen