August 13th Letter

Dear Family,

All the sisters at the mobat, we have this saying.. when things just seem to not go as planned or we feel like we have a lot to do and not enough time we say, 'I'm in the shambles!' haha it's the best. Anyways.. this week I have been in the shambles. And it isn't necessarily a bad phrase, it just means a lot is going on and I am trying to make sure everything gets done! It's like in school when it's midterms and you have 5 midterms and 5 research papers due and it's just like ahhhhhhh how am I going to get this all done? And done well? That's how this week has been. I haven't felt like this in a long time! It's crazy. And don't worry, it's not a bad thing! It's actually a really good thing! It's an adventure :) Here are the highlights.. 

Missionaries at the Cliffs

 Wednesday we had temple and it was pretty busy! We met this awesome couple from Boston that had some great questions about mormons. At the end the lady was like, 'Well hm.. I have learned a lot today! Thank you so much! I now have a different outlook on mormons." It was pretty cool :) I just wish everyone had the right information about us and not all the crazy misconceptions. Oh also crazy thing.. near the end of my shift I saw this family walking in to the temple and there was a couple with them and the guy looked like Stephen Clarkson! But I couldn't really tell and they turned around to go to their car so I asked my companion if we could go sit closer so I could see when they walked back, haha and guess what! It was him! I got to meet his fiance and she is way cute! It was fun to see him! We talked for a minute and took a picture and then we had to go. I had a meeting with Sister Frampton and the Seegmillers and then we started weekly planning and then we went and had a lesson with Edgar, Ortega, and Sam. We also took them cake because it was Sam's birthday recently. We talked about the priesthood. Then while we were walking out to the car we saw these guys unloading stuff in their truck so we asked if they wanted some of the extra cake that we had and they said yes and then we started talking with one of the guys. His name was Saul and he is a mid 20s but married with a one year old and a kid on the way. We were able to talk with him how God made it possible for us to be with our families forever and invited him to learn more and he wanted to :) so we were able to give that referral to some of the elders. We also had a cool texting conversation with Alberto. He is someone I took on tour at the battalion like a month ago and he's actually in our area! He said he's had a rough life and just isn't ready for religion in his life quite yet and we told him how the gospel can heal the past and he thanked us for being so nice to him. I know he'll be baptized someday. Our other friend Eli who I also took on tour at the battalion, gave us a referral! Haha he said he had a friend who wanted to learn about mormons so we got his information and are going to meet with him soon.

Bin's baptism

Thursday we had training and Elder Seegmiller talked about the Spirit and blew my mind! He talked about how the Spirit is something, not someone (D&C 131:7-8) and how the Holy Ghost is what and who allows us to feel or use the power of the Spirit. I had never thought about it like that before. It was really cool. We had zone meeting next, which was awesome! I love seeing how the zone leaders decide to present and teach the information from mission leadership council. They always do so well! We talked about setting genius goals. We had a lesson with Gabriel next and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Spirit was booming in this lesson! Wow. Right after we talked about baptism before we even asked him he said, 'yeah I know I need to be baptized.' So we got super excited, but then he was like 'i will ask my Dad and have him set that up for me.' His dad is a pastor.. so we explained the restoration of the priesthood and how Jesus went to John the baptist for a reason and he was like oh okay that makes sense. So we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He said he'd pray for a date. We finished weekly planning and then had mobat. Edgar and Sam came! I also took this awesome chinese family on tour. They have been living in D.C. for a year on a working visa and the mom joined the church! They had the cutest 6 year old son named Shunfoon and we were best friends by the end of the night, haha. 

The Grover family visit

Friday was first round of MTE's. President reviewed what Elder Ballard talked about and I will talk about it more in detail next week because I have 2 more MTE's this week so I will sum it all up later, but it was amazing and profound as always. Today I got to coach Sister Mulipola and Jarrett in La Jolla :) OH how I loved going to La Jolla! I got to see DAVID!! woot! He's back from China. We contacted a lot of people today. It was awesome! We met this way cool guy named Mikey. We also had a lesson wtih Casmier so it was super fun to see him and then I asked the sisters if they wanted to meet the Ghanas so we knocked on their door and they were all home! We talked with them a little about the Book of Mormon and then one of them said, 'Sister Rasmussen, your face is getting bigger, have you been eating a lot?' Hahah we all started busting up laughing! I love blunt people :) We then were walking and we saw this girl across the street so we yelled hello and told her we liked her shirt and then she came across the street to talk to us and we ended up adding her and her roommate! It was sweet. She was super nice and open and you could just tell she's yearning for something. We went to five guys for dinner and there was this guy working and all of us just felt like we needed to talk to him, so we did! Apparently one of this best friends is mormon. We couldn't talk to him too much because he was working, but we gave him our information and invited him to the battalion. It was a night of miracles and I learned so much from those two sisters! They are amazing and I am so glad they are in La Jolla!

Saturday we had follow up MTE's where we all share miracles from the day before and it was awesome! And then we had coordination and choir practice and then mobat. And I forgot to write in my journal this day so I don't remember what happened at the mobat :(

Sunday was crazy. We had ward council and then church! So on Saturday at choir practice, some of the elders told us that they had been teaching this girl who they found out lives in our area and so they told us that she was going to come to church not today, but the next week so that we should look out for her. They also said that they had her with a date, but that she said she wasn't ready yet. Well we walked into Sacrament meeting and we see this girl who looks just like they described her and so we go and meet her! And it was the girl they were talking about. Her name is Sabrina and she came with her cousin Alexis, who is a member. We introduced them to people in our ward and told her how we'd be her missionaries now and she was super excited and then church started. Sacrament meeting was so amazing today! The speakers and just everything was unreal. Right after the meeting Sabrina ran up to us and said, "I got my answer. I want to be baptized. I want to be baptized this weekend." As you can imagine our faces dropped.. haha we were so excited and so in shock! ahh Heavenly Father is so amazing. We introduced them to more people and then we had a meeting about a Luau we are doing and then we had relief society and then mobat. Mobat was crazy as usual on a summer Sunday. I took a tour of 36 people and 22 of them were children under the age of 10.. nuts! Haha but an adventure. After we had a mission president's fireside. It was one of them best ones yet! Those firesides always just pump me up. Oh and Sabrina came and she loved it and we were able to talk to the elders and find out what she still needs to be taught and how we can make this all possible for this weekend :) We are so excited for her! 

Monday we went to a trainer/trainee follow up meeting which was great. President Morgan talked about how we should pray for our companion more than ourselves. I really liked that. We had mobat and then I had a meeting with Sister Frampton and then we had a lesson with Sabrina. She is so wonderful and so excited to be baptized! We went over the baptismal interview questions and she was talking about how she's so nervous for her interview because she's scared she won't pass and we told her not to worry because the interview is basically to make sure that we taught her right, so that helped her not be too nervous. We also taught her about tithing and fasting. We went to flints next and he was on his way out but we talked to him for a minute and prayed with him. Then our phone broke and we were a little stressed about it because we were meeting that referral that Eli gave us and we needed to be able to get in contact with him to know where to meet. We thankfully got it fixed and then headed to the naval base. I was so excited because I've always wanted to go on base, but sadly we weren't able to this time.. maybe next time! We did have an awesome lesson with Alexander though. His dad is apparently mormon, less-active. But he just really wanted to learn more about it and so we answered some questions and taught the restoration and invited him to be baptized and at first he was like maybe... and then we explained it more and he was like 'wait.. yeah.. I'll do that!' Haha it was so cool and he's really awesome. We stopped by Juan's and caught him home. I don't know what his deal is, but it makes me sad. We talked about the scriptures and I really hope he will come to church this weekend. 

It was an amazing week! I have been studying Jacob this week. I really admire how missionary minded Jacob is and his dedication and diligence to always be testifying of Christ, even when he has people like Sherem trying to bring him down. This work is real. And it's His work. I love it soooooo much :) 

I hope you all have the best week eveR! I love you so much!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen