August 27th Letter

Dear Family,

An amazing week as usual! Here are the highlights...

Wednesday was the last MTE! Today it was with Santee YSA aka Sister Riggs and Sister Patterson. I love them both so much! We contacted a lady named Ramona outside of her house and ended up talking with her for like 20 min and her husband Cesar. He is a paraplegic and they were really excited about having a church to go to. They said they've been looking for one! They both have so much faith in Jesus Christ. We had lunch with their member Danielle. We all shared experiences of when a prayer was answered. I am so grateful for prayer and for a loving Heavenly Father who always listens and answers us. WE went to the institute and had a lesson with Anita and Jennipher. We then went to contact a referral, Roy. We ran into this kid Jeremy on the way and although he declined another appointment, I think he really needed what was said and that he'll call the sisters. When we were knocking on Roy's door the security guard came up to us and said we couldn't solicit and we tried explaining that we weren't soliciting and we ended up talking to him for about 20 min. His name is Jay and he's such a good guy with so much faith in the Lord. He said his marriage is really rocky and it's been really hard for him, but he is determined to stay faithful no matter what. We talked about prayer and invited him to pray for his wife and with his wife, and that when he prays with her, he should pray for her so she hears because that is super powerful! We gave him a Book of Mormon and talked about that and then asked him if we could say a prayer with him and he said, "yeah we can say a prayer and then i'll escort you off the property." hahaha. We ran into this lady Janet and she opened up how her boyfriend died and she's had some physical struggles and we shared a scripture with her about the resurrection and she just broke down and gave us all huge hugs. The gospel is so incredible and can help in every aspect of life! I don't know how people do it without the gospel. We had a lesson with their investigator, Vanessa who is super solid! Then a lesson with Becca, their recent convert. Then something cool is that one of our members (from Helix) brought her friend to a lesson a couple weeks ago and we ended up adding her (Alicia) and we taught her a few times and she came to church and then we realized she lives in Santee area (they are right next to each other) so we told Alexis because she knows the Santee sisters and she happened to call them tonight while I was with them and said she was with Alicia at the church and wanted the sisters to meet her and so they did! Alexis is such a good missionary. Alicia is so incredible! They shared Moroni 10:3-5 with her and invited her to pray if this is the path for her because she said she was just really excited about learning more, but she wanted to take it slow. WE all knelt down and she was nervous because she's never prayed out loud before but she said a beautiful prayer and asked the question and after she was crying and said she felt so good and they testified that it was the spirit telling her it was true. She was so excited! I had a sleepover with Sister Patterson and Riggs so that was fun :) they are both so amazing at truly following the Spirit. 

Thursday we had training and we learned how to march and do the dosey doe for when 4th graders come in. We had follow up MTE and we said goodbye to our assistant Elder Higbee because he went home a week early for school. We temple next which was amazing. I love the temple! Get this... we met the most awesome mormon couple from SWEDEN!!!!! I freaked out when they said sweden and they got married in the Copenhagen temple! So sweet :) I told them all about Jorgen though and they are going to keep their eye out for him! I even asked for referrals for him, haha. WE met this awesome kid from China named Peter and got his info for the mandarin sisters. We went to BJ's to get a pizookie! Mmmm. We visited Reed and talked with him about reading and praying. We had a lesson with Alan Klos and talked about his potential and how the Helix ward needs him and his specific talents. We just want him to be more involved. After we had dinner with Elizabeth Alvarez. She is so awesome! She made us stuffed salmon and these cheesy potatoes and we got red velvet cupcakes from costco for dessert. It was insanely delicious! We talked with her about utilizing the atonement every day, even for simple things. 

Friday we had a lesson with Eric. Eric is UNREAL. WE taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and used the soap demonstration. He like already knows everything because he researched it onmormon.org. He asks the best questions and he has such a pure heart and he is SO excited to get baptized! He's such a miracle. We had district meeting which was awesome! We have our new laotian elders and we also celebrated Elder Geier's birthday. We had a lesson with a referral, Janess. She is 26 and she has a daughter with a sever disability and she's all on her own. Her family doesn't help at all. We taught the restoration and it was a powerful lesson. She said the most heartfelt prayer after and she committed to being baptized! Mobat was great tonight. I took a really cool family from Armenia on tour. Sister BRown and I also tried to figure out what we think is happening at transfers.. haha I love doing that. 

Saturday we had a lesson with Eric about tithing and fasting. He asked if he could pay tithing this Sunday.. oh my goodness! He is so cool. He also already knew all about it, haha. We had mobat and it was pretty busy! I got to meet Sister Patterson's grandparents and they are awesome! Sister O'Neill came in so it was so good to see her :) After mobat we went to the church to help set up for the Luau. I don't know if I have said anything about it or not.. but we decided we wanted to have a Luau as a missionary activity and we invited the Santee and Chula Vista YSA wards and so it was tonight! After we set up we had coordination and then greeted people as they came. Scott, Brent, and Holly Sadleir came so it was fun to see them. Brent just got home from his mission last week! The Luau turned out pretty good! There were quite a few people, the food was delicious, and the show was super entertaining! There is a girl in our ward who is samoan so she put the show all together and it was awesome! We had a potential, Jeremy come and lots of less-actives! I was super exhausted by the end of the night and grateful for it to be over, haha but I am glad we did it! We said bye bye to Elder Poulsen because he goes home this week. 

Sunday we had ward council and then church. Eric came and they announced his baptism. Edgar Felix brought his sister Neina to church! We've been trying to meet with her for quite a while and we got to set up an appointment! It was Don Geverts farewell. He just got baptized a year ago! He's going to Lubbock, TExas. We helped teach a part of Elders Quorum so that was fun. We had mobat and it wasn't that busy surprisingly. We weekly planned and got things all organized for this next week!

Monday was Sister Lehmitz's first day of being my trainer :) haha we switch roles this week just to make sure she's got everything down in case she trains or takes over our area next week. We had a lesson with Eric which was awesome as always and 2 of our members came which I think he really enjoyed. He also brought us socks! Haha he doesn't even know that I love socks so much! They were cute ones too. We taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. He said he drinks tea a lot but he's willing to give it up! No questions no excuses.. Like i've said.. he's amazing! We had a lesson with Kevin next about temples. Shawn came and Kevin's friend Jeremiah was also there! We've met Jeremiah before and asked if he wanted to learn more, but he said no. We asked him today though and he said yes! So we set up an appointment for friday. He's way cool. Next we went and did service for one of our members who is moving to North Carolina. We helped her pack and clean and it was an eye opening experience for me. And it was so hot! She's super sweet. We are going to miss her! We had a lesson with Neina. We taught the restoration and she is excited to find out if this is true for herself. She has seen the change it has made in her brothers life and she wants it. We had mobat and it was super slow. School is definitely back in session! Sister Frampton and I had a meeting to figure out what to do for training this week. We really want to focus on being positive so it will hopefully be good!

Oh my goodness I have been studying Mosiah and I love Mosiah. King Benjamin is the man! Studying his words has made me ridiculously excited for general conference! I might have said that last week but I am still excited! Ha also Abinadi. Abinadi is such a great example of dedicating your life to God and the Savior, no matter what happens. I have been studying True to the Faith. I love that book! I am so grateful that Dad always encouraged us to study that book. It's amazing! Something I really liked from it this week was Mercy. Because of the Atonement God can be merciful to us and the way he is merciful to us is as we sincerely repent. I also loved how it said that 'every blessing you receive is an act of mercy, more than you could ever merit on your own.' That is so true! We can't do it without Him, without our Savior. Also if God is willing to be merciful to us, then we definitely need to be merciful to others. I am so grateful for the atonement and for the gospel!

I love you all a lot! I hope you have an amazing week :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen