October 1st Letter

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness. I am SOOOOOO EXCITED for general conference :) I don't think you understand. And I get to go to the temple today, FINALLY so I am also super stoked for that. It's just going to be a spiritually high field week :) wooot! Those are the best. Anyways... here are the highlights.. 

Sister Rasmussen and Sister Patterson at the lighthouse

Tuesday night we had a lesson with Eric. He is still unreal. Neil came and we talked about the Christlike attribute charity and how that motivates us to serve and to share the gospel. Eric told us he thinks he wants to go on a mission! So cool :) He would do so great! After we had a lesson with Edgar and Sam. Dan came with us. We decided to do something fun with them so we played the flour game! I remember playing this with the nieces and nephews. It's the one where you build a tower of flour and then you put something on top and you have to cut parts of the flour away and whoever makes the item on top fall has to put their face in the flour to get the item. Anyways we turned it into a sweet lesson about building our foundations! It was fun! And then of course Edgar and Sam got in a flour fight at the end so I'll send you a picture of that. 

Sam and Edgar after the flour fight

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Sister Patterson! I adore Sister Patterson :) It was soooooo fun! Our morning appt cancelled so we tried stopping by Nathan's but he wasn't home so we went to see a referral, Chris. Chris is so cool! He's 18 years old and has definitely had a rough life, but when we asked him what he likes he said, 'I love skateboarding, and I love God!' We talked with him about prayer and feeling the spirit and the Book of Mormon. He was really excited about everything! We were able to add him. Then when we were walking back to our car this guy was like hey are you missionaries? And we were like yeah! And he started talking about how he's looking for a church and so we got to talk with him for a minute, but he was working so then he had to go and we got his information. I love when people call us out! Next we met with Patrick. A girl from the Helix ward who just recently got home from her mission came with us. Her name is Diana. We taught him about the 10 commandments and following the prophet and talked with him about conference. He is so excited for conference! We invited him to think of a question and he is pumped and knows it will be answered. Diana came with us to our next appointment with Ryan. Ryan is really struggling. He just doesn't understand priorities. We talked with him about prayer and he said he would try to pray at least 2 times a week... and we were like no no no.. you don't understand.. pray every day! It will help you with school.. work.. family life.. EVERYTHING!! At the end he said a really sincere prayer and I hope he can just realize that as we develop our relationship with Heavenly Father that we will feel his presence so much more in our lives. Diana also came with us to our next appointment with Andrea. Andrea has had a rough week because her boyfriend of 2 years broke up with her. We were able to tie that into the gospel lesson and it was a sweet lesson! At the end Andrea was just smiling and laughing and said she felt so much better. We had temple next. The security guys brought us ice cream :) We talked and met lots of cool people. I hated being the bearer of bad news though when couples would come to do a session and we had to tell them it was closed :( I loved being with Sister Patterson though. She is incredible at being in tune with the Spirit and she just has such a pure heart! She's definitely become one of my best friends out here.

Sister Rasmussen and Edgar with his new scriptures with his name on them

Thursday we had training this morning and it was the best! I don't if I've actually told you, but I figured you might have gathered this from my emails, but part of my responsibility as sister trainer is Sister Frampton and I plan the trainings. This mornings training was based on my favorite show.... SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE! Hahaha. We did so you think you can give a tour? It was super fun! We had everyone pick a partner and then they had to pick a style (we had accent, hiccups, sad, robot, and singing) and they had to do a part of the tour that way. We are trying to help sisters break out of their shells and have fun with the tour so we did that in hopes that it would help. Then after the silly  one we had them practice conviction with the courthouse which is the part where we sum up the story and really talk about what these men accomplished because of their faith. It was super fun and I think all the sisters really enjoyed it. After we had a lesson with William about prophets and baptism. He said in his prayer that he knows he will be ready to be baptized on October 19. Ah yay! He's changed so much. We had district meeting and it was super cool. We talked about remembrance and the Spirit. We had temple again. Edgar got his patriarchal blessing!! He called us to tell us that it was the most amazing experience. Ah! I am so happy for him! Oh so at the temple these sisters from Burley came and they knew our family! The Robins family? They took a pic and said they were going to show Adam on facebook or something. We also met this adorable lady from Albania. She couldn't speak much english but she just kept saying "It's good, it's good." Haha and she got our email and took pictures with us. We then weekly planned.

Sister Patterson and Sister Rasmussen at the temple

Friday we had zone conference! In my old stomping grounds aka Chula Vista. The assistants did an awesome training about the Spirit. Figuring out how the Spirit works is definitely one of the hardest things. I feel like sometimes I have it down and know really well and then other times I have no idea.. It's awesome that we get to keep learning how it works though. President talked to us about stress and member work and planning. I got to see some people from my Otay Lakes ward and it was fun to see some missionaries I haven't seen for a while. We had mobat next and Sister Jarrett and I took a tour with these awesome Asians who were SO ready for the gospel. One of them told me she'd teach me Chinese for free! Haha i wish! Sister Mulipola and I took the assistants, Elder Long and Elder Wilkey, and their investigator and a member family on tour. It was definitely one of the funniest and coolest tours. We had them dress up and do the campfire part and the kids all loved it so much. 

Can you lead a tour?

Saturday we had mobat and I helped Sister Bement with a project. After mobat we went to our investigators but he was sleeping and so then we stopped by a referrals. He was sick, but said he'd love to meet with us this next week. Next was the relief society broadcast and oh my goodness it was SO good!! Ahhhhh. All about keeping our covenants and the sacrament and i LOVED President Monson's talk. It was just what I needed :) It made me ever more pumped for general conference. Speaking of which.. I challenge you all to take questions to conference. It's the coolest thing ever! I know they will get answered. They had a delicious potato bar after and then coordination. 

Sister O'Neill and Cassie reunited

Sunday was fast sunday. We had ward council and then church was great! Patrick was sick :( but William came! And he really enjoyed it. Eric got his temple recommend and he's SOO excited! He's going this week! He also passed the Sacrament again :) Nathan Duckett is getting called as a ward missionary and I have never seen him so happy. He was just glowing after church when he told us. We had break the fast and then mobat. I took this family on tour that I took last year at this time! And they remembered me haha so that was fun. We had a lesson with Alex and then with Nathan. Dan came to both lessons. With Nathan we read Alma 36 with him and he just hit home. He bore such powerful testimony about his experience. It was awesome! 

The assistants dressed up!

Monday we had mobat in the morning. It was pretty slow! I worked on schedules for the Seegmillers. After we had a lesson with Neina. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and talked with her about enduring to the end and how scripture study, prayer, and going to church are going to be the key things that are going to help her to do that. It was cool because we went into that lesson planning to teach the plan of salvation, but then she hadn't read her assignment (2 Nephi 31) so we read it with her and Sister Lehmitz and I both had the feeling to talk with her about church, reading, and praying. Yay for the Spirit being the true teacher! She opened up to us a little more.  Next we went to the church to meet some of the girls in our ward to go on splits with and while we waited we talked to this really nice man named John. He lives right next to the church and comes to the parking lot to play fetch with his dog. We invited him to come in sometime and he said he'd really like that! Brooklyn came with us to Patrick's lesson. We taught him the word of wisdom. He was feeling better today, but still a little sick. He thankfully doesn't have a problem with the word of wisdom, but it was still a great lesson to help him see the importance of that commandment. We tried visiting a few less actives with Brooklyn, but no one was home. We stopped by FHE and then I had a meeting with Sister Frampton. Sister Frampton is really awesome and I am grateful that I get to work with her. We balance each other out pretty well, haha so it's good. 

It was another great week though! I still love being a missionary :) haha. It's the best ever! I am in the middle of Alma right now with my reading. I love Alma! I love Alma and Amulek and just the love they have for each other and how much they back each other up. I also got to read one of my favorite scriptures again, because I am at that part in the Book of Mormon. I might have shared this scripture before, but I love Alma 33:11 " And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and myasincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all minebafflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, cbecause of thy Son. "I just love that Heavenly Father is ALWAYS listening and he is never judging. It's like what President Monson said this past weekend, that Heavenly Father loves us so much and that love never changes, no matter what! We just have to show our love in return by really taking that time to communicate with him, to read from his words in the scriptures, and to go to church so we can seek even more revelation and especially to help strengthen others around us. This gospel is UNREAL. I love it :)

I love you all! Eat sticky buns for me please :) 

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen