October 8th Letter

 Family!

Wasn't general conference amazing!?!? Ahhhh so much revelation! Yay! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as me :) Here are the highlights from the week...

Tuesday we went to the temple. SO amazing. I also was able to receive some answers there and I saw Brandon!! He came and talked with me for a little bit :) And gave me a wedding announcement. It's so cute! It was sweet though because as I sat in the Celestial room I picked up the Book of Mormon and opened it randomly 3 times and each time whatever I opened to answered something that was on my mind. The church is true! 

Mission Leadership Council 

 Wednesday we had mobat and I had a meeting with the Seegmillers and Sister Frampton. After we had a lesson with Andrea. She broke down to us because she is still having a rough time with her break up. We taught the plan of salvation and she said it brought a lot of comfort. She's awesome and she is going to be a beast member someday! We had a lesson with Eric next. He never ceases to amaze me. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and tied it into family history. He is so excited to start his especially because he is an orphan. He is also pumped to go to the temple on thursday! We saw Patrick next. Diana came! We taught keeping the sabbath day holy. I love Patrick so much. His prayers are the best! We had a lesson with David. Robert came. Robert is so good with David because he went through the exact same thing. David told us that he's had a rough few weeks and he just wanted to give up and quit this whole mormon thing :( we talked about opposition and Robert bore powerful testimony. We really just tried to make sue he knew that we loved him. He said he doesn't want to give up but that he just needs to start from scratch. I will NOT give up on this kid. He's incredible. We had a lesson with Neina next and also taught the plan of salvation. Neina is so cool. We got to talk with her twin Pachi tonight! He was a little more open to us tonight. 

Thursday happy birthday coley!! I love that little guy. We had training and we talked about our responsibility at the temple. Next Sister Frampton and I went to mission leadership council! My favorite. Today we discussed becoming better and clearer teachers and also companion study. We had a delicious lunch and then I had mobat. I took the CUTEST family on tour. Ah. The dad was in a modern day mormon battalion! I forgot the name of it, but I'd never heard of it before. He had some pretty crazy stories. We had a little guitar jammin session, Sister Miller and I. 

Sister Rasmussen with her district

Friday we had mobat and Sister Riggs and I took the cutest older couple on tour. They even referred at the end because they were touched by the story! So sweet. We had district meeting which was great! We talked about using and applying the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with Edgar and Ortega about general conference to try to get them pumped. We then went by Chris's and I think we might have woken him up or something, because he was in a completely different mood then last time. He just seemed not excited about anything and it was a rough lesson, so we just decided we'd come back another time to see if he was just having a rough night or something. 

Saturday was Christmas! I mean general conference! Haha it literally feels like Christmas that's how exciting it is! We watched both sessions at the battalion. Our investigator William came and watched the morning session with us and then we had a lesson with him in between. After both of the sessions we weekly planned and then we had battalion. Okay so I thought of a few questions for conference just like I challenged you all and the craziest thing happened.. President Uchtdorf's talk almost always answers at least one of my questions, but this time it didn't! His talk was still one of my most favorites, but it didn't answer any of my questions, and I didn't really get any of my other questions answered in those two sessions, but I wasn't doubting or anything because I knew they'd get answered tomorrow. We broadcast all the sessions at the battalion even priesthood and I was on shift during the priesthood session. I had just gotten off a tour and the senior sister told me I could go watch one talk of the priesthood session and then come back out. I debated whether or not because I just thought maybe I should stay up front and that I could read the talks later, BUT I just kinda had this feeling that I should go, so I did! I walked in right at the close of one of the songs and just as President Uchtdorf was about to speak. He answered every single one of my questions in that talk. And it wasn't even necessarily what he said, but what the Spirit told me. I definitely couldn't hold back tears... which I am usually pretty good at doing. But it just made me know how Heavenly Father really is so aware of me and of all of us. What are the chances that I was at the battalion that night? What are the chances that I just happened to get off a tour right before President Uchtdorf was speaking and saying what I needed to hear? It's all because Heavenly Father is in the details of my life and in all of our lives! So if you are doubting he loves you are is aware of you... DON'T! Because he does LOVE you and he is AWARE of you. Every single day. Every single moment. :) I love this gospel. 

The zone with interesting mustachios

Sunday conference was also amazing! I was on shift Sunday morning so I only got to see the beginning and the end. President Eyring's talk was amazing!! And I saw the end of President Monson's and am excited to read the rest of it. We watched the second session at the stake center. William came! He loved conference so much and just kept thanking us for inviting him. Also yesterday when we taught him, we taught him about fasting and tithing and today he was fasting for his family! So cool. It's incredible how much he is changing. After we street contacted this awesome lady named Pilar. She wants her and her daughters to learn more! We stopped by a referral, Mark. He was home! He lives in a sober house, so that makes things interesting, but we invited whoever wanted to listen to come join our lesson out back. We taught Mark the restoration and it was a super cool and personalized lesson. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, but he wanted more time to learn. We asked him if he'd like to set a date to work towards and he said 'yeah, how bout in 2 weeks?' haha wow! We got him with a date for November 2nd. One of his house mates had joined us by then, named Steven. Steven said he'd been baptized a few times, but he doesn't think he did it for the right reasons and how he wants to shape up his life now and asked us if he could be baptized too! Haha. He's older so we'll have to pass him off to the elders, but his heart is so willing. At the end we asked Mark to pray about Joseph Smith so he did and after before we could even ask STeven he asked if he could pray about Joseph Smith too. So cool! We went to Chris's next. He was definitely a lot more chipper this time. We taught him the restoration and he said he just wants to take things slowly. We went to Kevin's. We finally got to see him again! He's been going through some rough stuff. Thankfully not spiritually, but just with family. We talked with him about the priesthood and recommitted him to everything. We told him how if he really wants to be baptized that he has to be consistent with coming to church and with praying and reading. He said he really wants it. Dan came with us and after we had coordination with him on his porch. Dan is so cool. Sister Lehmitz and I had a good chat and kind of made a new focus. 

Monday happy birthday Julie!!! I loves you! We had zone meeting today. Elders Cena and Calzada made is so wonderful! I think I've said this before, but everything we talk about at Mission Leadership Council, the zone leaders are supposed to come up with a way to teach what we discuss to their zones, so I always like to see how they decided to do it and they did awesome! I really like our zone. We went to district lunch after and then we had an appointment with this guy named two socks. He's super open! We have to pass him off to the elders though. Then the best thing ever happened... all our appointments fell through! Haha just kidding that's not the best. So we contacted for about 3 hours and one of our members came with us. It was actually really good! We were able to find out a lot of information about some of the less actives in our ward. We are trying to clean up the ward list and figure out where everyone is. We had a lesson with Nathan and read from the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2. Nathan really is making a change in his life. I just love seeing people's hearts change as they accept the Savior and His gospel and His atonement into their lives. That's my favorite thing! 

Basically it was an awesome week :) I am a little sad I forgot my conference notebook so I can't tell you about my exact favorite parts of conference... but pretty much I just loved everything! I love how much they stress the importance of families! I am so so grateful for our family! 

I love you all so much :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen