December 26th Letter

We got to talk to Cassie on Tuesday, December 25th for about an hour. She sounded so very, very good. Miss her like crazy but so happy she is serving the Lord.  --Eden

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!! Oh my goodness it was so wonderful to talk to you all yesterday :) I love you all so much! And sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas! Here are the highlights from the week . . . 

Wednesday there were SO many BYU fans who came through the MoBat. I loved it!! Made me feel right at home, haha. We had a lesson with a potential investigator from Germany. She is so sweet! She had a lot of good questions and she wants to meet with us again soon! She even brought her friend who also wants to learn about our beliefs. We ate real quick and then we went to the BYU football fireside! The team gave like a Christmas fireside and Bronco spoke at the end. It was pretty cool. Oh and I didn't know that one of my friends from high school is on the team so I saw him and we got to catch up so that was fun. Oh and Cecil Samuelson was there! I talked with him after for a minute. After we had to go rescue some sisters whose car died.

Thursday was my 6-month mark . . . what the what?? Time is so weird. I feel like I just left, but at the same time I feel like I have been here for years, haha it's awesome. We had district meeting today and then we met with a member and then we had MoBat which had a lot of BYU fans again. Oh also I took this girl on tour who asked if I had a sister named Megan and I was like yeah! And she was like yeah because you look a lot like her and then I asked how she knew her? And she was like she's in my singles ward! Hahaha I was like uhhh whoa different person, my sister is married! So that was weird. Megan, apparently we have someone else who looks like us and even has your exact name. Leon & Callie and their kids came through, but I barely missed them unfortunately. They left a nice note :) We had a Christmas concert tonight at the mobat that was really good!

Matthew and Matt visiting Cassie at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

Friday was quite the day. First of all the world was supposed to end . . . but that didn't happen, haha and also during one of my tours I see out of the corner of my eye someone walk in who looks exactly like Matt and Matthew!! And what do you know, it is them! Hahah, so sweet! I knew one of my brothers had to be coming down for the game. I took them on tour and chatted after. It was fun :) Matthew is so big! I can't even believe it. After MoBat we had a lesson with our new investigator Keith. He is confused about whether God is real or not. I can't wait until he figures out that He is real! We talked with him about prayer and the Book of Mormon and how if he does those 2 things consistently and then also comes to church, that he will be able to find out that God is there and loves him so much. After we had dinner and then we were getting ready to leave to go contact some people and some elders from our zone called us and said they were having a last-minute baptism and were wondering if I could play the piano and if Sister Pagel could lead and we were like sure! We show up to the baptism and find out that the girl getting baptized is Muslim so they got permission and everything but she had to keep it kind of quiet so it was just me, Sister Pagel, the elders, President Hunt, the girl getting baptized, her husband, and their friend. It was interesting but cool! Afterwards her husband wanted to take us all out for dinner and he is a very wealthy man so it was quite the experience. Haha, we kind of felt like we were in a movie because we got valet parking and we went to this super fancy restaurant and ate fancy food and wow. I had scallops for the first time and they were delicious! I also had crab and corn chowder soup that was super good! It was an interesting experience.

Sister Rasmussen & Sister Pagel with some elders at the mission Christmas party

Saturday morning was our mission Christmas party! It was so fun! We had breakfast and got to visit with everyone for a while and then we had gift exchange and then we watched a slideshow of baptism pictures and then President spoke to us and we also sang lots of Christmas songs! We have such awesome missionaries in this mission. MoBat was good tonight and busy! 

Sunday morning we practiced our song and then I helped Elder and Sister Seegmiller figure out some technology stuff haha I love helping them. We went to a different ward today because ours was combined with another ward at 9am and we couldn't make it because of MoBat so we went to a family ward and it was fun! The members were all excited and thought they were getting sisters in their ward haha. After we contacted a former and had a great conversation with him and he says we can meet with him when he gets back from his Christmas vacation. We had dinner with a member and it was delicious! Then we went to the MoBat for the Christmas concert. I sang 2 songs with Sis Riggs, Davies, Madsen, Miller, and O'Neill. It was fun! I am getting a little less fearful? But not really because I was supposed to have a solo part in one of the songs and at last minute I begged Sister Miller to sing with me hahah. I don't know what my deal is. Sister Day sent you one of the songs though so you could see our performance :) It was a lot of fun! Sister Riggs sang like every song and she did amazing as usual. The MoBat was packed!! 

Monday we had MoBat and it was busy and then the Afflecks bought us pizza! Yum! We went to the mission office to make a last minute run for Christmas packages. We visited some referrals and then we went to dinner! Some elders in our district had some members in their ward who asked if there were any missionaries who didn't have a Christmas Eve dinner and that was us! Haha just because our ward is students and they all went home for Christmas. Anyway so they had us over! It was SO DELICIOUS!! They were the cutest family. And they were so nice! They got all 4 of us missionaries gift cards to Jamba Juice, McDonalds, and some pajama bottoms! So nice of them. They also sent a picture home I am pretty sure :) After we went caroling with our district. After planning Sister Pagel and I had our own talent show hahah and we opened one present each. 

Tuesday we woke up and went running as usual and then we got ready and opened presents! Thank you so much everyone :) And then we read Luke 2. After we had a service project at the MoBat and then we got to call our families :) which was the best ever!! Haha I love you, family. We had MoBat the rest of the day. It was a really great Christmas! 

Cassie on Christmas morning in her mission apartment

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. I am so grateful for Christ's birth, life, and His atonement. Life would be a lot harder without Him and His teachings. 

I love you! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen

December 18th Letter

Dear Family,

Christmas is in one week. What the what!?!? I can't even believe it. Also I am pretty excited to talk with you :) :) Here are the highlights..

Tuesday night we had a lesson with the guy we met a week ago who used to be Mormon but has decided to put God out of his life. Everything we said he came up with some argument so we finally just asked him to experiment, to try reading his scriptures, and praying, and going to church again and just see if it makes a difference, but he wouldn't. We just bore our testimonies and left it at that. I was kind of upset after because it made me so sad inside for him. He went from being a dedicated Mormon to not even believing in God. I just don't see how people can put God out of their lives, but I am grateful we got to share our testimonies with him. After we went caroling with our district. It was great! Except there were a lot of people who didn't want to listen, haha, sad! Where is the Christmas spirit?

Wednesday we had zone conference. It was amazing! I love zone conference so much. We learned how to better teach people about prayer and also how to use the Book of Mormon in our teaching. Those two things combined are so vital to someone's conversion. Prayer is how we communicate with God and the scriptures are a way that he communicates with us and a way that we can learn how to better follow Him. It was cool to have those broken down by President. After zone conference we had the temple shift. Guess who I saw??? Carl and Jan Robison!!!! Ah it was so great to talk with them! I took a pic with them and I forgot my camera cord so I will send it next week. They gave me a little update on the Sharon 5th ward and on the family. It sounds like everything is going pretty great in good ol' Orem :) 

Thursday it was pouring rain. It's actually been pouring rain like every day this past week. This is San Diego winter, haha weird. We had a great lesson with a recent convert today about Joseph Smith and then we had dinner with some members and then went to a Christmas concert at the MoBat.

Friday was cool because we had an appointment with a referral that we had gotten a few days prior. While meeting with her we found out that her parents actually got baptized a few years ago. We asked her why she didn't get baptized and she said it was hard for her to talk to the missionaries because she is really shy, but she is super sweet! We talked with her about prayer and the Book of Mormon and she said she prays every day and she tries to read every day. We also asked her if she had a desire to continue learning with us and join her parents and she said yes!! We really felt like we were meant to meet her. She is so great! Next we had a lesson with a member and then we had district meeting. We went over the 8 fundamentals so it was really good and then we took a Christmas picture, haha you can look forward to seeing that. We had temple again. It was rainy and cold, but fun! We still got quite a few of visitors.

Merry Christmas!

Saturday we did some service for a lady named Leila. She wanted Christmas lights put up on her house so our district helped her out. She started crying while we were doing it and she said she was crying because she was so happy and she could feel the Spirit even with us there putting up Christmas lights and that she was just really happy we were doing that for her. It was really sweet, and it was fun! I never knew I was pro at putting Christmas lights up, haha. It was quite a task though because she has lots of random bushes and trees in front of her house. The elders were kind enough to clean up her yard as well. We had an appointment with a former investigator named Clifford. He is from Ghana. His friend who is a pastor was there and kept saying that no where in the Bible does it talk about Jesus visiting people other then the ones in Jerusalem and he kept saying convince me that you are right! And we said we aren't here to convince you, just to share with you what we know to be true, but you can find that out for yourself! And then the pastor guy said that we shouldn't have to find things out for ourselves, we should just know . . . it was interesting, but we left them with some reading assignments and Clifford said he still wants to learn more. We also contacted this guy named Black Ant and he just kept talking about how the world is an awful place and we talked with him and got his information to teach him more. 

Sunday was good! MoBat was super slow and Church was great! Wenchao and Iris both came to church. We found out Iris is moving to L.A. next week :( but she asked us to send her the missionaries there and she said her roommate currently wants to meet us! So that was awesome news. A member in our ward named Tyler gave the funniest talk about dating . . . hahah oh the joys of serving in a singles ward. We had dinner with our bishop and his family tonight. His daughter served in Hong Kong and she knew the Goos! We went caroling with our district again. I love the Christmas season.

Monday we had a song practice because some of us are performing Sunday night. Then we went and helped a former investigator at her storage and then we had a lesson with Wenchao. Wenchao knows God is real and he knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he worried about getting baptized because he's afraid he wont' be able to follow all the 'regulations' he called them. We had a great conversation with him and challenged him to pray about what Heavenly Fathers wants him to do and he said he would. He gave us a little Christmas present. So nice! We had the temple again tonight. It was super busy!! FHE. We met some awesome people. We met a couple from Denmark! They said I look Danish :) and we met some kids from Germany. I really feel so lucky to be able to meet all these people from all over the world! Tonight we found out one of our fellow Battalion sisters has to go home due to medical reasons :( we will miss her so much! But we have high hopes that she will be able to return to us in a few months.

Today is super rainy again. This week in my studies I was just thinking about how important and fundamental prayer, scripture study, and going to church are. They really set the foundation for us being able to more fully follow Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They help us be in the right mindset. I am so grateful for these tools that we have to help us become better disciples. I hope you all have a wonderful week and Christmas!! I'll talk to you in one week :) 

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen

December 11th Letter

Dear Family,

First of all I want to give a shout out to Ric, Tami, Jorgen, Karsten, Cacia, Daven, Ayden and Soren. They all wrote me a letter this past week :) thank you so much! I will write you all back soon! Also happy birthday to Ric on Sunday!! I hope it was a very happy day for you! Here are the highlights...

Tuesday night we met with Keri and we also had a lesson with Da. My first night in San Diego I went out with the La Jolla sisters and I got to teach Da, so it was cool to be able to teach her again as her actual missionary! We did a demo with her that helps visualize why we have the gospel. It really helped click in her head and she loved the demo.

Wednesday we had to take one of the cars in the shop to get fixed so we did our studies while that was happening. After we had a district lunch which was good :) Then we had a lesson with a recent convert named Hugh. We talked about temples and are working with him to be able to receive his endowments. Next we had a lesson with William about his beliefs in the gospel and about keeping God's commandments because we felt like we needed to let him know that if he goes to Hawaii he will be breaking one of God's commandments which is obeying and honoring the law. At times it would click in his head, but then other times he would justify why he was going :( We had temple shift tonight. It was so pretty!! I love the lights. Hopefully I will show you pictures of that soon. I love the Christmas season.

Thursday we had zone meeting. We talked about getting over mental blocks. It was really good and truly inspired by our zone leaders. I am the only one who plays the piano in my zone . . . which is surprising to me so I think I will get good practicing this transfer. After we had another lesson with William and his mom and some of the elders. Keri had her baptismal interview tonight and she was so nervous! She is so cute. But she knows everything so she passed :)

Friday we met some potentials and invited them to the Christmas Sunday program. During the Christmas season at the mobat we have both of our theaters open and this awesome tree and we play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with David Archuleta and it makes us all so happy and in the Christmas Spirit. We had a lesson with a member about building the foundation of going to church, praying every day, and studying scriptures every day. He is getting married soon so we felt like it was a good thing to talk to him about so he can have that good foundation for his marriage. He also brought us delicious food!! 

Sister Page and Sister Rasmussen with Keri at her baptism

Saturday I took a HUGE tour and this guy passed out! It was really scary. Thankfully he was okay though. Next we had Keri's baptism!! It was SO wonderful! The Spirit was strong. I love her so much. She had to get baptized like 6 times because her foot kept popping up, haha but it was great. After she bore her testimony and it was so sweet about how the gospel has given her hope and made her really happy :) I got this really overwhelming feeling throughout that whole baptism of gratitude to be a missionary and represent Jesus Christ and invite others to come closer to Him. It's amazing. We had coordination after and then we ran to give a book to that guy we met last week who used to be mormon but now doesn't believe in God. We feel like we met him for a reason, and I just felt like I needed to give him 'Our Search for Happiness,' by Elder Ballard. Such a good book!!  Next we went to our ward Christmas party. We got to know some people in the ward better and we had two potentials come! 

Sunday the MoBat was pretty slow. I made a Christmas banner that tells of all our events going on. Sister Jarrett and Crawford helped as well. During sacrament meeting today we had a special Christmas music program. It was awesome! There are so many people in our ward that I had no idea they were so musical. Also we had a really cool miracle . . . yesterday we got a referral from the temple of a girl named Iris. We called Iris last night and invited her to church. She came!! We talked to her after and she had a great experience and we taught her about God and about prayer. She is from China and she said she doesn't believe in God yet, but she really wants to and she feels like He can help her with her life. We were like yes he can!! We invited her to pray and she did with us :) it was her first time! She said it was really cool and then she asked for a Book of Mormon :) we are meeting with her again this week! There was also a member who brought a friend and we got to meet her and get her information and she too wants to learn more. Wow! Miracles. Oh also Keri was confirmed today! It was so wonderful. We met with her after church to talk to her about her experience and she already wanted to pay tithing so we showed her how. She is so awesome! Next we met with a former at the temple. His name is Wenchao and he's from China. He is the most tender spirit I have met thus far on my mission! Oh my goodness. He said he knows God is real and that the Book of Mormon is true. We were like, why are you are former!? Haha we didn't really ask that but we wondered. Then we went to our stake Christmas concert and met some potentials who members in our ward brought. We also met this professor who is from Austria and was part of the Holocaust! He was an amazing man. 

Monday the MoBat was unusually slow . . . we practiced our song for the Christmas concert. We tried seeing a few potentials and then visited a less active. We went to the temple with our ward and some potentials and Wenchao came! The temple had a Christmas concert outside tonight. It was beautiful! 

Well that was my week! I love the Christmas season so much. Everyone is closer to the Spirit and I love that we all come together to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is my everything! I am reminded of that every day. 

I love you all so much!! And I hope you have a greeeeeaaattt week! 

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen

P.S. enjoy the VoiceMale concert!!!  

December 4th Letter

Dear Family,

It's December! What the, what!! I can't even believe it. First of all, I really hope to get ALL of your Christmas cards this year please :) and second of all, I was thinking the other day what you all were going to do without me this Christmas . . .  I mean I wrap all the presents, I help with shopping, I make you all go to the Voice Male concert, I deliver the secret gifts . . . geez, I really hope you get by! Haha just kidding :) I know you will! Okay here are the highlights . . . 

Wednesday we helped our new investigator moved and it ended up being awesome because we got 2 potentials out of it and we met a potential there who we've been trying to get a hold of!! We were definitely in the right place at the right time and we got to help our investigator move which she was very grateful for. I took a really cool tour today at the MoBat with this LDS guy who opened up to Sister Miller and me about his wayward kids and it was just so cool to have a gospel discussion with him about it. This guy brought us all really good rootbeer! So that was cool. Sister Pagel and I had a couple lessons at the MoBat since it was slower we had people come there. I also had a little bit of a rough day with a few things and it was cool because I've realized that a lot of times that Heavenly Father answers my prayers is through other people and at the end of this rough day I came across a talk that Dad had sent me the day before and I hadn't had a chance to read yet so I read it and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear at that moment. So thank you Dad for following the Spirit and sending that talk to me. 

Thursday we had training in the morning and Sister Seegmiller taught us how to be ladies . . . hahaha walk like ladies, sit like ladies, stand like ladies. It was super funny. We had district meeting today and it was about how we need to create a vision each transfer, so Sister Pagel and I created our vision for the La Jolla YSA ward. The Seegmiller's got Adobe products so that I could start helping with designing flyers and banners and things so they don't have to hire someone and so I started working on our Christmas flyers. It was so fun!! You all know I love that kind of stuff. We had a lesson with our investigator Keri. It was about the gospel and one of our members came and it was great! She opened up to us about her life and how she just wants to start over and she really feels like the gospel will allow her to do that. She is seriously so prepared! I played Christmas songs on the piano. Thankfully we have a piano here at the MoBat so I can go play when it's slower so I won't lose my piano skills. It was fun too because a lot of the sisters came around the piano and we all sang Christmas carols together :) I love Christmas!! 

Friday we had some school groups come in and Sis Pagel and I played the violin with them. Yup mom I played the violin! Haha I still remember somehow. We also taught them how to march so that was fun! Oh today was so cool because Elder Marcus B. Nash came to the site! He was in town for a stake conference and he knows Elder Seegmiller pretty well so he came through the tour and then we got to talk to him after for like an hour!! Oh my goodness . . . P.S. he gave a talk about faith in the past conference that was so good! He talked to us about how we are all representatives of Jesus Christ and how we must help people understand the atonement. He read 3 Nephi 11 with us and showed us this pattern that Christ followed and how we must follow that same pattern when we interact with people. It was such a cool experience! After MoBat we had coordination with our ward mission leader and then we got really lost to an appointment and then we did a blitz for some elders in our district. Everyone we met was SO nice, but just didn't want to change their lifestyles . . . it was super interesting. We also were trying to find this one house to visit this guy named Robert and we couldn't find the house, but we saw some people walking up the street so we decided to street contact them and as we were talking to them we figured out that it was Robert! So cool. 

Saturday we had MoBat and then we had a lesson with Keri at the temple. We talked about praying, reading the scriptures, and keeping the Sabbath day holy. It was funny because right before we started the lesson she started asking us questions about keeping the Sabbath day holy and we were like, that's perfect! We are talking to you about that today. She ask all the right questions and she just understands and accepts everything we teach. Next we had dinner with an investigator Chen. She is from China and she made us the most delicious food! We had a great talk about God and prayer. We got to see the temple tonight! It was the first night that they turned on all the Christmas lights and it looks so amazing!! Ahhhh, I love Christmas. 

Sunday the MoBat was pretty slow this morning, surprisingly. Church was wonderful today! Except we found out one of our investigators is moving to Hawaii and we don't know why. We are trying to convince him not to because technically he isn't supposed to leave because he is on probation. We had a lesson with Keri after about the ten commandments and following the prophet and obeying and honoring the law. Once again she asked great questions and understood why we have these commandments. Each time we teach her I am amazed with how prepared she is. Next we had a lesson with a recent convert. She is the cutest! She lives in the dorms at USD and it reminded me of my good ol' freshmen days, haha. We went to the Institute and had a lesson with a member and then watched the Christmas devotional. Ah, President Uchtdorf's talk?? So good! All of them were so good! It's crazy because last year I was at the devotional! Haha weird. Sister Pagel and I met our goal of teaching 20 lessons this past week! Woohoo!

Monday was kind of a weird day. MoBat was good except I felt pretty sick. I had a great chat with this guy who is Roman Catholic though and he said he loves Mormons because they are so nice! Haha. Then I took a couple on tour who is going to Disneyland on Thursday to meet up with their family and going until Saturday and then Sunday they are going on a Disney cruise the whole rest of the week! Fam, we should definitely put that in our plans. After MoBat we tried to go see a recent convert but he wasn't home. We got a phone call though from one of our investigator's mom's (she isn't a Mormon, but she loves that her son is trying to become one) anyway but she told us that her son spent a ridiculous amount of her money and she said that bipolar runs in their family and she thinks he has bipolar but that he won't go get checked for it and she is just at a loss with what to do, and now he is trying to run away from his problems . . .  it's so sad! We are meeting with her and her son and some elders later this week to try to figure it all out. I can totally see how he would have bipolar though. Next we went to Costco to have dinner with a member which was delicious! I love Costco . . .  Scary thing though was on the way there we almost got in an insane car accident. It was one of those moments where I saw my life flash before my eyes . . . this huge van should've smashed our car . . . but somehow it didn't. I know whole- heartedly that Heavenly Father's hand was in that moment last night and that He protected us, for that I am immensely grateful because it was scary! After dinner we had a lesson with Keri. Once again before we started she brought up questions about exactly what we were going to teach her! She is so excited for her baptism which is this Saturday! We are so excited for her :) Then we went to our ward's home evening to give the spiritual thought and then we stopped by a former's house but ended up talking to his roommate. It was a sad conversation because this guy used to be Mormon and served a mission and everything and now he says he doesn't even believe in God. He asked us if we could really believe what happened in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and we said yes and he told us we were childish. It was just sad! I felt so bad for him. We just testified of what we knew and left it at that. 

Today has been good! We are going on the trolley tour later so that should be fun! In my studies this week though I've been reading the Ensign with the October conference talks, and the prophets and apostles and general authorities know exactly what we need to hear and exactly what we need to be doing! I just love it so much. I love that Heavenly Father has given us these amazing leaders to help lead and guide us and help us to be happy. This gospel is so true! I felt that even more strongly as I talked to that guy last night who doesn't believe anymore. I just hate that Satan can get people that way. But I am deeply grateful for my unwavering testimony and for all of you who have helped it become that way.

I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen

November 27th Letter

Dear Family,

Wow what a week it has been! Transfers!! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving together! I saw Abby, Paige, and Cacia's pictures in memory of me, haha thank you so much! I love you so much and also you girls are so stylish! Here are the highlights of the week . . . 

Tuesday we celebrated Sister O'Neill's birthday by walking around Old Town and eating at Miguels. So delicious! Sister Davies and I got to pick up a new sister at the mission home so we did that. Her name is Sister Mulipola! She is from Samoa and is the cutest thing. We took her to our area with us. We had a lesson and dinner with some members and then I went and said bye to Brandon and also the House family. I will miss Chula :( 

Wednesday morning was transfers! Here is the verdict...... I am now serving in the La Jolla YSA ward and my companion is Sister Pagel!!!! I was stoked. I love her and serving in a YSA ward?? That is so cool! Sister Page and I had started becoming really great friends and then they put us as companions and I was just so excited! We get along great and I can just tell we will be friends forever! I love all these new friends I am making :) We actually had been talking about how we hoped we'd be companions some time but that we didn't think it would happen because of all the new sisters coming in January, but look what happened. Woohoo! Sister Davies found out she is training Sister Mulipola! Haha she had no idea she was training until the morning of! We usually find out the day before, so that was a fun surprise for her. We got to go down to Old Town Square today and help decorate the huge Christmas tree. It was fun! After we had to move apartments so we did that and got all organized and Sister Pagel helped me learn a bit about our area.

Sister Rasmussen and her new companion, Sister Page

Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving!! I had MoBat in the morning shift and it was surprisingly busy! Also the senior couples are so good to us and made us an amazing thanksgiving lunch! Mmmm. It was so delicious!! We weekly planned after that and then met with our investigator Keri. She is so cute! She is about 28 and she loves the gospel! She's already so excited to get baptized and she just is a really sweet girl. Brandon.. you should come down to San Diego, haha. We also found out we would be speaking in church on Sunday, joy! Haha you all know how much I love speaking. We aren't allowed to proselyte on Thanksgiving or Christmas and we serve in a YSA ward aka all our members were home for the holiday so we just tried making lots of phone calls and get more organized. I am so grateful for the restored gospel, for this chance I have to be a missionary, for the Book of Mormon, for my Savior and all that He did for me, and for my amazing family! 

Cassie said there was lots of yummy food for Thanksgiving!

Friday we tried a finding activity that included walking around a park and having people take a survey. It wasn't very successful, mostly because no one was outside, haha. We contacted a referral and set up an appointment and then we had temple from 12-5. Oh my goodness it was so busy! Probably one of the busiest since I've been here. We got to meet so many people from all over the world, member and non-member. This awesome kid from Taiwan who we talked to wanted to learn more. He was so sweet. I also met this old man from St. George who is a member, but he is not sealed to his wife because he loves his coffee. We had a great talk and I challenged him to trade it for something else and in a year when I am home, I am going to come to St. George to visit him and he better be sealed. They were such a nice family and his wife was grateful that we got to talk with him. Oh ps it was pretty chilly today! Our appointments after fell through. We had a lesson with an investigator, William. William has quite the story! He got into drugs and then stole some bikes and sold them so he could have money to buy more drugs. He got caught and had to go to jail for a few months and now he is on probation for a year. He found God in jail though and shortly after he got out, came in contact with the missionaries. He is a completely different person! He basically is a member in the sense that he cleaned up, he comes to church, he comes to activities, he reads and prays every day! He just has to wait until his probation is over to get baptized. We still are going to meet with him every couple weeks though just to help him learn the doctrine and principles more fully. He just loves talking about the gospel and how it helps him be so much happier! It's so cool.

Saturday we had a lesson with Pierre. Pierre is great! We challenged him to come to church because he hasn't been in a while. We tried contacting a few people and then we had district meeting! It was great. Definitely different then my last district, haha but still great. MoBat was super busy tonight!! I took a mandarin tour with 4 people from China and they all wanted to learn more! One of them came right up to me after the tour and asked how he could get a book of mormon! So awesome. One of our assistants family came into the MoBat so we talked with them for a little. They took a pic with me and sent it to mom :) Oh and we started this great finding activity where we are texting everyone in our phone and just asking if we can meet with them. There are potentials, formers, and members! It's working great! We already got quite a few appointments next week. 

Sunday I got to sleep in until 6:30. Woohoo!! I now have MoBat  in the morning on Sundays so that was different. It was so so busy! Everyone came by on their way home. It was also my first Sunday in my new ward! There weren't a lot of people there since everyone was home for the holidays, but it was great! Sister Pagel and I spoke on gratitude. I focused specifically on finding gratitude in afflictions and weaknesses which is definitely something I can work on so it was great to study that topic! I just love the story of the currant bush from Hugh B. Brown. I don't if I told you all this yet, but go watch the will of god mormon message at mormonmessages.org. It is my favorite!! We also had to teach gospel principles because the teachers weren't there. Oh this was also my first Sunday in the mission going to all of church! Haha weird right? As MoBat sisters we just have to make sure we all get sacrament so before I only could go to sacrament and Sunday school and then I had to leave so other sisters could go take the sacrament. It was refreshing going to all of church :) I loved it! After we had a lesson with Keri and taught the Plan of Salvation. She said it was super comforting for her to hear that. Next we tried contacting a few people and then we had a lesson with a member. He told us that he's been having a little bit of a hard time just with life and I stole dad's tactic and asked him if he was reading his scriptures every day, if he was praying every day, and if he was finding someone to serve every day? He said he was not and so I challenged him to try those 3 things and see if it made a difference. Dad you always taught me that! So thanks :) I know it makes a difference. 

Monday. Okay wow Monday we had a full day and let me tell ya, it was  FULL day. So by full day I mean we didn't have MoBat  or temple, just the whole time in our area! We had 10 appointments. It was a record for both of us! It was so wonderful though. We were able to add a new investigator, meet with an investigator, meet with some less actives, and get to know more members! And the investigator we added was from us doing the texting all our contacts thing. Soo cool! We had most of these lessons at the institute building. So most of our ward goes to UCSD. The institute building is like their hang out place, haha it's kind of cool. But we also joined our ward for HE and got to know more people. It was great! We were both exhausted by the end of the night and didn't know if we could think anymore haha thank goodness we didn't have to until this morning.

I love my new area and I am excited for this new adventure and new beginning to rededicate myself! I just love being a missionary so much :) It's actually getting pretty chilly here in SD. Bring on the tights! I love you all so much :)\

Love, 

Sister Cassie Rasmussen

November 20th Letter

Dear Family,

First of all, it is a crazy day because tomorrow is transfers so we get phone calls today. . . and guess what?? I got a phone call! I am leaving Chula :( :( I really thought that Sister Davies and I would be together one more transfer. I am going to miss her! The Lord knows best though! I am excited to see what happens . . .  Here are the highlights..

Wednesday we had a lesson with a less active. She stopped going to church when she was in her teens and she is only like 24 now but it's crazy how much she has forgotten. She even said that herself. We did some creative contacting. . .  aka we were aruging about where we should go to lunch because we had forgotten food and neither of us wanted to pick so we were pulled over to the side and Sister Davies was like, if you roll down your window and contact this guy walking by, I'll pick where we go to lunch and I was like bring it on! Haha so we talked to him about the church and the gospel for a minute and exchanged info. It was awesome! We also have a potential who we were supposed to meet with it was that Russian guy who we contacted a few weeks ago, but he was sick so we took him a can of chicken noodle soup and gave him the Finding Faith in Christ dvd and said that soup and a movie always makes things better, haha! Hopefully he watches it. We also took Brandon a note and a treat. Brandon's mom called us later and told us some of her concerns and how she was so excited for Brandon to be baptized and how her relationship with him has been even better since we have been teaching him. It's so cool!

Moustache goodbye party for Sister Johnson

Thursday we took 2 guys on tour who work for BYUTV sports and they said they were getting things ready for when the basketball team comes in February. We told them to tell coach to bring the whole team through the battalion! Haha that would be so cool. I had a really great conversation with this guy who came through and was just driving by and thought the place looked interesting so came in. He will be a member someday. . .  He is so close!

Friday we had district meeting which was good as always! We also made some Christmas decorations for the Battalion.

Saturday we had temple shift which was great! I love the temple. There were a few weddings so it was fun to see all the wedding party. This temple worker who we met one time offered to buy us lunch in the temple. So nice! After temple was. . . . . . BRANDON'S BAPTISM!!! Ah. It was so wonderful! Sister Dibelka in our ward gave a talk about baptism and then he got baptized! He had to get baptized 3 times because his elbow kept coming up, haha we told him it'd be more memorable. His mom came though and it was so awesome to have her there! After he was baptized, Sister Davies and I sang. I was SOOO nervous. I can't believe I did it. Haha now I know why I never sing in front of people, but it was good. Then Brandon bore his testimony and then President Dixon gave an awesome talk about staying strong in the gospel. It was all just a very sweet and awesome experience and Brandon was so happy! After we had dinner at a members and it was delicious!

Sister Davies, Brandon, Cassie

Sunday Brandon got confirmed! Also a sweet experience. The ward has just welcomed him so much and he has all these friends now, it is so great! His mom came again. She got work off for it :) We had triple dinners tonight... I don't think I can ever do that again haah wow. It was all delicious though! But I didn't want to eat ever again after that. I love the members in Chula so much! We had a going away party for Sister Johnson. She is such an awesome and talented missionary!

With Brandon's mom in her kitchen

Monday I went to my last Milkshake Monday :( haha maybe that will be a good thing for me. We contacted a few people, but no one was home! I feel like a lot of people left for thanksgiving. Schools are out the whole week here! Are they out that long back home? Sister Davies and I cleaned the courthouse which was great. I took a tour with this couple who was great and then like 30 min after they left they came back because they got engaged and wanted to tell me the story and show me the ring! Haha it was so cute! It made me so happy that they wanted to share that with me. I also took the funnest/funniest tour of my life. These two elders brought a less active and he was just a hoot! He was super responsive and into the tour and I loved it!

Well, I'm sorry if this email makes no sense . . . haha my brain is going crazy with transfers! We are at the emailing place and everyone is getting phone calls and freaking out so I feel distracted.. but I hope what I said made sense. This week was great! I really will miss Chula. I love all the people in my ward and I love Sister Davies. I felt like we were just getting things going! But like I said, the Lord knows what's best and I am excited for what he has in store for me next! i LOVE this gospel. Something that I was particularly grateful for this week was the fact that even when life is crazy and challenges arise, the gospel is always firm and constant and true! For that I am extremely grateful for.

I love you all so much!! I hope you have the best thanksgiving ever! Eat some banana cream pie for me please :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen

November 13th Letter

Dear Family,

I hear there is snow in Utah!? Ahhhhh . . . sometimes I get so confused as to what month it is because it is so warm here! But it actually did cool down this week. I had to wear my coat a few times! Highlights . . .

Tuesday night we had a lesson with a less-active and her son. We encouraged them to read the Book of Mormon together. They are both so sweet! They just need to sort out a couple priorities. Next we tried to contact a former but it turns out they moved so we ended up talking to this guy named Val. He is mid-20s and is originally from Russia, but he's now a U.S. citizen. Thanks to Brocko I was able to say hello to him in Russian. Hahaha. Love you brother. We had a really great chat with Val though. He said he used to be Roman Catholic, but he is now atheist (or so he thinks). There is nothing atheist about him! He is just confused. You could see the light of Christ all over him. He was so sweet and really listened. We were able to get his number and so we hope that we can meet up with him again soon.

Wednesday, happy birthday, Cacia! Love you! We had a lesson with Melody. Sister Dixon came again. She is always so great at lessons. Melody still is about the same . . . She does have a desire to learn more and she loves what she is learning, but because of her husband situation, we just can't get her to church. Next we had a lesson with Sister Givens. She is such a sweet lady. 

One of the biggest dogs Cassie has ever seen. She said he looked like a bear. 

Thursday I was one exchanges with Sister Stirling. She came to my area. We had temple most of the day and it was freeeeeeezing! I met this guy who told us that his first contact with the missionaries was when he came to the San Diego Temple, and now he's a member and going so strong! I just love those stories. We met this really nice cute old guy who thanked us for our service and he was so sweet! At one point his teeth fell out though and I definitely wasn't expecting that . . . haha I really hope he didn't see the reaction on my face, because I can only imagine what I looked like. He really was so sweet though! We met this guy named Doug. He saw our name tags and asked if we always had "Jesus Christ" in the name of our church. He said he thought we were just called the Latter-day Saint church. We had a wonderful discussion with him about Jesus Christ and he wanted to learn more! So we were able to get all his contact information. He talked about how it just bugs him so much that most people just care about all the materialistic stuff. We met this couple and talked to them forever about the gospel. They had some hard questions! But Sister Stirling was so great at bringing everything back to the restoration. We also met a couple from Wellington, New Zealand and that is where Courtney's parents are mission presidents so I asked if they knew them and they did! Haha they took a picture with me so they could show it to the Kezerians. We headed to Chula and had a lesson with a less-active. She has had a crazy rough life. We talked about the atonement and it was so powerful! I am learning that I have much to learn about the atonement. There is way more to it then I ever thought. I am just deeply grateful for the Savior and for His willingness to do that for us, for me. We had a lesson with Brandon and read in the Book of Mormon with him. It was great! He is still excited to be baptized :) Then we had coordination. It was great to be able to learn from Sister Stirling! She is a wonderful missionary.

In front of one of the new mission cars

Friday we had zone meeting, which is a new meeting we have everything month with just our zone. President happened to be on exchanges with the zone leaders that day so he attended as well. It was a great meeting! We talked a lot about how we need to be fully prepared for all these new missionaries coming. He said we are getting about 70 new missionaries then we were already expecting, within the next few months! So exciting! He also said that basically every ward will have 2 sets of missionaries. Crazy!!! It gives me chills every time I hear about how many more applications the apostles are getting each week. President also gave us a great idea to pick 10 solid active families in our ward and start visiting them weekly and getting them to do missionary work and then once they are strong in it so pick different families and hopefully that will get our whole ward started and excited about missionary work. We went and visited one of these families after and told them about it and asked if they would be part of it and they were thrilled!

Saturday we weekly planned and had choir practice for the mission fireside. I took a really fun tour tonight with these 4 friends from Arizona. Two of them are recent converts and it was just cool to hear about their stories. One of them said he was totally anti before and that now when he sees movies where the saints are being persecuted, he just cries because he feels like he did that. You could just see how much the gospel has changed his life, it was neat! I also met this guy whose dad invented slide texting! And he holds the genius world record for fastest slide texter! So sweet. Hahaha. Oh, AND his sister was Maira in the Testaments! (the little girl with the monkey). 

Sunday we got to sleep in until 6:30am!! Woohoooo! Haha, oh the life of a missionary. We had stake conference today and we got a new stake presidency! President Dixon (who is in our ward) is the new stake president with Bishop Tui (who is a rockstar member missionary) as the first counselor and Bishop Dunford (who I don't really know but I am sure he is great!) as the second counselor. I am really excited to work with all of them! The MoBat was super busy today! Here's some advice to anyone visiting San Diego, first of all, make sure you come to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site because it is the coolest place! And second of all, if you can avoid it, don't come on a Sunday. Haha, Sundays are the craziest days, so if you don't want to be jam-packed in a tour, I would come another day. We had dinner at a members and had a great discussion about member missionary work and then we had the mission firesides. I LOVE the mission firesides. We have one once a month and it's focus is for investigators so we have musical numbers, Mormon messages, recent converts bear testimony, and President speaks. I sang in the choir and then Sis Davies, Sis Riggs, Sis Madsen, Elder Dent, Elder Geier, Elder Dennison, and Elder Christensen did a musical number. We sang a song called "Precious Lord." It was a lot of fun! Even though I was nervous beyond belief. I may or may not have almost passed out, haha but I am glad I did it. Oh and one of the recent converts who bore testimony said something like, "The gospel won't necessarily make your life or circumstances any better, but it WILL make you a better person." I thought that was really cool!

Little Baylee, a member of the Chula Vista Ward

Monday was busy at the MoBat because it was Veterans' Day. We contacted a few people and then had dinner at the Dixon's house and talked to them all about member missionary work. Next we went to the Sturges to practice a song we might sing at Brandon's baptism . . . we'll see if I can handle that or not, haha. Then we had a lesson with Brandon at a member's home. They have a son Brandon's age and they have hit it off as friends quite well! We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and then talked after how important faith is even when the going gets tough. The Spirit is so wonderful. Brandon asked his friend to baptize him and it was so cool to see the kid's face light up! He was so excited! We are so pumped for both of them! His baptism is this Saturday :)

Today we had a sisters' lunch thing at the mission home. It was wonderful and delicious! This is the last week of transfers . . . I can't even believe it! I honestly have no idea what is going to happen to me this next transfer . . .  but I am sure whatever it is, it will be what's best :) I hope that Sis Davies and I get one more transfer in Chula just because we are starting to get things going, but we'll see.

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen

November 6th Letter

Dear Family,

Okay so first of all I've been meaning to ask what the weather is like?? Because here it is still like mid 80s. It's nuts! Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cacia!!! I hope she has a wonderful birthday. Here are some highlights.

Tuesday night we had a ward trunk or treat which was fun!

Wednesday was Halloween!! All the missionaries had to come in early, but we had a little party at the MoBat. We did scripture games and bobbed for apples. It was great! I think I ate a little too much candy. Sister Davies' sister got her mission call! She is going to Chicago, Illinois Spanish speaking!! Dad isn't that where Vanessa got called to?

Thursday we had some 4th graders come in for tours at theMoBat which was so much fun! It's part of their 4th grade history to learn about the Mormon Battalion. I also met this kid who was 19 and he had a heart attack 4 months ago!! So scary. He can't go on his mission until they figure out why it happened. We had a lesson with Brandon today. He is so great! We talked about tithing and fasting. He is officially getting baptized on November 17, 2012 at 4:00PM!!!! We are SO excited for him and he is so excited which is awesome to see!

MoBat popsicle party!

Friday I took some people on tour from Burley Idaho! The Bells . . . Bakers?? Something . . . Shoot I told myself I would remember their names but I can't remember. They said they knew Granddad and Grandmother and Dad and his siblings. They also know the Jones! We did service with our district. We helped these people set up a huge fundraiser sale! It was great and they gave us pizza after. Oh funny story . . . we were in service clothes and took our nice clothes to change into after for district meeting and Sis Davies forgot her nice shoes so she had to wear her tennis shoes with her nice clothes and it was so funny! Haha we had a great laugh. I will send a picture. 

Sweet shoes on Sister Davies

Saturday was a rougher day . . . all of our appointments fell through and the people we tried to contact like no one was home! I saw this kid at the MoBat who was in my ward at BYU when I lived at Liberty Square, haha that was funny. We took Dee the book Our Search For Happiness, by Elder Ballard! Such a great book! I really hope he reads it and the Spirit softens his heart. 

Sunday I had a fever . . . Brandon came to church! He is really progressing greatly and it makes me so happy to see him so happy! He kept asking questions about after he's baptized and it was cool to see him so excited!! He just fits right in with all the priests in our ward, it is so great! Oh, P.S.  it was really nice getting an extra hour of sleep today :) Tonight we had waffles at the Sturges then visited a less active

Sister R and Sister Davies with some boys in their ward who told them they want  to grow up to be missionaries. 

Monday MoBat was super slow. I still felt a little sick, but much better. I got to watch On the Lord's Errand. So good!! The Battalion got 3 new cars! Chevy Cruzs. They are so nice! I got to drive one today. We had a lesson with Brandon about the priesthood and invited him to start preparing to receive it. He is super excited and said he has even thought about serving a mission! Woohoo!! We contacted a couple referrals and one wanted to learn more! She said her and her husband have been looking for a church and her friend is Mormon. We will meet with them next week! We also went to visit someone in our ward who we've never met and at first when she answered the door she was kinda like what are you doing here? But then she let us in and she opened up to us about her life and she's been less active and she's wanted to come back to church but didn't know how and all this stuff and it was just so great to be the instrument in the Lord's hand at the time. She said we said some things she's needed to hear and she committed to coming to church! She also invited us over again next week for dinner :) She was so awesome! It was a cool experience.

Well that leaves us with today! Prep days are great! I think this is the shortest letter I have written, haha sorry! I don't have a lot of time today. But i LOVE you all so much!!! Have a great week! Just remember the Lord is aware of everyone and their circumstances and His arms will always be stretched out waiting for us to hold on. 

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen

October 30th Letter

Hello Family!

Good week again!

Wednesday I met with E. Seegmiller forever. He wants me to help them out with designing flyers and stuff for the MoBat. I am so excited about it! Uncle Mark came in today! I was so surprised and so happy to see him! We had a nice little chat and I got to see his fancy new car :) I was really grateful he came to visit! Also Sue dropped off some granola for me. She has tried to come see me 4 times! I am sad she keeps missing me. This night we helped Edith pack up some things in her home and then we had dinner at the Moffetts. Brother Moffett is from Ireland and is a convert and he is the man! Seriously he makes the gospel every aspect of his life and it is so cool! He is the ultimate member missionary. Some day I will be like him, haha hopefully. We had coordination with our ward mission leader.

Thursday we helped Edith again with packing and taught her a little. We took a member some cookies for her birthday and then we had a lesson with Fernando. We street contacted him a couple weeks ago and we were able to talk with him about the book of mormon. It was a sweet lesson and he is super open about learning! One of the senior sister's brother came in today and he looks like Santa Clause! He actually plays him professionally and gave us some pictures he had taken professionally that are in magazines and stuff, haha, it was awesome. 

Friday oh yeah. . . first off I have been meaning to tell you the funny ways people pronounce my name... it's either Rasmoooosen or RasmuNsen . . . I never know where they get that N in the middle... but everyone calls me that hah even sisters here at the MoBat! Basically anyone we contact though asks me where my name is from and they don't know how to say it, haha I never knew my name was so foreign. There was a mission presidents seminar here in San Diego and so for part of it they came to the MoBat. I got to meet mission presidents from all over! It was way cool. I met some that have been my friends' mission presidents. I also met this guy Brother Heaton who knows Rus. We had district meeting and then visited a few potentials and then had a lesson with Brandon. We watched The Testaments . . . and right when it was at the part where they crucified Christ, the dvd broke!!! It was so lame . . .  the Spirit was so strong and then it just broke . . . boo! But we were able to bring it back thankfully! He is still doing so great! He even expressed how he's seen a change in himself which was so cool to hear! We ran into another potential and talked to her about prayer. Then after planning the sisters had a popsicle party :)

Saturday, Happy birthday, Maxwell!! Thought about you today! We tried contacting some referrals and then we helped Edith. Her brother started talking to us about the gospel and said he saw the book of mormon sitting on her table and read a bunch of it last night! We had a great talk with him. We had temple shift tonight and talked to a family from orange county about the gospel forever, but they said they are comfortable with their lives . . .  I think that is one of my least favorite answers. We came back to the MoBat and did chat.

Sunday was the Primary program! It was SO adorable!! haha I love the Primary program, and Brandon came to church!! Woohooo! We also found out that he might be baptized this Saturday!!! He is praying about it and we should find out tonight if he decided this weekend was right or not!!! So exciting. We had dinner with the Breggs, such an awesome family! We talked about The District forever because they were super involved with the filming. We contacted a referral and she was way cute and willing to listen, but she said she's busy, but she promised she would try to find some time.So let's hope she does! We had a lesson with a less active . . .  this family makes me sad . . . they just have some difficult circumstances. The mom is really trying hard to change, and we told her that we know she can if she is willing to put her full faith to Jesus Christ and His atonement. 

Monday I went on exchanges with Sister O'Neill in Logan Heights! aka a sSpanish area. Haha! It was quite an adventure. I didn't understand too much of what was going on. I did say 2 prayers in Spanish though and bore my testimony so that was cool :) And then for one lady I told how Grandma was a convert and that we did work for her family and I got to do baptisms for some of them and it was a way cool experience and Sister O'Neill translated it all for me and the lady asked me to repeat the story because she thought it was so beautiful. So that was cool! That's something I have learned . . .  when the Spirit speaks, it is beautiful! MoBat was great as always. I did take a historian on the tour though who wasn't a member and after we had a pretty interesting conversation about how he appreciated our story of inspiration but historically it was super biased . . . but I am glad he thought it was inspiring! Because it truly is. I invited him to go to mormon.org. That website is so sweet! 

Today . . .  the reason I am writing so late is because this morning we went to the temple! It was soO wonderful! I love the temple :)

Happy Halloween tomorrow!! I best be seeing some pics of everyone's Halloween costumes! Seriously though . . .  We have to be in at 6:00PM tomorrow so we are having a party at the MoBat :) yay! 

I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen