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