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