January 15th Letter

Dear Family, 

Sorry if this email isn't as detailed as usual . . . I forgot my journal dang it! Haha it's hard to remember with out my journal because they days all mush together, but I will do my best :) Tuesday we played sports with our zone and it was way fun! After we had a lesson with our new investigator Tanner. We are starting to question his accountablity... We know he's had a past of drugs and so a lot of times he just contradicts himself.. at one point he says he believes in God and wants to be mormon and the next point he says he doesn't believe in God and has no desire to change, so we are trying to figure that out. We had a lesson with a recent convert, Hugh. He is great! He is always excited about life. I don't know if I have said this before, but he totally has an Alma the Younger story. 

Cassie with Elder Villalobos from the Sharon 5th Ward. Both serving in the San Diego Mission 

Wednesday we had MoBat and then we weekly planned and then Sister Pagel received her patriarchal blessing! I fasted with her in hopes that it would be a great experience for her and it was indeed :) she said all of her questions were answered and it just made me think about my patriarchal blessing and how grateful I am to have that guidance. I love reading it! I try to as often as possible and I love that just like the scriptures, something different can stand out to me and help me with whatever is going on in the moment. After we attempted to visit some potentials. They lived in some really cute beach houses! They weren't home unfortunately though. 

Thursday we had training at the MoBat. They took us through a tour and related it to us and it was a really cool experience! They were helping us see that we must make every tour special for whoever will be there. We had zone meeting after which was great and always gets me excited about trying harder to be better! We had coordination after with Matt and then one of our appointments fell through so we went to visit our investigator Clifford. He was home and so we taught him a lesson and it was really cool because 2 of his roommates, who are also from Ghana, joined us. They were all super receptive to what we had to say and then at the very end another one came and joined us and they said they have 3 other roommates and we were like well you should invite them next time!! Haha we got all excited because we are going to teach 7 people from Ghana! I hope all of them will have the desire to learn more :)

Friday we stopped by a referrals. His name is Jared and we took him soup because we heard he was sick. He was super nice and we just talked with him about his beliefs and shared with him why we are on our missions sharing this remarkable message and we taught him to pray. At the end we asked him if he would pray and he was like yeah! And he did it without any questions and after he told us how he felt really good and he just really wanted to make a change in his life and it was so sweet! And then we had a meeting with a less active and it was really sad because she said she has an addiction and that she has already done too much bad that no one can help her. We just kept saying how with the Savior's help she can be healed and she would believe us for a second, but then say well I enjoy how I feel in the moment and so I think I might just stick with it even though I know it will lead me to destruction . . . it was so sad!! We are still working with her though because we want her to know that she is not alone and that she can be healed, because I KNOW she can. We had interviews with President after and they were really good. He gave me some great guidance. We had MoBat next and it was great! I honestly cant' remember any of the MoBat without my journal . . . ha sad!  <

Cassie and Sister Pagel with some elders at the Christmas party 

Saturday morning we met with Stanley. He finally opened up to us about why he doens't really come to church anymore and it is because he said he lost trust with some of the members. He said he believes the gospel is true, but members of the church bother him. It was sad to hear that, but we tried to help him see the importance of church and challenged him to become the person that other's can trust. We had choir practice after and then MoBat. 

Sunday we had MoBat and then church. Church was wonderful as always and then after we met with Keri and then Tyler and then had dinner with a group of our members. It was delicious! We talked with all of them about their roles as member missionary's. We went to the Spanish fireside after. We sang in the choir and Sister Riggs played a trumpet duet. It was great!

Monday we had MoBat and then we went and saw a recent convert, James. He seemed in much higher spirits today and we read with him in the Book of Mormon. Next we had a lesson with a referral. So this is a great story . . . Elder Sprague (he is a missionary in this mission, serving in Poway) called us over the weekend and said that his friend in Utah had met this Asian guy over the break and talked with him about the gospel and found out he lived in San Diego (in the La Jolla area), so she got his contact information so she could send it to Elder Sprague so he called us. We called him on like Saturday and set up an appointment and he was really excited! And then right before we hung up he said "oh wait do you want me to read in the Book of Mormon before we meet?" And we were like haha yes! That'd be great! And so we met with him tonight and he is from Hong Kong, but is here at UCSD studying biochemistry. He lived with a host family a couple years ago who were LDS so that is how he intitally came in contact with the church. We taught him about the restoration and he was so open and humble and prepared! He was soaking it all in!! We taught him how to pray and invited him to pray at the end and he did! After the prayer we asked him how he felt and he said "he felt good and that he felt like he feels every time he reads the Book of Mormon!!" Then when we were setting up a return appointment he was like well "can we meet every day?? I just really want to learn all that I can!" Bahhh!! We were overjoyed :) He is our miracle! Seriously, it was awesome and got us so pumped up! Which was good because our next interaction was not so good.. We had an appointment with our new investigator Jared but he didnt' show up and he wasn't responding to our calls or texts so we finally decided to just go show up at his house. The minute he opened the door I could tell something was wrong.. He wasn't as happy and spirited as before and he was closed off to us and he wouldn't let us pray with him or anything. We asked him if something happened between the last time we saw him and he said he just had things to figure out and wasn't sure if religion was for him and that he would contact us when he's ready... It was so sad! All we could do was testify of what we know to be true and how it could help him in every aspect of his life . . . We hope that in the next few days his heart can soften and he will remember the feelings he had and really call us. 

Well in my studies I was studying 2 Nephi 4. I LOVE that chapter. Nephi's psalm. Through everything he always has his trust in God. I am also trying to study more in depth the Christlike attributes and I was on patience this week and as I read Alma 17:10-11 it just really stood out to me that we must be patient in long-suffering and in our afflictions because that is what can help us become the example and the instrument in God's hand that He needs us to be. It's all about becoming. If we become who He needs us to be, then we can help other's in their process of becoming. And our ulitmate goal is to become like HIM. I know that is my goal! And I am really grateful that I have this time on my mission to further that progression.

I love this gospel :) and I love you all so mucho!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen