April 23rd Letter

Dear Family,

This was quite the week! I hope you are all excited to hear . . .

Tuesday night we taught Casmier's at a members. We taught tithing and fast offering and he thought it was all great! We met with Hugh after. He is great, but he is having a really hard time right now with priorities and caring to much about what other people think.

Cassie by a beautiful home in Penasquitos

Wednesday was an amazing day. I went on exchanges with Sister Miller! I love Sister Miller. She is from Lindon. Anyways the day started out with studies and then we had a meeting with Salt Lake about some stuff for the Battalion and then we had a lesson with Taylor. Teaching with Sister Miller was so cool because it felt like we had been companions forever! Our lesson with Taylor was about the power of our testimonies and we went around sharing one liner testimonies with each other. Next we met with a referral, Sarabeth, outside of jamba juice in Linda Vista. This lesson was unreal! It was like preach my gospel dvd worthy.. haha not because of us, but because the Spirit was so strong even with all the outside noise and Sarabeth's reactions were just awesome. She is dating a mormon and that's how she became interested and just really wanted to learn all about it. She told us she is looking for a sense of belonging. We taught her the restoration and when we got to the part about Joseph Smith and his prayer and what he saw, she just kept saying.. wow! wow! We whipped open the Book of Mormon to the introduction and had her read the last two paragraphs. She said it was super welcoming and then we were telling her how she can find out if all of this is true by praying and that God will let her know through the Spirit. She told us that she can already feel something inside of her and so we testified that it was the spirit. We invited her to pray at the end and she did. She said she would always remember us now when she goes to that jamba. We were able to add her! It was one of the coolest lessons. Even my testimony of the restoration was reaffirmed during that lesson. Next we had a lesson with Arthur about the importance of church attendance because he hasn't been coming. We were able to figure out some of his concerns and he committed to coming this Sunday. Next was a lesson with Casmier and Carli came. We taught him baptism and confirmation and then went over the baptismal interview questions with him and he answered them all flawlessly and the most sincere I have ever heard someone answer them. He is just so humble and sensitive to the spirit. It's awesome! We had temple next. It wasn't too busy today. We talked to this lady though who at first she didn't want anything to do with us but then she ended up opening up to us and telling us how her husband had an affair and wants a divorce and she is still in love with him. They aren't sealed and she was really hoping they would be able to be sealed some day and she has some kids who are really struggling. Her heart was just really broken. We just talked with her about how Heavenly Father is aware of her and loves her so much and that the Savior is with her every step of the way. We both gave her a hug and just let her cry and she just kept saying thank you and then left. It was really sad! I was really grateful in that moment to be an instrument in God's hand. He couldn't physically hug her, but we could do it for Him. After we were supposed to have a lesson but it was cancelled so we tried some contacting and it was an adventure. Haha we met some pretty interesting people, but I was able to learn some new street contacting tactics from Sister Miller, so that was fun. I learned SO much from Sister Miller. She is an amazing missionary. She even said some things to me at the end of our exchange that were an answer to my prayers. My heart was really full of gratitude by the end of the night.

Thursday we had training and talked about sacrifice and how much our senior couples have sacrificed to be here. I did a project for the Seegmiller's basically the whole time I was at the MoBat today. Our zone leaders came with an investigator so Sister O'Neill and I took them on tour. Oh we have a new zone leader.. Elder Weidner! He's hilarious. After MoBat was Casmier's baptismal interview and he passed :) Then Sister Riggs got a blessing because she has a really bad cold/sore throat. We taught Casmier and then we had a lesson with a referral, Johnny. Johnny is from sweden and all his best friends are mormon. He loves mormons! He says he hasnt' been baptized yet because he hasnt' been able to feel what everyone else says they feel. We were able to add him and we hope that the spirit can help him feel through us! Tyler came to the lesson and invited him to institute after and he stayed! We had dinner with our member Cory and his family who aren't members. It was delicious! And we had a nice talk about God. We had coordination with Matt after and then a lesson with Jackie. Jackie is so excited to be baptized! 

Sister Rasmussen and Sister Miller freezing (in 65 degree weather) at the temple

Friday happy birthday Ayden!! We had a lesson with Laurel! That was another miracle that happened Wednesday was that we got a text from Laurel saying she wanted to meet with us again! So we met with her again and she said she watched general conference by herself and after she watched it she thought she would be stupid if she didn't meet with us again. She said she's ready to hear all the lessons and wants us to teach her like we would normally teach people, so we were able to add her again! Miracles. Her heart is much more open and soft. We had district meeting which was great as usual! Then we had lunch with Rodney at Red Robin. We talked with him about the power of the Book of Mormon. We went to the church to see if there was a baptismal suit that fit Casmier, but there wasn't. He is like 6'6, haha. We had MoBat after.

Saturday happy birthday Elle!! We had MoBat n the morning. We left a little early so Sis Riggs could go practice her song for the fireside. We then went to the church to start filling up the font and getting everything ready for Casmier's baptsim! Funny story.. there was an ear wig in the font and so I got it out with a paper and then threw it away and as I was turning around from throwing it away Sister Riggs was checking this baptism suit that was hanging up and saw a cockroach and screamed and I already had the heebie jeebies from the earwig so I started screaming which scared her and she screamed even louder and then I screamed louder and it was just really funny. We wish someone would've been there to witness it. We set up the room and then started practicing our song we were going to sing and it was like 4:30pm and the baptism was at 5pm and I was thinking I should check the phone so I did and we had like a billion missed calls and texts and then found out that the baptism was cancelled! :( A few days prior, some of our members invited Casmier to go hiking with them and he said he would if it didn't interfere with his baptism and they were like oh no it definitely wont because a lot of them were involved with the program and wanted to be there and so he was like great! I will go. Well turns out the hike took a lot longer than they expected and at 4:30pm they hadn't even left the place yet and it was 2 hours away . . . we got super frustrated just because we wish our members would've been more conscious of time and everything to get Casmier to his baptism and support him and things . . . but anyway we made a bunch of calls to tell people it was cancelled and try to figure out when we would reschedule. We went to dinner with some of the elders and then we weekly planned. One of our members called us to apologize about everything. He felt really really bad. 

Sister Rasmussen and Sister Riggs trying on some members' funny mustaches

Sunday we had studies and then ward council. Ward council was definitely super awkward.. people were just really upset with one another about everything that happened on Saturday. I started feeling really bad for the people involved in the hike because they already felt super bad about everything and then they just kept getting hounded with more guilt in ward council.. :( Church was good besides that. Casmier, Jackie, and Arthur came! Everyone was super nice and welcoming to all of them. We had MoBat after and then we had a mission president's fireside just for YSA! We sang in the choir which was fun. Sister Riggs sang a song called "Walk With Me" and her voice + Elder Wallentine's piano skills + this guy who played the viola = an amazingly beautiful song! Ah, I didn't want it to end. Casmier, Jackie, and Arthur also came to the fireside :) yay! We said bye to some elders that are leaving next week! One of our assistants is leaving which is crazy because he has been the assistant since I got here! He is an awesome missionary and I am grateful for everything he's done for all of us! 

Monday was a full day. We had studies and then a lesson with Laurel about the restoration. It went well but was definitely interesting.. We then had a lesson with Arthur and it was a good lesson because he just laid everything on the table for us! We finally got him to just tell us how he's feeling and what he's thinking. He decided he really does want to be baptized and he want so work towards it so we set him with a new date, May 18. Wahoo! We ate lunch and then tried contacting some people. We had a referral for a Hmong girl who they said she was like ready to be baptized, she just doesn't have any missionaries and we were like sweet! Then we showed up and she speaks like hardly any English and said she didn't want to learn more.. so we were super confused. We had a lesson with David about putting on the armor of God. He was in some pain because apparently one of the senior couples went with all of them on the hike and got heatstroke or something and David carried the sister all the way back down the mountain! He is the nicest! We had dinner with a member after and it was delicious and then we had a lesson with Raquel about the priesthood! She said she is going to wait to tell her father until she moves back home, which is in June. She told us this is what she really wants though so she will tell her father and she will get baptized.. she just wants to make sure everything is okay with her father because he just always wanted her to be his little jewish girl.. I can't imagine how hard that would be. 

And that was my week! Pretty eventful. At least it seemed like to me.. haha maybe it won't for you when you read it. I also had some really great studies this week as well! I am in the middle of Alma. I love Alma so much! Alma 33 is one of my new favorites . . . verse 11 says, "And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my^asincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine^bafflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, ^cbecause of thy Son."  He is always listening, never judging. And because of the Savior that is even possible! Ahhh I just love the Book of Mormon so much. I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen