May 14th Letter

Dear Family,

It was sooooo great to talk to you on Sunday!! Ahhhhh :) sorry it was rushed, but I am glad that I got to at least hear a lot of your voices and tell you I love you :) Because I do! So much. Here are the highlights from this week....

Tuesday night we had a powerful lesson with David at the battalion. A few of our members came and we invited him to pray about baptism. He is just having a hard time finding an answer about modern day prophets.. that is his only hold up.

Wednesday happy birthday to Rus & Tami!! I love you both and I hope you had a rock awesome day! We had mobat in the morning and then we had district meeting. We talked about charity! We weekly planned and then we went to a baptism for some elders in our district. We had a lesson with Sam about the law of chastity and two of our members came and they hit it great with him! Sam is so excited to be baptized. 

Thursday happy birthday Tommy!! Today was such a sweet day. We had a training this morning that we call MTE's. We learned about teaching repentance and it was so cool! President talked about how repentance has such a negative connotation but that repentance is what allows us to become like the Savior, and to learn and grow each day. It doesn't necessarily have to be for 'bad' sins, but it's for anything! As we repent we show the Lord our willing heart and our desire to change and become a better disciple for Him. It was such a sweet lesson!! We also talked about asking inspired questions, asking for referrals, and being okay with silence. One of our assistants, elder long, said, 'Silence is when we take a step back and let the Holy Ghost come in to testify." So sweet! We ate and then headed for our first lesson. We had Sister O'Neill with us for the day and it was so fun! I look up to her so much and she is such a powerful missionary. We had a lesson with Sam but he didn't show up so then we went contacting. We knocked on the wrong door and this spanish lady answered and thankfully Sister O'Neill speaks spanish so she taught her the restoration and we had a member, Kassandra, with us who also spoke spanish so they both taught her and it was awesome! She said she wanted to learn more so we will give her info to the spanish elders. We had a lesson with the Edgars next and I just love them. We talked about the restoration and asked Edgar Felix to tell us about Joseph Smith and he just taught so simply and powerfully that it even reaffirmed my testimony of Joseph Smith. We had a lesson with Juan next at Kassandra's and Don came as well. We taught about tithing and fasting. It was cool because last time we committed him to a date he was like 'i'm scared but I guess I'll do it' and then today he was like 'i'm so ready and I'm so excited!! Let's do this!' ahhh i love it. We visited Shawn next. He is great! We talked about repentance and applied what we had learned in MTE's and it was really cool. We had a lesson with David next about Joseph Smith and we were able to help him recognize how he feels the Spirit. Next was Robert. His lesson was super powerful. We talked about his potential and following the spirit. Last lesson was with Sam. We were able to reschedule and we taught him tithing and fasting. Sisters Silva and Amendola brought us this yummy corn stuff. 

Friday we had MTE's follow up session. We talked about changing our ward mission and just making sure we are really trying to get the members involved and excited about the work. It makes me so pumped to be a member missionary when I get home. We went and got golden spoon in Chula and then had a lesson with May. She is still right on track to be baptized June 8th! We had a member, Stacey, come and it was awesome because she said exactly what needed to be said! I love that. We had mobat. The edgars brought us all in n' out and they stayed and watched some videos. Edgar Felix was having a rough night and it was sad to see him so sad! He's so tender. 

Saturday we had exercise and studies and then we finished weekly planning and organized our formers. We tried contacting a few people and no one was home! It was crazy because in el cajon it was 98 degrees and then we had temple and by the time we got to the temple it was 76 degrees. I can't believe the difference! Temple was great. I love being there. We had a lesson with David after at the mobat and watched On the Lord's Errand about Thomas S Monson and asked him to pray and ask if he is the modern day prophet on the earth today. David is so humble and sincere. 

Sunday happy mother's day to the best mom ever!!! I love you mom. We had studies and then church. The edgars passed the sacrament for the first time today!! So sweet! The bishopric got these cute plaques for all the girls in the ward that says, 'to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.' We did stoplight chart after church and talked with our bishop and tried contacting and then phone calls!! That was definitely the highlight of my day!! Once again sorry it was so rushed.. I always wish we had more time, but it's okay! Next time I talk to you all it will be in person.. ha weird! And don't worry.. I am not trunky :) I just love all of you a lot. 

Monday we had studies and then a lesson with Sam about the word of wisdom and went over the baptismal questions with him and Kassandra came. Then we had a lesson with Robert about the gospel. He needs to go on a mission! He is a recent convert, but he would make such an awesome missionary! Then we had a lesson with Alan and Laura came. We talked about tithing and he said he's struggling with that right now and we just promised him that if he'd be obedient to the Lord and pay, that the Lord would bless Him. I know that's true! We had mobat and it was great. Elder Day gave us a little history about the battalion at the end of the day.

That was my week! It was great :) I still love being a missionary. I love it SO much. I just want to sprint to the end and give it my all these last 6 months... oh speaking of which.. I didn't tell everyone, but my release date is November 26 and I am telling you this now so that you can make plans to be there when I come home :) heh. 

I was thinking this morning about how much I have learned and changed since being here.. I have even changed in ways I didn't know I needed to change. I just love letting Heavenly Father shape me into who he needs me to be. I hope that I can be humble and willing enough always to let Him be able to do that. 

Thank you, thank you for all your love and support. I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen