May 7th Letter

Dear Family,

The verdict is..... I am not in the Helix YSA ward which covers the El Cajon and Sweetwater stake. Huge area!! But mom, I am serving in your hometown!! Haha so cool. My companion is Sister Crawford. She is from wyoming and she has been out just a transfer before me. She is super awesome! I never thought it'd be hard for me to leave an area, but I have been having a hard time leaving La Jolla. I just loved it so much there. On Sunday I fasted to be able to love Helix as much as La Jolla and to know my place there, and it was cool how just that day, my heart expanded and I already love Helix so much!! Oh and I get to talk to you all on Sunday!!! I am so excited :) I decided if it is going to be crazy like last time.. I need you to be prepared :) haha so think of  little summary of your life you can tell me or something. Anyways, here are the highlights...

Tuesday we had a barbecue/played sports/going away party at mission bay with our zone. It was so much fun! I love north zone. We went to the institute for a lesson with Johnny and I said goodbye to some people. Johnny had really great questions! After we had a lesson with Taryn. She is struggling with health problems, but we talked about hope and she really loved it. Next we went to the mission home to pick up some new sisters! Oh and we got a new assistant. Elder Long! He's awesome. I packed up all my stuff.

Wednesday we had transfer meeting which was great! Oh and ps Helix is complete opposite everything from La Jolla... the area, the people, just everything! Haha it's nuts. Oh and dad something kind of funny is the Helix ward dynamics are almost exactly like your YSA ward when I was in it! So it's fun because I feel right at home :) We helped load cars after transfer meeting and then we were dropping off sisters and holding people's stuff so we got lucky enough to go to the normal transfer meeting which was super fun! I haven't been to one since my first transfer here. All the missionaries freak out and get so excited, haha I love it. After we went and had a lesson with Mary, our investigator! She is super sweet and prepared and is getting baptized on June 8th! We went back a little early to move all my stuff. We had mobat and it was great! Oh and Sister Davies is back from being full proselyting!! Woohoo! So good to have her back at the mobat. 

Thursday, Happy birthday to Brock!! I love you brother! We had mobat in the morning and I helped Sister Seegmiller with a project. Sister Jarrett and I are the two who always help and she went full proselyting so now it's up to me! Haha woot. I really like doing it though so it's okay. Oh and I met Rus's mission president's second wife. She came to the battalion. After mobat we weekly planned and then had a lesson with another investigator, David Payne. He's quiet and super humble and also prepared! We had a lesson with Jen, a less-active. She has a strong desire to come back! I love when that happens. We updated records and then I unpacked.

Friday we had district meeting. My new district is way awesome! My new district leader was in north zone with me so it's fun to have a familiar face. We talked about the spirit and how it's so important to help investigators know what the spirit is and how they can feel it. We then had a lesson with the edgars!!! I am in their ward now and it makes me so happy. The edgars are known throughout the whole mission. They are these two latino guys who have been best friends since birth and they are both named edgar. They came in contact with missionaries around November and they have just grasped the gospel with full heart and it's SOOOO cool. One of the edgars even turned himself into jail because he couldn't get baptized unless he first took care of some things he had done. He took care of them and was in jail for about 2-3 months and then he was able to get baptized and they are both just on fire! I am so excited to teach them now. We talked about the Sabbath day and we also had our investigator Sam there who is friends with them. Sam is super sincere. Next was mobat and I took a super fun family on tour.

Saturday was a long day! Haha it was cinco de mayo celebration in Old Town which meant we were on mobat duty from 9am-9pm. For four of those hours though we got to be at the booth down at the square which first of all, Sister Jarrett, Crawford, and I designed the back drop for it and it looked awesome! And also I was assigned to play the violin with kids, haha it was super fun! I definitely need to brush up on my violin. We got a solid referral from the booth too! She started asking about mormons and this lady at the booth with us, Sister Uri, invited her to church and I found which church she needed to go to which is in north zone and contacted the elders and told them to look out for her at church. The edgars brought us lollipops and then Rachell and her boyfriend came and I got to give them a tour! I was soooooo tired by the end of the night. 

Sunday, happy cinco de mayo! I slept SOOOO great last night. Probably the best I have in a while. We went to ward council which by the way, the relief society president's name is Cassie so it really kept throwing me off the whole meeting, haha but then we had church. I love the Helix ward already and it was fun to meet more people! Edgar Ortega received the priesthood today and he was so excited and he also became a ward missionary! Edgar Felix got called as the elders quorum secretary. We had break the fast after and it was delicious and then we had battalion. Tanner and Sarah came in but I missed them :( They left me a picture though! And then I got to see Jonathan and Kelly and their kids!! It was so fun to see them! After mobat we had mission president's fireside and it was in Chula Vista!! It was fun to be back in Chula and I got to see Jessica and the House family! Ah I love them. The fireside was wonderful as usual. I love those firesides so much! They always get me pumped up. I made one of the edgars a scripture case box and he brought it to the fireside and was showing everyone because he was so excited about it, haha it was funny. 

Monday, happy birthday Matthew! I love you! We had mobat and then we had a lesson with Juan. He is an investigator and his cousins are members and were at the lesson and it was a sweet lesson! We went over the baptismal interview questions and just talked about everything. They all had such good questions and we were able to figure out Juan's concern about baptism and he committed to May 18th!! Woohoooo!! So excited for him. He is awesome! Also Kassandra, his cousin, made us really delicious food. We had a lesson with Alan next. He has a heart of gold and has been through some really rough times, but he has so much faith and it's awesome! He's been a convert for almost 2 years. Next we just tried contacting a lot of people and no one was home... ha but we did meet this really nice lady who is not a member who is going to let us come do service for her! We are excited about that.

It's been a great week :) I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and for all He has blessed me with and helped me with. This really is His work. Oh and I read a talk by Elder Bednar called, "That We Might Not Shrink" Soooo amazing! You all should read it. It's from a CES fireside in March. He says a devoted disciple is someone with strong faith in the Savior and is submissively accepting of His will and timing in our lives -- even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted. He tells a really amazing story about this couple that once again you must read! But he talks about having the faith not to be healed... and just how sometimes we have to have that paradox in order to accept the Father's will. I also loved when he said, "many of the lessons we are to learn in mortality can only be received through the things we experience and sometimes suffer. And God expects and trusts us to face temporary mortal adversity with His help so we can learn what we need to learn and ultimately become what we are to become in eternity." 

I love you all!! I can't wait to hear your voices :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen