August 20th Letter

Dear family,

It was a crazy week again! But so good :) Here are the highlights...

Wednesday I had MTE's again. This time I went with Sister Benfield and Sister Stephens in La Mesa. They are spanish sisters so that was fun :) I had to brush up on my spanish skills. I was surprised with how much I could actually understand! I just couldn't say anything back, haha. We had some incredible miracles though! We started off by having a lesson with their recent convert, Dolores at the temple. She loves being there. She is like 65 and she is the cutest lady! We then picked up a member Peggy. Peggy doesn't really know spanish, but she wants to learn it so she is attending their branch and likes going out with the sisters. We tried contacting a former and then talked to a few people on the street and then went to contact another former and taught him. After we saw this guy with his dog across the lawn and Peggy was like, 'We should go talk to him!' So we did. Well, we talked to his dog first, haha and then him. It's a good way to start conversations with people. His name is Jason. He asked us the difference between mormons and other religions and we talked about the book of mormon. He said he's read a lot of religious books but never that one and we asked if he wanted to read the book of mormon and he said yes! We told him we had one to give him but it was in our car down the street and so he said he would walk with us. We kept talking with him about the bible and the book of mormon and how they both teach us of Jesus Christ and help us understand our purpose here on earth. We went over the promise in the book of mormon and he thought that was very powerful. He started talking about times in his life when God has really guided him and Peggy asked him if this was one of those times and he said, 'you know what, it really is. I know I met you for a reason. My hands are even sweaty! That means God is talking to me!' Ha we thought that was awesome. He also told us how he knew our true conviction to God because we talked to him. When he first saw us he didn't think we'd talk to him because he said, 'my soul isn't worth saving.' We testified that his soul definitely is worth saving and then their awesome member told him to go in his room when we left and kneel down and pray and ask God if we are true messengers of God and he said, 'You know what? I am going to do that.' Peggy was the bomb during that whole thing! She was able to relate to him so well and we are going to send the elders to him. It was such a sweet experience! It just goes to show how important it is to talk to everyone because some people think there is no hope for them, but little do they know that there is so much hope and they are worth everything to Heavenly Father. We dropped Peggy off and went to Los Picos for some horchata which was muy delicioso and we met this awesome guy named Tim who we figured out after that he owns the place, haha he gave us some free dessert! We then went to a formers and when she first saw us she was super apprehensive. Her name is Elisia. She kept saying how she'd never make time for church because Sundays are her relax days and then finally she said 'I know you just come here to get me to go to church and I won't go so you don't need to waste your time.' We said, 'You really think our purpose is to get you to church? No way! We want you to be in heaven with God and your family forever! Church is just a part of that.' She kept coming up with more excuses how her family wouldn't agree and she didn't want to cause that conflict and Sister Stephens was able to bear a powerful testimony from personal experience because she is a convert and her parents aren't members and so that softened Elisia's heart. Then Sister Benfield whipped out 3 Nephi 13:33 and the spirit was like BAM. And suddenly it was all making sense to her. Then Sister Benfield invited her 3 year old daughter to say the closing prayer and she helped her and it was the cutest thing and Elisia's heart went from no way.. to wow.. I need this. It was so sweet! We visited a former and taught her and then we picked up Dolores to go contacting with us and she gave us delicious rice and then we taught this cute old man from Peru named Willey. After we had dinner at the Chavez's and it was soooooooooo good! I was going to burst after though. It was also way cool because during the lesson Hermana Chavez talks really fast and so I got a little lost in the conversation, yet I still felt the Spirit SO strongly. I love that the language of the spirit is universal. So amazing! I also got news tonight that Sabrina's baptismal interview went well and she is good to go for Saturday! 

Thursday we had training and Elder Day gave us a last history moment and then he and Sister Day bore their testimonies and we said goodbye :( it's weird having our senior couples leave who we have been with forever! We had follow up MTE and then we had a lesson with Gabriel and he brought his friend Muna! We read 2 Nephi 31 with them. We were able to add Muna and Gabriel is still a little confused about why he needs to get baptized in our church and not just a church. We have a great lesson planned for him next time. We had district meeting and we talked about finding. After we had a lesson at the mobat with a referral. His name is Eric. He just showed up at a family ward last Sunday and they referred him to us. We got to know him a little and then after the prayer he said, 'So what's the process to become a member of your church? I have researched Mormons and I basically already live the lifestyle and I can tell it's a really good thing and I just need to know what I need to do further.' Oh my.. I LOVE questions like that. Haha we were like well... let us tell you! We taught him about the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He soaked it all in. We took him on tour after and he loved it. I then had a meeting with Elder Seegmiller. I love discussions with him. 

Friday I had MTE's with Sister Mendez and Romero in Sweetwater. Another spanish area! Wooo! I actually got pretty sick it was weird, but it was still an awesome day! Those two are like the epitome of teaching in unity. They are such powerful teachers together! Wow. We had some awesome lessons with investigators. And one of their investigators has a son who is 20 and so I talked to him for a while and got his info so my area even got a potential! We had dinner with a less active family and it was so delicious! Although I didn't really enjoy it like I wish because I felt so sick, but someday I am going to make what she made so I can just eat it all up, haha. 

Saturday we had follow up and then temple. The temple was CRAZY. It's definitely August aka everyone is getting married! This really nice family brought all this food for while they were waiting for pictures and they shared with us :) We left the temple a little early and went and got everything ready for Sabrina's baptism. Everything like went wrong for the baptism.. the speakers cancelled last minute.. the piano player didn't show up.. the font took longer than usual to fill.. her family got lost.. we forgot her baptismal record.. yet in the end it all worked out perfectly. It was simple and beautiful and the spirit was powerful. Her testimony at the end was so so sincere and amazing. She is incredible! She's been through so much, but she truly has accepted the Savior in her life and has let Him lift her burdens. It is so cool because at mission leadership council at the beginning of this month, Elder Ballard promised all the leaders that we could find, teach, and baptize someone in the month of August and that has already been fulfilled! Sabrina showed up at church, we taught her what was left to be taught, and she was baptized and now her life has changed! I LOVE the gospel. We had coordination after and then we taught Shawn. He's struggling a bit, but the lesson with him was much needed and he felt uplifted after. We then had a lesson with Edgar about missionary work and he got us some pizza :) yum! Edgar is such a good missionary. He gave us two referrals! And we are still hoping to teach his sister, Neina. She's awesome! We went to contact a referral after who wasn't home, but we saw this lady sitting back on this cement thing with a little girl so we went to talk with them and she was having a really hard time, problems were going on with her relationship and she just cried. So we said a prayer with her and asked if we could come teach her more about hope and peace and she said she would love that. Heavenly Father is so good at placing us in the right place at the right time. 

Sunday we had ward council and church! Sabrina got confirmed which was wonderful. Our stake president, President Mitchell spoke to us today and his talk was so good! He talked about 4 steps we can take that will lead us to the light. 1) Have a desire to be in the light. Choose it. 2) Seek Heavenly Father. Pray constantly! He wants to hear from us. He also made a good point about one time how he tried to pray for a long time and he couldn't do it and then he realized that when he was with his best friend he could talk forever and so it helped him to recognize that he needed to build a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father. 3) Turn our hearts toward Him and be specific with our questions. 4) Walk in God's light. Serve others and live the commandments. He also talked about how we should prepare for every church meeting not just the big ones like general conference. It was a very insightful talk! We had our new investigator Alicia come to church and she loved it! Shawn taught an awesome lesson about the SAvior. 3rd hour we did a blitz for our ward and went and visited less actives and invited them to our Luau this weekend! I am so excited for the Luau. It's this huge missionary activity we've been putting together for a couple months. We got popsicles after and then we had mobat. It wasn't as crazy! We weekly planned after and got things ready for this next week!
Monday we studied and then tried contacting Casey, but he wasn't home so we left him a note. We had a lesson with Robert about PMG and taught him how to plan a lesson and challenged him to prepare a lesson and teach us next time :) it will be so good for him! He also brought us in n out which was so kind. And after he came with us to Kevins! We haven't taught Kevin for a while and it was really good to see him again. We read in 2 Nephi 31 with him and it was way cool because he is starting to really grasp and get everything. He loves learning and he just soaks it all up and the change in him since the first time we met him is incredible! And his being so patient with the whole process of him getting permission for his baptism. He even brought his friend Jeremiah to the lesson. I had a meeting with Sister Frampton. We got a lot of ideas up our sleeves for this next transfer. We had mobat which was wonderful. Oh and this guy texted us and said, 'Hello sisters! My name is Jeremy. The other sisters told me about you two and said I would be in your ward. I just want to learn more about your church so I can get baptized." We were like what the!?!? We have been incredibly blessed lately with all these solid people who just ache to learn more! It's amazing. I LOVE being a missionary :)

I am studying King Benjamin's address right now. It is making me SO excited for general conference ah!! But he's helping me learn how important it is for me to serve those around me. I want to make it a point to do that better from now on! This work is real. The gospel is true! It's the only way to true happiness, it really is :)

I love you all so much!! Have the best week ever!

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen