September 10th Letter

Dear Family,

Helloooooo!! It has been a great week :) Definitely a different week because we've had a lot of logistical things to do, but a great week nonetheless! Here are the highlights..

Tuesday night we went to Edgars for dinner. His mom made us this delicious mexican soup! Mmm. We then talked with him and everyone there about gratitude and challenged them all to say at least one prayer of only gratitude every day. We then went to the mission home to pick up the new sisters.

Wednesday we had transfers. It was kind of a boring transfer at the battalion because not much changed, haha but it was good! President talked about not letting contention get in the way of the work and read 4 Nephi with us. Sister Frampton and I had a meeting and got all the schedules figured out for the next transfer. I actually really enjoy doing that haha I like all the organizational stuff and working with numbers. We had mobat and it was pretty slow and so I worked on a project for Sister Seegmiller. 

Thursday we had mobat which was wonderful and then we were short a car because one is in the shop and so we drove the Santee sisters to their area. We had district meeting and did a get to know you thing and then we talked about street contacting. After we had a lesson with Eric about the priesthood and i was cool because our member, Trenton, set up the whole thing! He led out the lesson too. At the beginning Eric was like not so sure about receiving the priesthood soon because he wanted to make sure he was really ready for that responsibility, but by the end he was like no I want to do this and I know I can! It was awesome. He's so excited to go to the temple. We had a lesson with Patrick next.. our new investigator. We talked about God and developing a relationship with him and about prayer and about the Book of Mormon. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes. He said he's never really been able to commit to anything, but he wants to start now and he's just been looking for something more in his life. We invited him to pray at the end and ask if the Book of Mormon is true. He was a little skeptical because he's never prayed out loud and he felt awkward, but he wanted to do it so he did. We just sat there for a minute after and he said.. 'Wow.. I feel really good right now.' Ahhh so cool! Also something cool is that in his prayer he asked for it to rain to help him know that God was there (and guess what? It rained that night and into the morning!) Holy moly he has got faith :) As we left Patrick's we saw this guy Brandon that we've seen and talked to before. We said hello and asked how he was doing and he said his wife and kids just left him and he was having a really rough time :( We asked if we could pray for him so we did and he just teared up and was so grateful that we did that. We got ice cream and then picked up the Santee sisters. 

Friday morning was mission leadership council. My favorite meeting!! We had a lot of good discussions about referrals, and helping people fulfill their responsibilities and how Elders can better help sisters vice versa. EVery time I am at those meetings I am just so grateful for all the amazing missionaries I get to serve with. We had some delicious lunch and then I got back with my companion and we went to the temple. It was super hot and pretty slow. But we met this awesome catholic man named Bruce. He had such good questions! 

Saturday we had coordination. Our ward mission leader is the bomb! And he told us some bad news.. he might be moving soon :( I hope it's not until after I leave.. haha that's kind of rude, but he is just so good at doing his calling! We had choir practice. I love choir practice! I had a chat with Sister Pagel after because she is full proselyting right now and is having a really hard time. I know this will be SO good for her and that she can do it! So keep her in your prayers. Mobat tonight was awesome! Sister Davies and I took some great tours and I took the cutest blonde little girls on tour. Oh and Brittany Barnes came to the battalion! She's from the La JOlla ward. I love her so much! 

Sunday ward council was great! Then church. David Payne spoke! He's not a member so we are not sure if that is allowed... haha but it happened and he did an amazing job! After he spoke President Morgan spoke. President MOrgan is in the mission presidency and he's also the institute director at grossmont which is the college that like all of our ward goes to. Anyways.. he gave the most amazing talk! He was super bold with everyone, even David! He like called him out and said he needed to get baptized and it was actually really cool and spirit was like booming! You could tell David was feeling it. I just want him to really take that leap of faith. He is such a good person! President Morgan talked about how before each meeting we should say a little prayer and ask Heavenly Father to please send the spirit to help us know the message we need personally that day. Then he talked about the way we show the Spirit we appreciate what He's telling us is when we 1. respond immediately and 2. writing it down. The purpose of the spirit is to help us progress. Ah it was just amazing! He told us to make sure we follow up with David. Relief society was awesome! We took the love language test, haha mine is acts of service and quality time :) just a heads up everyone.. haha just kidding. We had mobat and I took one of the guys in the movie on tour so that was fun. I also took a tour with Sister Huang! We have a true Asian at the mobat and it makes me so happy! She is from Taiwan and she is the cutest thing. I love her so much! So humble and just so genuine. Next was the mission president's fireside, which are my favorite! Sam Valdez spoke :) and he did so awesome! Those firesides are just always a great refresher for me. 

Monday mobat was pretty steady. We had a little surprise thing for Elder Seegmiller because it was his birthday. He is such an amazing man! We had a lesson with William. He definitely seemed more sincere this time and he is super conflicted because his family is telling him to stay away from us. We were pretty bold with him and the Spirit was so strong and we just told him that he has to find out for himself. We showed up God's Plan and taught the plan of happiness. We ran to a planning meeting with our ward and then I had a meeting with Sister Frampton.

I forgot to bring my study journal to email which makes me sad because I had a lot of things I wanted to tell... but I will just try to tell you what I do remember. There are some new mormon messages from Elder Christofferson and they are amazing! You should watch them. But in one of them he said after praying for something for a long time and not receiving an answer he realized, 'I'm content to get a daily help, and let it take what time it takes.' Just that sometimes when we have big questions we will not receive immediate answers or solutions, but that each day we should ask for a little help for just that day.. and over time we will get our answer from those daily helps. Ahh I thought that was such a cool concept. I am really working on trying to be a better communicator with Heavenly Father, and that was one answer in how I can :) 

Well I love you all! I hope you have the best week :)

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen