November 19th Letter

Dear family,

MOM AND DAD I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! You two are going to be UNREAL. I can't wait to tell you all about your mission :) haha. Also this is a super surreal and bittersweet email to write.. but here are the highlights!

A San Diego sunset

Tuesday Sister Lehmitz and I got to go on the Naval Base! We've always wanted to do that. Our member, Caitlin, is in the Navy and she's the cutest and she fed us dinner! It was so delicious and fun. Base is like it's own world! We talked with Caitlin about temples. She opened up to us and she is such a rock! Her family situation isn't the best.. but through it all she is the example to them. 

Wednesday mte's with La Jolla! Sister Jarrett and Sister Teanoa. We temple and we met this cute armenian couple. I also had this awesome conversatino with this guy and basically taught him the restoration while the other sisters were teaching the Armenian couple the restoration, haha it was awesome! Missionary power. We met this super cool girl who just got home from her mission and she was so nice and went and bought us pizza! It was delicious. We had a lesson with Patrick Burnes at the mobat. I used to teach Patrick when I was in La Jolla. He is less active. He is really struggling just with motivation and with justifying everything. We talked a lot about prayer and God's will for us and by the end his heart really did soften! We tried visiting two less actives and caught one home and so we shared a scripture with her and talked a little about prayer. Then we had a lesson with their investigator, Joseph. We read Joseph Smith's testimony about the Book of Mormon with them. Sister Jarrett and Teanoa are both so wonderful! Sister Jarrett and I laid in bed talking forever. It was fun and nice :) Oh and this is the day that I found out about mom and dad! Elder Seegmiller called me and I was freaking out and I was so excited!!! Then the next morning I told all the sisters and they are so excited! 

Thursday we had training. We followed up on the character of Christ and then we played signs! To work on our arms and hands for presentation skills. Then the six sang our song for all the sisters because some of them didn't get to go to the fireside and it was a sweet moment. Lots of tears! We went to MTE follow up and studied and then had a lesson with Neina. We talked about gratitude and read some of President Monson's talk with her. She's super excited to get baptized this weekend :) We went to contact a referral but it was the wrong house and we ended up meeting this awesome girl named Isla. She said she wanted to learn more so we set up another appointment with her. Next I had an eye appointment because if you remember last week I told you my eye was hurting and first of all, my vision is still 20/20!!! Wooohoooo! Yay for PRK :) and second of all, I wasn't crazy because there was something stuck in my eye! He numbed up my eye and took it out and now my eye feels great! 

The six sisters who came out to the mission together

Friday we had flickerball and then MTE's.This time with spanish sisters! Sisters Bermudez and Harris. Sister Bermudez is from Orem and she was in the spanish ward that Uncle Mark was the bishop over! Cool huh? We had temple and there was a really cute wedding. Something cool that happened is that some elders came to teach a lesson at the temple and one of the Elders, Elder Cena, is from Italy and this guy came to see what the temple was and he spoke Italian! So Elder Cena told him about the temple and we were able to show him pictures and we got his address and he wants missionaries. So cool! Also this 28 year old guy named Michael Tuner came and had lots of questions! He used to be a baptist minister. He also used to travel a lot for work and he stayed in Marriotts so he's read the BOFM! He and his wife live right by the temple and he's attending grad school at UCSD. He had lots of deep questions and so we answered as simply as we could and finally we told him that the BofM was the way that he could find out if this is all true and that's when the spirit was the most powerful, was when it was the simplest. He agreed to having missionaries over! We had 2 lessons with their investigators after. The first one was about the word of wisdom and I kind of understood it.. but the lady was awesome and has so much faith and was just so willing to give up whatever she needed to. The second lesson I got pretty lost in.. haha but I could still feel the spirit which is the cool part! 

Saturday we had MTE follow up. It was sweet! President talked about the power of positive thinking. At the end those leaving bore their testimonies.. aka I was one of them. It felt surreal being up there after watching so many missionaries do that over the past 18 months. MTE's were at my old chula ward building so I got to see some of the House family! We had district lunch and then district meeting. Mobat was kind of slow tonight.. Sister Patterson and I had an awesome chat though. I love her a lot. 

The six with the Seegmillers

Sunday church was great! Neina came to church!!!! Which means she can officially get baptized :) I am so excited for her! Our new investigator, Lauren, also came to church and everyone was really nice to her. Relief society was an awesome lesson about serving others. Laura taught it and Laura also told me that she is going to go on a mission!! Ahhhh! I am so excited for her. She is amazing! 

The six at breakfast

Monday the six of us got to have a breakfast with the Seegmillers. It was delicoius! We talked about things we have learned about ourselves. I love the six so much! And the Seegmillers. I had mobat and took this awesome tour with Sister O'Neill with these people from Israel! And we had a really cool conversation with them about mormons, jews, Israel. It was sweet! I had a meeting with Sister Frampton and then we went to Edgars. It was his birthday today and when we asked him what he wants for his birthday he said he wanted a lesson with us :) haha he is the best! We also got to talk with Neina, so that was good! We had a lesson with Lauren about the restoration and Stacey came. Lauren really is seeking for truth and she is so shy and so sweet and I know this is going to make her so happy! I had a meeting with the Seegmillers. I will miss those meetings!!

My brain is super frazzled right now.. so sorry if this email is too. I am speaking in church on Sunday and it's about gratitude which is fitting as Thanksgiving is next week. I read a talk this morning called "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" by Elder Wirthlin and it was SO GOOD. Oh my goodness. He said "Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable." "Those who live in thanksgiving daily, are usually among the world's happiest people. And they make others happy as well." He talks about 3 things that will help us to live in thanksgiving daily.. the first is we must open our eyes. Open our eyes to all that's around us that God has blessed us with. The second is to open our hearts. Open our hearts to the gospel. To Heavenly Father. To the Savior. To the Atonement. And the third is to open our arms. Turn outward! Serve others. As we serve others we serve God. He quoted President Hinckley who said... "My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life, we accentuate the positive." It was a super amazing talk! We really do have SO much to be grateful for. And it's all because we have a LOVING Heavenly Father. He cares so much about all of us and he really just wants us to be happy :)

Ah. Life seems unreal right now. I am excited to give this last week my ALL. It's going to be a jam packed crazy week, but I am so excited for it. And I am excited to be able to see all of you soon and to hug you and express in person my gratitude for all of you. For your support, for your love, for your firm testimonies in this gospel. For the examples that you have all been to me! I am so deeply grateful for you all. I am so deeply grateful for my mission. This has been the hardest, craziest, best, awesomest experience of my life! I am so grateful I decided to come serve. I have learned more than I could have ever imagined. Mostly I am deeply grateful that I have become more fully converted to this gospel. I know it's true! God lives. Jesus is the Christ. They have a perfect plan for all of us. As we live the gospel that is when we will truly be happy. The gospel has been restored for ALL of us. The Book of Mormon is true! We have a living prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. This gospel will never cease to amaze me. I love, love it with all my heart.

And I love you all so much!!!! See you soon! Haha weird.. :) 

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen

November 12th Letter

Dear family,

Such a great week! And prepping for an even greater and crazier one! Woohoo! Here are the highlights...

Tuesday we hiked Potato Chip rock. It was AWESOME! Definitely another one of my favorite prep days. I have sweet pictures to show you. 

Potato Chip Rock

Wednesday we had zone meeting. It was the best one yet! We talked about making sure we are personally converted so that we can really testify with all our hearts. At the end they had those of us who are leaving bear our testimony. I wasn't as nervous for this one, haha. Less people. We had a lesson with Neina after. Laura came! We taught the word of wisdom and it was great. Neina said she drinks coffee a lot but she is willing to give it up. She is so wonderful. And she's excited for her baptism! I had a meeting with the Seegmillers and then mobat. Sister Patterson and I took this guy Jeppe on tour from Denmark. He was so awesome! He was super stoked that Sister Patterson and I both had Danish ancestors. At the end of the tour we just naturally started talking about the gospel. We found out he's agnostic and he actually just recently went on a 200 mile walk in spain to ponder about life and God. We basically taught him the restoration and it was awesome! We gave him a Danish book of mormon and he was so excited about it. He loves the fact that we have a modern day prophet. We got his email and we are going to keep in contact with him and see what he thinks about the book. Definitely the most open Danish person I have ever met! 

Sister R and her zone

Thursday happy birthday Cacia! I love you! This morning for training we watched Elder Bednar's talk the Character of Christ. It is soooo good! He talks about how we need to turn outward and stop being so self absorbed. Ahhhhhh! It's sooooo good! Helped me realize I definitely need to turn outwards a lot more. I also love how he quoted Elder Maxwell who said that Christ couldn't have performed the atonement without His character. Who he was and that's who we need to strive to become! First round of MTE's today. I got to go with Sister Davies and Patterson, aka two of my bestest friends! They are a powerhouse team! We actually had a really cool experience where we went to this park and met this awesome mom and her 3 kids. We just started out by inviting her to the Mormon Battalion and then ended up talking with her for about 45 minutes about the gospel. She is so cool! She agreed to have missionaries come over and teach her family more and get this.. she came to the mobat two days later and took a tour from us!! And her husband is awesome too! They are going to be such a sweet mormon family! We had some other cool lessons with some potentials. I loved being with them so much! They just lifted my spirits and I am so grateful for both of them and for the examples they are to me and for the friendship that we have. 

Sister Patterson, Sister Rasmussen and Sister Davies at MTEs

Friday was follow up MTE. President talked about being positive and it was awesome! We had mobat and then a SWEET lesson with Neina and edgar about baptism and confirmation and went over the interview questions with her and then she had her interview. Everything went amazingly well and she actually said it was a really sweet experience for her! We went to Edgar's to teach William. We talked about temples and Neina joined as well! We had a lesson next with Chris and Kassandra. I've really missed them! We talked about prayer and we each shared an experience of when God answered our prayers. 

Saturday we had fireside practice and coordination and then had mobat!

Cassie with Elder Esteban Villalobos. They grew up in the same ward and now serve in the same mission. 

Sunday was an awesome day. Ward council was great! Church was great! The pianist didn't show up for sacrament though so guess who got to play? Haha me. Relief society was such a great lesson about temptation and overcoming it. We had mobat and then my last mission president's fireside!! ahhhh. I love them. It was the best one yet. Jackie spoke! My recent convert from La Jolla and she did AMAZING! I love her. All the sisters who I am going home with from the mobat, we sang a song together. Six of us. Sisters O'Neill, Davies, Miller, Madsen, and Riggs. Some of my bestest friends! We sang a song called 'When He Comes For Me' and it was possibly one of the coolest moments of my life! To just stand up there with those six who I have served my whole mission with and to testify through song about everything we've done these past 18 months. I also was super nervous of course because I just get nervous in front of people.. especially in front of a lot of people! And to make things more nerve wracking.. I had a solo part. But I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and Heavenly Father helped calm my nerves and it all turned out wonderfully :) I got to see the Sadleir cousins.. they agreed to take my bedding to Utah for me because they are coming for thanksgiving. So nice of them! Julia and her husband came as well. Oh and I got to see David Yang! Yay!

The six sisters who entered the mission together. This is the night of the fireside. They all wore black and picked a different scarf. 

Cassie and her companion. She got new glasses that Cassie picked out. 

Monday I went on exchanges with Sister Huang! She is from Taiwan and she is unreal. I love her so much! I got to go chinese with her, haha so she taught me some more phrases. She also made me lots of fooood! For lunch she made me ramen with eggs and carrots. It reminded me of Megan, haha. We taught a less active and then contacted a referral and even though I really didn't have any idea what was going on... I could still feel the Spirit! It's so cool how the spirit works like that. I had a meeting with Sister Frampton and then mobat. Julia, her husband and her mother-in-law came in and I took them on tour! I got to hear her whole story about how her and her husband met. It was sweet! She also gave me some souvenirs, so nice of her! La Jolla had fhe at the mobat so it was fun to see all those people! Also my eye has been hurting me the past couple days and tonight my zone leaders had a lesson at the mobat and after they asked if I wanted a blessing so I got one and it was a really cool experience because some of my prayers got answered through what was said in the blessing. I kind of feel like Heavenly Father allowed my eye to get this way, so that I would get a blessing so He could talk to me more directly. It was cool! He is so AWARE of us. He loves us so much.

Cassie with some of our Sadleir cousins. People think Cassie and Sarah look a lot alike. 

Well if you didn't know.. the gospel is amazing :) haha just kidding I know you know that! But I am just so deeply grateful for it's clarity and simplicity.

I love you all!! Have the best week! 

Love,

Sister Cassie Rasmussen

November 5th Letter

 Dear Family!

Wow. These last few weeks are going to be CRAZY. I am SO excited. So much to do! I love being busy with this type of work :) Here are the highlights from this past week . . .

Dressed up in outfitting

Tuesday night we had a lesson with William about the Holy Ghost in preparation for his confirmation. We then went and stopped by Juan's and finally got to see him. He's struggling. He's so awesome! I really hope he can get out of this rut. We made him promise he'd come to church before the end of November. 

Wednesday exchanges in La Jolla with Sister Jarrett! People call us twins. Haha it was fun being her companion! We are both tall and blonde. We taught Arthur and Anthony (both recent converts) about missionary work and it was a powerful lesson! Anthony wants to serve a mission. I think that's so cool! Right as we were leaving, their friend Joseph showed up and we ended up teaching him the restoration and adding him as an investigator! We tried seeing Casmier but he wasn't there :( 

Sister Rigs, Madsen, Davies and Rasmussen with their Halloween colors

Thursday happy halloween! I hope to see pictures of everyone. I dressed up as a pumpkin. Hahah I will send pictures. For training this morning the Seegmillers made us breakfast! It was so fun :) and so nice of them! Then we talked about how we were all called here for different reasons and for who we are and we did this activity where we wrote what we liked about each other and it was fun! We went to see a less active who lives on the most ginormous hill ever! Seriously by the time we got to the top I was panting and my legs burned haha we were laughing. We went to see another less active. She was sleeping and we felt bad waking her up so we wrote her a note and talked to her dad. They have pet geese and chickens so he let us feed them! Haha it was awesome. I asked if I could have a picture with them and he said yes and told me to go out in the middle where they were and I was scared but I stuck my foot out to do so and one of the geese attacked my leg! Hahah it was funny. We then had district meeting and then mobat. It was pretty slow tonight! I worked on schedules and the area book. 

Sister Lehmitz and Cassie. Notice her pumpkin. 

Friday we did lots of organizing and figuring our ward list and records out and then went to the eye doctor for sis lehmitz. Brought back memories. haha and then we had a lesson with Kevin. His dog died :( and he was pretty upset about it. We talked with him about recommitting to everything and he really wants to. He's just trying to figure everything out so he said he'd need some time. We went to a potentials, Zaire's and taught the restoration. As we were leaving this couple was sitting outside and we started talking with them and found out that they were meeting with missionaries like 5 years ago but then they moved and lost contact and they missed what they were learning! AH SO COOL how Heavenly Father places people perfectly. We went to Adrienne's and went out with her to visit less actives. We visited this girl named Emily. Whenever she comes to church she is ridiculously quiet, but tonight she was just talking and talking and being herself and itw as really cool to see and to get to know her! We met with Shawn and talked with him about using the Atonement to give him strength to get through the hard things he is going through right now. 

Feeding the geese

Saturday happy birthday Benson! I love you foofy! This morning we went to the temple again to help set up lights. So fun! We had coordination and weekly planned and then mobat. Today there was a film crew from salt lake at the mobat. They all knew Rus of course and talked about how much they loved him. Then they decided to film random sisters and ask them some questions and they picked me (probably because Rus is my brother) and oh my goodness. Suddenly I couldn't speak english anymore. Hahaha I don't even know what I said. But I felt like an idiot. So Rus when you watch that.. you don't have to claim me as your sister, haha. I also saw my 5th grade teacher Mr. Thomas! He came to the mobat and he looked so familiar, but I couldn't figure out how so I finally asked him his name and we made that connection. David Yang also came to the mobat tonight! It made me so happy to see him :) I love that kid! 

Mission leadership council friends

Sunday was Sister Patterson's birthday! So we did some little surprises for her. Oh also daylight savings... so none of the sisters phone changed and all of our alarms went off and we were all confused because it was still dark outside and then we finally figured out that our phones didn't change and we went back to sleep :) Church was great! We had a couple non members show up. We invited them to learn more and one of them wanted to so we are meeting with her this week! William received the Holy Ghost so that was sweet. We helped with break the fast and then had mobat. We had a ward mission plan meeting after with the elders and our ward mission leader/missionaries and had some dinner and it was great! We came up with an awesome plan that we are calling the Avengers. Hahah it is going to be so great! I am excited. Helix is going to explode. Oh and NEINA came to church today! Yay!!!!

Mission leadership council

Monday I had mission leadership council. Best. One. Yet. So SWEET!! We talked about loyalty, and concerns in the mission, and the doctrine of high expectations. Basically I just want to be even better and be a better example! And President is just so good at teaching in a way that makes us understand and blows our minds! At the end of big mission meetings or mission leadership council, they always have the missionaries who will be leaving that month bear their testimony at the end. At mlc usually there are like 1 or 2, but today there were 9!!! It was super powerful and spiritual. I was SO nervous to get up there in front of all these amazing leaders, but it was a cool experience. After we ate lunch with all of them and helped clean up and took pictures and then Sister Frampton and I made the schedules for MTE's which are the next 3 weeks which is why it is going to be crazy! But so great. Sister Lehmitz and I took a note to a less active and then had a lesson with Nathan and Seth Duckett. We love that family. We read Enos 1 with them and it was sweet.

Sister R with Nathan and Seth Duckett

It was GREAT week!! President pointed out something SWEET yesterday. He read 3 Nephi 12:48 with us "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." And talked about how when Christ gave the sermon on the mount before his resurrection how he didn't say even as I.. because perfect really means complete or whole. We are not complete or whole until after we are resurrected. As long as we are striving and trying our best to do what's right and show God we love Him, then we are on the right track! But it's okay if we are not perfect yet :)

I love you all!! So much.

Love,

Sister Cassie Chea Rasmussen