Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - February 23, 2015

Hey there everyone!

So this week has been really fantastic! We had exchanges and they were amazing!!! I went on exchange with Sister Lamb who is like the coolest missionary ever! We had so much fun together and basically decided that we HAVE to serve together haha :) She is from Syracuse, Utah and she is just way chill. Plus we work together pretty well too. We got 3 new investigators together in the matter of like 4 hours :) MIRACLES!

Things this week with Cyrus have been interesting. She was doing really well and we taught her a few times and she seemed really receptive and like she was picking things up really well. Then Friday night she called us and asked us not to come by the next day and said she was feeling a lot of pressure about the Word of Wisdom because it was really hard to keep and that she needed to sort things out in her head. We talked to her though and got to the point where we would go by but just chat and make smoothies with her so she could have those instead of coffee but not really teach her. Then late that night she texted us and told us not to come and not to contact her the whole weekend. Then Saturday morning her friend phoned us and told us she didn't want us to ever come back and that she was done taking the lessons. We were totally gutted about it since she was such a miracle and it really seemed like her time. Then later that day we received a phone call from Cyrus, herself, where she said since her friend told us not to come back that she had been sick to her stomach and knew it was the wrong thing to do. So we went over Sunday to talk to her. She told us she wants to keep taking the lessons and learning and that she really wants to believe what we believe and she thinks it is right. She then proceeded to tell us how she used to believe in a lot of scientology stuff and how she thinks that God and satan are two separate planets and how Jesus lived on the planet but then came to Earth like an alien. And when he died he was on this big mountain and a spaceship came and took him back to the planet called God. HAHAHA! We had no idea how to really respond to that! She said she wants to believe all that we say, but she just can't get all that science stuff out of her head. But the spirit was there and totally took care of the situation (to be honest I can't even remember what we said to her). Somehow reassured her and now she is an investigator again. So that has been a crazy few days with her haha!

But other than aliens and spaceships we have actually been teaching lots of people the gospel haha :) Our numbers for lessons taught this week broke the record for most lessons taught in the Newcastle Emlyn area ever so that was really exciting! Hopefully all those lessons can grow into baptismal commitments!! :)

We also had Zone Conference this week which is where four of the zones in our mission got together and President Rasmussen came and talked to us and gave us a lot of training. It was so good! That man is inspired! Hanging out with other missionaries is cool regardless, but then having an awesome message from President and his wife too just made it the best! We did this game where they would give you a quote from Preach My Gospel and you had to turn to find and turn to the page it was on. Guess who won????? That's right ladies and gents....ME! Haha, I don't know how because there was like 100 missionaries there :) The prize for winning was real, American A&W Root beer! I was so excited because in all the restaurants over here they usually don't sell root beer. But then guess what I did?? Left it at the church! I was sooo sooo sooo sad! Haha it was really fun though. 

So we also had Stake Conference which was really cool. Lots of missionaries were there and loads of people. We had three investigators come so that was super cool! They are all Chinese so it was kind of hard for them to understand all the speakers, but they still loved it and said they loved the feeling they got there. That is the joy of the Spirit! :)

Well this is officially the longest email I have ever sent sooo...I'm gonna go now! Love you all and don't ever hesitate to share the Gospel...I promise you'll regret keeping it to yourself :)

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - February 9, 2015

so this week was way cool! we had some harder days at first but then this one day i stopped this mom and she was totally golden! i asked her "if there was a prophet on the earth today would you want to hear what he has to say?" and she was totally like "yeah, i really want to hear what he has to say for me and my family!" then she just like handed over all her contact info. and it was just totally awesome! she is so elect! 

then like just a couple hours later i stopped this other lady and she was like "hey, i know that badge! i really wanted to be a mormon" and me and my companion were like WHAT?? and she said "yeah i used to study with elders in england before i moved then i couldn't get in contact with missionaries here and that was a long time ago. but i have your book and i just always kept it because it seemed sacred to me. like i really wanted to get baptized and believed it was true!" at this point me and my companion are just standing there in shock and awe with our mouths hanging wide open! and then she was like "this is so funny because i wasn't even going to come up this street and something just told me i should!!!" i just wanted to cry i was so happy! What a miracle! Her name is Cyrus and we can not wait to go to her flat and teach her! yay! but i need to run, and i love you all!

Love, Sister Rasmussen

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - February 2, 2015

hey everyone!

so.... Amanda got baptized! she is so amazing! the spirit was insanely strong! she just cried right after she came up out of the water! she said she was just so happy! man, what a miracle! then the next day she was being confirmed...she had had a headache as a result of giving up tea and the caffeine withdrawals were really bad. She had tried pills, sleeping, nothing would make this headache go away. then in sacrament she got confirmed and received the Holy Ghost, when she came and sat down she leaned over to me and said, "my headache is gone! that has happened for a week!" This my friends is what you call miracles :) I am just in awe of the blessings the Lord gives to all of us!

We had transfer calls this week. my companion and I are staying. our district leader got moved though which was sad because we are in a really tiny district...just us and a set of elders...so the four of us were like a little family haha :) the new elder we got though is awesome and really nice so that's good.

we spent a lot of time in Lampeter finding and teaching some lessons this week. there is a small university there so its pretty cool to talk to all the students when they get out of class. it is kind of hard to go finding here because our area is sooo big and every town is pretty far apart. then when you finally get to a town it is only a small village so theres no people out haha :) the biggest town we have is like comparable to the size of maybe Evanston. maybe a little smaller haha :) we can knock on every door there is in a town and be done by lunch time haha :)

everything is going really good though and I love being out in little small town Wales. I think I might have to just die if I end up in a city! there are too many people and its just so cramped haha :) thanks everyone for all the love and I will talk to you soon!

love,

Sister Rasmussen

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - January 26, 2015

hey! so guess what??? this way cool investigator named amanda is getting baptized saturday! yaya! how are you doing? the work is awesome over here in good old england :) so yesterday we knocked on this guys door and he was way rude and my companion was feeling pretty down, but he lived across the road from an old grave yard so i said lets take a break since its time for dinner anyway and go look at how old those headstones are. but the gate was locked to it. so guess what i did? climb the old stone wall hahaha :) my companion was like what are you doing??? but then she did it too and we were laughing soooo hard! it was definitely interesting in a skirt hahaha :) 

so we are teaching this investigator named Gareth and he is soooo hard! he asks the most insane questions! like where dinosaurs fit in and stuff?? and like he is reading the Book of Mormon and when he got to the part where Nephi kills Laban he was upset because if it is one of the ten commandments that thou shalt not kill then why would God command Nephi to kill someone. anyway he is just difficult. 

but today has been pretty cool. we went and had blood pudding and eggs and sausages for lunch. blood pudding is really weird by the way haha :) then went and played football (soccer) inside the court yard of an old castle, then went and hung out on the beach! it was cool because the tide was really high so it was crashing against the rock walls and the cliff and then guess what happened?? a huge wave came and crashed up so high that it got me soaking wet! goodness it was really funny :) sounds like a pretty good p-day to me :) 

everyone pray for amanda because she is terrified of water and so she is kinda scared of the baptizing part and that she might drown haha :) love you all!

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - January 19, 2015

hey everyone!

So lots of miracles this week. me and my companion a couple weeks back were talking to this guy and he was soooo cool...like completely golden....totally elect! anyway he told us like his life story and how he thought there was more somewhere to life but just could not find it; that's where we got excited and thought, why yes there is...its called the gospel haha :) he turned us down though and walked away and we were pretty disappointed because he was just so cool. so we decided to knock some doors for a bit one day and BOOM! we knock on his door! we were stunned! this time we got a return appointment and he was more willing to listen which was a miracle. sooo happy for that. We also found two other investigators in that same area all within like a few doors of eachother! wow!

I have loved being here and i have learned so much. i have especially learned how to be more bold with people. one example: we were teaching this guy named Gareth and he was asking some questions, he had read a lot and seemed pretty interested. at the end of our lesson we asked to see him again and he said, "well you can come back around, but i am not looking to be converted and i know that that is your job as missionaries." we explained to him that our purpose was just to invite others to learn of Christ. he then said, "yeah but conversion is like your ultimate goal right? I'd like to learn but i just am not going to go there; I'm pretty stubborn." i then proceeded to say, "well your in luck because i am stubborn too so we'll see you Tuesday at 6" haha :) totally got the return appointment :) haha it was just really funny!

But time is flying way too quickly here!!! its just seems like a flash! transfers are a week from today all ready! so crazy!! we got a tiny amount of snow the other day...like three snow flakes haha and my companion was so excited since it had been years since she had seen any that she had to do a snow angel and we built a tiny snow sister (since we put my tag on it, it had to be a sister) and then told her to go preach repentance to all the rest of the snow in wales haha :) good times! everyone freaks out though if there is barely even frost on the windows and they all slow way down on the roads and stuff. i just want to yell, "THIS ISN'T EVEN REAL SNOW PEOPLE!" amateurs don't know what they are doing haha :)

For district meeting we had a onesie party the other day too so i will send pictures. oh and other pictures are just one of the castles we have gone to :) haha love you all!

love Sister Rasmussen