Cardiff, Wales - February 22, 2016

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty good. It flew by so fast though! We stayed pretty busy which is always a good thing. Here are the highlights of the week:

Monday- we had pday which was just the normal. You know, shopping, cleaning, emailing. Then we taught a girl named Nancy in the evening. She is so cool, but we have had a harder time getting through to her. Well this lesson made all the difference. We decided we needed to be pretty bold with her and tell her that is she wasn't keeping her commitments we couldn't go teach her anymore. He took it like a champ and was super humble. She opened up a little more and even gave us a free bottle of perfume (because she sells a lot of really nice perfumes). So success!

Tuesday- we had flat inspections and they said we were doing a good job, yay! Then we taught Moein. He is doing so well!

Wednesday- sister Larsen was sick all day so we went over to a recent converts (Sian) house because she was moving and sister Larsen fell asleep on her bed while I helped the recent convert pack. Then we had to just go back to the flat so sister Larsen could rest.

Thursday- we had zone meeting. We talked about our mission culture and how to make it better. We also got some new goals called standards of excellence from President Leppard that we are to strive to achieve. So we will be working hard. One of them is seeing two members every day to help with getting the members more involved in missionary work. This is the one I'm most excited about because it is exactly what this ward needs.

Friday- we did weekly planning and then had to take a train to a lesson with a new guy we met. But we got there and he had people over so he asked us to come back another day. So we had to train all the way back in to town and then went finding. We also have sports night every Friday so we went to that in the evening :)

Saturday- we did service for Lisa in the morning. It was fun! We cleaned her kitchen for her and she made this soup that was the best thing ever! Then that afternoon we went and helped Sian finish packing. So it was service almost all day! Then we had a lesson with Moein in the evening. He just accepts everything so willingly! One of the most humble people I have ever met!

Sunday- Moein came to church and really enjoyed it. He is meeting a lot more of the ward and starting to get some really solid friends.

So everyone we need your prayers this week. Moein is scheduled to get baptised on the 27, which is this Saturday! We are so excited for him and he just can't wait. So make sure to pray for him and support him. He is going to be such a great member in this ward!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Cardiff, Wales - February 17, 2016

Hey hey hey!

So this week was pretty good and packed with lots of fun! There was awesome stuff every day this week and loads of funny stories so I'm going to go day by day again so you can all get the play by play 😀

Monday- an investigator, Henry, took us to lunch at a posh restaurant! I had the best Mac and cheese ever (it had mushrooms and spinach in it and so I was super happy 😀) and he got venison. Like who knew you could eat flipping deer meet in the middle of the city in Wales?! I was shocked! And then I was jealous because I didn't get the same thing... Haha but then all of us went bowling again and this time I actually won! Haha yay!

Tuesday- so I can't remember if we do this in America or not, but the second Tuesday of February is pancake day. Like every one over here makes loads of pancakes and has lemon and sugar on them (it's the best thing ever by the way, but British pancakes are like crepes, not like our fluffy ones so it might be a little bit different haha). So we went over to Lisa's house and made lots of pancakes. Well we were going along making our pancakes in this little old frying pan. Lisa decided that she wanted to try flipping a pancake in the air like the professionals do. So sister Larsen, Lisa and I get all geared up for her to do it when...CRASH!!! As soon as she tried to flip it the handle on the pan broke and the pancake and the pan go crashing down on the floor. Haha it was the most hilarious thing in the world! We all just stared at it in silence for a quick moment and then all burst out laughing so hard! haha I love Lisa so much!

Wednesday- we went over to a recent convert's house, Nkosie. She is from Zimbabwe and oh my goodness they are the cutest family ever. It is just her and her three kids. Well we went over there when the kids were at school because they are kind of crazy, so then we were able to have a more spiritual lesson about her getting a patriarchal blessing. So hopefully that will be happening soon. Then a really sweet lady from the ward, Sister Henry, had us over for lunch.

Thursday- we had zone conference on Thursday which was awesome. We got training from President Leppard on teaching. It was scary because we had to do a role play of us teaching the restoration with one of the leaders watching us and critiquing us. Well guess who was lucky enough to to get president to watch them?! That's right, this girl! Ugh, it was super nerve racking just because I didn't want him to think I was awful at this whole missionary teaching thing haha. Sister Larsen and I were both freaking out afterwards thinking about it haha. But it was way cool because after that all the sisters and all the elders separated from each other and went in to different rooms. We got training just for sisters, and it was amazing! It was all about individual worth and how we are looking gems of our Heavenly Father. (Read Doctrine and Covenants 101:3. Think of the whole process it takes to make a jewel. From carving it out of the rock to when it is sold. Its a great message to think that to make the Jewel more sparkly and have more facets it has to go through a pretty rough process. So we
are like the jewels, our trials make us better). The Spirit was super strong and I just loved it!

Friday- sports night! Henry came and I think he had a really good time. We played basketball the whole time. I think he enjoyed it even though he had never really played before, he is really athletic so it worked out fine. Plus then we were able to have a lesson with him on the bus ride home!

Saturday- we did service for Lisa and helped her clean her house again. This time we did de-cluttering and organising and it ended up looking really good! I'm so happy for her! It was also a rugby game between Wales and Scotland so town was sooo crazy! Like you could barely move there were so many people! And absolutely everyone was wasted by about 1 in the afternoon so finding wasn't all that great. When we were walking home at around 8:40 we bought cookies and just watched all the drunk people make fools of themselves. Haha it was like dinner and a show! We laughed sooo hard

Sunday- Moein and a guy named Ade came to church! They both enjoyed it so we are hoping to see them again next week. Moein has already come three times and is doing great so we are really stoked about him. Then we had munch and mingle afterwards with the ward which was good. Aden had to leave, but Moein stayed and is making some good friends in the church. Yay! 😀 after church since it was Valentine's Day we took some valentines we made to a couple less actives, but no one was home :( we will try again today or tomorrow!

Well there is my whole week for you! It was a really good one! It went by so fast and was packed with loads of fun! Well love you all!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

 

 

Cardiff, Wales - February 8, 2016

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty good! We had a few awesome things happen that we are pretty excited about at the moment. So I think I will just go through the week day by day and tell you all what happened!

Monday- we had district pday! It was really fun! We all dressed up like chav's and went bowling. And I actually did sort of OK (I'm usually an awful bowler haha). And it was tougher because we didn't have the bumpers up or anything! #win #killinit and then we went back to the church and played board games like usual. It was really funny walking to the bowling ally in our chav clothes because we just blended in with everyone around us. So no one was like walking around us or looking at us weird or avoiding us. Haha it was such a strange feeling! And being in trousers in public, man...it felt so weird! Like I seriously almost felt immodest! Haha

Tuesday-so we went out of town to see a recent convert named Sian who is the best! Well we had to take a bus out there. So we went and had our lesson and when we came back to the bus stops sign said that the bus would be there in like 10 minutes so we were thinking 'oh perfect!' Well that bus never came. And then the sign said there would be another one in about 15 or 20 minutes so we were like 'OK, we will catch that one.' But that bus never came. Then there was another one that was supposed to come in three minutes but after about 20 more minutes we figured the sign was lying. Well long story short- an hour and a half later our bus never ever came! Another bus came and we just got on even though it wasn't even our bus and we had to pay again since it was a different companies bus. But at that point we didn't even care. At least it was out of the rain and wind! Haha so I guess you can't always trust the busses. We were so frustrated after that we went to McDonald's haha!

Wednesday- transfers! Sister Larsen and I stayed the same! I finally am with a companion for more than one transfer! Seems like ages since I have stuck with a companion...or in an area haha. But I am glad to be staying in Cardiff. It's a great place so I'm pretty happy. It's so weird as time goes by that all my friends from the mission are going home! And at the end of this next transfer a ton of people go home that I am close to. Dang, time needs to slow down!!

Thursday-we had a couple cool lessons and district meeting. So pretty much just a normal day.

Friday-we were out on the street talking to people all day long! We had two appointments in the evening so that is good. Both of them went pretty well. We taught Carlos again. Everyone pray for him! He is amazing! But he needs to find answers by reading the Book of Mormon and praying so prayers for him would be greatly appreciated! And then we taught a really sweet guy named Simon. We put him on a date as well so he is doing good.

Saturday-we did service for this awesome recent convert named Lisa. She is legit! We helped her clean her house and then she made us lunch. Oh man, she is really so nice! She kept thanking us as if we had done some amazing act, when in reality she was so nice and so helpful to both sister Larsen and I that we should have been thanking her. She has the best decision making skills in the world. Like when faced with a choice she just really puts the options out there for what they are and then decides. And she has such great faith in those choices. And then she has faith that if it does happen to be the wrong choice then Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will be with her every step of the way to sort it out and make it right again. This is something I definitely need to work on because I know I over think everything and stew on choices for a crazy amount of time, when really I just need to look at the options for what they are and go for it. So I'm practicing that this transfer!

Sunday- a fast day! I had been waiting for this for ages! I think this was the first time in my life that I was excited to go without food haha 😀 well it was an excellent sabbath with a lot of great testimonies. The theme through church that I really noticed was how Jesus Christ and our faith in Him can really help us through our trials. This is so true! Faith in our Saviour helps us with everything!! There really is no down side when we trust in Him and let Him help us. I was really grateful for the amazing Spirit I felt. I love when you have those Sunday's where you come out of church and honestly feel renewed and ready to take on the week. I needed this one, it was such a tender mercy!

So that was pretty much my week. Blessings every single day! I'm excited for this new transfer and I know we will see some amazing things happen here in Cardiff. Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Cardiff, Wales - February 1, 2016

Hey everyone!

What a week! So it was crazy! This week was a typical Welsh, rainy week. We got drenched all week long! That made finding new people to teach kind of difficult. We had a ton of finding time and we only got 3 potentials for the week... Yeah not our best... Looks like we need to change. But we did have a great week! We went to a visiting teaching musical that our relief society put on and that was so amazing! It was way good! They did a great job! I really felt the Spirit pretty strongly actually. Haha there was a part in one song that said something along the lines of, "I'll walk the path of love if
that's what You need me to do." It just hit me that I really want to do that. Since Jesus Christ walked the path of love for us, we can all walk that and help others to feel that love. So looks like I'm working on charity for the week! Haha

Oh! So a while ago (I dont remember if I told you about this already or not) we prayed to find a specific person. Well we prayed to find a guy with brown hair and a beard wearing an orange shirt who was super nice and elect! Well we were about to go to a lesson and we were walking to it when we passed this guy with brown hair and a beard. We both stopped, looked at him, saw the orange shirt and turned around. Without saying anything to each other we both just knew that he was the guy we were looking for. We talked to him and he was the sweetest guy we had ever met! His name is Carlos and he is from Brazil. He used to work in an airport in Brazil and would see missionaries all the time but he never really talked to them or met them but he saw how happy they were. Also his aunt lives right across the street from the church in Brazil. He never went because he wasn't sure about when it started or what we even did but he wanted to go. Anyway he has been out of town on holiday in Scotland, Germany, and Greece for a while but he finally came back! We had a great lesson with him and he is amazing! We put him on a baptismal date so hopefully that will be able
to go through. He is coming to church with us next week and is pretty excited to read the Book of Mormon. He is way cool!

We also taught Ahdi's brother Mehdi and he is way cool! He calls us his sisters and takes care of us like we really are his sister. He feeds us so much! He loves McDonalds and so he took us there. Well he got us a Big Mac and a ton of fries!! He's a Jehovah's Witness but says that some of the things they believe has been bothering him lately and he has had a change of mind. He is really looking for
truth...we said, "well we can help with that!" Haha

We also had an amazing lesson with Ahdi's step son Moein, he is so solid! He has seen Ahdi change and how happy she is and so he is going to be baptised this next transfer for sure! He can't understand
English so we had Ahdi translate and at the end of the lesson she just told him all the "rules" like no smoking drinking, coffee, tea, drugs being morally clean and things like that. He said yeah! I can do that. He is so amazing!

That's my week for ya! Have a good week! Pray. Read the scriptures. Go to church. Smile! I love you!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen