Cheltenham, England - April 27, 2015

Hey there everyone! So this week has been awesome! I really like Cheltenham. Its awesome with so many missionaries here :) The people are pretty cool and I really like the ward. My companion is the bee's knees basically! She is so cool! She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. She played sports in high school and is just way chill. So Cheltenham is a really posh area! Everyone has money! haha Its cool though because all the members have way nice houses and things like that :) Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. I am in a bike area now so that will be interesting. Hopefully I don't die in a fiery car crash :) We have a big mission wide conference on Wednesday. No one knows what it is about and it is pretty extreme to have the whole mission come together. It will be like 250 missionaries! Its going to feel like the MTC all over again! haha :) I am really looking forward to it though. We are supposed to be getting Ipads soon, but we have a date for when we are getting those so I don't think that the conference is about that, but it easily could be. The flat here in Cheltenham is alright. The building is pretty old, but its still pretty good. The only bad thing about it is right now it doesn't have hot water so for the last week ice cold showers have been the only option. BRRRR! Hoping that gets worked out soon :) Well that is about as exciting as it gets over here in good ol' England so I will leave you all with a spiritual thought. This is a quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf that I really liked, "There will be times when you think you cannot continue on. Trust the Saviour and His love. With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power and hope of the restored gospel, you will be able to walk tall and continue on." I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Cheltenham, England - April 21, 2015

hey everyone! sorry its been a while since i wrote! So this week i got transfered for the first time :) i am now officially in England, woo! i am in Cheltenham :) so excited to be here and i already love it so much! my companion is from pleasant grove utah and her name is Sister Wilde. She is the best! We are in a huge ward with 3 sets of missionaries so it is way way way fun and totally different from my last area where we were the only missionaries for about an hours drive in either direction. i am just so excited to be here :) i will tell everyone more about it next week when i have been here a little longer :) haha love you all :)

Love, Sister Rasmussen

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - April 6, 2015

Hey there! So I have to start this week's email off with a really funny interpretation of the Articles of Faith that an Elder came up with.

The Missionary's Articles of Faith:

(1)   We believe in suits; black, blue and brown, and in white shirts, and in an

 assortment of as many dull ties as possible.

(2)  We believe that an elder will be punished for his own sins as well as for

his companion's transgressions.

(3)    We believe that through their lifetimes, all missionaries will go bald,

according to the laws of and statute of nature.

(4)     We believe that the first counsels and advice of the Mission are: first, 

Faith in the nutrition of hot dogs; second, cereal; third, black current squash

 for the remission of errors; fourth, Leaning on of members for the

gift of free meals.

(5)     We believe that an elder must be called of God, or insanity, to tract in 

all types of weather; for there are those who are in authority to restrict

our few privileges and administer the punishments thereof.

(6)     We believe in the same organization that existed in the Previous 

Mission, namely, presidents, assistants, zone leaders, district leaders, trainers, 

greenies, and so forth.

(7)     We believe in the gifts of cakes, candy, cookies, letters, tapes, money,

and so forth.

(8)     We believe the president to be the head of the mission until he is 

translated accordingly; we also believe the assistants to be the talking

heads of the mission.

(9)   We eat all food that members have prepared, all they do now prepare, and

we believe that they will yet prepare more great and inspiring meals 

according to the persuasions of the elders.

(10)  We believe in the literal departure of elders and in their orientation

of the things back  home; that Zion will be built upon this land of Wales; that they

will not be trunky until their flight plans arrive.

(11)   We claim the privilege of writing letters home according to the

dictates of our own schedule, and allow all missionaries the same

privilege, let them write how, when, where and to whom they may. 

(12)    We believe in NOT being subject to stop signs, yield signs, speed

limits nor common sense, in mashing, crashing, and abusing the mission

cars.

(13)  We believe in being handsome, fully chased, magnificent, flirtatious, 

and in saying "Hi" to all girls; indeed, we may say that we follow no

admonition at all - We question all things, we bother all things, we have

put off many things, and hope to be able to put off all  things.  If there 

is anyone virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after

her immediately after our release.

Haha I just thought that was hilarious! Especially the ones about food! They are more true than you know! 

So this week has been pretty good. Our numbers were a little low, but our efforts were high so all in all it was a successful week. We had exchanges and I stayed here while Sister Ronspies came to Newcastle Emlyn. It was full of talking to really cool people and a few MIRACLES! While we were being rejected by a lady this young girl heard what we were talking about. As we were walking away we heard this sweet, little voice say, "Can I have on of those cards about Jesus?" We turned around to see a young, 13 year old girl named Rosie. Her parents are not religious at all, but she has decided that she wants to be a Christian because she said whenever she talked about Jesus she felt something different, but a good different, and she knew He was there! What 13 year old does that?? She is amazing! A complete blessing and miracle! We talked to her for a while and will hopefully see her soon. :)

Who else thought General Conference was amazing?! It was so, so, so good! Leading up to it I decided I was going to read all the old General Conference issues of the Ensign so I could really be prepared to feel the spirit when watching it. Its amazing how re-reading old messages still teach you so much! And then getting to hear new words from Prophets and Apostles? Man, what a blessing! I really loved Elder Holland's talk. I always love pretty much everything Jeffrey R. Holland does but, this was special since he was talking about Our Lord, Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. I also loved Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk about grace. Have you ever studied grace? If you haven't, do it! I promise the Spirit will help you learn more about how it is by grace that we are saved. Its amazing! I really noticed 2 general themes this conference. 1) Families. It was so extremely clear to me that the Lord was warning us. The world is attacking families left and right. Families are breaking down, crumbling, stumbling and falling and I think that the leaders of the church wanted us to know that it can affect us if we are not careful. Of course we think of outside influence getting to our children and things of the world entering our homes. Those are dangerous and important to be weary of, but are we taking time to evaluate ourselves? Are we accidentally tearing down the walls of our family homes by not even knowing it? Children are so affected and changed by the way they grow up in a home and they learn by example. As parents you are THE example for them. So are we showing them how to be patient, humble, kind, loving, and above all else are you showing them the gospel? So don't be afraid to ask "Am I the one the Prophet and Apostles were warning about?" I'm not saying anyone reading this is, but it is just so important! :) 2) I noticed a few talks mentioning the "lack of awe" for the gospel. We need to keep being excited for the church! Excited for the blessings it brings! Excited to fulfill what the Lord wants us to do! I really loved Bishop Gerald Causse's talk about this :) If you have missed part of General Conference you have to go back and watch it or read the talks! They are the best!

Easter was great! The weather was AMAZING so we were just walking around without jackets or anything :) You have no idea how happy that makes me :) We watched General Conference at the chapel then went back to have dinner at our flat. Sister Francis had a hot dog and some rice while I boiled a potato. That is as glamorous as we get. A member dropped off an Easter egg for us both which was really nice of them. 

So a funny experience Sister Francis and I had. We were visiting a less active right before we went home one night. They live in the middle of no where (and when I say no where I really mean NO WHERE). We were driving down this tiny, windy, dirt road with hedges up on both sides enclosing the road. We came around a bend when we saw 2 sheep blocking the road. They of course started running in front of us but because the hedges were on both sides there was no place to go and they both started to panic! Sister Francis was laughing hysterically because she had never seen sheep run before since she came from a city. We eventually got to a place where there was a small drive that the sheep turned in to and we had to get out, go get the sheep then follow them back to the field where they came from. So I am officially just doing the same things that I did back home haha :) It was really funny :) 

Well I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

P.S. Mosiah 3:4 was a big answer to prayer for me a while back. It says to declare unto my people that the may be filled with joy and basically everyone who is reading this is "my people" or family and friends, so I am declaring joy to you all :)

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - March 30, 2015

Hi there! So this week has been a good one, but exhausting!! We have been trying to work as hard as we can this week and have definitely seen the pay off. We are blessed with loads of new investigators so life is so good! haha :) Also does anyone remember Chris, the investigator Sister Gaffney and I had right at the beginning of my mission? Well, we ran into him and he said we could come by and teach him again! Wooo!! :)

So one of those new investigators is a total miracle! Her name is Pam Bray and she is way cool. So a long time ago we were looking through old potential investigators sheets and former investigators forms and her name stuck out to us. We called her and she said she was sick, but to come by sometime and see if she was in. We waited a while and eventually forgot about her (oops!). But Sister Francis and I were contacting a referral we received from a member and we felt impressed to knock the doors around the referral's house. So we were just going along talking to people and we knocked on this one lady's door. She immediately invited us in, which never happens so we thought it was pretty cool. We asked what her name was and she said "Pam, aren't you the ones that called me?" She remembered that 30 second phone call from months ago!! How cool is that?? This taught me a seriously valuable lesson-Never ever ever ever just give up on someone. It is so so so important that we give everyone the chance to know the Gospel, even if we think they don't want it or wouldn't appreciate it. We did the wrong thing for forgetting about her, but Heavenly Father stepped in and led us to her! Total miracles! Now I will definitely contact EVERYONE who says they could possibly, maybe, even have a hint of interest :)

Everything is going great over here in the England Birmingham Mission or the EBM (Earth's Best Mission) haha :) Love you all! :)

 

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - March 23, 2015

Hello Everyone! :)

So this week has finally been sunny over in Wales! I didn't even wear a coat some days and I have been able to wear normal shoes instead of big, bulky, winter boots! What a miracle!

So this week we have been working with a lady named Takia a lot more. She is so elect! Hopefully she will keep progressing and be able to meet her baptismal date! I can't wait!

Our mission president has really stressed working hard and being bold with invitations this week so we have been absolutely knackered running everywhere and doing all we can. I guess the whole mission has a lot of lessons each week but people coming to church and being baptized has really taken a dip so we are really trying, as a mission, to get back on top of our goals.

Sister Francis is amazing as always. We have a great time together and she will kill all the huge spiders in our flat. I swear we are infested with them! And they are so big over here! So I am really grateful for her!

So I have decided that Rugby and Football need to be banned in Wales! Everyone just gets drunk at like noon on the days that there is a match! Its so frustrating! We have had 3 times in one day where we had some serious creepers trying to follow us! Oh well, its a good thing Sister Francis and I can be pretty bold with these people! :)

Oh so funny story, Sister Francis and I stopped this guy on the street to talk to him and things were going pretty well, he seemed pretty interested. Then his friend came over and started to scream at us for believing in the Gospel! He was swearing and ranting and raving! So Sister Francis and I just tried to kind of keep talking to the first guy, but then the guy who was yelling at us yelled at me specifically for not talking to him! I said, "I will talk to you, but I am going to tell you right now that I know God is real and I won't be convinced otherwise." That just started him off on a whole other tangent on how big of idiots we were for believing. Hahahahaha some people are just too funny! Like, who would even think of doing that?!? I'll tell you who-this big polish guy! HAHA :) we eventually got their names, David (The crazy one) and Slavik (Who is actually really cool and I don't know how, but we ended up getting a return appointment with him. He said he won't bring his friend hahaha).

Well team, I hope you have a great week full of miracles and loads of blessings! I know we will over here in the UK! :) Love you all! :)

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - March 16, 2015

Hey Everyone!

So this week has been pretty good, lots of finding and we finally taught this girl named Takia. She is awesome, she has 3 little kids. The youngest is 6 months old and super super super cute. We are really excited about her.

I also got a new companion! Her name is Sister Francis. She is from Tanzania, Africa (no, she does not appreciate it when I sing songs from The Lion King to her, but I do it anyway). She is seriously one of the hardest working people I think I have ever met! She is hilarious though and I am really excited for the rest of this transfer with her!

So funny story for this week. Sister Francis and I every morning during exercise have competitions for who can do a hand stand since neither of us can do one. Its hard to say who is winning because both of us are terrible!

Oh and we had a weird experience! We were street contacting on the high street in Carmarthen. I was talking to this guy and out of the corner of my eye I could see this guy standing in front of a pub watching us. So the guy I was talking to leaves and I start to walk down the street with my companion. But the guy standing in front of the pub starts following us and talking to us. Then his friend came and before you know it there was 7 of them! They were all in the pub watching the Ireland vs. Wales rugby game and were all drunk! Haha so we gave them all Mormon.org cards :) But before we could leave one grabbed me and hugged me!!!!! aaaaah! it was scary haha :) So now I have been hugged by two drunk guys and a big, black Jehovah's Witness missionary since I have been out. This is not okay! Haha :)

I hope this week is amazing for all of you! Sounds like things are going pretty well back home. Keep pushing on Saints and Soldiers! You guys are the best! And remember, God is your loving Heavenly Father. He knows you. He knows exactly what you are feeling, thinking, desiring in this exact moment. I bear witness of God the Eternal Father, my Father and your Father, who gave us spiritual life. I testify that He is the Man of Holiness, that mercy and goodness, love and compassion are some of His significant characteristics. I witness that we show our love for Him through our choices and our obedience to His commandments. He is the source of truth anad light. Don't ever, ever forget it! :)

Well I better get going but I love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Newcastle Emlyn, Wales - March 9, 2015

Hey there everyone! So this week has been up and down a little bit. Some huge miracles happening!

First of all this area hasn't been having coordination with the ward mission leader and hasn't been going to ward coordination for a really long time. They actually said missionaries weren't invited...kind of weird! But we went and talked to the bishop and a counsellor from the stake presidency and got both meetings this week! Yay! So we are really excited to coordinate with the ward more and see miracles happen!

So this week with Cyrus was very interesting. Everything was going really good then on Friday night she phoned us and told us she didn't want us to come by anymore. Then on Saturday morning she phoned and said she wanted to come to church as an official last thing she could do so she wasn't just dropping us with no goodbyes or anything. Then later on that night she called again and sounded really weird on the phone. She said she didn't want to come to church and please do not contact her anymore and just leave it at that. So we were confused but said ok and that was that. Then on Sunday while we were at church she phoned us and left a message saying she needed help, please call her asap and she sounded really odd again. So we phoned her house twice with no answer. We went by her house and there was no answer. Tried her mobile a couple times...again no answer. Her friend eventually called us on her house phone and said that Cyrus had gone to the hospital and now was in a mental institution. We were totally shocked! Cyrus eventually called us and wanted us to come see her so we went to see her in the place they are keeping her. She asked for a Book of Mormon because she had left hers at home. She wanted us to pray with her and she asked if we could arrange a blessing for her. She is just such a sweetie! She is doing well and will actually go home soon. We still don't know why she was there or what happened, but it was a crazy ride. Please pray for her.

This week I have learned a lot. In the space of about two days we had about 4 investigators drop us besides everything with Cyrus. Luckily the Lord has definitely been watching out for me and over all I can still honestly say this week has been pretty good. Haha missions are crazy rollercoasters some times :) I am looking forward to this coming week and all the miracles and blessings that Heavenly Father is waiting to give all of us! Love you all!