1 de Noviembre del 2010

Hola Familia!

This week was great. Elder Lopez finished his mission strong and worked hard until the end.

I think the best part of all was that I was able to work with Elder Galindo! His brother finished his mission in the north-west mission today, with Elder Zach Johnson! Elder Johnson was changed from the west mission to the north-west mission. Anyways, he was Elder Galindo’s twin brothers companion. I was with Elder Gaindo on Saturday until today. He was so excited to see his twin brother and his parents. He is such a great missionary, I’ve never seen a missionary finish the mission so dedicated and working. I told him on Saturday that I felt like it were as though we were still companions! What a great way to finish the mission, working hard until the very end! I’m glad I could work with him one last time.

Tomorrow is "Day of the Dead", but everyone is celebrating it right now. They kind of combine Halloween with this day and from the 31 to the 2 they go around asking for candy and dressed up! Pretty fun! A typical Day of the Dead thing is a chocolate or sugar skeleton head that they decorate and put on the offering table for their ancestors.

Today we trained the new Mexican missionaries, fresh out of the MTC! I’m with an Elder named Elder Zamudio, from Baja California. We had a great training meeting, and the Spirit was strong. Tomorrow we have our changes meeting, and on Wednesday at 2 the new American missionaries get here. They have been delayed for a while, they are in California and should have gotten here in August! They’re 10 missionaries, so that is really going to help the mission. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the mission had missionaries leaving but no missionaries coming! Now we are growing and I think we’re experiencing some of those growing pains. I mean that in a good way. The very new missionaries that have only been out for a month and a half are training missionaries almost as new as them! It’s a growing experience for many, and it makes me remember how I felt when I was given the assignment as trainer. But I know the Lord blesses us, and all we have to do is be obedient with exactness, work hard, have the Spirit and the Lord will bless us abundantly.

It is just amazing to hear President Hicken train the new missionaries. He receives revelation in the trainings, and says something new that they need to hear in that moment. He is always positive. He casually made a side comment that ever since that day they were robbed they are trying to look forward and not backwards. He said something else that I don’t remember, but the point is that he and his wife are examples to everyone of faith in the Lord. If we could all have that faith, we wouldn’t worry as much because we would know who’s hands we are in. Today he also testified to the missionaries that the people in the street need to see that we have the Spirit with us and that we’re just not normal men, but that we are representatives of Christ. That had a deep impact on me, and I have been thinking about that as well. If the people in the street can recognize us as His representatives, the results will be really really different! In D&C 29:7 it says that the elect hear His voice and don’t make their hearts hard (literal translation from Spanish to English, not sure if that’s exactly right!) and in order for that to happen, we have to have the Spirit with us always! If not, the elect wont have a way of recognizing us as true representatives of Christ. I want you to know that there are elect in Gilbert Arizona. There are elect in Spain. There are elect in any part of the world, just waiting for the truth. If we are diligent, and faithful, and patient the Lord will bless us with the opportunity to find them and bear them our testimony of Jesus Christ. I know that if we do this, the Lord will bless us abundantly- even more than we can imagine. Always have the Spirit, and He will put the elect in your way. I know it!

Les amo mucho!

-Elder Rasmussen