WEEK - 93 Casas Aleman / Aragón Zone - AP

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

 

WEEK - 92 Casas Aleman / Aragón Zone - AP

26-Octubre-2010

Carmona-Padilla Family,This is Hermana Lupita,her son,and her mom Baptism- 17-October Confirmation-24-October

           Hey sorry about writing a little late this week. Yesterday we were with Presidente all day. We slept at the secretary’s house on Sunday, and on Monday at 9 we were at the mission home to plan the transfers. President really does receive revelation in every moment, and it’s a great feeling to see the Spirit telling him who should be with who. Elder Lopez and I tell him what the zone leader’s tell us about the missionaries, and he makes the decision. We finished at about 1 and headed to the offices so the secretaries could take us back. When we got there though, Elder Lucas the missionary in charge of the new Americans, told us that we are probably going to get 11 more missionaries! We never know when the Americans are going to get here, they have been in California for about a month or two and are finally going to get here. We went back to the mission home and planned for these new elders, and in total we should be getting around 25missionaries next week! It’s GREAT because our number of missionaries is going back up! When I got to the mission there were about 200 or maybe more, and now we’re at about 140 or less. This should really help the mission out!

             Elder Lopez and I learn so much from Presidente. He has such faith, and is ALWAYS positive. It sounds like you heard already about their van being stolen. They had to go to the police station to put a claim in, and were there till really late. We had interviews with him the next day, and both President and Sister Hicken were completely calm. They have so much faith and are always positive. It would have been really easy for any of us to complain about having the van stolen, but he didn’t. From the very next day President was still very positive and happy! He and his wife are a true example. 

        Medina Martinez Family - showing 1yr to enter the Temple.  Cousin & former MME missionary Dan Lopez on right came back to visit from Utah.

  

  I have a great story for you! We visited Alba and Lalo this week, and Alba told us that earlier last week she heard her kids playing, and she started listening to them. First of all I guess I need to explain that their kids LOVE going to the Temple. They can see it from their room, and when the lights go out in their house they always check to see if the lights are on at the Temple. 

 

Anyways, they were playing and they had put on their “Future missionary” badges that I gave them, 

Lalito Medina Martinez 3yrs

Lalito (the 3 year old) was on the sofa with his hands out like the Christus statue,

Valeria Medina Martinez

Valeria (the 4 year old) said “Brothers and Sisters, at the end we’re going to give you a card like this (as she showed the card up like the sister missionaries do),and now we’re going to listen to Jesus.” Lalito, with his hands out, said, “ I’m Jesus, behave, and don’t fight with your little siblings.” Haha! I thought that was just great.  Valeria wants to be a missionary!

            

  

          

              Well Elder Lopez goes home this week. The Lord has truly blessed us these last few weeks. I have really learned so much from my companion, he’s helped me to grow and to help President more. I’m thankful for a companion like him.

 

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for your love and support,

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rasmussen        

WEEK - 91 Casas Aleman / Aragón Zone - AP

10-16-10

Hey Everyone!

Well today’s Saturday, and I wasn’t able to write for last week. So what I’m doing is sending pictures of my journal entries for those days, is that okay? I can share some of the experiences that we had though.

On the 9th we baptized Gerardo and Oliver. Gerardo is from Casas Aleman and Oliver is from Campestre (the Carmona family, his mom and brother and grandma, are getting baptized tomorrow).

 

On the 10 we baptized the Medina Martinez family. They are so great! Their cousin Dan Lopez came all the way from Utah to baptize them. He’s going to be here tomorrow for their confirmation.  They had quite an experience. Lalo (the dad) didn’t want to get baptized, but Alba did. We went to their house last Wednesday and invited Lalo to read and pray. He did so, and when we came back to take them to their interviews, he said he was ready to go! 

 We took them to their interviews at the visitors center, and they loved being at the Temple. I don’t remember if I told you this last week, but they can see the Temple from their house! 

 

Their daughter, Valeria, is so funny. When we went to the Temple for their interview, she was like “Oh! I can see that from my window at night! The other day the lights went out, but they didn’t go out in the Temple!” haha, she’s cute, and reminds me a lot of Maddie! Last night we went to visit them and they are so awesome! Lalo said the prayer, and it was so humbling to hear it. He gave thanks for being led to the truth and for the opportunity to be able to go to the Temple in a year. What a great family! I’m going to be saving so I can be here in a year!

 

This week we are going to baptize the Carmona family. Lupita, Brandon and their Grandma, Porfiria. Porfiria is 86 years old, and has diabetes. She can hardly talk but when she does, she makes it clear she wants to be baptized! She can’t go to church, but President said that it would be good for her to be baptized because her husband is a member, and that way they can be sealed. We are also going to baptize a sister named Blanca. She is a referral from her sister in McAllen, Texas. She is also very excited to be baptized. She has arthritis so bad that her hands are bent. But she makes it every week to church. We visited her yesterday and she is really excited as well.

What a blessing to be here! The Lord is truly blessing this area, and it is so humbling to see. Wow! Elder Lopez baptized a family in San Buena a year ago, and a week ago they went to the Temple, so we were able to go with them. A lot of the members from that ward were there as well, and they told me that the Martinez family is getting ready to go to the Temple. Can’t wait to be there with them. It was very special to see a sealing. Bro. Luis Perdomo was there, remember him? He told me he would help me out, and let me know how they’re progressing. 

Elder Agurrie & Ras at La Honda.  This is the restaurant where we take all the new missionaries. THIS is the meat for the tacos Al Pastor! 

      

aaAAHHH ! ! ! !  The joys of Tacos Al Pastor ! ! !

Les amo un buen!

-Elder Rasmussen

WEEK - 90 Casas Aleman / Aragón Zone - AP

October 4, 2010- Another Great Week in Paradise!        

 Hola, Familia,

               General Conference was inspiring as always, I learned so much that I can apply to the work. I really liked Pres. Uchtdorf's talk, that was great! 

This week we baptized Alejandra Davila Torres, and Valeria a 9 year old daughter of a sister in the ward. Alejandra was so excited to be baptized, she is very elect. It was so amazing to see how the Lord prepares his children to accept the gospel. Eduardo and Alva are progressing. They have had some problems between them, we're praying that they can resolve these problems and decide to be baptized together. We're going to baptize Gerardo this week as well. He's 19 and is doing a great job at keeping the Word of Wisdom. He went to almost every General Conference session in a suit and vest! He used to have problems with drugs and smoking, but he has completely stayed away from it. Wow, what an example of the Atonement in our lives!

                Last week my companion and I had meetings with President Hicken Tuesday, Wednesday and then Thursday was our zone leaders counsel. The week just flew right by! We spent a lot of time with the Secretaries. I don't know if I've mentioned that Elder Israelsen is the Financial secretary, so we have been able to spend a lot of time together and talk. He's such a  great missionary and friend. I'm excited to get to work with him more. We have to spend the night at the secretaries house a lot because its on the other side of town. Last week we were in the offices quite a bit, and Elder Lucas, one of the secretaries, decided it would be funny to buy mine and Elder Israelsen's plane tickets!! He bought them in two seconds and said "Hey Elders, look what I got?" We kind of smiled weakly and we decided to make every minute count before we have to use that stupid plane ticket! It's not going to get to me that's for sure!!!

Elder Ras at his NEW dream Apt . . . Notice the Barbwire ?? ! !

                President Hicken is such a great example. He talked to us about always being positive in the zone leaders counsel. He says that every week he gets letters from the missionaries and a lot of them are negative! He taught us that negativity is not from the Spirit and that it actually impedes our success as missionaries if we are being negative. He invited us to look for all the positive and be grateful so that we can have the Spirit with us. I had never thought of it that way before. I'm so thankful for this chance to learn from such a great leader.

Our new apartment has a built in stove, with built in natural gas tubes (normally we have to buy the tanks), it has CARPET and two bathrooms. It's basically a  missionary in Mexico's dream apartment!

                I'm thankful for your prayers, I honestly felt them all last week. I'm really thankful for my parents that put the example for their kids and teach us to consecrate everything to the Lord. It has made me reflect on if I'm doing that as a missionary. I have this short time to dedicate everything I am to the Lord, Am I really doing everything I can? Am I giving every second to Him? I want to be able to do this after the mission, but I guess I better start now huh? Love you family!
-Elder Rasmussen

WEEK - 89 Casas Aleman / Aragón Zone - AP

27-SEPT-2010

 Hola Familia

             

           Elder Lopez and I have had a great opportunity to get to work with President Hicken more closely, and WOW have I learned a lot! Pres. Hicken is truly guided by the Spirit and I learn in every meeting with him. We do have quite a few meetings, but I think you have a different idea of what we have to do. For example, we spend most of our time in the area, but we do have several meetings. For example, with last week and this coming week we will or have had -1 training with new missionaries, - 2 Planning Sessions, -1 Training with Zone leaders, and -1 Transfers meeting. As Assistants our job is to, well, assist the President. We’re here to serve him and help him in all we can. We train the zone leaders, and are expected to set the example with baptisms.

            Even though we are not in our area full time, the Lord has blessed us so much! Its amazing! Last  Thursday night we were contacting everyone in the street and being rejected by pretty much everyone. We saw a family out of the corner of our eye and caught up to them to contact them. Whenever I see a complete family I get excited and want to run up to them. Luckily, I kept my cool and we got up to them and contacted them. Alva and Eduardo gladly accepted and told us that they’d be there at their house at 5. On Friday we got there at 5 and they weren’t there. We left a note asking them to call us, and my faith was starting to waver when we received a message at 9. It was Alva and Eduardo saying that they were really sorry that they couldn’t get there, but that they wanted us there the next day. We got there and found out that Alva is Elder Dan Lopez’s cousin! I told you about Elder Lopez, he’s from Utah. About two Mondays ago he visited his grandma and family and Alva was there. It’s amazing to see how the Lord prepares his elect. Alva was ready to accept the gospel, but just needed that extra push from Elder Lopez. I know they’ll progress! Elder Lopez from Utah just wrote me and told me that his cousin sent him a message saying that she went to church with us! She and Eduardo are going to be baptized on the 10th.

Another experience. We contacted a lady named Angelina on Wednesday night. We only had about 3 hours to work because of a meeting we had on the other side of the city. We contacted her and she said thanks but no. We kept on walking and for some reason we felt like we should contact a lady in a hot dog stand, which we never do. We contacted her, and she said no. We turned around to go and as I turned I saw Angelina hurrying to catch up to us with her baby stroller. She whistled at us and asked, “How much do you charge to visit people?”  I’m sure we almost shouted “nothing!” and we went to her house, and she also accepted her baptismal date. 

 I gave a talk this Sunday. I used a part of Pres. Kimball’s talk of “Is this all we can do?” I think that would be the translation. I talked about how it really is easy for the members to just share their testimony to share the gospel with others. Elder Lopez talked about “hermandad”… fellowshipping! That’s the word. It was great.  A lot of members afterwards came up the investigators and shook their hands and took time to talk with them. That helped them feel so much more at home.

Can you see how this is the Lord’s work??  Really we are nothing! We can’t do it on our own, and have to depend on Him. The elect are there.  This is HIS work. I know that every single one of us knows somebody who is ready. Ready to accept the gospel in their lives and receive the blessings. If you don’t know what to say, simply bear your testimony that God lives, because “that is the greatest testimony in the world” (Pres. Kimball). This week, really pray for those opportunities, and the Lord will open doors. HE will do everything if we are willing. I heard Elder Tanner has contacted several people and offered the Book of Mormon. Remember, it’s easier than we think sometimes, just be an example and you’ll be blessed.

Enjoy General Conference! It’ll be just great! Les amo!

-Elder Rasmussen

WEEK - 88 NEW CALLING . . ARAGON/MISSION OFFICE AP

Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 4:06 PM

 

Where do I start?

On Saturday at 10:15, President Hicken called me and asked "Elder Rasmussen, how long have you been out there in Neza?"

I told him 7 months, and how much I have grown to love the zone and the area. He told me that sometimes we have to have changes, then he said that day he had to send his assistant on a plane home and that he was missing one. He told me he was calling me to extend that calling to me. I said "Wow...I feel really inadequate" haha pretty lame huh? I guess I could have said something a little more faithful, but oh well. He said that when he was called as mission president he felt the same way, but that's when the Lord calls us. Then he asked me if that was a yes! haha, I said yes of course.

Yesterday, Sunday, I had to be in the Temple at 8:30 am because I went with Elder Lopez, the assistant. He goes home this next cycle (11/22), and  I needed to go today to learn how to train the new missionaries because starting next cycle I'LL be training a new assistant and be the senior assistant?!

It's hard to describe my feelings. I've been really trying to be the missionary and leader the Lord wants me to be. My companion, Elder Lara, is just great. He has helped me realize some things I need to do better as a leader. And I plan to really put them into practice.

I know the Lord has given me this assignment, I just need to trust in him and do the best I can.

It reminds me of a talk by Pres. Eyring in April, he said-

"This is the Lord’s Church. He called us and trusted us even in the weaknesses He knew we had. He knew the trials we would face. By faithful service and through His Atonement, we can come to want what He wants and be what we must be to bless those we serve for Him. As we serve Him long enough and with diligence, we will be changed. We can become ever more like Him."

I know I have a lot of weaknesses, but I also know that if I am diligent and trust in Him and His Atonement, I will be able to serve Him completely.

I love this work, and I feel really privileged to be here in The Mission. I know there are miracles if we have faith in the Lord and then act. Thank you for your love and support.

Love you,

Trev

ps- I want you to know that Mondays are going to be a little different now. Sometimes we don't have time to write at all.