Transfers!!

Well this last week was our last week of the transfer and transfer calls were Sunday night. I had not a clue what to expect from transfers, but when we got the call we were all surprised because we are all staying! And not just the sisters in my ward but my entire zone is staying the same, other than the three missionaries who are returning home. So that's pretty exciting because I really like my zone. I have mixed feelings about it because I've been here three months and I'm ready for a change in a way, I think maybe because school semesters are three months long I'm just used to getting a switch-up around every three months. So I hope this next transfer doesn't drag along. I am also quite excited to stay just because I really do love the ward here and the people I've met and wasn't ready to leave them to some other missionary who doesn't love them as much as I do! It was actually quite sweet to hear so many members tell us they wanted to ring up president and tell him not to transfer any of us when we told them transfers were coming up. It's completely different in our ward now than how it was when I first got here. When I first got here we had ZERO support from members, bishop, or leaders. We were out here all on our own and it's taken a lot of hard work and patience and love but the ward has completely changed their attitude towards missioanry work. We are invited to ward council now, and all the leaders of the ward were telling us how excited they are to do missioanry work and they've never really been excited before. It's been so cool to see, and honeslty it makes me feel like I came to this ward for a reason and that part of the purpose of Heavenly Father sending me here was so that I could connect with ward members and get things going here, even if we haven't seen any baptisms yet I feel likemy last two transfers have been a real success just based on that. 

We have also seen a miracle with two less active ladies we have been visiting. We met them both on the first week of this last transfer. The first one sister Healy was baptized back in 2010 and went less active shortly after her baptism. When we met her she told us she wasn't mormon anymore and was going back to her catholic roots. She had some deeper doctrine questions that rocked her new faith and she wasn't able to get over them so she just kind of gave up and left and that brings us to now. So she brought up the issues she had and I honestly have no idea how I was able to find answers for her, truly the spirit brought to my memory things that I'm not even sure where I learned them, so thank you to all of the religion courses, sunday school, YW, and seminary teachers I've ever had because that knowledge that I thought went in one ear and out the other really did stop in there and stay and the spirit was able to bring it up again when I needed it. So after clearing up some of her major concerns, using Isaiah of all books! (I had no idea I knew anything about Isaiah until I started talking to her) she told us we could start from the beginning and teach her all the principles in the missionary lessons and she could ask any questions she had. So we have been meeting weekly with her and doing just that, we aren't even finished with the plan of salvation (she has so many questions!) but through out all of that she has now came to church 4 times in a row! She quit drinking coffee again without us even bringing it up, she started paying tithing without us saying a thing about it, and now she told us she wants to get her patriarchal blessing and work towards going to the temple!It's so amazing how learning about the principals of the gospel and feeling the truthfulness of them really helps people grow a desire to change. The more you study the gospel and feel it's truth the more you want to follow Christ. So that's just been incredible to see. And theres more! So the second lady is sister Bottaro and she is so cute! She is Australian but lived in canada the past 30 something years until she came back here for her health about 3 years ago. Well she got pnemonia and was in the hospital and rang the elders to give her a blessing and they told us to go visit her once she got home. So we did and she told us she wants to come back to church! So we have been visiting her and once she was well she came. Her first Sunday was also sister Healy's first Sunday. So we sat with them both and introduced them and now they are like best friends! Sister Bottaro drives sister Healy to church, they've been helping each other with the whole process of coming back and we missionaries didn't really have to do anything but invite and teach them and let the Spirit and Heavenly Father do the rest. I hope we get to see more success like this in our ward in this next transfer! Australia is a great place to be right now. OUr mission is going to have like 270 missionaries by November I think and it's growing so much! OUr new mission president is making lots of great changes and the whole place is just excited! I think the whole world is excited! So if you aren't involved in missionary work right now go talk to the missionaries in your ward because I know there is something for everyone to do in this work and the world needs it. Catch the wave! haha I love that expression so much ;)

Hope you all have a good week sorry for the novel!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

We Went to the Zoo!!

We went to the zoo today!!! So I'll send heaps of photos, but I HELD A KOALA!!! 

And I fed KANGAROOS and WALLABIES!! It was magical. Mission goal accomplished. The zoo is just a small place over in our area but it was nice and they had a lot of really cool animals and lemurs and things and we were allowed to go around and feed a lot of them. The animals were all awake and moving around a ton too and not just sleeping in a corner like they usually are so it was just a really fun experience. Other than that this week has been a bit crazy and challenging but that's what Sundays are for and that's why we have new weeks to look forward to. Next week is our last week of this transfer! It's crazy how fast things are going. I don't know what I want to happen at transfers. In a way I really want to move on and experience a new area and everything but so much of me wants to stay here because of all the momentum we have been building here since I came, I feel like we are on the verge of miracles in this area and if we just carry on working as hard as we can a bit longer it will come. But I guess that's how the Lord works sometimes, and I'll probably get transferred right before all the good stuff. I hope all is well back home and everyone is enjoying their final weeks of summer. Winter here is a joke and it's already super warm and sunny everyday. Sorry this is short but I want to send photos!

Love you all!

Sister Rasmussen

Sunny Australia!

Hey Everyone! 

We had a great weekend here in sunny Australia so I hope you all did as well. Church is always a good experience, and the ward I'm serving in is fantastic. It's amazing the way the ward has really started to catch the fire of missionary work here. When I first got to this ward spirits were low and it didn't feel very unified, people weren't super friendly with each other let alone to investigators that we would bring that they didn't even know but I've seen over the past 3 months how this ward is coming together and becoming more of a ward family through serving each other and working together. there is a lot of work to be done here and if we aren't united that work will not happen. When I first got here it made me miss the wards back home that I've lived in that were such close ward familes (Meadows 5th, Centennial Point, Laie 7) I have been truly blessed to live in wonderful ward familes that have always supported me so much and helped me get to where I am now. Those are the kind of loving ward families that investigators notice and want to be a part of and that's what we have been trying to grow here in the North Pine ward. 

Yesterday we had a mission conference with President Pearson in our Area Presidency. He is a member of the 70 and it was such a good meeting! He spoke to us for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT after we had an hour and a half before of other speakers. I've never ever experienced a two hour meeting I wasn't bored in before until yesterday. I honestly wanted him to keep speaking to us all day.Anyone who knows me knows I can't sit still that long, and I will admit my legs were shaking enough to move the whole bench by the end of it but my mind was all focus. That's a way that being a missionary changes your perspective definitely.We go around all day teaching people and uplifting them and taking their burdens on our hearts and so it was so so nice to sit and be uplifted ourselves, even if a lot of the upliftment was towards how we need to be better and work harder and do more haha. He did talk a lot about how wards and stakes need to be unified with missionaries for the work to progress. There are so many more missionaries in the field now but we won't see any increase in baptisms unless we all work together. It's pretty cool to be a part of the wave of missionaries that are out at this time. there are more missioanries in the field right now thatn ever have been and ever will be for a long time just in this 18-24 month period following the announcement. I'm glad that me, Tim, David, and James could all be apart of it and represent our family in this unique and exciting time. It's pretty exciting! 

I only have two more weeks in this transfer left and then I'm not sure if I'll be staying or going or what will happen so for any mail just use the mission PO Box. I'm conflicted about what I want to happen because of all the progress we have seen in this area I feel like miracles are just about to start happening here and we are building up to that so I don't want to leave yet but at the same time I want to experience other areas and see more of the mission and go out and help another area get going, so we will see! Either way I'll go where the Lord wants and it will be the best! At least I have two more weeks here at least to work as hard as I can. I hope everyon's summer is ending well, my "winter" is going great! 

Love and Aloha!

Sister Rasmussen

"There is Beauty All Around"

First of all: Big Mahalos to everyone! I got SO MANY wonderful emails this week from the people I love. Thank you so much! I seriously appreciate the love so much. It always lifts my spirits a ton to hear from you and I want to know what is going on back home (Vegas and Hawaii) So thank you for keeping me updated! It is hard for me to reply to a ton of people just because we have to pay for our email time and we don't usually have much time but I will get back to you! 

I saw the  PACIFIC OCEAN last week after I emailed you all and it was such a beautiful moment! I will send you pictures. Last week P-day was actually pretty crazy we had to go to the doctors office because sister Tai had hurt her leg pretty bad the week before. So we didn't have enough km's on the car to go to the city to the usual mission doctor and sister henderson told us to find one in our area. One of our ward members had told us of an experience he had where he gave his doctor a Book of Mormon sooo...we called him up and found out who is doctor is and went to him haha just using every opportunity to find people to teach. So anyways sister Tai and I went into his office  for the appointment and he saw our badges and started asking us tons of questions and we basically had a lesson with him there in his office! she had to get an ultrasound on her leg which is what brought us to the coast and we had a fun time running around on the pier and NOT touching the sand or water :( sister Russel misses the Ocean as much as I do because she is from Durban, South Africa which is on the coast and she lives right on the beach too. The next day sister Tai and Russel went back to the doctor to have him look over the results and taught him again, even ending with a prayer right in his office! He is from Africa as well so that is just cool. The member who gave him the book of mormon is going to invite him over for an FHE type thing at our ward mission leaders house this weekend so I hope he comes and we can teach him more. 

Other than that this week was a little slow. A lot of lessons fell through and got canceled which is frustrating but just part of life I guess. Also we spent all day Wednesday in the city having interviews with president. The Interviews had to be like 1min long though because there were a lot of us and they had to go pick up three missionaries who got their visas mid-transfer. But sister Henderson told me during interviews that our mission now has a blog called australiabrisbanemission.com which shares stories of what is going on in the mission and miracles that happen. Our mission president's wife runs it but it has pictures and all sorts of good stuff on it so you should check it out. It's cool how into technology everything is getting. Our mission has a facebook page too (add it!) and president Monson is even on facebook apparently. I'm thinking that they will have missionaries in this mission on facebook soon enough as well which will be fun to see how that works. Well I haven't got a lot of time today because we got up early and took the train to the city this morning. After the temple one of the YSA girls in the ward who goes out with us a ton came and took us to lunch in Southbank so we got some sweet pictures and felt very Posh getting lunch in the city with our pretty dresses and catching the train. We went to Max Brenner for Dessert, and holy cow you all should go there! I know there is one in Vegas I can't remember for sure where...Venetian maybe? But the hot chocolate was delicious! haha anyways it has been a good and delicious day! 

Love you all!! 

Sister Rasmussen