It's Me again!

So I feel like I just emailed you, which I kind of did since P-day was Wednesday last week. So I haven't got a whole lot more to say since It was only a few days ago, but this weekend was really good. We had a few investigators come to church which is really nice. Actually the last three weeks both sister Walter and I and the other two sisters in our ward have had investigators at church and our ward is doing a really awesome job of making them feel welcomed. Good things are happening here. In a way I feel like I might be getting transferred, just because I love it so much here! But we will find that out on Sunday and then if I do get transferred I will find out where on Tuesday next week and let you all know then. This past transfer has been so fast! I can't even believe it's almost over. I can't believe it's almost October either. It started to get really hot here and then this past weekend it has cooled down again and gotten cloudy so that's nice. I don't think I'm prepared for the really humid hot summers they have here, but it's something I've never really experienced before so I'm not sure what to expect. 

The kids have been on school holidays the past week and this week is the last week of their holidays. They go to school almost year-round here and every few months they get 2 weeks off and then over summer (which for them in Christmas) they get 6 weeks. I was explaining to someone how we get 3 months off in the summer and they thought that sounded crazy! Well the kids thought it sounded awesome and the mom thought it sounded crazy haha This week should be busy and good. The last week of the transfer always seems busier I think and we also have a baptism to get ready for on Saturday as well, but hopefully all will go well and I will have a lot to email about next week between that and transfers. If I get transferred I hope I go to either up North to Townsville or something, or to Tweed Head because that's where Kirra and the Quiksilver Pro are  and it's still my dream to tract into a pro surfer haha. 

Well I hope that school is going awesome for everyone and you're all loving the fall weather!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Temple Week

Me, Sis. Healy, & Sis. Walter

See the baby kangaroo's feet hanging out of the mother's pouch??

Hey everyone!

Sorry my letter is later this week. It's because we had P-day on Wednesday because we went to the temple this morning. I just love the temple! We have to get up at 4:30am on temple P-day so that we can drive to the train station and catch the train into the city and then walk from the station to the temple, so I am pretty dead and I apologize if my email has parts that make no sense. 

It's been a good week though. this morning at the temple was awesome because sister Healy the less active lady who we have been working with for quite a while now was able to come and do baptisms for the dead with us today. Even more special is that we helped her enter and print out the names of her mother and grandmothers to take to the temple. It also just so happened that our temple P-day fell on her birthday. NO COINCIDENCES. There was such a beautiful spirit there as we witnessed her being baptized and confirmed for her family members. It was also sister walter's first time doing baptisms for the dead in the temple so it was a good experience for her as well. And as for me I love baptisms and it's the only time my whole mission I get to be underwater so that's a plus as well haha just kidding...kind of. It is just crazy for me to think back on the first time I met sister Healy and she told me that she just couldn't accept some points of Mormon doctrine and so she has turned back to her catholic roots. She reminded me that semi-tricked her into listening to us by asking if she would, as a favor to us, let us practice teaching our lessons to her because I was training sister Walter (We really did need practice so I wasn't lying ;) ). She told me today she saw right through my trick but she is so happy she said yes and we were able to re-confirm to her the truths she had felt 3 years ago when she was first baptized. It was awesome. 

We also have this great investigator named Aaron who was meant to be baptized this coming Saturday the 28th but we just re-scheduled for the 5th. At first when he asked to re-schedule I was freaking out because I was afraid he had cold feet. But after speaking with our ward mission leader we decided we would all pray about it and see if moving the date is Heavenly Father's plan or Satan's, because it has to be from one of them. So we decided that heavenly father is A -OK with a baptism on the 5th and that's what we will have. Aaron is just the best, and I can't wait for his baptism! 

Another fun thing this week is that it's school holidays this week and next week so all the kids are home. During school holidays here they have this program for laurel and priest age youth to come out on mini-missions for a week so we have a 16 year-old sister from here in Brisbane who has been with us since Saturday. 

One more crazy story I almost forgot. So on Sunday this man walks into church and tells everyone that he just got baptized last weekend in New Zealand while he was on holiday staying with his Nephew, but he lives in our ward. Crazy! So we get his address because he wants us to come over and meet his wife and family so we can teach them too. So we head over there and I realize I've been to his house before because on this paper in our area book full of potential investigators some past missionary accidentally wrote their address down when it was meant to be their neighbor. So that was kind of weird, but I remember his wife saying she wasn't interested. Anyways we went to his house to get to know him better and as he starts talking about what he does for work and more about himself I start to feel like I've met him before so I ask if he has family that lives nearby, and his daughter lives down the street. So I figured out that I had door knocked into him and his son-in-law one day while I was with sister Vaipulu and we had given him a pamphlet. After I told him that he remembered that day too and laughed and said no one read the pamphlet it's still sitting at the house, but here he is now 3 months later a baptized member! So that was just a testimony to me of a few things 1. again NO COINCIDENCES 2. The Lord has a plan for everyone, if he wants them joining the church he will provide a way 3. fellowship and finding through Part Member Families is the best way to go, he said he never would have been converted if his nephew (also a recent convert) hadn't started reading the Book of Mormon to him and sharing his testimony with him. So that was just a kind of crazy thing that has happened recently here, and I only have two more Sundays left of this transfer and then I will quite possibly be leaving this area! SAD FACE! I love it here, and will be sad to go if that's the plan, but we will just have to wait and see...

Love you all! 

Much Aloha

Sister Rasmussen

Koala Rescuers Down Under

We had some crazy/fun things happen this week which I want to share with you all. 

First of all on Tuesday I became a Koala Rescuer! So sister Walter and I went into an apartment complex to visit a few people and we parked across the street on the road. When we got back to the car there were some people standing next to our car looking up in the tree we parked under and there was a little Koala! She was so cute! Apparently she had been running up the street and was nearly hit a few times before running up that tree. She was shaking and so scared. It was a little tree and not the kind of tree Koalas usually chill in because they don't eat that kind of leaf. One of the ladies that almost hit her had pulled over to see if she could help and she called the Koala rescue people, but they were busy rescuing another koala and couldn't get there right away. She had a two year old with her and couldn't wait around and our car was directly beneath the Koala so we volunteered to stay and wait for them to get there, besides turning on our car would have probably spooked her out of the tree and into the road again. So we waited and watched her, and we decided to name her as well. We called the other two sisters because they were just one street over on bikes so they came as well.  So we named her Mahana, because she was in a tree haha you know like johny lingo? ("Mahana you ugly, get down from that tree!") haha except we wanted her to stay in the tree. So Koala rescue lady came and pulls out all these poles and nets and things and tells us she needs our help so she hands us each something and starts directing us how to catch the poor Koala so she can bring it somewhere safe. It was pretty awesome! Then she let us help her find a good park to put her in because of course as missionaries we have always have maps in our car. She eeven wrote down that we named her Mahana in her notes. And it gets even better! Sp the next day sister Walter and I were biking by the park the lady said she would put Mahana in and so we were looking in the trees and we found her again! It was so great! And then the next day we were in a different part of our area and we saw another Koala, so basically you can start calling us the koala hunters :) 

Also I'm not sure if I've mentioned the spiders here, but brace yourselves; I have a spider story. First off there are spiders EVERYWHERE here. Every single nook and cranny has a spider web, every single tree, bush, plant, twig, etc has a spider. And not little spiders either, like GIGANTOR spiders. So in case anyone isn't aware that is probably my worst nightmare. Every time we bike through the park I am so scared of biking through a big web. So back to the story: the same day we rescued Mahana sister Walter and I were doorknocking in some homes that were on big pieces of land with long driveways. We have to open the fence and walk in to get up to the house and I opened this persons fence walked inside and suddenly I hear screaming behind me. A Spider the size of my whole hand at least (I have giant hands as well so take that into account) had been climbing up sister walters arm. So she screamed threw her bag, stripped off her sweater and threw it and ran into this ladies yard screaming and shaking her arms around like a crazy person. It was hilarious but also so scary because then we couldn't see the spider anymore and that's the worst because you know it's there but it could be anywhere! We were just thankful that 1. the ladies yard was huge so she didn't even hear or see any of it 2. sister walter was wearing a sweater over her shirt and didn't run stripping off her shirt, although that would have been hilarious that's not super missionary appropriate lol and 3. that it was on her and not me because I probably would have been hysterical if that size of spider were crawling on me

Well that's all I can really remember from the week as far as scary/funny nature stories but I'm sure I'll have more to come. Other than that things are going swell, we have been able to find some really awesome new investigators and see some of our investigators who haven't progressed much start keeping commitments and things. Two of our investigators came to church for the first time on Sunday and had such a great time, our ward has really stepped it up and are really getting out their to fellowship and help our investigators. Right now it's planned for us to have the other sisters in the ward have a baptism this saturday and sister walter and I have on next saturday, so our bishop couldn't be more happy to see the ward growing. Love you all and hope you are having a great time for the start of school and everything!

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

G'Day!

Another week gone by...time flies out here. Before I know it, it'll be transfer time again, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyways this week was a bit more of the same. We just keep going out and teaching, finding, teaching, finding, sleeping, meetings, teaching, finding, etc....pretty much no time for anything else and definitely not eating haha our ward members have become increasingly worried that we are like starving ourselves or something (not that I'm getting skinnier, I wish that were why), sparked by an offhand comment that sister Russell and I made to the primary president about having popcorn for dinner. (which was true but anyone who knows me knows that that is actually pretty normal for me haha) Anyways our ward is full of wonderful people and so we have been sent home with a number of frozen meals lately which has been great for during the week when we can't have dinner with members. So in case anyone was worried about me over here across the world, I am being very well taken care of :)

Things have been a bit rough with our investigators this week. It seems that as soon as we make any good progress with someone, the adversary just attacks them and even though we do all we can ultimately it's up to them to choose if they will follow Christ and overcome or just give up and carry on struggling on their own. Unfortunately thus far on my mission everyone I've ever set a baptismal date with has given up, and it's hard because I don't want to give up on them but if they've already made the decision in their hearts there really isn't much you can do, but hope that in the future they'll find the strength to follow Christ. And then we are back to the point of finding new people again. And then we have those investigators that do make progress but it's like two steps forward and one step back. It's good because it's progress but it's hard because it's realllllly slow. Those are the families I love so much because they are trying! That's all a missionary can ask for, is someone that is willing to do the small and simple things that are necessary to follow Christ.So anyways all I can do everyday is go out and work, so that's what I'll do, even if nothing goes right at least I've done all I can do. 

On a brighter not we saw a mama Koala with her baby last week that was so cute! So at least I can enjoy good weather and cute animals while I work :)

Hope everyeones week goes well!

Much Aloha

Sister Rasmussen

Happy September!

Hello everyone! 

Well another week gone by here in the land down under. It's funny I actually have heard that song a lot since I've been here I guess it's like their claim to fame. The ward members have all been taking it upon themselves lately to teach me Australian things, like that pudding is not the kind of pudding we have but something that kind of looks like cake, but is floating on top of this boiling hot sauce stuff. It's really yummy and they pour custard on top,( which is what I would have called pudding in the first place).  It's all very confusing, but the end result is delicious. 

So I guess school has started now for everyone back home. How is it going? I'm losing all sense of time over here since we pretty much do the same things everyday and I am in this same area day in and day out. I would be getting a bit crazy except that we are so busy every day! It's wonderful really the amount of people we find to teach out here, and everyone is always really shocked but I think what this area needed all along was some sisters ;) The ward had a fundraising activity for this big youth conference they are having here in brisbane next year, kind of like EFY I think, and so they set up a tent at this sporting goods store and had a "Sausage sizzle". We went to help out because it was a good opportunity to serve the ward and also interact with heaps of nonmombers, so sister Tai and I get stuck on the grill cooking sausages. They don't have hot dogs here, they call them sausages and they are different looking and also they don't eat them inside hot dog buns they just put them on one slice of white bread and fold it over. It's so weird! Also they don't have normal sauces...no ketchup mustard and relish; it's tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, and sweet chili sauce. But it was a big hit and they made a lot of money for the youth. and we had a lot of fun selling them and cooking them with our bishop. 

Have I ever written and talked about the chocolate here?? well in case I haven't they have so much chocolate here! And it's all cadburry brand which is sooooo good. But they sell them in these huge blocks and they put the weirdest things in their chocolate. LIke pop rocks and jelly beans. There is a white chocolate bar that is flavored with L&P, which is a lemon flavored soda, so it's lemon and poprocks in the chocoalte and it tastes like lemon cake batter kind of with poprocks thrown in there. It's pretty good actually. I have to hold myself back from trying ever kind of chocolate i can get my hands on because there are so many different kinds I've never tried here and they are all so good! Except turkish delight, which was nasty. 

As far as missioanry work, things are looking good for this transfer. Sister walter and I found a new family that have so much potential it's amazing! They don't speak the best English but we took the mom on a church tour and you don't need language to feel the spirit so it was really good! The mom asked us when could she do the thing with the water? hahaha I about died of joy. So I'll keep you all posted on how that goes but things are looking up! and I'm excited to be here and be doing the Lord's work and be part of the big wave that is spreading over the world. 

Ofa Atu,

Sister Rasmussen