"How Great Shall Be Your Joy"

 Baptism of James!!

 Sis. Fesolai at the Temple

 Yogurtland after a very busy day!!

ALOHA!

Well I am just so happy! I had probably the best weekend of my entire life this weekend and I'm so excited to tell you all about it. 

It started off with a really hectic week actually, not bad hectic just really crazy. Wednesday after emailing we hung out in Brisbane city with the sisters and ate yummy food at the market, did some window shopping and travelled home. We had a tradeoff with our Sunshine coast sisters so I had to wave goodbye to my companion as she took off for Kawana and I stayed with one of the great sisters in North Pine. We then had an epic road trip Thursday night I drove up to Kawana, switched back, collected my companion and we carried on up to Maryborough. We spent the day there Friday and then drove 3 hours home that night. It was pouring rain all weekend! While in Maryborough the sister I was with and I got super lost wandering around in the rain. I forgot to pack my rain coat and we couldn't figure out where we were going. We ended up in the centre of town which was good because in front of all the shops there are awnings which kept us out of the rain, even though I was already soaked and it was super cold and windy. We stayed there in the centre of town talking to people the whole day long because of the rain all the other appointments we had called to cancel. I saw inside a shop an add for $10 ladies coats. They were kind of hideous but I bought one anyways so that was good. Then my feet were absolutely soaked through and my shoes were so wet I was getting blisters and I couldn't keep up with the people walking long enough for them to stop and talk to me, but I didn't let that stop the work of the Lord! So I went over to a bench, took my shoes off, hid them under it, and proceeded to walk barefoot around the streets of Maryborough talking to everyone I met about the gospel of Jesus Christ wearing a massive old lady coat. It was not my classiest moment as a missionary but it had to be done. I was glad to get in the car and return to North Pine after that day haha

Then Saturday came!! Sister Tama and I took the train/bus into the temple in the morning so that I could meet up with the Cass family from Dalby and also with Sister Fesolai so that we could do baptisms for the dead together. A few other branch members from Dalby were there as well, and one family from Toowoomba ward so it was happy reunions all around. I got to catch up with Sister Fesolai and also with the family and hear all about their wedding and when Chris was baptised in June. It made me so happy! They had done their family history research and were prepared with like 30 family names to bring to the temple. The girls were so excited and the spirit was so strong. Sister Fesolai said something about the family all looking different then before (new haircuts and stuff) and Sister Cass told us no it's because they are happier then they were before, because they have the priesthood in their home now :) It was just such a joyful thing sitting with all four of them in the house of the Lord serving others and giving them the opportunity to partake in the ordinances of salvation. I've never really been able to see the ripple affect of one baptism like I did in the temple on Saturday. Because Sister Cass decided to come back to church, we taught Nya and Chris, who got baptised, and then 30 other souls on the other side of the veil also received that ordinance. It was beautiful, and that's just the beginning for that family. They are truly amazing. After the baptisms we had to travel back home so that we could get things ready for the baptism of James that night! The whole service went so nicely and he was just beaming as he got out of the water and embraced the ward member that baptised him I could just see how full of joy he was. He then received the gift of the Holy Ghost at church yesterday and it came full circle. We are seeing miracles here!! We have another baptism on this Saturday and the elders have one as well, so it will be a double for the ward. It's so exciting! 3 baptisms just this month is pretty great. I really feel like I'm beginning to understand the scripture that says "how great shall be your joy" bringing many souls unto Christ. I don't even want to think about going home! And I asked president to keep me in this area for my last transfer, but obviously in the end I'll go where the Lord wants me to go. Hope everyone has a great week as well and good first week back at school. 

Much Love,

Sister Rasmussen

I Love to See the Temple!!

ALOHA,

So today was temple p-day, which I always love. I love coming down to the city, I love taking the train, I love walking along the river and up the stairs cut into the cliffs, I love taking the ferry and seeing all the buildings and the people, and I LOVE THE TEMPLE. It is truly the house of the Lord and there is a feeling inside that you cannot replicate anywhere else in the world. We have had a great week so far and it is only going to get even better! My poor companion and I hardly spend any time together because we are always on trade-offs with the sisters in our region but it is so fun to serve with all of them and hopefully bless them and help them when we can. It was raining all day on Saturday and I got to be on trade-offs with sister Tobiassen, who is one of the sisters that lives with me. She's basically my Australian twin as far as personality goes, it's a bit of a problem really because we tend to distract each other all the time. But we did have a great day wandering around in the rain absolutely soaked and teaching lessons in cars and all sorts of great things. My companion and I are going up the sunshine coast this week to Kawana waters and then on up to Maryborough and then back by Friday night, just in time for Saturday! We are definitely looking forward to the road trip and the chance to see the sisters up there. 

Then on Saturday we have a baptism scheduled for our investigator James which we are really excited about. It's crazy how the Lord has really blessed us for the time we have spent outside our own area, and maybe not giving it the attention I thought we needed to. We do as much as we can and Heavenly Father truly makes up the difference, and when we have the faith to sacrifice whatever we think we need to do for ourselves, and serve others, everything ends up working out on our end. We started off the month thinking we didn't have anyone to baptize, yet setting the goal that we would and putting into the Lord's hands, and then we went to work trying to serve our sisters and didn't focus so much upon our own area, and here we are! The Lord lead us to find James and he's just as golden as ever, hasn't had a single concern with anything we've taught him and he's all geared up and ready to go for Saturday. We have another one scheduled for the following Saturday as well, and the elders have two for that same day, so we may have 4 baptisms in the one ward this month, that is pretty unheard of here in North Pine, I think they had only 4 the entire year last year. The work is definitely hastening! I also will have the opportunity to attend the temple to do baptisms with the Cass family from Dalby on Saturday morning, so basically I think it's going to be the best day of my life. I'll let you know next Monday! :) Hope everyone is having as great of a life as I am, and if you're not try forgetting about yourself and focusing on other people, it will all work out! 

Love you!

Sister Rasmussen

 With SIster Tama on the Ferry.

Aloha!!

ALOHA!

Well this past week was great! My companion and I are just so busy! It is really so crazy how time flies when you are busy. We have honestly just stepped up our game in every area of missionary work and the miracles have been abundant as a result and time is also just speeding up. I've been a missionary for 16 months now. It's so crazy! I'm so so happy for my new companion, she is definitely not encouraging me to slow down at all as I reach the end here. Not that I'd be one to do that anyways, but she isn't even letting me cruise at the same speed I've been going we are just accelerating! It's so good though. We are especially trying to step up our game being the best STLs we can for the sisters in our region. It's been great to see as we sacrifice so much of our time, energy, and heart to bless the sisters that the Lord really makes up the difference and moves the work forward in our own area, almost without us even trying. We had a goal within our region to set baptismal dates and we were able to set two within our own area! It's pretty amazing. Both of them are with older divorced gentlemen. One of them that we just found my tracting into him and the other one met one of the YSA girls in our ward at the gym and she just casually invited him to come to church and gave him the address and he showed up last week for church, we met with him and set a date on our first visit, he came to church again, and we are meeting with him a couple times this week too. The Lord truly will place people in your path! So for those of you who think to yourself: "I don't know any non-members" try the random stranger at the gym, you never know who the Lord has prepared around you. So that is very exciting. We also are just working really hard to get all the young unmarried couples we are teaching to progress, but we are definitely seeing it happen little by little. We get to go to the temple next week Wednesday which I am looking forward to. And today we are going to play sand volleyball today at this sporting complex. Hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer, it's starting to warm up a bit here which is nice except that really means summer is almost here and that means my mission is ending soon....mixed feeling there. Love you all,

Sister Rasmussen

Ascension August

Iaorana!! 

Well family this has been a pretty eventful week. First off it is just so much fun at transfer time when you get to bring your new companion around to meet everyone you love and you get to plan and prepare for the transfer and set inspired goals to accomplish great things. Sister Tama is the best I just love her, so many new and great ideas have come into our flat and area and companionship. The beauty of a restart! 

This weekend was a weekend of facing FEARS! Everyone knows how I feel about hospitals....So Wednesday night the great Sister Tobiassen told us she thought she must have eaten something off because she had a  sore stomach. She didn't get much sleep that night and the next day she was curled up in a ball all day long with stomach pains, waiting for it to pass, the next night was even worse so by Friday morning she said enough is enough I need to see a doctor. The mission doctor was all booked up for the day so we ended up having to take her to the closest hospital emergency room. Well at first she was in there with Sister Tama while Sister Walter and I went to our first district meeting with our new District leader and his companion, then we went to meet them, and They said I had to go in and sit with her because neither Sister Tama or Sister Walter felt like they could understand anything that was going on because they don't have very much doctory English vocabulary. So next minute I spent allll dayyy lonnnng in the hospital with poor Sister Tobiassen. The emergency room is a horror house, straight up. There are screaming and moaning people everywhere. I saw people with bandages all over their heads like mummies and I saw people with blood all over there faces, people are wheezing and hacking up things left and right, crying screaming children are all over the place, all the crazy machines keep going off all the time. It was so SCARY! And so through all of this I am trying to help Sister Tobiassen get her mind off of all the pain she is in while the nurses run all these tests and scans on her. She ended up having appendicitis. So they admitted her into a ward upstairs and we spent the rest of the day there while they decided what kind of surgery she needed to get her appendix out and then President and Sister Henderson came along and talked with the doctors as well. So she had surgery that night and was in the hospital all day and night Saturday so we went over there again Saturday to be with her after Sister Henderson had to go and then she left the hospital and went to the mission home yesterday. So that was the gist of my weekend. Lots of time spent in hospitals, but hopefully I won't have to go into another hospital again for a very long time.

We are excited this month of August we are hoping to have a repeat of what happened in June so we are aiming for over 100 convert baptisms again. I know it can happen according to our faith. Sister Tama and I have a goal of having a baptism in August as well to contribute but we don't exactly know who yet, we know Heavenly father is preparing someone for us. It is so fun living with a Tahitian again! I am loving life and I hope this will continue and carry me out until October! 

Much love and aloha,

Sister Rasmussen