Changes!!

G'day everyone how's it going?

I am in the middle of my first transfer P-day! It's been a crazy past week let me tell you. Transfers make everyone crazy I think. My lovely companion sister Vaipulu is returning home to Tonga/NZ tomorrow and so last week was a struggle for me to keep her motivated to do anything. She was so great the whole transfer and not trunky at all but she did lose it a little bit this last week haha it was hard to feel like I was pulling all the weight around here, but I may have to get used to that a little because I found out this morning I am going to be training a new sister! scary! but actually I think it is most likely that I will get a sister who was waiting for a visa like I was so she will be already half-trained probably and that's not so bad. I'll find out who I will be training either tonight tomorrow or thursday because they are getting here in different groups, from 2 different MTC's and other random missions. But I hope and pray that whoever I get will be a solid missionary because I am overwhelmed enough as it is. Everyone told me they thought I would train but I was still pretty surprised. I finished training myself two days ago?!? But as always I will go and do and the Lord will provide a way for me to accomplish the things he requires of me. I'm excited a lot for the new transfer because I feel like my area and myself as a missionary could really use a fresh start and new perspective. My investigators need someone new I think, to help them bridge that gap to become really converted and start keeping commitments better. We took a bunch of great pictures when we went around to visit everyone before sister Vaipulu left but I don't have my camera with me today.... sorry! next week I will send heaps I promise. and a picture of my new comanion as well. This week was hard also because Satan really has been working just as hard as we have with our investigators and all of them have been strggling in one way or another. We got dropped by one family that we had set dates with :( and other drama and stuff has been going on that was hard to deal with, without my companion also being an emotional rollercoaster. So I was really looking forward to today and getting a fresh start. Things are looking up though! and Satan will continue to work hard so I will just work harder. The great thing is that in the end I already know who is going to win and the Lord won't let me down as long as I am obedient to him. 

Thanks for all of the wonderful emails! I love hearing from everyone and finding out what you are all up to! 

Love you all!

Ofa Atu

Sister Rasmussen

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Last Week of my First Aussie Transfer

Last Week of my first Aussie Transfer

G'day

Well this week was interesting. It's crazy how hyper-sensitive mission life makes you to the spirit. At the beginning of the week we didn't get our studying in like we should have and I could feel the difference it made in the rest of our week. Things just didn't go the way we had planned at all. But the amazing thing is that even though we didn't have the week we expected the Lord is still the director of this work and he still lead us to the places we needed to be and the people we needed to speak to. I remember before I left I would hear people talk about "lazy missionaries" or missionaries that were junk and when I got to Michigan I honestly couldn't even see how you could be lazy in this work, but now I realize that there's a difference between missionary lazy and normal people lazy. It's crazy how your perspective changes. But I'm going to try my best to never become any kind of lazy, even though I could feel this week the little things starting to creep up now that I'm getting the hang of how this all works. I just want to come home exhausted every night knowing there was nothing more I could have done for the Lord that day.

Sister Vaipulu and I are getting so overwhelmed in this area by all the people the Lord has placed in our path. It's insane and like I've said before it really scares me at times but I just need to learn to trust in the Lord. So some of the people we are teaching: The Fisher family; a single mom with 6 daughters! they are 19,17,14,13,10, and 6. we are also teaching the 19 and 17-year-olds boyfriends. They are Aboriginal and just the sweetest family, it will take some time and patience and a lot of work but I honestly know the Lord lead us to them so that we could baptize their family. Then we are teaching another single mom named Lisa and her daughter who is also 10 and her 7 yr old son. They are awesome and will be really great members as well.Then Another couple Michelle and Adrian and their, you guessed it 10 yr old son, and they have a new baby. Michelle is really cool and young and a baby nurse and the Memmott family have been helping us fellowship them really well. Then we have another couple named Rob and Nicole who are cool. They are both going through really rough times but they are super receptive to the message and I can already see their relationship with God growing. And then another couple named Suni and Renee was kind of a miracle find for us. So the very first night I was here we went outside our flat for something I can't remember and we were waiting for the cross walk sign to light up and Suni and Renee walked up to us. We started talking to them and found out they are pretty involved in their own church but they gave us their address and said we could stop by if we wanted to. So this whole transfer we have been riding by their house and we will stop and knock and they've never been home so we will leave a note on the porch saying that we stopped and hopefully we will see them sometime. So the other day we were in front of our flat again and Suni was coming out of McDonald's and when we talked to him he told us to come over Monday night! So we taught them and it was the best first lesson I've ever had so far on my mission. They are so ready for the gospel in their lives! So we will keep teaching them and get them to church and it should be all good there as well. Those are just the poepl we are teaching that have baptismal dates. We have 10 people commiteted to be baptized sometime in August. It's crazy! That is verrrry not typical for our mission, like we have more people with baptismal dates in just our area than most entire zones in the mission have in their zones. So that is why I feel overwhelmed sometimes. But The Lord won't give me anything I can't handle. It is stressful also knowing sister Vaip[ulu is leaving next week and I'll have a new companion on top of it all as well, but....with god nothing shall be impossible, so I got this. 

On Saturday we had a 4th of July BBQ at the Memmots house which was wonderful! We had burgers and hot dogs, which are not quite the same here but close. And all the typical BBQ things. But it got dark at like 530 and was "cold" because it's winter so that was weird. It actually wasn't cold at all it was like probably in the 70's but they have a different idea of what cold is in this country. I  made the sisters I live with sing the tar spangled banner with me on the 4th too. I hope everyone set off tons of fireworks for me!! You know how much I love the 4th of July! I miss Summertime as well and just the whole atmosphere of July, becuase here it is winter but not Christmas so everyone is all grumpy and wintery without having any Christmas cheer. It's trippin me out. So live it up in the summer sunshine please! 

Love you all!!

Sister Rasmussen

Things in Aussie are sweet-aazzzzz...

Things in Aussie are sweet-aazzzzz......

G'day everyone!

Things here have continued being awesome. We had a super busy week and can't believe the way the Lord has blessed us in the work here. We have a number of investigators that are now working towards baptisms, and it's going to take a lot of working through things but I have faith that every one of these people can make it through and will get baptized. A ton of people here in Australia smoke, way more than in the states I've noticed and so that is something we have to help people with a lot and also heaps of people live together and never get married. But even though these are pretty big changes to make in their lives if we can help them be truly converted to the gospel I know they can overcome anything. It will just take some really hard work and perseverance and patience on my part. Which I can do too with the Lord's help. 

We saw the worldwide broadcast  Work of Salvation and it was so awesome!! I hope you all got to see it and if you didn't go watch it, it's on the church websites. Everything the apostles said is so true! Missionaries are not here to do missionary work alone and get the wards help when we need it, we are here to help the ward with their missionary work when they need it. I have seen first hand how much members effect the successfulness of missionary work. These people are your friends they don't think you are weird (or they do and they are ok with it haha) so it really shouldn't be too hard to invite them to learn about the thing that you value most in your life (or you should) If the gospel makes you happy it will make them happy, so just tell them that. One thing that one of the men who was a recent convert in the broadcast said really made me think about how member missionary work should be he said that "it felt good to be wanted". We do want our friends to be a part of our congregations, so we should just tell them that. How hard is it to tell them "I would love it if you joined my church" Maybe this is just missionary me speaking but I don't think that would be a weird thing to say to a close friend. Also the work is so much easier when the ward members step up to fellowship the people that the missionaries bring in. We have two families in our ward that have helped SO MUCH in fellowshipping our investigators and it has made all the difference. Just let the missionaries know you are willing to have investigators over for FHE. Or better yet go to lessons with them and then invite the investigators yourself. Anyways just things to think about.Missionary work is the best and you'll only be blessed even more if you sacrifice a bit of your time to it every week. 

This morning we played Lazer Tag with our zone for P-day. Naturally I dominated. Our new Mission President starts his first day today! I hope we get to meet him soon and that he enjoyed his 15 hour flight here yesterday. President and sister Langleland leave today as well. All the missionaries I serve with are super sad to see them go. I am too but I'm not as close to them since I've barely served with them at all. I'm really excited for the new mission president and the changes that will and are happening to missionary work here and all over the world. It sounds like we will be using the Internet a lot more which will be interesting. Rumors are flying around everywhere as usual about us getting iPads by the end of the year, which actually would be awesome! We use Mormon messages a lot when we teach and having iPads would help with that. Some of the Mormon messages are really great. Check out the one called Mountains to Climb. (mom it will make you cry) 

I only have two weeks left in this transfer!!  Crazy! Sister Vaipulu is gappin it out of here after this transfer haha Australia slang. Anyways I'll be getting a new companion but since we just opened this area this transfer I don't think they will transfer me out of it so I'll be here for a while yet. Which is awesome because good things are happening here! Hope yous all have a good week.

Ofa Atu

Sister Rasmussen

"This Week was Awesome..."

Hey everyone! 

So this last week was pretty awesome. Sister Vaipulu and I are so busy everyday and we are teaching a lot of really really awesome people. We were planning for the week and writing out everyone we are teaching and different missionary things on a big whiteboard I bought and we just got so overwhelmed by the amount of people Heavenly Father is trusting us with right now. It's a lot of pressure!! It freaks me out sometimes because this work is so important and what we have to show these people will literally change the rest of their lives even if they don't realize it yet. That's just a lot of responsibility and for whatever reason Heavenly Father must trust us a lot because we have heaps of people to teach right now and they are all really solid. Everyday we are just going from appointment to appointment to appointment. It's crazy! I love it, but sometimes I feel super inadequate for the job. Like how can I possibly help all these people? and know the right things to say to them? but then I just have to remember that the good thing about this work is that it's not mine, but it's the Lord's work and he is directing it and helping me. He wouldn't set us up for failure and he wouldn't lead all of these wonderful people into our path if we weren't going to be able to help them. So we just have to trust him and let him guide us. It's hard but it's so good and I really can see how the Lord has totally been directing the work for us, even when we think we are in control, we aren't. 

This week was way busy even though I just wrote on Wednesday when we went to the temple so much other stuff has happened! Over the weekend we got to go into the city again for BYU-Hawaii's Choir concert performance at City Hall. We got to help be the ushers for the performance. It was so much fun!! So many of my friends were there! It was so good to see all of them and catch up a little bit. It was really fun taking the train into the city again as well because the Rugby League game was that night so the train station was super full of Wallaby fans and England Lion fans and the square in the center of the city where City Hall is was packed full of people and fans walking everywhere. Brisbane is such a beautiful city! and taking the train is so much fun! We felt like classy people walking through town in our dresses to the concert at night it was awesome. It was definitely one of the most fun nights of my mission so far. Then Sunday I saw a real life Koala! It was just a cute little guy sitting on the ground and then he ran over to a tree and climbed up! It made my life! I want to hug one so bad! Then later that day we kept seeing giant spiders everywhere. We saw one in front of this house that freaked me out so bad! The web was giant and sister vaipulu threw a stick at it and it was so thick and strong that it hed the stick no problem and didn't break at all. I almost cried. Then at the next house there was another one, slightly less big, but I was so scared to go to the door past it and we were standing in the yard staring at it when a stupid bird came flying out of the tree and scared us so bad we both screamed bloody murder and ran out of the yard hahaha so then we decided to go to a different street after that. 

This next week should be really awesome as well and I can't believe I'm already more than half way done with my first transfer here in Aussie. We get the new mission president after this week, so I'm pretty excited for that. Also I am 97% sure I'm staying in this area so just write to  my flat. I haven't gotten any mail since I've been in Australia *hint hint* *wink wink*. 

Love you all! 

Sister Rasmussen

 Little Parrots everywhere!

 City Hall/Brisbane

BYU-H Friend

Brisbane

Sister Miller

Sister Holly Memmott (from Las Vegas)

Life Down Under

G'day!  How are yous going?

Hahaha thought I'd just through some weird Aussie slang in for everyone today. They say yous here instead of y'all or you guys and say how're you going instead of how're you doing. It's nuts. I want to lose my accent but also people love to listen to me talk because of my accent so I also want to keep it because it get's peoples attention. 

Ok first off I am a dummy and gave you the wrong address of my flat. it's 1486 Anzac rd. Kallangur, QLD, Australia So Sorry for that! also Transfers end mid July and I don't know if I'll be staying or going so after June is over just send me mail to the PO box in case I move. I don't know how long it takes for mail to reach me out here from the US of A but I hope not too long. I love hearing from everyone! Especially now that I am no longer in America. 

Things here are going mucho better in some ways. My companion and I got our area all organized and set out to work hard to find some solid people to teach and this week we saw so many miracles with that. The Lord has seriously lead us straight to those people he has prepared. A lot of them have some major challenges to overcome before they can be baptized but they are so receptive and ready to hear the message and change their lives. One thing that I love is that we are working with several families, and I love that we can work with the entire family to bring them all closer to Christ together. Michelle will love that I am teaching so many families with 10 year old girls! I have four 10 year old girl investigators right now and they are all so awesome! I would say the most solid investigators we are teaching right now are 10 year old girls. They are just so excited about church, and praying, and learning more about God that they are really being examples to their whole families and leading their families down the right path. I know that Heavenly Father placed those special little girls into their families because he knew they would be able to help bring their families the gospel. I so wish Michelle could just come out here and help me with teaching them and being all of their friend! 

Another awesome miracle that has happened this week is the ward we are working with. When we got to the area the sisters I work with told us the ward isn't that good, not willing to help, and not into missionary work. The missionaries have been uninvited to ward council and just all these bad things. So sister Vaipulu and I decided that we would find out that for ourselves and we would try not to go into it with any preconcieved idea of the ward, but just work really hard and show a lot of initiative to try to change the wards perception of missionary work by showing them that we are here to help and work hard. So we have really tried hard to get the ward involved and build relationships with the ward members. We decided if the bishop wouldn't let us come to ward coucil we would just bring ward council to them. And it's crazy how well the ward has responded! Everyone here was I think just waiting to get some missionaries who would take the initiative and get things going. We have had members coming out with us to all our lessons and been to relief society activity and taught a young womens activity about missionary work already as well as a lot of other things like that. It has been awesome. I can tell that the work here is going to start progressing so much because the ward is getting excited about it. 

We went to the temple today (Wednesday) and so P-day was moved to today which is why I didn't write on Monday, and because of transfers and mid transfers I'm not sure my P-day will always be Monday the rest of this transfer but it should be. The temple here is really small but BEAUTIFUL and we got to take the train into the city which was really cool. Brisbane is a beautiful city and I really hope I get to serve in the middle of the city sometime. I will send a bunch of pictures. Anyways things down under are great and I hope things at home are too! 

Much love,

Sister Rasmussen

First P-Day in Australia!!!

Malo'lele Everyone!

So this is my first P-day in Australia, crazy! It's also my two month mark of my mission, double crazy! It has been one of the most overwhelming weeks of my life easily. We got to the mission home Monday afternoon and said our goodbyes :( I miss sister Smith and Nuttall and all the people in Michigan heaps! Then we got to the Lansing airport at 130 and thus begins the longest traveling experience of my life. It was like being in the twilight zone or something. It was an hour flight to Detroit, 3 hours in the airport, 5 hr flight to LA, 2 hr in the airport, 15 hr flight to Sydney, 3 hr in the airport, and then the last 1hr flight to Brisbane. All told like 23 hr in an airplane and 30 something traveling. Also we just skipped right over Tuesday and landed in Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon. In LA we found another group of missionaries headed to our mission. 3 elders and one sister were coming from the MTC who got their visas on time and we also met up with sister Merrill from my MTC district again, so that was super fun! but sister Cater from the MTC still didn't get her visa so I hope she gets it by next transfer. The missionaries coming from the MTC said that they were the only ones out of like 12 missionaries that got their visas so I know it's still a huge problem for all missions, so keep that in your prayers still please.  Than we went to the mission office and did paperwork, and went to the mission home for dinner. President and sister Langlenad are very nice. They are sad to be leaving the mission and you can tell all the missionaries here love them so much, i'm sad I won't get to know them better but I'm excited to meet the new president as well. We met our companions that same night and went out to our area. My companion is sister Vaipulu from Tonga, she is super sweet and a good missionary. That night was the scariest driving experience of my life! I thought because they drive on the other side of the road here that I wouldn't drive in my mission or at least not for a while but I was wrong. Apparently in this mission they have a problem with having a lot of missionaries come out that don't have drivers licenses, so anyone who has one has to drive right away. After all that flying and travelling we were soooo dead tired and jet lagged and then sister Merrill had to drive us home! on the wrong side of the road, in a foreign country, like 45 minutes. It was so scary I thought I was going to die and we were all screaming the whole time. And since then I've had to drive because my comp can't and it's really trippy, I think I'm getting better at it though. We don't drive often because we share the car with the other sisters we live with. They are sister Mafi from Sydney but she's also Tongan, and sister Tai from New Zealand, but also Tongan. So I'm living with three Tongans and trying to learn to speak Tongan. Sister Vaipulu and I are opening a new area, splitting the other sisters old area. We live in Kallangur, but our ward covers several suburbs north of Brisbane. It's the North Brisbane stake, North Pine ward. It's actually really similar to the ward I was serving in in MI, but not as many members. It's sort of slow opening a new area because we don't know anyone or where anything is but we are getting the hang of it as we go. It makes me crazy when things aren't organized and so that's what I'm trying to do this week so that we can be more efficient. We weren't left with much to go off of from the sisters, and it was not really organized well. 

It's weird that I can tell that I am the one with the accent around here and whenever I strat talking people always get this funny face and then ask me where I'm from. Then when they hear I'm from Vegas they think that is crazy. People have a weird perception of vegas, like they don't realize it's a normal city with normal people outside of the strip area. the members all just ask or assume I'm from Utah or Idaho....false. I'm trying to pick up a little bit of the accent at a time. Like everyone are sistahs and elduhs, instead of sisters and elders. they just don't have R's here at all. The weather is just like Hawaii in the winter, just rainy but not cold really. Definitely not cold compared to the MIchigan "summer" I came from. They have the best candy and chocolate here! I haven't been to a real grocery store yet but I am excited. Also everyone here is obsessed with KFC...yuck. I went to Dominoes and it was so different, their large pizza was like our tiny size so that was a dissapointment. Cadburry chocolate bars are everywhere in all the best flavors I'll have to send some home sometime. 

One crazy thing that I didn't expect is how much I would miss Michigan. I thought it would be hard to really put my heart and soul into serving there and that I would love it here right away but it's been the opposite. I loved it there from day number one and I miss it so much! But I know as I serve here I'll love it just as much as long as I work my hardest at it. It's just crazy how different it is here and not America it is. I wasn't expecting that at all, but I'm only really homesick if we are not out working, like in the morning and stuff. Once we go out and start working the gospel is the same everywhere and spreading it makes me so happy. 

Also it was so random the first dinner we had at a ward members house ended up being an American family and the son answered the door and was wearing a Las Vegas tshirt so I asked him why he had that and he answered me in an American accent that it was because he was from there! WHAT?! So that was cool, they are the Memmots (possible related to the Memmots in Grand Teton Ward?) and they lived in Alexander ward/meadowns 8th ward until 4 years ago. So that was really fun talking to them about back home and so random that I would meet them right after I got here. 

Well I've got to head out and go explore the grocery stores of Australia now, but I love you all and thank you so much for the emails and letters. My address of our flat (Australian for apartment) is:

1468 Anzac Rd Apt. 4

Kallangur, QLD 

Australia

You can write me to that address with 3 stamps on a letter and I will get it, but once it gets to be July send it to the PO box because close to transfers I don't know if I'll be moving around or not. 

Much Love,

Sister Rasmussen

Flying away on a jet plane....

 Sister Nuttal's birthday!!

Goal:  hug a Koala.  Complete!

 Sis. Smith with Cotton Snow

G'day everyone!

I got my VISA!!! So I am flying away for a verrrrrrry long trip to Australia later this afternoon. Lansing to Detroit to LA to Sydney to Brisbane. It's going to be CRAY. I am very conflicted about it. So many wonderful things have been happening here in MIchigan and so of course right as we start seeing all these miracles and our hard work starts paying off I get sent away. But the work will carry on without me and the sisters here will keep me updated I hope. Sister Smith and sister Nuttall are staying in our area for this transfer, transfer calls were Friday and the told us we were all staying together and we were so excited! And then Saturday we had a misssed call from President when we got out of a lesson and we all thought it was about getting a new car.....sike! Right as sister Smith went to call him back I realized what he was actually probably calling about and ever since them I have been going nutso like gollum from Lord of the rings. Also sister Smith and I talk like Gollum all the time so i literallly have been like gollum. " We hates the cold we is so excited to be getting to Australia, precious! Nooo, we loves it here in Michigan. We hates it here, precious! Australia will be scary, precious, we shoulds stay in Michigan forreever! Gollum" I truly sympathize with Gollum now.

But in all reality I am excited to get to Australia and start that adventure. I twill be so fun to be in a new country and get to experience a different culture. Plus everyone needs to hear the gospel and it is the same no matter where you are. haha which reminds me, sister McCord has been telling us some very interesting things about Australia. Apparently she heard that that is where Hitler now lives and that I should watch out for him. That sounds pretty legit so I told her I would be on the look out for Hitler. She has also been giving us a lot of dating and men advice lately, which has been extremely helpful. Apparently some men at the senior center dance nights can get a little frisky, so she's been helping us know the true nature of men haha.

I've been learning to speak Swahili! Our investigator named Lakita and her family from Tanzania are so amazing! They all came to church yesterday and loved it and Lakita will probably be baptized later this month., I am sad to be missing that. When she came to church there were women all over the place in our ward that she was already friends with and didn't know they were members. We really wanted her to meet this lady in the ward we have been working with who is a little inactive who is from Africa too, Sudan, and so we got her to come to church as well and then they ended up already being friends before! It was so wonderful! the lord has seriously been preparing this amazing family for us to find. So Swahili for thank you very much = Asanti san. Sound familiar? Rafiki speaks Swahili!! Asanti San a Squash Banana.... I love lion king even more now. We also had a great lesson this week with our genius professor and we brought along this man in our ward president Robison who is also a math and economics prof at MSU. Pres Robison is also a former MIssion pres in Spain and area seventy. So that was grand. We just like sat back and let the two of them discuss the gospel and it was really cool. I think it will take longer for him to be baptized but I know that he will and that the lord will provide a way for him to do it. His wife is a little iffy on religion so he doesn't want to cause tensions with her, but I know the lord will soften her heart, and hopefully her and their kids can be baptized too. Also this week we were doorknocking at these apartments and this boy was painting and renovating the inside of one. We didn't knock on the door because we knew he didn't live there and he was busy working, but he came out and asked us if we needed any help so we talked to him for a while and then he asked if he could come t ochurch with us haha the best question ever! and the best part is that he came! because most of the time people say that but don't actually do it. So we went to the singles ward with him and it was testimony meeting. AWKWARD. their ward is super tiny right now because it's summer so there aren't many students here, and it's everything stereotypically bad about singles wards rolled into this one and magnified I feel like. The silences stretched on forever! We were worried Troy hated it but after we asked if he had questions and he said: "well I think I should probably read the Book of Mormon" WHAT!?!? haha I've never heard better words. So we gave him one and the sisters are meeting with him again this week. They will probably have to pass him off to the MSU ward elders but either way it was awesome.

There were so many other great things about this week! We just had so many amazing lessons! We taught one lady from Guatemala who speaks no english and we  had to rely on a member to translate everything. But the great thing is that even with the language barrier you can feel the spirit so strong!

The weather is crazy here. It was in the 40's on memorial day. shoot me. It's june now and I'm freezing every morning. But it is so beautiful! Spring  time is just the best! There are so many animals here and there are these cotton plants that send all these little fuzzies into the air that come down like snow. It looks like it is blizzarding but with fuzzies! that doesn't help my allergies at all but it's so pretty!

I can't wait to write you from Australia next! It will be crazy ut I'm ready and I know it can't be too hard because I've got the Lord behind me and this work 100%. I'm going to miss sister Smith and NUttall a lot, but I will see them after our missions I'm sure. Sister Smith and I have made some pretty crazy after mish plans haha she's the best.

Love you all!

Much ALoha,

Sister Rasmussen