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

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