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