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