"Forget Yourself and Get to Work!"

Baptism!!!!! Yeah Baby.... That is so awesome! That makes me so happy to hear someone is entering into the covenant of baptism and getting prepared to return to live with God forever. It's going to be cool, if she gets to be sealed in the temple in a year or so...That is awesome though. See what happens when we just open our mouth and talk about the gospel. Everyone needs this gospel doesn't matter who they are, where they are, or what they look like they all need it. And the only way for them to get it in a lot of the cases is if we members are willing to sometimes get out of our comfort zone and open our mouths to share the gospel and testimony we have been blessed with. It is a sin to sit back and ride the train of life, we need to get off and share with the people on the outside along the way. Thank you dad for opening your mouth and sharing the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ with her, and thank you mom for preparing me for the opportunity to share the gospel here in Taiwan. This is such a perfect church I love it.

Well this was another crazy week. I haven't had a normal day in 2 weeks. Because of all the missionaries going home we had a lot of ward get togethers. We have a missionary in the hospital so we were switching back and forth staying with him. I was on exchanges for 2 days straight in which I wasn't even with my companion. It was an interesting week. But still a good week, I can't wait for things to settle down so we can get back into the groove of missionary work. I’ve literally never been so tired in my entire life. Especially this weekend!!! Friday night we got transfers (I’m staying by the way with my companion, and Rob is leaving) so we went to bed a little later than usual, then we woke up Saturday morning at 3 in the morning to head to Taipei City. I have a bunch of pictures I need to send you guys but I forgot my camera connector because I didn't sleep at our apartment.

But some highlights of the week!!!

Friday Night-
I was on exchanges with the zone leader Elder Weinberger. Because one of the sister missionaries Sister Mac Isaac is about to die she wanted to go to Dan Jonesing. I haven’t done it yet so I gladly accepted and was very excited for this experience. So it was me, Elder WeinBerger, her, and her companion Sister Zhang, and they had a new member girl of 18 years old that came with us also. We went to a very, very busy intersection. We'd wait for the red light to come then all the scooters anywhere from 10-40 scooters would line up waiting for the red light. You walk out into the middle of the road and start preaching. As you preach with all your soul the other missionaries go through the scooters and give out our churches tracts. It was very, very fun. I noticed a lot that as I was yelling so everyone could hear me. A lot of people really were listening and wanted to know what this crazy American was doing in the middle of the road. I think because they wanted to know what this crazy American was doing yelling talking about church, they'll go home and be like what was going on and want to read the pamphlet we were handing out. It was fun to stand in front of those many souls and bear testimony of Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Plan of Salvation. I know what I was preaching to them was true, because as I did the spirit filled me with the light of Christ and I felt the truthfulness of the things I was yelling (yelling with reverence :D) It was a great experience and we had a really fun time doing it together. I’ll have to send some pictures next time. But the sister’s new member Rui Yin, she also did it. She was amazing it was awesome. She's only been baptized for 3 weeks and she got in front of those people and testified. After she was crying. We asked her why and she said I don't know. I think it was a mixture of fear and happiness and the spirit. It was a really cool experience to be a part of. And when you follow Dan Jones in preaching like that it gives you even more fire to share the gospel and help people come unto Jesus Christ, it was a very successful activity. We saw some miracles. Found a family, a young man, and another man that are all willing to hear the gospel and learn. So it was great!!!

Saturday morning
Started at 3 in the morning. We showered and needed to be at the church by 4 to catch a taxi to the train station to catch a 4:30 train to Taipei. Got into Taipei around 6:00 then we ate breakfast together, then prepared for the endowment session. This was a special occasion usually missionaries can't go, but we have a couple in our ward they are getting prepared to get married in August so they were going to get their endowments out. They invited us Elders and the Sister to escort them for their endowments. It was a great experience to see the love they shared for each other in preparation of getting married. It was great. They are so cute together. We also were able to do some washings and anointing which was also great. I did it all in Chinese. Man it was hard. The veil I ended up having to use English because the Chinese was too hard. It was a great experience though to hear the endowment session in Chinese. I understood most all of it and had a great spiritual experience. Then we went out and ate at a place called California grill. Yes, we got there and there was a bunch of 20+ year old California girls visiting Taiwan there eating. I say this because I want to bring up how glad I’m not of the world only in the world. Just to hear the gossip was annoying at the least. It helped me understand what the world really is turning into. I’m so grateful for the gospel and the principles we are taught to be honest, love one another, and serve others. I love this gospel, and the man I’m becoming because of it. Thank you mom and dad for blessing me and teaching me my whole life. Oh by the way, the wings I ate there were delicious.

Well family, I have a bunch of pictures to send you guys next week. The Lord is really blessing my Chinese. I’ve been getting a lot of comments on how I pronounce and people can understand me clearly when I talk. So I can see that the Lord is allowing me to reach my desire of becoming fluent in all aspects of the language. I will never stop learning this language. I love it. I love the people also. They are so amazing. Something about them, they just have a special spirit. To see them so happy and then to see them so sad you just want to take them in your arms, hug them, tell them everything is OK, and then teach them the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My calling is so great, I love it here, serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I read something this week about president Hinckley, when he was on his mission he hit a part when he was struggling a bit, then he wrote home to his dad saying, no one is accepting I’m just wasting my time. I want to come home. His dad sent him a letter of one line. Only one line saying Son, "Forget yourself and get to work". This has blessed me and I’ve adopted that quote to my missionary work and my serving the Lord. I have got a lot to learn, but I’m prepared to learn it and hope the Lord will bless me with the opportunity to learn it. I love my life.

Oh and by the way you know the 15 year old kid Joe that I tracted into a couple weeks back. I called him to see if he was reading the book of Mormon that we had given him, and he was in the middle of reading it when I called him. He wants to know God, and there is no better way than through the words of the Book of Mormon. That made me so happy, he really is my man. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have run into him. Now we just need him to build his faith and prayer for a miracle that his parents will let him get baptized into the church.

Today I got a call from Sister Mac Isaac who was in the mission office and she said I have a surprise for you! Then a white man (or is it?) says hello how are you. I was like who is this. He was like Guan Chen. I couldn't believe it, his English is getting better. He has been really, really trying and studying really hard to learn English. I was so happy to be able to talk with him. He told me that yesterday he received the Melchizedek Priesthood and now he is the first counselor in the young men's. He is growing up so much in the church. It's so cool to see this progression. Seeing him from before baptism and doing missionary work with us every day, to having the Melchizedek priesthood and being the young men's presidency. I love that kid I will live with him in the celestial kingdom someday. He is a stud. He told me that he and Sister Liang are going to come to xin Zhu to eat with us next week. That will be really cool. I love them so much. I’m so proud of that kid and the steps he's been making to make a difference in the Church hear in Taiwan. My desire is to see him get is endowment out and then get married in the temple. I love him so much.

So yeah this is my week. I love you guys so much, thank you guys so much for all the support you've blessed me with, I look forward every week to seeing your emails and it gives me such a boost.

I really do love you Guys!!!!

-Elder Rasmussen

PS-I’m trying to cut down on candy, I’m getting a little chubby I think. So after this last package please no more candy. Like crackers and stuff are perfect. Ha, ha, thanks. Plus I break out every time I get a package because I eat candy ha, ha it's funny. Thank you mom, I love you.

The camera charger works great also thank you.

I hope that Josh is having a great time over there. The hardest things are when you learn the most worthwhile things so I hope he is having a hard time but a wonderful lovely time serving.

Love you guys.