Helllloooooooooooooo from Song Shan!!!!!

All I have to say is what a week. I absolutely love song shan. It truly is the promised land. Last Monday just taking a taxi into the song shan area memory after memory started coming back to my mind. I just started getting more and more pumped to do work!!!

Monday night the first thing we did was go with members to visit Wu Guan Chen mom's store and eat some noodles there. But we didn't have bikes yet. Also it was literally pouring rain and way windy. So we walked with umbrellas for a long time, all of our pants were soaking wet. But we eventually arrived and I see this lady with a white umbrella running down the road. Soon to find out was his mom. She was so excited to see me, as was I to see her. She is a very, very cute mom, I love her so much. But the part that got to my heart the most is something happened and Liang JM a member just jokingly said then why don't you get baptized. Wu Momma then proceeded to say, I was just waiting for Elder Rasmussen to come back to be baptized. When I heard that I couldn't feel but to cry and just be so excited for her. Guan Chen is on a mission for a week just do get some experience in so he doesn't know that his mom said this. It is amazing, before when I was in Song Shan she was completely against the church, and refused anything to do with it. Wouldn't even come to church when I left Song Shan to hear me speak. But now she has gone to church 5 weeks in a row and reading and praying. It has been an amazing change to see. I can personally see a huge change in her demeanor. She has grown and is happier now. Best thing about her situation last night we went to a fireside. At that fireside her son Wu Guan Chen gave a talk in front of everyone about the restored gospel. He shared a very, very strong testimony about his conversion, shared his love for Elder Daniels and I, and for his mom. His mom felt really good, she was astonished how much he has changed from just 1 week of doing missionary work. He is a stud, and mainly because of his willingness to change and the Atonement of Jesus Christ changing him his mom now has the chance to investigate the church. On the way home from the fireside I was talking with WU momma the whole time. I was teaching her about how to better study the Scriptures and pray. Then I started to talk to her about baptism. Then I asked her, if you know these things are true would you be baptized. She said yes, of course. Then I asked her if on 10/10/10 she would be prepared to be baptized, she said she could. She was so cute, after she set her baptismal date she was like, OK now how do I prepare. What do I have to start doing? I told her on Wed, we would meet with her and help her fully understand. It was a really cool thing to see 8 months ago her son accepting baptizing, being able to baptize him and to confirm him a member, then to see his mom set a baptismal date. It has been an amazing cycle that I have been able to be a part of. I know this is one main reason I've come back to Song Shan.

This week has been full of miracle after miracle. We were able through the power of the Lord go from no investigators to finding 15 New Investigators and setting 6 baptismal dates. IT's been fun being senior companion. It helps to have a sweet junior companion who likes to contact and find also. He is a stud, and it's been a fun week working with him and serving the Lord.

Another cool story, there is a Sister Huang (Bella) she was an investigator we were working with when I was here last time, but she wasn't really progressing at all. Her life was just a ball of busy, and no purpose to it. No time with the kids, just running around all the time, no time to sit down and think about life. Well back then she was not prepared and not willing. The last time we met with her we let our hearts out to her, we were crying the members that were there with us were crying, but she was unaffected. It was sad because I knew she was making the wrong choice. She is a way cool mom of 2 twin 9 year old kids. Well right when I got into Song Shan I had the thought to call her, so I did. She answered and was way surprised to hear my voice and set up for this last Saturday. We met with her and had 2 brilliant members come and help with the lesson. IT was cool, the Members came 20 minutes early so we could discuss the lesson. We read over Preach my Gospel together, and I had them share some experiences in their life, and their thoughts about the purpose of life. That little 20 minute get together in and of itself was a spiritual opportunity for us missionaries and those two members to grow, it was great. But even better was now we the missionaries were prepared as well as the members to teach this lesson. Bella came and we sat down. The lesson went just ask planned, I asked the members to teach what we had practiced right before. The spirit could have been slice right out of the air. It was one of the most prepared and spiritual lessons I've ever been involved with. My companion and I taught with perfect unity, and bore testimony of the things the other had been teaching. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. She then told us of the cool experience involved with us meeting her again. She never uses the phone I called anymore, and if she does it's always on really low so she hardly ever answers it. But the day that I called her she had the phone right on her lap so she answered it, also when I called she was thinking about wanting to be baptized this year. This is what I call being set up by God. It was amazing when she told us that experience, the spirit testified to each and every one of us that this is what she needed to be doing. So we set a 10/10/10 baptismal date with her. This is another example of change. She was different than before, much different. She was calmer, and listened really intently to the lesson. She had been prepared for the 3 months that I was gone from here.

Those are just a couple of the many, many miracles we saw.

Even though this week was a great one, it was one of the hardest weeks of my mission. Full of getting stood up and getting rejected. Many days of this week I spent in frustration because of no one willing to meet. A full day of contacting and no one willing. It's hard. I felt like just giving up a couple times. But through prayer and a sincere plead for the help of the Lord I was able to overcome the temptations of Satan to let up my efforts. 2 days went by and nothing was moving, everyone that was set up stood us up and everyone on the street was rejecting us. We had gone home quickly to get more tracts to go out and contact for the last hour when we were supposed to be teaching a lesson but because He too stood us up we went outside and contacted. We got home, tire, exhausted, and sick of people rejecting. We knelt down together in prayer, pleaded with the Lord if there be anyone that needs this gospel to let up run into them. We went out with fire for the last hour of the night, talking to everyone. The 3rd Man I talked to name was James. He was Buddhist but he said he would sit down with me. So we went over to the benches sat down and started talking. We ended up saying a prayer, the first one in Chinese, and because his English was pretty good he wanted to hear one in English also. I said both, after the English prayer he just paused for a second then opening his eyes he looked at me and said wait where is your church. He felt the spirit of prayer. He then committed to come to church with us. Then I kept talking to everyone, I ran into a man named Tank (yes a Tank he was). He had been Buddhist for 5 years. He liked some of the stories in the Buddhist scriptures. So I shared the Restoration and talked about the power of the Book of Mormon. I told his the perfectness of the Book of Mormon and that he would love it. He asked me if He could have one, I said yes and we will meet with him again this Friday. Then The 8 o'clock guy calls us Brother Liu and says sorry my work went late but I’m here now. So we went and taught him, he set a baptismal date to come unto Christ. So the two days of hardship, faith building, trust, and frustration ended in 3 lessons and a baptismal date. It was an amazing answer to a sincere prayer by two humble servants of the Lord. I know prayer is true, and that God listens.

It has been an amazing week on my mission, and a week I’ll never forget. Things are going great, and the Lord is blessing us beyond measure. He truly is a merciful God, a loving God, and all knowing God. I love me Heavenly Father and His Son, my Savior Jesus Christ. I love this work and I’m so grateful to be here to serve them with all My Heart, might, mind, and strength. I know that I’m doing the work of the Lord, I know I’m a servant of his and of everyone I come across. I love serving as the hands of the Lord, and my missionary service for the Lord will never end.

Thank you family, I love you guys so much. You guys are the best. Hope your all doing good.

Love your Brother and Son

Elder Rasmussen