It's the Craziest Kind of Cold...You Gotta Love it Baby!

Hey Family!!

I love, love, love, love you guys so, so, so, so much!! I’ve been thinking about you guys, and I am so grateful to have a family like you guys! You truly are the support system I need to do the things in life! You guys are the best. I love each and every one of you!

Well this last week was a good/interesting one. This new area that I’m in is great, but is a little not convenient, I’ve never contacted so many people in my entire mission, and had so few investigators at the same time. I’ve never worked so hard in my entire mission, but seen such few outcomes at the same time. I’ve never been so tired on my mission, and continuing to feel that the hours of sleep I get at night don't even help! It's an interesting thing. My body is just getting tired and more tired, and I can't do anything about it. I haven't had one day where I came home at night just about ready to pass out on the bed. But the amazing thing through all of this, is that I just keep on going. I know it's not my power. Because if it were up to the carnal man inside me I'd slack off, sleep a little longer, work a little less hard! But because throughout my mission I’ve worked on sanctifying myself and allowing my spirit to overcome my body I’ve seen the miracle of energy enlarge and enrich my life. I couldn't do this without the Lord!! I love my Lord, I need Him each and every day, or I will fall, fall right on my face. I’ll tell you, I thought getting dumped by the girl I "loved" was hard, I thought 2 a days in football was hard, I thought studying for the exam was hard...........and after all as I’m on my mission and look back at all the events of my life, I see nothing but easy! haha, it's an interesting perspective that I’ve gained while here on my mission. I'd say it's easy now because I’ve gained the desire to work for the things I want, and I’ve seen something so hard, that nothing in life compares, I mean not even on the same playing Field, yes that is my mission! I’ve never seen so many hands instead of faces, I’ve never seen so many backs of the head then eyes, and so many excuses "I don't need" "I’m busy" "I’m in a hurry" "I’ll call you......1day to 1 year later(hasn't called yet)" "I’m a member (of another Christian church)" "OK, OK, OK" "thank you, thank you, thank you (Which I thought was a nice thing back in my home land, but it's a flat out rejection)"......The excuses number and vary, but I’ve probably heard all the ones in the book. These people always get so close to salvation but also so far away at the same time. I just know it is my duty as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to bring this gospel message to the world. Regardless if they accept or reject I will continue to do my duty. I love this work, and all the downfalls, all the trials and hardships have not outweighed the feeling you get when you see a soul, or son/daughter of God entering into a covenant with God to serve him till they die! That happiness is true and real, and is worth every hardship, and suffering for.... I love this work, it truly is ordained of God, and by the spirit it is brought to past. It's a great feeling to be a representative and servant of the Lord!

Well lately it's been just freezing. So cold I don't even know how to explain it....As simple as I can church morning I was wearing, 6 layers of clothes and a scarf and still the wind broke through every layer and froze my bones to pieces. Also when I try and write down people's numbers after a contact I literally can't feel my fingers or my hands! Trying to write down someone’s name and number is a task. It's the craziest kind of cold. It's just funny, you can't help but just laugh at how ridiculously cold it is, and how you can do nothing about it! It's what’s included in the mission, you gotta love it baby!

We have 2 investigators at the time that are looking really good for baptism. One's name is Sister Zhang, and the other is Sister Wei (Grace). They are both way good. Sister Zhang, was a "Christian" before. But she was the good kind of Christian. She didn't belong to a church, she just read the bible and believed it was the word of God. So when we introduced the Book of Mormon to her she couldn't wait to get her hands on it and read more of God's word. She didn't have the influence of a minister to keep her from learning the truth. The other is Sister Wei, she has no real religion. She was kind of floating along really not progressing as fast and much as hoped for. So we sat down and had a lesson with her talking about the importance of Reading, praying, and coming to church. She solidly re-committed to doing all 3, she came to church yesterday and said through sacrament meeting she had a question that she had in her heart answered. So we are happy for her, because of the great experience she had at church we hope that she will start to progress more by receiving personal spiritual experiences from personal study time! She is great though, She is retired and doing great! We have been finding a bunch of others, they are just slower to accept. But we are working closely with them and hope to find the prepared souls here in our area, I know there here, we just have to find them and help them start coming to church! The Lord is being merciful though and helping us out a lot. He always pulls through in showing us miracles after a long, hard, day of working in the field! I’ve never lost faith in Him, and will never. Because I know that through His almighty hand anything is possible.(we also found a man from Iraq, he also set a baptismal date, he stood us up the 3rd time meeting, but we think he still has a chance)

The other night we had a funny experience. We were just contacting and I saw a man so I contacted him, he said he was Christian. So I immediately pulled out the book of Mormon to show him. We discussed it a bit, and soon to find out we were standing right in front of a church. I showed him in the bible to prove the book of Mormon, and the book of Mormon to prove the bible. He said it's OK, I know your church (which means he's probably heard something not true, or bad about out church) Then I asked him is your priest inside, he said yes. I said can you get him to come here, I want to talk with him. He said they were in the middle of a class, but then he said you could go in. I then said no we can't, your priest will just reject us and make us leave. He said why? I said because every Christian church hates us! He said no we just think you’re false. I then said have you or your priest ever read the book of Mormon, he said no! Then I said there is no way you can call us false when you have never read the book, will you get your priest. Then he just lead us in there, so we were on the grounds of another church (which I don't even know if is OK in the first place) But he lead us into the room, and the priest gladly escorted us right out of there! He didn't say anything just had a stern look on his face and lead us to the entrance to leave. The member that said we don't reject anyone and anyone can come study was so embarrassed that His priest rejected us. I hope he learns a lesson from this, that no one is even willing to know if these things are true or not, they are just hard heartened by the precepts of men and the devil. But the funny part was, the other elders in our ward baptized a 60-70 year old who wears a bright blue cap at church and everything. As we entered the courtyard area I looked into the class room and saw a bright blue cap, I just looked in aw www, I was like elder is that grandpa Ge. Then we got in the room and it was. I waved and got no response, it had the feeling that he was caught red handed. Also he didn't show up to church the next day. So yeah through this ordeal, we found out that one of the members attends another church. So we were able to tell the other elders. This whole thing was probably set up by the Lord to help us protect one of the sons that may be getting trapped by the philosophies of men! It was a really interesting experience. They were not inviting at all, we walked in with smiles, and got nothing but grudges in return. It was a funny experience.

The rest of the week was just contacting, contacting, and more contacting. Also many exchanges...

Well family, when I get on later I’ll write about my day.

I know this church is true, I also know that God lives and His Son even Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of this World, I know this independent of any other person. I know this from my own experience, or feeling the mercy of the Atonement, and the cleansing power therein! I love this gospel with all my heart, the more I dig into it and understand it the simpler it gets. The more pieces come together that tells me every time there is no way this isn't the true church of Christ. There is something also really interesting, In the Book of Mormon it talks about Jesus Christ's church will be called by his name, and if it's not, it's not his church. We are the only church that bears the full name of Jesus Christ! I know this is true, and I love sharing it with everyone every day! I’m going to be sad when it comes to an end, but one thing I’ve learned is that time never stops. The only thing we can do is make the best use of the time we do have so when we look back we will have no regrets, and will know we took full advantage of the situation. I love my life, and love serving the Lord. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen

-Elder Rasmussen

PS. In English they asked me what I want to do after my mission for work. So I told them about the neurofeedback and they were all way stoked. They all were saying that all the kids here need that, and most people would want to do it. It's funny. But I was just like the gospel is better, you need to accept it first. (But for those that aren't willing to accept the gospel and allow it to change their lives) They all need it, and they were all excited about it. They were asking questions left and right about it. It was funny!

I love you guys!!! Keep up the hard work in all you do.