MOM.......HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!
I loved talking to you all yesterday, thank you all for being so amazing. I just love you all so very much!
Well for the week, it was a crazy tired week. I had a bunch of times that I thought I just couldn't move anymore, my body just wasn't fit for the job. But every time this happened the Lord picked me up and allowed me to move forward it was an amazing feeling. I don't know how I made it through the week but I did. It was one of the greatest weeks of my mission, also by far the most tired.
This Wednesday we had a Zone Leader Council so we spent the day on Tuesday preparing for that meeting. The topic we were preparing for was finding. But not just finding, finding with LOVE!! So probably a record in the world we spent 16 hours in the office preparing the video and the information for the meeting. It was worth the preparation though, the meeting went great. The spirit was strong and we were all edified by the spirit. We all learned more how to love the people, and how love will allow us to accomplish our commission as servants of the Lord. I was grateful I had the opportunity to learn about this. Love is my favorite topic, and it was great to study up on it to teach it to the other leaders in the mission. It is a very special topic to me. I've learned over the time on my mission what love truly is. I've learned from the Taiwanese people, I love these people so very much. Just seeing them happy is my soul’s deepest desire. Also I've learned love from the power of the Atonement of the Savior, Jesus Christ. I've felt that love of the savior flow through me, I've felt the power of the sacrament sweep away my tears and my hardships. I know Jesus is the Christ, and because God loves us he sent His Son here to atone for our sins and allow us to accomplish the reason we came down to earth in the first place, to gain a body and prepare ourselves to live with Him again. I cannot wait to live with Him again, also in the presence of my loving family members. How great this gospel is, it truly is the one and only true way to happiness.
The movie we made for the meeting went really good, and it was very inspiring. The spirit truly joined us in that meeting.
We also have received my international driver’s license, so I can drive now.....which is a scary thought. But Wednesday night I had the opportunity to drive to the airport and pick up the new missionaries. It was so much fun. The local missionaries go to the Philippines MTC for 3 weeks then come to the mission field. Because they were coming from a place a lot closer then America they arrived at 7pm. So we left at 6pm to pick them up at the airport. They flew in we waited and waited and waited at the gate. Finally they arrived. Now was the hard part. We had to wait in the airport with these missionaries for 3 hours until the America missionaries would come and the president then would arrive so we could take them back to our mission. It was a really cool thing, as we stood at the gate waiting for the missionaries to show up I had a renewal of the new missionary feeling. The blood all throughout my body started to boil and get fired up. I was so excited to see these new missionaries, and I soon found out that they were just excited to see us. As they walked out of the terminal they saw us as their already happy face just light up so much more. They were a great group of local missionaries. Three of them were coming to the Taipei mission and the other 2 were going to the Tai Zhong mission. They were so good though. They just loved seeing us and we had a great time in the airport together. We took them and got a bight to eat. Then we played some games waiting for the other missionaries. My companions would give them a situation, for example. You are on the road and you see a 16 year old smoking. Then I would look in my Book of Mormon, pick out a character, and tell them they have to find a scripture that has that character in it, and then use that scripture to teach this situation. It was so much fun, they loved it, and they were doing so well too. They just looked us in the eyes, used the scripture to help us overcome the situations problem, and testified of its truths. It was an amazing thing to see. I then learned the power of local missionaries. They really are so vital and important to the growth of the church. They teach so powerfully, and they know the environment and people. They can better connect with the people and can teach with the native tongue. It was a great experience. Time was almost up, and the new American missionaries were about to arrive. So I took all the missionaries and we waited for them too. Then I had an idea that as the young white missionaries came we could invite them to be baptized using standard invite. "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God?" (Obviously in Chinese). The new local missionaries were way excited to invite the new missionaries. So we saw them come out, we all went and lined up so they couldn't get by us, they stopped about 10 feet in front of us with drooping eyes after a grueling 16 hour plane ride, but with smiles of joy still painted on their faces. We invited them in Chinese to be baptized, they happily said "WILLING". We all had a good laugh and then split the Tai Zhong missionaries and the Tai Bei missionaries. We all went our own ways and took the missionaries back to the mission home where they would be staying for the next two days during orientation. We got them back and checked into the temple patron housing. By this time it was about 11 pm. They were dead tired, not much was said they just got checked in and right to bed. We told them we would meet them tomorrow morning at 6:30 to go running. We took them to the Memorial hall down the road a ways. It was really good little run we took them on; they loved the view and the building. Their first real look at Taiwan. We took them to breakfast, having their first Taiwanese breakfast sandwich. It was really good. Then we took them back to get ready for the long day ahead of them.
The rest of the day was orientation. We just taught them about the mission ways and the vision the mission has. We just pumped them up for the work. There is one elder that for some reason I just had an immediate connection too. I later found out that He actually went to Davis High School for a year and half. But for some reason or another He was worried about interrupting people as they talked to them on the roads, and just being rude. He was a little worried about contacting people and His Chinese wasn’t the best in the world. But for some reason, I saw a potential in Him, I saw what he could become. So I tried to focus on Him a little more and loosen Him up. For example we were walking together and were ready to cross the road. I saw a police officer coming down the road on a scooter; I yelled and flagged Him down. He stopped, and I contacted him and shared the gospel with Him. After the cop rode off, this elder looked at me and said “was that a police man”? I told Him it was, he was just like “can you do that”? My response was, He Elder we are in Taiwan you can do almost anything! (Said in a sharing gospel way, saying that nothing will stop the work.) I think that he was a little more excited and less worried. But the whole time during orientation He was just worrying and not thinking He could do it. So as we went to exchange money so they could buy their bikes. I saw a man walking down the road; I felt an impression to talk to Him. Without even thinking about I stuck out my arm and grabbed the arm of the Elder (as he was walking with the other group of Elders), I went to contact this man wearing ear phones. I said hello but this man rejected me. I just prayed in my heart please give this young new missionary a chance to see a miracle. So I kept talking to this man, He kept rejecting me. But I finally said, just listen I know you will love this message. He just said, Ok. So he took out his ear phones and listened, I literally dragged the new missionary to my side and said to him. “Ask him if he believes in God”! He asked him in his broken Chinese, but the man replied, no I don’t really know. Then I took over and taught him for about 3 minutes. Said we would like to meet with him and share with Him more about this God and His love for you. He said OK. I set up a time and then turned to the new missionary, I told him “Bear you testimony about God to Him”. The missionary looked the man in the eyes and used the best Chinese He could muster up and represented Jesus Christ right then and there on that street corner. He bore simple and pure testimony of God and His love for Him. It was an amazing spirit. The spirit filled all three of us. I then looked to the man and told him that I know what my companion said was true. The man replied “I know.” I just looked at him and said “you do?” He said you could feel it when he said it, you just could know it’s true. So we said good bye and said see you next week. I looked at the missionary, now his expressions had changes. He was smiling ear to ear, and said “this is awesome.” I told him what the man had said during the whole time, and he couldn’t stop smiling. I was excited too, that the Lord was so merciful that He allowed a prepared soul to walk in our path so this new missionary could receive this kind of experience and feel of the power of the work. I loved it, what a spiritual experience. This missionary went from a scared hesitant state into an excited happy state in an instant. The rest of the day he was just beaming. He looked at me and said “Why can’t you just be my trainer, then it would all be fine” That was a real comfort to me that I’ve been a help to him. Well soon to find out, I knew who his trainer would be. My son, yup Elder Workman is training Him. I was so excited, he is going to get my son, no wonder I had such a strong connection to him, because my missionary blood was going to train him. I’m way excited for them; they are going to do great wonders together in the hands of the Lord.
The next day all of the trainers arrived and we had the opportunity to meet with them and teach them about how to be better trainers and the things they were expected to do. After we were done we had all of them line up against the way and start singing called to serve (while the waiting to be trained missionaries were lined up outside the door awaiting to come it) This is my favorite scene, to see the new missionaries walking in, in anticipation of meeting whom they will be with for the first of their missions and the trainers standing there and singing waiting for their trainees to walk in also in anticipation of whom their companion will be. After the young missionaries walked in they lined up across the room of the trainers. President Grimley then calls out one new missionary, the missionary then steps out into the middle of the room (no man’s land) and waits to hear where he’s going followed by his trainer. It’s a really fun experience, the spirit actually is really strong and it’s fun to see the smiles and reactions as they are assigned to their trainers. We all went up and ate lunch at presidents house and sent them all off to their areas to start their missions. It was great to be a part of.
This weekend we also saw a huge miracle. Because the week was so busy we hadn’t had a lot of time to contact and find new investigators for our area. It was Sunday and we still didn’t have any new investigators. We set a goal to find five on Sunday. We got to Sunday night with 1 new investigator, a current investigator we wanted to go and visit, and 25 minutes to make it back in time for a meeting with president. Well we went out and started towards our investigators home, on the way we ran into a mom with 2 girls. They were walking to the part, they were already Christian, I told them that we would hope to sit with them and teach them about our about Jesus Christ. They sat down and right then and there on the corner street we taught a lesson with a mom and her two daughters. It was really cute, we were like we are going to say a prayer ok, and the daughters, especially the younger daughter, was like ok with a smile on her face. We prayed and taught them about the gospel being restored and the importance of the authority of God in being baptized. After we taught them we invited the mom to be baptized, she was a little hesitant. Then I turned to the younger sister asking her “If you feel these things are true, will you be baptized” She said yes, and then I asked the older sister, she also said yes. Then finally I looked at the mom and she said yes. It was the most wonderful thing in the world a mom and two daughters all willing to set baptismal dates. It was great. We were running out of time now, so we started to jog to the current investigators home Sister Song. Because it was mother’s day, and she had just given birth to twins we thought we’d give her a copy of the Family: Proclamation to the World and wish her a happy Mother’s Day. We made it there and she was very happy that we dropped by. But now we only had 8 minutes and were pretty far away from the office. We sprinted the whole way; we made it with 2 minutes to spare and our bodies full of sweat. It was very uncomfortable, but we were able to make it on time to meet with president also. It was a great night!! Full of miracles.
Well Family, I love this gospel. I’m having so much fun here in Taiwan. I just love the people and seeing them happy. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my rock in which I’m built. I know that through and in Him I can do all things. I have no doubt about a life built on the rock of the redeemer. As long as we follow the commandments we will be blessed and filled with the power of the Holy Ghost and be able to do all things. I love this work; I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Thank you all for supporting me. I keep you in my prayers!!
Love,
Elder Rasmussen
