FAMILY!!!
Hello family, the Lord is blessing us a lot, I'm glad to see that everyone is still strong in the faith, and doing what the Lord wants us to do. You are all a light to my life, thank you for all that you do!!
This week was a spiritual week, full of manifestations of the Spirit and full of meetings! Monday is when I went out to eat with Wu Momma and broke the news that she's coming to America. She was very worried, but Guan Chen called me and said after she talked to dad in Japanese she felt a lot better and is more excited to come. So I'm really excited about that, and can't wait to see her in America.
This week started in Hua Lian with the first of three specialized training meetings. It went great and we are still focusing on being unified in purpose. I just love this subject so much, unity is so important in every unit of life. If a group of people or a team doesn't have unity they have no way of progressing, and reaching their ultimate goal. This is especially true in a family unit, Satan is doing all he can by placing the wedge of disunity to stop our families from progressing. This is why it is so important to always eat together and have family home evening. Why we need to talk openly with each other and understand the needs of each others lives. We need to be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of the family. We need to take care of each other and always stand by each others side. I love this principle. This principle will not have raised voices, disobedient children, and will always make the home a temple, which it is the second most holy place on earth. I love unity; I've gained a strong testimony of the importance of unity, and how to gain a unified atmosphere!
This last week we also had an opportunity to go on many exchanges. In Hua Lian we had a really amazing miracle. We were going out for the night to contact. There is a young member whose English name is Skyler. He is a stud. He is 11 years old. We invited him to say the prayer for us to start our preaching the gospel time. He said the prayer and in the prayer said the cutest thing, "Please help the missionaries that they will find a prepared soul." He said Amen, We said Amen and we hit the streets, talking with everyone in sight, inviting them to come unto Jesus Christ. About 30 minutes later I saw a woman riding a bike. I stopped her and told her we wanted to take her to church. She said OK. So she followed us to the church. When we got there, there was a member there so she was able to be there for the lesson also. We let the Spirit teach her through the scriptures and she was golden. We would read scripture and ask her what they meant to her, she then would explain it beautifully, it was amazing. The member kept looking at me and telling me that she is good! It all started with a pray of faith from an 11 year old member of the church. We saw him later that night and told him his prayer was answered, he just smiled with the look as if, "I knew it would be answered." It was really cute. She set a baptismal date and will meet with the missionaries after I headed back up to Taipei, so hopefully she is doing great!!
Another amazing experience, which was completely led by the spirit and kind of confused me at first. This week in our three specialized training meeting we met with the Junior Companions, which ended the whole mission hearing the training this month, which is really good. They all get it know, now it's up to them whether or not to use it and accept it! But we were in the Tao Yuan and Xin Zhu specialized training meeting. We did a role play, the same one we did in the other two meetings, but this time I received revelation. Something that I wasn't so sure about because of the amount of time we had left. But I followed the inspiration, and the missionaries were visited by the Spirit because of it! As I was watching the missionaries do the role plays a thought entered my heart saying to do another role play. I opened my heart and listened more. The feeling told me after this role play was finished and they all sat back down in their seats, to have them do a specific thing. The distinct promise I received at that time was, "If you do this role play, each missionary will be filled with the spirit and gain testimony of the baptismal invite.” So I told my companion quickly the feeling I had. I went ahead and just started speaking not knowing what to say beforehand. I told OK in the next 5 minutes we are going to have a very spiritual experience, so I need every one of you to really focus in order for this to work. Then I explained to them as the spirit directed. In a minute I'm going to ask you to close your eyes, then I will explain a situation and when you open your eyes, you are going to say the baptismal invite! Then I said, regardless if you've just been on island for 3 weeks, no matter how good or bad your Chinese is, I want you to invite in Chinese, I promise you will be filled with the spirit. I then had them close their eyes. I started to explain what came into my heart. OK you are sitting across from someone that has been looking for the truth for 10 years; he has finally found it and knows he needs this gospel! OK open your eyes and help him receive this gospel! What happened next I will never forget. They slowly opened their eyes and started teaching this imaginary man in front of them. I looked into their eyes and noticed; they were inviting and teaching this man as if he was really there. The sincerity in the eyes of the missionaries was indescribable. I knew they were inviting from their hearts. They really wanted to help this imaginary man. As they started to invite each of their imaginary man to be baptized, sure enough as the Spirit promised me, the Holy Ghost filled the room and all of us were edified, all of us gained a testimony of the baptismal invite. After they finished inviting, I looked at them and felt love so strong. I just explained to them of their potential and calling, of what they can and will accomplish here in the mission field if they teach like that. There was power in that room. I was a very interesting experience of receiving the promptings of the spirit in the middle of a meeting, acting upon it, and seeing a miracle. I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father, the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I'm so grateful for this gospel, I know it's true, and I would fail without it. I love my Savior, I love my God. I know that this life is given to man to prepare to meet them again. I can't wait!! I hope I may finish all the way to the end of my life, in the service of God. That I may always be a tool in his hand!
I love this work; I'm going to miss it. It's not over yet though; I still have 2 weeks left, which are going to be the best 2 weeks of my mission. I love you all!!
Keep building a spirit of unity in the family, and allow the Lord to make our family an immovable, complete, strong, missionary oriented, unit in His kingdom!!
-Elder Rasmussen
