Ich habe getan, ja, wie du mir geboten hast. . . HAPPY SNOW!

November 29, 2010
How was THANKSGIVING!? Filling!? I sure hope so, we had a great time over here Sister Scruggs and I. Hilarious actually. On REAL Thanksgiving we ate at the Schönherrs for lunch, so we had a nice meal anyway, but we did want some turkey....you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving right!? So we remembered we had bought some sliced turkey like 4 days previously, and so (we took pictures) we had a croissant, 2 pieces of sliced turkey, a potato and some raspberry jam....

hope you enjoyed your FEAST. haha, that was our little celebration on Thanksgiving night, so funny. But we were then invited by the cool younger families in the Freiberg ward, to join in on their 'Thanksgiving' on Saturday, they said to bring some investigators if we wanted, so we had Li, Ding Ge and Xiang there at our table, and there were around 8 of the younger families in the ward who got together and had Thanskgiving. There was turkey luckily, and potatoes...not mashed though haha, and rotkohl, knödel and other German dishes, so haha it wasnt an American Thanksgivng, but it was close. 

We felt loved and our investigators did as well. Speaking of investigators....

XIANG IS AMAZING! (ps how you say his name...its sounds like 'shung') We are doing 3.30.3 with him...meaning we meet with him three times a week for thirty minutes for the next 3 weeks...which was started last week, and he is getting baptized on December 18th!!!! Sister Scruggs made sure to let me know that I am living every missionaries dream to be able to baptize someone I found. Most times you are transfered and get into a program of people who are already being taught, but I found Xiang! Sister Singer and I talked to him on the street, walking his bike and now he is a good friend, excited and dedicated to getting baptized!!! I am so blessed.

This last time we taught him, we talked about repentance. It was a really good lesson, good scriptures, he understood all we were saying, the spirit was strong....the only thing was, Xiang was a little confused we were teaching him this because he was already doing it...he said, 'well ive already started repenting in my prayers, you know for things  shouldnt be doing, like being selfish, or gossiping....' we said, 'well yeah! Great!' later Sister Scruggs were just speechless and almost felt guilty, he isnt even a member yet and he is repenting for being selfish and gossiping!! It was a good lesson for us too!

He is coming to church every week, and looks so happy and comfortable when he is there. The members are so welcoming and kind, we are so blessed to have such a loving ward! We teach the Sunday school class when Xiang comes and some of the English speaking temple couples come and join as well, this last week we talked about attributes of Christ. It was great to hear the testimonies of these members, and Xiang read some of the scriptures. He seems to enjoy sacrament meeting and he now understands what the sacrament represents. This Thursday in Dresden, a stake president from Taiwan is coming to give a fireside in Chinese about what it is like to be a member in China, so Xiang is excited to go and Ding Ge might join us as well. So Xiang is making awesome awesome progress and I just made my first reading calendar for him, a couple uplifting versed every day, it was cool to go through the scriptures and find the really rewarding, exciting and motivating scriptures to give to him. He is so prepared and very contientious. He is super funny, and I cannot believe I get to be here when he gets baptized, this missionary work thing is so much more incredible then I could have ever imagined!

So is the CHRISTMAS decor and festivities....wow Germany knows how to do it, and it isnt even December yet!!! The Christmas Market opened the day after Thanksgiving and is so gorgeous. little wooden cabin looking booths and trees and lights and hot chocolate, bratwursts, hats and wooden decorations, a stage with christmas performers, people and snow and well Ill just have to send home pictures to try and explain it. It was super funny actually on our way home we walked through the christmasmarkt and we heard a kind of scary man voice over the speakers and a very cheesy high womanly voice as well....we got to the stage and it was santa! (well the weichnachsman) and an angel! They were singing and giving out candy to the kids, and we just couldnt believe santa was right there and they were singing christmas songs and its was only November 27th, but that was a great start to the christmas season!! We have a little tree in our wohnung and already some presents underneath. I took a picture with a hat Sister Singer's mom sent me, and presents from Sister Scruggs' advent calendar and candy (Yes reeses and junior mints THANK YOU!) sent from the Hidden Oaks ward are underneath. We are felling so blessed to be here in Freiberg for Christmas and the families that signed up to have us on Christmas eve, Christmas day, and New Years are the greatest! (and there is an American in all of them) so we are just pinching ourselves.

It is really cool being with a new companion seeing the difference of people's 'style' of missionary work. On top of being exaclt obedient and following the commandments etc there is a style to missionary work and how you talk to people and how you teach, I am just finiding out what that is to me and how I can put my personality into my teaching, its going well, and its a growing experience, haha Sister Scruggs is an incredible senior companion and we are praying for miracles and working hard to deserve them. We laugh all day long and she might have thrown a snowball down my neck yesterday while we were waiting for an appointment, yes I got pay back. There is definitely snow, in fact its coming down pretty heavy right now, we are trying to remember how beautiful it is and go get some thick socks and gloves. . . yay Winter!

Thank you so much for your love and support and prayers and for the emails, I really feel so blessed to have you in my life. I read a cool quote and I dont know if I have emailed it home before but it says...

God knows better than you of what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us, then everything will fall into its place.

Neat huh? I agree and I feel its so true, we really do know what will make us better, the Hold Ghost gives us little promptings and when we follow them we will be blessed so much, everything will fall into its place. Sounds great!

Have a lovely lovely week!

-Sister Rasmussen

Ch ch ch changes.... in Freiburg!

November 22, 2010
Hello my loved ones!

Well where to start!? Sister Lydia Scruggs is my new companion and she is . . . me. Haha, we are so similar its a blast already.

She has been on her mission for 10 months and served in Rostock and has been in Dresden for the last 6 months, so coming to little Freiberg has been a big adjustment for her. It was fun to pick her up and to move her in, getting to know each other went really quickly and I think we just skipped the awkward stage which apparently is supposed to be there when you first get a new companion, so that was a blessing. Sister Scruggs is from SLC and went to West high. She went to BYU and studies speach language pathology. She is hilarious and we are constantly laughing. She may or may not have walked as much as she walks here in Freiberg and its just funny to keep eachother going, and promising her, 'I swear there were more people on the streets until you got here,' a light that hadnt worked in our apt for the last 12 weeks turned on when Sister Scruggs tried to turn it on, so that has to be a sign of something good. Its also been cool to see what other sisters eat haha, she introduced me to toast with krauter quarck and gouda cheese and salami, delicious.  Its been fun to try and find people we both know....zum beispiel Matt Holland...president of UVU? Is her family friend....and Mason McMullin went with her to Jerusalem. So those are two of the most random people we have in common. I am loving serving with her, and it is definitely a change not being with my 'mom' / trainer anymore. Its been a challenge trying to introduce her to the program and set some new goals. Its really exciting because we are both so excited to work hard. She has great German and has such a pure dedication to find teach baptize and keep. She has a lot of great experience, from her mission of course but as well as the experiences she had in Australia where her dad was the mission president. Its been a cool experience hearing different power statements, different ways to approach people and neat to rub off on each other. I am excited for what this transfer will bring with the two of us! Woot!

We had an incredible experience on Thursday when Sister Scruggs first met Xiang. He is such a stud and is really taking on the gospel. He reads dilligently and said he is praying regularly, we did give him the idea of putting something on his pillow to remind him to pray before he goes to sleep- so funny to teach people these things at 26 years old- but he loved the idea and said he would do it. We talked about baptism and showed him the fot and he got excited, we set a date with him DECEMBER 18th! So we will be meeting with him 3 times a week until then and its been a great start to the transfer with Sister Scruggs. He then came to church yesterday and sang the songs, and read a scripture in our aufbau class, he is definitely one who is prepared, and so crazy to think 4 weeks ago he knew nothing of God and we just talked to him one evening on the street....miracles.

We had that random day of snow 2 weeks ago and since then it hasnt snowed...but I feel it coming, it definitely smells like it, I always feel like im going to go skiing, you know that smell at the top of a mountain, thats what it smells like :) So soon enough the snow will come and the physical part of this missionary work will be more challenging but I think we will get though it, there are just so many blessings that make up for it, there is no room to complain! Sister Scruggs and I just laugh all the time, talk to everyone and bearing testimony with cheerful, friendly faces and telling people the plan of happiness is so worth it. We say a prayer and in our mission now every companionship says our purpose everytime we leave so we remember our goals, we also hung up snowflakes in our apt to remind us of the WHITE CHRISTMAS 2 nephi 31 goal, and xiang is our candidate. but Im seceretly praying for a couple baptisms this christmas season...oh and another blessing...the WARD! They are incredible, so loving, especially to us! our eating appointment list is up from now to the beginning of Feb and December is already full. People asked if they could have us over for Christmas and we said we were already booked. Its just so incredible being a missionary and feeling so at home here in Germany!

One of the families we will be with on Christmas is the Dziersons. Becky and Manuel. I dont know if I have written home about them yet, but if not, here is more. THEY ARE SO GREAT. Becky is from Indiana and went to Byu and then Hamburg on her mission, she married Manuel who served in that mission too, and they have been married for 3.5 years here in Freiberg, (where Manuel is from) They have 2 kids, James and Nora, and Nora is only 2 months old, yes I knew Becky when she didnt have Nora yet. They are our closest friends, Becky is the Young Womens president and Manuel is the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. They are so dedicated to the gospel and are so supportive of us, little James is the cutest and can act out a whole book of animals and its hilarious, ill have to tape it for you all. I am just so grateful for the Americans in the ward because theey are keeping the holidays alive....

This saturday we are meeting the younger 'cool' families in the ward for a Thanksgiving party, they invited us yesterday at church and said we could bring a couple investigators and some American cookies...I think Sister Scruggs is going to make peanut butter oatmeal bars....yes! So that shall be a grand way to celebrate, hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving too!!!

We just were informed that we get to go to Berlin for the mission tour, Dec 9th for a visit by Elder Teixeira of the Quorum of the 70 with half the mission, so that will be a blessing, and the 'hoho zoko' is on Dec 15, so we will get to see a lot of other missionaries a couple times this next month. We do get to see our district every Wednesday when we go to Chemnitz for district meeting, and its odd because two of the sisters that were there just went home and we got a new district leader and so I am the only missionary (other than elder and sister swartz the ehepaar) from our old district! Wierd! But Sister Malen is in my district now, who was in the mtc with me, who I flew over with, so its been exciting to see her!!

We are just doing so well, and our spiritual thought lately we share at members houses is of miracles and relating it to the story of the brother of Jared. Not only did he find the stones to light up the ships, but he moulted them so they were white and clear and then carried him up a mountain to then have the miracle of seeing the lords finger light them.. . He knew he needed a miracle and he had to work for it! And we here in Freiberg know that we definitely need some miracles to get people interested and find the prepared ones, and then baptize, so we are working for the miracle. So if you need a miracle with something you have going on in your life....remember you cant just pray for a miracle, but gotta do a little work for it! (or maybe a lot of work for it) but we are better for it, because then we know the value of the miracle, and are humble enough to thank the Lord for it. So the other side of the spiritual thought is realizing the miracles we have in our life, the Lord gives us miracles everyday but sometimes we are too busy or proud or 'too good' to realize what the Lord is blessing us with, so we are writing down the miracles we see everyday, and invite you to do the same, because ónce your realize the miracles you are getting then the Lord gives you more! Ahh, he loves us so much. Dont you agree!?

I hope you have a faaantastic week, fun of fun with family, in the snow, eating and football and eating and maybe a little personal time with just you and your Heavenly Father, I know thats what really keeps me motivated to keep on keeping on, good luck!

Thank you for your love and prayers and support, cool quote Sister Scruggs gave me....

Faith is the power
obedience is the price
love is the motive
the spirit is the key
and Christ is the reason.
- James E. Faust

-Sister Rasmussen

Bittersweet Begeisterung- Bittersweet EXCITEMENT

November 15, 2010
So the day has come. . .  my trainer is LEAVING ME! Ahhhhhh! Sister Singer has been in Freiberg since APRIL. She is the Freiberg mascot! haha, and Saturday on the transfer conference call she was transfered the Tiergarten in Berlin. I am staying in FREIBERG! For my 3rd transfer. It shall be a big change for everyone....

My new companion coming to me in Freiberg is Sister Scruggs, all of this happens tomorrow (Dienstag Nov 16) so I havent gotten her yet, but we have seen eachother at zonekonferenz and other things, she is a HOOT. So please pray for our success....and friendship...haha. What a funny thing to meet someone you know you will be with for at least the next 6 weeks 24 hours a day 7 days a week...pretty exciting and kind of a lot of pressure haha, no not really (its especially great because I get to tell her the Freiberg secret of the fact we get to go to the temple more than anyone else because we serve here)  So thats the big news of the week, I am excited for the challenge but it definitely will be one, to take on the program, to know the ward and update Sister Scruggs on everything and everyone and set new goals and plan for 'WHITE CHRISTMAS 2 nephi 31' goal here in Freiberg (meaning the baptism we will have to fulfil the goal of the whole mission to have a baptism in every companionship before christmas) Its exciting and of course very bittersweet to have 'my mother' leave me. She is excited though, and will be incredible in Berlin.

Speaking of baptism goals, we have 5 investigators making great progress, 3 of them talking about baptism. Frau Vonludwig (who came to stake conference) is very close to baptism, we are hoping to meet with her this week. We talked about her in 'Gemeinderat' or ward conference and were wondering how we could get her to church regularly because she doesnt have a car and the busses dont run regularly, apparently there is a less active lady who lives in the same house (its a big apt complex and they live in the same section of one) so another member who lives out there ideally will pick up both sunday mornings! So thats the plan for her, I think we will be setting a baptismal date with her our next appointment.

Herr Himmel met with Sister Singer and Sister McCall when we were on exchanges and I was in Leipzig... they taught him the last half of the plan of salvation and at the end said, okay so next time we meet we can talk about all the logistics and commitments of baptism then? WOW! Yeah so thats what Sister Scruggs will be doing the first time she meets 'Mr. Heaven.' (In case you didnt get that Herr Himmel means Mr Heaven in English) ANYWAY Great progress with him.

Xaing came to ward conference yesterday and stayed after and had food and talked to a lot of people...he is going to come with us to a baptism in Dresden on Sunday and said he was reading online about 'the people who were in New York and moved to Utah and built the city there and the temple.' I thought 'YES! Xaing is reading about the pioneers!' Yay! He seems very willing and excited for the future...says things like 'well im going to china from march to april so we will have to talk about when we will meet after that ( great sign he is taking our meetings long term) and he really is only concerned about what happens if he gets baptised and wants to go back to China, so we need to figure out that obstacle...but great news right!? He is such a stud and was sincerely sad to say goodbye to sister singer, he told her 'since the first time you and sister Rasmussen talked to me on the street I knew you were good sincere people, of course all the churchy things make you different, but you are just nice,' la di da, isnt that sweet. Yes there are miracles here in Freiberg, talked to some random Chinese guy on the street and now talking about being baptized! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Ding Ge and Li are so great, hilarious and the greatest friends. They were sweet to say things like 'dont worry sister singer is leaving, you have us' and they are excited to meet Sister Scruggs....ahh its just odd to imagine continuing all this without Sister Singer! bah!

We had a 'tausch' this last week and I went to Leipzig with Sister Turner. It was a blast! It was really odd going to a big city. so many people, and straßenbahns....we dont have those things in little ol Freiberg, It was kind of refreshing actually to be in a bigger city... we had a cool lesson with a guy who has a baptismal date and we committed him to the word of wisdom, it was a great lesson and was neat to bear testimony and see him have a desire to change and see the blessings. We also taught German class....haha yes I know what youre thinking 'wait Kim doesnt speak German haha' well luckily I speak more than these guys. It was hilarious, these two guys from Africa, around 30 years old are studying in Leipzig and have pretty good English and need to learn German, it was so hysterical singing 'HEAD SHOULDERS KNEES AND TOES'  (obviously in German) and doing all the actions, counting down '4, 3, 2, 1 - 'kopf, schulter, knie und zeh' haha and Sister Dabel (the senior sister there in leipzig) actually video taped it hahaha, oh it was great. I had a great time with Sister Turner, hearing how another sister ansprachs people and her 'power statements' I made her eggs for breakfast haha and we have a great friendship now :) There already is a huge christmas tree in the leipzig bahnhof!

They are starting to decorate for Christmas here!! Yay! We decided that since they dont have halloween or thanksgiving they start setting up for christmas early, and its already so beautiful, window decorations and they are starting to set up the christmas markets in all the plazas! We found out that Freiberg is one of the top ten best Weinachtsmarkt in all of Germany! Yay, I feel so blessed to be able to stay in Freiberg for Christmas, it shall be unforgettable, but I guess we still have a good month before we should be talking about Christmas, I should be saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of you in the USA :) Dont eat too much.

I really have drawn a lot of comfort from these two scriptures in D&C..it says..

Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of truth.

Fear not little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world and you are of them my father has given me.

I love the feeling of being a child of God and knowing he is with us in everything, and we are his, all we need to do is grow in grace and the knowledge of truth. Its such an adventure and a blessing to be able to help others find their knowledge of truth and invite and help them to grow in grace. I hope you all are doing the same and feeling the blessings of the knowledge you are a child of God!

Have a stellar week and know you have a fan in Deutschland rooting for you!

love,

Sister Rasmussen

could it be any more beautiful?

November 8, 2919
It really couldnt be anymore beautiful.

 I cant even put into words the feelings of gratitude and immense JOY I have about being a sister missionary in Freiberg. But really its trying to describe that feeling you get when you are overcome with the spirit, or with love for someone else, or feeling the love of our Heavenly Father and you have this overwhelming peace and its almost choking because the feeling is so much bigger then us and it fills our whole being....with warmth and love and joy and peace and wow our Heavenly Father just loves us SO much. Dont you agree!!!? Its a great trick that I have quickly learned being on a mission......to count your blessings. No seriously, I know people say that all the time and we have a hymn about it, but dont roll your eyes, it really works! Just counting and thinking about all the blessings we get every single day! The people we meet, places we get to go, experiences we get to have, ahhh you just are filled with joy remembering that our heavenly Father 'is there watching and assisting and always there are those angels, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.' -Elder Holland. Its true! Cant you feel them there!? I sure do.

One of the blessings I already can count today.....SNOW! OUR FIRST SNOW! NOVEMBER 7TH tell the whole world, haha, I was so excited! It really was only a 'dusting' of whiteness. but still, so beautiful. Especially on the train today coming to Dresden (yes, we are in Dresden again for Pday) all the hills covered in trees, now topped off with snow, its a fairytale. Sister Singer said its like the snow they get in Texas and they shut the whole city down....geez we get 5 feet in utah and they still dont shut the schools down :) Im just excited and I know its going to make the work a little more challenging now having a physical challenge, but its okay, we will keep on keeping on :)

We had a 'best 2 years' moment on Freitag. We have this lady, Frau Von Ludwig, the one who already had a Book of Mormon from 15 years ago, we had met with her once....So we called her and tried to set something up, and added at the end of the call the invitation to come to Dresden to come to Stake conference with us, but she said she would be busy and wouldnt have time for the next couple of weeks. We didnt really know what we could do about her, but during our weekly planning prayer and also personally we just prayed that she would call and find time.....and just as we finished the prayer the phone rang and it was her! She told us she would be coming into Freiberg (she lives in a little dorf outside of Freiberg) and asked if we could meet on Tuesday! We were so excited and I felt the lord right there with us. but that isnt the end of the story.....we then were having comp study on Saturday and she called again and asked 'is the invitation still there for me to come to stake conference?' uh YEAH! So Bruder Steiner picked us up Sunday morning, we went and got Sandy (our new convert) and Frau Von Ludwig! It was great, we went to the new convert meeting before the main meeting and we sat on the front row. Frau Vonludwig brought her Book of Mormon and asked quesitons and made a lot of comments. It seemed that the stake presidency was talking and bearing their testimony right to her. The spirit was strong and talk of baptism came up a lot. The main meeting was so great and she seemed to enjoy it!

It was such a great experience being in Dresden for stake conference, the room was PACKED, it was such a strength to be among the saints of Germany. All these families doing the same thing we do in Utah and what people do at stake conference all over the world. It almost felt like home...exept for in German. We sustained the prophet and 12 apostles and I knew that my family was doing the same thing at home. The children sang the new primary song 'ich weiß daß mein Heiland mich liebt' and it was so beautiful...its so incredible knowing children all over the world in every language are singing those same words 'I know that my savior loves me.' Those might be some of the 8 most important words to know, and so many people here have NO idea of their truthfulness. So many people around the world dont know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and that our Savior loves us! Its so great being a missionary and being able to teach that great knowledge.

Our chinese investigators, Ding Ge and Li are doing great! Last night they made us dinner and I helped make dumplings, it was hilarious. . . and delicious. We learned how to count to 10 in chinese and then we taught them the plan of salvation. The spirit was really strong and I love those two girls so much. Ding ge came last Friday to institute in Chemnitz with Sandy, so we went along too. It was on Präsident Uchtdorfs talk on Prioritäten (priorities) and Ding Ge said she really enjoyed it, we also played some games and Ding ge was great, the really funny part was trying to run afterwards to catch the straßenbahn and missing one and so booking it to the next one haaha, oh it was hilarious. Can you only imagine us running with our bags, through the rain, as fast as we can laughing the whole way....oh and then realizing our train back to Freiberg was leaving in 5 minutes and we were 6 minutes away.....so we said a prayer on the straßenbahn...Ding ge was the one that said 'well there is no one else on the bahn, why not pray?' so we did...and we ran from there to hauptbahnhof and our train sign said 3 yellow words -  '5 min später' it was cool to tell Ding Ge that that was an answer to our prayer :)

We had a mission wide conference call this last saturday and präsident told us about some new revelation for our mission that he and sister pimentel and the aps have been fasting and praying about.....its a new big push, new initiative called WHITE CHRISTMAS 2 Nephi 31.

The Big Goal: Every companionship can baptize before Christmas.

The Fast Start: Every missionary in the mission joins with all other missionaries in fasting on this past weekend to put our efforts into motion towards our big goal, e.g. fast for faith, for strength, for the who/where/how and success.

The Doctrine of Christ: We will all read 2 Nephi 31 right away and see how our big goal to baptize and our Purpose are the doctrine of Christ.

Our Purpose: We will all have our Purpose from page 1 of Preach My Gospel memorized and recite it as we get ready to leave the apartment for the first time each day. Each apartment should hang up something that is easily visible reminding us of our united effort, e.g. baptismal clothes.

The Invitation: Each companionship will each week invite at least one person to accept a baptismal date.

Gifts of Service: We will look for extra service opportunities during the Christmas season. The usual guideline of 4 hours per week can be doubled during White Christmas – 2 Nephi 31. 

Gifts of Truth: We will deliver gifts of truth in our teaching, including the 3 gifts of truth that God lives and loves us, that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and that the Lord’s church has been restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

Success Reports: Provide warm up stories to Sister & Pimentel and weekly emails will share highlights of success every week until Christmas.     

So thats the plan, and we feel we have a lot of candidates, we can smell it, baptism is coming :) Thanks for listening, kind of a different email today, but hope you all have a great week and know how much I love and appreciate you!!!!!

A quote that ive loved this past little while about the Holy Ghost:

You want to Be good, and to Do good. That is commendable. But the greatest achievement that can be reachable in our lives is to be under the complete infludence of the Holy Ghost. Then he will teach us what is REALLY good and NECESSARY to do.

-Sister Rasmussen

i need thee every hour~

November 1, 2010
'I need thee every hour' is my theme song by David Tolk. Thank you Sam for putting it on my ipod, and everyone should bother Kasandra about learning to play it because it is so beautiful and I think the hymn itself is one of the most true hymns. We really do need HIM every hour, in JOY and PAIN. and we ask him to bless us as we come to him. Its definitley a necessity to have the savior with us EVERY hour, every minute here in Germany as a missionary.

It really does take following the spirit to find the prepared people, but WE ARE! For example..... several weeks ago we ansprached this lady in the middle of the little city of Freiberg and she told us she had been to the church in Freiberg once to watch a general conference session a few years ago, and we invited her to come this year but she couldnt make it. We called her last week and asked her how she was and she said we could come visit her. We showed up and she had tea and cheesecake set out (ps over here in Germany they have FRUIT TEA and it is so amazing I wish we had more of it in the US) we got talking and got to know her and she pulled out a Book of Mormon that she had received 13 years ago! We got reading in 2 Nephi 31 and got to baptism and repentance...she kept asking questions about repenting, and giving examples like 'well if someone has murdered, could they still repent of that!' and she was just being extreme to get the point across and really try to understand, so we read some scriptures on repentance and the story of alma the younger.....but to say the least I got my little scare for halloween wondering if this lady was really contemplating repenting of murder....anyway she wasnt and that was my halloweeny experience on the mission :) As we kept talking about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost she said something like ' I knew you were going to ask me about baptism' she started to cry and she was curious about our Bishops name to talk about it, she said she would pray about itand we felt so blessed to know her. Its so incredible to have experiences like this and my testimony is so much stronger of the Lord really having prepared people waiting for us! We just have to find them!!

We also had a really great experience going to our weekly eating appointment at the Schönherrs, they live right behind the temple, and we LOVE them. Bruder Schönherr is the temple recorder so when we went over on Wednesday, he was there with another man who works in the temple department in Salt Lake (sadly his name escapes me now) but he was visiting the Freiberg temple after helping with the groundbreaking for the temple in Rome, Italy. So we got to eat lunch with them and it was so gret talking to someone (in English) from SLC and then make the amazing connection that he works with my uncle Randy in the temple department!! He said 'oh Randy is my best friend!' I felt so loved and so close to home and almost to tears just being in the presence of someone who was so recently close to my family member.....it just made me again realize how small the world is, and how often the lord blesses us with tender mercies like this one.

Another incredible tender mercy we were blessed with this week.....we got a random phone call wednesday night from a schwester from Eisenhoutenstadt who we have seen on the temple grounds the few times she has come to the temple.
 She is really sweet (but we dont know her THAT well) well anyway she called us and said 'hello sisters! Tomorrow I am getting sealed to my husband and I would just love it if you both could be there!' haha, uh....we were so flattered and also really taken off guard, such a special occasion! Of couse we said we would be there, and when we showed up the next day she hugged us like we were her own daughters. She is the greatest lady and I feel like I hvae known her my whole life. SO we got to go to our first LIVE sealing! It was SO gorgeous and so beautiful and also really special to hear in German. Präsident Apel was the sealer and there was such a prominete glorious spirit there. We each talked to them after the sealing and she hugged me and just cried, and then he rubbed my cheek with a big grin, they were so happy and so in love and it was such an honor to watch people covenant to be together for TIME AND ALL ETERNITY. They were so happy! and of course so were we! Afterwards in the lobby we were talking to Präsident Apel and his wife (who always seem to glow) and he said something like 'I could help but look at you too and think of how you were probably thinking of your own weddings, from my whole heart I wish you the same experience, you find good right men.' Then Sister Apel added, 'but you have a little time, after your missions' :) It was such a blessing to be there and also really neat to see all the temple missionaries light up when they saw us, I sure love all these wonderful temple missionary couples and sure hope I can be one too someday!

We also had an incredible lesson with Herr Himmel this week. Sven Apel came with us to joint teach and we taught the first half of the plan of salvation. This man is so prepared for the gospel its almost funny. He is such a family man too, his 8 year old daughter called during the lesson, and he said 'sorry I have to take this' and as we were smiling at the cute sound of his daughters voice, he put it on speakerphone for us to hear, she was calling to ask where he was and to say goodnight. It was really cool to then teach him about where we believe we came from and how our families are a blessing from our heavenly father to have joy and so we dont have to go through this test of life alone. I feel so blessed to be the missionary that got to teach him the meaning of why we are here! He is also really great in helping me learn German, I started talking and then looked to sister singer to help me, and he said, no you can do it, nd there was such a feeling of love and support from everyone in the room. He saw how we marked our scriptures and said he will have to start doing that, he loves the Book of Mormon...He talks a lot and everything he says goes along with the gospel, he even said something like 'well and we read in the bible that you should drink less alcohol when you have a family....' WHAT? he was telling US this?? Yep, he is golden, and that was only our second appointment with him! and then he came to church on Sunday. It was the primary program and you could see he really enjoyed it and I assumed he was thinking of his small children throughout, we have another appt with him this Thursday, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

These experiences are only a few of the incredible miracles we have seen this week....its so great being able to bear testimony all day and study the scriptures. Ive started really diving into the Deutsch Book of Mormon during my personal study and Sister Singer and I have both noticed an improvement in my German, it really is a blessing. I have also set a goal to dedicate meine GANZEM HERZEN, ALLE MACHT, GANZEM SINN UND ALLE KRAFT. (whole heart, all might, whole mind and all strength) to being a missionary and I know we will be blessed for it, trying to be exactly obedient is an eternal goal for all of us, but if we ask for help, we will get it. So good luck in whatever you are working hard on and know if you pray for help, it will be easier.

We taught that lesson to a new investigator 'Xaing' this week. It was our third appointment with him and he said this past week he had thought about praying but he forgot what to say at the beginning (he has absolutely no religious backround) and he was so great in asking well how to you remember when to pray? We told him about maybe right when he wakes up and right before he goes to sleep and he said he would try it. We taught him about prophets and the restoration and he asked really great questions. He said he tried to read from the Book of Mormon but got confused at the beginning and we said, well maybe we can give you a chapter to read and we can talk about it next time? and he was so excited for that idea! Ahhhhh it was the greatest lesson, and just one of the many miracles we saw this week, thats what a mission is, miracle after miracle.....thank you for all your love and support, hope the email isnt too long, ist just so exciting and there are so many great experiences to talk about!

They dont celebrate Halloween here....I saw 2 jack-o-lanterns though! haha, yeah the kinds definitely dont do anything, so I thought of you all back home. WE did however have a funny halloween moment at our eating appointment yesterday (on halloween) at the Hartigs house...we had a lovely dinner and the two daughters stella and tessa running around were the cutest, but then as we went into the living room to wait for bruder hartig to bring out the dessert, we heard him and the older daughter laughing and they brought in and big platter with a vanilla pudding hand (which they had sculpted with this gummy stuff) and then strawberry jelly yogurt stuff at the bottom with a big cutting knife, haha and then a little red jello hand...it was funny cutting it up and the dad and daughter waving these red jello fingers around.....HAPPY HALLOWEEN haha. Kara looked so cute in her costume and I hope the rest of you had a lovely Halloween holiday! Have a great first week of November, and people said it already snowed in utah? we havent had our first snow yet, but it is close! Yay winter! Well, have a great week, work hard and I will too.

Liebe, Sister Rasmussen