Bald zu ende...oder bald zu Anfang?

Wow.

This experience is unlike any other. I am excited to know I can continue these feelings of love for the gospel and excitement about sharing it for the rest of my life. I think that is where the unsure feeling comes when I assume that when I take off my tag I stop feeling the spirit like I do out here, and that isnt the truth at all. Its just been such an incredible experience to be able to see the gospel change peoples lives. Its a blessing to put aside my own life and be able to put myself in the schedules of others to help them know how to live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being able to bear my testimony hundreds of times a day, telling people that Jesus is our Savior. God is our Heavenly Father. The true Church and Priesthood of God is restored on the Earth! The power to seal families for eternity is also on the Earth. There is a living prophet today who speaks to God, and God reveals his secrets to him. Ahh I could go on all day, but the point I am trying to get across is that these truths will continue to mean everything to me and I can still say and show that to people, maybe not at the tram gleis in German but just as a regular member of the church.

I am so grateful to be serving with Sister Faerber, we have seen miracle after miracle and two of my favorites happened the past couple nights. We obviously have been praying for the Lord to guide us to the prepared people, or put them in our path and he did! But something we noticed was...we found these two miracles because we were going the extra mile. Omar zum beispeil (for example) we were going with Burcan to teach a family (yes he is now a great joint teach!) and as sister Faerber was talking to him, we saw Omar walk by. Ive seen Omar a few times in the city the last 5 months...he is a tall white man, with a pretty big beard, a white hat and white dress thing (custom Muslim clothing) and ive never had the chance to talk to him. Well....Omar walked past us the other night on the way to our appointment and so I ran up to him to see if he wanted a Book of Mormon, I quickly told him that we believe God has revealed more holy scripture and we would love to give him a copy, and he set up an appointment for the next night! So we went back yesterday at 18:00 and he was home and we taught him in the hallway...because we are two single woman...anyway it was one of the most awesome lessons of my mission! We taught him simply about the plan we believe God has for us and used scriptures in the B.O.M. he said he was athiest 3 years ago and then online read about Islam and then converted, so as we taught him more about why we needed Christ to return to God he was very open and you could see the spirit bear testimony to him of the truth. We read with him the scripture in 3 Nephi when Christ appears to the Nephites....

8 And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

 9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:

 10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

 11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

 12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

The spirit was so strong after we finished reading and he said in English...yes Im interested. I want to learn more. We were just beaming and are so excited for Omar!

There have been other miracles that I wish I could tell you...but sadly Pday is almost over and we have a Christmas party family home evening put on by the missionaries that we need to set up for in the next 20 minutes. So Im excited to try and see everyone I love here in this next week, find new people for the next missionaries to bring to baptism and pray really hard that the Lord will guide me in whatever is coming up next for me. . . 

Love you all. The church is true and brings so much joy.

Nie vergessen (as Burcan always says)

Alles Liebe, Sister Rasmussen

Welcome drink....better when it pops not burns...

Why did I call this email welcome drink you ask? Well, I just wanted to tell you a funny yet sad mission experience and explain another awesome drink experience we have here in lovely Leipzig, Germany.

We were given a 'welcome drink' as we showed up to our appointment with Ruth Stein (who is the same lady we talked to 3 months ago who is finially back from her vacation!!) She was so excited to see us and has been reading in the Book of Mormon and showed up to CHURCH YESTERDAY WOOT! but going on with the drink story there were beautiful glasses on the table she had so lovingly prepared with cut up peaches swimming in some sort of red/purple liquid. She was so excited to give them to us and as I asked what it was she replied 'Ill let you find out' (should have been the first red flag) either way after the little sip of burning grossness we asked, does this have alcohol? and well she apologized then for the red wine and made us some fruit tea...much better. I must say it was a little funny but also sad, its sometimes weird to think that some sort of drink can take the spirit away from us but it is true. Its definitely a way to show faith and obediance by keeping the word of wisdom, especially for these people who have had wine and coffee their entire lives, but its just a way to prove their love for the Lord and respect for his commandments. I am so grateful to even be aware of the commandments of God, it gives me a way to orient my life to do what is right and what is best for me. There are so many people in this world who want to do right but dont have the right direction or orientation, if you make your health decisions on the latest discoveries the best solutions in 10 years will actully end up being exactly wrong and the knowledge of men is just constantly changing its a blessing to know the laws of God and to know how to recieve the most blessings...Love it. The other welcome drink is the new drink we give people who first are transferred to Leipzig, I actually forgot their real name but its a japanese place with fruit juices with really thick straws because there are also little balls about the size of marbles also filled with a different juice that then pop in your mouth its AWESOME. So. Welcome drink can be good, but watch out for the ones that burn down the throat from loving investigators...

We had an awesome Thanksgiving with the missionaries and an american couple and an icelandic couple. Theyre awesome and we felt like a family. We had mashed potatoes, thanks to Sister Faerber and I, and all the turkey and homemade stuffing we could want. I felt so blessed to have so much food and a warm home and loving people to be with. Its an incredible opprotunity to help those who dont have so much to realize they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and will bless them as they do what is right...and we get to be the people to tell them the good news and help them feel loved. One little moment of that joy was last week at family home evening...did I already write home about this? We bought Bürcan new tennis shoes which he couldnt afford and his eyes were filled with such gratitude and love, not just for the shoes but for the loving new family he has found. It was a neat expereince that Ill never forget, Christiane is feelign just as loved and blessed, she is now assigned as a visiting teacher of course and has an interview for a temple reccommend next week (the one she used for the temple was only for that day) and she is feeling loved. She sent us a text yesterday saying how grateful she was to know us and wrote us a note saying how she is grateful we are teaching her the gospel and helping her find out she has a new ward family. That fact in itself just shows me that the church is true and that we have a Heavenly Father who loves and guides us, anyone ANYONE can come into church and feel loved and welcome, and its all over the world!! Today we went with Olga to her russian orthodox church, just to see it, its a beautiful building but as we stood inside it was old and hollow feeling, I felt cold (not not literally) and just felt sad yet blessed and excited to be able to now clearly show Olga the difference of a church being lead by the living Savior of the World, through a living prophet, its really true that people still live by the weird old traditions of their fathers just like in the Book of Mormon and it draws them away from the love of the Lord, not because they are horrible wicked...they just arent correct and are missing the truth! Im so excited to share the gospel these next couple weeks with our two older German investigators, Thea Ritcher and Ruth Stein, Thea was at temple square and gave her address to the sisters there, and we invited her to be baptized and we have an appt this next Thursday so pray for Thea!!

I get to see another baptism this Saturday from our lovely Rober Schuster...he is such a cool guy, around 45 years old, is LOADED and is a huge deal in the volleyball reffing world of Germany, on like the main board for Northern Germany or something, haha anyway he was talked to by Elder McCann about 4 months ago on his bike and is now getting baptized this Saturday, he was going to get baptized later but moved it up, first of all because he is ready now and so I could be there :) He had to sacrifice a lot...lot of wine as he has been learning to live by the gospel standards, he knows its worth it, definintely not in the money he lost in giving away his wine collection but in the blessings he will receive in doing it. Hes so cool...He watches a general conference talk on his ipad before he goes to bed every night and stayed up til 5 in the morning one night last week reading on line about chastity and families and the prophets words on the topic, He loves the gospel and has such a strong testimony, how cool would it be if we all had a new love and desire to listen to general conference talks more often and refesh ourselves on the standards we live by. Robert has definitely given me a new motivation to have a bigger love for the gospel and desire to learn...

Im feeling a lot of mixed emotions with the changes going on but im so grateful to be here and know these people and help them feel the spirit and have a stronger desire to choose the right, to know who Christ is and what he did and continues to do for them. Its such a blessing to be here in Leipzig with such an awesome ward and even cooler CHRISTMAS MARKET....youve never celebrated Christmas til you have been to a Weihnachtsmarkt in Germany....ill take a video and show you in the real world...its a dream. So we are enjoying the holiday season and asking people why we celebrate Christmas is always a good time.

Hope you have a successful week and know how much I love and appreciate you and this gospel and this mission. 
Vielen dank und Alles Gute.
Sister Rasmussen

Thanks for the package mom!! I'll send all these out to everyone I've met!!

Us in the old part of the Christmas market, its like old medieval Germany with Handbrot...delicious.

Thanks for the golden bikes mom, Sister Faerber and I love them

 Yep, mashed potatoes, we made a lot.

 

 That was Thanksgiving.

Tschüssssssy

Gott, der mich bis hierher gebracht hat, wird weiter sorgen.

The church is true.

Its incredible how clearly and simply we can find that out. Just pray about it. Then you get an answer direct from your Heavenly Father of love and peace. Ah! Its indescribable feeling. Its been such an awesome week taking our new converts: Christiane, Bürcan, Irakli, Lali and Daniel to the temple. The spirit was so strong watching the baptisms and confirmations seeing them now helping others fulfill these eternal ordinances. It was an awesome experience when Bürcan got the priesthood. We woke up at 5:30 and got ready and met him and Moni at Bahnhof and all rode together happy and tired except for Daniel who said, 'I cant be tired, we're going to the temple!' He is such a 12 yr old stud who has such a strong testimony. He knows to follow the spirit and talks about how he has people in the school who make fun of him because he goes to church but he stands up for his faith and you can already see what an awesome missionary he will be. He loved the temple and it was amazing because he was with his mom and older brother, who are all such strong contributions to the church here in Leipzig. Bürcan knows that the priesthood is the power of God and it is the power the Lord gives to his servants to help build his Kingdom on the earth. He was excited and ready to be ordained to a priest. I just love these people. Im honored to know them.

Im honored to know all these older members here as well. We had an eating appointment with an awesome older couple who were those who lived as members in the DDR times, freezing huddled together for sacrament meeting in the basement of an old theater....Ive heard and read about those strong German members, but I got to eat dinner at their house!... talk and laugh with them. Brother and Sister Baasch. Who by the way said he has Rasmussens in his family line. He was so excited to check if we were relatives! Pretty awesome, he kind of looks like grandpa Rasmussen as well, so I wouldnt be surprised. Anyway these members went through so much during the ddr. For example Schwester Baasch's sister Schwester Schmidt when she was 6 yrs old in the school was asked if she believed in God and the teacher put her on a stool in front of the class and said 'okay class you are all aloud to laugh at this girl who believes in fairytales like God.' Bah, I cant even imagine that being a real story, let alone meet her and become one of the family! I love these people and admire the testimonies of these members. They are so strong and are great examples of how to represent Christ. 

We had some awesome appointments this past week with Bianke and Olga. Teaching about eternal families is the best. We talked to Olga about being married in the temple seals a family not just for life but for eternity. She said she would want to get married in the temple. Still struggling realizing the truthfullness of the church and the restored truths that are in this church but she is sweet and reading in the Book of Mormon and will understand it someday...Its a blessing having the faith and understanding of the truthfullness of the gospel. This experience with Olga has made me grateful for the faith that God has blessed me with. I love that concept that faith is a gift. Its not something you can pay for or go pick up at the store, its also not just something you can work on yourself, it comes from God and I challenge all of us to pray for more faith, because if our faith is stronger than our desire to choose the right is stronger and we feel the strength of the Savior behind our decisions. If we are struggling keeping the commandments our faith has weakened and commitment level drops. That is why prayer and scripture study are so important, its like keeping our muscles toned. It doesnt work to just work out hard once every week, and eat crappy and not exercize thoughout the week and expect to stay top fit. Just like our testimonies, we cant just 'work out' on Sunday, but every day train a little, study a little or a lot but stay ständig, constant in the spirit. Its such a true principle ive noticed on my mission thet times where Im happiest and feel the Lord guiding us is when our prayers are more sincere, and our study is deeper..Also the investigators that really make progress and experience the miracles are the ones who pray and read throughout the week as well as come to church. Its an eternal concept and takes constant practice.

We had an awesome lesson in our gospel principles class taught by a new convert named Gotcha. He taught about freiheit (freedom) and the concept of choosing to keep the laws and if the laws stop us from being free or if they are what keep us free. Like the example of a 'Schwimmin verboten' (swimming forbidden) sign...does that sign take away our freedom? No. We still have the decision to keep the law or not but if we chose to swim we could drown and then all freedom is lost. Opposed to not swimming and being free to do anything else. I know that concept is true as we keep the laws of God we are happy, clean, full of love and the spirit and life is invigorating... Im so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who gave his perfect life so that we could be clean and have these feelings of joy. I hope if you arent feeling these feelings of peace, contentiment, motivation and love that you pray and figure out what you have to change and change it. Not only will it make you happy but its also a commandment so stop putting it off and change now because well you have to and it makes you happy! 

I've been working on my calling people to repentance part of missionary work and its a beautiful challeging thing to ask people to change, but that is when the spirit can touch people so its worth it. We have some big plans to visit a lot of member families and challenge them to invite others unto Christ. With big or little steps its the most important thing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, if that is to say a prayer together on dinner together or invite them to the Christmas concert or to meet with the missionaries it doesnt matter how big or small just that we extend the invitation. So please pray for us that we can touch the members hearts and they can feel the spirit of the missionary work...then the big miracles will come!

I love this place and these people. Oh and I love you too. Happy THANKSGIVING! This thursday? Yeah we are getting together with the other Americans in our ward and the missionaries...we are bringing the mashed potatoes, I hope I can make them like my pops'. Mal sehen. 

 Christiane's baptism

 Us eating Hackepeter...raw hamburger

 The group. I love these people

 The sisters.

 Me and my Christiane after temple baptisms

Our district...end nov-beginning dec 2011

Bis später! 
Sister Rasmussen

Come ye children of the Lord...

We had a beatiful taufgottesdienst...baptismal service yesterday for Christiane. I am feeling so blessed to have the knowledge of this gospel and get to share it. Christiane was nervous but excited and we woke up at 5:15 and she woke up even earlier to get there an hour before it started and we helped her look all purdy and set up the programs with roses etc. We also got her a picture of Christ and had the people that came to the baptism sign the matting. It was a beautiful service, but more beautiful was the spirit that was there as a couple members gave talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We asked people to speak who have met Christiane but who also havent been toooo involved in the missionary work and they brought their families and we had many many people from the ward young and old come an hour earlier to church to watch our Christiane make a covenant with the Lord through baptism...with the priesthood of God.

She was nervous at the beginning then seemed to be quite humbled at the turn out to her baptism. Shew as beaming after it hapened and was happy and offering to read scriptures in our gospel principles class. She has already invited many people to come to family to home evening and also invited a lot to her baptism...shes already a missionary. Also in the blessing she got when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost spoke of missionary work as well. I just love her and am so stoked for her because she is also going to the temple this Saturday with the ward to do baptisms! She wants to do the temple work for her parents who passed away 6 years ago...and we as the missionaries are excited for her because its said those new converts who get to the temple in the first 6 months of being in the church stay stronger in the gospel. Yay! We are excited to go and Bürcan is coming as well! We taught him about baptism with Mike and Irakli there as well and it was neat to teach them about the power that God is giving them to build his kingdom to bless their families and perform holy ordiniances. It was cool to read about the powerful men in the Book of Mormon....for example like this scripture . . .

 17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

So true. Can you imagine if all the men in the church were like Moroni? What if all the woman treated their husbands and fathers and brothers, friends as priesthood holders of the Lord. The devil wouldnt have power over the hearts of the children of men. . . that would be great. Anyway we are feeling so blessed with the progress and joy Christiane and Bürcan are having. We also have a new GOLDEN investigator named Gonzales....

yep theyre just walking around outside looking at the tables haha, we were street contacting in the city and the people were particularly mean that morning (this was 3 days ago) and we were headed back to the institute center when we saw Gonzales looking at the tables in front of a restaurant. We talked to him about the ´Book of Mormon and found out that he is from Peru and is getting his Ph.D here in Chemistry and he will be here for the next 2 years. He said he had lots of collegues back home who were members of the church and one of his friends gave him a Book of Mormon back in Peru (wahoo, good member missionary work) and he said he would love another one. We gave him one and set up a return appointment for the next day...yesterday and it was AWESOME! One of the best lessons of my mission. Irakli was there, helped a lot because of his spanish, yeah he baptized Christiane ýesterday morning and then helped us teach last night, he is always with the missionaries, switching between lessons with us and the elders, all members should take after his example :) anyway Gonzales was telling US the prophecies of the apostacy in the bible and said he totally agreed with the concept of the great apostacy and said of course Joseph Smith could have seen the Father and the Son, he said he would of course be baptized when he found out for himself that the Book of Mormon is true, so hopefully we will set a date with him our next appointment! woot!

I love it here in Leipzig and yes we had transfer calls and Sister Faerber and I are staying together! Im so excited for the miracles coming our way with Olga, Mascha, Bianka, Christiane, Bürcan, Ines, Maria....bah theres so many, just waiting to come closer to Christ, isnt the gospel true?? Yes. Yes it is.

Have a happy Monday and know how important it is to pray... really pray, with your whole heart. Then you can repent and feel the love of our eternal, allmighty creator, and our perfect father. He is just waiting to bless you, just ask him for the blessings, and follow his guidance...then the miracles come! I promise you that.

Love you!

Sister Rasmussen

Christiane was baptized! It was a beautiful taufgottesdienst.

1.All the girls

2. Me and the Christiane

3. Katrin is great, thats a real smile of hers.

4. Us on the train headed to tausch

5. Distrikt meeting!

6. Us... lost...

Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?

Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. I agree with Alma...I cannot say the smallest part which I feel about serving the Lord and being one of his missionaries.

Last week was an amazing week wasnt it? I hope it was a good one for you. I heard it snowed in your gegend? (youre area?) It's luckily still clear here. Actually, not too chilly but they did set up some christmas decorations outside hanging in between the buildings. It's so charming! Leipzig is beautiful. You all should come visit... not me, just the city. : ) And you know what's even better? The ward!! And even better, the gospel. It's so....true! And if you aren't sure of that truthfullness than, well, I recommend figuring that out at soon as possible. The blessings that come from living the gospel of our Savior are so precious, perfect, and so full of the love our perfect Heavenly Father. 

I know the church is true and miracles happen...one of them occurred at our Halloween party! Yes, it was a success. We decorated all day last p-day and the institute center looked awesome. We had 42 people show and 14 investigators! It was a really enjoyable enviornment and we had an awesome spiritual thought. Sister Färber and I at the beginning about when Christ walked on the water. We talked about how when the disciples first saw Christ they didnt recognize him and thought he was a ghost and were afraid. When we relate it to our lives and sometimes when Christ answers our prayers not how we expected we can first be afraid and not even realize its our loving Savior bringing us help. It was a great thought. Well, I thought so anyway. It helps me in my life when I get timid or hesitant the adversary gives us these feelings of incapability and fear. But in those moments I try and remember the Lord and his sacrifice and willingness to help me whenever I need him. I know he is there and I know his strong, loving arms are out ready to help all of us when we need support.

Yeah like I said, (I keep getting distracted from my point because talking about the gospel is so much more awesome),we had a miracle at the halloween party. Mascha came and was pretty happy when she was there and as the games started going, she asked Sister Färber and I if she could talk to us for a few minutes....She took us aside in the kitchen and said....'Ive been thinking and reading the past few days and I want to do it, I want to be baptized on December 4th!' BAHHHH! Isnt that amazing!?!? She said she is doing this with her whole heart and wants it for herself. She wants Irakli to baptize her and is excited! We are so blessed here. It's my first experience having someone come to me and tell me they want to be baptized (opposed to them saying yes to our invitation). So thats the plan, sadly she is leaving for the next 10 days for Ukraine, but we saw her right before she left at bahnhof and she had her Book of Mormon in her bag and was planning to read on the train! We prayed with her before she left and she is going to try and quit smoking and build her relationship with her Savior while she is up there. MIRACLE!

I was super blessed this past Thursday to go on tausch with my great friend Sister Stewart! She is fantastic and so original and hilarious. We had a great tausch in DRESDEN and had one of the most awesome lessons of my mission. The sisters there had made an appointment out with a guy whos number they had found on a contact sheet. His name was Michael Pfenning and he was so cool!! He had perfect English but was from Bayern. He is a musician and had the coolest apartment. The building is from like the 1600s but he has redone it and I just wanted to stay and look at all the artwork and pictures...but the best part was the conversation we had with him. In mixed German and English we talked about life and joy and peace, and then we went more specifically into how the relationships we have here on earth can last forever. He proceeded to tell us that his sweet wife had died of cancer less than a year before. It was so cool to teach him the first part of the plan and to see the spirit touch him. He gave us peppermint tea and pfannkuchen and said he liked the sound of families being together forever. He didn't have a big knowledge of Christian belief even though he apparently was raised Catholic .Either way it ws such an honor to get to be the missionary to tell him that the spirits that we have in us and the spirit his wife had in her have been with God before and can be with him again. It's a perfect glorious plan that we have the knowledge of...tell somebody about it! It brings so much JOY!

Yeah, then we had Zone conference on Friday and it was my favorite one so far! I loved president's theme on fishing with nets. He remotivated us to keep going with our cards and to get the name of the church out there. We have given out half a million cards in the past 6 months in the Germany Berlin mission woot! So we are continuing to fish with nets, just like the disciples did after Christ was resurrected. They had to call over other boats to help them bring in the catch it was so big...

I got to give a workshop on obedience. It went pretty well. It's such a crucial important concept of missionary work, and also of being a Christian, and actually of being a good person in general. It's so simple yet difficult sometimes. There are blessings and guidance we need to have the best life we can, with success and joy.  And there are laws, rules, specific ways to receive those blessings. Simple. Keep the law, get the blessing. And we are called of the Lord to keep those laws, it is expected of us. NO you dont HAVE to....(ahem but youre a fool if you don't) it just feels good to do good. To be good. To do your best and realize you can even do better with the Lord behind you. I kind of put some missionaries in their place and called myself as well to repentance, but we have no room to debate if we will be obediant because we gave ourselves to the Lord, all of us, and we represent him. But do you want to know a secret???......shh...so did YOU! As members of his church we said we would keep his laws and commandments and be his representatives. It's so fulfilling and full of JOY. Hope youre keeping all the rules... if not, well... just do it :)

I know this email is too long already but I wanted to also report we are seeing success with the excitment of the members of doing missionary work as well. I bore my testimony about chocolate cake. How I love it, but dont love it by myself. It seems almost depressing sitting down to eat chocolate cake alone, but when you share it it tastes so much better because more people get to taste of the deliciousness. JUST LIKE THE GOSPEL OF COURSE! We need to share it! I told the members we are helping Christiane WHOSE BAPTISM IS THIS SUNDAY! We are helping her realize the seriousness and responsibility of being a member of the church. and that our responsibility is to live and spread his gospel! Woot...its such an awesome work. Anyway, Schwester Schmidt then got up and said she needed help knowing how to share her chocolate cake. Then we met with the Ortlieb family and they are excited about our plan to help them pray and invite people to come unto Christ. Whether that is with big steps or small steps it doesn't matter, just helping people feel his love, and be aware of His existance and sacrifice and love! The gospel is so amazing! I hope you feel that love as much as I do...you can if you want! Just do it. Keep that law thats hard for you then youll be more fulfilled with joy. I promise.

Well, probably should let you get on with your day, but just know I appreciate you and your prayers. Thanks for your love.

Machts gut, Sister Rasmussen

Ja Klar

So...Happy Halloween to you all. They don't really celebrate Halloween here. It's more scary than fun. So we said, "W the missionaries will throw a halloween party for family home evening." Then they announced it at stake conference! So...we bought some stuff on Saturday, and today (Monday) all the stores are closed. So...well I'm feeling a little pressure to make it awesome with little resources. But it sounds like we will have more visitors than members attending so there should be a lot of missionary work going on like new appointments made out to get to the really important stuff, like teaching the gospel.

Speaking of teaching I had one of my favorite lessons last night and wanted to share it with you. We were with Christane all day long yesterday and she came with us to visit our sweet 89 yr old schwester Schielde and then came with us to visit Bürcan. We just helped him get a new apartment (we as in the ward) and we helped him move in. He had to do some last minute stuff in his old apartment so we met him there to help him and teach him. So the four of us sat on the floor of his old 5th floor apartment with a lamp being the only light, and we talked about their experiences of finding the church. Both of them have been having some outer pressure. Bürcan's ex girlfriend randomly saw a picture of him getting baptized and read up on the church and gave him a lot of anti stuff and info and we were so proud when he told us the story and shared with us his response. He just said I know this church is truch and I feel the love of the Lord when I am in the church and with these people and living this lifestyle. He shut all that opposition down quickly.
Christiane is the same way. She talks about how she knows there is a God and will be able to see her parents again (who both passed away when she was 11) and she knows that there are people who won't support her. She has already lost a few friends, and the boyfriend of her sister 'ist seemlich dagegen' (pretty much against the church) but apparently her sister was asking a lot of questions and wants some info. Sadly no contact with us yet, but that will come :)

Sorry all my thoughts are all mixed together because I am just so excited about the work going on here. We took Christiane yesterday to stake conference which was in another city so 13 of us went on the train and met the whole stake in this theater they rented out. President Pimentel came as well as a 70 from the Netherlands. Olga came as well to stake conference on Saturday night and so did Georgy our new investigator! It's just miracle after miracle. Stake conference was awesome. The 70 talked about how we need to stand in holy places and those are the temple, the church, our homes, and where we stand. People who come into our presence should feel they are on holy ground because we keep our thoughts clean, language clean, and if we are full of love then people will notice something different. Isn't that great! It's the truth. People do feel a difference and feel the love of their Heavenly Father, through us! Isn't it such an honor to be a member of the church to get to be an answer to someone else's prayer, yeah i love it!

We are working hard on mapping out how to visit as many members as possible to get referrals. We have a new referral card which we got from the zone leaders and all of the Leipzig zone will be meeting with all the members in the next few months to propose this plan. It is to pray for a week to find someone new to invite to meet with the missionaries. The invitation is the success and we are so excited about the miracles that are coming... It's a little tricky just trying to bring the spirit and excitment of sharing the gospel while not overwhelming people. And I know that there is someone (satan...such a bother) who makes missionary work seem so foreign or such a challenge. But it's really so simple. Just opening up and loving people more, with ouwhole hearts! Man I love it.

We also are having zone conference this Friday and I get to give a workshop on obediance. I'm excited because it's such a simple yet profound concept and all success relys on obediance. Especially missionary success. I just love the plainness of the fact that if we love the Savior we will keep his commandments. No ifs, ands, or buts. We either truly love Him with our whole hearts and appreciate His love and sacrifice and than show that to him, or not. Then I ask why would someone waste their life not expereincing the love of their Savior and Heavenly Father...the warm feeling of his presence, and the clarity of his guidance is so heavenly and profound. Just keeping his commandments is the simple way to feel that warm love and support from our Heavenly Father. DON'T YOU LOVE IT!? Me too. Makes me smile, the clarity of the gospel is so great. Let's go tell someone about it!! So they can feel it toooooo.

Have a lovely Halloween, just have fun and keep the commandments, aka show your love and appreciation for OUR Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It takes concious effort until it becomes a habit, but I promise you will be more fulfilled and focused and einfach (simply) happier when you try it! I will if you will!
Love you dearly,
Sister Rasmussen (actually dressed up as Sister Faerber today...looks great, Happy Halloween!)

Werden Sie das beispiel Jesu Christi folgen...

Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ? That is really what we are trying to teach people here; who he is, what he did, how much he loves us, that he lives today, and how to follow his example. It's such an unforgettable experience when people hear it, understand it, and feel the love of the Lord in our lessons and alone at home.

A huge blessing right now is what is going on with Christiana. She came to church yesterday in my skirt again and looked great! We have a new aufbau class with our new ward mission leader who is an awesome teacher. We talked about Heavenly Father and his attributes. It was so great because it was a small group and Christiana added to the discussion and clearly learned a lot. That is really our purpose - to help her build her relationship with her Heavenly Father and with Christ. It was also great because more people in the ward are noticing her and helping her feel welcome. She has come with us the past two Sundays to our eating appointments with members and you can see that her hopes for a future family and her thoughts about her decisions now are changing for the better. We had an awesome lesson about chastity and it was so cool to talk about our respect for ourselves and our future relationship, as well as our respect for the Lord and what is best for us. She is doing great and is inviting her friends to come to activities already as well...yeah!

We also went and saw Olga at her house and her husband was there! He is athiest and isn't a big fan of religion. He was born and raised athiest, but he was there and was so friendly. He and Olga are the cutest couple ever and they are so in love. We talked to them about life and family and got to know him a little better and they showed us their wedding pictures....cute but so...hmm anticlimatic? Just pictures of some guy by a desk in the city hall and them signing some paper and drinking champange afterwards... Sister Faerber and I were excited to see them but it also showed me wow what a huge drastic difference there is with a marriage in the world and marriage in the temple. Not even comparable. We asked if we could show them an awesome 5 minute dvd we have called finding happiness which is good when just wanting to start the conversation about the purpose of life. It shows beautiful landscapes and families and people working here in Europe and asks the questions like, "What if there was a big plan for us?" and "Who is the creator?" and "What if we could find out this purpose and live in unity with it?" " What if you could communicate with this creator, our Heavenly Father?" ...etc, and the spirit comes pretty quickly. We showed them the video. Olga loved it! And the man was well, you could tell he was affected by it, but he wasn't interested. He said, "I know Olga likes meeting with you and that's great, but Im not interested." It was weird to hear that response after just bearing testimony of the joy that comes when knowing a marriage can be together forever! What a happy thought! Oh well. He will come around. We can just invite right? Either way we laughed with them a lot and we brought the spirit into their home. Mal sehen.

We had an awesome Sunday yesterday. Sister Faerber plays this gorgeous 'erstaunt und bewundert' arrangement (I stand all amazed) arrangement and the spirit is so strong! It brings people to tears and oh I just love it, I tend to ask all of our investigators if they have an extra 5 minutes at the end of our lesson to hear her song. It's a good thing she loves me and loves playing the song or else someone could get really annoyed me always asking to hear it... :)

It was pretty chilly a couple nights this past week. We were on the gleises talking to people pretty late and were just freezing, but it was exciting and we found some cool people.... like GEORGE AND RACHEL!

They came up to us and asked us what our shields are! Oh I mean tags, haha. And they said they were looking for a bible study but it had fallen out! So we said, WELL, can we show you our institute in the city and we talked about there being a living prophet on the earth today....and then about the book of mormon and George freaked when we told him we had it in Hungarian! He was so excited!!! We had an awesome lesson with them and gave them both books of Mormon. Rachel is from Germany and George is from Romania but they are 20 and 24 years old and are awesome. Hopefully we will see them this week... I LOVE IT!

Being a missionary is the greatest life ever, just getting to study the gospel, feel the spirit, find others who want to learn and be a tool in the Lords hands....just hearing what a life is like in the real world....bleah i want to do this forever :) Okay? okay.

I hope you are happy and healthy and feeling the love from me through this email but more importantly the love of my and your Heavenly Father in your whole heart and soul. There's no better more fulfilling feeling than feeling his love and guidance! I recommend it.

Have a great OKTOBER week!

Love, Sister Rasmussen.

'...how bout sometime next week?'

Those are my two favorite lines we got to hear this past week..... so the normal rundown when we talk to people on the street about the gospel we get into a coversation about the purpose of life, or how we find real joy or the fact that we have a loving Father in Heaven and then we go for an appointment right? Yeah, so we are normally suggesting times that they could meet us at the institute center in the city and then we end up figuring out a time, but to be honest it doesnt happen very often where a person, like Susan. We talked to for a good 10 minutes who was pretty skeptical at the beginning and she told us that she had tried to believe in God when she went to visit Ireland and said it didnt work haha, well we then figured out she speaks like perfect english and works for Office depot here in Leipzig? Yeah and she was born here, her family isnt religious at all and she didnt have a good experience when she visted a church in Ireland. As we talked to her about the love her Heavenly Father had for her and the purpose of a church, his church is to learn the truth about him, how we can learn to show our love back to him and to each other. Also most importantly to fulfill his plan for us and be sealed to our families for eternity. It was so cool to see the spirit touch her and to laugh a little realizing how this church has been here at least 20 years and she had never heard of it but wondered why. She then said of course she would meeet us and we asked if she had time tomorrow and that didnt work and then SHE said 'how bout some time next week?' Yes yes I know there are prepared people and that the Lord gives us the words to touch their hearts, but I dont think ive ever heard them suggest 'how about some time next week?' It just showed an excitement and a sincere desire to find the truth. I WAS SO EXCITED AFTER WE TALKED TO HER, just imagined her in white and coming to institute and being a future young womans leader....yay.
Isnt that cool? Just walking on the glies on the way home and she wants the truth, wow they are just all over this city and weve just got to talk to them. Yeah, we are still teaching the other awesome people who we are calling the fantastisch vier (fantastic four) Christiane, Masha, Olga and Stephan..
Christane is doing so great, is coming to every activity and she even wore the skirt I gave her to church yesterday. She loves saying the prayer and brought a friend to come meet us last night. You can see her changing to be obedient and to do what is right. She is in need of love and of people to give her a good example. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and ever person that changes to live in unity with his teachings is just another testimony to me of the truthfullness. Its so incredible to see the happiness and satisfaction in their eyes. She is going to wait until her friend Nadine comes back from Hannover to be baptized so it will be on November 13, but she is excited and her faith is growing. Its a challenge to see how much she understands and is taking in because she is going from 0 belief, but Sister Faerber and I read in 3 Nephi about the people who repented and believed on Christs name were baptized and stayed strong and true to the faith, and that is what Christiane is doing.
It was awesome teaching Olga as well this week as we taught about the apostacy again and the need of a restoration of the truth. The spirit was strong and Olga just giggles as she realizes she has found something that brings her closer to her Heavenly Father. It was sweet of her to ask us if its hard for us to convert her haha, she said another month or so and sister Faerber and I just smiled at each other realizing the Lord was doing the converting, not us. She is going to come to a members home (the relief society presidents home) and also talk to her husband, who served a mission in Russia, so theyll speak russian together. I know the spirit will touch her when she feels of the truthfullness in her mother tongue.
Masha is doing great too, she was just coming to sport because she boxes and we have helped her realizes the plan that Heavenly Father has for us and how to become better people in following his son Jesus Christ, so now she is meeting with us as well! She is excited to meet with us this week and is willing to have faith in to what we teach her and to pray personally to find out the truth for herself. Its been really personal because her mother passed away in her arms and she feels her mother close as we teach her more about his plan. She had us over to make us a delicious lunch and we taught her about the restoration, the spirit was strong and she teared up realizing the love that comes through this gospel. Its sweet when she calls us family and like her sisters, I hope we can teach her well so her roots are deep in the gospel.
I sure love serving here in Leipzig and for the ward, our GML (ward mission leader) is awesome, just baptized and married his girlfriend this past summer and served a mission in California so he knows the hows and whats about how to best work with the ward. We are going to have more organized lessons with the called ward missionaries so our investigators can meet real people who live and love this gospel, im so stoked! (alongside that will be more of a ward sport with hockey in the parking lot so they can feel loved and welcome) yay missionary work! Dont you love this gospel too??
One special person we are visiting lately is Schwester Schilde, she is the lady with the sunglasses in the picture. She is 89 and is the strongest member ive ever met. Her testimony is so strong especially of Thomas S. Monson being a prophet of God. I told her yesterday the expereince I got to have with President Monson before he was the prophet when he told me to 'marry right' and she teared up and said he really is inspired isnt he? Just like the story he told in generalkonferenz... we had an awesome appointment with her and she calls us her granddaughters. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!
Missions are the greatest and I cant imagine not going on a mission, these people and experiences are priceless!
Hope you know how grateful I am for your love and prayers and for your letter mom, Have a super Oktober week!

Love, Sister Rasmussen
Das Evangelium macht man glücklich...probier mal davon zu kosten. :)
 

but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ.....

Do you know what happens to those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ? They are happier, more fulfilled, more filled with love and forgiveness, more reassured that good is going to come. Its so amazing being able to teach Christiane, Stephan, Olga, Masha and our other investigators who Christ is, how much he loves them and how they can show their love back to him. Its amazing to help them change their lives to be receptive to the blessings Heavenly Father is holding out of them. Its so cool to see their faith and willingness to read even if they dont understand, to change to keep the commandments because of their goal to strengthen their relationship with Christ. We are seeing miracles, especially this last week. It was the first week of this transfer and we reached and even suceeded some goals we had set...one of them being members with us at lessons.

Its been really amazing to see the improvement of the work, we arent just searching for people anymore, we arent just teaching a couple people and scraping by getting lessons, we are teaching people who are making significant progress and bringing members to our lessons and teaching in members homes etc. Its so inspiring to be apart of the work as the 'giant of missionary work' here in Germany wakes up.

Some special miracles that I loved this past week happened last night and the night before. Ive told you before of the missions goal to make out a new appointment every day with somebody new, making that at least 7 new appointments a week. Well the past two days our days were packed with lessons and there wasnt much time to find. We had the goal to talk to everyone we could but there were slim chances, I mean think of the miracle in itself to be able to do that! To find someone who will be willing to meet with two strangers, who cant really speak their language to talk about a deep topic like the purpose of life...pretty incredible, but to them find a person who would be willing to do that within a 20 minute time range? yeah, I know right! So we prayed and talked to everyone, no go, but as we walked on our street home we talked Saturday night to a guy who said yeah he would but had shifts with his work so it was always spontan when he could meet, but we found a time and hes meeting us next week. THEN last night about 20 feet away from the other guy we talked to an awesome lady named Rosie on our street after having talked to tons of people in the city and she was so cool and said the same thing it was hard to find a time because she had shifts at her work too...but she said we could meet on Saturday, bah!! After we walked away from making out the appointment we just walked with jaws dropped and both thanked our Heavenly Father for sending us two nights in a row someone who would want to hear 'der frohe nachricht' (the joyful message.)

We also had an awesome appointment with our lovely Olga, the awesome law student from Ukraine whos husband is athiest and German, we have been meeting with her for a couple months now and she is more open every time we meet with her. We had her meet us at the church this time and gave her a tour. Then we pulled out our secret weapon, Sister Faerber's arrangement of  'I stand all Amazed' on the piano...the spirit comes so strongly and we then bore testimony of Christ and his love for us. We told her about how we show our love to him by keeping his commandments and committed her to live the word of wisdom. She then said we could come visit her at home and meet her husband! SHE THEN came to church and saw the last session of Generalkonferenz and loved it. She said she thought Thomas S. Monson was a prophet and she felt the spirit when she was there. We still have a lot of work to do with her to help her realize this is the ONLY church with the priesthood and the power to act in Gods name when perfoming holy ordinances...but we are trusting in the Lord and know he'll give us the words. 

We also saw a lot of miracles with Christiane! She is so excited about the gospel and said she noticed a change in herself to be more outgoing and to be more daring...you can tell her self confidence is growing a lot. She is really feeling the love of the Lrod and loves this feeling of belonging to a family. She is committed to keep the commandments and reconfirmed to us yesterday after church that she is going to keep the sabbath day holy and go read her scriptures and not go out shopping with friends, she said she can do that next week. :) She was assigned last week to give the opening prayer this week (tonight) at family home evening and she has been offering to give the prayer in all our lessons etc, its so amazing to have been maybe a small help in someone building their relationship with their Heavenly Father. 

We also met with Masha and she is like a big sister to me, she is from Ukraine and is awesome, she is a boxer haha and is the sweetest, she met us by coming to the church on Wednesday nights to do sport and a guy who just got baptized in June is a boxing trainer anyway, thats how we met her and we have met with her a few times, she's made us food and has come to Familieheimabend etc, and was pretty open but wasnt catching on to the vision, or our purpose and goal to help her come unto Christ but this past week as we met with her and she opened up to us she explained to us about a dream she had and she saw her mother who passed away just a year ago, she knew this was an answer to her prayers and we are now debating which ward to baptize her into :) She is amazing and we are already planning when she can come visit America. :)

One of the last but most awesome miracles is Bürcan. He was the awesome guy from Turkey who got baptized 3 weeks ago...its been so amazing to talk to him and teach him now, now that he has the gift of the Holy Ghost. He understands a lot more quickly, and is LOVING the gospel. He also experienced a miracle of telling his mother that he is Christian (because they are all Muslim) and he was really nervous that she would either die or disown him after he said that, but we promised him that the Lord would provide away and HE DID! He told her and she said its okay as long as he believes in God and is happy then that is all that matters to her! Bah! Miracle. He also had an amazing dream, well actually a couple of them and we are so grateful that the Lord is working so powerfully with them, its incredible to promise blessings and answers to prayers and to see the answer come so clearly. I know that God answers our prayers, because he has answered mine day after day after day after day.... i recommend trying it out. 

I love this mission and love this gospel. I love serving in Leipzig with such an awesome companion Sister Faerber. I love the Savior and love wearing his name. It is such an honor to get to tell people about the joy they can experience right now feeling his love...hope you are doing what you can to feel his love as well! 

I love you, thank you for your prayers and love. Have a great brisk Oktober Week! 

Congrats to my bestie Syd, who is becoming Sydney Evans TOMORROW! 

Sister Rasmussen

 Me in the Leipzig hauptbahnhof (trainstation)

 me and my golden Sister Faerber in my golden city last transfer at the temple!!

 me and Caroline at her baptism in September!

  Us at Bürcans baptism! Irakli was who baptized him, he himself was baptized in June!

Me at the Leipzig zoo...being a flamingo

Leipsch