HELLO LOVED ONES!
Im in an internet laden in Berlin, underground by the subway, we had to take an hour and a half train ride to get here this morning, but so worth it! This city is amazing....and huge! So many people. I am grateful we get to go back to our little smaller city of FRANKFURT ODER.
So Sister Roberts Jones went to mission home on Monday and Sister Forsyth was blitzed to me Monday evening!! She was in Dresden for the last three transfers and had served with Sister Scruggs as well! We are already best of friends, she is from Canada, around Calgary, she has been on her mission for 15 months and is so great! She is 5'2 and is a hard worker. Its been an adventure this last week to get around and decide how to best use our time and get used to covering 3 cities. We have really grown to trust in the Lord and his guidance this past week and its for sure brought us closer :) We had a cool opprotunity to have our mission president come visit our little branch yesterday because Sister Forsyth missed her interview with him because of the blitz, so he came to us! It was such an honor to get them all to ourselves and our little branch. In her interview apparently he said, well I wasnt sure if I should put you two together because maybe another sister needs a 'pick me up' but the Lord said you two should be together so.....'Here goes the dream team in Eisenhüttenstadt!' haha and its true! Its so amazing having a postive faithfilled hard working companion, we both walk fast haha, and have big big plans and goals for these next 9 weeks...well 8 weeks at least! We find so much joy in the work and dont hesitate talking to people, we support each other in lessons, and usually that takes a little while to get used to the new companion and how they work and teach, but we jumped in and are working hard and well togehter, we have already seen so many blessings this week, where to start!?!The big miracle is Frau Zimmer, Im sure ive told you a bit about her, but she is making this experience as a missionary such an honor for me. She is the previous Jehovahs witness and her daugher is the less active, right? You remember, she wsa the one who said 'I know the lord sent you to me.' Well, we went and visited her on Saturday and had a great lesson, she explained to sis Forsyth he struggles, she has like 4 versions of cancer and has had a really really hard life, and said she has been looking for God since she was nine. She is hesistant because she wants to join a religion and follow God, but she made the wrong decision before and doesnt want to repeat the horrible experience she had, so we taught the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, she said she was refreshed to feel the spirit, something she hadnt felt since she was little when she read in the Bible. She said she would pray about the church of Jesus Christ and we asked if we could come back the next day. So.....we did, we came back on Sunday and she said she had prayed and didnt get an answer, she didnt know why and was a little hesitant, we were talking more about the priesthood and the spirit was strong, we then read Mormon 9:18-21. It was incredible how the Lord spoke directly to her through those verses. I really could feel the Lord working through us. We talked about faith and trust in God and she said, 'ich habe gänsehaut (goosebumps) she said the Lord just answered my prayer. That is the key word, Trust, I have lost trust in God.' She said she thought it was a little odd we were coming back the next day, and to be honost I thought myself it was a little odd too, but we all know now that the Lord sent us back there to answer her prayer and she noticed that as well. We said that we would help her build back her trust in God and that there is so much peace and joy with living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and by doing things with this right authority and priesthood we can really feel the power of God in our lives. AHHHH HELLO it was so amazing, the spirit was really filling the room and it made our night, we were so motivated to go find more people, there is nothing more incredible than teaching and helping someone come closer to Christ!
That was our big miracle, we get to meet with her again on Tuesday and hopefully set a date with her. It will be cool too because she said she is going to visit her daughter in hütte and they could go together (MEANING OUR LESS ACTIVE LOVELY YVONNE WILL COME BACK REGULARLY TO CHURCH!) but that is a good transisiton into what happened at church yesterday! We had branch conference and people from the stake came, along with president and sister pimentel like I said, and we had 10 visitors there and 4 investigators! Everyone was surprised and happy to see so many people and I had to give the opening prayer haha, dont worry it was okay :) But I sat next to Frau Zimmers grand daugher, Yvonne's daughter, Katherina. She is 11 years old and isnt baptized and doesnt believe in God, she loves pokemon and well, yep, loves pokemon, So I got to sit next to her and she put her psp away in sacrament meeting! (that is a miracle in itself!) She sang the hymns with me and I brought the Book of Mormon for kids, you know with the pictures, and she flipped through it, I noticed she stopped on the page of Christ and the atonement and Christ's baptism. . . she sat with the other 12 year old young woman in our ward in the gemeinde essen afterwards, and I hope they felt loved and welcome and will come back again, the real problem is none of these people have cars, so its the physically getting to church which is the problem, especially people from our other two cities, but I know thats where the blessings will come, when these people commit to take the train to come to church! So we told the ward we are looking to baptize people with automobiles. :)
Another tender mercy was when we got off the train yesterday with our 70 year old member Manfred, a really pretty girl walked up to us and said Hi. Im Irene. haha, we were all thrown off, but she is a member from Ukraine, lives in Poland and is studying polish there! She served a mission in Russia and the closest ward to her in Poland is 300 km away! So this was her 2nd time coming to church here in EIsenhüttenstadt. She speaks Ukranian, Russian, Polish and English, but sadly not too much German, So it was neat to be her translater. She is SO cool and so sweet, and we 3 immediately clicked and she is planning to come every week now to this ward. She said she is going to burn a talk onto a cd for us that helped her on her mission and wow I just feel so blessed the Lord is just throwing best friends at me left and right :)
I am really starting to love our area, getting to know the bahn and train times is a constant learning process lol, but the more we talk to people and make out appts the more we love the city. there is so much work to do here, so many people to teach and so many people eager to meet with us, lots of prayers needed but a lot of miracles coming! There isnt a taufbeken (baptismal font) here so they either baptize at the sauna, OR if its warm there are two ladies in our ward with a swimming pool! haha, also president told us yesterday to call the Zone leaders to see where the closest one is....sounds like everyone is planning to see some baptisms here!!!!!!!! Hope you are too!
I hope you can feel the love of the lord and the excitement of the work here through my email, this is the most incredible experience and I am so grateful for the encouragement to come, there is nothing more powerful then a positive attitude which makes this experience what it is supposed to be, joyful and optimistic and cheerful, Sister Singer gave me a quote on our tausch about thoughts, and I recommend reading it.....and applying it...its from President Howard W. Hunter…
“There is magic in the way one thinks. If we expect the best, we will receive the best. If we train our minds to have faith in God and ourselves, we are using one of the greatest laws of life. If we think and live righteously, happiness will find its place in our lives. It is amazing when we expect the best how forces are set in motion which cause the best to materialize. Our thoughts more than our circumstances determine the course of our lives. Outward circumstances do not determine the course of our lives as muc has the thoughts that habitually occupy our minds. These thoughts carve their impression on our faces, in our hearts, and on the tablet of our eternal souls.”
phew! Cool huh! I thought so too. So have a stellar week, know that I am praying for you and that the work is going well and steady here in Frankfurt Oder. I hope you can feel my love through this email and may the lord bless you in all you want to accomplish this week!
I LOVE YOU!
Sister Rasmussen
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