Brownies...

I have the greatest 'chubby sister brownies' recipe. Thank you to Sister Marineau from my golden transfer and it is such a great way to bring love from the Sisters. Haha, we brought them to our ward party last week and sadly not everyone got some because somebody else hid them all for themselves...who knew they were so good? Either way we baked some and brought them to church and after the meeting we had a little treat for everyone. People kept asking...whats the occasion? (we really had made them because Schwester Zimmer and Katrin hadnt gotten any at the ward activity) but we just did it because we wanted to...it made me think....

Why does there always have to be a reason to do something good for somebody else? I think its a cool concept to hopefully master to just do things for people, serve people, just because. Just because thats actually our responsibility. I think our biggest goal of members of the church, and representatives of Christ is to accomplish what we promise to do every week when we take the sacrament. We promise to 'immer an ihm denken' (quick side note, its super wierd think of the sacrament prayer in English) to 'think of him always' and when we do that we act like him as well, because our actions come from our thoughts right?

Yeah we talked in scripture class this week about how sometimes we think of a situation we are in and say 'that has nothing to do with church or with the Lord' and that is completely false! Every situation we are in, regardless of its with work or friends or school or food haha every decision we are given 'has to do with the lord' Its so comforting to realize we can have guideance, divine guidance, for every decision we make...and thats where agency comes in.

Its one of the hardest things being a missionary and getting to deal with peoples agency. Christian has chosen to 'take a break' or something...we havent talked to him in a couple weeks. Its sad to see and kind of hurts, but then you realize Heavenly Father has a much bigger plan then ours and he will be ready to take on the gospel later, we were just a good introduction and Im excited to hear of the success other missionaries will have when he uses his agency to choose to take on the gospel.

Sister Madsen and I are loving serving together and have big goals, we try and speak German wie oft wie möglich (as often as possible) and are seeing miracles every day. I dont know why I always get surprised when people make out an appointment with us, but its such a miracle, I should be to the point of expecting miracles but it throws me off guard everytime, and its such a blessing! This last week we had an awesome time teaching Bianka...she is still saving for the wedding but so close...she says her wedding dress will also be her tauf dress. yay! So she is so converted, just waiting to be married, she lives the gospel so strongly. Kneels with her 3 kids all together every night for family prayer, listens to the prophet on youtube often and reads the scriptures out loud to her little daughter, Lia Sophie as she does her hair. She has a lot of pressure against her, her parents against them going to church and work collegues etc, but she just lives it and beams full of the spirit and im just so excited to see the member she will become, of the people she will bring with her into the gospel. We meet with her every week and have started giving her topics to study and she teaches us, this last time we got there and she was so excited to show us what she had prepared, she even typed it up. I sure love that woman and that family....hope the wedding comes soon!

Alishar is another investigator we are super excited about (i wrote about him last week right?) Either way he came to church yesterday! Ran up the hill in the rain to bahnhof to catch the train with us. He said he really liked church and you can tell he feels comfortable there, sang the songs and seems to really be taking it on well, sadly he is reading a lot of anti stuff on the internet, trying to learn a lot 'about' the religion, so we are working with him in not just learninga about it but 'experiencing it.' And thats really what its about, when we talk to people on the street we say it a lot too, a belief in God doesnt come from being born into a family who belives but from experience and its true. The only way I can say I know God lives and Jesus is the Christ is because Ive EXPERIENCED it, experienced him in my life.

Hope youre experiencing it too. Theres nothing better. Theres no better feeling than being filled with JOY...ooo ooo! That reminds me of one of the scriptures I am memorizing to get 'seek my treasure' (this study program we have in our mission) it says...

Wahrlich wahrlich ich sage dir, ich werde dir von mein giest geben, der dir den verstand erleuchten wird, der dir die seele mit Freude erfüllen wird.

haha, hope thats right, that was from my mind, but it says something like. Verily verily I say unto you I will give you my spirit which will enlighten your mind and fill your soul with JOY!

Thats what Im loving and experiencing here is a whole lot of mind erleuchtung and soul filling joy. haha, hope you are too! Have a great week!

love, Sister Rasmussen

Pictures....

1. My favorite Manfred, Rosel (Rowlands wife) Sister Madsen, Me and our lovely Marcel (the less active weve been working with for...ever and he finally came to church! He has now come 2 weeks in a row!

2. Sister Madsen and I at the top of the Berliner Dome....theres Berlin! Ahh im so blessed to serve here!

3. Sister Singer send me a cute package with so much chocolate...so much for not going home rolling off the plane....oh well :)

4. SO my mom sent me a random post it note a couple weeks ago inside another letter with a picture of a snail on it.... saying 'dont you just LOVE snails?!' Yes mom, I sure do love snails, I even found a German vw van with snails spraypainted on it just for you.....I may also have felt really sad when I accidentally crushed one unterwegs . . . sorry snaily. (oh theres some DDR wohnungs (apartments) in the backround for you.) Happy day!