I feel my Savior's love... in all the world around me

I think that that primary song is my new favorite. It is the truth I have felt the Savior so close and felt the Lord so strongly especially this past week. Sister Madsen and I have seen some huge miracles and I have put everything into this past week, come home and collapse..asleep in 2.5 minutes. Haha, or something close to that. Yes its been a very love filled emotional week because yep you guessed it we got our TRANSFER CALL on Saturday morning, 10am the whole mission calls into the conference call and president reads off who will be staying and going to every city. Sister Madsen is staying here and getting a GOLDEN! and I am going to be senior companion in LEIPZIG!! I am so excited, Ill be serving with Sister Anderson, havent met her, but heard she's great (from Texas so its gotta be good)! Yeah Im leaving my beloved Frankfurt Oder/Eisenhüttenstadt and yesterday's goodbye was . . . well honestly pretty painful. They were sweet enough to ask me to give a talk on my last Sunday (not too nice if you ask me haha) but I talked about the reality of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was comforting to talk about how the priesthood power is restored, the truth is restored for all of us to know exactly how we get back to our Heavenly Father and how if we all stay strong on the path helping each other we will all get back together again with our families and loved ones. It was full of love and tears, and I think the spirit was pretty strong too. It was so excited Bianka's whole family came, yes even her boyfriend (soon to be husband hopefully) in a white button up shirt with his son as well, Roman they're son passed the sacrament for the first time and that was really special to see. I sat between my beloved schwester Zimmer and Hany and we took a ward picture... sadly I dont have my camara so nexst week ill have to send a bunch. But I felt so loved, they all signed a card for me and all made plans for next summer when the family returns. It was really hard to say goodbye but the new golden will be well loved and well taken care of, good spot to fill.

We had an awesome eating appointment with the branch presidents family (right before he left to take his oldest daugther Della to EFY 8 hours away...yes they have to sacrifice a lot here) and they invited Caroline to come eat. She has come to church a couple times and a few weeks ago Daniela (the branch president's wife) gave her a Book of Mormon, and 2 weeks ago we taught her the first lesson and watched the Restoration dvd together, she has been praying to find trught (oh shes 22 years old and such a hilarious sweet girl) and we then yesterday taught her the plan of salvation, she had deep sincere questions and her eyes lit up when she said, that is what I believe, the spirit was so strong and we invited her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the right authority, and she said yes! My favorite line was she then said, 'wait, I guess this means I dont have to keep searching!' nope, shes found the truth and I felt so honored to be the one to first meet her! She gave me a sweet goodbye present and we set the date for September.....and yes we can get permission to come back to see baptisms!! So I may be able to come back here to see her be baptized!  what a dream, we all then said a prayer together and the spirit was so strong, the two members who were there with us were tearing up and she kept saying 'Ive never felt this energy, or spirit like this so intense before!' It was so exciting to tell her about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how if we stay worthy we can have that feeling with us always...its such a perfect incredible gospel, and I love representing Christ to help people feel his love so intensely.

We found some awesome people this week, a couple people with children and were curious to find out about God so we have some great first appointments lined up for the new golden.

I really love this place and these people, and dont think its really hit me yet that im leaving, I cant really imagine being a missionary anywhere else but here, its been such an incredible experience. I am excited and a little giddy to go to LEIPZIG and get to know a new city and new people. Its a bigger city, and really pretty, there are 2 wards there so that will be a change, from coming from a little branch....

Here's my new address:

Sister Kimberly Rasmussen

Kirche Jesu Christi

Blochmannstraße 15

04105 Leipzig

Deutschland

Yay! What an incredible experience, this gospel is true and it brings so much happiness, joy and satisfaction to follow the Savior and feel his love when we keep his commandments. I love you all dearly and hope you have a lovely week! Hope to hear from you soon!!!

Liebe gruße,

Sister Rasmussen

I LOVE MY MISSION!

Germany is incredible. So incase you didnt realize I have been in the same area for 5 transfers....meaning I have been seeing the same parts of Germany, and Poland for the past little while...and this past week we had an austausch (exchanges? Is that what they call them in other missions?) anyway I got to go up to ROSTOCK! That was a blast (sadly my camera isnt with me so ill have to send pictures next week) but Rostock is up north and I GOT TO SEE THE OSTSEE! The ocean! Water! and boats! and it was a fairytale! So gorgeous and the accent was different up there too. It was fun to OYM (open your mouth) up there with Sister Dorsey, we were in the MTC together so it was fun to see the progress we have made, to compare our missions and realize, no mission is similar. The areas, companions, investigatgors, personal experiences and gospel progression are are so different, it was really fun to compare and give eachother tips and motivation for the upcoming months. We had a really cool lesson with a less active lady up there named Schweste Hegemann. She was so sweet and we taught her about obedience (gehorsam) We talked about the reasons we are obediant.... either we are SCARED for a punishment, we are expecting a REWARD OR the best of all the three, we are obedient because we LOVE the Lord and trust and have faith he will fulfill his promises. We talked about how we show our love to the Lord and she starked talking about how she felt when she was active and the strength that she felt she had had, and how she felt close to the Lord. The spirit was so strong and it was great to commit her to live the gospel with her whole heart, to ´be faithfully obediant' and do the little things like read scriptures, pray EVERYDAY and go to church and pay tithing, the little things that we do every day to show the Lord our love for him and our desire to give our all to him and his work. It was an awesome experience and I loved seeing a new part of Germany, but it was also comforting to come 'home' to Frankfurt Oder....

We experienced a cool  miracle this week.....so our goal is every day to make out a new appointment with someone new. Its a little more challenging on Mondays because we have pday,so there are fewer hours to work and talk to people. SO we were in a lesson, family home evening with Manfred and we got out pretty late...and we still hadnt made out our appointment. We knew that if we had the faith the Lord would help us with our goal...so carrying half a cake we had made for Manfred, and pretty exhausted, we decided to walk through the park, we stopped and said a prayer together to the Lord and asked him to send someone in our path who will listen and have a desire to meet with us. After our prayer we walked out the other side of the park and saw a guy across the street...so we crossed and it was a younger guy with no interest....ja toll. We then saw another guy......let me remind you there is NO one outside at this time. So we sped up to cross the street and then realized he was crossing so then we slowed down haha, looked a little ridiculous. Anyway, we spoke to him and proceeded to talk about the Book of Mormon. He told us he was from Poland, is Catholic, and lived in Germany for 18 years, was a fatehr of 4 going through a hard divorce. We bore testimony that the Book of Mormon is from God and can help us with every problem in our life. We bore testimony that the lord knows us and wants us to have joy. and he made out an appointment!! Woot!! Well that wasnt the whole miracle...

Our appointment was with him yesterday? no two days ago and he is moving into a new apartment, so we met in the knew one that he is renovating. We sat on buckets and used a cupboard door as a table and taught him the Plan of Salvation and used scriptures in the Book of Mormon. He was excited about the Book and said he hoped the plan was true, he asked us if he could come to church with us! He said he will read and pray about the Book of Mormon and said he needs to build his foundation on these things, he is a really cool guy, it built my testimony that the Lord puts people in our path and guides our steps if we are willing to follow his spirit!

We have some really solid investigators right now, all aware of our desire to help them come closer to Christ through baptism...What an incredible work. I love LOVING these people and knowing them is such an honor. We have 30 lessons planned this week and will be go go going all week, we have transfer calls on Saturday so we see what the Lord has in store. I recommend recommiting to live the gospel with even more vigor and excitement, it brings so much JOY to feel you are in line with Gods plan for you, I hope you have a great week and feell the love and prayers from a little missionary in Germany, Alles Gute!

Lg, Sister Rasmussen

The work of angels

What an incredible work! It really is the work of angels. We had some amazing experiences this week, I hope i can share a little taste of it with you, at the moment im sitting in an internet laden that is attempting to look like California, they sadly dont do a very good job haha, but its rainy outside, we're hoping to head to a 'schloss' (castle) in Potsdam today and have to catch an earlier train. It really is a dream serving in the Germany Berlin mission. We had an incredible opprotunity last week to hear from a General Authority! Elder Causse from the 70 came and did a mission tour, it was so incredible to be taught from a member of the 70 the docterine of Christ and his advice and ideas of how to pass that along to our investigators. I felt so honored to be present and to be able to participate and feel the spirit so strongly testify that what we were discussing is really the most important work we have to do here on earth, let our brothers and sisters konw what we have to do to follow Christ and be our best. We shared a warm up story before it started about Alischar our student investigator who talked to us on the train, it was a little funny as we were walking past president he whispered, do it in German! Okay sure! So that was a cool feeling on the last moment being able to bear testimony etc in front of a 70 in Deutsch phewf!

 

Another incredible experience was when we were teaching our lovely friend Mahdi at Hany's house. Mahdi is from Iran and is Muslim but has been investigating Christianity for a few years now. He had met with missionaries like 2 years ago, and from the teaching records wasnt too open. But he is a totally different person now, you can see he is really thinking of the option of it being the truth that Christ is the Son of God and our Savior and Redeemer. The most incredible part of the evening though was when we asked Hany to bear testimony about his baptism. We teach Mahdi in English and Hany's english isnt the greatest so we said he could do it in Arabic. So there we were watching a new converted Egyptian bear testimony of the truthfullness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to another Iranian man in Arabic. I definitely didnt understand it, but I did feel the spirit strongly and felt so unbelievably honored to get to be the missionaries to not only see, but get to teach and take part in this marvelous work. We invited Mahdi to be baptized and he said he would think about it.

 

That was one thing we were retaught was to be inviting people to baptism from the very 1st lesson, so we now have 4 people praying about it! I dont know waht I have been doing for the past year, but now I think im getting it! Im so excited to keep putting the words of the 70 into action and invite more people to be baptized. Sadly we have to hurry to catch our train so I need to go, but we had another incredible experience as well this week with Schwester Zimmer, talking about her testimony of the truth and how she needs to relearn all she had learned before from the bible because so many important truths were taken out, it was so amazing to see her absolute faith that what we are teaching is the 100% truth and she can get a personal witness of it from the Lord.

 

Ah I love serving here, and love being a missionary, there is nothing more important than living the gospel with our whole hearts and living up to our potential as children of God.

 

Have a great week and know a missionary in Germany LOVES YOU!

 

Love, Sister Rasmussen

Happy 4th! yeah, they don't celebrate that here in Germany....

Hello world! Yes its the 4th of July and we're in Berlin and you would never know its a holiday in America. Sister Madsen and I still decided to wear red white and blue and we are going to go 'grillen' (thats how you say BBQ in German) with some other missionaries. Yay! Sadly its a little rainy, so hopefully we took all the rain from your parties so you can celebrate! What a great time to be alive eh?

Life is good here as a missionary, we are working hard and talking to everybody. Sister Madsen and I have tried using more unique 'power statements' as we talk to people on the street. Some of them focusing on baptism.....we are committed to setting a baptismal date this week and are committed to working hard and following the spirit for it. We have some really incredible things going on right now, teaching some incredible people. Another awesome blessing is this branch, seriously they are the greatest and so committed to the gospel and helping the missionary work.

 

This past weekend, we had the 10th annual 'FAMILIENFEST' the big event our little branch puts on...we've been handing out fliers and putting up signs for the past couple weeks and preparing a lot for it. It was on Saturday and we had people come from Berlin to help, 4 Elders and the Tiergarten Sisters, and the Nelsons! (the senior couple who I have how been around for the past 6 months) They all came from Berlin and they also brought a family with them they found 2 weeks ago! So we all went to Eisenhüttenstadt to help set up for the event. It was sadly pretty cloudy rainy weather, so we sat together in a members home waiting for the branch president to get the key to let us in, so we sang some hymns together and all knelt and said a prayer especially asking for the weather to hold for it. So we all walked down to this cool stadion, grassy area where Tilo Zimmerman (the first counselor) coaches litttle league soccer teams, its a perfect big area for a family fest. We had tons of food, mostly torts and fruit, and there was a jump house, volleyball, soccer, a coloring station some German boot throwing game...haha, super fun, and other games. We counted that there were 99 people there and about half were non members!! We (sister Madsen and I) had a cool missionary table, with pictures of our families, and some from the other missionaries too, proclamations to the family, and other pamphlets and Books of Mormons...as well as Amercain cookies and a paper that said 'Möchten sie einen Besuch von dem missionare?' (would you like a visit from the missionaries) and also a big display talking about the restoration and what we believe about the family. So we played and talked and ate and laughed a lot and everyone enjoyed themselves...it was great for the members and for all the other random people that came they said a prayer with us and saw what a blast families can have together. We were so excited as a lady took one of the Books of Mormon and started reading it, and then was thrilled when we told her she could have it and as well someone asked for a visit from us! So we not only had a blast supporting the branch, we also got some great contacts!

We had another awesome lesson this week with a guy named Mahdi, we had it at Hany's house and he was taught by missionaries 2 years ago. . .he is really open now apparently a lot more than he was before. . . really looking for 'the right picture' It was a really spiritual experience teaching this awesome guy with a really good heart abot why we need the Savior and what the Savior did for us. He knew about Jesus Christ and that we believe he died for us, but didnt know what happened in the Garden of Gethsemanie and it really is such an honor to be called of the Lord to tell these people here about what Christ did for us. Did not only give his life for us so that we could overcome death too, but suffered for us so he would know exactly how to help us, comfort us, and forgive us. It was very humbling to teach and the spirit was very strong. I am so grateful to have the scriptures to testify of...somewhere I just read, we dont have the scriptures to testify of what we say, what we say is to testify of the scriptures. (im sure it was a lot better written than that) but what Im saying is im so grateful to bear testimony of the truthfullness of the words of the prophets. Im so grateful for the spirit that comes when we read with these people searching for the truth and the feeling of love they feel and you can see it in their eyes. Ah I could go on all day, but you're probably anxious to go watch some fireworks and drink some rootbeer so just know that the work is going great here and we are being very blessed. I am so grateful for your prayers and love, they are greatly felt and needed. Have a fantastic 4th!

I love you!

God bless America...and Frankfurt Oder/Eisenhüttenstadt :)

 

Love, Sister Rasmussen

 

Pictures:

1. Some of my favorite people ive met on my mission, the Nelsons (from cashe valley) and Ola and Ahmed. LOVE THEM

 

2. Me and Della Heitbreder at the Familienfest, shes so great, so crazy wearing normal clothes! Haha, and you can see a bit of the color station and volleyball in the backround.

 

 3. Theres the sisters! Silly BYU hoodies....but what can you do :)