A monkey bit me today!

We went to the zoo today! and they just built this new jungle area and they let these cute little monkeys just climb around you and jump from tree to tree and climb on the railings and we were playing with them but they sometimes think your fingers are food....and then one took Elder McCanns pen and they all ran away, and we were told by the German zoo worker lady to not give the monkeys anything, so theres a pday in the Berlin mission for you. Who knew?

Sister Faerber and I are seeing miracle after miracle....we had Burcan"s baptism on Sunday and it was beautiful! We had given him a tie in our appointment the night before and he was so grateful, he said he didnt know the last time someone had given him a present, he wore it proudly and was a little nervous but excited and we all went and met at hauptbahnhof and rode together to the church. We had the baptism before church so he could get the Holy Ghost on the same Sunday (becuase there is generalkonferenz next week) and the sunrise was beautiful! We had a full room of members all welcoming and bringing the spirit. We had two new investigators there, our new 20 year old sweety Christiane and our French friend Stephan, I was super impressed they both came at 8am! The meeting was so great, the spirit was strong and we worked hard to have everything ready. We had an awesome talk on baptism by a kid named Daniel who is 12 years old and is a stud, he was just baptized in June...and then I sang "ich mochte so sein wie Jesus" *im trying to be like Jesus" and it was a little early to sing, but it went well, Sister Faerber and her master piano skills made it very beautiful. It was so amazing to see Burcan after the baptism and the grin on his face, just filled with the spirit and the excitement of finding the truth and finding his family, who really love and care for him. Its such a testimony of the truthfullness of this gospel, that a turkish man can talk to two sister missionaries one day and nine weeks later he is welcomed as a friend and a brother into the ward and has people her can rely on...well forever!

We also had some awesome new appointments with our new golden investigator Christiane, who was invited to Familieheimabend by Nadine and now is excited to come to everything and get involved.We taught her the plan and she said it brought her comfort. Both her parents have passed away and she said she believed they were with her, and had the strong desire to get to the Celestial kingdom to then be able to be with her parents again and have eternal happiness, it was so cool! The spirit was strong and we had two other members there so 5 girls between 19 and 24 talking about the plan of happiness and how we can fulfill this plan that our Heavenly Father has for us....what an awesome experience, I love my mission!

We then met with Stephan who is our "happy" french friend who has been living in Germany for 20 years and said he has been looking for the truth, he said he has never felt at home and has always felt like more of an outsider but we"ve met with him twice and he has come to a couple activities and yesterday was his first time at church and he participated in all 3 meetings and asked me if he could go up and give his testimony as well! and he did....all of us missionaries were praying that he wouldnt say anything too....well out of the ordinary, but he bore testimony that he knew this church was of God because anyone could come from anywhere and fell accepted and a piece of the family. He said "why wouldnt there be a prophet today?" He believes that he is on the right path,we had given him a tour of the church earlier this week and sister faerber played the piano for him as we read along to her rearrangeent of "I stand all amazed" and the spirit was really strong....he said he felt he is on the right path and its just so exciting beceause we just talked to him on the street across from a doner laden... and just like that these people looking for a place to feel at home and belong and a way to become better people and come closer to their Heavenly Father, they found it, and WE get to be the ones to teach them...mensch we are blessed.
The last email I wanted to quickly tell youa bout was the FAMILY WE FOUND!!! We talked to the mother last week by hauptbahnhof and she said she had moved to leipzig two weeks ago and she believes in Christ but has kind oflost her faith and feels sad and lost and wants it back in her life...TA DAAAA. We said we had a bookwe would like to give her in Romanian and she said we could come see her family, husband brother and kids....so last night we went over there and she was so excited to see us. She let us in and her dad was on the couch and flashed us his bible and the brother was sitting on the couch and immediately started asking us questions of why we were different than any other church. The husband and well Zoriza is her name, came in as well and we taught them about Christ and we all talked about our faith and what Christ means to us and then we explained the apostacy and then told thim about Joseph Smith.... the spirit was strong and they were excited when we pulled out the Book of Mormon, by the end of the lesson the husband was asking Zoriza about the churh and asked how one could join the other 14 million members in the world in this belief. We asked if we could kneel and pray ttogether and they were all up for it and said they would read together the chapter we gave them and said they would have come to church yesterday morning if we had told them haha, so we are sure they will be coming soon! Theyre three younger kids were sitting on the couch and it was such an awesome lesson! She said we could come back whenever we wanted too haha so we made out another appointment for TuesdaY! Sister Faerber fasted last Sunday to find a family....and I knew fasting was a commandment of God, and it helps us, but I can say that this experience has really strengthened my testimony of Fasting.

We are hopefully going to have 5 investigators come tonight to FHE and we already have a booked week..I love it. Love it here in Leipzig and our awesome ward. I am counting my blessings and hope you are too!

I attached pictures of the baptism and also us with the Schmidt family we ate with yesterday. . . they are the greatest. 3 gorgeous daughters, twins who are 16 and one 18 yr old....but they all look older than i do...they have such strong testimonies and are such awesome girls, i love them already.

Hope you as well are seeing miracles and feeling this love and excitement and joy of the gospel, hope you can go to the temple sometime soon, like Sydney Monson this Wednesday!! What a blessing, have a great week! KNow i love and prayfor you!!!

 

.Sister Rasmussen.

I share my Savior's love

Oh dont you just love life? Me too. Its so great knowing the purpose of why we are here on the earth and how to achieve our potential. We saw a lot of miracles this past week and im loving serving with Sister Faerber! Shes an awesome missionary and its fun to learn how to strengthen our faith and put in our 100%. 
We got to see another baptism this last Sunday of a man named Uwe Bernt, so cool, its so fun serving in the same city as ourdistrict because we get to motivate each other to do our best and also get to help each others investigators. So we saw one set of Elder's baptism last Sunday and then Sister Faerber and I have 2 baptisms this up coming Sunday!! Wahooo! Burcan and Michael are excited and ready to schließ ein Bund mit den Himmlischen Vater und sich taufen lassen! They are ready and excited to become members of the church and are living all the commandments and seeing the blessings so obviously that are coming from that lifestyle. We taught Michael about tithing and fasting this past week as well as Christ and the revelation we get through the holy scriptures. They were such awesome lessons and the spirit was strong. It was interesting to teach someone our age about tithing and money is a little tight but to teach that its just another way to show our love to the Lord as well as giving him another opprotunity to bless us. I learned a lot as well realizing every commandment we have is really just a roundabout way to ask for more blessings. I used the example of my mission, apparently its this huge sacrifice and I thought I would try and 'pay back' the Lord for all the blessings he has already given me, but as ive served Ive not only NOT been able to pay the Lord back but he is blessing me and my family even more!! and thats the same with every 'sacrifice' we have, we are just blessed 100 times more then the little sacrifice of paying tithing or fasting on fast Sunday. What a great secret, or trick or beautiful lesson of life to finally understand.

It was also a tender mercy last night as we were Oyming (opening our mouths aka street contacting) we talked to a billion people and talked to one lady who was deaf, but as we showed her our tags and gave us our card she got across that she was catholic and reads in the bible and we pulled out the Book of Mormon and handed it to her and she was SO EXCITED!! I havent seen someone react with such excitment and gratitude as we explained it was a gift and she could have it. She was so happy and I felt the Joy that the gospel brings a little bit stronger. 

We are also teaching a gay Frenchman named Simon and set a baptismal date with him for December 4. He is great and has strong faith, is was catholic but knew that people had changed the word of Christ and something is missing from his church. He loves reading in the Book of Mormon and totally understood the plan of salvation and said he had never seen it layed out like that but that is what he believes and knows that its through the restored gospel that we have more details to the plan of why we are here. He said he believes God and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and im excited to see where we go with Simon...

We have some cool people we made out first appointments with coming up in this next week, 2 of them being acouple from Hungry who have 4 children, the youngest is 2 years old, and they have nothing. They have to beg to get money to try and get a job to get money to send home to the grandma who is taking care of the kids. They are such a humble couple, and were so excited to get the Book of Mormon in Hungarian. We are going to teach them the gospel and see if they are willing to live the gospel and are interested in taking upon them the name of Christ and the church can help them. It was so humbling for me to see the situation they are in and then realizing when everyone lived the commandments and is apart of the Church everyone is taken care of, and that is the celestial plan, so we shall see if we can help them, and count our own blessings. 

I love this work and I am so excited for Michael and Burcan, they wanted the same person to baptize them so Irakli will just stay in the water and wow it will definitely be a white day. The Church is true and brings so much joy and happiness, tell someone about it, youll make them happy and yourself tooooo!

Generalkonferenz is coming up!!! Cant wait!!!

Have a great week! and I will too.

Liebe grüße, Sister Rasmussen 

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly

Isnt that a great quote? We talked about it in our district meeting this week. We've got a great district this transfer. We are all working hard and its such a blast to all be serving in the same city so we take care of each others investigators and really care about their progress. Its also motivating to work hard and be a good example to the other missionaries, we all lift each other up...more or less. Elder Guthrie loves cats so that seems to be the butt of every joke, but other than that everything is pretty uplifting in our district. Haha, we got to go to the temple on Friday and it was beautiful. I loved the peacefulness and calmness and the realization that the Lords house is so close and in the real world (thats where you live) we can go inside whenever we need to. It was such a reassuring feeling of remembering Im not alone, I have an awesome companion, a great district, an awesome family and a Savior who cares about me personally. And the awesome thing about all those blessings is you have them too! A family of people in your ward who really want the best for you and more incredible a Heavenly Father who is watching out for us and will tell us where we should go how we can be the most happy when we jsut humble ourselves and listen to him. 

I used to say the phrase 'get over yourself' and listen to the lord, by that I had meant we should humble ourselves and it really is the truth. It takes a lot of humility to say, okay Heavenly Father you are right and I trust and believe you love and want the best for me and will give me the direction and strength to get it, here is my will, I jsut want to do what you want me to do. And that is the faith we have seen in our investigators lately. Its been so amazing to teach Michael and to see the change in his life. He came to sport and interacted a lot more than before and came to FHE and was cracking jokes and said he would help cook for this weeks fhe...its so awesome to see someone feel apart of the family and thats what the gospel is, a feeling of belonging and an opprotunity to feel the love of the Lord and give it to others. Bah isnt it the best? Yeah anyway we are hoping to teach him most of the commandments this week and have his baptisimal interview next week, did I tell you we watched the Restoration with him and he said he got the same warm feeling he had gotten when he prayed about the Book of Mormon? Yep, he said that, and then showed us he had put the Book of Mormon on his Ipodtouch so he could read it easier every day....what a stud huh? Its so awesome to be able to bring people unto the knowledge of the truth and invite them to 'get over themselves' or to humble themselves and come unto the lord with a willingness to do what he wants, and then just experience miracles of his guidance and presence in their lives.
I felt so so blessed these past two Sundays sitting with the people I was, while the sacrament was being passed. It was so neat to be passed the sacrament from Maik who knows the importance of the sacrament and the sacredness of it to then pass it to Michael who also is aware of the sacredness of the renewal of the baptismal covenant with the bread and water. It was such a neat expereince and on top of that yesterday we got permission to go back to Eisenhüttenstadt (my last area) for the baptism of Caroline! I got to first teach her and set her with the baptisimal date of Sept 11 and then got to go! It was so rewarding to see the 'family' again in that branch and to see how it has grown. I got to sit inbetween Hany and Schwester Zimmer and then Hany and Roman passed the sacrament and that was so incredible to be handed the sacrament from someone I got to find and teach to then hand it to another new member of the church to see that both of them are still doing strong wtih the temple as their goal and their commitment to the gospel so strong. The baptism was beautiful we all drove to the lake and two sisters, della and danita sang out on the deck on the water and the spirit was so stong, the weather was perfect and the water was so still. It was so amazing to see the holiness of the baptism and to see the influence it had on the visitors that came to see it. We had a great time and got to come back to an awesome appointment we had with a miracle named Ronny.

We had talked to Ronny last week at the straßenbahn haltestelle (streetcar stop) and he was so golden I thought he was joking, he said he had been in the Evangelish church but left because he thougth it was missing something and said he was looking for truth, he didnt make out an appointment with us but we had told him about the Book of Mormon and he said he would look at his calendar and let us know, well at 10:30 that night he smsed us and said he would love to take our invitation to learn more and was wondering if he could bring a friend!! We were stoked and thats what we got to teach last night, we also got a new ward missions leader, Christoph Kolbine who is a younger guy who just got married who also served a mission so we are stoked about how he will help us, he came as well to teach Ronny and his friend Thomas. Thomas is like 50 years old and it was one of the coolest first lessons ive had. It was a little intimidating leading the lesson with the big group but the spirit was strong and it was so incredible hearing their faith and questions and responses like, well yeah I guess we would need another prophet after Christ wouldnt we? and it was so cool to hear our member bear testimony of the organization of the church and how it blesses his family, we gave them the book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized, they both said they would pray to find out if its true and we have another appointment with them Thrusday to discuss where we come from, why we are here on the earth and where we believe we go after this life. . . im so excited!
 
We also found an awesome girl named Olga who is from Ukraine and she has perfect German almost done with studying law! She married a German man 5 years ago and told us that she remembers having missionaries visit her house when she was 7 in Ukraine! We had an awesome first lesson with her and she just kept smiling, we gave her the Book of Mormon and she said she would pray and pray about baptism...

We are working hard to find new people and teach the fundamentals of the gospel, I really thing the hearts of the people are being softened and we are seeing more and more miralces as we stay obeident and follow the spirit. Its such a blast and we're laughing all day. I love the gospel so much and love being able to bear testimony all day, the feeling of helping someone feel the eternal divine love and presence of their Heavenly Father is so rewarding, I recommend it. Its such an awesome knowledge, how could you not share it?

Ich weiß der Himmlisher Vater da ist, dass er ein Plan für uns hat, und wann wir dieses Plan erkennen und dabei leben, wir bekommen so viele segnungen, wir können die alle gar nicht erfassen. 

Have a stellar week!
Love, Sister Rasmussen

ps pictures dont really work here, either with my card or card reader, so maybe next week. Tschüssssssss

All creatures of our God and King....life up your voice and wih us sing....hallelujah. hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Oh praise him. Hallelujah.
I love my mission so much, this past week was incredible, I GOT MY GOLDEN. Her name is Sister Faerber and she is from Minnasota! She and I are pretty similar looking, small and blonde and she is super great! She graduated in Piano Performance, yeah she is legit and can play the piano like a profy. Its jaw dropping. She is also well exactly what ive been praying for in a companion, she is so excited to be here in Leipzig and loves people, she is confident and just keeps going even when she isnt sure of her German, her testimony is so strong and she is really hard working. Its a blast just working hard and being obediant and loving each other and the work and these people here. Its so fun to explain the silly things Germans do and how to get around the city and etc... introducing her to new foods like Apfeltashen (appelstrudel things) and having awesome companionship studies practicing teaching to my little stuffed animal dog freddy I got from my little brosky alex in Frankfurt Oder. We are working hard and have already seen some miracles in the past few days...
We taught Bürcan a couple times and talked to him about prophets and Thomas S. Monson. We found a talk in Turkish and it was about the Priesthood and how to live worthy of it etc. He loved it and said he knows that President Monson is a Prophet of God. Its so incredible seeing his faith grow so much and see his desire to keep the commandments. We went throught the baptismal questions with him and he is ready, he will be baptized on the 25th and is very excited...we are now just trying to help him feel more integrated in the ward, which his hard cause he can only meet us at 8:30 at night and then Sundays, so your prayers would be appreciated on how we can help him feel comfortable with our ward here. Its incredible for me to see how our love and faith in the Savior is our driving motivation to keep the commandments. When we arent keeping the commandments we have forgotten the appreciation we had for the Savior and the desire to show our love and appreciation. Thats the real reason we should do anything good is in the desire to show our love to the Lord. . . and its so fun to do that with someone else who loves the Lord so much too!
I am feeling so blessed to be here in Leipzig, and to be so close to the temple, we get to go this Friday with our new district and im so excited. Who new you could feel so close to the Lord. . . why in heavens name the Prophet has to ask us to 'try and get to the temple' once a month blows my mind.....why would someone have to convince you to 'try and go' feel the divine presence of a Heavenly Father is beyond my understanding. I hope we all can make the temple one of the first places we want to go when we have some free time. Its so beautiful and so calming and the direction and guidance is so celestial, mmm i just feel loved and happy just thinking about it.

We are also seeing miracles with Michael, he came to church yesterday for all 3 hours again and enjoyed it, he said he is excited for his baptism on the 25th and is coming the fha tonight and institute on Tuesday and then boxing with the ward on Wednesday.... then we will be meeting him and ahh its just so amazing to show someone how awesome life can be constantly learning more of how the lord wants us to live and how we can be happier and come closer to the Savior. He really is changing and you can see it on his face that he is changing and his relationship with the Savior and with his Heavenly Father is getting stronger. That is something we focused on a little more the past couple days is just the mere fact that we have a Father in Heaven and he knows and loves us and knows you and loves you and will help and guide you if you just humble yourself and let him...and then follow the spirit when he tells you what will make you happier, and what is even more awesome is when the Lord than guides you to help answer the prayers of other people.....then you are blessed and they are blesssed and then wow everyone is rejoicing together and theres a feeling of Joy and a contentment that nothing in the world can give us...its so awesome being able to feel that feeling so frequently and helping others feel it too.

We have some big plans for this week and then get to end the week in my old city of Frankfurt Oder for a baptism of Caroline.....I told you about her right? She had the most awesome experience with us in July praying about her baptismal date of September 11. The spirit was so strong and look, we blinked and its here...and she called me and asked if we could make it up there!! Im so excited and so honored and had no idea these were the blessings that came from a mission, but they are so much more amazing than I ever could have thought of....and thats really the point isnt it? That is the joy of the gospel, receiving the blessings Heavenly Father has prepared for us are so much more spectacular than we could ever think of or make ourselves...so why would you ever waste your time trying to figure this sometimes challenging life out yourself when you have a perfect all knowing father who is just waiting to tell you how to do it, to live it and to be the happiest. It just seems so simple. 

Hope you are feeling the love of the Savior in your life too, and coming closer to him through experiencing it. The gospel isnt learned, its experienced. and I love it! You too? 

Have a great monday and know im grateful for you!
Das Evangelium ist das großte segnung die wir je erlangen können und es bringt so viel freude das weiter zu geben. Viel glück damit, wir tauschen unsere geschichten nach diese schöne erlebnisse. Bis nachher :) 

Schöne woche noch!
Liebe, Sister Rasmussen