Sister Rasmussen.: 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.