tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10722739711845576132023-11-16T04:25:21.206-07:00Sister Rasmussen.Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-54881665250269283382011-12-06T00:19:00.003-07:002011-12-08T14:27:54.932-07:00Bald zu ende...oder bald zu Anfang?<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wow.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This experience is unlike any other. I am excited to know I can continue these feelings of love for the gospel and excitement about sharing it for the rest of my life. I think that is where the unsure feeling comes when I assume that when I take off my tag I stop feeling the spirit like I do out here, and that isnt the truth at all. Its just been such an incredible experience to be able to see the gospel change peoples lives. Its a blessing to put aside my own life and be able to put myself in the schedules of others to help them know how to live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being able to bear my testimony hundreds of times a day, telling people that Jesus is our Savior. God is our Heavenly Father. The true Church and Priesthood of God is restored on the Earth! The power to seal families for eternity is also on the Earth. There is a living prophet today who speaks to God, and God reveals his secrets to him. Ahh I could go on all day, but the point I am trying to get across is that these truths will continue to mean everything to me and I can still say and show that to people, maybe not at the tram gleis in German but just as a regular member of the church.</span></div></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am so grateful to be serving with Sister Faerber, we have seen miracle after miracle and two of my favorites happened the past couple nights. We obviously have been praying for the Lord to guide us to the prepared people, or put them in our path and he did! But something we noticed was...we found these two miracles because we were going the extra mile. Omar zum beispeil (for example) we were going with Burcan to teach a family (yes he is now a great joint teach!) and as sister Faerber was talking to him, we saw Omar walk by. Ive seen Omar a few times in the city the last 5 months...he is a tall white man, with a pretty big beard, a white hat and white dress thing (custom Muslim clothing) and ive never had the chance to talk to him. Well....Omar walked past us the other night on the way to our appointment and so I ran up to him to see if he wanted a Book of Mormon, I quickly told him that we believe God has revealed more holy scripture and we would love to give him a copy, and he set up an appointment for the next night! So we went back yesterday at 18:00 and he was home and we taught him in the hallway...because we are two single woman...anyway it was one of the most awesome lessons of my mission! We taught him simply about the plan we believe God has for us and used scriptures in the B.O.M. he said he was athiest 3 years ago and then online read about Islam and then converted, so as we taught him more about why we needed Christ to return to God he was very open and you could see the spirit bear testimony to him of the truth. We read with him the scripture in 3 Nephi when Christ appears to the Nephites....</span></div></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 1px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">8 </span>And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3064517346874776292&postID=8554677482390544034" name="1340f2fb90020016_9" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486fae; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </a><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 1px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">9 </span>And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3064517346874776292&postID=8554677482390544034" name="1340f2fb90020016_10" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486fae; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </a><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 1px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">10 </span>Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3064517346874776292&postID=8554677482390544034" name="1340f2fb90020016_11" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486fae; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </a><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 1px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">11 </span>And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3064517346874776292&postID=8554677482390544034" name="1340f2fb90020016_12" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486fae; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </a><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 1px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">12 </span>And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The spirit was so strong after we finished reading and he said in English...yes Im interested. I want to learn more. We were just beaming and are so excited for Omar!</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">There have been other miracles that I wish I could tell you...but sadly Pday is almost over and we have a Christmas party family home evening put on by the missionaries that we need to set up for in the next 20 minutes. So Im excited to try and see everyone I love here in this next week, find new people for the next missionaries to bring to baptism and pray really hard that the Lord will guide me in whatever is coming up next for me. . . </span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Love you all. The church is true and brings so much joy.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Nie vergessen (as Burcan always says)</span></div></div><div style="background-color: #f9f6ed; background-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #2f393a; font: normal normal normal 16px/22px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Alles Liebe, Sister Rasmussen</span></div></div></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-22553336219481811682011-11-30T17:16:00.002-07:002011-12-08T14:31:34.733-07:00Welcome drink....better when it pops not burns...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Why did I call this email welcome drink you ask? Well, I just wanted to tell you a funny yet sad mission experience and explain another awesome drink experience we have here in lovely Leipzig, Germany.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">We were given a 'welcome drink' as we showed up to our appointment with Ruth Stein (who is the same lady we talked to 3 months ago who is finially back from her vacation!!) She was so excited to see us and has been reading in the Book of Mormon and showed up to CHURCH YESTERDAY WOOT! but going on with the drink story there were beautiful glasses on the table she had so lovingly prepared with cut up peaches swimming in some sort of red/purple liquid. She was so excited to give them to us and as I asked what it was she replied 'Ill let you find out' (should have been the first red flag) either way after the little sip of burning grossness we asked, does this have alcohol? and well she apologized then for the red wine and made us some fruit tea...much better. I must say it was a little funny but also sad, its sometimes weird to think that some sort of drink can take the spirit away from us but it is true. Its definitely a way to show faith and obediance by keeping the word of wisdom, especially for these people who have had wine and coffee their entire lives, but its just a way to prove their love for the Lord and respect for his commandments. I am so grateful to even be aware of the commandments of God, it gives me a way to orient my life to do what is right and what is best for me. There are so many people in this world who want to do right but dont have the right direction or orientation, if you make your health decisions on the latest discoveries the best solutions in 10 years will actully end up being exactly wrong and the knowledge of men is just constantly changing its a blessing to know the laws of God and to know how to recieve the most blessings...Love it. The other welcome drink is the new drink we give people who first are transferred to Leipzig, I actually forgot their real name but its a japanese place with fruit juices with really thick straws because there are also little balls about the size of marbles also filled with a different juice that then pop in your mouth its AWESOME. So. Welcome drink can be good, but watch out for the ones that burn down the throat from loving investigators...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">We had an awesome Thanksgiving with the missionaries and an american couple and an icelandic couple. Theyre awesome and we felt like a family. We had mashed potatoes, thanks to Sister Faerber and I, and all the turkey and homemade stuffing we could want. I felt so blessed to have so much food and a warm home and loving people to be with. Its an incredible opprotunity to help those who dont have so much to realize they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and will bless them as they do what is right...and we get to be the people to tell them the good news and help them feel loved. One little moment of that joy was last week at family home evening...did I already write home about this? We bought Bürcan new tennis shoes which he couldnt afford and his eyes were filled with such gratitude and love, not just for the shoes but for the loving new family he has found. It was a neat expereince that Ill never forget, Christiane is feelign just as loved and blessed, she is now assigned as a visiting teacher of course and has an interview for a temple reccommend next week (the one she used for the temple was only for that day) and she is feeling loved. She sent us a text yesterday saying how grateful she was to know us and wrote us a note saying how she is grateful we are teaching her the gospel and helping her find out she has a new ward family. That fact in itself just shows me that the church is true and that we have a Heavenly Father who loves and guides us, anyone ANYONE can come into church and feel loved and welcome, and its all over the world!! Today we went with Olga to her russian orthodox church, just to see it, its a beautiful building but as we stood inside it was old and hollow feeling, I felt cold (not not literally) and just felt sad yet blessed and excited to be able to now clearly show Olga the difference of a church being lead by the living Savior of the World, through a living prophet, its really true that people still live by the weird old traditions of their fathers just like in the Book of Mormon and it draws them away from the love of the Lord, not because they are horrible wicked...they just arent correct and are missing the truth! Im so excited to share the gospel these next couple weeks with our two older German investigators, Thea Ritcher and Ruth Stein, Thea was at temple square and gave her address to the sisters there, and we invited her to be baptized and we have an appt this next Thursday so pray for Thea!!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I get to see another baptism this Saturday from our lovely Rober Schuster...he is such a cool guy, around 45 years old, is LOADED and is a huge deal in the volleyball reffing world of Germany, on like the main board for Northern Germany or something, haha anyway he was talked to by Elder McCann about 4 months ago on his bike and is now getting baptized this Saturday, he was going to get baptized later but moved it up, first of all because he is ready now and so I could be there :) He had to sacrifice a lot...lot of wine as he has been learning to live by the gospel standards, he knows its worth it, definintely not in the money he lost in giving away his wine collection but in the blessings he will receive in doing it. Hes so cool...He watches a general conference talk on his ipad before he goes to bed every night and stayed up til 5 in the morning one night last week reading on line about chastity and families and the prophets words on the topic, He loves the gospel and has such a strong testimony, how cool would it be if we all had a new love and desire to listen to general conference talks more often and refesh ourselves on the standards we live by. Robert has definitely given me a new motivation to have a bigger love for the gospel and desire to learn...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Im feeling a lot of mixed emotions with the changes going on but im so grateful to be here and know these people and help them feel the spirit and have a stronger desire to choose the right, to know who Christ is and what he did and continues to do for them. Its such a blessing to be here in Leipzig with such an awesome ward and even cooler CHRISTMAS MARKET....youve never celebrated Christmas til you have been to a Weihnachtsmarkt in Germany....ill take a video and show you in the real world...its a dream. So we are enjoying the holiday season and asking people why we celebrate Christmas is always a good time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Hope you have a successful week and know how much I love and appreciate you and this gospel and this mission.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Vielen dank und Alles Gute.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Sister Rasmussen</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljIti_OUBil8rSIyA5_yYc-4dOyjw4TSxjXbhUddjiAA4dDrtUbTPLzCsrIeE6yFmWWCvc2aEjwGpkX0Z6YbEkOsjoVHB5F4MEzQsUAjH4Tkrfj8lzioOqZoCAJYU04i-oWJ8AiJ3-utU/s1600/IMG_0779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljIti_OUBil8rSIyA5_yYc-4dOyjw4TSxjXbhUddjiAA4dDrtUbTPLzCsrIeE6yFmWWCvc2aEjwGpkX0Z6YbEkOsjoVHB5F4MEzQsUAjH4Tkrfj8lzioOqZoCAJYU04i-oWJ8AiJ3-utU/s320/IMG_0779.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thanks for the package mom!! I'll send all these out to everyone I've met!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCrrJgG7PUGgj4I5vxCsQYBJegS3sBmApVJkbeGnII6C5kqcgWjr1kYTd9llJ0k5-IbjEawHVF3YPZuxIu39EuKNtQWVXIIO76zCX2rvzJTgODF3b17JZyUtkuDItsulV5YM4MEXbyHAk/s1600/IMG_0785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCrrJgG7PUGgj4I5vxCsQYBJegS3sBmApVJkbeGnII6C5kqcgWjr1kYTd9llJ0k5-IbjEawHVF3YPZuxIu39EuKNtQWVXIIO76zCX2rvzJTgODF3b17JZyUtkuDItsulV5YM4MEXbyHAk/s320/IMG_0785.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Us in the old part of the Christmas market, its like old medieval Germany with Handbrot...delicious.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUxmqYOaK0cUZ_MzCppPOkhNeeUzmOA0XPvIHA6uPApANGZ9B1P2ArHSJKEZoaSyoZvuqvERHdN-rM_kYl-_gFgnPbo2eI9_SNHjhJcIL1iZj6hzyRmLQ8RjTo1UelzpwR5CDVdPelt_5f/s1600/IMG_0789.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUxmqYOaK0cUZ_MzCppPOkhNeeUzmOA0XPvIHA6uPApANGZ9B1P2ArHSJKEZoaSyoZvuqvERHdN-rM_kYl-_gFgnPbo2eI9_SNHjhJcIL1iZj6hzyRmLQ8RjTo1UelzpwR5CDVdPelt_5f/s320/IMG_0789.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thanks for the golden bikes mom, Sister Faerber and I love them</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YRG6YjGnF6O-xiL5F9eAR_Nq_BVvnWqRuNinTIcNp8s0KRp__crV_iYiq3TyLV5-jSKHmonElRoJ5jnwnQ-0QRYmTROL-9QOt4qnx0zHkM1cYV9D8HTHkCNuwyoVYUIXdg4zBVbOjXlX/s1600/IMG_0774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YRG6YjGnF6O-xiL5F9eAR_Nq_BVvnWqRuNinTIcNp8s0KRp__crV_iYiq3TyLV5-jSKHmonElRoJ5jnwnQ-0QRYmTROL-9QOt4qnx0zHkM1cYV9D8HTHkCNuwyoVYUIXdg4zBVbOjXlX/s320/IMG_0774.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Yep, mashed potatoes, we made a lot.</span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YRG6YjGnF6O-xiL5F9eAR_Nq_BVvnWqRuNinTIcNp8s0KRp__crV_iYiq3TyLV5-jSKHmonElRoJ5jnwnQ-0QRYmTROL-9QOt4qnx0zHkM1cYV9D8HTHkCNuwyoVYUIXdg4zBVbOjXlX/s1600/IMG_0774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> That was Thanksgiving.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tschüssssssy</span></div><br />
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</span></span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-6179608359722822992011-11-30T16:47:00.003-07:002011-12-08T14:32:01.786-07:00Gott, der mich bis hierher gebracht hat, wird weiter sorgen.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The church is true.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwH4dUjloiFxxr7zbHIIbr2QeYxG-P2e_bVe9I2__1Wrhc9XPPiGM7PGlBTouYy5MpnRBqaRBbNh_MBuJdDhKkxo3PhydvgeSEHmPJyPMOWF4AT1Ph2j8V7dW46sTMEfdEp4yvKZLVIK1w/s1600/IMG_0430.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwH4dUjloiFxxr7zbHIIbr2QeYxG-P2e_bVe9I2__1Wrhc9XPPiGM7PGlBTouYy5MpnRBqaRBbNh_MBuJdDhKkxo3PhydvgeSEHmPJyPMOWF4AT1Ph2j8V7dW46sTMEfdEp4yvKZLVIK1w/s320/IMG_0430.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Christiane's baptism</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_0JT3fO7ySpl2xTl-GiqLOdlCwt9s376oQg-xy6_awXuwQo_2NnjN4x7BCXidrwefjm93Cneo96sLJLvDPzVCeI5LYn8NjaemtQTYE2O7dLH-c79J0XgdxsYaSNHL52xGN7klSvBecY8/s1600/IMG_0739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_0JT3fO7ySpl2xTl-GiqLOdlCwt9s376oQg-xy6_awXuwQo_2NnjN4x7BCXidrwefjm93Cneo96sLJLvDPzVCeI5LYn8NjaemtQTYE2O7dLH-c79J0XgdxsYaSNHL52xGN7klSvBecY8/s320/IMG_0739.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Us eating Hackepeter...raw hamburger</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTmrXGi4oX3eYA3CLbAZCw36I5Dsdn3FXrrye49R8EeeIK-C567ATTI7D4_Y4XtuzrR3czsdAyETdXTYNS680ndOEKjbycNtnttm05OiRYnWWTtZLmr1DOaMyaDeQjxMyQ2fzSqQSOlsW/s1600/IMG_0751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTmrXGi4oX3eYA3CLbAZCw36I5Dsdn3FXrrye49R8EeeIK-C567ATTI7D4_Y4XtuzrR3czsdAyETdXTYNS680ndOEKjbycNtnttm05OiRYnWWTtZLmr1DOaMyaDeQjxMyQ2fzSqQSOlsW/s320/IMG_0751.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The group. I love these people</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVuDlqGmrt4PVx3_x3FH_N6ODifmmATWMwIU_sgSLzbMfBuVD8wcvKy0tBuCHxQ_B1wz9yzzR79kCDfduwPBPInDxGhLBCfKLYE3rx8WkWMunmmuhNtPdcIXmD6LXpbO3fZtmVeCGWJx0/s1600/IMG_0764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVuDlqGmrt4PVx3_x3FH_N6ODifmmATWMwIU_sgSLzbMfBuVD8wcvKy0tBuCHxQ_B1wz9yzzR79kCDfduwPBPInDxGhLBCfKLYE3rx8WkWMunmmuhNtPdcIXmD6LXpbO3fZtmVeCGWJx0/s320/IMG_0764.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The sisters.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQBIFz_Y-vYV1P-rDy5xbB9FGt5RnjuoTiE7WBI9vmJjbzdHyDgD-Bbxq8uijE6kUAy4XbtbjKN2Vu1K-D6f6XuXrlk0iZcBdRCfnOxfQme9sXasPoGCLHywQ9V4TVGvtHIQBaTH62yh6/s1600/IMG_0765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDQBIFz_Y-vYV1P-rDy5xbB9FGt5RnjuoTiE7WBI9vmJjbzdHyDgD-Bbxq8uijE6kUAy4XbtbjKN2Vu1K-D6f6XuXrlk0iZcBdRCfnOxfQme9sXasPoGCLHywQ9V4TVGvtHIQBaTH62yh6/s320/IMG_0765.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Me and my Christiane after temple baptisms</span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNVW-rjAKoOz1vagtnoqvsDZD6eeZEIYVztYIsW_bbKEndRXns1piGCpnalHXLV3KLZ-C7nL1UgXZm__iOHUgBlc7u2DoH7xXhyVQlmy2ODnic6odaYXQicTziEIeUAgGHW-PJVHBE71sR/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNVW-rjAKoOz1vagtnoqvsDZD6eeZEIYVztYIsW_bbKEndRXns1piGCpnalHXLV3KLZ-C7nL1UgXZm__iOHUgBlc7u2DoH7xXhyVQlmy2ODnic6odaYXQicTziEIeUAgGHW-PJVHBE71sR/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNVW-rjAKoOz1vagtnoqvsDZD6eeZEIYVztYIsW_bbKEndRXns1piGCpnalHXLV3KLZ-C7nL1UgXZm__iOHUgBlc7u2DoH7xXhyVQlmy2ODnic6odaYXQicTziEIeUAgGHW-PJVHBE71sR/s320/IMG_0768.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our district...end nov-beginning dec 2011</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Sister Rasmussen</span></span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-71751563949874865112011-11-14T11:55:00.003-07:002011-12-08T14:28:34.177-07:00Come ye children of the Lord...<div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We had a beatiful taufgottesdienst...baptismal service yesterday for Christiane. I am feeling so blessed to have the knowledge of this gospel and get to share it. Christiane was nervous but excited and we woke up at 5:15 and she woke up even earlier to get there an hour before it started and we helped her look all purdy and set up the programs with roses etc. We also got her a picture of Christ and had the people that came to the baptism sign the matting. It was a beautiful service, but more beautiful was the spirit that was there as a couple members gave talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We asked people to speak who have met Christiane but who also havent been toooo involved in the missionary work and they brought their families and we had many many people from the ward young and old come an hour earlier to church to watch our Christiane make a covenant with the Lord through baptism...with the priesthood of God.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She was nervous at the beginning then seemed to be quite humbled at the turn out to her baptism. Shew as beaming after it hapened and was happy and offering to read scriptures in our gospel principles class. She has already invited many people to come to family to home evening and also invited a lot to her baptism...shes already a missionary. Also in the blessing she got when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost spoke of missionary work as well. I just love her and am so stoked for her because she is also going to the temple this Saturday with the ward to do baptisms! She wants to do the temple work for her parents who passed away 6 years ago...and we as the missionaries are excited for her because its said those new converts who get to the temple in the first 6 months of being in the church stay stronger in the gospel. Yay! We are excited to go and Bürcan is coming as well! We taught him about baptism with Mike and Irakli there as well and it was neat to teach them about the power that God is giving them to build his kingdom to bless their families and perform holy ordiniances. It was cool to read about the powerful men in the Book of Mormon....for example like this scripture . . .</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1072273971184557613&postID=7175156394987486511&from=pencil" name="133a2021a26998fe_133a1fc56a05125e_17" style="color: #24466b;"> </a>17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So true. Can you imagine if all the men in the church were like Moroni? What if all the woman treated their husbands and fathers and brothers, friends as priesthood holders of the Lord. The devil wouldnt have power over the hearts of the children of men. . . that would be great. Anyway we are feeling so blessed with the progress and joy Christiane and Bürcan are having. We also have a new GOLDEN investigator named Gonzales....</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">yep theyre just walking around outside looking at the tables haha, we were street contacting in the city and the people were particularly mean that morning (this was 3 days ago) and we were headed back to the institute center when we saw Gonzales looking at the tables in front of a restaurant. We talked to him about the ´Book of Mormon and found out that he is from Peru and is getting his Ph.D here in Chemistry and he will be here for the next 2 years. He said he had lots of collegues back home who were members of the church and one of his friends gave him a Book of Mormon back in Peru (wahoo, good member missionary work) and he said he would love another one. We gave him one and set up a return appointment for the next day...yesterday and it was AWESOME! One of the best lessons of my mission. Irakli was there, helped a lot because of his spanish, yeah he baptized Christiane ýesterday morning and then helped us teach last night, he is always with the missionaries, switching between lessons with us and the elders, all members should take after his example :) anyway Gonzales was telling US the prophecies of the apostacy in the bible and said he totally agreed with the concept of the great apostacy and said of course Joseph Smith could have seen the Father and the Son, he said he would of course be baptized when he found out for himself that the Book of Mormon is true, so hopefully we will set a date with him our next appointment! woot!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love it here in Leipzig and yes we had transfer calls and Sister Faerber and I are staying together! Im so excited for the miracles coming our way with Olga, Mascha, Bianka, Christiane, Bürcan, Ines, Maria....bah theres so many, just waiting to come closer to Christ, isnt the gospel true?? Yes. Yes it is.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have a happy Monday and know how important it is to pray... really pray, with your whole heart. Then you can repent and feel the love of our eternal, allmighty creator, and our perfect father. He is just waiting to bless you, just ask him for the blessings, and follow his guidance...then the miracles come! I promise you that.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love you!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Rasmussen</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christiane was baptized! It was a beautiful taufgottesdienst.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.All the girls</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtJGSLxJQ3ajdwAF32XOz7KrRNq_bqS8U2oMYtIw41t5var2mIaVu-3u0sVpR1tVhDa6OFPILkpGwtx3qyWMi_AIIh0LgbIDCeL6ynOXowdlJAbd2jms2_0AsFY3kYhOvthfVA_PpRzMz/s1600/IMG_0717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtJGSLxJQ3ajdwAF32XOz7KrRNq_bqS8U2oMYtIw41t5var2mIaVu-3u0sVpR1tVhDa6OFPILkpGwtx3qyWMi_AIIh0LgbIDCeL6ynOXowdlJAbd2jms2_0AsFY3kYhOvthfVA_PpRzMz/s400/IMG_0717.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. Me and the Christiane</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-lXLiXBRLKrw4U-WO3UUwBMvg5rIAMM2pxx6V58QEKT_sYAvkfYwCdYrbewVc_4KiM-LUHeZKexygmq67DbP7-3krX150D0btDWMWE4GXWyF5Xl5EUfsgNBsmzAaMpCwUukrAXSDag1x/s1600/IMG_0718.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-lXLiXBRLKrw4U-WO3UUwBMvg5rIAMM2pxx6V58QEKT_sYAvkfYwCdYrbewVc_4KiM-LUHeZKexygmq67DbP7-3krX150D0btDWMWE4GXWyF5Xl5EUfsgNBsmzAaMpCwUukrAXSDag1x/s400/IMG_0718.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. Katrin is great, thats a real smile of hers.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCAmnIOBicw1NgdkonR1JY6uBHKOVIuLmLJ5EPkqL9QTEPSj6oPf5Ma_6KzMnpcVXzZ7WnhoaUlBhujSpcXTiQB6jRxvWSkSV0Vmbd7uuyuQVkXRoxhxuUXekFYLMKrMQCITf4anOD7eQ/s1600/IMG_0720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCAmnIOBicw1NgdkonR1JY6uBHKOVIuLmLJ5EPkqL9QTEPSj6oPf5Ma_6KzMnpcVXzZ7WnhoaUlBhujSpcXTiQB6jRxvWSkSV0Vmbd7uuyuQVkXRoxhxuUXekFYLMKrMQCITf4anOD7eQ/s400/IMG_0720.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4. Us on the train headed to tausch</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42gtBD48wzHcsCi17FyW98LN7c104le7VrzFr4Y7yl2j4Rget2QKy8pmESLRyZjNi6nXczL4t4HUbGt8KDkuVFKLNuOr2jNmbwd2EMMledpTTYyvABlEmIIThpem9OqyQbRd8lXDzctkh/s1600/IMG_0402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42gtBD48wzHcsCi17FyW98LN7c104le7VrzFr4Y7yl2j4Rget2QKy8pmESLRyZjNi6nXczL4t4HUbGt8KDkuVFKLNuOr2jNmbwd2EMMledpTTYyvABlEmIIThpem9OqyQbRd8lXDzctkh/s400/IMG_0402.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. Distrikt meeting!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIuDh7aCIEu19sUODvMZd0d08V9J0mNpcSFE1q2lnisxUqQUqw7msvYW04KT1L4D-Z8gSacKrCGuTd-JuftvJOIPNv7zk7Eb-WdfPIUILN2L_ErJgnEvV0XHIBi7wGtE7mDj6ap560bwyk/s1600/IMG_0413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIuDh7aCIEu19sUODvMZd0d08V9J0mNpcSFE1q2lnisxUqQUqw7msvYW04KT1L4D-Z8gSacKrCGuTd-JuftvJOIPNv7zk7Eb-WdfPIUILN2L_ErJgnEvV0XHIBi7wGtE7mDj6ap560bwyk/s400/IMG_0413.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">6. Us... lost...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyWmF1uK0uGcYzK7cPptLSHdWFlZK72-Ngql_bSuZYo_ziQR5u_ZYKtP2Pd_EFSdIT0e43_z760fg3BzPrWMpeAfkNeq53pwXTUGbNr4wADbLkwXTo3MX8zO6iP2snz8mFJ8w6H0M-YHV/s1600/IMG_0419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyWmF1uK0uGcYzK7cPptLSHdWFlZK72-Ngql_bSuZYo_ziQR5u_ZYKtP2Pd_EFSdIT0e43_z760fg3BzPrWMpeAfkNeq53pwXTUGbNr4wADbLkwXTo3MX8zO6iP2snz8mFJ8w6H0M-YHV/s400/IMG_0419.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-86437228214864225842011-11-13T08:29:00.001-07:002011-12-08T14:31:15.538-07:00Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. I agree with Alma...I cannot say the smallest part which I feel about serving the Lord and being one of his missionaries.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last week was an amazing week wasnt it? I hope it was a good one for you. I heard it snowed in your gegend? (youre area?) It's luckily still clear here. Actually, not too chilly but they did set up some christmas decorations outside hanging in between the buildings. It's so charming! Leipzig is beautiful. You all should come visit... not me, just the city. : ) And you know what's even better? The ward!! And even better, the gospel. It's so....true! And if you aren't sure of that truthfullness than, well, I recommend figuring that out at soon as possible. The blessings that come from living the gospel of our Savior are so precious, perfect, and so full of the love our perfect Heavenly Father. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know the church is true and miracles happen...one of them occurred at our Halloween party! Yes, it was a success. We decorated all day last p-day and the institute center looked awesome. We had 42 people show and 14 investigators! It was a really enjoyable enviornment and we had an awesome spiritual thought. Sister Färber and I at the beginning about when Christ walked on the water. We talked about how when the disciples first saw Christ they didnt recognize him and thought he was a ghost and were afraid. When we relate it to our lives and sometimes when Christ answers our prayers not how we expected we can first be afraid and not even realize its our loving Savior bringing us help. It was a great thought. Well, I thought so anyway. It helps me in my life when I get timid or hesitant the adversary gives us these feelings of incapability and fear. But in those moments I try and remember the Lord and his sacrifice and willingness to help me whenever I need him. I know he is there and I know his strong, loving arms are out ready to help all of us when we need support.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yeah like I said, (I keep getting distracted from my point because talking about the gospel is so much more awesome),we had a miracle at the halloween party. Mascha came and was pretty happy when she was there and as the games started going, she asked Sister Färber and I if she could talk to us for a few minutes....She took us aside in the kitchen and said....<span style="color: #336666;">'Ive been thinking and reading the past few days and I want to do it, I want to be baptized on December 4th!'</span> BAHHHH! Isnt that amazing!?!? She said she is doing this with her whole heart and wants it for herself. She wants Irakli to baptize her and is excited! We are so blessed here. It's my first experience having someone come to me and tell me they want to be baptized (opposed to them saying yes to our invitation). So thats the plan, sadly she is leaving for the next 10 days for Ukraine, but we saw her right before she left at bahnhof and she had her Book of Mormon in her bag and was planning to read on the train! We prayed with her before she left and she is going to try and quit smoking and build her relationship with her Savior while she is up there. <span style="color: #336666;">MIRACLE!</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #336666; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;">I was super blessed this past Thursday to go on tausch with my great friend Sister Stewart! She is fantastic and so original and hilarious. We had a great tausch in DRESDEN and had one of the most awesome lessons of my mission. The sisters there had made an appointment out with a guy whos number they had found on a contact sheet. His name was Michael Pfenning and he was so cool!! He had perfect English but was from Bayern. He is a musician and had the coolest apartment. The building is from like the 1600s but he has redone it and I just wanted to stay and look at all the artwork and pictures...but the best part was the conversation we had with him. In mixed German and English we talked about life and joy and peace, and then we went more specifically into how the relationships we have here on earth can last forever. He proceeded to tell us that his sweet wife had died of cancer less than a year before. It was so cool to teach him the first part of the plan and to see the spirit touch him. He gave us peppermint tea and pfannkuchen and said he liked the sound of families being together forever. He didn't have a big knowledge of Christian belief even though he apparently was raised Catholic .Either way it ws such an honor to get to be the missionary to tell him that the spirits that we have in us and the spirit his wife had in her have been with God before and can be with him again. It's a perfect glorious plan that we have the knowledge of...tell somebody about it! It brings so much </span><span style="color: #336666;">JOY!</span></span></div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
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</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yeah, then we had Zone conference on Friday and it was my favorite one so far! I loved president's theme on fishing with nets. He remotivated us to keep going with our cards and to get the name of the church out there. We have given out half a million cards in the past 6 months in the Germany Berlin mission woot! So we are continuing to fish with nets, just like the disciples did after Christ was resurrected. They had to call over other boats to help them bring in the catch it was so big...</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I got to give a workshop on obedience. It went pretty well. It's such a crucial important concept of missionary work, and also of being a Christian, and actually of being a good person in general. It's so simple yet difficult sometimes. There are blessings and guidance we need to have the best life we can, with success and joy. And there are laws, rules, specific ways to receive those blessings. Simple. Keep the law, get the blessing. And we are called of the Lord to keep those laws, it is expected of us. NO you dont HAVE to....(ahem but youre a fool if you don't) it just feels good to do good. To be good. To do your best and realize you can even do better with the Lord behind you. I kind of put some missionaries in their place and called myself as well to repentance, but we have no room to debate if we will be obediant because we gave ourselves to the Lord, all of us, and we represent him. But do you want to know a secret???......shh...so did YOU! As members of his church we said we would keep his laws and commandments and be his representatives. It's so fulfilling and full of JOY. Hope youre keeping all the rules... if not, well... just do it :)</span></div><div></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know this email is too long already but I wanted to also report we are seeing success with the excitment of the members of doing missionary work as well. I bore my testimony about chocolate cake. How I love it, but dont love it by myself. It seems almost depressing sitting down to eat chocolate cake alone, but when you share it it tastes so much better because more people get to taste of the deliciousness. JUST LIKE THE GOSPEL OF COURSE! We need to share it! I told the members we are helping Christiane WHOSE BAPTISM IS THIS SUNDAY! We are helping her realize the seriousness and responsibility of being a member of the church. and that our responsibility is to live and spread his gospel! Woot...its such an awesome work. Anyway, Schwester Schmidt then got up and said she needed help knowing how to share her chocolate cake. Then we met with the Ortlieb family and they are excited about our plan to help them pray and invite people to come unto Christ. Whether that is with big steps or small steps it doesn't matter, just helping people feel his love, and be aware of His existance and sacrifice and love! The gospel is so amazing! I hope you feel that love as much as I do...you can if you want! Just do it. Keep that law thats hard for you then youll be more fulfilled with joy. I promise.</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, probably should let you get on with your day, but just know I appreciate you and your prayers. Thanks for your love.</span></div><div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Machts gut, Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-40139558629508256332011-11-06T11:21:00.001-07:002011-11-06T11:21:19.860-07:00Ja Klar<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div>So...Happy Halloween to you all. They don't really celebrate Halloween here. It's more scary than fun. So we said, "W the missionaries will throw a halloween party for family home evening." Then they announced it at stake conference! So...we bought some stuff on Saturday, and today (Monday) all the stores are closed. So...well I'm feeling a little pressure to make it awesome with little resources. But it sounds like we will have more visitors than members attending so there should be a lot of missionary work going on like new appointments made out to get to the really important stuff, like teaching the gospel.<br />
</div><div>Speaking of teaching I had one of my favorite lessons last night and wanted to share it with you. We were with Christane all day long yesterday and she came with us to visit our sweet 89 yr old schwester Schielde and then came with us to visit Bürcan. We just helped him get a new apartment (we as in the ward) and we helped him move in. He had to do some last minute stuff in his old apartment so we met him there to help him and teach him. So the four of us sat on the floor of his old 5th floor apartment with a lamp being the only light, and we talked about their experiences of finding the church. Both of them have been having some outer pressure. Bürcan's ex girlfriend randomly saw a picture of him getting baptized and read up on the church and gave him a lot of anti stuff and info and we were so proud when he told us the story and shared with us his response. He just said I know this church is truch and I feel the love of the Lord when I am in the church and with these people and living this lifestyle. He shut all that opposition down quickly.<br />
Christiane is the same way. She talks about how she knows there is a God and will be able to see her parents again (who both passed away when she was 11) and she knows that there are people who won't support her. She has already lost a few friends, and the boyfriend of her sister 'ist seemlich dagegen' (pretty much against the church) but apparently her sister was asking a lot of questions and wants some info. Sadly no contact with us yet, but that will come :)<br />
</div><div>Sorry all my thoughts are all mixed together because I am just so excited about the work going on here. We took Christiane yesterday to stake conference which was in another city so 13 of us went on the train and met the whole stake in this theater they rented out. President Pimentel came as well as a 70 from the Netherlands. Olga came as well to stake conference on Saturday night and so did Georgy our new investigator! It's just miracle after miracle. Stake conference was awesome. The 70 talked about how we need to stand in holy places and those are the temple, the church, our homes, and where we stand. People who come into our presence should feel they are on holy ground because we keep our thoughts clean, language clean, and if we are full of love then people will notice something different. Isn't that great! It's the truth. People do feel a difference and feel the love of their Heavenly Father, through us! Isn't it such an honor to be a member of the church to get to be an answer to someone else's prayer, yeah i love it!<br />
</div><div>We are working hard on mapping out how to visit as many members as possible to get referrals. We have a new referral card which we got from the zone leaders and all of the Leipzig zone will be meeting with all the members in the next few months to propose this plan. It is to pray for a week to find someone new to invite to meet with the missionaries. The invitation is the success and we are so excited about the miracles that are coming... It's a little tricky just trying to bring the spirit and excitment of sharing the gospel while not overwhelming people. And I know that there is someone (satan...such a bother) who makes missionary work seem so foreign or such a challenge. But it's really so simple. Just opening up and loving people more, with ouwhole hearts! Man I love it.</div><div><br />
We also are having zone conference this Friday and I get to give a workshop on obediance. I'm excited because it's such a simple yet profound concept and all success relys on obediance. Especially missionary success. I just love the plainness of the fact that if we love the Savior we will keep his commandments. No ifs, ands, or buts. We either truly love Him with our whole hearts and appreciate His love and sacrifice and than show that to him, or not. Then I ask why would someone waste their life not expereincing the love of their Savior and Heavenly Father...the warm feeling of his presence, and the clarity of his guidance is so heavenly and profound. Just keeping his commandments is the simple way to feel that warm love and support from our Heavenly Father. DON'T YOU LOVE IT!? Me too. Makes me smile, the clarity of the gospel is so great. Let's go tell someone about it!! So they can feel it toooooo.<br />
<br />
Have a lovely Halloween, just have fun and keep the commandments, aka show your love and appreciation for OUR Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It takes concious effort until it becomes a habit, but I promise you will be more fulfilled and focused and einfach (simply) happier when you try it! I will if you will!<br />
Love you dearly,<br />
Sister Rasmussen (actually dressed up as Sister Faerber today...looks great, Happy Halloween!)<br />
<div></div></div><div><br />
</div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-83674041169518264012011-10-24T18:00:00.002-06:002011-10-24T18:00:57.105-06:00Werden Sie das beispiel Jesu Christi folgen...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div><span style="color: #336666; font-size: medium;">Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ?</span> That is really what we are trying to teach people here; who he is, what he did, how much he loves us, that he lives today, and how to follow his example. It's such an unforgettable experience when people hear it, understand it, and feel the love of the Lord in our lessons and alone at home.</div><div><br />
</div><div>A huge blessing right now is what is going on with Christiana. She came to church yesterday in my skirt again and looked great! We have a new aufbau class with our new ward mission leader who is an awesome teacher. We talked about Heavenly Father and his attributes. It was so great because it was a small group and Christiana added to the discussion and clearly learned a lot. That is really our purpose - to help her build her relationship with her Heavenly Father and with Christ. It was also great because more people in the ward are noticing her and helping her feel welcome. She has come with us the past two Sundays to our eating appointments with members and you can see that her hopes for a future family and her thoughts about her decisions now are changing for the better. We had an awesome lesson about chastity and it was so cool to talk about our respect for ourselves and our future relationship, as well as our respect for the Lord and what is best for us. She is doing great and is inviting her friends to come to activities already as well...yeah!</div><div><br />
</div><div>We also went and saw Olga at her house and her husband was there! He is athiest and isn't a big fan of religion. He was born and raised athiest, but he was there and was so friendly. He and Olga are the cutest couple ever and they are so in love. We talked to them about life and family and got to know him a little better and they showed us their wedding pictures....cute but so...hmm anticlimatic? Just pictures of some guy by a desk in the city hall and them signing some paper and drinking champange afterwards... Sister Faerber and I were excited to see them but it also showed me wow what a huge drastic difference there is with a marriage in the world and marriage in the temple. Not even comparable. We asked if we could show them an awesome 5 minute dvd we have called finding happiness which is good when just wanting to start the conversation about the purpose of life. It shows beautiful landscapes and families and people working here in Europe and asks the questions like, "What if there was a big plan for us?" and "Who is the creator?" and "What if we could find out this purpose and live in unity with it?" " What if you could communicate with this creator, our Heavenly Father?" ...etc, and the spirit comes pretty quickly. We showed them the video. Olga loved it! And the man was well, you could tell he was affected by it, but he wasn't interested. He said, "I know Olga likes meeting with you and that's great, but Im not interested." It was weird to hear that response after just bearing testimony of the joy that comes when knowing a marriage can be together forever! What a happy thought! Oh well. He will come around. We can just invite right? Either way we laughed with them a lot and we brought the spirit into their home. Mal sehen.</div><div><br />
</div><div>We had an awesome Sunday yesterday. Sister Faerber plays this gorgeous 'erstaunt und bewundert' arrangement (I stand all amazed) arrangement and the spirit is so strong! It brings people to tears and oh I just love it, I tend to ask all of our investigators if they have an extra 5 minutes at the end of our lesson to hear her song. It's a good thing she loves me and loves playing the song or else someone could get really annoyed me always asking to hear it... :)</div><div><br />
</div><div>It was pretty chilly a couple nights this past week. We were on the gleises talking to people pretty late and were just freezing, but it was exciting and we found some cool people.... like GEORGE AND RACHEL!</div><div>They came up to us and asked us what our shields are! Oh I mean tags, haha. And they said they were looking for a bible study but it had fallen out! So we said, WELL, can we show you our institute in the city and we talked about there being a living prophet on the earth today....and then about the book of mormon and George freaked when we told him we had it in Hungarian! He was so excited!!! We had an awesome lesson with them and gave them both books of Mormon. Rachel is from Germany and George is from Romania but they are 20 and 24 years old and are awesome. Hopefully we will see them this week... I LOVE IT!</div><div><br />
</div><div>Being a missionary is the greatest life ever, just getting to study the gospel, feel the spirit, find others who want to learn and be a tool in the Lords hands....just hearing what a life is like in the real world....bleah i want to do this forever :) Okay? okay.</div><div>I hope you are happy and healthy and feeling the love from me through this email but more importantly the love of my and your Heavenly Father in your whole heart and soul. There's no better more fulfilling feeling than feeling his love and guidance! I recommend it.</div><div>Have a great OKTOBER week!</div><div><span style="color: #336666; font-size: medium;">Love, Sister Rasmussen.</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-35383765524659149182011-10-22T14:08:00.001-06:002011-10-22T14:08:23.190-06:00'...how bout sometime next week?'<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those are my two favorite lines we got to hear this past week..... so the normal rundown when we talk to people on the street about the gospel we get into a coversation about the purpose of life, or how we find real joy or the fact that we have a loving Father in Heaven and then we go for an appointment right? Yeah, so we are normally suggesting times that they could meet us at the institute center in the city and then we end up figuring out a time, but to be honest it doesnt happen very often where a person, like Susan. We talked to for a good 10 minutes who was pretty skeptical at the beginning and she told us that she had tried to believe in God when she went to visit Ireland and said it didnt work haha, well we then figured out she speaks like perfect english and works for Office depot here in Leipzig? Yeah and she was born here, her family isnt religious at all and she didnt have a good experience when she visted a church in Ireland. As we talked to her about the love her Heavenly Father had for her and the purpose of a church, his church is to learn the truth about him, how we can learn to show our love back to him and to each other. Also most importantly to fulfill his plan for us and be sealed to our families for eternity. It was so cool to see the spirit touch her and to laugh a little realizing how this church has been here at least 20 years and she had never heard of it but wondered why. She then said of course she would meeet us and we asked if she had time tomorrow and that didnt work and then SHE said 'how bout some time next week?' Yes yes I know there are prepared people and that the Lord gives us the words to touch their hearts, but I dont think ive ever heard them suggest 'how about some time next week?' It just showed an excitement and a sincere desire to find the truth. I WAS SO EXCITED AFTER WE TALKED TO HER, just imagined her in white and coming to institute and being a future young womans leader....yay.<br />
Isnt that cool? Just walking on the glies on the way home and she wants the truth, wow they are just all over this city and weve just got to talk to them. Yeah, we are still teaching the other awesome people who we are calling the fantastisch vier (fantastic four) Christiane, Masha, Olga and Stephan..<br />
Christane is doing so great, is coming to every activity and she even wore the skirt I gave her to church yesterday. She loves saying the prayer and brought a friend to come meet us last night. You can see her changing to be obedient and to do what is right. She is in need of love and of people to give her a good example. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and ever person that changes to live in unity with his teachings is just another testimony to me of the truthfullness. Its so incredible to see the happiness and satisfaction in their eyes. She is going to wait until her friend Nadine comes back from Hannover to be baptized so it will be on November 13, but she is excited and her faith is growing. Its a challenge to see how much she understands and is taking in because she is going from 0 belief, but Sister Faerber and I read in 3 Nephi about the people who repented and believed on Christs name were baptized and stayed strong and true to the faith, and that is what Christiane is doing.<br />
It was awesome teaching Olga as well this week as we taught about the apostacy again and the need of a restoration of the truth. The spirit was strong and Olga just giggles as she realizes she has found something that brings her closer to her Heavenly Father. It was sweet of her to ask us if its hard for us to convert her haha, she said another month or so and sister Faerber and I just smiled at each other realizing the Lord was doing the converting, not us. She is going to come to a members home (the relief society presidents home) and also talk to her husband, who served a mission in Russia, so theyll speak russian together. I know the spirit will touch her when she feels of the truthfullness in her mother tongue.<br />
Masha is doing great too, she was just coming to sport because she boxes and we have helped her realizes the plan that Heavenly Father has for us and how to become better people in following his son Jesus Christ, so now she is meeting with us as well! She is excited to meet with us this week and is willing to have faith in to what we teach her and to pray personally to find out the truth for herself. Its been really personal because her mother passed away in her arms and she feels her mother close as we teach her more about his plan. She had us over to make us a delicious lunch and we taught her about the restoration, the spirit was strong and she teared up realizing the love that comes through this gospel. Its sweet when she calls us family and like her sisters, I hope we can teach her well so her roots are deep in the gospel.<br />
I sure love serving here in Leipzig and for the ward, our GML (ward mission leader) is awesome, just baptized and married his girlfriend this past summer and served a mission in California so he knows the hows and whats about how to best work with the ward. We are going to have more organized lessons with the called ward missionaries so our investigators can meet real people who live and love this gospel, im so stoked! (alongside that will be more of a ward sport with hockey in the parking lot so they can feel loved and welcome) yay missionary work! Dont you love this gospel too??<br />
One special person we are visiting lately is Schwester Schilde, she is the lady with the sunglasses in the picture. She is 89 and is the strongest member ive ever met. Her testimony is so strong especially of Thomas S. Monson being a prophet of God. I told her yesterday the expereince I got to have with President Monson before he was the prophet when he told me to 'marry right' and she teared up and said he really is inspired isnt he? Just like the story he told in generalkonferenz... we had an awesome appointment with her and she calls us her granddaughters. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!<br />
Missions are the greatest and I cant imagine not going on a mission, these people and experiences are priceless!<br />
Hope you know how grateful I am for your love and prayers and for your letter mom, Have a super Oktober week!<br />
<br />
Love, Sister Rasmussen<br />
Das Evangelium macht man glücklich...probier mal davon zu kosten. :)<br />
</span></span><br />
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</span></span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-22206642988065988442011-10-10T08:23:00.004-06:002011-10-10T08:33:42.636-06:00but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2JRVA3HWjs46HMZShAjxztuyLx62MT6TedYAssDNmxXKqVFIaSMO0u59Zgu3i4Otp7Jcp5yLGpJBiQCsTYV35S6EkJen9AjWIHsbNmpQI3PgNEibEgWmWtZlYr5U7Zrhxn1HCcxUit5y/s1600/IMG_0192-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2JRVA3HWjs46HMZShAjxztuyLx62MT6TedYAssDNmxXKqVFIaSMO0u59Zgu3i4Otp7Jcp5yLGpJBiQCsTYV35S6EkJen9AjWIHsbNmpQI3PgNEibEgWmWtZlYr5U7Zrhxn1HCcxUit5y/s1600/IMG_0192-1.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 13px;">Do you know what happens to those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ? They are happier, more fulfilled, more filled with love and forgiveness, more reassured that good is going to come. Its so amazing being able to teach Christiane, Stephan, Olga, Masha and our other investigators who Christ is, how much he loves them and how they can show their love back to him. Its amazing to help them change their lives to be receptive to the blessings Heavenly Father is holding out of them. Its so cool to see their faith and willingness to read even if they dont understand, to change to keep the commandments because of their goal to strengthen their relationship with Christ. We are seeing miracles, especially this last week. It was the first week of this transfer and we reached and even suceeded some goals we had set...one of them being members with us at lessons.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Its been really amazing to see the improvement of the work, we arent just searching for people anymore, we arent just teaching a couple people and scraping by getting lessons, we are teaching people who are making significant progress and bringing members to our lessons and teaching in members homes etc. Its so inspiring to be apart of the work as the 'giant of missionary work' here in Germany wakes up.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Some special miracles that I loved this past week happened last night and the night before. Ive told you before of the missions goal to make out a new appointment every day with somebody new, making that at least 7 new appointments a week. Well the past two days our days were packed with lessons and there wasnt much time to find. We had the goal to talk to everyone we could but there were slim chances, I mean think of the miracle in itself to be able to do that! To find someone who will be willing to meet with two strangers, who cant really speak their language to talk about a deep topic like the purpose of life...pretty incredible, but to them find a person who would be willing to do that within a 20 minute time range? yeah, I know right! So we prayed and talked to everyone, no go, but as we walked on our street home we talked Saturday night to a guy who said yeah he would but had shifts with his work so it was always spontan when he could meet, but we found a time and hes meeting us next week. THEN last night about 20 feet away from the other guy we talked to an awesome lady named Rosie on our street after having talked to tons of people in the city and she was so cool and said the same thing it was hard to find a time because she had shifts at her work too...but she said we could meet on Saturday, bah!! After we walked away from making out the appointment we just walked with jaws dropped and both thanked our Heavenly Father for sending us two nights in a row someone who would want to hear 'der frohe nachricht' (the joyful message.)</span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We also had an awesome appointment with our lovely Olga, the awesome law student from Ukraine whos husband is athiest and German, we have been meeting with her for a couple months now and she is more open every time we meet with her. We had her meet us at the church this time and gave her a tour. Then we pulled out our secret weapon, Sister Faerber's arrangement of 'I stand all Amazed' on the piano...the spirit comes so strongly and we then bore testimony of Christ and his love for us. We told her about how we show our love to him by keeping his commandments and committed her to live the word of wisdom. She then said we could come visit her at home and meet her husband! SHE THEN came to church and saw the last session of Generalkonferenz and loved it. She said she thought Thomas S. Monson was a prophet and she felt the spirit when she was there. We still have a lot of work to do with her to help her realize this is the ONLY church with the priesthood and the power to act in Gods name when perfoming holy ordinances...but we are trusting in the Lord and know he'll give us the words. </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We also saw a lot of miracles with Christiane! She is so excited about the gospel and said she noticed a change in herself to be more outgoing and to be more daring...you can tell her self confidence is growing a lot. She is really feeling the love of the Lrod and loves this feeling of belonging to a family. She is committed to keep the commandments and reconfirmed to us yesterday after church that she is going to keep the sabbath day holy and go read her scriptures and not go out shopping with friends, she said she can do that next week. :) She was assigned last week to give the opening prayer this week (tonight) at family home evening and she has been offering to give the prayer in all our lessons etc, its so amazing to have been maybe a small help in someone building their relationship with their Heavenly Father. </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">We also met with Masha and she is like a big sister to me, she is from Ukraine and is awesome, she is a boxer haha and is the sweetest, she met us by coming to the church on Wednesday nights to do sport and a guy who just got baptized in June is a boxing trainer anyway, thats how we met her and we have met with her a few times, she's made us food and has come to Familieheimabend etc, and was pretty open but wasnt catching on to the vision, or our purpose and goal to help her come unto Christ but this past week as we met with her and she opened up to us she explained to us about a dream she had and she saw her mother who passed away just a year ago, she knew this was an answer to her prayers and we are now debating which ward to baptize her into :) She is amazing and we are already planning when she can come visit America. :)</span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">One of the last but most awesome miracles is Bürcan. He was the awesome guy from Turkey who got baptized 3 weeks ago...its been so amazing to talk to him and teach him now, now that he has the gift of the Holy Ghost. He understands a lot more quickly, and is LOVING the gospel. He also experienced a miracle of telling his mother that he is Christian (because they are all Muslim) and he was really nervous that she would either die or disown him after he said that, but we promised him that the Lord would provide away and HE DID! He told her and she said its okay as long as he believes in God and is happy then that is all that matters to her! Bah! Miracle. He also had an amazing dream, well actually a couple of them and we are so grateful that the Lord is working so powerfully with them, its incredible to promise blessings and answers to prayers and to see the answer come so clearly. I know that God answers our prayers, because he has answered mine day after day after day after day.... i recommend trying it out. </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">I love this mission and love this gospel. I love serving in Leipzig with such an awesome companion Sister Faerber. I love the Savior and love wearing his name. It is such an honor to get to tell people about the joy they can experience right now feeling his love...hope you are doing what you can to feel his love as well! </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">I love you, thank you for your prayers and love. Have a great brisk Oktober Week! </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Congrats to my bestie Syd, who is becoming Sydney Evans TOMORROW! </span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Sister Rasmussen</span></div></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmaZ1BiuqxyGRLsMrBusxDxn6aG9VmOW2UPoke0jJ4RQxckaaM8xLbKklQ4qkEF8cIry1Iq3Im6yYtrjYG72zgpzoEI4h-6SO26dzLY7V7CwCs2jPRUEtslfGLW71YIV-5ogMipfOD26W_/s1600/IMG_0133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmaZ1BiuqxyGRLsMrBusxDxn6aG9VmOW2UPoke0jJ4RQxckaaM8xLbKklQ4qkEF8cIry1Iq3Im6yYtrjYG72zgpzoEI4h-6SO26dzLY7V7CwCs2jPRUEtslfGLW71YIV-5ogMipfOD26W_/s320/IMG_0133.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Me in the Leipzig hauptbahnhof (trainstation)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghe7kQJyGKFbzPIBjHms95SjDbCDtlC374jZ1tE4hlXSPp8Ab6hwUVf-RSrGWZ9-Z9mCGfkNx0K5IeHDAj0tSTFrkhB_8nofTNtjbnh3TlhxsZpUZDacZfzeRFMy3l2OJOCpbbdTxJAp5a/s1600/IMG_0146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghe7kQJyGKFbzPIBjHms95SjDbCDtlC374jZ1tE4hlXSPp8Ab6hwUVf-RSrGWZ9-Z9mCGfkNx0K5IeHDAj0tSTFrkhB_8nofTNtjbnh3TlhxsZpUZDacZfzeRFMy3l2OJOCpbbdTxJAp5a/s320/IMG_0146.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">me and my golden Sister Faerber in my golden city last transfer at the temple!!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpElKgH0MN-jt2H5r1VQOUM9ipUUIJnC2vHEPLj2gm-lLxp6dCRR2IAi7-3nwtsSnhGwHJPFnUl9gyNuXO-P4TuFd7yx3Of65srj7IXFw3q860T2rkOHHDlGb8bcqOTuxI-5YYaB5-4Ed/s1600/IMG_0184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpElKgH0MN-jt2H5r1VQOUM9ipUUIJnC2vHEPLj2gm-lLxp6dCRR2IAi7-3nwtsSnhGwHJPFnUl9gyNuXO-P4TuFd7yx3Of65srj7IXFw3q860T2rkOHHDlGb8bcqOTuxI-5YYaB5-4Ed/s320/IMG_0184.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVWoPJ8Z4ZDc4G-FtmntgZ0BxFPfaDTFPIMcKpR0ooztAm4-u1dmxXIqdXehSxtvDRufFdsPj_6ZgcS83di1mq4XSs3P1dll9siPFCa414BiP3Eam6VVrnmECInIBZD-3nfk1ak2OdqVB/s1600/IMG_0185.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVWoPJ8Z4ZDc4G-FtmntgZ0BxFPfaDTFPIMcKpR0ooztAm4-u1dmxXIqdXehSxtvDRufFdsPj_6ZgcS83di1mq4XSs3P1dll9siPFCa414BiP3Eam6VVrnmECInIBZD-3nfk1ak2OdqVB/s640/IMG_0185.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> me and Caroline at her baptism in September!</span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX-BixZmQDbvOxL2LgHceKoBjAKDY5eubJ0Ux2CJQ2eT-WjPtDCrh9IVloda8y_uuCKyDQoEejbL19-R6DwGNWsW_kUH6cEMYxb3WxF1SOMcVAYaak964EUPIOV82DcwshdI7wgGozdeA/s1600/IMG_0218.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX-BixZmQDbvOxL2LgHceKoBjAKDY5eubJ0Ux2CJQ2eT-WjPtDCrh9IVloda8y_uuCKyDQoEejbL19-R6DwGNWsW_kUH6cEMYxb3WxF1SOMcVAYaak964EUPIOV82DcwshdI7wgGozdeA/s320/IMG_0218.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Us at Bürcans baptism! Irakli was who baptized him, he himself was baptized in June!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BA7HAzZcQ0J3_wjesLyC-UoOHMw0eHVAaVag1nUhNwdik3dV8F1d7CDPjyBlMJPdMD7FhRZ4tCqY1tuYtyWaQ3yVY9PEzlS-lRggQMFtw0W-WvdugS2Y1gJDUpb6ZgcWhrTYAdSvtt72/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BA7HAzZcQ0J3_wjesLyC-UoOHMw0eHVAaVag1nUhNwdik3dV8F1d7CDPjyBlMJPdMD7FhRZ4tCqY1tuYtyWaQ3yVY9PEzlS-lRggQMFtw0W-WvdugS2Y1gJDUpb6ZgcWhrTYAdSvtt72/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Me at the Leipzig zoo...being a flamingo</span></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZD2v1FqJQlq9W3vFYw_FbMNfvPlCjm1f-JReU-4OjnJgLQ69_Wjt0CUY523lTULBHGqQNVoDgkHVYQPlfMWhXlp8Tdd06kBoszb8TTLsdnGS4CZ0rUJWhTcxeCWtztMmI05_WzMjKbeI/s1600/IMG_0294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZD2v1FqJQlq9W3vFYw_FbMNfvPlCjm1f-JReU-4OjnJgLQ69_Wjt0CUY523lTULBHGqQNVoDgkHVYQPlfMWhXlp8Tdd06kBoszb8TTLsdnGS4CZ0rUJWhTcxeCWtztMmI05_WzMjKbeI/s1600/IMG_0294.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;">Leipsch</span></span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-49745318191085259132011-10-09T23:39:00.001-06:002011-10-09T23:39:09.558-06:00do the right thing at the right time without delay<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 1ex;">I LOVE GENERALCONFERENZ! Dont you?</blockquote><div>I really couldnt get enough of the words of the prophet, the twelve. They are inspired men and woman and I couldnt write fast enough. I hope I can keep this love for conference my whole life. I loved Uchtdorfs talk about Heavenly Father's love for us. He knows our actions and will neither forget or forsake us. I liked how he said to have hope and faith and learn to love my Heavenly Father in act and word and deed. and to remain faithful and one day we will experience the promise, to wexperince the things which God has prepared for them that love him.</div><div>Its so great, doesnt seem like a hard task to love our Heavenly Father but in times of temptation that is when it matters most and when we really show our love. Its how we treat others and keep his word and his commandments. I think of it sometimes of when my parents told me things to do, yeah I could tell them the whole day long that I love them but when they arent watching to things against what they expect of me, or even go against what they have asked me to do, or even commanded me to do. Then it takes real love and honor for my parents when I do what they have asked me to do and follow what they say and not just tell them that I love them. Just like that with our Heavenly Father, we can pray and say we love him but they really are empty words when we dont act as we know we should. and thats the joy that comes in a mission... to first teach people that they have a perfect loving heavenly father who created everything...who have put the 'spark of eternal life in our breast, and worlds without end are in our grasp' like Uchtdorf said...we get to teach them about this perfect plan, show them how to connect with the celestial joy that comes through the savior and then as well teach them how to show their love to their Heavenly Father. Its so rewarding and I cant get enough.</div><div>We saw our family again and they are doing great, im so glad we fasted and prayed for a family, we have been praying for a couple weeks now for a family and we have made out two more appointments with two more families!! I sure hope we get contact with them, one was a guy named Felix who was holding his little daughter named 'Lila' and said we could come teach them the plan we believe God has for us. YAY! Its so incredible sharing this message with the world, but even more selfishly rewarding is the perspective that it gives me. It shows me what is really important in life, what matters and not, what decisions I make really have eternal consequences. Its a blessing I wasnt expecting. </div><div>We have also seen miracles with Stephan, I told you he bore his testimony on his first Sunday? Well we have taught him a few times, and have had different members there with us to teach him, he came as well to conference all dressed up (suit and tie) and loved Packers and Uchtdorfs talks... He also came to the priesthood session. He said he bought a new bible and is making really great progress! Christiana is also doing great, she came to the relief society meeting and one other session of Conference. We are going to celebrate her birthday here for family home evening because she doesnt really have a family and she needs some love! So she is also doing great, knows that she wants to be baptized to make a promise to Christ to follow him and to have faith. YAY! I love her.</div><div>Leipzig is getting a little cooler, not too cool though, there is a little 'harvest market' in the plaza in the city and a lot of people. . . lots of people talking to us! Im loving it here and love the bahns and all the work we have to do. Our ward is awesome and our bishop is so great, he is really excited for us and he and his wife are like our grandparents. Im so grateful for these people, and for my awesome companion, she is a hard worker and her German is getting better and better. We are seeing miracles and are feeling your prayers, Please pray that we can contact these families, oh and Olga came to the church too! yay! Love being a missionary! Yay my cousin David for putting in his papers!!! Its life changing...for hundreds of people. Oh and I liked how Packer bluntly said... Dress modestly, talk reverantly, Listen to uplifting music, Take order of your life and you will be remarkable blessed. Amen to that.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>Have a super week! Talk to you soon!</div><div>Love, Sister Rasmussen</div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-72661409528835713682011-09-30T09:43:00.000-06:002011-09-30T09:43:22.651-06:00A monkey bit me today!<div>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?</div><div>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!</div><div>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!</div><div>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.<br />
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.</div><div>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!</div><div>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.</div><div>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!!!</div><div> </div><div>.Sister Rasmussen.</div><span><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span></span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-86591374760792306222011-09-25T20:39:00.001-06:002011-09-30T09:44:33.804-06:00I share my Savior's love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=17e2c67a6b&view=att&th=13281289eec10ec5&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gsr95y4c0&zw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=17e2c67a6b&view=att&th=13281289eec10ec5&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gsr95y4c0&zw" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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%. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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 our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">district 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.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
<br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">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!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">Generalkonferenz is coming up!!! Cant wait!!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">Have a great week! and I will too.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;">Liebe grüße, Sister Rasmussen </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="300" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=17e2c67a6b&view=att&th=13281289eec10ec5&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_gsr96r1w1&zw" width="400" /></span></div><div></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-11545157866543599592011-09-15T12:17:00.000-06:002011-09-15T12:17:02.550-06:00Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Have a stellar week!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Love, Sister Rasmussen</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ps pictures dont really work here, either with my card or card reader, so maybe next week. Tschüssssssss</span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-24247148854936324222011-09-08T21:51:00.002-06:002011-09-08T21:51:41.614-06:00All creatures of our God and King....life up your voice and wih us sing....hallelujah. hallelujah.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hallelujah. Oh praise him. Hallelujah.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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...</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have a great monday and know im grateful for you!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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 :)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Schöne woche noch!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Liebe, Sister Rasmussen</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-42365993052028117092011-08-31T01:56:00.000-06:002011-08-31T01:56:13.659-06:00Go, go, go, on an adventure, the ting-a-magigga is upa nd away!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3dpqGletYLStbfJIBZFZmeEvBb3j8e_zKNxB8eN2QVt0MACp3PhIKk6kHl4d4r95cyBHCYTawsGfSdPQlrPx7uha-qBPiy67p-br9CQNNIQaDSZChxWqcBdqtz_oAm4DpIMAUc3Qm2Q3/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3dpqGletYLStbfJIBZFZmeEvBb3j8e_zKNxB8eN2QVt0MACp3PhIKk6kHl4d4r95cyBHCYTawsGfSdPQlrPx7uha-qBPiy67p-br9CQNNIQaDSZChxWqcBdqtz_oAm4DpIMAUc3Qm2Q3/s320/IMG_0804.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-axAQBHqd7YrIdmURDps6hEvV9fCdps0FQ5hwwPm8CD5pg4GxenOMaUbyDIyM2_5Q-3UqX_pBlVno5wF5eSxVyADb-EHaicQdPX76V2Z4-uQqrZS4u9x9bKDKHPmq-MzIqP2n2mnPcyLP/s1600/IMG_0871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-axAQBHqd7YrIdmURDps6hEvV9fCdps0FQ5hwwPm8CD5pg4GxenOMaUbyDIyM2_5Q-3UqX_pBlVno5wF5eSxVyADb-EHaicQdPX76V2Z4-uQqrZS4u9x9bKDKHPmq-MzIqP2n2mnPcyLP/s320/IMG_0871.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Go, go, go, on an adventure, the thing-a-magigga is up and away!!- apparently thats what my little cousin Liam says? Thanks for the tip liam.<br />
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Life is good, sorry I didnt get last weeks mass email sent off but I guess you get two today! Lucky you. Life is great, big news....<br />
</span><u><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #cc9933;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">IM GETTING A GOLDEN!</span></span></span></b></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Who knew. Well, people said it was obvious but Im still a wee bit nervous, I mean I dont know what to expect! I sure hope she is excited and ready to work because we have a lot going on here! We had a stellar last week, Sister Anderson and I. Saw a lot of miracles...oh and I got bitten. or stung.. Either way 3 mornings ago I woke up with a bite on my ankle and it itched like crazy, but then in started swelling up and turned purple and red and i couldnt walk it was so swollen (pretty sounding I know) and we all decided it was a sign I would become a 'mission mother' I have a mom haircut and swollen ankles It must mean im going to train right? Yep. Its the truth. Oh dont worry about my foot, it was really painful a couple mornings but as I got moving it wore off, and then (as spoiled as we are here in leipzig) the bishop took us to this awesome doctor who is a member in Kütten</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. I got some creme and a wrap and some antibiotics, she said I really should just take a day and cool it, but since that doesnt work for me haha I should ask for a blessing. Which I did. It was so neat to get a blessing from Elder McCann and Elder Walter. They are both great missionaries and it was a pretty spiritual experience realizing we are just 4 20-22 year old people all trying to do our best to serve the Lord and helping each other. I was super grateful for the blessing and comfort that came with it.<br />
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We have some exciting newss about Bürcan, Michael and Maik! They are all loving the gospel! All reading in the Book of Mormon and all came to 3 hours of church yesterday, and then stayed for a baptism afterwards. They all said they wanted to be baptized as well....and I feel so honored to get to be the missionary who gets to teach them! Haha, so we teach Bürcan and Maik and the institute a couple nights a week and BOTH of them at least once this week just showed up hoping someone would be here....without an appointment or anything, you definitely can tell they feel the spirit here and feel welcome and wohl here. We taught Bürcan about tithing this past week with Irakli and it was a cool lesson, i love teaching it with candy....10 little pieces...and telling him this represents all that God has given us....and asked him for just 1 of the 10....and as he does that we slam down a HUGE bar of Milka chocolate saying it represents when we give the Lord a 10th of what he already has given us, he blesses us with SO MUCH MORE and so much better then we could ever imagine. It was a funny lesson but also very spiritual when we asked him 'will you keep the law of tithing?' he responds 'Ich will das.' 'I want to.' Same thing when we talk about the baptism all he says is I want that. I want to. Ich möchte das machen. Its so amazing seeing his faith and willingness to do the things the Lord asks. I hope I and we all can have that same kind of faith and willingness to keep the commandments....not just 'yeah okay, if I have to.'..but 'yeah, I want that, I want to.'<br />
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It is really amazing to see the change in both Michael and Maik as well, theyre both younger guys who didnt grow up with any religion or much knowledge of even the 10 commandments but both, especially Michael are so willing to change and fill their lives wih the good things the gospel brings. We taught Michael about keeping the Sabbath day holy and he was immediately willing to keep it, he said it would be a little harder when he goes home to visit his mother because they had the tradtion of always going to the bakery for breakfast on Sunday mornings, but other than that he would be able to do things that bring him closer to the savior. After the long day at the church (after 3 hours of church and the baptism and food at the end he was there from 9 to about 2pm) he said something like 'who knew Sundays could be so schön,' I mean that was his first sunday, a little long for a newbie....lol a little long for anybody and he enjoyed it a lot. he is excited to come to family home evening tonight with Nadine and to come next week to church, bah im just so excited for him!<br />
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So we are seeing miracles with these 3 and im hoping we can find some new people this next week....we need to do better and getting members at our lessons with them but we have a few lined up for this week and that should help them feel more integrated, we decided to move the baptisms to the 25th of September and by that time they will have been to church a few more times and have an even more solid foundation...its such a blessing to work with prepared people who show so much faith and are willing to keep all the commitments we give them to come closer to the Savior.<br />
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We have been cleaning and Sister Anderson is packing she is going to go open a sisters program in Kiel, up north...and im going to Berlin on Tuesday for a day and we are going to go finding with all the new goldens but I wont know which one is mine!! But then Wednesday we have golden conference and then Ill bring her back here! I wish I had taken my mothers advice and written down all the things Sister Singer did so well to train me, but I guess ill just love her and hope the Lord guides us.<br />
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I love this gospel so much and just the pure doctrine in knowing we have a FATHER: in HEAVEN! I Heavenly being who loves each of us so perfectly and just wants us to be happy and have joy...how incredible. and then to know we have a perfect Brother who gave his life for us so we can be clean! and with our families forever! We just talked about that last night with a cute little family in our ward, just remember the last time you were with people you loved and you were so at peace with life and and so happy, laughing and content and loving yourself and loving the people you were with.....that feeling, we can have for ETERNITY! What an incredible plan....why would you ever choose something to take you away from that feeling? I dont know either. its so fun and such a blessing to get to bring the spirit with these teachings to people here in Leipzig, but why keep this knowledge to yourself when you know someone who just needs to know they have an eternal identity, you should tell them, i dare you :)<br />
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Its great, and this place is amazing. Weather has been CRAZY. One night it really seemed like the ocean was falling from the sky in 4 minutes we were COMPLETELY DRENCHED..not just like wet but like 'jump in a swimming pool and then get out and jump in again' wet....and then the next day was so hot I thought I would never cool down again...luckily we know an awesome guy who works at a döner shom (BÜRCAN) who gave us free water...so then we survived....and now its refreshing end of summer almost fall weather and I love it. We are going to go to Vapianos today for lunch, then getting Sister Anderson her last Lukas vanilla donut (famous from Leipzig) and have FHA (family home evening) what a wonderful work.<br />
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Have a great week, dont hesitate to take 10 minutes and write a little notey note and put it in a little envelope and 'old school' like get a stamp and write<br />
Sister Kimberly Rasmussen<br />
Kirche Jesu Christi<br />
Blochmannstraße 15<br />
04105 Leipzig<br />
Deutschland<br />
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on it and then put it in the little mailbox. Youll be blessed im sure :)<br />
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Happy Monday, talk to you soon!<br />
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Alles alles Gute!<br />
Sister Rasmussen</span></span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-58902815701636277802011-08-31T01:51:00.001-06:002011-08-31T01:51:59.732-06:00'Wie du willst, so will ich sein'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_A7nuZ3pZoEiadB5jcS7p2uM4uZTc2o2ytNLTQib7oKXmi0taZsIzHDYh-MBoMMDlELTMmaszzz-ZnZ0M8azjw_dhmCAcg3H79rEfDCdmtwYvMcGjbgppS2TA5oMHitZO9RJNG5pu9_2g/s1600/IMG_0780.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_A7nuZ3pZoEiadB5jcS7p2uM4uZTc2o2ytNLTQib7oKXmi0taZsIzHDYh-MBoMMDlELTMmaszzz-ZnZ0M8azjw_dhmCAcg3H79rEfDCdmtwYvMcGjbgppS2TA5oMHitZO9RJNG5pu9_2g/s320/IMG_0780.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3mGMLcdh5lBX9RRsn8_1qu1wPjYpAdlustD7wgc7iX8aozG-B4vzxHWbK9qUqXWKGOhyphenhyphen3YHfgWUmApoqz9m13Z81pB5ne_wcJcGvV6-dCqrZ5bF5k27Ji5F6ddhbjtnQPr5riUX_66Y3/s1600/IMG_0800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3mGMLcdh5lBX9RRsn8_1qu1wPjYpAdlustD7wgc7iX8aozG-B4vzxHWbK9qUqXWKGOhyphenhyphen3YHfgWUmApoqz9m13Z81pB5ne_wcJcGvV6-dCqrZ5bF5k27Ji5F6ddhbjtnQPr5riUX_66Y3/s320/IMG_0800.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to look back at this time and be proud of the person ive been. I want to know the choices ive made wont be wishing i could make them again. haha, yay EFY. Yep, ive fully converted to missionary life and was so excited to get the new efy cd. Dont judge me. haha, Its the truth too. Dont you agree, we*'ve got to live it up now, living to our best and be proud of the choices we made, how we treat people, how we show our love to our Savior, today. No waiting til later to change...and why would someone wait to feel the love and get the blessings the Lord wants to give us. It really makes no sense in my mind anymore why someone would choose not to live the gospel so fully. Laziness, theres some commandment that seems to uncomfortable or too difficult? Well, luckily theres always time to recommit to the lord and give our best now. Thats the point of this life is to turn around and go back to the path the Lord has shown us. . . so simple. Why do people make the gospel so complex. It really is simple. and its such an honor to get to represent the Savior and teach these people how to change and live to how the Lord said we should. We've had some pretty unique and awesome experiences this past week, one of my favorites was last night.<br />
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We had an appointment with Bürcan and Irakli (pic attached...dont know why they look so sad, theyre both hilarious) and it was amazing. Bürcan was given the Book of Mormon 3 weeks ago and he has read through to Mosia! He loves it and knows that it is true. We taught him the Word of Wisdom last week and he went from 7-8 cups of coffee a day to 0. Yeah! Anyway yesterday we taught him about the 10 commandments and keeping the sabbath day holy and the spirit was so strong. So Irakli was baptized 2 months ago...was talked to at a bus stop 3 months ago and I promise he will be a general authority. He lovest he gospel and is such a great member to have at lessons, it was such an honor to get to be the missionary to lead the discussion teaching this 30 year old man how the lord has revealed we should be living for him to bless us and to have the testimony of such a solid new convert was so amazing. Well we talked for awhile after the lesson and then we had another appointment scheduled afterwards with Maik and Robert and then they came in and Burcan and Irakli decided to stay for the lesson as well....so we talked to Maik about the word of Wisdom and talked about the stop smoking workshop...than another girl showed up who had an appointment with the Elders and she joined our discussion as well. Itw as so neat! So 3 investigators all excited about learning more about the restored gospel and a new convert and a member all talking about why we need to live the word of wisdom and the blessings we would receive for living it 100%. We all said we would be Maik's support and we would all get back together in a week to celebrate him accomplishing to quit smoking! We then called him a couple hours later to see how he was doing and he said, I just got through throwing away all my ashtrays and stuff and i was just about to read in the Book of Mormon.' Seriously....yes you just read that, there are real people like that here! All over the world ready to keep the commandments, they just need to be taught it.<br />
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It was so neat to sit next to Maik and Bürcan at church to hear them both singing the hymns and realizing the sacredness of the sacrament. They both met the bishop afterwards and both had groups of people talking to them after the meeting. They should both be coming to Family home evening tonight too...! as well as Michael who is coming back from his 2 week trip....he did it! Quit smoking while he was gone and said he is ready to be baptized when he comes back and is so much happier after quitting smoking and reading so much in the Book of Mormon: I was just so excited and almost surprized hearing that a 22 year old guy had really read so much and changed his life to pray everyday and build his faith so much already. I am so honored to get to be the missionary to teach these people and to help them feel integrated into the ward...into the gospel.<br />
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Isnt so amazing? Knowing we are apart of the gospel that Christ is leading today? This very minute he is aware of the status we are at living the commandments and coming closer to him. It was neat teaching Bürcan about the 10 commandments saying, yes we keep all these commandments and he was well yes of course....he said, we dont just go to church on sunday for a few hours and thats it, we read everyday and pray and LIVE the gospel. Amen Bürcan. Haha it was neat teaching him, we arent just living the 10 commandments we are trying to become closer to our heavenly father.....so no we dont have a problem chosing to keep the commandment not to kill, or to steal or honor our parents, but chosing to not go to the movies on Sunday, or to listen to wholesome music. Choosing to really participate in the meetings at church, to get out of our comfort zone and really become a Christian, to live how Christ wants us to live, not just debate if we would keep the 10 commandments or not. Its a constant commitment in everything we do, do we do it with the spirit and choose to do things that bring us closer to our Savior? Its incredible to see the faith of these people to say yes, I want to commit to follow Christ, commit to make better choices and become a better version of myself.<br />
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I love this work...and serving here in Germany. Did you know Bach was buried here?! Yeah i walk past where he's buried like 4 times a week! Its so cool being in such a historic city...hearing stories of WWII and the DDR times. Example.....we just started visiting this sweet sweet member, Schwester Schilde and she is 89! She tells us really of the war, running with a pregnant friend of hers dodging bombs and her husband getting caught hiding jews. She told us ome jews hid in the basement of where the Nazis were....this lady is telling me this! Im not reading it but talking to someone who lived it. And the most incredible part about it was at the end of every story the spirit was so strong because she said her faith in Christ got her through it all: She new her Savior was close to her and she is such a strong member. Shes too old now to go to church but is so solid. I want to be her. She wishes so badly her family would join, but shes done all the temple work for all her family who has passed away (even her mean sister in law who treated her like cinderella haha) she feels so bad she cant pay her tithing because she has no income and no money. She was so sad saying, i miss paying my tithing, it was how I could say thank you to the Lord for all he gave me...I just told her to thank him with her prayers and bearing her testimony so strongly of him and the reality of his life and atonement. Its so great to visit her, theres a picture, she didnt look at the camara though so she looks a lot crazier than she is.<br />
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Hope you can feel a little of the appreciation I have for you and for this gospel. Hope you can feel the love the Savior has for you and feel his presence. Hope you have courage to make the little changes to come closer to him and let him and our Heavenly Father bless you. Hope you feel my love for you and the excitement of sharing the gospel! Hope you are happy and healthy and arent eating as much as I seem to have to. Theres a picture of roladen and klösel...its delicious... Ill have to make it for you one day :)<br />
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We believe.<br />
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Love you! Sister Rasmussen.</span> </span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-8292093905143174772011-08-17T00:25:00.002-06:002011-08-17T00:25:02.780-06:00*enjoy this moment, this moment is your life*<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #006e00; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<div class="im" style="color: #500050;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love the gospel. Dont you? Its so eternally glorious and brings so much happiness. Why? because when you believe in Christ and know that through him we can be clean and filled with joy, through his sacrifice we can be with our families forever...we can get through any trial or hard time because we know we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for us....who is helping us grow. So...if youre going through a hard time, strengthen your testimony of your Saviour Jesus Christ and know that through him it will all be okay in the end....and if its not okay, its not the end. :) I am feeling so blessed to be serving a mission right now, the Berlin mission is a special mission, the biggest in Europe and getting bigger over 200 missionaries in our mission! and I get to be one of them...wow. So great.<br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Im especially pumped because we had Zonekonferenz on Friday and President taught us about vision and effort. He read to us the dedicitory prayer from 1975 and we talked about the promises promised to the land of Germany and the missionary work here. We are already seeing huge blessings, our mission is higher then average in almost every aspect, and we have so many people with baptisimal dates, now we are working towards getting them to that date. That is our plan right now with Michael and Bürcan, Miak and Ruth... Seglinde and Aloysious as well, and they are all making progress and if they arent we aren't wasting our time trying to pull teeth and push them to keep committments because after seeing and experiencing people like Hany and Schwester Zimmer and now Michael and Bürcan, there are people that are dying to learn how to live the gospel and to find the truth. So we are working hard to find those people. One of the differences president made is he got rid of 'ballards' not sure if there are any missionaries reading this but that is HUGE! Haha, yep instead of talking to a minimum of 20 people and then making out an appointment, we now just measure the new appointments and will report at least 7 new appointments a week. Anyway enough with the logistics, Im just stoked about the bar being raised and the new commitment we have to work hard.</span><div class="im" style="color: #500050;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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Bürcan is doing awesome, he's read through 2 Nephi and called the other day to ask us if there was anyway we could make his baptism earlier because he had told his boss that he had a BIG appointment on the 18 of September (which was his original date) and apparently his only other coworker is getting married that day, so he was very flustered and then asked us if we could move it...so now he is preparing to be baptized on September 4th!! Hes such a great guy and his committment to the Lord and finding the truth is so strong. We taught him the plan of salvation yesterday with Maik with us and it was awesome, by the end he said....you answered all my questions with this plan (he had been soooooo confused by talking to the jws and knew they were false) and he was just beaming by the end of the lesson and said he believed it was true but would still pray about it that night. Yeaaaah!<br />
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It was then pouring....POURING....at the end of our lesson, looked like, i dont even know, just so much water, haha, constant HUGE rain drops, and as we were walking through it avoiding puddles to head back to the bahns (steet cars) Bürcan quickly asked, so what time of day will the baptism be? What do I have to bring? haha, I just got so excited and overwhelmed with humility being able to be the missionary who gets to help him find out the truth, it was awesome to see this is all he is thinking about and what he is excited to do. We also called Michael to find out how he is doing (he is out of town for the next week) and he said hes doing perfect, he said he's completely changed his lifestyle and hasnt touched a cigarette since we taught him the Word of Wisdom 2 weeks ago, he said he's feeling heathier and happier. I then asked him how he is feeling about his baptism... he said, since ive been reading in the Book of Mormon and know that it is true, when I come back I want to be baptized....we had pushed his baptism back before because he was leaving for 3 weeks, and we wernt sure about him being able to quit smoking, but it looks like we'll have to move his baptism up as well!!!<br />
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There is so much joy in being able to help people change their lives...Maik the other day asked us (our investigator about 25, party kid who wants to change his life) he asked us, do you really come hear voluntarily? you payed to be here to do this all day?? and when we explained the joy of helping people make changes in their lives to be happier, he seemed to understand and said in his prayer (probably the 3rd prayer hes every said in his life) help me to change to be a better person. . yeah Maik, its so worth it to help someone realize they can pray for that, and then change. Hope that made sense, either way you should see I am overwhelmed with excitement about the work here and the people here!<br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We have some awesome members, awesome activities, like familieheimabend (fhe) and institute, so we get to help investigators be integrated into a younger crowd of ppl and show them how living a clean, wholesome life is so much more worthwhile, </span><div class="im" style="color: #500050;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
This last pday we played soccer and football with all the missionaries in our zone, there were only 4 of us sisters and it was hilarious, we were the captians and we had huge elders protecting us as the quarterbacks etc, it was so funny. It was amazing to me to go from that environment to zonekonferenz to see all the same missionaries dressed up as servants of the Lord and us teaching each other about how to better make out appointments and be better teachers of the restored gospel of Christ. What an incredible work. I love it. It was also neat to see 3 of the other Sisters who were in my MTC group....we are the older sisters now, and people are training and its neat to share all the experiences we've had. With new Golden sisters there...I tausched for a day to Cottbus with a new golden named Sister Openshaw from California, it was neat working with a new golden and to show her another style of misisonary work, and we got a long really really well, she reminded me of Ros Collett, and we laughed a lot.. We taught a cool kid named Björn and he believed that Joseph Smith saw Christ and Heavenly Father..and was excited to have found the truth and was excited for his baptism on Okt 1st. Woot.<br />
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Those are my random thoughts and feelings at the time, sorry a little scatterbrained, just so excited and blessed to have a knowlegde of how to get happiness and get to share this knowledge with the people here looking for it!<br />
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Hope you have a stellar stellar week and Congratulations to my bestie Syd who got engaged!! and Natalie who got MARRIED!!! Together Forever.....thats what Im here for teaching people about how they can too have that eternal love and joy foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr, through the gospel and living it 100%. Yay, what an incredible eternal plan our heavenly father has for us. Lets not forget to thank him for it and show him our love by living the gospel...not just knowing it, or knowing about it, but LIVING it and showing our committment and gratitude for it. I will if you will. :) Happy Monday, talk to you soon!<br />
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Liebe grüße, Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-37523060243102703472011-08-12T23:17:00.004-06:002011-08-12T23:36:30.571-06:00Wünschlos glücklich....das bin ich.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWcOlmMDNnbmpdpArJCkUWzKo8iQeZF-9lgy-WiXAPAcTIJsWy2YWtQTCwtd13RWojcsLmeo5U5a3WweUqYazWhlNmB3c8oaap-rOQFJAi55Ue6uxPkOCzw4J_-y_Xm8d4qVjB_qwwE1k/s1600/IMG_0695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWcOlmMDNnbmpdpArJCkUWzKo8iQeZF-9lgy-WiXAPAcTIJsWy2YWtQTCwtd13RWojcsLmeo5U5a3WweUqYazWhlNmB3c8oaap-rOQFJAi55Ue6uxPkOCzw4J_-y_Xm8d4qVjB_qwwE1k/s320/IMG_0695.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yep im wünschlos glücklich.....meaning I couldnt be happier. The gospel is so true and its such a blast talking to people everyday about it!!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What an incredible week. Its such a different world serving in a big city, I love Leipzing already. This mission thing is really the best place to be, I highly reccommend it.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So we have 7 people we are teaching with baptisimal dates! WAHOOOOOOOO! We set another one last night with a guy named Bürcan. He apparently talked to the sisters on the street and he was the one who asked if he could meet with them. The appointments had to be rescheduled a couple times so our first appointment was with him last night. He is so prepared. He is from Turkey and has been in Deutschland for a long time. He owns a döner shop and works a lot. He really is searching for the truth and wants to find it. The JWs had been meeting with him and he told us he thought they were false...we may or may not have encouraged that thought. He said he knows Jesus Christ is the son of God and that is HUGE. He was muslim and his whole family is muslim...we didnt quite hear how he found out that Jesus is the Christ, but he said he knows he is and knows he died for us. He jsut wants to know the truth about him. We taught him the first lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon in Turkish. He understood the concept of apostasy and believed that Joseph Smith saw God and Christ. We had talked about how we would plan to invite him to baptism and Sister Anderson wasnt even finished with the sentance when he said 'Ich möchte das machen' (I want to do that) he told us he wanted to be baptized even before we could ask! He said he wanted to be sure that it was right and for it to come from his heart but he did set the goal of September 18th! He then said 'aber ich habe angst.' (but, im scared) and we asked why and he said, my whole family is muslim. If I do this they wont have any contact with me...we promised him the Lord is on his side and I told him about Ola and Ahmed who were also Muslim from Egypt and they are so blessed from this decision. He said he wanted to go through with it and it was such a testimony builder to me. This man was so willing to follow Christ, not even really knowing all the reasons behind it, just having so much trust and faith and was willing to sacrifice (it sounds like) almost anything to do the right thing and follow Christ. We then suggested that he read Moroni 10 and then he said, 'Ich werde das ganze buch lesen' (i will read the whole book) we said well yeah okay, its kind of a big book and he said he wanted to know if it was true. He speaks broken German, and obviously fluent Turkish...and there is an INCREDIBLE guy who just got baptized in June who speaks fluent german, russian, turkish and almost english.....so we will be using him as a joint teach, definitely some miracles coming!!!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We also had some awesome appointments with Michael this week, I wrote about him last week, the friend of Nadine? Well he had an awesome answer to his prayer and said he said a little prayer everytime he went to bed. Pretty great. He's really taking on the gospel... We had an awesome appointment with him and Nadine on Thursday and we taught the word of wisdom....we had him write on a piece of paper 'darf und nicht darf'' (do and cant do) and as we read through d&c 89 we had him write down the dos and dont dos of the Word of Wisdom. He said he would live it and told us of actually 2 hours before the lesson he was with Nadine and had told her that he noticed that cigarettes dont really taste that good to him anymore.........WHAT?!!?? That was BEFORE the lesson! Seriously the Lord is preparing this guy, he siad he would live it and said he was happy to do it. It definitely would be challenging to quit smoking and not do drink anymore, but he said he would live it and wanted to be worthy to feel the spirit and to be baptized. Sadly he is leaving for 3 weeks to go visit his parents in Berlin, so we made him a reading calendar with chapters for him to read eveyday while his his gone and a little question to go along with them...so a couple days ago we called him to see how his reading was going and he said he loved it, he said he really respected Moroni for putting the plates together etc, also he said he hasnt touched a cigarette since our appointment 4 days go...woot woot! So since he is leaving for 3 weeks, we moved his baptisimal date to the 18th of September as well... that will definitele be a white day!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our other baptisimal dates are making pretty good progress, its amazing to see their desire to change to be worthy of the spirit and to follow Christ, Im so humbled to see how much people need to sacrifice to change and also to be the one committing them to change is also humbling. But so rewarding.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The beginning of the week, last monday was also very special, Sister Singer (my mother/trainer) 'died' (ended her mission) last Wednesday and her parents came to pic her up! They took a little detour down to Leipzig to come say hello!! It was so great to be able to see TASHA haha again and to meet her parents! They were so great and so from Texas, it was like America came for a visit, they took us to lunch at a famous place called 'der großer keller' and we had delicious traditional German food. They are so great and were so proud of Sister Singer, I am too, she was an incredible missionary and now one of my best friends, yay missions! They really change your life forever...like I said i reccommend it for anyone thinking about going.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So . . . there is a lady in this ward who cuts hair. And our awesome bishop set up an appointment for us... well I apparently said to cut it shorter than I thought, so you know that awkward length of hair a girl has between short and long....yep thats mine! So....any emails of support and encouragement saying that my hair will one day soon be long again would be greatly appreciated :) That was also a little humbling :)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This week should be a good one, looks like Im tausching to Cottbus on Thursday with a new golden up there, so that should be an adventure! Then we have zonekonferenz in Dresden on Friday!!! Love zoko, its so motivating and Sister Anderson and I are giving a workshop 'on how to make fest appointments' apparently we either need to work on that or have some useful advice for the other missionaries in our zone, it actually should be pretty good, im also excited to see sister Lanctot, she was in my golden group and I havent seen her yet!! its been how long? So it shall be a good reunion.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Looks like my irish twin Natalie is getting MARRIED in what....5 days??? Congratulations on finding the ETERNAL COMPANION who youll be a grandma with! woah....eternity....with Tanner DeVinny in the family, what a party!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Happy Monday, hope its full of excitement for you too, we are having a zone pday, sport in the park. yay.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ich hab euch lieb.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Rasmussen</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-84772079434233909562011-08-02T23:06:00.003-06:002011-08-02T23:14:29.283-06:00I'm lovin Leipzig!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #500050; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<div class="im" style="color: #500050;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Yes Im back in Sachsen! The accent is s o o o different here, and it reminds me of my golden days in Freiberg. I love it and can here my own accent changing a bit the more I am here. They say 'Leipsch instead of Leipzig.' Where to start!? Theres too much to say! Leipzig is huge and its crazy realizing all the cool missionaries who have served here, as I flip through the area book and see pictures of old missionaries (the less actives we visit show us pictures) Ive seen such incredible people who have served the Lord here, even my MTC teacher Bruder Orton served here! So im feeling some sort of a poetic fulfillment of something as im here. Its cool because Sister Singer was golden here, and Sister Forsyth served here as well. Its such a different program than Frankfurt Oder. Its huge, we have so many more resourses! We have an incredible institute center in the middle of the city, for the jae (young single adults) where we also meet and teach people, have family home evening and hold our district meetings etc. Its beautiful, and so refreshing having such a central place to meet and teach people.<br />
We've already seen some miracles this past week. We made out a few appointments earlier in the week for this past weekend, one of them with Frau Stein and the other with Maik. Both of them have no real belief but both showed up to their appointment and we taugth them about their heavenly father and his plan for us. The spirit was so strong and we talked about Christ and how he asked us to follow him and the joy that comes from the restored gospel. Both of them set baptisimal dates!! I dont know what Ive been doing for the first part of my mission, but since Elder Causee' came from the 70 and told us to be inviting people from the very first appointment to baptism we've been doing it and seeing miracles. Its really an honor to get to be the sister missionaries of Leipzig and to get to teach people in this pretty building. We also have a huge gemiendehaus (ward building) and there are two wards here in Leipzig. There are 6 missionaries here and a senior couple. It was odd being in a big ward again, where the sunday school class was already bigger than the last branch i was serving in. . but so amazing to me to see the church is true everywhere you go. I bore my testimony and introduced myself to the ward. Our bishop is really cool, as he was saying I was going to give my testimony he said 'and she'll tell us what she has planned for us here' BIG miracles coming. I talked about Ammon and the way he glories in the Lord.....he said </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">:</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">he has brought them into his everlasting </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">light</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1072273971184557613&postID=8477207943423390956" name="13185d11245a90c1_13184a59f93142af_131849d0d4e04d53_16"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">16</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.</span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">And thats the same with me. I cant express the smallest part of what I feel, I feel so blessed and am so excited to be serving with Sister Anderson. She is from Texas as well (like Sister Singer) and is the second youngest of 5. She is a soccer goalie, loves being a missionary and is super organized. I thought I was organized....no, you should see her desk haha. Ill send a pic next week. Yeah our apartment is sweet, super crazy finally living in a new place, I mean I was in the last apartment from Dec to July so its fun to have change. Favorite part of the new apartment is the huge balcony, it connects the two rooms of the apartment and ive already had lunch out there as well as looked at the stars. The beds here are a dream, the comforter is like sleeping with a cloud...we have a pretty good sized kitchen, smaller than the one in Frankfurt, but still cute, the bathroom is huge, with a shower and a tub....probably use that in the winter (if im still here) its feeling like winter lately. Today I have a sweater and a scarf, its rainy and misty, i love it, but its definitely not feeling like beginning of August.....AUGUST!?!?! Can you believe its August? Me either, we've got to take advantage of this time oder? Yeah. I agree. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">So we also had a miralce this week when we visited Trinh a really sweet less active lady from Vietnam... she has been dying for the missionaries to talk to her son....for years, no one has talked to him, they've seen him but nothing, anyway when we were there visiting her, he came home and was getting some tea and we started joking around with him about how many languages he spoke (perfect, viantamese, german and english...as well as learning russian and somethnig else) anyway he was such a stud and we totally got into a gospel discussion with him about who God is, what his plan is for us, why someone would believe in him and how we can feel his love and guidance. He said he wasnt ready to change and believe but the spirit was so strong and Trinh was so happy her son had a spiritual conversation with us. I felt blessed to be there at the right time to talk to this 26 year old intelligent guy about how the gospel could bless his life. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="im" style="color: #500050;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">It was also neat on our first Sunday (yesterday) to meet the new ward, sooo many people, definitely will take awhile to get to know them all, but we had Frau Stein come and she loved it, yes the lady we met in the park on Wednesday and committed her to baptism on Thursday! She came and really enjoyed it. It was so neat to see her excitement of feeling the spirit and to see her desired to read the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. Another cool miracle is coming our way....a sweet 20 year old girl named Nadine got baptized last month and just brought her friend to meet with us to get the lessons. His name is Michael and we've now taught him the first two. We set his baptismal date for September 4th and the spirit has been really strong in our lessons with him, he is now reading in the Book of Mormon and he said his first prayer at the end of our lesson on Saturday. He has a small stutter and it was sweet to hear his simple small prayer to the Lord and to see the satisfaction on his face after he said it. I fell so blessed to know these people and to get to be the msisionary leading the discussion to teach him. Its really interstiing learnig out to teach with a new companion, we are borth so excited about the work and its a new experience for me being the one to be in charge of where the lesson goes, well of course following what the spirit says. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Its really beautilful here, huge old gorgous German buildings, old rathauses, a HUGE trainstation, and gorgous parks all over the place, its really a dream I need to stop being so grateful or some big trial is going to come our way ;) The Christlike attribute Sister Anderson and I have chosen to work on is FAITH. WE have some pretty faith-filled goals for this next week...hoping to have 10 investigators at church and teach 32 lessons...:WOOT. </span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">I love this work and love being here in Leipzig, I miss Frankfurt and the people there, but feel so blessed to meet and get to love new people here. (another perk I am SO stoked for...we get to go to the temple this Freitag!!) I havent been since last year! It will be a dream to get to go back to Freiberg....so if anyone is going to the temple Friday...well we'll be there at the same time hahaha, ah isnt the gospel just incredible? It was so amazing to teach Maik last night about who Christ is and what he sacrificed and did for all of us, just because he loved us. It was amazing to talk about the plan our Heavenly Father has for us and to see a child of God realizing the potential of what that sentance means....this life has a purpose and there are things we can do to take away the guilt and pain from past mistakes to clean them away and become a new person committed to following the Lord and living following his commandments....and then to receive his blessings our whole lives long.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Okay ill get off my soap box, I just love this gospel and know that it is true. I love sharing that knowledge and joy with others and to get to feel the spirit so often...hope you are feeling the constant feeling of the spirit as well. If not, I challenge you to find out what is blocking you from that and as soon as possible get rid of it, because the constant flow of comfort, love, peace, security, joy and happiness is einfach herrlich (simply glorious) have a super great day and know a sister missionary in Germany loves you!</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Love, Sister Rasmussen</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Pics: Me and Sister Anderson at a Hansel and Gretel statue in Leipzig, awww cute.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">The whole branch was so sweet and took a picture together when I was leaving.....a lot of people there ja? Love them.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Sister Madsen and I right before I left the apartment, love that place, that girl, that apartment. Oh transferssss.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEVqiMZ596EeS1nmFoVJ_LIb1q9RD5rYzso5PajVfzkmswfCj3Hkup1kkVlEmCTudKoZja1xADAGaNNq9AJCJVYnL_fS8R5zSLc_7KYIBiDltRO12heT-bRuEDmdoUbZ-JzrjS1wmIUdL/s1600/IMG_0665.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #666666;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEVqiMZ596EeS1nmFoVJ_LIb1q9RD5rYzso5PajVfzkmswfCj3Hkup1kkVlEmCTudKoZja1xADAGaNNq9AJCJVYnL_fS8R5zSLc_7KYIBiDltRO12heT-bRuEDmdoUbZ-JzrjS1wmIUdL/s320/IMG_0665.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #666666;"><br />
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</span></div><div></div></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-68371409929357554542011-07-26T13:31:00.003-06:002011-08-01T01:29:14.998-06:00I feel my Savior's love... in all the world around me<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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....</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's my new address:</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Kimberly Rasmussen</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Kirche Jesu Christi</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Blochmannstraße 15</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">04105 Leipzig</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Deutschland</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!!!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Liebe gruße,</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-39563149510008157132011-07-22T10:49:00.002-06:002011-07-22T10:50:08.173-06:00I LOVE MY MISSION!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lg, Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-52395792813327325742011-07-11T01:43:00.000-06:002011-07-11T01:43:00.086-06:00The work of angels<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have a great week and know a missionary in Germany LOVES YOU!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love, Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-91554611688301767802011-07-04T23:08:00.000-06:002011-07-04T23:08:00.338-06:00Happy 4th! yeah, they don't celebrate that here in Germany....<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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?</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love you!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">God bless America...and Frankfurt Oder/Eisenhüttenstadt :)</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Love, Sister Rasmussen</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pictures:</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1. Some of my favorite people ive met on my mission, the Nelsons (from cashe valley) and Ola and Ahmed. LOVE THEM</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJq9mp-EwZ6eHRsYM-ESe87p1Y6C22Jkt81R85AAnnMiJymY9GEIn3vEf779ApLN_ahfFK1V1rpLo6Bs_UepGQwr96nD3iFj3xBsWEMiM_R4OLX3UHJK8zC6j6Mn1yJhw8DiLrxD0uFzSi/s1600/IMG_0466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJq9mp-EwZ6eHRsYM-ESe87p1Y6C22Jkt81R85AAnnMiJymY9GEIn3vEf779ApLN_ahfFK1V1rpLo6Bs_UepGQwr96nD3iFj3xBsWEMiM_R4OLX3UHJK8zC6j6Mn1yJhw8DiLrxD0uFzSi/s320/IMG_0466.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbC3n2N17B4eX-XsW5ov8VczlTKmdSHXII7BWbRLLtQdnh9PgbSw70_KmcqodRpoG5AuQr2EO7CU6HwUV548y7pDmm-Hx1BYKL_9qLHTKJvOIUXcast3ZF0Ui_7RuCGh3DSXEXp0JwcoU/s1600/IMG_0450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbC3n2N17B4eX-XsW5ov8VczlTKmdSHXII7BWbRLLtQdnh9PgbSw70_KmcqodRpoG5AuQr2EO7CU6HwUV548y7pDmm-Hx1BYKL_9qLHTKJvOIUXcast3ZF0Ui_7RuCGh3DSXEXp0JwcoU/s400/IMG_0450.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. Theres the sisters! Silly BYU hoodies....but what can you do :)</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-MiPPiZG9t08dRwD0j9HiBuqyzt4PzEv81oiaj9S4FJuuT70Bjs1tW1uarKAxXQ0QYkwdoem3n26MgasYCv0kMQ9oCq4M-9XkdGVvgO6ARGFXEDrawL829EUGV9VrcByLFv5fNKqVUXQ/s400/IMG_0475.JPG" width="400" /></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-77073110461098491552011-06-30T23:24:00.001-06:002011-06-30T23:25:55.694-06:00Brownies...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div>I<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 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....</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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?</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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...</span></div><div></div><div><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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.</span></em></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">love, Sister Rasmussen</span></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pictures....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hBeoWUO1DSCvkmTA-eR-jZlPJf9BfwX9MOJlWMrBDH4a8RFKiImTS5O1_U_rU1FoM_b3xV9O9-xGYnJgUrViTs8wMrz1qfGg93AEvZeXQC3FV8DSYMJPKgT2KJ9JJWfiIC8KReiFi8gi/s1600/IMG_0352.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hBeoWUO1DSCvkmTA-eR-jZlPJf9BfwX9MOJlWMrBDH4a8RFKiImTS5O1_U_rU1FoM_b3xV9O9-xGYnJgUrViTs8wMrz1qfGg93AEvZeXQC3FV8DSYMJPKgT2KJ9JJWfiIC8KReiFi8gi/s320/IMG_0352.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. Sister Madsen and I at the top of the Berliner Dome....theres Berlin! Ahh im so blessed to serve here!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXzkHq_geWoQopuneeCsdBDhGuDN6rEIqxlaOSpteQSnv5kBUKlqJaFj8RK6L-QJK6vBKZxDQiavzzb7F9DaNsAeEdnIYJOY2cTrJQ8N0PaQdZYlqtiL7LjbsWnqcMErRRIl8hGwDX9N3/s1600/IMG_0377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXzkHq_geWoQopuneeCsdBDhGuDN6rEIqxlaOSpteQSnv5kBUKlqJaFj8RK6L-QJK6vBKZxDQiavzzb7F9DaNsAeEdnIYJOY2cTrJQ8N0PaQdZYlqtiL7LjbsWnqcMErRRIl8hGwDX9N3/s320/IMG_0377.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. Sister Singer send me a cute package with so much chocolate...so much for not going home rolling off the plane....oh well :)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpxxWSWIV8ZPh64t677Lk60NlYqa6vGXn6iGP51TQijDe8yY3TZA1a9vcMlHljyUFfboUfBeIT7qDOALp2zZ2c_HLgBjQ0N9APWeqmUz0BO39qeU8gg-6ZJ84I3DhTc6ohSTQs5txRSHm/s1600/IMG_0397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpxxWSWIV8ZPh64t677Lk60NlYqa6vGXn6iGP51TQijDe8yY3TZA1a9vcMlHljyUFfboUfBeIT7qDOALp2zZ2c_HLgBjQ0N9APWeqmUz0BO39qeU8gg-6ZJ84I3DhTc6ohSTQs5txRSHm/s320/IMG_0397.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">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!</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6R-TmRL71ZAkrKGXWtjV_EBl-naw1NqzZCPsuqz515MmBXs7Gn6L97M1TZYISjTayrdNzPW4rL6rv3CiyKOTBtfxTEVSJw25jQVxW25_mF7UwG94tetFxNs-MsEf3GoK2sY2kR1SsxoA-/s1600/IMG_0407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6R-TmRL71ZAkrKGXWtjV_EBl-naw1NqzZCPsuqz515MmBXs7Gn6L97M1TZYISjTayrdNzPW4rL6rv3CiyKOTBtfxTEVSJw25jQVxW25_mF7UwG94tetFxNs-MsEf3GoK2sY2kR1SsxoA-/s320/IMG_0407.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span></div></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1072273971184557613.post-5458306786858540862011-06-20T09:17:00.000-06:002011-06-20T09:17:16.911-06:00chachachachangesss. and miracles too!<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDIO!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hope everyone had a lovely week, we sure did, emotional too. It was crazy packing up Sister Scrugg's stuff and then picking up Sister Madsen too! I was full of anticipation and sadness and excitment and relief and joy. See!? A lot of emotions at one time, but luckily through it all we just had a blast! It was weird taking Scruggsie to office, but so exciting too, she was an amazing missionary and I am so honored I got to serve with her...twice!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Madsen is super great! I love her already. We laugh a lot and she is a hard worker. She is from Mapleton, which we all know is down by Springville...not up by Farmington. (oops) Haha, she is one of 9 kids and they all sound awesome. She has served in Magdeburg, Greifswald, Celle and now here! She and I went into the MTC on the same day and she was fast tracked. Its so awesome to be in the middle of our missions commited to the work and motivated to see miracles and work hard for them. We are seeing so much success here (shh dont want to jinx us) but there are so many people, almost too many and they are split between 2 cities so our biggest challenge is just figuring out when to meet with them all! Out of all the challenges we could be having, Ill take it, just excited to see where the Lord leads us and hopefully learn how to master it.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Did I tell you about Alishar? He is a student who is studying in Frankfurt Oder who talked to US on the train a couple weeks ago. He is from Germany and his mother is from Kazakhstan. We taught him a first lesson and gave him the Book of Mormon 2 weeks ago and then last week he came to scripture class. It was actually a funny story, we called and he said 'didnt you say there was something in Frankfurt tonight?' and we said 'Yeah scripture class! We'll meet you by the stadion bus stop ten minutes before 19:00....' so then around 17:00 we got a call from him and he apparently got the times mixed up and came 2 hours early! haha, it was fine and he then came laster, but really eager right!? Hes a super smart guy and is in culture studies. He then came out to Eisenhüttenstadt to meet with us and Danita (the daughter of the branch president) was a great joint teach, we talked about the Restoration and he then comitted to pray about it and was excited to come to church next week! Wahooo I love this work.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another small miracle was when we got rejected by this younger guy who we talked to about God...no thats not the miracle, so we thought it was a pointless lesson and then at the end we asked, well who do you know who would be interested in meeting with us and learning more about God, and without hesitation he said, yeah my step dad. So we got his information and called him up a couple days later and he made out an appointment! That appointment was yesterday and it was amazing! The son brought him the Book of Mormon we had given him and he had already started reading it. We had an awesome lesson and the spirit was so strong... he said he had stopped believing in God when his brother died when he was little but he had a desire to find out if he was there, he wanted to believe in him just didnt think his prayers were being heard. It was such an honor to get to be the missionary to tell him, Yes you do have a Heavenly Father who loves you, who loves all of us and wants the best for us. As we do what he suggests or actually commands us to do then we can clearly see his hand in our lives and can feel his love overwhelm us. It was a great lesson and he said the closing prayer. He was excited to read the Book and was eager to make out another appointment to let us know what would happen.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was just a testimony builder to me of how nothing we do is wasted when we are following the spirit, one could have thought that appointment with Danielo was a waste, he was really closed and didnt want to believe, but then through him we found his dad and he is now feeling the love of his Heavenly Father having learned how to communicate to him. Bah what a wonderful work isnt it!?!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the biggest miracles I have seen on my mission was the 'keeper key' we got yesterday. Our goals in this mission are, To find and teach, to baptize and keep. KEEPING is the work we do with new converts, members and less actives. A keeper key is what we get when a less active comes back to church after having been gone for at least 90 days....or in this case 9 years. Marcel Peters is a member who was baptized 12 years ago and has really fallen away from his faith. He has been taught by missionaries a lot in the past few years and we have met with him almost every week for the past 6 months... and he was taught a lot before that. He has been coming to scripture class but not to church. We have invited him a lot before but there was always something standing in his way. . . Well you can tell he has been thinking a lot about the gospel in the past few weeks as he called the branch president and asked if he could order the liahona. He then commited to come to the ward party. He had a great time and you could tell he felt very loved. We again invited him to come to church the next day, and he said he would. My faith was tried as I convinced myself this time it was different than all the other times he said he would come. I almost teared up as we walked around the corner and saw Marcel standing there at 8:15 with Manfred waiting for us to take the train to church. It was such a miracle and he loved it. We ate at Rosel and Rowland Rudows garden after church and you could see that Marcel felt like he was home.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Theres a glimpse at some of the cool experiences we had this week, we didnt have time to go grocery shopping so weve been eating a lot of cherries (everyone has cherries) and some homemade bread the Scharfs gave us. haha, we are working hard and being obedient and laughing all day long. Thats how a mission should be done I think, I highly reccommend it. But I guess thats the same thing as real life isnt it. Just doing what you know you should, working your hardest at whatever your righteous goals are and laughing the whole time. Hope its working out for you. If not, just pray for it, Heavenly Father will send you SOFORT (immediately) the answer you need if you earnestly want one.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have a happy, safe, joyful, successful, spiritual, exciting, fufilled, lovely week!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love you!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sister Rasmussen</span></div>Kasandra.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415068177537545349noreply@blogger.com0