Früling! Spring!!

The sun is coming out and the sky is staying blue, birds are singing and people are ready and waiting to hear the gospel over here in our little part of the vineyard. Did I tell you Im staying with Sister Forsyth and im THRILLED. We are teaching so many incredible people and finding new people to teach everyday! Its really great having this new focus and motivation to put in our very best, to talk to as many people as we can and follow the spirit. I feel so blessed to get to know these people here and to see miracles every day!
Last week we had stake conference and had 14 of us on the train together, 3 of them being investigators! We had a great time and Hany and Christian really enjoyed it! Hany is making great progress, he reads the Book of Mormon on the train and is in 2 Nephi, he said 'Ich braugh dich alle zeit' ('I need the every hour') has been stuck in his head for the past 4 days! He is so great! He said his first prayer in German the other day, (obviously normally prays in Arabic) and it was beautiful, he thanked Heavenly Father for the light he has in his life and asked God to help him open his heart and to have more light. To learn more. he is praying and working right now to get a self confirmation about the restoration and of the prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit was strong after his prayer and we are excited to show him the scriptures in the Bible to reconfirm that the restoration was referred to in the bible. He is such a spiritual guy and so Christlike. He is a great friend to everyone he meets and I just feel so honored to get to be the missionary to teach him, I feel like he is my brother and its these relationships we are building that I know go into eternity. 
Yesterday was probably one of the bigger miracles, we went to bahnhof and met Hany and Manfred to take the train to church and as we were sitting on the train we got a call from Christian, who we have only taught 3 times, he came to stake conference last week and we hadnt had contact with him all week, but Sunday morning on the train we got a call from him saying he wanted to come to church and that he would drive to Eisenhüttenstadt to meet us there. We later found out he had just finished working the night shift but still came to CHURCH! What a great sign of faith....we had a separate class with Sister Forsyth and I and Hany and Christian and taught about Faith, Repentance, and Baptism and etc...it was a great lesson and then Hany proceeded to tell Christian about the Word of Wisdom (which Christian hadnt been taught yet) but by the end of it Christian said he wanted to stop and Hany gave testimony 'das es is ganz einfach' its so simple, to quit and gave hima  lot of encouragement. It was great watching our golden intestigator teach our other investigator to be more like Christ...not only be like Christ but live a principle of the restored gospel. WOW! I feel so honored to get to be the missionary to be here! Did I already say that? Its the truth. There is nothing more incredible then seeing these people change. . . talking with our new member Schwester Zimmer about the temple and seeing her excitement and talking to the branch president with her about getting a recommend. These are experiences that I will never forget. I love being a missionary and am loving this area, thank you so much for your love, and prayers and Im so happy everyone is heathy and doing well! Have a great week!
Liebe, Sister Rasmussen

Danke.

All I can say is Danke. Thank you so much for all the birthday love. I haven't felt so surrounded by love ever before. I am so grateful for the postcards and letters and packages. You are the greatest family and friends a missionary could ask for!! I was very spoiled as well by my missionary mother, Sister Singer. She and I got to go on a tausch last week and she spoiled me too! She made me a peanut butter cake, presents and lots of motivation for the next stretch of my mission. It was such a great 'pick me up' and on top of that she 'kidnapped me' on Pday, and while the other sisters went shopping, she surprised me with an appointment with a member in Berlin who said she would do my hair for freeeee! I felt so pampered and I forgot how great it feels to get the hairs done. :) THANKS SISTER SINGER!

I was also spoiled the day of my birthday, I saved all the letters to open on the day of and was so grateful for the drawings, notes and pictures from you all. Sister Forsyth made me pancakes and I BECAME A 'mother' for a week! on my birthday we got sent 2 golden sisters who just came to the mission the day before from the preston MTC! One, Sister Svoboda is from Switzerland and the other, Sister Uhlig is from Frankfurt am Mein. So we get to be trainers from Thursday to Wednesday morning. SO we all went to Eisenhüttenstadt and Rosel had Yvonne and Sister Heitbreder come over and they baked me a cake and I got flowers and felt so loved. We then split up and did some work and then met up at Schwester Zimmers place and she made me a cake as well! I sure love her and she gave me a little present with 'forget me not' flowers. I am so excited to know these people for eternity. We then had a great day of lessons and in the evening we had 'gemiko' aka our meeting with Ahmed who is our ward mission leader and afterwards Heny and Ola came in and they celebrated my birthday with me too! They put me in the other room and turned off the lights and lit candles, and then brought me in and sang I love these people so much!  

So we get to split up all the work we had to do and it really was an answer to prayer. There is so much to do in this area and not enough time or missionaries to do it! SO now we had double power and got 31 lessons taught! Its been cool because president asked us to switch off the goldens so they could learn from both of us and its cool to see them so excited and motivated to do the work!

We saw a lot of miracles, of course Heny is the golden investigator surprising us everyday with miracles. He gave up coffee, he really doesnt even know why because we havent taught word of wisdom yet, but he said his boss brought him a cup of coffee and he told him he doesnt drink it anymore....and the boss insisted so Heny told us he dumped it out when the guy wasnt looking hahaha. Oh wow I wish you could meet this guy, I really am laughing alll day long over what he says. These Egyptians of mine are really like family, they are so hilarious. I wish you could listen to a conversation with us. Anyway, we were so excited because yesterday we had stake conference in Berlin and we had 3 investigators come! Heny of course with Ola and Ahmed, Ahmed bought him a white shirt and a tie and he looked sharp. Then our new investigator Christian showed up too in a suit! We have only taught Christian twice but he is so open and I am so excited too see what happens with him! He was born in Frankfurt and works hard and loves his family, he hasnt ever had any religion and said he would be baptized when he knew it was true and could talk to some other members, So he came to stake conference and seemed to really enjoy it, he stayed afterwards and ate with us and the Zimmermans, and Heny stayed with us as well! Then this sweet old grandma came in and started telling them (both Heny and Christian) she knew both of them have good hearts and she can see it in her eyes, she told them to just open their hearts and listen to the spirit and they would be blessed. She was so cute. We then taught Heny the plan and we went to a baptism in Dahlem so Heny could see it, he is still waiting for an answer that Joseph Smith is a prophet, so he is taking his Book of Mormon on the train everyday this week and said he will pray. Its such an incredible aspect of missionary work to be able to PROMISE an answer to their prayer. I love telling investigators, you dont just have to believe our words, if you pray about what we have said, you will know for yourself it is the truth. Ah its so incredible teaching people about the spirit and helping them feeling the strong warm feeling of our Heavenly Father's presence.

We also had TRANSFER CALLS this past Friday and I am staying here! It will be my 3rd transfer here and Im staying with Sister Forsyth, it will be her last transfer on her mission! So we have a lot of work to do and a lot of miracles to see. I am excited to stay with her, I feel myself being stretched as a missionary and growing spiritually, we know how to work best with each other and to push each other so I am very grateful to stay. Especially to get to stay with this ward. Some other news, Sister Singer is going to 'white wash' in Cottbus with Sister Kitterman (a sister I was with in the MTC) so theyll still be close but not in the same district, ahh that was such a fun blessing, we are already figuring out a pday plan. :)

I am feeling so blessed, feeling the Lord guide our plans and our lessons. I feel so honored to be called a servant of the Lord and to meet these incredible people on the way. I have changed so much already and hope to keep improving. I have felt a new motivation from being with these new goldens! There is nothing better to do with our time then to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. To help people change their lives to follow Christ, to strive to be perfect and to umkehr when we make a mistake, to use the gift of the atonement which is constantly given to us. To lift up everyone around us and make them appreciate the fact they met us and to hopefully have felt the spirit when they were with us, I hope you are having some cool missionary experiences back there at home, and know how much I love you! I felt so loved this past week and am so grateful, so so grateful for the motivation. I really loved something my mother sent me this week and would like to share it with you too....

  LOWELL BENNION'S PHILOSOPHICAL CREED

Learn to like what doesn't cost much

Learn to like reading, conversation, music.

Learn to like plain food, plain service, plain cooking.

Learn to like fields, trees, brooks, hiking, rowing, climbing hills.

Learn to like people, even though some of them may be different   . . . different from you.

Learn to like to work and enjoy the satisfaction doing your job as well as it can be done.

Learn to like the song of birds, the companionship of dogs.

Learn to like gardening, puttering around the house, and fixing things.

Learn to like the sunrise and sunset, the beating of rain on the roof and windows, and the gentle fall of snow on a winter day.

Learn to keep your wants simple and refuse to be controlled by the likes and dislikes of others.

Entschuldigung my emails are so long and all over the place but I guess thats like life! Have a fantastic week and dont forget how much ich hab euch lieb!

LOVE YOU! Sister Rasmussen

'im like your little handbag.' -heny

WHERE TO START! I just finished the best week of my mission, or at least one of them. I have to tell you about the biggest miracle this week. His name is Heny Micheal.

SO Tuesday evening, we were standing on the gleis waiting for our bahn and realized we still hadnt made out an appointment with anybody, so we walked across the street and Heny was the first guy we talked to, right in front of Kaufland. We said we were from the church and we had a book for him and we would love to bring it by this week, he was so funny and so friendly, he said of course! He was pretty excited and we were as well, but really had no idea how much the Lord was guiding us...

So Thursday came and we showed up to our appt a little late after coming back from hütte, we had called him and he said, 'oh no worries I made some food but Ill just warm it up when you get here.' So we got there and it looked like he had been waiting all day for us, he made some INCREDIBLE FOOD and basically told us his whollllllle story.

Heny is from EGYPT. (incase you forgot our bestest friends are Egyptian, Ola and Ahmed, our ward mission leader and best friend...key thing to know is that they used to be Muslim and converted to the church and no one can know that in Egypt or they are in danger) Okay, so we were already so excited about them maybe knowing eachother, and yes they did know each other but Heny had NO idea they were members, he assumed they were Muslim. But Heny is Christian, in Egypt youre either born Muslim or born Christian and Heny was born christian. SO . . anyway, too much to say and so hard through email, but he told us he has 3 kids and has been in Germany for 4 years. His wife is crazy and he lives in a separate apartment but his children are HIS LIFE. He is the best father and every day goes to their apt and picks up the kids, takes them to kindergarten (they are 2,3 and 4) and then goes home and then picks them up when they are finished, cooks for them and plays with them til bed and then spends the whole weekend with them. But other than his children everything in his life is horrible. He had a dream life in Egypt before, he owned a buisness which had a front door 15 feet away from the ocean. He had friends and was close to his family. He loves his parents and loved his life there. He had a girl he was in love with but she was muslim and that was that, they couldnt do anythíng. SO they ended it and he met this other German lady there in Egypt and she basically used him to get back to Germany. SO now he has three kids he is in love with but a crazy lady as a 'wife' no friends, no job and he hadnt gone to church. He just recently got back in contact with that girl he was in love with years ago and she also had gone through a divorce. SO Heny decided a month or so ago that he would slowly cut off contact with his family back home and convert to be muslim so he could be with this girl. He would have to cut off contact with is friends and family that he loved and basically have nothing but this girl. The day after he had gotten in a little arguement with the girl back home...WE TALKED TO HIM. He said he knew that what he was considering was wrong and that we were sent from God to him to 'smack him in the back of the head' to stop him from that idea and he said I know thats not what I want, I love my friends and my family and most of all I love the Lord and Christ, I need your help to get back to God. We were there kind of late and asked if we could teach him...and he cut us off mid sentance and said (with hand gestures) 'Im like your little hand bag, you can set me here, you can move me here' hahaha, he said he will do anything we say and believe what we teach him because he knows God sent us to him. GOLD RIGHT!?! So as we were leaving (this is all after the first appt) we said, oh we brought that book for you in Arabic, we will come back tomorrow and explain it to you...(basically saying, dont read it we will come back and tell you more about it) BUT of course after we left he read the 3 and 8 witnesses at the beginning and then typed the title in arabic into google....du duh duh

Well the story gets better (and I cant wait to tell you in person one day about it because this email cant do it justice) So we went to him the next morningn and he said I read about the book and your church, you dont smoke drink coffee or tea or beer? So I quit smoking today! and I was debating throwing the rest of my beer out of the fridge or just getting rid of the last of it, whoever comes over can have water or juice or can just leave! Hahaha, mind you this man is HYSTERICAL I was laughing the entire appointment, feel like his sister. Anyway, yes youre right we havent even taught the man anything by this point and he's already committed to the word of wisdom! He then said one thing did bother me a little bit....the whole polygamy thing. We then explained it is forbidden now and he said oh good...if you had told me that was doctrine I would be a mormon today! But God did create Adam and Eve, not Adam and EveSSS. hahahah, bah he is so funny. You'll love him. SO we started teaching him about God and families and then he immediately asked so what do you do about baptism? so we talked about baptism, the spirit didnt say to invite him to be baptized just then,  so we talked more about prophets and started the Jospeh Smith story and he said, I really want to get this Joseph Smith story but I have to go pick up my kids so. . . when can you come back? (this was on Friday and he said he didnt have time on the weekends because he was with his kids, so we scheduled it for tuesday. We werent sure what to do about asking him to come to church but at the very last minute we said so what would you think about church? He said, where is it? what time does it start? Yeah I dont know if I can come this week but next week I will be there. . .

BUT the problem is we cant just invite him to church and have him walk in and see Ahmed blessing the sacrament! Doesnt work like that! So Ola knows him from this driving class and was praying a lot to know if she should tell him that she and Ahmed were members. She was going to see him Saturday morning and she told us that he just started talking to her about these two American girls that he met and he told her his whole situation....and long story short she told him by the end that she was 'one of them' hahaha, and he was so amazed and said he felt God so close, he felt that she was also another 'sign' that God was smacking him on the back of the head lol just guiding him and later that day we were at Ola's planning english and just going crazy wondering what is going to happen, so amazed that now he knows that Ola and Ahmed are members and then the doorbell rang...I said 'haha what if it were Heny' and IT WAS!!!!!! He came in and we were all laughing SO hard. He said, my kids are on the playgroud and I called you sisters and you didnt answer and I called Ola and YOU didnt answer, I WANT TO COME TO CHURCH tell me what time it is at! and we were all dying we were laughing so hard and he was like I have to go back to my kids what time is the bahn!?!? Bahh after he left I was rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard, such an incredible situation, and he is such a miracle. So yes. The lord has prepared people all over this world just walking around waiting for us to find them...

It was such an incredible experience Sunday morning meeting our neuebekehrt, Schwester Zimmer on the bahn, then seeing our other miracle Tamara get off the same bus as us, then meet Irena at the train station and watch Manfred walk up and then see Ola and Heny walking up the hill to the train station, all of us early in the morning catching a train to go worship the lord and go to church in Eisenhüttenstadt. It was so incredible, then sister Forsyth and I did splits and Irena and I went to a members house who had a car to go pick up Frau Hensel (our investigator with the baptisimal date, and one leg) We also had a lady from our English class show up at church and of course Bianke came too so we had 7 investigators at church! and a new member, Tamera who was the girl, Oh I DIDNT TELL YOU YET; we just talked to Tamera like everyone else we do on the street and she said, OH! LDS missionaries?! Im a member!! I was baptized in Kenya and ive been a member since 2008, but I dont know where the church is! So we invited her right there and she came and LOVED IT! Heny loved it too and bahhhh the Lord is just blessing us. IT was very nerve racking because I was giving a talk on that day....no pressure or anything! but the lord guided it...

 I just talked about what heavenly father could have said to us as he held us in his arms and told us all the things he would give us, the earth, our family, our body, friends and somebody to help us know the exact path to return to him. I talked about how Christ is our perfect example.. if we just do our best following him then the Lord with bless us here and we will finally get back to our Heavenly Father and our families. I talked about how Heavenly Father told us that he will never leave us, he said something like 'I will always be right there my child, I love you so much and when you hear the truth I will let you know, I will give you a warm feeling inside and you will know it is from me, you will know you are doing the right things. SO we have found the right path and heavenly father will keep telling our spirits the little things we need to do to keep on the path, and once we hear the truth and know what we need to do, we need to DO IT. Just follow the sometimes uncomfortable promptings of the spirit and make the change we know we need to make because then we are showign our faith, whatever we are changing will make us better, more like Christ and we will be using the gift that Christ gave his life for, we will show our gratitude for this plan and for all the blessings we have when we make the small changes in our life to make us better. I know that that is true. I know the lord guides our every step and when we follow the spirit we are in his hands and we see miracles! I love this place so much, I cant believe all the success we are seeing and cant believe this email is so long, but you have to know! Its just so incredible being apart of this holy wonderous work, THANK YOU IMMENSELY FOR THE BIRTHDAY EMAILS AND LETTERS AND LOVE. Its going to be a grand week and we find out on Friday night about transfers, I must say I did not sign up for that side of a mission of having to leave these people who are in my heart, so I am praying to stay to see what happens here, to see the branch keep growing and growing, but I know whatever the Lord has in mind will be even greater! Hope you all have a fantastic week, and enjoyed reading this novel of an email :) Sorry, hope you can feel a little bit of the excitement and joy of MISSIONARY WORK! I love it here. I love being a missionary and highly recommend it.

Ich wünche euch eine schöne woche, bis später!

Liebe gruße, Sister Rasmussen 

what a good life

I must say, I have too cool of a family and they take all my email time, so sorry the report back isnt going to be as detailed as always, Its such a good life. Being a missionary is such an incredible calling. I highly recommend it. There is nothing more incredible then being good friends with your companion, bringing the best out of each other, to motivate each other to be obedient to then having the spirit work through us. We then get to speak with people on the street and through their klingel boxes boldly about the eternal love our Father in Heaven has for us. We get to bring people like Frau Hensel, who has sat alone in her house, with 6 kids who dont visit her anymore who now just has one leg, to come with us to church. She loved it. She felt so loved and said 'I think maybe I could make some friends here!' What a sweet woman. I must say there is nothing like seeing Frau Hensel smile. You see the child of God coming through her eyes, teaching her that she will see her man again, that she will have a perfect body one day. These are the blessings of a mission. 

We also had some hilarious lessons this week, one of them with Forster from Ghana. He said the closing prayer and told all the evil spirits to get out NOW of the room...I was laughing secretly so hard, he is such a stud...He also blessed everyone in the church, so hope you feel blessed because Forster prayed for you. He also has a handicapped leg, he was given a shot in the wrong spot when he was a little baby and now has no muscle in one leg, its so cool teaching these people that Heavenly Father has a plan for them! That the lord loves them and can help them. Ahhh, I wish I could convey to you the JOY I feel serving in this branch. These people really are family, I feel so loved, I plan on partying with these people for eternity, isnt this plan so celestially incredible? These relationships we are building on earth will last for forever! Its so great and comforting knowing that the Lord is guiding us, our every action and step if we are worthy and if we want it, so it really is simple. Angels are around us and the Lord just works through us. We are teaching a lot a lot of people and are very busy, Im feeling so blessed and the Lord is very close. I am grateful to have this chance to serve the Lord, like I said, I recommend it. Thanks for letting me just spill my thoughts, sorry there isnt too much specifically to report. We had Katrin come back to church and hasnt been there in months and it was her and Schwester Zimmer who were the big participants in FHV (relief society) so that was cool and then Yvonne, Schwester Zimmer's daughter (who was less active) bore her testimony powerfully of the atonement and talked about how she had helped someone else she knows realize that that is the point of life here on earth to keep overcoming the hard times and its possible because the Son of God went through it all. She also quit smoking! Did I tell you about that? We did the stop smoking workshop with her, 7 days of 15 steps, 2 of those being prayer and lots of grapefruit juice and she did it!

Yay. These are the miracles we are seeing here in Deutschland. Thanks for listening, Ill be back next week :) Have a great day and HAPPY MARCH!

Liebe gruße, Sister Rasmussen

the main thing as the main thing...

The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing.
We were told that wise knowlege at zone konferenz this past week from a Senir Elder who was going home. Its such great advice. We need to keep the gospel of Jesus Christ as the main thing, and that is the most important thing we can do. It was so great to have zonekonferenz this past week. Sister Forsyth and I gave a workshop on WEEKLY PLANNING and how to prepare people for the baptismal interview. It was a neat opprotunity to share our story of Frau Zimmer and motivate our fellow missionaries to go 'find em and teach em and baptize em and keep em.' (haha, how präsident says it anyway)

If you didnt know, on Fridays we have a 2-3 hour weekly planning session and we pray for each investigator and their needs and we plan specifically for each of them and how we can bring them closer to baptism. Its always nice to have the additions of our scented candle and fruit tea and LOADS OF THE SPIRIT to keep ourselves focused and excited about the work. It was neat to share the spiritual miracles we have seen with our zone and to realize that its true, we just fly on miracles as we plan our very best to  use our time how the Lord would have us use it and then he just places people in our path. We also made cookies for the zone and that seemed to motivate people to plan better as well :)

 It was a really great week running from appointment to appointment and sometimes not having time for lunch, there is nothing like being so busy and knowing the people we are meeting are making real progress, really changing and coming closer to christ. We have some really incredible investigators, and taught the restoration a lot this week. We watched the restoration video a couple times, and we read through JSH with Schwester Zimmer and I felt the spirit so strong as we read about Christ and Heavenly Father appearing to Joseph Smith, to bear testimony of that incredible event and to promise people the blessings of knowing that that happened, to know that the Lord talks to us today and gives us guidance, its such an incredible experience. Its especially touching to me to do it in German and know that the Lord is really testifying through me, because it is such a miracle these people can understand me! Bah! The lord is blessing us so much! Ah Sister Forsyth and I talked to this guy last week pretty late at night about the purpose of life and he was at first a little offish (clearly) but then said he would be interested in our perspective and we set up an appointment for this last Thursday. . . as we showed up he was really cool, had a clean apt, is a hard worker and loves his family, we taught him the plan of salvation and he said the closing prayer! I dont know the last time this man Christian said a prayer but to keep witnessing the Lord touching these peoples lives is such a miracle, in his prayer he said 'Im grateful these sisters are here and that I can come closer to you, please help me to do that even if its hard at the beginning.' Wow, its just incredible to me being able to invite people t change and seeing them do it and watching the lord work in their lives. SO BLESSED! 

I may or may not have spent most of my email time writing single emails to the family, so this email isnt as long, and probabay not as exciting, as normal, but Im feeling so blessed and love the branch here. Its hilarious running to catch bahns and trains and doing all of that in skirts and tights, luckily its feeling very much like home being in a skirt, wierd to see Sister Roberts Jones, who is now just Rebekah who came back to visit wearing pants!! I couldnt get over the fact she was a normal cute person, thatll be a weird day that Im grateful is in a long time from now, but Sister RJ makes it look good ;) I sure hope you all have a great week and remember the main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing.

happy monday!
sister Rasmussen

-baptism-

Hello there, if you forgot I am serving in the Berlin Germany Mission. Guess what! I saw two baptisms in 3 days here! The work is picking up speed and I think we are slowly waking up the sleeping giant of missionary work here in Deutschland!

Yes, Frau Zimmer, now Schwester Zimmer, GOT BAPTIZED! I lived the missionaries dream and got to see the whole process, got to see her countenance chance, and it really did. She looks like a different person. She just beams, she is filled with the spirit and LOVES LOVES LOVES the gospel, she cant get enough of it and I feel so honored I got to take a small part of that and share it with her. Okay okay okay, Ill explain to you how it all went down :)

 Her baptism was on Thursday February 17th. So on Monday we went over and went over the interview questions and she strongly said yes and bore her testimony of all the questions and felt excited, a little nervous but mostly just prepared.

On Tuesday at 15:00 we went over with our district leader, Elder Corey and his companion Elder Mitton to Frau Zimmers apartment on the 4th floor of her 'hoch häuser.' She had cleaned her apartment from ceiling to floor, and put out more chairs and had put a lot of effort in getting ready for the interview, we all sat and talked and read Mosiah 18 together about the people rejoicing together with such a joy of having the gospel and having such a strong deep desire to follow Christ and be baptized. We related that to her, and then we laughed about some other things and she told the Elders her 'conversion story' I felt so proud and so honored I got to be in so much of it, but the most important parts of the story were the times when she was by herself and the Lord was working with her, and that is true about every investigator. The most important time and crucial time isnt when these people are meeting with us, but the changes they make after we have left. Anyway, thanks for that side note :) 

We left Elder Corey and Frau Zimmer and sat in the other room writing our fortschritts bericht and helping Elder Mitton feel awkward that he didnt have his companion. That was funny. We then were invited back in and she beamed and said 'I am getting baptized in 2 days!' Later Elder Corey told us she was so filled with the spirit and was very prepared and excited for baptism. Bah! So cool right?!?! We then went with her to scripture class on Wednesday and she LOVED it, she made some comments and even shared the analogy of the restoration of the gospel to a mirror. (Ill share that with you later if you havent heard it) but we were so proud of her, she wants to learn the Book of Mormon through and through, so she was excited to be there and took a lot of notes :)  

THURSDAY morning we went over around 9 and helped her get together the stuff that she needed :) change of underwear, hair dryer, etc... we then bundled up and went and waited for the train at bahnhof. While waiting I gave her a tiny keychain that had a stuffed sheep on it. She LOVES the analogy of Christ and his sheep because she had felt like the lost black sheep for the past 12 years, but now she has found her way back and heard the call of her shephard, and I told her she is now going to be a clean white sheep in his flock :) I have such a cute picture of her cuddling up to it (sadly I left my camera at a members house, so be excited to see all these pictures NEXT WEEK) but then we filled out the taufschein (baptismal recommend) on the train, so cool just getting the last minute busy work finished and then we walked to the church!

She changed into her white dress and everyone started showing up. We took pictures and everyone greeted her and were so loving, especially her daughter and granddaughter. You could tell they were so happy for their mom. We started the service with 'Nearer my God to thee' because she loves that song and her daughter said the opening prayer. She told us later that she didnt know her daughter could pray like that. That was when my tears started coming, because in her prayer she said things like 'Heavenly Father I am so glad you have answered my prayer and brought someone else in my family into the gospel so I am not alone on this path, and etc' it was so sweet. We then heard a sweet talk on Baptism from Rosel (the lady whos sealing I saw in Freiberg) and then Sister Forsyth and I sang 'Der Herr ist mein Hirte' (The Lord is my Shepherd) it was really sweet.

We then bundled up and headed over to the sauna down the street and the owner of the sauna had lit candles, the fireplace was going and had soft music playing, it was gemüdlich. (dont know the translation for that word, something like comfortable, quaint, homey and lovely all in the same word) we said another prayer when we got there and then went to the back where the 'font' was. Ahmed got in first and helped her in. Apparently the water wasnt too warm, but the spirit was so strong and Ahmed did a great job baptizing her. 

 When she came back up out of the water she was just beaming, just glowing. She told us later that she couldnt really breath the spirit was so strong, she couldnt speak, she was trying to cry, but trying not to at the same time, and was just so happy! She said there is nothing like the feeling of being engulfed with water and seeing it come in around you and then coming back out, seeing the light and feeling this 'freeing feeling' she said she felt like she could fly. She explained for us it must have seemed really quick, but for her it was slow motion, she could feel the Lord so close and knew that it was done with the right priesthood. She felt so clean and was just beaming! Ah I love this lady. So we helped her get changed and do her hair. She was then greeted by the ward and congratulated.

 We went back to the church, Tilo grußed and welcomed her from the ward had a closing song and prayer. Then members gave her flowers and a couple presents. We gave Ola and Ahmed a copy of 'the Restoration' to give her and she loved it! She said aww now I can watch it by myself and cry when I want to :) she also said she could watch it with her son. Sister Forsyth and I then gave her her own hymn book and of course a triple combination. She opened it and was SO excited! She just held it and was so happy, she has been dying to get D&C, she wants to read what Joseph Smith had written so badly and didnt know she would be getting it so soon! She immediately asked where she can get a case because its her new treasure. She is so sweet! We then had a little food afterwards and she felt so warm and welcome. It was such a blessing to be there, let alone be one of the missionaries!

  

She got the Holy Ghost yesterday! She is doing so great and is already in 1 Nephi 19 and says she is moving to slowly, but she just wants to understand it completely. Luckily we all realized thats why we have our whole lives to learn it and to keep learning. It just made me so grateful that I have had the gospel my whole life and have the Book of Mormon, she made me realize again what a blessing it is to have! Wow, arent we so blessed!? SO loved. AHh the gospel is true and it brings so much joy!

We also got the chance to come to Berlin, to Tiergarten to see the baptism there! Sister Singer and Sister Stewart have had a similar miracle, in that they met him on the street and got to see him be baptized! It was such a beautiful spirit there, and I felt so blessed to be able to see it, and to realize more and more people are getting baptized everyday. We have so many people we are meeting with, we defintiely need reenforcements in Frankfurt Oder!

I feel especially close to the Lord lately, in that I am feeling his love in reading how well my family is doing back home. I am so grateful for a family in the gospel all with the goal of going to the temple. Its such an incredible work helping these people fulfill these ordinances, on both sides of the veil. Everyone sounds like they are doing well and are feeling loved! Hope so because I love you so! Have a great week, and thank you for your prayers, they are very much needed and felt! Time to get some more people into the water!

Happy Monday!

oh and Happy Birthday to Mom on the 27th!!

Liebe, Sister Rasmussen 

thou shalt live together in love - DC 42:45

HAPPIEST OF VALENTINES DAYS TO YOU!

Thou shald live together in love...what a glorious commandment. I think its one of my favorites, you? What a cool thing to work on, where ever and whoever we are with we should live together with love. I have a strong testimony of love and missionary work. Everything about a mission becomes easy if it is done with love. and I guess the mission is just a 'miny life' so everything in life can be easy too when done with love. Its easy to forgive if you are filled with love, easy to get up at 6:30 when you love the work and love the lord and just want to be obedient. Its easy to talk to a random person on the street because you are filled with love and just want them to have the same joy you have from living the gospel. BAH! This plan our Heavenly Father has made for us is just one love filled moment after another... and I have a strong testimony of that, especially from my experiences this last week!

Oh can I just tell you something amazing? There is a white dress hanging to dry from our bunk bed right now, which we just washed last night, which Schwester Zimmer tried on after sacrament meeting yesterday!!!!! This has been the most incredible experience teaching her for the past month and a half! She is such a sweet little lady and I hope you get to meet her someday. There have been a couple DISTINCT miracles that we really have felt the Lord guiding us. May I tell them to you? Thank you...

So Frau Zimmer has been cancer free for almost a year now, but there is something wrong with her weak immune system and she cant figure out what it is, she has been praying for a solution and help....WELL (here comes the miracle, hope it makes sense to you) last week was her first week at church. I went up and played the little organ keyboard piano thing for some prelude and I prayed 'Nearer my God to thee.' After I had finished I sat down next to Frau Zimmer and she said, 'Hey I have a keyboard at home will you play it for me?' I said 'Of course!'  and so the next day we went to teach her and we walked in and she said 'im dead.' haha, we were like 'uh...what?' and she said, well this morning I was moving things around to find that keyboard so you could play it...' and it was right next to her bed under the window, and as she moved everything out of the way she found mold all over the wall underneath the window which had been covered up by the keyboard etc... let me remind you Frau Zimmer is a very clean very organized person, and this mold had been coming in from the windowsill underneath the wall....she had been sleeping RIGHT NEXT TO IT! That has been what has been keeping her so sick, and sh found it and moved out of that room and will start feeling better! The lord showed it to her because she wanted to find the keyboard! We definitely thought it was a miracle. She also loved that song because she said she has heard it before, and its on titanic? So we are going to sing that song at her baptism. Awww.

 

There have been some other smaller miracles that we have wintessed as Frau Zimmer has made such quick strong progress. SO Frau Zimmer has a very good knowledge of the bible and was a little nervous at the beginning about the warnings in the bible of false prophets and people that said they would have healing power etc. As we had talked about the priesthood, she believed it was restored but still wasnt convinced of the power of the laying on of hands with the priesthood blessing... (she hadnt told us this) Okay there is the backround. SO we have scripture class on Wednesdays and she was excited to come, I called her that day and told her the chapter we were reading so she could have a little backround and not be too confused. So I told her to read Jacob 5. WELL, scripture class ended up being cancelled, but we still went to teach her and as we walked in she said, I read that chapter! and I got goosebumps!! (we were super confused because Jacob 5 is really long and its a analogy of the olive tree, not TOO exciting unless you really study it) She then opened up the bible and opened to James (which is Jakobus in German) and we said, that isnt the scripture I told you! She said, well I thought that maybe you said it wrong and smiled at me haha, so she read Jakobus (james) 5 and at the end of that chapter is a verse about calling upon the elders of the church when you are sick for a blessing! and she knew that it was God answering her prayer! She thought I said another chapter and so my weakness of German became a strength in helping her realize that the priesthood power is real and she then asked us if she could have a 'krankensegen' (priesthood blessing) So the next day Ahmed and Manfred (Ahmed is our best friend from Egypt who is our ward mission leader, and Manfred is the old man who looks like a bird who comes and teaches Herr Klinke with us) and they came and she was at first a little shy because there were now 4 people there in her little kitchen, but we got laughing especially about a paper on her fridge of 'Achmed the Terrorist' an act a comedian does... which Ahmed loves and thinks is hilaroius, so that was good to break the ice, and then she got to tell them her story, and how she met us and the miracles we have seen together so far and we felt the spirit so strong together, and then Ahmed asked if we could read a scripture together and it was Jakobus 5 so we smiled and told him the miracle of that scripture too and then Manfred and Ahmed gave her a beautiful blessing. She was so filled with joy, she was just beaming....she then said...sorry but I dont know if I can come to church tomorrow, I want to so badly but my son is sick and I dont feel that it is right to leave to go to church and leave my son sick at home....and of course we understood that, except she has to got to church 2 times before she can be baptized!!! So we prayed and prayed and Ahmed also prayed and Sunday morning we went by and she buzzed us in and opened the door and she was beaming and said His fever is gone! He's all better! I can come to church!!! So we had an amazing time and we all were so excited she got to come, and she loved FHV and sacrament mtg, and they announced her baptism and invíted everybody to come, OH we are so blessed! We then went and tried on baptisimal clothes and we are just so stoked and filled with the spirit!

Sorry there is too much to write and I hope you can feel the excitement and joy we are feeling, and of course our other investigators are making steady progress as well! Because we think of missionary work like an escalator, not like an elevator...we dont just take one or two to the top and then go back down to find someone else, but its a continual process and we send lots of people to the top (baptism) one after the other after the other. So thats the plan! Lots of love and joy here, hope there is lots of love there at home!! I sure love you and miss you and I am so grateful for the love I feel from the family, cant wait to be together forever! Thank you dearly for the planner pages you sent to sister singer, I read them every day, and tear up sometimes :) You're the best :) Happy week!

-Sister Rasmussen.

taufe taufe taufe taufe

Taufe means BAPTISM in German....did you know that?

GUESS WHAT!?!?! FRAU ZIMMER IS GETTING BAPTIZED!! on February 18th!! Happy Birthday Kara!! She was so excited after we had shown her the Restoration video and the next time we met with her we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it all and said she likes the ending much better than the JWs ending :) She loves the Book of Mormon and was also giving biblical referances that support the plan and she has such a strong testimony of Christ. She is HILARIOUS and I feel like I have known her a lot longer than I have. As we focused back on earth life and what we need to do here, we invited her to be baptized and told her we had prayed about the date and then formally asked her 'Frau Zimmer will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized with the priesthood authority on February 18th?' and she smiled and said yes and we were so excited! We kept it in control, but bore strong testimony and told her how excited we are for her! We went and saw her a couple days later and taught her the 3rd lesson, and she talked more of how Heavenly Father had answered her prayer and she is excited she has finally found the right church. She has gone through so much in her life and she has been searching for the truth, she was excited to come to church and asked what time she had to wake up and if she had to wear a skirt. Haha, when we showed up Sunday morning she looked so cute and so excited to come. She loved it and said she was comparing it to her meetings she had gone to before and it was much better, she said she didnt feel scared, just loved. She is a little shy but so sweet and the ward was so excited she was there. They definitely werent overwhelming though and she was talking a little bit about her baptism to her daughter so we are SO EXCITED! I feel so blessed to be the missionary who gets to teach her and see her change and feel Heavenly Fathers love for her. Thats next weekend!!! BAHHH! I am so excited. These feelings of excitement and JOY make the mission. She is so funny, loves cocacola bears, and the color purple. She has been cancer free for almost a year and is finding a lot of physical strength from the gospel too! She was so funny talking to us about Avatar, I said I loved it, and Sister Forsyth hasnt seen it, we told her we dont watch movies on our missions so we can stay focused, and she said, well Sister Rasmussen and I can talk about the gospel and you can watch it in the other room Sister Forsyth! haha, it was a good laugh and Sister Forsyth and I told her we would watch it together after our missions.

We got our transfer calls on Saturday and of course Sister Forsyth and I are staying together here for the next 6 weeks. We are so stoked and feel we have had a good three weeks together to learn how each other work and teach. We feel how we can make progress with this program and of course having Frau Zimmer's baptism is a GREAT start :) There are a couple other invesigators we have who are making big progress and we both feel there are many people here ready for baptism. Its so neat working in a small branch because one more person makes a huge difference to the branch, especially in Frau Zimmer's case, her daughter is now coming back to church and her grand daughter as well. Her granddaughter Katherina hasnt been baptized either so we are hoping to help her as well get closer to baptism. Ther is so much potential here and we are so busy...there is nothing better than busy missionaries :)

Its definitely a blessing to be in Germany, many people talk to us about the war and DDR times and its so interesting to see who takes those experiences and learns from them or is bitter because of them. We related it to eggs and carrots. I think I have written about this before, but its still true and so im going to repeat myself :) When you boil eggs and carrots, they go through the exact same experience, but one gets harder and one gets softer. We are searching for the hearts that are softened. Its a rough assignment in East Germany, but so possible and there are many prepared people in this little city laying on the Polish border. 

The soft carrots are the golden ones and we are following the spirit to find them. There isnt a cooler calling. I recommend it.

Oh it is hilaroius the rejection that we get, I just love it, there is nothing like a little rejection in the morning to get you going :) Its crazy the physical reaction people have when you mention the words 'God, Church or Religion' they physically react with a 'nein nein nein' or some sort of hand wave, I especially love klingling the klingel boxes...thats how we do doors here and its really a cool challenge trying to touch them with the spirit through the speaker of the klingle box and some people's responses are hilarious. Something insane always happens. Last night wasnt too exciting but I still laughed when we got buzzed in and the husband opened the door and we said we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ and all you hear is the wife saying 'mach zu, mach zu! (shut it, shut the door!) haha, naja, so is the mission and then the moments that someone lets us in and has sincere interest make all the rejections worth it. 

Haha, it was hilarious we were teaching Herr Klinke, our 75 yr old friend, and he is grasping the concepts a lot quicker than before. . . but then he always backs down and says 'daß glaub ich nicht' meaning 'I dont believe that' and we ask him do you have a desire to believe? and he says no...and then 2 minutes later he goes into a monologue and he starts saying...well I just want to know and I stopped him and said 'HA! so you DO want to believe!' and he stopped and then cracked a little smile and we all laughed.. He is so great. Our silly friend who was so 'put out' that his washer wouldnt fit in his bathroom it was an inch too wide and he had to get another one and wow, it was a huge deal. The things you sympathize for on a mission....

We taught a lesson in the rain the other night! We have a new investigator named Nicko and Sister Forsyth spotted him on the gleis (the bus platform) and we went over to him and asked how he was doing and he just started asking us questions about baptism and the Book of Mormon and how we should follow Christ and then his bahn pulled up like 20 ft away and he was like, well I gtg, but yeah call me or bah and was still asking a question and then he missed his bahn and came back and just said, oh well, I really want to know the answer to this question, so we stood there in the rain and got soaked but also really excited for him and the quick progress he is making :)

We got to eat some EGYPTIAN food yesterday, and Irena made Ukrainian Borscht..delicious soup. I highly reccommend getting some Egyptian food as soon as you can, wow was it delicious. I decided its my new favorite food. Ola and Ahmed are so hilarious and their story of how they met each other and got to know the gospel is incredible, they sadly cant write it or blog it or make a mormon.orgdealio because their lives are threatened because of it.Did you remember what a blessing it was to be able to live your religion openly? Sometimes I forget to count that blessing.....

Welp I hope you have a lovely lovely week and know how grateful I am for you and your support. There is nothing like the support of family and friends back home to keep you motivated and working hard :)

Just going to go party in Berlin now! What a blessing. . . who wants to come back here with me? Lets start planning now :)

Liebe, Sister Rasmussen

weist du?

Say 'weist du' really fast....well it sounds like 'veissduh?' That is the new funny word around these parts. You know in America how a lot of people say 'Ya know?' Well thats what it is in German, and people say it alllllll the time! We were laughing pretty hard, Sister Forsyth and I about the German diolect changes and how it really takes living here to understand it. There are many differences between the 'sechish' German we both learned down in Sachsen and now are hearing a different slang up here by Berlin. Its fun to see what rubs off and what we throw into our street contacting and even when we are talking to each other! I lately need to keep pinching myself because Im starting to forget Im in Germany! Its really starting to feel like home and very natural. I hope to keep the excitement of 'newness' and anticipation because that makes life more exciting. Its such a blessing to be with Sister Forsyth who also has this excitment about being by Berlin and re-realizing we are SISTER MISSIONARIES IN GERMANY! When did this happen? Werent we just 16 yesterday?

I thought I would share a little about the feelings I had before I was signing up for this incredible adventure. All I knew was that it would be a cool experience for me and that my mom had served a mission and that its a big sacrifice. I wanted of course to do what is right, to serve the Lord and to be an instrament in his hands in building the kingdom. I had no clue that I was signing up to really help people CHANGE. Yeah I heard all the stories and people told me their experiences but now I AM HERE and these people are changing because of the message we are bringing! The action of walking up to a person and telling them who we are and that we know how and were to find eternal joy and bliss and ask them what it would mean to them to have this eternal joy as well. To then see their hope in their eyes and make out an appointment! Bah, there is nothing cooler. That happened the other night. Sister Forsyth was on the phone with a guy we are trying to get in contact with, and this guy was walking down the street. He looked a little 'down' and I stopped him and said 'Hallo, wir sind von der Kirche Jesu Christi und wir sprechen mit menschen über Freude, und wie wir freude in dieses leben finden können.' He said he didnt have any joy and I said we would love to meet with him and explain to him how we can find joy and peace in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. He set up an appt with us and its those experiences that I didnt know I would be living. I didnt realize I would tell a 50 year old man that he can find joy in his relationship with God, but I did and he wants to learn more! What an incredible work our Heavenly Father has called us to do, if anyone is questioning a mission and needs a push...well here it is! There is nothing more rewarding or nothing better we can do with our time then meet with people and tell them the Church of Jesus Christ is restored and we have a REAL LIVE PROPHET on the earth today!

That reminds me of Herr Klinke, this 75 year old man who smells like burnt saurkraut and has a sweet brown smile. :) I love him so, he had no clue about God or anything with religion but missionaries have been meeting with him for a few months now and he is making quick progress lately. I smile when I remember the past two appts we had with him when we told him there is a prophet on the earth today. HE FREAKED OUT! HE was so excited! He kept repeating, I knew there were people in the bible but today? On the earth today? no...wow. and then when we were teaching him about the plan of salvation and about resurrection, we gave the example that if someone has their finger cut off on earth then when they are resurrected they will have all 10 fingers and they will be perfect. He then showed us his hand and we had never noticed, but he has no top knuckle on two of his fingers!! He just laughed and was so excited, he said, 'I dont know if I can believe that' but we told him to pray and ask God if this plan is the truth, if he will really get his fingers back, and he said he would pray that night! (Herr Klinke wasnt a big prayer before this) so that was a big deal!

Its these little experiences and little steps of progress that make up this 'marvelous work.' That is what I have grown a testimony of lately ....the little things.

Doctrine and Covenants 64:33

Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small thingsproceedeth that which is great.

Its the waking up at 6:30 and popping out of bed, choosing to talk to that person next to you, giving that person a hug just because, choosing to be happy, doing the little things, like going and visiting these people and asking them to say the prayer, its these small things that make up this marvelous work! I cant really put into words the excitement that I have about missionary work, but I hope you can feel it. It is such a perfect work that is being brought about by the weak, and Sister Forsyth and I like to think of it literally, she and I are both 5'2 and so we thing out of 'small people proceedeth that which is great.' Well that is the goal, and when we do these small things with the spirit then GREAT things are made, and well....there is so much love felt in this work. Its so worth serving a mission, not only worth it, but a really silly idea not to go, there are so many people changed and affected and so much love and joy experienced, I cant imagine life without it now.

Haha, I sure hope this love and joy you are feeling at home as well as you make the little decisions to follow Christ and to help people around you, because there is satisfaction in thoroughness and to be thorough we need to look at the fine details and change the little things and then we are satisfied and the Lord then blesses us even more! BAH! Its so complex and so lovely, arent we so blessed to have a knowledge of this love!?!? Ahhh I need to go find more people and tell them!

Speaking of people that dont have a knowledge of these things....or whole countries that dont know. Egypt is in big trouble. Ola and Ahmed (the awesome Egyptians in our ward who we know and love) have been updating us about their home country and we need to pray and fast for them. Their families both live in Cairo and apparently communication is almost all cut off and people cant get in our out? Im sure you could find out at a click of a mouse more than I have found out (can I tell you how odd it is not really knowing what is going on in the world?) but your prayers would be appreciated for the Egyptian leaders and for these problems to come to an end. It is such a blessing I didnt even know I had to be able to wear garments and pray and worship freely, and these people cant do that. So another blessing to count!

I sure hope you have a lovely week and know how much I love you and pray for you my loved ones! This experience is life changing and anyone questioning going needs to jump in with two feet and know they will be carried and taken care of by angels, the whole time.

Remember: out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

-Sister Rasmussen

Pictures:Yesterday us cooking with Rosel Rudow and we all got cute aprons!
Also we bought this weird orange fruit to see what was inside or how to eat it, it was GREEN inside and full of wierd gooey seeds....dont recommend it :) but a funny moment thats for sure. Oh and youll notice a peanut butter jar with a spoon coming out of it....yes Im still not over my peanut butter craze.
In Berlin there is this brick path that shows where the wall used to be, one pair of those feet were in West Berlin and the other pair in East Berlin. Cool history here.