great clouds lately...

Hello world!

 

How are you all? I hope lovely. We really have had some awesome weather here, adventure weather. I love the rolling grey rain clouds, Sister Scruggs says its a little gothic of me, but I really do and there is so much excitement when I hear thunder! Bah I love it. We are doing really well here in our little 3 cities bordering Poland. Talking to everyone that passes and asking them what their purpose in life is, how they strengthen their faith in God, or if they believe they will see their family again after death. Its so interesting to stop and ask people on their way in their life routine these big important questions and stop and see them thinking, see their spirit in them jumping up and down wanting to hear the truth and seeing if their body/mind responds or not. Did that make sense? Its just a cool concept that Elder Nelson always says that all of these people have lds spirits inside of them, they just need to remember the truth. I love testifying of the restored gospel and the comfort and hope that it brings to know that Christ is our Savior and these people can find that out too and have a testimony of it themselves. Bah I love being a missionary.

 

We had a great week this past week, met with our lovely Schwester Zimmer and we had asked her to teach us the story of the restoration and the Book of Mormon, it was perfect. I was so proud of our new member and we could have taken another investigator to hear her teach it, it wasnt too much information but full of the spirit and strong testimony. I sure love that woman and feel so honored to know her, she is hoping to come visit Salt Lake next year, she wants badly to see the pioneer day parades (loves the story of the pioneers getting into the Salt Lake valley) so that would be a blessing to go with her in the temple. She really has taught me a lot in that when we have the goal of the temple then we stay clean and strive again and again every day to do our best. Hopefully we are all doing that, she wants deeply to go to the Salt lake temple and by next feb could get her endowment out, so she could come do some sessions in the temple there, with her goal of being able to do that in a year she is striving right now to do what is right....it reminds me of the lesson we taught to Roman, the 13 year old young man who got baptized in December, he is the only member in his family and we taught him this past week about the plan of salvation again and asked him what he can do today that if he died tomorrow he would go to the celestial kingdom. . . What can we do right now to work on our huge celestial goals of the future? Thats the most important thing, I liked my dad's email this week saying its all about choices, every situation and choice we are given everyday is just a little test to see if we will follow the spirit, to see if we can use our faith and do what we know is right. Good luck to you all, luckily I get to be a full time missionary so I get to think about it all day, but as a member with the Holy Ghost you have that same power too :)

 

We had a really great lesson with Christian this past week, we have talked to him about baptism a few times and has been meeting with us for the past couple months and has come to church every week unless he had work. He feels apart of the family and we taugth him about fasting last week, we decided to fast together for him to get an answer that this is the right thing for him and that he is going in the right direction. He is such a chill guy but also a hard worker, so as we are teaching him we wonder if he is really listening and then ask him a question and his responses are very impressive, he knows what he is doing and is trying to build his faith. He lately reads the chapter in the Book of Mormon we give him, and then just opens the book to a random page, and they have been some really cool chapters, all talking about how to get eternal life and the words of Christ. So we set the goal with him for June 11, he still has to quit smoking before that date, but he knows that and is committed to find out the truth and change accordingly. I just feel so honored to get to be the one to teach the truth.

 

This marvelous work of being a missionary is so unique...talking to random people, inviting them to learn more, going into their homes, testifying and teaching the truth of why we are here on earth and how to find hope, strength and truth all day! Everyday! My testimony has been so strengthened of the importance of being committed to the Lord and to do what he asks regardless of what comes, to not ask Why me? or doubt past good decisions...but to just have faith that the Lord knows what is best and is giving us what we need now to help ourselves or to help someone else.

 

I feel so blessed to get to learn these lessons in GERMANY? Does anyone remember when I opened this call?? I had no idea that I would be meeting these people, not just to get to know them, but build eternal friendships and relationships. Its really interesting thinking about all the missions around the world and how the Lord is doing his work and helping all his children differently around the world, but the most important thing to do isnt to compare but to realize how the Lord is trying to use you right now to answer someone else's prayer, ah isnt it such a cool feeling to know that the Lord trusts us and gives us the strength to help him do his work and to build his kingdom? Ah I love it. There are just some cool situations that I have been in this week that I really felt the Lord using us to do his work.

-Sitting in a little apartment owned by two egyptians, talking about all the less actives and investigators in this area and how we can best help them come closer to their savior.

-Having our whole district (8 missionaries) on a conference call talking about the total lessons we all taught and how many new appointments we had all made out.....it was a lot! Very motivating.

-Talking to my companion about these people, who we didnt know a couple weeks ago about their personal problems and how we can teach them about how the Lord can help them! Bah.....sorry I think it jsut hit me that Im on a mission again, thanks for living through moment that with me.

 

I hope all is well back in the real world, thank you so much for your love and prayers and faith and thoughts....I feel them and gain a lot of strength from them, so just know a missionary in Germany is eternally grateful for you. Happy Monday!

 

Love you dearly, Sister Kimberly Rasmussen.

 

Pictures:

1. 9:35 pm. peanut butter from America and a journal, what more could one need? (Thanks sister scruggs for the picture lol)

2. Me and Sister Scruggs in front of the Brandenburger Tör, cant believe we are together AGAIN in Berlin!

3. Us and the Tiergarten Sisters (Sister Svoboda and Jensen) at a holocaust memorial, really cool

4.We found 3 other....missionaries? Germany is sometimes an odd place

Home. . .and Love

So the theme of home is in my head this morning, luckily im not trunky or homesick im redefining in my head what HOME means...many people say home is where your heart is, I guess I have many homes...because this place, Frankfurt Oder is feeling like home. At least when I am with these people I feel like im with family, it was such a cool experience having my family see these people who I love through the computer screen having my two worlds combine for a small moment, it was just full of love and joy and the spirit.

Its such an incredible work being able to give up a little to recieve so much. The opportunity to see my family's faces and see everything is the same back home, everyone is beaming and happy and full of love (especially for moms)  was such a tender mercy. Arent we so blessed to have these relationships here on earth? Our Heavenly Father loves us so much to put us into loving families, give us eternal friends and companions to help us live life to the fullest and to become better people and to try our very hardest together to follow Christ and return to have ewige leben (eternal life) together. Isnt that the point of all of this? To figure out our purpose here on earth, to realize there is a whole plan set out for us lined with blessings, joy and peace. We just have to simply follow what our older brother and example. I have a strong strong testimony that when we just give up our natural lazy, unforgiving, judgemental, pessimistic selves and give all we have BACK to the lord (since its all from him in the first place) and then we will be seeing miracle after miracle.

I was overwhemed with the feeling of love and belonging talking to my family and that is the same feeling people have when they find the gospel and see that the Lord has a perfectly organized church (with unperfect people) all trying to take care of each other and do our best to help each other understand this perfect plan the Lord has prepared for us (that we sometimes dont fully understand) So thanks family for making me feel so loved and mom for making me bawl while singing to me :) Im going to try and bring some more people in this lovely area of ours into the fold of our Heavenly Father with all the eternal blessings we want (as long as we want them and seek for them and do what we need to to deserve them) then they are ours! Yay! What a perfect plan and so much love, sounds like it was a great talk daddio about love and I loved the section defining love...

- Love is the healing balm that repairs rifts in personal and family relationships.

- Love is the bond that unites families, communities, and nations.

- Love is the power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect.

- Love is the source that overcomes divisiveness and hate.

- Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope.

- LOVE SHOULD BE OUR WALK AND OUR TALK

Amen to that, hopefully we all can put more love into wherever we are or give love to whoever we are with...attempting to follow the promptings of the spirit to give Heavenly Father's love to his children, being the answer to people's prayers. Mmmmm, what a warm comforting feeling knowing the lord is so close taking care of us each step of the way! Good luck this week with your loving and Ill do my best over hear in Germany... its going to be a few weeks of miracles, we can feel it coming im with the lovely Sister Lydia Scruggs again and we are feeling so blessed to get to serve together for a second transfer, we are committed to work hard and want so purely to bring people to the knowledge of the love of our Heavenly Father and the truth that is on the earth.

We are stoked for our knew plan reviewing with Hany all the lessons meeting with him 2-3 times a week and to fast with Christian for a baptismal date, there are a lot of miracles coming our way, probably your way too... Ola helped me realize sometimes we just look for one big miracle and dont realize all the little miracles that occur in 2-3 week periods of time, the changes in people etc, so maybe we can all be a little better in noticing the miracles the Lord is already putting in our lives.

I also learned another cool lesson, well re-learned it, the concept of oxgen masks....you have to put yours on first to be able to help anyone else around you. You cant bring someone to the temple unless you are there first...there are many phrases like that, but its true! If we are expecting something from someone else, we need to also be doing those same things we are expecting, to be able to support them or if anything be the example of the joy and happiness of living the gospel and having a sure knowledge of the gospel.

Thanks for all the love and the joy and the peace I have felt being here serving the lord, it was great to wish my 'mission mom' Sister Singer a happy Mother's day as well, thanks for training me BIG!

I hope Mom had a grand mothers day, it was one of my favorites I've ever had :) We'll be working hard here in Frankfurt Oder, set high goals and going to work and pray to achieve them, good luck with yours. I love you all dearly...

Love, Sister Rasmussen

Saying goodbye to my lovely Sister Forsyth

 Sister Scruggs and I with Roses from our 80 yr old member Manfred and our bikes...we're real missionaries now.

Just the usual pondering by an elephant and a baby elephant in neuberesinchen Deutschland...no big deal.

Welcome to the church Herr Bruder Michael!

It was one of the most incredible weekends of my life this past week. Hopefully the pictures work, it happened! Hany got baptized!! He calls us 'Frau sister Rasmussen and Frau Sister Forsyth' hahaha, because he thought those were our first names for the longest time, so we now call him Herr Bruder Michael. I cant believe he is a member! He's one of us! Some egyptian guy we talked to in front of Kaufland is now a member of the church, I dont know why I got to be a part of it but I couldnt be more grateful. It definitely took A LOT of faith, right up to the very last second....

On Friday night the elders came from Marzahn and we took them to Hany's, read a part of 3 Nephi 19 together and then we took Elder Pierson with us to Ola and Ahmeds while Elder Pauli stayed and had the tauf interview with him. We had everything planned and were designing the program and they came back awhile laster both laughing and smiling, he passed! haha so we went home on cloud 9 and finished the programs and got everything ready.

Saturday morning we woke up, had study, fixed the button on the pants Hany was going to wear and got the presents ready etc, as we walked up to bahnhof all excited we got a call from Ahmed........

Hany had gone to see his kids around 8:30am, who his almost ex-frau hasnt let him see for 3 weeks, and we were going to meet at bahnhof at like 1:15. Frau said she had to run for a half an hour and would be right back...and wasnt right back. Hany couldnt leave his kids, and he couldnt take his kids with him or she would call the police, he couldnt get a hold of her and we didnt know what to do. We just stood at bahnhof with Manfred with people calling us from Berlin (missionaries and their investigators) telling us they were on their way etc, and we didnt know when the lady would come home! We knew this was one last try of opposition for Hany and so we all just prayed. We called everyone and asked them to pray, even the branch presidents wife called and asked how things were going and she hung up on us to get her family together to pray that his wife would come home. SO many people have prayed for this guy its insane. We missed the 1:30 train, then missed the 2:00 and then all the people from Berlin came and waited with us in bahnhof just praying, and Ahmed called and said we didnt think it could happen, we should just cancel etc and Sister Forsyth and I were both shaking, ahh our faith was definitely being tried... we said we are going to wait until the 2:30 train and if she doesnt come by then, then we will cancel. Then FINIALLY Ahmed called and said 'Its all okay, he's now home getting ready! We'll meet you there!' SO we all headed to Eisenhüttenstadt and set it all up and they showed up a little later.

The service was beautiful, we sang 'ich brauch dich alle zeit' Hany's favorite and then Ola gave a beautiful talk on baptism and the covenant we make with our Heavenly Father. We then loaded in the cars and drove 5 minutes to a lake/pond near by. It was so beautiful and perfect weather. As you hopefully can see in the pictures it was such an incredible thing seeing two Egyptians going to fulfil this holy ordinance in the lake. Definitely a highlight of all of our missions. I was so proud of our Hany, my favorite picture is when they are walking out of the water and you can see how clean and full of JOY Hany was. We then headed back to the church and we (the 8 missionaries) sang 'Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt' I started with a solo then Sister Forsyth came in and then the other missionaries joined, the spirit was so strong and everyone was tearing up, I could hardly sing. It was such a gorgeous celestial feeling baptism and everything went smoothly with the spirit. 

Yesterday Hany received the gift of the Holy Ghost and had an incredible blessing afterwards. He also went up and bore his testimony and we were just beaming, so proud. It is so incredible to me to see the spirit in these people's eyes, there really is a light that wasnt there before, its so incredible to think of all that is in store for Hany, we're thinking he'll be a 70 in a while :) 

Another tender mercy was when we were with him last night talking about the Book of Mormon and he loved the story of the Ammonites, he said he felt the spirit and got goosebumps when he read about how they buried their weapons and wouldnt take them up to fight, he then kindof off handed said 'and its so great we have a prophet to tell us today if the lord wants us to fight or not.' he said 'WE have a prophet!' He really gets it and is going to change so many people's lives, he has already started. We had some food after church with the branch and it was like a big family, it was so neat to hear all the members welcome him as their new brother and you could already see he was so comfortable and felt so loved. We got a framed picture of Christ and had the branch and everyone who came to the baptism sign it, and he loved it. I just feel so honored and loved to be able to know these people, let alone maybe had a small chance to help them. 

Also some big news, we had transfer calls saturday morning.....duh duh duhhh. IM KILLING AGAIN! And guess who!?!? SISTER SCRUGGS! YEP Im serving with her again!!! I came from her to Frankfurt Oder and now she is coming to me! And she is dying here too! Yep 3 kills in a row, I cant believe it, definitely happening for a reason and a lot of miracles are coming, im super stoked to serve with her again, Í feel so blessed to get to stay here another transfer, i love it and the weather is getting warmer, these people are really becoming family, looks like ill be serving more than a 1/3 of my mission here! gotta love it. 

I love being a missionary so much, its so incredible being able to see the way the gospel changes lives, to see people change to be closer to our Savior, to follow him and bring other people unto him, its definitely 'ein wunderbares werk.' Hope you can see the pictures, im tempted to send them to church headquarters they need to be in 'Preach My Gospel.' :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week, know that a missionary in Germany is thinking of you!

This was a part of the scriptures we read together with Hany before his tauf interview, and i love it, its such an amazing thing to read Christ word's when he is praying to our Heavenly Father...especially talking about baptism and coming unto him.....this light that he is talking about, that is what comes into these people's lives

 24And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus prayed unto the Father, he came unto his disciples, and behold, they did still continue, without ceasing, to pray unto him; and they did not ^amultiply many words, for it was given unto them what they should ^bpray, and they were filled with desire.
 25And it came to pass that Jesus blessed them as they did pray unto him; and his ^acountenance did smile upon them, and the light of his ^bcountenance did ^cshine upon them, and behold they were as ^dwhite as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof.
Love you! Have a great week!

Sister Rasmussen

-JOY-

There is nothing more incredible than seeing people change to be more like our Savior. Yesterday was one of the best Easter Sunday's of my life (and by the sound of things, one of the most memorible Easter Sunday's of Natalies life!) Congratulations my cousin of mine! We had a great meeting and felt the spirit so strongly talking of course about our Savior Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. How it is only because of him and his giving up his life for us, that we can be healed, we can be sealed together for eternity with our families, only because of him that we can be perfectly clean to live with our loving Heavenly Father again. That is the most important thing, and to know that he loves us so much enough to appear to Joseph Smith and to restore his church again for us, to give us the holy scriptures to have an assurity that he has been and will be the same yesterday, today and forever.

It was incredible feeling the spirit so strong and being there with our lovely recently baptized Schwester Zimmer and Hany. . . Oh I didnt tell you, he wanted to be baptized when it was Easter in Egypt which he thought was this Saturday so we postponed it a week and he is doing great. Of course before any good decision we make there is always opposition, so he is dealing with that now but he is doing great and the Lord is taking care of him. We had an incredible lesson with him yesterday and talked about all the JOY that he has felt, all the love he has felt now from our Heavenly Father through the Book of Mormon and through the meetings at church is all possible only through Joseph Smith because it all was RESTORED through him.....not rebuilt through him or fixed through him, Joseph Smith didnt fix what truths were already on the earth, he RESTORED the exact church Christ had, with his power and that POWER is on the earth today, it is through that power that we can be forgiven, that we can be comforted through blessings, we can be SEALED for FOREVER, its through that power that we can be clean every week and keep improving striving to be closer to our savior. WOW, arent we SO blessed!?!

SO Hany is realizing that, and feeling the truth, and coming to KNOW of it as well. Hahaha, he is so hilaroius and it is such a blessing to have Ola and Ahmed right there with him to be his family ans support in the gospel. I have never laughed as hard has I have with these crazy Egyptians, they are so great and so sarcastic. Haha, Hany told us the other day, Im really scared....I read in the Book of Mormon and pray...whenever I have free time I am reading....and im really scared because I LIKE IT! haha, Its been so incredible seeing all the changes he has made just out of faith and to see how much happier he is. He is even saying 'käse' instead of ... other words. He is dedicated all he has to find out the truth and to give everything to him. The lord really blesses every aspect of our lives when we sacrifice a little bit of something important to us or something had he SLAMS us with so many more blessings we cant even contain it! Anyway with these egyptians, we have a great time together and then have a very spiritual uplifting relationship too. Its so full of JOY and the love of the Lord. We grilled together the other day and I took some pictures. . . hope you like them.

We had a really great lesson with our lovely Gisela Zimmer and she had an interview with our Branch präsident! She was nervous just because she's a little shy anyway but had a great interview and told us all about it after church yesterday...she GOT A TEMPLE RECOMMEND!!! That woman wants nothing more than to be in the house of the Lord and was beaming from ear to ear knowing that the Lord is close and loves her and wants her to live worthy to come into his house and he found her worthy. Ahh I have never seen her happier and healthy too! She said an amazing prayer at the end and we were all tearing up by the end of it. It has been such an incredible experience being apart of this work. To have been a small part of helping the lord build his kingdom, one child at a time, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. Yesterday was one of the most joyful days of my life, seeing these two people's lives completely different, so full of happiness, bah just come over here and meet them, or better yet go find someone yourself who neeeds and is searching for this gospel, there is nothing more fulfilling in this world than realizing how eternal these relationships are and how the lord is in everything.


Im so blessed to have been serving with Sister Forsyth, she has worked hard til the very end and she goes home next Tuesday, we have transfer calls on Saturday morning and we're thinking im going to become senior companion, bah. Its going to be a good time Im already so pumped to find some more people, more people should get out here and try this mission thing, it doesnt get better!!!

 Oh I didnt even tellyou about the miracle we had when we went to go visit Hany's soon to be ex wife to get her permission to let Hany be baptized. There was NO way, no way at all, we just knew that this is all in the Lords hands, I havent prayed that hard in a long time. but we went in with a member and ah my heart was pounding when we knocked on the door, she was very agressive and spoke a billion miles an hour and it was a little hard to bring the spirit, but we kept bearing testimony, and asked the question what she would have against Hany being baptized, and she said 'its egal what he does' meaning It doesnt matter to me....totally a miracle, and the Lord definitely blessed us. So all is clear and the plan is Saturday at 2:00, at a lake by Eisenhüttenstadt, Ahmed will Baptize Hany......what a dream. I dont know why I got blessed to be here to know these people to got to have found, taught and baptize Hany but I can say there has been nothing better in my life. Missionary work is the greatest!  So much joy and love and feeling the spirit so often! Bah! Im so grateful for this gospel and to have such stellar family and friends supporting me through it all, THANKS family for the Easter Package, the peanut butter was the best!! Sister Forsyth said she's never seen me so happy. AHH Isnt life good?! Life is good, the Lord loves us, I love you,it will all be good in the end, we just have to do our best in putting everything we can into following him and we will be blessed! Yeah! Simple. Have a stellar week and know a missionary in Germany is eternally grateful for your love, support and friendship. CONGRATS again to Nurpstee and Tanner!

love, Sister Rasmussen.

Pictures:

1. Schwester Zimmer beaming with her new Temple Recommend!

2. We colored Easter eggs with a less active and her son Alex! Love Easter!

3. Thats Hany. Grillin with Ahmed

4. My crazy Egyptians, I love them, this picture doesnt do them justice, theyre hilarious

5. Easter eggs on the trees, yep all over Germany they hang easter eggs on the trees, I think we should bring it to America, what do you think??

There is gladness in my soul today. ...laleelaleelaleela...

What a day in the life of this missionary. I must say we had a little funk there where there was some sort of opposition against us a week ago, especially with the story of Hany. Can I update you on Hany because we have some GREAT NEWS!

So this guy has seen so many miracles, or at least the hand of the Lord VERY OBVIOUSLY in his life. Last week he was like 'Okay, I cant keep staying in the middle between good and bad, he said Im going to chose for the bad,' felt like he didnt deserve the good, anyway so on Tuesday night he had an appointment with the devil haha, dont know what he was talking about, but on Tuesday nights we are in Eisenhüttenstadt teaching English and Hany had come and then we played pingpong afterwards. Well, this next week he said he wasnt going to come to Eisenhüttenstadt, he is 'notw going to be sinning and chosing not to be happy, blah blah blah, so he was in Berlin for work and later that evening was his appt with the devil. So he went to shower after work and got his bag with his clothes and at the bottem of the bag were . . . .  his ping pong paddles. (lol yes he has his own hahaha) and he knew 100% he didnt put them in there. He took that as God saying 'Come on Hany, dont make that mistake, go see the Sisters in hütte' well he did, and we suggested playing 'around the world' and it really got to the point where we werent able to breath we were all laughing so hard. We then talked to him on the train ride home and he said he just has this problem forgiving himself, who knows what for and he knows he his making a bad decision but anyway... it got him thinking, okay maybe God is still looking out for me, telling me to go play pingpong. haha

Well the NEXT day was really the big miracle that 'hit him in the back of the head telling him God was there and telling him he knew deep inside he knew what was right.' He was at work, working on the 3rd story of a building, standing on scaffolding, where two of the walls were...gone, open wide space, looking out to 3 stories off the ground. Well...he was on the roller scaffolding and asked his coworker to unbrake him and roll him over to the corner where he could continue working...well he didnt check if his coworker put on the brakes again, but apparently the guy had gotten a phone call and  didnt put on the brakes. He started drilling the ceiling and hit a piece of iron and that jerked the machine which jerked him which made the scaffolding fly out from under him off the 3rd story of the building. . . dead right? hany thought he was, but by some miracle, he doesnt know how, he didnt fall with the scaffolding, he landed on the scaffolding 2 meters to the right, between two bars... his coworker came running up (thinking he was dead) asked if he was okay and immediately asked.... Hany werent you on THAT down there? Yes. How did you get...over THERE? 'Well, someone is watching out for me.' he said. He invited us over that night and told us the whole story and said, you know I had my life flash before my eyes, and imagined standing before my Heavenly Father and realizing I dont have a testimony. I want a testimony. Please help me get a testimony. We said we would love to help.

So Hany has heard it all, read half of the Book of Mormon and seen all the movies, he has heard the prophets voice and has been to church 6 times now. We decided all he needs to know is how the Lord will answer his prayers. He has been hearing all the information but hasnt necessarily felt it in his heart. He was trying to eat the whole elephant all at once, not taking the gospel bite by bite, all he needed was a spiritual confirmation. . . So we went over on Saturday night and made some food and then he told us he is back on track, he just has a couple concepts he isnt understanding but as we got talking he then said, well okay, I just need to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and everything else you tell me is true. EXACTLY: we then read together in D&C (which we jsut got in ARABIC! PERFECT)  2Yea, behold, I will ^atell you in your mind and in your ^bheart, by the ^cHoly Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

3Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation

8But, behold, I say unto you, that you must ^astudy it out in your ^bmind; then you must ^caskme if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your ^dbosom shall ^eburn within you; therefore, you shall ^ffeel that it is right.

9But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a ^astupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is^bsacred save it be given you from me.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall ^aenlighten your^bmind, which shall fill your soul with ^cjoy;

14And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of ^arighteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.

The spirit was so stong and he said he would pray about Joseph Smith etc, he then offered to say the closing prayer and I THAT is where 'this gladness that is in my soul today' all began. . . His prayer was in German (normally he prays in Arabic, or we just say it) but this was the first time he said it in German and he was really talking to his Heavenly Father. Í may have started tearing up in the prayer, afterwards we just sat there filled with the spirit and he said, now I know what you were talking about the first time you got here and told me about JOY, We then said we would meet him the next morning for church.

He came walking into bahnhof all dressed up white shirt and tie (without his mom and dad aka Ola and Ahmed hahaha) and he went to priesthood (we didnt hold a separate class, which is normally what you do with investigators)  he went to another members house afterwards for lunch and we called him later that evening and asked if we could stop by for a little while. When we walked in he had just finished watching 'finding faith in Christ' for the second time that day, and said he was going to call us but didnt want to bother, he told us how he has changed. All the things that brought him happiness before now makes him sick, Coffee, smoking, alcohol (he actually hates alcohol) but he doesnt like being with the people he was before, he said I just wanted to call and talk more about the gospel and to feel this joy, He was lokoing at the pictures of our families and said 'I want that' I believe families are forever, i never wanted to get married again, but looking at how the Lord wants it, to have a wife that brings you to God and supports you and have the husband hold the priesthood and give blessings. We bore testimony that that is why we are here, that is the greatest joy we can have is being with our families in the gospel here on earth, sealed for eternity and then working together for that goal of living with God again. he said, I know I was filled with the Holy Ghost last night like you said. you know 'ich gebe zu, ihr habt recht' meaning something like you know I give in, you two are right, youre right, I believe you and he just sat there beaming ( I dont know if I remember telling you, but a couple weeks ago we asked him if he wanted to be baptized on the 16th or the 23rd) anyway so he then smiled and looked at his watch, and we said, oh yeah we need to leave and he said 'no I was looking at the date....you two said the 23rd right?' haha he pointed up and said 'he is going to have to hurry!' We said oh we can do it on the 30th too and he said 'no, he is going to have to hurry' HANY ASKED US IF HE CAN BE BAPTIZED ON THIS SATURDAY!! we didnt even invite him, he just told us. We left and walked to the bahn beaming and THAT is the joy that comes from a mission, it makes it all worth it. To see the change in this 35 yr old Egyptians man's life, to see someone change and sacrifice to become more like Christ to have the desire to have a knowledge of the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, Bah! We are so excited and are planning to have it on Saturday at 1 o clock in the same lake where Ahmed was baptized. Our only small worry is that Hany's wife will put up a stink, we need her permission b/c they arent completely finished with the divorce process, but we have an appointment with her on Thursday (thats a whole other adventureous story of how we ran into her) so please pray for us and for her that her heart will be softened so we can get her permission. Long story short with hany's noch frau, he were randomly doing doors, had the distinct impression to go down this street and as we klingled we got let in and realized it was 'the dragonlady' hany had been telling us about, we of course acted like we had no idea who she was but she has been reading all the anti mormon stuff she can find and sending it to him and it was such a feeling of light fighting darkness, yeah a little dramatic sounding but really, just imagine us in the stairwell, this crazy lady who has no belief in God with two other guys one with a beer the other with a cigarette, this lady shooting 1000 questions at us, cracking dirty jokes, trying to get us to talk about what happens in the temple, etc......bleahhh but then us bearing testimony boldly that our Heavenly Father is there and loves us and as we kept talking and bearing testimony they were quiet and listened and they asked one last question sincerely wondering if we change our underwear ever 4-5 days....we all laughed and I tried to show my love for her and told her, clearly you have read a lot of false things, we would love to come back and explain the truth and she set up an appointment, we know the lord is guiding us and that with enough faith we can get her permission. Thanks for your prayers, sorry again my emails are so long, its just such great news, its a wonderful work and the church is true! Have a great Easter time thinking more of our Savior, striving to be more like him. Talk to you next week!

Liebe, Frau Sister Rasmussen (as Hany says it)

I spelled Frühling wrong last week. That's better.

Yay missionary work! The Germany Berlin Mission is the greatest. I love being a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. Its such an incredible experience being able to help this branch survive and grow. Its such a miracle to see these members here stay strong living the gospel being so far apart from each other. We have seen a miracle with Christian. This last week we taught him with Tilo Zimmerman and started the stop smoking workshop with him! He was excited to start it and its really incredible teaching and committing somebody to quit smoking in a spiritual aspect, there are 15 steps to this workshop and 2 of them are beten. (prayer)

Its incredible how much prayer affects every aspect of our lives. Spiritually and physically the Lord will help us in every endevour we have. I have been praying a lot this week for strength and excitement for the work, when the feelings of stress or pressure come, prayer helps us remember that we not only have a loving Heavenly Father there to talk to, but he is taking care of it all, we just need to give our stress to him, these feelings are not of the spirit, and we just need to work our hardest, being posítive and optimistic. To be cheerful is a christlike attribute and its something we can pray to have! Thats my goal this week to pray for these attributes of Christ I want to aquire and work to attain them. Maybe you can do that with me.

Ahh isnt the Gospel so perfect? So celestial. Its so amazing the perspective one receives on a mission, to meet these people and realize the Lord has had this in his plan since before the beginning of time! Our Heavenly Father knows our potential and loves us unconditionally, he is constantly trying to talk to us and give us advice, we just need to listen and follow those promptings and it will bless us! Its interensting teaching these concepts to these people in Germany. Its so great when the light shine in their eyes and also very disappointing when people use the gift of agency to chose not to follow Christ.... We had a little opposition this past week...

We went to go teach Hany about fasting, right on track with his progress he has been making...and we walked in and he said he wasnt sure about all of this. He brought up his past desire to go back to Egypt to become Muslim to be with that girl. He has made so much progress and has read so much in the Book of Mormon and he felt the spirit so strong at General Conférence. We know that he is a miracle and he is going to have to go through a lot to test his faith. If there is anything I have a testimony of it is that right before someone is supposed to make a big decision deciding to follow Christ there is big opposition and they go through it to get stronger...so here is Hany's time to test his faith and to make a right decision. Yesterday he talked to Ola and Ahmed and they had a great conversation with him with the spirit really strong, so...there is a small taste of a part of this MARVELOUS WORK!

Why we are here on the earth to gain experience and show the Lord we want to follow him, to learn from our mistakes, to keep on enduring and lift each other up on the way! Its so great being a missionary to do those things myself and keep getting stronger but also having the opportunity to help others in their process of finding Christ and learning how to follow him. We need to take this gospel to EVERY nation tongue and people....so get some more people out here! :) I loved in conference how we help spread the gospel by serving, so lets all serve the Lord a little bit better this week, to give up something that is keeping us from feeling the spirit stronger and bring others into this JOY and LIGHT that we feel and enjoy!

Yay spring! One thing that has made me so happy is the random patches of flowers that are blooming, just randomly out of the grass. . . spring is all over and people are happier and are ready to hear the gospel! Right? right. Im loving Germany, I tend to forget im serving here, I mean it just feels like home, not a foreign land anymore, im loving this branch here on the border of Poland, I love working with the ward in bringing people into the gospel, its so cool to me the aspect of gemiko (our meeting with our ward mission leader), talking about the investigators we have sincerely concerned for these other people that we didnt know months ago, and are praying and planning how to help them, how to help these people realize the true deep eternal surety and excitement the gospel brings. And that is going on all over the world! The kingdom is growing and its such a blessing to be apart of that, dont you agree!? 

Well sorry this email was more of my random excitement about this beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ and not so much of what happened this week, but hope you liked it either way :) Life is good, the book is blue and the church is true!

Happy Springtime! (sorry about all the snow in Utah....I promise it will come to an end :)

Liebe, Sister Rasmussen

Spread the gospel, and if necessary use words...

What an INCREDIBLE CONFERENCE!!!!!! Its really like the superbowl of a mission, I swear I liked conference before the mission, but really here... I couldnt get enough! WE ARE SO BLESSED TO BE MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH! It was such a motivating conference, I love the feeling after being so spiritually fed, its a feeling of recommittment and you really can feel the love of the Lord so closely, and we are inspired to change things in our lives and we have this clean eternal perspective that makes all our problems seem very possible to overcome and they teach the concepts of the gospel so simply yet profoundly, bah arent we so honored to get to hear the words of Heavenly Father's apostles and prophet?!

Well, because of the time difference, we watched the Saturday morning session at 18:00 (six o clock) and I was shocked to see SNOW on temple square!? Snow back home, its okay, spring is coming dont worry! and try not to be too jealous of the warm weather and the spring flowers we get to enjoy here in Germany :) I really felt so pumped up and inspired to live the gospel a little more fully (well a lot more fully) after hearing those incredible talks. It was very clear what our priorities should be oder? Family, Loving each other, not being too selfish and getting offended, but helping everyone around us and as we do that we come closer to the savior. It was great learning about revalation and inspiration from Elder Bednar, that was one of my favorite talks. He speak so clearly and boldly, Its so reassuring to know not only does the Lord communicate with us PERSONALLY but he does it in different ways, and we need to be aware of how he is answering us, and how we can help him answer other people's prayers too! 

I must say on a mission we have a cool opportunity to try and live worthy of the spirit to be able to follow it suddenly like the lightswitch analogy.but also recieving revalation like a sunrise is also common, I hope I can, we all can go our whole lives realizing the ways the Lord is communicating to us and the more often we put our trust in him and look for his guidance the easier (maybe) it will be to notice it. When we teach people what the Holy Ghost feels like we compare it to a new language, we have to practice and maybe at first we dont realize or understand the answers or feelings we get but as we keep practicing we become to notice how the Lord works in our lives. I also loved the talk about trials and how we always have a trial of faith before the miracle, I guess the key is to realize that the miracle is coming and have the faith and hope and trust in God DURING the trial to know that it will end and we will be stronger through it all. 

Didnt you love how most of it was about service, and how we should be LIVING the gospel, not just have a knowledge of it, or talk about it, but live it...spread the gospel and if necessary use words. The more people know that we are a member of the church and then watch how we act can be much more impressed, taught and converted than through our words. Our lovely Hany has been very effected by conference, he is doing great, he is already reading in Mosiah (started the Book of Mormon a week ago) and is praying everyday for an answer. He came to all the sessions of conference and we had a small miracle....

On the train yesterday on the way to Berlin to watch conference, Hany opened his bible randomly to see what God wanted to tell him. (apparently he has been doing that a lot lately) and he opened up to the story about Paul on the road to Damascus. We then got to Berlin and watched the first session that day and then he went to the park between sessions to just take in all he had heard, to have a little alone time....apparently he opened his bible again and he turned to the SAME PAGE! Well and as we all know...in the second session that day, Präsident Uchtdorf then well...TALKED TO HANY...and taught about Paul and the road to Damascus...Hany waited til the end of the talk and then went out and opened his bible again for the 3RD TIME and opened up again to the same page. Our little group of our ward, Ola and Ahmed etc, and the missionary couple, the Nelsons, we had been together forawhile and were all telling him...Hany it just gets better and better. Elder Nelson just said 'stop fighting it and join us.' Hany just sat there beaming and I myself am secretly praying to meet with him this week and set a baptisimal date, but we shall see what the Lord has as a plan, but your prayers would be appreciated :) 

I just felt like I was with family, with the whole world watching at the same time, all sustaining Thomas S. Monson as a prophet and singing hymns together, Heavenly Father is so close and knows us so personally and wants the best for us, he knows exactly what we need and what will make us the HAPPIEST....much greater than we could ever think up our little ol' selves....and he is trying to show us how to get there to this happiness, we jsut need to WAKE up and look for his hand in our lives, look for what he is telling us to do and follow the sometimes uncomfortable pokings of the spirit and make the little changes in our lives to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ. Clearly the point of getting to the TEMPLE was touched on a lot by the general authorities and thats probably a good place to start, to be worthy of a recommend and to attend the temple more regularly....I know there is happiness that nothing in this world can compare to when we get to the temple. Ah, being in the house of the Lord, I HIGHLY recommend it, whatever it is that might be stopping you from getting there, its soooo not worth it, the JOY that comes from feeling the Lord's presence ah, Im speechless, I just cant wait to go with you all when I get home, so hope you're ready! :) 

Thanks for letting me spill my thoughts and excitement about the gospel, there is so much joy in living it and sharing it and trying our best everyday to be more like Christ, its a constant battle and thats where the growth comes in, but its such a celestial work and I feel honored to get to wear a badge representing our Savior (I recommend that too :) 

Hope you have an incredible week, full of happiness and hopefully some sunshine!! Time for the snow to leave SLC, but dont send it this way please :) Thanks. LOVE YOU!

Phil 4:13 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.'

(ps- thats for you too!)

Liebe,

Sister Rasmussen