The End Has Come

 

Wow, the final few hours have finally come. It hardly even feels real. All I know these days is just missionary work. Hard to picture myself going back to Utah and being just another Joe Schmo. But all good things have to end some time, unfortunately.

Well I would just like to thank everyone for the great mission that you have made for me. There are so many of you that I wish that I could thank personally for the way you have impacted me, but I hope that this letter will will be good enough. Thank you all for giving me so many great experiences and accepting me as family in your homes. All of you have made me feel so welcome and so loved, and I wish that I could do something in return for all of you. You will all hold a special place in my heart, whether you are in Kansas or Missouri. I never thought I would grow so close to so many people and grow such a soft spot for these two states. It just reminds me of a song that says, "The hardest thing I ever loved to do was get on the plane and come back home to you, but a place far away still hold my heart." I would love to stay in touch with all of you, so please stay in touch and let me know how you are doing. Man this letter just doesn't seem to do the emotions justice. Oh well, it will have to do.

Well my new email address is Todd.Rasband@gmail.com, this email address will be deactivated here soon. Also if you want to look at all my past letters my Mommy made me a blog of all the past letter at http://elderrasbandandtheotm.blogspot.com/. Well I will be arriving home Sunday at the Salt lake airport around 10pm. I  would love to see anyone there who wants to be there. Well thanks again for making my mission what it was. Thanks a million. I love all of you,

Love The Rasbandit!!

People are just flooding the doors, and we won't hold them back!

 

 

What a full week. This Sunday we had 6 people come to church, it so cool so see so many people coming to church here, especially when we didn't have any one coming for like the first transfer we were here. Not that I can claim any of the credit because literally all the people just came out of nowhere so it seemed.

They all said they really enjoyed church this week, and they better have, since I had to give a talk during sacrament. Mid week one of the bishops counselors called me and asked if would be willing to talk about pride and humility. I have to say that was not my favorite topic to speak on. I felt like I was rebuking every one, so I tried to keep it on myself  as best I could. I talked a lot about how we can identify pride and then change it to humility. Over all I felt it went well.

This week we had a great experience while teaching the Ross family. We went out with Lorin S. to go teach them but when we arrived we found that Denita was home alone and having a rough day. We were able to talk to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can help her in her rough times. It went super well, I think it really changed her out look on life. Well other than that this week has gone well, our investigators are all progressing very well and should be on track for baptism next month. Thanks for you love and Prayers!

Just a Short While Longer...

So this week went very well, we had 7 people show up to church on Sunday. Well investigators that is, other than investigators, we had lots of people. The Ross family came, and Ted B. and Michael R. came to church also. It was very nice to see them all there. Ted left after Sacrament unfortunately but he promised he will stay for all 3 next Sunday, I am exited for that. We have dates now set with most of our investigators. We set one with the Ross family for late October and with Ted for middle of October, and one with Michael for the beginning of October. So if all goes to plan Stockton, will have 8 baptisms one month after I leave. So that is great. I hope they all go through. Other than that things here are going pretty well. Thanks for all the love and emails.

Man time is just flying by out here, hard to believe that it is already September. Man where did August go? Crazy.

Well this week went very well, by far the best week we have had in Stockton so far. Our investigators are working out just great and we have lots of people to teach, now all we need is for them all to be in town at once, 3 of them spend like 5 weeks at a time in North Dakota for the oil business. Oh well, maybe one day we will have the perfect storm where they will all be home at the same time and we will just be swamped. One guy we taught for the first time this week was Brother Labaron. He just moved up from Mexico to be closer to North Dakota. He has read the Book of Mormon about 10 times and knows church history like a boss. He just says he doesn't feel ready for baptism, BUT he came to church Sunday, which apparently for him is a huge step so maybe some miracles will be happening around him soon. If he joins then his 12 children will be joining too. Can you say jackpot! But seriously that family is way cool and very great people. I hope they decide to get baptized.

The other person we are teaching on a more regular basis now is Ted. He is progressing way fast, we had 2 lessons with him this week and he understands very well. He does great on all the commitments we leave him and even goes above and beyond at times. Yeah he is great.

We also had a zone conference this week with Elder Ellis from the Seventy show up. One thing that always happens when people from the Seventy show up is they always ask if I am related to Elder Rasband in the Presidency of the Seventy. And like always they suddenly loose interest when I say I have never met him but that we are related. Oh well. Well Elder Ellis was a nice guy, and I loved his instruction about Faith. Man Faith and Repentance have so much to it, I get why they want to focus so much on it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is the center of what we do. Lately I have been highlighting every time Preach My Gospel mentions either faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end and man it is everywhere! Some times I just feel dumb that it took me so long to have things like that plug into my brain. I mean look at the lessons, the Restoration is not just the Restoration, its the Restoration OF the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the center of the plan of salvation is the Atonement, and how we access the Atonement is the gospel. Then all the commandments do two things, build faith and help us repent. ITS EVERYWHERE!!!!

Well enough of that rant. I love all of you and look forward to the next time we meet!

LUV The Bandit

Another Week down and just 4 more to go. Man, life here is just going by so fast. Unfortunately, the Ross family did not show up to church this week because they had a lot of family in town. But they did call to tell us that they wouldn't be coming so that was a good sign. We did have Michael R come to church yesterday, so that was good to see. He has not been coming the whole time we have been here because he had been up in Idaho, making it hard to see him. BUT! We are seeing him now and he is going to church so that is good. Cool thing is that he wants to get baptized but not until December, so that will be a little ways off. So not to much happened this week, just seeing a few different people. Well sorry for the short letter again. Love all you, and see you all in a few weeks.

Man what a great Sunday. Yesterday we had an entire family come to church, so that means 6 investigators at church. Yeah! Now all we need to do is start teaching the Lebaron family that just moved in and we will have a total of 15 people at church. Man some people just know how to have kids, and lots of them. Anyway, the family that come to church was the Ross family. I have mentioned them in the past a bit but they haven't come in the past, but this time a member drove out to pick them up and bring them. They just loved church. We had Jeff (Dad) Denita (mom) Kenny (17) JD (22) Zeth (12) and Samantha (kenny's girlfriend) all come to church and they just felt right at home. Jeff already wants to do what we do and serve a mission. He is pretty darn cool. Other than that we started teaching Jason W. again, he just got home from North Dakota drilling for oil. We had a great lesson with him reviewing the restoration using the pamphlet. We just asked him the questions in the back and we helped him understand a lot. That was like a perfect lesson, we used every resource we could, except for a video, but man was it a great lesson.

Also on Sunay we went to the Bradshaw's house for a birthday party for Old Man Broadbent, we just call him Pops. Well he really isn't that old, but he does live in a mud house, so that is pretty cool. Anyway Bradshaw's have 19 children and a lot of them are teenagers so we went out and played a game with them. We LARP'ed. That was epic. If you don't know what LARPing is, well lets just say your missing out. Google it some time. Well that is all that went on this week. Hope all is well in your respective area's. Lots of love!

Hey sorry this is going to be a very short letter today, there is a lot of people who want to get on the computers so I only have 6 minutes to write this. Anyway, I will just tell of one experience that we had this week.

My favorite thing as a missionary is being in the right place at the right time. On Friday we went up to the town of El Dorado (pronounce the A as its name to pronounce it the Missouri way) Anyway  we were in town and we stopped by to see  Annette K and she was just having a terrible day. We spent awhile there just talking to her and by the end she was feeling much better. Then she even came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed herself.
 Well love you all!