November 7, 2012 - Simple Week

Nothing too new this week. Brother Budd (our ward mission leader) was able to get a previous investigator named Rick Kronk to church. Not sure how he did it but hopefully he will come to church again. Rick was so close to being baptized before he left the area, he even had the baptismal interview. OH OH OH OH I almost forgot!!!!! We're actually moving into our area

so right now we live in Nixa, just across the ward boundary in the sister's area. So this week the mission office called and asked if I felt up for a project. Apparently the sisters live with a ward member and they are moving, so the sisters needed a place to live. Since we live in their area and we need to be more in the middle of our  area. The mission office asked me to find a new apartment. We spend the day looking around and asked a ward member to help us. We were able to find a very nice nice one for $400 a month and we move in there in the next 2 weeks. So I am now an experienced apartment shopper :) Lets see...... any thing else new? Not too much, we have a few new investigators and we taught Ray Carty the stop smoking workshop last night and now he is going to help us teach it again to a new random guy tonight. Ray is going to be baptized at the end of this month so I will send a picture of him with me when I get it. Well that's all for this week.

October 31, 2011 - Odd Stories

 

So this week I do actually have some odd stores to tell.

1. We were out at a less active's finding and talking to when we were at one guys house that we talk to often. His family was away and this was like at 8 p.m. He said his family was out trying to get a dog out of a hole by the water tower. We kinda joked about it and then went over after to see what was going on. Apparently this dog had crawled in like a gopher hole (not sure of the animal but it was big enough for a Russel terrier to crawl through) and crawled 15 feet underground then got stuck. When we got there it was down there for about 5 hours. The kids that were out walking the dog had lost the dog but heard barking underground, so they dug a small hole with makeshift tools and found the dog head, not that it was unattached but that was where they dug down. The dog was pinned under a rock and couldn't move. We couldn't get it out so we had to call the fire department and they came and yanked the dog out. It was amazing and epic but one of the most sad things I have ever seen.

 

2. Home of Throwed Rolls! So there is the famous restaurant here that we went to for lunch today called "Lambert's, home of the throwed roll" and it was very cool. I think it was a little over hyped but still very cool.

 

3. Primary program kills old people! Well kinda. So this week was our wards primary program and in the middle of it an old guy who was visiting came in and watched his grandchildren perform when he lost consciousness. I didn't see it happen but I did see a horde of priesthood holders rush over and the old dude was carried out life less. I was sure he was dead and I wanted to help but I knew I couldn't do anything. The guy sitting next to me, Bro. Mangum, was the guy who carried him out. Apparently right when he was taken into the waiting area the other bishop walked in who is an ER surgeon and we had like 4 nurses there too. He did regain consciousness and was rushed off to the ER but other than that I don't know what happened.

 

We had 4 new investigators this week at church without us doing anything. Two of them had just moved in from California and the wife's sister is a member and they are both now super interested and came on their own at 8:30 for Sacrament (yes we meet at 8:30 because we have 4 wards meeting at our stake center). And the other 2 are neighbors to the Englands. We have had to drop one investigator due to his excessive RACISM. He truly doesn't believe that blacks and white came from the same things. He thinks earth was a playground for other gods before Adam and Eve and a whole bunch of other extremely crazy ideas. Last time we saw him all he wanted to do was talk about his hate for blacks. Oh well well that is all I have time for this week but love all y'all and have a good week.

 

Love, Elder Rasband.

Hello from Ozarks,

So things here have been pretty good so far. We finally have  ward missionaries to use so we are picking up the pace a bit. My companion leaves Thursday, back to Canada, so it will be sad that as the work picks up he leaves. He has been out in this area longer than I have had my mission call, that is just crazy to me. My new companion is named Elder Walter and no one knows anything about him so we will see how it turn out. So pretty much for the next 3 days it is just saying goodbyes and lots of food. Maybe I will gain weight... well I did weigh myself at a member's house. She claimed that the scale was perfectly accurate and it said I was 130. I did have my shoes on so I bet I am like 128, but I am making progress!!!! So marriages seem to be falling apart all over the place here. 3 of the families that we work with have split up in the last month or so. It sucks but that is what we are here to do, help and uplift. We have 3 people with baptismal dates now and each one seems very ready to be dunked. Our newest guy we met for the first time on Sunday and his girl friend and has a mentally challenged sister that she takes care of. The first time she saw me she run right up and tried to hug me...... in the church...... boy was that awkward because she was dedicated and really wanted the hug but I wouldn't allow it. Oh no... what if my mission president finds out :( i might get sent home!!!!!!! Well other than that things here have been ordinary and fun, not much going on in the way of amazing and ground breaking. I will continue to work if all you continue to send letters, but so help me if I go a week with no letter I will be extremely upset.

We have people committed to baptism this week. we have Sister Julie Baker and Skyler Smille. Both of them are going to be baptized later next month. Sister Baker is planning on being baptized by Brother Palmer but he has to stop smoking first and so far he is successful. He has been off it for 5 days now so hopefully he will be done. Sis Baker's husband left her so she moved back in with her parents, and she was not feeling well one day so I gave her a blessing and she said she felt great the next day. that is pretty cool. well Skyler is 11 and his mom may be opposed to the baptism but we will see. well this is a relatively short letter but thinks for keeping up with me. love you all.

Mom,

Good, a little over whelmed and tired but good. I feel  like answering allot of questions today, I hope that is okay.

What is a typical day like?

Pretty typical, wake up at 6 and work out then study eat and leave around like 10 or 11. Then we drive around and talk to members and teach lessons. seriously it is actually very dull each day.

How many investigators do you have?

Well we have a ton but most of them are no of the age where they can choose to be baptized for them selves. We have 2 Peterson girls both of age but their dad has been investigating for 11 years and is not baptized but gets bishops store house food. The Barbees, both parents are members and 2 children of nor but both of age, the parents wont come to church and every week they have another super lame stupid excuse why they wont come. For instance last week they didn't like church because every one was to nice, and apparently they have been doing excuses like that for 6 months now. Skyler Smille, he is 11 and super smart his dad wants him to choose but he is a member already. he hates women because all they do is go crazy and leave you and cheat so getting mom's permission will be a challenge. Julie is pretty golden and hopefully she will be baptized soonish.

Do you like to teach?
I do, I am just homing my skills at the moment.

What do you do on Pdays?

Every P Day is different, one we went did mini golf and the others so far we have done a ton of shopping. Elder Lybbert literally takes about 50 minutes a store, no matter how small the item.

Who does your laundry?
We have a machine in our apartment.

How are the dinner appointments going?

Good, i am kinda manning up and eating allot more things but for the most part things have been going good.

Did you meet with the Mission Pres yet?

Yes he came out and did interviews like 2 weeks ago and he is amazing.

Are you still parting your hair?

Yep and i plan to for the rest of the mission.

Do you attend meetings with the Bishop and how is that?

I do but we talk about missionary stuff first and then we are kicked out for the rest of the meeting.

Lets see here. For the coat i think that the 100$ dollar one you showed me would be the best because of the linings. Ya the Kickapoo made me laugh too. So Anna is a dater now ehh? How is grandma holding up? Tell grandy happy birthday, well i will probably write her a letter. Things are going good but super dull. I like exchanges because other missionaries are much more outgoing than elder Lybbert. Well I love you and miss you.

Love Elder Rasband.

Hello from Missouri!!

So this past week we were on exchanges and I went out with Elder Captain (yes his name is pronounced just as it seems,) And he took me to a magical place known to the locals as Ava Drug. Ava drug is a retro dinner with even more retro prices, as you can see the place defiantly looks like an old coke-cola shop. We went there with a member who had never been there before and apparently he is a huge coke paraphernalia fan. He was telling us about some of the pieces they had and he said most of the items were real and he had only seem them in magazines. There was an original calendar on the wall that is worth 1,000 bucks he said. But that is not what makes this place so cool, it is the prices. In the first picture we have what i got for lunch. I got 3 reasonable sized scoops of ice cream and a large glass of Dr. Pepper, the cost of this meal.......... 25 cents. Each scoop of ice cream there is 5 cents and the glass of soda is 10 cents. This place is of the gods. Ava Drug is so popular that the food network has come there on multiple occasions to do bits on it. The new york times did an article on it, and the best part of it is The Amish go there all the time. So this place is a total oxymoron, its great. Elder captain and Elder Snow, the people serving in that area, go there every day to get their ice cream and soda and I am super jealous.

Other than that there is not that much excitement going on here, we had conference and that was fun but 10 hours is a lot. Sorry for not writing on Monday but Elder Lybbert is at Zone Leader Conference and has left me with Elder Robinson and Elder Gardner till about 6 tonight. Well sorry for the lame week but Ava drug is apparently the highlight of my week.

Dear People,

     so week 2 has flown by. it is amazing how the speed picked up after Sunday. feels like just yesterday was a p day. this Sunday during sacrament meeting was absolutely hilarious, the district that left this Tuesday sung us a musical number. one guy apparently thought that he was the best singer ever so he was super loud. he was actually terrible at singing and he was so bad that literally every one was laughing. 2 people on the stand singing couldn't even handle it and had to walk off the stage and leave to launch. it was epic. the rest of the meeting was pointless because every one was laughing. one of my district members had a super vivid dream and me and him and elder Burbank are now writing the outline to a book. its super fun. elder Burbank is also teaching me and the same other elder how to do tai chi. it is super fun an relaxing and i am learning how to fight as well. so i might come home a master of tai chi :) Me and my companion are teaching a new investigator name junchi maeda, who doesn't believe in Jesus and god so it is rather difficult. he asked us what amen meant and we explained it. he then told us why he asked because apparently in japan men means noodles, so ramen means Chinese noodles. he thought it meant  some kinda of noodles and he thought it was hilarious that we would say amen at the end. i am learning a lot and reading like a mad man who can't read fast.  i am really going to miss my district once we all split because most of them rock my socks off. i got my flight plan this week, i am leaving to the airport at 3:30am and my first flight leaves at 5:50am and i have a layover in Denver. I will be making my call home at around 7 to 10, not sure exactly.  i am sending my pictures home on Monday so you can Leupold my entire mtc experience on FB. Well i cant think of anything else so have a good life and live life.

Elder Rasband.

Hello Utah,
     So first things first, why Kick a Poo? well that is the native Indian tribe around here and the literal spelling of the tribe name is Kickapoo, and is literally pronounced the same. there is a shopping mall called the Kickapoo Shopping center. Ya I laughed pretty hard when i saw that. So other fun thing is the streets here are made differently some how. every parking lot has some sort of different seal on it so no matter how slow, or how shallow your turn is you always have your tires yelling. its kinda funny. Well I went on exchanges this week with an elder Noyce (pronounced noi  se) and he is one of those geniuses. He has a life time scholarship to school and makes 2 grand ever semester, for just attending school. He did nano technology and made all sorts of amazing things with them. he designed a nano bot that would attach itself to a zygote of a mouse (a zygote is an egg) and change the genetic code of the mouse to make it florescent. He also designed a nano bot to make is so water could not form into a solid. he said with that last bot you could spread it on roads and it would break up all the ice and snow on the roads. Ya he was just one of these smart people. We met a 18 year old boy on our exchange named Tyler and he had his own apartment getting married to a 16 year old making 9 bucks and hour, and he was very proud of that amount, and he smoked, did drugs and has half his teeth rotting out. He said that he was waiting for god to slap him in the face so i used my favorite one liner to get his attention, "Hi." Funny enough that actually woke him up and he started asking questions and he showed a desire to change his ways. every single person we met on that exchange made fun of me for my lack looking old, oh well. The area we did the exchange in was called Branson, or as the locals call it Las Vegas for families.
Bad new is that Johnny is now ignoring us and is moving this Friday so we will not be able to teach him. We did get a new investigator through the members and she seems golden but we will see. Other than that things are going well. This last week flew by and it seems like my mission is already zooming by. Love all you,

Hello every one,
This week has been super cool, well actually cold would be a better description. With the drop in temperature and the humidity it seems super cold all the time now. It rained hard non stop for Saturday and Sunday  and there were tornado warnings for 50 miles south Ozark. I never knew that clouds could turn green, if they turn green it means tornadoes are approaching. We had dinner at a house during the best chance for a tornado, not for risk but because we had a dinner appointment. The family was the Peaks and their house is uber expensive and has so much wood work. Apparently this is the dream home to a guy who owned a lumber mill but who died shortly after and sold it to the peaks. the house is rated to stand during 280 mile an hour winds. The house was huge and super nice. They run a private school and they were extremely interested in the space center and they want to build one now, so that is fun. We found a new investigator named Johnny Holland, he is 18 just graduated and his dad died due to alcohol of some sort. After 1 visit he is committed to Baptism. He is a huge gamer and the only reason he did not come to church this Sunday is because Gears of War 3 came out this week and he had plans for months with his friend to play it. he also has a text message ring tone from Halo 3: ODST so me and him have allot in common, except he is large and looks like he works out. We are still working on a lot of investigators who are not letting their kids be baptized, super frustrating. Oh and in a few P days the Peaks are going to let us come over to their house and watch Best Two Years in their "barn," or more accurately put theater house, oh and their are going to pick us up in their limo they bought on Saturday :) Other than that things are going good, its already cold as previously stated but i am working on manning up. Love all y'all and have a good week
Love Elder Rasband