Man what a year. I can't believe that one year ago I was freaking out because I had to go home in a few weeks. That has come and gone and now I have a whole new year to look forward to. Thanks all of you who have made this past year a great experience and a joy to be serving in the OTM. Thanks for all of you who sent me cards and love (and I know that all of you sent me love by prayer mail :)  ). This week went pretty well. We had dinner at the bishops house and it was different but still fun. They served food that Joseph and Mary might have been eating at that time and we all sat on the floor to eat. It was a lot of fun. Then my companion tried to wrestle all the boys that were close to our age but none of them wanted to wrestle a missionary. He jumped one of them and tried to wrestle him but it didn't work at all because my companion had no experience wrestling and was like 30 pounds lighter than his opponent who knew how to wrestle very well. It was funny to watch because the Hogge child didn't want to hurt my companion so he just balled up and Burr couldn't do anything to him, so Burr just gave up. Other than that this week has been full of tracting and following up with potential investigators. No progress being made yet.     We had president Shumway talk to our ward up here and talk all about missionary work and how it is done. The ward took to it very well and they are pumped to share the gospel. I feel like we are watching the sun rise here, its slow but things are getting brighter and brighter every day. Well thanks again for all your love and prayers. I will see you all in a few months.

Well its Christmas Eve, and I can't believe it. Man it feel like I was just home with my broken shoulder. But nope, its been 9 months since then. Well there is no snow here or mountains so snow, snow.  And the temperature has been crazy high for the season. We will be doing some service on Christmas at a food pantry or something, giving out some food and giving love and cool stuff like that. The location is at another church's church but they asked some members of the ward to host it and they were all like we can, if you meet our terms. You know what that means? Pass along cards and church videos! That will be fun.  My companion and I will most likely be door greeters. I am looking forward to it. We are having dinner with our bishop tonight and that should be pretty sweet.

So this week we have done a lot of door knocking and a bit of teaching to less active members and part member families. There is a ton of potential to work with here and the ward is super helpful. It should be a lot of fun and a lot of work. But both those things will make the time fly by. Well I won't keep you all from Christmas. I love all you and miss you.

 Love the Rasbandit.

Enjoying my Independence


So I am now in Independence Kansas. 2 hours away from where I was before but it took me about 10 hours to get here. Yeah that was fun. But I got to see a ton of new missionaries and see a lot of old friends. I enjoyed that.
     But man this week has felt like an eternity. To think last week I was telling you guys about transfers. So arriving to Independence was a rather interesting experience. The ward is super excited to see two new missionaries. To be honest they were super glad to see the other two go. The bishop sat us down and we talked a ton about what he wants to happen and who he wants us to see. He wants us to instruct in church during third hour on the fifth Sunday. We get the feeling like this ward has been just waiting for new missionaries to come in. The meeting we had with the bishop was by far the most productive meeting I have had on my mission about missionary work.

    A family had us over for dinner and they told about how they used to have some one over for missionaries to teach every Sunday and they have helped 13 people get baptized because of that. It was just unreal to see how dedicated to missionary work this ward is. They have some huge ambitions and it is super exiting. Me and my companion are feeling the pressure to get things going out here. We will have to be pretty dang busy this next week to get things going. Bishop is going to fast with us next week so we can get some more direction. Then for fast Sunday I recommended we ask the ward to fast as a whole for missionary opportunities. It is going to be epic. I sure hope that I can live up to the the work that is needed of me here. It just blew my mind though, I never thought people like this existed. But now I have them in my grasp. Now i just have to use them and gain their trust.Oh and also we set a goal with the bishop to get 1 person to Sacrament on Sunday, so we already have a goal. Sweet.

      We also have been cleaning the apartment a ton. We just finished before we went out to email and shop. And we still have a little more to go. But garr did that take a long time. Well other than that things here are going great. Thanks for all that you guys do for me. and apparently my address I sent to you guys didn't work so here it is again, slightly modified but it is the one the member we live with gave us.

4377 CR 4000
independence, Ks 67301

--

Love Elder Rasband

So I am getting transferred to the beautiful land of Independence, Kansas. Well I at least assume it is beautiful. Not sure though. It is about an hour west of where I am, but it will take me most of the day to get there because of how the transfers are done. Yay....
So last week we had a gift exchange with all the Elders and Sisters in the zone. Guess what I got my person. Yup, a machete. how did you know? I found it at Walmart for 8 bucks so I just had to get it for him. Then the other picture I have is of more food we got for free. And the other picture is of some fun we had with a photo copier at a place we volunteer at. Ya it was fun. So I have to say I am super sad that I am leaving here so soon. I was super exited to stay here for Christmas and get to know every one better. Lots of people here I wish I cold have known better. But when in Rome right? So apparently my arrival has already been announced in the new ward. My Dad's, cousins, husband is the high councilman over the ward and he informed the ward of my arrival on Sunday  so I have a legacy to live up to. Not sure what that will mean for me but it will be fun.

This week we picked up a new investigator from a part member family. We saw them the other day and he told us how much us stopping by meant to him, and how much he likes the way we make him feel. It was great. Then he and his less active wife came to the Christmas party our ward had on Saturday and they made a lot of friends. Mr. Meyer (the non member) is rather upset that I am leaving but he is going to feed us fried chicken on Wednesday so I am looking forward to that. Well thank you all for your love and prayers.

So we had our zone conference this week. That was way cool because it was 3 zone's worth of elders. I got to see allot of people that i haven't seen for quite a while. it was nice. one big thing form zone con was that President Shumway abolished Junior and Senior companions, we are all just companions at this point. It didn't affect me and Staley at all but i hear there are some problems in the mission with some companionship having a power struggle. it made me laugh.

   so this week we had a lesson with Hannah Hudson and we felt like our lessons with her were to business like and not as friendly as i would like it to be, so we spent half the time telling stories. Then we watched the John Tanner story video and she said it really spoke to her. We are also helping a less active woman that is in a part member family. Her husband cheated on her and want a divorce. We listened to a BYU devotional (done by this really cool dude named James Rasband) called faith to forgive grievous harms. She liked the talk allot and she better understood her trials and what she needs to do. Then I gave her a blessing and she was super appreciative of it. Our Elders quorum president was there and helped her our and set her up with his wife to go party some time. After that we stopped by another Part member family we stop by every week with our EQP. We gave a thought and the non member told us how much our drop ins mean to him. it was great to hear that, he never seemed super interested and it made my day to hear that.

oh so the pictures are of zone conference and just some other things i found funny.

Well i don't have much time, but i love all you and i am thinking of you all this Christmas season. I love you.

Free Bread!!

Thanksgiving week! So this week was rather fun and not super crazy. For Thanksgiving we went to a part member family's house, the Keath's, for the first dinner that we had. What was interesting about that dinner was two things. One, Brother Fowler. Brother Fowler is one of those guys who just keeps on talking and talking and just demands all the attention in the room so he can brag about his whole family and how they are just so much better than you. It was just funny to me because he kept dropping his family members names that were supposed to be "big names" that we would all be super impressed by. He was a nice enough guy but his conversations did not need anyone else to be apart of it, he just talked while the 4 of us just kind of looked off into space clearly not interested. I am just glad he is in the Parson's branch and that Elder Robinson and Jones are the one who have to deal with him, especially since he is the main source of driving for the missionaries. and point number two, Elder Staley's bike got stolen while we were at the the Keath's. The part that bother us was that Brother
Fowler had a spectacular view out of the window staring right at our bikes, and the only two bikes out there were mine and Staley's. So yeah, rather annoying, but a less active's husband is a cop and is on the case so we are all good to go.

After the Keath's we went to the Moss family and had dessert and played Risk for a little bit. It was a lot of fun. Other than that our Thanksgiving was rather dull but relaxing.

So while we were out at a less active member's house, a lady drove by and offered to give us some bread. We asked how much she was willing to give us and she lifted up a trash bag full fmo her truck bed full of bread (both the truck bed and the bag were full.) Ya it was awesome. So our freezer is now full of bread. Well other than that not too much to report on. Most of our investigators went home for the holiday so no news

 

Love and thanks for all the prayers

 

So this week Elder Staley  and I decided we wanted to learn a few new knots to tie. There is this new french knot going around the mission that looks like you parted your tie, like we do our hair. so we decided, why not just blow that knot out of the water and look super fly. So we learned what we are calling the Trifecta and the Eldrege knot. The trifecta is the one that looks like it has 3 sides all point to the same spot. The Eldrege one is this cascading epic looking one that looks like a staircase of pure awesomeness. Ya we are looking pretty fly with these knots.

So the other  pictures that I have for you is some water painting that I did while at a members house the other day. We needed to do laundry real bad and our usual person was unavailable so we asked another ward member if we could do it at their place. While we waited for the laundry to be done we sat down with Luke, their 3 year old child, and decided to join him in doing water colors. The pictures you see is what I ended up painting. I know, I am an expert painter. You are all free to determine what the interpretation of the paintings are.

So this week we saw Hannah again, and we watched the Restoration DVD. It went well and after we talked about her interest in the church. She still does want to learn, so that is a relief to hear. She has felt the spirit so much from the Book of Mormon that she can't deny what she felt. I think she is just afraid of making the change. I am sure there are parents and friends involved that will make the change hard on her but we will try and show her that any price paid for this is worth it.

We also met with a new investigator named Tiffany Brown. She is a referral from Grove, Oklahoma whose dad and grandma are members. We called her last Saturday night and she said she would come to church, but then called to let us know she wouldn't be able to come to church on Sunday morning. We met with her on Wednesday and when we walked in she had a roommate sitting in the living room and she told us that 2 more would be joining for the lesson too. Sweet! so we taught all 4 of them and gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon. We tried our best to talk up the Book or Mormon so they might actually read it. We won't be meeting with her this week because she is back in Oklahoma for the week but we will be visiting her next week. more news on her as it develops.

We also tracted into an atheist on Thursday and talked to him for a good hour and a half. We would have stayed and ate dinner with him l but we had another dinner appointment to get to. He was rather interesting, he said he wouldn't believe a sign even if one was shown to him (so at least he understood that faith was not grown from seeing signs), but he said he spent the first 22 years of his life looking for god and that, "god doesn't answer his cell phone. You know he has caller I.D. and voice mail but he still doesn't answer or call you back."  He as nice enough but just sad to see him in that way. We later talked to a member about it, Brother Cubette, and he told us about Pascal's Wager. You should look that up if you have time or have never heard of it. But to summarize it up, it says that there is no rational way to prove there is a god, so every one wagers on weather there is a god or not. Depending on how we put our wager is how we live. If we wager there is a god, then we live the commandments. if we were right in our wager we get heaven, if we wrong we have happiness in this life. If you wager there is no god then you will not live the commandments. If you are right in your wager, then we all die after an unhappy life and cease to exist. If you are wrong in that wager then you go to hell (just to put it simply). so it is better to just wager there is a god and call it good.

Well I have talked far too much and not said much at all. Thank you for listening and thank you for all the prayers and love. Thank you all for all you do and the sacrifices that you all make for others in your life. 

p.s. so apparently I have to much in this letter so i will send 2 letters. the second one will have more picture

 November 12- Kansas?
   
Hello everybody. This week went pretty well. A lot of our investigators are not progressing, so we have decided to make more efforts this week to find new investigators. We have been tracting a lot and finding some decent success. We have decided to let our ward mission leader be in charge of where we tract, and we will be the ones who tract. Since missionaries are in charge of teaching and baptizing that leaves the responsibility of finding up to the ward, so we have been trying to get that to happen. So we found another Spanish family tracting this week, the dad speaks pretty good English and the wife speaks none. We tracted into them and they were literally just leaving and they said to come back, so we did. We showed up and we taught the father a lesson and read from the Book of Mormon. He says there is such a spirit that comes from us and he really believes us. His wife on the other hand, is a super catholic so this does make it challenging. We are invited back whenever so we will have to watch the restoration DVD in Spanish and bring Brother Moss, who speaks Spanish as well to to  do the talking. We also tracted in to a lady named Zeda that we will be checking in on this week.
     So we taught a lesson to Hannah again this week, and it didn't go super well. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she agreed with everything, until we got the the part where we told her she needed to be baptized again. She doesn't see the need for authority to do baptizing, nor does she believe we have it. We almost lost her in the lesson but luckily Elder Staley was able to save the day. We ended the lesson by pointing out how many miracles had occurred in setting her up to visit us. We also talked about the spirit she felt when she read the Book of Mormon, she won't deny those things but she is so set in her religion that making the change will be hard for her. I just hope that she won't reject the truth because it will require a change. We will keep on her though.
     We also had a lesson with the Keaths. Jennifer is the non member that we are working with, and her husband David is excommunicated. Their big hold up is the word of wisdom and they are trying to get overt that. We tried to have a lesson with them where we talked about the benefits of  not smoking, just so they can get a clear picture of the blessing that come along with it... but Brother Keath wouldn't have any of it. They will quit their coffee and smoking on their own time frame. I was disappointed that the lesson was pretty much rejected, because I wanted them to set a date for the future (even if it is for 6 months) just so they have a island to row to. Oh well. Elder Harter also sent us a referral. We contacted her Saturday night and she said she was coming to church but Sunday morning she said she wouldn't be able to due to sickness but she set up an appointment for Wednesday. So stay in tune for more developments on her.
     Other than that nothing super odd or worth noting happened this week. The wheel keeps on rolling. Thank you for all your prayers and keeping me in mind. Lots of love!

First off, watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREFM8Ig5TA

 So a few weeks ago I had my mom send me a copy of Green Eggs and Ham so I could turn it into this. It is super epic and I have been reading it to members teaching them how to do missionary work. Persistence is the way to getting people to try it. But any who I had a member bear his testimony about the book on Sunday. He gets up and rehearses a conversation we had with him at dinner a few nights ago. Basically it went like this.

Brother Hurt, "you know Elder Rasband you don't look old enough to be on a mission"

Elder Rasband, "Ya... well I blame my young looks on my short hair at this point."
BH, "I don't know, I think its just your face."

ER, "ya probably."
BH, "Well do you have a message for us tonight?"

ER, "I do"
Then I pulled out Green Eggs and Ham and after we read it he said

BH, "you know after that conversation about your young looks then you pulling out a children's book didn't help."
ER, "Ya probably not my best move, but it was a good book eh?"
BH, "it sure was."

Basically he rehearsed that over the pulpit then bore his testimony that the green eggs and ham book helped him understand the principles of missionary work and he is going to try much harder at it now. It was actually pretty cool to hear that. It made my day. And that is now only the second time my young looks were mentioned over the pulpit.
So now an explanation of the pictures. The weather rock, just made me laugh. It was at an old people home of a person we were visiting and I just had to get a picture. The street sign one, ha ha ya you are either going to get it or not. I wish I could claim the pumpkin I was holding but the Wilde Family let us pretend we made them.

So as far as investigators go, we taught Hannah again this week and we taught the Word of Wisdom. She has no problem with any of the Word of Wisdom councils so she is ready to go. I love when a plan comes together. We are still working on getting her to institute so she can meet more people her age, because in a lot of ways our ward is a newly wed or nearly dead ward. But she is still doing very well. We should have a baptismal date with her soon. We also ran into Lance again (the guy we poached from the baptist church) and he is going to buy a triple combo so he can read it and study the church. He is sweet!!! We have been doing a lot of wandering around lately trying to find more people to teach and  I am amazed at how many people do stop and talk to us. Now all we need is for them to call us back and our days would be booked. It is cool to experience people who are just waiting to find the truth but just don't know where to find it. We have been praying to be lead to people who are looking and for people who are looking to be lead to us, and I honestly feel that is happening. God does answer prayers, just in his own time frame. Just be patient.

Love, Elder Rasband

I Ate Squirrel

Yee Haw. Naw I'm not even in the right state for that one, here in Kansas its more like, Hi how are you? Kind of boring I know. Well this past week went super swell. Last week I mentioned a dude named Lance. We met him while attending a baptist church last week (that we are no longer invited to come to) and we had a dinner with him on Tuesday. We sat in McDonald's for 2 hours talking about the gospel. He is like 22 and has a epic beard and knows a ton about the Bible. He is going to research the church now, or look up anti, then come back to us. Now he is just a guy who want to know stuff, and is in no way looking for a fight, so I hope this ends out working but I am almost positive it will. In other news, we are still teaching Hannah, we taught her the plan of salvation this week and she took it very well. We had to go rather deep at a few points, because she just asked so may good questions and is just a smart and humble individual. She is on a direct collision course for the baptismal font, more news on her when it comes.
In other news, I ate squirrel. Yep, I sure did. It was very tough but the meat tasted pretty good. I liked it allot actually, but one squirrel for a family doesn't got to far. We got transfer calls this week, and both Staley and I are going to be staying here 6 more weeks. Well thank you for all the letters and prayers you send my way. I really appreciate it.

Todd is also in the same district as our neighbor Elder Robinson (far right)

God of Miracles     

So this week we had some pretty spectacular experiences. On Thursday night we had and hour and a half to kill before curfew so we decided to walk across town and go see a less active lady we have not seen since I first came into the area. On our way there a car pulled off the road always in front of us. We didn't even give it any thought and just thought she was going to flip a U-turn. When we approached she waved us down and asked if we were Missionaries. We said yes, then she proceeded to show us her copy of the Book of Mormon and tell us that she has been looking for some one to talk to about this book, we gave her our number and she gave us hers, and her name is Hannah. We were super exited for the rest of the night and when we got home to do our planning she called us that night and set up an appointment for the next day, how epic! So the next day we were going out with our ward mission leader, Brother Ferguson, and we taught Hannah the restoration, and at the end we asked her to read Moroni 10: 3-5 and she was almost in tears by the end of the reading. She totally recognizes that what she was feeling was the spirit and she says that she has never felt this way before. She committed to coming to church, which she did, and to coming to institute on Tuesday. Yep, she is solid.
      So last night  Elder Staley and I had finished teaching a lesson to Adam Antrilla, Vinny Antrilla's cousin, and thought we would go to Vinny's and try and locate him. We took an odd path that took us by the baptist church we visited a few weeks back. And lo and behold who did we see as we passed by? Vinny Antrilla who is also attending that baptist church. He ran over to see us and tell us that he moved to somewhere else, then some of the other teenagers who attended there ran up and greeted us and invited us to attend another session of there youth group, we had nothing going on so we said why not, and went. We had a great time there and allot of the people really enjoy us there and we have made a lot of good friends. After the youth pastor taught us we had dinner and talked to a lot of people who started asking us questions. Right before we were about to leave the youth pastor, whose name is Todd also, asked us not to come back because the group was for high school students and we were kind of a distraction, he was very sincere and I honestly don't believe he didn't want us there because of who we were. So we talked with a group leader who helped the youth pastor and we set up lunch appointment with him for Tuesday to hang out. Sweet. So when we left we decided to go and find Vinny's new house, which was in the opposite direction of our apartment, we found it then turned around, and as we passed by the church again Lance, the guy we set up a dinner appointment with, was pulling out and asked if we wanted to go hang out. We agreed so we met somewhere and talked for a good hour and a half. Mostly about nerd stuff but we did talk about church things to and he still wants to meet up on Tuesday. Sweet cuppin cakes. I hope this goes somewhere with him. He says he loves Mormons and used to go to our church when he was 11. Maybe he will want to come to a service some time.
      We also spent allot of time on campus this week talking to people. We spent about 2 hours drawing out the entire plan of salvation on the ground using side walk chalk. We didn't get any referrals from it but we talked to a lot of people while we did it, and it was a load of fun. I will send the pictures of us the drawing in another email. Well this is a long letter to make up for all my short letters and lack of letters. Well I love all y'all and I thank you for all the prayers you send my way.

Things I learned while on my mission...

Week 2 in Pittsburg. What a busy week. Its odd to actually have things to do here, we are busy for most of our days and we have lots of missionary work to do. We have a good list of investigators too. This week we had 2 investigators show up at church. We had Vinney Ventrilla and Julie Archuleta (no relation). Vinney is 12 and is definitely the smartest 12 year old I have ever met. He is basically pulling  a Joseph Smith and is investigating lots of churches looking for the truth. He genuinely cares about that at age 12. It is amazing, he knows the Bible super well and is always willing to meet with us. He even made us dinner one night, ya he is exceptional. Next we have Julie, she is pretty cool. She takes the missionary lessons very slow and is not the best at reading but her mom is a member and she comes to church. She seem very interested and is doing all the things we ask her.

So this week we got into a few odd discussions that I never thought I would have ever had to address. First lets talk about Satan. We were talking to Zack (a investigator) and his friend Larry sat in on the lesson and afterward we talked to him. First he talked about how Satan was a humble angel who saw that god was in too deep and needed help and when the humble man (being Satan) asked god if he could help and take over a portion god (being the prideful person he is apparently)  cast Satan out because he doesn't accept help. Then he told us that Satan wanted to take away pain and have a better world. I then used the sword of the spirit and stabbed him in the heart by teaching the true doctrine of the plan of salvation and how if we lived in a world with no sin or pain we could have no progression and no joy. Zack was very impressed and started to back us up, it was epic. So defeated Larry then brought up his next point, Judas Iscariot. Apparently god wouldn't allow Judas to die so when the scriptures say he died apparently they meant he became a vampire. Yep, I didn't know how to fight that so I guess he wins? Next thing I learned is more about Satan. We got into a discussion with one Mike Adams, and he made the argument that we are god's children. I had heard that argument before but not his version of it. Apparently if you read John 8:44 it says (if you take it absolutely literally) we are sons of Satan. So we spent a few seconds finding that scripture and when he did he said (figuratively) "check." I conceded, I had been checked. I smiled at him and said, "yep, we're children of Satan. I am a son of Satan and always will be, and god is my step father." (check mate, says Elder Rasband). Mike lost his smile and said "well that not what that means." Rasband, "no no no, we will always be Satan's children, when god adopts us we are his step children." He didn't argue any more.

Last night we were invited to go to a baptist youth group. After checking with our zone leaders we went. It was actually kind of fun, extremely lacking in the spirit but the idea was sound. They spent a lot of time taking scriptures from Romans that talk about how we are super imperfect and god doesn't see any one of us as good. They also talked a lot about how we don't need to do works at all, but how we need to repent and be good. I was just fascinated at how they contradict themselves and not understand it. So this morning I dedicated my studies so faith and grace. Ephesians 2: 8 says, "By grace we are saved through faith..." This is a scripture that has been popping up a lot in my life lately. So this morning I decided to read everything I had on faith (which was not very much) and I inevitably led me to James 2. Which says faith with out works is dead. The more I read about faith the more is seemed to point to repentance and baptisms. So I opened my Preach My Gospel and began studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, being faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, enduring to the end. All these things pointed to each other. The last words Christ spoke to his apostles in Matthew is go to everyone and baptize. Then when we read Acts 2 (which takes place just after Christ leaves them so obviously they are doing exactly what Christ taught them a day ago which is...), when the Jews have a faith in Christ and they ask, "What shall we do" and James says, "repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the holy ghost." So my conclusion is the idea of grace and works is actually just a misunderstanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Voila.

Well this is enough for one letter, I love all yall. Miss you and will see you in the future.

September 24, 2012 - Hello From Pitt State

 Toto, I think were in Kansas again. Well, its a first time for me. So I am now in Kansas in Pittsburg just across the border from Missouri in the Joplin stake. This is a super nice town, there is a ton of brick here. Apparently there are or were a few brick making factories here so all of Pitt State is made of brick, a lot of the streets are made of brick too. It just feels very homey here. The whole town has the Pitt State gorilla logo somewhere on something they own. I actually think I could live in this area, its very green and flat, it makes riding a bike rather easy. So Elder Robinsion (from my home ward in alpine) is in my district, it was super fun to see him again. When we approached each other for the initial, I haven't seen you in a while, hug he started to say Todd, but caught himself and said Elder Rasband.
      So my new apartment here is much nicer, we actually have a reasonably sized bathroom that is bigger than 5 feet by 5 feet. That is a definite plus. Sunday night I was able to attend the dedication of the new Joplin Stake center. Driving through Joplin last night was the first time I have seen any of the damage from the Joplin tornado form last year. I was surprised to hear that we had some RLDS leaders there for the dedication as well. Elder Tad R. Callister presided and did the dedicatory prayer for the stake center. I was able to talk to Elder Callister afterward and he asked if I was related to Elder Rasband of  the seventy, I informed him that he was my grandpa's cousin, and he said it was too bad, because he talked to him on the phone earlier that morning.
      We have a few investigators here and it feels good to actually get to do some work. In my last area we had this guy we named Waving Dave. I might have mentioned him in the past but in case I have not, he was a guy who would walk the streets of Eldon just beaming with a huge smile and waving to everyone. So I have decided to take a page out of his book and I have started waving at everyone we see. Some people just look at me like I am weird and others perk up and wave back with a big smile in return. It feels good to see those people perk up. We also spend a bit of time on Pitt state campus talking to people. We have a white board and write a question on it and people walk up to us and talk to us. Our question this week was, "what is your favorite scripture?" We had a few people talk to us but mostly it was just good to greet people and show our faces. We could sure do alot of work in this place and I am just in love at the moment.
     The ward has a smaller attendance than the branch in Lake Ozark does, that's kind of odd how the church does that but whatever. I gave a talk to introduce myself, I just winged it for the most part and I felt like it went very well. I actually took up five minutes, and people actually laughed at some of my dumb jokes. I then ended my talk with a scripture, Mathew 22: 36-40, which talks about the greatest commandment. Love is the the most important commandment as stated by Jesus Christ himself. So that means to me that we must focus most importantly on that commandment. When we do we will see that all other laws and commandments are just a variation on that one commandment.
     Well I won't take too much more time but I thank all of you who sent a letter to Old Man McWhinnie, I haven't talked to him yet but I will later today. Well thank you all for your letters and your prayers. They help out and I wish I could help you ALL out in return. Take care and love much.
--
Love Elder Rasband

So first things first. I am getting transferred to Pittsburg, Kansas. I am one of the lucky few who get to actual serve in Kansas in the mission. Pittsburg is a college town with a population of 20,000. That is 4 times the population of my current area. I will be serving with an Elder Staley he has been out 2 transfers and I will be followup training him, what ever that consists of. I am sad to leave Eldon but I am exited for a change, and to leave Eldon. Eldon is just a very bitter sweet area.

Now for the important business. I am making a very real and a very serious request from every one who receives this letter. Not just to you but all the recipients of the letters of Elder Maurer, Harter, Buckley, and Holmes. Each and every one of us is sending out a rallying cry to tell an old man who much he means to us. Larry Mcwhinnie is the most generous man I have ever met. He does so much for the missionaries each week. For instance I had a big hole in one of my jeans and so he was like, "lets go buy you a new pair." Ya the pair was from a thrift store but so what. When he saw my suit he gave me 2 pair of cuff links to go with it. He feeds us at least 3 or 4 times a week. He drives us to transfers every transfer, which is a 2 hour trip one way. He spends at least 100 dollars just to do transfers with us. He lets us do our laundry at his place every week. He built bunk beds in his house just for missionary use. Just in case we need a place to stay. He is the one who takes us to the library every week. Ya he may have the worst temper I have ever seen but the generosity balances it out. He literally lives only for missionaries at this point. He is 80 years old and spends most of his money on the missionaries. When you think of your kids on a mission and you hope that there is  someone in their area that will love them and provide a safe haven and feed them. Larry McWhinnie is that and so much more. He never asks for more than a thank you. So that is what I ask you today. Thank Brother McWhinnie. Send him a letter on Wednesday. If there are only two words on the letter it will be enough. We want to fill his mailbox with thank yous. His address is:

317 Woodhaven circle
Four Seasons, Mo 65049

Please every one send him something. We are going to make an old man's day. Please do this for me. If you were going to write me a letter this week don't, write him instead. If you were only going to write me one letter while I was on my mission, don't, send it to him instead. Let's fill his mail box. If you don't have one ready by Wednesday then send it later.

Oh so more McWhinnie stuff, that deck you see, we built it with Mcwhinnie. See he even teaches us how to do cool stuff like build decks. Well that is all I have to beg of you this week. Stay tuned for more storied from Kansas.

September 10, 2012

This last week we had the privilege to meet Elder Choi of the Seventy. We had to go all the way down to Springfield to meet him and we had 3 zones get together for it. Surprisingly there was only 1 other missionary there from my original district from the MTC, that's too bad, I was hoping to see a lot more than that. Well, Elder Choi was a funny dude and he made a lot more jokes then I thought he would. After lunch when we all were siting back down to listen again he gets up and says, "now that your all sitting down I want you to stand up. Raise your left hand up like this. now your right. now stand on one foot. now sway back and forth. now rotate your arms like this... Ok sit back down. now were going to resume our meeting." No explanation was offered. I think he just wanted to watch us look like fools. It was funny. Another time during his lecture he stopped abruptly and turned around to his wife and said, "lets sing. Sister Choi lets sing." Sister Choi did a massive face palm at this point,  So Elder and Sister Choi, President and Sister Shumway, and the assistants all stood around the podium and sang to us, no one was prepared for that. You could definitely tell it was just a spur of the moment thing. Then he proceeded to talk about how we all needed to sing as companionship. It was sweet though. He was very inspired and I  got a lot out of it.

So while me and my companion were out contacting less actives, we came across a very fun sign. I think every one should have one in their lawn. We all need to vote for JESUS this coming election. Vote Jesus, lord of your life!!!!! Only in Missoura. So I had some more fun at thrift stores this week, I bought some brown socks!!! Why is that worth mentioning? Because now my new suit is completely finished, and the suit was bought, and fitted to me for the same exact cost as my new socks, 1$. I was showing off the suit to a member we spend a lot of time with and he loved it so much that we gave me 2 pair of cuff links. Man I am going to be the most styling man at zone conference this Saturday, its just a good thing the mission president won't be there. And also at the thrift store I bought the overalls you see me wearing in the picture. It still had its original tag on it from the store they bought it from. It was 40 bucks and I paid 5 bucks for it, and it fits me like a glove. Yay thrift stores. My companion also bought a new suit at the same store for 7 bucks, and it doesn't even need to be altered at all.

Well as far as missionary work goes, still no one coming to church. We have a few potential investigators, but I think they are ignoring us. Especially since we can watch them poke through the blinds look at us then never answer the door. We have an appointment today at 7 with one, so we will pray that will work. We are doing lots of tracting and we met a guy who's mail box had their last name on it, and it was Rude. Believe it or not he was rude. We also ran into a guy who said he has read the Mormon bible and that it teaches that we can be saved by some other way then Jesus. When he asked me who is Jesus I said, "our Savior." he then said, "and?" and I said, "uhhhh... his only begotten?" He said, "Yes but he is also your Savior" He then tried to tell us about our beliefs and got all up in my face but I just smiled and didn't move an inch then he finally backed down and said you need to realize who your savior is, and I said Jesus, but he wouldn't have any of it. Odd you would think when I repeated exactly what he said to me that he would understand me. Oh well I guess I will just have to figure out who else can save my soul because he seem to think I have another way. Well that is all my new things that happened this week. Thanks for all the love and prayers. Transfer calls are this Saturday so lets hope things change next Thursday.

August 28, 2012 - Hello from the Lake of the Ozarks

Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote to you guys. This past few weeks have been rather dull and non progressive. So I guess I will just tell you some random stories from the area and some fun we have been having. We went to a thrift store this week.  I found this suit that was $1 and the shoes were another dollar and the tie as well. So the whole getup up you see me wearing was 3 dollars, minus the white shirt and the undies. If there is one thing Missouri is good at, it is thrift stores. This week we also had a big shin dig at the strip. It was called the "shoot out" and they brought boats that were... well lets just say each one probably cost at least $500,000. I have never touched so much money in my life. It was absolutely amazing. They even had a bat man boat.

This last week we had some pretty cool experiences. We took out an 18 year old with us one night, named Dallin Miner. He is a way sweet kid that I am good friends with. We decided to take him out to see as many investigators as we could, (all 3 of them) to see if these people were even interested in still meeting with us. Believe it or not, we only got to see 2 of them because we talked for so long with them. Both families said they would come to church and they seemed to mean it. Now all we need is to get those people to follow up on their commitments. Elder Maurer and I  have decide that Eldon, Missouri is where Satan vacations. There are so many people here with more problems than I even thought possible. And I am sure that with every one of them that if they kept the commandments they would not be in such a place.

So now for a gospel related sermon. I have been thinking about the Bible lately and it is amazing that people don't recognize the things that we recognize from it. It is so clear to us but to the rest of the christian world they just don't seem to get it. Then I started to expand my thinking and I thought about Christ time. The Pharisees and Sadducee were literally in the same boat as the modern Christan world. They had the scriptures. They went to school to study it. They did the best they could without a prophet but the word got perverted, bad. Many factions arised, they fought against each other because they did not have any one there to tell them of the correct way. Then when some one did they flipped out! KILL HIM!!!!! He said hard things against us, He doesn't know the scriptures like we do. Oh that little humble man, he is so silly with all his miracles and healing. Every thing I just said applied to Joseph Smith's time. The scriptures alone are NOT, GOOD, ENOUGH! A dedicated study of them and your own interpretation is not correct. Man does not think like God, that is why we must learn to humble ourselves and be willing to listen to what may seem like an unlikely source. Do not let your pride get in the way of your growth. You are man, so therefore you are susceptible to being wrong. Rely on the Holy Ghost and listen to others who present new ideas. Then you must ask God yourself if that man be of god and his words be of God, with a sincere desire to know if it is true and the Holy Ghost will let you know if it is truth that they speak. Satan is whispering in your ears at all times of the day. Be humble enough to accept that maybe Satan has gotten a hold of you and has hardened your heart in accepting that maybe you could be wrong in certain aspect of you life. None of us follow all the commandment that God has given us. The pharisees, thought themselves near perfect and wouldn't listen to another man. Listen to others. Do not get defensive if others challenge you. They may be a disciple of God and they may be inspired. Please, be the type of people who do not turn away truth because it differs from what you already believe. Listen... love. I bear you my testimony that I believe these things to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt. I see the opposite of this every day. I just want to shake each one and show them there is a better way to follow Jesus. Do not think yourself smart when it comes to the ways of the Lord, because no natural man can be. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen

Well that has been in my head for the past few weeks and it needed to get out. Thank you all for you prayers and your love for me. I wish that I could hug all of you and thank you so much for all the good that you do and did for me. Each of you have shaped me into what I am today, and I have the Lord to thank for that because he put each and every one of you in my path.

 August 13, 2012

So sorry it has been a week since I have written all you guys. Nothing to new has happened in the past 2 weeks but on Sunday we had one of the most hilarious talks I have ever heard. And no it wasn't supposed to be funny. So we have a brother in the area named Brother Killpack. He is, well lets just say an interesting fellow. This week he was asked to give a talk, what about I haven't the slightest clue. He started his talk, talking about WWII. Ok so far we are in the norm. He was a very young child during WWII and he often enjoyed playing in his sandbox. He would make 2 big piles of sand and he just knew that they were supposed to represent Japanese cities. He would then stand a little bit off and throw rocks at the piles, the rocks were supposed to be bombs. And he just knew that if God would drop 2 bombs, one on each city that it would end the war. He then starts to get a little teary eyed and he says, "And i just knew, that I had something to do with then end of WWII..... I promised my son i wouldn't sing, but I just ask God if it was ok and he said it was. AND I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE!" Oh Eldon.

So this week we have been doing a lot of tracting and trying to get a few investigators. Not too much luck as of yet but we will keep on keeping on. The temperature has dropped literally 20 degrees in the past 3 days, and it is raining for the first time today all summer long out here. The farmers will be super happy about that. Well I promise that I will have some fun stuff for you next week, or my name isn't Elder.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and your good wishes. It helps me out a ton. Keep on doing the good things and strive to put the Lord in your heart.

 July 30, 2012

This week has been a fun one. On Friday night we were invited to go to a BBQ festival by the Osage Beach elders. That was a lot of fun. We showed up and we were the life of the party. 4 young guys, who don't drink alcohol show up to a BBQ fest with white shirts and ties. There were people literally taking bets on who would ruin their shirt the first. Thankfully no one won that bet, we all stayed perfectly clean. I have to say those ribs they had there were the most absolutely best things I have ever tasted. Meat literally fell off the bone. It was epic. Everyone kept giving us more food because of who we were and our dress. One guy in particular we spent a lot of time with named, Husky. Husky was the exceptionally drunk guy who followed us and talked about Jesus with us. Husky is the guy in all the pictures. As you can see he has a pitcher of beer. In our group photo right before the picture was taken he throws his cigarette off into the distance and yells, "I'M A SINNER!!!!" and we all died laughing. That is why my face looks so odd in the group picture.

So now to a more serious note. We are still doing a lot of tracting down here, and every time we go we have a pretty cool experience. We have had 3 lessons this week just from tracting, and 3 new investigators. The first one we tracted into was a couple who had just gotten home from the hospital a few minutes before we knocked on the door and they learned that the pregnant lady's baby would not make it and that it would be a stillborn baby. And we show up right when she learned of that. We gave her a blessing and told her a brief explanation of the purpose of life and set up a return appointment. We came back on the set up date and they asked, "I thought you were coming on Saturday." and I responded by saying, "It is Saturday." Oh Missourians. And the part about that that annoyed me was we even brought out the branch president to come with us. Oh well, as any missionary knows, this is just what happens. The other tract was into a guy named Mike Hanes, and we talked with him for an hour about our religion and he just could not get over that we were so dedicated to doing what we do. He said he would give the Book of Mormon a look at and that we could stop by any time. Sweet! So more on him later. Then yesterday we tracted into Elisabeth. a smart lady who has read 7 versions of the Bible and has studied a lot of other religions. She was super exited to read the Book of Mormon and we see her again on Saturday. I literally wouldn't be surprised if she read the entire B.O.M. by next visit. Now that we have a pool of people to teach (about 8) now all we need is to get them to set appointments with us. Until then we will keep on looking. Well thanks for all your letters and all the prayers you send me. I can definitely feel them and I know that it is your faith that brings me to the people that I see. Well take care. Have lots of fun and do missionary work.

Elder Maurer

July 23, 2012

July 23, 2012 - Crazy and Odd Adventures of Eldon

So this week has a few odd stories and a few fun ones as well. First off, lets talk pictures. The first two pictures are of a mug that we and the Lebanon elders made at a members house in Lebanon. The member has the most interesting stamp that I wanted to use, and that stamp was of the Pillsbury dough boy! As most of you know, I am obsessed with rolls. So I figured that a roll themed mug would be appropriate. Oh and for the untrained eye I also added a belly button to the dough boy, now the dough boy is not son of none, but has loving and caring parents, instead of just being ripped and formed from an old loaf of sourdough bread. Much more child friendly. This was made a few weeks ago and I just recently got the mug back from being fired and painted.

 Next we have a picture of us and the Osage beach elders (the near by elders) at a cool restaurant in their area, that has board games under the glass of each table. and while we were there I looked over and who did i see a picture of!?!?! My daddy. That's mission lingo for trainer. Apparently he served in Osage beach AND he ate the Big Kahuna. So he must have been a cool guy. After we ate we went to a place called Haha Tonka. Apparently that means, Haha river in native American. Yep super creative. At Haha Tonka there is an old burnt down castle that was ade about 100 years ago and then burnt down shortly after its completion. All that remains is the stone. During my investigation of the castle I found that there were two distinct entrances, in the picture in the next email is of me going into the servant entrance. I bet that was one way to make sure the servants didn't eat too much and not be able to fit into the entrance.

So now for the odd and the strange. So this week we learned that a member of the branch works at a funeral home and we got the whole tour. And guess what we found? Dead people. I increased the number of dead people I have ever seen by 3 this week. Now I am up to a total of 3 people. I even watched the member move one of the dead bodies into a casket. That was the oddest sight I have ever seen. He also showed us the room where the bodies are prepped for viewing and I have to say, I never wanted to know what happens in that room and all the different tools they used, but some things you just can't unsee. Yep. Dead people. And the member also asked us to help dress dead Mormons (if they ever have to pick up one of those) into temple clothing if they can wear that...... lets just hope that never happens while I am here.

We have been doing lots of door knocking this week trying to get more investigators but not with much luck. We were able to teach Adam and Mike lessons this week (Adam is a member referral and Mike is a kind of a member referral) so that was way nice. This Sunday elder maurer and I decided to do a fast in an attempt to get the missionary work going in the area, and on that day alone we had 5 lessons, more than doubling our total lessons for the rest of the week. That was awesome. What do ya know, fasting works. I guess the things I am teaching are true. What a coincidence, God isn't a liar. Well it was a fun experience to do, we did a little amount of studying on fasting before we did it on sunday and I feel like I have a basic understanding of the laws behind it now. The scriptures say to fast oft, but never says how often. So I guess do it when ever you want to help other people.

And now for a thought has has been in my head for a while. 1 Nephi 3: 3-5.  I am sure that you will recall that all 4 sons of Lehi went to get the plates of brass. You will notice in vs 3 that Laman and Lemuel did not say they would not do it. In fact they did go back to Jerusalem. The difference is that Lamen and Lemuel said, "GARRR!!! but dad!! it is gunna be hard!!!! why!!!!!!" and Lehi was all like, "hey! i didn't ask it of you, God did." and Nephi was all like, "I will go and do it because God said to do it. I know it is not you telling me to do this but God. and God will provide a way for all things to be done" well there. Attitude is everything. We all need to try and be like Nephi, how often are we more like Laman and Lemuel, they always did exactly what was required of them, but they did it with an angry face the entire time. Now Nephi did it with a smile. Lets be like nephi.

July 10, 2012- New President

So we got a new mission president this week and we had a Zone Conference with him on Saturday. He is a very happy and excited man and I am looking forward to working with him. His name is President Shumway and he has a scripture that now describes the mission. He opened the ZC with a scripture. Moses 7:5. We are the people of Shum. Yep. Were biblical now. It was nice to see him and I am looking forward to seeing him in the future and listening to all his inspired words. He pretty much had a pep rally for ZC and he was the first one to admit it. I saw Sister Shumway again and she was excited to see me again. She said I was a special missionary ;) It was nice to see all the people from the new zone and get to know them.

Well I have to say this new transfer has been super exciting to me. I have been so happy that it almost hurts. Seriously. I have never been so happy in my life. I am working hard and not seeing any success but it doesn't matter. I am doing the Lord's work and putting him first. To any one who is questioning on whether they should go on a mission, just go. There will be hard times, and unpleasant times but the joy you will get out of the work you do will not be matched by anything else you can do. You will begin to understand your self so much more and understand the world a lot better. Life out here is so much easier, there is no decisions just work. Once you learn to just shut up and enjoy the moment. Enjoy the ride that is life. Take joy out of the stupid little things. Laugh at something, not because other are but because you find it funny. Be you, and the lord will take you as you are. Work on obedience because that is the only thing the Lord is asking of us. The word is true, Joy is from above--
Love Elder Rasband

June 5, 2012 - The Seventh Letter

Sorry it has been a while since I have last written you guys but I forgot my camera last week so all the things I wanted to talk about would be worthless without pictures. So first things is first, nuts. No not peanuts, I mean Bull Testicles. On Saturday we went to the 19th annual Testicle Festival with Brother McWhinney. This was quite the big event around here. The picture of the massive crowd is the line to get some testicles. If we waited in the line it would have been almost 4 hours of waiting. Luckily McWhinney is an old crotchety man who just bribed his way to the front of the line and got us food much quicker. The line got much much longer than is shown in the picture. We did run into a few members from the surrounding areas there and they harassed us for being in such a place. Well I have to say the food did not taste that bad, it was kinda like chicken, but it wasn't. Some of our time is spent over at Kevi's graffiti shop, here also are some pictures of what that place is like.  We have not been up to too much lately because we have been short on miles. Kevi will be doing a shirt for me in the next little while because he loves missionaries so when I get that done I will have to send pictures of that. Well other than that not too much to report. Take care all. I miss all you guys a lot. Love love love.

The Seventh Letter is G - for the Gospel

May 21, 2012 - Eldon, Missouri

I am no longer in Ozark. I have defiantly changed areas but it feel like I have changed planets because the two areas are so different. Here let me try and paint you a picture. I will just say that my description will not even do it justice.

My drive from transfer point to our apartment was with Brother McQuiney, McQuiney is an old angry dude who pretty much got mad at me the whole time we drove up telling me his life story and all the crazy things he has done. Once we got to the apartment we went to Kevi's grafiti shop. Kevi is a member who wants a Mormon posse. We were there helping out while he was air brushing tattoos onto people when chicken Charlie came in (chicken Charlie looks just like Santa but is his redneck twin who didn't get Christmas so instead he goes around being nice to people but he is shirtless and weighs 300 pounds and drives a super nice corvette). We then closed the shop for a while while we taught him a lesson in the graffiti shop with Charlie, Kevi and a few of his tagging buddies who are tattooed from head to toe, even their faces are covered. So I will just say again, I am not in Ozark anymore. I feel defiantly like a missionary here because we are here to help sinners. Jesus did not hang around righteous people he hung around sinners and the scum of the earth. That is exactly how I feel here. This is defiantly the Las Vegas of Missouri. We don't have a ward here but instead we have a branch with like 50 active members so here we are focusing on strengthening the members. We told the members that Sunday was stake conference and most of the members responded by saying, "sweet no church!" So we have a lot of work to do here. It will sure be interesting. Please pray for me be strong and help the people here.

Well my letters from here on out should be pretty interesting. Well lots of love and thanks for all the letters.

May 7, 2012 - The World of Ozark

So things are good, except for all the pollen in the air. There is so much of it that all the cars here have a slight green tint. I have noticed it a lot with our car because it is silver so I see it better. The car has so much pollen on it that if you look at it in the right angle it look completely green. That means my allergies are having  a lot of work to do. Thank you claritin. It is starting to get hot down here and with the humidity it just adds on a lot more heat, if your skin is touching itself at all, you will sweat like a pig and get all sticky and it is not even in the summer yet so I am not looking forward to the extreme heat. Other that that we get a lot of lightning storms down here that light up the night sky.

Well the work down here is going pretty well. We have a ton of new potential investigators that all seem very interested and are reading the Book of Mormon. We did tract into another lady last night that was super exited to read it so that was nice.

It has been a very interesting time in my life down here, I am studying a lot out of the bible and talking to a lot of people. When I see all these Christian churches and only one book, it baffles me. But you can see the subtle workings of Satan down here perverting the ways of the Lord. Everyone is fine down here that their book can be warped and misinterpreted and confusing. Most people down here are fine with the fact that people get different things out of the bible. I see now very clearly that the Book of Mormon is so important. This is one of the major reasons why the Book of Mormon is in existence. It shows people that with 2 reference points, the gospel can be restored to its fullest. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it points all men to repent and to follow Jesus Christ and his full church. I am out of time but know I know the Book of Mormon to be true.

Yep, I saved another turtle. We were driving home from Ava finishing off a missionary exchange when suddenly we saw another turtle in the road. The guy driving was the beloved J Carr. We flew past the turtle going a little over 65 miles and hour and he slams on the brakes and pulls into a driveway and does a U turn. He guns it back to the location and demands that I get out and save the life of the turtle. Now J was inactive for a while and says he was Buddhist and that saving a turtle is good in the eyes of the Buddhist. So I ran across the road quickly picked up the turtle and gently placed him on the other side of the road. I hear the whispering of all the turtles in the area thank me for saving yet another of their brethren.

 

 

So after I wrote last weeks letter I decided it was high time that we went to the great and spacious building, James River. So here are a few picture of the inside and out side of James river, there will be more picture in another letter. James river has the parking lot that is much bigger than any Costco or Walmart. If you look at the other email you will see just half of the parking lot, the other half is on the other side of James river. CALL OF DUTY!!!!! MEN'S CONFERENCE!!!!!!!! Man we are so lame in our religion, we just call our men's conference priesthood session. How does our church expect to compete with call of duty? James River, now brewing Starbucks coffee. Ya there are some times in our church that I am just so bored and tired that I need some good coffee to keep me going. Ya so James river is pretty much the Hipsters church where all the young people who want to be all hip and with it go. From what I hear that require to see your bank statements to make sure that you are paying your full tithing. Ya its pretty crazy over there.

 

Well as far as it goes for the work over here we don't have to much to report on. We tracted into a guy who actually let us in and then I noticed he had a massive computer tower and he played World of Warcraft so I was able to talk to him about that for a while. Then we talked religion for an hour and he was exited to read the BOM and to get his fiance to read it as well. Lets pray something comes of that. Well that is all for this week, stay by for more pictures.