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.
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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.