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
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