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

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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.