The End Has Come

 

Wow, the final few hours have finally come. It hardly even feels real. All I know these days is just missionary work. Hard to picture myself going back to Utah and being just another Joe Schmo. But all good things have to end some time, unfortunately.

Well I would just like to thank everyone for the great mission that you have made for me. There are so many of you that I wish that I could thank personally for the way you have impacted me, but I hope that this letter will will be good enough. Thank you all for giving me so many great experiences and accepting me as family in your homes. All of you have made me feel so welcome and so loved, and I wish that I could do something in return for all of you. You will all hold a special place in my heart, whether you are in Kansas or Missouri. I never thought I would grow so close to so many people and grow such a soft spot for these two states. It just reminds me of a song that says, "The hardest thing I ever loved to do was get on the plane and come back home to you, but a place far away still hold my heart." I would love to stay in touch with all of you, so please stay in touch and let me know how you are doing. Man this letter just doesn't seem to do the emotions justice. Oh well, it will have to do.

Well my new email address is Todd.Rasband@gmail.com, this email address will be deactivated here soon. Also if you want to look at all my past letters my Mommy made me a blog of all the past letter at http://elderrasbandandtheotm.blogspot.com/. Well I will be arriving home Sunday at the Salt lake airport around 10pm. I  would love to see anyone there who wants to be there. Well thanks again for making my mission what it was. Thanks a million. I love all of you,

Love The Rasbandit!!

People are just flooding the doors, and we won't hold them back!

 

 

What a full week. This Sunday we had 6 people come to church, it so cool so see so many people coming to church here, especially when we didn't have any one coming for like the first transfer we were here. Not that I can claim any of the credit because literally all the people just came out of nowhere so it seemed.

They all said they really enjoyed church this week, and they better have, since I had to give a talk during sacrament. Mid week one of the bishops counselors called me and asked if would be willing to talk about pride and humility. I have to say that was not my favorite topic to speak on. I felt like I was rebuking every one, so I tried to keep it on myself  as best I could. I talked a lot about how we can identify pride and then change it to humility. Over all I felt it went well.

This week we had a great experience while teaching the Ross family. We went out with Lorin S. to go teach them but when we arrived we found that Denita was home alone and having a rough day. We were able to talk to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can help her in her rough times. It went super well, I think it really changed her out look on life. Well other than that this week has gone well, our investigators are all progressing very well and should be on track for baptism next month. Thanks for you love and Prayers!

Just a Short While Longer...

So this week went very well, we had 7 people show up to church on Sunday. Well investigators that is, other than investigators, we had lots of people. The Ross family came, and Ted B. and Michael R. came to church also. It was very nice to see them all there. Ted left after Sacrament unfortunately but he promised he will stay for all 3 next Sunday, I am exited for that. We have dates now set with most of our investigators. We set one with the Ross family for late October and with Ted for middle of October, and one with Michael for the beginning of October. So if all goes to plan Stockton, will have 8 baptisms one month after I leave. So that is great. I hope they all go through. Other than that things here are going pretty well. Thanks for all the love and emails.

Man time is just flying by out here, hard to believe that it is already September. Man where did August go? Crazy.

Well this week went very well, by far the best week we have had in Stockton so far. Our investigators are working out just great and we have lots of people to teach, now all we need is for them all to be in town at once, 3 of them spend like 5 weeks at a time in North Dakota for the oil business. Oh well, maybe one day we will have the perfect storm where they will all be home at the same time and we will just be swamped. One guy we taught for the first time this week was Brother Labaron. He just moved up from Mexico to be closer to North Dakota. He has read the Book of Mormon about 10 times and knows church history like a boss. He just says he doesn't feel ready for baptism, BUT he came to church Sunday, which apparently for him is a huge step so maybe some miracles will be happening around him soon. If he joins then his 12 children will be joining too. Can you say jackpot! But seriously that family is way cool and very great people. I hope they decide to get baptized.

The other person we are teaching on a more regular basis now is Ted. He is progressing way fast, we had 2 lessons with him this week and he understands very well. He does great on all the commitments we leave him and even goes above and beyond at times. Yeah he is great.

We also had a zone conference this week with Elder Ellis from the Seventy show up. One thing that always happens when people from the Seventy show up is they always ask if I am related to Elder Rasband in the Presidency of the Seventy. And like always they suddenly loose interest when I say I have never met him but that we are related. Oh well. Well Elder Ellis was a nice guy, and I loved his instruction about Faith. Man Faith and Repentance have so much to it, I get why they want to focus so much on it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is the center of what we do. Lately I have been highlighting every time Preach My Gospel mentions either faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end and man it is everywhere! Some times I just feel dumb that it took me so long to have things like that plug into my brain. I mean look at the lessons, the Restoration is not just the Restoration, its the Restoration OF the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the center of the plan of salvation is the Atonement, and how we access the Atonement is the gospel. Then all the commandments do two things, build faith and help us repent. ITS EVERYWHERE!!!!

Well enough of that rant. I love all of you and look forward to the next time we meet!

LUV The Bandit

Another Week down and just 4 more to go. Man, life here is just going by so fast. Unfortunately, the Ross family did not show up to church this week because they had a lot of family in town. But they did call to tell us that they wouldn't be coming so that was a good sign. We did have Michael R come to church yesterday, so that was good to see. He has not been coming the whole time we have been here because he had been up in Idaho, making it hard to see him. BUT! We are seeing him now and he is going to church so that is good. Cool thing is that he wants to get baptized but not until December, so that will be a little ways off. So not to much happened this week, just seeing a few different people. Well sorry for the short letter again. Love all you, and see you all in a few weeks.

Man what a great Sunday. Yesterday we had an entire family come to church, so that means 6 investigators at church. Yeah! Now all we need to do is start teaching the Lebaron family that just moved in and we will have a total of 15 people at church. Man some people just know how to have kids, and lots of them. Anyway, the family that come to church was the Ross family. I have mentioned them in the past a bit but they haven't come in the past, but this time a member drove out to pick them up and bring them. They just loved church. We had Jeff (Dad) Denita (mom) Kenny (17) JD (22) Zeth (12) and Samantha (kenny's girlfriend) all come to church and they just felt right at home. Jeff already wants to do what we do and serve a mission. He is pretty darn cool. Other than that we started teaching Jason W. again, he just got home from North Dakota drilling for oil. We had a great lesson with him reviewing the restoration using the pamphlet. We just asked him the questions in the back and we helped him understand a lot. That was like a perfect lesson, we used every resource we could, except for a video, but man was it a great lesson.

Also on Sunay we went to the Bradshaw's house for a birthday party for Old Man Broadbent, we just call him Pops. Well he really isn't that old, but he does live in a mud house, so that is pretty cool. Anyway Bradshaw's have 19 children and a lot of them are teenagers so we went out and played a game with them. We LARP'ed. That was epic. If you don't know what LARPing is, well lets just say your missing out. Google it some time. Well that is all that went on this week. Hope all is well in your respective area's. Lots of love!

Hey sorry this is going to be a very short letter today, there is a lot of people who want to get on the computers so I only have 6 minutes to write this. Anyway, I will just tell of one experience that we had this week.

My favorite thing as a missionary is being in the right place at the right time. On Friday we went up to the town of El Dorado (pronounce the A as its name to pronounce it the Missouri way) Anyway  we were in town and we stopped by to see  Annette K and she was just having a terrible day. We spent awhile there just talking to her and by the end she was feeling much better. Then she even came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed herself.
 Well love you all!

The Lord Prepares the Hearts of Men (But more often Women)

This week I had the opportunity to go and be with Elder Fritzche in Willard. He is a super cool dude, or elder, but mostly dude. Anyway we went and saw 2 investigators while I was with him. The first lady we saw (who's name I forgot, so her name will be Bertha), was Bertha. Elder Frizche hadn't seen her for a long time and and they hadn't covered much with her. We started off with the Restoration and by the time we got to prophets she went on a tangent about how God needs to call prophets, "that how he did it in the past, that is how he will do it now, I am so glad you guys talk about prophets, no one does out here, do you have a prophet?!" said Bertha. Yeah that was pretty cool. The other lady we saw (her name will be lilou) Lilou. Apparently in their last lesson they talked about the Plan of Salvation, Lilou said, "I don't believe in just a heaven and a hell, it doesn't make sense if god is a just god, he has 3 places for people to go depending on their works, that is how I believe so you can take it or just leave." So they took and, and Lilou wants to be baptized now.

Anyway, other than that things out here have been doing pretty well. Unfortunately we didn't have any one at church yesterday. But we do have a few new people that we are setting up good appointments with. One guy named Laton is going to be marrying a girl in the ward so he wants to take the lessons. He is 20 and he asks a lot of good questions. We have gone over the plan of salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. We are not sure how long he plans on staying in town for so were not sure if we get to baptize him here or not, more on that later. We are also going to be meeting with one Ted Britz tonight, he has been coming to sacrament meeting a few times and now he has determined he wants to take the lessons. Hyrum Jessup and his wife are still doing well, we watched a talk by President Monson with him, they liked it a ton. Well that is about all for this week.

Man I never thought I would have so much interaction with the FLDS and the
RLDS faiths here. We pretty much see and talk to them on a daily basis.
This week we talked to a guy who was previously RLDS and is now just
floating. He told us the story about how the RLDS renounced the Book of
Mormon and how that made him resign from the faith and just float. He meets
together with a bunch of other people who felt the same way as he did. He
says the 1/3 of the RLDS faith resigned when that announcement came out.
Apparently their prophet said that the BOM is just a historical record
and it is not to be used as scripture any more. I guess that is the
price to fit into the christian community. It is all very interesting
to hear all of this from a member of the RLDS faith, we always hear
second hand about all this stuff but it is cool to get it all first
hand.
We also taught Hyrum J. this week, who is FLDS and we went over

the restoration with him. There was alot of kids in the room at the
time so he wanted us to focus more on them then him, since he pretty
much already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith.
Hyrum is a super nice guy and is very sincere. It will be fun to
continue meeting with him. Well anyway things are going great out

here, not too much new, other than it has been raining a whole bunch
here. I can't wait to get back to the dry climate, I like that so much

better. Well thanks so much for all the prayers and the love, only a
while longer.

Another Week in the books. Man I forgot how annoying shot gunning an area can be. I am just now starting to feel like I know what is going on in the area. Thankfully the members here have been super supportive and helpful in getting us situated. The previous bishop, Brother Bliss, met up with us on Tuesday and took us out literally all day. He picked us up at 10am and then took us home at 9pm. We saw so many people, it is hard to keep track of it all, thank goodness for GPS units. I would be so lost out here with out it. Lots of back roads here that the GPS doesn't label right so it cant find the locations using address's, but it does have other ways of saving locations so in the long run it does help.

     Well to those of you back home this will surprise you a lot, have eaten Mexican food more than half of the we have had here. And half of those have been at a Mexican food place called Enrique's. We literally ate there 3 meals in a row this past week. it was epic. Other than that things here have been going great. We are having a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Whitney  and she is awesome. She was out of town all week and we didn't get to meet her until Saturday, But that was also the day she needed to get interviewed so we had members pick her up and take her to Springfield. She is only 17 and didn't have a car so we did that. then on the way back we made the baptismal program. On Sunday we went over the restoration, plan of salvation, and gospel of Jesus Christ. We just asked some broad questions and she would tell us all about each point perfectly. She is great. I just wish Elder Robinson and Baxter (the one who found her) were able to be here for the baptism.

Well I love you all and miss you. thanks for the prayers and all you do for me.

So here I am, back in Missouri. Serving only in Missouri and Kansas the entire duration of my stay in the Oklahoma, Tulsa Mission. Who would have thought it?

So Stockton is a pretty sweet area. The ward here is super nice and surprisingly large. We have about 200 people showing up to church, and the building is pretty big for how old it is. We have been spending most of our time figuring out the area and stopping by lots of members and trying to get in touch with our investigators. We have 2 with a date to be baptized but they are both oddly out of town for the next little while. Other than that we have lots of other great potential investigators from members. There are a lot of part members families here that are interested in having us come over and teach the gospel. We even have dinner with a family tonight to teach the husband after dinner. I am super exited to get a handle on the area and start working with the members.

So I got to baptize D. Shaffer on Wednesday before I moved to Stockton. We had much of the Independence ward attend that baptism and best of all, I only had to dunk him once. Elder Densely got to baptize Tabitha right after I did. It was such a sweet experience to see two people come into the church from people I tracted into. I am so glad I got to see that through. Also I hear that Sister Hodnett set a baptismal date for the 10th, that also makes me supper happy to hear. Well other than that I don't have a whole lot to report on, just plugging along.

Thanks for your love and prayers. <3 

So transfer calls came in Saturday, I am going to be transferred to Stockton Missouri, and I will be serving with Elder Johnson. Not sure really about either of those two things, other than I hear that Stockton has lots of FLDS there and the population is about 1,800. So it is going to be a step down from Independence population wise. But I have to say, as much as I loved Independence I will be glad to go work at least one more area. Stay strong until the end. But because of the transfer there was a few things that needed to happen before I leave, like baptisms.

Once the Shaffer family heard I was leaving they really wanted to get baptized before I left, so Sunday morning we planned the whole thing. They will be baptized Wednesday night at 8. That also means yesterday we had to get every thing in order, so we filled out the baptismal records and got the district leader out here to do the interviews all in one day. Yeah kind of crazy. Sister Shaffer said, "I think this was God's way of saying, stop dragging your feet and get baptized." So they are both very eager to get in the water. Yeah lots of fun.

Also on Sunday we had all combined for third hour and the focus was missionary work. And the whole theme of the meeting was, the Shaffers, and how great they are. Don't you want to find more shaffers to join the ward? Then do missionary work. We even had some members bear their testimonies about their work with the Shaffers. So they feel pretty loved, and possible freaked out, but we will focus on the first. I got to bear my testimony too, it felt so good to be speaking to a bunch of people I have come to love and know. People who I have labored shoulder to shoulder with. I will sure miss Independence, but everything has to come to end.

I will send pictures of the baptism next week. I will fill every one in on Stockton next week. Have a good one, lots of love!

--
Love Elder Rasband

The Work Rolls On!

The Work Rolls On!

So I am sure that most of you know about the special world wide broadcast we had for missionary work. Well if you didn't watch it you should because it was great. Anyway it talked a lot about the work and how  the work is going to be evolving here in the next year or so. Its too bad that I will be missing a lot of the changes but that is ok.

So we had 2 new investigators show up to church yesterday, both of them were member referrals. It was so cool, one was from the Gilsons. Their land lord's daughter is a member so she wanted to see what we were all about. Her name is Mary, we will try and work with her in a bit but I think she really enjoyed church. We also had the Estradas bring a friend from work to church and he participated in class. I hope he had a good time, we are having dinner with them on Wednesday so that will be good to get some insight into josh. Mark came to church alone this time and we got him to say the closing prayer for gospel principles and he did a great job. So we finally had a lesson with Mark and his family, Mark was put off from the church because of the things he heard about our church from the history channel. After a while we were able to show him he has heard all about the church from every one but members of the church. That opened his eyes. Both him and one of his daughters agreed to take lessons so that is good to hear.

So Duk.... Duk was supposed to be baptized this Saturday we have hit some bumps. His girl friend is back in the picture. The first time we showed up with her there she came to the door and handed us every piece of church materials we ever gave him. We are kind of the reason she got kicked out of the house so we thought she was just trying to scare us off. She seemed a little to happy to hand us the books. The next time we came over duk came to the door and told us he can't join because he doesn't believe in the spirit world because it contradicts the bible. The last time this happened it was because he couldn't quit smoking. We are pretty sure he is just looking for an easy escape and with the drama of having his GF back in the house he just wants a break. She is getting out of the house on the 3rd so hopefully we will be able to address his concerns then. He doesn't want us in the house right now because his GF just hates us.

The Shaffers are doing just great, didn't come to church yesterday because Tabitha has a bad ear infection that caused her to go to the ER Saturday morning at 4. So we pray she gets better. 

Well this letter is pretty long so I will end it here. Thanks for your love and prayers. stay classy!

Sorry it has been a little bit since I wrote, just had a lot of letters to get to last week. So this week we had a pretty exceptional week for sacrament meeting attendance. We had 9 investigators show up to church. 6 of them were ours and 3 of them were the sister's investigators. Yeah things are pretty good out here. So a quick account on all the investigators, first off we have Sister Hoddnett. The Hoddnett family is a part member family. The dad was baptized in Utah and Sister Hoddnett was not baptized out there. She just has a lot of questions that most other people couldn't give her answers that satisfied her but she said she was willing to go through he lessons again. She likes to go pretty quick and deep so I can see how most other people would have a hard time teaching her because it can be hard to keep up with the fast paced lessons. In two lessons that each took about an hour and a half each we finally were able to get through the plan of salvation and she loved it. She is very receptive to spirits and all that stuff so talking about the spirit world was great for her, and being able to do work for the dead made her so happy. She said she could always feel so much strong spirits around the temples and now she knows why.

We also have the Shaffers, they are doing great as usual. On Sunday we had a lesson about ghosts, because they asked about it and, why not? They are getting so close to baptism, it is so cool to work with them.

Duk is being a Duck. We have not been able to see him at all this week so we are not to sure how he is doing, but he is scheduled for baptism on the 29th, we hope we can get that to work out still. But last we checked he is free from smoking.

We also have the Jamison family, they are relatively new, they showed up to church twice now, we have not been able to teach them but they have just loved church and are super exited to take the lessons, more on them later.

We also started working with a guy named Axel. Axel got into some trouble lately and he feels like the Lord humbled him and that he had his eyes opened and he wants his life to change now. so we are working with him to get back on the right course. Man we are getting so blessed here by so many people to see and help, we can hardly keep up with all of it, mostly because of mile restrictions. We have used 700 miles this month already and we only get 1100... so not sure how this is going to work out. Well I thank you again for all your prayers and love. Only 101 more days until I am home, not that I am counting.

Love The Bandit!

More Destruction poured out on the poor Mooremans

What a week. We have just been hammered lately with all this weather. Luckily for me the storm shelter is now done so we were sitting in recliners watching the news about all the tornadoes, safer than a duck in an egg. Our ward was actually assigned to go down and help out Moore this coming weekend but our stake president felt they needed to go a week early so half the ward was already on their way down to help when the storms hit. They were easily the first responding people to help out.      So in every area there is a legend. In some areas is is the legend of Elder Smith, in others Elder Jo Blo, here it is Elder Adams. Elder Adams was here for 9 months and every one loved him, some loved him so much they followed him out to Utah and married him. Well this week Elder Adams moved back to Indy. He is pretty legit and the ward is pretty happy to have him back, and it is always fun to meet the legend. He wants to feed us a lot to so I can't complain.

     This week we have been able to actually focus on Duk and the Shaffers a little bit more than usual because we have miles again and we don't have to go to Coffeyville as much. So Duk is still working on smoking, but we are pretty sure this time around he will be pretty solid. We hung up pictures of us all over his apartment with motivational phrases on the pictures like, "Do it for Jesus." "Stop Smoking." and "Jesus!!!!" he loved them. The Shaffers didn't come to church this Sunday because they were sick but we stopped by and talked about tithing and fast offerings. We have pretty much covered everything other than modern and living prophets. Other than that not a whole lot new going on here. A member wants to have us and the sisters over for Karaoke and food but more on that later. Well lots of love, I miss all y'all. Only a few more months. OTM, only three more (transfers that is.)

Don't Worry, I am not Dead. Sort of.

So I am sure that most of you heard about the tornado's that we have had out here. Luckily Independence did not get hit but we had a few towns surrounding the area get hit a bit by lots of hail and wind. While the tornado warnings were going off, we were watching the news at the Weaver's house tracking the tornadoes sitting 5 feet from a tornado shelter made to withstand an F5 "tornada." So we were pretty safe. But all those "Moore"mans got hit pretty hard down in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, it is out of our mission so we missionaries will not be able to go and help clean up but our ward is going down there soon to help out.

This week has been kind of hectic getting the sister missionaries all set up to start working in Coffeyville. We spent a lot of our time getting them all the old teaching records from Coffeyville and making them a color coded ward directory with all the info they would need. Densley and I each have a GPS so we made sure mine was all up to date and gave it to them. So we have sister Cook and Sister Fuller. Sister fuller is from St Louis of all places. But she is just waiting for her visa to get in to she can go to South America. They are doing a great work down in Coffeyville and it helps us out so much so we don't have to spend so much time traveling.

The best thing that has been going on this week is that we have been spending a lot of time teaching the Shaffers. they have come to two Sundays in a row and have just loved it. They have so many questions it just makes teaching them so much fun. Most nights they call us up and ask a bunch of questions they have found from their readings and studying the church. We are rapidly approaching the point where we will have covered all the missionary lessons in much depth. I think we will probably have like 2 more lessons before they will just demand baptism. They are just so inquisitive it makes it so much fun. Scottie and Theresa are doing great too, they got calling this Sunday and are exited to keep coming. Duk on the other hand is having a rough time. He just cant quit smoking. We visited him last night and he just was felt so defeated by the smoking thing. When we showed up and sat down the first thing he said is that he doesn't want to get baptized. He freaked out a bit but after talking to him for a bit he calmed down and said he is just mad about how hard it is to quit smoking. We will keep working with him and keep encouraging him. Well that is about all that has gone on this week. Thanks for all the love and prayers that come my way.--
Love Elder Rasband

Baptism and Near Death Experience?

So this week has been a rather exiting week. First thing is first, we had transfer calls Saturday, and neither me nor Densley are leaving but we are getting two new sisters to go serve down in Coffeyville. We will be getting Sister Cook and a new missionary. So we have been doing a bit of preparation for them to come down here. The ward is very exited for them to be here, especially the sisters. We passed around a dinner calendar for the sisters on Sunday and they already have a lot of people signed up and wanting to go on exchanges with them. They should be pretty busy with things to do down in Coffeyville.

So we had the baptisms of Scottie and Theresa on Friday and everything went well. They were super happy with the baptism. Elder Densley did the baptisms and I was lucky enough to get a picture of the baptism. I attached a picture of that for all to enjoy. (Yeah I was surprised Bishop let Elder Densley and Scottie wear what they did but that's not my job to say no.) I was able to confirm Theresa at church the next day, it was way cool to see everything come together. So on Sunday we had the 4 investigators come to church as well as Scottie and Theresa. Dwayne and his family came and they just loved it. The lesson in Relief Society was on temples so our after-church lesson was all on the temples. We were going over initiatories and about washing and anointing and Dwayne apparently knows his old testament very well so he perked right up and asked if that was anything like the portable tabernacle with the washing and anointing. I said yes, that is where it comes form. And by the end Tabitha wanted to get sealed to Dwayne. We have been seeing Dwayne for a few months now but he was finally able to come to church. They loved all of it, it was just epic. They were even fine listening to an entire talk by a high councilman that revolved around blacks and the priesthood in Sacrament meeting. Yeah things are just going sweet out here. Well lots of love and I miss you all of you and can't wait to get home and see all y'all.

Love the Bandit.

Going Down Forbidden Paths on a Golf Cart

So last week I mentioned that crazy Indian dude and his golf course. This week he invited us to attend his tournament that he was hosting and have chicken fajitas. We showed up and he wanted us to take a tour of the place so he gave us a golf cart and said go have fun. We did. That day it had rained a lot so lots of the paths had lots of mud and water. I never thought I could go mudding in a golf cart but I guess I was wrong. We explored that entire golf course and found some paths that were definitely questionable if we should go down. We found some cool lakes and great locations for camping, man was it fun, then we got free food. That crazy Indian is a fun guy, he was much more tame that day.

So as far as the work goes out here things are still going well. Unfortunately Duk slipped up and will not be able to get baptized this week because of smoking. But Scottie and Teresa are still ready for their baptism. So I am exited for that to happen, and a great part about it is that Craig is going to be doing one of the baptisms. He just got the priesthood a week ago and he is getting to use it for baptism. Man he is a stud. Well not much more to talk about this week. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts. Much love.

Another Week of Missionary Work

So this week has been a rather slow week, we decided to give everyone a rest from the big push last week. But this week was fun to watch the fruits from last week. We had quite a few people show up to church that had not been there for a while. We had a few people bear their testimony about the fruits and joy that the blitz week brought. It was fun to hear that. So the most fun we had this week was talking to a guy who owns the local golf course here. He wants me to talk about him but said not to use his name but to call him, "that crazy hindu guy." So that is what we will call him "TCHG" So we were there for a little over and hour talking about every thing under the sun. His whole goal is to get you as wound up as possible and make your trip over your words and just make you question everything. I don't believe he believes anything he says but he wants to, "open our minds." That was fun, I felt like Elder Densley and I held our own against him pretty well.

We have the baptisms coming up this next week for Scottie and Teresa. Duk unfortunately smoked on Saturday and he is freaking out a little bit, but we will work things out with him this week to see what we will go from here. But the ward here is super exited to see all the baptisms and the work that is moving forward. Our ward goal for baptisms is 12 and after the 17th we should be up to 7 or 6. It is nice to be in an area for so long because you get to see the work move forward so much and you get to be such a big part of it. Well thanks again for all your prayers and the love. Have a good week and a good mothers day.

The Week that Legends Are Made Of...

So this week has been a week that our ward and I have been preparing for and anticipating for about a month now. A month ago one of my past companions set the mission record for lessons taught in a week. He did 91. So after about a week Elder Densely and I wanted to get a piece of that cake. So last month we purposed the idea to our ward mission leader to try and shoot for 100 lessons in one week. He loved the idea so we brought it forward to the ward. Our bishop and every one else at Ward council loved the idea and we started putting things in motion to make it happen. We had 22 exchanges this week, which means that Elder Densly and I were hardly ever with each other this week. After one week of sheer madness and non stop motion we ended the week teaching 99 lessons. We were just one short of 100 but we did our best and saw more people than we ever have. We saw lots of people that have not been seen at church in years. Yeah it was insane. This Sunday we had lots of people show up to church that had not come in a long time. Boy was that good to see. We had to set up a few extra rows of chairs to accommodate all the people who were coming to church. And that was without any of our investigators coming to church.

So speaking of investigators, we had some great successes with our investigators this week. First off, Duk is as of this day 5 days smoke free and doing well. We are stopping by lots to make sure he is doing well but he is exited to be baptized on the 18th of May. Scottie and Teresa have had all the lessons minus one or two and are really coming along great. Their memory of the lessons are fantastic, and they too are exited to get baptized on the 18th as well. We also saw Dwane this week and he informed us that he got the promotion at Amazon and will have Sundays off. We had a great lesson on the the restoration with our previous bishop there and it went very well. The only questions Dwane had was about our church services. He seems very exited to attend and start making a better decision on if he wants to join. We pray he will like church and want to bring his whole family into the church.

So I just have to say, I just got off the phone with President Shumway and he is way impressed with the work that we got done out here. He said that other areas are doing the same thing but that he is way impressed that we were able to get this area to do it of all the areas in the mission, because of how spread out the our ward is. Man was the good. Sorry, I am kind of tooting my own horn here but seriously it was just the ward out here that made it happen. We were able to rally the ward so well and they provided us such a great experience. Well that is all for this week, thank you for all your prayers and love. I pray you guys are all doing well too.

LOVE THE BANDIT!!!

Another Week

So this week has been pretty full and pretty fun too. We are teaching two new people now, Scottie and Teresa. These two live with Craig and Tashala. Teresa is Tashala's best friend from California and they had their house burn down a few months ago and they needed a place to stay. Scottie is not her husband, but just a close friend, like brother and sister. Anyway, after Craig was baptized Scottie thought it was cool and now he wants Craig to baptize him, so we should get two more easy baptisms because of it. Unfortunately Scottie and Teresa are not the brightest people so teaching them will take time and be slow, but not impossible. Teresa actually came to church yesterday so that was great. Also the Craig and Tashala are doing a family scripture study every night where they read a chapter, so that is amazing. It makes me super happy to see them making church a huge priority in their life.

So last week I mentioned a guy named Dwane who got in a car wreck. He is fine. Saturday we had a BBQ with him and he invited all the active members from his work so we had a great time with him. He works every Sunday but he is working on getting a new job at Amazon, where he works, that will give him more money, and Sundays off. And less hours, because Amazon is close to being a slave driver, so he will appreciated the easier schedule. Me and Denley prayed that he would get the new job and we both felt very strongly that it would work out for the best. So we assume he will get the job, come to church two weeks in a row, then demand baptism. He has a wife and 3 kids, one of them is over 8 so so that should be 3 more easy baptisms.

Duk is still being a little difficult, he has regressed with his smoking but is still doing great. We are working on getting him to church actively now, we are going to get someone to give him a ride to church, because that the will fix most of our problems.

Well that is about all for now, thanks for reading and praying for me. Lots of love

A Week to Rule all other Weeks

What a week. Looking back on it, I have a hard time believing a week ago it was only a week ago. I feels like it was a month ago. So on Monday we had the baptism/wedding thing. It went perfect. Lots of people showed up, we had a great time, and I had to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Lots of people liked it and complimented me on it. So all went well. Yeah so the family is all a McKnight family now and they are doing just dandy. They are already like active members in a lot of ways. Also during the receptions afterwards the McKnights and the Gilsons sat next to each other and talked and fellowshiped each other so that made us real happy. Unfortunately I was not able to marry the two together and fulfill one of my bucket list items, or be a best man, BUT I did get to run the CD player for the wedding and put my space center skills of fading out music to the test. So there, skills from the space center applied and used.

We also had 3 more baptisms on Saturday right after the afternoon session of conference, The Estradas and the Rigneys. Those went pretty well. Since we only had like 15 minutes to get every thing set up I felt like a chicken with its head cut off running around making every thing work, but it did, so I can't complain. Both baptisms had such a great spirit to them, it was great to see so many willing people getting baptized, opposed to those unwilling people getting baptized....

We had a fun BBQ after the baptism for a manly get together before the priesthood session. Not nearly as good as the black guy's BBQ but still good. We were going to have a whole family of new investigators come to the baptisms and the BBQ but they got in a car wreck on Friday so they were all to sore to come. They are all ok, but they really wanted to come, and a lot of the ward knows him already because they work with him so it would have just been perfect to have him come and fellowship and listen to the prophets and apostles, but Satan had another plan.

Well I guess I should mention we had transfer calls this Saturday, no changes, so I am happy. For my thought for the week, I will just talk a bit about Satan and his plan. So we know that God has a plan for us, then why not Satan? I am just as sure that Satan has a plan for us as God does, and it is up to us to choose liberty or death. But it is always up to us, if we choose to follow Satan or God. Well thanks for listening and praying for me. Hope all is well where ever you guys are.

Elder Densley and Elder Rasband

 

Cousin Beth and Elder Rasband

A Week of Baptism

So this week has been rather fun. First of, Craig  was baptized! Wo Hoo! Man was it good to get him in that water. So I had the privileged of baptizing him. Unfortunately there was not that much water in the font so I had to baptize him at what felt like the knees. It took me two times to get him all the way under but it still worked. Also we had to wrap his cast in saran wrap to keep it dry, so that was fun. The next day he was confirmed by Elder Densly and then he was extended a calling to be the Sunday School

secretary. Yeah things are going very well. So after church we went to a part member family's place that just moved in. Man were Elder Densly and I  out of place. There were about 30 black people there and they all just stared at us. So we just chilled with the member and his friend who was running the grill. We got to sample all the food and boy was it good. Best BBQ I have ever had. After we had it the man told me that I had to write home and tell my mom that "I had dinner with a black family and that it was good. Man can a black man cook." Yeah it was funny. Then as we were leaving there was a group of guys hanging around their car raping and what now when they all stopped and told us to come over and offer a prayer. So we all held hands in a circle and prayed. Only half of them had golden grills so it made it all ok. After that we went to another members house, the Estradas, and they were watching Spanish wrestling and wouldn't turn it off. Man Mystico is one acrobatic dude, I would never try to take some one down by grabing their head with my feet and using my momentum to bring them down, but Mystico can.

     So we are having a total of 6 baptisms this week, 3 of them are 8 year old baptisms but they are bringing the family back into activity because of the work we are doing with them. The McKnight wedding is tonight, and that will have 3 baptisms and a wedding, so I am super exited for it. Saturday after the afternoon session of conference we are doing the baptisms for Joshua, who is 8, and Sarah and Molly. Both these family were less active but are coming back now. Sarah was baptized when she was 8 but bad records were kept so we get to go through it all again with her, and Molly is 8 also. So over all this week should be just a ton of fun, more pictures and stories to come.

     Well I don't feel like I talk enough about spiritual things in these letters, so I will just talk briefly on questions. Lately I have been thinking about what made Joseph Smith so epic. I have been reading a bit on him and what not and I know that he was the man he was, because he asked good questions. So I have been asking the Lord to help me ask good questions. The Lord wants to teach us things, but he won't unless we ask for it and are ready for it. So as we ask questions and are willing to make sacrifices we will be able to one day be like Christ, or like Joseph Smith. So ask questions  if you want answers, then be willing to sacrifice for the answers you want. These things alone are what I feel like the key to revelations.

A Crazy Week with Crazy Things

Garr so this week has been one of the more odds weeks I have had in independence. We have been pretty engulfed by the Gilsons this week because they are getting so close to baptism they have just needed an extra hand or two. On Tuesday we worked on helping them fix their car because the one they have been using belongs to Brother Bobo, and he is moving facilities so the Gilsons needed their old car fixed up. That took a lot of our day but we did get it running. We learned on Wednesday that Brother Weaver was going to come on Thursday and take all the Bobo's things from the house. We informed them of this and they were not happy, so we had to hold their hand for a while. Thursday morning rolled around and we helped brother weaver take all the things to Pittsburg. Craig was not happy to say the least. So we spent the whole day with him moving all the things a few hours. that was fun. Other than that not a whole lot of new has been going on here. Thanks though for reading. Next week will be much better because we have the the baptisms coming

 Independence, Kansas

So this week has been fairly busy. On Tuesday we helped a lady in our ward fix her car for a a good portion of the day. Her starter was beyond fried so my companion got under the car and fixed it all up. It took up most of the day but we got to know her a lot better. We had a brother in the ward help us out a little on it to. So for most of you that know me, you know that when I say I helped with the car it means I just watched and made comments the whole time.

     So the biggest news is that Duk Simpson came to church this Sunday  He had a great time and he is almost done with all his w\Word of Wisdom issues. If we can get him to church a few more times he will be set for baptism. We have baptisms lined up from next week until the end of April  We also set a date with an 8 year old that we have been working with. Joshua Estrada is his name. The family was less active and we found them and have been working with them. They have come to church 2 times now and they love it. We have dinner with them quite often because they just love having us in their house. Joshua will be getting baptized by his dad on the 6th of April between the priesthood session and the afternoon session. Sarah Rigney is feeling pushed a little bit so she wants to push the baptism back another month, which is ok. She still has a lot of questions, I just wish her parents would help teach her when we are not there. So other than that we are just waiting a week for all the crazy amount of baptisms to start.

   Well for this letter i just want to take a little time and talk about obedience to the commandments. The scriptures say that any blessing that we receive is because of obedience from a commandment. I know that this is true, the Lord wants to bless us and he has to when we keep his commandments. If you want specific blessing, find that commandment that is tied to that blessing and work at it. We can all use blessing and as we strive for obedience our life will be easier if we look at the big picture.

Well thank you all again for your prayers and your love. God be with you till we meet again.

Another Great Week

So this week not a whole lot happened in way of progression with investigators but it was still none the less a great week. We picked up 2 new investigators Saturday that both sound very promising. One is a part member family in a small town around here called Caney. The husband is not a member but he is super interested in the church. He is asking a lot of questions and wants to come to church. The other guy is a man named Dwane that we tracted into a few months ago. He is about 30 or so and his wife had a heart attack a month or two ago and now they are getting kicked out of their house because the owner lost the house to the bank and the bank said, "get out!" So that is not good. Anyway he has read to about 2nd Nephi and his wife has read to 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon so that is great. We are teaching them tonight with a member that he apparently works with, so it is just all meant to be. Well church yesterday was very poorly attended because of the time change. Oh well, it happens. All other investigators are about where they were last week, still moving toward their baptismal dates. Well I don't have a large amount of time this week but I love all of you and thank you for your prayers. The gospel of Christ saves and transforms us. Lots of love.

A Full Week and a Son on top of it!

 

Man I don't know where to start with this week. So first thing is first, we set 6 baptismal dates this week with people, most of them in one day. that is just how legit we are out here in the OTM. Yeah the lord is really blessing us out here. So Craig now has a baptismal date for the end of march, that may be moved back a week because of his jail time but we will see. Craig and I celebrated our birthday together on Saturday and had a grand time. The link to the video is on the bottom.

So last week I mentioned a family that wanted to get baptized. Well we saw them for the first time this week and they are beyond ready. Sister Mills has grown up in Utah and has read the BoM recently and is now reading all of it to her two kids. They understand it perfectly and are are super exited to be baptized. Sister Mills lives with Brother McKnight (who is a member) and they need to get married before they can be baptized. They want to do a marriage baptism all in one day. So that should be epic. Sister Mills is a huge nerd so we get along great and Brother McKnight is an even bigger one. They all came to church on Sunday and made lots of friends.

Duck Simpson is on track to get baptized he just needs to come to church and stop smoking. Should be easy. The Rigneys also set a date. Both Sarah and Molly want to get baptized at the end of the month too.

So my son is named Elder Densley. He is from American Fork, Utah and he is way legit. Very calm, learns quick, Chill. He just needs to learn the ropes and gain a little confidence in missionary work and he will be on his way no problem. I don't feel like he needs a whole lot of training, just an example to work off of. Well that is all for this week. Thanks for all your prayers. I love all you and thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.

 

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B2kjzXYkWALKQk9MOVptZnFlV3c/edit?usp=sharing

I'm going to be a Dad

Man has this past week been insane, in a spiritual way..... So, we will start with Wednesday. I went down to Bartellsville for district meeting and we exchanged so Elder Jose could go to Indy (Independence) to interview Craig  for baptism. I was with one Elder Wallentine for what turned out to be a two night exchange. We got snowed in, well the members didn't want to drive in the snow for fear of crashing. I was totally ill prepared for the weather. When we left our place there was no snow but half way there I realized I needed to have brought lots more clothes. So instead I got to wear Elder Jose's coat and sweater. We got to spend time with Matt though. Many of you will remember him as Halo 4 dude. He has become a great contact for the missionaries. He is super cool and we are great friends. I even got a picture of him so you all can see. The other picture is a depiction of me from a girl in the ward. Hmm that kind of sounds bad....

So Craig was unable to be interviewed because before the interview he asked a question about needing to serve a week of jail time due to driving on a suspended license. Jose had to tell him that he couldn't be interviewed because of that. He was crushed. Apparently he just sat in his room and reflected and was probably just furious. Craig definitely has a temper but he is working very hard and fast and taming it. But the next day he got in an argument with Bobo and to blow off steam he went up stairs and punched a counter so hard he broke a bone in his hand and needs surgery. But he did that rather than smoke, so in a way its better. We will have to change his date back a few weeks but he still has a huge desire to be baptized.

We got in contact with Duck this week and his wife left him, for the 7th time because she is so disagreeable. So he is on track to come to church and restart the lessons. We are looking forward to that.

Also on Saturday we got transfer calls and I am going to be training a new guy and Burr will be going to Branson. I am super exited to be training a new guy.

So on Sunday we got a referral for a part member family in Coffeeville that wants to be baptized and come to church. We will be seeing them on Wednesday so more info on them coming soon I hope.

 

2 Birthdays, 2 Baptisms

This week has been a lot of fun and a bit of work. So first thing is first, I will start with the bad news. Duck has decided to stop having us over to his place for a while. Apparently the contention between he and his wife has been very bad because of his investigation of the church. We called him this week and he informed us that for the time being he doesn't want us to come over for fear of his marriage. He says he is going to keep on reading and learning about the church but for the time being it would be better is we just held off. I am going to try and get our ward mission leader to talk to him and have them over for dinner and try and help Claudia, Duck's wife, become more open to the church, but we will see. The seed has been planted and grown in Duck now we the spirit needs to work on Claudia.

Now for the good news, I hear tales from Pittsburg that Hannah, the investigator that was so golden is getting baptized. That makes me super happy and exited to hear. Also we have set 2 baptismal dates with investigators this week. One with Craig  and another with Gabriel. We had a lesson with Craig on Tuesday and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ which led into the Word of Wisdom and his coffee and smoking problems. He is determined to get baptized and wants to be baptized on his birthday, March second. So on Wednesday we talked and made a plan to quit smoking and from what I heard last night he is still clean. After our lesson with Craig on Tuesday we went to Gabriel Trickett's place and we talked about baptism and she wants to get baptized too, also on her birthday, being March second. When we heard that we were blown away, apparently that is the day to be baptized and re-born so any one looking for a good day, that's it.

Also this week Elder Burr and I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting about missionary work, with our ward mission leader concluding the meeting with a talk. I talked about the importance of planting a seed and how we needed to go about sowing if we desired to reap. I based my talk off a talk entitled 7 lessons on sharing the gospel but filled it in with a lot of my own thoughts. I thought it went very well. Well there is the week in review for you. and now here are some videos and pictures that were taken earlier today out in the pasture of the member we live with having some fun in his watering hole

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B2kjzXYkWALKbVNVZ3g4dnc2akU/edit?usp=sharing

Another Week in the Books

This week went ok. I was sick again with a sinus infection that was brought on from last week's sickness. We finally got to teach the Oldweiler family that I had been mentioning for the past few weeks. We taught the plan of salvation that turned into a restoration lesson. It went ok, not a whole lot of spirit there but sure didn't do any damage. We have a weekly appointment with him on Fridays so he still does want to see us. Duck on the other hand is doing very well. We had a lesson with him on Tuesday and he told us that his wife is super against the church, but that wont stop him from being baptized. He is super committed to coming to church but was sick this week. We are also teaching a Craig  who is in a part member family and he wants to get baptized so he can baptize his daughters when they turn 8. Other than that all is well out here in Independence. No new people just great current people. Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week to write a big one. I miss you all and love you. Thanks for showing me your love. There will be a better letter next week, I promise.

Sickness and Health

This week was very unproductive. We were sick for more than half of it with some sort of head cold. We just slept most of the days. Yesterday we had an interesting sit down with one of our less active members. He is old and has a lot of health problems and lives with a part member family that we are working closely with our bishop. The old man is named Brother Bobo and he is one of the most hateful people I have ever met. He has been kicked out of like 4 nursing homes because he is such a problem with other people. So the members called us and asked if we would come and try and calm Bobo down and get him to eat his food and take his medications because he was diabetic. He had locked himself up in his room and just refused to do anything. we tried to show him how he was over reacting, again, but it was just a battle of whose pride was bigger. After awhile of that I came up with the idea to get him to pray and then we would all go around in the room and make a list of things we are grateful for and like about other people, because Bobo has never said anything nice about anyone else since I had gotten there. We did that for 30 minutes and by the time we left the spirit was there and he had calmed down. We left him and from what we know all worked out well. Yeah we had to be rather harsh and bold with Bobo because we had to cut him off when ever he tried to turn his talk into hate and anger. I had a blast. Well, nothing new here. Lots of love.

Love the Rasbandit

Asking for Guidance

 

 

This week has been one of the most impressive weeks I have ever had on my mission. The Lord does indeed answer prayers and leads us when we ask him to. So ever since I have gotten here I have been praying that we will be lead to people and that people will be led to us and be put into our paths and we would recognize them or them us. And this week that happened twice. The first time we were in one of the surrounding small towns called Cherryvale and we were visiting a less active family. When we left a car drove past and the driver waved at us and us at him. We got into our car and we drove off to the next less active. The driver of the just mentioned car followed us for a mile or so until we stopped at our destination. We both got out at the same time and he approached us and asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We said no, that we were LDS, and he was relieved to hear that. He said that he was looking for missionaries for the past few years and he was very interested in what we taught. He asked if there was a good time we could meet and we looked at out watches and saw we had an hour before our dinner appointment. So we followed him home and taught him and his wife for an hour. His name is Duck Simpson (it’s his navy name that he prefers to be called by), and her name is C, can’t remember her full name at the moment. We taught them about the restoration and left both of them a copy of the Book of Mormon and Duck seemed exited to read and C seemed not all that interested. We set an appointment to see him again before Sunday and we brought our ward mission leader over to help teach about the plan of salvation. Duck ate it all up. Oh so some back ground info on Duck, he is super into Christianity who knows his stuff very well. He has read many versions of the Bible and agrees with us on so many doctrines, Trinity, the end of the book of revelation, prophets. He has a master’s degree in theology and by the time we finished teaching him the Plan of Salvation he wanted to throw his degree away because he feel like he has been blinded by misunderstanding. We helped him realize that it is near impossible to interpret scripture correctly without the whole story. He said he is going to go through the Book of Mormon very quickly and we also gave him the gospel principles book, and I expect the next time we meet he will be through most of it. He wasn’t able to come to church Sunday due to gas but he is way exited to go. We are meeting him today again and I am super exited about it.

The other person we ran into is a woman named Carmen Lopez. We were about to go tracting and we had just prayed and I was looking at the GPS asking the Lord where he wanted us to go. I was felt impressed to go to a certain street and when we arrived I felt strongly that we needed to tract in a west direction. We talked to one guy that we had a follow up appointment with the next day but that is not the important part right now. So we knocked on about 8 doors when a lady started walking towards us and asked if we were missionaries. We said yes and she was very exited. She asked if we had a Spanish book of Mormon, and we said not on us but we can get you one. Carmen was on the phone with her sister who is an active member in Utah. Carmen said that her sister wanted to talk to one of us so she talked to Elder Burr while I talked to Carmen. Apparently Carmen is a very less active member of the church. Her entire family is very active and last months did a fast for her to get active. Right before we entered the scene Carmen had just told her sister that she would be interested in reading the Book of Mormon again, and then she looked over and saw us. Yup. Crazy I know. So we talked to her for a little bit and the next day we dropped off a copy of the Book of Mormon to her. We will stay in touch with her and work on getting her active again. Over all this has been a busy week with lots of people progressing. The family I mentioned last week has not moved anywhere, just because we haven’t had a time to meet with them, but we are working on it

For all you missionaries and future missionaries, (and i guess all you people) if you ask the Lord for guidance, he will give it to you. Knock and it shall be opened, ask and you will receive. Well the gospel is true the mission is amazing, and I am very grateful that the Lord puts us where we need to be at the right times so we can touch lives. Thanks for your prayers and all the love you guys have for me. 

A Week of Progres

Another week in the books out here in Independence. This week we have stumbled into some hopefully, fruitful people. First on our list is a lady we tracted into named Francis. We tracted into her a week ago and she seemed super open and just looked and felt ready. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and then on Sunday we  dropped in on them again and she has some family over and were playing a game so we just talked again. We brought over Caleb Hogge, the bishop's son who is prepping to go on a mission, and his thoughts on the family were exactly the same. They just look ready, we got their number and will be checking in on them some time this week hopefully. More info on them later. Also this week we had a lesson with one Gabriel Foot. Missionaries have been teaching her grandpa for a few years but he hasn't made any progress. Gabriel came to church this last week and this week so on Tuesday we taught her a lesson. She is super interested in the church but she had no idea why. So we have her praying and reading every day at 7:30. We will be meeting with her on Tuesday this week and we plan on meeting with her more often than that and teaching her in someone else home because her house is not the best environment.

This week we also had a mission wide fast that started on Saturday at 5 p.m. and went to Sunday at 5. It was sweet. We fasted for the new missionaries coming in and for the work to hasten here and to find new people. It will be cool to see how the work changes here now.

So this week we had an exchange with the elders down in Bartelsville for a day. I went down there with Elder Hindel (who is from Alaska) and we had a few good experiences. The first one is my prompting to talk about video games. We tracted into this guy who had a Halo 4 shirt on and when we did our initial introduction he was very uninterested. Then I felt like I should talk about Halo 4 and he opened up a ton. We talked for a little bit about Halo then he asked a few questions. We covered most of the restoration by the end and he wants us to come back whenever. It was sweet. Later that night we went to a less active member's house and they had a non member over so we taught the plan of salvation. By the end of the lesson he was super into the lesson and was asking questions. I felt so great because I was able to answer all his questions very well and the level of confidence I had with the material I was teaching just felt great. He was asking questions I would have had no idea how to answer at the beginning of my mission. It was after that lesson that I realized how much I have grown in the gospel and how much it has changed me and sunk into me. I believe it so whole heatedly and it feels as thought it will shape my decisions for the rest of my life, which I hope it does. Well enough of that. Thanks for all your prayers and all that you guys do for me. I am looking forward to coming home and our reunions.

Man I can't believe we are going into week 4 of this transfer. The time has been flying by out here. It makes sense with how much we have been doing. Yesterday was one of the most crazy days I think I have ever had. We went out with our bishop for 5 hours and talked to a ton of less active families and part member families as well. He is one of the most driven and urgent people I have ever met. I can't even imagine having to keep up with him on a daily basis. Just listening to him talk about the work and what the Church means to him and how he wants to share it makes me feel so... not good enough. But regardless it is me that has been called to serve here so that is all they get. This week we taught 22 lessons to people. By the end of this transfer I think I will almost have doubled my lesson count for my mission. Well probably not, but it feels that way. I heard that one of the reasons the Twelve lowered the age limit is because the work needs to be hastened. This area feel that need to hasten the work. This area makes me feel that urgency. There are so many people here who have been blinded by the subtle craftiness of men. Every one here are such good people with great heart and I just want to share with them what we have. I feel as though I now understand the need for a humble heart. That alone is the thing that we need to have to learn new things and improve ourselves. This area is a great example of that. Well I don't have a bunch of time but I love all you and I am grateful for all that you have done for for me, each of you. This gospel is true, Christ died to save us and to transform us through His grace so we may one day be like Him, if we are humble and have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Seek the lord and for the truth, and do what ever it takes to get it.