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.