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!

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Love Elder Rasband