Thursday, August 29, 2013

August 26, 2013

Dear family and friends,

Another week has come and gone and we're continuing to have a lot of success and seeing a lot of miracles in our area. We had a recent convert move into our ward so we went over to teach the new member lessons to him and we ended up teaching his mom named Elaine. We taught her the lesson of the Restoration and she had tons of questions. She was a former seventh day Adventist. The spirit was so strong in the first lesson I felt prompted to challenge her to baptism in the that first lesson. She accepted and her baptism is scheduled for September 28th. She came to church with her son and the whole ward was great to her and she had a great time in relief society. She's so excited to learn more and she's reading the Book of Mormon. Her son wants to get the Aaronic  Priesthood so he can baptize his mom. It was truly a miracle.

We currently have 3 people on date for baptism. One of them being Jerry. He's talking to his throat specialists tomorrow and he's going to tell him whether or not he'll be able to be baptized because of the hole in his neck from agent orange. Jerry is really worried about it and how its going to work out. We've been working with our bishop who's a doctor and we're trying to work something out. We're praying for him and hoping everything works out. His baptism is scheduled for September 7th.

Dennis, our other investigator who is also on date for baptism is absolutely on fire. He came to church again for all three hours, He's almost done reading the Book of Mormon and he's just loving it. The work here in Paradise is really just starting to pick up and we are starting to have full days where were running from appointment to appointment. Its been awesome. We taught a total of 30 lessons this last week. We even picked up two new investigators this past week too. Every time I see our Mission President he tells us to pray for miracles and we've been doing that and we're definitely seeing our prayers answered. I'm loving working with Elder Harper. We still get along great and we have a fun time doing the work here in Paradise. We have a zone conference this Thursday which should be awesome. I'll be able to see my companion from the MTC which will be sweet!

Thanks for all your support and prayers for me, it truly does mean a lot and have fun watching BYU football this Saturday. I'm super jealous and be sure to update me on everything. Love you guys!

-Elder Rosenbaum 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

August 19, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Its been another solid week out here in the mission field and we're having a lot of success. We had a total of 4 of our investigators attend sacrament meeting this past Sunday which is the best I've had since I've been out on my mission. Dennis went to church for the first time and he stayed for all 3 hours and was super attentive the whole time and was asking lots of questions the entire time. We're meeting with him again tonight. We challenged him to baptism and he accepted it and we set His baptism for September 7th. Dennis said he had a great time at church and he looked forward to coming next week. We taught him the plan of salvation this past week and he said everything we taught him just made sense and clicked in his brain but now he has the vocabulary for everything. We're really excited for him. Every time we meet with him he just has tons of questions of things he's been studying.

Jerry is also doing very well. He's been sick so we were able to go over and give him a blessing and he was able to have a very positive experience and the spirit was really strong. He continues to go to church every week and is fitting in really good with the ward. His baptism is also scheduled for September 7th. So we're going to have a double baptism on that day which is super exciting.

Every day I see the Lords hand helping us in our work out here. It seems like everyday we experience some type of success in one way or another. This past week we met with one of our investigators named Kim. We've been teaching her ever since I got here in Paradise. She's been having lots of problems with the word of wisdom so we've been working with her and she's been attending this alcohol recovery program. She's finally starting to study the Book of Mormon which is great and she is committed to come to church for the first time, so we'll see what happens. She is finally starting to progress but very slowly.

I'm continuing to love it out here. I'm having a lot of positive experiences and I've learned a ton so far in the two months I've been out on my mission. My testimony of this gospel has grown tremendously. I feel like I understand the concept and the true meaning of what charity is. Sacrifice is charity and sacrifice brings the blessings of the Lord. I feel like I'm truly learning to love the people I teach and the people I run into. I love and miss you guys. Thanks for your love and your support.

-Elder Rosenbaum

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

August 12, 2013

Dear family and friends,

First off thanks so much for all the emails I always look forward to reading what you guys have to say and it keeps me going. So my ward mission leader is super into tennis and we went and hit a couple of days ago and it was a blast. It was probably the most competitive tennis I've played since state. It was good to be able to pick up a tennis racket again! So we had another great week. The days are starting to blend together and its seems to be going by so quick! As of today I'm already two months done with my mission so I'm 1/12 of the way done which is super weird to think about. I still feel likes I just barely got out.

So the investigator we have that is still on fire is Jerry. He has awesome fellowship from the ward and I love meeting with him. We were able to get a baptismal date for September 7th for him. He's so excited for his baptism and we can always count on him to be at church. Our bishop is a doctor and so we've been working out a way with him and our mission president so we can figure out the procedure to baptize him. He has a hole in his neck from agent orange from serving in Vietnam. We've been meeting with Jerry basically since the first week I arrived in Paradise.

Our next promising investigator is a man named Dennis. We've only had two lessons with him and he's already read like 1/3 of the Book of Mormon and asks tons of questions and he's just really interested. He's about a 30 year old man which is kind of cool because we teach a lot of old people here. 

We picked up a investigator this past week named Tony. We were going over to teach his wife and she was asleep so we ending up talking with him for over an hour. He's a tattoo artist and he's been in and out of prison and jail. He used to be a drug addict and now he's been drug feel for over a year. He was telling his whole story and how he felt changed through the atonement and how he had to rely and put his full trust in the Lord. We introduced the Book of Mormon and the restoration and he wanted us to come back and get more into it and teach him and his wife.  

Me and Elder Harper have been working really hard and we taught a total of 29 lessons this week. We've been doing a lot of less active work and working a lot with part member family's. Its crazy how many less active people we have here.

Marie's baptism which was scheduled for August 24th has been postponed, so we don't currently have a date and we haven't had a sit down lesson with her for awhile because of all the problems they've been having with Eddy being in the hospital. He's finally getting the help he needed and the total amount of seizures he had is 119 and it was all within 3 days. Its a miracle he's still alive. Your body can't normally take all that in. Its amazing what the power of the priesthood can do. 

Thanks for all the support. I love and miss you guys.

-Elder Rosenbaum

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

August 5, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has probably been the  craziest week of my mission so far. I'll start off by telling you about my 1st baptism of my mission which we had on Saturday. Jacob had so much support there from his family and friends. We had to end up having the program in the chapel and then all cramming in the room for the actual baptism. It truly was an amazing day. There was about as many people at his baptism as we have at a regular sacrament meeting. I even saw this girl from my high school that I knew at the baptism which was kind of crazy. Jacob has been off and on with meeting with the missionaries for about 8 years and it's truly been a miracle. It was the perfect way to end my 1st transfer of the mission.

We were able to set another baptism date for August 23rd with a man named Jerry. But he talked to me at church and he wanted to push it back a couple more weeks because of some personal reasons. We're now meeting with Jerry on a consistent basis. The guy is a stud. We're really excited for him and for his progression. We're trying to figure out a way for him to be baptized because he has a hole in his neck and if we baptize him it will drown him.

We also are going to have to push back Marie's baptismal date. Her Dad is suffering from a very serious disease and is in very critical condition. Marie's Mom has asked us to be at the hospital and give him blessings on a frequent basis. He ended up getting sent down to Sacramento because they couldn't figure out what was going on. He suffered from 36 seizures in less than 24 hours. I was with him in the emergency room when one of the seizures started and we had to get a nurse. So we're not sure when we are going to be able to meet with Marie again, but we're just keeping them in our prayers and doing everything we can to help them.

I had another opportunity to take over the area because we went on exchanges. We've been doing a ton of service for our investigators and for members of the ward. I'm getting pretty darn good at splitting and stacking wood. We were able to pick up another solid investigator this week named Dennis. We have a lot of hope for this next transfer. With Marie and Jerry's baptism and plus we have a couple others if everything goes according to plan. We could end up with about 4 baptisms this next transfer if everything goes according to plan. The Lord has really blessed us with finding people to teach.

We got transfer calls last night and I'm still in Paradise with the same companion and everything. But we had a lot of changes in our zone, so it will be fun to get to know all the new missionaries in our area. We're going to go play soccer today so it should be fun. I hope all is going well at home. I love and pray for you guys. Thanks for everything!

Love,
Elder Rosenbaum