Tuesday, September 24, 2013

September 23, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

 So all in all we had a great week. We had some ups and downs but for the most part it was a great week. On our way home from working Sunday night we ran over a skunk. Our car stinks pretty bad but it was a lot better this morning. We went and got pictures by the skunk just for fun. It was pretty crazy! We had a total of 5 investigators at church this past week which was terrific! Marie even came and we have a lesson with her tonight.  Its been a huge blessing to be able to start teaching her again after all the problems they've been going through.

So our baptism has been moved to this Friday instead of Saturday. I can't remember the last time Elaine has missed a Sunday. Her fellow shipper who also happens to be her doctor will be performing the baptism for her. I'm really excited for Elaine, she's come really far since we began teaching her. She's been really excited for quite some time now. The ward has really taken her in and been really great to her. It should be a great baptism this Friday!

On Sunday we were privileged to go over to one of our investigators house's for dinner. We went over to Anne's house and Jerry was there too. Jerry told me he still has interest in being baptized but he wants to wait until October 18 to set a baptismal date because of everything going on. I was beginning to think he was losing interest so it was great to hear its something he still wants to do.  

The Lord has truly been blessing us out here with people to teach and now that I've been out for awhile its been interesting to look back and see how far these people have grown and come since I've been here. I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to be out here serving the Lord in California. I know its exactly where I'm suppose to be right now.

Happy Birthday on Saturday Mom. I hope you have a wonderful day. Know that I'll be thinking about ya and that's everything is going great. I love ya.

-Elder Rosenbaum

Ben with the Skunk that they ran over

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

September 16, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

So we had a great week. We had transfer calls come last night. Everyone was expecting my companion to be transferred but he ended up staying in Paradise with me. My companion is still district leader but we had a lot of changes in our district and zone. Its weird to think that I'm already in my 3rd transfer of my mission and have been out for 3 months. Its gone by super fast, its crazy. I'm thinking I'm probably going to be staying in my first area for about six months.

We're still teaching Elaine and she's doing great. We are beginning to teach her the commandments and we taught her the word of wisdom a couple of days ago. Her son is a recent convert who still struggles with his addictions. We were able to give him a blessing to overcome his addictions. The spirit was so strong and he gave us his chewing tobacco to dispose of it. They both committed to live the word of wisdom. Elaine is really coming along and progressing well. I'm really excited for her and how well she's doing. Her baptism is scheduled for September 28th.

Yesterday at church we had someone call me and Elder Harper out of priesthood and there was someone outside in the parking lot who said she was interested in our church. We gave her the basic introduction about our church and we're going to begin teaching her this week. Its amazing how the Lord works and how he prepares people to receive this restored gospel.

We've been teaching this lady named Kim ever since I've been here in Paradise and she came to church for the first time on Sunday which was awesome. We had 3 investigators in sacrament meeting this past week which was great!

All in all everything is still going great. I love and miss you guys. I hope you all have a great week.
 
-Elder Rosenbaum

Ben with some Missionarys playing Golf on P- day

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September, 9 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm glad to hear everyone had a great time at Grandma's on Labor Day. I was definitely thinking about you guys and knew you would be having a good time. It was kind of weird missing it, I'm not gonna lie, I was a little jealous! We had a up and down week to say the least. We had 2 of our baptismal dates drop. Jerry was really appreciative of everything we've done for him and the great love and support the ward has shown him. But he's going to be moving soon, so the probability of his baptism happening before he moves is kind of unlikely, but we're praying for the best. Jerry is literally the coolest, most sincere, kind person I've taught so far on my mission. 

Anne also dropped her baptism which was suppose to happen this weekend. But she said its not permanent. She just wants to make sure this is something she wants to do which is perfectly fine. We don't want to rush her or anything. Anne only has one foot and her other foot is starting to swell up really big and she's afraid of losing it and she was in a lot of pain. We had an opportunity to give her a blessing and I think she was really touched by the spirit. 

Elaine though is doing great. She had the Seventh Day Adventists church call he, trying to reactivate her and try to get her to come back to church. She told them to remove her records from their church and that she was investigating with the Mormon religion. I'm really proud of her for her decision and she's continuing to come to church and we always have great lessons with her. Her baptism is scheduled for September 28th.

Dennis is also continuing to do great and hasn't had any set backs. We're starting to meet with him more and more often as we're getting closer to his baptism. He's just as solid as ever. We're really excited for him. We even picked up one of Dennis' friends as a new investigator this past week. He's not even a member and he's already doing missionary week.

We're going to go golfing today with some other missionaries and we get to go for free which is pretty sweet! Transfer calls will be coming this Sunday and I'll probably be getting a new companion so it will be exciting to see who I get. 

Just in case anyone plans on sending me anything. Send it to the mission office because I don't know our new address and we will be moving out soon to a different members house in our ward.

California Roseville Mission
8583 watt avenue
Antelope CA 95843

Thanks for everything and for you love and support. I love you guys.

-Elder Rosenbaum


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

September 1, 2013

Dear Family and friends,

We had a another great week. We had zone conference this past week so we got to take an hour drive down to Yuba city. We heard some exciting news from our mission president. He told us that missionaries are going to be allowed to start using facebook for missionary purposes only so we can keep in better contact with our investigators and members of the ward where we're serving. There are 12 missions out of 435 missions who will be testing using facebook in their mission. Our mission is one out of the 12 missions who will be testing this. So within the next week or two we'll begin using facebook during less effective proselyting time which is pretty exciting. Our Mission President also told us that within the next 6 months we'll have Ipads in our mission for sure. So missionary work is going to start changing a little and its going to be a lot more effective and we're going to be able to reach and talk to a lot more people.

We had a solid week. Jerry, who's baptism is scheduled for this Saturday probably won't go through. We're going to have to push it back. His doctor told him he can't be immersed  in water because of his situation. Our bishop even talked to a couple of doctors at his work and they all said that immersion by water would be a really bad idea. So our Mission President is currently working with the 1st Presidency of the Church because there has to  be a way that Jerry can be baptized. He wants to be baptized but its really unfortunate that this is holding him back.

We currently have 4 people on date for baptism. We have one baptism scheduled a week for the whole  month of September which is super exciting I just hope they all go through. Anne is the one we got on date this past week. Anne is an older later who's really been through a lot of trials in her life. She only has one leg which is kind of cool. She's a really sweet older lady. She's really had a change of heart. We've been teaching her ever since I got to Paradise and she wasn't too interested before but now its something she wants to do so we're really excited.

I had a really cool experience at church yesterday. I was sitting next to one of our investigators named Elaine. She has a baptism date for September 28th but she was still deciding if this was something she wanted to do. She was trying to decide between our church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. So during sacrament she leaned over and whispered to me, "This is the Church I want to join. This is the one." When she told me that the Spirit was so strong. It was awesome.

Transfer calls are coming up in about 2 weeks on Sept 14th so my companion will most likely be transferred because he's been in this area for awhile. So we're most likely going to be moving into another members house in our ward. The house we're at now the lady is always home alone because her husband is always at work and when we come home for lunch and stuff we're not suppose to be alone with a female, so at the end of the transfer we'll more than likely be moving out. That's what our mission President told us. 

The work though is going great. We had 3 investigators at church this past week. And Jacob, my first baptism was able to receive the Aaronic Priesthood this past Sunday which was an awesome experience. All in all everything is going great. Thanks for all your support and prayers. I love you guys. 

-Elder Rosenbaum