Tuesday, November 26, 2013

November 25, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has probably been the most successful week of my mission so far! We saw so many miracles it was crazy. I'll tell you guys about 3 of them. I was on exchanges with the zone leaderson Tuesday. We just got done visiting this less active women named Myna and we were about to leave when we both felt like we needed to talk to the guy across the street. His named was Steven and he is about 30 years old and has really had it rough. He is a recovered drug addict. He was really depressed and we could tell so we asked if everything was okay. He explained that he had a couple family members past away recently and that he had really been struggling. He was curious why there were so many religions and he really wanted to know which way God wanted him to take in his life. We were able to teach and testify to him of Eternal families and of the restored gospel. The spirit was so strong and we challenged him to baptism and he accepted. He said he would prepare his wife and his 8 year old son to be baptized as well. They are preparing them to be baptized towards the end of December. It was an amazing miracle. Sadly he's just outside our area so we passed the family on to the missionaries in 3rd ward. They are currently being taught right now.

Another miracle we were able to experience this week was a new investigator we were able to pick up named Deanna. They is this young women in our ward named Brooke and she just got her call to Mexico so I challenged her to extend the invitation to her best friend to take the lessons from us so she could see the process of how everything works as a missionary. She did and we were able to meet with Deanna on Saturday night. We taught the restoration and the spirit was super strong. We extended the invitation to be baptized and she accepted. Brooke provided solid fellowship and everything worked out great. She's the golden investigator we always pray for as missionaries. She's going to be baptized on December 21st.

Remember Dennis I used to always talk about? Well we've been still teaching him and he's been wanting to meet more as of recent. We were able to have a really spiritual lesson with him as well. We decided the talk about the gift of the holy ghost. It was a great lesson and he wants to be baptized again so we were able to set his baptismal date for December 21st as well. 

We had a fireside in Chico on Thursday and Elder Stanely G Ellis came and he talked on the Book of Mormon. We were able to get our recent convert Elaine to come and a couple of less actives so it was a really great experience. All the missionaries in our zone sang a musical number the Army of Helaman. It was a great experience. On Friday we had Zone Conference and we were able to once again hear from Elder Ellis of the Seventy and from our mission president. It was fun to see a bunch of the missionaries that I haven't seen in awhile. 

All in all we had a great week this past week. For thanksgiving we have plans to go to the Bakers(a less active family), the Critsers, and the Petersons in our ward. They are all families so it should be a good time. We were told that Thanksgiving will be a full proselyting day and that the missionaries won't be having a turkey bowl so we were a little disappointed but it will still be fun! Hope you all have a great week eating turkey and know I'll be thinking of you all. Love you all.

-Elder Rosenbaum 

Saturday, November 23, 2013

November 18, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a crazy week this week. We spent a lot of time Saturday at in the Hospital. The Campbells, one of the families were teaching, had two children one in the E.R. and the other one in the ICU. They have several different things happen from kidney stones, to bladder infections and it was a really scary situation for the whole family. We were able to show our support and be there almost immediately and perform a blessing for them. It was a really spiritual experience for all of us. I was amazed at the love and the support the ward was able to show them during the couple of days they were at the Hospital. While they were still in the hospital we surprised them and went and did a bunch of service at there house and racked leaves, cleaned her gutters, etc. We had a lesson with them on Monday before everything went chaotic and taught the restoration and it went really well. Hopefully Marie will be able to get baptized before I get transferred. 

We were given a referral from a member of our ward to go visit a lady in the Hospital. He told her we would go by and give her a Book of Mormon, visit her, and see how see was doing. We went by and she was really receptive and we taught her the restoration while we were there and she invited us to come by and see her after she gets out of the hospital so we're going to go bytomorrow and teach her again. It was a great lesson and you could tell the spirit was just super strong. Its moments like that why I love being a missionary. She seems like of the more solid investigators we've picked up in awhile so we'll see what happens.

I went on exchanges this week and got to do some work with Elder Schaefer and we had an awesome day. He was born with this disease(I can't remember the name) and he was told he wouldn't ever be able to walk and we were meeting with our investigator Kim and we were talking about miracles and Elder Schaefer shared the story about his condition and how he would pray everyday growing up and ask Heavenly Father to be Normal and to be able to walk. He explained how it took 14 years until he was able to walk but that God answered his prayer and he told how much faith it took and patience. The spirit seriously punched me in the gut when he told this. It made Kim realize how real God is and how he can bless our lives we if make an effort to have daily prayer.

Elder Stanley G. Ellis is coming this week and he is going to be speaking at zone conference! whoo! It should be an awesome experience. He's even putting on a fireside for our stake Thursdaynight and a bunch of our investigators are really excited to hear him speak. The missionaries are performing a musical number at it so we'll see how it goes. We have exchanges with the Zone Leaders tomorrow so that should be fun!

All is well in California! I think and pray about you guys everyday! My testimony of this Gospel has grown more than I could have even imagined! God lives, He's real.

-Elder Rosenbaum

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

November 11, 2013

Dear family and friends,

We had a fantastic week this past week. Me and Elder Walton have been doing some good work. I'm thinking my time here in Paradise is short probably only 4 more weeks until I get transferred so I want to make the most of it and leave this area in great shape. We picked up a new investigator this week named Kim. A couple of days ago we were going around and visiting a bunch of potential investigators in our area book and we both decided randomly that we need to stop what we were doing and knock on this one door. A lady named Kim opened the door and was very friendly. We introduced the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she accepted to read it and was very excited and even invited us back. The was the craziest miracle and it came out of nowhere. Its amazing how the Lord prepares his people. It was a neat experience because me and Elder Walton were able to recognize the prompting of the spirit and were able to act on it.

Do you remember Jacob my first baptism back in the beginning of August? He spoke in Stake Conference! How cool is that? He spoke about his conversion story and the spirit was so powerful. It was a great experience. We had a couple of really spiritual lessons this past week. We met with Dennis and we talked about Gods amazing love and he was feeling really alone at the time. We shared a story with him and he started crying and the spirit was so strong. We were than able to testify of the truthfullness of the gospel with the spirit present. It was great! Its amazing to see the tiny miracles that we experience every day.

We did a lot of service this week. Stacking and splitting wood still happens pretty regular. And we helped a less active member move. I had a great Birthday on Monday. The Reeves had us and the Campbells, the family were teaching, over for dinner. We had a great night. There's a picture on facebook if you want to see. The whole zone ended up sing happy birthday to be at our p-day activity so it was a fun day. 

Everything is going great! I love being able to reach out and help so many people every day. Tomorrow I'll have been out for 5 months! Its gone by so fast! I feel like I've really grown so much in that short time and I've loved every minute and I know it will only get better! Thanks so much for your support it helps me out a ton! love you all! I hope everything works out with Kathleen she's definitely been in my prayers! Have a great week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

Friday, November 8, 2013

November 4, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

So we had a crazy week. My new companion got here Tuesday afternoon. His name is Elder Walton and he's from Canada. Me and Elder Harper both got companions from Canada so that was pretty cool. He's a really solid missionary, really obedient, and likes to work hard. We should be able to do some good work this transfer. My companion is the district leader. So we moved into a different member of our ward on Thursday. Brother Reeve was frequently gone a lot with work and that left us home alone a lot with Sister Reeve and that's against the rules so President decided to move us and the new member we're living with is Brother Sypherd. He's an older man about 80 and his wife is passed away so its a good opportunity for him to house the missionaries so he's not so lonely and he's super excited to have us in his house. He's an awesome guy one of the most Christ-like people I've met so far. We spent most of Thursday with Elder Bell building our beds and moving in. We're all settled in and its been really good for the couple of days we've been there.

Awesome news! Remember Anne I told you guys about in the past? Well we decided to reteach the Restoration to her so she could feel the spirit and we were able to recommit her to baptism again! Its scheduled for November 23rd. So that's super exciting. Tim's baptism is for now still a go for December 7th. We seem to have a good amount of investigators and we're keeping really busy. With transfers most of Tuesday and moving in on Thursday we were still able to teach over 20 lessons this week.  So its been a crazy week. So far I haven't really had a problem taking over the area. I've been here for awhile so I know it pretty good.
Thanks for all the Birthday wishes! It means a lot! Dad, I meant to send you a birthday letter on Saturday but I missed the mail man so you should be receiving a birthday card sometime this week. So I hope you had a great day yesterday. I hope everything works out with Kathleen's surgery I'll be praying for her!

Love and miss you guys! Have a great week!
 
Oh and by the way the members house we moved into their basement flooded last night... we spent most the night helping him clean everything up. crazy stuff!