Dear Family,
First off, Merry Christmas!! I'm looking forward to being able to Skype home this week! Its weird to think this will be my second to last call home on my mission. Time is going fast thats for sure! Well anyways, we had another great week and a lot of good stuff has happened! I'm not sure where to start. On Thursday we had our Christmas Devotional with the mission. It was only a couple of zones so it was basically just like a zone conference. It was super good though. Since we drive a truck we traveled up to that area early that morning and helped some Elders move into a new apartment and than went on over to the meeting in Nevada City. Like always its fun to see everyone you served around and to be with one another.
So our miracle this week is that we had 5 investigators to sacrament meeting! Even some investigators we weren't able to get in with that week made it which is awesome! The Christmas program is always a very non-threatening meeting good for investigators and filled with spirit! So our main investigators we're working with that are progressing are, Jeff(the father), and his son Colton, Michelle and her family, John Setelo,(the one on date), Noah, and also Wilma(the mother of a very active member). The work is progressively moving forward so good. Its not abnormal to have a good amount of investigators, but to have a good amount of progressing investigators is a little more abnormal so we've just been really blessed!
We also got to have our Ward Christmas party which was a good time. We had a white elephant party and we were able to get a lot of less actives there so it was a good success!
We have plans for Christmas we have been invited over places for both Christmas and Christmas eve so no need to fret we'll be well taken care of. Love you guys looking forward to talking to you!
Elder Rosenbaum
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
December 15, 2014
Dear Family,
First off we received our transfer calls Sunday night. Me and Elder Vielstich will both be staying in our area together which we're pretty excited about! Normally transfers are every 6 weeks but because of Christmas we had a 5 week transfer so our next transfer will be 7 weeks and than it will go back to normal. But anyways, we had a great week and saw some great miracles!
I'll start off with talking about our investigator named John Sotelo. He's a 23 year old man and we're teaching him along with his little sister named Nicki. We have only been teaching them for 2 or 3 weeks. Well we had a super awesome lesson with them this week and John committed to be baptized and set a date for for January 17th! We're super excited its crazy how fast the Lord can work sometimes considering the fact that a couple of weeks ago we weren't even teaching him. Fortunately some other missionaries about a 1 or 2 years ago set some seeds and taught him a little bit where he used to live. Its been a huge blessing that we were able to find him and be able to work with him! What the chances that we would randomly run into him?
Another huge miracle is that I got to go to the temple with Elaine! Elaine was my second convert on the mission and now has made it to the temple!! It was so good to see her there and see the progress she's made and how much she's grown in the gospel. It was definitely a highlight of the mission and super special.
We continued to work with Michelle and her family. We talked a lot of about baptism and she liked the idea but didn't want to commit to a date yet. She committed to come to our Christmas program this coming Sunday so thats exciting. We have so many investigator who are much more willing to come to church this coming Sunday since its our christmas service. And Christmas is usually the one time a year people go to church anyways.
I'm looking forward to being able to talk with you guys on Christmas! Love you guys have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
First off we received our transfer calls Sunday night. Me and Elder Vielstich will both be staying in our area together which we're pretty excited about! Normally transfers are every 6 weeks but because of Christmas we had a 5 week transfer so our next transfer will be 7 weeks and than it will go back to normal. But anyways, we had a great week and saw some great miracles!
I'll start off with talking about our investigator named John Sotelo. He's a 23 year old man and we're teaching him along with his little sister named Nicki. We have only been teaching them for 2 or 3 weeks. Well we had a super awesome lesson with them this week and John committed to be baptized and set a date for for January 17th! We're super excited its crazy how fast the Lord can work sometimes considering the fact that a couple of weeks ago we weren't even teaching him. Fortunately some other missionaries about a 1 or 2 years ago set some seeds and taught him a little bit where he used to live. Its been a huge blessing that we were able to find him and be able to work with him! What the chances that we would randomly run into him?
Another huge miracle is that I got to go to the temple with Elaine! Elaine was my second convert on the mission and now has made it to the temple!! It was so good to see her there and see the progress she's made and how much she's grown in the gospel. It was definitely a highlight of the mission and super special.
We continued to work with Michelle and her family. We talked a lot of about baptism and she liked the idea but didn't want to commit to a date yet. She committed to come to our Christmas program this coming Sunday so thats exciting. We have so many investigator who are much more willing to come to church this coming Sunday since its our christmas service. And Christmas is usually the one time a year people go to church anyways.
I'm looking forward to being able to talk with you guys on Christmas! Love you guys have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Friday, December 12, 2014
December 8, 2014
Dear Family,
It was another good week! A lot has happened and we've seen a lot of good miracles. First off, I received word from my second convert, Elaine, that she's going through the temple this Saturday and I've been invited to go! Fortunately, unlike the last time I went to the temple for a convert I'm not serving at the furthest possible location away from the temple so it will make getting there a lot easier this time being that I'm only about 20 minutes away from the Sacramento temple currently. I'm super stoked. Elaine is someone we found and taught all the way through when I was with my trainer. I remember my first initial contact with Elaine and she was a little stand offish and a little argumentative. Well the spirit worked with in her and now just over a year later she's going through the temple. Elaine and her son, Rivers, are two of my favorite people I've met and taught throughout my mission. Rivers, unfortunately won't be going through the temple this Saturday because he relapsed with some word of wisdom issues but hopefully he'll be there soon!
We're teaching a lady named Michelle right now and we had a super good lesson with her this week. Her two daughters decided to join us in the lesson as well so that was super cool. They couldn't come to church yesterday but they all committed to come to church this coming Sunday. Its kind of rare you get to teach a whole family like that so we're pretty excited. We had a bom restoration lesson with them the other week so hopefully things work out. One of Michelle's best friends is our former relief society president so everything is coming into place a little bit.
We're teaching a part-member family named the Scheighs and their daughter got baptized back in March and we're trying to teach the father and 12 year old son Colton. Well both Jeff(the father) and Colton have come to church several weeks in a row now which is awesome. Colton has expressed interest in being baptized so hopefully everything works out.
And by the way the 'He is the gift' video is amazing. Watch it if you haven't. Christ is the reason for the season and is the ultimate gift and the first gift of Christmas. A gift that keeps on giving today. I hope you all have a great Christmas season! Love you guys have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
It was another good week! A lot has happened and we've seen a lot of good miracles. First off, I received word from my second convert, Elaine, that she's going through the temple this Saturday and I've been invited to go! Fortunately, unlike the last time I went to the temple for a convert I'm not serving at the furthest possible location away from the temple so it will make getting there a lot easier this time being that I'm only about 20 minutes away from the Sacramento temple currently. I'm super stoked. Elaine is someone we found and taught all the way through when I was with my trainer. I remember my first initial contact with Elaine and she was a little stand offish and a little argumentative. Well the spirit worked with in her and now just over a year later she's going through the temple. Elaine and her son, Rivers, are two of my favorite people I've met and taught throughout my mission. Rivers, unfortunately won't be going through the temple this Saturday because he relapsed with some word of wisdom issues but hopefully he'll be there soon!
We're teaching a lady named Michelle right now and we had a super good lesson with her this week. Her two daughters decided to join us in the lesson as well so that was super cool. They couldn't come to church yesterday but they all committed to come to church this coming Sunday. Its kind of rare you get to teach a whole family like that so we're pretty excited. We had a bom restoration lesson with them the other week so hopefully things work out. One of Michelle's best friends is our former relief society president so everything is coming into place a little bit.
We're teaching a part-member family named the Scheighs and their daughter got baptized back in March and we're trying to teach the father and 12 year old son Colton. Well both Jeff(the father) and Colton have come to church several weeks in a row now which is awesome. Colton has expressed interest in being baptized so hopefully everything works out.
And by the way the 'He is the gift' video is amazing. Watch it if you haven't. Christ is the reason for the season and is the ultimate gift and the first gift of Christmas. A gift that keeps on giving today. I hope you all have a great Christmas season! Love you guys have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Thursday, December 4, 2014
December 1, 2014
Dear Family,
I'm glad to hear that everyone had a great thanksgiving. As for me I had a great thanksgiving as well! The members here took good care of us. We ended up having two thanksgiving dinners. One of them we had one of our investigators there so that was pretty cool. We also got to play some ping pong which is always good and do some service. So all in all it was a pretty good day. Although unfortunately we weren't able to participate in the turkey bowl.
We saw some pretty cool miracles this week. We have a few progressing investigators but mostly right now we're kind of just in finding mode. We were out tracting and knocked on a door where a guy answered and he told us that just the other week one of his best friends left for Maryland on a mission which was pretty cool. We were able to teach him a little bit and he wants to know what his friend is basically doing for two years so he wants to meet with us. We have another appointment with him this week so that was pretty cool. And crazy enough it just happened to be the first door we knocked on. We found 4 new investigators this week which was awesome. One day we talked to a man named Ron and he invited us back the next day and we taught a full restoration with him and his wife joined in so that was super cool. The spirit was incredible during the lesson. Its cool to see the hand of the Lord in our work and giving us so many tender mercies and just allowing people to come in our paths to either talk to or teach.
Me and my companion spoke in church on Sunday which ended up being really good. We focused on missionary work obviously and the whole 5th Sundaylesson was on missionary work as well so hopefully we got a lot of the members excited and willing to help us and work with us. Oh and David came to church again.. he progressing really well and he's even telling members at church he's gonna be baptized but for some reason or another he won't commit to a date. We challenged him to pray about it so hopefully we can get him on date soon.
Oh and mom, you will be very proud of me. I'm kind of experimenting a little bit more now with my cooking abilities. I made a mean 1/2 pound juicy elk burger which was delicious. Love you guys enjoy this time of year!
Elder Rosenbaum
I'm glad to hear that everyone had a great thanksgiving. As for me I had a great thanksgiving as well! The members here took good care of us. We ended up having two thanksgiving dinners. One of them we had one of our investigators there so that was pretty cool. We also got to play some ping pong which is always good and do some service. So all in all it was a pretty good day. Although unfortunately we weren't able to participate in the turkey bowl.
We saw some pretty cool miracles this week. We have a few progressing investigators but mostly right now we're kind of just in finding mode. We were out tracting and knocked on a door where a guy answered and he told us that just the other week one of his best friends left for Maryland on a mission which was pretty cool. We were able to teach him a little bit and he wants to know what his friend is basically doing for two years so he wants to meet with us. We have another appointment with him this week so that was pretty cool. And crazy enough it just happened to be the first door we knocked on. We found 4 new investigators this week which was awesome. One day we talked to a man named Ron and he invited us back the next day and we taught a full restoration with him and his wife joined in so that was super cool. The spirit was incredible during the lesson. Its cool to see the hand of the Lord in our work and giving us so many tender mercies and just allowing people to come in our paths to either talk to or teach.
Me and my companion spoke in church on Sunday which ended up being really good. We focused on missionary work obviously and the whole 5th Sundaylesson was on missionary work as well so hopefully we got a lot of the members excited and willing to help us and work with us. Oh and David came to church again.. he progressing really well and he's even telling members at church he's gonna be baptized but for some reason or another he won't commit to a date. We challenged him to pray about it so hopefully we can get him on date soon.
Oh and mom, you will be very proud of me. I'm kind of experimenting a little bit more now with my cooking abilities. I made a mean 1/2 pound juicy elk burger which was delicious. Love you guys enjoy this time of year!
Elder Rosenbaum
Monday, November 24, 2014
November 24, 2014
Dear Family,
Another good week has come and gone. Although this week was a little harder than most nonetheless it was still a good week. To be frank the amount of teaching we did this week was pretty minimal and we did what we could to find and teach and we worked hard so thats what matters. Although we did have a great lesson with our investigator named Noah. Noah has done a ton a study on theology and actually referred himself to us and has come to the conclusion thats its either us and the catholics that are right. So we had a great lesson with him and really stressed the apostasy and it seemed to click with him so that was good! He had a lot of questions a couple of them referring to baptism so we got to talk to him about that as well. Noah took us on a walk on a trail(he lives out in the middle of nowhere basically in the mountains) which led to some water falls which was gorgeous. We ended up having our lesson there which was pretty sweet. Although our teaching was minimal this week we still had 3 investigators come to church which was pretty sweet. All of them but one we were unable to meet with but they still came so that was pretty sweet.
We have a new program which the church has spent a lot of money to establish its called just serve and its give missionaries or even regular people if they want a chance to get involved in the community and to serve the people in really any capacity. So we went and volunteered at a old folks retirement home and helped set up for this huge thanksgiving dinner for the residents. I felt like I was working my catering job again so it was pretty cool. All the residents and all the employees and other volunteers were asking us lots of questions about us because we were able to do it in our proselyting clothes. So that was a cool opportunity to get our name out there.
We had zone conference this week as well so that was really cool. It's always fun to see previous companions and people you've served around. And also to be spiritually uplifted.
We have lots of plans for thanksgiving. We've had numerous members invite us over to there place so don't worry we'll be well taken care of! Love you guys! Hope you have a great thanksgiving!
Elder Rosenbaum
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Another good week has come and gone. Although this week was a little harder than most nonetheless it was still a good week. To be frank the amount of teaching we did this week was pretty minimal and we did what we could to find and teach and we worked hard so thats what matters. Although we did have a great lesson with our investigator named Noah. Noah has done a ton a study on theology and actually referred himself to us and has come to the conclusion thats its either us and the catholics that are right. So we had a great lesson with him and really stressed the apostasy and it seemed to click with him so that was good! He had a lot of questions a couple of them referring to baptism so we got to talk to him about that as well. Noah took us on a walk on a trail(he lives out in the middle of nowhere basically in the mountains) which led to some water falls which was gorgeous. We ended up having our lesson there which was pretty sweet. Although our teaching was minimal this week we still had 3 investigators come to church which was pretty sweet. All of them but one we were unable to meet with but they still came so that was pretty sweet.
We have a new program which the church has spent a lot of money to establish its called just serve and its give missionaries or even regular people if they want a chance to get involved in the community and to serve the people in really any capacity. So we went and volunteered at a old folks retirement home and helped set up for this huge thanksgiving dinner for the residents. I felt like I was working my catering job again so it was pretty cool. All the residents and all the employees and other volunteers were asking us lots of questions about us because we were able to do it in our proselyting clothes. So that was a cool opportunity to get our name out there.
We had zone conference this week as well so that was really cool. It's always fun to see previous companions and people you've served around. And also to be spiritually uplifted.
We have lots of plans for thanksgiving. We've had numerous members invite us over to there place so don't worry we'll be well taken care of! Love you guys! Hope you have a great thanksgiving!
Elder Rosenbaum
November 17, 2014
Dear Family,
Its been quite a week for me. We'll start from the beginning. Tuesday was the day I traveled to my new area. Due to it being super far away, and many other delays to say the least it was a long day of traveling but I made it here just before 9 o'clock that night. My main area is the Auburn city which is about 30 miles from Sacramento but I also cover two smaller towns called New Castle and also Forest Hill. If you have a chance to goggle them, I would encourage you do it, it's absolutely beautiful up here. My last two areas have been a lot of the main city and this area is completely the opposite, so its cool to have some change and experience something new. Also after 8 straight transfers(one year) on a bike I'm finally back in a car. We actually have a Nissan truck so that's pretty cool. My new companions name is Elder Vielstich and he's from New Jersey so that's pretty cool as well. We also live with members here and I'm pretty sure their house is well worth over a million dollars its huge. We live in what they call 'the barn' but its just a giant garage on the side of their house which is super nice. I feel like I've adjusted well and I'm really gonna like it here.
We saw a ton of miracles this week. Due to a lot of what we cover is upper class people, I understand the work in this area has generally been a little slow. They seem to only get like 3 or 4 lessons a week if they work hard. Which I'm definitely not used to so hopefully we can pick things up. But we were able to get 9 lessons this week and that's without being here on Tuesday. They were literally all miracles. We had some super spiritual lessons. On Sunday we went over to this Lady's house her name is Michelle and she was a referral from a member. I guess the missionaries have tried numerous times and she had never been there so we were just gonna try one more time, then just drop it. But we went by and she invited us in and was super friendly and just ate up the first lesson. It was super spiritual. She soft committed to be baptized and was super excited to read The Book of Mormon. I guess her daughter who isn't a member has been anxiously engaged recently reading the BOM as well so hopefully we can start teaching her as well.
We also have this this investigator named David who we were able to teach twice this week with his grandmother who joined the church a couple of years ago. It was super cool. He was super open with us and is progressing really well. We invited him to be baptized and tried to set a date with him but he said no and expressed all his concerns to us which we were able to help address them which was super awesome. He said he would pray about being baptized and ask a specific question so he can receive a specific answer. So we had some good things happen this week.
Love you guys I hope you all are doing well!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Its been quite a week for me. We'll start from the beginning. Tuesday was the day I traveled to my new area. Due to it being super far away, and many other delays to say the least it was a long day of traveling but I made it here just before 9 o'clock that night. My main area is the Auburn city which is about 30 miles from Sacramento but I also cover two smaller towns called New Castle and also Forest Hill. If you have a chance to goggle them, I would encourage you do it, it's absolutely beautiful up here. My last two areas have been a lot of the main city and this area is completely the opposite, so its cool to have some change and experience something new. Also after 8 straight transfers(one year) on a bike I'm finally back in a car. We actually have a Nissan truck so that's pretty cool. My new companions name is Elder Vielstich and he's from New Jersey so that's pretty cool as well. We also live with members here and I'm pretty sure their house is well worth over a million dollars its huge. We live in what they call 'the barn' but its just a giant garage on the side of their house which is super nice. I feel like I've adjusted well and I'm really gonna like it here.
We saw a ton of miracles this week. Due to a lot of what we cover is upper class people, I understand the work in this area has generally been a little slow. They seem to only get like 3 or 4 lessons a week if they work hard. Which I'm definitely not used to so hopefully we can pick things up. But we were able to get 9 lessons this week and that's without being here on Tuesday. They were literally all miracles. We had some super spiritual lessons. On Sunday we went over to this Lady's house her name is Michelle and she was a referral from a member. I guess the missionaries have tried numerous times and she had never been there so we were just gonna try one more time, then just drop it. But we went by and she invited us in and was super friendly and just ate up the first lesson. It was super spiritual. She soft committed to be baptized and was super excited to read The Book of Mormon. I guess her daughter who isn't a member has been anxiously engaged recently reading the BOM as well so hopefully we can start teaching her as well.
We also have this this investigator named David who we were able to teach twice this week with his grandmother who joined the church a couple of years ago. It was super cool. He was super open with us and is progressing really well. We invited him to be baptized and tried to set a date with him but he said no and expressed all his concerns to us which we were able to help address them which was super awesome. He said he would pray about being baptized and ask a specific question so he can receive a specific answer. So we had some good things happen this week.
Love you guys I hope you all are doing well!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Saturday, November 15, 2014
November 10, 2014
Dear Family,
Well first off we received our transfer calls yesterday night. After 4 transfers(6 months) of serving in Redding, I am now being transferred to the Auburn 3rd ward and I will also be covering the Forest Hill Branch which I understand is basically out in the middle of nowhere. I'm excited for my new assignment and I know that this is where I'm suppose to go. Its weird to think that this may possibly be my last area that is if I stay there for 5 transfers. My new companion has only been out 3 months so I'm excited for the opportunity to serve with him.
As far as this week goes there wasn't anything too crazy that happened. I had the chance to say goodbye to a lot of people which was super sad. Redding really did feel like home while I was here.
Kyra will be getting baptized this Saturday!! We met with her a lot this week and getting her as prepared as she could before it. I'm kind of sad, I probably won't be able to go since my new area is so far away.
I'm short of time today, but I'll give more info about my new area next week and whats going on! Love you guys!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Well first off we received our transfer calls yesterday night. After 4 transfers(6 months) of serving in Redding, I am now being transferred to the Auburn 3rd ward and I will also be covering the Forest Hill Branch which I understand is basically out in the middle of nowhere. I'm excited for my new assignment and I know that this is where I'm suppose to go. Its weird to think that this may possibly be my last area that is if I stay there for 5 transfers. My new companion has only been out 3 months so I'm excited for the opportunity to serve with him.
As far as this week goes there wasn't anything too crazy that happened. I had the chance to say goodbye to a lot of people which was super sad. Redding really did feel like home while I was here.
Kyra will be getting baptized this Saturday!! We met with her a lot this week and getting her as prepared as she could before it. I'm kind of sad, I probably won't be able to go since my new area is so far away.
I'm short of time today, but I'll give more info about my new area next week and whats going on! Love you guys!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Saturday, November 8, 2014
November 3, 2014
Dear Family,
A lot of good things have happened since last week! We're now in week
6 of the transfer meaning a week from yesterday we receive transfer
calls again. I'm 95 percent sure I'm going to be getting transferred.
When I'm on the chopping block I always hate the anticipation of not
knowing where I'll be going. But I know I'll go where ever the Lords
needs me though. I know I've said this about all my areas but I really
love this area and its gonna be really sad to leave it. Its become
home here and its always hard to leave after you feel like you have
gotten to know everyone so well.
So on Tuesday this past week we had a zone blitz which was super cool.
Meaning every single missionary in our zone spent an entire day in
just one ward. So we all went to Shasta Lake city and were able to
find a ton of work for the Elders who cover the area. I guess this is
something as a mission we're going to do once a transfer to just
change things up and help out an area if its super dead. It was pretty
fun though we all had a good time.
We have a couple other of highlights from the week. We have an
investigator named Elizabeth who's a young mother and we had a super
spiritual lesson with her this week. We taught the Restoration and the
spirit was just super strong. She soft committed to be baptized. She
met with missionaries in Ohio so when we ran into her it was really a
cool miracle. She says her husband will most likely join her in the
discussions in the near future. We have a lot of hope for this couple.
Kyra is still completely on board and still has full support from her
parents. We taught her a couple of times this week! The plan is still
to have her baptism on November 15th!
With our ward mission leader we planned a volleyball night for members
to invite less actives and non members too. It was a great success and
we had a lot of people come and it was a great way to introduce the
gospel to them.
Well thats about all for this week. And last but not least Happy
Birthday today Dad! I hope you have a great day. Thanks for your love
and support!
Until next week!
Elder Rosenbaum
A lot of good things have happened since last week! We're now in week
6 of the transfer meaning a week from yesterday we receive transfer
calls again. I'm 95 percent sure I'm going to be getting transferred.
When I'm on the chopping block I always hate the anticipation of not
knowing where I'll be going. But I know I'll go where ever the Lords
needs me though. I know I've said this about all my areas but I really
love this area and its gonna be really sad to leave it. Its become
home here and its always hard to leave after you feel like you have
gotten to know everyone so well.
So on Tuesday this past week we had a zone blitz which was super cool.
Meaning every single missionary in our zone spent an entire day in
just one ward. So we all went to Shasta Lake city and were able to
find a ton of work for the Elders who cover the area. I guess this is
something as a mission we're going to do once a transfer to just
change things up and help out an area if its super dead. It was pretty
fun though we all had a good time.
We have a couple other of highlights from the week. We have an
investigator named Elizabeth who's a young mother and we had a super
spiritual lesson with her this week. We taught the Restoration and the
spirit was just super strong. She soft committed to be baptized. She
met with missionaries in Ohio so when we ran into her it was really a
cool miracle. She says her husband will most likely join her in the
discussions in the near future. We have a lot of hope for this couple.
Kyra is still completely on board and still has full support from her
parents. We taught her a couple of times this week! The plan is still
to have her baptism on November 15th!
With our ward mission leader we planned a volleyball night for members
to invite less actives and non members too. It was a great success and
we had a lot of people come and it was a great way to introduce the
gospel to them.
Well thats about all for this week. And last but not least Happy
Birthday today Dad! I hope you have a great day. Thanks for your love
and support!
Until next week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Friday, October 31, 2014
October 27, 2014
Dear Family,
It's been another good week. Its scary how fast time is going. Weeks are starting to feel like days. haha Its been an eventful week to say the least. We had a few setbacks but we pushed through the best we could. On one day I got a record 7 or 8 flat tires all in the same day. I decided that after a year of patching the same tube that it had better days and that I was probably better off buying a new tube. We also had some major storms this week! It was seriously insane how bad the storm was. Biking around town during the storm and after we saw numerous trees that had tipped over and smashed houses or other various things. It was a good time looking back at it though. We got trapped when the storm was at its worst and we ended up biking through the hail. All in all though we were safe and we saw a lot of cool miracles this week!
Our biggest highlight of the week is our 12 year old investigator named Kyra. She's from a part-member family and we've been teaching her for a little bit now and she committed to be baptized on November 15th! She committed to it and her parents are fully supporting her in her decision. She's incredibly smart for how young she is and knows a ton about the gospel and catches on really fast to everything we teach. She's fitting right in with the young women program and they're taking her right in. Its cool to see all this take place.
We saw so many miracles this week finding investigators to teach. With all of our recent converts we've been spending more time finding new people to teach and so we saw some good success this week. A few quick stories, we were out walking around and we street contacted this college aged man and we got talking and he invited us in his house and we taught the restoration to him and 3 of his roommates. One was from Switzerland, one from Germany, and the others I can't remember. The spirit was so strong though. Afterwards during our closing prayer some of them were crying and they gave us hugs after and told us thanks for the message we shared with them. They said it meant a lot to them. It was seriously the coolest miracle. Although shortly we'll be passing them off to the YSA ward it was still super cool to be an instrument in the Lords hands to find these people.
So many cool things happened this week but I don't have time to tell it all. Our Heavenly Father is so good to his children! Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Love you guys! Have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
It's been another good week. Its scary how fast time is going. Weeks are starting to feel like days. haha Its been an eventful week to say the least. We had a few setbacks but we pushed through the best we could. On one day I got a record 7 or 8 flat tires all in the same day. I decided that after a year of patching the same tube that it had better days and that I was probably better off buying a new tube. We also had some major storms this week! It was seriously insane how bad the storm was. Biking around town during the storm and after we saw numerous trees that had tipped over and smashed houses or other various things. It was a good time looking back at it though. We got trapped when the storm was at its worst and we ended up biking through the hail. All in all though we were safe and we saw a lot of cool miracles this week!
Our biggest highlight of the week is our 12 year old investigator named Kyra. She's from a part-member family and we've been teaching her for a little bit now and she committed to be baptized on November 15th! She committed to it and her parents are fully supporting her in her decision. She's incredibly smart for how young she is and knows a ton about the gospel and catches on really fast to everything we teach. She's fitting right in with the young women program and they're taking her right in. Its cool to see all this take place.
We saw so many miracles this week finding investigators to teach. With all of our recent converts we've been spending more time finding new people to teach and so we saw some good success this week. A few quick stories, we were out walking around and we street contacted this college aged man and we got talking and he invited us in his house and we taught the restoration to him and 3 of his roommates. One was from Switzerland, one from Germany, and the others I can't remember. The spirit was so strong though. Afterwards during our closing prayer some of them were crying and they gave us hugs after and told us thanks for the message we shared with them. They said it meant a lot to them. It was seriously the coolest miracle. Although shortly we'll be passing them off to the YSA ward it was still super cool to be an instrument in the Lords hands to find these people.
So many cool things happened this week but I don't have time to tell it all. Our Heavenly Father is so good to his children! Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Love you guys! Have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Sunday, October 26, 2014
October 20, 2014
Dear Family,
Once again its been another good week! Good things are continuing to happen! Shannon got baptized this week! It was such a good baptismal service. Usually its the wife thats gets baptized first and than the husband will follow later but in this case Shannons husband got baptized a month or so ago and now Shannon is baptized. It was such a blessing to teach them. One of their best friends introduced them to the church. Member-missionary work is the way to go. It's always a miracle when members are helping you out along the way. The ward is really taking them in and its been so good.
This week was so good we were able to get a lot of lessons in which was great. A lot of people invited us in this week, which was a huge tender mercy for us. We had a mission President fast this week where we couldn't have a dinner appointment unless it was with a less active, part-member family, or an investigator and we saw a lot of miracles with that. It was good to have a way in with a few people.
Our next closest investiagtor to baptism is Ginny. She's an older lady we've been teaching for about 4 months now. She has the desire to be baptized and to believe the things we're teaching, she just won't make the commitment to come to church. At least not yet. If you could keep her in your prayers that would be awesome! Our 12 year old investigator named Kyra is also getting closer and progresing.
Thanks for all your support! Trust in God, have that perfect brightness of hope, and always believe in good things to come. God is always good. Love you guys
Sunday, October 19, 2014
October 13, 2014
Dear Family,
My time this week is a little short but I'll say as much as I can for the time I have. First off, the temple was amazing! It was so cool to be able to go through the temple with Jacob for both his endowment and being sealed to his wife and two kids. It was seriously the greatest thing and definitely one of the highlights of my mission. The spirit there was so insane and so strong and a lot of tears were shed from Jacob and his wife. So it was a special weekend definitely not one that I'll forget anytime soon. They invited us to go to the spaghetti factory after with all of there family and it was cool to meet all of them. I'll be sure to include pictures.
We have a baptism this Saturday for a lady named Shannon which is super exciting. Her husband was baptized about 3 or 4 weeks ago. And he just got theAaronic Priesthood yesterday so he'll be able to baptize his own wife.
We had a lesson with a 12 year old girl named Kyra and she has the greatest desire to do what's right and work towards being baptized. It was so cool to start teaching her and even be referred to her. We're seeing so many good things happening here. The Lord has been blessing us so much and preparing people for us. Sorry to make this so short. Love you guys have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Friday, October 10, 2014
October 6, 2014
Dear Family,
This week has blown by, its amazes me how fast time keeps going. We are officially moved into our new apartment. That took a lot of our time, I was amazed at how much stuff we had to move out of our last place. I can't remember if I told you guys or not but for the last 4 months I've been living in a garage, so it feels weird again to have a stove, carpet and things like that in our apartment. We live in the dead center of our area which makes things so nice for us especially being on bikes.
Marks funeral was great. It was obviously really sad but the services were really good and there were a lot of nonmembers there. Both me and my companion had the chance to speak at it, so it was a good experience for us. Marks daughter, Josephine, has been inviting us back to her house which has been a huge blessing. We're really hoping she starts to progress and take the same steps her father took.
We were so blessed to start teaching a 12 year old Kyra this week. She who wants to be baptized. She has been adopted into an active family and the family wanted it to be her decision and she decided she wants to meet with us which is a huge miracle. We met with her for the first time yesterday.
Robert and Shannon are doing great! Robert is now baptized and his wife will be following him on October 18th which is awesome! They both watched conference and loved it.
Jacob, my first convert of the mission, is getting his endowments out on Oct 10 and getting sealed on Oct 11!! How cool is that!! I've been invited to go so I'm pretty excited for that. When I went back to a baptism in that area several weeks ago and I got to stop by and visit them and it was awesome.
The Lord has been so good to us. Right now we have 2 people on date for baptism so we're continuing to see good things happening. I wish I could tell you guys more fully everything that happens but I would ramble on forever. I love you guys and miss you a ton. The church is still true even if your Heisman quarterback gets injured at Utah State and we end up losing. Keep the faith! Listen to the words of Gods servants and apply want we've learned this weekend and act on it. Have a great week!
Elder Rosenbaum
Oh and FYI I got to see Meet The Mormons before it officially came out. They showed it to all the missionaries since we can't go to the theaters. It was terrific! I encourage all to go see it and invite your friends to see it!
Sunday, October 5, 2014
September 29, 2014
Dear Family,
All is well and going good! We had our transfer calls come Sunday
night and I received the notice that I will be staying a 3rd transfer
with Elder Blomquist here in the Redding 2nd ward. I'm pretty happy
with it because we have some good stuff happening and I kind of feel
like if I left I would leave a lot of things unfinished. At the end
of this transfer I'll have been in this area just short of 6 months
just like my previous area. I seem to be following a pattern.
The members we live with have officially moved out so on Wednesday we
will be moving into an apartment. We currently live on top of a huge
hill and there's been a number of missionaries that have gotten hurt
on it or even broken bones on in. It is kind if sad to see the members
leave because they were just super legit.
The work this week went super well! We had a baptism for Robert
Salsbury. Robert was found through a member of the ward. Robert has
mental disabilities and is the coolest guy around. He has a strong
testimony and just has been soaking everything up. We're teaching his
wife as well and she will be getting baptized on October 11th because
she felt that she wasn't quite ready yet and she wanted to get
baptized the same day as her friend who is being taught in a different
ward. All in all its been a huge miracle.
Elder Blomquist and I found a investigator about 3 months ago named
Ginny and she committed to be baptized on November 1st which is super
exciting. I can't believe how good The Lord has been to us. Hopefully
she keeps her commitments and it goes through!
Mom, Happy Birthday!!! I love you and always appreciate your support!
Have a great week!
-Elder Rosenbaum
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All is well and going good! We had our transfer calls come Sunday
night and I received the notice that I will be staying a 3rd transfer
with Elder Blomquist here in the Redding 2nd ward. I'm pretty happy
with it because we have some good stuff happening and I kind of feel
like if I left I would leave a lot of things unfinished. At the end
of this transfer I'll have been in this area just short of 6 months
just like my previous area. I seem to be following a pattern.
The members we live with have officially moved out so on Wednesday we
will be moving into an apartment. We currently live on top of a huge
hill and there's been a number of missionaries that have gotten hurt
on it or even broken bones on in. It is kind if sad to see the members
leave because they were just super legit.
The work this week went super well! We had a baptism for Robert
Salsbury. Robert was found through a member of the ward. Robert has
mental disabilities and is the coolest guy around. He has a strong
testimony and just has been soaking everything up. We're teaching his
wife as well and she will be getting baptized on October 11th because
she felt that she wasn't quite ready yet and she wanted to get
baptized the same day as her friend who is being taught in a different
ward. All in all its been a huge miracle.
Elder Blomquist and I found a investigator about 3 months ago named
Ginny and she committed to be baptized on November 1st which is super
exciting. I can't believe how good The Lord has been to us. Hopefully
she keeps her commitments and it goes through!
Mom, Happy Birthday!!! I love you and always appreciate your support!
Have a great week!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Sunday, September 28, 2014
September 22, 2014
Dear Family,
A lot of good and bad things happened this week so we'll start with the bad to get it over with. Do you guys remember Mark Childers? Mark is the man that we got baptized about 7 weeks ago and also my greenies first convert on his mission. Well he had terminal cancer and overcame smoking and everything. One of the coolest stories throughout my mission. Well we gave him a call to go visit him on Saturday and his daughter answered the phone and informed us that he had passed away from his cancer(age 52). She invited us over to go spend sometime with their family that day and go to a bbq with them because she knew how much we meant to Mark. It was a great opportunity to meet them and hopefully a good way in with them. The funeral services will be this Wednesday morning and either me or Elder Blomquist will be giving a talk during it. Mark meant a lot to me and we became really close and spent a lot of time over there. I know he's at peace now though and free of all mortal pain. Mark had expressed to his mother how important and how much it would mean to him if he could go to church with his mother. His mother was originally planning on coming down to Redding from Oregon anyways but she just so happened to come down the week he passed away. Talk about perfect timing. His mom insisted in coming to church with us and told us that she knew that Mark would be there in spirit at church. All in all I know everything will work out.
We're teaching a couple named Robert and Shannon. There a couple that we were able to find through a member in the area. Robert and Shannon are a couple with mental disabilities but are just so sweet. Robert is getting baptized this Saturday which is super exciting. He already had his interview and everything is ready to go. Shannon his wife doesn't feel quite ready so she wants to hang on for a little bit so she is going to be getting baptized on October 11th. Robert and Shannon have been the coolest people, its been a huge blessing to teach them.
This is week 6 of the transfer meaning this Sunday night we find out if I'm going to be getting transferred or not. I feel like its about 50/50 whether or not I will get transferred. I've now finished training Elder Blomquist but I've only been in my area for 3 transfers and I've been in my previous ones for 4.
Dad, as far as the fires go, both the north and south of my missions are being affected by it, not so much the central. The North where I'm at there seems to be a new fire every couple of days, its kind of crazy. The most recent one has been in a city named weed. Redding is fine, just the air is really polluted which makes biking a little bit harder.
Love you guys! You're all great! Hope you have a great week!
Monday, September 22, 2014
September 17, 2014
Dear Family,
Its been another great one! First off, p-day is today instead of
Monday this week so hopefully you didn't freak out when I didn't write
earlier this week! We had a half-mission conference which was awesome!
Elder Nielsen from the first quorum of the seventy was there and
addressed us and he had some great things to say. He said come June to
expect more missions around the world to be announced. Someone asked
if our mission was gonna be split and he said no comment. I guess
we'll see what happens. The biggest thing he talked about is how we
need to connect people to heaven and the key to doing that. He talked
a lot about grace and our weaknesses and how sometimes we all think
we're insufficient in what were asked to do. What he had to say was
great. He basically told us not to tract. He told us to go visit every
less active in the book before we tract. The reasoning behind it is
that he explained that most the time active members are only friends
with active members but when we visit less actives they surround
themselves with nonmembers which gives us a better chance of getting a
referral and a lot of the time less actives have nonmembers in there
family.
I honestly can't remember a lot that has happened because I feel like
its been so long since I've emailed but we had some amazing miracles.
We're teaching a 17 year old young women named Taylor and we had a
super spiritual lesson with her. She soft committed to be baptized
which is awesome! We had a investigator named Josh and Taylor is
Josh's ex girlfriends sister.(hopefully that makes sense) So it was
kind of interesting how we were able to find her. We've been teaching
Taylor for about a month and its been sweet!
We found a total of 3 investigators this week which is awesome. We're
not teaching as much as I would like to but sometimes the works seems
to do that, it always goes up and down and you just can't control
peoples free agency.
We did have one cool miracle. The sister missionaries in the ward next
to us are teaching a couple that are committed to be baptized on
September 27th. Well they moved to our ward so they will be passing
them off to us tomorrow so we will have the blessing and privilege to
teach them. I feel kind of bad that they did most of the work but
we're all on the same team though.
Love you guys hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Here's some pics of the half mission conference and some caves we hiked.
Its been another great one! First off, p-day is today instead of
Monday this week so hopefully you didn't freak out when I didn't write
earlier this week! We had a half-mission conference which was awesome!
Elder Nielsen from the first quorum of the seventy was there and
addressed us and he had some great things to say. He said come June to
expect more missions around the world to be announced. Someone asked
if our mission was gonna be split and he said no comment. I guess
we'll see what happens. The biggest thing he talked about is how we
need to connect people to heaven and the key to doing that. He talked
a lot about grace and our weaknesses and how sometimes we all think
we're insufficient in what were asked to do. What he had to say was
great. He basically told us not to tract. He told us to go visit every
less active in the book before we tract. The reasoning behind it is
that he explained that most the time active members are only friends
with active members but when we visit less actives they surround
themselves with nonmembers which gives us a better chance of getting a
referral and a lot of the time less actives have nonmembers in there
family.
I honestly can't remember a lot that has happened because I feel like
its been so long since I've emailed but we had some amazing miracles.
We're teaching a 17 year old young women named Taylor and we had a
super spiritual lesson with her. She soft committed to be baptized
which is awesome! We had a investigator named Josh and Taylor is
Josh's ex girlfriends sister.(hopefully that makes sense) So it was
kind of interesting how we were able to find her. We've been teaching
Taylor for about a month and its been sweet!
We found a total of 3 investigators this week which is awesome. We're
not teaching as much as I would like to but sometimes the works seems
to do that, it always goes up and down and you just can't control
peoples free agency.
We did have one cool miracle. The sister missionaries in the ward next
to us are teaching a couple that are committed to be baptized on
September 27th. Well they moved to our ward so they will be passing
them off to us tomorrow so we will have the blessing and privilege to
teach them. I feel kind of bad that they did most of the work but
we're all on the same team though.
Love you guys hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Rosenbaum
Here's some pics of the half mission conference and some caves we hiked.
Monday, September 15, 2014
September 8, 2014
Dear Family,
Well it has been another good week here in Redding. I'll start off with our highlight of the week. Ralph was baptized! It was such a good day and the spirit was so strong. It's so amazing to see another child of god become one with the saints and enter into Christ's church and most importantly receive that saving ordinance. The Lord seems to be so good at preparing his people and making it truly a wonderful time to be a missionary. I had the opportunity to be the one to baptize him so it was a special day.
The day after his baptism we were able to find someone that seems pretty promising. We visited a less active lady that we were referred to by a member and she was a foster mom and she just barely was able to adopt her daughter named Cheyenne who's 15 years old. She wants us to start the discussions with her which is super awesome. It kind of came out of nowhere and was such a great blessing!
With a lot of the investigators we've been teaching they've slowing been dropping us or are just kind of flaky or not progressing so we did a lot of less active work this week which was great. We're gonna be in a lot of finding mode these next couple of weeks I think. Jeremiah our 12 year old investigator is super close to baptism! His parents are divorced and he was scared for the longest time to ask his mom for permission but I guess he finally did and verbally she said it would be fine we just have to get it on paper and he can get baptized. We've taught him all the lessons and we still go over there every week so it would be super cool if we could see him get baptized before I get transferred.
Our mission President was in the area on Saturday and called us and took us out to dinner which was super cool. It was nice to be able to talk to him on a casual basis like that.
We're hiking lava tubes/caves I think for p-day which should be rather cool. I'll send pictures next week probably. Have a great week! Love you guys!
Elder Rosenbaum
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