Thursday, May 29, 2014

May 26, 2014

Dear Family,

So first off, transfer calls came! I have mixed feelings about this
but I know I'm going exactly where The Lord needs me to serve. I am
being transferred to Redding! I'll be serving in the Redding 2nd ward
and I'll still be on a bike. Redding is the hottest place in our
entire mission. From what I understand it's kind of a valley where
all the heat just gets stuck in there and has no where to go. I've
heard from others that its pretty regular for it to be 110 to 120
during the summer. Missionaries kind of always joke with each other
that they'll get transferred to Redding during the summer but I'm
excited for the opportunity I have to go there! I'm currently in the
most south part of our mission and Redding is the furthest North so
I'll be having a good long drive there tomorrow. I've never heard of
my companion before so it should be interesting. I'm pretty sad to be
leaving Citrus Heights. Especially since I'll miss Brayden's baptism
who've I've been working with ever since I've been here. I feel like I
can truly say that I was able to love the people here and I'm really
going to miss the friendships I've made here. I've also been called as
district leader so that should be fun as well.

As far as this week goes, we had a great week. We were able to teach
Brayden and we played tennis twice this week. We also had a great
lesson with a new investigator named Victoria. She's just over 30
years old. A less active we've been working with introduced us to her
and we taught her and introduced the Book of Mormon. She started
crying on the first lesson so that was pretty sweet! We also ran into a
random guy in the street who's a less active and served in the army
and he was saying he wished he served a mission instead of getting
caught up in everything. He told us his wife was telling him that she
thinks they need to start going to church. He said he told her well
lets go to the church I used to go to. So we're going to begin
teaching his wife. It was a really cool miracle. I feel like it was
definitely a blessing from just trying to talk to everyone you see, you
never know what will come from it. Missionary work can be hard
sometimes but its rewarding and its fun! I can't believe I'll be
hitting my hump mark in two weeks or so! Well that's all! Love you
guys!

Friday, May 23, 2014

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone. It's crazy how fast time goes. In a couple of weeks I'll be hitting my hump mark which is really weird to think about. This is the last week of the transfer. We'll be receiving transfer calls this Sunday so I'll let you guys know what happens. Since I've been in this area for 6 months and with the same companion for 3 transfers now there's a good chance we'll be having some change. 

We had zone conference this week. It was long but it was also really good. It was our last zone conference with President Weston. Our new mission President will be arriving June 30th. It should be an interesting change as well. 

We did a lot of good work this week. We worked with Brayden this week and he's still progressing well and on date for June 28th. I went and played tennis with him twice this week which was really fun! It felt good to be out and hitting again. He was actually pretty good. I ended up beating him but not by much. If I do get transferred this is one I'll definitely be coming back for. I can't remember if I told you or not but he asked me if I would be the one who would perform the actual baptism for him so I'm pretty excited about that.

We did a lot of finding this week and a lot of street contacting. We had a good amount of success. Hopefully all the people that invited us back will have some potential. And on a random note I had Costa Vida this week! It was extremely good! Its also getting extremely hot! I heard from a couple of sources it was just below a 100 degrees. Well have a great week everyone. I love you guys!

Elder Rosenbaum

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

May 12, 2014

Dear Family,

It was great to see and talk to you guys yesterday! It definitely was
a great week with the baptism of Mekaela we were able to have and
being able to skype home for Mothers Day. It sounds like all you guys
are doing well! A lot of what I tell you in this email I might have
told you on the phone so sorry if its a repeat. We've been working a
lot with Brayden! Brayden had the chance to attend the baptism we had
and he said he really felt the spirit there and was asking a lot of
questions and it seemed to further spark his interest and get him
excited for his baptism on June 28th. Brayden actually asked me this
week if I would be the one who actually baptized him. The Lord has
definitely been blessing us with miracles and its exciting to see the
work moving forward. Well not a lot else has really happened this
week. We worked really hard and taught a good amount of lessons. Love
you guys and have a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

May 5, 2014

Dear Family,

We had a great week, probably one of the most successful we've had since I've been in this area. So cool news, we have a baptism this Saturday! Its for a 16 year old girl name Mckayla. We haven't been teaching her for too long. She was taught by missionaries in a different stake for awhile but they passed her off to us because she lives in our area so we've been teaching her for a little bit. She came to church on Sunday and the ward has been great with fellowshipping her and really just wrapping there arms around her. We've been able to bring some of the young women and the young women leader to lessons and its been really successful. Her parents have been really supportive and she said that they might join us in the future lessons so we will see what happens. Its been a huge miracle though. 

Our other miracle we had this week is that we had 5 investigators to sacrament. Which is the most I've had in a long time and the most I've had in this area. Frankie, the one that we're working on getting married, got laid off his job which is a good and a bad thing at the same time. He was working on Sunday's previously so now he can come to church. Which he did, he came to all 3 hours on Sunday. 

We taught Brayden again this week as well. He's doing awesome. He's still on date for baptism on June 28th which is two weeks after his wedding. I found out that he plays tennis and we were both freakin out a little. haha so were gonna go play tennis this week, it should be fun. He came to church as well, along with his future father in law who we are teaching as well. And Gary, this conspiracy theorists, came to church as well. We're starting to see the work really progress now. We had been kind of down for awhile because we were having the hardest time trying to make our investigators progress but things are seeming to look up now.

We had a Elder's quorum meat feed this week where a bunch of guys just get together and we eat meat. We were able to get some less actives we were working with there and it was awesome to see them come out!
 
 I look forward to talking with you guys next on Mothers Day! Love you guys!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

April 28, 2014



Dear Family,

We had another great week! We had some interesting experiences this
week. On Thursday we we were biking home  at night in our service
clothes because we had just previously finished some service and Elder
Johnson forgot to put on his light on his bike so we ended up getting
pulled over by this cop. There was definitely something suspicious
going on in the area because we saw a lot of cops there as backup.
Anyways, we got pulled over on our bikes and the cop used the excuse
of my companion not having a bike light to pull us over. We got
talking to her  and we explained that we usually have a white shirt
and tie on and that we're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints. haha She was checking my license and saw that I
was from Utah and immediately asked if I was a Mormon. haha Well
anyways it was a unique teaching opportunity we had and she didn't end
up giving us a warning or anything. And just in case you were wondering
she wasn't too interested in our message but it was worth a try. haha
Elder Johnson and I seem to have a lot of different encounters with
cops. First we had them barge in a house interrupting a lesson and now
this.

Elder Johnson is a great missionary. I can't remember if I told you
guys this or not but he has narcolepsy so he's always falling asleep
during lessons and other situations. Well we were doing some service
for a older lady in our ward who's actually a recent convert and we
were trimming her bushes. Elder Johnson was using the electric trimmer
and he fell asleep while doing it. Well he accidentally chopped the
extension cord with the trimmer and blew a huge circuit or something.
There was a huge spark and everything but fortunately no one got hurt.
The Lord is definitely watching over us.  The electricity wouldn't
work anywhere in her house after that. We worked it out for a
electrician in our ward to come and fix it so everything worked out. I
love Elder Johnson but that would definitely be really hard suffering
from narcolepsy and having no control over that.

We picked up a new investigator this week named Jessie and we are going to
begin teaching his son along with him. He was a referral from a member
which makes our job a lot easier. We always seem to have little
miracles like that everyday.

Our stake did a community day of service on Saturday and it was on a
public trail for biking and running. It was a great way to get to know
the community a little better and get our name out there. I'll send
some pictures of it.

My testimony of this Gospel has grown tremendously. I would say the
biggest thing I've learned or gained from my mission thus far is how
amazing The Book Of Mormon is. Our mission President challenged us to
read it in 85 days which is how long it took Joseph Smith to translate
it and it was such a blessing being able to do that.  I gain a
stronger testimony and witness of that book everyday I go out and talk
to people about it.

Love you guys!


-Elder Rosenbaum

pic 1- Just some of the missionaries
pic 2- me and my companion with some of the young men in our ward.