Tuesday, July 29, 2014

July 28, 2014

Dear Family,

Its good to hear everything. I'm glad you guys had a great time with family at the reunion. I'm sure it was a good time for all. It feels weird not having any celebrations here for the 24th. Haha but as for me this week was good. There was some crazy things that happened this week. As for Jeremiah, his baptism didn't go through on Saturday which was kind of disappointing because he didn't get the guts to ask his mom for permission when he was with her. We met with him again this week though and had a great lesson with him. We talked him through how to best ask his mom for permission and to have the courage. He's on date for August 9th now. His dad is all for it and really wants it to go through. 

Mark is almost a week free of cigarettes which is a huge blessing! We gave him a blessing at the beginning of the week to be able to overcome it and he's pushing through it. He's come to church 3 weeks in a row now and is super on tract for his baptism  which is now on August 15th. We're super excited for him and he is just really prepared. 

Ralph is doing good as well and he committed 100 percent this week to give up coffee. He's progressing and doing awesome! We don't seem to have a huge teaching pool but the ones we have seem to be the elect which is the biggest blessing. His baptism will be on August 15th as well. 

Crazy story, we were out contacting some potentials this week and we knocked on this door and the man yelled come in. So we went in and it was this older man and he was completely naked. It was pretty crazy and kind of awkward. Haha he then went on to yell at us while still unclothed and so we left. It was a good laugh afterwards though. 

I went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders which is always a good time. That's about all for this week. 

I love you guys and you are always in my prayers.

Elder Rosenbaum 

Friday, July 25, 2014

July 21, 2014

Dear Family,

Its been another great week! We've been seeing miracles and all of are investigators are progressing really well. We're suppose to find out tonight at our lesson with Jeremiah if his mom is gonna give him permission to be baptized! If she said yes his baptism will be this Saturday which is pretty exciting. Hopefully everything works out. 

We taught Ralph this week! Dad, he's the one whose fellowshipper knows you. We had a spectacular lesson with him. He had a death in his family and we taught the Plan of Salvation which fit perfectly. Well he's committed to be baptized on August 16th! He's struggling a little bit with coffee so we're gonna be working a lot with that and pray that he'll be able to overcome it. 

Mark Childers is still doing great. We met with him again this week and he's been all over the Book of Mormon and reading it. He came to church this week again and he's still planning on being baptized on August 16th. He has cancer and supposedly was suppose to have passed away over a year again. The whole situation is really crazy. 

The last couple of weeks we've been teaching a young couple named Josh and Taylor. Previously Josh had just been meeting with us but his girlfriend is now joining us and its awesome. We had a powerful restoration lesson with them this week. We were able to give Josh a priesthood blessing for his sickness and the spirit was definitely there. 

Our teaching pool is growing every week and its just amazing to me at how The Lord just keeps preparing people for us to teach.  Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week. We had a zone meeting which is always good. Love you guys! Have a great week! 

-Elder Rosenbaum

Sunday, July 20, 2014

July 14, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been super busy but super good! Tuesday was the day that my companion left for his new area. We were able to do a little bit of work that day and then me and Elder Gull traveled the length of the mission and stayed in a missionaries apartment close to the mission office where we would pick up our greenies. I was able to while I was down south to visit my last area and have dinner with the Hernandez family and Brayden. Both me and Elder Gull served in that ward, but at different times, so it was fun to be with them again for a day. 

My new companions name is Elder Blomquist. He graduated from high school in 2014 and is from Tooele Utah. He's super cool and really solid, it doesn't  even feel like I'm training him really.  I'm surprised with how good he is at teaching already and he just feels comfortable which is great. I was able to meet our new mission President that day. He's awesome as well. 

On Friday we traveled down to Chico and had a meet the president meeting and got to know President and Sister Marston a little bit better. It was fun to see previous companions and people I've served around. 

We saw a ton of miracles this week!  We had 3 investigators come to church! This man named Mark Childers basically hunted us down and wanted to meet with us. He used to live in a Mormonfamily and he strayed away from it when he was younger. Well now he's about 60 or so and wants to take the discussions and be baptized. We had two lessons with him this week and he even came to church with us and stayed for all 3 hours. It was awesome and a huge miracle. He even committed to August 16th to be baptized. We put it further away though because he wants to and needs to wane himself off cigarettes.  

Another cool miracle, Dad do you know a Greg Smith? Apparently he knows you! Its crazy! I guess he knows you from work somehow and he's a big Nature Sunshine guy. Well he's in a ward right by the ward I'm serving in. He has a friend who lives in our ward that's interested in the church and wants to be baptized! We had dinner with both Greg Smith and his friend who's name is Ralph. It was awesome, we taught the restoration after and the spirit was super strong! He even came to church on Sunday

We met a lot with Jereimiah this week as his baptism is getting closer! Everything there is still going great!  

Love you guys hope you all are doing well! 

-Elder Rosenbaum

Sunday, July 13, 2014

July 7, 2014

Dear Family,

So a lot is going on here. We had transfer calls Sunday night. Both me
and Elder Cevering were praying that we would stay together for
another transfer but I guess The Lord had another plan. My companion
has been transferred to Grass Valley. I have been called to train
again and I also stayed district leader. My district will probably be
one of the youngest districts in the mission. There's only 3
companionships in our district and we've all been assigned to train.
So I'm not sure exactly whats going to go down but I believe on
tuesday the 3 of us will travel the length of the mission down to
Antelope and stay the night there and pick up our greenies wednesday
morning.

A couple of cool things that happened this week. We were able to go to
sundial bridge. It was pretty cool. Its a pretty big hit up here.
Check out my picture on facebook if you want to see it! As far as the
work here we just worked with the people I've been telling you about.
It frustrates me how hard satan can work sometimes in your
investigators lives. Mary has failed to come to church the last 2 week
and is still having a hard time over coming cigarettes. So her baptism
will be pushed back. We are gonna start taking it a lot slower with her. I
think everything will work out, it will just take some time.  We have
awesome lessons when we're over there though and she has told us she
recognizes the spirit and feels it when we come over so that is a
plus! We're just praying super hard that she can make some final key
steps so she can reach her baptism.

So remember Pao I used to talk about all the time when I was first in
this area? We had him on date for baptism and everything. Well we lost
contact with him because he moved last minute. But we were able to
find him through facebook and set up a skype lesson with him. He's
back meeting with the missionaries and preparing for baptism but in a
different ward in Redding so that was actually a huge miracle for us
this week. It was awesome to talk with him again.

Jeremiah is still a stud and still working towards July 26th to be
baptized. For being only 12 he knows and understands a lot about the
Gospel. Its been awesome.

Another cool miracle! We got a referral and we were able to talk with
him on the phone. He told us that he grew up in a mormon home but was
never baptized and he rebelled against it when he was younger. Well I
guess his heart has been softened and he told us he wants to start
meeting with us and he wants to get baptized. We have a lesson with
him tomorrow! Talk about a golden prospect. The Lord has been blessing
us! Also, every week we visit this less active lady named June Pierce.
Well we've been working with her for awhile now and her boyfriend told
June that he wants to take the discussions. So we talked with him and
we have dinner with them this thursday and will be teaching the first
discussion! The work is definitely going in the right direction.

We live up on a hill so our backyard had a good view of the fireworks
that the city launches so we were able to watch those with the members
we live with so that was awesome as well!

I was sick for a couple of days this week but we still tried to do
what we could. I'm basically feeling all the way better so things are
good! I just reallized this email is really long...oh well Love you
guys! Have a great week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

Thursday, July 3, 2014

June 30, 2014

Dear Family,

Its been quite the week this past week. Definitely one of the highlights from my mission. We'll start with the best part first, Saturday was Brayden's baptism. It was awesome. It makes everything so worth it as a missionary. I'll send a couple of pictures from it. The story with this family is so awesome and there definitely some of the people I've become the closest with throughout my mission. Now everyone in the past 15 months or so, including Brayden now, has been baptized in that family, besides the father. Hopefully he decides to make that decision soon. Even though I've only been gone from that ward for about 5 weeks it was awesome being able to see everyone there at the baptism. After the baptism we went and had a barbecue with family, friends, and all the missionaries who were able to come to the baptism. It was a good time. After Brayden was baptized he told me he knew this was true. That alone makes it that much better because you know he's converted. I'm grateful to be able to be a instrument in the Lords hands to do his work. 

This week we went down to chico and had what they called a specialized zone training but what it really was, was just a meeting to be able to say goodbye to our mission President. It was a great meeting and it was definitely sad to say goodbye. I'll send a picture of that as well.

As far as the work this week it was busy but good! Mary is still on date for June 19th and Jeremiah is on date for July 26th(but we might change that one) we met with both of them this week and things are going well with them. They're continuing to progress. We're just praying really hard that Mary will make it to church these next couple of weeks. We did a lot of less active work this week which was awesome and had 5 less actives come to sacrament. We also found two new investigators this week. So The Lord is continually blessing us and helping us out. 

So I'm living in the same members house right now that one of the Voorhees boys lived in. It was Brad.  Small world just thought I would let you know about that. 

Sorry if I sent too many pictures!   Love you guys. Have a great 4th of July!

-Elder Rosenbaum

Ben with Mission President and Mission President's wife

 The rest of the pictures are of Brayden's Baptism



Ben with Brayden