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

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