Sunday, December 28, 2014

December 22, 2014

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 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


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

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