Tuesday, January 27, 2015

January 26, 2015

Dear Family,

So we've had some cool miracles this week I'll just start off by jumping right into it. We've been working with this part-member family named the Scheigh's and we've had a hard time meeting with them hardly at all because they've been insanely busy but they still come to church every week. They have a daughter who was baptized about 6ish months ago and we're working with Jeff(the father) and Colton there 11 year old son. Well they had us overSaturday night for dinner and we had a super good lesson with Jeff and Colton. Really just kind down to earth people. Colton has been heavily involved in church for the past several months and was even part of the primary program. Well Colton asked if he could take the discussions again while we were over there and Jeff was all for it. Anyways long story short we will be meeting with them Wednesday at the church and than playing basketball with the Elder's quorum  with them  which will be awesome to help fellowship Jeff in. Colton has expressed interest in being baptized so we're excited that the family is being softened as a whole and letting us work with him.

Every 2 to 3 months we have what we call a zone blitz. So basically everyone in your zone goes into one area and does work for the entire day and helps you find, contact less actives, and so forth. Well I've never had a blitz done in my own area before until Saturday. Me and my companion thoroughly planned it out and gave everyone different assignments and different people to go see. We basically went through all our records in our ward and crossed out everyone who had moved and was not interested and that left us with about 120 or so less actives that we knew nothing about. Well every single one of those people got contacted that day. They might not have all been home but they at least all got contacted. Plus we now have a ton a potentials investigators and further people to work with that they were able to find. So overall it was a really good experience and we had a lot of success!

This Sunday we will receive our transfer calls. Its amazing how fast transfers come but I'm pretty sure I'll be staying in my area since I've only been here for 3 months. Chances are that my companion will get transferred, since he's been here for 6 months. I guess we'll see what happens the Lord knows best!

Love you guys thanks for you're continual support and love!

-Elder Rosenbaum

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

January 19, 2015

Dear Family,

So its been another good week! For P-day today we went and hiked and walked around the foresthill bridge which is the tallest bridge in the state of California so that was pretty cool. And I got to go play tennis again with an Elder in my zone so its been a pretty good day so far. We are continuing to work with the same people I've mentioned in recent emails but we just can't get them over the hump and to make that next commitment to set a date. I feel like the Lord is trying to teach me to be more patient because I think often we want instant results for whatever it is  we are doing. But I'm learning that's not always the case. These are God's children  and God works in his own way and in his own timing. Sometimes I forget that, but the Lord is always good to remind me. After coming from Redding where we baptized so much and had so much success its been a learning process during this stretch that I just have to continue to be patient and work hard and we'll be able to find more of God's children who are the elite and are prepared to receive our message. I'm reminded that we still are having success and that success comes in our invitation to people and not whether they accept it or not. 

Michelle, Noah, David, John, Wilma and a few others are all coming along just slowly but surely. And fortunately enough a lot of them are still making a desire to come to church every week and are progressing! I'm so grateful for my call as a missionary and that the Lord entrust me in this small part of the vineyard to minister and to find people in this area. Not much else to report on but I love you guys and hope you all have a fantastic week. 

Elder Rosenbaum

Thursday, January 15, 2015

January 12, 2015

Dear Family,

So I seem to have mention this a lot the past couple of weeks but its true. Little by little every week the work is continuing to grow and get better in this area. It hasn't happened over night but our teaching pool is continually increasing. We almost taught 15 lessons this week and a lot of them were with member presents so a lot of good things are happening. And we now have a whomping 6 progressing investigators which is awesome!

On Tuesday we had zone meeting and after we were gonna go visit the people we had planned but Elder Vielstich had a strong prompting we should go visit our investigator named John Setelo so we did. One thing great about being a missionary is whether its yourself or your companion you're continually being led by the spirit in EVERYTHING you do. We had a super powerful lesson with John and talked very deeply about the atonement Jesus Christ.  He had been having a hard time with some personal issues and just starting crying during our lesson. He even gave us a hug after wards thanking us for the discussion. John is progressing super well and is definitely heading in the right direction. He was on date for baptism but backed off so hopefully we can get him in that direction.

We had another super good lesson with our investigator named Wilma. Her daughter converted years ago and is super active so we were able to teach and find her through her daughter. Wilma is a very avid reader so it hasn't been hard to get her to read the Book of Mormon and she's already half way through it! Well the spirit is continually touching her and she came to church the other week!

We're teaching a couple of part-member families as well. We have a investigator named Kent who has a very strong active wife and he's been going to church for months now and is quite frankly being a little stubborn and won't commit to make a lot of changes. But we're continuing to work with them. We're working with another part-member family named the Schweighs. There daughter was baptized about six months ago so we working with the father and the 12 year old son named Colton.

Good things are happening so thank you so much for your prayers and support! Oh and by the way today is my 19 month mark. I can't even fathom that. Well have a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum



Monday, January 12, 2015

January 5, 2015

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone! I know I always seem to mention how fast time flies but really I have no idea where it goes. So good things are continuing to happen. Members are getting involved and its helping us out  a lot! For instance, a member brought a friend to church and we had the chance to talk to him at church. He came to our gospel principles class and now we have dinner tonight with him and the family that is going to fellowship him. We're going to be teaching him the first discussion. Its amazing how crucial members are to helping us fulfill our calling of teaching the restored gospel. A simple invitation of inviting a friend to church can go further than you think. This is just one instance but there seems to be a ton of little miracles continually happening!

So we taught Michelle again this week. We were actually able to have two lesson with her this week. We decided to reteach the restoration since it had been awhile and she explained to us towards the end of our discussion how she felt very heart warming which is awesome because that means she's feeling the spirit. And I guess she was kind of keeping it a secret from us but it turns out she's 1/3 of the way through the Book of Mormon. We thought she had barely opened it, I guess not! Michelle has been taking care of her 10 month year old grandson and her heater went out so she had been praying for a way to keep her place warm enough for them.  Well we showed up not too long after and let her borrow our space heater that we randomly had in our apartment that we weren't using. Its amazing if you think about it how God can answer the smallest prayers if we pray with real intent.

David is one of our other promising investigators. He's been coming to church for the past 6 or 7 months or so. He's told members and previous missionaries that he would get baptized once John Michael(a guy in our ward) got back from his mission. Well he got back a couple of months ago so we've been teaching him pretty regularly and having good lessons with him. We've basically finished all the lessons with him but we're going to keep teaching him but for some reason or another he's changed his mind and won't commit to a date to be baptized.. at least not yet. Keep David in your prayers!

Right now we have a good amount of investigators and a lot of them come to church but for some reason they're struggling to make that next big commitment to get wet. I know the work will continue to grow and good things will happen as we continue to work hard.

Well I love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum

Sunday, January 4, 2015

December 29, 2014

Dear Family,

First off, it was super good being able to skype with the family! It was good to see and hear everyone. In a short 5 and a half months I'll be able to see you guys in person. Its crazy how fast time flies by. Looking back at my whole mission it really seems so short when I think about it. 

Well hopefully I can say a few things I didn't tell you on Skype so its not very repetitive. It was another good week but to be frank besides Christmas eve, and Christmas it was a pretty slow week. Pretty much everyone we were working with wanted to wait until after the holidays to meet again. But we did have a few exciting things happen. We got to volunteer for Salvation Army and help them raise money by being that guy that stands outside the grocery store and rings that fancy bell and says 'Merry Christmas' to everyone that walks by. It was actually a pretty cool way to get our name out there and a lot of people were impressed that we would volunteer in the community like that. 

Christmas eve was pretty good as well. We went caroling as a district and got to hit basically all the main people we're working with and it was super chill and the people we went to seemed to really enjoy it. 

Oh and earlier today I got to go play tennis with another Elder in the zone. He was actually pretty good and it was the first time in months that I got to hit competitively. So it was a good time. Well not much else is going on hopefully things will pick up this week and I'll have more to say. Love you guys! Have a great week! 

Elder Rosenbaum