Thursday, March 26, 2015

March 23, 2015

Dear Family,

Its all good here in Gridley! My first week in my new area has been
good. I think I'm going to like it here a lot and its going to be a
good place to finish my mission. I thought Gridley was a bike area but
when I got here it turned out it was a car area and we've recently
gotten a car because the area was just too big. We cover a good chunk
of the city Gridley and also a city called Biggs. Its a lot different
here than most of my areas. Its a lot of farm and a lot of fields and
orchards which is chill. Its beautiful here. Elder Hudson is my new
companion and the guy is a stud and to be honest probably one of the
hardest working companions I've had which is super nice. He's a pretty
cool guy though and we get along pretty good. He loves basketball and
loves to rap so far we've been having a good time. We're in a four
elder apartment here with the Spanish Elders which is different
because I've been in a members house for so long now. One of the
Spanish Elders is fresh off the plane and from Guatemala and pretty
chill.

We had a lot of success this week and really saw a lot of miracles. We
have a investigator named Garrett Horn. He's about 16 years old. His
mom is a less active member and they've been teaching Garrett for a
little while now. Well Garrett loves to sing so my companion thought
it would be a good idea to finish the lesson with a song. So me and
Elder Hudson sang I need thee every hour. I'm not gonna lie I was
pretty nervous but the spirit helped me out a lot. It was super good
and the spirit was super strong. Sister Horn even ended up going to
church for the first time in years.

We taught a total of 18 lessons this week and just saw a lot of
success. We found a couple of new investigators and just had a really
solid week. My first day in the area this homeless man came up and
started bashing and making fun of us. So we trying to get away and
this cop came and handcuffed him up. I guess they had been looking for
him. haha but it makes for a good story now. Anyways all is well and
going good!

Love you guys!

Elder Rosenbaum

Friday, March 20, 2015

March 16, 2015

There was no email the week before this email.

Dear Family,

A lot has happened and I have a lot to catch you guys up on, so I'll
get right to it. Well, we received our transfers calls and I'm being
transferred to the Gridley 1st ward in Gridley. Which if I was going
to be transferred this is exactly what I would want. Its a bike area that's
known for being super flat which compared to my last bike area  had
hills everywhere. I felt like I was getting fat just sitting in a car
all day, so I'm excited for the change.  My new companion will be Elder
Hudson and so far I've only heard good things about him and from what
I hear he's super easy to get along with, which is always good. I only
have 12 weeks left... which is a super strange feeling. When you're in
the beginning of your mission you feel like the end is never gonna
come but when it gets close you get mixed feelings about it.

In other good news, David got baptized!! It was the perfect way to end
my time here in this area. We cover two areas, a ward and a branch, 
David got baptized in the Foresthill Branch. Apparently it had been a
couple of years since anyone had gotten baptized in the branch so the
whole branch was pretty excited. David has been living with his
grandma and his grandma is a recent convert of a couple of years ago
and he would take her to church every week and eventually he started
staying for it and eventually warmed up to us and took the lessons.
I've been working with him the whole 4 and a half months I've been
here so it was awesome to see him get baptized.

In other random news, we picked up two investigators because BYU upset
#3 Gonzaga! How cool is that? This guy started talking to us at this
restaurant and said he was a huge fanatic of college basketball and
also BYU sports. When BYU upset Gonzaga he googled Tyler Haws and
watched a video about his mission and his faith. It sparked his
interest in our faith and he and his wife wanted to learn more and meet
with us.  We went by and followed up with them this week and just had
a super good discussion with them.

We also had a new investigator who picked us up one night this
week and took us out for frozen yogurt. It was sweet, he is a super
good guy. We ended up basically teaching him the whole first
discussion while eating just outside the frozen yogurt place.

Well love you guys. Hope you have a fantastic week!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

March 2, 2015

Dear Family,

Its been another good week here! We had some awesome miracles so I'll get right into it. We have an investigator named Anne who seems super prepared. We only found her a couple of weeks ago. She was a media referral meaning she or one of her friends referred her on mormon.org. We taught her the first discussion this week and it was truly incredible. The spirit there was so strong. Its interesting some people you teach just get it right away and some take a lot longer but she said it just all made sense to her. When we were quoting the first vision she made a comment that she felt like she was feeling that it was already true which is incredible. She a recovering alcoholic and just going through a really hard time so if anyone could use the Gospel its her. We talked about baptism and was super excited about it and liked the idea. She set a date for March 28th to be baptized! Hopefully it goes through and she comes to church enough! Its truly been a cool miracle.

We met with David this week and are finishing the last and final discussion with him. He missed church because he was sick but is still planning on being baptized on March 14th. His interview will be this Saturday

We had a zone conference was week which was super good. Its always fun to get together and be able to see old missionaries you've served around. Our mission President announced that the Sacramento Temple is going to shut down the temple for a morning to the public and we're going to have a mission temple trip! How cool is that. This is something that this mission has never done before. 

Well love you guys have a great week!