March 17, 2014

Dear Family,

Well its officially been 9 months! I can't believe how fast its been
going. We had another great week! We're meeting with Frankie on a
consistent basis. He basically invites us over almost every night for
a lesson. He's awesome! One of the most prepared people I've taught so
far. He progressing well for his baptism for April 10th its just the
only problem we have is the living situation. He needs to get married
or separate apartment before baptism so if that happens his baptism
date will go through. Only time will tell. We've had some super
spiritual lessons with him. Its been awesome!

So crazy story. Do you guys remember Virgil I told you about a couple
of weeks ago. He committed to baptism and we were going to pass him
off to the missionaries in his right area. Well the family that was
fellow shipping him in our ward made a restraining order for him. I
guess he has like major bipolar or something and he tried to break
into there house and he threatened us on the phone and cussed us out.
Its a good thing he doesn't know where our apartment is. I won't go
into details but its been a super sketchy situation.

We're working with this recent convert family in our ward and we
should be able to go through the temple with them in the next couple
weeks. Its been awesome to see them progress! We went on exchanges
this week and the missionary I was with knew some people I hung out
with back at home so that was pretty cool.

There's not much else this week. All is well. I'm loving my mission
right now. My testimony is growing stronger and stronger as I share
what I know to be true. Thanks for your support!

March 10, 2014

Dear Family,

The work here is really picking up. We had the greatest miracle this week as we were out working. On wednesday I believe we were on our way to dinner and we were at a red light waiting to go and there was this other guy on his bike at the light as well. We started talking to him and found out that he had previously met with missionaries before. He asked us if we were the missionaries that go to the church just up the street, we said yes and he was excited because that was the same one he went to when he was investigating before. He told us he had been talking with a member of our ward about the church and wants to get baptized! We've now met with him 3 times in just 4 days and he wants to met again tonight. The guy is just on fire and is just eating up everything we're teaching him. He accepted to be baptized and is working for April 10th as his baptism date. The only problem is he's currently dating a less active and they're living together right now. He's aware that he needs to be in separate apartments or get married before baptism and he even accepted that and said that was something he was willing to do. The Lord definitely played a huge role in all these series of events. April 10th is right before transfers so I'm praying and hoping that everything goes well and he makes that day happen. 

I forget what I tell you week to week so sorry if I tell you some of the same stuff. Sochi is doing  great as well, she's starting to get amazing fellowship and feels really included. We had a super spiritual lesson with her this week and I know its only a matter of time before she is willing to set a date for her baptism.

Omar came to church again. He's basically just a dry mormon. He's had callings and goes to church most of the time so he's basically just sitting on the edge of the baptism font. We're really hoping he makes that decision soon. 

We've been teaching this guy names James for awhile now and he's  Pentecostal. We had the craziest lesson with him this week. We brought our ward mission leader with us to the lesson and James tried to heal him of this disease he has and started speaking in tongues and everything. It was pretty crazy. haha 

Have a great week loves you guys!

-Elder Rosenbaum  

March 3, 2014

Dear Family,

We had a great week here in Citrus Heights! It was transfer weekend
and both me and my companion stayed together because I'm training him.
So I'm assuming I'll be here for 6 or 12 more weeks. I love it here so
 I wouldn't mind staying here for awhile longer. So just over a week
ago on Sunday night me and my companion went and visited a family and
shared a thought trying to get a referral. We challenged them to find
us one person to teach and they took that challenge pretty serious. Four
days later we had dinner at their house and they told us to come
prepared with the first discussion after dinner because they would
have someone there for us to teach. His name is Virgil and he's
freakin awesome! One of the most humble people I've met on my mission.
He grew up in an atheist home and doesn't have too much support from
his family with mormonism. Anyways, we taught him and it was one of
the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. He accepted to be
baptized and even set a date for March 22nd. He came to church and
everything. It was a huge miracle for us. Sadly he's just outside our
boundaries so after we teach him tonight we'll be shortly passing him
over to other missionaries but the whole thing was just really
awesome!

Deanna a person that I taught in my last area got baptized on Saturday
and that was great to hear. I'm super excited for her. I tried to get
permission to go from the mission President but he thought it was a
little too far and would be a little unproductive which I respect.

Its been storming pretty good here. The river over flooded like crazy
and we had to go that way to get to a teaching appointment. So we had
to ride our bikes through about a foot maybe less of rain. We were
already soaked so it didn't really matter too much. The funniest thing
happened as we were riding apparently there was this ledge we couldn't
see and my companion ended up accidentally falling into it and it was
about 5 or so feet deep. We were both soaked and it was a really funny
experience. haha we were laughing hysterically.

Remember the cop story I told you guys about a couple of weeks ago. That
whole less active family that we've been teaching for awhile all came
to church for the first time in years. Billy told me that Elder
Johnson and me are the only missionaries he's felt the spirit around
so strong besides the ones that taught him when he got baptized.
They've said they want to start coming every week. Its been a huge
miracle as well!

I think thats all for this week! Love you guys. Have a good week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

February 24, 2014

Dear Family,

So we had a pretty good week. I'll start off with the good news first. So do you guys remember Deanna I used to tell you about when I was in my last area? I found and taught her for about a month and a half before I got transferred and she was on date for baptism for awhile but when I left the area she kind of faded away and stop meeting with the missionaries. Well we've been keeping in touch a little through facebook and she messaged me the other day saying she finally came back to church and everything spoke straight to her. After church she met with the missionarys and is going to be baptized on March 1st!! I've been invited to go back to see the baptism so we'll see if I get permission to go. I'm really excited for her. 

We picked up two investigators this week which seem pretty promising. They just moved into the house across the street from the church and they ran into 2 sets of missionaries that day including us. So they said they think its a sign from God so they want to listen to our message and the guy is going to start playing basketball with us on saturday morning. They're super awesome people. 

I haven't told you much about our Investigator named Souchi. She's been a huge blessing for us and an asnwer to our prayers. She used to be kind of flakey but is now meeting with us on a consistent basis and I think given her a little time and she'll be dunked. She's just super accepting. The Lord has definitely answered some prayers to help us find and have a little success this week. 

My bike situation is all figured out. My bike should either be here today or tomorrow and I'll be able to go pick it up preassembled. Dad, don't worry about calling black bear (bike shop). I called him and talked to him myself. I borrowed a members bike this week and was able to get by. Thanks for your love and support! Have a great week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

February 17, 2014

(Ben said in a separate email that he and his companion had their bike's stolen, not good.  This is Ben's first area for riding a bike and his companion is new out.)

Dear Family,

Well not a lot has happened this week to be honest. I had the
opportunity to attend a convert baptism on Saturday for a guy named
Gary. I worked with him a little bit on exchanges and got to know him
a little. No matter who's baptism it is the spirit is always so strong
there and it really boosted my spirits and attitude. To be honest I've
spent a lot of times on my knees this week. My entire mission I
haven't really had too hard of a time finding people to teach and have
work to do. I guess the last month I've been kind of humbled I guess
you could say because we're having a difficult time finding anyone or
I guess just having any success at all. Our teaching pool is really
hurting right now. We just got to keep our heads up though. Our one
investigator who was committed to be baptized but is in jail now I'm
still in touch with and I've been making contact with him through
mail. But he won't be off probation for awhile so we won't be able to
get him baptized for awhile. Our lesson with the Hurns went great
again this week. They're an awesome family. The dad is continuing to
show more support for his daughter which is awesome. Hopefully I'll
have more to report next week. Please keep us in your prayers so we
can find the elect I know they're out there we just have to keeps our
heads up and keep working hard.  I love you guys thanks for all the
support!

Elder Ben Rosenbaum

February 10, 2014

Dear Family,

Not too much has happened this week. It rained like 4 days this past week so me and Elder Johnson got soaked pretty good. It was coming down pretty hard one day. But I guess that all comes with the mission experience. California has been in a huge drought and the church did a state wide fast for rain so it was actually a really big blessing. 

Our teaching pool is definitely hurting right now so we're kind of in a finding stage right now but we're trying to make the most of it. So we have been doing some tracting this week and trying to get referrals from the members. The people we are teaching though are doing great. We're teaching a part member family named the Hurns and she is starting to really progress. The whole family is now starting to join us in the lessons and I think her parents are close to letting us set a baptism date with Irish. Please keep them in your prayers. We've been working a lot with a recent convert family named the Hernandez's and they've invited us to go through the temple with them in a couple of weeks so that should be super cool. I'm really happy for them and the progress they're making. I don't really have a lot to report this week. Training is going good. Elder Johnson seems to be getting the hang of things. We had interviews this week as well with our mission president. I love and pray for you guys all the time. Have a great week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

February 3, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Its been a good week here in Citrus Heights. I'll start by telling you
a pretty crazy thing that happened. . Earlier this week we went by to
go visit this less active family named the Lolars. They are a super cool
family and we're working on reactivating them. We were sitting down
having a discussion with them when all of a sudden 7 or 8 police
officers came barging in the house. They were asking for a guy named
Mark. My companions first name is Mark so he started freakin out
inside his head wondering why in the world would the cops be looking
for him. It was pretty funny. But it turned out they were looking for
the person we were visitings brother. The cops asked us immediately to
leave while they arrested him. So we walked away with Billy and
Malichi(the guy we were visiting and his son) and he told us he felt
like me and Elder Johnson were like guardian angels to him that
protected him and that it was a sign from God that he needed to come
back to church. It was a pretty cool experience. We even worked with
ward members to get the entire family church clothes and they've
committed to come back to church. So the whole thing was pretty cool.
They've even asked for rides so they can come to church the following
weeks.

We're working with the Hernandez family still. Omar is now the only
one in the family that isn't baptized and we had a great lesson with
him before the Super Bowl.  The rest of the family is working on going
through the temple and they asked if we would go with them in a couple
of weeks so that should be pretty cool to go through the temple with a
recent convert family that we've been working with a lot. We're
working a lot with a part member family named the Hurns. We're
teaching the 9 year old daughter and the father seems to be supporting
her a lot more and joining in the lessons. Which is a big improvement.
So we're hoping to set a baptism date this week with her.

Everything is well here. Second week training and my companion is
doing awesome. He's a hard worker and likes to get things done which
is good. We've been getting into racketball here. There's some elders
who have a racquetball court in there apartment complex so thats been
pretty fun. Until next week! Love you guys!

-Elder Rosenbaum