June 23, 2014

Dear Family,

Well another week has come and gone. Elder Cevering, my current companion, as by far been my favorite companion since my trainer and we've been seeing some miracles. Its been awesome we get along good, we teach well with each other, we have common interest. The last four weeks have just flown by. I'll begin by talking about Mary and Ben Francis. Mary and Ben are a couple we've been teaching ever since I've been in the area. Ben is a less active who hasn't been to church in years. Well on tuesday we had a lesson with them and the spirit was super strong. It was super awesome. Mary has kind of been more on board than her husband. But the spirit touched her and she committed to work towards July 19th for her baptism. We've been helping her over come smoking cigarettes and she's doing awesome. Its been awesome to see The Lord take over and just really help her overcoming her addiction and starting to really progress in the Gospel. They came to stake conference on Sunday and that was the first time we've ever been able to get Mary to come to church and that was the first time Ben came to church in over 20 years. 

We also had a lesson with a part-member family this week named the McCalls. His two sons who are 12 and 8 are not baptized. Well we had a lesson with the whole family including his little daughter and we taught the Restoration. Jeremiah, the ones who's 12, really picked it up well and understood what we were teaching. He basically just asked when he could get baptized and we talked with his dad we set a date for July 12th. Jeremiah has been coming to church for some time and really likes it. So between now and his baptism we'll be teaching the family the rest of the lessons so we're really excited. I've been praying for families to teach and The Lord definitely answered my prayers with this one. 

This Saturday I'll be going back to Citrus Heights for Brayden's baptism. I'm super stoked for it. A missionary in my district also taught him so we're gonna be able to go on exchanges that day and both be able to see it. It will be my first time actually performing the ordinance for someone so that will be really cool for me. We're getting dropped off halfway in my first area, Paradise, and a member from there is taking us the rest of the way so I'm gonna be able to stop real quickly and seeing my first convert, Jacob. The guy is a stud. It should be pretty sweet. 

We went and hiked Brandy Creek falls last p-day. It was super fun. The area here is beautiful. I'll send some pics. Well love you guys. We've been seeing lots of success with finding and teaching lately. I know the big reason for that is because of all your prayers, continue to pray for me. We have a half mission conference this friday to say goodbye to our current mission President and I think meet our new one. It's gonna be kind of weird. Well, until next week! Peace!

June 16, 2014

Dear Family, 

It's been a good week. It flew by really fast. The weather this week was actually amazing. It was a little cooler and has been a nice break from what we were having. So first off Pao is still doing great! He came to church with us which was amazing. He's doing a lot better with the word of wisdom which is amazing. He's been clean of coffee for a while now and working really hard with tobacco. He's well on his way. He came to church with us which was great. When we went over there this week we taught his roommate named Anthony as well. The kid is a stud. We taught the restoration which was a great review for Pao and it was all new to Anthony. He took it all in and loved it. He even committed to be baptized which was awesome and we were super stoked. He wanted to be baptized the same day as Pao which is July 5th and he committed to that day but since Anthony flaked on coming to church he won't be able to make that date any more because he has to come to church at least 3 times. We'll see what happens. I'm sure everything will work out great!

We're teaching this part-member family named the Francis'. The wife is the nonmember and she's awesome. She used to be on date but fell away. We're helping her overcome her addiction to cigarettes and its going awesome. We had a really spiritual lesson with her this week and we're really excited for the potential we have there. 

We've been praying and looking for new people to teach and The Lord answered our prayers. We went over to a part member family named the McCalls this week. He's a single parent who's sort of less active. He has two kids, one who's 12 and ones who's 8 and they're not baptized. We saw the whole family outside playing basketball and we got to shoot some hoops with them and just be there friends, it was awesome. The dad said we could come back on tuesday and teach his kids. We're really excited. Missionaries have tried there before but didn't have too much success so it just goes to show that The Lord prepares people in his own way and in his own timing.  

The work is progressing and we're working hard and The Lord is blessing us. We're going on a hike today with the zone to a waterfall, I think. Anyways, it's somewhere cool. I'll send pictures next week!  Love you guys.

Elder Rosenbaum

P.S. Yes I know an Elder Hughes, I was in his last zone for 2 or 3 transfers with him. I would play basketball with him. He's a cool guy. Small world.

#MateMondays #MissionarySwag 

Every monday morning we have mate with the members we live with. If you haven't had it. Try it out its awesome! 

June 9, 2014

Dear Family,

A lot has happened. To be honest a lot of it is kind of a blur. We've
been working really hard. Well first off, my companion & I may or
may not have both gotten in wrecks this week. But it wasn't on the big
hill I was telling you about last week. Elder Cevering's was a lot
worse than mine. I was on exchanges on Wednesday so I wasn't there to
see it but my companion ate it pretty good. He's alright just really
sore. And then the next day on Thursday I had my little incident. It
wasn't too bad though. Haha my rear is pretty sore and my hand got
beat up pretty good. But all is well we were both able to take our
bikes to the shop and they are good as new now. We didn't have to pay
for it because they noticed that we were missionaries, so the Lord has
definitely been blessing us.  We joke about it now so all is good.

We're working with Pao still, I love the guy. We saw him smoking a
cigarette this week which was really disappointing so we have moved
back his baptism date to July 5th because of the word of wisdom and we
want him to be able to make it to church a couple more times. Pao has
been telling his roommates how much he loves the church so we began
teaching two of his roommates this week. It was awesome. We have
another lesson with them tonight. The Lord has been blessing us with
people to teach since I've been here. We're just having a hard time
getting them to come to church, but I know if we keep working hard, good
things will happen.

I went to a meeting in Gridley this week. It was a leadership meeting
for all zl's and district leaders. I was able to talk to the President and
he gave me permission to go back for Brayden's baptism on June 28th.
Brayden has asked that I perform the actual baptism so I'm really
stoked. Brayden has showed a lot of faith and is taking a lot of steps
to reach his baptism including getting married in order to get
baptized.

I'll be hitting my year mark on Thursday! It's freaking me out how
fast it goes. Going on a mission has been the best decision I've EVER
made no matter how hard it can be sometimes. Love you guys.

Elder Rosenbaum

June 2, 2014

Dear Family,

It has been a good week, but its also been a really long week! I love my new area! It's beautiful up here. It's completely different from my last area though. There's lots of trees, mountains, rivers, etc here. There is also lots of hills, and more hills! Being on a bike for the previous 6 months I thought I was in pretty good shape for being in a bike area but this area and all these hills are kicking my butt. I've been pretty exhausted. I think its probably been one of the hardest weeks on my mission. But I'm sure when I'm used to it and the new area it won't be as bad. So just some background information about where we live. We live right on top of this HUGE windy steep hill. There's been missionaries who have broken their collar bone, broken leg, and broken wrist. As far as how many of them were actually hit by cars I'm not sure. So its pretty intense. haha I currently live with members and they're called the Goodwin family. We live in there garage which is separate from the actual house. The Goodwins are super nice though.  My companion is Elder Cevering and he's a spiritual giant. I love the kid, we've been getting along really well and I really like the guy. We teach really well together and have seen a lot of miracles this week. We've been working a lot with this guy name Pao. He's awesome. He's been working with missionaries for a long time now and everyone loves him. He's been sober from everything for about two weeks now and he went to the addiction recovery class with us. My first lesson in the area was with him and we were able to set him on date for June 21st. Pao is so excited for his baptism and he's super proud of how far he's come from when he first came in contact with the missionaries. It's an amazing story. The guy is a stud. He's in his 30's and just the friendliest guy. 

Well thats about it for this week. I don't have a lot of time so I'll try to tell more next week! Love you guys!

Elder Rosenbaum

May 26, 2014

Dear Family,

So first off, transfer calls came! I have mixed feelings about this
but I know I'm going exactly where The Lord needs me to serve. I am
being transferred to Redding! I'll be serving in the Redding 2nd ward
and I'll still be on a bike. Redding is the hottest place in our
entire mission. From what I understand it's kind of a valley where
all the heat just gets stuck in there and has no where to go. I've
heard from others that its pretty regular for it to be 110 to 120
during the summer. Missionaries kind of always joke with each other
that they'll get transferred to Redding during the summer but I'm
excited for the opportunity I have to go there! I'm currently in the
most south part of our mission and Redding is the furthest North so
I'll be having a good long drive there tomorrow. I've never heard of
my companion before so it should be interesting. I'm pretty sad to be
leaving Citrus Heights. Especially since I'll miss Brayden's baptism
who've I've been working with ever since I've been here. I feel like I
can truly say that I was able to love the people here and I'm really
going to miss the friendships I've made here. I've also been called as
district leader so that should be fun as well.

As far as this week goes, we had a great week. We were able to teach
Brayden and we played tennis twice this week. We also had a great
lesson with a new investigator named Victoria. She's just over 30
years old. A less active we've been working with introduced us to her
and we taught her and introduced the Book of Mormon. She started
crying on the first lesson so that was pretty sweet! We also ran into a
random guy in the street who's a less active and served in the army
and he was saying he wished he served a mission instead of getting
caught up in everything. He told us his wife was telling him that she
thinks they need to start going to church. He said he told her well
lets go to the church I used to go to. So we're going to begin
teaching his wife. It was a really cool miracle. I feel like it was
definitely a blessing from just trying to talk to everyone you see, you
never know what will come from it. Missionary work can be hard
sometimes but its rewarding and its fun! I can't believe I'll be
hitting my hump mark in two weeks or so! Well that's all! Love you
guys!

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone. It's crazy how fast time goes. In a couple of weeks I'll be hitting my hump mark which is really weird to think about. This is the last week of the transfer. We'll be receiving transfer calls this Sunday so I'll let you guys know what happens. Since I've been in this area for 6 months and with the same companion for 3 transfers now there's a good chance we'll be having some change. 

We had zone conference this week. It was long but it was also really good. It was our last zone conference with President Weston. Our new mission President will be arriving June 30th. It should be an interesting change as well. 

We did a lot of good work this week. We worked with Brayden this week and he's still progressing well and on date for June 28th. I went and played tennis with him twice this week which was really fun! It felt good to be out and hitting again. He was actually pretty good. I ended up beating him but not by much. If I do get transferred this is one I'll definitely be coming back for. I can't remember if I told you or not but he asked me if I would be the one who would perform the actual baptism for him so I'm pretty excited about that.

We did a lot of finding this week and a lot of street contacting. We had a good amount of success. Hopefully all the people that invited us back will have some potential. And on a random note I had Costa Vida this week! It was extremely good! Its also getting extremely hot! I heard from a couple of sources it was just below a 100 degrees. Well have a great week everyone. I love you guys!

Elder Rosenbaum

May 12, 2014

Dear Family,

It was great to see and talk to you guys yesterday! It definitely was
a great week with the baptism of Mekaela we were able to have and
being able to skype home for Mothers Day. It sounds like all you guys
are doing well! A lot of what I tell you in this email I might have
told you on the phone so sorry if its a repeat. We've been working a
lot with Brayden! Brayden had the chance to attend the baptism we had
and he said he really felt the spirit there and was asking a lot of
questions and it seemed to further spark his interest and get him
excited for his baptism on June 28th. Brayden actually asked me this
week if I would be the one who actually baptized him. The Lord has
definitely been blessing us with miracles and its exciting to see the
work moving forward. Well not a lot else has really happened this
week. We worked really hard and taught a good amount of lessons. Love
you guys and have a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum