April 20, 2015

Its been another good week though. Its so good to have a companion
that's a go getter and just works super hard. Duo Lin, our Chinese
investigator,  is doing awesome. All the logistics are figured out and
she has been given permission to be baptized from the foreign exchange
program facilitator and from her parents back in China. In our lesson
this week we invited her to prepare to be baptized in the later end of
May but due to scheduling conflicts, she wanted to be baptized on May 9th
which is a lot closer. So we're all very excited. Tonight we're having
family night with Duo and the family she's staying with and also the
stake presidents family who have some young women who are helping
fellowship Duo. It should be a good time.

In other news, our investigator Brendall, who was preparing to be
baptized on May 2nd has moved. He was super pumped and our lessons
with him were always so spiritual but I guess he wasn't getting
along with his parents and since he's 18 he got kicked out. There's
always something that stops people from progression.

We're teaching two families who I just love! One is Beverly and her
family. They're an African American family. Beverly loves meeting with
us and is getting close to making the next step. Her grand kids who
live across the street always come over and join us. They're all sorts
of ages between 8 and 15. They're just a super tight family. We had a
good lesson with them this week and taught the plan of salvation. The
other family is the Valachez family. We went over on Sunday night and
they even fed us a super good Mexican dinner on the spot. We had a
really good lesson with them!

All is well, thank you for your support and prayers in my behalf! Have
a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum

April 13, 2015

Dear Family,

Its been another eventful week here in Gridley and Biggs California.
We taught a foreign exchange student from China this week named Duo.
She's staying with an active family in the ward which has been a
tremendous influence on her. Well the family she's staying with hasn't
been pushy at all and really hardly at all ever mentioned anything
about church unless she had questions. Well Duo dropped a bomb on
 Sister Walton and told her she wanted to be baptized and join the
 Mormon church. So we taught Duo a couple of times this past week. Its
been super neat teaching her. Being that she's from China she really
has no background revolving christianity whatsoever. So a lot of our
lessons have just been very basic stuff about who God and Jesus Christ
are, how to pray, etc. Duo prayed in one of our lessons and it was the
first prayer she had ever said in her life and the spirit was just
really strong. Duo was telling us how at school she's attracted to the
10 to 15 mormon kids and knows who they all are. She says she's
impressed with them and how they carry themselves and there maturity.
She said none of them cuss unlike all the other kids. Duo said there
was something about those kids that made them stand out and she wanted
to be like them. How cool is that? It just goes to show how important
being an example is and living your standards because you never know
who is watching. There's a lot of logistics involved when you're
teaching someone who's a foreign exchange student and if with the
program they're in if they are aloud to join any religious affiliation.
Also the fact of who's guardianship consent she needs to be baptized
whether its her parents back in China or her temporary guardians here.
Our president said the handbook of this situation is as big as the
bible(I'm sure he was exaggerating a little bit) and being from China
makes it a bit more complicated. But he's actually in the process of
getting approval from Salt Lake so Duo can get baptized. Hopefully
we'll be able get approval and be able to put her on date soon. The
unfortunate part is this summer when she goes back to China she'll be
no where near a Mormon church. Fortunately after she graduates from high
school she's gonna be back in the United States for college so she
could be involved in church again.

This week we were able to get a bike rack for our car. Gridley and
Biggs are both area's capable of being biked, its just going to and
from each city that's the hard part.  So this week, with the bike
rack, we were able to do a lot of biking which was nice and just talk
to a lot more people. We did lots of finding and street contacting and
got a whole lot of new potential investigators to start working with.
Hopefully we can benefit from some of it and have it transition over
to teaching more.

We were able to teach a good amount of people this week like Beverly
and her family, Rosie, Brendall, and the Valachez family.(all
investigators)But sometimes you wish people didn't have that darn
thing called agency. It always makes our job a lot harder.

We're working closely with this less active man named Brother Chand. We
watched conference with him and just keep pretty regular contact with
him. Well he surprised us and came to church! What surprised me even
more was he tapped on my shoulder and said if he bears  his testimony
than I have to bear mine. haha So we both ended up sharing our
testimony's which was really cool.

I've now hit 22 months... I'm trying hard not to blink because the
time keeps going faster and faster!  We went on a hike this morning
with our Zone and had a barbecue. It was all a pretty good time. We
went to Bald Rock Mountain and we got to free climb some pretty sick
rocks.   Love you guys! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Rosenbaum

April 6, 2015

Dear family,

It's been an eventful week, a lot of good things have happened along
with a few unfortunate things, but I'll go ahead and just dive into it.
We're working with a man named Brendall. He's about 18 years old and
his parents are both inactive but he has active grandparents in the
ward which has been really good support for him. Anyways, we've been
teaching him and the lessons have always been really good. Some people
you teach seem to just catch a fire for some reason or another. Well
Brendall committed to be baptized at the beginning of May. Hopefully
he'll continue to feel the spirit and be able to make it. Keep him in
your prayers!

We taught our investigator named Baylie again this week. She committed
to be baptized last week and set a date for April 18th. Well Baylie
went to her dads house this week(divorced parents) and was gonna ask
for permission while she was there. Her mom, who is a recent convert,
texts us and told us the news. Its always hard to hear news like that
but we'll see what happens from here and continue to help build her
faith. Its crazy how the Lord works and is always preparing people for
you to teach. Shortly after we got a text from a member saying that
her foreign exchange student from China wants to be baptized and join
the church. We have dinner with them tonight and will be teaching the
first discussion.

We had our whole mission temple trip today! It was a wonderful
experience being in the house of the Lord and to feel of the spirit
and to be able to strengthen  my testimony. It was a good time and it
was good to see a lot of my companions and people I've served around
throughout my mission.

Conference was good as always. I got to say the family and importance
thereof was a pretty big topic and focus point through it. If I had to
choose a favorite it would probably be Elder Holland he never seems to
disappoint. Elder Brent H Nielson spoke in conference and he has come
to our mission to speak to us twice in the past 8ish months or so. So
it was cool to see him speaking. We got to watch conference with some
less active members we're working with. They were even kind enough to
feed us a couple of meals before conference sessions.

Happy late Easter to everyone. Let us all remember our Savior and that
he does indeed live today!

Elder Rosenbaum

March 30, 2015

Dear Family,

Week two in Gridley/Biggs with Elder Hudson has been pretty good. Its
one of those weeks where we just did so many things, so much happened
its hard to remember it all. I'll start with some of the highlights.
We're teaching a family named the Hawkins. Brother Hawkins is a
returning member and his wife was baptized 6 or so months ago.
Anyways, we're teaching their 15 year old daughter named Bailey. Bailey
has been to church both weeks I've been here and the young women are
really taking her in. Well we had a super good lesson with them this
week and Bailey committed to be baptized and set a date for April 18.
Which isn't really that far away. Keep her in your prayers and
hopefully it will go through.

For those that haven't seen the churches new Easter video, you need to
watch it. We've been having so much success just showing it to
everyone we street contact and everyone we visit. We've gotten in a
lot of doors through it. I always love Easter time and especially
Christmas because everyone is much nicer to us and there's always so
many little miracles.  One more cool thing that is on my mind, we're
having a mission temple trip a week from today! How cool is that? I
guess its like the first time our mission has ever done this.
Basically the first half of the day the temple will be reserved for
our mission and the rest of the day the Sacramento mission will be
doing the same thing. So we're pretty excited.

Elder Hudson and I were able to find 7 investigators this week which
is near the most if not the most I've ever found in a week  on my
mission. The Lord has just been really good. We were able to get in a
lot of doors this week and we were just able to teach a lot which was
awesome. The thing about Gridley is I guess it was founded or
originally settled by Mormons. So there's a high population of Mormons
here so people here who aren't Mormons have generally already met with
missionaries or they've already been asked to meet with missionaries,
or they've talked to missionaries before. Its a lot different than all
my previous areas.

Have a great week!

-Elder Rosenbaum

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

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!

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!