August 26, 2013

Dear family and friends,

Another week has come and gone and we're continuing to have a lot of success and seeing a lot of miracles in our area. We had a recent convert move into our ward so we went over to teach the new member lessons to him and we ended up teaching his mom named Elaine. We taught her the lesson of the Restoration and she had tons of questions. She was a former seventh day Adventist. The spirit was so strong in the first lesson I felt prompted to challenge her to baptism in the that first lesson. She accepted and her baptism is scheduled for September 28th. She came to church with her son and the whole ward was great to her and she had a great time in relief society. She's so excited to learn more and she's reading the Book of Mormon. Her son wants to get the Aaronic  Priesthood so he can baptize his mom. It was truly a miracle.

We currently have 3 people on date for baptism. One of them being Jerry. He's talking to his throat specialists tomorrow and he's going to tell him whether or not he'll be able to be baptized because of the hole in his neck from agent orange. Jerry is really worried about it and how its going to work out. We've been working with our bishop who's a doctor and we're trying to work something out. We're praying for him and hoping everything works out. His baptism is scheduled for September 7th.

Dennis, our other investigator who is also on date for baptism is absolutely on fire. He came to church again for all three hours, He's almost done reading the Book of Mormon and he's just loving it. The work here in Paradise is really just starting to pick up and we are starting to have full days where were running from appointment to appointment. Its been awesome. We taught a total of 30 lessons this last week. We even picked up two new investigators this past week too. Every time I see our Mission President he tells us to pray for miracles and we've been doing that and we're definitely seeing our prayers answered. I'm loving working with Elder Harper. We still get along great and we have a fun time doing the work here in Paradise. We have a zone conference this Thursday which should be awesome. I'll be able to see my companion from the MTC which will be sweet!

Thanks for all your support and prayers for me, it truly does mean a lot and have fun watching BYU football this Saturday. I'm super jealous and be sure to update me on everything. Love you guys!

-Elder Rosenbaum 

August 19, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Its been another solid week out here in the mission field and we're having a lot of success. We had a total of 4 of our investigators attend sacrament meeting this past Sunday which is the best I've had since I've been out on my mission. Dennis went to church for the first time and he stayed for all 3 hours and was super attentive the whole time and was asking lots of questions the entire time. We're meeting with him again tonight. We challenged him to baptism and he accepted it and we set His baptism for September 7th. Dennis said he had a great time at church and he looked forward to coming next week. We taught him the plan of salvation this past week and he said everything we taught him just made sense and clicked in his brain but now he has the vocabulary for everything. We're really excited for him. Every time we meet with him he just has tons of questions of things he's been studying.

Jerry is also doing very well. He's been sick so we were able to go over and give him a blessing and he was able to have a very positive experience and the spirit was really strong. He continues to go to church every week and is fitting in really good with the ward. His baptism is also scheduled for September 7th. So we're going to have a double baptism on that day which is super exciting.

Every day I see the Lords hand helping us in our work out here. It seems like everyday we experience some type of success in one way or another. This past week we met with one of our investigators named Kim. We've been teaching her ever since I got here in Paradise. She's been having lots of problems with the word of wisdom so we've been working with her and she's been attending this alcohol recovery program. She's finally starting to study the Book of Mormon which is great and she is committed to come to church for the first time, so we'll see what happens. She is finally starting to progress but very slowly.

I'm continuing to love it out here. I'm having a lot of positive experiences and I've learned a ton so far in the two months I've been out on my mission. My testimony of this gospel has grown tremendously. I feel like I understand the concept and the true meaning of what charity is. Sacrifice is charity and sacrifice brings the blessings of the Lord. I feel like I'm truly learning to love the people I teach and the people I run into. I love and miss you guys. Thanks for your love and your support.

-Elder Rosenbaum

August 12, 2013

Dear family and friends,

First off thanks so much for all the emails I always look forward to reading what you guys have to say and it keeps me going. So my ward mission leader is super into tennis and we went and hit a couple of days ago and it was a blast. It was probably the most competitive tennis I've played since state. It was good to be able to pick up a tennis racket again! So we had another great week. The days are starting to blend together and its seems to be going by so quick! As of today I'm already two months done with my mission so I'm 1/12 of the way done which is super weird to think about. I still feel likes I just barely got out.

So the investigator we have that is still on fire is Jerry. He has awesome fellowship from the ward and I love meeting with him. We were able to get a baptismal date for September 7th for him. He's so excited for his baptism and we can always count on him to be at church. Our bishop is a doctor and so we've been working out a way with him and our mission president so we can figure out the procedure to baptize him. He has a hole in his neck from agent orange from serving in Vietnam. We've been meeting with Jerry basically since the first week I arrived in Paradise.

Our next promising investigator is a man named Dennis. We've only had two lessons with him and he's already read like 1/3 of the Book of Mormon and asks tons of questions and he's just really interested. He's about a 30 year old man which is kind of cool because we teach a lot of old people here. 

We picked up a investigator this past week named Tony. We were going over to teach his wife and she was asleep so we ending up talking with him for over an hour. He's a tattoo artist and he's been in and out of prison and jail. He used to be a drug addict and now he's been drug feel for over a year. He was telling his whole story and how he felt changed through the atonement and how he had to rely and put his full trust in the Lord. We introduced the Book of Mormon and the restoration and he wanted us to come back and get more into it and teach him and his wife.  

Me and Elder Harper have been working really hard and we taught a total of 29 lessons this week. We've been doing a lot of less active work and working a lot with part member family's. Its crazy how many less active people we have here.

Marie's baptism which was scheduled for August 24th has been postponed, so we don't currently have a date and we haven't had a sit down lesson with her for awhile because of all the problems they've been having with Eddy being in the hospital. He's finally getting the help he needed and the total amount of seizures he had is 119 and it was all within 3 days. Its a miracle he's still alive. Your body can't normally take all that in. Its amazing what the power of the priesthood can do. 

Thanks for all the support. I love and miss you guys.

-Elder Rosenbaum

August 5, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has probably been the  craziest week of my mission so far. I'll start off by telling you about my 1st baptism of my mission which we had on Saturday. Jacob had so much support there from his family and friends. We had to end up having the program in the chapel and then all cramming in the room for the actual baptism. It truly was an amazing day. There was about as many people at his baptism as we have at a regular sacrament meeting. I even saw this girl from my high school that I knew at the baptism which was kind of crazy. Jacob has been off and on with meeting with the missionaries for about 8 years and it's truly been a miracle. It was the perfect way to end my 1st transfer of the mission.

We were able to set another baptism date for August 23rd with a man named Jerry. But he talked to me at church and he wanted to push it back a couple more weeks because of some personal reasons. We're now meeting with Jerry on a consistent basis. The guy is a stud. We're really excited for him and for his progression. We're trying to figure out a way for him to be baptized because he has a hole in his neck and if we baptize him it will drown him.

We also are going to have to push back Marie's baptismal date. Her Dad is suffering from a very serious disease and is in very critical condition. Marie's Mom has asked us to be at the hospital and give him blessings on a frequent basis. He ended up getting sent down to Sacramento because they couldn't figure out what was going on. He suffered from 36 seizures in less than 24 hours. I was with him in the emergency room when one of the seizures started and we had to get a nurse. So we're not sure when we are going to be able to meet with Marie again, but we're just keeping them in our prayers and doing everything we can to help them.

I had another opportunity to take over the area because we went on exchanges. We've been doing a ton of service for our investigators and for members of the ward. I'm getting pretty darn good at splitting and stacking wood. We were able to pick up another solid investigator this week named Dennis. We have a lot of hope for this next transfer. With Marie and Jerry's baptism and plus we have a couple others if everything goes according to plan. We could end up with about 4 baptisms this next transfer if everything goes according to plan. The Lord has really blessed us with finding people to teach.

We got transfer calls last night and I'm still in Paradise with the same companion and everything. But we had a lot of changes in our zone, so it will be fun to get to know all the new missionaries in our area. We're going to go play soccer today so it should be fun. I hope all is going well at home. I love and pray for you guys. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Rosenbaum

Week 7-29-13

Dear family and friends,

 

Its been another solid week in good ol' Paradise. We had a really busy week and a lot has happened. We went down to Gridley the other day for a trainer, trainee meeting with President Weston. It was about an hour and a half drive for us. It went really well. I always love hearing from President I'm pretty sure the guy is going to be a future apostle or something. I got to see all of my buddies from my district in the mtc at the meeting. I hadn't seen any of them in the mission field previous to the meeting so it was a lot of fun. Recently I also had interviews with President Weston. The interview went really well. We asked when were gonna be able to start using I-pads and he says he knows but he's not allowed to tell us.

 

Since my companion is the district leader we go on exchanges with the zone leaders every once and awhile. So I had the opportunity to go to Chico for the day to work. It was a lot of fun and it was a lot different from Paradise. Chico is a college town and there's a much bigger population there so we were able to do a lot of street contacting which I haven't really done in Paradise because you would hardly run into anyone. It was also my first missionary experience on a bike. It made me feel a little grateful to be a car area. We OYM pretty much everyone we came across and we picked up 3 new investigators. Its too bad there not in my area so I won't be able to continue to teach them.

So we have this investigator named Jerry and I haven't told you guys much about him. He's been to church about 3 times now and we had a lesson with him a couple of days ago. The spirit was really strong there so we challenged him to be baptized. He told us he had a desire to be baptized but he wouldn't set a date yet. So were really excited for him. He seems to be progressing really fast. He's an older man and he has a hole in his neck from some gas thing when he was serving in the army so he said if he gets baptized it'll drown him. So were trying to figure something out.

We had probably one of the most successful weeks this past week since I've been on my mission. We taught a total of 27 lessons this week and we picked up two new investigators that were going to start teaching. One is Roxanne and she's a super nice middle aged women. She was one of our potential investigators and we knocked on her door and she invited us in. She told us that she was looking for a church to attend in Paradise because she misses having that spiritual aspect in her life. We gave her a lesson on the restoration and we gave her a Book Of Mormon. She even called us the next day to have us do some service for her and she's already starting reading the Book of Mormon and has gotten really into it so were really excited for her. The other Investigator that we picked up this week is Katrina. We were walking to this less active family in our ward to talk to them and we found Katrina walking home from work and we ended up talking to us for over an hour and seemed very interested as to what we had to say. We're gonna go meet with her again next week.

We've been focusing really hard on member-missionary work and getting the members more involved. We've been having a lot more members come to lessons and we have some members that have been awesome fellowshippers for our investigators. I really do believe that part of the reason we have been able to be so successful is because of the members and there efforts. People are a lot more likely to accept the gospel if one of there friends talks about it instead of two random guys in white shirts. So we have been asking for a lot of referrals and it seems to be helping. 

The members house who we live at have been on vacation for the past week so me and Elder Harper have had the entire house to ourselves so its been kind of fun. P-days are always a blast. We always go up to chico and our zone and another zone always meet up and play basketball and dodge ball and its a blast. I'm loving the missionary life.

Our baptism for Saturday with Jacob is still on and he's really excited. As for Marie we're not sure whats going to happen for her if her baptism date is even going to go through. She hasn't been to church for awhile and her mom keeps canceling our appointments with her so its making it really hard. I think she wants to be baptized but its hard when your family doesn't support you. 

I love and miss you all.

-Elder Rosenbaum 

Week 7-22-13

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm glad to hear everything is going so well! Thanks for calling smiths for me and asking me. I was really sad to find out that Levi Poulson passed away. what exactly happened? He was one of my best buds at smiths and we would talk all the time. He had problems with drugs and stuff but he was just an all around good kid though. Everything is going super good still! We have a trainer trainee meeting tomorrow up in Gridley so I get to see all of my district from the mtc so I'm really excited. We had a really strong brotherhood and we became super good friends in those two weeks so it'll be fun to all be back together. 

We had a really solid week. I can't remember everything I tell you week to week so sorry If i repeat a few things. We have this potential investigator that we have been fellow-shipping and we have been doing a ton of service for her. We mowed her lawn, weeded her garden, and stacked and split wood. I have a lot of hope for her hopefully she's willing to hear and learn about the gospel. Jacob Tiffany, our main progressing investigator is absolutely on fire. He does every thing we ask him to do. He reads the Book of Mormon, he prays, and goes to church every Sunday. I'm really excited for him. His baptismal date  for August 3rd is still a go. August 3 is right before the transfer gets over so it'll be a perfect way to end the transfer. I'm so excited! Jacob is seriously one of the coolest guys I've met. He's about 40 years old and he loves college football so we talk a lot about that and Me and Elder Harper I feel like were just really able to connect with him. He's been meeting off and on with the missionaries for about 8 years. Its truly been a miracle. Our other main investigator, Marie Campbell, has been kind of a struggle. Her mom is really controlling and she won't let her go to church a lot. She's only 13 years old and i'm not sure how badly she wants to be baptized. Just keep Marie in your prayers. Her baptismal date is Aug 24 so were just gonna continue to work with her.

I went on exchanged a couple of days ago and I went with Elder Schaeffer. Elder Schaeffer and been in this area just as long as me so I had to take over the area for the day. And i only got lost a couple times. I'm getting the area down though! We had a really successful day. I had one of the most spiritual experiences with him that day. We had a less active in our ward, Wendy Anderson, call us so we could go over to her house and give her a blessing. She has this disease which makes it so she can't control her muscles and is unable to stand very well and just doesn't have a lot of mobility. Its really bad. And she recently had her neighbor make a citizens arrest on her and its just been a huge mess. We gave her a priesthood blessing and I've never so strongly guided by the spirit as to what to say. It was the coolest experience. She was in tears by the end of the priesthood blessing. Only time will tell what will happen now.

In the past week, I've ran in to 3 anti Mormons that wanted to bash and argue with us. It can be really hard at times. We show them scriptural evidence from the bible and from the book of Mormon for what ever they tried to used against us and they just refuse to listen. All 3 of them basically told me i was wasting two years of my life. There's a lot of churches up here that preach anti Mormon stuff and i'm starting to run into a lot of people that go to those churches. I've found myself the past couple weeks studying the scriptures harder than I ever have before. I feel like my testimony has really been able to grow through these experiences though. 

Me and Elder Harper continue to get along great and we're having a lot of fun while doing the work. We get to go golfing so i'm pretty excited for that! A member owns the course so we get to go for free. I love and pray for you all. Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Rosenbaum

Week 7-15-13

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, those pictures that the Montgomery's sent you were this non member family and they absolutely love the missionaries. They fed us all we could get ribs and we played some games with them so were hoping they come around to accepting the gospel. But whenever we go over there for dinner they always take pictures of us so expect some more pictures in the next couple of weeks from them. There some of my favorite people I love them. But they aren't the people were living with. We're living with a family called the Reeves. There super nice and friendly people but she is very particular and wants things done her way. She even sat me and Elder Harper down for 2 hours and talked to us and how she wants things down. and we have to help with chores and cleaning the house on p-day which is kind of obnoxious but its only fair for us to help if were living there. And I have a couple of questions which is kind of random. can you look up what population and size of Spanish fork is and what the population and size of paradise is? I'm just curious i think there about the same size of town. I'm learned the area a lot better now and I feel like I know everyone fairly well in my ward. I feel like I know what i'm doing. Which is great. Elder Harper, my trainer is awesome and he's really taught me a lot. We have a blast. We're getting along super well and we have a lot of the same interest so there's always something to talk about. But I'm loving it.  Oh and can you send me BYU's football schedule i'm just curious to see what it looks like. 

Anyways, its been a crazy week and me and Elder Harper have been working super hard. Our two main investigators which I was telling you a lot about last week are both doing great. Jacob Tiffany and Marie both made it to church and Marie's date for her baptism on Aug 24 is still a go for now. Were going to try and get a date for Jacob but we don't want to push him because previous missionaries have and he's been offended by it. But Jacob is an awesome guy  I love teaching him he does every commitment we ask him to do and he'll read whatever we ask him to read and he's really progressing really fast and its been a real blessing. I hit my record this past week for lessons we taught 26 lessons which is my companions record too. But what were really focusing on is finding new people. With the new way of missionary work and working with members we've been trying really hard to focus on that and get referrals and do less tracting. We're teaching this guy named Onorio and he's really not progressing but i feel like i'm counseling him with his wife dying and its really hard knowing what to say and he just vents about his life and how sad he is and depressed and we've tried to explain how much joy he can have from the gospel but he never does anything about it. It can be frustrating. Most of the people we teach don't follow up with there commitments. 

But I've met some amazing people. We've been working with this less active guy named mike. He's a freakin stud. And he's going to feed us bear next time we go over.  The people here are weird. But I'm really growing to have a love for them and I really care about them. We have a goal as a zone to get 17 baptisms this next month. We even did a zone fast so we could find people to teach and achieve that goal. Everything is going great. Oh and I got my charger thing in the mail so thanks. thanks so much for always keeping me in your prayers. It means a lot. I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Rosenbaum