Week 44 - Blessings and Priesthood Blessings

Hello,

This week was a good one. I have two pretty cool stories. 1) We were teaching a guy named Carlos, for a long time. He wasn't progressing, wasn't reading, and didn't want much from us. He told us he didn't want us to come back. About a week passed by, and out of the blue, he called us. He asked if we could come by. We passed by and he explained that one day it rained, he was feeling so depressed that he just stood in the rain. He let it "wash his mind" and then decided he needed to change his life. He came to church this week, and he liked it. He felt peace.

2) Yesterday, as we were leaving the house, we prayed so that we would be able to use our Priesthood to bless the lives of more people. After sacrament meeting, a lady asked us for a blessing. We've never even met this lady before. Later in the day, we went to visit a less-active family. As we get there, there is a lot of commotion. Their neighbor was having a lot of chest pain. We gave her and her son a blessing. They all expressed gratitude to God for sending "His elders" to give them a blessing in their time of need. That makes 5 total this week.

It was a good week. We've seen many miracles and tender mercies. Today we played pool. It was fun.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rasmussen

1: Famous "Satelite Tower". This is our reference point for everything. I don't even know what it is really.

2: Another blurry picture, of our zone playing billiards.

3: A mexican fountain

Week 43 - Service and parties

Hola,

This week we did a lot of service projects. We helped plant trees in a park. We did it as a zone, we planted about 50 in total. Then we were going to help a lady with her roof, but then she didn't buy the materials she needed. We then visited an investigator, and was having a birthday party, she invited us in anyway. We taught the word of wisdom and law of chastity. She accepted to live both of them. haha We visited another older lady and she was having a birthday party for her grandson. We talked and contacted almost all her family. haha Who knew a little kid's b-day party would be such a good missionary tool.

This week has been a little boring. Not going to lie. But there's nothing to complain about. I am happy and healthy. We also met with an ancient investigator of the hnas. He believes that the government is in charge of strange events that have happened. He says he planted a tree and then a few weeks later it was gone. What is his explanation? The government didn't want it there. haha. He's probably actually right. If you just plant a random tree, it might get removed. He's an interesting dude. That's one benefit of serving a mission, there are an infinite number of interesting people to meet.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rasmussen

Sorry, I don't have many pictures to send, I'll take more. 

Also, here is our monthly mission news report. I'm in two pictures, I believe.

Preview attachment JULIO 2017.pdfJULIO 2017.pdf19 MB

Week 42 - The work is progressing in Satelite

Hey all,

This was a good week. We found a lot of great people and I am really excited to see how this transfergoes. I know that the Lord is using us to further His work. That is one thing that a new returned missionary in our ward talked about. It's not my work, or the bishop's work, or even the mission president's work, but this is the Lord's work. 

All is going well here in Satelite, not much to say. There is this one guy we found this week named Roberto. He is an interesting guy, almost all the people we talk to are interesting haha. But he is very interested in the Book of Mormon and all of our teachings. He has some blood or kidney issue and we told him that when we are resurrected, we will have perfect bodies. He started to cry with joy. It's really amazing to see how we can bring peace and joy to these people's lives. 

One thing I've been trying to do is looking for the Lord's hands in the little details of my life. It is amazing to see how much He cares when we start to look. Have a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Rasmussen

Week 41 - Rain and yeah that's about it

Happy 4th of July!

So as you can tell from the subject, not much happened this week. It rained about everyday and we walked a lot.

We've been working our tails off, and I know the Lord is testing us right now. It's been a little frustrating because our investigators have been really flaky these past few weeks. They cancel on us right before lessons. We even passed by for one before church, he said he would come in 30 mins, he only needed to finish getting dressed. yeah, he never showed up. come on people!

But it was a good week. There's nothing to complain about. Life is good. The mission is great. It's cool to see how people can change when they are feeling the Spirit. I've been working on being guided by the Spirit, and it is awesome! I hope we can all work on being better guided by the Holy Ghost.

Hope you all have a great Independence Day!

Love,

Elder Rasmussen

1: Our flooded backyard, luckily all the water stayed outside

 2: View of "El Pueblo de Bernal"

3: Elder Dominguez, grafity

Week 40 - La Pena de Bernal

Yesterday, we got permission to go visit the Peña de Bernal with a family that we are teaching. We got back last night and didn't have time to email. We are checking references online right now, so I just thought I'd let you know that I am still alive. I'll write you all next week. All is going well!

Love,

Elder Rasmussen

Week 39 - Walking and More Walking

This was a very fast week. Even though we probably walked the most this week in all of my mission, it was a great week. Not much new. We had to leave some non-progressing people. But we found a great couple. One thing that I really like about this ward here is that it doesn't matter what people have done in the past, if they have a desire to repent and change and come back to church, the members will try to help them make that return. Sometimes we don't let people repent. 

Elder Holland spoke about that in a BYU speech: "A Robe, a Ring, and a Fatted Calf". He said "Of course, one of the added tragedies in transgression is that even if we make the effort to change, to try again, to come back, others often insist upon leaving the old labels with us."

"When a battered, weary swimmer tries valiantly to get back to shore, after having fought strong winds and rough waves which he should never have challenged in the first place, those of us who might have had better judgment, or perhaps just better luck, ought not to row out to his side, beat him with our oars, and shove his head back underwater. That’s not what boats were made for. But some of us do that to each other." 

Hopefully you all can read that talk, it is one of my favorites.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rasmussen

Week 38 - Leonardo's Baptism

Hola,

This was a really great week! Leonardo got baptized and when he bore his testimony it was really amazing. He expressed that he knew the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. He also gave a lot of thanks to God that he was able to be baptized in His church. It was awesome to hear his sincere testimony. 

Rain season is starting, so we are going to get a lot of street rivers. It makes crossing the street without getting our socks wet a lot more interesting.

All is well here in Satélite. Happy Father's Day Dad! You are the best Dad in the world! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Grant

1. With Leonardo

2. "Lluvia" Street with a river going down it. (Lluvia is rain in spanish) lol