Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Week #102 "God on High.....Bring Him Home!"

August 1, 2016

Hi Family! We'll be leaving Iloilo in about 3 hours and begin our journey home! We spend a day in Manila before flying out about noon on Wednesday! I can't wait to be home and see you all :) 

Yesterday we had a fun, but "trunky" day at the Mission Home. It was a nice time but just made me want to quit dinking around and get home already! haha. President fed us a really good dinner at a nice restaurant and we bore our testimonies. It doesn't feel like I'm leaving the mission--such a weird feeling! But I can say that I am ready to be done with this week here already. It was hard to say goodbye to the members especially Nanay Ramos but we got to spend lots of time with her. I'm going to miss my new friends I've made here. It's still hard to believe my Mission is coming to an end. Thanks for the advice Mom! I'll for sure have a lot to say about my Mission. It's been the best thing I've ever done and I am so grateful to have had this experience.






It's been raining like a banshee the last few days. There's been a typhoon rolling through the Philippines this week. I can't wait to feel the hot dry air of Utah!

Sorry this is a little short. There's other people waiting to email on this computer so I have to go. Thanks for your emails and I will see you on Wednesday night :) Love you Mom, Dad and Hayley.

Love, Elder Rasmussen

Monday, July 25, 2016

Week #101 - “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” —Matthew 7:7

July 25, 2016

Hi Family!

Thanks for your emails and all the details. I'm excited too but you're a lot more crazy about it than I am, I'm sure :) It has been a little challenging to keep going every day--I am getting excited about coming home, but still working hard!

This past week it was hard to focus at times, especially since we got punted a lot.  Elder Andeo had a checkup at the hospital which took forever and for some reason that made me super trunky. And then to top it off yesterday after a whole week of trying to contact our investigator B. we finally got a lesson in with him and he told us he had some set backs this week that made it so we won't get to baptize him this weekend before I leave as previously planned. That was super disappointing. But I got over it because I know that God is in charge of everything in his work and things come about in his own due time. We also learned that Elder Andeo is apparently transferring when I leave next week, so we're hoping the next missionaries to this area will keep going with teaching him.

This week we had the opportunity to build a new house for a member family who were living in pretty bad conditions before. It was fun to build and get to know some of the older men in the ward better who helped build it and I learned a few new words in Ilonggo that don't come up in our general daily missionary work. It reminded me of working with Dad and also working with Mark at Heritage and how he would just say "hammer" or "screwdriver" when he needed me to get him something!  It was a super hot day and I was sweating like crazy! A storm rolled in later in the day and cooled things down when we were about done, and that was a welcomed relief! 












The next week I'll keep on working hard and doing missionary work. I'm ready to get home but I won't waste a minute of the time I've got left. I'm planning on saving up my laundry to bring home so I can use those super fancy mechanisms in our house that I didn't even realize how blessed we were to have before I left!

 

We fly to Manila on Tuesday the 2nd and then we'll leave Manila on the 3rd. Just 9 more days!

Love and miss you tons!
Elder Rasmussen

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Week #100 Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel

July 18, 2016
 Hey Mom :) My finger is messed up because of the fan this morning haha so this may be shorter than usual!
This week and all the others seem to be getting faster. We had a good week and ended it with a good ol baptism of our investigator sister R.  Most of the week we looked for someone who wouldn't punt us so our lessons were a little gamay lang but we got to teach our awesome investigators, L and B. There hasn't been a rainstorm here in a few days so its been really sunny which is pretty and uplifting but also super hot. Yesterday wasn't anywhere near as good as the Sundays before. We got punted a lot and our one lesson an investigator had been drinking so there was no spirit, but they were still fun to be around and we did the best we could to teach a spiritual lesson with them.
There was for sure a reason I was here until August. We have so many new investigators I have met and they are all very willing to learn. God runs the show and I've recognized it over and over this second half of my mission.

Lots of people want to feed us before I go home so that will be fun and I won't have to eat as much of my lousy mission cooking. haha We have one more baptism on July 30 before I go home. I Love the people here especially Bonifacio. Me and him are pretty tight. :)

That's all for now! Love and miss you tons! Elder Rasmussen




Week #99 You know it, But Do You Believe it?

July 11, 2016
Hi Mom and Dad - Loved all the pictures you sent from your trip! That's cool Uncle Richard has all those R/C planes! Do you think he could help me get mine in the air when I get home?
Climbing For Coconuts!
We had a great week here in Molo and had tons of success. The best day was again Sunday like last week but the other days were full of goodies as well (even though I struggle to remember them). The weekdays are the most difficult days to get things done or have any kind of lesson with non members because people are busy and have lots of excuses for not listening to us. Most of our time goes into teaching less actives and talking to people but in the night time we are able to teach our investigators who are doing really good right now. 

A typhoon went through the Philippines this week so it rained for several days in a row. It slows the work down even more but I still like rain storms. While we were talking to a guy we had met it was pouring rain and there was tons of lightning with really loud thunder. After that we were thinking about going home but decided to get one last lesson in and the Lord blessed us with the spirit so we had a great lesson with the P family about the Book of Mormon. 
Yesterday was so awesome! We had 6 investigators come to church and three of them we had only visited once. It was such a great surprise to them there! We get told all the time from people we invite to church that they will "try" to come to church and that usually means they aint' comin'-- but these people did and we were way happy to see them. Just clear evidence of God preparing the right people at the right time to receive the gospel.



Brother B. never ceases to impress me with his faith and humility and sincerity in accepting the Gospel. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom this week.  He drinks coffee and occasionally drinks beer but even with those things he has willingly accepted the Gospel and said he would quit drinking those things. When I told him coffee is bawal (not allowed) he said "well that's ok I'll just drink something else like tea" haha so I kinda laughed and said "then you'll like the next one! Tea is also bawal". But it didn't even phase him and he still said he'd avoid drinking those things. I used to be a little shy about telling people not to drink that stuff since its so hard for so many people but now I don't even flinch because I know it's true and God will bless them for sacrificing those things.
I keep receiving more and more confirmations that the Gospel is true and that God lives. I don't think it's inaccurate to say I was a bit spiritually blind before my mission. This past 2 years I've grown so close to my Heavenly Father and I've been blessed with a testimony and knowledge of the truth. There's still a lot I don't know and understand all the way, but I've learned so much during my mission and I'm so grateful to have the gospel in my life. I know that my lack of understanding will diminish as I keep progressing and stay true to my covenants. I'll never fall away from the church or my testimony. I know it and I believe it. Love you lots and miss you tons! Elder Rasmussen

Week #98 O'er The land of The Free, and The Home of The Brave

July 4, 2016

Elder Rasmussen and Sister Garcia
Hey Mom and Dad! Glad you are having fun on your trip to Canada! Have fun and please be safe :)
We had a great week and man it went by quick. We had some really good key indicator numbers which means we had quite a few lessons and other stuff so that was good! I went on a split with Elder Naulu who is an American and we worked in his area. Every single lesson they had planned was a reject so we ended up tracting for like 5 hours which was tiring but we found some cool people including these 2 girls and some really well behaved kids. They are Catholic and very observant in their religion which isn't all that common here, but we had a really great lesson with them.
Sunday as usual turned out great for us. We worked with some members and taught 2 of our investigators one named R. who I have always struggled to feel the spirit while we teach him but this time was great and the Spirit led the lesson. Some members fed us and I was really hungry so I was especially appreciative of being fed . Our next lesson was with our new investigator who we just met last week named B. He is awesome. We have a great relationship with him and the Spirit is always there when we teach him. He's a big guy in his 40's and I did an arm wrestle with him and won the right hand but lost the left. I'm in horrible shape! He writes down notes, does his reading, and focuses while we teach. SO AWESOME. I've got a constant smile on my face while we teach him because I love the guy so much and we always hug him when we get there and also when we leave. Brother R. (ward mission leader) fed us dinner and that made us happy too. Too many blessings to count for one day! 
This morning was fun we played football in the park and sang the star spangled banner before we did it nice and loud to celebrate the 4th of July. Then we ate at a restaurant called American Legend and ate burgers and sang the Star Spangled Banner again in the restaurant. haha 2 years of being away from the best country in the world has made us a bit prouder than we were before :)
President Aquino went home last week so now president Cruz is here. I haven't met him yet but I hear he's a way cool guy.
That's about all this week! Love and Miss you lots! Love Michael Elder Rasmussen




Proud American <3



Week #97 - "Straight and Narrow Is The Way"

June 26, 2016
Hey Mom and Dad -  This last week was good, but sitting here now I can't remember anything much to tell you! We worked a lot but got rained on a lot which slowed the work down. 
We had an interesting run in with a guy who wanted to debate with us. I got to chatting with him on the side of the road and he eventually in the conversation brought up some doctrine about the Father and the Son being one spirit and tried debating with us about it. When that happens I usually quickly yet respectfully end the conversation and say "alright buddy we'll see ya" haha and then 2 days later we showed up at our investigators house and of course he was there doing bible study with out investigator, so we did the same thing all over again.


Yesterday was our most productive day. We had a member named Jessie working with us and he's fun to work with. A new investigator in our area showed up to church wanting to learn more about the church! That was amazing and I consider that a gift from God seeing that we are always looking for new people to teach. We had a funny thing happen at church yesterday. One of the member's dogs showed up at church and was running around during sacrament and inside the class rooms haha it was a clean dog though so nobody seemed to care too much about that. Then there were these little kids also running around in the church like wild dogs and I think they were street kids because no adult was with them. I had to babysit them since no one else would and they were being crazy in the church, so yah, that was fun (NOT).

Today for PDay we went to a driving range and that was pretty fun! It was fun to do something different since usually we just play basketball. Being on the driving range made me miss working out at the golf course :)
Well, sorry this is so short! Love you lots! Love Elder Rasmussen
Got our chest x-rays so that means we're getting on a plane soon!

Week #96 "Believe, Obey, Endure"

June 19, 2016

Hi Mom and Dad! Thanks for your emails! and thanks Mom for all the good juicy news! I'm not really sure what to say about this week because we didn't have very many teaching opportunities but yesterday was a good day. School just started up here again and everyone is busy so that made the work a little slow.
On Tuesday we got a call that we were being transferred to a different house which we were totally ticked about because we love our housemates (not so much the house) so on Wednesday we moved to a new house in Arevalo on the other side of the City, but we' are still assigned to the same Molo area. The new place is actually pretty nice I don't mind it but we miss our old housemates. We had way too much fun last transfer!




Yesterday was probably the best day for work this week. We visited a member who hasn't been to church in like 25 years! She was happy to see us, and was really responsive and humble so we are looking forward to helping her out. She's the daughter of a member (all of her children are members but she's the only one who comes to church). Another place we went to was our investigator Reina who is getting baptized on July 2. She is super cool and really responsive and the lessons just go great every time with tons of Spirit :)



I went on a split with Elder Mudrow to interview his investigators for baptism and that was by far the funnest day of the week! These 2 members came with us and they were just way fun to work with and being with Mudrow never has its dull moments. There were some Baptist doing bible study at the member's house while we were waiting. Elmer is the only member in his family and he LOVES the Gospel and has all of his priesthood ordination certificates and pictures on the wall. Then he showed up with a Meet the Mormons T-shirt on and I just loved this guy right when I saw him haha way funny guy. The Baptists were way nice but I just felt proud to be a Mormon Missionary :)

Beautiful Philippines Sunset!

Transfers are this week. I'm staying in Molo and no longer a DL :) My companion took over so that will be nice. Last transfer is on its way!
Have a great week! Love and miss you all!

Love Elder Rasmussen

Monday, June 13, 2016

Week #95 "Never Postpone A Prompting....The Lord Entrusts To Us His Errands..."

June 13, 2016

Kamusta family! Thanks for the emails and deets of the week. You are looking mean in your leather next to your bike Mom, just don't get into any kind of accident you are still my Mom and I want you in 1 piece please. Sound familiar? :) 

This week was crazy fast as usual and super duper hot as usual. We had tons of success this week so it was way better than the previous weeks! We had no investigators the previous weeks and it was really weighing down on us. As a companionship we made a goal to talk to as many people as we could this week. We went tracking in several new places including some really nice subdivisions (only the maids answered the door and talked to us) but because we made that extra effort to talk to people it qualified us for the companionship of the spirit.  Because of our efforts we were led to several new people that are interested in the church and we are actively teaching them :) One man named Bernie was in his house next door to a house we were tagbalaying at (when you go to a house you yell "Tagbalay" to get the people to come out. Tagbalay means "house occupant") Anyhow, Bernie told us there was no one home there, so we started to walk away and I thought I should speak to that guy, but I started to hesitate, and then I got frustrated with myself for feeling awkward and hesitating and in my mind I thought "I need to go back and talk to that guy!" So I turned around and went back to talk to him and it was awesome! Bernie ended up being a really nice guy who said he wants to change his life and maybe we are just the ones to help him. It was so cool! We also found several other new investigators who live near some members and the members referred us to them. This all happened because of the Spirit guiding us to talk to the right people. It's such a great confidence builder and a great testimony builder when you absolutely know in your heart that the Spirit led you directly to the right people. And of course it's so great to have new investigators to teach again! 

We are also teaching a lady named Christy who has 4 kids. The kids are cool but they are young and rambunctious and can be super disruptive during our lessons which always make it an extra challenge since it's hard to feel the spirit. But the Mom is very interested and wants to learn, so we're excited we can teach her. But we had another cool experience yesterday while we were walking to Christy's house. We had some member with us and there was a group of Jehovah's Witnesses who were out doing there thing and when they saw us they came straight over to us and the members got very nervous there would be a problem. But I spoke with the J.W.'s and talked to them and told them they were guapo ("cool"). The one dude was ready to hammer down pamphlets and doctrine on us but I just talked to them and traded our pamphlets for theirs and everyone walked away happy.  I'm so glad I could show that we're definitely not out to argue with people or try and prove them wrong. So hopefully they recognized that and that will soften their hearts in the future:)

Here's the answers to your questions Mom:
#1 - What made you laugh this week? Chatting up with the other Elders in the house this week. We had some good laughs.
#2 - What was your best teaching moment? Teaching about repentance to Bernie. 
#3 - What was your biggest struggle this week? Trying to teach with little kids being loud and trying to keep the spirit.
#4 - What are you studying? The Book of Mormon and the book "Faith Precedes the Miracle" by Spencer W. Kimball.
#5 - What have you been doing on your P-days that has you emailing so much later than you used to? haha no one wants to email in the morning anymore so I just have to go with them.

Today was a zone activity which was fun. Our house is always fun to be in with the 6 of us and this week we had up to 12 in our house because of zone conference. It was mine and Elder Mudrow's last zone conference. Time is flying! 

Love you lots!
Michael

 

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Week #94 "If Ye Have A Desire To Serve, Ye Are Called To The Work" D&C 4:3

June 6, 2016

Soft Serve Ice Cream! What a Treat!
Hey Mom and Dad! Thanks for your emails!
Well this week was a reall good and fast one and we did get lots done so I've been really happy. Most of our work has been working with the less active members.  We're still searching and hoping for some new investigators to teach, but in the meantime working with the members has been good.
There were a lot of weak sauce rain storms this week which only intensifies the heat adding humidity. A few highlights of the week were us working with members teaching the LA's and it has been helping us to find investigators, part member families who we can teach and hopefully baptize.
We are teaching Raina, a 19 year old girl who came to church for the second time on Sunday and she is super smart and very willing to learn.  There's another woman from the same house whose husband is a member and we are hoping to get them married and then baptize her at the same time but that will take a lot of work on their part so we're praying they'll make something happen. The Bishop (Bishop Sioatong) has been really willing to help us too which is great because we need it.





I went on a comp exchange with one of the elders in my district named Elder Dean. At first I was worried about having a good day and being able to find people to teach but it ended up being great and I was able to help Elder Dean with some of the things to do and say when talking and teaching to people. That is what makes being a (DL) District Leader so fun. I have 8 Elders in my District and I love teaching and working with them and it helps me learn as well.  I'm hoping to go with Elder Mudrow this week which will be way fun and then more the next weeks.
Time is moving that's for sure! People are coming home and it makes me feel a little anxious to get home but still way happy to be on my mission. Don't worry about me though I'm not wasting anybody's time out here in the next two months :) I'm going to push through till the end and make these last 2 months count!

Love ELder rasmussen

Week #93 "God will guide your footsteps, if you are willing to move your feet"

May 30, 2016

Hi Mom and Dad - Glad to hear everything went great there for Grandma and Grandpa's party. I wish I could have been there! The weather looks like it was great!

I've been really happy the last few weeks with my companion and doing the work. This transfer has been so good with everyone in our house and none of the companionships have any problems we're all just way tight with each other its great!

This week it rained nearly every day. It was super hot in the morning and early afternoon and then around 4 we get some nice thunderstorms and that always makes me happy! 

All of the work we did this week was with less active members which is good but I sure miss have some investigators. I miss teaching them. We walked down a road I had never been down just looking to see where it went and we got to the end and talked to some people and I eventually asked them If they knew any Mormons and one pointed to a guy right behind us and said "yeah him". God lead us right to them he took us to his family who hadn't been visited by missionaries in 4 years and haven't been to church in 3. They were so happy to see us! I've had several experiences in my mission like that getting led straight to people who are waiting for us!

The house is never quiet anymore with the 6 of us we are always talking and  telling stories it has been so much fun. Our landlord has an AC unit he is going to give us which will make our house even more happy and studies will be a lot easier because its been so hot in the house. Elder Andeo is awesome we've been talking a lot while working and just having fun. Time has been going way fast!

Sorry I don't have anything more to tell you about! Time is flying by!

Love Elder Rasmussen






Week #92 - "Jesus Christ is My Savior and Redeemer"

May 23, 2016
Hey Mom! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you and Grandma and Grandpa! It sounds like a fun surprise for them. 
This week was a good and a fast one! The weeks we can tell are going so much faster now that everyone is happy in the house and the work is going well. Every night it has been hard to get to bed on time because we always end up talking and telling stories but that makes coming home each night something to look forward to if the day hasn't been as good as we hoped. in our area we have not many investigators but we've been finding members houses in places that I had never known before. This week Nanay Ramos worked with us a few times and she is always a big help because she knows most of the members which eliminates the awkwardness or shyness of peolpe around us. My companion and I are getting along so great. I love the guy we're pretty darn good buddies!

Whenever I try and think about what happened during the week on Mondays I cant remember anything so I'm sorry if this is boring.
This week was super hot but for the first time in a long time we got some rain and it has been an every day thing now which always makes me happy! I love the dark clouds, thunder, and lighting.
Today we played basketball and I realized how badly I need to practice. haha I suck at basketball. I just miss my motorcycle so much since I'm actually kind of good at that.
Here's the answers to your questions Mom:
 #1 - Tell me one thing that made you laugh this week. Telling stories in the house has been funny and there has been a lot of laughing!
#2 - What have you been studying? A book that Spencer W Kimball wrote. 
#3 - Are you still doing a lot of walking in the City? Is your area as big as your areas where you've been more rural? We are in the city so my other areas were bigger but this one has way more people. 
#4 - What was your favorite meal this week? Fried Chicken at a birthday party.
#5 - What do you do at church on Sundays? Do you just listen or do you ever have to teach or speak in Sacrament? We don't do anything special just the same thing the members do.
Love you all!
Michael





Thursday, May 19, 2016

Week #91 - “It’s Not A Race, It’s A Journey.”

May 16, 2016


 Hey Mom and Dad - 
This week was great and there have been a million things that have happened that I will try to remember. Last Tuesday I learned I was getting a new companion, Elder Andeo. He is from Bacolod and speaks only Ilonggo so he's my 3rd pure Ilonggo speaking companion from Bacolod. We also had 2 more missionaries who have moved in our house (now there are 6 of us) one of my batch mates, Elder Mudrow, who is one of my favorite people in the mission and Elder Billings who is a brand new missionary who is super cool too. Our house seems a little more cramped at times now, but that is a-o.k. with me! We have plenty of room and I'm really happy having them with us :)
Elder Andeo when I met him I found to be a super kind and friendly Elder from Bacolod. He is a really small little feller so it makes me look really big when we walk side by side. The work has just been going way better for us and I've been introducing him to all of the members and investigators we have since he got here. Everything is just so much better than last transfer so I couldn't be much happier than I am right now where I'm at as far as I'm concerned :) 


Today we got a chance to head out to Guimaras for the Manggahan (Mango Festival) and we ate a ton of mango that was just delicious. I ate 8 and could have eaten more but I didn't feel like getting sick. Some people ate around 15. While we were there I got to see some of the members from Buenavista that I love! So good to see them and I could speak to them with ease compared to how it was about 18 months ago! Mudrow and I really wanted to see Buenavista but it didn't work out but we're still happy to have gotten over across the ocean to Guimaras again.
They shortened our time again for email so I'm not sure how long it will be before every one starts to head out but that's about it for the week. 
Here's to answer your questions Mom0 !Love, Elder Rasmussen 

#1 - What made you laugh this week? Conversations in the house with everyone 
#2 - What was your best teaching moment? Teaching a lady named Micky about fasting./ 
#3 - Describe your companion in 3 words! Kind, Small, Ilonggo
#4 - Describe the Philippines in 3 words! Jeepneys, Air conditioning, friendly people
#5 - Describe your mission in 3 words! Testimony, challenge, fast.