22 June 2015 - Gone Swimming!...and the Force is Strong with This Little One

Hello!

This past week was pretty rough for my companion and me. We ended up with very little teaching and did sooo much walking and trying to meet new people.  Of all the good things about a small town, it's hard to preach "a new gospel," to tract and street contact in a place where change is not a big part of the mindset.  Everyone says the same thing to us, (insert your best Minnesotan accent) "I really appreciate what you boys are doing but I'm content with my religion." Any attempt to talk with them after that just ends with "Nope! Have a good day." It's sad because we want so badly just to have the chance to talk to people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I think one of the biggest obstacles is that many people don't believe there is one true church, so they aren't looking for anything other or "more" than what they have.  They all seem to think that as long as they believe in God they will be saved, which is true in some respects since all will be resurrected, but we continue to hope some will be interested in exaltation and not just salvation from death.   

Sorry.  Enough of my rantings, that's not very missionary-like of me, is it? Oh well, life in the mission goes on...some weeks better than others. Lately it seems that everyone is at the swimming pool and since as missionaries we can't go swimming, we don't get a chance to be where the whole town seems to be.  So many are gone from home during the day at the pool. This past week my companion said, "Hey Elder, I have a great idea....lets just go teach people at the pool, then when they want to be baptized we have a giant font to do it in!  We laughed for a bit and then said, "Ehh..probably not," though it would be very nice to jump into a cold pool after you have been walking around in the humid heat all day long. 

Today my companion and I woke up to a HUGE wind storm. We were under a severe tornado watch, it was the craziest thing I have ever seen--the wind stronger than I have ever experienced. It was kind of sketch, but pretty cool at the same time.

Next transfer calls are July 9th (my one year mark).  So glad to hear the men in the family introduced baby Maddox to  Star Wars.  Gotta get him started early on the ways of the force if he is ever going to be a pro gamer / nerd like the res of us.

Thanks for all that you guys do, I hope that you have a great week! Love you!


Elder Rasmussen