24 August 2015 - No, the Mormons don't own Pepsi

Greetings from Omaha!

Well it has been another great week out here...my companion and I went tracting for about 5 hours one day and the Lord blessed us with four new potentials whom we hope to start teaching this week! 

As far as transfers go, I'm still in the same area with the same companion...which is fine. I love it here though we are guessing that this will be his last transfer in the area. I keep getting the feeling that a new opportunity will be coming next transfer which kind of makes me excited, but at the same time, I'm a little nervous about it. 

The other day my comp and I went back to the same exciting neighborhood (as last week's fight) to teach a lesson and this black guy comes up to us TOTALLY smashed, and tries to talk to us. We shared the first lesson with him though I doubt he will remember anything. It was funny though, 'cause the whole time we were teaching, anytime my companion tried to say something, the guy would cut him off and say, "I..I..I..can't understand you! Let your friend say it...he (me) speaks in a way that I can errrr..understand yeah..yeah!" That was a pretty fun experience, though my companion didn't feel great that the guy would not drop the fact that he couldn't understand him. 

We also met another guy who was trying to convince us that the Mormons own Pepsi, "yet we can't drink caffeine." I said, "Sir, we don't own Pepsi and yes, we can drink caffeine, it's just advised that we stay away from addictive substances....some members of the church do drink caffeinated sodas." He was very adamant that we did own Pepsi and continued trying to argue with us.. So we discussed the matter for about 10 minutes while he tried to look it up online and then he finally reads out loud, "No, the Mormon's don't own Pepsi." He was like, "Well, crap...20 years of my life I have been lied to!  You guys want a Coke?" Ha!

As for Mom's question of the week....our mission doesn't have iPad's yet--the North American rollout seems to be going slower than everyone expected, and by the time we do, it will probably almost be time for me to come home.  I'm pretty comfortable without them, using them would certainly be a change.  I'm sure I'd get used to it, but thinking about it makes me a little nervous.

Well love you guys a ton! Have a great week!

Elder Rasmussen

17 August 2015 -- Omaha is "The Bomb," yea verily!

Hello!

What a great week! Omaha is the Bomb! We continue to find people to teach and are finding a ton of success almost every day.

This week we had a really cool experience with a less-active family. We got a referral to go visit a family and when we went over, there was a lot of people at the house--like 16 or 17.  The grandma of the family all of her 6 children were baptized  (4 live with her) and those four children have kids that also live there. Cozy!  They were really excited to be able to meet with us. We found out that two of the kids are old enough to be taught the lessons and the family is all for it, so we should be getting two new investigators this week! That was an amazing find and I'm really excited to be able to teach them and see them progress.

While on exchanges with my District Leader this last week, we were in the ghetto--which is always exciting.  We went to an apartment complex to follow-up with some people that Elder Hansen and I had contacted earlier, when all of a sudden, two women get into this fight...and it was crazy! They were about to go ham on each other when two other people got in the middle of it a broke it up. My companion and I just looked at each other and were trying not to laugh because there were all sorts of interesting names being called.  If it hadn't been for the two who intervened and broke it up, things would not have ended well. It was funny in a way because EVERYONE in the apartment complex came out and was just watching it all happen. Later that night, we went back to see if we could catch our contacts at a better time, but when we got there, there were 20 more people in the mix and the cops had shown up...so that was pretty intense.

The other day, we went to another place in the same neighborhood to contact some people when this truck pulled up.  They needed help moving in..so of course we offered our services and they gladly accepted.  After we were done helping this family move in, everyone near by joined in shouting praises to Jesus for sending us there at that time.  "A blessing in disguise," that's what we were :)  So that was pretty fun. 

I love serving in this area..normally back home, I probably would have been scared to death of being in a place like this, but I feel no fear--just excitement and love for the people here!  Things are going really well and I'm having a great time!

Thanks for the package.  I have eaten all of the fruit snacks and I'm now working on the dill pickle chips! Transfers are coming up this Friday but it's unlikely that I'll move--though you never know what will happen.  As far as shopping is concerned, we generally shop at Wal-Mart though we don't buy a ton because the members we live with continually stock our fridge and cupboards; they get after us if we buy a lot of our own groceries.  You also asked about how many hours we spend at church on Sundays--only three hours. In Sheridan, we were at church 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Yes, I'm still going to send my bicycle home as instructed, just haven't really gotten around to it because there are actually things to do here on P-day.

That's too bad that Cort got a cavity..He never gets them though, so I guess he ought to brush better? haha! There is nothing worse than knowing that you have to go back and face the drill.  Afterwards you are super hungry but can't eat anything.  No, I don't think I overreact about going to the dentist. 

Well love you all hope that you have a great week!

10 August 2015 - Will it Blend?

Hello everyone!

Elder Hansen and I have had another awesome week in Omaha! Last P-day we went to the zoo which was freaking great! It's the largest zoo in the U.S. (or so we've been told) and they continue to expand it. (I'll make sure to send some pictures). 

We had dinner with a member family this week and on Sunday our ward mission leader told us that one of the members said, "You know, I think this is the first time we have really enjoyed having the Elders in our home. We laughed, talked, and had a great spiritual message!" I thought that was really cool to hear and a very nice compliment. 

The people we're working with here in Omaha are progressing pretty well. We have one investigator that really opened up to us and we hope to put him on date this Friday. Unfortunately, a good number of our other investigators (as predicted) just seem to like the social interactions they have with us..."Come in and hangout" or "We'd love to talk for a bit," but don't seem as interested in the gospel.

The weather has been pretty crazy here, every other day it seems to be raining and then the next day it's super hot. I guess there was a tornado somewhere in Omaha on Saturday night but not close enough to us to be concerned about.  

Our mission president has issued a challenge to the entire mission to memorize certain scriptures. I have memorized 7 of the 12 he gave us and I bet he will continue to issue more to us as time goes on. It's a really cool feeling to be able to just pull a scripture out of nowhere during a lesson and quote it word for word. It's something that I never thought I would want to do but I hope to memorize a new scripture everyday or at least close to everyday. I'm having a lot of fun out here in Omaha and I know that there is a ton of work to be done here. 

So I must tell you guys something that is pretty funny that I have not mentioned previously.  My companion has a Blentec blender...and let me just say that it is every bit as noisy as Dad's, but seems even louder because I'm like right next to it while he blends.  It starts out slow...rum, rum, rum, rum then RUm, RUm, RUm, RUm, THEN RUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUMRUM!!!! Oh my gosh, the first time I heard that I was like, "NOOOOOOOOO....I thought I got away from that for two years!" 

Well thanks for all that you guys do love you tons!

-Elder Rasmussen

3 August 2015 - National Say Hi to a Missionary Day?

Another greet week out here in Omaha!

This week was full of great experiences, everyone seemed to be really friendly and my companion and I were able to see a lot of success. We didn't meet with as many people this week unfortunately, likely due to it being the last week of summer--everyone was finishing up their vacations. Hopefully next week will be full of more teaching again.

We had a really cool experience on Friday.  We were just walking down the road like any other day, and I don't know if it was "National Say Hi to a Missionary Day," or "National Shout Praises to the Lord Whenever You See a Missionary Day," but that happened a lot that day. Most of the people we passed honked and waved or rolled down their window and shouted "Praise the Lord!" We thought it was pretty sweet, much better than walking down the road and getting called all sorts of fun names. We then walked into a gas station and there was a man who came up to me and asked if we believed in God, and asked some other questions about the church. We invited him to come to church and he said he would love to come this upcoming Sunday. He then said "Go get yourselves a drink it's hot outside! I'll pay for it!" We accepted, because who can pass on a generous free drink on a hot day offer? We found another new investigator to teach his name is Noel. He is super awesome and prepared to hear the message; we are really pumped to be able to teach him. Things are really going well and I'm enjoying all of my time here.

People ask if I feel differently now I've passed the one year mark? I feel like I'm still new..even though when I ask a lot of the other missionaries how long they have been out, it's usually less than a year.  Funny, I still feel brand-new.

Well I hope that you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

-Elder Rasmussen