(Dear loving family? Hello all you please?)
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| Sister Hingano & Me |
Well
this week hasn't been extremely eventful but I have learned some important
lessons. On Wednesday, we had our training check up, which means that I
have been here for a month. So nuts. I got to see everyone from my
batch and everyone from the MTC which was super fun. Everyone is doing
well and I am just so lucky to be here.
Afterwards the President bought us all lunch at this really good Pilipino place and we got mango smoothies - to die for. I know I am going to miss those mangos so much
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| Left & Clockwise: Me, Sister Dicen, Sister Hingano, & Sister Ott |
Sister
Temwaaka called and it was so funny. First, Sister Ott comes down the
stairs and says... uhhh Sister Rasmussen I think your companion from the MTC
tried to text you. Then she called and I get on the phone and she half
says half yells..."Rasmussen!!! What your birthday? I forgot!!"
Haha it was so funny. I talked to her and told her I missed her but
told her that it was not allowed for her to call me like that. She said
ok and hung up. Haha it was so funny.
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| Me, Sister Ott, Sister Dicen & Sister Hingano |
I loveeeee all of my housemates.
Sister Dicen is so sweet. She is this little Pilippino.
Literally... literally weighs 85 pounds. She is just so sweet and
humble. And then her companion is Sister Ott who is fun and helps me to
be myself.
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| Sister Hingano & me getting a treat |
But
I just love my companion. She is so humble and patient with me. I
think that our biggest strength is teaching. Sometimes, plans change and
we have to wing it but we really know how to listen to one another, follow the
spirit, and work together. I love her. The weather has been super
nice. It barely rained once and it hasn't been too hot but I know it will
warm up as time goes on. I really do love that.
Sunday we normally study an hour before church, go to
church. Talk to the bishop, come back, study, make lunch, and go out for work.
It's my favorite day:) I love it. I play the piano
every Sunday and sometimes it is soooo bad hahahaha but I know they
appreciate it and it is fun to practice. I think that I am getting a
little better.
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| Burning garbage !?! |
P-days are Monday. We clean our apartment, it's the
first thing we do and I actually like doing it. It's nice to have a clean
apartment. We normally clean, study, go to buy groceries, e-mail, and
come back to relax a little bit. There aren’t really any places to go and
hike around here. But we did get to go hiking with our zone last week.
So fun. Then we are out the door by 6 to work. We have to be
back by 7:30 or 8 at night because it is unsafe for girls to be out
longer than that.
As
far as the food goes, I don't have too much variety right now. My
housemates and I cook like a chicken and veggie stir-fry every day for lunch
with rice. I eat oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. And we don't
usually get dinner because we are working. We might make eggs or
something.
No
one in the ward really feeds us so for the most part we are on our own.
We get our cash the first day of every month out of an ATM. It is
pretty slick.
Right
now, we are waiting in a GINORMOUS line to pay our electricity bill. Anyway,
since the line is so long, we figured that we would come and e-mail while we
were waiting.
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| Street in Rosario |
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| Sister Reed & Me |
I
have learned so many important lessons already and as I said before, I just
LOVE the scriptures. You can get so much out of them no matter how many
times you read them. I have promised myself that I will never stop
digging in the scriptures for the rest of my life. I have also realized
the importance of prayer. But the biggest thing that I learned this week
is the power of the enabling power of the Atonement. I was aware of this
before, but I think that I was going about it the wrong way.
I
think that I have said this before, but the atonement has three purposes: for
the resurrection, to cleanse us of our sins, and to help us become saints.
That last purpose is what has resonated with me this week. In
Mosiah 3:19 it says that we must put off the natural man and
"...becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and
becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, (and this
next line is what I would like to emphasize) willing to submit to all things
which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to
his father.
So
in order to become a saint, we must be willing to submit to everything that the
Lord sees fit to give to us. We are going to have trials whether we are
good or bad. But to become a saint, we must be humble and submit, and
through the atonement, Christ gives us the strength to overcome the trials than
we could have with our own capacities alone.
For
me, of course the mission is going to be hard. Siyempre. Of course
it will be difficult to learn the language and to become the kind of teacher
that I hope to become. It will be hard to face rejection and to watch
those you love refuse to keep their commitments or go against the Holy Ghost.
But through the atonement, we can receive the strength to bear the things
that are hard with ease, with grace. And as we align our will with God's,
we come out even stronger, more faithful, and knowledgeable than before.
Even in the very first verse of 1 Nephi 1. Everyone always
emphasized that he was born of goodly parents, but if you go on in the verse,
he said, "...and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days,
nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days."
Surely Nephi faced many trials his entire life, yet he had so much faith
in the Lord and His atonement and could still see the blessing in his life and
how he was highly favored.
Anyway,
I hope this is making any sense and it is impossible to explain all of the thoughts
and impressions I have had this week, but I just want to say that this life is
hard. It is supposed to be hard. And we really can't do it on our
own. We have to admit that we just can't... that we are nothing without
Jesus Christ. We cannot put our trust in the arm of the flesh. As
we have faith in Christ's atonement, he can give us the strength that we need
to endure and ultimately become a saint. Continue to become better and
better.
Elder
Bednar's talk "In The Strength of the Lord" talks all about this and
it is amazing. All of you should read it:)
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| me and the Tumampo family and their friends. They are inactive and we are trying to work with their kids to get baptized but there isn't much progress. |
Anyway,
I don't have too much to say about this week but I am just so filled with
gratitude. I am so grateful to be here, to be pushed, learning, and grow.
I know that there will be no other time in my life when I can fully give
myself to the Lord. I am doing my best but once again, I know that I
can't do it without His help. My dad said in a letter "You could be
doing anything you wanted right now and you chose to serve the
Lord". I just need to remind myself of that when things get hard.
I have chosen to serve the Lord and I must give everything that I have.
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| The Trikes we ride in |
As
for the people we are working and things are going well. We met with
Jesus - the man I bore my testimony to on the tricycle and he was taking
everything that we said to heart. The spirit was so strong. He said
that he needs to talk to his wife about it but wants us to teach his whole
family. We are teaching him tomorrow and praying that she will be
accepting and it will work out. We are still working with two couples
that need to get married. One has everything set in place and I think
they will be baptized by the end of the month. They have been through 3
sets of missionaries, but it just shows that timing is everything.
We
are also doing a lot of activation. That is the biggest problem here - so
many less-actives.
I
love you.
Mahal
ko po kayo lahat. Ingat po.
Love,
Sister Rasmussen
Love that picture with all the natives surrounding her!
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