Week 36

Hello Family,

Sorry I didn't have much time to email today, I got transferred after only 6 weeks in Mpopoma. I'm now in an area called Mazvingo. I've been traveling all day, Mazvingo is really far from the city of 

Bulawayo. We took a 3 hour bus ride and then another 2 hours by car to get here. We are about 3 hours from the border of South Africa and near a place called Great Zimbabwe National Monument. I am the new District Leader here, and it's kinda cool because we are kinda opening up the new area. There is only a branch here and we will be having 8 missionaries who are all going to be in the same branch. So it's pretty exciting! I will have to tell you more about it next week. My new comp is Elder Masinga he is from South Africa. My whole district are white washing their areas, that means that both companion are new to the area, so we will be spending the next few days trying to figure out the area, My last week in Mpopoma was really good we didn't have a baptism but it was still good.

Love you all have a good week!

-Elder Rasmussen

Week 35

My week was really good! We had 3 more baptisms and confirmations! The situation here is getting a little better for some things and not for others.

We were able to finish watching conference this week which was great! It is so exciting that there are going to be 12 more temples built, that is amazing!

This week was just a really good week! It's such an exciting time when someone gets baptized because we know that they are being saved in to the only true church on the face of the earth.

We had a few new missionaries come in about 6 weeks ago and this is the last week of the transfer so we will see if I leave this area or if I stay in it. We are supposed to get 12 new missionaries this next week so we will have to see what happens to me.

This week we finished up teaching the girl that was baptized, her name is Samantha and before she was baptized we went to her house and we asked her some questions about her baptism and she said, "yeah about that...." We didn't know what to think and my heart kinda dropped and I thought crap she doesn't want to be baptized anymore but she said, "I'M READY!"

We were so excited and the Spirit was so strong there as we talked more about her baptism and what was going to take place.

I've learned a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we want to be happy in the Spirit World and want to be free from every care of the world we need to live the gospel here on earth. As we live the gospel, God will bless us if we obey what God wants us to do.

The Book of Mormon has so much power, we can use it to pierce the darkness in the hearts of unbelievers. The Book of Mormon can answer any question that we have in this life and if we read it everyday we will have power over Satan and it makes it harder for him to tempt us when we have put on the Armor of God.

-Elder Rasmussen 

Our District at District Council

Our Baptism this week.
Elder Marange, Samantha, Thelma, Lorian, Me. 

This is how I wash my clothes.

This morning I made pancakes without a recipe and they
were actually really good. Hahaha 

 -Posted by Brooke

Week 34

This week we received a letter from Sister Smith the mission secretary informing all parents of the situation in Zimbabwe. I am including this so that you understand Elder Rasmussen's letter he wrote to us this week. She said, "there are some challenges going on in our dear country right now, economy-based. Some of you may hear about these challenges from your missionaries.
Rising prices, inflation, shortages of certain items, extremely long fuel lines, and stores closing. These problems are all based on the cash shortages. Right now the shortages are still manageable and everyone is doing well."

I love her testimony and words of encouragement to us as parents of those serving in Zim. She goes on to say, "We believe we have all been placed here, at exactly this time, at exactly this place for a reason. What a privilege to be here in Zimbabwe during this momentous time. There is a temple announced to be built here. The people are humble and looking for the LIGHT and HOPE the restored gospel offers them. This country is about to explode with opportunity. Satan believes he can get to us by bringing on difficult circumstances, but if we truly have faith, we will see miracles. Referrals are up. Church attendance is up. With trust and faith, the work will continue to expand.
We love and care about your children as our own. We would do anything for them." -Sister Smith

Hi Everyone!
This week was a good one! I'm doing just fine. Everything is okay and we have all that we need. I am not worried about what is going on with the inflation and stuff because it just creates more opportunity for us.  These people need God more now than ever right now and we have the message that will help them. It is time for us to find those that God has prepared for us. I have been thinking for the past few weeks about why I was called to this place at this time. I realized that I promised these people in the Pre-Earth life that I would bring them the Gospel and that I would help them come unto Christ.

We were only able to watch the Saturday sessions of conference at our chapel and then next week we will watch the Sunday sessions. So far the talk that stands out to me the most is the talk given Elder Rasband. I really enjoyed watching conference.

-Elder Rasmussen

A huge tree in our area.

Elder Marange and I leaving Zone Conference.

Zone Conference 

-Posted by Brooke

Week 33

Hi All,
This week was another great one! We were able to baptize a 83 year old man named Nduna which was really cool. We baptized him on Saturday and then confirmed him along with Brother and Sister Sibanda from the baptism from the week before. We were able to find 10 new people to teach so we will have to see who is serious or not.
This week I've been studying about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I have learned so much. The biggest thing I learned is that if the Atonement wasn't made none of us would be able to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father. It took a sacrifice to save all mankind. The Atonement consists of three things.
1) Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane
2) Christ dying on the cross
3) The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
He did this so that we can overcome the fall of Adam and Eve, which brought upon all the human race, physical and spiritual death. Christ was the perfect example to us and he did all these things for us so that we can be resurrected like He was. We need to always remember Him and do all we can in this life to be like Him so that we can stand blameless before the Father at the last day.
Love,
Elder Rasmussen

Our power was out so we had to light candles all over our house.

Brother MalalaZi's baptism

Week 32

Hi!
This week was great! We were able to have the wedding for Brother and Sister Sibanda on Saturday and then on Sunday after church they were baptized. We were supposed to baptize them on Saturday but the wedding started late so we had to move it to Sunday. It was a pretty big wedding we had it at the church and alot of family came from all over Zimbabwe. Many of the people that came are not members of our church so some of them were asking about the church. Because of this wedding we were  able to plan seeds of the gospel in those who we talked to.
In this ward we were asked to share our testimony in sacrament meeting and that is all we have done so far. This ward has 150-200 members that come every week so I thought that was pretty good.
It takes us about 20 min to walk to the church building from our house. We live in this place called Entubane in the Mpopoma area and our chapel is right at the edge of it.
We have alot of ants and spiders here and in our house and there isn't a way to get rid of them. If they sell bug killer here it is going to be very expensive.

We can see town from our area.

A really cool lizard we saw.

Wedding for Brother and Sister Sibanda

Brother and Sister Sibanda's baptism.

-Elder Rasmussen