Week 25

Hi All,
This week Elder Goje and I had a tough time finding new people but were able to find 4 new investigators so that was good but not good enough. We aim for 8 new investigators each week but normally we get around 6-7 a week. I think one of our baptisms will go through but we are going to have to push it back. This baptism would be for Tabokah but we haven't been able to meet up with him because he has been out of town.
Yeah I do see all my recent converts all the time. They always come to church which is good.
The bugs are starting to get worse here. I have been sleeping with a bug net over my bed at night just so I don't get bit.
I really love being a missionary even though sometimes it is tough. I know the Lord really does help us and guides us. The Spirit is so helpful and we wouldn't even know what to do if we didn't have the Spirit with us. It is important that we strive to be obedient to the rules so that we will always have the Spirit to be with us.

Elder Rasmussen

Elder Goje and I waiting for a taxi. 

I climbed the water tower at the church.

 By Brooke

Week 24

Hi everyone, I am doing really good. We did end up staying inside on Thursday and Friday morning.
We stayed busy by playing some games and our mission president told us we could watch movies that were put out by the church. There wasn't much that happened in our area but for safety precaution we had to stay in just in case something were to happen.

A little background on my comp Elder Goje...
he is from a place called East London and he is the only child from his mother and father but he has 10 siblings that his father has had with other ladies. He is the only member in his family. Before the mission he ran his own company that did yard cleaning and maintenance.  He also has a degree in Civil Engineering.

Transfers were this weekend and I found out that I am staying with Elder Goje in the same area for 6 more weeks.

On Tuesday we meet taught a guy named Tahbokah for the first time. Normally when we teach someone for the first time we take most of the time getting to know each other and then we share what we are there to do and then we share a little message with them. This time was a little different, when we were talking to him I had the strongest impression to give him a baptismal date. Then I started to talk about authority and how we can trace this church back to Jesus Christ and that we need to be baptized by someone with that authority and then I asked him if he wanted to be baptized by someone who held that authority from God and he said... yes! We are planning to baptize him on August 18th and we will continue helping him so he will be ready by then.

The Spirit is so helpful and always guides us in the way God wants us to go to find those who are seeking the truth.

Love,
Elder Rasmussen

Me with some donkeys.

Our last Sunday with Elder Banks and we all wore the same tie.

Elder Goje 

Week 23

This week has been pretty good and I'm doing great! The lessons with the investigators are going really well. We have been working with about 20 investigators and we picked up 7 new ones and three of them have baptism dates. The three who have baptism dates are Walter who is 25, Wayne who is 20 and Prosper and he is 15, they are all brothers. We contacted them by just knocking on their door, they wanted to here more so we set up a time to come back and teach them. We are planning to baptize them on August 18. We also meet this Baba and his name is Earnest, he is about 60 years old and seems really interested he loved the message we shared with him and he wants to know more. We are confident that he will be a solid investigator. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and we just mentioned Joseph Smith and he told us that he had a Bible that says Joseph Smith in it and so we were a little confused because we thought he was trying to say Jon Smith. He is a guy that was a big pastor here along time ago. And he has had bibles published so that is who we thought he was talking about. He went to grab his Bible and it was the King James version so we thought that was pretty cool.
We still have hot water to shower in and it is so nice!
P-day has been good we went to play pool and then to buy some trinkets.
We had zone conference  this week and the mission president has made some more changes.
This week we will be doing missionary work but we might have to stay inside due to the elections.

Me in my area.

I went on exchanges with Elder Basoah he is form the UK.

Last week on p-day Elder Goje ate a whole chicken by himself. 

Week 22

This week has been really good and we had a cool experience.

Elder Goje and I have been struggling to find new investigators that are serious about the gospel. On Friday we had an open schedule so when we were planning for the day we set a goal that we would try and get 3 new investigators. As we were walking out the front door and got to our front gate we said a prayer. We always say a prayer before we walk out of our yard. I said the prayer and I prayed that we would be able to find 3 new investigators that are prepared to hear the gospel and that they won't be jokers that just want to meet with us for fun. We walked out of the gate and headed to our area. We don't normally knock on doors here just because everyone is already out in the streets. We felt like we should walk to a certain part of our area and start knocking on doors. And that is exactly what we did. The first house we came to we met a lady named Edith she is around 40 years old. We asked her if we could sit down for a few minutes and share a message with her. She agreed so we sat down outside with her and a neighbor came over as well. Her name is Silungile and she is 20. We taught them a lesson about the church and kinda talked about the restoration of the gospel. It went very well and they were really interested and want to learn more so we are planning to meeting them again on Tuesday. We kept knocking on the doors and scheduled times to meet with other people but we didn't have lessons with them. We had some appointments scheduled between 4-7 and it was about 3:30 so we had to start walking back towards to our appointment which was with the girls that work in the food trailer thing. When we got there we met their boss and his name is Thomas and he wanted to sit down and listen to what we had to share. We then taught him and he was very interested so we invited him to church, and he came! We were so excited about that! We were able to find 3 people that we feel are prepared to hear the gospel.

Some of our investigators are doing really well and others we have had to drop because they are not progressing. Which is sad but we are here to find those who are ready to hear the truth, but that doesn't mean that those we drop will never get baptized. We are planting seeds so hopefully another missionary in the future will be able to harvest what we plant.

I bought this jacket for $3 from some ladies who get them in Botswana
and bring them here to sell.

Add caption

  By Brooke

Week 21

This week has been pretty good. It has been warmer except for today. I am sitting at the computer in my big coat. Church yesterday was good, sacrament meeting starts at 9:00 and 4 people where there and before it was over 70 people were in the congregation. Elder Goje taught the lesson this time we have been switching every other week. The new mission is nice and really small. Before the split we had 150 missionaries in the new mission we have 56. In September we are getting 20 incoming missionaries. President Okat has made a few changes to our schedule it's going to take a few weeks to get used to it all.
Our investigators are doing very well. Onias is doing better we have answered some more of his questions and we have helped him realize that he needs to study in the Book of Mormon to know if the church is true. We had a lesson with Sanele and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really likes it and she told us that we answered a ton of questions that she is always asking herself. The second lesson we had with her was about the Book of Mormon. When we went over the Introduction she said to us, "This is serious, I don't want to go to hell so I am going to read this so I can know if it is true."

Senele, Nolhanlha, Vanessa, Elder Goje and I

The little shack where we get our lunch.

Our lunch

Week 20

This week has been pretty good. We met the new mission president Thursday morning, his name is President Okot. He is 43 years old he has 5 kids and his oldest is 14 and he is from Uganda.

This week Elder Goje and I found 9 new investigators which is really good and they seem very interested so we will keep meeting with them and help them know the truth of what we are sharing.

 We attended a baptism of a guy named Brother Dube he was an investigator of Elder Burrows and Elder Holmes. It was a real cool experience. Brother Dube is around 70 years old and has become such a strong member. After he was baptized he got up and shared his testimony with us. He said that before the missionaries met him he was very ill. He had kidney problems and some other health issues. He told us that after he started reading the Book of Mormon he had an appointment with the doctor and the doctor told him that he was surprisingly getting better and that he didn't have to take the pills that were helping him any longer. He said that the reason he is getting better is because of the gospel and God blessing him for joining the only true church on the face of the earth. That was our witness for the week that this church is true and it can help us both spiritually and physically.

 Out of the 9 new investigators we met this week 2 of them came to church on Sunday and they loved it. Their names are Sanale and the other is Nolhalha (it's difficult to say) they are both 21 years old. We shared the message of the restoration with them and went over the intro of the Book of Mormon and they are really excited to read it and find out if it is true!

 This week has been super cold and windy, cloudy and rainy, so we have been bundled up. Every time we go out of the house we wear a coat and beanie. Everyone says this is the coldest it has been here in years so it's very unusual.

Oh yeah we finally got our shower fixed so we can have a nice warm shower. Our house is like a pavilion with brick walls and it is really cold in the mornings we don't have a heater so we get warm by turning the oven on and opening the door.

 We went to this Brazilian place for lunch and it was good but a little expensive. Stuff here is expensive just a block of cheese is like $25.00. Most people here eat Sadza because it is $4 for a big bag and they just eat it with veggies.

Last week we came home and found a bat in our house.

Elder Goje, Elder Banks, Elder Downey and I getting ready to
meet our new mission President.

Elder Goje bundled up for the day.

Elder Parker after Bro. Dube's baptism.

Week 19

I am doing well and this week was good! Yes I am staying healthy too. Unfortunately Onias did not get baptized he had a few questions so we decided he wasn't quite ready. We are going to try and help him out with some of his concerns. The mission splits this week and the new mission President is coming and so that is pretty exciting! So now I am officially in the Zimbabwe Bulawayo Mission.
 In Elders quorum we were talking about temples and how important it is to go because that is the place where we do ordinances and make covenants with our Father in Heaven. Those ordinances and covenants are essential for obtaining the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom.
The temple's construction has not started here yet and so they have to travel to South Africa if they want to attend the temple. The problem is not many people have the means to travel to Johannesburg. In the ward I am serving in, many of the members have not been to the temple in 8 years. This just helped me realize how blessed we are to have so many temples so close to us back in Utah. Some are less than a 20 minute drive away. I wish I could have gone more often. We need to visit the temple as often as we can. In temples we can help others gain the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom. Temples are an essential part in Gods plan.

Elder Banks, Elder Downey and I after playing Monopoly

Elder Marange (only with us for 1 day), Me and Elder Goje

My area

By Brooke