Week 53

Hi All,

It's been a good week, we had Zone Conference which was really good. We received training from our mission president on how to work with ward and stake leaders. There had always been a problem with leadership here so we were asked to try our best to help strengthen and love them. He also told us to work more with members in our missionary efforts. There are statistics that show that the more we work with members, the more people we will find through members, in time will lead to more baptisms.
So on Saturday our ward had some activities planned. Well there was a member who came and she  started talking bad about our recent converts, criticizing her hair and the way she was dressed. This old member lady started saying that she had been a member of the church much longer, and that she knew everything about the gospel and that our new converts knew nothing. WELL, Caroline and Divine and Caroline's sister, Rachel left! They were not happy at all! Some sweet sisters from the ward went over to their house and ministered to them, which I thought was so nice. Later we went to visit them too and Divine reassured us that nothing will stop her from coming to church, which is so good. She promised us that she would help Caroline. This old lady really damaged the hard work we did with Rachel. She won't come back to church for awhile because she doesn't feel love there. The crazy thing is this old lady is inactive and just wanted to come for the free food.
I almost forgot, we had another baptism this week. An 8 year old girl named Princess and her cousin
Austin were baptized by her father.
Have a great week!
-Elder Rasmussen

Pictures: Zone Conference, this weeks baptism, Elephants at the animal park we went to last p-day.

Week 52

Hey,
I am super excited to do the video chat. I will definitely be doing it.  It will be nice to hear more from the family. We can talk a lot more in a shorter amount of time. Things are going well. I am still in Gweru at least for the next 2 weeks. I really like this place so I hope I stay here for a while.
This week we were able to confirm Caroline and Divine! It was so cool, they had to go a week without having the Holy Ghost. It is really good have them as 100% members of the church now.
We didn't have much time in the area but we did go on exchanges with 2 other Elders. I was with Elder Khumalo, he is from South Africa and is a really good missionary. He is very good at asking the people we are teaching inspired questions to help them. That is something I have been wanting to work on myself. So he showed me how I can do that, so that's what I am going to do!
Sorry no pictures today, I can't get the pictures to load.
Well I will try and call you today.
Love,
Elder Rasmussen

Week 51

Hi!
How are you doing? I am doing good. My birthday was alright, it was just a normal day which is okay. We did stop and buy some cupcakes!
We ended up having only 2 of our three investigators baptized, Caroline and Divine. They were so happy but also a little nervous because they were afraid of the water, but it all went well.
A cool experience ... we began teaching Caroline's sister, Rachel. We asked her to read the Restoration pamphlet that we had left for her. When we went back she said that she had tried to read it but it was hard for her to understand. So we asked her what she remembered reading about. She began sharing with us the whole Restoration in detail. Elder Holmes and I just looked at each other in awe! Caroline was sitting next to Rachel and said "I am the best teacher, I should be teaching this stuff!"

What a cool experience! Rachel told us that the night she was reading the pamphlet, Caroline began helping her and wouldn't let Rachel go to bed until she understood the Restoration. Well, we put Rachel on a baptism date. It was a really cool and powerful lesson.
Love
Elder Rasmussen

Caroline, Divine and I

Some Sadza and Carpenter, pretty gross. Haha.

We found a hedgehog in our pool. It must have fell in last
night and couldn't get out.

Week 50

 Hi,
Thanks for the birthday wishes! Wow 20! I am not sure if we will do any celebrating, we will be driving back from Bulawayo that day. We will be busy all day because we are going on exchanges with the AP's.
This week was good, we went to Bulawayo for MLC and met Elder Sitati from the Seventy and he gave us some great and simple advice. He told us to love everyone; other missionaries and the people we are teaching and not to get upset and be more understanding of where they are coming from. We are all different but we are all God's children.
We are planning to have 3 baptisms this week, Divine, Daniel and Caroline, so exciting! They are ready to be baptized. They have read the Book of Mormon which is so powerful, they are definitely ready to be members of the church.
We are teaching a kid named Trust, he is a referral from Daniel. He isn't very good at speaking English but he asked me to help him learn it because he loves what we teach. He wants to come to church but is nervous to do so because of the language barrier. I felt to tell him that if he has a true desire to live what we teach and wants to learn English, God would help him. I know that God will help him if he really wants to. God can perform many miracles but we first have to show him that we have faith. We have to follow his commandments and live the Gospel and repent of our sins. He wants to bless us and this is how we open the door to those blessings.
Love,
Elder Rasmussen

A large sunflower at Divines house.

Me and some kids.

Playing some Cricket in the street with some kids.

Week 49

Gweru Zone Conference 

Elder Burrows and I

Gweru Zone Conference

Jan 28, 2018

Hi!
My week was good and very busy, like very busy we didn't have much down time but that's okay.
Today we had to drive to Bulawayo for Mission Leadership Council and we have an area seventy coming his name is Elder Sitati, so that's cool. We will be there overnight and come back tomorrow.
So we taught this lady about the Restoration and at the end we invited her to pray about Joseph Smith. She told us that she had no reason to say that he wasn't a true prophet, because she can see all that came after him like all the nice chapels and missionaries from all over the world. She said that if this was a mans church it would have faded away by now but she can see that it is here and going strong. I thought that was pretty cool to hear from someone.
All of the riots have stopped and nothing is going on anymore which is good. All of the shops are open so now we can get food. I understand that why everyone was rioting and it was because the price so fuel went from $1.60 a liter to $3.30 a liter so that is like $12.49 a gallon which is so expensive.
Elder Holmes and I are doing good he is a great companion and we are working hard. I am not driving as often because he is the designated driver and so he drives most of the time. We don't have to wait in fuel lines anymore we have found a place that will take US dollars so that's were we fill the truck up and there is never a line.
We still get the same amount of time to study we may not always get the full time but we do our best to get it done. I have come to love the Book of Mormon more and more. There are so many things we read in it that are so helpful but the biggest thing is that it talks about our Savior, Jesus Christ. I really love Helaman 5:12. We need to build our foundation on Christ and if we do this we cannot fall because he is our sure foundation.
Love you,
Elder Rasmussen

Elder Holmes' First day as Zone Leader

Elder Burrows and I in Shrugwi sitting at an overlook.

Elder Burrows and I caught some BIG lizards in Kwekwe.

Elder Burrows, Elder Holmes and I. We have all been companions
with each other, which is so cool!

Week 48

Jan 22, 2019

Hi!
It's been awhile since I last emailed. Staying inside wasn't too bad it gave me time to relax, so definitely needed. Elder Burrows and I did some fun things while we stayed inside. We had a recipe for some cookies we made but we totally messed it up, haha! We also made some tortillas that were pretty good, and we did a puzzle and threw a football around and just hung out at the house.
We have a three people who are progressing very well, Divine, Caroline and Daniel. Caroline told us something cool the other day. She said that she turned down a job offer so that she could stay here and get baptized. If she would have taken the job it would have taken her away from this place. I admire the great faith she has to decline the job. It was all her own idea we did not have to say anything to her.
We had transfers this week and my new comp is Elder Holmes, he was with me in Masvingo so I'm pretty excited.  Elder Holmes' grandfather is going to be the temple president for the new Durban temple in South Africa that's scheduled to open this year so that's pretty cool.
Elder Burrows went to finish out the last three months of his mission in Masvingo.
I have a ton a pictures but I can't send them the place I am emailing from isn't working very well.
Love you,
Elder Rasmussen 

Week 47

Jan, 14 2019

Unfortunately Elder Rasmussen was unable to email home due to the unrest happening in Zimbabwe.
The country has had ongoing financial issues which escalated into widespread protests that began Monday. The protests continued though out the week. As as a result, the banks, and shopping centers have been closed. In addition, the government has shut down the internet.
The missionaries were instructed to stay indoors until further notice. The mission president is in contact with every companionship and reported that all are safe and in good spirits. The president purchased food stuffs in bulk and delivered enough for each missionary for their weekly needs.

After we had received this information as you can imagine how concerned we would be. But we both felt peace and knew that he would be safe and that our Heavenly Father would take care of our Elder and the other missionaries serving in Zimbabwe.  We are so thankful for the mission president, secretaries and other church leaders who care for and love our missionaries. They have spend many hours preparing, gathering and doing all they can to make sure our missionaries have what they need and that they are safe. We looked forward to hearing from Elder Rasmussen, he is probably enjoying the little break.