November 8, 2016

Hello Everyone,
So this week was pretty great, it's pretty funny, because I met the
another Seventy this week, within a week of seeing President
Hallstrom, our stake had stake conference, and a member of the seventy
came and presided, Elder Biskin, it was great. He was so spiritual, we
actually talked with him for a minute or two, and you could just feel
his amazing Spirit, it was great. He talked about a lot of things, but
one of the things he mentioned was interesting to me, he said that the
Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency all prayed and fasted
for months, (six maybe, I don't remember), to ask what would be the
saints best protection against temptation today. Elder Biskin said he
was thinking it was going to be Temple work, but they came back, and
the answer was Sabbath Day observance. That was interesting to me, but
keeping the Sabbath day Holy is the best thing we can do today to keep
ourselves strong through temptation. Cool! So that was good, but that
stake conference was great. We are mainly finding a bunch of new
people to teach, we are working with one of the men that we baptized
last Saturday, his family wants to also start hearing the lessons so
we're very excited for that, we also have a new family that we met
that wants to come to church, and start to hear a lot more. So, here
was a conversation that I had with my companion, "Hey Elder Hawkes,
who are we going to visit next?" "Oh we're visiting Mohamed" "Wait
which Mohamed, Mohamed Hieder, or Mohamed Abdulwahad?" "No, Mohamed
Mohamed" "Oh, ok gotcha, brother Mohamed" "No, not Brother Mohamed
Mohamed, former investigator Mohamed Mohamed" "We have a former
investigator Mohamed Mohamed?" "Yup" "Ok sounds good lets go"
So, not too much happened this week, but hopefully in the next couple
ones, things will really start to pick up. Arabic work is great, and
the culture is so amazing, I was fortunate enough to have been exposed
to it a but before my mission, but being here, and spending all of my
time with these people is just awesome. There are many people that the
Lord has prepared to find His gospel, and it's our privilege to find
them. So that's about it for this week,
Elder Rosenbalm    

November 1, 2016

Hello, 

It's wonderful to write to you all on this Tuesday morning, hope you're all doing well. My week has been great. It's weird because it seems like yesterday I was writing my last letter, and now here I am again, and a ton has happened. My Arabic is progressing, I can see some improvement, and yesterday, it was so weird, because I could follow along ok, when we were teaching this Iraqi referral we had gotten. It was amazing, I only picked out words, but I was able to understand and follow. I have definitely seen the Lord helping me to learn it. Whenever I had attempted to learn Arabic in the past, one of the biggest problems, was the fact that I would try to think of an Arabic word, and Spanish would pop into my head.  I took Spanish for two years and I got it pretty well, so Spanish would just be there instead of Arabic.  But ever since I started studying it on my mission, I have never had the slightest problem. He's also making things stick much better, which is really nice. So that's good.

We had two baptisms on Saturday, and two confirmations on Sunday, these two guys are so solid. Adam and Azel, both from Iraq, they're really good friends, and they were both searching for Christian churches for a while, but none of them felt right, eventually through God, they found us, and loved it. They are literally the miracle converts you read stories about.  Their whole story is amazing, and inspiring, but I don't have time to write the whole thing out.  Suffice it to say, they were prepared and God showed them the Church.   I have a feeling that they are going to do a lot in the Church and help many other Iraqis come to Christ. The baptisms was so full of the Spirit, and it was great. We're going to start teaching Adams family this Wednesday, and I'm super excited for that! They're so solid. We are working with some other members, and finding people, it's been great, the work is amazing. I love the Arabic people, and it's such a blessing to help them learn of Christ, and learn how to become more like Him. On Sunday morning, we had Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy talk to us, it was so good.  The Spirit was strong; it just makes you want to be a better missionary, and person. The Spirit that you gain as a missionary is unlike any other.  The joy that the Lord gives to those who share is amazing. And we need not only feel it on missions, but sharing with our friends, and even sharing, again with our families. My Mother taught me, over and over again, and because of that, I'm here.  Harold B Lee taught “The most important of the Lord’s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own homes.”. That joy is found in losing yourself in selfless service to those whom the Lord has chosen for you to labor, wherever that may be. That is how we have peace, and the fullness of joy. 

Elder Rosenbalm

Here are some fun adventures this week which include:

 us with Mohammed (or Adam, he's getting his
named changed) and Azel, and one of Adams kids. That was a great day,
but the plug in the baptismal font is really weird, so it got stuck, and we could not

unscrew it. One of my zone leaders found a suit, got in and tried but
he couldn't get it, so in desperation he started dumping the water
down the whole of the plug (it is hollow to prevent flooding) using a
trash can, lol, we eventually got it unplugged so that was an
adventure. We also have some pictures I took at the San Diego Temple
at night, we taught some investigator there. Oh, and the last ones
really great, remember how we Skype some Elders in Sweden, well, one
of the guys got baptized this Saturday, and they took those, lol. And
lastly, all the Arabic Elders were together for the baptism, so we got
some pics, and I'm killing my trainer because he's dying (going home)
after he trains me. 

Elder Rosenbalm

October 25, 2016

Hi everybody, how goes it? So I'm now out in the Field, San Diego! It
is awesome here, I'm so pumped and working is just great. I got into
the Presidents office last week for our initial interview, and were
just talking, then he told me that I was going to be assigned Arabic
speaking. I was so excited, still am, Arabic is amazing. It's brutal,
but also great at the same time. I just want to know it, but alas, it
takes time, whose even heard of that anyways, like taking time to
learn a language, unacceptable. But it's good, I'm progressing, so
that's good. My trainer is named Elder Hawkes, he's really cool, he
speaks the language fluently, so I'm learning a ton from him. My
mission president's name is literally Jon Schmitt so that's fun, he's
an amazing guy, I've only been able to spend a little time with him,
but I can just see how Christlike he is, and he's a great example. His
wife is also super Christlike, it's so great to learn from them. So
the work, it's amazing, like, we live in a place called El Cajon and
while we cover all the Arabic speakers in the whole mission (and we're
actually helping some elders over in Sweden with an Arab over Skype)
most of our work is done here in El Cajon because you walk down some
of these streets, and everyone you see speaks Arabic. Like over two
thirds in a ton of places. It's weird when they don't speak Arabic,
it's so weird, but great. So ya, there are a ton of people, I thought
that there would be like maybe a few Arab areas, really interspersed,
but the whole city is just full, it's the best. So there's lots to do
here, we are actually baptizing two investigators this week, they're
both friends, the previous missionary's found one, and he invited his
friend, and now they're both getting baptized on Saturday, I'm so
excited. Actually starting to work as a missionary is way better than
just preparing for it at the MTC. I liked the MTC, but it really just
isn't the same, this is way better. Anyway, that's about it, I might
get into more particulars next week. Have a good week.

Elder Rosenbalm