November 29, 2016

Hello everyone, so this week has been pretty crazy, very busy, and very rewarding. Arabic has been coming along a lot better, I can see myself improving a lot more, I'm now praying in Arabic and things are starting to come easier, I'm able to following along in the lessons a lot better, too, which is good. It's really cool how the Lord helps me, I've tried to learn Arabic in the past, and it's so much easier with the old gift of tongues on your side. So we got a referral for this family, and we have been teaching them this week, they're really cool, the Mothers name is Ibtihal, and they're from Iraq. They're Muslim, which makes teaching them interesting because we have to jump through some hoops to make sure we can actually teach them, but they're awesome, and came to church on Sunday! Elder Hawkes translates the meeting into Arabic when we have people who don't speak much English come, so that was fun to be up there with him. The new Light the World video came out, and it is awesome, everyone go and see it, and if you've already seen it, go and share it, because we want to spread the Light of Christ with everyone. We were teaching another Family, they're from Syria, and the Father was talking about how he wanted his kids to have Christmas again. He's muslim, but he said before the war, and the government oppressions, his whole apartment complex would celebrate Christmas in Syria together. But after the government crackdowns and the war, they were forced to stop, and now that he's in America, he wants his kids be able to experience that. They are so cute, his two little kids, the oldest is maybe six, but they were so happy to be able to celebrate Christmas. We are so blessed to live in this country, but also to know of Christ, and of His Gospel. The initiative is all about sharing the light, and not in the normal ways, but by simple acts of service, and then by sharing them. I love this years initiative, so it you haven't seen it yet, go to mormon.org and go see it, because its great. Have a good week everyone

Elder Rosenbalm

November 22, 2016

So hello everyone, this week was again, pretty amazing. I've been working on putting more of myself into the work. I already spend all my time serving, but recently, I've been working harder to really give all my efforts, and especially my thoughts. When my thoughts are constantly on The Lord, and how you can best help His children, you are the happiest you can ever be. It's the paradox of happiness that whosever shall find his life, or attempt to find happiness, through money, power, even good things, it will never be enough. They will always be looking for more, always thirsty, but never filled. Now, contrast that with what Christ said next, that whosever shall lose His life, for my sake, shall find it. The way to find true joy and happiness, the only way to be satisfied with everything we have, Eternally satisfied, is to not seek after it. But to honestly seek after the benefit of others. When we continually turn outwards as the Savior did, we will be happy, but that will not be our goal, but a byproduct of our commitment to the happiness of others. Being able to go on a mission is an amazing experience, it's unique in time, and it allows us to feel a portion of that joy, as we commit fully to The Lord. Now this is just something I've learned, and I'm by no means anywhere near perfect at it, but it's an amazing principle, that we should share with all around us. So this week, we have done a lot of finding, we were able to teach this great family yesterday, they're muslim, and the Spirit in the room was so strong. We will be meeting with them again this next week, and hopefully they'll want to start progressing, but we'll see. One of our Recent converts received the Priesthood on Sunday, the experience was amazing, and the Spirit  was so strong as we discussed the work moving forward, especially in regards to the Arabic speaking people. The wars in Iraq and Syria are driving people to places where they can hear the Gospel, in Sweden we're teaching four different people who are either prepping for baptism, or have already been baptized. And there are more investigators there we haven't met yet. We're preparing to do something very similar to at least two people in France. These people are ready, and will hear the message, it is our opportunity to find them, and I'm so great full that I get to labor in this part of His vineyard. Until next week
Elder Rosenbalm

November 15, 2016

Hello everyone, hope your all doing good, it's been another amazing
week. Though it's flown by, I know I probably say this every time, but
time is all our of sync here. So anyway, this week, we have mainly
done a lot of finding, there are a lot of Iraqi's and Syrians here,
but many of them don't know who we are, so we get to tell them! It's
great! I love talking with all of the Arabs, and learning the
Language. Arabic is hard, but I'm slowly getting better. Emphasis on
slowly. But it's ok, because I'm learning Arabic, which just makes me
happy every time I think about it. We've been working with Adam and
Azel, they're really excited to progress in the gospel, which is
amazing, and they're so committed. We've also been helping another
member named Suhaila, and she's also bringing her cousin to hear the
messages Nina, its been a lot of fun. So, we also had something called
MTE's where basically, multiple Zones get together, on this huge
exchange, as well as instruction from the president, his wife, AP's
and others. It was really fun, but as part of it, we got introduced to
the Christmas video that the church is going to put up on November
25th. They have some teasers for it right now, but look out for it in
ten days, its really good its all about 25 days of serving, and each
day a different way to serve like Jesus did. Its a bit weird getting
ready for Christmas when the sky is bright blue, and its 100 degrees
outside, but its ok, its all the Christmas, the Spirit of Christ's
birth is universal. I cant wait for it, so that's about it for this
week, until next week, Elder Rosenbalm