Mission Accomplished

Hey everyone!

So I know that I've really sucked at maintaining this whole weekly email thing. I'm a slacker, you don't need to point it out. Sorry folks :P But hey you're getting something now and that's better than nothing, right?

Anyhow, I thought it would be pretty dumb of me not to send something out to you all this week. For those of you that don't have it on your calendar, this is my last few days as a set apart servant of our Savior. This Wednesday I hop on a plane and head back to Zion. So, naturally, I wanted to share just a few thoughts with ya'll on what the past 2 years has been for me.

First and foremost, coming on a mission was the greatest decision that I ever could've made. As cliche as it sounds, its true. You can't really fully wrap your head around the impact that two short years can have on you until you experience it, and then you can't help but fall to your knees and thank God for the impact that it's had. The areas you serve in, the companions you serve with, the people you love, the experiences you have all leave an unmistakable mark on you.

Even more important, though, is the mark the Savior leaves on you. You cannot truly lose yourself in the work of Christ without being engulfed in and changed by His Atonement. This is His work, and if you do it as He would you naturally become more like Him. I'm proud to say that the kid who walked into the MTC in October of 2014 is long since dead, and left in his place is a converted disciple of Christ. I'm so grateful that I've had the chance to help people come unto Christ and experience the power of the Atonement, all the while experiencing that same power myself. There's nothing else like it.

I also want to take a minute and thank those of you who have been a part of this adventure with me. Whether I served with you, worked with you, or just know you, thank you for the impact you've had on my life. I love all of you and hope that I had a similar impact on you as well :)

Lastly I just want to leave you with my testimony :) I know that this is God's true and living Church. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that it's truly the most correct of any book on the earth. I also know the Bible to be the word of God. I think that's something that we to often neglect, but what a blessing it is to have a record of the ministry of Jesus Christ so we can learn from His example. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that he saw what he said he saw and did what he said he did. I have no doubt about it. Lastly, I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us more than we can even begin to understand. It's all true, and I know it through the power of the Spirit, and I know you can to. Read, pray, and make steps to fix things in your life that might keep you from drawing as close to your Savior as you can. Nothing matters more in this life than the relationship you have with Him.

That's all I got! I wish you all well :) I'm off to bigger and better things. Hopefully it goes well. I love you all!!

Over and out,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

1. Found the X at the end of my trail.

Next to the Last - Week of October 17, 2016

Anyhow this week was alright. It wasn't as great as we would've hoped, but it was still good. We just had a hard time setting appointments with the people we're meeting with, so most of our visits were just stop bys. But we still did have good things happen this week! We met with Mike a few times and we were able to make a plan for him to quit smoking. I had felt prompted to study the section in ch. 10 of PMG about setting plans for overcoming addictive behavior, and so we went over the activities it suggests and that was very helpful. It seemed to light a bit of a very under him, so hopefully he'll be eligible for baptism soon. We're also hitting finding really hard right now, taking a different approach by working more through the members than our own efforts. We weren't seeing to much success with that course, so hopefully we're going to start reaping more fruit. But Simi 5th is still great :) I'm glad that I was able to finish up my mission in my favorite ward.

October Updates First Half

October 3, 2016

So first off, conference was amazing :) Gotta love missionary Christmas. Kinda weird because that was my last big missionary milestone, so now I've got nothing left to look forward to other than MLC next week. *shivers*

So a lot of this week was spent teaching, or on exchanges. Not a bad thing though. Dani is adjusting really well. She really loved conference (she took notes. Who does that other than missionaries???) and she's getting ready to go to the temple later this week. She seems really excited too! We're pretty stoked for her :) The Platamone's are also now all systems go for their baptism this Thursday at 6:30, we just have a couple other doctrines we need to go over. There is supposed to be quite the turn out, we had to reserve the chapel :) We also had some success with finding this week. We're slowly building up a pool of potential investigators, the hard part is starting to teach them. This week we'll hopefully start that process with a few of them.

Also I had one of the coolest things ever happen to me. Here's how I wrote it to Pres: "This week I had one of the coolest experiences of my mission that solidified my testimony of personal revelation. I'm pretty sure I shared it with you at zone conference, but at the risk of repeating myself I'm just going to tell you again. It happened at the end of my exchange with Elder Alder. We had finished our plans for the day, and we were trying to figure out what we should do for the remaining time that we had. We decided to stop by a less active by the name of Mike Treu that Elder Willis and I have been trying to catch for a while, and on our way there we passed by a street who's name I recognized. Earlier that day, our WML, Brother Bateman, had given us an assignment to visit the family of a less active member whose 7-year-old-son died earlier this year in a tragic accident. He had told us to just "knock into them" because his records weren't in our ward and he wasn't sure of how to treat the situation. Anyway, as we passed the Spirit came to me, clear as day, and said, "As soon as you knock on Mike's door and he's not home, I need you to get onto that street. You're going to talk to that family." Well, sure enough Mike wasn't home, and so I told Elder Alder we should walk around the corner to that street. We had barely stepped onto the street when we met a woman walking her dog, so of course we stopped and talked with her. We hadn't talked long before I realized that she was the wife of the less active that Brother Bateman had asked us to see. She emotionally told us of her doubts of whether or not God existed and if she would see her son again, and we testified of the Plan of Salvation and told her she would indeed see her son again. We gave her a pamphlet and promised her that if she let us come and share that message with her and her family that it would bring them the comfort that their seeking. She agreed, and we exchanged phone numbers. We're still working on setting something up, but it's amazing to see how much divine orchestration was in place for that to occur. There's no way that it was a coincidence." Isn't that awesome????

Hope you guys have a good week though! See you soon ;)


October 10, 2016

As for this week, it was awesome :) I mean it's pretty hard to have a bad week when you have a baptism, especially for people like the Platamones. It was honestly the best baptismal service I've ever attended, and not just because it was in my ward. It was just incredibly spiritual and very well put together. Both of their kids who are members spoke (the other, who is not a member, was surviving the storm down in Florida), and their son was the one who baptized them. They were so excited and it was so cool to see the gospel pull this family together. The ward really pulled together as well. There were probably around 100 people there, which is unheard of. Most baptisms are lucky to have 40. President Felix also came, which really meant a lot to the both of them. Russell was extremely honored. The confirmation yesterday was also great, and we have an appointment with them tonight! I'm really excited to see them because I LOVE seeing people after their confirmation. There's a tangible difference in them. Once again, I love my job :)

So that's the work, everything else has been finding which is going pretty good.

That's all for this week! Kinda weird that I have only 2 more emailing times, huh? Soon enough I can just call you....gah. Man that's weird. Honestly though, it's pretty much set in and I'm not having to hard a time focusing. Trunkiness is just a myth created by those who want to excuse their laziness, and I'm not about that. Prayers are still appreciated though :) Love you!

September Updates

September 5, 2016

Simi 5th is still the promised land. We were able to set Mike with a date for Oct. 22nd, which was actually a really cool experience. We had been praying about it and felt like that would be a good day for him, and when we invited him to work towards it he told us that the 23rd was his year-sober date. He thought that was really cool, and so did we. Gotta love tender mercies. Dani also came to church for the first time in our ward this week! She really liked it. She fit in well with the other girls in the ward and had a good time, and then we had a great lesson after Church and taught her the Plan of Salvation, which she also liked. She still progressing quickly and is looking forward to Sept. 24th. The Platamone's are also still excited about the gospel and are just taking it all in. We found out that they've been coordinating with their kids about their baptismal date, so we should hopefully be setting that sometime in the next week. Both their kids are super excited about their baptism (unsurprisingly) so I honestly feel like they could set any day and that would work just fine.

Other than that life is pretty uneventful right now. The work is really exploding and its keeping us busy, which is nice. Keeps me focused haha :) I'm not really that trunky though. Kinda depends on the day, and I'm sure it changes the closer you get, but its really not all to bad right now. I'm just really weirded out by the fact that next transfer is my last. It hasn't really hit me yet honestly. Not sure if it will till I'm on the plane....gah. Yeah that's just weird.

Anyhow that's all I got for you this week.

PS Sheep selfie




September 12, 2016

Yeah I was really glad to hear about the game!! Kinda wished I could've watched it, but you know.....rules. I was SUPER jealous thought because my WML was there at the game, but he's got a pretty good reason to be. His son is 3rd string quarter back for the Utes and his daughter is on the dance team. You guys would really like the Batemans haha :)

Anyhow this week was good! Our teaching this week was less than what we hoped for, but we still had like 8 appointments and were hoping for over a dozen so we really don't have much room to complain. Yesterday more than made up for it though. We had a total of 5 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. THAT IS MORE THAN I'VE EVER HAD. I was so excited :D We also had a fantastic lesson with Dani, and she is all systems go for the 24th. We're going to have to pick up the pace, but she's more that willing to and she's really excited. The Platamones finally were able to settle on a date, and they're going to be getting dunked on October 6th (that's my present to Tori this year). Russell came to church by himself yesterday, which is a pretty big deal. He, of his own accord, has decided he needs to read at least 2 chapters out of the Book of Mormon everyday and is listening to conference talks on his way to work. He and Sheryl are the DEFINITION of golden investigators. I love them so much haha! Mike's also on track for the 22nd, so in all I'll likely be finishing up my mission with 4 baptims. I really could ask for no better way to go out :)

And that's my life!! Nothing much else to report haha :) Sorry my emails have kinda sucked the past little bit. If you want to know more stuff, you can just ask me in 6 weeks ;) Haha love you!


September 19, 2016


I'm still intact, just in case you were worried. This week was another really good week :) Had 5 investigators at church for the second week in a row! We were pretty stoked. Everyone of them had a good experience too, especially Mike. He's finally gotten comfortable there and was participating in all the classes. He also got a blessing from his main fellowship right after church, which was a really powerful experience for the both of them. They were both crying by the end of it. I don't think he's going to have any trouble making his baptism on the 22nd of October. Dani also passed her interview and is all set for this Saturday!! We're excited, she's excited, and the ward is really excited too. It seems like they've finally realized just how much the work is moving forward right now, and everyone is asking about everyone and what they can do to help which is really nice. We're trying to build off of the momentum and have members start inviting their friends so we can start refreshing our teaching pool before we baptize them all. (I know. Rough life.) The Platamone's are still as golden as ever and we're just plowing through everything with them. Seeing them at church was quite the heart warming sight. They sat dead center, hand in hand and grinning from ear to ear. Moments like that are something you just can't describe fully. Little taste of heaven I suppose.

In other exciting news, I'M TRAINING AGAIN!!!!! :D Well....kinda. We got a text from President last night telling us we needed to call him as soon as we could (I really hate when he does that too. He never tells you why and just leaves you wallowing in the guilt of things you haven't done). Anyway we call him and he tells us there's this kid in the Camarillo who just got his call, but the stake president wants him to get a taste of the field before he heads out and President Felix thought we might like to show him the ropes for the next couple weeks :) We danced around the apartment for like 20 minutes afterwards because we're both so excited. So it's kinda training, kinda not, but I don't really care. Close enough for me :)

And yeah I can only imagine that you all are just a spot different. I'm excited for you guys to meet the new me :) I'm less of an idiot, not quite so full of myself as I was, and now I'm actually funny so that's cool to. Basically you're getting a Brennan 2.0, though you might have to call me Elder Rosenlof 2.0 for a while because the whole first name thing just weirds me out. I think you'll like the new things about me though. I do, anyway. If I'm thankful for anything about my mission, it's that the boy that walked into the MTC nearly 2 years ago is dead, and in his place now stands someone who's been touched and changed by the Savior's Atonement.
Anyhow that's all for now!! I made this email better to make up for the past few weeks :) Love you!

1. This is the Platamones :)


2. Weekly planning+ADD=?



September 26, 2016

So yeah I heard about that storm. Sister Bunderson was telling me that they had a tornado touch down in Ogden so that was nuts. That sucks that the basement flooded again. I love how the whole four years that I was there nothing happened, but as soon as I leave crap goes down. Guess I'm just a good luck charm or something. Hang in there for just one more month and hopefully that'll help ;)

In mission news, Simi 5th continues to shine. Dani got baptized :D That was obviously the highlight of the week. It was actually one of the most well attended baptisms I've ever seen, too. There was something around 70 people there, and a good 25% were nonmembers! That was a miracle in and of itself :) It was really cool to see how excited she was. Honestly she was pretty much already Mormon, we just kinda helped her out with the whole baptism thing. She's so solid. We talked to her earlier this week and she was just like,"Yeah I've been thinking about a mission. I think it sounds really fun!" Honestly. Who says that?!?!? Sheesh... Anyhow, everything else is going very well. The Platamones are still all set and ready for the 6th and we're currently working on arrangements for that. They're absolutely STOKED. I'm excited for you guys to meet them. You'll love them. They're actually heading out to Utah sometime in the next couple weeks, so I'm going to put them in contact with you. Just so ya know :) Mike was kinda MIA this week, but we were able to meet with him once. He was just super busy with work. He's committed to quit smoking by the end of this week though, which is good considering his date is coming up pretty soon. We're keeping him in our prayers. Finding is slowly picking back up. We lost our focus on it for a bit, but we've refocused and found a few good potentials this week. We'll be meeting with a couple of them towards the end of the week, and we're starting to teach Dani's mom as well. We've been talking with her and she's finding that a lot of what she believes, we believe, and she's really been feeling this Spirit when we talk with her as well as at the baptism. I don't think she's quite made the connection yet, but she'll get there soon enough. We're going to try and get her and her other daughter :)

Everything else is going good! Elder Anglin's the name of our mini. He's kinda....interesting. Hahaha but not in a bad way! He's one of those kids where you think he's kidding about something, but he's being totally serious and you're just like, "Where in the world do you come up with these things?" But he's really excited about the work and makes a great addition to everything.

That's all for now! I have some questions for ya regarding home stuffs, but on second thought I think I'll keep those until next week. Just prepare yourself for a bunch of semi random questions :) Love you!

PS Baptism picture!!

August Updates

Week of August 8, 2016

Well I definitely feel like a headless chicken at the end of this week haha! Man we've had a ton of stuff to get done. It's not been to bad though. It's been cooling down a bit here too, which is really nice. I'm not melting anymore at least.

So here's the run down for this week. Tuesday was transfers which is a nightmare and a half for us, and we spent nearly the whole day trying to help everyone get adjusted. It was pretty hectic, but everything got in place. We had dinner with the Bundersons that night though, so that kinda made up for it all haha! Then we went and met with Bishop so that was good. I really like Bishop Broberg. He's really on top of things and is really missionary focus, which is a HUGE relief. There is nothing worse as a missionary than a bishop that isn't missionary focused. Anyhow, the rest of the week we spent trying to meet the rest of the ward council and our investigators. Our WML is AWESOME, and he thinks we're awesome so that's good. Investigators wise, we have this really cool guy named Mike that's really close to baptism. He just needs to quit smoking and get his act together. We set him with a date for September 3rd so keep him in your prayers. We also saw a really cool miracle this week. We have a couple in our ward, Russel and Cheryl Platamone, that have two kids that got baptized about 10 years ago, and she's investigated since but never gotten baptized because she doesn't want to get baptized without him. He's always been more than supportive and loves the Church but has never showed an interest in joining. But a few weeks ago he was getting ready for a risky operation on his neck, and our WML and a member of the bishopric (who are good friends of his) gave him a blessing and it was a really powerful spiritual experience for him. His member son, who is also an RM, came down last week to help a bit with his recovery, and Russ asked him to teach him as much as he could about random things like the Book of Mormon, the role of the Bible, etc. Long story short, he now feels like this is the Lord's way of slowing him down and pointing him towards the Church and he and Cheryl are thinking about baptism at the beginning of next month. Pretty freaking sweet. Our WML nearly fell out of his chair when we told him haha!

Also, I was rightfully excited about Elder Willis. We've had so much fun this week. I'm pretty sure he's going to be my last companion, so I'm looking forward to the next 12 weeks. Then again those are famous last words, but we'll see what happens hahaha!

1. Emailing selfie with 2 of the 5 NEW MISSIONARIES IN OUR ZONE THIS TRANSFER. We have so many exchanges its not even funny...



2. I thought Dad might appreciate this.



Week of August 15, 2016


Anyhow, Simi 5th is still doing well! I feel like we lost a little momentum with coming in, but we're starting to pick it back up. Honestly I really hate whitewashing into Sister areas haha! Sisters are great, but they aren't very straightforward with things and they build things up to be a lot better than they really are. The ward as whole is great and this area has a ton of potential, but....Sisters....hahaha sorry random rant. The best example is our investigator Mike. The Sisters had made it sound like he was right on the water's edge, but the more we've met with him the more we're finding that he still has a good ways to go. Technically the only thing standing between him and baptism is smoking, but we're seeing that him quitting is more of a change of behavior rather than a change of heart. We're making a key focus on helping him to really gain a testimony this week and seeing what happens. I don't doubt that he'll get there eventually though. The Platamone's are doing really well though!!! I really really like them. They're probably in the top 5 favorite investigators of my whole mission. We had a couple really good lessons with them and I'm really excited about them :)

Sorry I've gotta go...the library is closing..

Week of August 22, 2016

Anyhow, work wise, things are going splendidly. We were able to accomplish a lot of really awesome things. We had some really great lessons with investigators, scheduled more with others, and on top of it we found 2 really solid new investigators. One of them, Dani, went to church with a friend in Fillmore a few months ago but the Sisters were just never able to get in contact with her. We managed to pin her down and we had a REALLY good lesson with her. She was telling us that she's had plenty of opportunities to be baptized, but she never did because it just never felt right. We explained baptism to her and she said that she really wants to work towards it. The other guy, Justin, was a referral from a member and the lesson we had with him was one of the greatest lessons I've had on my mission. He had some questions about the necessity of authority and we were able to walk him through the scriptures with him, and he commented on how he had originally misinterpreted those verses but how they now made sense. He then ended up asking about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which we explained, and then he "confessed" to us that, even though his church told him that he should be feeling the Spirit always, he rarely felt it at all. Sometimes at church and then when he reads the Bible, but that's it. He then said that that is something that he's been looking for, and our whole lesson went from "I'm curious to learn more about their doctrine" to "I think I better find out if this is legit." It was really awesome. Unfortuantely we weren't able to meet with the Platamone's this week because they were out of town, but we're meeting with them on Wednesday so it's all good.
That's really my life right now though. I do have to say, I couldn't have asked for a better place to finish out. This ward is awesome, and they love us and we love them. We have some awesome investigators, and I think I'll really be able to go out with a splash here :) Anyhow, I'm excited and my life is great. End of story.

Week of August 29, 2016

Anyhow this week was AWESOME. Like this may have been one of the greatest weeks of my mission. We got so much crap done. We just saw miracle after miracle. We set Dani with a baptismal date for Sept. 24th, the Platamone's are soft set with a date but are double checking with their kids so they can come, Mike actually came to church, the Steens are doing great....I could just go on and on. The work is exploding here in Simi 5th and it's all we can do to keep up with it. I'm loving it. We looked at our teaching pool this week and we realized that we have 8 investigators (and one more we just need to set an appointment with) that we are teaching regularly. That's a really great feeling. You should've seen everyone when the Platamone's came to church this week, by the way. They haven't been able to come the past couple weeks because of his recovery, but when they came this week everyone was floored. (Keep in mind that they've been on and off for years and he's never come before) It was like a ghost walked in or something, and it was awesome. Serious points with the members, let me tell ya.

I love this ward. Like I can't even begin to describe it. It's awesome. The members are awesome, I'm getting some of the greatest work of my mission done, my WML is fantastic. I couldn't ask for a better place to finish off my mission :)

That's all I got for this week!

1. Random selfie


2. Brian got baptized this week!!

July Updates

We are down to his final 2 (!!!!) transfers. This transfer Zone Leaders are being moved out of YSA wards and into family wards throughout the mission. Note his new address.

July 11, 2016

In the world of news for this week, Simi is still great! Johnny was baptized this week so that's always a plus. The service was really great and you could really tell a difference in him afterwards. We had a pretty neat experience with him leading up to it, but I'll let Elder Du Plessis tell it since we were on exchanges when most of it happened:

"So I had one of those experiences that doesn't come very often. One of those ones where you just have to sit back and say, "wow that was really cool". So this all started right after Johnny's baptismal interview. He went in and passed and I wanted to be really excited for him but something felt really weird and off. I was confused about the feeling and shrugged it off. A few days go by and I am on exchange with Elder Jo planning for our day when we get a call from Johnny. First of all Johnny is terrible with his phone. He takes forever to respond back to us and he sure doesn't call us. I answered the phone and he asked us if we could pray for him. He told us that for the past few days he has been super depressed and felt horrible, he wasn't able to sleep, and he said that he just felt like crying. I knew something was really wrong because 18 year old boys do not vocalize their emotions and this was completely out of character for Johnny. I counseled with him and told him that he needed to pray and read the scriptures and that we would come by first thing in the morning. Right after studies we zoomed over to his house. As we walked in I felt a bad presence. It just felt off in there. Johnny told us that he read the scriptures the night before and was able to feel peace and comfort and was able to sleep. He woke up at 5 with the same feeling. We taught him what a priesthood blessing was then we prayed together that we would be able to give Johnny the counsel that Heavenly Father wanted him to receive in the blessing. This was one of the most powerful blessings I have been a part of. The words to speak were instantly there without a moments hesitation. The 1/3 of the host of heaven that were there were commanded to leave and that Johnny would enjoy the protection of angels leading up to his baptism. There was a lot of thing said but those were the things that stuck out. As soon as the blessing was finished Johnny's whole countenance and demeanor changed. It was like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He said, "Yo, I don't know what you just did but I feel happy now, like I just want to smile." We testified of the power of the priesthood and of Jesus Christ. Later that day he texted his fellowship and said that the missionaries preformed a miracle for him that morning. Johnny must have great things in store for him with all the opposition he faced leading up to his baptism. He is going to be such a powerful servant for God. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to be part of this experience with him. He was baptized 3 days later."

Everyone else is doing pretty well. Jessy is progressing in every aspect except her Church attendance :P She missed again for the 4th week in a row, which is a bit frustrating. We're going to be talking about that for sure when we meet next. She did come to the baptism though and had a really great experience, so that's good. Our most progressing investigator is actually a guy named Tiny. He's a really cool guy, and the name fits him well. He's a 6' 2", 300 lbs. black guy. Yeah, I know. He was a former investigator that we picked up and have been teaching for a few weeks, but he hadn't been keeping his commitments and we were getting ready to drop him. We had a reevaluation lesson and basically told him he needed to step up or we would have to stop coming. Several of his concerns came up and we were able to address those, and he ended up coming to Church having read more than his Book of Mormon reading assignment!!! I was delightfully astonished to say the least. I'm really hoping that this keeps up :)

Fourth of July was great too. The BBQ went really well and everyone had a great time, and literally every pick up truck in Simi Valley had a massive American flag flying out of the bed. It was awesome haha! That's probably one of my favorite things about Simi is just how "'MERICA" everyone out here is. I had one member describe it to me as "a conservative oasis in a liberal wasteland."

Anyhow, that's all for this week!! Hope you guys are well :) Love you!
Love,
Brennan

1. God Bless the USA


2. The Crew


3. A little more conservative.



July 18, 2016

Glad to hear the whole fam damily is doing well, sunburns and all. I got pretty toasty myself this week. For the first time in over two years I got to go to the beach!!!....but fret not. It was totally kosher. We had exchanges with the Assistants and I went to Ventura with Elder Kuepper. They've been wanting to try a new contacting idea so we went and contacted right up next to Ventura pier. We aren't allowed actually on the sand or the board walk, but there's nothing wrong with setting up a table on the walkway and talking to people there. It was really fun. And you wanna know something else kinda funny about the exchange? Elder Kuepper is the same guy we ran into at the distribution center the day of my endowment, if you remember that. Isn't that funny? Almost exactly two years later we were on an exchange. Also had a FedEx guy deliver a package to Elder Du Plessis while attempting to disprove the Book of Mormon. That was hilarious. God has a great sense of humor :)

Anyhow, Simi continues to see miracles! Johnny was confirmed this week, which is definitely one of the highlights. We had his fellowship ensure that he didn't get kidnapped to Palmdale again, and now everything is all set! We're going to try to get him to come along to lessons with us, which would be awesome. He's responded positively to our invitations so far, he's just been busy. Hopefully we can get him to tag along sometime this week. Jessy is also doing FANTASTIC. While we were on exchanges, Elder Du Plessis and Elder Gibb had her teach them the Restoration and it was AWESOME (so I was told). She has more than a solid understanding of the doctrine, and at points bore a powerful testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the reality of modern day prophets. She doesn't currently have a solid baptismal date, but she is seriously praying about July 30th and I would be surprised if she isn't baptized on that day. I'm really excited for her. She has lots of potential and we're pretty sure that she wants to serve a mission. That would just make my life. So keep her in your prayers!! Tiny is also doing great. We had a really awesome lesson with him where he shared with us that he really feels that this is all true and he's beginning to see the blessings of the gospel in his life. We committed him to pray about baptism on the 20th of August and we'll be following up with him on Thursday. We also had a new, very prepared investigator fall into our laps. His name is Brian, and he contacted some other Elders in the zone a couple weeks ago asking about being taught and moving towards baptism. They met with him a couple times and then found out he's YSA age so they passed him on to us! He grew up in a family that was listed as "do not contact", but he's hit some hard times and has been reading the Book of Mormon and decided that he wants to be baptized. In all reality, the Elect have just been coming out of nowhere and its such a blessing. I've felt privileged to be a part of the conversion of these wonderful people we've been blessed with. I've never felt such a connection with all of my investigators and been so invested and confident in their success. We've done almost nothing to find them, we've just listened to the Spirit and acted on promptings received. Sometimes not even that. And all of this has happened in an area that, about 6 months ago, didn't have much going on at all. A lot of zone leaders dreaded being sent here because, supposedly, "there's no YSA in Simi." So I was told, at least. Just goes to show the power of prayer and faith combined with diligent work and a desire to serve God. It's been extremely humbling to be a part of it all, and I hope it continues. I'm pretty sure this is my last area to, and I can't think of a better place to finish out my mission.

And I think that's all for now! Sorry about no pictures....I totally forgot to take any this week :P There's probably something on the blog though so if you're dying you guys can look at that. Have a great week! Love you!!

Love,
Brennan


July 25, 2016

Yeah you're just preaching to the choir here on the whole hot thing. It's hit 100 pretty much every day this week here, too. I find it interesting that, each summer of my misson, the Lord has sent me to the burning corners of the mission. Never in Oxnard or Santa Barbara, always Simi or Paso. I'm not sure if he's preparing me for something or what, but I don't like it. But yeah let me second those praises to Brother Carrier. *cue black gospel choir*

Anyhow, I'm doing really great! Still kinda freaking out because everything's so close, but you learn to just deal with it and distract yourself by working hard. By way of follow up with Jessy, she unfortunately won't be getting baptized this week :/ She feels like she needs just a bit more time to read and figure out some more answers regarding her concerns. Honestly I am a little disappointed about that, however I am thrilled that she is taking it so seriously and wants to make sure she has things ironed out before making that commitment. I don't think it'll be that much longer though, so I'm not to worried. I'm pretty sure that this will be my last area so she's got three months to get things figured out haha! Tiny is also doing pretty good! He had a hard week this week because he had some old memories come back to haunt him, but we just happened to show up at the right time. We were close by and felt like we should visit, which he appreciated. He's working hard on getting his answer, and he even told us that in/when (though he is leaning a lot more towards when) he joins he actually wants to serve a mission! That was really cool. He thinks it sounds fun and he can't think of a better way to repay the Lord for everything He's done for him. But the biggest miracle we had this week was with Jay Espinosa. If you remember, we met with him once at the end of last transfer after he had met with Bishop wanting to get his life back in order. Well that was both the first and the last time we saw him. We've been trying to get in contact with him, but each time we've set something up its fallen through and he has completely ghosted the past few weeks. Last week we sent him a text and told him to let us know he was ready to meet and hadn't heard anything back. We were actually planning on counseling with Bishop and seeing what he thought would be best, but we got a call from him in the middle of ward council. We excused ourselves to listen to his voicemail, and all it was was him saying, "Hey guys just wanted to let you know I'm on my way to church. Be there in 5." Talk about a tender mercy haha! We were able to meet with him right before church and had a great lesson with him and set up something for Friday. Pretty sweet :)

Love,
Brennan

Pioneer Day Tug O' War



July 31, 2016

Anyhow, we've got some big news here. President made some huge changes this transfer. Pretty much the entire history of this mission (so far was we know), zone leaders have always been in YSA wards. Its efficient, works well with organization, and typically you don't have to worry about any missionary-member issues developing. Well that's no more. Now ALL zone leaders have been moved to family wards and ALL YSA wards have Sisters. That's the depressing news of the week. I didn't take it well at first, just on account of how much fun I've had and the love that I've developed for this ward. I'm doing alright now, still hurts a little though. Anyhow, I'm still going to be in Simi, but I'll be serving in the Simi 5th ward. That's up in the ritzy part of town (like Dos Vientos status). I don't know what it is but I guess the Lord likes me to associate with the wealthy and well-to-do. Cool part of it is, there's a celebrity that lives in that ward. You know the band Panic at the Disco? Well the bassist is a member and he lives up in that area. He's not exactly "active" per se, but I'm going to see if I can catch him haha! I've been told he likes missionaries so we'll see what happens. Anyhow the whole situation is like DV all over again (with Sisters having been there for years), so it should be a lot of fun! The ward is doing really well too and the work has just been exploding. Plus I'm super stoked about my new companion! His name is Elder Willis and he and I were both district leaders when I was in TO. We get along really well and we should have a lot of fun. Plus our new apartment is a lot bigger than the shoebox we live in currently, I'll get my own bathroom, AND there's a gym in the complex. (That's a very rare treat that I've only enjoyed once before) Also Johnny's main fellowship lives in that ward so I have easy access to still seeing him, and I'm also a zone leader so it doesn't really matter because I can call whoever I want within zone boundaries. So yeah :) As disappointed as I am that I'm not going to be in YSA anymore, there are a lot of perks in this new area. The Lord always compensates :)

In way of a little spiritual thought, let me share a little experience I had when we first got the news about the change. When we first got the call from President, I was pretty devastated. I didn't take it well at all. But after a lot of prayer, I came to realize that the reason I was so affected was the love I have come to feel for those in this ward. I thought that was a pretty cool blessing because that's something I've been striving for my whole mission, but along with that came the realization that the love I felt wasn't much compared to the Love Christ feels for each of us, and then for me personally. Cool little experience that came through the most unexpected of ways :) God picks the funniest times to teach us the most important lessons.

Anyway that's all for this week! Say a special little prayer for me tomorrow. We've got a million things we need to get done in the space of about 48 hours, so I'm going to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off and am going to need all the help I can get. Love ya!
Love,
Brennan

1. We found the edge of the mission! This picture is overlooking the San Fernando Valley. Apparently, this is actually about 10 yards outside the mission according to Google maps. We didn't know at the time haha!


2. Also we found a gecko just chillin outside our apartment. Naturally, we caught it.


I also got the nicest letter from the Bishop of the YSA Ward he's been serving in. I think it's OK to share it.

Dear Scott and Beth Rosenlof,

As Bishop of our ward, I want you to know what a pleasure it has been having
your son, Elder Rosenlof serve in our Simi Valley YSA Ward and serving as a
Zone Leader. It is clear that your son has a clear vision of why he is here
and has fulfilled his calling as a servant of Jesus Christ in an exemplary
manner. He is a great example of the 13th Article of Faith in the way he
conducts himself and in how he treats others.

It is also clear that his training in life's experiences has been taken to
heart. Your son has set a great example for the young singles in our ward
and you should be very pleased with him. We have had the honor of having him
over for dinner as well as taking him out for "sushi" where he experienced
some very unusual combinations and enjoyed the adventure. Most of all though
he and his companion, Elder Du Plessis have set a fine example in their
unwavering desire to reach out to investigators as well as those less
actives who have crossed their path.

Thank you for allowing us to share part of his life and for instilling in
him the desire to look to our Heavenly Father for answers and for
recognizing His hand in all things. You both deserve thanks for what you
have accomplished to this point in his life.

Thanks again and WELL DONE!!

With love and appreciation,

Bishop Bob and Sister Joyce Gardner

Updates June & First Week of July

Hey everyone! The emails have gotten shorter and less informative. However, Brennan has figured out how to send us videos, so we've enjoyed those - although I won't be posting them. So here are the updates for the last 5 or 6 weeks.

Week of May 30, 2016

This week was just as phenomenal as last week. Oh my heck I'm loving this transfer. Great companion, great area, fantastic ward, and even fantastic-er (that's a word now) investigators. I'm forever going to look back on this transfer with fondness :)

As a follow up, we did commit Johnny's friend Selen to be baptized on June 18th and they're both doing really well. In one of our lessons with them this week we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they both talked about how they have felt their faith grow and how it's compelling them to change their language and things like that. They both agreed that they've felt the Spirit more in their lives and Johnny told us that he believes everything that we've taught and he feels it's all true. We were excited to hear that, and Selen was to because, apparently, Johnny was saying that he was an atheist just last year. So yeah. That's pretty freakin exciting! We also went to Moorpark College on Wednesday, which was super fun. Technically its outside of our zone, but we have permission to go because a good amount of the student body lives in Simi. It was a blast, and we ended up picking up a new investigator!! His name is Aaron, and I'm really enthusiastic about him. Hopefully it all goes well with him :)

So unfortunately I'm out of time :P Sorry this is kinda lame, but if I have time I'll write a letter!! (Mom note: Still waiting for the letter. Lol.)

Week of June 6, 2016 (His Birthday BTW)

Haha thank you so much!! Yeah I'm a pretty blessed soul to have a p-day birthday. Not to many have the privilige. But hey, God loves me and thinks I'm special so he lined it up for me. He's been doing stuff like that a lot. Pretty good at it to, I have to say. We're planning on hitting up the Presidential library to celebrate and I'm pretty stoked about that. All I hear is good things so it should be great.

Looking at our past week this week, Simi Valley continues to be a place of miracles. By way of updates, Jessy will not be getting baptized this Saturday unfortunately :P She said that her concerns about women and the preisthood and homosexuality will prevent her from getting baptized that soon, but we were able to have a great lesson where we were able to find her deeper concern. As it turns out, she's really been taking a lot of what we say for face-value and just believing it because it sounds good rather than seeking a spiritual witness that it is true. So we've put a lot of core focus on that and hopefully she'll be ready to receive that. That's the biggest news of the week, everyone else is doing very well. We also found a couple of really solid potentials that will hopefully be turning into investigators by the end of this week! On top of that we have another MLC this week, our last exchange for the transfer, and of course just partying it up in the YSA ward. Yeah. I love my job :)

That's about all that goes on for me! This week wasn't the most exciting necessarily, aside from the work moving forward at a breakneck pace. It has been hotter than blazes though. Thankfully its cooling down a bit this week!

Thanks again for the birthday wishes! I'll let you guys now how it all goes when its all said and done haha :)

Love, your old fart of a son.

Ps Also, we found some pretty sweet cliffs last week (don't worry I'm still in one piece)



Week of June 13, 2016

I honestly can't believe its Monday again. The weeks are just whizzing by now and it's getting ridiculous. The more you begin to appreciate your time as a missionary, the faster it begins to go. It sucks. Bleh.

Anyways, the me birfday was pretty great! Yes I did get the package, and everything was in great shape. I'm proud of myself, to, because I've managed to make those donuts last all week. Talk about self control. The Reagan Library was really cool to! That was time well spent. We got in free because our bishop is a member there, but we paid just a little extra so we could get into their featured exhibit on the Vatican that they have going on, and let me tell you it was worth it. It was really cool. They had all sorts of stuff there: relics, paintings, ridiculously gaudy papal thrones, the whole 9 yards. It was like watching the Apostasy happen live. Pretty sweet. Definitely a testimony booster that the Church that Christ established was lost and that the Restoration was desperately needed.

Work wise, this week was a little slower than previous weeks, but I'm not to troubled considering that it was still a very productive week. Mostly it was because we had a ton of meetings and other administrative stuff we needed to get done. We had MLC on Tuesday, which was great. They're really cool meetings to be a part of, and it's humbling to be a part of them. We also had reports we had to file with the stake, a meeting with the Stake President to present those reports, and evaluations on our zone members we had to get to President Felix so he can start on transfers this week. That was enough to keep us busy on its own, but we still found plenty of time to get some actual missionary work done. We've spent some time meeting/working with the recent high school grads in the stake. We've met with most of them and we're helping them to make plans on how they can invite their friends to learn more about the gospel. Everyone we've talked to so far has had someone in mind, so we're really excited to see what comes out of this. Jessy also continues to do well. I'm hoping that she's starting to reach the end of her concerns. We had some pretty good lessons this week, and there was a talk that was given in sacrament meeting that seemed to us as if it was written specifically for her. If she continues to progress and exercise faith at this rate I think she'll be baptism-ready by the end of next transfer. Fingers crossed for her! We also saw a pretty cool miracle with Johnny this week. We were planning on pushing his baptism (which is scheduled for this Saturday) back because he was going out of town this week, but he randomly showed up at Church yesterday! He told us his grandma ended up getting pretty sick so they canceled their trip. We should be meeting with him later today to talk about the baptism, and, if all goes well, we should be having a baptism this Saturday! Please keep them in your prayers :)

And I think that's all for this week! Pretty great week :) I can't believe the end of the transfer is almost here. I'm not to concerned about any changes for us though. I'm 99% sure I'm staying, and I'm 65% sure me and Elder Du Plessis are together another 6 weeks. Prayers that both those things happen! Hope you guys have a great week :)

1. I won.


2. Oval office.


3. Air Force One


4. This supposedly has pieces of Paul and Peter in it. Yeah. Gross.


5. #mykingdomisnotofthisworld?


Week of June 20, 2016

Anyhow this week was pretty wonderful! Transfer wise, the Lord heard the pleas of Elder Du Plessis and I and both he and I are going to be kicking it here in Simi for another 6 weeks!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Hahaha we were pretty stoked when we got that call. We felt like we still had a work to do together and we're glad that our righteous desires have been granted, so buckle up because the adventures/reign of Rosenlof and Du Plessis will move forward boldly, nobly, and uninterrupted. President scared us pretty good though haha! The Friday night before transfers is the night that President calls and informs missionaries if they're receiving a new leadership assignment, and the only reason either of us would get a call would either be a release as a zone leader or being reassigned to an AP. Well about 9:40 our phone starts to ring and, sure enough, caller ID says President Felix. We answer and he asks us how we are and if was nearby. My heart about dropped out of my body. Elder Du Plessis hands me the phone and President says, "Well Elder I was just calling to inform you that you're assignment has cha- oh wait that was last transfer." And then he just starts laughing. He decided that, since he had forgotten to call me last transfer and let me know that he was making me a zone leader, he would make up for it this transfer and give me a little scare while he was at it hahaha! Like I've said, I have the world's greatest mission president.

Work wise, Simi is still flourishing. We're very excited about Jessy. We had a few really great lesson with her this week, in which she really realized her divine potential. It was really cool to see that piece of the puzzle fit into place and for it to change her outlook on things. She's also been asking questions about baptism, which is always a good sign!! Johnny is also doing well and is steadily progressing. He came to institute this week and had a great experience, and he's still looking towards getting baptized! Unfortunately we had to push it back because he slipped up and had a cup of coffee, but he felt bad and is now looking forward to July 2nd. Finding wise, things have slowed down a little, but then again so have we. We're repenting and we're really going to hit it hard looking for new investigators this week. All in all, Simi is the promised land. I'm pretty sure that this will be my last area, and I am WAY okay with that. Great work, great people, great place, great companion. What more could an Elder ask for? Maybe a baptism, but then again I will be surprised if Jessy and Johnny aren't baptized sometime in the next 6 weeks sooooo.....yeah. Basically the perfect situation :D

We also got to go to the temple for my birfday this week and that was great! I realized I haven't been since November, and that is WAY to long to go between visits to our Father's house. Our buddy Jake drove us down, and we just had a grand ol time. Also on the spiritual side of things, I had a pretty cool experience with the Book of Mormon this week. I was noticing that I had been feeling a little off, and I wasn't quite sure why. I was just in a weird mood for a few days and couldn't diagnose the problem. Then during studies one morning, the Spirit helped me realize what was wrong: I hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon as much as I should. I'd been reading maybe a chapter a day, but that was mostly for investigators or other purposes. I hadn't really been reading as a spiritual rejuvenation for myself. I started immediately, and I can happily report that I am doing much better now. That was just a pretty good testimony to me of the power/importance of the Book of Mormon. Amazing what the word of God can do :)

That's about all for this week! Stay tuned for next week and hopefully I'll have some fun stories for you then.

1+2. The Duo at the Lord's doorstep.


3. This was at 12 today.....


4. Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Jessy is a bit of a hippie, and a proud hippie at that. This is the back of her car. It epitomizes her well.


Week of June 27, 2016

As for my week, here's the run down: this week was a bit slower than the past few have been. Part of it was making sure that transfers went smoothly and that everyone got settled (which is a LOT harder than it sounds, especially as a zone leader), and the other was because EVERYONE kept canceling their appointments. We had a couple days this week that were jam packed with appointments, and nearly every one of them ended up canceling. It was a bit discouraging, but we persevered and managed to actually meet with a few of our investigators. Jessy is still doing really well, though she wasn't able to make it to church this week. We're hoping to set her with a new date this week and work towards getting her baptized by the end of the transfer. We feel like us staying together is a sign that its her time. We've been able to connect with her better than anyone else in the past and she's made a lot of progress over the past month. In other news, it looks like Johnny is all set and ready for baptism this Saturday!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! We just have to get his interview done and get everything planned and out and then we're all systems go. We also found a SOLID new investigator this week. His name is Jay, and, long story short, he grew up in the Church, but his mom left before he was able to be baptized so he never became a member. He's done his own thing for the majority of his life now, but he's facing consequences of some decisions he's made and now he's looking for redemption in the only place he feels he can find it: Jesus Christ and His restored Church. We had an excellent lesson with him, and it's truly incredible how prepared he is. We think that baptism isn't to far off for him either!! Simi is truly a place of miracles :)

Hope you guys are good and well :)

Ps Brontosaurus


Week of July 4, 2016

This week has been pretty good....haha I've been kinda stressed out this week. We had a bit of a problem with investigators keeping appointments. They kept canceling last minute, so this week we're going to talk to them about that. We're hoping that should help correct the problem :) We love them, but when they cancel their appointments multiple times each week it makes it harder hahaha! Other than that things are going great! We ended up pushing Johnny's baptism back one more week for several reasons, mostly because we felt he needed another week to be ready. But we've got the interview done, we're working out the other various logistics, and we're all systems go for his baptism this Saturday! He's pretty excited and so are we!!! So be ready for some pictures in white next week :)

Other than that, not to much happened this week. We did witness a wildfire though!!! That was pretty sweet. We were just driving through town and we saw a massive pillar of smoke, so, naturally, we drive towards it. Video will be included :)

That's about all I've got for this week....sorry :P Hope you guys have a great Fourth!! We're doing a BBQ with the zone so that should be fun :) Talk to you next week!