Transfer week and killing my new companion!!!

Hello everyone!!

So first off, I'm very sorry I didn't send out an email last week. It was a REALLY slow week for us and I honestly couldn't think of anything to write. But this week has been much more exciting!

So first things first: TRANSFERS. After much suspense and waiting with baited breath, I am........staying here in the Ventura 3rd ward!! Wooo! I'm actually very glad to be staying here. The work is going well and the people are wonderful. However, they are going to be banishing Elder Collard down south :P He's been called to the Canejo Canyon ward down in Newbury Park and he'll be serving as a district leader, so that's pretty cool! I'm gonna miss him though. He's been a good companion, and we've had a lot of fun. But hey, the people in Newbury need him more than here. My new companion will be Elder Shields, and from what I hear he's pretty awesome. He's currently up in the Santa Maria 3rd ward, and this next transfer will be his last. I'll be killing him! So that will be interesting haha! But I've been told that he's a hard worker and is REALLY good at finding people, which is just what this area needs. Plus we're going to be sharing a car with 4th ward so that's an added bonus!

So I'm doing really well!! Not sick, not injured, and it's 75 degrees in the middle of January. Life is freakin awesome. Like seriously. I feel great, and I have the best calling anyone could ask for. I love being a missionary. It really is a wonderful blessing.

Investigators are doing good as well! Kayla is back on track!! WOOO!! She was really struggling for a while, and we had no idea what we were going to do with her. But now she is doing really well and she is scheduled to be baptized on February 14th!! I'm so excited for her, and I'm hoping that she'll keep progressing and be able to meet that goal. Naomi is also doing really good! I think I mentioned last time that we had started a Book of Mormon study group with her. Well to report, that's working miracles. We've only been doing it for three weeks and she's already started to grow spiritually. It's been really cool to see.

So for my spiritual thought this week, I'm going to include the link to one of my favorite talks of all time. It's called "Place No More for the Enemy of my Soul" by Elder Holland. I remember being at the session that he delivered it in, and it gave me the chills. In it he speaks more directly at issues of moral cleanliness, but it applies to everyone and anything they might be struggling with.

Thanks again for all the email and letters. They mean more than you know and really help me out. Hope everything is going well and that your week is absolutely fantastic!

Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

Ps Here's a picture of me with Elder Collard, Kayla, and her son, Oliver. I have no idea what I'm looking at, but it's the only picture I have haha!.

January 12, 2015

Hey everyone!!

It's yet another wonderfully sunny day in Ventura! I gotta say, as much as I miss the seasons, I really don't mind the whole 70 degrees in the middle of January deal. It's quite nice. Also I apologize that I start most every email out with a discourse on the weather, but I'm just trying to enjoy it while I can. :)

This week has been a pretty good week! We've been working HARD this week. It's funny though, because it seemed like the adversary was trying to prevent us from working to our full capacity, which honestly just motivated us more. But my bike has been having some serious issues so we had to take that to a member to get fixed, then it rained pretty hard for a couple days so we couldn't ride bikes at all. But we picked up our umbrellas and got out there. We've been spending a lot of time trying to track down some of the less actives in our ward, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Only about 40% of our ward is active, so we've got our work cut out for us. We went through our ward directory and wrote down the name and address of everyone that hasn't been to church in at least couple months and we're still in the process of contacting all of them. Fun stuff, right? It actually has been a lot of fun, because it takes us all over our area and we've met some really awesome people along the way. Not to many of them were interested, but it's still great to just be able to talk to people :)

Our investigators are doing really well too! Kayla had a HUGE breakthrough this weekend. She texted us Friday night and told us that before she started reading the Book of Mormon she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to show her what she needs to know. She opened it up and came across 3 Nephi 11, which helped her to understand that she needs to be baptized regardless of what she's done in the past. That's a huge miracle right there. We've been trying to help her understand that for a couple weeks now, so that's just awesome. We also started a Book of Mormon study group for Noami which went AWESOME. The Spirit was so strong as we taught her about it and read through some with her. She loved it, and we're hoping that this will help her gain the testimony that she's been seeking for such a long time now.

For a spiritual thought this week, I just want to share a quick thing from 1 Nephi. After seeing the vision of the tree of life, Nephi goes to tell his father what he saw, but finds Lamen and Lemuel complaining that they can't understand what Lehi's been trying to teach them. Nephi asks them a simple question: "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" Simply, if you want an answer to a spiritual question, you need to seek a spiritual answer. Trying to figure it out for yourself just won't work.

I hope you all have a great week! Remember that the Lord loves you. Stay awesome, and keep on keeping on.

Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof


​Ps I figured I'd send you guys a picture. Love you!

The start of the Holy Year

Happy new year everyone!

Hope that you all enjoyed your new years pizza and Martinelli's! My new years was pretty exciting. It consisted of being inside by 8, hanging out with some other missionaries, going to bed around 10, then being awakened at midnight by our completely wasted neighbors running around outside screaming like banshees and banging pots and pans together. So overall it was pretty exciting!

We had a good week this week! We had interviews with President Felix, so that was awesome! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love my mission president. He's awesome. He does his best to get to know everyone and to make you feel loved. We also had an exchange with our district leader this week too, which was a lot of fun! It was on a good day too, because Elder Collard ended up getting sick and having to stay in that day, so I lucked out and wasn't stuck inside all day! Other than that we didn't have to much go on, but that's okay. I've got high hopes with the start of the new year!

Now, to explain the heading, the start of the year marks the start of my Holy Year. This year will be the year that is entirely dedicated to serving my Heavenly Father. How awesome is that??? For the entire 365 days of 2015, I will be proclaiming the gospel. I'm so excited to see what this year brings!

I had a lot of interesting experiences this week regarding my personal goal for this transfer. So my goal has been to develop greater charity towards ALL men. For members, other missionaries, random people on the street, everyone. And this week I made some significant progress, but not in the way that I had expected. I expected to gain more charity towards those I teach, but as I was on my exchange with Elder Gardner, I increased in love for my Savior. Then, as a result, I found that I had greater love for all those around me. It made me realize that I have been going about this the wrong way. To better love our fellow man, we must first love Jesus Christ, and then everything else will follow. Charity is the greatest of all virtues, and as we develop it we will be prepared to see our Heavenly Father again.

I hope that all goes well for all of you this week! Thank you for all your prayers, and know that I am praying for you in return.

Much love,
Elder Rosenlof


By the way, I met Santa. Be jealous.



We also got this little gem on Facebook this afternoon. Apparently, he had to cut his e-mail to me short so he could go help this loser. :)