A lot of walking and some pretty cool miracles :D‏

Hey everyone!!

Things are going pretty awesome here in beautiful ocean-side Ventura. This week has been absolutely awesome, and the weather hasn't been to bad either haha! Here's a quick run down of what went on:

So first we had a really awesome lesson with our investigator, Bill. I'm not sure I've mentioned him before, but he's in his 70's and is living with a less-active. He's had a bit of a rough patch the past couple years (essentially he went from riches to rags) and he sometimes feels like God has abandoned him. We've been teaching him for a little while, he's just needed a really awesomely spiritual lesson, and we had that with him this week! We taught the Plan of Salvation, and he really enjoyed it. Afterwards, he began to express his frustrations with things, and we were able to help him start to realize the comfort the gospel can bring to him. We invited him to be baptized, and he said he'd pray about it. That may not sound like much, but that's a huge step for Bill.

We are also on the brink of a new investigator! Her name is Lupe, and we met her and her family about a week ago. We stopped by to follow up last night, and we ended up having an awesome doorstep lesson with her and we're going to go back later this week to teach her and her family! We're really excited about them (at least I am) and I'm looking forward to that :)

We also had an awesome miracle happen during weekly planning on Friday! I was looking through our contacts, and I came across a name in there I didn't recognize. He was listed as an investigator, so I looked up his teaching record. He started meeting with the Sisters about this time last year and looked really promising, but there was no reason why they stopped going. So we called him. He was very enthusiastic when we introduced ourselves, and told us that the missionaries had just stopped coming and he didn't know why. He told us to give him a call today and we're going to set up an appointment for later this week!

Okay last one! So on Saturday we were walking back to the car and we stopped to talk to this lady who was working in her yard. We offered our help, and she jokingly told us we could transplant a big tree she had in her yard for some extra money, and she was pretty blown away when we 1. Refused her money, and 2. Actually showed up a couple hours later and planted her tree for her. She was extremely grateful, and we're planning on going back later this week for some more service! But you want to know the coolest part? She told us afterward that she'd been praying that morning for God to send her someone to help her out because she had so much to do and didn't know how she was going to get it all done. That was truly humbling.

As for a spiritual thought, I just want to testify that miracles happen. You just need enough faith, prayer, and A LOT of sweat.

I hope you all have an absolutely fantastic week!! You're all awesome. Thanks for all that you do :) Adios!

Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

PS We forgot to shave. Again. Whoops.

New comp, new ideas, new strategies‏

Hey everyone!

This has been a VERY hot week. Like dang. I keep forgetting that it's the middle of March. That's made going and walking around interesting, but with enough water anything is possible, right?

Anywho, so here's the info on my new companion! His name is Elder Corbridge, he's from American Fork, and he's been out for about 8 months. so not much longer than me! We've had a lot of fun over the past week. It's been really good to get a new perspective in this area. He has a lot of awesome ideas and we've set a solid strategy for hopefully getting things to pick up in this area. I think this transfer is going to go well :)

Work this week mainly consisted of us attempting to get said plans in motion. We're trying to get members more actively involved, and that's a bit of a slow process. But you need to get seeds planted before you can reap the harvest. That's really one thing that I realized looking back on my efforts the past transfer. We were so set on harvesting that we didn't realize that our fields are empty. But Elder Corbridge and I are planting as fast as we can, and we're hoping to start tasting the fruit of our efforts in the coming weeks. We've been contacting less actives and potential investigators like mad, and we've found some diamonds in the rough. We also think we might have found a family in the process :D But we still need to follow up with them so we'll see what happens there.

As a quick spiritual thought, let me share a quote by President Monson: "The best decision I ever made, was when I gave up something I loved to the God I love even more. He has never forgotten me for it."

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Thank you for all your prayers and support :)

Love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

Service rains from the sky, and also transfers!‏

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty great! We had a lot going on this week, but first I'll break the suspense surrounding my fate for the next six weeks. The results are in annnnnnndddd..... I'm staying! I'll be here in Ventura 3rd ward for another month and a half. My new companion will be Elder Corbridge, and no one in my district has any idea who he is haha! None of us have even heard of him before, but I asked my Zone Leaders and they said they knew him and he's awesome. Now of course they say that about everyone, so we'll see. I'll let you guys know the verdict next week. Anywho, I was looking at the calendar, and you know what's crazy? The first full day of next transfer (not this coming one but the one after) will be my six month mark o_o That's NUTS!! Time just flies.

So this week was a very serviceable one. We had opportunities coming left and right! It was awesome! We had a couple days where we spent almost the whole day in service clothes! We did everything from help people move to pull a bunch of weeds. It was a lot of fun. It was also a huge blessing because it helped Elder Shields keep his mind off of going home. He's so ready haha! He says its the weirdest feeling in the world, because he's excited to be able to get back to normal life, but at the same time he's kinda heartbroken because he's leaving it all behind. But he's looking forward to it.

In other exciting news, we found a new investigator!! His name is Frank and he's awesome. There's good news, and bad news about him. Good news: he's pretty golden. We had a lesson with him about the Restoration and he understood it very well and absolutely loved it. Bad news: he's 20 and single so we have to refer him to the singles ward Elders :( So that's kinda lame, but I still have high hopes for him!

So this week I want to talk a little bit about obedience. This transfer has taught me a lot about it. I've gained a new appreciation for why we need to be obedient, and the blessings that come from it. To put it simply, we are obedient to show our Heavenly Father that we love Him. Plain and simple. That's why he's given us the commandments: to test our faith and our love for Him. And don't you think He is more willing to bless those that prove their love for Him? I do. Christ taught us during His mortal ministry, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." So ask yourself this question: what can I do to better show my Heavenly Father that I love Him? Have an answer? Now go do it. That's repentance right there. Realigning yourself with God because you love Him and want to come closer to Him.

Well that's all for this week! Stay tuned in next week for more exciting adventures of Elder Rosenlof! Gosh I'm such a geek...haha anyway I love you all! Have a great week, and know that I'm praying for you all.

Much Love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

Ps check out this sweet wooden bowtie that a member from one of Elder Shields' previous ward gave me!

Blitzes and trunky tales‏

Hey everyone!

Glad to hear that everyone is doing well! Sounds like winter has finally made an appearance. It has a bit here too, but of course it's only rained and been about 60 here so.....

Anyway, I'm doing great! Things have been going pretty well here. It has been an interesting week though. One of the Elders in 4th ward, Elder Cantrell, has been sick all week, so we've gone on probably about 20 blitzes (1-2 hour exchanges) to help keep Elder Gardner (his comp) sane. It's been a lot of fun haha!

Elder Shields is also getting trunkier by the day, so that's been a lot of fun....haha! He's still doing great, but it's really getting to him now, and by default it's starting to get to me as well. But I'm getting him out the door everyday, no matter how much he fights it. But I think this week will probably be the slowest of his life! Pray for him.

In other exciting news, Kayla has been having a bit of a freak out, but what else is new. She's still trying to find a place to live, and that's a bit of a stress. Now she's freaking out because she's not working with the missionaries as much as she was before her baptism, even though we told her that would happen multiple times. Yeah...that's been fun. I also got to go on an exchange with our Zone Leaders! I learned a lot, and I had a lot of fun too.

For the spiritual thought this week, here's a link to the First Presidency message. If you haven't read it, you should. If you have, read it again. I love it and it shares a really awesome message: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/03/encircled-in-his-gentle-arms?cid=HPSU030115727&lang=eng

I hope that you all have a fantastic week! Thank you so much for all your support! Transfer calls come this Saturday, so I'll let you know what the results are next Monday!

Love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

Ps Ventura at night. Ain't it awesome?