"Merry Christmas!! Here's your transfer doctrine."‏

Hey Everyone!

So first off, sorry that it's been a couple weeks since I've sent out a mass email. I've been slacking :P But fear not, I bring good tidings of great joy. The past few weeks have been pretty great. The work has slowed down a bit, but we've been working hard with the members and finding ways to spread holiday cheer. Here's the lowdown:

So this Christmas (including the week leading up to it) was definitely the best of my life. There's a member in one of the wards in our district (his name is Albert. Just in case you were curious) that gathers up all the missionaries around these parts every year and we go caroling in each of the wards. That was an absolute blast. We went every night of the week leading up to Christmas, and then Christmas Eve we spent the whole day caroling to just about anyone we could. It made a lot of people really happy to have carolers haha! Its one of those things that a lot of people don't do anymore.

And then there was Christmas day. After Elder Elliott and I finished reveling in the wonderful gifts our wonderful families had sent us, we headed off to District Meeting which was as awesome as always. We, of course, talked a lot about Christmas and it really set a good tone for the rest of the day. Then we had lunch with some members of our ward, and then we went to retirement home with the rest of the district and caroled to them as well. Afterwards we had the privilege of calling our families (yes we called. We're quite old fashioned here. We don't Skype in this mission, as my mother would be the first to tell you ;) ) Then we headed to our 2 dinner appointments with some of my favorite members of the ward. So yeah. This Christmas rocked :)

The big news, though, is TRANSFERS. I am still sitting pretty here in Newbury Park. There have been a couple changes though. First and foremost, I am now not only covering the Dos Vientos ward, but they are extending my domain to cover the Conejo Canyon ward as well. Also, Elder Elliott has received news that he will be leaving and is heading to (you're never going to believe this) the SANTA MARIA 1ST WARD. NOW PRESIDENT IS JUST TEASING ME!!! Hahaha but all jokes aside I was pretty stoked when we learned that's where he's going. So prepare yourselves, SM; the Elliott is coming. In way of companions, my new comp is going to be Elder Peterson. I know nothing about him. So stay tuned :)

And that's all for now!! Have a Happy New Year everyone :) Love you all!!

Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

1. In the midst of reveling



2. Christmas Eve with the Koeppels

The Week of Christmas

There was no general email again this week so here are a few excerpts from the letter he sent me.


Well holy heck you got a lot of snow this week. We got rain!!! That was pretty great :D I actually got to use my umbrella!!

This week has been alright. Work wise, things are lagging pretty hard. Going into the Christmas season you've got to work carefully because you can either make or break the weeks around the holidays, and unfortunately all the factors played into our work breaking until after the new year. It is what it is. Honestly my DL is more worried about it then we are haha! We've been working hard with the members and we know the fruits of that will start to bear themselves coming up pretty soon. We've also been going caroling every night for the past few night with the rest of the missionaries here in Newbury and that's been a blast. You know me, I never turn down an opportunity to sing. I also borrowed a guitar from the Koeppels, so I've been figuring out various Christmas songs in my free time and that's made it all the better.

We also got to go to the temple this week!!!!!!! That was awesome :D The LA temple is SWEET. I was just blown away at how beautiful it was. Plus the whole Spirit aspect was pretty great, so all in all I'd say it was a pretty great experience.


1. Us and the temple (or play "Where's the Elders)



2. #modelstatus

Christmas Countdown‏

Hey everybody!

Well this week has been pretty grand! Not to much to report, but there were a few exciting things that happened this week. Here's the report:

As for me, I'm doing pretty good! DV is starting to struggle a little bit though :P We talked to the fellowships of two of our investigators and they said they are no longer interested, so we had to drop them, and unfortunately the only other family that we're teaching probably won't be able to meet until after the New Year. We have a few recent converts and less actives that we're still working with, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little stressed about the whole thing. But hey, it's part of the job :) We are keeping ourselves really busy working with the ward members though. The Savior is Born initiative is really taking off, and we've given close to 140 or so pass along cards away to members to give to their neighbors, friends, etc. They're all very excited about it, and we're making plans on follow up visits with all of them to see how it went for them. We're making a list, we'll be checking it twice, and we'll be finding out who's been naughty or nice. (Sorry I really couldn't resist) We're hoping that its going to spark something in the ward, and visiting that many members and asking about them talking with their friends is bound to turn into something. We'll just have to press forward for the next couple weeks. This week shouldn't be to bad though. We've got a lot going on. We have a Zone Conference tomorrow, which is going to be pretty great. There'll be a talent show during that, and President and Sister Felix asked me to MC. To say that I'm excited does not accurately describe my emotions :D I'll also be performing a duet with another missionary in my district so that's gonna rock. Then on Wednesday we have an exchange so that'll be pretty great, and on Thursday we get to go the temple!!!!! :D Again, excitement beyond words. Overall we're going to be pretty busy this week, so I really can't complain. The Lord definitely provides :)

In other news, you should've seen the Stake Christmas Party this last Saturday. I wish I had pictures. It was phenomenal. Basically, they transformed the entire gym into Bethlehem. They had people in the stake who work in entertainment make costumes and sets and the like, plus they had a live nativity with awesome music. And the whole thing was catered by a guy that is from Bethlehem, and the food was BOMB. When Newbury does a party, they do it right.

And unfortunately I'm out of time, but I hope you all have a great week! Have a Merry Christmas, and remember the true spirit of the season :) Love you all!

Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof

1. My Kingdom



2. DV!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!‏

Hey everybody!

I can't believe its December again. I swear it was just here. Where is my mission going???? O.o Sorry I'm just having a bit of a nervous breakdown...anyhow the lights are up, the trees decorated, and its a frigid 75 degrees. We have it really rough here in Cali :)

Anywho here's the run down of the week. This week was pretty good for us. Not quite as good as I had been hoping :P Our investigators are being really difficult. We FINALLY met all of them, but we still have yet to meet WITH them. Tis the season, but it's still a bit frustrating. Christmas can make or break an investigator, and I don't want to have to put three teaching records into the "Former Investigators" section to start of the new year. However, all of them did say that they would be available this next week so hopefully we'll be able to get something set with them. Other than that not to much goes on. The Koeppels are still doing great! We had the baptism last week, and that was great. The Spirit was there, the boys were happy, and their mom was crying. All that you could ask for :) The transition is kinda hitting the boys a little hard though. This is really the first time in their lives that they've regularly had to attend 3 hours of church and be required to sit still for that amount of time, and neither of them are exactly low energy so its a little bit of a struggle. We're hoping to help them with that though so hopefully things start smoothing out. Lemuel is also doing great. I mentioned Lem, right? He's this super awesome 60 year old (though he looks and acts like he's 35) black guy who joined just before we got here. He's got an awesome story. Anyhow, he's working towards getting ordained a Priest and we're helping him get there. Overall life is good here in DV!

In closing, I want to include a link to the new Christmas initiative the Church just put out last week. It'l called "A Savior is Born." Here's the link: https://www.mormon.org/christmas Click it, watch it, share it, and Discover Why! Remember the true meaning of Christmas this year. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." I know that Jesus Christ fulfilled his mission that He came to do here on this earth, and I'm so privileged to be able to be one of His chosen representatives sharing the message of His birth and His life. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have the greatest job ever :)

I hope that you all have a great week! Know that I love all of you and I appreciate all that you do!

Much Love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof


1. Found a tree with a giant hole? Guess what my first natural instinct was to do.



2.The District

Week of November 30th

He didn't have time to do a general e-mail this week, so here are some excerpts from the e-mail he sent his Mom.

Ours (Thanksgiving) wasn't to shabby :) We actually got fed TWICE, so there's not much room to complain. We went over to a newly reactivated family later that evening and they fed us some leftovers and pie. We definitely didn't go hungry. Actually that hasn't been a problem the whole time I've been in this ward. If Dos Vientos is good at anything (and this ward is phenomenal so they're good at a lot of things) its feeding the missionaries. We've had a DA every night since I got here, plus they send us home with leftovers almost every night. We hardly have to buy food haha :)

Other than that things are going pretty good. We haven't been able to have sit down lesson with any of our investigators yet. Granted its been Thanksgiving week, but I'm a little concerned about that. Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing and we'll be able to see them this week. If not, the worst that happens is we have to drop them and start from the bottom up, and I don't think that would be to bad in this ward. They're REALLY on top of things, and with Christmas coming around it should make things easier. Also we had a baptism this week!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOO! Another 10 year old that was brought in by his parents getting reactivated. But that was pretty exciting :)

That's about all I've got! Hope you all have a great week :) And thank you for all the support that you send. Material and otherwise :) Love you!

Love,
Brennan

ps pic from the baptism and 15 foot Rudolph. Pretty much the highlights of the week hahaha :)