Week of April 25, 2016
{H}ere's a quick week in review. I'm sad to say it but things are struggling just a bit here in the 4th ward. We've gone through almost our entire area book and our finding efforts haven't exactly been fruitful. We haven't found a single new investigator this whole transfer. We're trying not to let that discourage us, though, and we had some pretty awesome meetings yesterday. The first was just us and Brother Whitman our WML. (Who, as a sidenote, is literally the best WML in the world. Not even kidding) laying out a rough draft of plans on how to get things moving, and then we had another meeting right after with the entire ward mission looking to further solidify those plans. Hopefully when we can talk with the ward council about them next week and get these plans in motion. They're mostly just plans on what we can do to work more effectively with members and increase our referral rate, because we've been struggling a bit on that front as well. We all felt that member referrals are going to be our best bet for finding, so I'm confident that once we get this rolling things will pick up. Unfortunately, though, I'm pretty sure I won't be here to see anything come from it :( I'm about 95% sure I'm getting transferred. In my interview the other week Pres dropped some hints that this would be my last few weeks in TO, so that's depressing. This ward is up there with Atascadero as my favorite area. But hey, so goes the mish I guess. There is the small hope that he will change his mind somewhere during the transfer process, so I'm clinging onto that with all I've got.
Photographic proof that I am, indeed, still alive.
Week of May 2, 2016
I HAD THE COOLEST EXPERIENCE THIS WEEK. IT IS LIKE STRAIGHT OUT OF THE ENSIGN NOT EVEN KIDDING....okay sorry for all the caps. I'm a little excited haha :) Anyhow here's the story: So this last Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Pace, and we were walking back to the car from visiting some members and a former investigator. As we were walking this woman drives by (no big deal happens all the time), but about 1 minute later we see the same woman driving towards us again. She pulls over, rolls down her window and says simply "What ya got?" We offered her a Book of Mormon, and she kind of laughed and shook her head then was silent for a moment before looking at us and saying, "Boys. I need an intervention." We knelt down and talked to her for a bit, but then, to make a long story less long, ended up meeting her at her home and teaching the Restoration and answering a bunch of her questions. In the end, we invited her to church, to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and to be baptized, all of which she accepted. She said she has seen us around a lot lately and has been wondering why we're so persistent against all the opposition we face, and she decided when she drove by that she wasn't going to shut the door anymore and actually listen to what we have to say. After teaching her, she said she knows that we were an answer to a prayer she's had for months and that she thinks that the way she needs to go. It was absolutely incredible. This is the kind of experience that you only read in the Ensign or hear from other people, but I never really expected it to happen to me personally. It was truly one of the greatest faith and hope building experiences of my life. So yeah. Really cool stuff going on :D
Other cool stuff that happened this week, we picked Johnny back up!! Sad circumstances around that though. We learned last Sunday that his mother passed away and his fellowship recommended that we stop by to see how he's doing. He really appreciated the visit and said that he wants to start meeting up again, which is a real blessing. He's so ready for the gospel and I was really disappointed when he dropped us. Hopefully we'll be able to help him out. Also met with Jim Alexander, who Elder Plummer and I taught earlier last transfer but he has been SUPER busy with the company that he started that he's been unable to meet since then. He treated us to lunch and we were able to have a great discussion AND we found out he's been reading the Book of Mormon in his free time! He's also incredibly prepared and I'm hoping that things slow down for him so he can meet with us more.
And that's the week in review! Pretty good week this week :) In the world of announcements and reminders, transfers are this week so keep that in mind. I'm about 95% sure that I'm out of here, and not just because of hunches either. Pres has been dropping hints about some things lately, as have some other leaders, and I have an itching feeling I know what's going to happen. But I'll let ya'll know at calls what's going down :)
Random exchange selfie with Elder Herrera :)
Week of May 9 (this was a general, since we just talked to him the night before!)
I Swear I'm Not Dead
Well hello everyone!!
So let me assure you all that I am, indeed, still alive. I have just been incredibly terrible at getting one of these out for WAY to long. So, in true missionary fashion, I am now committing to do one of these every week, no matter how much time I have!
Anyhow things have been really great for me for the past couple months. I've been serving in the Thousand Oaks 4th ward, and I've loved it. This ward is tied for first with Atascadero as my favorite area, no joke. Elder Hunter and I (my current companion) have killed it here. We've worked hard in the face of adversity and we've seen a lot of really awesome miracles. From random people pulling over their cars because they want to learn more (yes that happened. It was awesome.) to actually finding people while tracting (which is a miracle in and of itself). I've loved it here.
But unfortunately this era has come to a close. I'm headed to the Simi Valley YSA ward this Tuesday, which, as sad as I may be, I'm really excited. I've never served in a YSA ward before and I've always wanted to. It seems like a lot of fun, so I'm excited for the opporutnity :)
And that's my life in a nutshell. A very small, confined nutshell, but it's my life nonetheless. I just hit my 18 month mark a couple weeks ago, which is pretty weird for me. I don't feel like I've been out that long, and I'm not really okay with it. But hey, that's how it goes I guess.
Anyhow, thank you all for your prayers and for your love and support. I can't begin to tell you how much it helps :) I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I'll talk to you all this time next week! I love you all!!
Much love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof
In honor of May the Fourth
Week of May 16
Well let me tell ya, you should be excited to hear about this week. It's been AWESOME. I'll just preface it by saying that, while we've been insanely busy, I'm really loving being in both YSA work and zone leadership. It's been a blast so far.
So Tuesday was transfers, and honestly it's all a bit of a blur haha. We had a lot to get done and not much time to do it. But we got everything situated and even got some time to get some proselyting done. We went to the Moorpark institute for free lunch and I got a little familiar with the Moorpark College campus. Techinically Moorpark is out of our area, but we have permission to go out there since that's the only college campus nearby and a lot of the students live in Simi. Wednesday we spent most of the time visiting less actives (which YSA has a TON of) and also sitting in meetings. We had a district leader council meeting with the DL's in our zone (both of which are some of my favorite Elders: Elder Carpenter and Elder Mulford. Bonus) to help plan out our zone goal for the transfer (which I'll talk about in a moment). After that we had a meeting with our new stake president (like NEW new. He just got put in a month ago) to discuss the progress of the work in the stake and what we can do to better coordinate with ward and stake leadership. Thursday was mostly spent at MLC (mission leadership council) and that was really awesome. The meeting is held in Oxnard, and it consists of all the Zone Leaders as well as the Sister Training Leaders. DL's also got to sit in on this one at President's request. Anyhow, the meeting is essentially a training meeting for the mission. We receive the training, and then pass it down to the rest of the missionaries. We also held a council on a number of issues that President wanted to resolve, and I had a great time. It was a very spiritual meeting, plus I have served around all the other ZL's with the exception of Campbell, Harvey, and Parkinson, but regardless we all know each other and get along really well. Friday we presented the zone goal to the zone at their district meetings, had a service project with our district, and had a couple of meetings with less actives. Saturday was fairly uneventful, and then of course Sunday was church, which is very different. If I get anything from my experience in YSA work, it will at least be prep for YSA wards for when I get home hahaha! It's just a very different dynamic from what I'm used to, but I really like it.
So yeah. That's been my life for the past 7 days, but very condensed. We usually are going full speed from when we get up, until about 10:20pm and we hit the pillow dead asleep. It's been awesome :) Hahaha!
So the spiritual part of this email comes from our zone goal. So quick background: zone goals are set by the ZL's and are based off of a target set by Pres. This transfers is "We baptize monthly by setting attainable goals and working inspired plans." Elder Du Plessis and I put a lot of prayer and council into our goal, and we decided to have each companionship pray to know the date that the Lord has prepared someone to be baptized, then to set goals, make plans, and then work their tails off to find that person. We gave that to everyone on Friday, and we've already seen miracles. One companionship felt that the day for them is this Saturday, and they've found the person and their set to go :) Needless to say, there's a lot of faith going into this goal, and it's been really good to see. Also we've set our day for June 11th, so if you guys could pray to help us find that person and reach our goal, that would be awesome :)
So that's my week in review!! Kinda crazy, but really good.
Tag Pic!
Week of May 23
I honestly can't believe it's nearly June already. I realized the other day that I hit ANOTHER month mark, and my heart broke a little. It's kinda funny. At the beginning of your mission, you're always so excited to hit another month. Towards the middle you don't really care, and the end you feel like crying every time you look at the calendar.
SO. Prepare yourself. This week was EPIC. First and foremost, WE FOUND THE PERSON THAT'S GOING TO BE BAPTIZED ON JUNE 11TH!!! That's a really cool story. I was just looking through the progress records, and this name really pops out to me: Jessie Sulka. She was a former who had only met with the missionaries a few times on and off. We texted her, and she responded very enthusiastically saying she'd love to meet up. We set up a time, and, long story short, met with her twice this week and she committed to be baptized on the 11th!!!! She came to church yesterday as well, had a great time, and she also made it to a ward social we had at Bishop's house last night. We also set one of our other investigators, Johnny, with a baptismal date for June 18th, and we're probably going to set his friend, Selen, for the same day. And that's not to mention the 4 OTHER NEW INVESTIGATORS that we found this week. The Lord has been very generous. Simi Valley YSA is EXPLODING. And its awesome!!!! There's been so much faith exercised and its SO COOL to see the results. All of the miracles we've seen this week are directly correlated to the fasting and prayer that Elder Du Plessis and I have put in, as well as to the prayers of the members of our ward. We have (and still are) petitioned the Lord for his blessing, and we have received it in greater abundance that we could've imagined. I love my job :)
So yeah that was my week!!! Pretty exciting :)
We got a new car. (I wish)
Our district
