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!!