WILL WE SURVIVE THE ABUELITAS?!!? | 9.17.18

Buenos dias mis amigos!!

Another killer week here in Garland.

Hermana Casper's mom asked if the honeymoon phase of our companionship has ended yet, NOPE still best of friends. I love my companion so much sometimes when we are separated for like a few seconds (like when she plays the hymns in sacrament meeting) I get sad because I miss her haha.

i
am
content
so many funny things happened this week.

STUFF THAT I LEARNED

• At least as a missionary, the spirit is most of the time the same thing as your thoughts. A lot of people and missionaries talk about guidance from the spirit as being some slightly mystical, magnetic force that guides them. It's not like that, at least for me. I have seen multiple miracles this week (knocking on a door of a stranger and all 3 of us ending up in happy tears, finding a random 20 y/o who is way stoked on the gospel when we decided to knock on a completely random door, running into people at the grocery store who my companion has been trying to get in contact with for months... it's so cool)
• Tender Mercies (little miracles that God gives us to show His love) are so personal. Sometimes I don't really want to tell people that much about the miracles in my mission because it would kind of cheapen them. Like there are, probably multiple times a day, moments in my life that just feel so perfect for me and for the people around me. The literal situation might be perfect too (like we found someone interested in the gospel or taught someone a tricky principle), but the most special part about it is usually so personal. Like maybe leading up to then I had been feeling discouraged, and it came at the exact right time. Maybe it was because their house maybe smelled like something from my childhood, and their kid was paying attention which like never happens....  just little details like that. I feel like the biggest miracles in my life are so often the tiny things that feel immensely orchestrated for myself personally. Am I making sense? Anyone feel me?
• Biking is fun! All those haters out there who said I would die in the Texas Humidity. I! AM! STILL! ALIVE! AND! THRIVING! it is quite hot. but it's okay!! and actually has been pretty funky freshhh since I got here. Nice and cloudy, some sprinkles of rain... totally chill. It has been a judu bit toasty every now and then. also i realized that biking is very good for me emotionally and I love it! helps me unwind and feel very happy. We share the car with another set of hermanas so we get to bike Sunday through Wednesday. Then it's pretty nice to have a little break and drive for a few days. 
• How to make tortillas and tamales (mostly... training in progress)
• Hispanics are so eloquent!! There are so many beautiful soulful and lovely things they say that we never say in English. 
• More Spanish Grammar!! We study daily for an hour or so. It's been interesting because I have never actually studied Spanish in a traditional way. so that has been kinda new for me. But my grammar is getting better which is good!

FOOD

• Yummyyyy empanadas from Hermana and Hermano Fuentes!!
• It was my one month Mirthday (mission birthday) on Saturday and we went to get pho with the other hermanitas in our ward! very yummy. Then that night we went out for ice cream and got some really yummy coco ice cream for very cheap!
• Frijoles puercos are soo good. we ate them with hna. Daza, basically refried white beans with chorizo. mmmm and in a little tortilla. riquiiiiisimo!

ABUELITAS

• Oiiii the abuelitas. we love them. 
• We were visiting a cool less active hermana named aurora. Her abuelita was named Remedios and was so funny. She was a little prankster Remedios!! I was sitting at the table by her and suddenly a cup of water started just sliding along the table by itself? and she thought it was so funny and like slightly punched my arm and started laughing so hard! and then she cooked us a delicious sopa with a meatball and just a huge bowl of salsa out of the fridge and set it in front of my companion and then just looked at her expectantly, like she wanted her to just like scarf down this huge bowl of salsa. lol. 
• We found a lil abuelita while tracting, and she was super nice. Started telling us a ton of details about her life. my companion had her finger completely rekt during Gator Ball last Pday and she was like " yo lo puedo arreglar!" (I can fix that!) and next thing we knew she was aggressively cranking her little finger around! and then there was a huge pop. We all started laughing so hard of fear and sheer confusion about what just happened? and then she said that she knew a way to get rid of stress in the neck! i was like o. suddenly she was standing above me, cradling my head in her hands, and swaying it gently back and forth, whispering "flojita, flojita" and suddenly the loudest CRACKLE i had ever heard in my life. Basically she cracked my neck so hard and so abruptly i think my head spun 180 degrees! and then she did it the other direction!!!!so funny. and then she did it to my companion. It was so freaky and our necks still hurt so lets hope I don't have to hit up the chiropractor!! (I think we will be fine but it was honestly one of the scariest and funniest experiences of my life)

To finish this bad boy up I wanna share a really lovely thought from Hermana Bobadilla's talk on Sunday, roughly translated into english:

"God is Love. this is the foundation stone of eternity. This is the foundation stone of your daily life, as well. The love God offers us can transform us and change our very natures for good. His love should be our standard."

God IS love! I know that when I love more, I feel God's love for me and guidance for me so much more. Such a true and relevant principle!! I have felt more love for complete strangers here in the slightly ghetto suburbs of dallas than I ever thought humanly possible. And I know 100% that it's because I'm doing everything I can  to get closer to God. It's basically my whole goal right now. And it's made me so happy even when my circumstances might not be perfect/ i'm tired/I'm faced with the unknown. So special<3<3<3

Write me letters!!! or send me emails!!! I want to hear from y'all (I thought I would never ever use that word but it's actually suuuuper convenient and fun to use irl but I feel weird typing it. am i making sense)(I am still the same person I promise I have just said y'all a few times) 

here is my address:
2854 Belt Line Road apt. 293T
Garland, Texas
750445


xoxoxo
hermana rasmussen

fotos:
1. i changed Casper's bike tire!! I was so proud
2. we made those tamales!
3. emanadas!! muyyyy rico
4. the new girl we are teaching, Nancy!! We love her!! Also her brother victor, and our good friend Hermana Garcia who came along to help teach.
5. went into a huge chinese mall today right by our house, It was wild, very expensive but it was a fun experience