Elder William Lassen’s Blog

Dearest Family

Before I forget I have to ask Grandma and Grandpa a question, do you know a Buddy and Sally King? They are Elder Arterburn’s grandparents, and they used to live in Victor, Idaho for a long time before they moved to Idaho Falls. Elder Arterburn actually lived with them for a while and actually remembers Pierre’s Playhouse! Haha Anyways, it is good to hear that you are all doing well. I am glad that Dad and Jeff made it safely to Missouri. It was also great to hear that Youth Conference went well. I knew that you would do well. I always enjoyed Youth Conference and so that was cool that you were able to help with one. Also this weekend on Saturday we are going to the temple again! YES! I need some more garments so I was wondering if I had enough in my account to be able to just buy them myself since you are all probably busy with Dad being gone. Thanks! I love you!

We had a great week this week! We had some good lessons with some members of the ward who don’t really come to church. One was with Doug Smith who I really love, he is making great progress which is wonderful to see. At our lesson on Wednesday he said the opening prayer which he has never done before! It was so neat to hear him pray, especially as he prayed that we would be blessed, I couldn’t help but get emotional. Also right after we left, one of the members of the Bishopric came and extended him the invitation to hold a calling, he said he was going to think about it. We weren’t there for it but Bro Fowles, the member that extended the invitation, said they had a great talk and it went well! We’ll see what happens!

Zone Conference was on Thursday and we had a great time! When Elder Grow came he changed the way in which we will have Zone Conference. We will have 4 trainings and they will be presented by the Zone Leaders, then during this transfer we will review one every Thursday at District meeting, then at the next Zone Conference we will briefly review the previous trainings and then be trained on the new ones. The main purpose is for us to hear the trainings being taught and learn them, then be able to teach them because if we can teach them then we obviously understand them. So at Zone Conference Elder Arterburn and I were called on to do a review and so we went up on the stand and were able to give a review of a previous training to all the missionaries present. We then got presented four other trainings and learned a lot.

Later that day we felt that we should go see a man that we tracted into back in February/March. It was cool because when we stopped by he was outside and we had a great talk and he had some questions about the organization of the church. We invited him to take the lessons but he said no, but he did say that he might stop by and take a tour of Temple Square when his family travels through Utah! We encouraged him to!  A little while later we were riding our bikes and ended up talking to this girl and we were telling her about the Plan of Salvation and that through time it has been shown to his servants, the prophets and she said well shouldn’t we be hearing it then from a prophet today, and we agreed, and told her how we are lead by a modern day prophet! It was sweet! We are going to call her tonight to set up a time to teach her more!

Then that night I had a funny experience. So we had some hamburgers for dinner and they didn’t make my stomach feel that great. I woke up around 1:00am and my stomach just hurt and it was that hurting feeling, and when you feel you know you are going to throw up. I thought to myself  “this is just great….” So I went into the bathroom and just sat there. I felt like I should take some Tums that Elder Arterburn had so I did and just sat there. I was tired but I couldn’t sleep because my stomach hurt, so I grabbed a comforter that was laying around and laid that on the floor then I laid on top of that and put my towel over me because I was kind of cold. Then next thing I know I wake up and it is 3:00am and my stomach felt great so I hopped back in bed and went to sleep! Hahaha

We also received another Media Referral this week! An older couple went to Temple Square and requested a Book of Mormon, and so we dropped by and gave them one! It was awesome! The Lord is definitely  blessing us!

This morning we went on a sweet hike in the mountains! It was a pretty good hike and some of the missionaries didn’t go all the way up to the archway that we hiked too. It also started to thunder storm on they way back but we made it back before it started to hail! Haha

That is about it for this week! I love you all very much and am especially blessed to have a wonderful family and a wonderful Dad! Thanks Dad for being so awesome, I hope you had a great Fathers day! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: The Lord blessed us with another Media Referral, Elder Arterburn and I are getting along great and the work is going forward! There are a lot of miracles that occur everyday! It is cool to be able to spot them!

I love you!!!

Dearest Family!

First of all I have forgotten to mention a couple things… So I met Elder Hobbins,  he is my Zone Leader, and has been for the past transfer, but I just keep forgetting to tell you. Haha. He is really cool and I am in his District so I see him every Thursday at District meeting. Also I can’t remember if I told you but I moved from living at the Hansen’s and live with the Rudolph’s. I want to say that I mentioned that before but I can’t remember so I’ll tell you again. I live at 236 Hoover Ct. [please send mail and packages to the mission office address ] and we live upstairs. They are older and all of their kids have moved out. One of their daughters was born in Thousand Oaks and they lived in Simi Valley for a couple years so that is cool. They are really nice and I like living there.

This week was a good one. It was interesting with the weather. One day we were out biking and we were heading to a member’s house because he wanted to get a pamphlet from us so that he could give it to a friend. On the way we saw some big dark clouds, with some lightening to the west, and thought nothing of it. We got to the members house, and dropped off the pamphlet and he asked if we needed a ride anywhere, for some reason I said yes even though we were only going back home to have dinner. We loaded up the bikes and then all of the lightening that was to the west was right on top of us. I haven’t heard thunder that loud in a while. It was sweet. Lightening was striking pretty close all around us and it was raining pretty hard! It didn’t last too long but it was awesome, mainly because we were in a car and not biking out in it! Haha.

Also this week we got a Media Referral! It was from a member who had been talking to his brother- in- law about the church and he seemed interested in reading the Book of Mormon, so he called the referral center and asked them to refer us to him. We got the message and dropped by to see him. He was busy but seemed really excited to read the Book of Mormon! It was awesome! We are defiantly being blessed for our hard work.

This week we did some more service which was awesome! We had a great time. We were able to help John out, and he really appreciated it. We also helped Mike out, another non-member that we help do service for. It feels great being able to help people out. So on Thursday after District meeting we had some ice cream because it was an Elder’s birthday that day, after having the ice cream we had to hurry home and change so we could go do service for Mike so we didn’t have time to eat anything else. When we were doing service they got us some milk shakes from Burger King, I was thirsty and downed that pretty fast. In about 30 min my stomach was hurting, it was a bad idea to only have ice cream for lunch! Haha I am defiantly not doing that again! Haha

On Sunday, we had a cool experience. We got to church and we noticed Brother Davoust was there, he is the non-member husband of Nancy Davoust a recent convert. Brother Davoust before had been kind of against the church, and when Nancy was first being taught he didn’t want her being taught in their house, so she had to go somewhere else to be taught, but now he actually came to church which was amazing! It was awesome and he stayed for the whole 3 hours of church! I hope that he felt the spirit and wants to come back! We also got pretty wet yesterday. We were outside most of the day and in the late afternoon it just started raining and didn’t really stop till that night, so yea we got pretty wet! Haha

Well that is about it for this week! It was good to hear from you! Good luck with Youth Conference! I hope and pray that it goes well! I always enjoyed Youth Conference. I hope that you have a great week and pray for you every night. I love you all very much. Keep being super awesome!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: We have been working hard to find those who are ready to hear the gospel and when we show our faith and work hard the Lord blesses us tremendously, and in other way, for example a Media Referral or a non-member showing up to church! The Lord defiantly is a loving God, I can’t work as hard as I do without his help and then he blesses me for that hard work, I am always in debt to him as King Benjamin beautifully states.

Dear Family

It was great to hear from you this week. Thank you for the nice e-mails that you always send me! I do have a question though, I need some more athletic shorts, the ones I have are kind of shrinking and don’t really fit well anymore. There is a Kohl’s in our area and I figure that it would be easier if I just went and picked them up, so if you could put some money in my account that would be great! I also was wondering if you were able to get the conversion stories from grandma and grandpa on both sides. You’re probably working on it but just didn’t mention it in the e-mail so I just wanted to ask. So the transfer news is that Elder Arterburn and I are staying for another transfer!! Crazy! That means that we will be together for 4 transfers, which is 6 months! It hasn’t seemed like that long, since we have been together. Time is going fast! I can’t believe that Hanna is graduating! Congratulations Hanna! I got the graduation announcement, and liked that. Did you end up getting my letter and memory card? I hope so.

So this week has been somewhat busy. We have been able to help out John more, which has been nice. He is really grateful for our work. They last time we were over there, we talked to him about what he believes and that was interesting to hear, a lot of his Native American beliefs were similar to our beliefs, and it was cool. We are going to be helping him this week and are going to invite him to take the lessons. He says that he likes to talk about God so we will see how it goes!

We also had a good lesson with Doug Smith, a member in the ward who has lost his way. We weren’t sure at the time what was going to happen with transfers so it was kind of like saying goodbye. He gave each of us a piece of this stone that he found that had fossilized insects in it, he also signed the back. We had a good lesson and committed him to pray and he said that he would. When we stopped by to tell him on Sunday that we are staying for another transfer he was excited.

We also had a chance to have lunch with Mark this week. He came down to Denver for a doctor’s appointment and then came to Louisville for a job interview, and he wanted to have lunch with us. So we meet him at Chipotle, well we tried too. We got there when he said that he would probably be there, then he called and said that the doctor’s appointment ran late so we tried some more people then went back to the restaurant when he said that he would be there, locked up the bikes and waited off to the side. We waited and waited, and called him but no one picked up. We waited some more then finally decided we should probably just eat without him because we had an appointment. So as we open the door to go in Mark came out and I guess he had gotten there early and decided to buy his food and wait for us, he also left his phone in the car… Oh well… It was good to be able to talk to him for a couple minutes.

We also were able to work out in Gunbarrel this week and also some of the area in between Gunbarrel and Louisville. It was good to work out there and see some members who probably haven’t been visited by missionaries in a while. While we were out there we ended up in this random area of huge homes! It was intense, I hadn’t seen homes that big in a long time. We talked to some people but no one was interested.  We have been trying hard to find more people to teach and help receive the ordinance of baptism but we are still trying. We have been tracting more and still talk to people we see on the street. The Lord is blessing us though and it is wonderful to be in his service. I have never grown so much and learned so much. I am so grateful I am able to serve a mission! I love you all very much and pray for you daily! Keeping making right choices and holding to the iron rod. I hope that you all have a good week and I will talk to you next Monday! I love you so much!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: I am beginning to realize the importance of relying on the Lord, it is hard to find a balance and not rely on him too much but I know he has blessed me so much, everything I have, all that I am is because of the Lord. Also this week we went tracting and out of 5 houses on this Court, 2 weren’t too nice, and I was trying to not get upset and angry, it is kind of hard sometimes. Anyways right afterwards we went and tried to see a member who doesn’t really come to church and she was gone but her friend who was babysitting was there, we were able to talk to her and had a really good contact and told her about the church and she was interested and said that she wanted to come check out our services! It was awesome! It was a blessing after the trial of my faith!

I LOVE YOU!

Dear President Ely

We have had an interesting week this week. Things are going a lot better than they were but that was mainly because I needed to work on humility and now that I am things are going well. Elder Arterburn and I are getting a long well and I am glad that we get to serve for another transfer together! I prayed and I know that it is the Lord’s will that we are together for another transfer. We are excited to keep working hard. We both realized that what we need to do more of is tracting, we would occasionally go but not too often, we justified ourselves by saying that we talk to people on the street. We are now trying to do both, we are striving to go tracting everyday. I feel that this will greatly improve our finding efforts in this are. Tracting may not be the best for finding but I feel that it is a sign of our faith and I know the Lord will bless us. We have been working with some less actives in the ward and they are progressing, not as quickly as we would like but we just need to be patient. Currently I am enjoying reading the Book of Mormon, and am learning a lot. I am striving to study for our investigators but currently we don’t have too many. I am in the process of working on my charity and not beating myself up, it has really helped, I am also trying to be humble. I am looking forward to this next transfer. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you in a week!

Dearest Family

It was sure good to hear from you! I am glad that you all had a nice week! My week wasn’t too bad. We had a good amount of appointments which was sweet! We also were able to do a lot of service this week which we haven’t been able to do in a good amount of time. We were able to help John, I am not sure if I told you about him. A couple of weeks ago Elder Arterburn always saw this man in a Lexus and he would always honk and wave and say “hey Elder’s!” We had no idea who he was because we thought we knew all the members that lived in the area where we always saw him, so we were baffled. One day we were riding and I noticed the car that we always saw in a driveway so we went and knocked on the door and met John. He is from Logan, Utah and used to teach at the University of Utah. He knows a lot of members and has been pretty exposed to the church. So later we stopped by again and he said that he needed help with something’s around the house and he would like our help because he is disabled. So this week we were able to help him which was awesome. We had a great time and he is a really cool guy. He has a lot of back problems and has had I think 3 back surgeries, his wife just got done having a knee surgery so they really appreciated our help. We also are going to go help him out some more today once we are done e-mailing. We will probably go home and change and grab something to eat, then go over and help him out some more.

We also had interviews with President Ely this week and that was really nice, I really enjoyed it and it made my day better. We talked about our companionship and we are doing well, he didn’t say anything about transfers but it kind of seemed like we might be together for another transfer, which would be insane because that would be 4 transfers! We will see what happens though. We will find out this Saturday what will happen with transfers.

We were able to teach some people this week and were able to find a new investigator! Her name is Andrea, she is a single mom who is really nice and wants to learn. She is kind of learning because she feels that every religion has something to give, hopefully she will feel the spirit and the wonderful feeling it brings, and realize there is something more to our church. We committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she said she wouldn’t pray but she did agree to read. We will see what happens, if she reads that is great because not a lot of people do that but if she is not will to find out if it is a true book of scripture and that the message we share is true then we will have to give her a break and maybe stop by in a couple months to see if she is ready to learn more then.

Saturday was a good day we went out to Gunbarrel and had a good time out there talking to people, and trying some of the members and potential investigators. On the way back we stopped at a members house, she is a really nice older lady and she is a really good story teller, haha. During our lesson it started raining really hard and there was thunder and lightening, so we called a member to pick us up and give us a ride back home. Once we got home it had stopped but it was nice we got a ride because it cut out us having to bike up a huge hill!

Sunday was nice as always, I love going to church and taking of the sacrament and beginning again my promises I made with Heavenly Father at baptism! We were also pretty busy during the day with people to go see and help.

Monday was a beautiful day and we had a fun P-day. Out whole district got together at Sister Bements house and went fishing in her pond. It was pretty intense I caught a pretty good size catfish! I put a worm on the hook and cast it out there and then put my pole through my backpack straps just in case something happened, I started walking around and I heard something that sounded like a the sound that’s made when the line of a fishing pole is being drawn out by a fish, I looked back to see my fishing pole being lifted up and pulling on my backpack, I ran and grabbed it and the fish just kept taking my line out and I didn’t want to pull too hard because then I would snap the line, so I just waited, finally he tired out and I pulled him in! It was fun! We had a good Memorial day. How was your’s? I hope well. I wrote a letter to Hanna finally and I also put in there my memory cards, I realized I had a lot of pictures on there so I hope that you enjoy them! Thanks in advance for the packages! I love you all very much and hope that you all have a wonderful day! You are such a good family! I love you dearly!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: I have come to more fully realize that there is always a reason for our challenges that we face. We just have to be humble and accept them, I was called to repentance as I read the Book of Mormon this week and need to work on my humility. I love the Lord and know He is watching out for each one of us!

I <3 you!

Dearest Family

Today is a nice day and this past week went well. We had a couple appointments which were awesome. I have a few questions though, I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the conversion stories for Grandma and Grandpa and Bedstemor and Bedstefar, I can’t really remember how they joined the church I just know that they did, and I would really like to know so I can tell people when they ask! I am truly grateful for them because they decided to join the church I have been blessed with the Gospel in my life.

This week we were able to talk to a man on the street and his name is Aaron, he had talked to missionaries before and seemed interested, we got a phone number and later in the week we gave him a call and setup a time to meet him at the church building. We were able to show him around the building and he liked it. We also were able to teach him about the Restoration. At the end of the lesson we told him how the Priesthood Authority was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and we asked him that when he came to know this was true that he would be baptized and he said yes! It was awesome. He said he would be at church on Sunday but he didn’t show up… Maybe next Sunday!

Also on Saturday we helped our investigator, Mark move. He wasn’t really packed up so we helped pack and load furniture into the truck. We weren’t there for too long but we were able to at least help out a little bit. After we got done moving him we had to bike to the other side of Louisville to go to the church building to start filling the font for a baptism that another ward was having. It was a hot day and when we got home to change clothes to go back out and work I was exhausted. I think I got minor heat exhaustion, but I took a pretty cold shower which helped! Haha  We went out and worked for the rest of the day and Heavenly Father strengthened me and I had just enough energy to get me along. Unfortunately Mark moved out and really doesn’t have a place to move into, he didn’t seem too worried about it. He wants to stay in Louisville but he might go up to Grand Junction to see his brother or he might travel, he really doesn’t know. With him gone we have about 1 investigator now, and that is Aaron the one we found this week.

We are working hard and it is only a matter of time that we will see the fruits of our labors. We are definitely being blessed in other ways but finding ways we just need to be patient.

We had a really good Sunday, I really enjoy the Sabbath day now. I love being able to take the Sacrament and be cleansed. Church is always a spiritual boost in my week, it really helps me out. Lately I have been thinking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ because that is the lesson we taught on Sunday in the 2^nd hour, and I have been realizing the wonderful blessing it is in my life. I a grateful the Heavenly Father loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, and I am very grateful that Jesus Christ was willing to do it. I love the wonderful feeling of relief that comes from being forgiven of our sins, I am not a terrible person but we all have our weaknesses. I know the Savior lives and that he accomplished the Atonement because I feel the redeeming power everyday. I would not of know this unless my grandparents joined this wonderful and true church. I love you all so much and I thank you for the effort you put into helping me be out here. I love you more than you know! Have a great week and I hope that everything turns out well!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the Week: I am starting to better understand why it is called the miracle of forgiveness, and how my guilt can be washed away, nothing other than the Atonement can do this. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. Also we got a new investogator!!

I love you as well!

Family!

I am proud of the missionary work that you are doing! You’re awesome! Well today is a beautiful day, it’s nice a sunny. This morning was kind of disappointing, we cleaned and washed clothes, and headed out at around 11:00am to go see a person who said we could come back on Monday morning, we have been trying to make contact with him for a long time and finally did a couple days ago. We stopped by and he was just heading out, I guess he was thinking around 9:00am when said in the morning. We’ll try him again and hopefully will be able to sit down with him.

On Tuesday it was rainy and we got pretty wet. It was fun! We stopped by to see some people, and were able to get in with this member of our ward, and the whole time she kept telling us we should just go home, but we wanted to work despite the weather so we went back out into the rain when we were done sharing a message with her! Haha

The next morning it had snowed and there was a couple inches on the ground. That morning we went to seminary, which was a lot of fun. We woke up at 5:00am and got ready. One of the seminary teachers picked us up and we all met in the Relief Society room and had a combined meeting. We watched a clip from Lds.org about Elder Jeffery R. Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon. Elder Arterburn then stood up and shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon and then I followed. It was a wonderful experience. I didn’t realize how much my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown! I love the Book of Mormon it brings a wonderful joy to my day when I read it. I know it is the word of God for how could any book bless my life as much as this one has. After we shared our testimonies, it was time for the students to share their testimonies. There were some long pauses but it was a great meeting.

Later that day we biked out to Gunbarrel to help a lady in the ward move. We weren’t able to stay too long to help out but she needed our help and appreciated what we were able to help with. Once done we rushed to another member’s house that lives out there and were able to get a ride back into town. We ended up being a little late to the appointment we had with the William’s family but it was meant to be. Bishop Gordon joined us and was able to talk to Sister Williams before we got there about Morgan’s baptism which is scheduled for next Sunday. Bishop is concerned because they have only been to church twice this year, and he doesn’t want Morgan’s baptism to be a check mark, and she is done, but he wants them to start coming to church more. Sister Williams brought up some concerns and really didn’t like to hear what Bishop had to say, it was an interesting lesson… haha I am not sure what will happen with them, we haven’t stopped by since then, but will probably will be trying them this week.

This Saturday was also an interesting day. It was one of those days as a missionary where a lot of things go wrong and it’s hard to deal with. First of all in the morning we stopped by to see Jay, our new investigator, and it was pretty obvious him and his family where home but were avoiding us… That was discouraging, from that point on things just fell through. We had an appointment with a potential investigator but when we got there, there was a note on the door saying she had to cancel because something came up. Since we had made the effort of having a member come with us, we decided to take him to see an older lady who we thought might be interested but we haven’t been able to get in because she is a single lady, she wasn’t interested… Then from that point everyone we talked to wasn’t interested in what we had to tell them, no one wanted to listen. I could tell Elder Arterburn was having a tougher time than I was. He was tired of talking to people who weren’t interested and didn’t want to and he was kind of shutting down, which wasn’t good to hear because I was starting to do the same thing as well! Haha I prayed to Heavenly Father to help me, because Elder Arterburn was having a tough day and I didn’t want him to go though that, the Lord helped me to talk to those we saw, and even though the day didn’t get that much better it was still a miracle to me. Sunday was a beautiful day though and it turned out well. We had some appointments and were able to go see a baptism for a man who used to consider himself an atheist. It was awesome, the whole chapel was filled, there were more people there than at a regular sacrament meeting. We were also able to teach some people.

This week turned out well, and the next week should be great. I hope that your week goes well and that things work out for you! I love you all so much and hope you are enjoying the blessings of the gospel. Thank you for all you do! The Book of Mormon is true, and I love you! Have a great day!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: I was reminded first hand that when we are in need the Lord is aware and will bless us and help us if we but remember to turn to him. I wouldn’t be able to do this wonderful work if it wasn’t for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his Father. I have been blessed so much!

Love you!!!

Dearest Family

It was really good to be able to talk to you yesterday! I really enjoyed it! After talking to you we went and taught Mark Schriner and it went well, we watched a Conference talk and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon with us then next time we come over. We have to take smaller steps with him but I think reading the Book of Mormon with him will help him understand the importance of our message.

Last Monday we went fishing and had a great time. It was really funny I was the first one to cast, and after I did I was looking at my pole and figuring things out and I look up and my bobber was gone! I caught a fish in about 2 minutes flat! Haha They were just smaller bass but we had a great time.

I mentioned about our new investigator which we are excited about! Jay is probably in his 30’s and is married with 2 younger kids. We invited him to join us at church on Sunday but he didn’t show up. He was probably busy with Mother’s Day events. We are looking forward to teaching him again though. The Lord is definitely blessing us for our hard work. We have been trying to find people to teach and have been tracting and talking to a lot of people as we ride our bikes but they call it finding for a reason, we are looking for that one among the 99. Elder Arterburn and I have set some good goals for this upcoming week that we feel are inspired by the Lord so if we work hard, and are obedient we will have a great week!

We also had some changes happen this week. We didn’t have District Meeting because President Ely wanted to figure out how to implement what Elder Grow taught to us. We also got a call later this week telling us that our Districts are getting switched. Elder Arterburn and I will now be in the Boardwalk District which consists of the Zone Leaders, 2 sets of sister missionaries and a set of Spanish Missionaries. We went from 3 districts in our zone to only 2 now. I will miss the district I was previously in but these changes are suppose to be and are inspired by the Lord.

Also this week we had a ward party. It was fun. It was a potluck and there was a lot of good food provided. Unfortunately not too many people showed up. There was about 20 people there. I still enjoyed it and so did the people that went.

This upcoming week looks pretty good! On Wednesday we may be going to seminary and helping out! That will be sweet! It will be tough though because as a missionary I am always tired when I go to bed, when I wake up at 6:30am, so waking up extra early to go to seminary will be interesting. I am excited to do it though.

Well that is about it this week. I thought I would have more to tell you but since I talked to you yesterday I don’t have too much else to tell you. I really enjoyed talking to you! I love you all very much! I hope you all know that! I am very surprised that I have only one more call home! Weird! Well I hope that you all have a great week! I love you very much! I love you too Grandma and Grandpa! I will talk to you next Monday!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: A couple of times I woke up in a really weird mood and I just didn’t feel that great but I asked Elder Arterburn for a blessing and I felt so much better. I love the priesthood and the blessings we receive from it. I have also been reading my Paterichial Blessing, I totally spelled that wrong, but it has helped me out a lot in realizing the blessings I have been given.

Dear Family

First things first, on Sunday May 9^th, we will have church till 12:00 and we won’t get home till about 12:30, I figured for you to have enough time to get to church I should call after you get done with church. When you get out of church is around 3:30pm, unless it changed. So we will probably call around 4:30ish onward. I am not sure when, because of when we will have our dinner appointment and I just remembered you are an hour behind so if I called at 4:30 here you will still be at church… Haha. I wish I could be more specific, but I can’t be. We have an appointment at 8:00pm as well so between 5:00-7:30pm my time is when I will be calling. So yea…

Well this week was great. We had a good amount of appointments which was really nice! Usually we have about 1-3 but this week we had about 5. All the lessons went well. It has been a good but trying week. Our amount of investigators is small, and it is getting smaller. We had an older lady who was coming to church and really enjoying it and we were really excited for her, but when we stopped by this week she said she is going to back to her other church with her sister. I don’t think her sister likes us, and had been putting pressure on her. Lame. We also taught TJ, another investigator this week. The lesson was ok. He is having a hard time accepting more scripture than the Bible. He kept voicing that concern during the lesson, which made me sad. During the lesson though I was prompted to bear my testimony,  right after he questioned if the Book of Mormon is evil and that we have been all lead astray. I did and I couldn’t help from crying as I told him that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that no one could have written this book. I know there is nothing evil in it because that book has blessed my life so much, so much more than Satan would ever want. I told him that the Book of Mormon is what keeps me going. Afterwards there was a long pause, and I think he felt something, but afterwards he asked us to pray to know if the Bible was enough. I guess it’s just not his time to progress. So pretty much we are down to about 1-2 investigators. So Elder Arterburn and I fasted this week that we would find those who are ready to learn more about Jesus Christ. We haven’t found anyone yet but we will be patient.

Also this week we were able to teach a couple that we have been trying to help strengthen. We taught on the first lesson and it was great. She also showed up to church. We also taught the Williams family again, and Morgan Williams the 8 year old has a baptism date for May 23^rd. I am not sure if I told you about them but they are members in our ward that have been struggling with family issues, and we were asked to teach Morgan the lessons to prepare her for baptism, and it has been awesome and we are really excited for her.

On Saturday Elder C. Scott Grow came and spoke to use, and it was really awesome. This mission is doing well but we could do a lot better, so he had some ideas that he told us and trained us on. For one we won’t have exchanges anymore, unless you are a leader because the leaders will exchange but no one else. It was a really awesome Mission tour and I learned a lot of what I can to and how to do it. There will be a good amount of changes but I feel that they will help us achieve our goals of helping others come unto Christ. During the last half of the mission tour we had a question and answer sessions and it was really spiritual and I really enjoyed it. I felt the spirit answer my questions even though I didn’t ask them.

Well I hope you have a great week! I love you all very much and I hope that all goes well with you! I will talk to you next Sunday!

Love

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: This week I realized that patience is something I need to work on, I would like to have more patience with myself and in the sense of being able to wait for things, whether they be promised blessings of the Lord or those we are teaching. I need to learn this because as I am realizing that instant gratification doesn’t help me grow.

I love you more that words can write!

Have a great week!

Dearest Family

It was great to hear from you! First things first, Elder Arterburn and I will be together for another transfer! He is a great missionary and I am excited to be with him for another transfer. Unfortunately, the District will be breaking up. Elder West, who I was companions with in Lafayette with be going to Greely, it will be sad to see him go I really love him, he is a great missionary. Elder Mose will also be leaving and going to Arvada, I will miss him as well.

Last Monday we cleaned, sanded and painted my bike. It took about the whole P-day, all the way up till 6:00 when we left for dinner. It looks pretty tight. It is flat black, and it covered up all the scratches and dents, from my many falls, pretty well. Also this week I had a cool experience. Elder Arterburn and I were biking back towards home because it was almost 9:00pm and as we did we saw this guy and I talked to him, and he seemed nice but once I started telling what we do as missionaries and all of that he said “ it’s alright I don’t want to talk to you…” I said ok and was about to give him a card if he ever changed his mind. To which he replied “ TURN YOUR BIKE AROUND, I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU…Gheez…” I was dumbfounded and just stopped my bike and watched him walk away. Then out of nowhere I said to him as he walked away “I know the message we share is true… I know it will bless your life!” I felt the spirit really strongly. I don’t know if he heard me because he kept walking but it was a really powerful and wonderful experience to see the Lord working through me.

On Wednesday it was a nice day until the night time. It started to rain pretty well, and Elder Arterburn and I weren’t spared in this down pour. We got pretty wet, but it was fun and we had a good time riding through huge puddles. When we came home we threw all of our wet clothes in the dryer and dried off.

On Saturday we had a busy day. In the morning we packed up and moved houses. We used to live with the Hansens, and now we live with the Rudolph’s. They actually used to live in Thousand Oaks, for a little bit. They are a cool older couple. So we spent the whole morning packing up and the moving and only slightly unpacking. At 2:00 we had an appointment with this cool younger married couple that are struggling with their testimonies. They live out in Gunbarrel, we were able to get a ride a out there and were planning on working out there but TJ, one of our investigators called and wanted to meet with us in case either of us got transferred. So after the appointment in Gunbarrel we came back to Louisville. We taught TJ and it went ok, he is still very set on all we need is the Bible and it is hard for him to accept anything else. We committed him to pray because we can’t convince him of the Book of Mormon, only God can. After that we went to a restaurant in downtown Louisville, down the street from the library, It is called the Huckleberry. Brother Fowles of the Bishopric took us there, he is a way cool guy. I got a huckleberry shake and it was delicious. After that we went back to his house and taught a lesson to his family, and then we went to another member’s house to teach them and help them become member missionaries. Then went back to the Hansen’s and deep cleaned our room and bathroom to make sure it was spotless!  It was a busy day. So was Sunday. Maureen did get baptized and it was awesome! It took a while to fill the font but everything went really well, a lot of people came and it was really spiritual. It was so cool to see her be baptized! She is a wonderful lady! I would tell you more about the baptism but I am short on time. I love you all very much! I hope that all goes well with you for this week! Have a great day and a great week! I will talk to you again next Monday! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: Maureen’s baptism went beautifully. We weren’t sure if she would be ready and would be able to be baptized, because she had some problems with tea, but Brother Ringle, her boss and friend, told us about how she was at a work party and was mixing a drink and realized it was tea so she threw it away and drank grape juice! It was awesome! Elder Arterbun and I fasted for her and it worked out!

P.S. I have been slowly realizing that I might need glasses, I now can’t really read signs from far away… Lame…

I love you family! I love you so much!

Dearest Family

It was good to hear from you! I am glad that things are going well! I am glad to hear that Dad had a great birthday! Elder Arterburn and I had a good week this week. Our investigators are doing well. Maureen is still planning on getting baptized on Sunday April 25^th. She had her interview with our district leader and I guess she is still having problems giving up coffee and tea. We had no idea and in order for her to be baptized she will need to have quit a couple days before her baptism. We will see if she will make her baptism date then, Elder Arterburn and I will be fasting for her tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers. It would be awesome to see her baptized this Sunday because this is the last Sunday of the transfer and I’m not sure if we will both be together for another transfer. I have realized that it is not my will but the Lord’s will, so I am just hoping that she can quit to be baptized, hopefully sooner than later but it’s all up to the Lord.

We had an appointment with TJ this week which was went well. It went well because we read 3 Nephi 11 with him and the spirit was really strong, we identified it and it’s presence but I don’t think he felt it. We are struggling to teach him because he wants everything proved to him and we have told him that we aren’t here to do that but if he wants an answer to everything he needs to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith because every question he has can be linked back to that. For example, he had a question about Original Sin, we have received modern revelations saying that we are responsible for our own sins and not Adam’s transgressions, so his real question is whether Joseph Smith was a prophet, because if he is than there is no such thing as Original Sin. We committed him to read and pray about it so we will see what happens with him.

Also this Saturday we stopped by this nice lady’s house. Her name is Winifred, she is 79, and has been taught the first lesson before but since then decided she liked her church, she recently got offended at her church so we invited her to come to ours, she said she would think about it, and we offered a member to give her a ride and all of the sudden she wanted to go and was excited. So we went to a member’s house that lives near by and the member agreed to take her. Winifred came to church and stayed for all 3 hours, and really enjoyed it!

I also had a great time going on exchanges again this week. This time I was with Elder Mose, in the Coal Creek ward. We had a good time, doing service and working together. When we came home for lunch, it was around 1:30pm so we were both hungry. I went to the bathroom and when I got out he was pretty much cooking all the left over food they had! Haha  I was surprised at how much food he was making and he looks at me and says “Dude, I am so hungry!” So we feasted and had a great time!

We also had interviews with President Ely on Thursday. It went really well, we had a good talk and I expressed some concerns and he helped me to see things I can do. We talked about how I guess I am maturing and with that my desires are changing, the reasons why I am the way I am, are changing. It is interesting and a learning experience, but it is a growth that is needed, he said theses changes will help to sustain me for the rest of my life.

Well that is about it for this week. I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I am praying for you and that all will go well with selling the house! Thanks for everything you do for me! I love you all so much! Thanks for you prayers! I will talk to you next Monday! By then I will know about transfers! I LOVE YOU! Take care!

Love,

Elder Lassen

Miracle of the week: Yesterday Elder Arterburn and I went over to see Doug Smith and see how he was doing. He was doing well and we had a good visit and I shared a scripture about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it was filled with the spirit. As we left I felt like I should give him a hug, I thought to myself that would be kind of weird, but I did it anyways and it was really nice. I felt like I really cared for him and that he could feel that!

Have a great week! I love you all so much!

P.S. I am sorry but I had to buy a new back tire because my old one all messed up… These couple transfers I have spent a lot on my bike.. Sorry about that…

Love you!