Vacaville, California

 Hello to the outside world from Vacaville California!

Well a lot has happened since I last sent out an email. My whole district--except hermana peterson and I--left the field very early Monday morning, and so Hermana Peterson and I got put into a temporary district for the day. It was an English district, so I spoke a lot more English than I was used to and it was a little bit weird. We went to bed at 10:30 that night and woke up at 12:15 in order to leave for the airport, soooo we all got two hours of sleep! We had three flights to get to Santa Rosa. The first one was to Dallas and man that airport is VARY big! Another Hermana and I were on a separate flight to LAX than the other hermanas traveling with us. For both of those flights we got to sit in first class, which was way cool cause I have never done that before!! At the LAX airport we also met up with all the missionaries coming from Provo, so there were about 15 of us all together. The flight to Santa Rosa was only an hour long but OH MAN, it felt like FOREVER because there was so much turbulence that I got pretty sick--and that is pretty rare for me.

We landed in Santa Rosa and it's this tiny tiny tiny airport. We walked out of the airplane onto a walkout thing and it was absolutely POURING! I was just following the trail of people of where to go into the building and we went in and that was it. It was a small room with a luggage claim haha! President and Sister Meservy, their kids, and the APs were there to greet us with an English and Spanish banner for us to hold and take a picture. We then went to President's house which is SO CUTE and we had the most delicious pizza--prolly because I haven't had good quality pizza in a long while. We got a bit of training and then we went to the senior couple house and slept there for the night.

The next day we went to a vineyard and got to learn about how it all works and it was so cool! The owner of the vineyard--Kevin--was so nice and spunky and shared some messages. He compared us and the gospel to plants and the laws of nature and how they all have the same pattern which was so eye opening to me. The rest of the day we had some training and we eventually met our trainers!!!! Hermana Gibson is my trainer! She has been out for 8 months and is from Bountiful, UT. She loves basketball and played soccer at Weber State for 3 years. We love all of the same things and it is so amazing!!

My first five days in the field have been so amazing and fantastic! We are white washing our area of Browns Valley and so we have been just trying to learn the area and meet new people which I have met so many wonderful people, and each day brings a new challenge and a new miracle. One of which I would like to share. 

MIRACLE

Our first day in this area, Thursday, we received a text on our area phone and it was someone named Toni saying "I have some great news sisters! Cassidy has decided to take the lessons!" Us having no idea who these people are, of course went along with it and we ended up meeting up with them on Sunday--yesterday. When we first met Cassidy, you could tell she was a teenager cause she was a bit more quiet and had a bit of attitude towards her mom, Toni, who is just a fun bubbly person and a member. They told us a little bit about them and their family. They said that the dad--non member--had gone to church that day for the first time in 10 years in support of Cassidy starting to take the discussions, so THAT already was a crazy miracle. We got to talk to Cassidy a bit more and get to know her and she reminds me so much of myself! Cassidy is 16 years old and has a crazy busy schedule because she runs track and she also wants to go to BYU. She has friends who are members and went to girls camp this last summer where she said she prayed for the first time. She is so amazing! We taught her the restoration and at the end we asked what her thoughts were on being baptized and she straight up said "I want to be baptized" It was crazy!! Her schedule is crazy so it took us a while to find a date, but we finally did. Her mom texted us later that night and told us that she hasn't seen Cassidy open up like that to anyone before and be that comfortable, and she just expressed her love and thanks. My comp and I keep saying she was just waiting for us to come to this area. IT WAS SO AWESOME!! AH I love being a missionary and I love seeing the Lord's hand in all of this.

Hehe I also got to translate on Sunday for a lady who actually only speaks Portuguese so that was really cool and crazy and I get to do it every week haha! It's honestly really funny because if I mess up, she isn't going to really notice anyway.

I love the Lord. I love being a missionary and seeing the Lord's hand in everything I am doing and I love being here in California! It is so beautiful here. I love my companion, she is so awesome, and we were definitely put together in a new area for a reason. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Hermana Rasmussen

PS I am not sure if y'all know but the missionary emails have changed and so it is now cacia.rasmussen@missionary.org