Ég er Pylsumaður

Hi Guys! Today is my first p day at the provo mtc! I moved into my residence hall wednesday and met Elder Olsen (persian speaking, LA mission) and Elder Dyson (polish speaking, somewhere in poland mission (he's also british)). They're super nice! We get along well and are all enjoying learning our respective languages. I've come to learn why Icelandic is considered one of the hardest languages, but I know the gift of tongues is real. So far I've memorized the mission purpose in Icelandic and learned how to pray, share scripture, and bear my testimony in icelandic. As well as meet someone so they don't think I'm some psycho showing them a book before I say hi. I've continued the previous elder's legacy of being obsessed with hot dogs, hence why I title the email "I am the hot dog man" or "I am a sausage maker" if you plug it straight into google translate. My district is super awesome, we play basketball together sometimes for our exercises. It's my companions and 5 sisters who are all learning polish with elder dyson. I've made several shots that are purely testaments to the amazing power of the atonement because there's no way i should've made them, especially since one was on its first try from behind half court. My teachers are pretty awesome. I really enjoy language classes, in fact they're my favorite part of the day. The food hasn't killed me yet! So that's good. I got assigned to be a zone leader, so that's awesome. The branch presidency is super nice too. I can't talk too much right now, so I guess Bless Bless until next week! Öldungur Rasmussen!

Bless Bless Texas

Hi guys! Next time you hear from me I won't be in Texas for an estimated 24 months! This coming Tuesday I fly to Provo for in person training and Icelandic Boot Camp! I'm super excited! It's snowy, cold, and dry in Utah right now! Texas has a very nice temperature right now, but very humid as always. Storms have blown through the past couple nights. I guess when you combine the two it's like the weather in Iceland! Cold, snowy, stormy, windy, and humid. A few of the Elders there reached out to me on their P-day and they sound super nice! I'm so excited to meet them all and continue to further the work of Christ! Honestly I have little to no recollection of what I put in last week's email, so hopefully I'm not too repetitive. Apparently Iceland's got super good hot dogs and dairy products (compared to the United states), which is super exciting, except hopefully the dairy isn't too good or my stomach will hate me. This past week I began working on speaking in Icelandic! Brother Hill said I sound really good, and Sister Mecham said her ears didn't bleed. Both are amazing compliments to myself, even though credit goes to the Lord. He's been helping me a whole lot in everything I've been doing and working on. A lot of what I've been working on has helped me better feel God's love for me and all of his children. Moses 1:39 says "For Behold this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of [humankind]." Some of you have heard this a million times and some of you could have never heard it, but the message is the same, and what we learn from it is amazing. Despite God's omnipotent and omniscient nature, His work and glory is to help us (Us who mess up over and over again and who may feel insignificant and irrelevant) and bless us through this life so that we can obtain eternal life in the world to come. Learning and relearning all these different truths, and being able to feel the spirit of the Lord strengthen me as I go throughout these times is really amazing. I know as we pray and ask God for help, then do the things that show our genuine desire and effort in obtaining these things, he will turn our weaknesses into strengths. I've been able to feel my desire to serve and love the people of Iceland grow so much, and I'm so grateful for it. Two years is a whole lot of time, and I know it's not gonna be easy. Maybe I'll never have a day that feels easy, but I know that despite that, I have the restored Gospel of Christ. I have the blessings and guidance of him as I try my best each day. I know I'm not gonna baptize or convert everyone I meet. But the manner in which I serve them could help them become just a little closer to the Lord, and that's what's so important. I know the gospel can bless their lives in so many ways. It has blessed and will bless me so much, and I know it can do the same for others. At the end of my email I just want to say thank you to everyone for their love and support. Never give up hope because the Lord will always be there as we go throughout the pains of life on earth. (Bless Bless means goodbye in icelandic) Bless Bless! Öldungur Rasmussen

The MTC

Hi guys! This is my first mission email! I got set apart as a full time missionary Sunday night, and I began my mission service Monday, March 7th. It's weird to think that it's finally time. It seems like I got my call so long ago. Ever since I got set apart I've been in a whirlwind of emotions. It's kinda amazing how much the human body is capable of feeling, especially with the added capacity of the spirit. I've felt it so much over the past several days! I've met all my teachers and my HMTC (home-mtc) companion! My teachers are Brother Bytheway, Brother Hill, and Sister Mecham. Both of the brothers served in Iceland like I'm preparing to do, which is really cool because they can provide me a closer insight to what I'm about to go through (at least physically). Sister Mecham was born and raised in Iceland, so she has a really good grasp of the language. I'm the only missionary in the MTC learning Icelandic, so I'm in my own district (guess that makes me district leader from day one?). This means I'm in most of my classes one on one with the teachers, which is really nice because we can communicate and share and ask questions better than if it were a whole group of people! They all seem to like me, and are excited for me. These first few weeks at home are focussed on learning how to missionary, and the 7 weeks in Provo will be focused on learning Icelandic! My companion's name is Elder Greer, and he's super nice. He was actually at BYU this past fall semester while I was there, and he saw my name on my apartment door, which is pretty cool considering there's 33k people at BYU. We have our first Helping Others meeting tonight, which is where we teach someone who could be an investigator, or could be an actor, we don't know. We've been preparing during our companion study and are excited to have our first teaching experience! Elder and Sister Anderson (of the Quorum of the 12) gave a missionary devotional and they challenged us to remember several scriptures that would allow Christ to penetrate ourselves. Anyways, I don't have too much to share on day 3 but there's much more to come! I'm nervous, a little scared, and a whole bunch of other things, but I"m really excited to serve the people of Iceland! Öldungur Rasmussen