A friend from West Africa

Dear friends and family,

Man have we had some weather. From never-ending rainstorms to ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity. I'm not one to hold back with perspiring, so you can imagine my constant fear of sweating through my pants...

Anyways, this last week we experienced the Lord's direction, protection, and guidance. 

To start, we recently had a dinner with Brother Susa, who is very advanced in age and wisdom. With his wife, they both served a mission from their home a couple of years ago. They were called to specifically help the large Liberian population here in Providence, and more specifically, organize a branch in the center of the city. They made many wonderful relationships and life-long connections with those who had recently immigrated from Africa. Sadly, the branch was folded into the ward down south with little to no warning. Tragically, this caused hundreds of members to go inactive. A large percentage didn't have means of transportation, nor a good source of communication with the leadership. Elder Housley and I have taken on the large task to go out and find all these lost sheep. Brother Susa suggested we first meet up with a man named Kecula. The following week we stopped at his house and immediately let us in. He has been confined to a wheel chair for well over a decade now. Long story short, during the Liberian Civil war, he was tortured and now can no longer use his legs. Despite his physical limitations, he had the biggest smile on his face. While sharing a brief message, I looked into his eyes, and felt like I had known him before this life. With only having met him 15 minutes earlier, my respect for his devotion and fidelity to our Father and Christ was full. We were most certainly led by the Lord to meet this man.

Another instance of the hand of the Lord was later on in the week. We were driving towards a person of interest when we approached some slightly dangerous road conditions. There from the right of the road hung a very large tree branch into the lane we were driving. Luckily, there was just enough space to drive under it without any problem. Not even 10 minutes later as we were passing the same intersection, we saw almost half of the tree had fallen on someone else's car. Why it hadn't fallen on us, I don't know, but we were grateful for our safety.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I hope you have a wonderful week.

con amor,

-Elder Rasmussen