Love your Family. (with photos!)

Another update from Abbi! She is no longer the newbie in the mission and since she keeps conspicuously inserting Tagalog words and things like "the baptismal font at the church was without water," into her letters, I'm assuming that she is doing great with the language! ;)  So, speaking of baptismal fonts being without water, they had to have the baptism this week in the ocean! 

With Grandpa Rossberg's funeral this weekend I think our family has sent quite a few prayers of gratitude for the Plan of Salvation.  It is such a blessing to know that we will live with our families again.  Because of this plan, we are able to have the eternal perspective that the work we do here will continue for eternity. What a blessing it is to have an understanding of the mysteries of God!

Sharna
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Highlights from Abbi:

"Without family, kapatid (siblings), parents, children, as much as a burden they might feel at times, they are the greatest blessing we have in this life and only through the family unit, can we return to live with Heavenly Father forever. So concerning Family: Love your family."

"You guys send me your updates and it's just crazy how fast things change, and people are moving, and I just love hearing from ya'll.  So keep sending me your updates, when you have time of course! :)

And Abbi, don't say ya'll.

 

Family, Hello!
I bet you all have had a fairly hectic week with all the planning and efforts that go into planning a funeral. I am grateful that you sent me a copy of the program and your thoughts. It makes me feel like I am a part of it.. almost.  And I hope it all went well; I wish I could have been there to support all of you but I love you all and I'm sure it was beautiful. It's really got me thinking about families this week and how important they really are this life.. without family, kapatid (siblings), parents, children, as much as a burden they might feel at times, they are the greatest blessing we have in this life and only through the family unit, can we return to live with Heavenly Father forever. So concerning Family: Love your family.

We found a family this week and I cannot WAIT to go back to teach them this week.. they are all catholic and very loving, one big happy family.. and only can get better with the gospel. I love them already and anyways They are great..

SO this week... my first baptism at the ocean! The baptismal font at the church was without water so.. we went to the ocean.. how convenient right?? We baptized a 9 year old who is from a part-member family but so excited to come to church and learn, he comes to church by himself every week until last week his mom (who is a member) came too! I am so excited to see her get involved in his experience.

And this week is my 2 month mark in the field.. you guys send me your updates and it's just crazy how fast things change, and people are moving, and I just love hearing from ya'll.  So keep sending me your updates, when you have time of course! :)

So this week, also.. hmm new zone and new missionaries! Finally, I'm not the baby anymore but I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. But it's alll good. Thanks so much for your love and support, I sent you a couple letters again this week so they should get there in the next month or so.. I don't know if you have been getting my letters but I sure hope so.. it's mediyo mahal (a little expensive) to send them so let me know ;) mmkay..

Love you all and I love my family and I miss you more than anything but I am focused on the work, don't you worry about that! Have a good week. I will attach some pictures :)

Love Sister Rossberg

PS:
Sister Jessica Gibbs is serving in Portugal and wrote about a man that knew sign.  I sent her a little excerpt from Jessica's letter:

There was a deaf man at church this last Sunday. He said he is the only deaf church member in Braga and Porto. That would be so hard. No one could communicate with him by sign. He grew up with all hearing people and so he learned how to lip read. He signs mostly international sign language which is different from American but they are really similar. I was able to sign with him and we could both understand each other. It was so cool! He spoke Portuguese, I speak English, but we could both communicate through sign and understand each other perfectly. It was so cool.

Abbi says: 
I'm guessing that story is about Smith. It is so sad the people in foreign countries don’t teach their kids ASL. There is a less active family that have a 3 year old girl who is stone deaf and she doesn’t know how to communicate, but is so teachable, She will copy your every action.  I want to teach her mom and dad and all this stuff but her mom is busy and I just makes me want to cry for her, she is SO cute.. and I wish I could do something…