Staying in Sanford

Hello Everyone-
So transfer calls came last night........ just not to Sanford. :( So I am staying here for another 7 weeks a least. I was kind of bummed. My ADD is kicking in, and I am ready for a new area.... but this might mean that Sister Hatch, MTC companion, will be on my side of the mission now. If she is, then I will get to see her at Zone Conference! (That is if my predictions were accurate... haha)this past week was hot!!!! High 80's to mid 90's all week.... with humidity. I'm surviving.... hahah
I have to give a talk on Sunday. I'm so not excited for that. I don't like giving talks, and I don't know when I'm going to have time to prepare it. The primary in this ward does this thing where if a child brings their scriptures to primary they get to put a penny in a jar. When the jar is full it is enough money to buy a Book of Mormon. So they buy one, and present it to the missionaries. We got one yesterday. It was so cute!!!!
Guess what.... Richard Crispin has a baptismal date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have been working at getting him to accept/own a date for about a month now. He finally accepted/owned the date of September 15th on Tuesday. I am so excited. It is on his son's birthday.... his son picked the date and said it would be the best birthday gift! I am super excited.
So we had a few funny stories this past week. They all started on Wednesday while driving to district meeting. We made a music video to the song "The Iron Rod." It is so funny to watch. The camera kept moving, so we never got on that has both of us doing it..... but we laugh a lot. Then at District meeting we were talking about questions that we could ask people to "get to know them". One Elder said to ask them what they think they will do in heaven. then he goes off on this really passionate rant about how people think they are going to be floating around of a cloud playing a harp for eternity..... how boring would that be. Then another Elder was like, It would be like if you went to a party, and they played the same song over and over and over.... you would get so sick of it. Then the first Elder (almost yells) says, "I wouldn't want a strobe light in my face for eternity!!!!!!!!!" (Okay, you are probably thinking that this story is lame and not even funny, but we were all laughing so hard and couldn't stop.) On Saturday we met a few funny people. First we knocked on a ladies door and she yelled at us that we were trespassing, and there is no trespassing on her property. Then she says, "We don't have a sign up, but you should know there is no trespassing." Well we weren't.... but we just said, "have a good day" and laughed down the driveway. My new saying is..... "People think we are deaf and blind, but can read minds." Everyone always tries to hide from us, but we can see and hear them, and they think we can't. But they expect us to know what they are thinking, and I really do think they think we can read their minds. So we laugh a lot about that. That same day we knocked on a door and the lady said, "Let me come out and protect you from my turkey.... he might come chase you." So she protected us, and then when we were leaving she stood in the way of the turkey so that it couldn't get us. It was funny!!!! Another story is that we were tracting in this little apartment house thing. The hallway to this one door was 3/4 full of junk. Sister Brovont slides down the hallway and knocks on the door.... I was like are you kidding me. I could have gone down the hallway if I took my backpack off, but with it on I couldn't get down the hallway. So I got as close as I could get. She starts talking to the lady, then turns to let me talk, and busts up laughing at me.... It was so EMBARRASSING, but funny at the same time. Wow, we laughed about that one all day.The Elders also told me that I need to live a little. We were tracting in an area that said "NO SOLICITING" well we aren't solicitors, so we went. Everyone told us that we weren't allowed there, and that someone would call the cops on us. So me being the chicken that I am, didn't want the cops called on us, so we left. The Elders told me that next time that happens, to stay and see if anyone really does call the cops.... and then if the cops come, we are allowed to be there, so nothing would even happen. So maybe someone time this transfer I will be brave enough to stay. haha.

I have learned and gained a huge appreciation for our leaders. In all of our mission meetings, they always say and teach the exact thing I need to hear at that time. It is so neat to see how the spirit works that way. It's also really neat to see the change in people over the course of a contact. They may be so rude at first, but if they let us talk, by the end they are so much nicer, and you can tell they felt the spirit. that doesn't always mean that they will let us come back, but we know that we were able to plant a seed!!!! The Lord provides for us, and cares about every little thing. Even as little as our water bottles are empty, our car is a 20 min. walk away, and we don't know what to do.... then the next door we go to will offer to fill our bottles for us. He watches out for us, and we just have to put our trust in Him.
I love you all!!!!
Love,
Sister Rankin!