Hello everyone!!!!
THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING!

First I will get the little stuff out of the way. So I called the mission Dr. on Wednesday. he said my 5th metatarsal on my right foot is most likely cracked. he said to wrap it, take 800mg of ibuprofen 3x a day, and wear my supportive shoes.... well when i wrap it, it makes it hurt so bad that I can hardly stand to walk. so I haven't been wrapping it.... when it's not wrapped, I can go most of the day with out it hurting too bad. Just little aches through out the day.
Also, I am in the Exeter zone, and we are having a football game through out the zone. it's called "The X-bowl". We are the Sanford Nylon Haters.. haha. Well we have played 2 games so far. We have won both of them. We get points or yards for different things we do. The first game, we beat the Zone Leaders 38-21!!! WAHOO!!! The second game we beat our District Leader 28-0!!! :) We are 3rd in our zone so far with total points. (we have 9 areas in our zone, and then the AP's are playing) The only people ahead of us are the AP's and one other area. It's way fun, and keeps us pumped through out the day! My competitiveness is totally coming out!!!! It's fun!

So the week started off amazing on Tuesday morning when we had interviews with President Wilkey!!! I love the Wilkeys. They are SO amazing!! (Sister Wilkey shinned my shoes for me while Sister Brovont was being interviewed. haha) Pres. Wilkey told me some things that really helped me with not being so hard on myself. It was a VERY spiritual and much needed interview. It has helped me enjoy the work so much more!!! He is so awesome. And after the interview, our week snow balled into greatness. Tuesday after interviews we were tracting this street. We knocked on a door that was part way open. I saw a lady inside, and said "Hi". she told us to come in. We came in and introduced ourselves to her. Then we started talking. She didn't live there. She was actually supposed to be with her friend somewhere else, but she decided not to go last min. and was just hanging out at her friends till her friend got back. We shared the plan of salvation with her, and Sister Brovont sang a hymn. The spirit was SO strong. Sadly Wendy (the lady) doesn't live in our area. But we got her info and sent it to the Elders where she lives. WE know that the Lord placed us in each other paths that day! The spirit was so strong, and I really know that if she continues to learn, she will get the peace and happiness she has been looking for!!!!!
Wednesday night we had our Faith planning class at the church. Richard and then 2 less active (in active) men in our ward were there. We taught about the Atonement. It was SO amazing. One of the less active men was telling us how he started smoking again, because he was going through a rough time, and that's why he stopped coming to church. Richard jumps in and says, "Man, when you are having a hard time, or want to smoke, just go grab your scripture and read a few chapters. When you do it, it makes everything so much better!!!" AH!!! HOW AWESOME IT THAT!!!! Richard has such a strong testimony, and such a love for the scripture. It is amazing to see how much he is changing in such a short amount of time!!! After the class was over we were talking to the ward mission leader. We had found a new investigator that we were supposed to teach later in the week. We were asking him if he knew of a member that would be good to take teaching with us. Richard jumps in again and says, "I will go teaching with you. I will straighten this kid out!" He is such a good person. He also was saying how everyone needs to go out and talk to everyone and invite them to church!!! :)We had a few other miracles happen this week too. On Friday night we were tracting. I felt sick, and my foot was KILLING me, I could hardly walk on it. I didn't really want to walk very much, and we came to a point where we had 2 roads to pick from to tract. I picked the shorter road. We started walking to it. It was a little court road, so we had two houses we could have picked from. Sister Brovont was like, That one has a light on, so let's go there. Well we knocked on the door, and it was to a lady named Marsha. Her sister had joined the church years ago, later served a mission in Japan, and then was married in the temple. Marsha and her husband had taken the lessons years and years ago, but never joined the church. She said she LOVE the primary songs though. She told us that just that morning she had been singing, "I hope they call me on a mission".... and then we knocked on her door that night. She didn't want to learn more, yet... but she said she would pray to know what she should do, and then give us a call! :) Also, as we were standing on her porch she told us that the people across the street (the other house we would have picked) was a house full of anti-Mormons. And we noticed that all the houses actually had lights on. We didn't even know, but the Lord was prompting us to go to her house. Once again, He was putting us in the path of those who needed us to come to them at that time!!!This week we found a few other people who where totally prepared... they took a book of Mormon, but weren't ready to meet with us just yet. One was a cousin to a member of our bishopric..... So things will totally get moving there. That was also a miracle find. We weren't planning on tracting that street. but by the time we found a place to park, we only had 20 min. left to tract before our next appointment, so we knocked on the door we parked in front of. The Lord really was directing us this week!!!!!! His hand is so strong in this work. President Wilkey said that he could feel that something big and great was about to happen in Sanford..... and boy, did we notice that this week. We found 4 new investigator, (twice as many as any other week) we found a large amount of others who will be ready soon. I am really coming to love this work. The Lord is watching out for us, and is directing us, even when we don't know it! I love the scripture, and love my Savior!!!!

Love,

Sister Rankin!

Been out 4 months now

Hello Everyone-
Well I have been gone for 4 months (as of last Saturday).... it has gone by way fast, but then at the same time slow.... Days and weeks all run into one out here, but as the day is going, it seems to never end. haha.
Mom will you ask Lori to ask the people in her ward with the last name Farrer if they know Rex Farrer??? He is my bishop out here, and said his whole family lives in Provo/Orem area, and some in Lindon. So they are probably related. It's been another hot and humid week. One day this week, we spent the day down by the ocean. It was a cooler day (80*) and when we got home at 9pm our apartment was at least 90* (that's as high as our thermostat goes, and it was all the way up there.) It's sad when the hottest you get all day is when you are inside your apartment. haha.
On Wednesday night we got a message from our zone leaders it was a song they made up about using/ finding creative ideas instead of just tracting. It is so awesome... Sister Brovont and I have been singing it all week.... and it inspired us to make up some of our own songs. (It helps the hours and hours of tracting go by faster. haha) The first one was,
"I just can't wait to baptize" to the tune of I just can't wait to be king..... but we could only remember the chorus, so that's all our song is. it goes,

"I just can't wait to baptize....

No one says "I'm all set."

 no one says, "I'm Catholic.

 no one says I'm christian,

no one says I'm atheist.

We are gonna find those who're prepared.........

 oh i just can't wait to baptize!!"

The other one is to the kung foo fighting song. it goes.....
She was fast as lightening. (karate sound)
Opening doors for tracting. (karate sound)
We're gonna find new investigators, (karate sound)
and teach more lessons..... wo, wo, wooooo
listen to the spirit (3x's)
And follow his promptings, to creative find!
We are trying to come up with some other ones, but we haven't written any of them down yet. haha.

On Wednesday we also had this little boy follow us around for 2 HOURS while we were tracting. He told us to go to a few houses, and we just tracted all the house to get to them. He would even run up and knock on the door or ring the bell before we got there. At first it was funny and cute, then it started getting annoying. especially when a lady asked us who the kid was. we were like, "We don't know, he is just following us around." but it's always funny when you have little kids going tracting with you. they are really funny sometimes.
So my brown shoes are DEAD. they are completely falling apart, and there is a hole in the bottom of one of them. I have never experienced that before. So today we get to go shoe shopping. they weren't doing to well, but after our massive rain storm (that came out of no where and soaked us in 2 min.) on Friday, they are even worse. I will take a picture of them, before i throw them away. Oh, and we think I might have a fractured foot......
When I fell down the stairs 5 1/2 weeks ago, my foot started hurting. It has hurt pretty much everyday since then. but I just thought it would get better. I tried wrapping it while I ran last weekend.... BAD IDEA. It made my foot hurt even worse. But I was able to pin point where the pain is coming from. when I checked the red medical book, I was looking under foot injuries. there was a picture and right where my foot hurt it was highlighted in blue. I looked to see what the blue means, and it said that if that part of your foot is hurting, you probably have a fracture.... :S So tomorrow I am going to talk to the mission presidents wife and see what she thinks I should do.... :S hahaha I didn't want to go to the doctor, so I didn't say anything earlier. haha. Well I am almost out of time.
Love you all!
Love, Sister Rankin

Hello from Hot and humid Maine!!!

This week was SUPER hot! High 90's up to 103* one day.... with humidity..... boy does my body not like humidity. We were very gross, sweaty, and hot! We drank lots of water!!!!!
Last Monday was the Sanford 4th of July parade. It was fun. Sister Brovont and I spent an hour walking up and down the road handing out pass a long cards. We passed out a TON of them! So some exciting news from last Tuesday, our investigator Loral Patten finally set a baptismal date!!! Sept. 24th!!!!!!! So now we are 100% with investigators with a baptismal date!!! That is super exciting. We were trying to get it set for Aug. 7th, that way I would for sure be able to be there for it, but she wasn't ready to set one that soon. But we gave her a calender, and she picked her date! So that is the important thing. It's so fun to see the light in people's eyes when they pick a date, and are excited about it! We still have a lot of work to do to get our investigators ready for their baptism's in September, but it will be fun to continue to see them grown and change in the gospel!!!!! :)But with that said, we only have two investigators, so we are spending a lot of time outside tracting. Charlie Drapeau dropped us last week. He has a lot of stress going on with his health and his family. We hope that we will recognize the difference in his life when we aren't teaching his, so that he will have that desire to learn again!!! So our new mission president. PresidentWilkey is awesome. We got to meet him and his wife on Wednesday. I am so excited to serve with them. With the new mission presidents coming out, the church is making some changes to missions.... first off, WE CAN WEAR SHORTER SKIRTS NOW!!!! :) they just have to cover our knees when we sit down. We are allowed to look cute and like young women now, instead of "Amish" (quoted from Sister Wilkey. ha ha) So that is exciting. But sadly, we will now only be having zone conference and interviews every 3 months, instead of once every transfer.... So, Sister Hatch, my MTC companion is now on this side of the mission, and I would have been able to see her at zone conference, except we don't have one this transfer, and I don't know where I will be next transfer.... But I hope I will get to see her again. Also, the mission president and his wife will be more involved with the missionaries. They will be coming out teaching and tracting with us! :) That will be really neat, and exciting. I got to see the Atlantic ocean again this week... but we didn't get to take any pictures, because we just drove past it, and houses were in the way! But man, the ocean is SO pretty!!!!! I love it! I don't know what else to write about, since mostly we just tracted this week.
So sorry this is a short lame e-mail, but I hope you enjoy it. :P

Love, Sister Rankin

long letter mom's mailbox

Dear Mom, July 5, 2010

That’s so fun that Brady was able to get his Eagle! :) I love those pictures of him. So I think next week I well be sending home a CD of pictures… So you will also got to see the fireworks show we got to watch!

So guess what, I didn’t get to have a bbq for the 4th of July. 1st time in my life!!! We had broccoli quiche and green beans. Tell dad I ate both things. The green beans were fresh…. They actually weren’t that bad! (Oh my goodness, what is happening to me?!) So it was a REALLY weird 4th!

So I guess I can start @ the beginning of the week…SO Charlie Drapeau, the investigator w/bone cancer (Multiple myelomas?) is progressing well. He is already seeing great blessings come into his life since he started learning. He recognizes the spirit. He said he always feels so great after our lessons. He still hasn’t come to church yet though :( But he is coming along. Last week his wife said to him “You’re going to join that church! I know you are” :) We are hoping that we will be able to teach her too!

But at the end of July he is going to Boston for 6 weeks for intense Chemo and Bone marrow and stem cell surgeries. :P So we are trying to feed him spiritually as much as possible before he goes!

Thursday, I SAW THE ALANTIC Ocean! We spent the afternoon talking to people @ the beach… Well on the side walk around the beach. At one point we hear someone yelling, “SISTERS” we turn around and I didn’t recognize them, but we went over and talked to them. It was some members visiting from Alberta Canada & Chicago. It was cool to see some member. I took pictures at the beach. After, we at dinner, we walked in the sand & found sea shells. We didn’t find any good ones though. :(

So these past few weeks our zone has been working on new & creative finding ideas. Our Zone leaders gave us the idea of drawing the Plan of Salvation w/chalk on the sidewalks, and then teach the people that walk by. WELL the 1st 2 times we tried (planned) on doing it the area had NO people or NO sidewalks, or it ended up being right across from another church. But on Thursday night we were able to draw it out. Well Friday morning we get a call from a member who saw it and said that we were going to get in trouble by the cops because it is vandalism. Oh great, I was freaking out. Then like an hour later she called back and said she called the police & they said if it was w/chalk, then it’s allowed. Phewf!! So that day we went to the park & did it again. We talked to a few people, but not as many as we would of liked too.

Later that night while tracting, I met some RANKINS. WEIRD! First person w/the last name of Rankin that I have ever met other than us & Grandma Rankin. So that was cool. Too bad they weren’t interested.

On Saturday we were supposed to help a less active lady pick strawberries @ a farm… But when we got there, the farm was closed for strawberry picking for the seasonL We were so excited to go pick strawberries. Saturday night we got to watch the Sanford fireworks show from our apartment. We planned w/ our lights off & blinds open, in front of the door. They were okay,,, But I was super excited to see some. We had a perfect view from inside our apartment! J

Sunday we tracted pretty much all day, after church, other that our dinner appointment, that I already tol you about! We caught corn on the cob to make last week but forgot. Hopefully today or tomorrow we will have it! :)

Then last night we had our own fireworks show. I took video of it & I will send it home on the CD of pictures, next week You will enjoy it. I have been taking a lot of random videos lately…:)

our pass along cards

This morning was the Sanford 4th of July parade. We decided we would walk up and down the streets passing out pass along cards. So we did for almost an hour! (in 97* weather)

It has been SO hot these past few days in the 90’s w/ @ least 50% humidity. We are so gross all day. I HATE being sweaty and sticky and have to talk to people 2 their doors. I feel so gross. BUT, it could be worse. I feel so gross. But it could be worse, It could be 100+ w/ 100% humidity. (ah, I would melt to a blob of sweat..)

Yeah, when our apartment is 80-85 we think it’s “cool”. You know 2 things…It’s hot outside and our little AC doesn’t work.

We now only have 3 investigators. That’s it. No potentials either. And out 3 only have time for 1 lesson a week.. So to say we are trying to rebuild a DEAD area would be saying it nicely. For the past couple of weeks we have noticed that less and less people will even listen to us. It’s sad. They are missing out on true joy and happiness!

Well I get to meet my new mission president on Wednesday. I’m excited for that. Also, Will you remind dad that I asked him to write down and  send me him conversion story. I asked him like 6 weeks ago and he still hasn’t sent it to me! :(

Well I don’t really know what else to write about.

Oh you don’t’ need to send me out anymore pink stuff, ½ my wardrobe in pink out here. It’s weird, back home I only had like 2-3 pink things

THANK YOU for the package! We enjoyed the cookies and  will be making the brownies shortly. Tell Cameron my watch tan line is getting better each week and; it’s going to be better than his, ha ha !

Well love you lots!!

Love Sister Rankin

Ps. Thank for the email from Lori. That was fun to read.

PSS. My brown skirt got caught on something and got a hole in it. It’s not on the seam either. I‘m going to try to find a lady in the ward to fix it for me and make it look nice…

I got a letter from Hillary yesterday that had a bunch of pictures in it. When I tried to load them It said her blog was full. SO I've got to figure out what is going on so in the mean time I downloaded them to a different site. If you would like to see them go to---
http://www.missionsite.net/sisterrankin/pictures
Here is my favorite on it is after she ate lunch at Estes Lake in Sanford, Maine.