Plymouth, New Hampshire

Hello Everyone-

Well I am now in Plymouth, New Hampshire. We have a HUGE area.... and it is a branch. I have no Idea what cities my area covers, because it is so huge, and there are tons of cities. the northern most is Lincoln, the southern ones are Bristol (i think). It is SO beautiful here. We are in the White mountains. I had forgotten what mountains look like.... so I am totally loving everything. Fall is right around the corner. The leaves are changing, and it is so pretty.

I am serving with Sister Hill. She is from the Boise area in Idaho. It is her last transfer.... so in 5 more weeks I will have a new companion. Ever since my first transfer, I have wanted to serve with Sister Hill. She was my trainers MTC companion. Sister Nelson always said she thought we should serve together. She is so great, I love her already! We are very similar, so it is fun.

The apartment is SUPER tiny. The one is Sanford was twice the size almost. So it is weird trying to get "settled" in, when there isn't much room to put anything..... And I have a TON of stuff... packing was terrible. I don't want to do it again.... haha. We think I will be here till The middle ish of Jan.

I did miss Sis. Patten's baptism, but Sister Brovont was supposed to take pictures, and then send them to you mom, to send to me. :)

The branch here is so amazing. Until 2 transfers ago, it had been 6-10 years since Sisters had been here. The branch treats us so well..... They are so willing and helpful. It's great.

So my first full day here we went to stop by a semi-less active lady. When we got there she let us right in. Her grandson was there. We shared a scripture about the doctrine of Christ (baptism mostly). Sister Hill asked Eli (the grandson) what he knew about the Book of Mormon. He said, "Not much." then She invited him to learn, he said he wants too, so she invited him to be baptized. He said he had been thinking about it a lot lately... but there is one problem. He can't start learning till he is 18. We were so sad. But then he told us that he turns 18 on the 30th of September!!!!!!! MIRACLE!!!! So we set up a time to teach him on Oct. 1st. It was such a miracle. We went to do a referral lesson with a less active, and ended up with a new investigator, that has been thinking about the church and baptism for a long time! When we got back in the car, we both were freaking out... so excited.

We have so really good investigators. Bro. and Sis. Marsh and Nancy Kirk are the 3 I have met. I haven't met the others yet.

I love it here so much already. I was SO sad to be leaving Sanford, but I really am so happy here. I'm so happy to be serving with Sister Hill, and I have already grown so much in these last few days. Sister Hill is REALLY in tune with the spirit, so I think that is rubbing off on my a little bit. :) It feels good.

Oh, I already have a nick name from one of the Part member families. We had dinner with them last night. Sister Hill told me that they make up nick names for all the missionaries, and I would probably be getting one in the next few weeks.... well we were there for not even 10 min. before I got mine. It is "smiles" :) I'll take that one. It's funny, because that is what Bro. Crispin called me too. The gospel makes you happy, so I do smile a lot!!! :)

Well I'm excited for all the new adventures here. I have been told there are a lot of moose, bears, wolf, mountain lions, and everything else around here. We aren't allowed to put our garbage outside over night, because the bears come.... and our garbage cans outside are all torn up from bears. :S yeah, that is scary. Sister Hill said that they have seen a moose and a bear while out tracting. (and she has only been here for 2 transfers). So pray that I won't become "prey". hahaha (wow, what a lame joke. :P)

So Sister Hill had some sickness last transfer, so every day we have to come in at 8pm, and we get a nap time after lunch. It's nice... but it will be weird in 5 weeks to have to change it,and fill in that extra 2 hrs.


WE got to see the last hour of women's conference. The satellite wasn't working at the church, so we had to rush over to a members house. we missed Sis. Becks talk.
Well that is all for this week. Love you all!

Sister Rankin

where in the world is sister Rankin?

Where oh where will our Hillary go. oh where oh where can she be?
Can't wait for next weeks email to see where she was transferred to.

Last week in Sanford, Maine

hello everyone....
Well, "I'm leaving Sanford, ME... don't know when I'll be back again." I'm getting transferred tomorrow morning. I am SO bummed. Loral is getting baptized this Friday at 6 pm.... missed it by a couple of days. :( I'm really going to miss the Sanford ward, our investigators, my district, and Sister Brovont. We had so much fun these last 2 weeks. Lot's of singing and making up songs. So last Monday for district p-day, we went down to the Elders building. We played ultimate Frisbee and football, 2 hand touch football (kind of... Sister Brovont and I had to guard each other, and the Elders couldn't touch us... we didn't play that one for long). Then we played baseball in the gym.... Our district leader, Elder Beard, was running and went to "slide" into the base, but because their gym is carpet, his knee didn't move. Needless to say he got hurt pretty bad. His knee got all swollen and he couldn't walk on it for a few days. So after he got injured we stopped playing baseball, and played speed instead. I beat the elders in the first game, and took 2nd in the 2nd game. it was so much fun!!!! Then we just sat around and talked. It was such a fun day.... a well needed day too. This week our lesson with Loral was so good. We were going over her baptism program, and as she was picking out the songs, she got so overwhelmed with the spirit. She picked the song "Scatter Sunshine", because she said the words described how she was feeling. :) That was so exciting to see!!!!!
Then on Thursday we taught Elizabeth Earl. The spirit is so strong with her. After the first vision we asked her how she felt. She said she knows it's true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet!!! :) Then we extended a baptism date. She accepted Nov. 12th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was so excited, We were so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm so sad that I'm going to be leaving her too)
I got the package, thank you mom! I loved it!!!
So we made up a lot of songs this week, and sang the Elders the one's we had already made. They loved them. They told us that they wish we could put them on a CD so that they could listen to them all the time. haha, that made us feel good. Last night when we told them I was leaving, they were all sad. They were like, "What are we going to do with out our Brovont and Rankin duo??" We have become so close. It's so fun. WE made up a song to the tune of "I hope they call me on a mission", it is called "I hope we don't leave Rochester District." We talked about each missionary in our district. It was fun, the Elders thought it was so funny...... I'm worried that my new companion won't like to make up songs........ That is what helps me get through the long rough days. Singing the songs we have made up, and making up new ones. We counted this week, and Sister Brovont and I have made up like 15 songs. A few we never wrote down, but we sang them all the time. A lot of them we did write down, and also sang them all the time. Oh, we also found out that the Elders had forwarded our messages to our zone leaders and the assistants. haha, everyone loves our songs. Too bad I can't sing, because it won't sound the same with out Sister Brovont. haha.
We also asked the Elders to describe us in a few words. (to help with our song) They said I was: joyously captivating, witty, motherly, and predictably unpredictable. hahahahhaha. It was funny.
Well I am sad to leave Sanford, but I know that where every I go, it is because the Lord needs me there. I will let you know next week were I end up!!!
Love you all! :)
Love, Sister Rankin

Sanford week 23

Hello Everyone-

Well this was a ROUGH week here in Sanford for Sister Brovont and I... so I'm going to just talk about the good that came this week..... because with all the hard times, there were also a lot of miracles.

First off, Sis. Loral Patten is doing so good. She is really preparing for her baptism. She is opening up a lot more, and expressing her thoughts a lot better. It feels good to see her understanding come, and her testimony grow.

On Wednesday at district meeting, the Elders in my district gave me a blessing for peace and comfort. It was really neat to be surrounded by 4 worthy priesthood holders, and see them use it. We always see the Elders in their role plays, and trainings, so it was a really good and neat experience to see them in a different light. It really helped me, and was much needed at that time. What a blessing it is to be able to ask 19-22 year old guys for a blessing, and be able to get one. The priesthood is amazing, and we are all SO lucky to have it restored again on the earth!!!!

We taught two new ladies this week. Tonya Cline and Ellen Lheureux. They both have great potential, are both looking for the truth, both have lots of questions that we CAN answer.... It's exciting. We are teaching both of them again next week.... The only hard thing will be getting them to come to church... which is one of the more important things. :) Also Elizabeth Earl that I mentioned a few weeks ago, came to church yesterday for the first time. Oh my goodness, the spirit was so strong. The talks were on the temple, and Sunday school was about baptism. She was crying the whole time. After she said that she was learning so much from the spirit. That she loved it, and it really brought some peace and comfort into her mind. SO EXCITING!!!! And, we finally were able to set up a time to teach her this week! So that was exciting too.....

Saturday we were able to go with Sis. Loral Patten, and a few of our members to the Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon (South Royalton), VT. It was such a great experience. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, and then we went on a tour with just the missionaries, the investigators and the Director of the memorial. The spirit was so strong. Loral loved it! It is such a beautiful and peaceful place. Our whole district went, so it was nice to be able to meet their investigators as well, and see all of them feel the spirit so strongly!

Funny story for the week. Sister Brovont and I had bought a big bag of sour patch kids. When they were finished we wanted to do a challenge. We took all the left over sour sugar stuff, split it in half, and then ate it in one time.... we were seeing who was going to react the most. SO STUPID!!! I almost barfed, it hurt so bad. And I coughed, and I swear some of it went up my nose..... so I was feeling the after effects of it for hours. GRR!!!!! NOT a good idea, but we got a funny video out of it. haha. Well that was the good parts of my week. This Friday will be my 6 month mark.... CRAZY!!!!!!!!! it has gone by so fast!Love you all,

Love, Sister Rankin

a letter arrived in the mail

Hello Everyone-
Wow, this was a CRAZY WEEK! The district P-day that I was excited for last week, didn’t go as planned. Right after the Elders got to our church they got a phone call—Emergency transfer happened, our district leader (of 3 Weeks) was sent up to be a zone leader in a different zone. So they had to leave so he could pack.
Then Monday night we got a message from President Wilkey saying one of the sisters who had gotten home from her mission 2 weeks prior was diagnosed with cancer…(she served with me for one week during my 1st transfer.)
Then on Thursday & Friday I got a call from President Wilkey… one of those calls that NO ONE wants to get. My cousin Brady passed away on Friday morning. Thursday I got a call to warn me

that he wasn’t doing well , and would probably pass on soon. I spent the rest of the night reflecting.
Wednesday night we had taught a class on the Atonement, using Alma 7:11-12. We talked about how Christ’s suffering was for much more than for our sins! It was for our pains, afflictions and sorrows, etc. Perfect timing huh?! ( picture Hillary saying goodbye to Brady on way to MTC)
Then Friday morning Sister Brovont answers the phone. I hear President Wilkey’s voice, and I know MY hero Brady had died.

I was allowed to call home. For a 15 min., phonecall Thank goodness I was allowed to do that! Even though I am still sad, and miss Brady a ton. I was able to get some peace, by hearing more about it from my mom!
I know Brady is smiling away, and teaching so many people about Christ and His gospel.
Between my testimony of the plan of salvation,the atonement and lots of prayers for and by many people, I was and am able to gain my strength, and go and teach the plan of salvation with more power!
Oh, did I mention that on Wednesday night we got a message telling us all to get 72 hr. kits ready to go in case we have to be evacuated due to Hurricane Earl?!
To say the least, this was a HIGH stress & emotional week.
On a happy note, on Saturday the ward had an activity. We showed up for dinner & a few activities after. One of the activities was a pie eating contest. Sister Brovont & I participated. It was those hostess pies. Ha Ha. All the little primary kids were yelling, “the missionaries are doing it”. They were so excited! Then at church on Sunday we could hear the kids talking about it! It was funny!
This week we were able to do a stop by lesson with Elizabeth Earl. (I think I mentioned her last week) on my goodness, she is so prepared! She was teaching us! The only problem is that she is CRAZY busy so it’s hard to get a set return appointment with her!
Then we found a lady named Tonya Clyde. She had a lot of questions, that the gospel can answer. We are teaching her on Wednesday. So that’s exciting.
This week is Richards Baptism interview and the next week is Loral’s interview and Richard’s baptism
sister Rankin