when will I be home???

Hello Everyone-


So this week I had to make the decision of when I was coming home.... I will be home.............,,,,,,......... Aug 24th! It's really weird to think that I only have 5 months left. The first forever of my mission I never thought my year mark would come. I felt like I was going to be a missionary FOREVER!!! 18 months was SO long... Now that I am towards the end... I feel like I haven't been a missionary long enough.... It actually freaks me out to think that I ONLY have 5 month left.... SO if you could all be kind, and NOT mention the fact that I don't have much time left, that would be great. I have minor freak out moments whenever I remember that I ONLY have 5 months left!!!!

So this week was pretty slow. We got ditched by ALL of our investigators, and we had to drop one of them. We did teach a lot of less active lessons though..... I have officially decided that being a full time missionary means you are also a part time therapist!!!! Seriously, everyone (even if it's the first time we are meeting them), dumps their whole life out on us. OH BOY!!! It makes for some very interesting hours.... and lots of "de-stressing" laughing after.

We had zone interviews this week up in Concord. I love interviews!!! President and Sister Wilkey are AMAZING!!!

Let's see, what else happened this week. Oh, our scrabble group (service) has down sized to just one lady. All the other ladies have decided that they will not play if this one lady is playing. They got in a big argument over the game when they were playing through out the week. It was sad. We couldn't convince any of them to come and play with us. We are trying to figure out a different game we could play with them. I never knew scrabble could be so "competitive".....


I guess the only other funny thing (or any story for that matter) from this week happened last night (Sunday night). We asked the assistants if they would make fliers for us to pass out about general conference (since they can use the computers). So last night at 9pm we picked them up the fliers at the elders apartment. They clipped them to their mail box for us. So we grabbed them, then ran back to the car and went home. When we got home we looked at the fliers.... they were AWFUL!!! We didn't know what to do. I was like, "They can't be serious about these!!!!!!" But we didn't want to seem rude or ungrateful, so we just decided that we would call them in the morning, say thank you, then make our own.... at 9:50 we get a message from the elders asking us if we wanted more of them, or if that was what we were wanting. We called them back, and tried to nicely tell them that the fliers were terrible and we would NOT use them.... Then the Elders just started laughing so hard. When they were making the real ones they decided to play a joke on us. They had been waiting for almost an hour for us to call and comment on them. It was really funny!!!!

This week is going to be the week that we find more investigators. Sister Wilkey told us we would!!! We are going to pray harder, and find harder than before. We are also SUPER excited about conference this weekend!!! I love conference!!! We hope to be able to get lots of people there!!! Pray for us and our area!!!

Love you all!!

Love, Sister Rankin

One year out.

Hello Everyone-


So this was a great week here in New England. So I'm just going to go day by day to tell about my week...

Monday night was a weird night.... Sister Page and I went to stop by a potential investigator. After we knocked on the door once, we decided to leave. No one had come to the door, and we could see that they had company. We didn't want to "loose our chance of a stop by to follow up on the things we left them." We wanted our stop by to be able to turn it into a lesson and new people to teach. So we walked away. As we were heading down the street, I saw them going to their door. I sort of freaked out, and didn't want them to see us, so we started running..... (BAD IDEA). Then we were like, well we don't want them to see us running away, so we stopped and just walked to the car, and didn't turn back to look. Oh my gosh, WHO RUNS AWAY FROM THEIR POTENTIAL INVESTIGATORS??? We are such dorks!!! But it gave a great laugh for days.

Wednesday was a rainy day. But it was a cool day. The Lord's timing worked so perfectly. Our plans after lunch fell through. We were going to go do our back up plan of stopping by some recent converts, but we didn't feel like it. So we went out tracting in the rain. Then we saw that we had gotten some text messages from a former investigator that wanted to meet with us that night. So we went to the car, worked everything out so we could go meet her. We went and met her, and she wants to start learning again. Well after her we only had 15 min. left before we could go in. So we were like, I guess we will go stop by the Dilorenzo's now. (the people we had planned for earlier that day). Well as we were knocking on their door, the mom was walking up the stairs and was so mad. She was not in a good mood. As we were talking to her she calmed down. Then she said, "I love when you come to see me. You always make me feel better." Okay, so if we would have stopped by earlier in the day, that totally would not have happened. We got in the car, and were so grateful and excited about the Lords timing. We were being prompted by the spirit all day, and not even realizing it! AWESOME!!!!

Thursday was my year mark/St. Patrick's Day/ district meeting. Okay, it was 60* that day. We didn't wear our coats the whole day! :) It was such a great day. It was fun.... and we got a new investigator. He is the 13 year old son of one of the less actives we are working with. We went to teach the mom that night, and her son had said he wants to go to church, and to learn!!!!!!! So exciting!!!

Friday it was 66*.... another no coat day! After planning we went to visit a less actives 7 year old daughter in the hospital. So we spent and hour "playing" with this little girl. Her non member grandma was in the room the whole time... so don't worry. haha. But we sang to her/with her. We danced. She made a little play for us to do. I was the dog (a stuffed animal), and sister page was the bunny. Oh goodness, it was SO much fun! The little girl had a blast, and the grandma was so grateful! It probably was the funnest hour of "service" I've had on my whole mission!!!

Saturday (okay, don't laugh), S. Page, S. Hatch, S. Amuli, and I sang for the Stake Youth fireside. Oh boy, it sounded terrible. We didn't get to practice at all, and then as we are standing up there, we found out we didn't have a piano player. It was SO bad... haha. Good thing it was only 12-13 year olds there. NOT GOOD!!!! But it was fun, because I got to see a lot of the kids I knew from Plymouth. One of the girls we were teaching (a less active) and the member son of the dad we were teaching. That was good!

Sunday we sang in the ward choir.... we had to redeem ourselves from the night before. haha. That went well. We kind of got roped into doing the ward choir... but it's a good way to build trust with the members. We also tracted into Hannah's (the girl who got baptized my first week here) former pasture... that was awkward. haha.

Well things are going well.... I can't believe I have been out for a year now! CRAZY!!!!

Love, Sister Rankin

Year Mark this week

Hello Everyone-

Okay, this is so weird to think that after Thursday I can no longer say, "Well last year at this time I was at home doing this..." It will be, "last year at this time I was at the MTC or in Sanford." WEIRD!!!!!!!!!

So this week was really good, and kind of crazy.

So on Tuesday we got to go to transfer meeting, to help them set everything up, and clean the church after. It was fun to be there, and not be stressing about where I would be going, or who my companion would be. It was weird, because NO sisters in the whole mission got transferred this time. Transfer meetings are so fun, and it's even more fun when you aren't stressed, you just get to sit back and enjoy!

The only bad thing that happened at transfer meeting, was that Sister Hatch and I were carrying a table, and I was walking backwards with it... well long story short, i smashed my finger between the table and the corner or the wood door.... my CTR ring is no longer a circle, and I can't really wear it... and I had a bruised finger. haha. :S

Wednesday was a really crazy day!!!!! So many weird things happened.... It started off with trying to stop by some member, but there was no parking on any of the streets around. We had to park like 5 or 6 streets away. (and we were in the Elders area, so we aren't supposed to contact people.) As we were walking back to our car, we saw a man picking up cans. So we picked up the ones we saw, and took them over to him. Well he didn't speak English... He couldn't even understand us enough to tell us what language he speaks... So Sister Page gives him a pamphlet, and then we realized he can't read it in English. haha. So then we were trying to leave, but he couldn't understand us, so we just waved and walked away.

Then while tracting, we met some interesting people. We met one lady who I had to explain to her the church's stand on homosexuality... which was awkward because she was married to a woman. Then we met a Jehovah's Witness who was trying to tell us what we believe is wrong... but she was saying all these things that we don't believe. Or telling us we have to do things, that we do! Then she says to us, "Well I go out 1-3 times a week and knock on doors..." Oh how badly we wanted to say, WE do it 24/7. But we didn't. We just laughed to ourselves. Then we met a man who told us he only believes in the Bible. But when we asked him if he believed the Prophets from the Bible were prophets he told us no... then he was all confused. Then we met a Catholic man who told us he would NEVER look at Mormon.org, because Mormons have NO path of righteousness in our church.... Then it was getting dark. We only knock on the doors that have lights on in the house. Well Sister page and I were trying to see if this one house had lights on or not... All of a sudden we see a person, then the lights turn off.... Let's just say "crack" kills, and people really should have and use blinds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha.... we skipped that house. haha.

That night we went at stopped by a member. As we were about to leave, she told us she wanted to give us something. It was a couple dresses.... Sister Page looked at the size, and it was........ 4X...... She kindly tried to reject them, but the lady yelled at us and told us we had to take them. So we did. So we now have 2 dresses that are 4X.... We took some really funny pictures in them... yeah, we had fun that night.

Showing how big the dresses are
While we were driving home, we saw a dead possum in the road. OKAY, WHERE DO POSSUMS COME FROM IN THE CITY????? I thought they were only the woods and stuff!!! I don't know, it was funny though.

Thursday we had a relief society birthday dinner... we were SO excited, because one of the less actives we are working with came. She hasn't come to church yet, and isn't ready for that, but she came to the RS activity. We were so excited, it wasn't even funny!!!!

Saturday we had the privilege of having Sister Wilkey come teaching with us. It was to our new investigator, who is a tough nut to crack. After the lesson Sister Wilkey was like, "Man, he's a hard one." But she told us how well we taught together. The spirit was SO strong in our lesson. We found out that she even talked about that lesson in her talk in the Manchester ward on Sunday. She is such an amazing person, with such a strong testimony!!! I am so lucky and blessed to have such a great mission president and presidents wife!!!!!

Well that was our week.... Happy St. Patrick's day this Thursday.

Love, Sister Rankin

Staying in Bedford

Hello everyone-


So Sister Page and I did not get a transfer call... we will be together for at least another 6 weeks! I'm happy that we didn't get a call....

So this week was interesting. Tuesday we got a new investigator!!!!!!! Yay!!!! He is an older man, lonely, sad, and depressed. We tracted into him two weeks earlier, and gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet. We asked if we could come back and see if he had read it. So we went back last Tuesday. He was excited to see us... but still sad and depressed. Background on him.... 5-6 years ago, he got hit by a car on his front lawn. Because of it, he was unconscious for 2 months. His body doesn't function like it used to, and he can't do ANYTHING that he enjoyed doing before. He lives alone, and is really bitter about the whole thing. He believes there is something up there, he hopes there is, but he doesn't know. He is really negative too. The first time we met him, we talked to him for like 45 min. It was a good talk, but he didn't seem to listen to anything we told him. This time was sort of different. When we walked up, he was happy to see us like I said. He told us we had been looking up and down his road, hoping we would come back. He had read the pamphlet, but didn't remember what it said. We talked to him more about forgiveness, the Atonement, baptism, and a fresh, new, happy start that the gospel can and WILL bring him if he accepts. He then said, "You can come back next week, we can go inside and talk." We set up a time, and told him we would bring a member with us. He was fine with that. It was amazing to see the change that has already occurred in him, just in the 2 short visits we have had with him. We are SO excited!!!

Wednesday we had another miracle with a less active (inactive) family. They AP's had met them a couple weeks earlier, and she said she wanted all 4 of us missionaries over for dinner. We went over, and it was fun. We got to know her some, and then the Elders taught a wonderful lesson on faith and trials. Then she asked for a priesthood blessing. She said that she hadn't asked for one since her had her first son, 18 years ago. It was so amazing. They spirit was strong. The Elder who gave the blessing told us the next day at district meeting, that that was the first time that he had given a blessing, where the words just came to his mind. That they weren't his words. Ah, the spirit was so strong there!!!!! She asked us (S. Page and I) to come back on a weekly basis!! That was really cool!

Friday afternoon-Saturday night I was on an exchange in Derry, NH. I was with S. Stradley, who is one transfer a head of me. Our greenies were together here in Bedford. It was fun, because S. Stradley had just served for 5 weeks with S. Gaggini, so we had something in common. We had a lot of fun, and we saw some miracles.

The first thing we did on Friday was stop by a potential investigator that they had. She let us in, and we talked for a little. She was really feeling the spirit, but because she isn't used to it, we think it scared her off. She said a couple times, "If I were more religious, I would totally be a Mormon. They are so happy and positive about things. I like it a lot." That was really cool. We were able to answer a lot of questions for her. We had a couple of other good stop Yb's and visits. I also got to paint a ceiling. (I'm glad grandpa had me paint for him.... so that I sort of knew what I was doing.) :P

Saturday night was transfer calls... we didn't get one! Yay! Sister Hatch didn't get one either.... we will be together on our year mark.... YES THAT IS RIGHT, OUR YEAR MARK. It is next week!!! CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we met a really cool mom and her 18 year old daughter. They welcomed us right in, and we taught them a little about prophets. We got their information, and they said we could come back and follow up with the pamphlet we left them. We were excited about that.

We are finally starting to see things pick up after 6 weeks of hard work!!! This next transfer is going to be exciting. Now that we are semi settled, we know how we both work, and we are seeing some miracles happen!!! Bring on the year mark, bring on the miracles!!!!

Love, Sister Rankin