hot and cold week

Hello everyone--


So this subject identifies a few different parts of the week. First, the weather.... Oh my goodness, it was SO hot a few days of the week.... we got a little sunburned, and were really hot and sweaty all day... then the last 2 days of the week we were in coats, lots of rain (rain boots one day).... It was crazy. One day it dropped 20* after a 5-10 min. rain storm. From the mid 90's to the mid 70's. Saturday at one point we could see our breath.... It's supposed to be cooler until friday! But it's nice to not be drenched in sweat all day! :P

Then with the investigators. So Kelly isn't getting baptized this Saturday as planned. She needs more time with the Word of Wisdom issues. We are still teaching her, and she still wants to get baptized, she just needs more time.

Monday night we taught a new investigator Renee at the Wilkey's. She is awesome!!! She is 20 years old, has her LPN, going for her RN. she is SO prepared, and we are excited to start teaching her. The Elders had started teaching her, because she was friends of one of their investigators, but they turned her over to us this week. The lesson was funny though. We show up to the Wilkey's and President ask's her if she wants a tour of the house. She said yes.... well ONE HOUR later it was finally over. So normally we have to be home by 9:30 pm at the latest. WELL.... at 9:20 President said, "I know these Sisters need to leave, but one more thing..." We didn't leave his house until almost 9:40..... Oh President. haha. But we had a really great lesson with her!!!

Tuesday we taught Rob, Sarah, and Becca (the family we taught the week before at the Wilkey's). That lesson went really well. Rob said he is the one that has been holding back his family, and he is making the commitment to change. Sarah and Becca said they have been ready to move forward since last summer when they first met missionaries, but Rob has been holding them back. Rob and Becca came to church yesterday! That was exciting.

We weren't able to teach Chris or Joann this week... but we did get to teach Bryan and Leah.

Leah is going to take some time. She has an ex-husband who is trying to control her life still.... but she really wants it, so we are still working with her.

Then we had a super awesome lesson with Bryan (the 24 year old). We talked about the Atonement and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted a soft baptism commitment. Said if he feels that it is right for him, then he will be baptized. He wants a fresh start in his life. The spirit was SO strong.

Also while tracting this week we found a lot of really cool potential investigators. We met this really cool kid named Andrew yesterday. The only bad thing, is that he lives in CA, and was just here for the weekend for his little sisters high school graduation. We walked up and immediately he was interested. He had a really obnoxious friend who was making it hard to teach and testify, but we were still able to... and guess what is SO weird (but totally not a coincidence), he is living in San Jose, CA.... where I was born. Crazy!!! Basically S. Walter was dealing with the obnoxious friend while I taught Andrew who was interested. But at one point Andrew asked, "So is this even worth it? I bet you meet a lot of people that are rude and ignorant. Most people probably don't even listen to you or accept it." I told him, "Yes, most people are like that. But in the scriptures it teaches us that 'The worth of souls is great in the sight of God' .... and that even one soul saved brings great joy to God. (D&C 18) and that even if we only help one person draw closer to our Savior, it is totally worth it." He got the hopeful look on his face, and said, "Really, for just one person it makes all this worth it!" We said "YES!" (previously we had told him that we are volunteers, middle of college can come out for 18 months, non-paid.... So I think that is partly where his question was coming from.) But that was super cool!!!! It's amazing how we can be placed in the right place at the right time!

This week we have more progressing investigators than I have ever had before on my mission. It is awesome. Then the Manchester Elders just gave us the names and address of a family of 3 who they have been teaching, that actually lives in our area! So we are going to go and try to contact them this week, so we can start teaching them!!! The work is picking up like crazy here!!! It's so great! Sister Walter and I laugh a TON!!! We tend to have a lot of laughing attacks... it's awesome!

One last thing... on our way to e-mail, I got pulled over... for the first time in my life!!! I was so ticked, and was like, "I don't even know why I'm getting pulled over." Luckily (in a twisted way) it was just because the car has an expired inspection.... which apparently you don't get done the same time as when you register it, which is totally stupid.... So we only got a warning, and just have to get the car inspected. The weirdest thing is, that usually the office doesn't let things happen like that... so it was weird....

Well keep the letters coming! I'm getting slower at writing back, but I will write back, I promise!

love ya all!

love, Sister Rankin :)

ps.