pioneer Day week

Hello Everyone--

To start off, this week had some WICKED hot temps!!!!! We didn't have our car on Wed afternoon- Thursday afternoon.... It was so hot! It was in the high 90's with HIGH humidity.... Friday it was 104*!!!! I took some picture of the temp. thing, but i forgot my camera cord in the car..... yeah. On Thursday it was hotter here that it was in St. George, UT... (someone looked it up for us)! CRAZY!!!!!!!

Monday we had a good lesson with Jackie. She loved church, and is super excited about everything. We are just trying to help her gain a firm testimony now.... But she is coming a long great!!!

Wednesday we contacted the Mormon.org referrals. It was a 17 year old girl and her dad. They found the web site randomly, and clicked the thing that said get a free book of Mormon. The daughter seems really interested, but just wanted to read the book first. Her dad we think was just doing it for her. He was asking us so many hard/weird questions. He definitely dominated the conversation.

Thursday we had district meeting, and then at the office complex for the mission office they had a big lunch party thing for all the people who worked there. So us missionaries in the area got to go. They had way good food, and then a photo booth. That was fun! But it was SUPER hot outside. Thursday night we went to the RS activity. They had a pool party. We just went and had dinner, and talked to the few people who weren't swimming.

Friday was the 100+* day. We taught Kelly that night............ she had a baptism date of..............AUGUST 20TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are hoping and praying that she will be able to make that date!! She said when she was praying about it, the date couldn't have been more clear to her. So that was exciting. She is doing soooooo well!!!

Saturday we went to the Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial again. We went with Rob, Sarah, and Becca. First off, Sarah is in 3rd Nephi!!!! Her and Becca had been listening the the first part of the Book of Mormon... after each chapter they would stop and talk about it, so Becca could understand it. They would also, apply it to their life!!! So cool! Sarah really enjoyed the JSM, we didn't get to talk to Rob and Becca much after, they went and jumped in the air conditioned car... (the ac in the main building wasn't working that day. :S)

I can't believe I only have 4 weeks left.... It's weird.... But with that said, I might not write everyone back, like I used too... We are trying to get some fun things in on P-days, and/or naps.... so I will probably just talk to you when I get home... but I might still write back sometimes... but if I don't write you back, it's not because I don't love you! :)
Hope everyone is doing well!!!

love, Sister Rankin

Crazy Week

This week was CRAZY!! So last Monday we had to go to the airport 3 times.... and wait there for like an hour and a half the second time. The new sister that we were picking up, her plane got cancelled, but we didn't know that until she was supposed to have landed the first time. So she was on stand by. No one knew if she was on the next flight or not, so we had to go and see. She wasn't... so we had to wait there, until the next plane boarded so they could tell us if she got on or not. Well at 8:45ish pm they said she didn't' make it on the plane... So we went to the Wilkey's for dinner... (She was supposed to get there at 4pm). At like 9:20 we get a call saying she actually made it on the plane, and would be getting in at 10:20pm. So Sister Wilkey asked us if we would stay around, so we could go with them to pick her up. So we picked her up at about 10:35, and loaded the car, and went home. We didn't get home until 11:06 pm.... Missionary bed time is 10:30.... WE WERE EXHAUSTED!!!!

Tuesday was equally as crazy! When we got to transfer meeting, one of the Elders had left something at the AP's apartment that they needed. No one was able to go get it, so after they announced all the transfers, S. Walter and I had to go to the AP's apartment and get the things they forgot. then after transfer meeting was gone, we stayed and cleaned the church. The rest of the day we had 2 other sisters with us. They are changing up things with training. Now they do a long training the day after transfers with the new missionaries and trainers, so we have to keep them busy on Tuesday. We had a couple lessons, and stuff that we did, along with service. It was fun... but weird!!!

Wednesday we had to go to Concord for S. Walters final dentist appointment. That night we taught Kelly!!! Oh my goodness, she is doing SO well!! She committed to praying about a baptism date, and told us she would have it by this week!!! Yay!!! She is so happy and said she had NO doubt about the church!!!!! Also later in the week, we found out that they weeks she hasn't been at our ward, she has been going to church up in VT!!!! She is so AWESOME!!!

Sarah is doing so well too. She is already in Alma. She had a break through this week. She said she is finally learning for herself, and not because she know it will help Rob and Becca. She is loving the scriptures.

Jackie and Ines Delcid were at church yesterday!! That was super exciting. They loved it!!!

We had some cooler days this week, and then Saturday and Sunday were like 95*!!! It was hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, this week we found a really cool couple. It was the last door we were going to go to before going to our lesson. A lady answered and talked about how it's a really stressful, crazy time for their family. We talked to her for a while, and then she said, "My husband and I, we really don't know what to believe anymore...." We talked to them a little more, prayed, and are going to back tonight! They want to support and family feel... they have no family around. The church is PERFECT for that!!! :) It was excited!!!

Well I think that is all....

Love you all!!!

Love, Sister Rankin

We had to cram 4 beds into our bedroom.. the rest of the apartment was WAY to hot, and our room was the only one that gets cool at night... haha.

My 2nd to the last, week 6

Hello everyone--


This last week was crazy.. and this one is going to be too.... so this will be highlights of the week....

Saturday we had a WONDERFUL trip up to the JSM with Kelly and Lauren. After doing the tour and watching the movie, we went and saw the door step. Kelly stopped and bent over and touched it... had a little moment of her own there. Then we were walking up to the memorial, Kelly broke down into tears. It was a really special moment for her. As Lauren and S. Walter were walking around it, Kelly turned to me, and said, "When you know it's true, you know it's true. I can't deny it!" AH!!! The old Kelly is back. She wants to take her boyfriend and other people up to the memorial.

This week we are going to try to talk to her about setting a goal for baptism again! That was a great experience to have with the Walter family!!!

Then on the way home we (S. Walter, Lauren, and I) were taking lots of silly pictures in the back seat. It reminded me of the times Ashley and I would do that. It was so fun. Kelly said at church, that Lauren had so much fun!!

ROB, SARAH, BECCA, KELLY, AND LAUREN were all at church yesterday!!!!!!! It was so exciting!!!!! They all stayed for all 3 hours. Sarah and Becca seemed to really enjoy it. We didn't really get to talk to Rob. The ward did a good job with them as well. We are still so excited about that. I think that is the most people I have ever had come to church on my mission!!! Crazy!!! We were so excited... they all came in a few minutes late. We went into sacrament all sad kind of. We had 7 people commit to come to church, and no one was there.... Then all 5 of them flooded in at once. We were like giddy little school girls.

sisters-- Farr, Walter, Rust, Rankin -- 4th of July lunch

We found a couple of really cool people this week. First Cindy. She was a referral that S. Walter and S. Farr got on their exchange. We went to see her, and she said like 8 times that she is searching. She's always wanted to call after seeing our commercials, and that it makes her more interested when churches are persecuted... she said, "That means that there's gotta be something there..." She has a really great family. She became a new investigator, and this week when we go back, her 2 daughters probably will too. It was a miracle, and we would barely wait to get back to the car before we exploded with excitement.

The other one was a potential that S. Page and I found 2 months ago. We went and stopped by. She let us in, but said she wasn't interested. We started to teach her the restoration (to answer some of the questions she had asked), and by the end she took a Book of Mormon, and set up a return appointment!!! :) Yay!!! it was cool to see the change in her after just a few min. of talking. We shared a simple lesson on the Restoration. She was glued to us. When S. Walter said the first vision, I don't think Teressa even blinked. It was super neat!

Leah dropped us, we don't know why. :( She left a message telling us she didn't want us to come to her house anymore. Which was weird, because we had seen her twice earlier in the week, and she was so excited about everything, especially coming to church on Sunday.


Teaching English this week was fun. We tried to teach the days of the week and months. WOW, I will never be able to a ESL teacher. It is hard work!!!!

I got to see S. Hatch and S. Page this week. S. Hatch had a temple square companion who was going back this week.... so she had to bring here down. That was fun. Then S. Page had her last dentist appointment. We got to go out to dinner with them on the days they came! :)

I also got to learn how to make paposas this week, an El Salvadorian food... Our investigator, Ines taught us how. 

So something is wrong with me. For like the last week and a half I have been getting super stressed about everything. Things that shouldn't even stress me out. I know there are like a million reasons that go with it, but it's super annoying. I am even having stressful dreams because of it. I can't believe this is my last transfer. I'm looking back now thinking about all those things I coulda, shoulda, wish I woulda done.... it's too late now to change it, but it's stressing me out. Then having all the thoughts flooding into my head about going home and that transition.... Then all the normal stress of missionary work and trying to help these people come unto Christ!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! My body is tired, it aches a lot, my mind is exhausted. I'm drained, but.... That's when you have to push yourself and sprint to the finish line. So this week S. Walter and I ran a mile straight, without stopping, for morning for exercise. I haven't done that since like jr. high. My body was tired after the second lap... but I told myself I was going to do 4 laps (similar to transfers 1-7 minus transfer 6). The 3rd lap it got a little easier (Transfer 8-11) , but was still a little challenging. By the time it was the 4th and final lap, we "sprinted" the last 100-200 yards (transfer 12). I want this to be a sprint to the finish line. Tell myself that I AM going to make it!!! I ran a mile with out stopping, days before my final transfer.... I think that was a real life, hard core, visual aid to tell me how I can finish out my last transfer.

I CAN DO IT!!! I WILL DO IT!!! The final chapter of Sister Rankin serving in the NHMM starts today. Let's make it a great and happy ending!!!

Love, Sister Rankin

 Here is the damage to the car, when we were rear ended when I made a quick stop at a red light.