Final Week......

Hello everyone---
So this was a very interesting week. Lot's of miracles though!!!
Monday we went candle stick bowling as a district. That was fun!!!

That night we went and saw Kelly.... We had a lesson on God's love. Then we went and stopped by a family that we had met last transfer I think. They keep telling us to come back the next week. Well she was trying to get rid of us, but we just talked to her a little more, and then she let us in. We were able to have a really good contact with her. Sadly, they didn't want to set up a return appointment, but we did leave them with a Book of Mormon, and the spirit in their home. The wife is VERY interested, but the husband not as much. :( But as we were driving home, we got a VERY exciting message. It was from a member son, of a part member family that we had been teaching from Feb-May off and on, but hadn't been able to see them since the 2nd of June. He told us that he was down visiting his mom, brother, and sister, and they wanted us to come over for dinner and a lesson. We were SO excited. So we called back. We said we could come over on Saturday, and the mom was like... "Not till Sat...." We were like, well we could come over tomorrow night! She said, "Perfect. my kids want to take the lessons and get baptized. I have been sober for 18 days, and we are ready to come back to church!!!!" I was driving, so I wasn't talking on the phone, but when I heard that, tears came running down my face. THIS IS A HUGE CHANGE OF HEART!!!! We both got silent, and the mom was like, "Are you still there?" Wow, we were just SO excited for them!!!!

So Tuesday we did some tracting in the morning, then after lunch we went to stop by Ajok, and give her her Arabic Book of Mormon. This was going to be the last time that we tried stopping by. Well she answered the door this time! We came in, taught her about the Bible and the Book of Mormon, answered her questions... after about an hour, her real concern came out... darn polygamy... she saw a show about the FLDS, and thought it was us... so we cleared that up. She said everything in the Book of Mormon that she was reading made sense. GOOD. Then we went and played scrabble, Taught Jackie, and then went to teach the part member family.....

It was a good lesson. They were all involved, and excited about learning. What a miracle. Shows the importance of not giving up on people... especially if you feel like you SHOULDN'T!!!! The spirit was letting me drop them earlier... GOOD THING!

Wednesday we had another good lesson with Theresa, then tracted some. We were supposed to teach this one lady again, but when we got to the members house, she wasn't there again. So instead we played "Quiddler" with 3 of the elderly ladies in our ward for a little bit. That was another fun word game.

Wednesday night we got a temple square sister... Sister Andersen from Las Vages!!! She is super cool!!!!

Thursday was district meeting. Oh boy, we went and ate lunch at this sketchy restaurant... They charged $1 for water, and the food was NOT good... never going there again.... but it did give us some good laughs! Later that night we were able to teach Jackie! She is so cool. We had to push back her baptism date till Oct. 15th, but she is still super excited.

Friday we taught the Shimmels after planning. Sarah finished the Book of Mormon, and knows it's true!!!!!!!! Then we had an exchange with Derry. We taught a few more lessons that day! It was a FULL day of teaching! Love those days!!!

Saturday we had a ward activity. We got to play Badminton with some of the girls in the ward. That was fun. Then we went to Derry's baptism to switch back from our exchange.

Sunday..... The Vincent's came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITING!!! We were so happy!!!!! It was kind of hard at church... being my last one as a full time missionary. It was a great day. We were able to do some tracting, we got caught in a random New England summer down pore, see Kelly and Lauren, and the Meyers!!!!

Well that is all... I will see you all soon!!!

love, Sister Rankin