Easter Week

Hello Everyone--

So this week we had a lot of exciting things happen. Last Monday we were able to pick up the new Sister, and she stayed the night at our house... then it ended up that Sister Hatch is training her, so she is in our district.

Tuesday we were able to go to transfer meeting, and help make the sack lunches, then clean the church after. Transfer meetings are always so spiritual!!! I love them! Then also on Tuesday, we taught our investigator Kelly.... she accepted a baptismal date!!!!! For June 17th! we were so stoked when we left the lesson!!!!

Wednesday we were able to teach a "workshop" at the YM/YW activity. We taught about preparing for a mission. It was fun.

Thursday morning we are putting our coats on to go out the door, and we find a note in our pockets with $20 in it... It said, "To shine your shoes, or buy new ones." So the night before at the mutual activity, the Elders did a thing where they had the kids shine the elders shoes. We were giving them a hard time, and saying, "Why didn't you tell us to bring our shoes too... they need shining, and we don't even know how to do it." One of the YW leaders said, "Well you can just buy new ones, who needs to shine them." Then Sister Page and I just looked at each other and laughed. Well, because of that, she gave us each $20 so we could either go get our shoes shined, or get new ones. It was so sweet!!!!

Saturday we got to learn how to transplant seedlings. That was fun. We also got a new investigator out of it. She is a 10 year old who was being taught by the Sisters before we got here, but when we got here they dropped us. Because of the Africa party we went to a few weeks ago, we were able to meet the mom again and set up service. Well after 2 weeks of service, we are teaching the 10 year old again!!! yay!!! (Oh, it snowed a little on Saturday.... :( boo, that is not allowed anymore!!!)Later that day, we had one of the laurals in our ward come tracting with us for a couple hours. That was fun. She actually enjoyed it, and wants to come with us again some time! :)

Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs. that was fun.... but of course, I got too excited and put 5 out of my 6 eggs into the dye all at the same time, so I was done really quickly. haha. But it was still fun.

Yesterday Kelly was at church!!!!!!!! Yay!! We were super excited. After church we stopped by a few less actives and recent converts, then had dinner at the Spencer families house. They were so cute, the kids did an Easter egg hunt for us. it was fun!!!

Well that was pretty much my week... I don't know what else to say.... other than... keep the letters coming! :)

Love ya!

Love, Sister Rankin

Hello

Hello Everyone--


So this week was interesting. We had some taste of spring, and then two massive snow storms.

Monday we had dinner with a family in the ward. It was fun to get to know some more members better. Tuesday we tracted a lot, and then at night went and met a less active lady. It was really cool. The Sunday before was her first time coming to the Bedford ward. She has lived her a couple years. She travels a lot for work, and goes to church when she travels, but not here. Sister Page, being the wonderful missionary she is, asked if we should go sit by that lady. I was hesitant, because we were already sitting, and what not. Well we got up and went and sat by her. She was so excited. We asked if we could go see her during the week, to get to meet her. She said yes. Well when we went and met her, we heard her whole story. She had kind of made a deal with Heavenly Father. She said that is she went to church, and no one came and talked to her, and she didn't feel the family feel, then she wasn't going back to church until she moves back to CO..... (She had gone to a different ward in the stake out here 4 times, and not a single person talked to her. she would try to talk to people, but they kind of shunned her.) And we came and sat by/talked to her. She was telling us all sorts of other things that were totally cool!!!!! Then the thought we went to share with her, was in her favorite book in the scriptures. It was neat to be able to be part of someones "answer" to their prayers. And the fact that she noticed it, and was SO grateful, was really cool too!!!

Wednesday was a crazy day. We had to take our car into the shop. It took an hour and a half, we weren't in our area, and so we walked across the street to walmart. (That and the mall were they only things in site.... and there was no place to walk to try to street contact or anything). After trying to kill as much time as possible there, we went back and waited for our car. Then we had dinner with another family in the ward that we had never met. That was fun!!!

Thursday I almost won in scrabble for service. I was a head the whole game, until the last round. Then the lady who always wins went ahead by 2 pts. Bummer.... but then I had some extra letters left over, so I had to minus another 6 pts. But I was so excited that I almost won a word spelling game..... WHAT!! I can't spell, and I have the smallest vocabulary ever. So I was pretty excited about that.

Friday a huge snow, rain, sleet, cold storm came in. Our cars weren't grounded, but we were given a 3-5 mile max. radius...... Well we live 2 miles away from our area. So we drove 3 1/2 miles away, parked our car then walked.... Oh boy, if only you could have seen us..... Surprisingly, that was the happiest day for us the whole week. We had a lot of fun. I had to like scale a mountain of snow to get to a door, we kept getting splashed by slush as the cars drove by... so we made a game out of it. Every time we got splashed we had to sing a hymn.... we had to sing a few songs.

Saturday I was sick all day. I slept and stayed in bed. :S NOT FUN!!! You would think a "day off" as a missionary sounds fun, but it's not. It is super boring. You are used to always doing something, or calling someone or studying... but when you just lay in bed all day, it is SO boring!!!! But it was nice, the elders in my district (all 4 of them) came over and gave me a blessing. That's one nice thing about living so close to other missionaries... they can do things like that. haha.

Sunday was another big snow day. Church was cancelled after Sacrament meeting. So once again, we trudged through lots and lots of snow to get to peoples doors.... I always thought I was going to hate tracting in the snow. I didn't like tracting in the rain, but I actually really like the bad weather snowy days. I get to laugh a lot. It's weird... but I am always happier on those days. Maybe it's because I'm laughing at how ridiculous we much look walking through the deep snow going to peoples doors... I don't know!

Well I can't believe my year mark is approaching so fast!!! Crazy. 2 1/2 weeks away! :S

Well we still have no investigators, but we had a few less actives that we can teach, that want to come back to church, so that is exciting.

hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Rankin

11 months........Crazy

Hello Everyone--


So I hit my 11 month mark on Thursday. That was weird!!! I can't believe I have been out that long. I know I say this every time one of my month marks hit, but where has the time gone?

So Monday was Valentines day.... It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, and it got up to 53*!!!!!!!! So nice! That night we had a dinner with a cute young couple (recent convert/recently active) who is our new meal coordinator. Well she wanted to talk about all our rules and stuff with both sets of missionaries... So we had valentines day dinner with the Elders as well. We didn't even think anything of it till we were leaving, and the elders said, "Yeah, that was kind of weird to have dinner with the sisters on Valentines day." hahaha, we started laughing so hard. I guess that is kind of weird. But as a missionary, all the holidays seem the same.

Friday we were able to tract for almost 2 hours with out our coats on. We just has sweaters. It was 55*! So good.... but then Saturday was so bitter cold and windy, it wasn't even funny! On Friday I got my package of hand warmers and toe warmers. We were all joking about how I'm really going to need those now. Especially in the nice 55* weather. Well the joke was on us. I definitely used hand warmers on Saturday.

So we are still dealing with lots of ice on the drive ways. It would melt during the day, and just be standing water, but then it would freeze, nice and smooth during the night. Oh boy, I wish we had a video camera to record us walking us and down driveways. Going up to the house is usually the easy part. It's when we are leaving. Either we can't make it back up the driveway, we just slide down, or we can't go down, with out sliding too fast. We have had to hold on to houses, trees, things we thought were trees, but they were actually broken off branches.... we have even had to grab onto tiny little snow balls on the side of the drive ways, to keep us from going down. It is SO funny!!!!

This week we had some cultural experiences. On Friday we taught the deaf recent convert in the ward. We had one of the girls come and sign for us. That was interesting. In Plymouth the deaf couple could read lips really well. He can't really read lips very well... so everything had to go through the interpreter. Then that night we had dinner with a family from El Salvador. They made us this delicious native food... it's called Paposa (or something.). It has meat, beans, and cheese in this corn tortilla/pancake type thing. Then you put this salad/coleslaw type stuff on top. SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! We ate with them again on Sunday, and had traditional chicken tamales, and this drink that starts with an A. It has milk, corn, oatmeal, pineapple, cinnamon and other stuff in it. it is boiled together then you drink it. It was actually pretty good.... the only thing weird in it was the chunks of corn and stringy stuff from the pineapple.

WE are still trying to find people to teach. This week we were blessed with finding some less actives that actually want us to come back and teach them. They want to come back to church... granted they all live in the Elders areas, but they are all single women, so the Elders told us we could teach them! :) yay!!!

Well that was our week. We did a lot of tracting, and trying to meet people.

I hope everyone is doing well! GO TO MORMON.ORG AND MAKE A PROFILE!!!!! It's super cool!

love, Sister Rankin

week 2 in Bedford

Hello Everyone--

To start off, Thank you everyone for all the birthday cards and wishes!!! I promise I will write you all back, it just might take a while. P-days here in Bedford are a little crazy, so we don't have much time at the end of the day.

So I turned 22 this week.... It seemed like just a normal day on the mission. I guess that is also just part of getting old! haha ;P

On Wednesday our cars were grounded. So Sister page and I spent the morning walking around Manchester trying to help people shovel their snow... no one would let us help. :( But we were able to talk to a lot of people, so that was nice! I will say, I miss our Subaru Impreza from Plymouth. It had 4 wheel drive, and our car here in Bedford doesn't. We got stuck trying to go up some hills this week. A few of them we couldn't make it up them. Some I was able to by driving back and forth up it. haha. Luckily no cars were coming the other way.

There is SO much snow here, it's not even funny. You can not see anything when trying to turn the corner. It's kind of scary actually. But we are being safe.

Thursday we went and did service at an assisted living home. We play scrabble with the old ladies. Oh boy, they are so funny. They always argue over the rules, and if words are actually words. Sister Page and I just go with the flow. We don't worry if they add up our score wrong or not, but the old ladies, they make sure it's exact. It is fun though. We are able to have good conversations with them.

Friday was a great day. Hannah Jones got baptized. We spent a good chunk of the day filling the font, and cleaning the church. It was so cute, after she came up out of the water, she said, "Yay! I'm so happy!!!!" After she was so excited. Then on Sunday before church she came up and was telling us about how she feels now! It was SO exciting to hear. She is only 17, and the only member in her family. She has such a solid testimony, and the spirit is just bubbling out of her. That was a really neat experience to see!!!

On Saturday we were able to go on line and check out mormon.org. OH MY GOODNESS, it is SO cool!!!!!! EVERYONE SHOULD GO AND CHECK IT OUT, CREATE A PROFILE, AND TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT!! We are going to be using it a lot more in our mission now. I am super excited about it! It's cooler than facebook!!!! :P haha.

Also on Saturday, I experience freezing rain for the first time. It was raining, but when it would hit the ground it would turn into ice. So everything was a solid sheet of ice.... it was weird. I could hardly walk with out slipping. But Sunday morning, when the sun hit the tree's that were covered in ice, it was SO pretty!!!!

Well that was my week! We are working hard, not getting as lost, and enjoying ourselves!!!

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes!

love, Sister Rankin

Sister Rankin after slipping

Transfer 8

Hello Everyone--


So not only did I shot gun, but I am also follow up training!!! I am serving in..... BEDFORD, NH!!! My mission president is in my ward, and the AP's. It is a big ward, and our area is tiny, but has tons of people. Oh my goodness, I went from the boonies of Sisters areas, to one of the biggest city sister's areas.

I am follow up training Sister Page from Nebraska. She has been in the field for 6 weeks. She is amazing!!! I swear she is not a greenie at all! I am learning so much from her already. So we got to our new area on Tuesday afternoon..... So we have 2 sets of missionaries in our ward... so we are allowed to go anywhere in the ward boundaries to visit members, but then we have to stay in our own to teach and find.... Well, we had two maps saying what our area was. We called the AP's, and they didn't really know either. So we sort of know our area (and we don't live in our area), but not really. We have gotten SO lost, but we are having fun! We are laughing a lot!

I will say, I don't like driving in a city!! It is so weird. Way too many cars, and people crossing the street, and where do we park???? But it is good. We don't really know what's going on still. We have only seen one of our investigators, a 17 yr old girl named Hannah Jones. We met her on Thursday and she had a baptism date for Feb. 25th.... well that night we were told that she is getting baptized on Friday Feb. 4th.... WHAT! So we have been trying to rush to get everything done, so that she can be baptized then.... And since I have no experience with that yet, I don't really know what I'm doing.

We have been doing a lot of trying to contact potential investigators, so we haven't done much tracting yet.... which is so weird to me, because that is pretty much all I did for 5 of my previous 6 transfers.

Shot gunning is crazy. Training is crazy. Luckily, my greenie is so good, that it's not even like I'm training. The only thing that is a little difficult here, is that our area borders the mission boundaries.... so we accidentally got lost one day, and realized we weren't even in our mission any more... :S But we quickly got back into it, and decided NOT to go that way again. We are both used to big areas, and our map scale was like 2 or more miles for each box on the map. Well here it is like 1/4 of a mile per box, and so we think we have a long ways to go, but really we don't. So we find ourselves way in the wrong direction.

Well we are still trying to find our way around, and meet our investigators, so I don't have much else to say. Other than it is weird to be in Bedford, because I feel like I know people here already. Sister Hill would talk about it all the time, and show me pictures (she served here for 7 1/2 months).... but in real life i haven't actually met them yet. haha. It's fun to also see other missionaries all the time!!!

Oh, PS.... SISTER HATCH IS IN MY DISTRICT! Yay!! (she was my MTC companion). We are in same district, so we see each other at district meeting, then we hang out on P-days, and we see each other at church on Sundays!!!! So awesome!!!!!!

Well I love you all, and I can't believe my birthday is tomorrow. It doesn't seem like it..... But I know I am old now, because this morning I was able to say... "I did that like 15 years ago." If I did something 15 years ago, and I still remember it, that means I am getting old now... the big 22!!!

Write me! :)

love, Sister Rankin


Mom,
I am so happy to have gotten transferred.  Our apartment is in the basement of a members home. It is weird, tiny, and dark. But we are making the best of it. We also have no door between our apartment and the members living quarters... that is awkward sometimes. The area is so small, but tons of homes and people. We have a big (for New England) ward. I am picking up my birthday package from the mission office today. I was going to get in on Friday, but I didn't want to be tempted to open it early.


I'm all better now.. no more sickness.