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
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
One year out.
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
Monday, March 14, 2011
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.
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
Monday, March 7, 2011
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
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
Monday, February 28, 2011
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
Monday, February 21, 2011
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
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
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day
Hello Everyone-
This week was.... interesting. On Tuesday we had a WONDERFUL Zone Conference at the JSM (Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial). It was fun, because S. Hatch, S. Amuli, S. Page, and I all drove up together. We learned a lot about the spirit, and working with members, and best of all MORMON.ORG!!!! Oh my gosh, if you couldn't tell from my e-mail last week, I LOVE Mormon.org!!!!
EVERYONE NEEDS TO MAKE A PROFILE AND CHECK IT OUT!!!!!! It is so good. It can be used as a tool to help non members, less active member, struggling members, ANYONE!!!! It really is better than facebook!!!!!!!!!!!
The rest of the week was a little sad. All of our investigators that we did have dropped us, and we met a lot of less active members who said they want their names removed from the records. :( That is so sad to hear!!!! As an active member, and someone who can't even imagine life with out the gospel, it is SO hard for me to hear people say they have joined a different church, or that they want their names removed. How could you go from having the Fullness, to something that only had bits and pieces of the truth???? The hardest is when they say, "Oh, there is no hard feelings towards the church, but we are leaving it!!" HOW?????? And I'm not just saying this because I am a missionary. I have felt like this my whole life, but I am faced with it even more now that I am a missionary!
Well on the happy note, we have laughed a lot this week. We were finally able to meet some of the active members. We got a dozen red roses from a member, and on Wednesday morning we heart attacked President Wilkey's office. Then we found out from Sister Hatch this morning, that he saw it Friday night, after a long, hard, tiring week. He said it really helped him, and was just what he needed! It's nice to live in the same area of the mission office and mission president, so that we can do nice things for them in return for all the nice things they do for us!
Oh, this last week when we played scrabble with the old ladies for service, we had a cool miracle after. We finished the game a little early, so we shared a scripture with them. Normally, I guess the sisters would share something from the Bible. Well we didn't know that, and we picked a scripture from the Book of Mormon. I was kind of nervous, because all the ladies are Catholic, and so is the worker. Well it ended up being a perfect thing. I have this feeling that the worker will some day investigate the church. She sat down and listened to the scripture, and then said, "I don't really know anything about the Mormon church, tell me a little about it. What makes it different?" So we were able to teach her a little about prophets. She took it well. Hopefully over time we will be able to teach her a little at a time, and she will some day accept the gospel!
Another cool experience from the week came as we were preparing for and teaching a convert of almost 2 years. His name is Paul. He was baptized 2 years ago this May. Three months ago he was in a car accident and broke his femur. After that we wasn't able to come to church for a while, and then now he can only stay for sacrament meeting. We had briefly meet him at church, but didn't know much about him. As we were planning for his lesson, we couldn't figure out what to teach him. We kept thinking of things, then didn't like it. All of a sudden we said, "Let's teach the Christ-like attribute of Charity and Love." We planned our lesson and moved on. When we got to the lesson and started teaching it, he just loved it. He kept saying how it was such a good lesson. He thanked us and said that it was exactly what he needed to hear that day! He also said that he hadn't really been reading his scripture lately, but because of how good he felt during the lesson, and how good reading from the scriptures felt, he committed to reading his scriptures again, everyday! It was amazing to see how the Lord helped us. We were struggling, but as soon as we let the spirit guide us, we planned exactly what he needed to hear at that time.
It's great to be a missionary here in the NHMM!!! I love my Savior, and am so grateful for all that he has done for me!!!
Happy Valentines day!
love, Sister Rankin
This week was.... interesting. On Tuesday we had a WONDERFUL Zone Conference at the JSM (Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial). It was fun, because S. Hatch, S. Amuli, S. Page, and I all drove up together. We learned a lot about the spirit, and working with members, and best of all MORMON.ORG!!!! Oh my gosh, if you couldn't tell from my e-mail last week, I LOVE Mormon.org!!!!
EVERYONE NEEDS TO MAKE A PROFILE AND CHECK IT OUT!!!!!! It is so good. It can be used as a tool to help non members, less active member, struggling members, ANYONE!!!! It really is better than facebook!!!!!!!!!!!
The rest of the week was a little sad. All of our investigators that we did have dropped us, and we met a lot of less active members who said they want their names removed from the records. :( That is so sad to hear!!!! As an active member, and someone who can't even imagine life with out the gospel, it is SO hard for me to hear people say they have joined a different church, or that they want their names removed. How could you go from having the Fullness, to something that only had bits and pieces of the truth???? The hardest is when they say, "Oh, there is no hard feelings towards the church, but we are leaving it!!" HOW?????? And I'm not just saying this because I am a missionary. I have felt like this my whole life, but I am faced with it even more now that I am a missionary!
Well on the happy note, we have laughed a lot this week. We were finally able to meet some of the active members. We got a dozen red roses from a member, and on Wednesday morning we heart attacked President Wilkey's office. Then we found out from Sister Hatch this morning, that he saw it Friday night, after a long, hard, tiring week. He said it really helped him, and was just what he needed! It's nice to live in the same area of the mission office and mission president, so that we can do nice things for them in return for all the nice things they do for us!
Oh, this last week when we played scrabble with the old ladies for service, we had a cool miracle after. We finished the game a little early, so we shared a scripture with them. Normally, I guess the sisters would share something from the Bible. Well we didn't know that, and we picked a scripture from the Book of Mormon. I was kind of nervous, because all the ladies are Catholic, and so is the worker. Well it ended up being a perfect thing. I have this feeling that the worker will some day investigate the church. She sat down and listened to the scripture, and then said, "I don't really know anything about the Mormon church, tell me a little about it. What makes it different?" So we were able to teach her a little about prophets. She took it well. Hopefully over time we will be able to teach her a little at a time, and she will some day accept the gospel!
Another cool experience from the week came as we were preparing for and teaching a convert of almost 2 years. His name is Paul. He was baptized 2 years ago this May. Three months ago he was in a car accident and broke his femur. After that we wasn't able to come to church for a while, and then now he can only stay for sacrament meeting. We had briefly meet him at church, but didn't know much about him. As we were planning for his lesson, we couldn't figure out what to teach him. We kept thinking of things, then didn't like it. All of a sudden we said, "Let's teach the Christ-like attribute of Charity and Love." We planned our lesson and moved on. When we got to the lesson and started teaching it, he just loved it. He kept saying how it was such a good lesson. He thanked us and said that it was exactly what he needed to hear that day! He also said that he hadn't really been reading his scripture lately, but because of how good he felt during the lesson, and how good reading from the scriptures felt, he committed to reading his scriptures again, everyday! It was amazing to see how the Lord helped us. We were struggling, but as soon as we let the spirit guide us, we planned exactly what he needed to hear at that time.
It's great to be a missionary here in the NHMM!!! I love my Savior, and am so grateful for all that he has done for me!!!
Happy Valentines day!
love, Sister Rankin
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