Easter Letter

(Jonathan is responding to my letter where I told him all about Time Out for Women):

Wow, that’s so exciting! It sounds like you had a great time. That actually brought up a few poems I read while my companion was emailing first.

   One of them is:

My Father at the helm

The curling waves, with awful rear,

A little bark assailed,

And pallid fear's distracting power

O'er all on board prevailed

Save one- the captain's darling child,

 Who fearless viewed the storm,

And, cheerful, with composure smiled

At danger's threatening form,

"And can you smile," a seaman cried,

"While terrors overwhelm?"

"Why should I fear?" the boy replied,

"My fathers at the helm."

So, when our worldly hopes are reft

Our earthly comforts gone,

We still have one sure anchor left

God heals, and He alone

He, to our prayers will lend an ear

and give our hearts relief;

and turn to smiles, each trembling fear

to joy, each torturing grief.

then look to Him, mid terrors wild,

when wants and woes o'er whelm,

Remembering, like the fearless child,

Our father’s at the helm!

I really like that poem.

Anyway, I’ll try to get some pictures to you (if I ever take some :) but we took a picture of our district this Wednesday because that was our last district meeting. Because Saturday we got our transfer calls. I'm still here in Berkeley and where there are still all sisters in our district but now there’s going to be a tripanionship so 5 sisters in our district. And the interesting thing is the sisters are switching wards. So we’re going to have the same sisters but they will just switch wards. It’s interesting.

There’s another poem I would like to type that I just found today while my companion was emailing and I think it applies to what I’m going through right now.

          Little by Little

"Little by little," an acorn said,

As it slowly sank in its mossy bed,

"I'm improving every day,

Hidden deep in the earth away,"

Little by little each day it grew,

Little by little it sipped the dew

Downward it sent a thread like root

Up in the air it sprung a tiny shoot

Up in the air it sprung a tiny shoot

Day after day and year after year,

Little by little the leaves appear;

And the slender branches spread far and wide,

Till the mighty oak is the forest's pride.

Far down in the depths of the dark blue sea,

An insect train works ceaselessly

Grain by grain they're building well

each one alone in its little cell

Moment by moment and day by day

Never stopping to rest or play

Rocks upon rocks they are rearing high

till the top looks out on the sunny sky

The gentle wind and the balmy air

Little by little bring verdure there

Till the summer sunbeams gaily smile

On the birds and flowers of the Coral isle.

"little by little," said a thoughtful boy,

"moment by moment I’ll employ,

learning a little everyday

And not spending all my time in play

"And still this role in my mind shall dwell,

whatever I do I will do it well

little by little I’ll learn to know 

the treasured wisdom of long ago

and one of these days perhaps well see 

that the world will be the better for me."

Do not you think that this simple plan

made him a wise and useful man?

I really think I’ve been growing little by little each day. I love it. I had my last New missionary follow up meeting where all of the new missionaries go and get taught. So I think I saw my MTC friends for the last time unless they are in my district or zone one day. That would be awesome. My companion was companions with his MTC companion that would be so fun. Anyway, while in the training meeting President Merideth said we are getting more English speaking sister missionaries this transfer than we have English speaking sister missionaries out in the field right now. And that he said to the elders, don’t be surprised if you are called to a leadership position with all sisters. So I think right now I am being trained on how to be a great district leader with all sisters in the district. I really learned that I don't seek for leadership opportunities, like that isn’t my goal, but I am constantly preparing for them in case I am called to one, knowing that even though I am called as a leader that doesn’t mean I am better or above anyone else. I really really love this Mission President. He is soo amazing and full with love. I’m so blessed he is my president and his wife is so amazing as well. It’s amazing.

An amazing thing happened. Last Saturday and Sunday our district fasted for investigators and missionary opportunities and Sunday after our dinner when we broke the fast we got a call saying a 9 year old in our ward told his dad that he wanted to get baptized, and the members we were eating with helped out the sister missionaries this week and now the sister missionaries had one of their investigators accept a baptismal date because of this member that resolved their concern. But this 9 year old boy is named Antonio Michaels. He’s amazing and so smart. It’s so exciting. He’s going to be my first baptism. His date is April 21'st.

It’s nice hearing from you. Hope you are doing great!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

1/12 of the way through

Can you believe that I’m 1/12 done with my mission!? That’s scary. I think me and my companion are getting along a little better so I’m happy about that too.

This week we taught an investigator but he was single so we had to refer him to the singles ward sisters. Did I tell you that I’m in a district with all sisters except me and Elder Doney? We’re the only ones on bikes too so it’s difficult. The mission president was at our district meeting this week and Elder Doney and him talked about that so we might get a car just to run around in. I think we'll still mainly use our bikes throughout the week unless we have to go to the super hilly places or on Pdays where we have to do laundry and shopping and stuff, because right now we’re borrowing the sisters’ car, while they email, to do our shopping and laundry. Our mission used to have the most cars out of any mission in the world but now we have the second most cars in any mission. That's what they said the first day I got here anyway and we’re getting 8 new cars this week.

Anyway, I had an exchange Tuesday with the zone leaders, but they are Spanish speaking elders so I got there and they had the day full of investigator lessons and all of the lessons fell through. I’m starting to think I’m a curse with investigators. But it ended up all right. We taught a member and the Elder I was with translated English to Spanish and it was great.

Friday I had a really great experience. I was talking to my companion when I mentioned I knew of an elder who brought a phone out with him on his mission and he could call home as long as he had wifi and he had music on his phone he could use. I forgot about this after I left the MTC but something brought it to my mind and I told my companion. Then he told me to call the mission president right away and he will take care of it because obedience is important. I really didn’t want to because this elder was great and I trusted he wouldn't use it and frankly I didn't want to rat him out or talk to the president about it, but after I talked to president about it my chest felt lighter and I felt like I did the right thing, but I still felt bad that I told on him. I think it’s the Lord seeing if he could trust me because if I didn’t tell president about that I don’t know what would have happened with the other guy but I did anyway. Elder Doney thinks that it’s the Lord preparing me to be a leader seeing if I could be trusted, and it shows the mission president that he can trust me as well.  I see this elder on Wednesday so I hope everything goes ok. He might know it was me but oh well I did it out of love to try and help him.

Anyway, since our district was having a hard time teaching people, we decided to fast yesterday for missionary work and things like that. And yesterday we found a perfect member who can help the sister missionaries with an investigator they have. And we got a call saying a 9 year old who is in our ward wants to be baptized so we can start teaching him this Tuesday.  I think he will be my only baptism in this area but I think it’s still exciting and shows me that fasting really does bring miracles!

I hope the test goes well and you can find out how to get better. Excited to hear where Kevin will be going that's awesome!  Oh and I got a letter from someone, I can’t remember who but that really made my day when I got that :) Stay safe and I’ll keep on praying for all of you!

   Love,

     Elder Ranquist

       Ofa Atu

Email to Dad: 

 Wow, I really like the poem. I read it out loud and we were kind of laughing beacuse it related to us really well, going up hill, funds are low, things like that. Wish I could print some of these things off but the printer here doesn't work. I'm liking it out here and hope the best for you. And if in the next package sometime can I get BYU vocal point? I really like their songs. Anyway, I'm excited to see where Kevin might be going that's awesome! I hope Jessica and Tyler are doing great. And also Drake and Emily. I'm having a lot of growing experiences out here. It's amazing. Anyway, good luck in your doctor appointment. I'll pray for you.
    Love,
       Elder Ranquist

Being Sent Home Early

Yes. That’s right, I'm being sent home from my mission early. I will not be serving a full 2 year mission. I regret to say that I will be returning home in one week less then my original departure. Ok, now that I have scared you and had enough fun I will tell you the truth. Everyone in the mission field right now is going home one week early. My transfer right now is only five weeks instead of six because everyone in the MTC is only spending two weeks there instead of three so transfers have to be shortened for there to be trainers to train them.

Also some amazing news is that we are now able to email home to friends! I can email people like Sean Ryan and people in the ward and my other missionary friends out here. That’s exciting to me. My companion is sad that he hasn’t had this able to him for his whole mission but I’m happy. This week has been hard. I have not met with a single investigator since I’ve been out here. I have not been able to extend the baptismal question to anyone which is a goal you were supposed to have within the first week. I have gotten a lot better at contacting people/tracting. I’m not perfect or great at it but definitely improved.

This week me and Elder Doney have been focusing on Family History work to contact people and a lot of people we’ve talked to have been interested and its great since we have a family history center right underneath our Visitor Center. I’ve been reading the red binder of our family history stories like Grandpa’s story and things like that during lunch or free time just so I could have an idea of some things to talk about. We've started to pray for service opportunities we can do last Monday and everyday except for I think Tuesday we’ve been able to serve people its amazing.

I've started carrying around a little booklet to right quotes and things I like down  to remember them, kind of like the missionary did in “The Best Two Years.” I'll share a few I put in there already. "We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available-all the time!" -Dieter F. Uchtdorf If you want to find in life those things that bring good results in your life, see what’s brought good results in the lives of those around you. -Grandpa Ranquist "Don't let your life be simply an existence that is fun or selfish. Life is more than an amusement park. Do not be hooked on obtaining possessions. Accept responsibility" -Ensign. Those are a few quotes that stuck out to me this week. I read this months Ensign and loved it. I especially enjoyed the article on Growing Resilient Children. I was amazed at how much stuff applied to me right now on my mission. I have about half of the article underlined. 

    I have gained a lot of weight. When I left home I was 145. When I left the MTC I was 147. Now I’m 159. Admittedly, I was wearing shoes, tie, belt, planner, and other things which must have weighed me down quite a bit. But really I have never eaten: so much, so good, and so often. Since I’m in this bike area I have been eating up plates and whenever I do I always think of how you don’t like the missionaries finishing off the food so you could have left overs. Honestly I have not fattened at all. I don’t think my belly has gotten any rounder. For one this I’m sure my legs and bottom have grown a sizable amount. Elder Doney is very specific on how he always wants health foods. We only get non high fructose corn syrup stuff like bread.

It’s amazing how hard you and dad are working. That’s amazing. I remember when dad worked a few extra shifts and he was drained the next day. I can’t imagine how it is now. And grandma, wow. I thought last year was supposed to be our busy year with 2 marriages and a mission. It seems like you guys aren’t going to get any rest. Keep it up, I don’t know what to say. It reminds me of the scripture D&C 89 18-21. I know it talks about the word of wisdom but I think it kind of applies. Also I was reading that Joel H. Johnson was there when Prophet Joseph Smith declared the Word of Wisdom. I thought that was amazing. Well, I have to get going here. I want to let you know I love you and the family and hope the best. Stay Strong!

    Sincerely,

       Elder Ranquist

That little trickster. He had me! I had to read the email during my student teaching...which I'm not really supposed to do. Sounds like he's doing well though! 

2nd Week

Dad's Email:

Wow thats amazing. I hope you are doing well! I just answered everything on Mom's email, but Elder Doney has been out for over a year and a half. He leaves in August I believe. I went out with the Spanish missionaries this week and it was amazing how open spanish speakers are to talk about religion and christ. Although I couldn't understand what they were saying I was just wishing that everyone was like that. Well I better give my companion some time to email his family since were only using 1 computer and he's waiting on me and I took awhile to write on moms email. I loved that scripture, thanks a lot!

    Love,

    Elder ranquist

Mom's Email:

I've been having such a great time here in Berkeley! I'm so sorry I forgot my camera at the apartment maybe I can upload some pictures next week. While we were out with the mission president he told us we can write letters during the week whenever we want as long as were not supposed to be doing anything else at that time so ill try to have a pen and paper wherever i go in case I have some time to write you a letter. The food out here is so amazing i haven't had a bad meal yet. The members in Berkeley 1st ward are awesome. since i've been out i've only gone 1 or 2 days without having dinner with a family and this week is all full of dinners as well and that's amazing! most of the reason is Elder Doney's last companion was Tongan and ate alot so he got all of the members to sign up for dinners so I have a lot of money saved up on my card because i barely have to buy any food. There's this one place here called CREAM. which means cookies revolve everything around me and it is delicious. You put 2 of whatever kinds of cookie you want which are warm and stick a big scoop of whatever ice cream flavor you want in the middle. Anyway, I love that im in a bike area its keeping me in shape so well (and its a smaller area).  the one bad thing is on P-days you have to borrow a car to do your shoping and laundry and stuff which takes up a lot of time. Thankfully some nice Sister missionaries let us use their car. Im in a District were there is all Sister missionaries except Elder Doney and I so its interesting. I kinda miss all of my friends from the MTC they were great. i was able to see them last thursday for a new missionary training practice which was cool.  My trainer has been pushing me really hard to learn the area and get to know how to do things on my own, but sometimes i think he pushes a little to hard because thats how his trainer taught him. They give all of the new missionaries a 12 week program now which you spend an hour on studying each day and teaches you different lessons you will need to know in order to pretty much be a better missionary. I'm worried that I will have to be a trainer here in a few months because there are so many new missionaries coming out.

     When my mission president first picked us up he said something along the lines of when the lord said go out and preach the gospel to the world all you have to do is come to San Francisco and im begining to see some truth in that. There are so many different languages and cultures out here its very different from Kentucky. We have fagien philipien leocean Chinese, Spanish, Cambodian, Tongan, Japanese and i cant remember them all. We have elders and sisters from all around the world its crazy. I've heard if there aren't enough elders in a language then sometimes the English elders have to learn a new language in the middle of their mission and serve there. I think that's scary if i would have to do that but i would love to learn Chinese and my mission is the perfect time to do that. I did meet with the bishops wife's family members the first day i got here, we went to a Chinese buffet and we talked for a few minutes. they seem really nice but i wont be able to see them.

     I've had some great experiences out here. Yesterday my companion and i went to the local BART station which is a mass transit train kindof thing i think you get the idea. But we would stand right next to the wow whats that called.. the moving stair case thing i dont know.. but we would stand on the top of that and as someone got on we would get on with them and have 30 seconds of were they were trapped and we could talk to them. My trainer showed me 3 examples and left them with pass along cards. So when it was my turn we were at the top ot the staircase and I couldnt build up the currage to make a contact and Elder Doney started to talk to me about having faith and stuff like that. and after he had done that for about 5 minutes a random man walked up to me and started talking to me about how he's seen us before and likes us but doesn't believe in our principles he "always walks by faith". So i had to just do an imaginary face palm and know that its not just a coincidence that a random man comes up to me randomly and starts to talk to me about doing things by faith right after Elder Doney just got done talking to me about that same thing. So i eventually did start doing it and most of them turned me down i still think i grew a little.

    One thing i don't like about Elder Doney is that he pushes me too far some times. Like yesturday i had to lead a lesson all by myself and i wasnt prepared all the wa and he didnt help me out during the lesson so it went admittedly pretty bad. And afterward the member that we brought along shared a brief story about how he would fail bad at the beginning of his mission too. When we went out with the mission president i led the first lesson but that was with a less active member so she knew what i was talking about and it went great but i just cant lead a lesson with an investigator yet. Sometimes i think my companion sets me up to fail so that i can learn from those failures but oh well ill learn stuff better as i go on. 

   My ward out here is great but one thing that isn't that great is none of them really do any missionary work. So thats been a struggle. My companion keeps on saying lately its been only 2 people searching through the mud pile for golden nuggets when if we had the ward with us there would be 250 people searching for gold nuggets in a mud pit. And i think that's kind of true. 

   Ive been having a great time out here Sadly the Hershey's kisses are gone :( i loved those haha. Also there is some songs call a tribute to missionaries or national tribute to missionaries or Nashville tribute to missionaries or something i don't know but it has great songs on them and i was wondering if i could get some of those. maybe there is some already on my iPod im not sure. I hope you guys are having a great time a lot of the people we talk to know about the temple because its close by us and on a hill and easy to see so i hope you guys are keeping up the good work in the temple. When does Jessica find out if the baby's a boy or girl? have they thought of any names? I think itll be a boy im not sure though lol just guessing. Well have a great time I love you!

  Love,

      Elder Ranquist

One more story before I leave. Elder Doney's last companion elder lehalui had a dream that he met a man named Ruben and baptised him. He went all around and found someone named Ruben Noriega. his wife is a member but he is strong in the Catholic faith. Elder Lehalui knows that its him and was really sad that he left and didn't get to teach a lesson to him. This week Ruben gets home from a baseball championchip since he is a couch for berkeley baseball i think and so We are going to stop by sometime either monday, tuesday, or wednesday because he leaves for another championchip thursday. Elder Doney and Sister Noriega believes i have been sent here so i can baptize Ruben because i went to 4 years of catholic high school and i can relate to Ruben and know his concerns. Sadly i dont remember a lot of what my teachers said when they were teaching about catholisizm but ill try to remember. I'm not sure if i have been sent here but maybe. the hardest part is getting him to church for 3 sundays because he always has baseball games on the weekend that thats going to be a challenge but the lord provides away. maybe hes finally going to get some home games so he can stay home for 3 sundays.

  one thing that is helpful in preparing to go on the mission is get pens with a fine point. Like the zebra pens. I came out with what jessica gave me which i liked and used but we have pocket sized planners and its SO hard to write legibly with such a thick pen so i got the zebra 402 from office depot and just keep on getting refills all the time. so thats a tip for kevin. And wow I do remember Eric Anderson thats awesome this is an exciting time for sure! love you by Tell Jessica, Tyler, Emily, and Drake I love them.

First Week in the Field!

We got a picture! This is Elder Ranquist with his companion, Elder Doney, and his mission president! 

He didn't have much time, but still managed an email!

Im SO sorry i have absolutly no time right now im at the local Berkeley library and my companion Elder Doney and I are about to be picked up by the mission president in a few minutes so we have to run back to our apartment. Having a great time! I'm in what we call Bazerkely because we have the most crazies and gays in our area, so it's been interesting. We had to borrow a car from the sisters this morning to do our laundry and then went shopping. The thing that took up our time was getting me a bike and they are expensive... love you bye i have to go RIGHT now.

 

I actually have about 2 or 3 minutes more so I'm having a great time. My first area is in Berekley right next to the campus. Our church building is right next to our appartment so we run to it every morning for exercise. Really scared about the Mission President coming out with us today. This will be my first real lesson. All of my other lessons fell through so I guess we'll see how I do. I can't write a letter today either. I'm sorry I'll make it a priority to email you next week see you later.