9/22/13

Hello

Well, this week we've seen a lot of blessings! Sunday after church we added a new investigator, who came to church. He accepted a baptism date for November 9th. He does have a problem with smoking, but I have faith that he can stop and be prepared by that date. After that lesson we stopped by another new investigator and he decided he wants to be baptized! 

Another thing that seems to be going great is Elder Ryan and I seem to be talking to each other a lot more. We've been companions for so long we just don't know what to say anymore, but this week has been fun as we've started to talk to each other. It is a huge blessing to have Elder Ryan with me for training Elder Thomas, We can both help Elder Thomas out in his English learning and get him used to being a missionary. Every thing is going great. I had my first district meeting a few days ago :) Still need to work on my public speaking skills, haha, but oh well. Experiences to help me grow!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/18/13

Hello!

This week has been pretty rough. We picked up the new Elder, Elder Thomas last Wednesday. He's from the Marshall Islands and doesn't know English very well so it is hard to communicate with him. It is also very hard because he just doesn't want to do anything except sleep on the bed. I am so very thankful to have Elder Ryan with me and he helps out a lot.

I was able to go to the temple this morning. It was pretty difficult though. Elder Thomas had to wait to get some permission to get into the temple so we were late for our session and so we were doing initiatories and then we were late for the next session! So then we just sat in the waiting room for the next session to start and were able to see the new movie :D So we do not have a lot of time at all today.

Our closest baptism is November 2nd and his name is Alex.  He has word of wisdom problems so that's why its so far away.

I think that the new music would be great. I would love that or the ring, but what I was wondering for my birthday was actually some pictures from home. My old companion Elder Bishop had a GiiNii where its a clock and you could put a memory card for pictures in it. The only picture I have of home is the St. Patrick's day card you sent. Also, we have a lack of clocks in our apartment. But I don't know how expensive it is so I don't need it if it’s too expensive. Or you could always buy a gun and just keep it there until the end of my mission! :P hahaha

Love you guys so much. One of my old companions sent me an email and had a quote in it that I like. "We reach our greatest heights while on our knees"

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/9/13

Sorry to everyone who is reading the blog! I realize I haven't posted Elder Ranquist's letters in a month. Let's just say the month of August was a busy one! Work, school starting, Tyler's play every night, moving, baby shower, babysitting Tyler's family, parents here, etc. You know how it goes ;) I'll try to do better! 

This week has been mixed with all types of up and downs....  This week I have started to have a huge thirst for knowledge and finding things out. I've started to write quotes into the margins of my scriptures and putting sticky notes on my Preach My Gospel. I hope I can continue to have this thirst for knowledge even after my mission. I'm sure it will help me in my studies. 

   But, the sort of down part of it is we just got transfer calls... I am staying in the area, but I have been called to be a trainer AND a District Leader. This week I have admittedly been very stressed out. The interesting thing is our mission just got a new booklet called "Adjusting to Missionary Life" which is full of suggestions on how to relieve stress. I have really enjoyed that blessing and have continually gone back to the scriptures for comfort and peace. Thankfully, Elder Ryan will still be my companion so we will be back in a Trio again. But Elder Ryan’s visa is actually starting to make progress so he might be leaving next transfer.

   Oh, and yes, I sadly did lose my ring. I lost it about 7 weeks ago. I have been looking everywhere for it, but I cannot find it. I have not enjoyed not having it :(

   The argyle socks was an idea our district had when we went to a dollar store. We got all matching socks, all matching ties (but they are all different colors), and matching tie clips just to have some fun :)

   By the way, has Keith left on his mission yet? I want to be able to email him some time. I think that would be great.

I will not be writing to you next week on Monday. We will be attending the Temple on Thursday so I will send an Email to you Thursday. 

   Love,

    Elder Ranquist

9/2/13 Baptism!

Those pictures are great! I love them, it is expecialy weird to see Tyler with a beard.

I went to an Asian dollar store and they had a device for 1 dollar that puts your camera memory card into a usb so now I can upload pictures really easily even when the computer doesn't have a memory card slot, I was very glad when i found it.

But to the good news. TASHA WAS BAPTIZED!!! It was an amazing experience. I must say we did have a close call but it was taken care of, not with Tasha or anything it was with the baptism font... We scheduled the font for 12 and the people we scheduled that time with said their would be a baptism before you so the font should be full when you get there. But the baptism before us was canceled and we did not get any head up! Thankfully brother Nilsson the guy you see in the pictures, got their early and noticed the lights were off and the font had not started yet so he got it started. Thankfully it was filled in time and the baptism went smoothly! I have absolutely come to love Tasha. I love to know that, when I eventually get transferred or end my mission I have no fear of Tasha ever losing her testimony and going less active. She has such a strong testimony and ALL of the ward absolutely loves her! They are really excited to have her. This ward has not had a baptism for a year, this is the first baptism this bishop has done ever. The bishop absolutely loves her, he served his mission in Louisiana... and thats were Tasha used to live! This week end flew by so fast but I just wanted to savor the happiness I was feeling. 

Also right after the baptism we went by one of our investigators. This investigator, Alex, has gone to church for 2 years and has never been baptized. But now he wants to be baptized and that night commited to a date of November 2nd. It is so far away because he has a problem with coffee and is really addicted to it but he has a desire to change.

We sometimes teach Gospel Principles class when our ward mission leader/gospel principals teacher asks us too. Its a hard thing to do especially as a missionary because you just don't have a lot of time to prepare a great lesson, but my companion and I did it yesterday about missionary work, unexpectedly Tasha commented on some things we were talking about and she boar her testimony and said, at first, she had no desire to ever join this church when she was meeting with us, but she felt the spirit as we met and came to a knowledge that this is the true church. It melted my heart when she said that.

I love to hear about everything going on. I especially love how you are doing so much missionary work! I can see how it has been help Rachel and know that you are doing a great work. Sadly I was never close to Alex West, Is he on his last year at BYU? Elder Bishop, my companion who just went home can "slap him into shape" :D

Tasha's Baptism

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Elders in matching ties (different colors) and argyle socks from the dollar store

8/25/13

I am so excited for this week! We attended a baptism last saturday hoping Tasha would be able to make it, but sadly she had work meetings that ran late so she couldn't. But we still enjoyed the baptism and it got me really pumped for this Saturday! I love to see people changing their life  and having the blessing of living the gospel. Saturday evening, while we were teaching a lesson I was just pondering in my head just how much I have come to love the gospel. It has brought so much peace and joy to my life!

Sadly this week was not as successful as last week, my companion was sick all Friday, throwing up, so we had to stay at the apartment all day. I think when you have to spend a day at the apartment it shows what kind of missionary you really are. You can either spend time just relaxing and "taking the day off", or you could do studies and try to call members and do planning. While my companion was sick in bed I did weekly planning, studies, and contacting members through out the day, and when he woke up during lunch time I made him some macaroni and cheese. I look back at that and realize how much I've changed, I don't think I would have ever done that in December, I would have just "taken the day off" This Sunday the topic was on service, so I was smiling the whole time because I knew I did some service. :D

I am excited to see the pictures, and pictures from the trip as well it sounded like it was fun! :)

Thank you for all the things you have done for me and your prayers!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

8/19/13

This week was a phenominal week.  2 weeks ago we had a total of 6 lessons we were able to teach. But this week we had 17 lessons we taught. Which almost tripled what we did 2 weeks ago! We had a goal to find 3 new investigators last week.... we found 11 new. At the end of the week we decided to change our goals for this week so we can keep up the hard work. Sunday night is when the district leader calls to get our key indicators from us to see what we did during the week. We were fighting over who would be able to talk to him because we were just so happy!

Tasha is doing well, we will be able to be at her baptism. Transfers will be a week after her baptism we planned that because we want to be able to baptize her :)

We were able to meet with Alex. We sadly didn't extend a baptism date because we didn't feel it was right. But next lesson this week we are planning on extending a date and we know he is ready. It's so exciting. 

We had Zone conference last week on Wednesday. During zone conference the mission president asked a few elders to come up to talk about some of the miracles they had as they found new investigators. One set of elders were asked to come up. They are the spanish elders that cover the same area as we do. They said at the end, they will be handing these new investigators to Elder Ranquist and Elder Ryan. We were stunned. That is how we were able to receive 11 new is from the Spanish elders. They gave us 7 new investigators and the other 4 came from formers or other referrals. 

Were going to have a great week this week! Hope you do as well. Have fun with Tyler's performance and at education week!

Love,

Elder Ranquist