5/5/14

Wow, this week went by so fast. I really don't know what to say other than I'll see you Sunday! But, I know you won't accept that.

 

My ankle is feeling a lot better. I plan on stopping by a sports shop today and buying an ankle brace to support it so Ican start playing some sports again.

 

Oh, something exciting! Our investigator is getting baptized this Saturday! Exciting, exciting. One of the missionaries is coming here and baptizing here (Elder Booth) who was actually the missionary I replaced. I was able to get to know him a little bit. Katie is her name. She is going off to SVU for college after she graduates.

 

Our other 2 baptismal dates are back on track, Marjo and Graham. They are living the word of wisdom and really excited for their baptism coming up as well. 

 

We are going to do the Skype call from the same place as Christmas in the Valenzuela’s home. We are going to go there around 3:30 to 4 o’clock our time so I guess that’s 6:30 to 7o’clock your time, if that’s ok. Hopefully, it is becauseI wont be able to get a response from you if it isn't. 

 

See you on Sunday have a great week! :)

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

4/28/14

This week has been pretty... Different I guess. Well, after I emailed last week our district went on a hike together in some close by hills and we found a soccer ball laying near by so we decided to play for a few minutes in a flat spot near by. Sadly, I was running to get the ball and my left foot went into a gopher hole. It hurt pretty badly, but I went to go get ice cream with the rest of the district. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day in bed keeping it up in the air and pressure off of it. I had to do that for a few days and then I got crutches. It’s really annoying to do missionary work on crutches.. It kills your arm pits and your wrists as well. Not sure how much longer I’m going to be using the crutches, maybe for 1 more week. I got a lot of comments on it at church from all the members haha. And my acne has flared up recently so it kills to shave every morning with a hand razor. I’m thinking an electric one would be more comfortable for me. I was wondering if there is any left over cream for my face left at home? Or an electric shaver I could use :)

 

Anyway, besides all of that depressing stuff, I had a great week this week. We had a member of the MissionPresidency come to our Ward this Sunday and shared with us a lot of great ideas in helping out our ward. And, our High Councilman over missionary work invited us over and we were able to figure out some things to help our Zone. I am always amazed at how strong these leaders are and how loving and concerned they are for everyone. TheMission Presidency member went around to everyone before and afterSacrament and got to know them and their story and met a few of our investigators who were there. A lot of the members were amazed at how caring he was for everyone. It was great to see and learn from!

 

Anyway, I'm having such a great time here enjoying the missionary work that’s being done here. Looking forward to doing more missionary work in the future! Good luck this week, and have fun!

 

Love,

 

Elder Ranquist

4/21/14 Easter

Thank you so much for the package! I enjoyed it a lot. Sadly, I tried to use the Taco Bell card Saturday and they said it didn't have any money left on it so Iended up just paying myself.

I was able to see the “Because of Him”video a few times. We tried to invite people to watch it when we would talk to people on the streets and we just got a bunch of "yeah. sure" type of answers.

This Saturday, there were 2 marriages going on, one from the Tongan ward and one from our ward. I was thinking about Rusty getting married and I thought it was weird, but I'm happy for him. 

 

About a month or 2 ago, my district leader gave a training on the spirit and how we need to be personally sanctified and then he read from a letter from a missionary who was in our mission about 5 years ago who went through this process and saw miracles happen pretty much. I decided yesterday that I would start this "40 day fast" of things I have written down on a list that aredistracting me on my mission that I will abstain from, or if I put it on the list to improve, I will improve it. I hope by doing this I may become a more sanctified missionary!

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

4/14/14

That’s so cool! I love Thunder. Thank you for the package. I haven't got it yet, but I sure am excited.

Thank you dad for the quote. That goes along with what I have been thinking this week. I'm not the "Smiley boy" I used to be. I'm trying to work on that again. Get back to where I used to be. My teenage years set a bad habit :)

 

Graham is still going strong on staying off of cigarettes. We found out that he has been drinking a little bit of Coffee and his wife Marjo has been drinking Tea. It was sad. They are going to get baptized though. Our recent convert, Joel brought his daughter to our lessons so were teaching her. She's going to be baptized too! And, we street contacted into a lady who was going through a hard time. Her mom passed away a year and a half ago, but it’s only now settling in, so we shared with both of them the Plan ofSalvation and mowed their lawn for them. I haven't mowed a lawn for a long time! It was fun, brought back great memories of me mowing our lawn and grandma’s lawn :) They are doing great! The work is picking up here which we really need. 

 

Have a great week and enjoy the Garden of Eden! :DSounds like California is going to have yet again another great week weather wise as well!

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

 

4/4/14 conference!

Thank you so much for your testimonies. General Conference was amazing! I loved the music too. I thought it was interesting how the topic this conference was standing up for your faith, but it didn't come across as too frightening, I felt encouraged and warned when I understood what they were telling us.

 

I also liked Elder Ballard’s talk on following up. Not just the story of him using his missionary skills to find a wife :D The 2 things that really stuck out to me is his follow up on Inviting 4x a year a person to accept the lessons from the missionaries and the invitation to share what you learned from Preach My Gospel. I hope I will be able to achieve the first invitation and definitely will work on the second, and the other invitations. 

 

Transfers did happen. Thankfully, I am staying! Yay! I love this ward so much I could spend the rest of my mission here.. and, hopefully, will.

 

Our investigators, Marjo and Grim, were able to come to the Sunday morning conference. They liked it and said they were going to come back for the second session, but never did.. They said they lost track of time at the mall..... So we’re going to have to teach about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Grim has completely stopped smoking this week! Which I thought was going to be a lot harder for him. He is progressing really well.

 

I'm so happy to hear how much our family is being blessed. I am so excited for our family and the way things are going and pray that they will continue to progress and we will be able to find new and better opportunities in the future. 

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist