1/12/14

In response to my parents email about their Antarctica cruise!

Wow thats so awesome! Love hearing about that. I will always remember playing cards as a family in the cafitiria on the cruise ship for the last time as just our family right next to the volcano. 

  We are now in a new transfer and my companion elder Hamilton is going home! So I have to take over the zone and get a companion who has been out only 6 transfers.  I have been a little aprehensive but I have faith and Hope for the future that I can be alright. I am not expecting to be perfect.. T'll learn from my mistakes. But this is SUCH a good ward! I can not believe how nice they are to the missionaries. Elder Hamilton and i were talking about it today and this ward has had some of the best missionaries in our mission... Its going to be a huge shoe for me to fill. I'm so excited, This is going to be a great transfer. I love where i am right now. I feel like I reached the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm free! :D Its a great feeling. 

By the way exciting news.. My trainer Elder Doney, you have some pictures of him... He is coming to Louisville Kentucky!! He's of course selling pest control. So I'm sending him over to the house to say hi! and I said BRING PICTURES! :D haha

Sincerely,

Elder Ranquist

1/6/14

This has been a great week. We were able to watch 2 movies on New years eve (sadly we couldn't stay up to midnight :) But We watched Monsters University and Emporers New Groove. I don't know if its just me being a missionary but there was a lot of christ like attributes shown in both of the movies. 

Thought you might want to know Elder Hamilton gave me a 3 layered Coat, (its a better make then Mr. Mack jacket i had) Just hope you aren't still worrying about that. 

This Ward, and Stake has so many Great Priesthood Holders in it. Being a zone leader I am able to see them and I have learned a lot on how to magnify a priesthood calling. It motivates me to become a better missionary and Priesthood holder myself.

Having a companion who is going home is interesting. Since Elder Hamilton is going home Next week has has been sharing a lot of his mission experiences he's had. It has made me review the experiences I have had and helped me see how I can make this New Year a great experience for myself. 

I'm so excited for your trip have a great time! I miss going on trips :D But I'm on the best trip i can be on right now!

I love you and I love the work I'm doing! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ranquist 

Well, I guess Merry Christmas again too! :D

It was great seeing you on skype. The reason why my companion called and not skyped is because he is going home in 2 weeks and he didn't want seeing his family make him trunky so he just called. Crazy to think next year I'll be in the same situation. hehe

It was so great to see the family! Expecially Grant :D Sad though i wasn't able to see Drake and Emily.

Man I miss those elders i used to go out with. Is there any way you could get a picture of them.. Well I guess not anymore Elder Thomas, but the other elder from Colorodo i think it was. 

Its sad to hear that Elder Curran is having a hard time. I have been trying to email him more often, I think me being there for him will be great, since i am currently on a mission and i have had to go through my own trials. 

Would it be alright if i can get Elders, Curran, Menser, and Fallons mission address? I want to send them some letters or things. Think it would be fun.

wish you luck on your trip! sounds so fun... A little cold for me though :D I don't know if drake would be able to survive...

A sister missionary here has something that i could use to get some pictures on my email so i will use it, the problem is she isn't here emailing right now, so if you see pictures then that means she got here if not she wasnt here when i was.

Thank you for all your love and support! And thank you SO much grandma for the new socks! They are so comfortable and GREAT! Now i can throw away a few pairs of socks with holes in them :D 

How are you doing grandma!? Sorry I wasn't able to hear from you much when we Skyped.

I love you,

Elder Ranquist

Pre-Christmas Letter 12-23-13

First off I am going to Skype at 4:00 p.m. California time, so I guess that would be 7:00 p.m. Kentucky time. I'll be Skyping at a recent convert’s house who is fellowshipping our investigator Gervie, so hopefully the family and Gervie should be there. They're great!

Our mission doesn't do luncheons as a whole mission. It’s too big and spread out. We have lunches when we go to Zone Conference, like the one we just had, where the 3 zones meet together. For this Christmas lunch we all brought white elephant gifts, and I got a face massager. 

This week we got a little, live Christmas tree from a member and started to put our gifts under it. Thank you dad for sending the Christmas Story. I was going to ask about that so I could keep in the tradition. 

This week we’re going to go out as a zone and sing Christmas Hymns.... The only worry is I hope I'm not the only bass that sings :D

I'm excited to SEE you this time, since last time I couldn't see you!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

Great Week 12-16-13

I've just been having a great time!

We had a ward Christmas party Saturday and I was able to meet a lot of the Ward members that way which was so nice. Sorry I didn't take any pictures.

Also, we had Zone Conference Thursday where 3 zones (San Francisco, San Francisco West, and Hayward zone) went to a church building in San Francisco and had training all day long. Elder Packer came (no, not the General Authority, but our Area authority). He is awesome and talked about Moral Authority, basically meaning you have to practice what we preach. And right before then, me and my companion had a training on How to Baptize Weekly and principles on how we can achieve that high goal. We’re committed to doing it.  It's going to take a lot of hard work. 

I am a little bit cold. The only bed sheet I have is the thin blue blanket we got that I brought out with me. And I accidently left my Mr. Mac jacket in my old apartment. Thankfully, I’m not on bike. I would be freezing. There are actually bike sisters now. We feel so bad for them.

We were able to go up to the temple yesterday with our new investigator, Gervie. She loved it and is super excited about getting baptized!

Our responsibilities as a zone leader are basically to give trainings to our zone, account to the assistants and the mission president on how the missionary work is going in our zone. We also have a monthly coordination meeting with the Stake Presidency and the mission president on how the wards are doing with missionary work. The funnest thing to do is go on exchanges with our district leaders and be able to see how they do missionary work and learn from them and they learn from you. I really like how everyone is patient with me. I feel like I don't really know what I am doing but everyone is helping me out and it makes it a lot easier and less stressful, especially my companion is patient. I still don't know the area really well, still trying to do better at that as well. 

Also I met Elder and Sister Weeks again at zone conference, weren't they the parents of Bishop Shumway?

Thank you for all of your love and encouragement! And say hello to the Ward for me!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

Cold Week 12-9-13

This has been such a great week! My companion, Elder Hamilton, is great. He's from Idaho. I heard it was -30 degrees there on Sunday.  He is actually going home this transfer so he'll leave in January and I’ll have to be the senior Zone Leader. Actually, ALL of our zone leaders except me and 2 others who just got called as zone leaders at the same time I did, are going home either in January or March, even our Assistants are going home at that time. The mission is going to drastically change in the next few months as all of our leaders leave and we get brand new leaders.

  This week we taught a lesson with a new investigator and she is committed to baptism! We have taught her twice and doing so well. She is living with her boyfriend so we taught about the law of chastity and she is going to kick him out or marry him. She came to church and has great fellowshippers. We’re so excited! 

     Actually something for Jessica... Someone on the folk dance team is out here and he is in the zone. His name is Elder Dotimas. Don't really know his first name. But he says he knows you and has seen the family before. He's Pillippino and really awesome! :D

     My last area in San Leandro we did not get a lot of dinners, but in Hayward this ward is really supportive and just one big happy family so it is looking good for dinners for now.

I am so thankful I am in a car area! :D It gets cold here and I would hate to be on bike. In our zone we actually have a companionship of sisters who are on bike, and a few elders on bike. I feel sorry for them!

I'll see if we can do Google+ or not, I’m not exactly sure. 

Have a great week!!!!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

Grant's Blessing 12-2-13

Hello!

This week has been one of the best. We have been able to get closer together and love one another. But, sadly, I am being transferred! I have been called as a Zone Leader in Hayward. I don't feel ready :D I haven't been out on my mission that long! But I am looking forward to it and know I’m going to have some great experiences. 

     At the beginning of the week, we thought we were only going to go to one member’s house for dinner, but Wednesday, two more families signed up so we got really full!! 

     Saturday, the temple puts on a show at 6 and then lights up the temple Christmas lights at 7:30 so we got one of our investigators to go up there with us. They enjoyed it and so did we. It was sad listening to a singer who sung I'll be there [home] for Christmas...... Well, if only in my dreams. I will Skype you though! I really want to show some pictures, but I lost my USB memory card converter thing. Maybe my new area has a way I can. 

And about cameras, I got a new one! It’s awesome. A man just moved into our Ward and he is a retired photographer. So he gave me and my companion one of his professional cameras and on P-Days he is teaching us how to use them! Sadly, this will be my last photography class because I’m being transferred.

I have loved this ward so much. I have spent most of my mission in it. I will definitely come back when my mission is over and visit some of the members.

Actually, I almost forgot, this Sunday we had a baby blessed too. It was our 2nd Councilor's baby. (It was a girl though). But, while he was giving the blessing, I was thinking about Grant and you guys, how you are doing the same thing! So I kind of felt like a part of Grant’s blessing :D

I thank you for your emails and pray for you always. I am looking forward to this week and the experience it brings and I am looking forward to Christmas!!

Love,

Elder Ranquist