Letter 2/24/2015

This week just flew by, had lots of highlights though! Life is good today.

Last Monday night I traveled to Wiggins with Elder Jones to go on exchanges. It is a pretty sweet little town. We had lots of fun and got some good work in. We were able to get them a new investigator and set him with a baptismal date! It is always a fun time with Elder Jones. Played basketball with some ghetto kids, went to a dirt cheap and scored a sick hawaiin shirt for $3 and just had a day full of laughs!

I came back to Hattiesburg on Wednesday. Lesuma and I had a great day. We handed out a few Book of Mormons and taught a couple lessons to some people that would listen. My favorite lesson was with this lady named Natasha. She is a mid aged black lady that works for Fedex. Supposedly she has been having a rough life lately and she saw us coming to her door as a blessing from god. She really loved hearing from us and wants to learn more. She said there was a certain light about us, like angels. After having a great day, Lesuma and I rode home on our bikes. In the middle of traffic, my back tire bolt snapped in half and we both almost got hit by a car. Luckily a car wasn't there when I tumbled into the road and Lesuma went to the left and hit the curb! If anything different would've happened, one of us would be hurt right now pretty bad. Truly grateful that we are okay.

Friday was another wonderful day. We started early with service at the Bishop Storehouse. Later that afternoon we were able to get in contact with 2 of our investigators that we haven't seen in a while! Rickidy and Samuel. Rickidy's lesson went well, he still isn't ready to commit to a baptismal date and doesn't want to change. So we will see how we do with him in the future. Samuel's lesson went really well though. We taught the first part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, answered some of his questions and committed him to read the Book of Mormon again. He also committed to come to church with us. He asked us at the end, right before we left, "why are you mormon? Why did you decide to be apart of this church?" Lesuma and I were able to both tell about our conversion story and really just strengthen that spirit that was there. He felt it, we both felt it and he recognized it. He reminds me a lot of my cousin Cooper, really a great guy. After our lesson, he came up and even gave us both hugs! I can't wait to see this guy progress and see him come closer to Christ :) That night we went over to Caleb and Jessica Robinson's house for dinner. A young couple in our ward that I really love. They are so nice to us. We had some really good pulled pork and shared with them a great message on wearing the armor of god. Jessica is in the young women's so she asked if she could video us for a video she is making for them. The video is about 'what I wish I knew before I went to the temple?' I said "I wished I had known to bring white underwear for baptisms, because my first time doing baptisms, I wore red underwear and it looked really funny! :) " hahaha just a great Friday!

Saturday we helped the Hinton's clean all of Pastry Garden, so much grease! It was fun though and Bro Hinton said that we could get bread from them every week if we wanted because I told them how much I liked the loaf they gave us. They love Lesuma and I! Lucas Hinton(their oldest son) even took us out to this Indian buffet restaurant yesterday after interviews! hahah the other elder's were so jealous because that whole family loves us the most, and they all know it! :) Btw, that was my first time I think at an Indian restaurant. It was interesting, not my favorite but it was alright. Elder Lesuma was in heaven, I guess there are a ton of Indian people in Fiji and he ate curry all the time at home.

Sunday was fabulous as always. Just a real spiritual treat ;) Set some appointments to visit some less-actives, go out with some members and Jeanette came to church again. A lot of people fellowshipped her and took her in. I don't know if she had as great of a time because she was sick, but she wanted to come and fought through it. I love the Hattiesburg ward, I really enjoy being here in this ward and have grown a good relationship with a lot of the members. I found out yesterday, from interviews, that I will be in Hattiesburg another transfer so I will be here 'till like May! :) Lesuma was happy to hear that, he doesn't want his daddy to leave ;) hahaha

So yesterday we had interviews, as I talked about before. Last night though, we got to go over to Sis Woodards house with the Asay family and have a wonderful dinner! She is such a good cook, she is like my Grandma away from home :) We talked with them about the difference between have a testimony and being fully converted to the gospel. Many times in the Book of Mormon you will find that the people harden their hearts. The only way to become fully converted is to humble ourselves and soften our hearts. As we continue to learn more and follow Christ, our light grows brighter and brighter until that final day. So, how many of us are fully converted? No matter what trial comes our way, how many of us will not allow it to change what we believe in? Once we have that 'mighty change in our heart', we will only desire to do good and have no desire to do bad.

What a wonderful week, I hope y'all had a good one as well! Thanks for all the continual support, I am loving the work and continuing to lose myself in it. I miss and love y'all so much! Keep in touch, I love to hear from y'all :) I am HAPPY!

Keep on smiling!

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Pictures 2/24/2015

Rankin !

nothing like a 3 dollar Hawaiian shirt

the things we see tracting.

Letter 2/16/2015

What a great week! Throughout this whole week I felt the spirit and really recognized god's hand in this work!

Starting with last T-day, we picked up Elder Burningham's new comp. His name is Elder Corbin, from Newport Beach California, loves to surf and joke around with me. We have a good time and became instant friends! He even plays basketball, so we will have fun today when we ball it up!

This last Wednesday we had ZDM, so the whole zone got together and discussed things, practiced teaching and grew spiritually. After the ZDM, we went on a mini exchange with the Wiggins elders while they were down here. I went with Elder Jones and had a great time. We went and visited a potential investigator. Her name is Jeanette Lawton, graduated in '04, has 2 younger kids and has been engaged for 6 years. Elder Jones and I taught the Restoration in depth, invited her to church, she said yes and then we invited her to be baptized! She said YES!!! Oh my, I felt the spirit, she felt the spirit and I know she knew what we were saying is true. Blessing of exchanges. 

That same night we went over to the Whipple's for dinner. Wes was so excited to see me! I love going over to their house and feeling the spirit they bring there. They are a blessing to have in the ward, such great people.

Friday was a busy day for us. We taught a ton of people all day, went and saw a few less-actives and then had a baptism that night. My favorite person to see was our investigator, Samuel. He always loves to see us and is such a nice guy. The baptism that night was one of the sister's investigator. His name is Mike Starr. His whole family is active in the church and supposedly he has been investigating the church for over 10 years and just has had a problem with the Word of Wisdom. Finally he decided that it is ruining his life and finally decided to get baptized. The whole ward was there to see him get baptized and he had a warm welcome.

Saturday was Valentine's day! That morning the Hinton's invited us to breakfast at Pastry Garden. It was super good and I just feel so loved by the Hinton's. They take such good care of us and they really like Lesuma and I. Bro Hinton even told us that he was planning on taking us to a USM baseball game. That should be fun! Then that afternoon we had the McCiniss wedding. It was a full house in the church and they looked so happy together! Lots of good food, great people and a good valentine's day.

Sunday is always so great! Jeanette came to church and even stayed for all 3 hours. I learned a lot more about her. Her fiance is 6'9" and she is going to try and bring him to church. She actually knew a few people there too! She also has been pregnant for 7 months and the baby is already 33 inches long! She loved church though and we couldn't of had better speakers. Bro and Sis Mero from the High Council came and spoke. The ward welcomed her right in and she told us that she plans on coming again and really enjoyed all of church! I had a lot of doubt starting from that morning, thinking she wouldn't come. I knelt down and prayed that morning and felt so much better knowing that it would be alright. The Lord provided us with a great day and helped get her to church so she could feel the spirit. I even got worried that she might get scared away or confused but it all went great!

Truly a blessed week, full of the spirit and love from my Heavenly Father. He knows each of us personally and when we are obedient, he is ready to bless us. I hope y'all had a great week like I did. Thank you for all the support, couldn't do it without y'all. I am blessed. Miss and love y'all!

Keep on smiling!

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Pictures 2/16/2015

Who's Valentines tie is better?!

Valentines Day!

Letter 2/9/2015

Hey y'all!

Can you believe it has already been 4 1/2 months? And I am already to Transfer #4! That sounds crazy!

This last P-day was a Zone P-day so the whole zone got together and played sports and had a potluck! Elder Lesuma and I brought Momma's Chili. Everyone loved it! We also had a great time playing lots of sports! We started with flag football with all the elder's, which ended up becoming tackle. For some reason I was doing so good that day! I scored 4 out of our 7 winning touchdowns! I literally had tons of fun! Then we played soccer, and my old skills came out and brought our team to victory. Sis Huston was super happy to play because she loves soccer. I only scored one but I did assist a few people. I had to represent the Rankin soccer family :)

Tuesday we had dinner at the Hinton's, they love me so much so they signed up to have us every Tuesday from now on ;) All the missionaries are jealous, but hey I'm not forcing them to sign up for us! It is always a good time at their home, I feel like I am back at home. Joking with each other, talking about things and always having a good laugh. I will definitely miss their family when I leave Hattiesburg! 

Tracting and investigators sucked this week. Always thankful for everyone little lesson or seed we plant with people. This last week we were having trouble getting in contact with people so I was pretty depressed. Then we were heading over to Mormon.org time, and as we get out of the car I see one of our investigators named Valeri!! I hadn't seen her in a couple months and thought we were going to have to drop her but we ended up talking to her and she still is interested in meeting with us. Definitely made my day to finally meet with someone and she was actually happy to see us :)

On Wednesday we had our last DDM with Franklin and after we went to lunch as a district to this really good BBQ place. I like it a lot. Pulled pork, ribs, potatoes, chicken just everything! So it was a good last District lunch together. One of my favorite districts by far.

On Friday we were really busy, we tried seeing as many people as possible and we didn't have the car so we were running around everywhere. After all that running around, we didn't get much. Everyone that answered was busy or wasn't interested. Kind of stunk, Bishop Holm made me feel better though. That night we went over to his house for dinner and he made us these really good enchiladas. I always love talking to him and his family. He is one of the most loving men I have met. Just a great family all together :)

After dinner, we went to a "Bachelor Party" for this old guy in our ward named Bro. McCiniss. It was pretty fun! There were a couple corn hole boards so I had to show my cornhole moves :) I did pretty good for not playing in awhile. I told a couple of the guys that I made my dad a set and they thought that was pretty cool. Then after corn hole, Bro Whipple wanted to play some basketball. So Elder Lesuma, a couple of the elders and I played 21. For being in a white shirt and a tie and dress shoes. I did pretty good! I almost won but Bro Whipple barely beat me. It was fun playing with them, wish I could more often.

Sunday was great as always! One of our investigators Britney Carr came to church and so that was pretty sweet! I don't know if I have talked about her yet. She is the girlfriend of one of our less-actives in the ward and she just barely had their baby. So she brought the new baby and came by herself. I was so surprised and happy to see her. Last week their family was sick and she was recovering still so we couldn't meet with them. This week we plan on meeting with them when we get the car and help her get to baptism! Besides her coming, church was just a great spiritual experience. I finally feel like I know a lot of the people in the ward and they know me too. 

Yesterday was our day of service, so we helped Bro. Brock clean up this mess he has in his backyard. His shed in the backyard caught on fire and exploded because he had propane tanks in there, So we got a little dirty and helped him out. Then I helped him fix his car, it was funny! All he needed to do was put back together this plug and it fixed the problem. Later that day we cleaned the apartment and I gave myself a haircut. New cut, clean apartment, new transfer and a fresh start! I am excited for this next transfer, Elder Lesuma are gonna work for that baptism! I am ready and I am going to work for it :)

I hope y'all had a great week, I continue to be blessed every day for being out here. I hope y'all also have a good Valentine's day. I will be sportin my new candy hearts tie! Hahah Well I miss, love and send hugs to all y'all! :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Pictures 2/9/2015

Brocks Shed Cleanup

Shed Cleanup

Sis. Giddin's Goodbye

Elder Scaife Goodbye

First Zone Leader Good byes

District Picture

Letter 2/2/2105

Hey y'all,

What a wonderful week and great fast Sunday, I hope y'all liked watching the super bowl, all I heard was the final score from a member in our ward. Hopefully it was a good game!

Elder Lesuma and I had our first p-day together! We played volleyball with most of the zone which was super fun! Whatever team I was on, they won! It was seriously so much fun and Lesuma was getting so mad at his team because he kept telling them to do "bump, set, spike" and they wouldn't listen!

Our week was full of meeting lots of new people, trying to find some new people to teach because everyone was dropping off! One of the first people we met was this younger black woman named Hope. She is working 2 jobs, one at a hotel and another at a breakfast place. Besides that she was really nice and actually had met some of our missionaries out in Petal. She was really open to us teaching her more and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Just when you think that your day is not going to be good, you find Hope ;) hahaha what is funny is we almost didn't knock on her house because no one looked home and it looked really run down. Then out came this wonderful lady, ready and prepared for us!

On Thursday we had Specialized training, it was the first one I had ever been too. They have all the new missionaries and their trainers come and learn how to become better trainers and let the new missionaries talk to President. I was supposed to have one first transfer but we had a Zone conference with Elder Zwick instead. It went really well and one thing I committed to myself is to try and talk to everyone, whether it be on the street or just in Wal-mart. I am going to talk to everyone that comes in my path. I actually had an experience with this, that very same day! After correlation, we took Lesuma to go get his first Sonic shake. While we were there, the manager came out and asked us how our shakes were and stuff. Before long, I had him sitting down with us, a Book of Mormon in his hand and he was learning about Faith and the Holy Ghost. We taught him a simple lesson and answered any questions he had, but he committed to read and to come to church in 2 weeks with his Wife and baby daughter. Talk to EVERYONE, you never know who could use the gospel in their life or need to hear your testimony and have the spirit touch their heart.

I don't know if y'all have ever heard of this place called mugshots, but we went there after specialized training and it was really good!!! They make some pretty good burgers, not as good as Red Robin but it still was pretty good.

Friday night we finally got in contact with Lamar and got to teach him a lesson!!!!! He stills wants to get baptized, he still believes the church is true, he is just having a hard time right now. He is kind of nervous, he wants to get baptized with his mom he doesn't want to come to church and he is just really busy. But we discussed his concerns, got him feeling better and taught him for about and hour and a half! Such a spiritual treat, I walked in there nervous that he was done or something and then walked out having no doubt that he will get baptized soon. It may not be next week but it will be soon. I can feel it. We talked about the priesthood, service and missionary work. He loved all of it, he already does tons of service and tries to be a missionary. Just a great night, thankful that I know he is okay and we are back in contact with him!

Saturday we got free subway as always, but this time instead of saving half our sandwiches. Lesuma and I went and gave it to the homeless man that was sitting outside. He was super thankful for it and we actually got to teach him a little bit and tell him more about the church. Elder Lesuma really wants to teach the hobo's, he keeps telling me that they are children of god too. We will see how that goes, so far it hasn't been too bad of an experience. Talk to everyone.

This fast Sunday was a good one, definitely feasted spiritually all through church and the whole Sunday. Elder Lesuma and I got the opportunity to teach the young men about the Plan of Salvation. It went super well, very good transitions, the young men were participating and the spirit was testifying right along with each of our testimonies. My testimony of the Plan of Salvation has grown a lot since I was a young man. I look back at a time when I wasn't sure whether or not I would see my dear friend again. I know now, without a doubt, I will see him again. That will be a great reunion, along with others that have passed away before me.

What a great week, met tons of new people, taught a bunch of lessons and felt great at the end of each day. No matter the outcome, knowing that you put your whole heart into that day, I feel that I accomplished something. Elder Lesuma and I are getting along so well, we love to pick on each other but at the end of the day we love each other. I am thankful that he is here, he has come a long way to be here. I hope y'all had a great week as well, I love to hear how y'all are doing as well. I hope that the lord continues to bless each of your lives everyday, I know he has blessed mine in so many ways. Life is good, the church is true and people are crazy. I miss and love y'all so much!! Sending hugs from Mississippi!

Keep on smiling! :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin

Pictures 2/2/2015

Hattiesburg Elders

P-day Swagger!

Car Selfie