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 :)
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