Letter 8/17/2015

So this week started out with some exchanges with the Greenwood Elders. Elder Kirk and Reisner. Kirk is training Reisner right now, he just came out at the beginning of this transfer. I got the pleasure of working with Reisner for the day. He is from Utah and is a swell guy. :) We did a lot of tracting and visiting people. It was a good teaching experience, it allowed me to help him and his teaching. I remember being in his shoes and I loved the help I got from my leaders and older missionaries that helped me become better. So I tried my best and he said that he had a great day with me! So that is all that matters, we had a good time and helped some people come closer to Christ.

Interviews were on Wednesday. President Olson is a good guy, I enjoyed speaking with him. He is a very spiritual man and I think he is leading the mission in the right direction. That night we spend the night with the Zone Leaders so we could go on exchanges the next day. It took us 2 hours to drive to interviews that morning, so I was so ready for bed. I went with Elder Creger for the day. He is a short guy from Utah (I am not just saying that because I am tall ;) and he is in the Air Force. We had some good success. Their area is hard to work, so they were happy that we found some people to teach. We taught 2 people and they both became new investigators. Elder Creger was happy and we had a good day. Some good laughs and it was good to learn from each other. 

Friday we taught this young mother named Anna. After sharing a lesson with her, we played out front with her 3 year old daughter. You can imagine the looks we got, a tongan and a big white missionary playing with a little black girl :) It was great :) The mother really expressed how grateful she was that we took time out of our days to visit her and her daughter. Made me feel grateful that I am serving a mission :)

Saturday we taught our investigator from India. His name Raj. He is so awesome! He fed us indian food and everything. He told us that he believes in God and Jesus Christ, he just wants to learn more about the Bible, BoM and Christ. He has an arranged marriage waiting for him back in India. I guess it is tradition or culture that the parents choose your spouse or something. I was thinking "I hope they picked good." :) Glad we don't have that here, I can't imagine never meeting your wife and then just marrying her. We taught him about the Restoration, invited him to read and pray. We also invited him to baptism, he would if his father would let him. I guess it is way disrespectful in his culture or something and the wedding is part of their traditions. But he would if he could he said! So we are going to keep working with him and see how we can help him! :)

Church was good. We had Raj there and another investigator there named Dorothy. She is the grandma to one of the families in our ward, so we were happy to have them both there. The talks were centered around revelation, I thought they were great. Revelation is an important part of the church and my life. A lady came up to us after church to tell us about her cousin. Last Sunday we gave her a blessing because she has stage 4 breast cancer and it was so amazing. The spirit was there, she felt it, she cried a lot and gave us big hugs afterwards telling us how much better she felt. This Sister in our ward told us that her cousin went to the doctors and they were shocked how well she was doing. It was a miracle they said! She called her cousin right after the appointment and told her how grateful she was for the blessing. Everything I had said in the blessing was exactly what she needed to hear and was praying for, she said. Truly a testimony builder and blessing! So thankful :) She is even going to start taking the lesson now!

I hope y'all had a good week and have an even better one this next week! I am grateful for all of you and your love. I am doing well and Elder Nuku and I are getting along great! Remember that God loves you and so does Elder Rankin. :) 

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)