Letter 9/29/2015 - Have you ever had a spirit baby? Wait..What?!

This last week was a good one. Greenville is starting to cool down. Today isn't that humid, there is some overcast and not to hot outside. So I am happy! I hope it is finally for fall to come, I love the cooler weather in the fall.

So we started the week so strong and just kept it going throughout the whole week. On Tuesday, we had our "Miracle Day." We just kept teaching and teaching and finding... it was so great! Early in the afternoon we taught Cory Hodge because he had cancelled the night before. Y'all should've seen this lesson, you could've put it on "The District" videos about missionary work. We kept bouncing off of each other, perfect scriptures, we were saying the perfect stuff and the spirit was so strong. Cory finally understood and gave a solid commitment to be baptized this next month. The only thing he had to do was go and talk to his pastor... We talked about what to say and not allowing him to change his mind. We came back on Friday and found out what happened. Cory got dropped... Whether it was because he didn't have the courage or his pastor said something, we aren't teaching him anymore. It was kind of sad, but the day got better. I had taught him for so long and really loved him and wanted the best for him. He just couldn't commit. We will probably go see him in a couple of weeks and see if he notices a difference in his life. I pray Heavenly Father helps him find the courage and see the difference.

Jermichael is doing well. (Found out this last week I was spelling it wrong this whole time..) He continues to progress and still wants to be baptized. I just hope he is ready. We might also teach his fiance in the future as well. Right now she is really busy, but in the future we definitely will. They read and pray together and their faith is growing. Heavenly Father is working in their lives.

Some fun stuff happened this weekend. We met this Grandma named Yvonne and her daughter Ebaney. They are such nice people and they accepted us well. We did have an interesting lesson with them though. We started to talk about the Holy Ghost, I wanted to help them understand how they can recognize truth. They then took the lesson and ran with it, to sort of speak. Ebaney started to talk about seeing Jesus' face in the water, not too crazy right? Then Yvonne started talking about her spirit leaving her body and her feeling it. She laid down with a headache, told God to relieve the pain and her spirit left her body and went to the ceiling. I chuckled a little, not expecting it. She was dead serious. Then she started exclaiming about having a spirit baby. I was like "What the?" in my head. She continued to tell us about having this spirit baby in the middle of church on the ground. She had tons of agony, but could feel a spirit baby coming out of her. Elder Davis had no clue what to say, so I just started telling them about Joseph Smith and the first vision. After all these experiences they had gone through, I knew his vision wouldn't even phase them. They actually loved it! We left them with a Book of Mormon and may be able to teach them more in the future. It was a crazy lesson, didn't know you could have a spirit baby?...

President Olson came up to Greenville this weekend. He taught a third hour lesson about missionary work to help the ward get more involved, I think it will help them. The spirit was strong all through church, I loved it. It even carried over to yesterday. We went to Clinton to have a "specialized training" meeting. All the new missionaries in the past 6 months had to go, so I took Elder Davis. It was great to learn from everyone and just share what I knew. I looked around and realized I was one of the oldest in the meeting. Crazy to think how far I have come.

I wanted to share one last thing before I head out. I was reading in Jacob 5 this past week. If you haven't read it, read it. It talks about the Lord working in his vineyard. He says a question in there that really stuck to me. "What could I have done more in my vineyard?" This next year I want to leave saying, "I could not have done more in my vineyard." As we look at our own lives, in our vineyards that we are in. Are we actively "nourishing" the people around us? Are we helping the Lord in this great work? In versus 49-50, The Lord is ready to get rid of all the bad in the vineyard and cast them into the fire. His servant than says "Spare it a little longer". We do not want to lose any of the "trees" or "branches" or the Children of God that surround us. As a servant, I am happy to have this time to help the Lord in this great work and find the joy in his eternal vision. May we each find that joy, through the spirit, in simply sharing what we know.

Thanks y'all for all the love and support, have a great week! Keep on smiling!

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Photos - 9/29/2015

another cool cotton field

Zone Conference

1 year mark ice cream sundae

Letter 9/21/2015- Is it really one year already?

This past week has been a pretty good one. It got a little hot again later in the week and we are both ready for the fall weather. We survived summer in the south, I can check that off my bucket list. One down, one to go.

Jamicheal is doing well, he is just having a lot of stress trying to find a job. We were able to bring the spirit into our lessons this past week and really try to help him lift his burdens off his shoulder by increasing his faith. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation a lot this last week. He already had a basic understanding of it, but we went into a little more detail about eternal families. He is getting married soon and has a young family, so it was perfect for him. I love talking about the plan because I am happy that I have this knowledge of where I am from, what I am doing here and where I am going. We tracted into a man this last week that was an Atheist and I asked him where we went after this life. He said nowhere. It made me sad to think that people believe we are here just for this short life and then we are done. I want to share the Plan of Happiness with everyone, because it brings me happiness! :)

We found a new family to teach this last week! They are the Green family. We met them just walking down the road. We saw a mom sitting out in the yard with a ton of kids running around the yard, so we went up and talked to her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read a chapter and pray about it. We then came back a couple days later and discussed the chapter. The chapter was Alma 32, a lot on faith. Through our discussion, baptism was brought up. We invited her and her family to be baptized. She said "yes, I want Jesus Christ in my family. I want my kids to know him." I pray that I can help them work towards baptism and make their home into a safe haven for that family. A place where they can feel safe, feel God's love and the holy spirit. Especially in this city, where so much darkness surrounds them.

On Tuesday night, our Catholic friends invited us to come to a big spaghetti feed at their high school. Free food? Of course the Elder's are there! We showed up and instantly stuck out from the rest of the people. It was really funny because they were all thinking "who invited them?"... "why are they here?" It was fun though! They had a little carnival thing, live music and of course some spaghetti. We talked to a lot of nice people and it ended up being really good. I told Elder Davis I was going to go on top of the school and start preaching the Restoration, like Samuel the Lamanite. I think their arrows would hit me though :) haha

One last awesome person we found was Shenita. Elder Nuku and I tracted into her a while ago but could never get in contact with her. We came back and actually got to teach her again. We discussed Alma 32 with her as well. She expressed how she used to be active in her church, read her bible and pray everyday. Now she wasn't doing any of those things. So we asked her, "do you think we were sent from God to help you and your family find the truth?" She immediately said "Yes! I feel great when y'all come over." We helped her recognize that it was the spirit and that she could have that in her home everyday if she began to do these simple things we were inviting her to do. I pray that we can help Shenita and her young family as well. She has 3 young kids: 2 girls and one little boy. The little boy is named Gary and he loves to see us. He always wants to play with me when we come over. I pray that we can continue to help this family as well. They said yes to come to church, so hopefully they really do!!

Last thing for this week... We had Stake Conference yesterday. We are in the Monroe, LA stake so we had to drive 2 hours with the Turley's to get there. It was great to feel the spirit there and hear as Elder Hymas, of the seventy, talked about missionary work, the sacrament and sabbath day observance. He invited a new convert and a re-activated member to come up and share their testimonies. Both of their testimonies really were spiritual. I knew what they were sharing was true and I felt just great! It was a good sabbath day. Lots of sitting and riding in the car, but it was worth it.

Well y'all, am I really already at one year? Doesn't feel like it here, but it really has been that long. It is great to look at how much I have grown and all that I have learned. I am grateful to be here and grateful for the man that I am becoming. I will never deny what I feel and what I know. The Gospel is true, the Atonement is real and my Savior lives. I know this because I have prayed about it and have received a witness. I am excited to see what this next year brings and how much more I can learn and grow. In Alma 32, it talks about nourishing our faith and planting a seed of faith. I want to continue to nourish my faith and become like a large tree that stands immovable because my roots are too large. Continue to nourish your faith y'all and it will grow into something great. Thank you for all the love and support. Have a good week y'all. God lives, loves you.. and so do I :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Pictures 9/21/2015

Cotton fields

Amazing stuff!

My new District.

Letter 9/14/2015- Ever been bit by a dog?

So this last week was fast, fun, crazy, busy and hard. We had lots of success and found some new people to teach. My new companion Elder Davis and I are getting along well. He is from Aurora in Colorado. He played lacrosse all through high school so I like talking about that with someone. We get along pretty well. He also loves Captain America, so he is pretty legit.

Our top investigator right now is Jamichael. He came up to me last Sunday and told me he wanted to be taught the lessons again. He had been taught in the past but never made it to baptism. We taught him on Wednesday and committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon again. We also committed him to baptism on the first lesson. We are working toward October 18th after he gets married on the 11th. We may teach his fiance in the future so hopefully that works out!

Cory is doing well. Still waiting for an answer to his prayers. We had a great lesson on the spirit and how to pray to our heavenly father. He knows the church is true, just needs God to tell him to go this path before he decides to be baptized. We keep bringing the spirit to everyone lesson and trying to help him receive the answer that he needs. I think he knows, just needs to recognize his answer. Maybe in the future he will have a baptism date too. 

This week it rained hard on us and we didn't appreciate it with our bikes and now rain coats. Luckily our investigator Anna let us in and we were able to teach her and her daughter. Bike areas can be hard but I like it. Give you the chance to talk and see everyone on the streets.

So you are probably wondering what the caption is for?.. Well we knocked on this door and a young girl answered. She opened the door wide and suddenly a dog ran out and jumped for my ankle. The dog nipped at my ankle as I tried to kick it away. The young girl then ran after the dog, caught it, went back inside and wouldn't open the door again. I then looked at my ankle and there was a bruise from where the dog had bit me. Luckily it didn't puncture the skin, but it left a good little mark on my leg. I can mark that off my mission check list, "get bit by a dog."

I pray that we continue to have success and joy this next week. We have some good plans and ideas for this area. Greenville won't know what hit it. I really have been grateful for prayer this last week. I spend a lot of time on my knees as a missionary. Prayer is a sign of faith, that you are humble and it helps us grow our relationship with our Heavenly Father. He is there for us and he wants to hear about our days. I pray that each of us openly and honestly speak with him throughout our days. Heavenly Father loves you and so do I. Have a great week y'all, keep on smiling!

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Pictures 9/14/2015

My new Companion Elder Davis!

Cory and I

Sister Hill and Elder Meyers! How I missed them! It was good to see them again.

Elder Boehme (my MTC companion)

Great to see him again!

Letter 9/8/15

Hey everyone!

So this week is transfers and Elder Nuku is leaving me. I am pretty sad because we get along so well. My new comp is Elder Davis. He has been out for a little bit, like 4 months. He also plays lacrosse, so that will be cool to talk with him about that. He also has his lacrosse stick out here so that is sweet! I am excited for this next transfer and to see what it brings. We are going to work way hard and baptize everyone in Greenville. I am doing well though, thankful for this time to serve.

Updates on Raj and Cory. Raj is doing well, we taught simply about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism. He is really accepting it well. I pray that he continues to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ. Cory is also doing alright. We finally were able to meet with him last week. He knows the Church is true, just needs to receive an answer about getting baptized. It was a powerful lesson with him, felt the spirit strong and I know he could recognize it. I just pray he gets the answer he needs and doesn't deny it.

Well sorry I don't have too much time today. I hope y'all are doing well. I got to see a lot of people pass through the t-point today. Elder Ross, Sis Hill, and guess what!? Elder Meyer is back in my district! I am so excited!!!! Well, have a great week and take care. God loves you and so do I.

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Photos 9/8/15

Last days with Nuku!

Keaton's birthday present..... hope he likes the Hat!