The end of Rankin and Magleby :(

This week is transfers. Pretty sad, Elder Magleby will be leaving me this transfer. We have had a good run here in Waveland and really set a good foundation together. I look forward to building more upon it, but I'll miss Elder Magleby. Brothers for life, that is for sure. We don't know where he will be heading, we will find out tomorrow morning and I will find out my new companion tomorrow afternoon. They are doing transfers a little different now, all we get to hear is if we are leaving or not. So I will let you know all about my new companion next week.

This past week was awesome! We literally had every hour full of appointments until this last Friday Evening. We had exchanges Tuesday and Thursday and lots of people to visit through the other times. We did have some cancel and stuff but it was a really great week. Exchanges were pretty good. I went on Tuesday with Elder Dobosz, he is a Spanish Elder. It was pretty fun to teach a Spanish investigator. I just sat there and smiled while he taught. It was a rainy day but besides that it was awesome. We got to teach this one lady that was really awesome. We taught her about the Restoration, at the end of the lesson she pointed at me and said "you are good at what you do, I bet they pay you a lot." I chuckled some and told her, "We don't get paid for being out here. In fact, I even paid to come out here and do this." She was amazed when I told her all of that!

Thursday was another good exchange with Elder Houldridge. He came out the same time as me in September 2014, so it was cool to see how much we have both grown. He is from Las Vegas, so he told me a little bit about there and we had a good chat together. We got to teach a few people together as well. We got to teach this one lady named, Cheryl. She was really nice and receptive. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and left her with a copy. After the lesson, Elder Houldridge expressed to me that he had tried her house so many times but could never get in. Something told him to go visit her and so we did. Now they are planning to go back and hopefully she will progress. Daily blessings, I love it.

The weekend ended really well. Elder Magleby was pretty sure he was going to leave, so we made sure to see a lot of members before he left. It is amazing to see the trust we have gained with the members. When I first got here, I felt like there wasn't any. Now it is almost night and day how different it is. We have taken time to go into the members homes and do these "power visits." Share a short lesson, invite the spirit and ask them for referrals. If they don't have any, we invite them to pray for a name or a missionary experience. So far we have received only a handful of referrals, but most of them are now investigators. It is awesome.

I would like to share with y'all just 2 experiences we had from this past week. The first one is with a man named J_____. He is an inactive member of the church that grew up going to church with his family. We went into his humble home and began to talk with him. He began to share with us the story of his life and all the hardships he has gone through. After hearing them, I can't even imagine having to go through a lot of it. We then wanted to read the scriptures with him and he asked me to say the opening prayer. As I prayed that day, I felt such sincere love for J____ and the words just came to my mouth. When I finished, I looked up and found tears in his eyes. He had felt the spirit, something he probably hadn't felt in along time. We then read together about prayer and the Gospel. Helping him know that the Savior and his teachings can really help deal with any problems or challenges he is facing in his life. Like it does in ours. Before we left, we offered another prayer together. This time, when we finished, I saw tear run down his face. I was taught that day the power of sincere prayer and the impact it can have on just one persons life. Pray always.

The last one is short. Elder Magleby and I were praying together that this week we would have an investigator in sacrament meeting. As the meeting began, none of our investigators showed up. We were pretty bummed. After the passing of the sacrament, the doors opened to allow anyone into the chapel. To our surprise, our investigator B______ came running into the chapel! She sat next to us and enjoyed the rest of the meeting with us. When the meeting finished, she told us how happy she was that she came and that she was going to come again. We were pretty happy, another awesome Sunday.

This next week should be a fun and fast one, once again. Thursday and Friday I will be going up to Jackson for a District Leader Council. We will discuss our Districts and be trained by President. It should be awesome, I am so excited! Well I better get going, we still have lots of cleaning and packing to do before Elder Magleby has to head out. I hope y'all have a great week, and keep on smiling! Just another day in Paradise. :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Power Weeks

This last week was AWESOME. That is the only words I have to describe it. It wasn't perfect, we had some rejection and there aren't any baptisms next week, but we are happy. I know that I am just smiling thinking back on all that we did. I just want to share with y'all some of the highlights.

The week started off great with a couple lessons with D____ and L____. D_____ is just loving learning more and more. It is beginning to become "delicious" to him like it is described in Alma 32. We answered a lot of his questions and reviewed all the preparation that comes before baptism. As soon as we brought up the reading we left him, he asked "Do I need to be baptized?" Of course we were excited and responded with asking, "why do you think that?" He laughed and said, "because if I don't, it doesn't sound too good." It is one of our goals with him, we haven't set a date yet but I am praying we can set one here soon. The next day we taught him again in L____ parents home, The R______. It was awesome. We started the Plan of Salvation and really hit home with the Atonement. Making sure he understands that the Atonement is the key and center to the whole Plan. It was so spiritual and amazing. His questions are perfect and I love teaching him. I am so grateful we found D_____, I hope it just keeps getting better and better.

Bro. A______ is still doing well. We got to meet with him a couple times this last week and found out his house is finally coming together. He is so happy to be coming back to church and getting his life in order. It makes me happy to see how much a difference the Gospel can make in someones life when they don't have all the material things. It brings peace like it has in his life. 2 weeks in a row he has come to church, it is awesome!

We had another powerful experience with a less-active member named Sister R____. She hasn't come to church in a while, at least since I have been here. We go over every once and awhile, read the scriptures and then invite her back. She always tells us, she will try but it never goes beyond that. We started our discussion this last week with 1 Nephi 3:7 and talked about obedience and God's commandments. As we listened to the spirit, it began to touch Sis R____'s heart as she listened to what we had to say. She finally told us all what her real concern was and we were able to talk to her about it. She asked us a really good question, "how can you feel worthy of God's love even when you know what to do and you aren't doing it?" I testified to her of God's love and our divinity as his Children. I am truly grateful and am reminded of who I am as I recognize the simplicity of the statement, "I am a Child of God." The spirit was sweet in her home that evening, she committed to come to church next Sunday and start to make those changes in her life. I knew that Heavenly Father was there to guide our words, I know that He loves her as much as He loves you and I. Even if we fall and aren't always choosing the right, He knows us and loves us.

Bro N____ asked us this last week to go visit his cousin S_____. So we headed over there Saturday to try and pop in. As we walked up they were a little quiet but friendly and I wasn't sure how to introduce us in a way that they wouldn't totally reject us because I didn't want them to tell us to go away. So what did I do? I just went and sat down next to them and started chatting with them. I started joking with the husband, G_____, and we had a few good laughs. We then expressed to them that we know her cousin and that we wanted to share a special message with them, they accepted and we started into our discussion. It actually went really well and they loved it, G______ even told us that he was going to share the Book of Mormon with is church the next day. It was awesome! Afterwards they expressed to us that they were happy they met us and liked the way we taught them. She said in the past missionaries came by but they were too overbearing and she didn't like the way they approached them. They loved how we were friendly, nice and they enjoyed our company. It was a funny and a great experience, we plan to follow up on their reading this next week.

Now for Spiritual Sunday! Yesterday was the best, I loved every minute of it. Sacrament meeting was great, Elder Magleby and I taught Gospel Principles which went awesome. One of the members told us afterwards how impressed he was at how we taught. He said on his mission it was hard to transition with some of his companions, but we just flowed so well and he said it was awesome to see. It is so cool to see how far we have come together. Our teaching has gotten so great and our friendship continues to get stronger. Later on, we had a cottage meeting at Bro. S______' house. It was a casual meeting where members can invite non-members and less-active's to come partake in a spiritual discussion. The topic of the night was the Atonement, something that we all use in our lives. The whole meeting was awesome, I felt a great peace being there. After the meeting, we enjoyed some peach cobbler and live music from Bro. S_____' son and grandsons. One plays the guitar, fiddle, banjo and the bass. It was awesome!

This week was great and I am looking forward to the one to come. At the start of the last week, I told Elder Magleby that we need to make these last 2 weeks good ones so we named them "Power Weeks." Just leaving everything we've got on the field and doing our best, that's what we are going for. It has been great and this next week should be packed as well. I am excited and happy to see all the success we are having. I hope each of you have a great week and continue to have the influence of the Spirit in your life. Our Heavenly Father is real and He loves you, as do I! Have a wonderful week and keep on smiling. :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

 

 

Mother's Day is the Best!

Another week has come and gone, I probably will never understand how fast time flies by but I definitely love being here in this mission. We are having struggles with finding and having our investigators progress, but we strive to keep our heads high. Without the bad, I'd never appreciate the good as much as I do.

We did found one awesome guy this week. His name is D____ and we found him through a less-active member. She has been dating him for sometime and asked if we would come teach him. So, we went over last Monday and had a great lesson with him. Elder Magleby and I taught them the Restoration and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong there, He led our discussion and gave us the words that touched their hearts that evening. It was probably one of the best lessons I have taught on my mission. I hope and pray D_____ continues to progress. It awesome to see their interest and understanding of our special message. We meet with them tonight, I can't wait! :)

Tuesday was exchanges with the Slidell Spanish Elders. I went with Elder Holm, from Firth, ID. He is a great elder and we had some fun laughs together. He misses Idaho, like I do. Idahome :) I love having the opportunity to go on exchanges with each of the Elders, they each are awesome. Elder Holm and I got to teach a few people together, a lot of people were home for us to visit. One of the families we visited was the C____ family. We have been working with them for a couple months now and really have been praying that they would come to church. They committed to come and actually did! I love seeing progression, it is the best!

Our other success story with inactive members is a man named Bro A____. He has been less-active for some time now and really hasn't had any interest in coming back anytime soon. I found his number looking through the member list and decided to just call it randomly. He answered, which surprised me, and we had a great chat. This was about a month ago and just still haven't found a time where he could meet up with us. Finally this last week, he met up with us and the Elders Quorum President. We had a great lesson about Faith and how we need to nourish it. We invited him to come back to church and he did!! He told us after how happy he was that he came and that he wanted to become active again. I know he can, we are excited to help him.

So yesterday was Mother's Day and that was just the best day ever! We had some good talks about the Savior and Mother's, reminding me of how grateful I am for my Mother and other Mother figures I have in my life. No other love can compare to the Savior's, then a Mother and her child. Since it was Mother's Day, Sacrament meeting was packed and the Elders Quorum was in charge of teaching primary so the women could go to Relief Society. Elder Magleby and I had a blast, it was so much fun being in there with all the little kiddos. They loved us, I seriously was just being attacked the whole time and they all wanted to sit next to me. At least I am popular among the little kids. :) haha. But when they sang and as we listened, I felt the sweet spirit that they bring. I love kids and I love Mother's Day! I was so happy I got to skype y'all, it made my whole day. I am lucky to have such an amazing family, I couldn't do any of this without them, especially my loving Mother. I love you Mom! :)

Have a great week y'all and keep on smiling. Remember to hug your Mom and tell her that you love her. (After all she was the one that used to wipe your bum:)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

Early morning P-day fishing with the District

Tie I found for cheap.

Service

Service

Selfie Sunday with our family

Skype call on Mothers Day

Gotta have a goofy one.

"And the rains came down and the Elders held firm"

Yes, there was a lot of rain this past week. It didn't stop the work though, we had a full and fun week!

This last Monday we were able to experience exactly what you want when being a missionary. A member invited us over to her house to have dinner and also invited her non-member friends. It was perfect. We were able to meet V____ and A____. They moved down here after Katrina to help build it back up and have been here ever since. We had a great meal with them and then shared a simple message about the Restoration. We left V_____ with Alma 32 to read. She is a nice lady, has a kind heart and could benefit a lot from hearing the Gospel. A_____ is spanish and I can't understand him very well. (I've been praying for the gift of interpretation of tongues since I can't remember much from High school spanish, haha) We plan to follow-up with them again tomorrow over dinner. Exactly how missionary work should be, it was powerful to be there and teach them. I look forward to teaching them more in the future.

Tuesday we got a call from some members telling us that they need help moving some stuff from a storage unit into a U-haul for a non-member friend. They told us it would only take an hour and a half.. when the truck was finally filled it had all together been 4 and a half hours... Lots of service for us! We loved it though, it was a great experience to talk with this lady we were helping move about the Gospel and why we do so much service. We are in the service of our God.

District meeting was spiritual this last week. We discussed together about "Living what we learn" and how important it is to bear our testimonies while teaching. Our testimonies grow and become strong when we live the principles of the Gospel. That is something I share with everyone. I can read and pray about all of this all day but true conversion comes when we apply what we learn and experience this eternal joy that comes. I can say that God is my Heavenly Father because I have felt his love through obeying the commandments He has given us. I know the Restored Gospel is here because I live it. :)

What experience I would like to share comes from this past Friday. We went to see some in active members in hopes that we could find out why they haven't been coming in awhile. We had a great discussion with them, the spirit was there and I know they did as well. We read from the Book of Mormon about how the small and simple things become great things. As we prayed together before we left, the Brother invited me to pray. As I began, the spirit seemed to light up the whole room and warm us up. We finished and there were tears in his eyes. I felt sincere love for this couple and knew how they felt, God is truly there. Our hopes are to reactivate them in the months to come. I know we can with Gods help.

To finish I just wanted to say yesterday was amazing. We fasted together in hopes that we will find a family/individuals that we can baptize in June and July. Sacrament meeting was full of the Holy Ghost and it continued throughout the rest of our meetings. Even after church, it went with us through out the whole fast Sunday. We didn't get in until late last night because we were so busy. My favorite lesson yesterday was one with the H____ family. We read the story of Enos with them and asked them what they learned from it. They shared with us some ideas and then we set together plans for us to come back each week to have family home evening together and help them build their faith. After we left we received a text from them telling us how glad they were we came by and the spirit they felt when we came. It warmed my heart and reminded me of how happy I am to be here. I am truly thankful for my Heavenly Father and his son  Jesus Christ. Without them, I would be nothing. I pray y'all have a great week full of many blessing and miracles. Keep on smiling and Choose the Right. Love y'all! :)

Love,

Elder Mason Rankin :)

 

Nate

Davis

my district