"Don't blend in and be a Chameleon... Be a Lion." - President Jordan

For the first time in my life I have had an opportunity to truly stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places. 

But before I get to that, lets start with the happenings of the week:)

On Monday we had a great p day and went bowling with my district! Hahaha it was a good time. It sure was weird wearing jeans though and I felt funny being in a setting with music playing... with no way to really avoid it. It was weird. But it was lots of fun though:) 

On Wednesday we had the farewell conference for President and Sister Jordan. Oh my goodness I love them so much. They are so amazing and have left a huge impact on my life and on my heart! They have taught me how to love the Lord through their faithful and dedicated service. At the end, after taking pictures and everything, we all knelt down together and President Jordan offered a prayer to our Heavenly Father. The Spirit was very powerful and I am grateful that we all got to share that experience together. As we were getting ready to leave, someone started playing "Armies of Helaman" on the piano and we all sang it to them as they just cried. They will be missed. 

President and Sister Stevens arrive tomorrow and then I will get to meet them on Friday for the first time:) I am sure they will be great and I am excited to love and learn from them as well!

On Thursday was sweet Rita's Funeral. As you know, I was asked to sing a song for her as the missionaries used to always go on Sunday afternoons to sing to her. Thank you for all of your prayers. I felt them and I felt the angels singing with me. I was able to keep it together and I felt the peaceful Spirit in my heart as I sang. 

It was a beautiful service as her children and grandchildren shared wonderful memories of her. After the service as they carried her out, Bishop Fu pointed to the families to follow, and both of her daughters hurriedly ran after her, and it was at that moment where it really hit me. This is what life is all about. Uniting families for the eternities. It was such a beautiful picture in my head and as we all stood there while a beautiful piano piece was being played by a boy in the ward, I just cried and offered a silent prayer thanking my Heavenly Father for the Gospel. For the Priesthood. For the prophets and the scriptures that teach us the things of the eternities. And of course, for our Saviour Jesus Christ who makes everything possible. We are so blessed to be members of His Church. I love the Gospel with all my heart.

This week I had a really crazy experience that strengthened my testimony a lot. We were trying to contact one of our investigators who we put on date last week but have been unable to get a hold of, but she wouldn't let us in when we got there. So a little saddened we resolved to talk with everyone that we saw. We were walking down the street and tried to stop this lady and just said, "hello, how are you!"  She then, walking past us, started yelling at us saying that we are a cult and how she feels sorry for us because we are not free and are slaves to God. She said the most horrible things about Joseph Smith and about how there is no way there is a God, and it took everything I had to not just explode on her. I was praying the whole time to have the strength to stay calm and know what to do. It was absolutely awful and for the first time in my life I got a little taste of what our Savior must have felt like, and still feels like. I have never felt so hurt in my life as she screamed the most horrible things about my God, and my Savior. As I sat there, listening, while dear Sister Obley was doing everything she could to help her to see the light, she said something so horrible that finally got me and I took a step towards her and said, "Don't you ever say that about my God ever again. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know God lives and I know Christ will come again." We then walked away as she continued to yell things at us. Luckily we were close to our flat so we went home and Sister Obley and I just cried together. 

I felt like the prophets and missionaries that we read about in the Book of Mormon who cried to God on the behalf of their brethren. I hope so badly that she one day comes to understand the gospel so she too can feel the peace that only Christ can bring.

My testimony is stronger than ever and I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to truly stand as a witness of God.

This is the Lord's Kingdom on the earth. As President Jordan always says, don't blend in and be a Chameleon... Be a Lion. Stand as a Witness with a firm hope in the Savior of the World. Because one day, we don't know when, he will come again. And when that day comes, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ.

Love you all.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Ranck

"I can't leave Jesus Christ" (In Loving Memory of Donald and Rita)

Read this book.  You will love it.

This week was a very emotional one. It was one of those weeks where you just really come to love
and appreciate the reality of the Gospel more than ever before. It was full of mixed emotions, very sad and heartbreaking moments, but also very wonderful and joyous ones as well. I am going to start with the great ones first:)

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO THE BESTEST DAD THAT ANYBODY CAN HAVE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD! I love you like crazy and I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for your unfailing love and example. So thank you.  Also, a shoutout to my two grandpas, Grandpa Ranck and Grandpa Jarvis.  I love you so much and I'm so very grateful for you both.

Monday was my girl Helena's birthday so to celebrate we went to her house and she gave us a makeover while we jammed to the good ol EFY music:) haha it was the best. She has over 10,000

P-Day is now called Make-over day (haha)

pounds (money not weight) worth of makeup. So we spent the evening on p day with her for her birthday and it was a great time! I love that girl. If I were to come back to visit England, I would come straight to her first.

So we found some great new investigators this week!! First of all a family from good ol Ghana!!! They are wonderful and we are going to be seeing them again tonight! They have 3 young children and the mother is really excited about reading the Book of Mormon. I am so excited about the coming weeks with them:)

Also, our whole mission has this thing with Chinese investigators. Because there are tons of Chinese people here in England and they are so willing to learn and just accept everything. For example, up in Norwich where Sister Hernes is right

Fiends in the Aylesbury Ward. I Love this Ward.

now, they have like 15 Chinese investigators at church every Sunday.... Crazy. We are lucky if we just get 2 investigators at church! Ha.....

But no fear because we found a wonderful Chinese family this week!!!:) we were going to contact a potential investigator but they weren't home and Sister Obley (oh ps I absolutely LOVE Sister Obley. We have become really great friends:)) and I both had the thought to knock a few doors... So we did and this Chinese lady opened on like the 4th door and she doesn't speak like any English but she let us in anyways. Their 13 year old son who speaks a little bit got our their laptop and went to google translator and we were able to communicate with them on that. We told them that we can teach them English as well as the gospel and they agreed!!:) On Thursday we went again and started teaching them English which was

My District

interesting... Haha. And they came to church as well and enjoyed it even though they didn't understand like anything.... Bishop speaks Chinese though!!! So that worked out well:) and we also have a translating app on our iPads that we used the whole time! Gah they are GREAT.

Okay now for the sad news... 2 beloved members of this ward have passed away this week.... 2 people that you all know as well.

First, sweet Rita has passed away. She was a brilliant woman with a perfect mind trapped in a failing mortal body. Visiting her was always one of the highlights of the week as she entertained us with the wonderful stories of her life. She was hilarious as well and we would always be laughing when we were with her. She could barely hear so in response to her questions we would have to almost scream haha and repeat ourselves 3 or 4 times. We would always sing to her as well which she absolutely loved. When she knew the song she would clap and when she didn't she would Alma 40:11 just stare at us blankly and say, "What in the world was that!" But now she has been "taken home to that God who gave her life." What a brilliant verse of scripture.

The return of Annabel from her mission.

I have been asked to sing a solo at her funeral on Thursday. I am going to be singing "How Great Thou Art," and I need the help of angels because I am no soloist..... So please pray for me.

The second person who has passed away is everyone's example and hero. A man whose life was literally changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, I am talking about my good friend Donald. I am not sure if you know his story but Donald was one of the top weed growers in the country for years until he had a stroke that changed everything and met the missionaries as he was recovering. He has completely embraced the gospel now and was preparing to go through the temple. Just a few weeks ago Sister Christ.. I can't leave Jesus Christ." I will never forget the first time I heard him say that. Now, not only will he never leave Him, but he probably has met him. As Bishop said when he told us the news, "He died happy."

I have really grown to love sister Obley

Obley and I helped him to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting. His favorite phrase to say is, "Can't leave Jesus 

I feel very privileged to have met both of these people. It is times like these where I love the gospel the most.

Then to top off the week, I got a call on Saturday morning, after my personal study, asking if I would speak on Sunday. With 3 major things on that Sunday... Father's Day, the passing of sweet Rita and Donald, and also a missionary who came home in the ward this week, I was thinking about all day what I might say as I knew it was going to be a day full of very mixed emotions.

I had a few thoughts and wrote it all down but when I got up to speak, the Spirit completely took over and filled my soul and my mouth with words. I don't know what I said, but I remember being encompassed with emotion. There has only been one time in my life where I have experienced the death of someone close to me and my family, and I know that there will be many more to come. Which can seem scary sure, but it's not. Because we were born to die. Some die sooner than others, but that is all part of Gods perfect plan. Remember..... When we die we are "taken HOME to that God who gave us life." Don't you see it? We are Spiritual

Love you Dad and Grandpa and Grandpa

beings. This is not our home... We are not meant to last on this earth forever... Who would want that anyways! That is what the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ is about. It changes us. It binds us together for ETERNITY. And if we follow, we have the promise that we will have eternal life.

This is real.

Nothing has struck me more on my mission than the reality that we have a loving Heavenly Father who has a perfect and complete plan for us, who has given us everything we need to succeed in this life.

Nothing has struck me more than the fact that we have a Savior Jesus Christ who makes all of this possible.

We are so blessed. Let us never forget what really matters in life.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. This is the best experience I have ever had in my entire life and I love this gospel with my whole heart and soul. It is real life my friends.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Ranck

I was thinking about the importance of gaining a personal testimony of Jesus Christ

WELL. I DEFINITELY GOT TO SHAKE ELDER HOLLAND'S HAND THIS WEEK. Very amazing experience. And he told us that when he shook our hands, during those few moments when we told him our name and where we are from, he interviewed each of us. That is kind of a scary thought... I wonder how my interview went? He then told President Jordan and the London South mission president that there are 2 or 3 missionaries that they should be worried about and they know who they are, but for the most part, we are pretty good missionaries. Crazy. 

I loved hearing from him though! It was probably the most intense hour and a half of my life... No joke. We got rebuked. It was awesome. It was funny cause I would be writing something down and then he would slam the pulpit with his hand and we wouldn't be expecting it so we would all jump and it was just crazy! I loved how into it he gets. After he spoke, we all just kind of sat there and didn't know what to do or how to feel. haha. It was truly an experience I could never forget...

The Spirit was super powerful. The overall message I left with was that we are fighting a war. We are in the fullness of times. We are preparing for the 2nd coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is a war we are fighting. It was crazy to think about how all 500 of us missionaries... (my

mission and London South) were sitting in the Hyde Park chapel listening to an apostle of Jesus

Christ while the rest of London was just going about their own business right outside on Exhibition Road not having a clue about what was going on in there and what life is all about and that we have a living prophet. We are so blessed to have the gospel. I cannot get over that thought. 

Posterity picture! My grandma (Sister Phillips) on the far left

my mom, me, and my beautiful daughter.

To be honest there is not much more to tell you from the week as pretty much every single one of our appointments fell through except for 2... You can always count on Sabrina to be there:) We don't have many people we are teaching at the moment... But we sure are working hard and talking to everyone we can, and I am confident that the Lord is preparing the hearts of many here! You can just never give up because you can never see what/who is waiting ahead of you! But God can. So your job is to follow the Spirit and trust that He knows best:)

I LOVE Sister Mussman so much!

We did a youth fireside with the Elders at Bishops house last night! It was really good! We did a role play where they each had to go and sit next to Bishop on the bus and Bishop would ask him a question about the church and they would have to answer it! It was really good and I think the youth enjoyed it! 

The whole time during that fireside I was thinking about the importance of gaining a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. 

If you haven't read the Book of Mormon will you just read it already? Actually take the challenge and pray about it? 

We are fighting a war. It is not enough anymore to just go through the motions!

Wearing Sunflowers on a Rainy Day.  HA

Although this week wasn't the greatest (apart from Elder Holland of course!) this is still the Lord's work. He is in charge. He is God! He knows everything. Onward and upward right?

I love you all!

ONWARD AND UPWARD

Sister Ranck

She once was lost, but now she's found!

This is Camden Town

Well, it's that time again...... TRANSFER WEEK. And now for the news you have all been waiting for... I am............. STAYING!!!!!!!!!!!! Woooo!!!! I am staying with Sister Obley here in the beautiful Aylesbury ward:) I am so excited! I feel like I have unfinished business here. I love this ward so much and I love all of the members! Sister Obley and I set some goals this morning for this transfer and we are really excited about them. This is going to be a great transfer :)

This week has been full of many ups and downs. It started off great though with some sight seeing in LONDON. We went to this place called Camden Town which is this huge market thing! It was really fun :) We also went to the British Museum! Not gonna lie museums aren't my thing but hey.. now I can say that I have been there. AND I rode on the second floor in a double decker bus! That was cool :) I seriously love London.

P-Day in London at the British Museum

On Tuesday we were passing out fliers with the youth for some ward activities that are coming up, and we all got different routes. As we were passing them out I stopped this couple to invite them personally to come to the activities and the man said, "Oh my wife is a part of your church!" We were like... Whaaaa? Yeah they said they moved here two weeks ago! So we went over on Thursday to see her and turns out she was baptized when she was 12 and went to church for 1 year and hasn't been since. haha. She was lovely though! She said she would like to come again though sometime! Hey, we can arrange that:) That was a miracle.

OH. COOLEST MIRACLE EVER. Right after district meeting on Thursday, we had just left the chapel and were walking when one of the elders who serves in Watford stopped this girl that was walking by and we started talking to her... and she was heading in the direction we were so Sister

Gimme Bones

Obley and I walked with her home! She invited us in and she was just completely shocked about the timing because she said that lately she has been praying and thinking about how she wants to build her relationship closer with God........... then we bumped into her. Weird how that always happens.....

We gave her a Book of Mormon and we read 3 Nephi 11 with her and she was like, "That is so cool! I can't wait till Jesus comes again!" Me too sister... me too. She is super excited to learn more and tell her family and friends about it as well! We will hopefully be seeing her this week!!!! I am super stoked.

Ahh another miracle! So you all know Sabrina right? Well she disappeared for like 2 weeks and her phone wasn't working, and we didn't know how to get to her house because it was somewhere weird... and yeah. We thought we lost her. But no fear because SHE IS FOUND!!! WOOO!!! I seriously love her.

Another shot in Camden Town

So how it happened.... long story short we ended up being just at the right place at the right time to see her. We were on this street sitting on a bench making a few phone calls when I got up to go in the shade before I turned into a tomato,  and Sister Obley followed then looked down the street  at just the right time to see Sabrina before she went out of view. Then she screamed, pointed, and said, "SABRINA! RUN!" So we ran to her and it was a moment of rejoicing. hahah. She once was lost, but now she's found! And she came to church on Sunday:)

Man, missionary work is great. I seriously love it. But then sometimes you get a text that just crushes your heart and all you want to do is cry your eyes out. We had an amazing investigator, and she was on date to be baptized on July 4th.... We had arranged a lift for her for church in Watford to see Elder Holland..... yup. He did a huge multi stake conference and it was broadcast to all of the chapels in northern Europe. AMAZING. 

Anywho... We were SO excited for her to come! We even made her the promise that if she came with a prayer in her heart, she would receive her answer to wether or not this is right for her. Also, the last time we saw her she said that the more she learns the more that she feels this is the right path for her. Then on Saturday night we got that text that crushed our hearts. She told us that her husband doesn't want her going to our church so she will no longer be meeting with us. 

HEART=CRUSHED.

Oh my days I hate Satan. There is no doubt in my mind that she would have received her answer. You can always count on an Apostle of the Lord......... I am heart broken.

You want so bad for these people to sincerely pray and read the Book of Mormon and come to church because you KNOW the happiness and blessings that are waiting for them when they do. You fast and pray so hard for them. You are always studying for them and thinking about ways that you can help them. You invest so much time into them! But no matter what you do, how many prayers you say, ultimately it comes down to their agency. 

Heavenly Father loves us so much that he gives us the choice to accept or reject Him and our Savior Jesus Christ. When we accept, He rejoices. When we reject, He weeps. He loves each of us so much. I truly know that with all of my heart. 

Meet the Mormons is playing here.

I love this gospel. It is the truth. It is truly the plan for our happiness. 

Live it more fully <------- That is your challenge for this week. 

Mosiah 2:41

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Ranck

PS Birthday Shoutout to my cute gramps:) (Last Saturday) Love you so much! Thank you for being my biggest fan:)

Family Night with the Shepard family is always a fun night
full of laughter

My best friend Malcolm. I sure love this man!

We taught the restoration with the Legos

AHH THIS WEEK WAS SUCH A GREAT WEEK. My testimony has grown so much this week it is crazy. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL SO MUCH AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!! Seriously it is the greatest ever. The 3 weeks before this last were not the greatest, but I grew so much during those few weeks and now my testimony is stronger than ever. 

Here are a few of the happenings this week......

1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL MOTHER!!!! I LOVE YOU  SO MUCH!!!

2. I am famous. Have you all seen that Glorious video that my mission did a cover of??? Yeah it is going viral. Haha that was fun:) 

3. We had the 3 week new missionary meeting in London!!! I love going to London! We learned a lot from President and Sister Jordan about being a more dedicated missionary and exactly obedient. I love them so much! I will miss them when they leave in just a few weeks!! 

4. HAPPY 4 MONTHS TO ME! Seriously where is the time going.......

5. I went on an exchange with Sister Mclcochova! (Moch-A-Hova) She is from the Czech Republic!!! We had some crazy things happen on the exchange..... 

First of all some guy kissed me on the cheek.... I didn't know what the heck to do. He tried to kiss Sister M as well but she dodged it.... that was awkward. haha 

Then when we were doing companion study in the morning, we were talking about the signs of the second coming and no joke a pigeon flew into our window and died. ........ It was crazy. I think it is a sign. ......

6. We went to the Wall family on Sunday for Dinner and they had some legos and we taught the restoration with the Legos. Haha that was kind of fun:)

7. On Monday we went to this cool place called Woburn Safari Park with the Wall family!!!! Oh my days it was fun:) We had to drive through the England Countryside to get there and I think I am obsessed with it. So beautiful!!!!!! We had fun taking selfies with all of the animals:)"

The best part of this week was that we have an amazing new investigator called Lisa!!!!! She is a young mother and Sister Barbosa and I knocked on her door a few weeks ago! She said that her mother is a member but hasn't been for years, and she remembers having the missionaries over at her house a lot when she was young. We had a wonderful lesson with her last week and another one with her this morning! Last week when we invited her to be baptised, she said that that is something that she has been thinking about for awhile. She said if she come to know this was right that she would be baptised:) She is on date for July 4th! 

I love teaching her! She is so receptive and loves learning about the gospel. I just love her so much already! PRAY FOR HER. 

My testimony really grew so much this past week. On Saturday we were coming to Leighton on the bus and I had a really intense conversation with this guy. He is an ex-muslim and doesn't believe that there is a God anymore. He was trying to do everything he could to convince me that there is no God and shake my faith. As we were having this conversation, I was able to look him in the eye and tell him that I KNOW that there is. I KNOW there is a God. My faith is firm and unshaken and stronger than ever. I have seen him in my life and I KNOW he is real.

Last night we stopped this lady on the street and started a conversation with her. That conversation again became very intense as we told her a little bit about the Book of Mormon. She became so defensive and said that she cannot accept anything but the bible, and the bible is all that we need. That reminds me of some verses in 2 Nephi 29:6-10....

The Bible cannot be the only scripture...... God is a god of revelation. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He called prophets in days of old, and he calls prophets now. Why would he stop speaking to his children? Well, good thing we know he hasn't. And the evidence of that is the Book of Mormon. 

I sure love that Book. I have been studying it over the past few weeks and my testimony of it and the things it contains is continually growing. Immerse yourself in it. It is here to direct and guide us! If you have not read it, here is the council of President Monson.... "READ IT." 

I love you all so much! This is the work of the Lord. People are being prepared right now for this message. They are being placed in YOUR path. Don't be shy. Have courage and open your mouth!!! 

THE CHURCH IS TRUE.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Ranck

Yup.  It's a Monkey at the Safari Park.

Yup.  It's a Bear at the Safari Park.

Thanks for the Package from my UVU girls and Mom.

England's Bi-polar Weather