Oh My I Love Being a Missionary

 Oh my I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! This past week has been a crazy and awesome adventure and I have loved every second of it! I am serving in the Gillingham 2nd ward and my new companion

My new companion, Sister Haynie
from Tuscan Arizona

is Sister Haynie from Tuscan Arizona!!!! And okay I love her already so much! She came to me already trained pretty much and I keep forgetting that I am training her because that is how good she is! I am sooo excited to be working with her this transfer! We are going to see miracles:)

The Gillingham area looks a lot like my last areas...... England has the same kind of houses everywhere. They are all connected and are just these skinny little things! And everything is crammed really close together.

 Sister Haynie is amazing and we are already such good friends! She is the 5th of 10 children in her family! Crazy huh haha, and it is funny having an American companion because I am not used to hearing an American accent all day every day! She is so great and I am really looking forward to working with her. She reminds me a lot of how I was when I first came out, and it has been crazy to reflect on the last 6 months and see the missionary that I am now becoming. GOODNESS I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!

Wednesday was a crazy day pretty much all spent at the Mission Home at Hyde Park. We were there with all the trainers starting at 10:00 and didn't get to meet our new missionary until 4:30.... it was a long day of waiting. haha. The reason it took so long was because there are 19 new missionaries this transfer. And lots of sisters! That is so great to see:) My training on the 12 week program went pretty well also so that was good.

So when we got to meet our new missionaries, straight away we went out and did like 45 minutes of finding on Exhibition road! Sister Stevens caught a way sweet picture of us talking to someone! Haha. We had a great conversation with this Chinese guy and brought him into the Visitors Center and gave him a Book of Mormon! The VC sisters got his number and I really hope that he is able to come to the gospel.

After that, President Stevens talked to us for a bit, we took pictures, set up their iPad, and were on our way. Yes.... that was an adventure as we had all 3 of my huge and heavy suitcases that were stuffed full..... seriously I don't know how I have so much stuff, but as I went through it later there is nothing I can throw away. haha. And all 3 of Sister Haynies suitcases. So going through the tubes and the train was quite an adventure..... hahaha. My arms were sore the next day.

Elder Haysman from Australia, Bastian from Mauritious, 

Castilian from Netherlands,  and

Nakumaha from some islands by Samoa

I was really worried about getting to our area with all of our stuff, and I prayed a lot for kind people to be able to help us, and all day long there were so many people who helped us with our luggage. Including a member in our new ward who called and offered to pick us up from the train station. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!!! That was a nice little miracle that I am so grateful for!

The first few days were interesting as we didn't really know where to start. In Aylesbury we covered two cities... Leighton and Ayelsbury but now we cover 3 cities. haha it is a huge area and the Ward mission leader is working to try to get us a car! Our area is Rainham, the Isle of Sheppey, and Sittingbourne! The chapel is in Gillingham, and we live in Sittingbourne!

We met with the Ward Mission Leader and the RS president our second day here and spent a lot of time in the area book. Okay I love elders, but they did not keep good records of the people in the area and basically left us with nothing. So we are going to be working hard to build up our teaching pool over the next week! I can feel the miracles coming! :)

High Street in Sittingbourne England
My new home town

Sunday was an amazing day. We were asked to both speak in church on Sunday... Welcome to the ward! ha... and we spoke about missionary work! Obviously... it was so great! The ward is super excited to have sisters! We felt so much love from the ward and it truly is a wonderful ward! More of an aging ward, but there are still some great young families as well. I am really excited to be serving here!

We had a really sweet miracle at church as well:) So on Friday we sent out a text to all of the members in the ward just saying about how we are excited to be here, and inviting them all to invite one person to church this Sunday. On Sunday after sacrament meeting we found out that there was a member of the ward who invited her friend to come, and actually she has been inviting this friend to come for the past 4 years and today was the first time that she came. So we got to meet her and they came to gospel principles class... which we teach and we found out literally 1 minute before that we were teaching it. haha this is what

All the new missionaries and their trainers
with President and Sister Stevens

happens when you are a missionary... you get really good with on the spot lessons and thoughts and stuff. It is great!

So when we found out, at first we were going to teach "Faith in Jesus Christ..." But then to start we went around the room and said something interesting about ourselves and she told us about how for 4 years she has been talking to her friend who is a member about the church and she is interested to learn a little bit more about it. So we then changed the lesson to, "The Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days" which is basically the whole restoration lesson. Oh my goodness the Spirit was so strong in that lesson! She had some amazing questions and all of the members in the class were able to share their testimony as well it was just the greatest thing ever!

Towards the end she started crying and said about how this was the first time she has actually come

Outside of flat. We are on the top floor!
So those two little windows up there.

to church, and when I was speaking in sacrament meeting, I mentioned about how I challenged everyone to invite someone to church, and at that moment the Spirit just hit her and she started flooding tears as she realized she was the person who was invited to church, and she is now going to read the Book of Mormon and we are going to be teaching her this week!

UMM WOW!!!! What a miracle! The only downfall is that she doesn't live in our area and she is only here till Friday, but oh well because good thing the church is the same all over the world!!!!!! Ahh that was so cool! And Adam, I am going to give her your Book of Mormon this week:) Just thought I would let you know! She said she wanted a physical copy rather than on her phone, so I told her that I have a special one that I am going to bring to her!

OH MY I LOVE THE GOSPEL SO MUCH. I love Sister Haynie and I am super excited for this transfer! Life is good and the gospel is true. It really is that simple. It is true wherever you are in the world and it is true for every single person on this earth. God loves us all. I see the truth of that statement every single day!

THIS WEEK PRAY TO KNOW WHO YOU CAN INTRODUCE AND INVITE TO THE GOSPEL. Whether it is an activity, family night, family dinner, church, etc. I know that there are people in your life, neighbors, family, friends, people you work with, etc etc etc, who are prepared and willing to accept the gospel. So OPEN YOUR MOUTH! And I promise you the Lord will bless you with those opportunities to share your testimony:)

ONWARD AND UPWARD!

Sister Ranck

Sittingbourne England

Kent Garden

Some more pictures from Aylesbury