I love this work and I love my Savior!

Hyde Park Chapel

Just so you all know, this Thursday the 28th of January it's my birthday!!!! Okay not really but I will Ahh I'm kind of freaking out about this fact right now! It's come way too fast!!! Wow. Looking over this year I literally have no words. My time here in England I will cherish for the rest of my life!!! I'm tellin yah.... Serving a mission is the best thing you could ever do. I love this work and I love my Savior!

have been out a whole year......

Today we took a nice stroll through central London.... No big deal! We went to the Sky Gardens which is this place that overlooks all of London.. That was incredible!! And we went to Harrods..... Ahh oh my days that place is ridiculous. I don't even think the word "posh" can adequately describe it! Yes it was fun just roaming through London today! I LOVE London!!!!!

This week I got to go to Gillingham on exchange!!! Ahh I love that place! And get this.... I was with Sister Wright who knows my girl Kasandra Anderson from my UVU team (oh and shoutout to Kassan for getting hitched... Sorry I don't know your new name!! Freaking stoked for you girl!) and also I definitely played against Sister Wright in Club Soccer! Small world. Well being in Gillingham was SWEET and it was so fun to see some old faces and to see how well the people I have worked with are doing!

Sister Wright, and My Girl Mara, and me

We went to see a less active that I taught the last week I was there and she is now fully active and preparing to go to the temple!! That was exciting.... ALSO I GOT TO SEE MY GIRL MARA!! Flipping heck we both about died when we saw each other!!!!! She was like... "Ah I never thought you would be sitting here in my house again!" When I come back to England she will be the first person I visit!!! I freaking love that girl!! Also, I called and talked to Clayton who is the one who got baptised on December 31 that I taught!!! AHHH he is doing so great and thanked me for helping him to discover his faith!!!! Wow that felt good! He said that lots of his friends have recognised the changes in him. He is doing sooo well:) Dang Gillingham is such a hard area but wow I sure LOVE those people!!!!!!

This week was a great week. We had interviews and a WORLDWIDE mission broadcast this week!

The top of the Sky Gardens

This was the first time in over 10 years that they have had a broadcast with all of the missionaries in the world, and they said that now that things are settling with the age change they are going to train us on how to help people become truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The title of the broadcast was this.... "Teach repentance, baptise converts." It was amazing being so united as Gods army to receive council from the missionary department and quorum of the 12 about how to help bring souls unto Christ! Wow the Lord is in this work.

Also, Interviews was absolutely FANTASTIC. We had a chance to be interviewed by President and Sister Stevens and oh my they are both the most incredible people! I LOVED my interview with Sister Stevens. She is amazing and I hope I can be as humble and loving as she is some day. She has had such a huge impact on my life already!!!!

This morning I was studying in Jacob chapter 5 and 6. After Zenos and Jacob are telling us what is going to happen in our days.... The last days.... He exclaims in Jacob chapter 6:5.....

"I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would REPENT, and come with FULL PURPOSE OF HEART, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts."

Wow I love that scripture so much. It made me think of my own life as a disciple of Christ..... In what ways am I being half hearted? Am I striving to repent and change every day? Am I truly cleaving unto God?

I challenge you all to ask yourself those same questions. How can you COME UNTO CHRIST more fully this week?

I love this work with my whole heart and soul.

Thank you for your faith, prayers and support!

Here are some fun videos:

Click here for Beautiful England
Click here for a ride in the Tube
Click here for the Sky Gardens
Click here for the view from the Sky Gardens

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Sara Ranck

The Sky Gardens from the Bottom

Sister Missionary Barbie!

We found the cutest little area in Ilford!

An old Church of England church

This is Farhat. The Elder baptised her!

Oh... hey "Sister Jensen" ....

Sister Mathews and Sister Mcfarland

Prayer works ladies and gents! God is actually listening! I am absolutely sure of it:)

I absolutely love my companion, Sister Fenu.

As an activity for P-day, we went to a Sikh temple today and wow that was an interesting experience! So we get there and go inside the temple and ask if we can look around.., and immediately they were like, "Of course! This is Gods temple! Everyone is welcome!" It was really interesting. So yes we go in and we have to wear a scarf on our heads and take our shoes off, and the guy that was helping us out took us upstairs to the Holy room called the Darbar. You sit on the floor in there and people would walk in, go up to the front bow down and kiss the floor, pray, and then go and sit down on the wall and meditate. That was cool to watch! Then after they have like a soup kitchen type thing downstairs and serve Indian food so we had lunch at the Sikh Temple today:)

God has been very good to us this week! I feel like one very blessed missionary. Let's see what happened...... We were at a member's home the other day and some Jehovah Witnesses knocked on the door.... yeah that was awkward. And this week I definitely taught a less active family about Jesus Christ using a Rubix cube and they definitely came to church yesterday. #success. Toba is still doing really well and loves the Book of Mormon!! WOOO. All around it was a great week:)

Inside the Sikh Temple

This week we had two exchanges with the Romford and the Cambridge sisters and I was the one who stayed in the area both times though! So yes I have been doing lots of travelling this week as well.... It takes us 2.5 hours to get to Cambridge so on Thursday and Friday I did 5 hours of traveling! We have to travel into central London, take the tube to Kings Cross station (aka Harry Potter), then take a train to Cambridge! Goodness I love my life right now:) All of these sisters I get to serve with are so wonderful and I love getting to know them and learning from them!!!

I learned a lot about prayer this week. First of all, an 8 year old prayed that we wouldn't get blown up by a volcano...... Thank goodness for that. I was getting worried! Bless his sweet heart:)

We found this new investigator called Raees this week and man he is sooooo good! He is 24 and

P-Day visit to the Sikh Temple

when we were Carolling outside the chapel before Christmas he came up to us and said he has been thinking about meeting with us to learn more... Well we finally got to see him this week and dang I have never taught anyone with a more sincere heart than this guy!! He has always believed in some kind of higher power but has never known what it was... And some very serious things have happened in his family that has made him wonder.... Positive things! Well we had such an amazing lesson with him!

Here is where the prayer thing comes in... He has never prayed out loud before in His life. We taught him about prayer and how when we pray we are really speaking to God and God is really listening to us. He agreed to say the prayer and all I can say is....... wow. This is the first time this guy has ever prayed out loud and I don't think I have ever heard a more sincere and beautiful prayer in my whole life. He was really speaking to God as if he was right there. It was amazing!

Beautiful London at Night

This experience made me really think about my own personal prayers. Unlike Raees I have been praying out loud ever since I started to speak, and far too often are my prayers too casual and I forget that I am actually speaking to my Heavenly Father! I set a goal this week to improve my prayers and wow that made such a difference!

I just wanted to invite you all to think about your own personal prayers. I remember an institute teacher always asking us this question...... "How is your prayer life?"

So I ask you the same question.... How can you improve the quality of your prayers this week?

Prayer works ladies and gents! God is actually listening! I am absolutely sure of it:)

KEEP THE FAITH.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Sara Ranck

Love these cute girls to bits.  Yashna and Angela

I am so happy for Clayton!!!

Sister Lawler from Arizona

Sister Colman who grew up in my old neighborhood

Don't Question, Just Do, My Friends.

Sister Training Leaders

Soooooo this week was a fantastic week as usual!!!! The last two weeks have been like the "calm before the storm..." Because we have had no exchanges and so I have actually had a companion for two weeks..... Oh my days it has been so nice! Ha Starting this week my life is going to get 10 times more hectic as I will be going on two exchanges a week...... It will be crazy! I'm so stoked! I love being a missionary. 

Today for p day Sister Fenu and I decided to take a day trip to India...... Ilford is basically India and there are these shops with the most incredible dresses you have ever seen so we decided to do some shopping! Man Ilford-Stan is great! Half of our area is India and then you go to Dagenham and it turns into Africa! I love this place. :)

We loved our trip to India ;)

Let's see........ what happened this week...... Oh yeah! So we have a really good new investigator called Toba and ah man he is great! So how I met this guy....... We were getting on the bus one day and we went up to the top deck and went towards the back originally because we had to make a few phone calls..... but a few minutes later we saw this guy sitting at the very front corner and we both felt we needed to go sit by him. So I went up there and starting talking with him and asking about his New Years resolutions and what not. Well, I invited him to church and got his number.... But didn't think it was too solid because I talked to him for like only 4 minutes. 

Well he actually came to church and absolutely loved it! And he told us that starting the new year he was planning to find a new church anyways..... And then I sat by him on the bus and invited him to church! So yes he has come the past two weeks and loves it so far!!!! 

It would have been so easy for us to not go up there since we only had like 2 more stops before we got off the bus...... But then this would have never happened! DON'T QUESTION JUST DO MY FRIENDS. That is probably the biggest lesson I have learned on my mission... If you have a thought

to do something.... Just do it! Then pretty much every time you will realise that thought came from the Spirit! #blessings

This week we had MLC and that was amazing as usual. Elder Haysman and Elder Packer (RIP Elder Ramsay) were there too so that was really fun catching up with them! I love being at these meetings because you really see how much the Lord is in this work. As we knelt down as a leadership council to pray about the goals we set for the mission.... Wow there is such power in that. The Lord truly is at the head of this work! I know it with my whole heart! 

After MLC we told President about the situation with Laisvis and asked for permission to go and see
him.... He agreed so instead of going back to our area we went to Horn Church to see Laisvis. 

That was a really intense and very sad experience. He wasn't too happy to see us... But he agreed to go on a walk with us and talk about it for awhile. Well he explained what has been going on and things finally started to make sense...... I am just heart broken because he knows what is right and he knows what he needs to

do, he is just choosing not to do it because he feels like he can't. We were super bold with him and testified powerfully of how Jesus Christ is there for him and knows what he is going through. When we asked him if he will keep trying..., he just shook his head, looked down, and said no. Ah my heart completely broke in that moment. We just love this kid! You better believe I will pray for him every day for the rest of my life. 

I have learned a few things this week about continually becoming converted to Christ.... Every single day! When we were teaching Toba one day, the member we were teaching with gave a very powerful testimony and something I loved that she said was this.....

"Even when we are sad, the gospel makes us happy.... And that is because of Jesus Christ."

I have been thinking a lot about where my testimony came from and that has really strengthened me. I would invite you all to do the same!

Christ is real and this is his church. 

Elder Hesen and Elder Jensen

Love you all like crazy!!!!

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

Sister Sara Ranck

P.s. Check out the song called "Hallelujah" by the Osmonds.... I'm obsessed with it.

Click here to see a video of us shopping.
Click here to see another one.
Click here to see us driving through Hyde Park.
Click here to see us driving through Exhibition Road

Shopping for Clothes from India

Yes I taught about Jesus Christ using a Rubix Cube...

Ilford ward;) I LOVE IT!

Romford Zone!

Good bye to Bro. and Sis. Cardall who are going
home next week.

We love driving to MLC!

This is our favourite place to get Naan Bread!