NO CHRIST, NO PEACE. KNOW CHRIST, KNOW PEACE.

Lola and Shannon's baptism day

Before I tell you about my week, I have to say how much I loved sweet uncle Dave. The heavens received a beautiful soul prepared to meet Christ this weekend. "Those who died in the faith of Christ are happy in him." (Alma 46:41) How blessed we are to have a sure knowledge of Heavenly Fathers perfect plan for us! Though we may be sad, the gospel of Jesus Christ makes us happy and we will see our dear Dave again.

This week was AMAZING. Shannon and Lola both entered the waters of baptism and what a beautiful beautiful moment that was for Sister Epicoco and me!!! A weekend I will remember forever. They were both BEAMING!!! Shannon man... I AM SO DANG PROUD OF THAT GIRL!!!!! And Lola..... I cannot WAIT for when her whole family in Nigeria comes into the gospel as well! She is so excited to go back and share with them everything she has learned here!! She told us that she thinks the reason she had to come to England to get skin treatment was so she could meet us. AMAZING!!!!!

On Tuesday we had lunch with Toba and Shannon and after we watched the Mormon message called "Your day for a mission." When we watched that I pretty much just cried because I was thinking about how my story is kind of similar to his... Leaving the sport and people I love to come and serve the Lord. And then sitting next to me were two of the people I had the opportunity to help bring into the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was such a powerful moment for me! I LOVE THEM BOTH SO SO MUCH!!!

This week we had the chance to go and do a lot of blitzes with some of the sisters we have been working with.. Where we traveled to their area and helped them find. And then I have been really focused on the people we are working with in our area and I am learning A LOT about the joy that comes when we FORGET ABOUT OURSELVES and focus on everyone around us! If you find yourself feeling down or depressed.... FORGET ABOUT YOURSELF AND SERVE! I promise you will experience great peace come into your life:)

I love my Savior so so much! Sister Epicoco and I spoke in church on Sunday and I was reminded of a saying that my cute mom has on our fridge that says this.... "NO CHRIST, NO PEACE. KNOW CHRIST, KNOW PEACE." It's true my friends! Make Him the focus:)

Sister Sara Ranck

PS..... A HUGE Birthday shoutout to my cute gramps!!! We are turning 21 this week:) can you believe it???!?!

PSS..... Another HUGE Birthday shoutout to my girl Kalli Sue..... Errrrrr WILLARDSON!!! Eat lots of Coldstone oatmeal cookie dough ice cream for me today to celebrate:) LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Delate from South Africa! I love this Elder!

Hubert baptised them both!

My girl Sister Wright from Utah

Sister Mura from France! She is such a great sister:)

Words cannot express how much I LOVE this work.

The "Sandy Sleeper" and "Torina Terror" hahaha

Wow! I don't even know what to say! We are seriously seeing MIRACLES. Shannon and Lola are going to be baptised this weekend!!! I can't even believe it. I am so dang proud of them! Lola after her interview was SOO excited! She is going to go back to Nigeria in May and will bring all her family to the church:) and Shannon, man, she is probably one of the biggest miracles of my whole mission. She made MAJOR changes in her life to live the commandments and wow I just love her to bits! BLESSINGS! PRAY FOR THEM THIS WEEK.

I wish I could describe adequately what is happening in the Ilford ward right now. All because one member, Dulce, has been so involved in missionary work... Fasting... Praying... Being so willing to help us out.... This ward has EXPLODED with Portuguese people. It has been absolutely incredible to see! It seems like everyone we have been meeting lately is Portuguese. We are working with two amazing Portuguese families (one of which is the beautiful family that came to church last week), and also, this other family who has come to church twice and is doing AMAZING!! She has caught the fire of missionary work and we are seeing miracles because of it.

Sweet Assa Poitou and Natalie

I am learning so much from her. There is also this part member family that we have been working with that is Portuguese. Well, the whole family has never come to church together....... Dulce told us that she has been praying for them for 6 MONTHS every single day... AND YESTERDAY THEY CAME. She never gave up! Seriously.... God WANTS to bless his children so much! I know he does! He needs us to be his hands.

As she told us how she has been praying for them, I asked her how she feels seeing all these miracles in the ward, and she said, "Happy. I feel happy." She told us that just two years ago she was so selfish, always buying expensive clothes and spending so much money on herself... But God has shown her a better way... A happier way. I just pray we can all find the happier way!

This week we had interviews with President and sister Stevens. My days I love those two!!! Always leading up to interviews I feel super inadequate and like I am not reaching my potential and doing enough to become what Heavenly Father needs me to be. And you know I think in life we often feel like that. But it amazed me that when I was sitting in front of them and he asked me how I was doing, I suddenly had a new perspective. I saw myself through Gods eyes! Just like Elder Holland said in his conference talk..... "the Lord blesses those who want to improve." He is proud of every effort we take to come closer to Him. Wow, I seriously had a hard time writing this email because I can't describe in

We went down to Ashford to spend the day with
Sister Young and Mathews!

a few paragraphs what is happening here. Pretty much all you need to know is this...... GOD IS REAL. We need to learn to see ourselves from his eyes! And if members of the church would unite with the missionaries, EVERYTHING would change.

I had a dream the other night that I went back to Utah and was playing football at UVU and I didn't take off my badge because I didn't want to stop being full-time missionary. Words cannot express how much I LOVE this work. IT TRULY IS THE HAPPIER WAY!

ONWARD AND UPWARD.....

Sister Sara Ranck

P.S. COOL STORY!! So I went on a blitz about a month ago in Southend and this guy we met lives in Canterbury... But we met him and he was like, "I have met missionaries a lot lately I guess it's a sign!" I was like, YES IT IS!!! And we referred him to the Canterbury missionaries! Well turns out he just got baptised and is doing so well. Miracles!!!

P.S.S.... That picture with Brother Beasley.... Bless his heart. My nickname is "Sandy" and he calls me the Sandy sleeper because I always fall asleep. And Sister Epicoco is the Torino Terror because she is from Torino, 28, and wanting to get married. Haha bless him.

We love tracting! Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun!

What a beautiful sight having so many children at church today <3

These days truly are the best days of my life

Wow, can I just say that I LOVE my ward family??! My days, the longer I am here the more that I absolutely ADORE this Ward!!!!  This week I had some of the most beautiful experiences of my whole life.... A little taste of heaven I might say. <3 

SOOO. Shannon has been doing so well and quit smoking!! I am so stinkin proud of her!!!! But gosh dang it Satan sure is making life difficult for her and for us as she has been sick loads and is going to Scotland to see her uncle this WHOLE week.... Man, she is still way good but it makes me nervous as we haven't seen her much lately!!! But God knows the situation and will help her I am sure of it!!! We just need to trust him!!!

ALRIGHT COOL MOMENT FROM THE WEEK!! So when I first got here a member from Africa had just moved into the ward and I would always talk with her whenever I saw her. Well after a few weeks she randomly stopped coming to church. Well, I didn't realise for a few weeks because my life is crazy but then one day I randomly had the thought to call her... So I did and she told me how much she appreciated my call! And said that she hasn't heard from anyone from church and she has had a

rough time the past few weeks..... Well I invited her to church but she still didn't come. Then I randomly got the thought to text her a little later.... So I did and she texted back and was so grateful that I texted her! She told me that she has been having a hard time coming to church lately. Well, she FINALLY came to church:) and we arranged to see her this past week and man....... It was amazing. Get this.... She told us that she had a dream a few days before I texted her where she was running this race with a group of people. But she got lost and left the group... She was lost for awhile and didn't know where everyone was or how to get back on the right path. Well, she asked for directions and finally found the right path, but the group was already passed and she felt very sad and didn't know what to do. Well, finally she saw two people who came back to rescue her and then she finally joined the group again. With tears in her eyes, she looked at us and said, "you are the two people who God sent to rescue me."

Seriously friends, follow the promptings of the Spirit. Literally all we did was give her a call and
send her a text to later find out that the whole time we were on the Lords errand. So simple <3

Okay, one more story for the week!! There is just too many amazing things that happened!!! So a few weeks ago we stopped this mother and 2 kids on the street... We didn't talk long but we exchanged details and she said I could give her a call. She told us that she had 9 children and we would always joke at how awesome it would be if we actually started teaching this family of 9 investigators... WELL, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

I was on exchange with my girl Sister Bader and all our appointments fell through (surprise, surprise) so we decided to stop by. WELL UMM MIRACLE! Sister Bader actually speaks German and so does the mother so we could actually communicate. She told us she really wanted us to teach her children! So I kid you not, we went back and taught this most BEAUTIFUL family twice so far and OH. MY. DAYS. It feels like heaven whenever we are there and I never want to leave! They just stare at us so wide eyed and so eager to learn! The youngest is 5 and the oldest is 22... And check out their names! Starting with the youngest.... Proud, Tyrell,Kessidy, Lord, Geoffrey, and Felix. (The other 3 live in Germany) They are originally from Angola, but all the kids were born in Germany, and they recently just moved here.

Mission Leader Conference

The most beautiful experience though was Sunday morning when we went to pick them up for church and we all took the bus together to church. I couldn't get this stupid grin off my face the whole time because I just felt so much joy going with this amazing family to church!! This was definitely the highlight of the week! No wonder Jesus loved teaching little children. Haha you should have seen sweet Tyrell's face when we told them about the Holy Ghost being a Spirit... Haha I think it freaked him out at first. Bless his heart <3! I absolutely ADORE them and am so excited to see them again this week:) they absolutely LOVE us as well and give us the biggest hugs! My days I just want to cry thinking about it!

These days truly are the best days of my life. I have never felt so much joy and love for people I barely know. God truly knows each of us so well! He is completely aware of our situation and our life. TRUST IN HIM. TURN TO HIM.

I love you all!!!

OMWARD AND UPWARD FOREVER.

Sister Sara Ranck

We love lunch at Toba's! Jollof rice!!!

Riding to church with this beautiful family
was such a happy moment.

His name is Proud!

MLC

I LOVE HAYSMAN! He is pretty much my best friend!

Akeem Kareem! I helped to reactivate him <3

My greatest desire was to help everyone I can feel and recognise the Savior's love for them.

Sister Bader from Switzerland

Wow! My love for this work and my Savior just keeps on growing every single day!!!! Especially the hard days and when people on the bus yell at you because they think your religion is a cult and that polygamy is a sin..... Nice to meet you too sir:) Ha that was some experience I tell yah! Wasn't conference AMAZING as usual? As I have come to understand the restoration and the Importance of living prophets even more, the more I truly treasure their words and council. For when a prophet speaks, it's the same as if God is speaking. AMAZING.

The Lord is blessing Sister Epicoco and me so much. I don't know how this week is going to work, we have too many people to see and not enough time! A lot of people would be stressed about this week but not me! I am having so much fun with it:) God is in control and he has blessed us with these people and will provide a way for everything to work the way he wants it to. I trust him:) We have some amazing people we are working with that I want to tell you about!

First, my girl Shannon!! My days she is doing SOOO amazing. She is 19 and is completely changing her life. She quit smoking and she said that she has tried many times before but it has never worked... And now that she has the help of God she has been able to actually quit! I am so dang proud of her!!! Haha guess how we met her..... So it was the beginning of last transfer and we were walking somewhere and just stopping people along the way, when we passed her walking her dog and I asked her, "Hey! Do you think dogs go to heaven?" Her response.... "Umm only the friendly ones!" And that was it. Now she is like our best friend and is going to be baptised this month and become such a

strong member! I LOVE this girl soooooo much!!!!

Second, we are teaching this girl named Lola from Nigeria!!! She is SOOO prepared it is amazing. Okay so her story..... She has only been in England for like 2 months and will only be here until May. She is here because she has to get special treatment for a skin disease she has. Missionaries met her up north somewhere and then referred her to us and my days SHE IS SO PREPARED. She will be baptised this month and she LOVES the Book of Mormon so much and LOVES church. She is excited to bring her family to the church when she gets home to Nigeria! She is amazing!!! <3

I just cannot get over how blessed I feel right now. As I listened to the prophets and apostles, my greatest desire was to help everyone I can feel and recognise the Savior's love for them. He loves us SO much. We cannot even comprehend it!

ONWARD AND UPWARD FOREVER.

Sister Sara Ranck

A Portuguese Family in our Ward

Our Heater Broke for a Few Days.
It Was Freezing.

Lola

Watching General Conference at the chapel!!!