Mormons! Mormons!

Sharam's Baptism

My days I love Watford already and love my companion, Sister Jo!!! We had great miracles this week! First, Shar's baptism was Sunday morning and that was the most smooth baptism I have ever had on my mission! Seriously nothing went wrong! We started preparing for Christmas early this year as well as he wanted to sing a Christmas song at his baptism..... So we sang "I heard the bells on Christmas Day!"Hahaha I couldn't help but just laugh the whole way through it! He is from Kurdistan, which is this city that is in like 5 countries in Iran, Iraq... Out that direction! Bless him, he is so great and has been coming to church for 5 years, making massive changes in his life to get to this point. He was so happy!!!!! 

Let's see, other things that happened this week! I have been on my mission for 17 months and Tuesday was the first time my whole mission that we literally found ALL. DAY. LONG. Because basically every appointment cancelled! Gotta love missionary work:) I was on exchange with Sister Carr from Missouri this day as well...... We had some hilarious moments:) for example, we stopped this African man and we're talking about Jesus Christ, then we pulled out the Book of Mormon... He saw "Mormon" on the front, screamed "MORMON! MORMON!" And literally ran away.... Then before he went out of sight he looked back at us and smiled....... hahahaha we died! It was hilarious! I love missionary work:)

The whole England London Mission.  See if you can find me.

On Wednesday we had a Portuguese BBQ for dinner with this less active family and my days I love Portuguese food! They gave us enough food to take home to last us a week. Then this little 8-year-old kid decided to take off all of his clothes and run around.... Hahaha mission memories. Gotta love it!

On Sunday at church, I got to see one of the members I love from Aylesbury ward and man when I saw her I basically started crying! I love all of these people! There was a sister who had just got home from her mission in the ward and seeing her with no badge really hit me that I only have 4 more weeks. My heart aches every time I think about it. So right there, in the middle of sacrament meeting I just cried as she spoke.

I will not waste any minutes in the next 4 weeks. Christ gave everything till the last second, and I will do the same. I love my Savior!

Sister Sara Ranck

I spy with my little eye a naked fat kid...

Portuguese BBQ!  I Love Portuguese food!

This guy always sings songs about Jesus.

We LOVE Rain

Aylesbury Chapel

It was sunny and hot when we woke up...
5 hours later, pouring rain.  Blessed England!

Our bikes in the elevator.
It's like Tetris trying to fit them in.

Sister Nyketcho and Sister Reina <3

Love these Elders!

Elder Murri (the guy who trains me every morning at 6am)

and Mthombeni.

Life is SOO good

Bikes and skirts.  A bad idea.

First things first.. Happy Father's Day to my wonderful old man!!!! And my sweet grandpa Ranck andGramps Jarvis!!! I love you all so much and am so blessed to have the best support and greatest examples in my life!! I can't wait to give you a hug in just 5 weeks!!!! Love you <3.

Well looks like my worst nightmare came true........ I am now officially a sister missionary on a BIKE!!!.........Fantastic......... Let's just say that whoever thought it would be a good idea for sister missionaries to wear skirts and ride bikes at the same time was not the smartest person in the world. It is a daily struggle and my butt and legs are super sore, but at the same time they are really nice to get around places quicker:)

I think I will really like it here in Watford!! There are lots of people around and the ward is really great.... Probably 120 or so active! Still multicultural with people from Hungary, Portugal, Africa,

Bobby and Kumar!

England, you name it! But nothing like Ilford in that regard though haha. And my companion is GREAT! I love her already!! Her name is Sister Johannes but I call her Sister Jo! She is from Colorado, lived in St. George for the last 4 years, and went to BYU! We have lots of fun together and both just want to work! So it has been great so far:)

My first few days in Watford was quite the adventure..... Haha so I get here and the first thing we had to do was take our bike to a shop because the tire had popped earlier this week. And I kid you not.. It wasn't raining all day, but as soon as we went outside to take the bike to the shop it started pouring, we only had one umbrella, and I had to carry the bike because the tires wouldn't roll. Hahaha we were soaked and just laughed pretty much the entire time!! I wish someone had taken a photograph of us in this moment because I am sure we were quite the sight. I LOVE missionary work!!!

The view from our flat

We have some good people we are working with, but we need to really build it up though and find more people! So we did LOADS of finding this week and have a good week ahead of us... Whenever you have a full week like this you always see so many miracles! There is one guy who will be baptised on Sunday! His name is Sharam, he is from Kyrgistan (I have no clue how to spell it), and he has been  coming to church for 5 years. It has taken him time but he has completely turned his life around. He even just lost his job because he chose to go to church and not work. He is so excited for his baptism!

Life is SOO good!!! I am still working harder than ever!!! All because I love my Savior <3.

ONWARD AND UPWARD!

Sister Sara Ranck

We had a crazy bike adventure at the beginning
of our exchange....!

I love Sister Jo!!!!

The Watford Chapel

I love this work with my whole heart and soul.

All of the sisters who came on exchanges signed our wall :)

Well, the time has come. After 5 beautiful transfers, 7 wonderful months in the great land of Ilford Stan, England. My time has come to say goodbye. President called me yesterday to tell me that I will be spending my last transfer in Watford with Sister Johannes.  I'm so excited to get to know Sister Johannes and to work with her!

But, leaving is still hard.  I cried when President told me because I will miss everyone here so much.  President said, "Sister Ranck, are you okay?" And sister Epicoco had to answer for me because I couldn't even talk. I didn't even know it was possible to love these people so much...... Sister Epicoco has become the sister I never had. I will miss her so so soooo much!!!!

Bobby, Dee, Maria, Magda, Rafael, Shannon, Lola, Rufina, Helder, and Toba........ I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to have met all of these wonderful people and see them change their lives to follow Christ. Although I won't be here, Bobby will be baptised this Sunday! He is probably one of the biggest miracles of my mission. I have never met anyone with a stronger desire than him to change his life. He has changed SOOO much! He truly radiates now. It is beautiful to see <3.

This week we had another beautiful opportunity. So as you know Lola will be moving back to Nigeria in just a few weeks... Well, we really wanted to make it possible for her to go to the temple  before she goes back! There was a ward temple trip so we got everything set up, and we even got her father's name prepared so she could take his name to the temple!!! Well, Friday comes around and the person who was going to take her.. His car broke down..... So all day we were making calls trying to figure out another option... And literally no one had space in their car because we were already short drivers..... Telling her that we weren't sure if she was able to make it broke my heart because she was so excited!!!! We prayed all day long that something will open up. And all day there was nothing...... But that night as I prayed..., I felt at peace and knew that something would happen..... Well, that morning we woke up to a text from one of the drivers saying that our prayers have been answered... There is space! Turns out there was some confusion with who was taking who, which opened up a few spaces so she could go to the temple!!!!! What a wonderful moment that was as we called her and told her our prayers had been answered <3. She had a wonderful experience!!!!

I love this work with my whole heart and soul. I will give everything these next 6 weeks.... But the wonderful thing is it doesn't stop here, I will be a missionary forever with the badge imprinted on my

heart.

ONWARD AND UPWARD......

Sister Sara Ranck

This is Larissa! She was baptised 3 weeks after I left Ilford
with her two siblings and mother!

My last time seeing Toba. Okay I'm crying! I love him!

The Ruckmals!!  I love this family with my whole heart and soul :)

Brother and Sister Stevensen :) They are wonderful!!

I will miss Toba SOOO much!!!!

Sweet Magda wrote out her testimony <3