Mom's Birthday + Conference!

Last week was my mom's birthday! After what had happened that week I'm sure she wasn't all that excited, but she did recieve a great birhtday present! We all thought Drake would forget, as he tends to do. To our surprise however, not only did he not forget, but he managed to give her a great present! He bought an international phone card and gave it to one of his converts. She then proceeded to call mom to wish her a happy birthday and tell her (my mom) how much she loved Elder Ranquist. Mom was smiling the rest of the day! There was a bit of a language barrier, but enough Spanglish went by that they were able to understand eachother. Happy Birthay Mom!

7 Apr 2009

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Mom! I´m glad you liked my birthday present. I bought a calling card the P-day beforehand and gave it to the Dumos family to call. I really wish I could take credit of such a brilliant idea, but it was my companions. His mother had a birthday last month and he did the same thing. I wasn´t sure about doing it at first because I didn´t want to give you a language strain, but I decided that you would love it anyways. So, happy birthday and know that I love you.

I´m glad that although this past week has been really difficult, you could make it through and that everything went well. Two weeks ago when I was told about the approaching death of Grandpa, I prayed sincerely that God would send his angels, living and dead, through the power of the ministering of angels that under the Aaronic priesthood, to console and strengthen you all. I hope that you felt their presence.

Oh, and Mom, could you send your talk over again, but under a different file format. These computers don´t have .docx access. Or in other words, I use an older version of Word and it can´t open the newer versions. When you save it, you need to select where it says “Save as type” (or that is the nearest translation, I don´t remember what it says exactly) and select one that says *.doc. Dad can help you I believe. Thank you.

We had a surprise baptism this Saturday! Last Sunday, the mother of Noelia showed up (who was baptized by us last month and moved back to Tucuman) at church. We went and talked with her and realized she was more than prepared to enter the convenant of baptism. She reads the Book of Mormon and the Bible every night, prays, fasts when she needs a spiritual boost, and doesn´t even listen to the radio or watch TV on Sundays. Her only problem is that the church is 2 hours away from her house by a bus that leaves at 6AM or 9AM. That bus is also really expensive. So, she can´t get to church all too often, but promised to try to do so as often as possible with Noelia.

She leaves this Thursday, so we decided to hold her baptism in between the sessions of conference this Saturday. It was hectic but went really well. Her huge family came and were really supportive. Her son, Ricardo Días, baptized her and her brother, Gerónimo Días (who is the second counselor in the bishopbric), confirmed her right after. We had special permission from President Benton and Bishop Candia to do so. I can´t wait for the church to make it out to her town in the country as a branch, when she´ll be able to help the enlargement of the church. She will be a pioneer.

I just absolutely loved conference. I had to listen to the Saturday sessions in Spanish because they didn´t have the English line set up. I could understand nearly everything, but it loses a lot of power and emotion when you only hear the voice of the translator. They don´t have the same power of voice as the apostles and the prophet. And some translators and worse than others. I´m so glad that I can listen to it in English for the majority of my life.

Two themes really hit me during the conference. They talked a lot about service. The other phrase that I heard over and over was that fear and faith can´t coexist. I have the fear of future church service, namely leardership. I´ve always had that fear. But I know that I will be a church leader. The way I want to lead my life, there is no avoiding it. So, I´m going to try to change my attitude and instead of having fear of that day, prepare for it with faith. And I think that day might start in just a few weeks. I´ve been on my mission 8 months now and my companion and others that I´ve talked with think that I will be Senior Companion next transfer. My companion even thinks that I´ll have a good chance of training as well. I don´t feel ready for that responsibility. I´ve never had responsibility over anyone. I´ve only ever been responsible for myself. But, I will learn and the Lord will shape my back to fit the burden.

And as a missionary, I absolutely loved the talk by Elder Perry. He´s right, we do spend most of our time trying to find people to teach. But Elder Spendlove during a talk once said “I don´t want to be out in the streets, in the hot sun. I want to be in your comfortable homes teaching your friends.” I´m glad that Elder Perry helped show that it is the member´s responsibility to “warn their neighbors.” I also absolutely loved that talk by Elder Holland about the Atonement of Christ. It was extremely powerful. I´ve been studying a little more about the Atonement and I can´t express the gratitude I have for what he did. I want all to enjoy of its power.

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By the way, the last photos are from a party the President hosted for our zone because of our hard work last transfer. We played a lot of ping pong and volleyball and had a lot of fun
I hope you will all be found well and that the Spirit of the Lord will fill you with the truths of the Gospel to repentence and righteousness.


Con cariño,
Elder Drake Ranquist