Semana de Milagros (week of miracles!!!)

Well, to update you a little on the Ranquist's lives...
First, I'm now 18! My birthday was the 13th. Truthfully, I don't feel any different. I had to work (at Sonic) on my birthday, but it was fun, because a lot of people came and visited me. I guess I'm officially an adult now! sorta...

Jonathan started his sophomore year of high school also on the 13th. I haven't gotten much out of him yet, but he seems to be enjoying himself so far. Not too big of a homework load yet.

My dad turns....coughcough51coughcough....this week. So happy birthday to him! He already bought his present - a blueray dvd. He's also excited about a new tv we got for the family room. I don't know what type it is, to me it's a big, thin, nice, expensive looking tv. He's excited.

Now the exciting part of my life. College! I leave for BYU on saturday. I can't wait! I've met all of my roommates on facebook and they all seem really nice and fun (because facebook tells all, of course. haha) Next time I update I'll be in Utah!

All right now here to Drake's letter. It's a good one this week!

11 Aug 2009

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Jessica! I agree with Mom and Dad, it is really difficult imagining you being 18 and about to leave for college. I really hope you like BYU (I don´t really have any doubts about it). Write me about your classes, friends, and experiences. In a year, I´ll be there in BYU along with you. And don´t fall for the first return missionary that crosses your path. Just enjoy yourself for a time.

It seems like I´m mission out on everything there in Louisville with regards to a wacky climate. I missed out on the power outages, the blizzards, the good weather, and the floods. What will come to pass this following year that I´ll miss out on? The weather here has been pretty good. Sorry dad, I have no idea what the temperature is here during the day. Probably in the 50´s, maybe.

This week was an extremely good week here in Moreno. I think I told you that this past week was the crunch week of the transfer to help acheive 200 converts in this transfer. E´Callejas and I put in all of our effort to try to contact every person we saw. There was an apostolic promise that if each of us contacts 10 people a day, we will double the baptisms. Or in other words, 20 as a companionship and 140 per week. This is really difficult to acheive. But, this week we tried inviting everyone. As a result, we found 18 new investigators (a new record for me) and found people to come to church.

Last tuesday, as we were walking in the dark, we heard someone close their gate and lock it. We had passed by, but my companion decided to turn around and contact the man who was there. He told us no, that his Señora was a little sick and that we should come back another day (which everyone says). We insisted a little, saying that our message was short and that we could share it with him there on the patio. Surprisingly, he let us in and what surprised me even more was that he invited his wife to come out to listen to us. We learned that she had already listened to the missionaries before, has a Book of Mormon, but never went to church. At the end of the lesson, we offered a healing blessing (“bendición de salud.” Is it healing blessing or health blessing or what do we say in english? I was talking with our zone leader today and he said that one of the hardest things he had to do was give a blessing in english because he´s never done it before. I´ve never given a blessing in english either. And I can understand how it could be difficult.). She had sharp stomach pains and the doctors will only see critical cases right now. We went back thursday, but when we clapped, no one came out of the house.

Saturday, we passed by again and la Señora, named Ramona, let us in. She said that she felt completely better after the blessing. She was there waiting on thursday, but must not have heard us. My companion especially had been praying that she could be healed so that she could better accept the gospel. During the lesson, she accepted to come with us to church the next day. When we passed by she was ready and excited. We had called some of the members, saying that we were expecting her to come, and gave them the assignments to accompany her in the classes and make her feel comfortable. They did an excellent job and she absolutely loved it. When we passed by yesterday, she accepted a baptismal date for the 29th, the last Saturday of this transfer. She feels that this is her place. When she went to visit family after the church meetings, some of her family members told her that she was like she was before. Happy and caring. She had changed a bit during the months of difficulty with her stomach pains. It truely was a miracle to find and teach her. We will do all that we can to help her prepare for her baptism. We will also try to help her husband (who we learned used to play volleyball with one of the members).

Saturday was another day of miracles. My companion thinks he ate something bad (a combination of eggs and yogurt) that caused him to feel really sick in the stomach. I was starting to really get worried about how he felt. After my piano class, he accepted to receive a blessing. I felt the spirit as I declared that according to his faith he would be healed to work hard that day. Afterwards, he did not have one complaint about how his stomach felt. A we really did work hard.

To better help us have the necessary number of investigators in sacrament meeting to acheive our baptismal goal for the transfer, we decided to fast saturday after lunch. During this time of fasting, we had person after person accept us. We also found a mom, Rosa, and two daughters, who had heard the missionaries before and went to church a few times, but it has been years. We said we could pass by Sunday morning to accompany them to church. They accepted. When we passed by, we woke them up with our clapping, waited for them to get ready, and they too came. It is really rare for someone that is found on Saturday comes to church with us the next day. We have yet to go by to find out how it went and to see if it is possible to baptize them this transfer too.

And to add to the miracles we had an amazing day yesterday. We got back from Luján at 3:00. We were going to our appointments and they all fell through. We were doing our contacts for the day and after 20 contacts, we didn´t have one lesson. But things changed when we decided to go above and beyond. On contact 21 we found a married couple. Later we found another young couple that needs to be married. We had our lesson with Ramona. We had a lesson with a family with whom we had contacted a week ago. And we found another family in the which one of the older daughter and younger sons listened to us. 10 new investigators in total. That is our goal for the entire week! We couldn´t believe it. We were so grateful for the blessings God gave us yesterday. We know that such success wasn´t our own work.

I´d like to continue, but I have to go. I hope you have a good week.

With love,
E´Ranquist