More Changes

28 Apr 2009

Dear Family,

My mission will never be the same. We had our transfer meeting yesterday and my companion, E´Gonzalez is now in Lujan. I hope that my best moments in my mission haven´t already passed. He truely is a great friend. I don´t say that because of all the success we had together, but because we truely grew to become good friends. He has a manner of loving the people and helping them that I haven´t seen in another. He also finds everything intersting, but especially the sciences. He was a walking Discovery Channel, having always watched it before the mission and was always really interesting. I hope to be able to maintain contact with him throughout my life. He wants to go to BYU, but I´m not sure if his English is good enough yet. But I´d love to be roommates with him afterwards.

Yeah, I´m a mix of emotions right now because not only has E´Gonzalez left, I am now Senior Companion. My new companion is E´Rivas. He is also from Santiago, Chile. E´Gonzalez didn´t have a Chilean accent, E´Rivas does and speaks a ton faster. I have a bit harder time understanding him. I can understand him and will grow used to how he speaks, but it is a little more difficult. Before the mission, he was in the Chilean army, so he has a bit of that discipline and possibly that flair to fight. We arrived in Argentina at the same time. I think that the only reason I´m Senior companion is that I had an extra month and a half in the MTC, which really doesn´t mean anything in terms of mission experience. We´ll see how things work out. He does have an interest in science at least. He was asking me about Black Holes.

The family of Ana María were baptized this week, but it wasn´t the happiest of occassions. I felt really bad for the fight that occured. The Bishop was set in his way that he was the one who decides who does the baptisms and that if there are worthy priests available, that they should do the majority of the baptisms. The family wanted us to do most of the baptisms and the Bishop didn´t agree with that. All of our mission leaders, including President Benton, agreed with us, that we should do the baptisms so that they have a memorable, spiritual experience. We tried to fix the situation before the family caught wind of it, but one morning, the Bishop went to Seminary to tell Gabriela, the oldest daughter, that the missionaries shouldn´t baptize and that the Priests were going to do the baptisms. This didn´t go over well at all, especially with Ana María, because she said why did he go to my daughter instead of to me two weeks ago. Why now? We did our best to help them maintain a good image of the Bishop. Because really he is a great bishop. We just don´t agree about a few points concerning missionary work.

We tried to fix the problem before the baptism. We called the stake president and he told us we were right, that we should baptize, and that he would talk with the Bishop. So, we followed his counsel. But nothing happened. At the baptism, my district leader, zone leaders, and the assistents to the president came to help. President Benton himself didn´t come because he had a conference. Eight missionaries. There was a lot of arguing and after an hour, the family themselves decided to allow to of the priests to baptize two of them. So, E´Gonzalez baptized Ana María, a priest Gabriela (18 yr-old daughter who wanted another priest who didn´t come to baptize her), another priest baptized Federico (16 yr-old son who wanted E´Gonzalez baptize him), I baptized Florencia (13), and Elder Lloyd (our district leader from Castillo 2 who lives with us and knows the family) baptized Victor (9 yrs old who wanted E´González baptize him).

I felt especially bad for the investigators that we had there. Who had to wait an hour for it to begin and surely heard a bit of the arguing. But I´m glad the family felt and decided that more important than who does the baptism is that they be baptized. To try to solve this problem, we will have a reunion with the Bishop in a few weeks with President Benton. I hope that all will be resolved and that we won´t have any more problems. I would love someone who had a calling like you dad to help us resolve this problem.

With Love to all of you,
Elder Drake Ranquist

Birthday gifts

21 Apr 2009

Dear Family,

Ah, I used nearly all my time reading and formating your letters in order to print them! I´ll try to get said what I need to.

I´m glad to hear that things are starting to calm down. And the report about religion was really interesting. I can see the same trend happening here too. The majority of the people say they are Catholics, but don´t go to church. There are more and more saying that they aren´t apart of a religion and there are many atheists as well. But I´m glad to hear that the church is maintain its percentage and is growing all over the world.

To answer the question of what I might want in my birthday question, I´m going to make a Dumbledore request. I probably haven´t searched around enough, but I´d like some more black socks. Many of my good ones have lost a lot of their color. It is kind of weird, on the outside some are nearly white now, but on the inside, are still pretty black. So, I have been wearing them insideout. The socks I have found are of the smaller, finer type and I prefer the thicker cotton, especially since we´re headed into winter (and I prefer the thicker type as well because the mosquitos have a harder time biting me through them). The other two things I´d like is a pack of mechanical pencils. I´m following the example of my companion and am using mechanical pencil to make all the plans in my planner. They are more expensive here, don´t come in packs, and don´t come with erasers. And my other request is a bit of chocolate. There isn´t much good chocolate here. I´d love some Snickers. Yeah, those are my requests. Oh, and ties are always nice.

This week, I´ll admit has been really stressful. The family of Ana María weren´t baptized this past week because we are having some problems with the ward mission leader and the Bishop. Every baptism this ward has had, the missionaries have had problems over the same theme. We have spent a lot of time calling our mission leaders, consulting with them what to do, studying the rules to answer the questions that we have. I believe that the problem will be fixed this week. But I wish to praise my companion for how he has acted through all of this. He has acted with love, trying to avoid contention, but also knowing what is right. Some of the missionaries that hit this same difficulty didn´t act with such distinction.

But I know this is the work of the Lord and that He gives inspiration to all of His leaders. I know that the Spirit will be with us all as we seek it and are worthy. Sorry this letter is so short. Have a great week.

With love,
Elder Drake Ranquist

He's getting old

14 Apr 2009

Dear Family,

I´m glad to hear that everything is going well, even if things are more lonely. I never realized that the problems with Jasmine were so bad. Does Jessica hate you now Dad? (the answer is no, of course not!) I think she is a little bit older now and a bit more understanding this time. But I can´t imagine not having Duchess and Jasmine in the house. Things really are going to be completely different when I get back.
Right now we are on the search of more good investigators. We have several potential good investigators, but we have yet to see. Ana María and her family will be baptized either this Saturday or the following. There is a youth activity in the evening that Gabriela and Federico wish to attend, so we´d have to do it at 11 in the morning. Ana María has been ready for a long while. She is more peaceful with her life. We can see a change. But we´re not completely sure if all of her children are quite ready. So, it is still in the air whether we do it this week or the following.
This week, I felt a lot of the joy of missionary work as we were able to teach a lot with the Spirit and also feel and see the changes that people have made for the Gospel. One day, when we passed by, Veronica came out and talked with us about some of the problems she and her family are having. They´ve had the same problems since we first passed by and although it hurts a little to hear of the trials, I rejoiced in the way that she was facing the challenge. Her reaction is completely different than our first visit when she complained and blamed others. This time she looked at it with a more eternal perspective, understanding that it is a part of life, and with the testimony to say, “but I know that I´m never alone.” The Gospel has changed my life and love see it improve the lives of others little by little.
One of the lessons that we had this week really showed the instantaneous change a person can have after they listen openly to a part of the message of the restoration. We were walking along a street that we are on often when my companion contacted a girl in the gate of her house. We started teaching a charla corta (a short version, 5-15 min., of lesson 1 to give a brief understanding and to set a return appointment) when her mom came home. We have contacted that house a few times before and she started saying “We´re pentacostal, ...” and starting to reject us. We rehashed a little about what we were teaching about the life of Christ when she said, “we believe the same thing, what is different about your church?” We taught how Christ formed only one church and about the restoration and prayer. She opened herself up and was really interested. We were able to enter the house, sing “I am a child of God” (E´Gonzalez is one of the few latinos that can sing harmony), and prayed on our knees. Although we have yet to see whether she and her family will decide to take the steps to know that this is the true church, it was nice to see how a heart can soften. This isn´t a rare occassion. The problem is that often they forget what they feel afterwards and don´t put forth the effort to know and to ask.
It is great to hear about the missionary work that is going on in our ward. I still feel kind of bad that I didn´t go to the baptism that we had just a bit before I left. I should´ve gone. I hope to be able to participate in a lot of baptisms throughout my entire life. I don´t ever really remember our ward having much missionary success. It may be that I was too young to notice. I don´t know. But I really do agree with E´Perry, that the missionaries today, with Preach My Gospel, are the best teachers that the church has ever seen in this dispensation (or at least since just after the very beginning of the church). Continue helping missionaries find people, so that they can spend the majority of their time teaching. This work is rolling forth.

Oh, this week, Sara (mother of Veronica, Vania, and Romina) went to visit her family in Chile. While she was there met up with the family of my companion. She had a great time. My companion asked his parents to send all sorts of stuff back, which he received today. It is nearly impossible to send packages between Chile and Argentina. I don´t understand exactly why, but this is one of the first packages my companion has received. It was cool to see and try some of the Chilean candies. They eat lots of marshmellow, which they don´t have here.

This morning I realized that I´m as old if not just a little older than Mom when she got married. You really were young! I´m glad that I have a little more time yet to prepare and learn to be better.

I hope all will be well with you all and that the Lord continues pouring out His blessings upon you. I know He will. Until next week.

Con cariño,
Elder Drake Ranquist

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.

.
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

Jonathan's got an admirer!

31 Mar 2009

Dear family,

I got your setter just fine Dad and I´m sorry that it has been so hectic this week. I send my best wishes and prayers to all for the loss. But, I wrote everything I wanted to say last week in my letter, so I will continue on with a normal letter.

First of all, we had a great baptismal service for Veronica and Vania Dumos. I think I´ve already written a ton about them the past month, so I don´t need to explain how we found them and everything, but teaching them has been a blast. Their Mom, Sara, told us the first time we went, here are your next two “Mormonas” (after going to the baptism of Roxana, Karen, and Florencia) and she was right! I had the opportunity of baptizing Gabriela Veronica Dumos Silva.During the baptismal service, we four missionaries sang, as we always do a musical number, “Haz tú lo justo” (“Do what is right” I think it is called in english) because one day while we were teaching they said that they remembered that hymn from singing it in church and when they slipped and said a bad word or something they sing the part “Do what is write (haha, as said, his english is slipping!) let the consequences follow” (but the spanish version has a bit of a different meaning, but I don´t remember the lyrics at the moment). They smiled at that. They will make excellent members if they continue with the same zeal that they have now.

We´ve found that baptismal services are one of the best ways of sparking interest in the Gospel—one of the best ways for someone new to experience the fruits of the Spirit. We are trying to teach the mother of Veronica and Vania and I think she is becoming more and more interested, especially because of what she has seen in her daughters. We also think that their dad and the husband of Vania are interested. Men are harder to teach because of work and they´re a bit more hard hearted in general, but these obstacles can be overcome.

Now to say Thank You! I received my package yesterday and I love it, especially the photos. They are perfect to show a bit of who I am and make a bit of a better connection with the investigators. I don´t think that I´ve ever really seen the picture of my own baptism. And Jessica, you look beautiful in your Senior Photo. Jonathan, I have to warn you that you might have to work a bit harder now on learning Spanish. I showed the photos to Roxana and her twin Daughters and Florencia took a photo of your photo to put on her cell phone. I gave them your email address (it is aceflyer13@gmail.com, no?) saying they could write him. So, you might get a few emails in Spanish from them. If you need help translating them, you can use the internet, your Mom and sister, or send it to me. If you want to reply, you can try in spanish or do it in English and I can help translate it when they get it. They need to learn English anyways for their classes.

Continuing on with giving thanks for the package. Today, my companion bought some oragami paper in order to do some of the characatures (I don´t know how to spell that and spell check in Word here doesn´t work) in the book you sent. I think we might have some fun with that today. The Gardetto´s opened up a bit, but I think they are alright. The only problem with all of the snacks is that we are fasting together as a zone, so they served as a temptation last night. But tonight I will be able to deleitarme (feast) with the other Elders of Castillo.
Oh, I think I should resend my address. You send my package well, but I got a letter from your cousin, Dad, saying that she´s tried to send two packages and has had problems. One of which was returned with the address she wrote completely erased. Jessica, you might have to correct my address on facebook. If people want to send packages or letters (without using DearElder or pouch) they have to send it to (and please correct this if it is wrong because I don´t have my address on me right now):

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días
Elder Drake Alexander Ranquist
Misión Argentina Buenos Aire Oeste
C.C. 72
1702 Ciudadela
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I hope there haven´t been any other problems because of that as I´m afraid there has been.

Thank you Jessica and Jonathan for the letters. I can see that you are working on your Spanish Jonathan. You wrote all of the numbers well. Un día, va a poder hablarme en Castallano sin problema. Estudia. I wish I could help you on the basketball team, but I´m afraid that I´ve passed the limit. But just give your all and have fun. And Jessica, good luck with all of the arrangements for BYU. I´m glad that Jessica, Zephne, and Sarah are helping you out. They´ll be great guides. Follow the Spirit, it will indicate what to do.

I hope that you can find joy out of this week, even though it may be hard emotionally. Be ye of good cheer.

Con cariño,
Elder Drake Ranquist