Canta al Bautismo

Dear Family,

This has been a really good, yet hectic week, with a lot of adventures. I´ll start off with the highlights.


This past saturday, we had the opportunity to have the baptism of José Attino and Celeste Soria. It was one of the best baptisms I´ve seen in my mission because of all of the help from the ward, our planning, and the spirit. Elder Chamberlain (from the MTC) was in this area before me and he came for the baptism. He baptized José and Celeste was baptized by our ward mission leader. The mission president also came, to make it even more special. We sang "Count Your Many Blessings" and as has happened every time the Assistants or the President has come to one of our baptisms, he asked us to sing it in the upcoming transfer meeting in three weeks. I like to sing for zone conferences and the transfer meeting (which is the "devotional" you speak of attending when you come to visit). At the end, they gave their testimonies and it was really special. I felt joy.

This week, the weather too has been hectic. I know I´m used to weather that constantly changes, but this week was to the extreme, and it affected my health. It started off fairly warm and then got really cold and rainy. That sudden change caused me to lose my voice. It is difficult to be a missionary and not have a voice to speak. So, my companion had to do nearly everything. I would stick out my hand to stop people and he would have to do the contact. He would have to teach mostly everything, but in the quiet situations, I was able to whisper my part. My companion felt a little lonely because we couldn´t converse and I didn´t want to strain anything because I wanted my voice to be able to sing in the baptism. So, I spent a lot of the day whisteling to encourage my companion. It was an interesting experience, but I´m so glad I have a good full, loud voice again.

We also had zone conference and divisions and other things during the week, but we feel really good about the effort that we put forth. Although at times I felt tired and without the desire to do anything, I´m learning to push myself even when tired to acheive my goals. That has been one of my goals for my mission, to learn to work well even when tired. I feel like I´ve grown a lot recently and that I´m beginning to be more constant. I still have a long ways to go, but I´m working on it. The zone leaders and mission president and my companions have helped me a lot. And I know I can count on their true help along with the direct help from the Lord.

Yeah, that was a really trunky letter you sent me Dad, but that is alright. I still can´t imagine the end of my mission yet. The time is short and yet there is so much I need to do. But I hope your coming will be a really happy experience for you two. I´m sure it will be for me too.

I know this work is true and important and that even though we are so imperfect and so inept, the Lord has the greatest plans for his chosen children and will allow us to find them when we prove worthy of His spirit. I love Him for that.

With love,
Elder Drake Ranquist


(I don't know what this is...)

Las preparaciones de dos bautismos

Dear Family,

Before I forget again. Thank you very much for the package. The new socks are really comfortable (I started to wear holes into the old ones) and the Post-Its really useful (even though I recently found some Post-Its here in a Wal-Mart). I´m also very thankful for all the food that was sent. I eat a lot compared to my companions. I don´t have time to write in my journal at night because first of all I make so many phone calls and second I use every extra moment to eat something. I really do have a really fast metabolism. The Gardettos were eaten within a week and I ate the nuts within a month. We didn´t eat all of the Oreos, but they were really good. And I still have some of the Valentine Chocolates to eat or give to investigators and members. And we are thoroughly enjoying the Prego Sauce. I just really wish I knew how to cook other quick things on the oven top or in an oven in which I have no clue how to regulate the temperature (they don´t cook many things in the oven here). Thank you again.

We had another good week, even though it was slightly hectic because we decided to do two divisions, one right after the other. But we were happy with the developments in the week. José Attino and Celeste Soria will be baptized on Saturday! Celeste always liked the church ever since she saw the baptism of her neices (who aren´t nearly as active as they we would like them to be). She wanted to get baptized, but was living "juntada" (unmarried). But in my mission I have begun to see more and more that light attracts light and repels darkness. They seperated and she can get baptized now. And we are hoping that her husband will come around and want to come back and be willing to get married (she has promised not to let him back until they do so). She is still sad by the seperation and we feel for her, but she is also relieved that she can be baptized now.

We´ve been working with José for a long while now. He has gone to church 7 times and every time we tried to set a baptismal date he would say, "We´ll see" and kind of shy away explaining that there were things in his family that he had to fix first, but never told us exactly what his plans were (We think he had a problem with the law of chastity that caused a lot of problems in the family). While on divisions with the zone leaders (the current assistant to the president) he tried to set a baptismal date for that transfer and couldn´t, so he decided to put one for the month of April, the 17th. During the past month, José has kept saying "Vamos a ver" until the past few days. Two days ago when I called him on the phone and asked him about it he said "Yeah I believe so," which to us meant progress, but still no. But my companion called the next day (Saturday) and he said "We´re going to work next week for that." Which is a much firmer yes. And he decided we could announce his baptism in church yesterday at church.

With them both, there is still work to do this week, but the time and active patience (even though it has been really hard on us) is paying off. My companion and I are also going to practice a violin-piano arrangement for the baptism. He received permission to borrow a violin from a Brother in the ward and to play this once.

We also had another investigator come to church, named Beatriz, but left after Relief Society, the first class. It seems what happened was that while in Relief Society a sister gave her a slip of paper to look up a scripture to read. It so happened that she received a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants. She looked in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon and couldn´t find it anywhere, which made her nervous and caused her stomach to hurt and so she left. We were in the other class, so we didn´t realize what was happening. And the sister that we had selected to sit with her and stay with her either didn´t know what was happening or didn´t know how to help. We tried calling her but it is either off or doesn´t answer and there was noone home yesterday afternoon. I hope she doesn´t try to avoid us now because she was really good.

I know this is the work of God and that the Holy Ghost bears testimony of it to those with a humble heart. I know that in this difficult world, that is just getting worse, the Gospel will provide barracades and walls against the evil influences so that we can have peace in this world and the next.

With love,
Elder Drake Ranquist

P.S. Your trip sounded really fun.

Feliz Cumple Mama!

Dear Family,

¡Que lo cumple feliz!
¡Que lo cumple feliz!
¡Que lo cumple Mamá!
¡Que lo cumple feliz!

Happy birthday Mom and a happy Easter to all. You´re on vacation so I can´t have someone call, but I can send a picture of my companion and I. His brother Javiero also has his birthday today. I hope you like your birthday card that "we" did (he´s a little bit better on the artistic side, so he did most of it, but I helped color in balloons). I also absolutely loved general conference yesterday and Saturday too. Yesterday, there were a lot of talks about the healing power of the atonement and the resurrection and also about raising children. I hope that while you were listening Mom and Dad, you were thinking of the excellent job you did at being our parents. When Elder Anderson was asking the questions such as "¿Do your children know...?" I affirm that you can say "Yes," at least for this child (but I´m pretty sure your other two can as well). I love you so much for that knowledge and love you have always given me. And Mom, you don´t have to think about getting old either. When I show pictures of my family, the people here say, "Sus padres son muy jóvenes," "Su mamá es muy bonita," and they have asked, "¿Es ella tu hermana?" (translation: "Your parents are very young," "Your mom is very pretty," and "Is she your sister?"). I´ll have to agree with the three statements. Thank you Mom for everything.

I absolutely loved conference (yes I did just repeat myself). I have been looking forward to it for the past several weeks (actually the past 6 months). The main question I took to conference this year was "How can I be more constant?" The talk by President Uchtdorf was the answer to those prayers. Being constant has to do with the Christlike attribute of Patience. We have to be patient with ourselves and others. And patience isn´t just passive waiting, it is active diligence. It is pushing through the difficult moments without success and backsets so that in the end we have the success we seek. And he condemned "center of the universe syndrom," which I´ve heard from you two and myself several times. The solution? Selfless service. I am being better at being more constant and feel better because of it.

I also love their description of the Duty to God pamphlet for the youth. By their description, I know it is inspired of God and wished that I could have used this new version (but then I received the answer by one of the general authoritiesth at I can and should do it, but with my son). I can see that its focus is going to improve missionary work a lot because it focuses on several skills that a lot of missionaries lack (and I can´t exclude myself). In it you have to learn your duty (study), plan according to needs and circumstances, be diligent about bringing plans about, and bear testimony on the experience. Nearly all the general authorities have stated that good planning is the skill that nearly all missionaries lack. And it is true. We are taught about it and we try, but very rarely do things happen as we think or we don´t put into action our plans. I resolved to be a better goal setter and make real, written plans to bring them about. So, I hope you enjoy the growing and missionary preparing experience of the new Duty to God program Jonathan. I know it will strengthen you a lot.

Here in San Justo things have been progressing. We were happy to have investigators in each one of the 4 normal sessions of conference. They all loved it and strengthened their testimony. And we feel blessed by the Lord because each time, we got to the conference sessions only minutes or seconds before it started (because we used each break to return to our area and to accompany the investigators). We didn´t miss any of it (like we missed half of Elder Hollands talk on the Book of Mormon last year). José continues to go to church and loved the conference. Hernán left Celeste and we are trying to help Celeste through this difficult time, but also commit her to not let Hernán back to live with her until they decide and effectuate a marriage. We know that if Hernán just simply walks back into the life of Celeste, they will just continue having problems. But if he has to overcome the obstacle of getting married, he will improve to be a better father and husband and that is what we want for Celeste, so that she can be happier in life.

I know this work is true and the prophet and apostles are truely inspired. I know we heard the will and the word of the Lord the past two days and I hope to continue to live it constantly in my life. I know the miracles and the spirit, if not in the lives of others, in my own life will pass.

Love,
Elder Drake Ranquist

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom! again...

Las Clases del Otono

Dear Family,

I don´t have too much time because we had our zone activity and I had permission to work through my class schedule for the fall. I got on and found out that I cannot register until the 31st, so it gives me time to look through what I need, plan it out and receive advice from you all. I haven´t yet taken a look at what hour each class takes place, I´ll worry about that next week or when I register. One question..., never mind, I looked it up. I need 14 credit hours to keep my scholarship. I was thinking about taking between 15-16 as is suggested in my major. In my major plan, I will take:
Phys 220 - Principles of Physics 3 (3 hours)
Phys 227 - Solar System Astronomy (3 hours)
Phys 230 - Physics Lab 1 (1 hour)
Phys 240 - Design, Fabrication, and Sci Apparatus (2 hours)

Then to round things out a bit, I have decided I want to take:
Rel A 211 - The New Testament (2 hrs)
Phil 210 - Science & Civilization 1 (History with an emphasis on science) (3 hrs)
Exsc 146 - Beginners Racquetball (To have some fun) (.5 hrs)

And then I would like to take some kind of music class. I haven´t yet decided exactly what I want. I am debating between a singing class (Music 111R, 2hrs), a choir (1 hr), an organ class (Music 115, 2hrs), or a piano class (Music 160R, 1hr).

So, those are my thoughts. And I would also like to work, but I don´t know how to check about that, what I´ll be doing, my hours, or anything of the sort. I think I´ll have to think about that later. And I´m not sure if I´ll be allowed to sign up on wednesday the 31st or thursday the 1st while my companion does the progress form or if I´ll have to wait until Monday the 5th, which will be the nearest P-day. I´ll probably ask the president next monday. And Dad, if you want, have time, and it isn´t a problem, it could be nice if you took a look at the class hours and arrange them so that they can fit or let me know if some of them are impossible to fit around one another. If you did that and let me know next monday, Jessica and I might be able to sign up for the same New Testament class (and if she wants to do honors, I can do that with her too). I don´t know if she is planning on that or not.

So, now that that is out of the way (that was weird to do and it didn´t help that I saw that the commander of the Apollo 13 mission is going to BYU for the next forum) , my week went fairly well. We continue to see progress with José. He has gone to church 4 times now and has plans to keep going, but hasn´t quite accepted a baptismal date. The transfer ends next week, so we were hoping that he would decide for this Saturday, but I´m not sure if that is going to happen now.

We were happy to see Gospel Principles completely full this past sunday with recent converts, José, and 3 investigators that need to get married. That is one of the problems I´ve faced my whole mission and I have yet to see one of my investigators get married. The problem always is that one wants to and wants to get baptized while the other wants nothing to do with it, but expects to keep living unmarried with them.

So that is an update on what is going on. I know that this is the true church and that this is where we should be. I know that the Lord will help you in your callings as we seek His help. I hope that all goes well this next week.

With Love,
Elder Drake Ranquist

Me Arrepenti

Dear Family,

This has been a really good week, a week of change. First off, I have to say that Jonathan looks a lot older in the photos without braces. I can´t believe the growth he has had and won´t believe the growth that he´ll have in the coming months and year. I won´t recognize him. Is his voice changing too?

I started off this past week fairly depressed and hard on myself. But, on Thursday night, something my companion said got stuck in my mind. “God didn´t send us here to fail.” We were failing because I had chosen to fail. And I knew that all along. But I learned many things about who I am during those moments. I decided that I would do at least my ten contacts the next day, something I hadn´t done for a while.

The next day, my companion and I, together, decided to do something that our president had given us a while back called “Purificándonos” ( Purifying ourselves). It consists of a fast and at the end of the fast you write down habits you need to give up and things that prevent you from having the Spirit. Then you commit yourself that for 40 days you´ll avoid those things. And we decided that we would focus on doing our contacts throughout the day.

And we did them! For the first time in a while. One of my problems is that I want to perfect and I want to be perfect now. I´m not patient with myself and I can´t expect perfection because that is a difficult and long process. On the mission we have a ton of responsibilities and one of the things I have long known about myself is that I cannot multitask. I can´t think about more than one thing at a time. So, when there are lots of things calling my attention at the same time, I get overwhelmed. So, to in the style that conforms most to myself, I decided to put a focus for the day and focus on that one thing while we went about doing the other things throughout the day. And it helped a lot. We acheived our goal and we did well in all of the other things that we were doing.

Friday was a day of Kairos and a day full of other miracles. The biggest of them all (apart from our own repentence) was that Lily, a recent convert had some big news. She had a hard life and made a ton of bad choices in her life. One of the consequences was that she recieved HIV. But, Friday morning, when she went to the doctor to retrieve some studies, everything came out “negative.” Not a trace was found. She finds it as a direct result of being “born again” and cleansing of baptism. Also, this same day, the police came to her house with the papers showing that the man who raped her could not enter withing ten blocks of her. She was estatic when we found her, especially because it meant that she could leave her house again to go visit her children.

Another good result is that Elder Jimenez and I are a lot more unified. The other times when we tried to improve, the other wouldn´t help really. When he tried to change I´d bring him down and when I tried to change, I felt alone. But this time we made the decision to change together and everything became easier. I didn´t have to tell him everytime to do a contact with someone who is coming and he didn´t have to wait all day for me to do one. Our relation reminds me a lot about the relation with my second companion, but I´m glad that we could get over our differences together and learn to love the other better. We now experience a lot more of the Spirit and therefore we are much happier.

We are being blessed immediately for our diligence. A contact we did Friday led us to teach Veronica on Saturday, who came to church with us yesterday. The only problem is that she´ll be in the capital all week and won´t come back until next Sunday morning and doesn´t have a cell phone, so we won´t have contact. Also, she has been living with a man unmarried for the past 6 months. They are still without child, so we´ll se what happens now.

José also came on his own and early to church. We are seeing that his interest is changing into belief. He will make a great member of the church once he feels the need to be baptized, which we´ll help him out in this coming week.

And we had another interesting experience. Here in San Justo, there is a crazy member. He talks about hordes of demons and how we have to gather all of the elders together to fight them and that Beethoven descended to teach him guitar. But, his wife is a member of the Red Cross and completely sane and is not a member, but has a lot of interest. She came two weeks in a row and I didn´t know she wasn´t a member. We taught her yesterday and she has a lot of potential. I don´t have time to explain everything, but I will next week.

I know this is the work of God and that Christ is our Savior. He is always giving us a second chance and will help us when we seek Him.

Love,
Elder Drake Ranquist