Sister Randall

Jan. 23, 2012

2012-01-24T13:39:00.002-07:00

Man, sorry my emails have come so late! Our pdays have been sooo busy. It's good to hear that you are doing well. I cannot imagine Shaelyn driving. I can't even imagine Austin driving. But, he is and so is she. Crazy. I'm glad your Klondike Derby Camp-out went well. Winter came this week. We had one day that it was a windchill of -11. It's been a bit breezy. But, we have a busy week planned. And someone was telling us today that the coldest days of January are the 18th and 19th. And, those are past. So, it should all be getting warmer now...right? Maybe. We'll see, either way we'll go out and do the Lord's work. We got 1-2 inches of snow this week. That's exciting. Oh, and I had my birthday. It was a busy day. Sister Madsen made a happy birthday sign out of sticky notes while I was in the shower. It was cute. I give her props, especially since she only had like 2 days notice. Thank you so much for the shirt! I'm going to wear it to the sisters conference on Friday! I'm excited. :D And, the necklace and earrings are super cute and I'll be wearing them often :)

That's cool that you had thunderstorms! I miss good midwestern thunderstorms! They are so amazing. I'm glad mom is enjoying the use of your IPAD. It is a fun toy/tool. Thanks for updating the blog. I wonder if anyone reads it? Best of luck with the table. It sounds like quite the adventure... and tell Shaelyn that I'm not offended. It's pretty hard to offend me. :D

Well, cool experiences from the week... I guess I can start with transfers. It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Cook. She taught me a lot and really helped me with the struggles of missionary life. I will always appreciate what she has done for me. But, I felt very calm that this is what the Lord wants. I quickly found out one of the reasons why Sister Madsen and I were put together and I really feel like what Sister Cook taught me will help me to help her and to help future companions. She's had a couple of tough transfers and really needs love and encouragement while someone who can teach her. I really feel like that over the past 3 transfers I've been able to learn how to be able to help her in this situation. She's great and I really do love her. It will be a fun transfer :)

Today, we went with bishop to a Jewish community center where they have a class that meets--it's senior citizens--and for 3 weeks they were studying Mormonism. Actually the "Mormon Quest for President." Bishop did a great job at explaining our core beliefs and then it was opened up to questions. It was super interesting. They asked lots of questions and I was grateful that I knew a small piece of my family history, because they asked questions about whether any of us 4 missionaries had ancestors from the beginning of the church. But, then they asked if our family had stayed within the religion and I was like, well, my immediate family is...but probably someone somewhere walked away. Anyway. It was an interesting experience and there were so many interesting questions. It was cool though :)

Saturday night we went to teach a recent convert/less active who is too old for the Singles Ward. We had been given the responsibility of inviting him to attend the family ward-which was hard, because the last time they tried he got upset and didn't talk to missionaries for quite some time. We were able to bring a member from the family ward with and we went and taught him. We ended up being 15 minutes late, due to unexpected traffic, but our Joint teacher went ahead and went in and got to know him. I was praying so hard that the Spirit could be there and direct the lesson. We read from 3 Nephi 11:10-17 and 3 Ne 19:5-8. We talked about Christ's purpose and how He set up a church and then how they split into congregations with the 12 disciples and how it was the same church but just in different areas. We had asked him a question and he answered it with something about being able to help others. This whole time I was praying to be led in the wording and direction that we took and as he said that the idea came to mind to talk about his ability to help and serve those in the family ward as they can relate to his experiences and he to theirs. The Spirit was so strong. The lesson was only about 20-25minutes, but the Spirit was there. I was so grateful for the guidance we were able to receive. He accepted the invitation and should hopefully go starting next week. It was a great experience that helped me learn to trust more in the Lord.

I think that's the best thing I've got for you this week. I am grateful for the letters and cards I have received this week :) I love hearing from the people I love! So, Sister Madsen and I are doing a 40 day fast of things that are keeping us from being consecrated missionaries. We fasted yesterday and created lists of things that we need to either start doing or stop doing and we are going to fast from or begin doing those things for 40 days, that way they become who we are and we become more powerful missionaries. It's going to be awesome :)

Well, what are you all up to this week? I'm sure that you are keeping busy. I love you all very much and pray for you daily. Keep on keeping on and I will leave you with a quote that my friend Stephanie sent me this week:

"...the heart and soul of the gospel is love, and all the rest is commentary. Whatever else we may perceive religion to be, we are wrong--for true religion is love in action--God's love for us and our love for God and for our neighbors." Stephen Robinson

I love you! Have an awesome week!

Love, Sister Randall

Jan. 16, 2012

2012-01-20T14:46:00.003-07:00

Well, this was THE best weekend ever. The baptism went really well! I attached pictures! The first is "Jenny", Sister Cook and I, and Jenny's friend from California who introduced her to the church. :) The other ones are of Sister Cook and I and Jenny and Elder Neeley and Jenny. Hope you enjoy them! Let me know if it works! Jenny's parents were able to make it. They came up Friday and stayed the weekend in a hotel. So, they were able to make it. We got like 1/2 an inch of snow, and then in melted yesterday. But, it's definitely getting colder. I used my first set of hand warmers this week. Mostly because wearing big gloves gets in the way of writing and grabbing cards, so I just wore small knit gloves and used hand warmers. It worked splendidly!

Oh, we got transfer calls today. I can't believe another transfer is over. I can now count the transfers I have left on one hand. I'm staying in Dinkytown, but Sister Cook is headed to Waconia with Sister Elsholz. They will be white-washing the area. They used to have elders there. I am getting a sister who has been out 2 or 3 transfers, her name is Sister Madsen. I'm not sure I've ever talked with her. I've seen her a couple times. I guess I was meant to serve with the YSA. I've been with singles for 9 months now and by the end of the transfer it will have been 10 1/2 months. It's crazy. We are getting 8 new sisters next transfer, which is crazy because I don't know any sisters that will be going home next transfer. So, we'll see what happens next transfer, will I stay...or go?

It will be a good transfer. I love working with the Asian students and I have enjoyed teaching the Who is God class. Speaking of which! We had 4 new students show up to our Who is God class this past week! It was awesome! They should hopefully come this Thursday again. I'm looking forward to it. I really feel like working with Wesley helped me to start thinking about how to simplify things and I had always wanted to serve my mission among the Asian culture, and here I get to do that while not trying to learn to speak a complex language. It's exciting. I really do love serving here!

The student we were hoping would be back by now hasn't returned our calls. I'm sure if we give him time, he will come around. We will just wait. He has his agency and we've done all that we can do. When he's ready, he'll come looking.

We have stayed busy, but I'm not sure what all was included in that. Preparation for the baptism covered a lot of that. We had some really amazing lessons with Jenny. She shared her testimony at the end of her baptism, it was good for her parents to hear and she really just gets it. I love her :D

It sounds like your projects are going well! haha. Mom, don't worry about how long it'll take you, just focus on the learning, because that's what matters. That's all that you can take with you. So long as you are enjoying your classes and doing what you can, then you can be happy!

Thanks for Bridgett's address! I finally bought stamps today so I can send out my thank you cards that have been sitting around for a few weeks :S woops. It's hard when so many holidays fall on Mondays! Anyway, sorry it's so late today. it's been a busy day. And, we still haven't done our laundry...ooopsies! Anyway! Let me know about the house!

I love you all. Sorry this is short again. Hopefully I'll get some good stories to share with you soon. Things are going great and I'm really grateful that I get to stay in Dinkytown for another transfer :D I love you and I hope that you are well! Have a good day!

Love

Jan. 9, 2012

2012-01-20T14:45:00.002-07:00

How are you all doing? It was good to get your email! I'm glad that you are all doing well and feeling better! It sounds like it's been another normal week? Back to school and the busy life of the Randall's. I enjoyed your story of wearing Austin's shirt to church. I still can't believe how grown up he is. I probably won't believe it until I see him in person..and maybe not even then ;)

Dad, as for your paragraph "The 3 kids all bore their testimonies today in church. They all talked about how wonderful their family is. Everyone now thinks that we are perfect. I wasn't about to stand up and ruin that. Let them think what they want." The scriptures tell us to avoid all appearance of evil, and I'm pretty sure it's a commandment to "not bear false witness." ;) haha. That's funny though. I'm proud of you all and I love and think of you often. We had a gentleman stand up in our Sacrament meeting and start preaching. He's older, he's a convert, and he's a less active. So, it was interesting, Bishop had to ask him to sit down. That's always awkward...

This week was busy, but it didn't show in our numbers reported for the week. We attended ZLC (Zone Leader Counsel) this week. That was a good meeting, and then we had Zone Training this week as well. So we had lots of meetings and interviews with President. I'm pretty sure I passed! ;) We taught Jenny 3 times this past week. She had her baptismal interview and is ready to go! We are so excited for her! This Saturday at 4pm is going to be the best week of the year (thus far). We were talking with Jenny and she found my mormon.org profile and then followed the link to my blog. She read about some of my experiences and I was relieved to find out that the last update was in September! It might be a little weird to read about yourself...with a different name. Ha. She's so sweet though. I love her so much and we look forward to meeting her friend from CA who is coming out this week! It's going to be an awesome week! We are excited for school to start next week so that everyone is back! One of our investigators is still at home and we've had very limited contact with him. :( From what we understand he is still excited to learn more! We are excited for him. We are teaching a referral tonight, and we are hoping that that will go well. Anyway, we don't have a lot planned for the upcoming week, but I'm sure we will make it productive!

Next Monday we find out about transfers. We have no new sisters coming in, but next transfer we have 8 sisters coming in! I didn't realize they ever sent that many sisters out at once for our mission. I don't think we have any going home either... So, we will increase in number! Fun! Oh and Sister Clements was telling us that we are going to have a Sister's conference this month! How fun is that? For the first time we would have a meeting with JUST sisters and no elders. It should be really good and it sounds like we will be having some fun!

As for the insurance thing- I gave the doctor our insurance card, but then I think when the bill came into the office Elder Randall just went ahead and sent it through the MissionaryMedical instead. I don't know why, or if that's for sure. Anyway, that was when I went and got my inhalers back in like May or June or whatever. So you know, I got my flu shot the other day and used the insurance..it made it free for me! And today I'm gonna be going to the Chiropractor. I've been really tense and have been grinding my teeth for the last few weeks. I'm hoping that this visit will help me out a lot.

I think this is gonna be a short email this week. Not much is happening. I'll send pictures of us and Jenny next week! It's going to be a good weekend :)

Well, I love you all. I hope you are well and enjoying your "normal" lives! Keep working hard and know that I love you! Have an awesome week!

Love, Sister Gunga Randall

Jan. 2, 2012

2012-01-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Oh! My dear family! How are you doing this fine January of 2012? I really never thought this year would come...But, here it is!
I'm glad you seemed to enjoy the New Year! The Boats sound fun! It's a good thing Dad didn't tip over in the canoe...that would've been cooooold! I'm sorry you've all been sick! That is never ever fun. I like Bishop's challenge! We are currently, as a mission, reading 6 pages a day. It takes about 15-25 minutes to read that much. We are supposed to be finished by the middle of February. I've found that you get so much more out of it when you are looking for specific things in the Book of Mormon. Right now we are watching for the application of the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End). I also have thought about going through and highlighting things like power and authority, commandment, love, etc. Choose an attribute you want to develop over the next year and watch for it, or similar attributes while reading. It's cool.
Our Relief Society president spoke in Sacrament meeting and used a talk by Marvin J Ashton called Be a Quality Person. I'm excited to read and study it. :) Maybe Miranda would enjoy it. It's directed to the singles.

When does school start back up? Are you doing another semester? What happened with the house? Did you get the house? As for remembering things...I feel like the older I get (and I'm only 22) the more I forget! What is gonna happen to me? :S

This was a really good week. I have not had a week like this in a long time, if ever. We really thought that we would be struggling to reach our goals during the break, but the Lord has worked miracles. We met or exceeded 9 out of 12 goals that we set. The only areas we struggle in was teaching Active members (we aren't really getting fed or seeing many members during the week) and in contacting--but even then our contacting numbers are up from the last couple weeks. Anyway, we got 5 new investigators this week! :D Jenny is doing great! Still going strong for January 14th. She doesn't really understand the difference between this baptism and when she was baptized as a baby. So, we are going to take her down to the temple and walk by it, and then teach her about the restoration of the Priesthood in the chapel right next door. It'll be great!
On New Year's Eve we went to Downtown Minneapolis and walked around. It was beautiful, all the lights and the city...amazing. It started RAINING (Yes, December 31st and it is raining). It was a lot of fun. We met a really neat kid that we will hopefully be teaching tomorrow. We can call him Gerald. He asked us if we could exchange information and he was asking a lot of great questions concerning the Plan of Salvation. It was really cool. And by the time we got home that night the rain turned to snow, the moisture on the ground froze and now we have ice. But, the temperature is supposed to get up to the 40's again this weekend! We have talked to a couple older people who have lived in MN their whole lives and they say that they have never seen a winter this warm! Boy, am I grateful for this weather! :D
Last night we taught an awesome lesson. We started out and he kept asking questions and saying things like "i don't think this is for me" "something just isn't clicking..." So, right off the bat our joint teacher jumps off and well, he was pretty much trying to teach the lesson, and as hard as we tried we couldn't take control of the lesson. Finally, the guy we were teaching was like, I'm gonna go meet up with my friends and go to the movies, if they haven't left yet. So, we were gonna teach his friend-who is a recent convert to the church. But, before we could start teaching her, he came back. But the RC was like, can we still do my lesson? So, Sister Cook, bless her brilliant and Spirit guided mind, said "yes, of course. Today we are going to talk about the Restoration." Which is what we'd been trying to teach our investigator. So, we taught the Restoration, directed to our RC and the Spirit was SO strong for the ENTIRE lesson. He hardly said a word, and neither did our joint teacher. At the end of the lesson our investigator said "This much I will say, this is real (touching the Book of Mormon). The Book of Mormon is true. Buuuut, it's not for me." However, he agreed to meet up again. He has some concerns and undoubtedly very non-supportive friends. But that is the strongest I've felt the Spirit in one of our lessons since Moses back in my first area. It was amazing.

I'd say those were the highlights of the week. We've kept busy. Oh, yeah! We went on exchanges. I went to North St. Paul with Sister Benson. They have been starting a new kind of work there. Sister Benson has been learning Nepali and they work with a lot of people from Nepal. So, I got to meet many of the new converts and investigators from Nepal and even received a Nepali name! My name is Gunga. Or, in Nepali: Mera nam Gunga ho. (My name Gunga is.) I also got to play a Chinese flute called a "Bawu" I don't remember how to say it, but that's how it is spelt. I want one! And I got to play a Nepali flute called a "Basuri". The Nepali flute is like a thin pipe almost. It's interesting. I had a lot of fun!

We finalized our lesson plans for our class about God and have decided to make it a 3 week course and by the 3rd week have invited them to meet with us outside of the class. Of course, they are welcome to keep coming, but we'll be covering the same material. Anyway, I'm blabbering. So much has been going on. I'm loving Dinkytown. Transfer day is like 2 or 3 days before my birthday, and I really don't want to transfer! But, God's will be done.

Well, it was good to hear from you. I hope you all get to feeling better. I love you all and miss you and hope you are doing well. Oh...yes, we have a freezer and for my birthday I don't know what I want. I'm good on winter materials... a "Bawu" would be cool, but it might be a couple hundred dollars. Cheaper than my flute! ;) umm, I don't know. Not Candy. I feel fat and have no desire to eat candy for a really long time. And I'm collecting lots of stuff...I don't know where it all came from. I'm sure I'll end up leaving a lot of the winter stuff I got for free behind. But, anyway. I'm sure whatever you send will be great, or you can send me a card and save the money for when I come home and need clothes that aren't missionary clothes.... well, I love you. Be safe and enjoy your winter!

Love,
Your Daughter, Sister, Granddaughter, or Cousin (but in any case your favorite Sister missionary),
Sister Randall :)

Dec. 26, 2011

2012-01-20T14:41:00.002-07:00

Hello, my dear family! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas! Not too much has been going on lately. All the students left this week to go home. So, campus is dead and will be for another 4 weeks. They have a long winter break.

Thank you for your cards and gifts. I really appreciated all your kindness and thoughts. It's good to see that you are all doing well!

So, I'm mostly writing this email for the benefit of those of you who were not present with my parents and siblings when we Skyped, but not all of this was shared in our conversation. But, the most exciting news is that Jenny texted us this past weekend and asked if she could be baptized in January! We told her of course and she is now scheduled to be baptized on January 14th! Her friend will be coming from California and we are so excited that she has decided to take this step. Her parents are very supportive and her dad wants to read the Book of Mormon as well. It's very exciting! When at first she told us she wanted to be baptized in Spring we knew we couldn't talk her out of it or even push it too much. So, we still talked about the importance of baptism, but never specifically about her being baptized, unless she brought it up. Which she did. We trusted Heavenly Father that He would help her to feel the Spirit and increase her desire to be baptized in January. Jenny is one of those special people who has been prepared by Angels and came to us. She is such an incredible girl!

We taught Stewart again and resolved and talked about some of his concerns with family and divorce. We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation and finally answered his question. He is so sweet and so sincere. He also accepted a baptism date of January 21st, but we think it will be pushed back a week. He is currently at home and we aren't sure of what he is thinking or if he went to church, but he has also been prepared by Angels. It's amazing to see the way that the Lord takes care of His children, He is willing to lead us where we need to be, if we only give heed.

Tuesday we went Christmas caroling. It was us, the elders, and 2 people from the Institute Choir. It was a lot of fun and we actually sounded pretty good. Someone told us we were the first carolers he had seen this year. Which doesn't surprise me since this is a college town and everyone is stressed about finals.

Thursday we taught our first Who is God? Class. It went pretty good. 2 girls showed up (one of which is actually here right now playing ping pong with the Elders). We are learning a lot about their culture and how to explain words and where to put the emphasis. We are hoping to have it pretty well figured out before school starts up again. Thankfully we have a couple members who served Chinese-speaking missions and are helping us figure it all out. It's wonderful. The two Chinese girls came to church on Sunday! Us and the elders made breakfast for lunch and had the 2 Chinese girls from the class and one other Chinese investigator join us. We also had another member join us. It was all three of the Chinese girls first Christmas! It was fun to be able to be a part of making Christmas! I enjoyed it a lot.

Friday was Elder Ruesch's Birthday. We went to Sushi to celebrate. It was my first time and it didn't go over very well.... Anyway, We had a fun Christmas week/weekend. We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks! We are wondering if/when the weather is going to change to FREEZING. Today it is 50 degrees. Isn't that amazing!?

Anyway, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I love you and have an awesome week!

Love, Sister Randall

Dec. 19, 2011

2012-01-20T14:40:00.001-07:00

Isn't it just a wonderful time of year? I'm glad school is wrapping up well! I should be able to Skype home around 4pm. We will be going to a member's home in Hudson Wisconsin--which is about a 45 minute drive. Sister Cook is going to Skype around 3ish. If anything changes I'll let you know--somehow. I'm super excited to see and talk to you all! I really hope you get to enjoy a magical Christmas this year! :D I'm sure Santa will pull everything through and everyone will have the gifts they have ordered. I think I decided that when I get to start making Christmas traditions I'm going to try to do some sort of service something-special for the Christmas season. Service is good year round, of course. :) I hope you all enjoy your vacation from school and work!

Tell Jimmy congrats! Is she gonna be moving here? Weddings are so exciting :)

Well, for the usual update... *Jenny is doing well! She went to Chicago this weekend to a concert with her sister and some friends. She got home last night and leaves today to go be with her family. We will miss her. She made us cute little presents for Christmas, I will attach a picture :D She's awesome.

Last Sunday one of our members brought her friend, *Jessica, (I think I'm drawn to J names or something?) so we taught her the Restoration, and she was pretty open. So we went to the Job Core and taught her again on Tuesday. It was a super good lesson, the spirit was strong and our member pointed it out to Jessica. Jessica recognized it as the same feeling she had felt while praying that morning. We invited her to be baptized on Jan. 21st and she accepted. So, on Saturday we drove to her family's home (she's home for the holidays now) and gave her a Joy to the World and met her parents--they were super nice. It was good. Hopefully we can continue to teach her over break.

Friday was an amazing day. We were eating at our weekly Friday Lunch Devotional when Brother Miller came and told us someone was here to meet us. So, we went out into the hallway and Brother Macdonald introduced us to *Stewart. Stewart had walked into the institute building to learn more about what we believed. He was raised and confirmed Catholic but soon realized that he didn't believe in the pope, so he couldn't be Catholic anymore. Then, he started going to a Protestant Bible Study, but didn't feel that that was right either. He'd passed the Institute building several times and just felt compelled to come in and learn more. So, we taught him the Restoration and he came to church on Sunday. And the lesson for Priesthood/Relief Society was Exaltation and they talked about becoming gods. That's always a good lesson for an investigators first Sunday... We taught him afterward and started teaching him the Plan of Salvation. He was super calm and was willing to listen, and wasn't freaking out about it. It's amazing how much the Spirit can teach people. He had also told Sister Cook after Sunday School that he had read 3 Nephi 11 like we'd asked and that it was all new and different but he felt very calm while reading it. The Lord is preparing people to receive His gospel, it's amazing.

Also, our member that brought Jessica brought her friend Jarrell to church and he was very skeptical and asked lots of questions, but he kept realizing that everything made sense! I'm not sure how open he is, but he was a nice kid :)

Last night the Mission put on a Musical Celebration of Christmas. We got to go to that, it was cool. At the end the missionaries sung "He Sent His Son", it was cool. Then, Sister Cook and I got to stand at the tables in one of the foyers and hand out Joy to the World DVD's, copies of the Book of Mormon, and other materials. We had some really cool conversations with nonmembers and I was surprised at how many nonmembers there were present! It was cool :)

We have definitely stayed busy this past week. This week we are going Christmas caroling, at least once, we will be having our Christmas Conference as a mission on Tuesday morning at 7:30am (why soooooo early!?), Thursday we will be teaching our first class about who God is. We still don't have a name for it, and we don't know if anyone is coming, but we are certainly going to try. Finals week is difficult with students, and everyone is going out of town. So, for the month of winter break we are going to probably spend a lot of time tracting and giving referrals to family ward missionaries. Thankfully it's been pretty warm! It's been surprising. The coldest it's really been is 25. Yesterday evening around 9 it was 42 degrees! It was so warm! :D Best. Winter. Ever.

But, that kind of takes care of what's been going on. It's been a good week and we are excited for Christmas! :D I love this time of year! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family! I love you lots and I look forward to talking to you on Christmas day!

Love,

Sister Randall

pic 1= Jenny's gift to us, she made them!

pic 2= Sis. Cook and I ready to go talk to people :D

Dec. 12, 2011

2012-01-20T14:39:00.002-07:00

It was so good to hear from you this week! Indeed, I got the package! Thanks so much! And, don't worry about the straightener, I don't need it...nor do I really want it. I go through random spurts where I wish I could straighten my hair, but then I remember how long it takes and how much I like my curly hair. :) Isn't it wonderful!? Haha.

I'm glad that you had a busy week! It sounds like you are all doing well! I have tried hard to remember your birthdays, but I think I missed Erin's, sorry Erin! Only 1-2 more birthdays to remember now before I return to the land of my fathers. Yes, I just tried using scriptural language. haha. Sorry, I'm sort of in a silly mood. The Christmas party sounded beautiful and fun! Our ward had an open house thing at our bishop's house, but we chose to not go. However, our bishopric provided Christmas dinner after church yesterday. We did attend that! We had homemade soup bowls (the bread with the center cut out) and different soups. It was fun! Maybe someday I'll be creative enough to come up with those adorable center pieces that Sister Riley made! That's so cute! I admire people's creativity!

I love "Still, Still, Still" our institute choir sang that in Sacrament meeting this past week. It was pretty. Wish Shaelyn the best of luck with being the anchor. That sounds like fun! :) I hope that you were able to enjoy Shae's birthday. The past 1 1/2 months has been full of events! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Mom's, Miranda's and Shae's birthday and soon to be Christmas! So, that's probably more like 2ish months. But still! It was crazy busy!

Austin sounds like he is leading an exciting life and being, in his words "awesome". :) Good work on doing your chores buddy!
The furry critter doesn't sound like a fun thing to meet. I hope you can get him out! Best of luck with finals! I'm glad you aren't stressing out too much for them. It's good to be calm!

I can Skype! If we can find a member with a computer that will still be around. Which, is hard in a singles ward. We will see what we can work out. We will make some phone calls and what not this week. Our church service is from 10am-11am. So, Sister Cook and I will talk about times and figure out who will call when. It will probably be between 12:30 and 1:30. I'm excited to talk to you all! I'm excited that Sam and Erin will be home! :) I'm in the same area I was in last time I called. How funny. What if I'm back here again next Mother's day?

Tell Charity congrats--and Uncle Jimmy :) That's cute. Wow, first child on the Randall side of cousins. She won! ;) Not that it was a race or anything.

Well, this past week we met with Jenny. We followed up on all of the commitments that we've given her and she'd kept only one of them--and that was to pray. Not church, not reading and not the Word of Wisdom. She had had a terrible week on top of it all--but she recognized the correlation, which was very important. She talked to her boss, and got Sunday mornings off so that she can come to church. When we met with her we read from 2 Nephi 26, the Spirit was strong and it was an incredible thing to be able to feel and understand what she was feeling and thinking. You could tell that the Lord was chastening her through the scriptures, but the end of the chapter brought reassurance, love, and hope. I think she left with a stronger commitment to live the commitments she'd received. She also now wants to be baptized earlier, the only problem is getting her friend and her friend's family safely from CA to MN in the middle of winter. We just love Jenny so much. She's wonderful!

The snow melted again. I can't believe how long we've gotten without tons of snow. It's been in the upper 30's today. It feels great! All you need is a sweater with a jacket! It's great! :) I'm hoping for a mild January and a white Christmas. :) Well, that sounds like our week. We have some Christmas events coming up and we are excited for the Christmas season :)

I hope that you are all well and warm and enjoying the holidays! I love you all and wish you the best! I'll write next week! Thanks for all that you do!

Love,
Sister Randall

Dec. 5, 2011

2012-01-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hey!!!
Well, it was transfer calls today. Sister Cook and I are staying but one of our elders is being transferred out. It kinda makes me sad, having him around was like having a little brother on the mission with me.

The Thanksgiving event we went to was in one of our members home, but his roommates and other friends were there and had plenty of alcohol. So, it was just there. Anyway, it was a random event on my mission.

It sounds like all is going well at home. How is Christmas preparation? I am not going to miss the holiday shopping. Not at all.
This is really hard to know what to write this week, since I wrote last Thursday. Thanks for the package! I'll keep an eye out for it. You are all absolutely awesome!! :D

We have been working on our group thing for people who don't know who God is. And guess what we've figured out! Preach My Gospel has it all! We'll start with the first half of the Restoration-- God is Our Loving Heavenly Father, Gospel Blesses Family, Dispensations, Christ's Earthly Ministry. It'll be awesome. And we will keep moving. We still have a lot of kinks to work out, but it will all end up well. The most important thing is to have the Spirit there. Maybe we can start with "I am a Child of God". Anyway! I'm just rambling.

Well, the snow melted, but it snowed again. I think it's here to stay this time. We made it until December! Which is awesome! It's getting pretty chilly. I picked up a long skirt that was left behind by one of the sisters, plus I have one, and they are gonna be my favorite skirts this winter--because I can wear sweats underneath! *I WILL SURVIVE!* haha. I am very nervous for January though. :S I hear it's the worst. Anyway. I'm just gonna say: I love you very much. I am excited to talk to you on Christmas. Oh, do you know Sam & Erin's plans for Christmas? Well, I'm gonna go. I hope you are all doing wonderfully and enjoying this Christmas season!

LOVE YOU!
Love,
Sister Randall

Dec. 1, 2011

2012-01-20T14:37:00.002-07:00

December DEFINITELY snuck up on me! I can't believe it's already December 1st. Weird. Anyway...how are you doing? It sounds like you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I don't think I knew Stephanie had another baby...maybe I did? That's fun that you got to see everyone! It sounds like everyone is doing well :) I do vaguely remember the Christmas tree being thrown out Christmas day.... you have got to love the bothersome, yet funny events in life. We had one this week too, I'll share it later! How is school going? Are you getting ready for finals? I know everyone here is already freaking out about finals, it feels like midterms just got over. College students just THINK they are busy. In all reality, if we were better at managing our time, we'd realize that we have quite a bit of spare time. Silly kids. (I think I fall under that category still..and probably will for a long time.) Our Thanksgiving was good. It was the first gathering I've been to that had alcoholic bevereges in my whole life. Funny that it happens on my mission. But, the turkey was really good. It was definitely an interesting experience. You've got to love college students.

We've had a long week, but it's been good. Sunday we fasted for strengthened faith in finding and to be able to find people to teach. Monday we did SO well. It was incredible. Plus we found a couple people out of the area book. It was a cool experience. Tuesday was gonna be awesome and we were going to teach like 6 lessons, but we only ended up teaching 3? Our first lesson was sick, so hopefully next week we can meet. The other one stood us up. And I don't remember what the other one was. It was a hard day. Yesterday I was feeling a bit under the weather and I blame it on the apartment. Speaking of which, we got a phone call yesterday from Elder Randall asking about the apartment and telling us that we needed to make a couple of phone calls and see if we can find a member to live with. Because of the situation and timing of the call, I'm pretty sure I'm staying in Dinkytown for another transfer. But, I think Sister Cook is getting transfered :( Which is sad, because I really have enjoyed serving with her and I love her so much. She's taught me a lot. But, I'm sure I'll love my next companion as well. I'll know by Monday what is happening.

Today I got a letter from Taryn! It was AWESOME. She sent a whole bunch of pictures from her travels this summer. Over to Turkey and Paris and Bulgaria? Maybe. I can't remember off the top of my head. Then her, Amanda, Sarah, and Danielle all went to Harry Potter World. It looks SO cool. It was fun to look at them. Taryn pointed out that she GRADUATES next December. It makes me feel so behind in the world. I haven't even finished my 2nd year of college. :S

(This is the bothersome yet funny event) So a couple weeks ago, I don't remember if I told you about him, we taught a Chinese kid how to pray. He was super sweet and when we were walking away he said, "Oh! In the name of Jesus Christ, have a good day!" It was so cute. Anyway, he was going to come to church around Thanksgiving time, so we emailed him when we hadn't seen him, and this is the response we got:

Hi, I went to the church the weekend before Thanksgiving, but I didn't see you. I sang the songs, and eat the bread with red wine. I had a great time talking with the pastor, Dan is a very good pastor. People who work in sanctuary were very nice. That visit really changed my impression about church. Final exams are coming, I am busy these days. I may have time after the finals, but I am not sure. Again, thank you very much for keeping in touch with me. May God's sacred light shining down on you and on all of us, Amen.

So, my guess is that he went to the building right next door that actually looks like a church building, instead of the institute. Woops! We emailed him back to tell him it wasn't the right church--which was a difficult email to write-- and invited him this next Sunday. But, he's not available. :( Hopefully he'll come and notice a difference. I think we struggle the most with explaining who God is. Do you have any suggestions? It's like teaching an intelligent child who God is. They've lived and understand so much, but it's so hard to explain and comprehend who God is when they've gotten this far in life. Anyway, it's a fun challenge. We've been talking about doing a class 1-2 times a month to explain about who God is. But, before we do that, we have to figure out how to teach it. But, we would advertise it mostly to the Asian students, and it could be really successful. Especially when it's winter break and the only people still here are the international students. It seems like this group of students would be more likely to show up to a generalized group invitation, than to agree to a sit down lesson with 2 random missionaries. We'll see if we can get that going.

Anyway, that's where things are at for now! It snowed last night. It's not too cold yet. I think yesterday was the first day in the 30's, and we are surviving. We just need a lot more investigators so that we can spend less time contacting and more time teaching. Well, I love you a lot and I hope all is well. Keep smiling and I hope you can enjoy this Christmas season! I love you!!

Love, Sister Randall

T2U=T-25 Can ya figure it out?

November 24, 2011

2012-01-20T14:36:00.002-07:00

Hey family!

I hope you are all having an enjoyable Thanksgiving! Today is our pday, so we aren't doing too much. We are writing letters, emails, relaxing, and then tonight we are headed over to a members house with the elders to have Thanksgiving potluck with a bunch of his nonmember friends. So, it'll be perfect. We will probably spend the rest of the night there. It should be enjoyable.

Send Great Grandma Burbank my love. I hope that she can find peace.

I'm glad things are improving in the house. It sounds like everyone is doing well! I have been writing most of these experiences down. Sometimes I choose sleep over journal...whoops? But, I will write a key in my journal with names of investigators and their code names and the area/date that we were teaching them. And, when I call on Christmas I can "reveal" the code to you! ;) haha.

I am loving the ward here. The YSA's are so wonderful and loving. I love getting to know them and seeing how ambitious many of them are in their studies. They are also so willing to help out with joint teaching. I love it. Oh yeah, the wards are officially combined! That was a good Sunday. We had Jenny to church and another guy who we had talked to 2 weeks before and emailed a couple of times and he walked into church. I didn't recognize him at first and I thought maybe he was from another ward, but, it was him! He left after Sacrament meeting, and we sent a Book of Mormon with him. It's kind of funny because we have a parking problem here at the institute and so people end up blocking cars in and this investigator ended up getting blocked in. But, he didn't come find us. We happened to look out the window during Sunday School and there he was, sitting in his car! So, we ran out there to talk to him and he rolls down the window, holds up the Book of Mormon and says "It's ok! I'm reading the Book!" haha. Best ever! We got him unblocked so that he could go on with his day. It was awesome.

Elder Zwick from the 70 came and spoke to us. It was awesome. I had had lots of questions that I'd been pondering on for quite some time and during the 6-7 hours we were with him all of them were answered! It was amazing. I loved it! He asked me if I was related to the President Randall over the Japan mission. I took a wild guess and said "Not that I know of, but probably somewhere along the line, yes?" Us Randalls are EVERYWHERE. Everywhere I've moved to I have met Randall's. It's a good name :)

We taught Jenny. She is just absolutely amazing. So prepared. And she recognizes God's hand in her life. It's such a blessing to get to teach her. She's now living the Word of Wisdom! She was worried about coffee, but the day we taught her she'd only had 2-3 hours of sleep, got up and went to work and she told us that she was feeling great, and she hadn't had any coffee. She has so much faith. :)

John and our other investigator, I dont think I've given him a name are interesting. We found out our other investigator has paranoia schizophrenia. It's really interesting trying to teach him. John, has felt the Spirit, but isn't ready to admit it. He did accept the baptismal invitation if he received an answer. So, slow and steady wins the race.

I think this weekend will be slow for the work, so many people are home for Thanksgiving.

We went on exchanges this week. I was with Sister Elsholz (Like Dr. Scholz...gone spanish!) She's great. I love working with her. I enjoyed the time with her and learned a lot.

Anyway, there isn't too much exciting news. OH! I LOVED the letters I got in the mail! They were quite enjoyable. Dad and Austin were quite humorous, and Mom and Shae's were wonderful and informative! I enjoyed them all! It was like Christmas, getting 4 letters in one! Shae said you want my Christmas list...but I don't really have one. I will need another thing of face wash. I can always use shirts. Your clothes just get so boring after awhile. I know what I want when I get home! So yeah. I will enjoy a box full of love :) Well, I hope you have had an enjoyable week! Oh and next week we are going to the temple, so pday will probably be on Thursday again. Maybe Wednesday, but probably Thursday. Well, I love you!! Keep being awesome (especially you, Austin ;P ) Best of luck with everything!

Love, Sister Randall

Nov 14, 2011

2012-01-20T14:35:00.002-07:00

Helllloooooo family!!!
What an exciting week it has been! It's already almost Thanksgiving! Oh, and since our next p-day isn't until Thanksgiving.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I know, it's early. But, what can ya do?

How is your research paper going? What is it on? I'm happy to hear that my family is being involved in missionary efforts :) When you said that you'd like to be a mouse I was super confused and read it Moose, but thinking it as the spelling of mousse. Needless to say, I couldn't figure out how being a moose would help you see how the Apostles and Prophet make it look so easy. But, I was reading a talk today, by Elder Holland from April Conference and he was talking about how it isn't easy. He talked about how Pres. Monson has given his life to the church since he was 36, and his wife and children gave their husband and father to the church. Anyway, very interesting stuff!

What is dad doing to the house? (He always seems to be doing something!) It used to be mom that did all the surprise work on the house! Yes, I got the package with the coat. I greatly appreciate it! I think as for mary kay stuff, I somehow lost the blush applicator and the powder foundation applicator broke :( Plus, I was wondering if maybe you could send me my hair straightener? I know, random. But, it's nice to have a change of hair style every once in awhile. Oh, and the acne cream stuff. That stuff has lasted forever, but it's starting to run low. Oh, and I am going to be buying some tights & nylons today on the debit card. Mine have runs in them :(

We got the first snow of the season this past week! CRAZY! Thankfully it warmed back up. Nothing stuck, but there was definitely snow in the air. We have mission tour this week. I guess Elder Cook was not the mission tour. So, this week we have our mission tour from 8am-3:30pm. It's such a long day, but it will be SO good. For Thanksgiving we are eating dinner with this kid in our ward who is going to get a bunch of his college friends together for dinner. So, it will be a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

So, Jenny is absolutely amazing! We invited her to be baptized, and she said that she wanted to read the Book of Mormon first and she wanted her friend to be able to come out for the baptism. It was a really good lesson, and it was made pretty clear that she was planning on being baptized. It's not if, but when. So, we are trying to help her read more and help her see that she doesn't have to read the whole book first. We have some awesome converts in the ward who are amazing and are willing to share their stories. This ward is SO good at fellowshipping. When she got home from the lesson we had about the Gospel of Jesus Christ she texted us to tell us that she loves the church message of CTR and that when she got home her ring had arrived in the mail! She had ORDERED a CTR RING off of Deseret Book! How awesome is that!? She's soooo sweet! I just love her!

The investigator that told us he wasn't coming unless he got an answer....SHOWED UP! He said that he had realized some of his views were wrong and that he had softened his stance. We had been praying for his heart to soften all week. At the beginning he said that he didn't want to keep meeting, only when he had questions. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and at the end of the lesson as he walked out the door he said "I'll see you next week." So, that was exciting. We learned some things about him that helped us understand his situation more. So, things should continue to be interesting.

John! We also watched Finding Faith in Christ with him. As I had mentioned before, he used to be Lutheran, then atheist, now Buddhist with the thought that Buddhism can help him be a better Christian. Anyway, our 2 joint teachers ended up canceling 1 1/2 hours before the lesson. We spent the whole time looking for a joint teacher so that we could teach him. Finally 20 minutes before one of the converts in our ward was able to come. She too had been Lutheran and they were able to connect so well and she bore her testimony to him of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Authority. She was amazing! She's also considering serving a mission!

So, we've seen several small miracles over the past couple weeks between us and the elders. It's amazing how the Lord is directing His work :) So, now for a funny story, I hope it comes off as funny as it was!

We were walking across this really long bridge on campus that crosses the Mississippi and we looked at the river and there was this shimmering silver something and we couldn't figure out what it was. It didn't look like fish, and it wasn't the reflection of the sun, and it was moving and would get smaller and bigger and smaller. Anyway up ahead this kid was also looking at it, and he looked super perplexed! He started to wave at it and it got smaller and moved away from him. So he ran down the bridge toward the direction of it. Then he raised his hands in the air and just started yelling "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then he brought his hands onto his head looking very stressed out. It seemed to disappear and he ran ahead and caught up with his friend. Well, we ended up catching up and started talking to them and we asked if he had seen the thing in the river. He acted weird, so we moved on and asked if he'd ever heard of the church. Then he goes "OH! You saw that? You've been there? I've been there too!" We were super confused and a little weirded out, so we gave him a card and went on our merry little way. It was super funny.

Anyway, that's one of the fun stories of the week. Over the next few weeks we will be teaching 2 member referrals! I love it when members bring their friends. They are so much more interested and willing to listen than if we approach them. We've been talking as missionaries about how to increase this and one of the things we've talked about is that as members our responsibility is to give the investigators a social conversion and the missionaries are to take care of the spiritual. Members don't have to teach lessons. They can share beliefs, but they don't have to teach the lessons. What they can do is invite their friends to church/activities and such and eventually invite them to learn more from the missionaries. So, we are working on a plan to increase member missionary work in our area.

Well, that seems to cover our week. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You'll have to send some pictures! I believe you said that you were going to Nebraska for Thanksgiving? Well. Have tons of fun! Have an awesome birthday celebration and tell everybody hi and that I love them!!

I love you all!!!! Keep smiling and being awesome! And work hard in your classes! :)
Love,
Sister Randall

Nov 7, 2011

2012-01-20T14:34:00.001-07:00

Hola Familia!

Sounds like you had a good week :) What are your research papers on? Feel free to just use whatever picture you have on the plaque. That's funny that it still isn't up yet. The weather is decent. It's still sticking in the 50's. But the lows have been as low as 25. brrrr. It's gonna come quick. I've heard that since the winter is taking so long to get here then it is gonna be pretty horrid. And we've heard that this winter is supposed to be worse than last winter (which was one of the worst winters they've had in a really long time), but then I've heard that after a harsh winter comes a mild winter. So, we are praying for the mild winter. :) It's supposed to flurry on Wednesday morning, hopefully it doesn't. Once it starts to snow, it keeps snowing for six very long months. But, either way "I will survive!"

What to say about the week? We taught Jenny this week! We taught her the Restoration. She shared some special personal experiences and we invited her to be baptized. She expressed some potential hardships that could cause with her family, but told us that she had been considering it already and that if God told her this is what she needed to do, she would do it. She was unable to come to church Sunday because she was visiting her parents.

John--was interesting. We taught him, well actually we double booked and had to go on splits which is the first time I've tried to teach a lesson without a companion. But, overall it went alright. He had already read 2/3 of 1 Nephi. I'm sure by now he is in 2 Nephi. He said that what he really wants to know is what motivates Mormons to live the way they do and act the way they act. So, next week we will teach the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully he has been praying as well.

The investigator that Sister Cook was meeting with may have dropped us. He said that he will only show up this week if God tells him to. He's an interesting kid with a very interesting thought process.

Oh, yesterday night we had a 4 stake YSA meeting where they rearranged the 3 existing YSA branch/wards within the 4 stakes and turned them into 1 Twin Cities YSA Ward. So our area just grew from one stake, to four. That will prove to be interesting. We aren't quite sure if President wants us to go spend times in those areas or stick with the college campuses. We will find out.

So we taught a few other lessons, but our Recent Convert/Less Active stuff was really bad. None of them would respond to us. Finally on Sunday (which was Stake Conference) we were able to contact 3 of them and teach 2 of them.

Also on Sunday we had the opportunity to go to Macallister College and have lunch with the inter-faith council. That school is the 6th least religious school in the United States. So, it was a cool experience. We got to each (us and the elders) share our "conversion" stories, share our views on family and homosexuality and teach a full Restoration lesson. The Spirit was so strong, and each time that the Spirit was at the strongest one of the students or the Chaplain would say something and change subjects. It was a super cool experience :) We also watched the CES Fireside. It was really good :)

So, we actually come into contact with quite a few members of Judaism. Two of them were at the inter-faith council. Anyway, I was thinking about Judaism for some reason and I realized that they believe in only the Old Testament, which brings us to a conclusion that they believe in a God who calls prophets, but, where is their prophet? Anyway, just something I realized. In the common phrase of Elder Ruesch "The Church is true".

Well, that's all I've got for the week! I hope you all have a wonderfully awesomely amazing week! I will communicate with you next week and just as a heads up, the week of Thanksgiving, pday is moved from Monday to Thanksgiving Day. And to end the email, a little joke. What is December 23rd called?

Christmas ADAM! Because Adam came before Eve! haha. I love you!

Love, Sister Randall

Oct 31, 2011

2012-01-20T14:33:00.001-07:00

Family! I hope you have enjoyed the Halloween season! The pumpkins look wonderful and Wesley is getting SO tall. I think that forwarding that is fine :) I can't believe it's almost been a year since I've seen him.

Thanks a million for the package! It's perfect! It brought lots of happiness (and I received it on my 9 month mark)

Shae said that you guys think she is a lot like me...that's a scary thought :S Tell her to be smarter than me and ignore boys until she's 50 ;) Ok, maybe at least until she's 17? Pleeaase? She won't listen to me but I tell her everytime I email her! haha.

That is exciting that Myles is a daddy! That makes grandma and grandpa great grandparents for the first time, correct? Crazy!!!

I love it when members are involved with missionary work and that is where our miracle of the week comes from! So last week we were home a little early so that we could update the area book, fill our paper work, make phone calls etc. when we heard a knock on the door! The three of us looked at each other a little confused, and answer the door. Well, we were all dressed in our sweats and the girl outside the door asked if we were LDS missionaries. We said yes and she introduced herself as "Jenny" from the apartment next door. She said that her best friend is LDS and she gave us cupcakes. We chatted for a couple minutes and then said goodnight. A couple days later we left a card on her door thanking her for the cupcakes and an invite to the Mormon Movie Night. She left a card in return with her contact info and apology for not being able to attend the movie night, but that she would love to attend other activities. So, we gave her a call later that week and invited her to the weekly Friday lunch devotional. She accepted the invite and we walked with her from our apartment building to the institute. On the way she told us that she had always wanted to come into the institute, but had no one to go with. She also told us that she had been to church with her friend in CA and that her friend had given her a Book of Mormon. She asked us where she should read at. Jenny also said that she had told her friend in CA that we lived down the hall and that we had been talking and her friend told Jenny that she'd been praying that she would be able to meet someone that could take her to church! Jenny took this as no coincidence and even came to church the following Sunday. She said that she is going to try to get all Sundays off so that she can come and she asked us if she could meet up with us and talk more about Joseph Smith!! We are going to try to meet with her tomorrow, but she is unsure of her work schedule. She is super awesome! It is amazing how God directs His work and that when the time is right He places people in the right place. I was thinking about it and I realized that it is SO important for us to talk about what we believe, even when our friends don't seem to be responsive. Because, like Alma the younger (Alma 36: 17-20) when he was humbled and ready to receive and act he REMEMBERED and then he received peace and joy and a remission of his sins. When our friends are ready to accept the gospel they will remember what we have said and who we were. This experience, and the next that I'll share, have both been huge testimony builders that the Lord is directing His work and all we can do is be prepared, obedient, and ready to work!

Two weeks ago we were at a bus stop and I talked to a kid named "John." His parents had been Lutheran Missionaries, but had a falling away and became atheist. Consequently so did the kids. Well, we had talked and I invited him to learn more and check out the website, but he didn't give me his information. Well, Thursday night we were out contacting and we walked with another kid to the same bus stop, while we were talking to him I looked up and saw John in the exact same spot that I had met him last time. He saw me too, we made I contact, I smiled and Sister Cook and I then finished up our current conversation and began walking away. But, I couldn't. I didn't really want to go back and talk to John because I didn't remember his name, his story, our conversation, nothing. But, I swallowed my pride and we went to talk to him. We had a good conversation, explained the Book of Mormon, gave him a copy and then invited him to come to the weekly friday lunch devotional. He accepted the invitation. We still didn't have his contact information. Friday morning the elders texted us and asked if we had a guy named John coming to the lunch. We were confused at how they knew, but it turns out that their investigator was roommates with John their freshman year and was cancelling their lesson at 11 so that he could come at 12 with John! (What a small world) Well, John showed up and much to my surprise he had already read at least the first 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon!! (I only know it was that much because he asked why Laban's servant couldn't recognize that it was really Nephi). Anyway, after the devotional we talked some more, we set up a lesson and he gave us his phone number! It was awesome! Things are picking up!

Last night 3 college students stopped us and asked if we could do a survey for them. They were each majoring in ministry. They asked us questions regarding sex and marriage. They were pleased to find that we had standards and let us know that it was so heartbreaking to find out what college students thoughts on those things were. We really appreciated their stand for truth.

well, this is all that is coming to mind. Sister Cook gave an awesome talk in sacrament meeting yesterday!

Since today is Halloween we are going in at 8. For us it would have made more sense to go in early Friday and Saturday. Here there won't be much trick-or-treating and the students did all their partying this weekend. Fridays and Saturdays are the most difficult nights in a college town. I am so grateful that I will never have to worry about being under the influence and not having complete control over what I am doing.

Thanks for being awesome! I appreciate your love and support. I hope you know that I pray for you and love you each dearly! Have an awesome week! :D

Love,

Sister Randall

October 24,2011

2012-01-20T14:32:00.002-07:00

Hello Family!

So good to hear from you! I heard that NE beat MN! We went out and handed out fliers for the mormon movie night before the game. Weekends are the hardest here, especially on Frat row. Everyone gets drunk out of their minds and it hurts your heart. It's so sad to see the decisions people make. We had our Mormon Movie Night last night at 7. We had 2 non-members come and probably about 20 members. One of the nonmembers was a members friend that she brought, he was nice, but not really interested. The other one was an older man, P.C. who showed up about 30 minutes early. He said that he saw one of the posters and he has been looking forward to it all week. (For names I'll just use initials). P.C. has felt drawn to the Mormon church ever since he got back from the Vietnam war. He knows all of the history and he stands up for the church when people say things against it. He said he won't ever convert because he feels that you need to believe with your whole heart and he thinks he's wishy washy and doesn't have courage. Oh, he was the sweetest man.

The scavenger hunt sounded like a blast! And, I'm assuming the choir sounded good? That quote from the desires talk is awesome and it already is in my collection, but I'm glad you thought of me! :) My favorite conference talk from this past conference was What Manner of Men and Women Ought ye to be. Or something like that. It's all about being and doing. It's awesome! One of our investigators concerns had to do with faith and works and this talk helps demonstrate how if you have faith you act. It says that if you "do" with out "being" you are a hypocrite and if your "be" without "doing" you are lying to yourself. It's an awesome talk. That's all. :D

So, as missionaries we have been asked to teach 20 lessons each week. Whether it be active, less active, recent converts or non-members. That has been the standard for a long time and for the first time since Oakdale WE TAUGHT TWENTY LESSONS (we even had 5 or 6 lessons fall through)! It was AWESOME. We tend to teach a lot of lessons while we are contacting on campus. It's awesome. Our female investigator J. who went to church last week claimed to have questions and concerns this past week, buuut her concerns were not legitimate concerns. We need to figure out what is underneath it all. I feel like since being in Dinkytown my teaching skills have improved (and still can improve). I've learned a lot this past transfer. Oh, so transfer calls were today. Sister Stephenson is headed to Oakdale to be with Sister Gibson (from Casa Grande, AZ). Sister Cook and I are staying here.

It's been a pretty fun week. We've worked hard, taught a lot, and had fun. I love meeting people and having conversations about their lives. You learn so much about life! It warmed up a bit this week! It's been between 55 and 60. Which has been nice. We are going shopping today to get Sister Cook winter stuff. I will probably be buying sometime in the next couple weeks earmuffs, a thicker hat, and thicker tights... but maybe I'll wait until the box comes and see what's in there. Other than that, I think I'm good to go for the winter. It's gonna be here before we know it. Anyway, things are going awesomely. I'm not sure I have much more to report on....

I love you all and hope things are well. Have an awesome week and Halloween weekend. I'll email next halloween! LOVE YA!!

Love,

Sister Randall

October 17, 2011

2012-01-20T14:31:00.002-07:00

Well, it's been an eventful week! It sounds like yours has been too! I'm glad to hear all has gone well with selling the house. It sounds like your meetings in St Louis were great! Shae said she held Sister Dalton's hand. haha, she would ;) I am super excited that NE is coming here for the MN homecoming game! We were out walking Saturday night and I saw a family and I didn't even realize it until we were walking past them but the girl was wearing one of the Corn hats and they were all wearing Nebraska hoodies! I was so excited, then I was confused because they are a week early. I keep wondering if the pep band is coming and if I still know anyone in it. That'd be crazy! If I do, they should walk around campus while they are hear and find the mormon missionaries! ;)

We are now in a trio. Sister Stephenson, Sister Cook and I. It's been incredible! Sister Cook brought an unbelievable amount of faith with her and we have seen the evidence of her faith and exact obedience. I have really appreciated having her here. Thursday we had interviews with President and I briefly mentioned that I was going to have to have college stuff figured out in a couple months and he gave me permission to start looking at school websites...I'm gonna push it off for probably a month though. Friday Elder Quentin L Cook spoke to us. It was really good, and before he started he shook each of our hands and asked our names. When he finally got up to speak he said "It was nice to have a brief spiritual interview with each of you." That was a little intimidating! Saturday, the baptism was postponed because of family and other reasons, but they are shooting for the middle of November.

So, last night we sat down to do numbers and it has been one of the best weeks number-wise that I have had since I left Oakdale in the middle of my 2nd transfer! We taught 17 lessons, got 4 new investigators-one of which is currently progressing! It was awesome. By the way, new rule that we can't use the names of investigators or recent convert/ less actives. Sorry :/

But, like I said we got 4 new investigators! It was sooo cool. We had a pretty good lesson Saturday with one of them and he is such a sweet kid. At the end he was like, "Well, I guess I need to really think about this!" Right after his lesson we taught one that we've been teaching for awhile and we finally cracked down and told her that she needed to make the Book of Mormon a higher priority. So, she said she would read 2 chapters a day this week and pray to know if it was true each time. She went to the Uptown ward and she texted us this morning and said that it was interesting and she had lots of questions and that she was going to keep reading so she might have dozens of questions. So, I'm excited to see where she goes. She will be an awesome member when she knows its true. We learned from a member of the Uptown ward who talked to her for awhile that our investigator has been defending the church when things come up with her friends and stuff. So that was good news! :)

For this coming week we already have several lessons set up with potentials, so we should have several new investigators this week. It's going to be an incredible week :) Lots of big plans!

The smell in the car has decreased A LOT because of the cooler weather- I just hope that I don't have this car next spring when it starts to warm up again! :/ Quick question- for my bank account, how much is in there? By the way, I'm probably gonna need my black down coat, unless you want me to buy another one. And I need ear muffs, mine got ruined back in March. I have a few winter necessities I will have to buy. If you happen to want to send me a box of hand and foot warmers, I wouldn't complain. Anyway, I'm short on time today, we are in a hurry to get everything done on time and I have other emails to write. I love you all! Keep smiling and working hard!!!

I hope you weeks go well and that you remember that you have a missionary praying for you and loving you! :D

Love,

Sister Randall

Oct. 10, 2011

2012-01-20T14:30:00.002-07:00

Well, it's been a pretty good week! We've had some awesome conversations on campus, have some sweet potential investigators and had an AWESOME Sunday. But first, I'll let you know that I picked up on the hint. Thanks for being so...subtle? It definitely took me until the 2nd hint to figure it out. haha. I thought maybe you were trying to make reference to my terrible use of "alypsies"? What can I say? I like my dot dot dots :D

Anyway! I'll start with Sunday, because it was awesome. Remember Ann? The recent convert from Kenya, whose father is a Lutheran pastor? Well, she got up to bear her testimony on Sunday and she said that 2 months ago when she got baptized she told her mom that she had joined the church, and just trusted that she would tell her dad. Well, yesterday morning she got a call from her dad. He said, "What is the name of your new church?" She said, "The Church of Jesus Christ," and paused because she couldn't speak. He then said, "Are you going to tell me the full name of your church?" So, she told him the full name. He then said "Will you send me a copy of the Book of Mormon?" The Spirit filled that room so full and so quick. I am excited for her father to read it, and hope that he will find that it is true and that it can unite him and his wife in a religion (it's been a topic of much contention between them for years). So that was awesome moment number 1!

2nd! I told you about the elder's investigator Anton. Very sweet kid. Anyway, Tuesday Anton came to the institute VERY upset. He went and had a lesson with the Elders and a girl named Jen who converted from Catholicism maybe 2 years ago? Well, he got into some temple anti--which is pretty nasty stuff. He felt betrayed, but the elders helped him realize that the reason he felt like he was going to throw up while reading that is because it wasn't true! So, he's doing better. We met with him Friday with the elders and helped him realize that he has already received answers to his prayers. Elder Ruesch read a scripture out of 2 Ne 32 (I think) that invites all to fear not, to repent and to be baptized. They told him to pray to find a date to be baptized. The spirit was SUPER strong, so we had a kneeling prayer where Anton pretty much bore his testimony in and asked for the correct date to be baptized on. Sunday the elders followed up and he decided he needs to be baptized THIS SATURDAY! We are super stoked! Now, he just has to tell his family...

President called us this week. We are getting a Nauvoo sister coming up to do proselyting for the next 6 months-ish? And, she's gonna come be in a three-some with us! So, that's gonna be super exciting! We are looking forward to that...except for the laundry part, we will have to do like 3 or 4 loads instead of 2. Bummer!

We are having Mission Tour this week. Elder Cook is coming to speak to us Friday from 12:30-4:30. That should be fun!
We have had some really good lessons this week, one with a less active, one with a recent convert, and we taught one to a kid named Karthik (Car-tick). He's Hindu. Our whole lesson was spent on trying to explain who God is. He believes that anyone and anything that is good, is god. He said that if someone is nice to him than he/she is his "god". It was interesting. He said he can't meet for another 3 weeks, so we will see what comes of that.

Remember the car/milk story? So, it was a whole gallon of milk in the back of the car, but only 1/2 of the milk was in the gallon. So, that's why it smelt SOOOOOOO bad. Sis. S and I went and bought some shampoo stuff and tried to wash the carpeting, but it wasn't working. We finally called Elder Braun who is over the cars and told him the problem. He had us take it to get detailed. They shampooed it and then it smelt like a mixture of shampoo and milk. We haven't driven the car since then, but the elders say it still smells REALLY bad. I dunno what they're gonna do about that.

Last Monday we biked to FHE, which is probably 4-5 miles each way. It was great. I've been dealing with a cold? I don't know. It's been weird. First it was just a runny nose at night, then it was during the day... Thursday Sis S was sick, so I took a nap too and I was out for 1 1/2 hours. I felt a bit better. Then I developed a cough one night, which comes and goes. I don't know. It's weird. I've tried allergy meds and sudafed. Sudafed has helped the most with my nose. Anyway, last night I was thinking about it and I realized that it's probably side affects from my Flo Vent inhaler. So, I didn't take it this morning and I feel great! I'm gonna talk to the pharmacist when we go grocery shopping today. I dunno what I'm gonna do. One of the most common side affects is an Upper Respiratory Infection. Hopefully that's not what I've got. We shall find out.

Overall it's been a pretty good week! I'm glad the garage sale went well. I don't remember if this is already gone or not, but remember the white dresser with the mirror and 4 dressers, is that the one you got rid of? Anyway, I'm not too attached to anything in particular. As long as you didn't sell my siblings...even though it might have been tempting ;) Hmm, how did mom's tests go? Have fun with the YW, RS, Primary meeting! That will be super cool!

I did hear that it snowed in Utah. I'm worried because we've had SUPER nice weather (well, to some it's way too hot, it must be the AZ still in me, I thought it was beautiful) the last couple weeks. It's been 80-85. The next few days should be in the 70's, then it's supposed to drop into the upper 50's again. I'm really not looking forward to winter, because once it's here, it's here for good. Well, 6 months, but that's a LOOOOONG time! They say it's supposed to be worse than last winter, and last winter was one of the worst winters they've had in a really long time. The metro-dome collapsed last year. I see that place every day. Oh, and remember the bridge that collapsed several years ago? Or whenever it was. That's here too, the new bridge has a memorial for those who died and has really cool lights that light it up at night. I should take a picture.

Anyway, I could keep talking, but we need to get going. We have a lot to get done today and I still need to email Koltn, Shae, Miranda (who didn't email me ) and President. So, I love you all. I hope all is well with each of you! Keep smiling and remember I LOOOVE YOU!

Love,
Sister Randall

Oct. 3, 2011

2012-01-20T14:28:00.002-07:00

FAMILY! :D

I'm glad to hear that the move went well. I realized last night while I was laying in bed that each member of our family has moved within the last couple months. Sam & Erin changed apts, Miranda moved to school, I moved to Dinkytown, you all moved to a new house... There is something with our family and moving, we just can't seem to get enough of it! ;) But, the house looks good! Bigger than I expected when you said "small" I was almost thinking Grand Island size small! haha.

I did get mom's card, thanks so much :) I appreciated it. And, I will keep an eye out for the atm card. Sorry my pictures didn't attach... it wasn't too much to look at anyway. Our General Conference advertising didn't really do much, at least no one showed up to conference...maybe they watched it online??? The elders had 3 investigators come, we expected at least 1 with the prospective of 3 others, but had none come. I was bummed.

You will have to watch Saturday morning session. President Monson was super funny. I never realized the sense of humor he had until this general conference! It was wonderful. The elders are teaching a kid named Anton (he's pretty cool). He's been trying to figure out if he should be baptized and leave the Catholic church, in which his family is so strong and involved. So, Sunday morning he came fasting to conference, and he really enjoyed Tad Callister's talk (I think that's his name) on the Book of Mormon. That night he also went to a Catholic Mass with the Arch Bishop (I don't know how to spell this stuff..) with the intentions of being able to feel which was right. He called the elders and wanted to meet up and he told them "I felt the Spirit while the Arch Bishop was talking..." The elders thought he was going to drop them, but he continued on and eventually said "I know you wanted me to be baptized October 8th, but it's too soon. I will be a member, but I need more time." I guess he wrote in his journal after the first time of meeting with missionaries and said "I think I am going to join this church..." He's pretty awesome :D

As for what we have been up to! We have done a lot of contacting. One night we were out talking with people and I started talking to this girl from Nigeria, who happened to be a Pastor. We were talking for a bit and as I walked past Sis. Stephenson I gave her a "this could be interesting, not sure what's gonna happen" kind of look. We ended up standing on the corner discussing the prophet and authority...well she was pretty sassy and "knew that she was right". Finally Sister Stephenson came up and introduced herself, the girl acknowledged her, then turned back to me and we kept talking. Eventually it calmed down and I offered her a card and invitation to general conference so that she could find out for herself. She told me she didn't want it and then asked us what our view on homosexuality was. So, we told her that unfortunately people have this trial, but marriage is ordained of God only between a man and a woman. She took a second to think and then turned to me and said, I'll take one of those cards. She was a scientist and so we asked her about how she could keep such a strong belief in God even with evolution and all that "proof". She gave a pretty good response and I think we could consider each other friends now. Sadly she didn't show up to conference, but she was pretty cool :)

Oh, I'm teaching a girl in the ward how to play piano. But, she already has the concepts, she just needs to practice. She wants to know more of the theory stuff, which I'm not very good with. So, we will see how that goes.

Last night I talked to a super sweet kid name Brian. He grew up in Wisconsin, he's a freshman and he's Catholic. When I asked him if he'd heard of the church he said no, and then I said that we were also known as Mormons and he was like, I've never heard of that. I was surprised. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith for awhile and he gave me his number so that we can call him this week. Hopefully something good will come of it. He's so innocent, it was sweet. As I turned to walk away he had this look of hunger and curiosity in his eyes. I really hope we can meet up!

Our investigator Yvan dropped us during conference on Saturday. He called and since he was possibly coming we answered the call. So, that was disappointing, but Brian made it all better :)

Haha, so funny/gross story. So we ran out of milk this week and we thought we had bought milk two weeks ago, but we didn't have it, so we figured we had forgotten to get it. Well, lately our car has smelt pretty gross...Last night the elders came up and said "Who left a half gallon of milk in the car???" haha, the milk had been in the trunk for almost two weeks. The cream was completely separated. Haha, I'm grateful I didn't have to find it. Anyway, good times!

Well, I love you all, I hope you are doing well & I will talk to you next week!
Oh, PS you asked about what I wanted for Christmas several weeks ago. I decided that I want a compilation of the testimonies of siblings, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and any cousins/aunts/uncles that want to chip in. It could be a brief telling of how they gained a testimony and also their testimony, or something of the sort. And maybe some warm, comfy, night time socks. Mine are getting holes in them! And maybe some hand and foot warmers? That would make me happy :) Well, that's all that I want. Thanks for being awesome! I love you!!

Have a GREAT week.

Love Sister Randall :D

Sept 26

2012-01-20T14:27:00.001-07:00

Hello Family!

I do remember the temple talk from Grandpa, and it was when I was dating Justin, I do believe. I'm sure I will remember it for the rest of my life :) As I have gone to the temple and studied in the scriptures and preach my gospel I have certainly come up with quite a few questions for whoever is gonna have questions, so we will have to go to the temple next year. There is SOOOO much to learn! So with all the moving will you get to sit down and watch general conference? How are mom's classes going? And the kids' schooling? Also, what do I need to do with the bank account? I have gotten a couple confirmation emails, but I don't understand what you want me to do about it. I should be fine on money, I guess I didn't realize how close to the end of the month it really was. I mean, I should keep a little more cash on me, but I'm fine right now.

Well, it's been a pretty good week! We picked up a new investigator-- Yvan. He's from Cameroon, but he might live out of our area :( He is awesome. I talked to him on campus the other day. I was walking down University ave and a kid came running up behind and said "What time is it?" He had plenty of time until the bus came so, he walked and we talked for a couple minutes. Turns out his family is being visited by the Maplegrove sisters. He told me he knew Sister Daniel, but he never gets the chance to be there when the sisters are there. So he asked if he could give me his number and we could set up a time, and of course I said YES! We met with him this past week, and he is just awesome! I'll be sad to pass him off to other missionaries.

We had a really good district meeting this past week. I heard a lot of things I needed to hear. One of which was another poem. I don't know what it is about the poems, they get me almost everytime. Anyway, this one is called He Has Been There Before. It goes through a missionary's day and he was in a hard area and that night he cries and expresses his feelings in prayer about how he hates biking because he sweats so much that it gets in his eyes and having to wear a helmet because people make fun of him, and how his hands hurt from knocking all day, and people don't listen, and he doesn't like his companion, then he goes to sleep and has a dream. In the dream the Savior approaches him to speak to him and say, I know how you feel. And reminds him that the donkey He rode was not equipped with 21 speeds, and people once placed a crown of thorns on His head and made fun of Him, and His hands probably hurt in a similar way when they pounded the nails into His hands, and the blood that he sweated was grievous to be borne, and how he once had a companion who sold His life for money. He then said, we have a lot of similarities, but the "difference is that I endured to the end, now go and do like Me." It hit pretty hard. The Savior really does understand and sometimes we forget how much more He has done for us.

I finished Jesus the Christ! :) I probably started in the middle of 2 transfers ago, so maybe 3-4 months? I want to read it again before the end of my mission. It's an awesome book! It's hard to start, but it's really good. We biked to a dinner this week and once we got there it got really really windy and sprinkled a bit, so the ride home was a bit difficult going against the wind and at once point I almost got hit by a branch falling off a tree. It was exciting, but I'm safe! :D Friday night I got sick :( Thankfully it wasn't too bad. I was super nauseous and had a bad headache but I was ready to go by the next morning! But, then Sis. Stephenson had it. We made posters for general conference and Sunday night we went around and posted them around campus. On the way back to the institute another group was hanging up banners over top several of ours :( So, after that event is over today we are gonna go and tear them down. We spent a lot of time on them. Oh! Something that was really fun for me is that we got the emails for the directors of the religion department and we wrote an email to the religion professors inviting them to invite their students to contact us with questions and to come to general conference. I guess I'm a nerd but trying to remember how to write a professional email was fun! I enjoyed it a lot. We are also preparing to have a Mormon Movie night on the 23rd of October. We will be handing out fliers and putting up posters around campus for that. We will show Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration. Our way of proselyting is so different on a college campus than in any other area. It's a lot of fun :D

Hm, well that kind of concludes the week! Today we went to the Como Zoo, I'll attach some pictures from the zoo and other pictures I have!

I love you all! I hope all is well!
Love,
Sister Randall

Sept 19

2012-01-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! Sorry this email is later than usual. We have one computer to share between 4 missionaries. The library is closed on Mondays. So, we let the elders go first this week while we went grocery shopping.

I'm glad to hear Miranda made it safely, and she has kept me updated :) Otherwise I would not be too happy with her. The one person I NEVER hear from is Austin. But, it's ok, because I still love him :) I can't believe Charity is married. I talked to this super cute, really old man on campus the other day (I know I'm over the YSA but I couldn't resist) and I asked him if he was married, hoping to get into the Plan of Salvation, but he responded that he had put work over getting married. He regrets it very much now and wishes that he had a family. My heart went out to him. There is truly no success that can compensate for our failure in the home, whether it's neglecting family or never having a family even though the opportunity was there. when will you be moving into the house? I have to send the updated address to the mission home.

Once again, I feel like it was a pretty uneventful week. We did teach an investigator that the elders from last transfer had been teaching. Her name is Jordan, but we don't know why she's meeting with us. She is studying to be a pastor for the Hope Community church, she claims to be open minded (I would differ) and she hasn't decided what she believes. For example we asked her about baptism, and at first she said, Yes it's essential, but then was like well, noo... Someday I am going to write a book on the top reasons people disagree with the church and back it up with scriptures. It is absolutely ridiculous the way people twist the scriptures to fit what they want to believe! Such as "a man must be born of water and of the spirit" (may not be a direct quote). To be born of water is taken to be a physical birth. When Jordan said that our joint teacher, Nate was like "If that's the case why would he say that, we are all born!" Then she was like, except for the fallen angels. It's not a battle one can win.

We have had some good conversations this week. We talked to an average of 10 people a day this week, and got some potential investigators. Hopefully we can meet up with them this week. One kid that I talked to, his name is Sean, he has studied a lot of religion, but isn't really sure what to believe. His aunt was a catholic nun and just passed away this week, so he is headed to her funeral, but agreed to meet up when he gets back to talk about God's plan for us after this life. Sister Stephenson talked to a kid who told her twice that he wasn't interested, but she was persistent and after walking like 6-8 blocks with him he said something about how he probably should put the effort in to find out more. So, we are meeting with him this week. I spent 20 minutes talking to this kid, Matt. He is non-denominational and feels like denominations cause division. At the end he asked what my first name is (many people do) and he wrote it down and said he was gonna pray for me. It was funny. then we were out walking one day and I heard someone say "Oh hey Adrianna!" Yep, it was Matt. Him and a Catholic were standing near a table where a woman was doing Tarot cards and they were talking to people trying to help them understand that it was evil. You have to admire their dedication. So, we ended up talking to Stephen, the Catholic kid for quite some time and he invited us to a Hog Roast and wanted to give us the Catacism in exchange for a Gospel Principles book. He already has a Book of Mormon. So we went, and it was a Catholic outreach thing, and the looks on people's faces as we walked in were priceless! He was super nice.

We met a kid named Nick as well. We were sitting on a bench after talking to people, just getting a drink of water and he walked up to us and started to talk to us about some religion called Hera Christna? Something like that. He offered us a couple books, but asked for a donation. We declined. They were traveling monks. But what was interesting is that he had read part of the Book of Mormon and believes its the word of God, but he also believes that their books are more important than the Bible and Book of Mormon. Apparently the whole world practiced this religion 5000 years ago, and it's what Christ taught. Anyway, the elders traded a Book of Mormon for one of their books.

Yesterday was President's fireside, it was AWESOME. The 3rd speaker really was quite incredible. His name was Richard Madsen. He was in jail waiting for a prison sentence when his sister called the mission and had missionaries sent to the jail to teach him. The elders gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it that night, the next day, and the next night and finished it. He then decided to read it again slower and finished it in 4 days. He knew it was true, it was the change he had wanted all his life. His lawyer told him he was facing a sentence of 32 years in prison and there was nothing anyone could do about it. He would have been 74 when he got out. He had tried praying for help but the answer he always received was "Why would I?" The elders taught him that that was the devil and he would keep talking as long as he was willing to keep listening. So, he learned how to pray and receive answers. The day he was to receive his sentence he prayed that he would receive the amount of time necessary to pay for the crime and to be made ready to be humble and be baptized (the elders had challenged him to baptism). He received only 10 years in prison. On his way he prayed that he could be around LDS people. His prayer was answered and they supplied him with literature to read. He read Jesus the Christ once a year, the Book of Mormon at least once a year, the Old and New Testament once a year, he also read the Miracle of Forgiveness and a church history book. When he got out (just over 2 months ago) it was only a couple days after President Clements had gotten here. The elders called up President and said, "we need you to ask the 1st presidency for permission to baptize this man." He was hesitant but the next morning President knew he needed to do so. The approval came quickly and he was baptized 2 months ago. It was an incredible story as he explained the changes that had taken place. It's amazing how much the gospel will do for you.

My current district leader has been a member for just about 2 years? He also came from a very tough background growing up in Cleveland. But, the gospel was brought into his life and he is now here serving a mission for the Lord. It is absolutely incredible the transformation for good that takes place when people accept the gospel! No one is too far gone to accept the gospel!

Well, I guess more happened than I thought :) haha. Oh yeah, we were biking home the other day (we only live 5 blocks from the institute) and I was waiting for traffic to pass before I crossed the street and when I went to push off my shoe came off, but I didn't have time to hesitate, so I had to cross, park my bike and then wait for traffic to pass again. I just kept praying that no one would run over my shoe. It was rather embarrassing but quite funny. No one ran over it and I got it safely :)

Anyway! I think this mostly concludes my week. Sorry if this is too long. I hope you are all healthy, safe and well! I love you and I hope you have an awesome week!

Love Sister Randall

sept 12

2011-09-14T13:59:00.002-06:00

Hey everybody! Well, it has been one of the longest and most expensive weeks of my mission! And that's not from the fair! The member that took Sister Stokes to the fair (who is also one that I know quite well) would buy the different deep fried foods and we would split them. Man they were SO good. The best was the deep fried cookie dough! mmmm :) Totally NOT healthy. I think I spent a total of $16 for my ticket, bus ride, and some water. So that was super nice.

So we are now here in Dinkytown and we opened up a new apartment. Wednesday night we literally had nothing. So we slept on the floor and hung old sheets that Sister Stokes had left behind, and a shower curtain on the windows. Thursday some man from the apartments showed up to put blinds up, and we also got our beds from the church. (I'm not sure I've ever been so grateful for a bed!) Yesterday a member came up and told us she had tons of furniture she was trying to get rid of, so we now have 2 desks, a table, 2 chairs, a shelf, and a dresser. Also the member that was at the state fair with us, Laura used to have sister who lived with her and when they moved out they had left a bunch of stuff behind. So Saturday she brought us two boxes of kitchen stuff including pots and pans and silverware. (The 2nd box I haven't opened yet, so we will see what there is!) However, Wednesday we had gone out to get the bare necessities, so we got a lamp, 4 spoons, 4 forks, 2 glasses, 4 bowls and a couple shower curtains. It was an expensive trip to the store. But, it's nice that our apartment finally looks like someone lives there and we now have a place to put our stuff! I am super grateful for people's charity and love.

Here in the Dinkytown ward I feel like I have gone out to eat for almost every meal. It's a terrible feeling and I don't like it. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid when that's all the students have to offer. We also go out with a couple of Sister Stephenson's best friends in the ward on a fairly regular basis and we then pay for ourselves. I think 2 things are gonna happen this transfer. The number on the scale is gonna skyrocket and the number on my card is gonna deplete :S But, I guess I will figure out how to balance it all, right? It's crazy how different each area is.

There is this incredible recent convert of 2 weeks here! Her name is Ann. She's from Kenya. She said when she saw the elders walking toward her something told her that she was gonna go to their church. So when they talked to her, she just asked for the address and time and she showed up the following Sunday. Yesterday I was talking with her and she said that she was sort of mad with herself for being here at the U for almost 4 years and never finding this. She said she has always been searching for this truth. Her dad is a Lutheran pastor and she would ask him questions all the time such as, where were we before this life? Where are we going? The bible says to be baptized by immersion, how come we don't have that in our church? And he could never answer her. She is so awesome :D

Last night there was an awesome CES fireside. Sister Oaks is so funny! And Elder Oaks gave an awesome talk on Tolerance and truth. He talked of when to tolerate something and when to stand up for truth. He talked of uniting with all believers to stand up for truth. He said that we should be tolerant of the beliefs that do not coincide with ours and rejoice in the fact that we all believe in God and Jesus Christ. It was a really awesome talk.

Oh, so Sister Stephenson got a super bad ingrown toenail that kept us from being able to go out walking on campus. The earliest the Podiatrist could see her was Monday morning, but miraculously they ended up calling her and telling her to come in Friday. So, they cut it out and this week we should be able to go out and talk to tons of people! I look forward to getting busy!

So, did you actually sign for the house to rent? How come rent and not buy? Has anything happened with the auburn house? The rental house sounds absolutely....beautiful? At least the outside and the land it sits on...

I'm glad all went well with getting Miranda to school. I can't believe it. I'm glad work is going alright. I hear you are going to NE for Thanksgiving? That should be fun. Something really weird for me is that on the next transfer day I will be at my 1/2 way mark :S I hear that from that point down it flies, which scares me because from January to now has flown as well. I can't believe it's been this long, I feel like a brand new missionary still!! Anyway. I need to get going. I love you all and hope you are doing well! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Randall

Sept 5

2011-09-14T13:58:00.002-06:00

Well, today we are going to the state fair! It should be good. Expensive, but good. 12 bucks to get in, plus lunch and all the other stuff. I don't want to stay as long as we are going to, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do--Actually a lot of times. So, we got transfer calls this morning. Sister Stephenson and I are moving to Dinkytown again, the college campus. She was trained there, transferred to Winona, transferred back to Dinkytown, transferred to Rochester, Northfield and now back to Dinkytown. The only question we have is where we will be living. We heard the roof collapsed in the old apartment that we used to live in. I was hoping to be able to go to a family ward, but if I need to be with the singles, then that's where I'll stay. But, Northfield is closing and the Zone Leaders will be taking over the singles branch.

Nicole dropped us. She said that she couldn't believe that Joseph is a prophet if he practices against what the bible teaches on polygamy, which is just an excuse. There would have to be much more to it if she won't even let us come back and talk to her about it. Robert--he cancelled our last appointment because he was going to a job interview and we haven't been able to get a hold of him since. Andrew, is awesome. He is such a sweet kid who sincerely wants to be forgiven and the plan God has for us. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. His dad died in June, and it's been really hard on him. Abby moved back this weekend, she has read the BoM twice, D&C twice, and really the only thing holding her back is her family. But, sadly, we won't be teaching her, since we will be gone. We have had some progression with a couple less actives, and I'm worried about how that will go with the change from us to elders. It's hard to leave this area. I love it so much. I guess you could say it was my first real area. It's beautiful here. Let me know how the house stuff goes. I pray for you and your ability to sell the house.

That's so cool about Ashley. She was truly converted to the gospel. It makes me think of Kipp. He didn't join for his girlfriend, but she was the means of introducing him to the gospel. He is just awesome. I love seeing people join and really just "get it". As for young people being more receptive, I found that the 14-16 age is prime for teaching them. Once they get older, they may listen to you, but are too stubborn to either believe or make the change. But when the timing is right, they are ready to receive the gospel.

I'm glad that dad feels cool in his car. I'm excited to see it in real life some day. haha.

Well, it's been a pretty dull week, sort of. Here's an entertaining story from tracting this past week. We were knocking doors and as we were walking toward the next house, there were 2 women outside and one said "Oh no, I've got to go." And got in her car, parked in the driveway. The other woman walked inside and shut the garage. So, we ignored the woman in the car, and went and knocked on the door, and waited. And waited. Then we rang the doorbell, and waited. Well, no one answered, but meanwhile the woman was still in her car in the driveway, and her car had totally broken down. So as we walked past Sister Stephenson called through the window and said "Do you need help?" She said no, as she put the phone up to her ear and she said, I'll call them and they will come out and help me. Oh dear, so we got in the car and they came out, and we flipped around and smiled and waved as we drove past. I guess that's what you get for trying to run away from God's servants?

Oh! EXCITING STUFF! Remember my companion Sister Stokes, who went home? SHE CAME TO VISIT!!!!! she was at church yesterday and is coming to the fair with us today. I MISS HER SO STINKING MUCH! It made my day. Anyway, that's about all. I've got.

The tights, probably a medium? Yes I would appreciate my coat, as for the brown coat, I don't know what I'll do with it yet. I can't believe winter is coming. I'm not ready to accept it yet. It's been chilly the last couple days, but nothing extreme. I love hearing all the things you have grown in your garden. Hopefully in the next house you will have a place to have a garden! It sounds like you have enjoyed it!

Well, I'm distracted by kids in the house and transfers and everything else. We've got to be leaving for the fair soon. Sorry it's short. I love you all! :D

Sister Randall

Aug 31

2011-09-14T13:57:00.002-06:00

FAMILY!

I don't know what it is about reading your emails and emailing you that just gives you a much needed uplift. Sorry that Pday is late this week. We got to go to the temple :) It was a wonderful session. Wow, so what all has happened? It has definitely been a roller coaster of a week.

We had some way good lessons with a couple less actives, did some tracting, had some sick days, got some good referrals...

Hm, So, Friday we were planning for the upcoming week and the Farmington elders called and said that they had a referral, his name was Robert and he wanted us to call him right then. So, we called Robert who was grateful that we called and we told him we had a fairly open schedule, I started flipping through the upcoming days and asked when he wanted to meet. His reply? Anytime between now and 2pm. So, we picked up a new investigator, and he is very sincere and super awesome. He was going to come to church Sunday but had an allergic reaction Saturday night and he ended up in the ER. So, that didn't happen.

We also received a referral from the Burnsville Elders for a girl named Nicole. They had taught her once and she had come to church. So, we went with the elders to the lesson and she is just a wonderful wonderful person. She does all her reading, reads the pamphlets, answers the questions in the back and makes a list of her own questions for us to answer when we go over. She had a date for baptism, but she told us she isn't ready for that because she really wants to make sure she's ready. She also had something come up and ended up not coming to church :(

It felt so good to have investigators again! We have an appointment with what we hope will be a new investigator tonight. His name is Andrew, and he is also a referral. All of a sudden all the elders around us started finding YSAs. Why is it that they can find them and we can't? Good question, but I will take it either way! Sunday we were supposed to have 2 investigators and several less actives at church, but not one showed up. It was a bummer, but next week should be better. We did have some awesome speakers though. Brother Brox, a high councilman, spoke (his daughter just came home from a mission and I just love that girl-she served with sister beu actually, but she's now at byu) and did an awesome job. He said that he was at the shoe store the other day getting some new shoes for school time and he heard a little kid say to his mom "Mom, I want the shoes with the big boy shoe laces." She said, "But you never tie your shoes, even though you know how!" He responded, "That's because there is so much important stuff to do that I don't have time!" He talked about prioritizing our lives and putting the most important things first and how when we do that we reach higher planes. He closed his talk by saying, the next time someone tells you your shoe is untied, you can remember that it's because you had too many important things to do. It was a great talk. Then the stake president spoke during 3rd hour and he spoke of faith, hope, and charity. He said Faith is taking a thing you once knew was right and doing it despite your current feelings and emotions (in relation to when we are doubting). As for hope, he said to be irrationally optimistic and don't get discouraged. Charity-act like you care, act like you love, don't just pretend, but do the actions and love will follow. "All you have to do is obey and God will give you charity." It was a good day.

Monday I was sick. I had felt nauseous the last couple days but nothing like the way I felt Monday morning. I have also been grinding my teeth lately, so we went to Target and I got a mouthguard, which I have yet to actually use, I hate having stuff in my mouth at night--it gags me. Anyway, then the Farmington elders gave me a blessing and I felt much much better. I sort of felt chastised as I was counseled to have faith in the power of the blessing and also that the Lord was preparing people in our area, and also some other areas. So, I guess I've been focusing a little too much on love and now I need to balance it out with faith. It has definitely been a transfer where faith, hope, charity, and patience have been greatly needed. Unfortunately, Sis. Stephenson also felt ill and so we stayed home all day :(

Tuesday was a hectic day and we did a lot of driving. We went out to Northfield, then met the New Prague elders to pick up some pass along cards off of one of the exits, and then drove the rest of the way to Faribault (fair-bo), somehow the exit I took and the road I was on turned into an on ramp back onto I35 S and we went 7 miles up before we reached another exit, then had to turn around. It was ridiculous. It was a busy day.

Oh, so funny story that Sis Stephenson just reminded me that happened this past week. We decided to bike all day one day last week and were out in Eastern Lakeville. We were tracting this street, and when people don't answer we slip a card in between the door and the door jam. Well, a good 30 mins after we had left the street we get a phone call, so I answer it and a woman starts to talk and says something along the lines of "Hi, your number was on this card and I just wanted to let you know that we just saw 2 girls on bikes leaving this neighborhood, was that you?" Yes. And then she started telling us that we had "finagaled" the card into her house and she had found it INSIDE her house and that the cops were on the way to her house and she was going to file a police report for trespassing and violating her rights and forcing mormonism into her house. She also said that she knew an "ex-mormon" and knew all the loop holes of our doctrine and that I would never know them because I was brainwashed. Several times I tried to talk, but not once was I able to even say "I'm sorry" before she hung up the phone. I suppose anyone with common sense would realize that when you open your door something that is held by that pressure would fall (hence the law of gravity?). So what she accused us of "finagaling" into her house really fell because she opened the door. I'm sure the cops just laughed at her, secretly anyway. So, that was an entertaining event in our past week. We actually ended up pretty sunburnt that day, it was exciting, the members we had dinner with cut off branches of their aloe plant and sent them home with us. I was grateful for it.

Something I have been wanting to do was to sit down and start writing about the definition of a Christian, and when I get home I will probably make a blog wholly centered on that. Well, as a missionary that sort of time is few and far between, but last night provided a perfect opportunity. At 10:20 we laid down to go to sleep and at 12:30 I was still awake. So, I finally sat up, turned on my lamp and started writing. It was a good start and I probably wrote for 1/2 an hour. It's just a very interesting term that people use so carelessly and without meaning. Anyway, so I think I finally fell asleep around 1:30...I wasn't too happy when the alarm went of this morning :S Hopefully this doesn't start a pattern.

Cool, it's so good to hear that everyone is doing well. I'm so proud of Austin and I can only imagine the changes going on in his life. I'm a little nervous to hear his voice... I feel like my younger siblings have done much better with their life than me, so I'm proud of them and happy for them as well. I still can't believe how old everyone is. Miranda is a freshman in my mind, Austin a 7th grader, and I think Shae will forever be 12 in my mind. Miranda will be off to school in less than a week! It's so crazy all the changes that are going on.

As for editing your papers, I'm sure Beki would still love to help you out. Just email her and ask her. We exchange cards every so often. As for Elder Chapman. The last letter I received from him was at the end of April. I'm sure he is doing well, and I take that as a sign that he is very focused on the work and I'm grateful for that. Cash--well I could always use cash. But I think I have about $100 maybe 120. We managed to get permission to go to the State Fair, which is rated #2 in the country, on Monday. It's ridiculous how quickly money goes. Just the mouthguard alone was $16 and I feel like it's all going down hill. I left my wallet in the car when we went to the LDS bookstore after the temple today (it was a good idea, I could spend TONS of money there). I'm getting tired of my shirts, and I'm sure by the end of everything I will be sick of them. I had hoped that my skirts would go beyond the mission, but the 2 that I can bike in both have grease stains from getting caught in the brakes. It just all goes to show how hard I worked. I am grateful to have the shoes I do, ugly as they are. I only really use the black ones, and on ocassion I use my gold flats. The brown shoes, well they are just too casual to wear with a skirt, but don't worry, I WILL use them after my mission. I absolutely love them. But I am pretty sure my shoes will last my whole mission and Sister Stephenson is on like her 3rd pair? It helps that I will be wearing boots for like 3 or 4 or 5 months... I guess the coldest it got in the cities last year was -37 with windchill, and we don't go inside until it hits -40. Frozen nose hairs, eyelashes, frostbite etc.... it should be a fun winter! I've been told a down coat is going to be necesarry to stay outside as much as we do...So, I'm thinking about that black coat I had kind of forgotten about when we bought a new coat... Maybe we could sell this brown one, cute as it is.

Christmas list, already!? Wow, lets see. I'm sure by that point hand/foot warmers, hot chocolate/cider, just the cash so that I might have a little bit of money when I get home? I don't know. I'll think about it and remind me in your next email. Man, sorry this is so long. I feel like so much more has happened. Tell shae to keep up the hard work with tennis! Austin and dating. Those 2 terms don't mesh well, but I heard about a kid who was just an incredible example and he would plan dates and especially ask girls who didn't get asked very often. tell him to have fun and it's ok to admit that he likes girls ;)

So, sorry if I forgot anything, I've got to write President and respond to my siblings! I love you all! I hope you are well, I pray for you daily and keep on smiling!

Love, Sister Randall

Aug 22

2011-09-14T13:56:00.000-06:00

Hey family!

I wish I had some awesomely amazing news for you! Wednesday we taught our recent convert, Ryan. He is doing better and seems to be more himself finally. We had an appointment fall through with the kid who answered the phone drunk, and we had dinner with a member (I think I eat the healthiest I ever have on my mission at their house--and it's a couple of YSA boys!) Thursday we spent the majority of the day at home, Sister Stephenson was sick. But, we did go to our dinner appointment, and help a member stain her deck--even though Sister Stephenson wasn't feeling well. Friday, was kind of the same, but we had a lesson with Kipp (who is doing AWESOME and will be baptizing his friend next week!), and we had 2 hours of weekly planning, dinner and another lesson, and about an hour of tracting. We actually tracted into a YSA that we are hoping to be able to set up an appointment with. He had a friend that was LDS passed away about a year ago. He said he went to the funeral and people kept talking about the Spirit World and he didn't understand why that was so important. We had a really good conversation. It's interesting how you sometimes have to stick out a street where no one is answering to have the last person you talk to be the reason you were there. Friday night the zone leaders came and gave Sister Stephenson a blessing. She was up most of the night, sick, but slept in and was feeling much better. So, we actually worked! We did some tracting, and had dinner with a member, and did some more tracting. Sunday was good. Church is a time where it feels like we can rest from our labors! Patrick came to church! Ryan was sick :( We did some tracting and only talked to a few, but then Kipp and April came with us to President's Fireside--which was really good. I love going and hearing the testimonies of recent converts, it's super awesome! And that concludes our week.

As for the video I promised...I guess I can't send it, because it's too long. It's like 4 minutes long. Bummer. I'll show you eventually..... This coming week we have district meeting, Thursday night visits, a couple less active and recent convert lessons and hopefully a couple investigator lessons.

So, I think I might have an ingrown toenail, and I don't know how to make it better. Any ideas? Anyway, I really wish there was more to share...Oh, I know! The weather is always a good topic of discussion! the leaves are changing, at least on some trees. That means that summer is almost over...I swear summer just started. I'm not certain I'm ready for the long and bitter winter, but of course that doesn't stop me from anything. Ready or not, here I come!

It sounds like you are all staying busy. Is school going well for everyone? How is work? How is the relief society doing? Well, I love you all, sorry this is so short and lacks the promised video. Have an awesome week and keep working hard!

Love,

Sister Randall

Aug 16

2011-09-14T13:54:00.002-06:00

Hey family!

Yesterday was a long 7 1/2 hour zone conference. But, I love the mission meetings. You always leave with an extra umph! and wanting to go out and get to work! We love President Clements and everything he does. He is an awesome mission president.

I still can't believe that Charity is getting married! So much is changing! But, it sounds like everything is going mostly well. Miranda is about to leave the house. That's gonna be quite the change. Who's gonna do the cleaning when mom is busy?!? ;) Who are Austin and Shae gonna hang out with!? She's always been a fairly responsible girl. She'll do well at school, I'm sure. Mom, try not to cry too much. Also, what's her address? I need that. Which apartment number and what not. It will be a fun adventure.

As for our past week...Once again, we've been out tracting. We tract anywhere between 3 and 5 hours a day. We added an investigator, her name is Roseanna. I've talked about her before, but we were never able to teach her, so now she is officially an investigator--we just have to figure out how to help her have the desire to know that everything she's been taught is true. We also added another investigator, but he leaves for school at the end of this week. And, when we called him yesterday we don't know how sober he was. But, hopefully he will keep our appointment tomorrow. We've been working with Ryan who is a recent convert who fell back into addiction. It's been a struggle. We've also been working with Patrick who is less active. We had an AWESOME lesson with him. The Spirit was strong, he was moved to tears and he said he would do everything for Christ. We read Alma 7:11-13 and everytime it talked about the people we inserted Patrick's name. It was powerful. Roseanna, Patrick and Ryan all said they would come to church. Church came and went with no sign of any of them. That was a tough night for me. Thankfully, zone conference was Monday and our Zone leaders shared a poem that really cheered me up. It's called The Race:

THE RACE

"Quit, give up, you're beaten," they shout at me and plead,

"There's just too much against you now, this time you can't succeed."

And as I start to hang my head in front of failures face,

My downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.

And hope refills my weakened will as I recall that scene,

For just the thought of that short race rejuvenates my being.

A children's race, young boys, young men, how I remember well.

Excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn't hard to tell.

They all lined up, so full of hope, each thought to win the race,

Or tie for first or if not that, at least take second place.

And fathers watched from off the side, each cheering for his son,

And each boy hoped to show his dad that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they went, young hearts and hopes afire,

To win and be the hero, that was each boy's desire.

And one boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,

Was running near the lead, and thought, "My dad will be so proud."

But as they speeded down the field, across a shallow dip,

The little boy who thought to win, lost his step and slipped.

Trying hard to catch himself, his hands flew out to brace,

And 'mid the laughter of the crowd, he fell flat upon his face.

So down he fell, and with him hope- he couldn't win it now.

Embarrassed, sad, he only wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell, his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,

Which to the boy so clearly said, "Get up and win the race."

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that's all,

And ran with all his mind and might, to make up for his fall.

So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and win,

His mind went faster than his legs, he slipped and fell again.

He wished then, he'd quit before, with only one disgrace,

"I'm hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn't try to race."

But in the laughing crowd, he searched and found his father's face,

That steady look which said again, "Get up and win the race."

So up he jumped, to try again, ten yards behind the last,

"If I'm to gain those yards," he thought, "I've got to move real fast."

Exerting everything he had, he gained eight or ten,

But trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeated he lay there silently, a tear dropped from his eye,

"There's no sense running anymore, three strikes, I'm out, why try?"

The will to rise had disappeared, all hope had fled away,

So far behind, so error prone, a loser all the way.

"I've lost, so what's the use," he thought, "I'll live with my disgrace,"

but then he thought about his dad whom soon he'd have to face.

"Get up," an echo sounded low, "Get up and take your place.

You were not meant for failure here. Get up and win the race.

With borrowed will, get up, you haven't lost at all,

For winning is no more than this: to rise each time you fall."

So up he rose, to run once more, and with a new commit,

He resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn't quit.

So far behind the others now, the most he'd ever been,

Still he gave it all he had and ran as if to win.

Three times he'd fallen, stumbling, three times he rose again,

Too far behind to hope to win but sill, he ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner as he crossed the line, first place

Head high, proud and happy, no falling, no disgrace.

But when the fallen youngster crossed the line in last place,

The crowd gave him the greater cheer for finishing the race.

And even though he came in last, with head bowed low, un-proud,

You would have thought he'd won the race, to listen to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said, "I didn't do so well,"

"To me, you won," his father said, "You rose each time you fell."

And now when things seem dark and hard and difficult to face,

The memory of that young boy helps me in my race.

For all of life is like that race with ups and downs and all,

And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.

"Quit, give up, you're beaten," they still shout in my face

but then another voice within me says,
"Get up and win the race."

I really liked this poem and it meant a lot to me. So, we are back up and refuse to give up. Sometimes I have to remind myself that people have their agency and as much as I may not like it at times, it's so very essential in God's plan for us.

Really, not a lot has been happening. I got the package, thanks so much, my face feels so much better--and my lips are softer too :D Did you close my account? I suppose I can cut up my card now? Oh, next week pday might not be on Monday either, we might be going to the temple. :) I know, it's been a weird transfer. So as of today I have been in Minnesota for 6 months! It has flown by. All my missionary friends are going home, but I'm sure I'll make more friends as I go! So, President Clements said that they were thinking about doing a mission blog, but they have decided against it, because some people will search them out, find the names of those baptized and track them down and anti them. That, I thought, is absolutely ridiculous! Who would spend their time tearing down a church? The devil is one powerful being, but he will not win. Last week at ZLC President talked about how life is like a basketball game, but the score is already posted. All we have to do is decide which jersey we want to wear. Do we want to wear the winning jersey (or the Lord's) or do we want to lose? Anyway, good luck with the upcoming week! I love you all! Keep working hard and enjoying life. Good luck with the house, you are in my prayers. Have you found a new house that you want? Well, I love you! I'd better write President and the others who have emailed me!

LOVE YOU!

Sister Randall

Aug 10

2011-09-14T13:53:00.000-06:00

Hey family! Sorry this is late. We were invited to Zone Leader Council on Monday morning and Tuesday we had District meeting. So, today is Pday. Next week Pday will be on Tuesday. It seems like a lot is going on. This transfer is only 5 weeks long, and next one will be 7. I guess the MTC messed up their schedule.

(Grandma and Grandpa Randall especially...) There is a new senior couple in the mission, Elder and Sister Randall :) I talked to him briefly and he asked if we were descended from Alfred Randall, and I said yes. I don't remember which wife he said, but we are through Margaret, which makes Alfred my 4th great grandpa. Elder Randall gave me a little booklet to read about him and his 5 wives and said he could get a CD of it for me if the family wanted copies. The booklet is titled The True Life Story of Alfred Randall, Pioneer. So if anyone is interested in it let me know and I can get a CD and send it your way. It's a cool booklet and really helped me understand our heritage :) Elder Randall was so nice to me and told me that if I needed ANYTHING to give him a call and he would make sure I got it.

So, that is that. We spent 4 hours straight tracting on Thursday. That was a long, but good day. We have had 0 investigators and have had plenty of rejection. Yesterday after District meeting our district did a "blitz", meaning we all went tracting streets that sister Stephenson and I picked out, looking for investigators for us. We have a couple potentials from that and we visited an old potential and she is now officially an investigator. She was raised being taught everything from the church, her mom is a member, but was never baptized. She has taken the missionary lessons before but has never had the desire to find out if it is true. She said that when she decides it is true, she will give her all to the church, so we just have to help her close that gap. Other than those exciting events, nothing too exciting has been happening in the area. Kipp Wilson is still doing awesome! He has an incredible understanding of the doctrine and acts like a life-long member.

This coming Monday we have zone conference. We have had so many meetings lately, but they are always so spiritual and uplifting. I love President Clements and he is great at showing his love for each companionship, area, and each missionary. He is proving to be an awesome mission president.

Sister Stephenson just reminded me of what happened this past week. We decided to stop by Brittney Brenner, a girl previously active in the family ward, but recently not attending, and we've been trying to get ahold of her for weeks. On the door is a home typed sign saying "Gaurd Dog on Duty." And with the way the door looked, we kind of believed it. Suddenly the door opens with this man with huge chops on his face and out comes running this HUGE black dog that weighs 120 lbs and is nearly 3 feet tall running straight toward Sister Stephenson. She about tripped over backward from the scare. Thankfully the dog is harmless and Brittney's dad is just as harmless. We talked and he asked us not to give up on Brittney. Sunday evening we set out to tract and after we prayed I just felt very unsettled, so we decided to go stop by two of the people that we had planned. When neither of them had answered and tracting still didn't feel right we turned to prayer. The decision made was that we needed to go see Brittney Brenner. This time when we went, she was home! We got in, got to know her and had a little lesson, and she said that we could come back. It was a cool experience and I'm grateful for the direction of the Spirit in all things. It's a huge reminder that this is the Lord's work, not ours.

Anyway, that's the exciting news of the week! Congrats on your lab score, and the final grade in your class. Have you found a house to move into yet? The garden sounds like it is fruitful (or vegetable-full?). The Lockett's, the family we live with have a very successful garden as well. (And as a side note, apparently Alfred Randall had quite the fruitful garden as well). Yes, I took money out, I took $170, since I figured I would need most of it for my prescription. My preventative inhaler lasts 2 months and costs $25, which is cheaper than the albuterol. I have hardly used my albuterol at all since I started Flo Vent. But, go ahead and close the account. I might stop using the flo vent during the winter, since we won't be biking as much and then start up in the spring/summer time and hopefully stop after I get home. We will see what happens. It's been a huge help to me.

Well, I love you all. I'm glad things are going well. Time is running short to email, but I hope you have an awesome week. Let me know about the CD with the information about Alfred Randall and his 5 wives.

Keep on keepin on!
Love,
Sister Randall

Aug 1

2011-09-14T13:51:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a great week. We did lots of contacting and we have been challenged to invite 1 person to be baptized everyday. So, we have been trying to invite people we meet on the streets to be baptized. Overall we have invited 5 people to be baptized since last Tuesday. It's not an easy thing to do, but it is kind of cool! Saturday we talked to 58 people, had 10 Quality Gospel Conversations, invited 4 people to be baptized and gave away 7 referrals! it was an awesome day :) I love giving referrals away! It's a really cool experience.

Tell Austin Happy Birthday for me, i was going to put his card in the mail late last week and forgot, but it is getting sent today! But, I did think about it and had it ready last Monday (It's the thought that counts, right?) I can't believe he is all grown up and getting his license! My little brother is getting so big!

Well, I have been anxious for transfer calls, wanting to know what was going to happen. There were so many possibilities and the result FINALLY came this morning at about 9am. (Waiting for transfer calls is one of the most nerve-wrecking things ever!) They started making calls at 7:30, so an hour and a half really gets you anxious. Well, President told me that some changes were coming my way and that Sister Stephenson would be coming to serve with my in my area. (SURPRISE!) I was so happy my area didn't close. I really wanted at least one more transfer here. It's fun serving in a singles branch, definitely very difficult, but it's an incredible experience. I was with Sister Stephenson for a week during all those random emergency transfers my 2nd transfer. So, yep. It should be a good transfer.

The weather has been hot, humid and sticky, but bearable. Tuesday we agreed to go help a member, Andrew, work on the house that he is living in (fixing it up in exchange for a place to live). So he had Laura, the woman who owns the house, pick us up at the church and take us to Northfield. On the way out we learned that both her and her husband were religion majors and she told us that we were welcome to give them our "schpeel" after dinner. Well, Andrew ended up having to leave to go to rehearsal during dinner so sister Hart and I were left at the table with two religion majors. So, as agreed, we left a scripture and talked about faith. We then asked a question, probably about how do we exercise faith, and it was quiet....and quiet....and more silence. Then their daughter came running into the room, causing a distraction and Laura goes, well I don't mean to interrupt but we should probably get you home. It was extremely awkward, but that's what makes a mission a mission, right? haha, It was quite the experience!

We had a branch activity Saturday which was themed Jumbo Jamboree and they had jumbo twister, tic tac toe, hot dogs, etc. Well, they pulled out the jumbo twister board and a couple of non member YSA's came over and asked if they could play,even though they were intoxicated. Only a few people joined the game and it seemed ridiculously easy, but I guess a simple task such as putting one hand on red is not so simple under the influence of alcohol. Needless to say it was fairly entertaining, but sadenning all at once. There is joy outside of sin.

Hmm, well that seems to complete our week! Today is super busy with getting stuff ready for Sister Hart to go home and her interview in Bloomington, and cleaning and grocery shopping and all that.

Good luck with girls camp! That should be fun! Don't worry about the zuccini bread, I do need some face wash and moisturizer though. I'm currently using noxema and I'm just not a fan of what it does to my face. Blech. maybe 2 would be better, so when I'm on my last one I can let you know early? How did finals go? How is Sam and Erin doing? It's been ages since I have heard from them!

Oh, last week, or maybe 2 weeks ago, I got a letter from Sister Martin, it made my day! I do enjoy getting letters :) Anyway, I'm excited for another 6 weeks in the Lakeville stake! It's pretty out here, I never have been much of a city fan.

Well, I love you all so very much and I hope all is well. You never did answer my question about selling the house? Ok, well, i guess that concludes this weeks email! Keep smiling and working hard!

Love your favorite missionary,

Sister Randall

(Ooo I can't say that anymore can I, Koltn is gone now, right? So many of my AZ friends have recently gotten mission calls, it's so exciting!)

July 25

2011-09-14T13:49:00.000-06:00

Well, this week....we had awesome contacting numbers! As for the amount of lessons we taught....not so great. But, we'll keep on going! Nothing too exciting happened last week. So, Sister Hart will give you a little recap of the week...

Hola Familia Randall! Sister Randall did me the awesome favor of writing my family a few weeks ago, so I decided to gladly return the favor. :) This week we worked super hard--we talked to an average of 28 peopole a day! Sister Randall is super awesome about talking to everyone--even people mowing their lawns. Because they definitely need the opportunity to hear about the gospel too. Probably the most exciting part of the week was seeing Kipp enjoy the blessings of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He went to the temple Tuesday night, came joint teaching with us Saturday, passed the sacrament and said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Whew! But he took it all like a champ and is doing awesome. Sister Randall will probably tell you more about him... Ok, well I guess I'll let her finish telling you about the week, but I just want to tell you thanks for supporting her on her mission! She's an awesome companion and has helped me work hard and I appreciate her so much. Thanks a million! It's wonderful to have a companion like her. :) Hope you all have a good week!! Love, Sister Hart :)

Ok, I'm back :) Sister Hart is awesome! As well as Kipp! We have seen a change in since his baptism. It has been a cool thing to watch and he has become a lot more comfortable. He's so awesome!

We taught a kid named JJ this past week, but he is leaving to go back to college in Iowa this week. We also tracted into this awesome girl, Erin. But her appointment fell through. One of the less actives we have been working with came to church yesterday and stayed for all four hours! (including linger longer). He made some friends with a couple kids who came for the first time in a long time. So, it was awesome!

We get transfer calls next week. From the looks of things, such as the number of sisters going home vs. coming out and that we have 0 progressing investigators. But, I have come to be ok with that. The work that we were sent here to do, has been done and now it's time to move on. It's amazing the way the Lord works!

Well, that's really all I've got, I love you all and have a good week!

Love, Sister Randall

July 18

2011-09-14T13:47:00.000-06:00

Hey Family!

Sorry I don't have creative subjects, but that's one of my favorite quotes, I keep it in the front of my planner :) I have several that I keep close by to keep my smiling and positive! So, what happened this week? Well, we will just start at the end and work back to the beginning!
Saturday KIPP GOT BAPTIZED! I will try to remember to include a picture or two. It was awesome. Sister Hart and I played a piano duet of I am a Child of God. It went pretty well. I want to record us playing it so you can hear it, it's pretty! We had the elders teach a short Restoration while Kipp and brother Little were getting dressed. From what we could tell his mom really enjoyed it and I'm sure she felt the Spirit. Now, how to get the missionaries in to teach her? We also had Kipp share his testimony--which was awesome! I think I will try to have any investigators that ever get baptized do that. It was an awesome opportunity for Kipp but also his mom to hear the things that he knows. He bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation and His love for Him and also of Joseph Smith and Pres. Monson. It was awesome. He was confirmed a member of the church on Sunday and also received the Aaronic Priesthood, and he might be going to do Baptisms for the dead tomorrow! How awesome would that be?!? I am super excited for him.

We went on exchanges again this week. I got to go back to Oakdale and was companions with Sister Whetten. It was weird being back. Katie, one of the people that was baptized while I was there isn't doing so well :( She wouldn't even come to the door when we stopped by. She just wants to be left alone. I wish there was an answer to how to help people remain strong. I think the secret is the family support, friends at church, continued spiritual experiences (new member lessons and visiting/home teaching), and a responsibility. I have found that the hardest thing is utilizing the members that aren't the RS president, EQ president etc... The members without the high stress callings are so essential! They just don't know how to help, or what to do or say, and they don't realize how much they affect the RC, LA, or Investigator. I wish I knew how to help them see that.

Another one of our recent converts is moving at the end of the month. She is headed to Arkansas, and all I can say is that I hope she finds what she is looking for and that her life starts to look up. We have had several people move away and will have several more leave in about a month. The transfers are in 2 1/2 weeks. Hermana Hart goes home, and from the looks of things, my area will probably close :( I really just want one more transfer here, but "I'll go where the Lord wants me to go." I'm sure I will love my next area just as much as I love this one. :)

The weather has recently gotten super hot and humid, but up till this point it hasn't been bad. But, I guess it will be this way all week, yuck! But, come October/November, I'm gonna want it back! ;) Well, mostly we've stayed busy, but nothing exciting has really happened (with the exception of Kipp's baptism!)

My friends Jason and Amber (from Arizona) are getting married this weekend. I should make a prediction of how many weddings will happen with my friends and family while I'm away....This one will make 2, plus I know more are already planned. It's so weird that life back home keeps going while mine is on "hold" in a sense. I have been trying to imagine my little Austin all grown up and teenager-ish, but I just keep seeing a little 7th grader! Sorry buddy, I know you probably don't like that! ;)

How is tennis going? And how did your test go? Anything fun and exciting happening? I can't believe Kevin has been gone for 2 years! For real? Wow, time flies. I realized that I will hit my 6 month mark next week, it does not feel like it's been 6 months. I still feel like I'm brand new and learning everything! I've heard that feeling never leaves though. Anyway, enough about that. (It's hard not to realize these things and wonder what you are gonna do at the end of 18 months when 1) You are a planner and 2) Your companion is making those plans now...)

Well, family! I love you all. Keep smiling. Keep working hard. Tell Kevin hi and sorry he had to leave the "real world".
Love ya guys :D
Sister Randall <3

July 11

2011-09-14T13:43:00.002-06:00

HEY!!
It's Pday once again! The weeks just fly by. I'm in the middle of my 4th transfer, and enjoying it so much. We have a huge list of potential investigators that we have been able to gather over the past week or so. We have 15 people we need to get in contact with. Which is AWESOME in our area. We have never had that many possibilities. The Lord is definitely blessing us. This past week we saw the most lessons this area has ever seen. We taught 16 lessons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The goal is 20 each week and so we really want to get there. It was an incredible week and surprisingly our finding numbers were better than the week before. That could have something to do with the parade that we went to and talked to like 30-40 people. It's so different contacting on the street rather than knocking on doors. It was fun.

Over the past week or 2 we have had 4 people randomly decide they were moving and are gone already. So that was a bummer, but we had a girl move in, I think I told you about Roseanna. Raised mormon, but not baptized. However, we are finding out some possible road blocks and explanations for that. It's interesting the things you come across as a missionary. :) We went on exchanges again this week. So I was with Hermana Blood. She's super awesome and was great at getting lessons while we were tracting. I really enjoyed my time with her. It's not very likely that we ever are companions, but that's ok. We exchanged after our meeting with the mission president, and we had never really talked much before, I was nervous that we wouldn't have anything to talk about. Well, Bloomington is a 15 min drive from Lakeville and about 7 mins from the exit that we wanted to take so we could go to dinner. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes!!! So, my worry of us not talking was overcome in the car and the almost 2 hour (7 mile) drive was actually quite enjoyable. I almost got out and talked to the YSA in the car behind us, but I wasn't sure how well that would go over.

President Clements is going to be an awesome mission president. It's cool to see that they kind of go through the same phases you do. They aren't perfect the first day they are here. It will be cool to see them progress and become more comfortable as our president. I'm excited to get to serve with him and learn from the change! It's a good thing you taught me how to love and accept change. :)

Tell Austin to stop growing! He can't be taller than me!!! That's so weird. One of the girls mentioned that you are selling the house? Are you staying in Charleston? Sounds fun. I need the combination to oily stuff. I will use the tinted stuff I have in the winter, but it's pointless when I'm sweating it off anyway. I don't think I need anything else...I'm trying to stop snacking on junk food. I have come to like fruit. Yes, the girl who never ate strawberries, or cantaloupe, or blueberries, or raspberries.... So, hopefully I can find a way to be able to afford fresh fruit each week so that i can snack on instead of snack crackers and cookies and whatnot. I'm still not too much of a veggie lover, but we do try to eat vegetables with the meals we eat at home. We usually get a frozen combo of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. ooo but zucchini bread would be good...and i wouldn't complain if it was chocolate ;) (So much for being healthy...)

KIPP IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! I am sooo excited. It's awesome. 1pm is when it starts, so by 2pm Kipp will be baptized--my first baptism away from my trainer. It's pretty cool. Our branch president took several people up to the boundary waters this week, so instead of coming home Saturday, they will be home Friday night. Him and his wife are doing well, and our counselor's wife finishes her treatments today and should continually feel better! She was at church this week for the first time in 2 weeks. We've missed her.
We have a new investigator, we aren't sure where his desire to find out for sure is, but he is willing to listen, read and pray. He isn't sure that God exists. It's so hard trying to teach someone the concept of God. Well, that depends on their backgrounds. The hardest are those who were raised religious and have consciously decided that God does not exist and the bible is fake. But, we make it work.

Well, I'm glad that I wasn't supposed to remember Sister Benson. Tell her thanks for the letter though :) I'm sure that your ward will be replenished over time, it always has a way of working out. I haven't gotten to go back over there, but i think we are this week. The only one home that is YSA age is Nick. Mike moved in with Stacey in St Paul or Eagan or something. :( Nick is active--he teaches primary. maybe we can get him to serve a mission. Sis Sanderson is in the stake relief society, and I don't remember what Brother Sanderson does. Hopefully we can catch them at home!

I did call Kim, but it wasn't the right number. I thought I told you that, sorry...or maybe I did and you just pretend to read my emails ;) just kidding! Well, that pretty much concludes my week. It's been fun and we will be doing exchanges again this week. Austin, keep up the tennis. Our Mission president is a tennis player, him and his daughter. Anyway, I hope all is well. Sorry about the car. But, I love you and pray for you often! keep on keeping on, smiling, working hard, etc.

LOOOOOOOOVE YOU!
Sister Randall :D

July 4

2011-07-04T21:55:00.000-06:00

Hola mi famila! Como estan? Somos misioneras por la iglesia de la JesuCristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias. Quiere que vengan otra misioneras que hablan espanol? Ha, that is my attempted spanish for the week. I'm slowly learning! :)

Sounds like you are having fun for the 4th of July weekend! We are having a normal pday. And we have FHE tonight at a park. So we are going to make flags with mormon.org tags on them. It should be pretty cool. We are hoping to contact several people!

We went on exchanges this week. Sister Gibson (from Casa Grande AZ) came and spent a day with me. That was fun. It was a glimpse into training. Umm, the Howell's are gone. We had a conference call with them on one of their last nights. Now the Clement's are here, we will meet them tomorrow at Specialized Training.

One of our Recent Convert/Less Actives picked up and moved randomly. Hermana Hart talked to his madre. It was really sad. A lot of our lessons fell through. But, we had 2 investigators at church and a nonmember who just moved here from Scottsdale AZ. She grew up Mormon but her parents never had her get baptized. They told them to wait until they could make the decision. And she just hasn't decided to yet. So, we are hoping that she will decide to act on what she knows. We reached 58 baptisms last month. SO CLOSE! That is the highest amount of baptisms this mission has seen in a month! So, our goal for July is....60! :) We hope we can reach it this time through. Kipp is getting baptized July 16th at some point. And we are hoping to have at least 1 more baptism this month. The chances of this area being closed at the end of the transfer are pretty good :( I hope to be able to go back to Dinky Town in September, for the school year. That would be awesome. :D But, I'll go where the Lord wants me to go!

Ummmm, really, nothing exciting has happened. We have several potentials, hopefully we can move them to investigator status and then to member status! That would be neat. Let's see, I got a letter from Sister Torrie L Benson. Do I remember her? I feel terrible, but I can't picture her. And if I should remember her, don't tell her I don't :S Well, that's all that's going on here. Oh we tracted into a girl named Adriana, we taught her the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully we can go back and teach her more.

Sorry I forgot to say this in the last email, I could use some facewash and normal moisturizer sometime in the next month or so? Sister McGregor isn't doing so great. She's been in the hospital. She's the 2nd counselor's wife who is going through chemo and radiation. It breaks my heart and I wish there was something we could do. She is such a wonderful woman. Well, that's the update of my week.

From Miranda's email I had some pretty entertaining imagery of your canoe trip. I wish I could've been there. Our branch president is taking 9 people up to the boundary waters next week, and I wish I could go! How fun would that be? Maybe someday...

Mom I am sure your lesson was fine. Have confidence in yourself. When you believe in yourself it goes better. You have taught some awesome lessons and I remember how you talked about how much you enjoyed them. Never admit to the audience that you feel uncomfortable, nervous, unprepared, or worried. Stand tall and proud, smile and just go for it. The teacher is the Spirit, you are simply the instrument. :D

As for dad crying...I swear the older I get the more I cry...and the more grey hairs I get! I can't believe I'm 21 and already pulling grey hairs out of my head. I'm just gonna blame that one on dad, considering he has the greyest hair of the family...

Well, that's all. Have a great week! I love you. I hope all is well! Keep smiling!

Love Sister Randall!

Monday, June 27, 2011

2011-06-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

Como estas? Ok, I really haven't learned any Spanish this past week, but I've started speaking Spanglish with the little Spanish that I do know. My companion, Sister Hart is on her last transfer and was switched to English speaking. So, we don't have language study. Sister Hart's brother actually was in the same district as Sam in the MTC. It's a small world.

Saying goodbye to Sister Stokes wasn't easy. I'll miss her, but she promised to keep the boys away from Miranda while she is at school! Good to know I have someone I can trust to take care of my little sister (while she is away from home). Sister Hart is a very hard worker and has a strong testimony of the gospel. We have spent many hours tracting together already and have taught some lessons. We will have a good 6 weeks together. And then the goodbye process starts all over again.

President Clements gets in on Wednesday. We said goodbye to the Howell's last night. It will be an interesting transition.
I met the brother of one of Alissa's friends. I believe her name was Kira? I spelled that wrong. They lived in Lincoln like 15 years ago. She is married and has a couple kids. I can't remember the name of Kira's brother. So much to remember as a missionary and only the really important stuff sticks. It has shocked me how much I forget.
I also met Dana Gibson, or Sister Gibson last night! I was so excited to finally meet her after hearing so many stories about her in AZ. Hopefully we can be companions someday.

So the other day we decided to tract Hershey Street. We thought it sounded pretty "sweet". Well, it was definitely NOT sweet. I do not think I have had so many people be so rude on one street. We may have given out one pass along card out of 15 houses? It was pretty ridiculous. Then one of the last houses, we rang the doorbell and we started hearing what at first we thought were gunshots. IT WAS SOOOO LOUD. But, we then concluded that it was fireworks in some sort of pot or something. It was in their backyard. I don't know if it had to do with us being there or if we just had incredibly bad timing. We finished the street and took an early dinner before going and doing some more tracting.

Throughout the mission we are seeing miracles. We only need one more baptism this week and then we will reach our 60. The people us as missionaries have thought less likely than others to accept baptism have been coming out and asking us when they can be baptized. It's so awesome. We are going to get it! The Lord provides people who are ready when we strive to set His goals and then work diligently toward them. He is definitely blessing this mission.

We have several lessons to teach this week (to investigators). Remember my first week here and we had NO investigators to teach? Well, we have a referral we are teaching this week, plus a recent convert's roommate, also hopefully Taylor, who we set a date with, but he has been scheduled to work and so that date will not work. Kipp is still doing awesome. He has a great understanding and is committing to live the gospel. It's awesome to watch him grow. :)

Well, I will attatch some pictures. I hope you enjoy. I hope you have a great week. Remember I love you and pray for you. It's good to hear from you all!
Keep smiling!
Sister Randall

PS, the skies here are GORGEOUS! The ones of the sunset are taken from our church parking lot. :D

Monday, June 20, 2011

2011-06-27T13:38:00.000-06:00

Message flagged

Well, this is my last few days with Sister Stokes :( I drop her off at the mission home on Wednesday and I will probably bawl! She is so awesome and I have loved serving with her and have learned so much from her. She is so good at loving EVERYONE, no exceptions. My new companion is Sister Hart. She is actually a Spanish sister, but we have an odd number of English and an odd number of Spanish. This will be her last transfer, so I'll be sending another one home. Since she is Spanish that means we will have an extra hour of study in the morning. So we will have 1hr Personal, 1hr Companion, 1hr Language Study. So I will either start to learn Spanish or just do more personal study.

This past week has been HUMID and cloudy. We've had a couple thunderstorms (which I absolutely love! We don't get those in AZ, I missed them!) We have biked some, but can't bike after today because we are taking Sister Stokes bike to the mission home to get shipped home. Biking is just so much fun :D As for missionary work, it was a bad week for getting ahold of our Recent Converts and Less Actives, BUT! We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates! :D Kipp is still doing awesome! He called us before our lesson on Saturday and said, "I'm going to be late, because my mom was asking about momon-y things and I thought that was more important." He's funny. We also got a referral from the Apple Valley Elders who contacted a young man on the street, his name is Taylor. They taught him once, then took us over the 2nd time and he is now our investigator and we invited him to be baptized while we were there for the 2nd lesson. He accepted and is super excited to be baptized. Now we just have to get his job to give him Sundays off.

Yesterday Sister Stokes and I both spoke in Sacrament meeting. It was a bit emotional as she has spent about 6 months in the branch. Everyone is going to miss her. What else is exciting? Well, there really isn't too much going on. We are trying to find service opportunities. We have a few potential investigators that we need to contact this week. We went and helped Andrew Bacon with a house that he is fixing up in exchange for a place to live. He had his friend Chelsea there and she is AWESOME (not to mention she's from Nebraska...) Sister Stokes and I both connected with her very well and we hope to be able to teach her. She is out of town until July 9th...can you believe it's almost July!? Crazy. And by the time this next transfer is over, it will be August. Time is flying by. I just can't believe it.

The Howell's fly home the 29th and will be giving their homecoming talks in 2 different wards in Utah. They are going to be missed, but we look forward to meeting President and Sister Clements. I am going to miss the Howell's down syndrome daughter. She is so sweet and so sensitive to the Spirit. We were at a baptism (where over 100 people attended) and the Howells were there and Loribeth (their daughter) wrinkled up her face trying not to cry and then looked at her mom and held her chest. It was such a sweet thing to watch. Lori Beth also sings for all the new missionaries when they come in. She sings I Am a Child of God and it is one of the sweetest things you can imagine. It's so touching.

Well, we are staying busy and having fun. I don't know if I told you, but our Branch President was going through Chemo and was supposed to have 3 or 4 more treatments, but when they scanned him he was cancer free and is officially in remission and back to working...or should we say flying? His wife also has cancer, not treatable and she is just living life, I can't imagine what it would be like living and just waiting for when this disease overcame you. One of the counselor's wife is also going through chemo and radiation and is really really struggling. It breaks my heart and I have come to love them so much.

Hm, as for the pictures, I can save them to my thumbdrive and print them off at Target or somewhere. I'm glad the kids had fun at Youth Conference. It sounds like a blast. You might need to purchase a gun to keep the boys away from your daughters though... you don't have to buy ammo, they don't have to know it's empty ;)

So remember our goal of 60 baptisms in June? Well, so far we have had 32 baptisms and have 27 date sets left....which if you do the math adds to 59. We are praying for miracles all over the mission. We have already seen so many of people who have just shown up and have already taken the lessons elsewhere, or have been attending for years and finally decided they want to get baptized. I don't know, all I know is that if we keep working hard and trusting in the Lord then we can still reach 60, He will provide.

Well, it's a busy day and we've got to get running, but I love you all. I'm glad work and school and church is going well. Oh, we stopped by the Sanderson's yesterday and I finally re-met them. They say hi and said they follow you on facebook. haha. They talked about having us over for dinner sometime, that would be fun. Mike wasn't to receptive to us showing up, Nick is still active in church though. Hopefully they will come to the activity our branch is having Saturday.

Ok, but now, for real, I love you, have a fabulous week! Work hard, keep a smile on your faces and remember that there is a missionary out here praying for you and that loves you!

Love,
Sister Randall :D

June 13

2011-06-27T13:35:00.000-06:00

Message flagged

Monday, June 13, 2011 12:37 PM

Message body

Thanks for the pictures! I enjoyed them. I can't believe that my little siblings are teenagers!! And they are starting to look it too! Crazy crazy crazy. It seems that you are all doing well and are happy :)

Well it's been a super fast week. It was a bad week for our contacting numbers. Monday we had a meeting and FHE, Tuesday we had pday and dinner with one of our members and his family. His mom is in the Stake Relief Society and helped us go through our list of singles in the Stake. That pretty much took up the night. Sister Stokes was sick for 3 days this week, so we were home and I spent a lot of time calling the elders of different areas to talk to them about the singles in their areas. There are 110 Young Single Adults in the Mankato area and 13 are active. We talked with the elders and they said that it's a college town and a lot of singles come in for school, get their records in and then disappear. So most of them aren't even in the area anymore, but we have no idea where they are. They need their own singles ward in Mankato with missionaries who can deal with that. It's about an hour away from here. Even though Sister Stokes was still not feeling well Saturday morning we went to do service for the company one of our members work for. They were opening at a new location and needed help getting everything painted and set up. So we spent a couple hours there Saturday and a couple more this morning. Saturday night we had a lesson with our investigator Kipp aaaand he is getting baptized on July 16th!!! :D I am so excited. He has been coming to church for over a year and had taken some lessons in Mankato, and now he has finally decided that he should get baptized! :D That was a very exciting evening! On Sunday, church started out normal. We were up in the choir singing when in walked one of the LA's we had talked to a couple weeks before!! And then in came another LA who we have spent the last 5 weeks trying to get ahold of! And then there were like 4 new faces from other wards! And then there were some more LA's and then there were 3 non members! There were so many people in Sacrament meeting. I nearly cried. It was absolutely amazing! :D

So, today I got a chiropractic adjustment! My hip has been really sore and also affecting my knee. There is a member here who does free missionary adjustments. He also was able to show me some stretches to help keep my hip from popping out and to get it to stop popping! It was super exciting :D

Hmm, what else has been going on? Sister Stokes goes home a week from Wednesday. I'm so anxious to find out who my new companion is going to be but I'm so sad to see sister Stokes leave. She is so awesome :) I went to the doctor for prescriptions for my inhaler. They had me rate like 4 or 5 different aspects to my asthma and if it was 19 or below your asthma was uncontrolled. Mine was 17. But, that's part of the reason I was there in the first place. He gave me two options. One of them had the possibility of making my asthma worse than it already is, so I steered clear of that one. The other one is FloVent. I take it morning and night. It's another inhaler and I take one puff in the morning and one puff at night. Downfall is that it takes 1-2 weeks to actually work. So hopefully it will decrease my use of my inhaler. Nice thing is that it will last me 4 months and was cheaper than my albuterol.

The thing about the 60+ baptisms is that that is throughout Minnesota. We have 200 missionaries here, so in 200 different areas we have 69 planned baptisms. The ideal is for every area to be baptizing once a month. But I know what you mean about LA's. It's overwhelming and there are sooooo many of them who don't really understand what it meant for them to be baptized. We have a couple of those we are working with and a couple who are super solid and completely understand the commitment they have made.

I'm glad Eva is up and running. The poor computer. Take good care of her, she's my baby ;) Keep practicing the piano everyone!! I wish I was better than I am. I should have taken piano lessons at BYU-I despite the extra costs.

How is dad's job going? How is the Relief Society? I'm glad your class isn't as bad as you thought it would be! Don't stress out! You seem to be doing a great job, just like always, at keeping busy! There is a never ending list of things to get done! So, that pretty much covers everything! Things are going great, the mission is about to go through a transition phase and I'm gonna find out who my new companion will be in a week!

I hope everything is going great! Sorry I missed your anniversary. I new it was in June...but I didn't know what day...so happy late anniversary! You are a quarter of the way to 100 years together and on your way to eternity! :D I love you all! Have a great week and I will talk to you next week!

Love ya!
Sister Randall :)

June 7

2011-06-07T10:21:00.002-06:00

Hey Family!
Sorry I'm a day late! We found out Friday or Saturday that we were having one last training with President Howell on Monday. So, Pday got moved again! President and Sister Howell leave for home in just a few weeks. Our new mission president will be here the same day the Howell's leave (whichever day that is). I'm excited to meet President and Sister Clements. Sister Stokes goes to the Mission Home the 22nd and I find out who my new companion will be June 20th! I'm nervous! Did I mention that I kind of know one of the new missionaries coming in this transfer? She is one of my friends sister and other friends friend. I never actually met her, just heard stories! How cool would that be if I ended up training her!?

So across the mission we have been aiming for 60 baptisms this month. We had 9 baptisms this past weekend, and have 69 more "solid" scheduled baptisms for the rest of the month! Let's pray they all go through! How awesome would that be? Pres. and Sis Howell are really stressing that we work hard to not "take a dip" with the hand off to Pres and Sis Clements. Most generally missions will dip in statistics when there is a change, so we are hoping to keep going strong and are able to keep our statistics stable. We have worked hard to get to where we are now.

Well, through all of our hard work, diligence, and faith we have had some blessings this past weekend! One of our members asked her boyfriend to take the lessons (again). He had been away at school and had taken lessons from the Elders, but never really progressed. So, he agreed and we taught him Saturday. He can only meet once a week, so it will slow the progression down, but Sister Stokes and I both feel that he will be baptized. His name is Kipp :) Then, on Sunday we were out tracting and found a 27 year old single (which is rare to find in tracting) who first told us he wasn't interested but then we kept talking, he opened up, talked about all these changes he wants in his life and I wanted to badly to just teach him everything then and there. Buut, we are going back Wednesday! So, in two days we got two investigators!!! We are super excited about that!

We have kept busy with finding and trying to get in with our members. We have been working on perfecting what we call a "Chapel Tour" It is a very spiritual lesson that we do in the church and we teach the Restoration. But we use pictures, The Restoration movie, and other visuals to help people see and understand why it's so important that we have the proper authority on the Earth. We first showed our branch presidency and hope to get all of our members to experience it. We hope that when we do it for the 4th time on Saturday that all the kinks will be worked out and that Kipp will really get a lot out of it. We took his girlfriend and her sisters through yesterday and they really enjoyed it and so now she is prepared to share her testimony of the gospel :) We are definitely excited for Saturday!

Hmm, that about covers it.Our branch president's wife finally let us do service for her. We went and helped her garden. Yes, mom and dad, I actually worked in the garden. :P We have biked a couple times. One day we needed to bike all day because we needed the miles saved for another day and it ended up being the most humid day yet! I think we probably biked a total of 10 miles that day. I just love biking! I got a sunburn, nothing too bad, but none the less I got some color! I'll send a couple pictures, one of us after biking to the neighborhood we were going to tract, another of the burn and one of us when we went to stop by a less active who has a beautiful lake in the area (we drove that day). :D By the way, I'm still looking forward to being able to take up biking when I get home...to finally bike in something other than a skirt! ;) I just love biking :D

Anything else? My branch president in AZ is getting released...I knew it was gonna happen though. I have several friends waiting for mission calls! I'm excited to hear where they are going! Cool. That's all I've got!

How are things at home? Good luck with your class mom! That sounds intense and I'm grateful that I've had some time off of school! Yes, Miranda can fix Eva and use her. I don't remember what all is saved on the hard drive, but I'm pretty sure it can all be deleted. (There will be pictures of Curtis and I..you can delete them.) And CONGRATS ON FINISHING PERSONAL PROGRESS! :D Do you know what apartment number you will be living in yet?

Good luck with uniting your members. Maybe working with the missionaries will help. They might have some ideas. One of the ideas used here to help members unite is a 40 day fast. Each member takes a day of the 40 and fast for your specific cause. So for missionaries, we have them fast for missionary opportunities. In your case, it might be for charity, unity...etc. It sounds pretty cool :)

Is inventory for Mr. Farmer over? Enjoying the dirt and everything? Sister Stokes LOVES to garden and do landscaping--of course she did grow up working on a ranch and she wants to go into landscaping/horticulture... She is gonna be one of my friends forever. I told her that she could landscape my yard and in return I will do whatever I end up going into for her...too bad I don't know so I can't make an appealing deal ;)

What are you doing to the basement? Tell Charity congrats and that I love her! And tell Koltn congrats and I am SUPER excited for him. This is one of the best experiences ever! He should also probably email me, I would enjoy that! (Grandma Burbank, could you tell him that for me? I would appreciate that much!)

Well, I love you lots! I hope all is still going well! I love you. Keep smiling and working hard! I love you aaaand well, I love you.

Love your favorite sister/daughter/cousin/granddaughter ,
Sister Randall

June 2

2011-06-07T10:20:00.000-06:00

Hey family!!
I'm glad the trip to Ohio went well, sorry you didn't have as much fun as you had hoped to on your cruise! Let me tell you what! Pdays are an inspired day for missionaries. Without a pday I don't think many missionaries would last long. It's been SO long since last pday and I feel like I've lost my mind! I forget words and stutter and mix letters up all the time! Man, I'm going crazy! :S But, the wait was well worth it so that we could go to the temple. I love the peace that can be felt there. It breaks my heart to meet those who have been there and have turned away from the Lord.

So, what has happened since I last emailed? We have tracted a lot. Sister Stokes and I taught Sunday School this past week and we talked about personal mission plans. Thanks to Sister Akenson sharing her experience of wishing she had shared the gospel sooner the Spirit was strong and the branch received some awesome promises. it's up to them now to act. We are still looking for ideas of what more we can do to strengthen the branch. Sister Stokes and I came to the realization that we wouldn't be here in this area if no one was prepared. But we also realize that the Lord is not going to bring them in if the branch cannot retain their members. We can't even get active YSAs to stay in the branch! Why would a nonmember want to join? So, if you have any suggestions of what more we can do to strengthen the branch, they would be greatly appreciated. We are running out of ideas.
Yesterday morning I had gotten a little sick, so while Sister Stokes was eating lunch I laid down to take a nap. Well, the phone rang when I was almost asleep, so i answered it. It was a man who had wanted to know more about what we were sharing! I was excited but half asleep and he was acting weird and when I tried to get his address he wanted to just talk on the phone, so I asked him what questions he had. He asked "What are mormons?" I was confused at the broadness of the question (plus i wasn't completely awake) so I found Sister Stokes and told him to talk to her. Quickly he changed 'character' and started asking about polygamy and told us we weren't the "real" mormons if we didn't practice polygamy. He then wanted us to come over and "teach" him...except he really didn't want us to teach and he was very forward about that. Thankfully sister stokes handled it very well, offered to have the elders come over, he said no and finally gave up trying to convince us to come over and hung up. I was DISGUSTED. That was a rough start to the day. Our next appointment fell through and we went out tracting. Thankfully our appointment rescheduled for later though. We went back (this is one of the first lessons to go through since he was baptized) and we had our branch president with us. We worked through a lot of hold ups and it was very productive. We also got a referral!!!! Yay for YSAs!!! We will contact her today, hopefully. In all honesty it has been a tough 6 weeks. And until the branch starts becoming stronger and more unified, it could continue to be that way. We set a goal for our branch while we were teaching to have one baptism by the end of the month. I hope we can reach that goal. We have some AWESOME people in the branch who will really be the start of this growth. One sister just returned home from the Mesa Visitors Center mission (With Emily) and I had actually talked to her a couple times while I was in AZ! How awesome, right!? She is incredible. With her help and a few others in the branch we hope to see improvement!

We had Thursday night visits last week, and they went really well :D We are going out again tonight and we hope to get in with several of those we have planned. Wow, what else is going on? We spend a lot of time trying to find new ideas to help the branch. We want to serve our branch presidency, but they don't let us, they just tell us to focus on the work. Good news, our branch president doesn't have to get his last few sets of chemo! He is in remission for an estimate of 6 months. We are hoping for longer. Him and his wife have the same type of cancer, but hers isn't treatable :( One of the other counselor's wife has cancer too. It's really hard on them, but they still work hard to serve.

We have 3 English Sisters coming in this next transfer! and we have two that are leaving. One of the 3 is my friend Stephanie's (from AZ) best friend, and my friend Matt's sister. I never met her but I heard lots of stories about her! i also go the news that Stephanie is filling out her mission papers!!!! That is SO exciting. It's the best experience ever! I am learning so much. Have you ever realized how amazing the bible is? Man, it's incredible! Acts is AWESOME and has a lot of scriptures talking about authority. One of my favorite thing to do with people who are set in their ways and refuse to change is talk about the plan of Salvation and how there is a Spirit World. They claim that the bible doesn't talk about it, but then we like to show them the scripture about Christ preaching to those in Prison who had lived at the time of Noah. Then they get confused and decide to go talk to their preacher. I don't know what good will come of it, but it's always good to question what you are taught. At the end of any conversation i love to invite people to think about what we have discussed and then pray about it. There are countless scriptures in the bible that tell us that God will answer our prayers. So, it's awesome. I love tracting. I love talking to people :D

So, Miranda. Do you know which apartment you will be in in Baranessa? My comp, sister Stokes will be there in the fall and living in Royal Crest which is right across the parking lot. I asked her to take care of you and to chase off any boys that want to marry you within the first semester ;) Sister Stokes is awesome and i do expect you both to meet each other. Her first name, for your future convenience, is Mary. She is such an awesome person!! I can't believe she goes home in 3 weeks :( I'm nervous! I'm a little nervous that I will train, but I know if i do, then the Lord knows what he is doing and i will just have to trust him. I feel comfortable in tracting and having member and less active lessons, but I've had little experience with investigators since I left Oakdale. And in Oakdale, Sister Sorensen did most of the teaching. AHH we want investigators soooooo bad! Even if they don't get baptized in June, we want to teach!!!!! It can be frustrating sometimes, because we are called to teach and baptize and we can't baptize if we don't have investigators. But, we are working hard to stay positive. All in the Lord's time!

Sorry, I'm so scattered. I really don't know what has all happened. We stay busy. We work hard. We have fun. We love what we do! Our district is awesome! Elder Flores is a convert and is an older missionary and he is so funny. His companion is 22 and he's pretty funny too. So anytime we are with the district we have fun. We have 10 pm prayer with our district almost every night over the phone, and they are always entertaining phone calls. Our elders are such hard workers and i have a lot of respect for them!

Anyway, that's about all. Sorry I didn't mention the tornado, I just assumed you knew. We almost had another one, but closer this time. It would have actually been within our stake. One almost touched down in New Prague, but we had actually left the area to visit LA's who had recently moved out of the Stake but kept their records in our branch. So we missed that storm and the hail. It was nice and sunny when we received the text from the Zone leaders saying "everyone get inside and call us when you get there!" We were like, uhhhh why?. haha. But, we stay safe. We try to be smart about it. It was actually a cool story. Elder Flores and Dillard (the new prague elders) were actually teaching an important lesson trying to set a date when the sirens went off. They said they were praying in their hearts so hard, because they really wanted to set a date. And the tornado never came! Sweet. The Lord protects his faithful servants and assists them in His work. It's awesome. We have seen many miracles this past few weeks throughout the mission. We ended up with like 113 date sets for the month of June! How awesome!? The number ended up dropping to about 103, but still! We are still praying that we can reach 60 baptisms in June! I guess Hawaii had 102 baptisms last month!!! How awesome would that be if we could do that in every mission every month? It definitely requires the work of the members! The goal is to continually double baptisms :D It's an incredible work to be involved with.

Anyways, I've got to get on to emailing President. I'm not sure what I'll say to him either. But, that's ok. I love you all! :D have a great few days! I'll email again on Monday! Stay strong and keep smiling!

Love ya lots!
Sister Randall

5/24/11

2011-05-24T08:20:00.000-06:00

Sorry to all Adrianna's followers who have been wondering about her.
We will try to do better : )

Thanks for all the support you give to her as you can see she is a great missionary and her love of the gospel shows in her letters. We are proud of her!!

Darin and Paula

5/23/2011

2011-05-24T08:14:00.002-06:00

Hey family!!
How are you all doing? I hear the blog isn't being updated? Those poor poor people who don't know how I'm doing ;) Haha, just kidding. I'm not too worried about it! Man, I am in such a giddy mood right now, but let's start at the beginning of the week!
It has been a tough tough week. Tuesday was great! We had our last zone conference with the Howell's. They go home at the end of June. The Spirit is so strong and we are always so excited to work after zone conferences. We went out and talked to 30 people that night and had 10 QGC's (Quality Gospel Conversations) by using the suggestions from zone conference! It was awesome. But, we still had no potentials :( (Background on our investigators, the one we have had has been too busy to meet and flies home, so we have to drop her :( and the other one, we have finally come to the conclusion that he is not accountable for his actions and will not need to be baptized, so we lose our only other one, so we are back at 0) We have been working hard on getting our two programs up and running, there is a lot of technical and organizational work that has to be done before you can get something running. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent on the computer this week typing up names and sheets and things to glue on the back of our pass along cards and all that good stuff. After Tuesday the week went pretty downhill and the work was pretty discouraging. We did everything we could to keep our hope up. It's been hard because this next week is "Set a date" week in the mission in preparation for our 60 baptisms in June. We want to be a part of that SOOOOOOOO bad! So, we are out searching for YSA's but, have yet to find any. We got a couple referrals on Thursday. We had a good feeling about going to see them so we stopped by them on Saturday. The first one, her dad said that she wouldn't be interested (man, why must parents make decisions for their children?). The next one, isn't technically a YSA but is divorced with 4 kids that she home schools and the elders felt she would be more receptive to sisters. So we went by...and the timing was interesting to say the least. We knocked on the door and this woman came out, we asked if she was Roxy, she said no and called Roxy out. As soon as Roxy got to the door this woman, who's name is Michelle started chewing us out about Joseph Smith and about how everything we have ever been taught is a lie. We stood there and listened, until I got tired of listening to her and interrupted her to find out if she had read the BoM. Sadly, she said yes. So, next we just testified of truth and that the only true way to know truth is through prayer. Only God can let us know truth. She left to go to a wedding and we spent 1 1/2 hours talking to Roxy. She wasn't very receptive but now has some questions about the bible talking about Christ preaching to the Spirits in Prison. Aaand she's gonna ask her pastor :( Somewhere in the middle of our conversation though, she went in to find her bible, and while she was inside one of her sons came out. His name is Gabe and he is 6. As we walked toward us I said hi and asked his name. When he saw me though he sort of looked surprised and he said: "I know you! You look very familiar." Then he looked at Sister Stokes and said the same thing. Sister Stokes and I looked at each other and we knew that it wasn't just a random thing that he "knew" us. I wish Roxy would have been there at that moment, but that was inspiration for Sister Stokes and I not to give up on her. So, we will be going back to offer service, hopefully in time that will lead to her softening her heart and wanting to know more. All in all that visit was very frustrating and that feeling remained with us up into Sunday morning.

I have never realized how stressful ward council can be! But I have never realized how AMAZING church is. By the time announcements were done in Sacrament meeting I was feeling much happier and less stressed. (It is so tough to get these programs running! But we are almost there!) Church always leaves me feeling happy and energized. So we had dinner after church, then went out to tract. We ended up on the street we had planned, and of course I needed to go to the bathroom, so we decided to stick with only one of the circles we had planned. The third house we came to, a man opened the door. His name is Philip. He came out and told us that he had just talked to our "friends", the missionaries in Apple Valley, while he was out on a walk. He proceeded to tell us what they had told him and how it made sense to him. He also had a dentist in California who was mormon and had given him a BoM. We talked for a bit and he stated that he was raised Catholic, but he didn't feel that they had the truth and he has been searching ever since. I felt prompted to relate his experience to Joseph Smith. So I shared the very basic story of Joseph Smith and Christ restoring the fullness of the truth through him. He stopped me mid sentence and held his arm out toward us, pointing and said "look." I was confused but then I saw the hairs were raised on his arm. He had goosebumps. He knew that what we were saying was true. We continued on our conversation and eventually he told us his youngest sibling had died in a car accident and, after Sister Stokes shared a story about how and when she found out the BoM was true (involving the death of her grandma) he said that his dad was dead, and sometimes he still talks to him. The Plan of Salvation didn't come up in conversation, but I wanted him to know about it. So, we gave him a BoM and Plan of Salvation pamphlet. When he turned to go inside his wife had walked by and shut the door and locked it, not realizing he was outside. haha, he joked about coming with us to tract the neighborhood, and then we left to finish the circle. After we walked away from each house he would come back to the middle and talk to us for a couple more minutes. We let him use our phone to call inside a couple times and by the last time we talked to him he had read the first page of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet which talks about pre earth life. He said he liked that idea. He is such an awesome awesome man! (And yes, he finally got inside). As soon as we got in the car we called the Elders to give him his address and phone number. It was such a miracle and I really hope he gets baptized. Even though we still have 0 investigators, it was an incredible experience! :D Oh I just love it! It's moments like that that make a rough week like this completely and totally worth it!

This work is hard, but it is the most incredible and most fulfilling work I have ever done in my life. So, the programs we have been working on are in the works. We are trying to encourage our members to read the Doctrine of Christ. (2 Ne 31:2-22; Alma 5:7-15; Alma 7:11-16; 3 Ne 9:20-22; 3 Ne 11:31-41; 3 Ne27:13-22; Matthew 3:13-17; Matthew 28:18-20) These scriptures have been a miracle to the mission! It has changed the way we, as missionaries, think, act, and approach our work. It is incredible how much understanding the very basics can change your attitude and understanding of everything else! Understanding the DoC (Doctrine of Christ) has really increased my understanding of the Atonement. The gospel rests on the Atonement. Without the atonement we have no faith. And faith is the very first principle in the Doctrine of Christ and leads to repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. They all work together to build the gospel. Those things are what we need and must understand in order to be truly converted to Christ's church. It's awesome. I suggest studying it at least as a family, if not trying to bring it into the ward as well. Our next step is helping members feel comfortable inviting friends to activities, church, and dinner with the missionaries. They all have invited friends to church before, the have 1 Sunday each quarter that they dedicate to inviting friends. So now, to get 1+ going, they need to bring their friends to our dinner appointments. We know that if they will start doing that, then the branch has the potential to become a ward (which is saying a lot, because they are at the scary edge of almost being dissolved for the lack of priesthood holders). Next, we have started our Thursday night visits, the Branch Presidency doesn't quite get it. They want us to be able to set up appointments with everyone so we KNOW we are getting in, instead of stopping by 3 people and not talking to any of them. But, it doesn't work that way in missionary work. We get stood up all the time, and the reason we must drop by people is because that is our best bet of making contact with them. So, we are trying to get those up and running and hopefully they will be successful at fellowshipping others and inviting them to the branch!

Man, I just keep going on and on and on and on. Things are awesome! I am glad that the girls camp garage sale went well! That sounds like it was fun, yet stressful. Mom, I hope you are feeling better. Thanks for forwarding Josh and Deanne's email! I am so excited that they can finally have a kid :D Adoption is such a miracle and I'm grateful that the Lord put me in the right places to be able to help in a very small way with that. :D I am extremely jealous that you are going to Kirtland! I wanna go! But in the words of my amazing companion, "Yeah, but you are doing something so much more amazing!" Which is true, so I hope you aren't jealous or anything ;) Are you gonna see Michael and Paola? Tell everyone hi and that I love them! Ok, well that's everything. Sort of. But I really have to write my mission president! ahhhh I wish I could just convey everything going on! I love being in a position to see so many miracles take place!!!!

Have fun at Kirtland! take pictures for me! I'm gonna attach pictures from here in Northfield, I don't think I've sent any yet. Maybe I did? I dunno, I'm attaching pics though. Love you all!

Love,
sister Randall

(The First few are from Minneapolis (Dinky Town) we went to the sculpture gardens with a couple girls from the branch. Stephanie is AWESOME she was baptized teh day before I moved to Dinky Town. Jen was baptized a little over a year ago. The next one is a view from my bedroom window in lakeville and then one of sister stokes and i as we were in the car waiting for the elders to bring us the key to the church....it was pouring that day.)
Oh and we tracted in the rain the other day, it was awesome. We taught a lesson to an older man who accepted a book of mormon and he seemed pretty cool. It was sweet! As for the tornados, hope you weren't worried. They happened in Minneapolis, we had nothing but pouring rain south of the cities! So, we are safe! Love you!

5/16/2011

2011-05-24T08:13:00.000-06:00

Hey family!
Well, technically we live in Lakeville. We live with the Lockett family. They have 2 daughters, 1 son, and a dog. We live in their basement. They are super nice and love having the sisters live with them! They missed having the missionaries in their basement during the 6 weeks that they were gone. The kids love having us there and it's fun to be in a family situation :D

Last night was President's Fireside, which if I haven't explained before is when recent converts share their conversion story and testimony. It's so awesome. I was privileged to play the piano! Brother Red Anderson spoke (from Oakdale) and I got to see Sister Sorensen! She told me that Bobbie Smith (the less active I told you about) has realized that she has been feeling the Spirit and everything we, as missionaries, have said is true!!! She hasn't come to church yet, but Sister Sorensen promised to call me when she came. That made me so happy! Moses got a job!! And his wife came to church! So did a couple other of our investigators who we had been working on for a long long time! So exciting!!

In the Northfield Singles Branch we cover the entire stake! We have no campuses or places to find singles so it's been a difficult week. There are 2 colleges in Northfield, but they are both Lutheran colleges and we aren't allowed on campus. I talked to the Sanderson's on Saturday! She sounds like she is doing well. She said that the last thing mom said to her was "You better write or I'll be mad" She feels bad about that. We are trying to get two different programs running in the branch. The first is called 1+. We were going to do that in Dinky Town, but we didn't have time. What it is, is having the members sign up for a lesson or a dinner and then bringing a friend along. Campuses in the Dakotas, Colorado and Wyoming are all running this program and are baptizing EVERY week. We aren't a campus, but we could certainly boost our numbers here! I was looking at the baptismal records for the last year and EVERY SINGLE BAPTISM in the past year was a member referral! And before that they hadn't had a baptism since 2008. The other program is actually something we did in AZ. We called it Wednesday night visits, but we are going to call it Outreach. It will be Thursday nights and we will have members meet at the church, then we will split into groups and go out on predetermined routes to visit single adults in the stake. (there are over 500 YSA in the Stake and over 400 are Less active). So we will visit active, less active, and new high school graduates to extend invites to the branch and activities, and to fellowship our fellow YSAs! If we can get these going and get the members excited, we will have miracles happen. The key is getting people excited to do it! Things are going well though. We have 5 weeks until Sister Stokes goes to the mission home to prepare for her flight home! Hopefully 5 weeks is enough to get things moving! We really want one or two baptisms in June, so lots of prayers for those goals would be appreciated. Our mission is shooting for 60 baptisms that month and we want to be a part of it!!

Well, that's really all that's going on. I think. I feel like tons has happened, but there really hasn't been. Oh, our backyard is GOREGEOUS. It's a beautiful green lawn that leads up to a lake (cuz there are tons of them in MN). It's SOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful. We are so blessed to live in a members home. Anyway. That's how things are going.

I enjoyed the pictures. Austin is certainly changing the most. I can't believe it! He's growing up! Next thing I know he's gonna be taking girls on dates and holding their hands! (ew...that's so weird to think about.) Just as long as he keeps his eyes on a mission, he can go on a few dates...I guess. Congrats on the graduation Miranda! I hope you got my card. I'm proud of you and I am excited for your future! Shae, good job on completing track! Keep working hard! You are growing up too and it's SO scary. Let me know about news on Josh and Deanne. I'm so anxious. I don't know why, but this is so exciting for me and every time I talk about it, I get emotional and teary eyed. So, let me know! It would be nice if somehow you could tell someone in MN that could tell me. I think my friend and a Recent Convert in Dinky Town was gonna add at least Miranda on facebook...so if she did tell her to text me and tell me! Her name is Stephanie Svobada. She is awesome! Her brother and sister-in-law are NOT supportive, but her parents are at least not mad about it. She is an awesome awesome person and we will probably be friends for a long time! Anyway. I love you all! I've got to write a couple more emails! Keep smiling, have fun with work/school/church etc. Go out and have some fun!!

LOVE YOU!
Sister Randall

5/9/2011

2011-05-24T08:11:00.000-06:00

Hey family!! It was awesome talking to you! I forgot how funny you all are! I just loved it! I'm glad everyone got their beautiful artwork. I felt like a 2 year old again :)

I'm glad my voice conveyed that I love what I am doing! Because I do! My companion, Sister Stokes is awesome, and I'm glad I can be with her before she goes home in 6 1/2 weeks! I'm gonna miss her (and I've only known her for like 2 weeks!) As for taking lessons from me...it has taken me years to get to where I am. It is a long process, but it is SO worth it. Ask Shae for the advice I gave her on becoming more positive. I had lots to say on the subject.

Tell Koltn congrats. It's weird, my current district leader reminds me so much of Koltn (in a good way) and he is way mature for his age (19). He is an awesome kid. Anyway, thanks for telling me about Josh and Deanne. I hope it goes well and I am excited to hear the outcome and see the pictures! If you talk to them, tell them I send my love to them, Sarah and her family!

It was nice talking to Beki yesterday as well. Sadly, Wesley was asleep. She woke him up but he was a tad bit grouchy and would only say "I don't want to talk!" haha. He is the cutest. He is now READING, WRITING, TALKING (more), and playing SOCCER! How cute. He is a genius boy.

Well, today is busy. Preparing for transfers. We have to get everything out of the apartment since no missionaries are moving into our apartment for awhile. We pack the car and drive to Northfield on Wednesday. It's a singles branch and covers the Burnsville stake. So, tell the Sanderson's I am in the general area! As the single's branch missionaries we cover the whole stake so we will be all over the place. It's awesome. Anyway, I've got to get going to get everything done! I love you all! Thanks for being awesome!!

And sorry for not commenting on the pictures last week!! The pictures I included are of me and sister stokes. One of them is with the nylons on my arms, but you can't tell as well as I had hoped, and we also have a sword randomly in our apartment! Awesome, right? So we took pictures with it! Enjoy! Love you all!

Sister Randall <3

5/2/2011

2011-05-24T08:09:00.002-06:00

It's been another interesting week. Sister X went home, which caused everything to get switched again, since there was an even number of sisters again. Sister Stephenson, who has been in Dinky Town for a long time got sent to Rochester. Sister Stokes Emergency transfered in 3 weeks before me, because her companion was a visa waiter, got her visa and went to her own mission. So, Sister Stokes and I are in Dinky Town together. We get along great and we have been working hard. The area hasn't been doing too great, since Sis. X couldn't really walk much. So, we have one progressing investigator, but she has a kid and will be transferring to the family ward missionaries. We had 11 lessons planned, 6 canceled. 2 were active member lessons, 1 was a recent convert, 1 was a less active, and 1 was an investigator who is a strong, practicing catholic. We got 3 potentials while working on campus. Which is not very many at all. The Elders in our ward get plenty. So, we plan on working really hard again this week. We are going to start a new program called 1+ that has worked for college campuses in Colorado. Those campuses are baptizing every week now! Once we meet with bishop we will get that into action. The semester is ending and everyone is busy with finals (which is a huge reason as to why we have struggled with appointments) but all the students are going home. So, one of the sets of missionaries will leave the area for the summer. We find out next week whether the sisters or the elders leave. Logically the Elders should stay, because they have investigators and they are doing really well. We essentially have nothing going right now. But, President will do what the Lord tells him to do. We assume that if we get sent out, we will just move to Northfield (I think) which is where Sis. Stokes was before her companion got her visa. That area is currently closed. So, we will see what happens. As of right now we are living 3 miles from the institute, in downtown Minneapolis.

Wow, there isn't much to report on. Next week is mother's day!! We usually are done at the institute around 1:30ish, but then we will go out and work for a couple hours. I will call between 3:30 and 4. That way we can have dinner at 5, Sister Stokes will call home at 6 and then we will do our 2 hours of study. Thanks for the number, I think I had mom's cell phone number. Is that the house phone then?

Curious, when is dad's birthday? 3/19/ xxxx I'm gonna need that when I go to the dr's. I need to do that. I've been taking my inhaler a lot. Well, I guess this covers it for now and I will talk to you all on Sunday :D

Love ya lots!
Sister Randall :D

Suprise!!! 4/25/2011

2011-05-24T08:07:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't think I will have enough time to write everything that has happened in the last week. But here is my attempt:
Sister Sorensen did not get her birthday wish of 100 contacts and here is why! I had an interview with president a week and a half ago and ever since I had the feeling that I was gonna end up in Dinky town if not at the end of this transfer then the next one. Well, because of health issues the was an emergency transfer and I am in Dinky Town and Sis. X is in Oakdale. However, she is going home because they can't figure out what is wrong and because she has had promptings that she needs to go home. So sometime in the next couple days she will be going home, and since I'm in a trio, one of the three of us will be going to Oakdale. But, I'm pretty sure it's not me. We should know by tonight. We got the phone call Tuesday night, and I cried. Sis. Sorensen and I were getting along so well, and the work was great! So, Wednesday we met with a couple people, said goodbyes, went to lunch at a member's house who did a surprise "tea party" style lunch for Sis. Sorensen's birthday, it was super cute. Thursday night I came to Dinky Town. Aaand, here I am.

I did get to see Bobbi one last time, and she was doing pretty good, but still refusing to come to church. It was hard to leave our investigators behind! Well, I guess not much really has happened, it's just been a crazy week for me. But it's great!

Send me a picture of the car!! That's crazy! How much was it? Wow, that's intense. :D He's gonna give it to me when I get home, right? ;)
The weather sounds crazy! We haven't had severe weather yet, but we did get snow on Sis. Sorensen's birthday! Today is probably the most beautiful day we have had yet. I would not complained if it stayed this way year round!

Oh I almost forgot!! I saw soo many little miracles happen in the few days before I got transferred! GUESS WHAT I FOUND!! MY CAMERA CORD! Right after lunch on Wednesday I happened to look down and see a cord under the passenger seat of the car, and it was my cord! It was incredible. So yay! My camera works now! I forgot to bring it, but I need to send pictures home. I'm not too worried about getting sent to a small town. Sisters mostly stay in the cities. Dinky Town is the U of M campus, which is in Minneapolis. So, I am in a singles ward, much sooner than I ever planned to be back in one! It's different being around people my age instead of families. I miss the families a bunch.

Here in Dinky Town we have just a couple progressing investigators, but one of my mission goals is to spend at least 2 hrs a day contacting, that way we can build up our teach pool, and keep it constant. Anyway, I don't really know what else to say. Things are just uncertain right now, and until Sister X goes home and one of us gets transferred out, things won't be stable. So yep, that's the mission!

Sounds like things are going great in IL, keep safe! Trust me, I'll be smart with the weather. The last thing I will do is go chase a tornado down! Well, I love you all. Sorry this is scattered. I hope you had a great Easter. We had 2 dinners, I was sooo full! I'm gonna get fat :S But no worries, we are almost out of miles so we will be biking like 12 miles tonight, and will probably bike a lot more now. Anyway, there I go again! Things are going great! :D

Love
Sister Randall

4/17/2011

2011-05-24T08:05:00.000-06:00

Hey family!

It's been another busy week. Sunday was rather disappointing. We were expecting 5 investigators and only 1 came. Which, is still great! Jeremy is preparing for baptism and has set a date for the end of next month. Moses' wife went out of town, last minute and we don't know when she will be back. Sis. Hopper's daughter started having contractions, so she went to be with her daughter. Cynthia and Mike...they just slept in. It just helped me realize that these people MUST commit to the Lord, not to us. When they commit to the Lord, then they will act on those commitments.

I got the Easter package, thanks so much! The shirts will work, but in the future size small would fit better for fabrics that don't shrink at all or very much. I was excited to get it and the facewash came just in time! We are going to Bishop Seilbach's for Easter dinner, he is a very humble, kind, serving and successful man. He has his own business, and he is a pilot and has a plane...yeah, he is well off, but so humble about it. Always serving.

We are on the 3rd week of the transfer. We had interviews with Pres. Howell. He told Sis. Sorensen that she wasn't going anywhere for awhile, but of course the Lord could tell him otherwise. I'm pretty certain that I'll be transferred this next transfer, but who can be certain? If not this transfer than definately the following transfer. I will probably go get Singulair because I am taking my inhaler 3-5 times a day, even without exercise. We have pulled out the bikes a couple times. When I was in Dinky Town we probably rode them 6-7 miles, plus walked all over campus. We had a couple BEAUTIFUL days. Then, on the 15th we woke up to a white backyard. It melted by noon, but we are supposed to have another winter storm this week. Will it ever end? Sister Sorensen should have a white birthday, since her birthday is Wednesday. She wants to contact 100 people on her birthday, we will see what happens.

Well, that's the happenings of the week. I still haven't found my camera cord, I will have to buy one, because the battery is finally dead. I'll be going on exchanges again either this week or the next. I'll be back up in Dinky Town. It is certainly interesting to serve in a singles ward and on a college campus. It is so different.

We have a mission goal to get 60 baptisms in June. We almost reached 50 in January and as a going home present for the Howells we want 60. Elder Hinckley came to the mission last year and told them they could double baptisms. It was around 30 at that point. So, we are all fasting and praying and trying to expand our teaching pool so that we can reach that goal. It would be really cool to set a new standard of 60 baptisms a month. They want us to contact an average of 25/week this week. If the whole mission contacts that average, together we will have talked to 16,000 people in one week. So that's this weeks goal.

I attatched some pictures. I'm using sis. Sorensen's camera. There is one with DJ, he has down syndrome and just had a 2nd surgery on his arm. He broke it really bad before I came out here. He is just the cutest little boy. One is a picture of me for the plaque, finally. And the other is a view of our backyard in the middle of April. Haha. We are blessed to live in paradise! :)

I sent the taxes last week, so I hope everything goes ok with taxes and for the Clarks. I'm glad everything is going well. I've got to write President and respond to some other emails. I love you all! have a great week!

Love,

Sister Randall

4/10/2011

2011-05-24T08:02:00.002-06:00

Hey Family!

Yes, it would have been nice to let you know, buuuut you know the rules about contact with family! So, don't worry if my email doesn't come on Monday, but if you still haven't heard from me the Monday after that...then you can call the mission home and ask.

I will get the tax forms turned in, I will probably send it today, so I hope Beki doesn't get a W-2.

Tonight I am headed to Dinky Town and Sister Xidis is coming to Oakdale. My companion is in charge of exchanges for the sisters, so I'll be traveling around this transfer. I will be in Dinky Town until Wednesday morning. Then Wednesday we have another meeting with SLC about the pilot program. Thursday we have specialed training for our zone with President Howell. It's going to be another busy and interesting week.

Saturday Moses got baptized. It was interesting because we combined with another ward (not to mention stake) who had a 9 year old baptism. But, the important part is that he was baptized and he received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. His wife came to the baptism and at the end Sis. Sorensen saw her crying by the wall. She went up to her and asked her what she was feeling. Her response that she had a "good feeling, in here." Pointing to her chest. Sis. Sorensen told her it was the Holy Ghost comfirming that what had happened here today was truth. (Her name is Sando Matee, but Matee for short) She agreed to come to church the next day and to take the lessons. She didn't show up to church, I guess she woke up late, but Sister Sorensen and Xidis will probably go visit them on Tuesday. I hope she will join too so that they can be sealed in the temple, that would be such a beautiful day!

Speaking of sealings! The Escobar family got sealed Saturday morning. We were excited to be in the session and really know what was said in a temple marriage...well it was great and the Spirit was there, but they did the sealing en espanol! So, I picked up on some words, but I'll just have to wait for an english sealing. They were so beautiful and were just glowing. The Escobar's have 2 sons, and the family all bore their testimony on Sunday. It was such an incredible experience!!

The weather here has been incredible! Yesterday was very muggy until around 4:30 when it suddenly cooled off. We tracted for 3 hours yesterday and had some interesting experiences. We tracted into a man who had attempted to end his life a few weeks ago and was angry with God. He wants God to give him a sign that He really exists, and that sign cannot be a feeling, but God or Christ appearing to him. We had a long talk with him and left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We will stop by again sometime. I hope his heart softens. We also tracted into a man who started criticizing the church. I didn't think I'd ever be able to keep a smile on my face while listening to someone talk like that about Joseph and Brigham. In all honesty it was rather humorous, yet it was sad that his heart was so hard. If only we could have helped him understand things better. It was a successful day!

We are teaching Cynthia and Mike. They were supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't. We also stopped by their neighbors again, Tommy and Lacey. He is interested in learning, so we will go back and teach the restoration soon. Jeremy accepted the invitation to be baptized! We will set a date for probably the middle or end of May. He has a strong desire to change. I don't know if I told you how we met him. An older lady in the ward lives in the same building as him and he is always helping her out and driving her to church and stuff. She invited him to Red Anderson's baptism, and when he heard the name Red he was like "I knew a Red way back in the day..." (back when Brother Anderson used drugs). So, he came to the baptism! He saw the change in Brother Anderson and wanted that in his life too. He felt the Spirit and agreed to meet with us. He's doing great! The two boys are good, I assume. It's a different teaching situation. They want to read the Book of Mormon before we really talk about it, so that they know what's in there. They are putting in a lot of effort before we teach them. They don't want to just accept what we tell them, which is great! It would make such a huge difference in their lives!

The rest of our investigators are doing well also.

It's been a great 4 days since I last emailed you. I'm getting more and more adjusted to missionary life and I feel more like a missionary. It's so hard buying food off 150 for a month. I know it's possible, but if you want to eat healthy, it's hard. The healthier the food, the more expensive it seems to be. I guess missionary life isn't about being healthy? Haha, not to mention that some of the money goes to things for baptisms and other living essentials. oh well, I will survive!

The cheese making class sounds interesting, you'll have to let me know how that goes! What else is new? Sounds like things are going well. Good luck with everything at work, dad. Oh, I think I'll be going to the doctor in about a month or so to get Singulair. So many people have cats plus we will be on bikes a fair amount now that the weather is nice. Since it fights both allergies and asthma, it might would be a good investment. What do you think?

I still haven't found my camera cord :( But, what can ya do? Anyway, I'd better get to writing President Howell. Have an awesome week!

Love your favorite daughter/sister,

Sister Randall!

4/3/2011

2011-05-24T08:00:00.002-06:00

Hey Family!

I hope you weren't too upset not to get an email on Monday. We had a super busy, super incredible weekend. So, today is p-day this week. Conference was amazing, I've never enjoyed conference as much as I did this time. The Spirit was so strong and they talked about so many things that could help our investigators. We are so blessed to have a prophet on the Earth today. So, Monday we went to ZLC (Zone Leader Conference). It was a great ending to a great weekend. That meeting was so spiritual and so full of love. I know that many missionaries received revelation during that meeting, I know Sis. Sorensen and I did. I also was chastised/humbled by the Lord, through the Spirit. I've been frustrated with some situations and I came to realize that instead of being frustrated I need to be finding things that I can do to make the situation more helpful. After that meeting my attitude was sufficiently adjusted and I am happier than I ever remember being.

I really felt like conference had a lot of talks based on Charity. Something that I am always trying to improve on. I've been impressed to find that you can love people that you just meet. When we are at someone's door, or talking to someone on the street, I sometimes realize how much I love them and how much I wish they could have the gospel.

Moses is getting baptized on Saturday! I'm so excited!! It's been an incredible experience. He is still searching for a job, so maybe pray for him? His wife is also super sweet, and we hope that we can teach her too. She's coming to the baptism and church the next day.

We are teaching a new couple, they have 3 kids, I think. They came to Saturday morning session of conference and Jean A Stevens talk really hit Mike. We thought we saw him crying, and last night he told us that it really touched him. He's open and is going to start reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it is true.

We met James and Anthony a couple weeks ago. We were tracting and spent 45 minutes on their doorstep. They are high schoolers, and very into religion. They go to a Christian school. Sunday between sessions of conference they called us and told us that they had been talking about our conversation and wanted to meet up and talk more. So, we taught them yesterday. We talked a lot about the bible and authority, and we kept telling them not to take our word for it. We told them that the only way they could know if it is true is to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. After making reference to the Book of Mormon several times, Anthony said, so if it keeps coming back to the Book of Mormon, why don't we talk about the Book of Mormon? So, we did. James said he was going to read the Book of Mormon, because if it's true, than Mormonism is true. He gets it. So, he is beginning to study. Anthony's dad has met with missionaries before and had 2 Book of Mormons laying around. One is an 1830 edition! It's OLD. Inside one of them he has stapled a piece of paper with a list of places that he thought the BoM and bible contradict. I hope they read it prayerfully not looking for reasons that it's wrong. Because, just like Moroni said, you have to read and pray with real intent. They are cool boys.

Well, the Lord is blessing us here in Oakdale. We work hard and stay busy. We are going to get our bikes out soon and ride them. We just have to do in on a day where we aren't going from East St. Paul to Woodbury and back. I'm excited to get the bikes out. The weather is beautiful right now. It's supposed to get up in between 60 and 65 this week!! Beautiful! :D

Hmm, I think that covers our week. So, I know I keep promising a picture for the plaque...and I would have, but I lost my camera cord :S I'm looking for it. But, I haven't found it yet. I need it!! It charges my battery as well as connects to the computer. And, my camera doesn't run on AA batteries. So, if I can't find it, I will have to have to go to an electronic store and try to replace it. :( I'm sure it will turn up though.

Candy..I love peanut butter chocolate anything :) Just a reminder I need facewash. And, if you do go shopping, short sleeve shirts that don't need undershirts will be good. It's warming up and once it's hot, I'm not going to want tons of clothes on. I was looking at my clothes and I have 4 short sleeve shirts, but all of them need undershirts. I'm still good with what I have for now, but once it gets hot... I will need probably 7-9 shirts that will be comfortable in hot humid weather.

Question about the taxes. Are those last 3 pages just things for me to keep? One is a reprint of one of the sheets, and the others, I assume are for me to keep. I think I only have one book of checks. I'm trying to think of where my box of checks would be. It's either in my cedar chest, or in one of the boxes that I packed my stuff in. I wish I would of thought of that before. Oh, and who is Jen Armstrong? Should I know who that is? :S

I love you all! I'm glad things are going well. Is work going well? Haha, dad, in between sessions Saturday I did something, and then later said something, that made me realize that I am truly your daughter. I couldn't help but laugh. It's funny because when I picture your face, I picture you laughing, your true "that was funny" laugh. It always makes me smile. That picture came to mind during the Sacrament Song one Sunday...not funny. haha, but I couldn't help but giggle a bit. I love you! :D Good luck with sports, work, church, school etc.!

Sister Randall

week 9

2011-05-24T07:58:00.000-06:00

Tell Josh and Deanne congrats from me! I about started crying when I read that! I hope she sticks to it and makes the right decision. She's such a great girl :)

So, I will take a picture this week...we just stay sooo busy. As for checks, I believe i have them. So, how much do I owe? How much is in my bank account? I hate not being able to know what's going on and able to take care of my taxes. It's stressful. I don't have my direct address. If you send it to the mission home it just takes one more day to get to me. Or, call my mission president and explain that you need to get tax information directly to me and he can give it to you.

I have a few requests as well. Can you find out Pama and Brea's addresses? And, I need some facewash pretty soon. Please? Thanks!

Miranda! Congrats on BYU-Idaho! That's exciting. You are lucky to not be there in the winter!!

So, Saturday night Sis. Sorensen and I went to Catholic Mass. It was interesting. Our District leader challenged us all to go to another church to try to understand how our investigators feel coming to our church. It was different.

Wow, I can't think of what happened this week. Bro. Moses Logan is getting baptized on the 9th. We've taught him everything and he has accepted it all. His wife comes home on Tuesday, so we can finally meet her.

We received a referral for a woman named Cynthia and her family. They just moved to our area and her mother joined the church within the last few years. She has seen how it has helped her mom and wants to learn more. Her boyfriend and her will hopefully be getting married, she said she wanted to. We will meet with them this week. We spent a little time speaking with her this past week, and she is excited about it. It would be so wonderful to watch her whole family join the church and be able to get sealed!

Oh, so the first week that I was here we were looking at the map of our area trying to find an area to tract in on Sunday. We both felt impressed to visit a particular street. However, that Sunday was a snow storm and we weren't able to go. Over the next several weeks we went back twice. Each time keeping track of who had and hadn't answered. So, this past week we went back to knock the last 5 doors. When we drove down the road I saw one of the houses and my heart just started beating fast and I felt the Spirit. We started down the road a bit, but when we got there my heart started pounding again. After I rang the doorbell I looked at Sis. S. and told her that. She told me that hers was pouding too and that the Spirit was strong. The man answered the door, we introduced ourselves, he told us he wasn't interested, we gave him a mormon.org card and left. I don't know what is going to happen, but I know that he is the reason we were on that street. In time, he will come to know the truth.

Last week the snow melted (except for the huge piles from the plows) and it was beautifully warm (in the 50's). Then, it snowed again. Ugh. I can't believe you are planting a garden, because here, the ground is still frozen. This week it will get into the 40's. I can't wait for spring!

Today was transfer calls, Sis. Sorensen and I are both staying. However, Sister Sorensen has been asked to do exchanges with all the sisters in the cities. So, I'll be out and about with other people in other places over the next transfer. That will be an interesting experience.

Thanks so much for your love and support. Did I tell you that Eugene and Charlotte sent me a package? It was super cute and I felt so loved! It made me smile. I sent them a thank you card. It was super sweet of them and was a fun surprise. Hm, I feel like there is more to say, but I can't think of what it is. You asked who I write, I think. I email Randall, and sometimes Tonya. Rocio wrote me in the MTC but I didn't have her home address. Emily Beu and I have been writing. I need to find a way to get a couple more addresses. Two of my Arizona friends Reggie Nichols-in South Korea and Marcus Harding in Chile?? maybe. Then, in my hotmail account there should be saved somewhere Torvald's address in Norway. And if not, if you could send him an email and find out what it is? That would be awesome. I want to know how my missionary friends are! I have also gotten letters from other friends and past roommates :) Well, that covers basically what all is going on.

I love you all, I hope you are all enjoying your many activities and projects and what not. You all sound like you are good at staying busy. I love you!!

Sister Randall :D

week 8

2011-05-24T07:39:00.000-06:00

What a crazy hectic week! I didn't hear from you, so I hope all is well. Dad, did you have a good birthday? What did you do? How's work?

The week here started out normal. Thursday was by far the most hectic, crazy, stressful day I've had yet. I didn't ever think about how Satan would work hard to discourage us the week of a baptism, let alone 2 baptisms. Crazy. So Thursday was just insane. Friday was Brother Andersons Baptism!!! We taught the Restoration while they were changing (and got 2 new potential investigators from that baptism!). I tried to quote the 1st vision and the words wouldn't come out. Sis. Sorensen saved me. I was so frustrated with myself and so stressed out that I started to cry after we were done. Just silently. I was soooo sick of not being able to speak. I've never really had that problem before. I know the gospel, I know these things, why won't they come out of my mouth!!!??? Then, a man in our ward came up after and gave us a "compliment" on being able to work so well as a companionship that with just a look at each other, the other one can pick up in the middle of the sentence. I didn't have nice feelings toward him that night. But, all is well, we all say things we shouldn't sometimes.

Just some info on Bro. Anderson: he is a Veteran, a recovered drug addict and alcoholic, has incredible faith (went from atheist to complete and total recoginition of a God). His wife and him are separated but now that he has turned his life around they are dating again. That's her in the pictures, the black woman. She is super sweet and she was impressed by the baptism and wants to know more (one of our potentials!). Our other potential is a guy named Jeremy who gives a woman in our ward rides to church and when she asked him for a ride to "Red" Anderson's baptism he was like...I knew a Red Anderson once... So he came, and it had been him! He told the woman he brought that his heart had been pricked and he wanted to know more! It was awesome

The next day was Katies baptism, it went really well. Her husband isn't big on organized religion, but is allowing her to join and take the kids. I think in time he will come around. He really enjoyed the baptism and was miraculously in a good mood for it! It was great. He's a good guy as well.

Sunday, was a pretty good day. We went to East St. Paul to contact a referral, but couldn't find him. So, we contacted on the streets. Guess what!!! I TAUGHT!! Sis. Sorensen hardly said a word! I DID IT! I had prayed so hard Friday night. I was feeling so discouraged. I wanted to be able to teach!!! And I did!!!! I still need to practice more, but I finally did it!!! :D So, it's been a great weekend.

Moses, well it's been a tough call. His baptism date was the 26th, but we still have a lot to teach him, and we don't want to rush it. We can't do it the next weekend because of general conference. They are supposed to be baptized and as close to the next Sacrament meeting as possible. So it will be April 9th. I don't think he is gonna like that. But, if he's serious and knows it is true, he'll do it. We haven't met his wife, and are a little confused with that situation. He first called her his girlfriend, then later told us they were legally married in Ramsey County. But, from our understanding she's not here legally? So can someone who is not legal, be legally married in the states? So we have to find more information out. It will all work out well though. He has committed and is living his committments. He wants to pay tithing, he is reading and praying and coming to church (without reminders), and is telling other people about it. What more can we ask for? He's great.

We find out about transfers next Monday. I guess there isn't a for sure on 2 transfers. My trainer and an Elder training in Cottage grove both have the transfer jitters. So, I guess we'll find out!

The pictures..could you save them in a folder on the computer for me? I need to buy a thumbdrive to save pictures on. Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of me...so will next week work? Or maybe at Sis. Cooper's I'll have her email you a picture of me? We are going over for lunch. She's super awesome. She's a breast cancer survivor. Anyway, I hope all is well. I love you and keep you in my prayers! :D

Love, Sister Randall

(only 2 pictures are staying loaded...sooo I guess that's all I'm sending. So it's Bro. Anderson and Katie)

I still need to figure out how to get the pictures on here, sorry - Paula

week 7

2011-05-24T07:31:00.002-06:00

Good news!! We have an extremely busy week (like usual). We have 2 baptisms this week. Brother Anderson received his letter of approval from the prophet last week and is getting baptized on Friday! Katie is incredible. she is getting baptized on Saturday. She's 23, has 2 kids and her husband is not interested. She has been smoke free for 11 days now and has spent a lot of time going to the lds bookstore and purchasing pictures and books to help her become a better "mormon mom". She has been reading LDS women and has been trying to improve. She really is incredible and has such an amazing understanding of the gospel. She's so excited. She told us Saturday night that she spent 3 hours reading the scriptures! She hadn't even meant to!

Moses is still awesome. He has had lots of people ask him questions about the church and he tells them that they can meet with the Sisters and ask them. Or "Come to church and learn the truth." Or "you can have my Book of Mormon, I'm sure the Sisters will give me another one." Haha, he asked us, "Is there anyway your church can tell the other churches the truth too!?" We gave him some pass along cards with our number so he can give them to his friends. He is having such a rough time. He has to come up with $1500 to help his cousin with his uncle's funeral. His cousin has to fly back to Liberia. Poor Moses needs a job, but he has such strong faith, it's inspiring to me.

I love living with the Sheffeild's. They are full of knowledge! We go up there when we have questions and they just love to sit down and explain to us. In fact today we went up with a question about the 12 tribes of Israel. We were up there for an hour while he explained it to us. They are incredible people. We learned so much and it made our purpose as missionaries more clear. We are gathering the "elect", for the elect hear the Lord's voice. And, as the Sheffeild's pointed out, the majority of the elect right now are from Ephraim and Mannaseh, whose responsibility is to gather. So, we are gathering the gatherers! It's crazy. The gatherers must first be gathered in order to gather in the rest! And then, when the other 10 tribes are gathered together they will bring family history, which is why we need temples, and as the Old Testament says, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Oh, it's an incredible circle and it all makes sense. At least, it does in my head, this email is short, and probably says very little about what I'm learning.

We have spent so much time teaching and with 3 baptisms in the next 2 weeks, we will have to go to finding. We will eventually spend a lot of time finding. Thankfully the weather is slowly warming up. It's supposed to be in the 50's this week!! However, it warms up a bit, then gets cold, then warms up again, and then gets cold. But, in time it will be hot and humid! I'm excited to get to ride my bike. My body needs more exercise, it feels gross. I wish I had more control over the food going in my stomach! If I come back with 30 more pounds on my body, I think I will cry! I refuse to get fat.

What else is going on...? Wow, there isn't much to say. I am still really struggling with contacting. My mind blanks at the door. I can introduce and ask questions, but I have a hard time going from their response of "I have a church", or "I'm a Christian" etc. and teaching them why they need the gospel in their life. Especially Catholics. Because Catholics believe they have the Priesthood, they believe that they will be with their families forever. So, in their eyes, what do we have to offer? Speaking of Catholics, Miranda will you ask Taryn if she's gotten my letters? Also, last I heard, as of Thursday Elder Waite had not received any letters.

I got to see my MTC district on Thursday. People from SLC were here to talk about the pilot programs and how we can help it improve. They are solidifying it and it will go into full affect shortly. It was awesome seeing my elders and Sister Xidis. It was fun to hear of their experiences and see how much they had grown in just 3 weeks. It's really awesome being here in Minnesota. Despite freezing and all that, it's really quite incredible.

Oh, so I want more color. I feel soooo dull. So, we might go to a thrift store and see what we can find. But, also, if you happen to be shopping and see a cute shirt, or cardigan or anything with color, and it's on sale or cheap, I wouldn't mind receiving that! I'm fine with my skirts, what I really want are shirts. I'm gonna have to get some summer appropriate shirts here soon. I have quite a few sweaters, and I'm pretty sure that those aren't gonna fly in the summer.

Dad--best of luck with work. It reminds me of the hours you worked at ACI. You are such a good worker, they are lucky to have you :)

Miranda--a Daaate? How was that? Haha, my little sister is growing up!

Best of luck with all the sports and activities, it sounds like fun!

Oh, you should make mormon.org profiles!

Mom--good luck with the bathroom project. We were at a families house for lunch yesterday and I just loved the way she did her living room. it made me think of you and all your house projects! It's fun seeing families from an outside perspective. I'm learning so much, I wish I had words to express! It's funny because the more I understand the more I realize that I don't understand. There is a never ending process of learning. :D

I love you all. I hope all is well. Things here are hard, but awesome. :) I get to witness a sealing next Saturday (26th) that will be really cool.

Oh, dad, I know it's not until Saturday, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY! If I don't say it now, you'll get it late. What are you doing? How old are you gonna be? The more I'm around people, the more I realize how young my parents are! My comps dad is the age of my grandparents. haha, so, just remember you are both young :)

Week 6

2011-03-09T05:53:00.000-07:00

My dear family :)

Wow, it's been an incredible week. It was our stake conference as well. A woman in the ward came up to me yesterday and asked me if this little girl looked familiar. I told her no. Apparently the kids were from the Mattoon ward and whoever they are..somehow they knew I was from there... I dunno. So yep. What kind of food do I like? Well, I'm always looking for snacks for during the day. Granola bars, fruit snacks, trail mix. I also love chocolate and if you mix that with peanut butter, I can't complain! If you find fleece lined tights, that would be awesome, but get them in like a medium. You wanna hear what I wear on a daily basis? I wear long underwear, (also sometimes thermals), 2 pairs of tights, a pair of regular socks, a pair of 40 below socks, a pair of shorts, my skirt, and on top I wear a long sleeve shirt, an undershirt, a regular shirt, a sweater, scarf, and coat. I'm staying warm, but all the layers on the bottom squeeze into my hips and it hurts. So maybe some bigger tights? I also want a fleece jacket that zips up the front. It doesn't need a hood.

Bowling was fun. I didn't do great, but when do I ever? Bowling just isn't my strong point. I got a letter from Jesse. He said that his mom had 2 strokes last week. She's ok, and his dad took a week off to be with her. Crazy how that can happen.

Food here...is interesting. We teach many different cultures, including African. Let's just say that when we ate at Sister Francis' house I had a "stomach ache" and couldn't eat all my food. :S Last night I was asleep by 20 till 10pm. I was not feeling well, and I'm still not feeling the best. But, I got 9 hours of sleep! I think it's dehydration. The water from the tap here is gross tasting. So, I'm going to buy a gallon of water today, maybe I'll drink more that way.

Ok, here's the story of the week. It's been incredible and has really helped me. Wednesday morning we received a referral from some missionaries in another part of MN. A guy named Moses has a cousin in that area. Moses had been talking to his cousin, and wanted his life to go better, so he'd asked his cousin why his life seemed to be so good. His cousin gave him the missionaries numbers and they set up an appointment, then gave us the referral. So, Wednesday night we went to teach him the Restoration. Brother Thomas and Brother Quinn came with as joint teachers. The lesson went great and the Spirit was SO strong. At the end of the lesson both brother Thomas and Quinn bore their testimonies. Before we prayed I felt prompted to tell Moses that as he continued to learn and act on these things that he would face challenges, but that God would help him and that we would be there. Moses committed to be baptized that night, and he even said the closing prayer. He wanted to meet everyday, but we set up another appointment for Friday. So, Friday we met at Brother Quinn's house. The 1st thing he told us cleared up our concern of the Law of Chastity. We had left the previous visit under the impression that he was living with his girlfriend. BUT! He's married! The 2nd thing he told us was that he had lost his job that morning. (Satan is so rude!) Moses then told us that it was ok. He said that since he had met with us he had felt joy and he knew that it was in God's hands. He is so strong and so faithful. He is one of the "elect" as described in the Doctrine and Covenants. He is prepared for this. His baptismal date is set for the 26th. He came to stake conference on Sunday and got to meet some members of the ward. We plan on meeting his wife and hope to teach her too. Also, on the 26th a recent convert family is getting sealed and we get to attend that that morning! That will be an incredible day! The 19th we also have a baptism. Katie has been taught by the Cottage Grove Elders, but she's actually in our ward boundries. She's been going there because she has friends and families. She recently quite smoking..going on 5 days now! So, we are hoping to introduce her to ward members this Sunday so that she will continue coming after her baptism.

One night last week we dropped my a less active's house. She has depression and apparently is bipolar. She wasn't feeling well and so we offered to bring some priesthood holders over to give her a blessing. So, another night we went by with Brother Sheffeild (we live in his basement) and a member of the bishopric. We talked about her life and problems and how church can bless her life. Brother Sheffeild was very kind and loving and encouraged her to come to church. They then gave her a blessing and while they were doing that I was under the impression that we were not alone. There were angels in that room. Several times I opened my eyes, just expecting to see them. Well, I never did, but they were there. She was concerned with being lonely, but I know that she is not alone. That was another incredible experience from this past week.

We've had a couple of "warm" days. Warm being 25-30's. The snow was starting to melt. But, we've had light snow this weekend and another storm is supposed to come tomorrow. Will the snow ever melt? I hear they are already concerned about flooding when the snow melts. There is so much of it.

People from Salt Lake are coming this week to talk to us about the new training program. So on Thursday I get to see all my elder's and sister from the MTC. We will pick apart the program and talk about what we like and how we feel like it's helping us. I'm excited to see them again. I get to see 2 of them every once in awhile. Elder Hudson I see weekly and Elder Waite (the one Miranda is supposed to write) is in my zone so I see him occasionaly. I saw him last week and he still had not received any letters. He's a good kid :)

Friday Sis. Sorensen had to go to Bloomington for meetings so I went with the Spanish Sisters in West St. Paul. You ready for this? Hermana Hedengren dated the oldest HOTCHKISS boy. As in Wesley Hotchkiss's older brother. She never met Wesley though, because he was on his mission. She's good friends with their mom though. Also, there is an inactive member of the Spanish branch there who is from puerto rico who converted some 20 years ago. They were gonna ask her if they knew an "Elder Randall". What a small world it is.

Well, I suppose that's my week! Shae, congrats on the musical! I wish I could have seen it. Dad, how's work? Oh, and how are my taxes going along? One of the members of the bishopric here is a lawyer in the tax area. So now I just wonder what's going on with that.

Mom, you started a project? When did you find time for that!?

I hope all is going well! Things are great here! I love you all!

Sister Randall

Week 5

2011-03-09T05:51:00.002-07:00

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 12:52 PM, Adrianna Randall <adrianna.randall@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Alright, today we are in a hurry. The district is getting together at 1 (in 30 minutes) to go bowling, and it's a 20 minute drive. So, yeah. But, things are great. There is still TONS of snow. It's COOOOLD. I'm surviving though. A member gave me boots, they fit and are very warm. I also bought some 40 Below socks. They keep my feet warm. I am going to try to find a fleece jacket. Sister Sorensen doesn't think my coat will be warm enough for the winter. She has a down coat plus a fleece jacket and it's still cold. I don't know, I can hope for warmth! I'm glad that I didn't get here in the middle of winter. They still go out proselyting in -30 weather. :S brrrr. I'm gonna be an icle. But, many are chilled and few are frozen. So, I hope to stay in the majority!

We have 3 or 4 investigators. Getting them to church is SO hard. We also taught a first lesson to a couple who have 1 kid and another on the way. We think they are J.W.'s. Gratefully they haven't been rude. They've pulled out their scriptures, asked questions, listened and moved on. We are going back to teach the Plan of Salvation. How cool would that be to see a JW convert? haha. We are waiting on Bro. Anderson's letter of approval. He can't get baptized until the 1st Presidency approve. Man, it seems like tons has happened, it's just hard to describe. I'm slowly getting better at contacting. I'll get there. We have run into some anti's but nothing to extreme. Sister Sorensen told me stories about some of the people she has run into. She said she was only truly scared once...and that's when she tracted into a bible study of Born Again Christians. The teach anti-mormon doctrine. One woman she tracted into even fell to her knees praying for the devils to be cast out and then ran back, got a pamplet titled "What to say when Mormon Missionaries come to your door.." Crazy. I was a little nervous something like that was gonna happen on Sunday. I talked to this woman in her driveway and once I said who we were she wouldn't make eye contact and quickly told us to leave. Whatever.

Oh, favorite Scripture. Phillipians 4:13. I can't upload a picture onto the library computer. So yeah. Jesse's mom forwarded me his email and told me to forward it to dad. So I will do that. and she wants your email. Not sure why.

I've gotten tons of letters these past 2 weeks. It's kind of crazy. Just send letters to the mission home. They forward the letters the same day and we just get it one day later. It saves the hassle of changing addresses at transfers. And if you ever send a package, do NOT use Fed Ex they won't forward the packages. UPS will. Hmm, let's see....I am definitely here in Oakdale until May 11th. After that I don't know.

As for church meetings. We get up at 5 for 6 am meetings. We meet with Bishop, ward mission leader, and ourselves. Then we meet with just our ward mission leader. Then we go back in for PEC. Sundays are so long. I spoke on Sunday. I guess it went pretty well. Things are going great, and I'm slowly adapting to missionary life. As for our apartment, the members are never in there. It's like our own apartment. I am actually surprised because our apartment has been messy (which stresses me out, believe it or not). That's one of my pet peeves. Dirty dishes left everywhere, things thrown around the living room... (bedrooms are another story!) The bathtub is GROSS. I did a light cleaning of it today, but next pday...It's going DOWN! Haha. Wow, so yeah. Life is great. The mission is awesome.

We get to go to the temple once a quarter. It takes place of pday. have fun cleaning. They are cleaning the chandeliers here, I wanted to go help, but we aren't allowed :(

Miranda and shae both seem to be popular with the boys! Shae, I wish I had advice for you.. If I were to give either of them advice on boys, it would be this: Be honest and straightforward. Don't be afraid to let boys know what you are thinking or what you want. It makes it easier to have open communication. So just straight up tell them! ;)

Austin, the lightsaber picture: It's lead. Colored lead. The flash reflects off of it. It's from a colored mechanical pencil. So yeah. It's fun. Alright, I've got to go! I love you!! Things are awesome and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna start gaining weight. So much for training my body not to overeat. I'll have to retrain my body after my mission. Uggghhhh. I want nice weather so we can go running!!!

Oh, I haven't called Kim. You should ask her where she lives. I don't remember where Luke is, but it's definitely not here. There is no college here. Oh, here is a little about my ward. Our ward covers East St. Paul, Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Woodbury, Lakeland and Stillwater. East St Paul is a very poor area and Woodbury is full of very rich people. So we have both in the ward...our members from Woodbury feel very judged from the more rich. It's hard to see the way that members interact and treat each other. It's a whole new perspective from a missionary's point of view. The Sanderson's live in an Elder's area, but it's right next to a sister's area. That was sis. Sorensen's first area. I'll have to ask the elder's there about them. I'm glad you are all doing well. I love you all and will talk to you soon!!

Love,

Sister Randall

Week 4

2011-03-09T05:50:00.003-07:00

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Adrianna Randall <adrianna.randall@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Kim might be in our area. We cover East St. Paul, so I will give her a call this week and find out. Well, do you remember Chris and Ken White? They were in 3rd ward when grandpa was bishop. They live in my ward! They remember you. In fact at the baptism the other night she commented "I can see Darin in you. You are definitely a Randall." I hope that's a good thing!! ;) That was kind of fun. (The baptism was an 8 year old girl in the ward..not a convert baptism). We are waiting on a baptism though. We have to wait for clearance from President Monson. Crazy, right? He is such an awesome guy!

I never realized how much missionaries work with the ward...or the inactives. It's crazy! Oh, I suppose I should tell you: I'm in the Oakdale area. It covers Oakdale, Woodbury, East St. Paul and maybe a few other areas that I can't think of the names for. Right now I am looking out the window of a member's house and all I see is WHITE. It has been snowing since about 10am yesterday. We have gotten probably 20 inches or so. Plus all the snow already on the ground. We have a car. However, when the weather gets bad we have to park the car. We had to do that after church yesterday. This morning was clear again, so we got driving priviliges again. But now..I'm just waiting for the text from the Zone Leaders telling us to park it. Oh well, we will go with it. I still don't have boots. we went boot hunting, buuuutt there is almost nothing left. I found a really good boot for 1/2 the original price (great price) but they only had 7s and 8s. The boot is made for -40. We always go out, unless it's -40. Sooo yeah. It gets soooo cold. Oh, however we ran into a member on our way out of Target and she might have boots that will work for the remainder of the winter that she said I could have. We will go look at them tomorrow.

Our CO detector started going off last night..thankfully it was just a low battery. It put my trainer, Sister Sorenson and I on edge for a while. We finally got to sleep though. Sister Sorenson is from NORWAY. She is so awesome. She is happy and hard working and just sooo fun. She wears a small fake wedding ring because she has been proposed to a few times on her mission. She told me that I might consider doing that too.

My first tracting experience: The first couple days here were surprisingly warm! The first day you hardly needed a coat, the 2nd was a bit colder. So, the 2nd day (my first day in my area) we went tracting. The snow had been melting, so we were trying to avoid this 1/2 inch deep puddle. (With big snow banks on either side). While we were working our way around it, a car came driving past on the road, hitting a puddle and splashed us. We were rather wet. I seriously thought that only happened in movies. It wasn't at foot level either. The sidewalks were higher than the road and the water went UP and then we got a shower. Haha, it was good. We have 2 potential investigators. One is a family who was going up to visit her brother for the weekend. Her brother is a member and they were going up for her neices BAPTISM. So, they had their first exposure to church. We will go back some time this week. It really is exciting.

The members in the ward are awesome. They have really gotten excited about missionary work and are doing their best to help. The ward missionary leader has been here 3 months, and his humor reminds me of dad. He's fun. Wow, there isn't too much excitement right now. Lots of snow...we are in a new pilot training program. (I guess I'm just a testing dummy or something). Well, the term they use here is "Minnesota nice". Sometimes it's used rather sarcastically, especially in reference to the weather. :D

I'm quickly adjusting to missionary life. We went grocery shopping, finally! I've hated not having food. I had cereal, fiber 1 bars, bananas and a couple yogurts to get me by for the last several days. YAY for food. The members are great at feeding us though.

I do have my bike. It looks like a great bike..however, we haven't used them. There is TOO much snow. Plus, the members are too conscientious of us to let us do that. Oh yeah, the St. Paul Temple is 1.3 miles away from our house. We live with members. They built an apartment in their basement that their son and his wife lived in for awhile. It's practically like having our own apartment. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living area... We actually have 2 bedrooms, but mission rules are to share a room. The members actually really like having missionaries living there. They are sweet people. Man, I feel like there is so much to say!

Ok, picture....I don't have my camera with me. I don't have an updated picture. I emailed one to Pres. Anderson several months ago. Maybe he still has it? I might could send one next week. I'll send a scripture next week too. Once again, I don't have my scriptures. Anyway. I have got to write Pres. Howell.

Thanks for the Valentine's package! I really enjoyed the candy! It was DELICIOUS! Anyway, I hope you all have a good week. Dad, I hope work is still going well. Mom...good luck with Relief Society. Miranda, Austin, Shae. Sorry I don't have time to respond individually. The letter sounds great, Miranda. He's a good guy. Austin, The picture with the lightsaber is not photo shopped, but it's not the best picture. There is a trick to doing it. It's pretty cool. Shae, good luck with the musical. Don't be scared of your teacher, just do your best. I wish I could watch! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Randall

Week 3

2011-02-15T05:42:00.002-07:00

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Adrianna Randall <adrianna.randall@myldsmail.net> wrote:

It's so good to hear from you and those from Arizona! I certainly do miss everyone! The time has just flown by! I haven't used my debit card at all, but I plan to use it at the airport for luggage. And, I fly out on Wednesday, not Tuesday. I was wrong. So a couple more days.

Today we went to the temple early and did initiatories and then did an endowment session--for a change our whole district was in one session! It was great. The temple is such a place of peace! All right, I have a list of a few things to tell you, so yeah.

Mom, do you think you could check the internet and see if you can find fleece lined tights? They are a bit pricey..so just a pair or two would work. I just want to stay warm. Someone told me they heard of sisters buying extra big tights and wearing tights over sweatpants! Surely it won't be that cold...right?

There have been people from church news here this week. They were videoing and taking pictures. The videos will be used in between confrences for a special clip about the MTC. The pictures will be in deseret news. There should be a picture of me carrying my tray to put away at lunch. Dont be surprised when it says that I'm from Nebraska! So, keep your eyes open! :D

I got the valentines! It was sweet! And no worries, if I have anything negative to say, that I really need to say, I'll say it. But we are so blessed and so many good things happening that I can't waste my prescious 30 minutes typing about the negative! Life is wonderful!

We taught Bregita (I think I told you about the question she asked about living with God). Turns out that we misunderstood our instructors and she is a less active and she decided to play along the 1st time. The 2nd time she told us she was less active. She is one stubborn woman. She finally agreed to come to church. During that lesson I truly felt the Spirit working through me and I felt a special sort of love for her, no matter how frustrating she was. I shared an experience and testified of the truthfulness of the gospel. She then asked how old I was and she told me that I was older than 21. Not in years...but yeah. So, I apparently look roughtly 18 and act older than 21! I wonder how old I am in the eternities! ;)

It's a really cool experience when you feel the Spirit teaching through you. You know that you are not in control of this lesson. It's really incredible. The Spirit is the true teacher.

Let's see. For Sacrament meeting they tell everyone the topic and we all have to prepare a 3-5 minute talk. Then during sacrament meeting they select 2 missionaries to talk. Well, Saturday evening I wrote my talk. Sunday morning after talking with President Meyers I got the impression that I should rewrite my talk, and that I'd be giving it. Sure enough, I got called up. One of the members of the branch presidency said that I had been a target for awhile...whatever that means. The talk went well. Our district (because we are leaving) did a musical number and sang I Know that My Redeemer Lives. We sang a Capella. It was BEATIFUL. The Spirit was SO strong. People were in tears and it was hard not to cry. It was absolutely amazing. We have learned so much, especially in the last few days. It's impossible to even try to tell you.

the MTC President, Pres. Brown, is continually encouraging us to study the doctrine of Christ and understand how that relates to our purpose as missionaries. (Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.) We are to recite that often. It's incredible how often those topics are in the scriptures. It's all over the place!! It's really great.

I'm excited to leave, but not. It's safe here! We can't screw investigators up! Out there...well it's scary out there! Out there, we are REAL missionaries ;) and people RECOGNIZE and Respect us as such. It's kind of a big deal. Alright, so, we leave the MTC at 5am. Which means we should arrive at the airport around 6:30, plus getting through security. Sooo I can't call until we are through security I think. I don't know what time it will be. I will try to call, but it won't be until after 7 your time. sorry!

Oh, Miranda! I have a little request. One of the Elder's in our district, Elder Waite doesn't receive any letters. He's a good kid with a strong testimony. He was a football player. Will you write him? He is in my mission, so it's the same address as me. It's Elder Tyler Waite. Anyway. It hink that is about all I've got! Life is great. I'm excited to get out and get to work. I hope all is well. I'm both sad and happy for the passing of Sister Cain. She's a sweet sweet lady.

I hope all works out with the money thing. I love you all! Good luck with everything you are involved in!!

Love ya,

Sister Randall! <3

Week 2

2011-02-15T05:41:00.002-07:00

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:40 AM, Adrianna Randall <adrianna.randall@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hey! Yeah, I had some extra time while doing laundry and Sister Murray said she was gonna send home her schedule so that they could see what we are doing. So, I stole her idea. I am finally getting to the point that I have energy during most of the day. 3 hour class blocks can put you to sleep FAST. Anyway, I want to tell you about the lessons we have been teaching. We have 2 different teachers and each of them take the roll of an investigator they taught on their missions. So, we teach them. We have Becca and Prashont.

When we first taught Becca she refused to pray and ask God if what we were teaching was true. She said that it is prideful to ask God for anything and that if we have faith He already knows what we need. It was really hard to get her to do it, but we finally got her to pray two visits ago. On our 2nd visit she said that while reading the scriptures she kept getting the impression that it really only made sense for God and Christ to be two separate beings. That was SO exciting. We went into one of our visits feeling scattered and unprepared. We had tried to find time to get things ready, but we spent a lot of time at the Doctor's with Sister Xidis. (She is now completely better!!!) So, before we went to teach Becca we prayed hard for the Spirit and for direction. This was the visit that Becca told us that she agreed to pray. The following visit she said she felt good and agreed if she truly felt like she was receiving this answer from God that she would get baptized!! The Spirit was strong! I got to share the restoration and recite the 1st Vision. It was incredible. It's beyond description!

Prashont has been difficult and he is really hard to describe. He came wanting us to answer questions about the bible. So, instead of asking him his questions we told him that we believed that our message and the Book of Mormon would answer those questions and we continued to teach. The other companions actually asked him his questions and after finding out his questions we are SO grateful we skipped over that. They aren't questions that are pertinent to salvation and it was essentially wasted time. In our last visit we felt like he was totally grasping everything, but then he told us he felt like he had received an answer that this gospel was true and we set him to a baptismal date. We weren't expecting this or even prepared for that! He then asked how he could prepared. One of the sisters gave an answer about us continuing to teach and help him. I had a thought to teach the Commandments (especially the Word of Wisdom because we at least know he drinks coffee). However, we had never studied that lesson and I was thinking, if I'm feeling this, they have to be too. So, sister Murray continued on with what we had planned. Then Brother Sakamaki (Now not acting as Prashant) stopped us and asked us what we needed to do, gave us a few minutes to collect ourselves, then we started over. We taught the Word of Wisdom and left him with a committment. It went well, but it's just hard for us to really understand what he is thinking.

We also do things call TRC. We go in and teach people who may be members, or investigators, or less actives. So, we never know. Our first time going we had a girl from China. Aaaand she didn't have a belief in God, so we weren't sure what to do, but we talked about God, his nature, how we have seen Him in our lives and that he loves us. Thankfully she isn't our progressing investigator and we are pretty certain she is a member.

We then taught a woman named Bregita. She has no or little belief in God either, but knows some. We began teaching the 1st lesson. Then, she asked us a most horrific question! she said, "Yes or no? If I live a good life, but don't join your church, can I live with God?" We were all frozen. We knew the answer but wanted to be able to explain. Finally after probably 30 seconds of silence Sister Murray said "No." She wouldn't let us explain further and told us that that was very exclusive. Then she said "Your church believes so strongly that they have what you need to live with God that you can so confidently say that?" We told her yes. Then she told us that she was very curious now and that she was impressed that 3 young girls like ourselves could strongly believe that. She told us she could tell we believed it and she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith. We all thought we were about to get kicked out, but it turned around! It was incredible.

We have all been learning about following the promptings of the Spirit and realizing that sometimes we don't realize it's the Spirit prompting us, but we need to act on the ideas that are good. I was truly humbled after Brother Sakamaki stopped us and told us we needed to teach the commandments. Well, he didn't straight up say that, but he helped us out. We have learned so much. It's crazy how fast time is going now. The days are still long and the weeks are short. It's wonderful and the Spirit is so strong.

I still have tons to say and ten minutes to say it. Lucky that you are the only ones that email me! We have our flight plans. We leave A week from tomorrow. So Tuesday. We leave here at 5 AM and we fly out at 8:15ish. We will arrive in Minneapolis I think around noon or so. I'm not totally sure. I believe we are allowed to call home if we have the chance. So, if you want, I'll get a calling card and call home. Let me know before Monday.

Several people in my district are really struggling. Elder Marks grandpa is about to die from cancer. The last thing his grandpa said to him was to serve a mission, and pray when things get hard. Elder McAbee has only 50 dollars left for his mission. That won't even cover luggage at the airport. He is a convert and was not at all supported by any family members to come on this mission. He doesn't know his dad, and no one else supports him. It's really sad. I think we are going to try to, as a district, each give about 5 dollars. That will get him a bit farther. It's really sad.

We had Mission Conference yesterday. If you want an idea for scripture study here is what we were asked to study:

2 Ne 31

2 Ne 32

2 Ne 33

3 Ne 11 (very carefully)

3 Ne 9: 20-22

3 N3 27: 13-20

This is the Doctrine of Christ. After reading it we are supposed to kneel in prayer and ask if these things are true. So, you might could do that as a family :)

We have learned so much and I can't even tell you all about it. It's been great. I've stayed healthy. We have 3 sisters coming into our zone this week, which means that Wednesday night I help with orientation and Thursday night as well. It will be nice to have more than just us 3 sisters for one Sunday! I've stayed busy. I play piano on Sunday, I have a meeting on Turesday night as coordinating sister.... yeah. Too much to say. We went to the temple this morning, it was absolutely wonderful.

I wish I had words to describe. :) I hope all is well. I hope Minnesota is as bad as what you have :S Buuut it's Minnesota. haha. Well, I'm about out of time. I love you all. I hope you are doing great! (And it's not tooooo bad to get a letter during the week. The week gets long when there aren't any letters coming in! I got a card from Wesley and a letter from Rocio this week. So, that was nice! Love you!

Sister Randall

MTC - Week 1

2011-02-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

It's been so crazy! I am in the new Pilot program that will take full affect in probably May. We have already taught 2 lessons and will have taught 22 by the end of our 3 weeks. SOOOOO BUSY! On Thursday they asked us to have Doctrince and Covenants 4, Our Purpose, The 1st Vision (Just 3 sentences of Joseph's own words), the first 8 principles of the first lesson, and it seems like something else... but we were supposed to have it all memorized by Sunday and have read the white handbook. I didn't think I could do it--I have always been terrible at memorizing. We were in one of the buildings and I was trying and trying and trying to get everything memorized! I stopped and saw a picture of Christ walking on the water toward the boat (This is like the most beautiful picture EVER) and I remembered Peter and how when he doubted he began to sink. So, I put my faith in Christ and...I DID IT! That was on Saturday. Ok, let's start at the beginning.

I'm in a tri-panionship with Sister Xidid (ex-itis) and Sister Murray. They are both great. They both live here in Utah, but Sister Xidis used to live in Mesa. Friday we got asked to come to the front desk and were told that there was a sister who had been in isolation for a week with the flu and missed her departure date and her district left her. So, we now have a fourth sister until tomorrow. She leaves to go to Canada. (Wow this emailing thing is stressful. We only have 30 minutes and then it shuts down!) We will be both sad and happy to have her go. She's way ahead of us and in a way it is slowing down our learning process. But we have also learned so much from her.

Oh, I was called as the coordinating sister in our zone. Which is sort of like a relief society president but not really. I basically keep track of the Sisters and report on how they are doing. I also welcome new sisters and give them a tour of the residence hall and do some orientation things. Sadly, we are getting no new sisters this week. My companions and I are the only sisters in our zone. Our district is...well full of 19 year old boys. We are all either going to Minneapolis Minnesota or going to D.C. South. All English speaking. We stay so busy and we are all so exhausted! I was able to see a friend from BYU-I (she leaves tomorrow), I saw two of my friends from Arizona and a couple other people I recognized from BYU-I.

I think to basically sum up everything that has happend-- It has been SOO hard yet so rewarding. We are seeing the blessings everyday. We were so grateful to have Sunday come. It was relaxing, even though we still stayed busy. Sister Murray came to the MTC with a cold and Sister Xidis had Bronchitis right before she came. She's still been coughing. Sister Murray is better. On Saturday I had to accompany Sister Xidis off campus to an Insta care and then to a pharmacy (which all in all took about 4 hours). It was weird to be away from the MTC. Here it's normal to be a missionary but away it's not so normal! It was a fun experience, although we missed our 3 hour class and a workshop.

I'm trying to stay healthy, I had to get the flu shot, they made it required the day after I got here. I wasn't too excited about that. Really we have just stayed super busy. It takes forever to fall asleep and morning comes way too quickly and the showers feel like someone is melting ice on you if you choose the wrong one. For whatever reason I can't seem to get the one that gives you warm water. Maybe I'll have it figured out by the end of 3 weeks! Haha. Well, what can I say? My showers only last a couple minutes. Long enough to wash my hair and a quick wash of the body and then it's OUT!

All Times, All Things, All Places

2011-01-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, this will be my last blog. I am getting on the airplane today! Tomorrow I go to the MTC! I just wanted to share with you my all time favorite song. It's an EFY song, but it's all about preparing to serve a mission and gaining a testimony. I absolutely love it. This song has always inspired me! Enjoy and I will see you in 18 months!

It's the day I've been waiting for!

2011-01-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow I give a talk in church, and then at 7:30 I will be set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It's so unreal! This is the day I've been waiting for, for years! I will finish packing tomorrow and then I fly out Tuesday afternoon. I will be staying with my brother, Sam, and his wife, Erin that night. Then, Wednesday afternoon I report to the MTC and my 18 month adventure begins! I'm thrilled to have this opportunity. It will be the hardest, most amazing, most educating and fulfilling adventure of my life thus far. Thanks to everyone who has supported me and strengthened me with my decision and has taught me throughout my life!

MTC Address

2011-01-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Sister Adrianna Nicole Randall
MTC Mailbox # 192
MN-MIN 0216
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

The day is almost here! It's crazy to think that I'm officially 21 and am old enough to serve a mission. Thanks, everyone for all your support :)

All about Nothing

2011-01-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

I feel like there is much to say, but then, I'm not really sure what it is. My mission preparations are coming along, slowly and steadily. All that is left is...shopping, shots, packing and a few other random things.

Mom or Dad are supposedly gonna update my blog while I'm gone...addresses, emails, pictures etc. Yep. Well, happy new year and I hope you have an incredible year! Make the best out of it :D

1 of 104

2010-12-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one week out of 104 since Jesse left. It's been pretty easy, surprisingly. However, I keep wondering how he's doing and what it's like for him and just what's going through his mind. I would have to say that the one thing I really miss is being able to communicate with him. I've been patient and I just sent my first letter on Tuesday. So, it will probably be next week at some point that I receive my first letter and I guess I just want to hear from him!

Next week I go to the Nauvoo temple! I am looking forward to this new experience, then it's on to Nebraska for a few days! Then, home and preparations like crazy. Once Jesse left everything started setting in and reality came back. I guess when he's around I go into some fairy tale world or something...I now feel the stress of getting everything done and the reality of me leaving in January! It certainly is gonna be one incredible adventure :D

Done.

2010-12-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

All done. One year of teaching, cleaning, playing, disciplining, learning, raising, and many other things is over. It's time to go home. Tomorrow the Clark's and I are exchanging gifts and going out to lunch. Then, Monday morning it's off to the airport and flying to St. Louis. It'll be nice to be home and I love the Christmas season.

I guess, since I'm done being a nanny I need a new blog title...once I leave for my mission it'll be something mission-y buuut.. I've still got a month... Any ideas?

Wow

2010-12-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

I tried so hard not to cry in front of Jesse when I said goodbye. Unfortunately, I few tears slipped a couple minutes before I got inside...and once I got inside and shut the door..well yeah. I think that was harder than I imagined and one of the harder things I've had to do. He is truly my best friend and I couldn't help but to remember some of my favorite times with him.

The first time we met I told him 2 things straight up. 1. I'm going on a mission in a year. 2. I'm going to marry a chiropractor!! (Kinda joking, but that would be schaweet!)

The first time I REALLY got to hang out with Jesse was playing Walmart hide and seek. We hid by the potatoes and gave the other team the hint of "dirty". We sat there and talked. Then after the group found us and went off to hide, he told me to close my eyes, then walked over, grabbed a bouquet of tulips and presented them to me. That's when I knew he was cheesy.

On our first date we went bowling with a group. I didn't see it happen, but somehow he managed to step onto the lane, slip and land on his back. Averi had to pull him off the lane.

The first time he tried to kiss me I told him no. :) Our first kiss was at the top of Picachio Peak (it took us like 2 hours to get to the top, but it was BEAUTIFUL.

One night we were at the park with a bunch of people after park curfew, and had the cops called on us. The cops asked for our id's and made sure we were all 18 or older. Then told us to go home.

Another night we were at a different park after dark and the rest of our group left and he turned on some music and danced with me :)

One night, he took me on a date going back to a lot of the places we had our first memories. We went to Walmart and he had sent up a little scavenger hunt for me. We hiked part way up CG mountain. We went back to the park and danced. Then we did something different and played chess...or was it checkers? Either way, I won! :)

Those are just a few of my favorite memories. We have had so much fun. And of course, I have loved the nights where we lay under the stars, go for a walk, or just drive around and talk and talk and talk and talk. :) I can't wait to go home now and start getting ready to go on my mission! :) It'll be an exciting adventure and Jesse and I will get to know each other in a new way :)

I love Tuesdays :)

2010-12-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays are my favorite. It's P-day for some of my missionary friends and I love to get and read their emails! :) They make me smile and get me excited to serve! Today Reggie Nichols emailed me. He flies to South Korea on Monday at 3 AM! CRAZY early. His mission is the mission that got attacked, but it's still open. I guess there isn't too much worry about it. Anyway, I love to hear him talk about the MTC. He's always so excited and upbeat. Anyway. There ya have it. Tuesdays ROCK! :D

I'M NOT AN EMOTIONAL PERSON!

2010-12-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Haha, guess I was wrong about that. I have never been one to cry easily. But the last few days all I have to do is think about what is gonna be happening this week. Jesse leaves Wednesday and I leave Monday. I haven't exactly cried, but eyes tear up and I almost cry.

Oh, let's not forget that it's my last week of work and my motivation is running low! I had no desire to get up for work today. Last week I started hitting the snooze button. This week I almost turned my alarm off completely. How do I keep my energy up and keep my mind off of the heartbreak I'm about to feel? :S

On a positive note, I get to go home and see my family for Christmas :) On the 28th we go to Nauvoo and go to the temple!!!!! Then we are going to Nebraska for New Year's! Time is moving quickly and the next thing I know, I'm gonna be in the MTC getting ready to go to Minnesota! :) All I've got to do is get through this week...

Miracles and Reminders :)

2010-12-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last night of institute for the year. I've really appreciated Sister Dick and her effort in teaching. She's been a great teacher and I'm really going to miss her. I got to spend a good amount of time talking with her, President Anderson and Jesse. It's amazing how much the people here mean to me. After the activity Jesse and I got into the car so I could take him home. I was in the left turn lane, waiting for traffic to be clear when I realized that the truck turning left across traffic was coming straight at me. Right as this was registering they suddenly swerved out of the way. I don't really know what was going on with them or why they thought they could turn directly into a car but I had to stop and breathe. Even though I don't know what circumstances brought on the near collision I know that the Lord is watching out for me. This is the 3rd auto accident I have been miraculously saved from. It was a simple reminder that the Lord loves me and is watching out for me. :)

Smiling!

2010-12-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

Jesse just left my house. We've spent the last 1 1/2 hours reminiscing and just talking. Some of the memories we have are just SO funny. I've been smiling all evening. It's been one incredible year. I'm excited for Jesse to leave for his mission in 9 days...but I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. It'll be an adjustment, seeing as how we at least talk everyday, if not see each other everyday. Tonight was good :)

The 15th will be the start of Jesse's 2 year adventure. The 20th I fly home, it will be a busy month and a half before I go to the MTC. And that starts the beginning of my 1 1/2 year adventure! Crazy how quick life goes :)

Missionaries

2010-11-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

Marcus leaves tomorrow for the MTC. He is headed to Chile!! He is gonna be such an awesome missionary!
Jesse leaves December 15th and is headed to Hawaii!!
I report to the MTC on January 26th and I'm headed to Minnesota!

We have been in mission prep together all year, we are sort of like the 3 amigos, but we are the 3 missionaries off to save the world!...sort of ;)

Reflections

2010-11-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

It has been a long, weird, incredible, amazing, hard, short, frustrating, and maturing year. There have been sooo many ups and downs, so many adventures, experiences, disappointments etc. and it's hitting me that I only have a few short weeks left before my whole world changes.

I have never had such an emotionally challenging, tough, frustrating but completely reward job in my life and I can't imagine what it will be like when I'm actually a mother. When I came to Arizona, Wesley could hardly speak. If you ask him about his trip to the zoo the days after he went around Halloween he would start telling you: I picked up a duck from the bucket (a rubber duck) and it had a number on it and then the man asked me "What sound does a sheep make?" and I said "baaa" then I chose stickers. He has learned so much and grown so much and looking over the past year I am almost brought to tears at how much he has learned from me. But, more than that--how much I have learned and how much I have grown. It has been a challenging situation and job but I know that it has helped me prepare for the future.

I don't know if any of this even makes sense, but I just can't help but reflect on how much my move to Arizona has affected me. Not only has Wesley had a huge effect on my life, but my branch presidency, my stake president, the members of my branch, and let's not forget Jesse and his family. My branch president has become like a father to me--him and his 1st counselor. I can't even express my love and gratitude for them. Jesse's family has been SO good. They have let me come into their home and spend family nights, or nights that I needed out of the house or just a place to feel comfortable. They have felt like a family away from my family. They were kind enough to include me in their Thanksgiving dinner and it was SO nice to be included and feel like a part of a family for Thanksgiving. :) Even if they don't know it, they have given me strength to make it through this year.

Of course, last is Jesse. If it hadn't been for Jesse this year would have been SO different. Let me tell you about the first night Jesse and I met:

I was at institute and hurting and alone because Curtis had just broken up with me. I felt so out of place and no one seemed to want to talk to me. I texted Pama and said "I think I'm gonna go home. I feel out of place and no one is talking to me." She responded and told me to talk to someone but I was being shy. Just moments before I was about to walk out the door Jesse came up to me and introduced himself. We began talking and hit it off really well. A few months after we met I mentioned how I almost left and he told me that he had received a strong feeling that he needed to come talk to me, and that he'd been scared to talk to me. We are both grateful that he followed that prompting.

If that had not happened I'm not sure I would have gone back to institute and who knows what would have happened if I wouldn't kept going to institute and gotten to know my institute teacher, Sister Dick and the other students. I'm not even sure I'd still be going on a mission if Jesse hadn't come along and strengthened me throughout this year. He was always there when I needed a boost of strength and optimism. Without him, this year would have been a lot different and I'm grateful that the Lord brought him into my life, regardless of what happens after our missions. I've learned so much with him and we have had the most amazing and priceless friendship.

I can't accurately express my feelings about these people who have been in my life but my emotions are strong and Arizona has been my first REAL home since I left Auburn, Nebraska. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to come down here and meet new people and have new and strengthening experiences. :)

(If you made it to the end, I'm extremely impressed! Sometimes I just need to put my thoughts and feelings into words, even if no one reads them.)

11 Things People Should Know About Me

2010-11-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

1) I HATE being late.

2) I hate it when meetings are unorganized.

3) I often give looks without meaning to and they convey the wrong message...so if you are getting a cold look from me, don't take offense, I'm probably off in space thinking about something completely random.

4) I'm not shy, but I only open up to people who seem interested. If I don't feel like you care to listen, I just choose not to talk.

5) I'm a Mormon.

6) I love my family and friends and will stick by their sides through thick and thin.

7) I LOVE chocolate and ice cream.

8) I'm stubborn and will argue my point--that's why I did persuasive speaking in high school.

9) Just because I don't talk to you doesn't mean I don't like you.

10) I love to play the piano to relieve stress.

11) I like to be self dependent. I hate having to rely on others to get me to where I'm going or get me what I need. In most situations I'd rather walk than ask for a ride.

I'M GOING TO.....

2010-11-09T00:03:00.001-07:00

Minnesota Minneapolis Mission
English Speaking
Report to MTC on January 26th, 2011

Mission Call!

2010-11-08T09:08:00.002-07:00

Tonight, I will be opening my mission call!! It arrived Saturday, but the Clark's didn't gather the mail until Sunday evening. So, I just found out! My mission call is going to be brought to the airport, and I will open it before driving home. So, maybe tomorrow I'll post where I'm going...I'm soooo excited!

NE, AZ, Mission, Jesse

2010-11-06T19:30:00.003-06:00

Once again I have found myself back in Nebraska. It certainly has been a trip down memory lane and it has definitely become a piece of my past! I know, or maybe I should say talk to, almost no one here anymore. I have spent a long time thinking about things that have happened in various places, the people I've known, our relationships, the good times, the bad times. Just memories. It's awesome to look back over my life and see how each experience shaped me and prepared me for where I am now.

My stay in Arizona is coming to an end, so very quickly. I have about 6 1/2 to 7 weeks until I arrive home in Illinois. Which is 28-31 days of work left. I've recently been realizing how much I love Wesley and how hard it's going to be to just leave him to a new nanny. The Clark's were interviewing a girl the other night and I found myself wondering who she was, what she was like, what she looked like...just questions about her in general. I had to force myself to realize that it wasn't my choice and that the Clark's would choose whomever they felt would take the best care of Wesley. I love that little boy. I'm certain that the only way I could love a kid more is if they are my own...buuut we will leave that one to test out WAY later.

I'm still waiting for my mission call. If I haven't said it on here already, I knew from the beginning of this year that the Lord was gonna teach me patience, and He certainly is. It probably has something to do with me asking him to get it to me on Thursday instead of Friday so I didn't have to wait until Tuesday to open it. Haha, well, I guess I'm a slow learner.

It has been 2 days since I've talked to Jesse, 3 since I've seen him, and I miss him. Lots. I feel pathetic. Last night I was wondering how in the world I was going to make it 2 years...it seems like such a long time. This afternoon I was reading Preach My Gospel and read this quote from President Ezra Taft Benson:

I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work--there is not satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.

So, if I work work work and do my best, I'm certain the time will fly by :)It's still weird to think that I'm old enough to serve a mission. I used to think that the missionaries were old and mature...now I'm older than a lot of them :S haha, oh how time changes everything! <3

Halloween

2010-11-02T14:36:00.005-06:00

Since everyone else is posting their Halloween pictures, I may as well post mine! Jesse and I dressed up as Wesley and Buttercup from Princess Bride. Some people could tell right away, others had to ask... I think Jesse pulled off the costume quite well...as for me...I was in a dress with blonde hair and a tiara. I definitely needed Jesse at my side to give the impression of who I was. The Halloween party we went to was enjoyable :) We started out Saturday morning with a service project making a path on Casa Grande mountain (I'm still a bit sore), then we showered and went up to the temple grounds with his brother and a couple friends. Then we came home and went to the party. It was a great day!

This is Jesse (Wesley) being attacked by an R.O.U.S.!

Wesley got to do several Halloween activities during the week and dressed up as a pirate, and a might cute one at that. When asked what a pirate said his response was "Arrr is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" Then he would continue singing the song. He is so cute and funny singing that.

It's such a weird place to be...

2010-10-31T09:51:00.004-06:00

I have probably made comments like this before, but it's SO weird to have sooo many of my friends getting engaged and married. In this past year:

+ Marianne and Ryan Jackson were married (my only friends from IL)
+ Erin and Samuel Randall were married
+ Pama and Derek Alder were married (Pama has been one of my best friends since we were like 14ish, and Derek served his mission in our ward and taught and baptized Justin)
+ 3 couples in my branch recently got engaged
+ 2 more of my friends are expecting engagements in the upcoming months
+ 2 of the 4 girls that were in my primary classes growing up are engaged (the other is about to serve a mission)
+ a few that I can't think of right now...

On the other hand, I also know several people about to, or are serving missions:
+ Torvald is in Norway
+ Reggie is in the MTC heading to Seoul Korea
+ Marcus will be going to the MTC soon to go to Chile
+ Jesse will be going to the MTC soon to go to Hawaii
+ Emily beu is in the MTC on her way to the Mesa Arizona Temple mission
+ Alex is in the MTC headed to Tuscon Arizona
+ Lindsey will be going to the MTC to go to Bolivia
+ I will be receiving my call in the next week :)

Anyway, it's just weird to know so many people heading down that path, when I'm heading down another one. When I come home there are gonna be babies and I doubt I'll have any single friends left! Weird. Yeah, anyway. Just some interesting thoughts.

TOMORROW!

2010-10-27T08:42:00.002-06:00

Man, this is starting to kill me! My papers are IN Salt Lake. Tomorrow they could be assigned and I will know by tomorrow afternoon or evening. Time is going soo slow! If they assign my mission tomorrow, I should know where I'm going in the next week. Only downfall is that in a week from tomorrow, I will be in Nebraska. Phooey. So, I won't be able to open them until Tuesday of the following week, when I can get mom and everyone on the phone/skype. It's so close I can almost taste it! Any guesses of where I'm gonna get sent? I kinda think I'm getting sent to Russia... We shall find out...

Jesse's Mission Call!

2010-10-10T20:29:00.001-06:00

Jesse is going to Honolulu Hawaii and he reports December 15th :) He is going to do SO well there! :)

Mormon Dr. Seuss Twist :)

2010-09-28T19:15:00.000-06:00

The Mormon Church and Brother Lurch

I am Lurch.

I am Lurch.

From the Church.

That Brother Lurch!
That Brother Lurch!
I do not like that Brother Lurch!

Do you like the Mormon Church?

I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

Would you read the Book of Mormon
Here or there?

I would not read it
Here or there.
I would not read it
Anywhere.
I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

I’ll have the Elders
At my house.
You could come over,
With your spouse.

I will not go
Into your house.
I will not let you
Teach my spouse.
I won’t read your book
Here or there.
I will not read it
Anywhere.
I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

We can talk about it
In this box,
With our latest convert,
Brother Fox.

I won’t discuss it in a box.
I will not meet with Brother Fox.
You won’t indoctrinate my spouse,
So don’t invite us to your house,
I won’t read your book here or there.
I will not read it anywhere.
I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

I’ll come and get you
In my car!
We’ll go to church
It’s not too far.

I would not,
Could not
In your car.

You may like it.
You may see,
We’ll talk about Joseph Smith
Or Genealogy.

I could not do genealogy,
Not Joseph Smith, Lurch let me be!

Not in a box,
Not with a fox,
Not in your house,
Not with my spouse,
I won’t read your book here or there,
I will not read it anywhere.
I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

A train! A train!
A train! A train!
We could go to Utah
In a train!

Not in a train! Not genealogy!
Not in your car! Lurch let me be!
I won’t discuss it in a box.
I will not meet your Brother Fox.
You will not get me or my spouse
To set one foot inside your house.
I won’t read your book here or there.
I will not read it anywhere.
I do not like the Mormon Church.
I do not like it Brother Lurch.

Say!
In the dark?
We can teach you stories
About Christ or Noah’s Ark!

I would not, could not,
In the dark.

You’ll have to give up
Your champagne.

There’s nothing wrong with my champagne.
I’ll need some when I get off this train.
Not Joseph Smith. Not genealogy.
I do not like them Lurch you see.
Not in your house, not in a box,
Not with my spouse, or Brother Fox.
I will not read your book here or there.
I will not read it anywhere.

I do not like it
Brother Lurch.

I do not like the
Mormon Church!

Maybe you think
Mormons are weird.
Were you told we have
Horns and a beard?

Mormons have parties
With snacks and Root-Beer.
You shouldn’t believe
Everything that you hear.

You know, I kind of like Root-Beer,
And parties are not all that queer.
I think I’ll give up my champagne,
I hear that stuff can melt your brain.
But no more cigarettes or tea?
I cannot do that! Can you see?
I won’t discuss it in a box.
I will not meet with Brother Fox.
I will not come into your house,
And keep your distance from my spouse.
I won’t read your book here or there!
I will not read it anywhere!

I do not like it Brother Lurch.

You do not like it,
So you say.
Try it! Try it!
And you may!
Try it and you may I say!

Say!
I like the Mormon Church!
I do! I like Brother Lurch!
And I’ll invite my friends to hear,
And teach them all to love Root-Beer.
I’ll throw away all my champagne,
And head for Utah on a train.
I’ll do my genealogy,
It is so fun, so fun, you see!

We’ll go discuss it in a box.
I’d like to meet your Brother Fox.
And you can take me to your house,
And have the Elders teach my spouse.
I’ll read the scriptures here and there,
And convert my friends everywhere.

I do like the
Mormon Church!!
Please,
Baptize me,
Brother Lurch.

Nanny in Distress

2010-09-22T23:09:00.002-06:00

I've had a rough couple days of work lately. So, Jesse decided to write me another poem, titled "Nanny in Distress."

She has arms of warmth and affection
Her sweet love has a way of connection
Hard at times, she smiles through it
Even when Wesley is throwing a fit.

If nannying were a grade, she'd be grade A
This is my way of saying you brighten a day
Through poops, time outs, and bottles of milk
You still manage a smile as soft as silk.

Just keep loving, you're almost there
Even when your job is hard to bear
You can do it, you're holding to the rod
Remember when serving a child, you're really serving God.

I thought it was kinda cute and sweet. So I decided to share. It brought a smile to my face and laughter to my soul :) He really is an amazingly caring young man and would do pretty much anything moral to bring a smile to my face :)

Lake+Boats+Tubes+Knee Boards= FUN

2010-09-19T10:01:00.006-06:00

Our Branch went to the lake yesterday. We took 3 boats. 2 of which were faster and had tubes, knee boards, and wake boards. I didn't try the wake boards, none of the guys on my boat could get it, so I just enjoyed watching them fail. :) The tubes were SOOOO much fun! I am proud to say that I did not fall off even once! although, the constant landing and sliding on my elbows gave them some nice little burns. I wish I had taken my camera on the boat and taken video or pictures. It was so awesome! I'm extraordinarily sore today, but I wanna go again! Here are some of the pictures from the trip :)

HAHA look at those muscles!! YEAH!

Caving

2010-09-14T13:01:00.006-06:00

We went caving on Friday. It would have been cool if we could have stayed longer, but Sarah had to be to work by 10. This is the before picture! I didn't take my camera with me because it would have been caked in mud by the end! We had to climb up to a hole climb in and then slide through a bunnyhole. In some spots it was super muddy and slippery, some spots it was sticky, and other spots weren't too bad. We had to be careful of our footing in areas so we didn't fall down and get hurt. One of the boys told us they heard a story of a boy who broke his leg in the cave and had to hike back out. I guess there is a lake in the back of the cave, it takes a long time to get there though. It was enjoyable. Maybe we will go again sometime. :)

Food for Thought

2010-09-08T13:25:00.002-06:00

Last night at institute, my institute instructor, Sister Dick, left us with a closing thought to start off next week's discussion. Often times I think that a serpent is a symbol of the devil, however a serpent is actually a symbol of Christ. So, we are in Moses, talking about the plan and war in heaven and about to get to the Garden and Adam and Eve. So, her point was, that Satan had been kicked out of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's presence. Yet he had the nerve and was arrogant enough to come slithering into the garden, where both of them dwelt, in the appearance of the Savior to tempt Adam and Eve.

Just a little something to get you thinking. I might post more about that topic. Institute was really great last night and I learned a lot! :)

How?

2010-09-05T00:54:00.002-06:00

How do you help someone, who knows they need help, but refuses help? How do you help them understand that it's ok to accept or even ask for help? And on top of it all, how can they expect anyone in their right mind to just sit back and watch them? It's like watching a mouse trying to climb out of a 5 gallon bucket. It can't do it alone. It starts going and slides back down. BLAH. It's frustrating.

A Post of Happiness

2010-09-04T13:46:00.003-06:00

This is a little video of Wesley, I thought it was cute so I decided to share :)

And this is the picture I am contemplating using for my mission pic. I might try to take a new one.

New mormon.org

2010-08-28T13:27:00.003-06:00

I created a profile on the new mormon.org :) It's cool how the internet is now being used to share the gospel. I'm really looking forward to serving a mission and getting out and being an active part of missionary work!

Opinions Please?

2010-08-26T21:36:00.002-06:00

So, I have been asked to give a brief mini lesson for Mission Prep class on The Gospel Blesses Families. I'm supposed to share a personal experience or a story. I can't think of anything besides sealing us together for eternity. I mean, some people HATE their families, why would they want to be with them forever? So, besides being sealed to your family forever, what blessings does the gospel bring to your family?

Emotions

2010-08-19T08:57:00.003-06:00

Wow it's been a roller coaster of emotions during the past 24 hours! Jesse and I had some discussion and have both felt as if the other has been irritated with the other. Well, basically-that's not really true. So we talked that out and started talking about charity and how we both need to become better and do more for other people. Then we dropped by our friend Matt's house to pick something up and he told me that a girl in my branch was venting to him and I guess I offended her and possibly not only her but a few others. I'm not really sure. Basically, I feel like I've been a terrible friend and so when I got back in the car I reduced to tears because I feel like I have been failing in many areas. So after I stopped crying Jesse took me home and I went to bed. It's the start of a new day, and time for me to start being the person I should... so to a new me! Here it goes! :)

It's All In YOUR Control

2010-08-16T13:23:00.002-06:00

We have all had our good days, and we have all had our bad days. I think that if we all look back at those days we will notice that on our bad days we have a particularly frustrated or negative attitude. An "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" attitude. Well, bad things happen in life and I've learned that if you train yourself to control your emotions and not let what happens control your emotions that you have more good days than bad. If any of you have read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, you will have an idea of this theory. After working many years on trying to develop a more positive attitude (and STILL working) I have found more and more success with this theory. Also, one day I was reading in The Book of Mormon in Alma and came across this verse in chapter 41, verse 15:

"For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored..."

Even in the scriptures it is telling us that when we are sending out positive, happy, excited vibes, that's what we get in return. Have you ever had a bad day and someone who is super happy come up and starts talking to you or just smiles at you and it makes your day just a little better? Or have you ever had a fabulous day and then someone who is upset, negative, sad etc. comes up and suddenly your mood isn't as great? Remember that your attitude not only affects you, but those around you! You have the choice to make your day good or bad!

Ok, random rant, I know :) Update on my mission papers: I need to finish insurance information, get my physical, upload a picture and my driver's license, meet with my Branch President to help me prepare more, continue to attend Mission Prep, then another meeting with Branch President, one with the Stake President and my papers should be submitted in...42 days-ish!! :D

The process has BEGUN!

2010-08-08T11:33:00.003-06:00

I started working on my mission papers yesterday! I can turn them in in 46 days.:) Maybe a couple days before that. It all depends on when my departure date is. I'm debating between working throughout January and leaving in February, or coming home at Christmas and leaving around my birthday. I would want to find temporary work while I was home though. Anyway, those are my two options. I really just wanna go and get outta here. Earlier I was leaning toward working through January, now I wanna leave in January. We'll see what happens. I have two dentist appointments in the next 2 weeks, then I need to make a doctor's appointment. After that....it's just getting the paper work done! :D

FREEEEE!!!

2010-08-06T18:43:00.001-06:00

I HAVE OFFICIALLY PAID OF MY STUDENT LOANS! I had $4000 of loans at the beginning of the year and I have now paid it off!!!!!! Whoooopeeeeeeee! Now to budget and save for my mission :)

Recent Events

2010-08-01T10:32:00.002-06:00

Well, I spent a week in Utah/Idaho and was really excited to see family and friends that I haven't seen in a really long time. Bear Lake was beautiful, and the inn we stayed at was AMAZING. I then took Miranda up to BYU-Idaho with me and Tonya and Rocio helped to give her a tour of campus :) I got to see some old friends...and find out that Pama, probably the girl who knows me best even though we don't talk much anymore, is ENGAGED. How exciting, but soo weird. Sometimes I still feel like we are in young womens! She can't be engaged yet! I've had so many friends become engaged/married recently that sometimes I'm sort of jealous. BUT! I remind myself of all the stresses that come with weddings and the wonderful fact that I am going to fulfill my lifelong goal and dream--to serve a full-time mission! :D Which I'm extremely excited for! I'm hoping to be able to start my papers soon. My branch President is meeting with someone today to help him get things set up for me!! I'll keep you all posted on my mission papers :)

Miranda came and spent this past week with me. We got in on Saturday evening in a car with no A/C. It was HOT but we made it :) She got to meet some of my friends and we spent a lot of time with Jesse and his two little siblings Jake and Tessa. We attempted hiking--Tessa, Jake, and I were regretting the decision, so we turned around went home. So Jesse, Keenan, Max, and Miranda finished the hike. We also went Cliff Jumping. No worries, Miranda and I did not jump off. We didn't go to where we had planned on going. We went with Jesse's cousin Bo and I swear that bad directions run in their family, but we still ended up at a lake :) The cliffs weren't the best, but a few jumped and had fun, and the rest of us just swam until a storm came in and we had to make the hike back to the car. It was quite the adventure and we were just as wet by the time we got to the car as when we got out of the lake!

The next day we went swimming at the public pool when another storm came in (it's monsoon season) and we were forced out. We played in the pool's sand volleyball court with some little kids who thought they were all that. I was sooo ready to smack the little boy. Apparently he was 12--he looked like he was 6 or 7 and his brother looked like he was older, but apparently that was not the case. That night we went on a group date--sort of. Jesse and I, Max and Corri, Wilson and Miranda, and then Jesse's brother Jake and another kid Matt came without dates. Basically Wilson, Jake and Matt surrounded my sister asking all kinds of questions and giving her undivided attention. It was pathetic. At the end of the night they were all asking her if she had a phone/facebook.... everyone wants her to come back. I think they like her more than me :/

It's weird having 2 weeks off and now having to jump back into routine. I saw Wesley Friday afternoon for the first time and he gave me a hug and let me hold him for like 3 minutes. He told me all about his vacation to Oregon. I have missed this kid..I just haven't missed the responsibility, pressure, and stress my job brings. Oh well! :D

Life is wonderful and my internet is back up. I haven't missed it too much, just the ability to stay in touch with my friends and family.

3 Days until He Meets the Family...

2010-07-14T19:21:00.003-06:00

So, Friday night Jesse, Jason and I leave for Utah! Jesse is coming up with the main purpose of meeting my family. That's kind of a nerve-wracking thought. Originally, I thought he would only meet mom, dad and the siblings. However, by the looks of it, he may end up meeting A LOT more than that. If he isn't nervous about meeting any of my family...then..well, I don't know. I know I was a bit nervous when I met HIS grandparents. His parents were kind of natural since I go over to his house. But the fact that he has to go out of his way to meet them...yeah. It's sort of exciting. I've never had a special "meet the parents" thing before. I guess it's sort of a big deal? I don't know. I hope everyone thinks he is great, because he really really is! Maybe everyone will be supportive of me becoming a Chapman? hmmm..not that that really matters RIGHT now...but in a couple years. Plus, if my family likes him and supports it, it makes it all the easier to go back to it after the mission :)

Confession...

2010-07-10T11:42:00.003-06:00

You know the tall blonde boy in the picture with me at the top of this blog? Well, I'm in love with this boy. He's my best friend. And while I'm excited for us to go on missions and have amazing experiences, I'm looking forward to seeing him again after we get back. We have one amazing friendship and I hope that friendship lasts an extremely long time! That's basically all I wanted to say, so now everyone knows, if you didn't already know, that I'm head over heels for a boy, and his name is Jesse. :D

On September 23, 2010 I can.....

2010-07-07T00:05:00.002-06:00

TURN IN MY MISSION PAPERS. From today, that's 79 days. I'm excited. If you couldn't tell. I talked to my branch president today and I'll have forms from him on Sunday along with more info. It's not often that a branch president of a singles branch sends people on missions... Anyway, I'm excited. I'm finally taking the first step into my dream! It's gonna come fast. I've got to decided what my departure date will be, but I've got plenty of time to figure that out. Between July 26 and August 16th I will have: Top wisdom teeth removed, general teeth cleaning, and 4 cavities filled (2 appointments). The next medical thing there is the physical. Oh joy.. haha. Ok, well that's my news! Isn't it AMAZING? :D

Missions :)

2010-07-03T12:09:00.002-06:00

I'm excited and I really want to have my call already. My friend Emily Beu just got her mission call to the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors Spanish Speaking mission! That's 45 mins away from me! Of course she still has to go to the MTC...Maybe she'll be here before I leave to go home! That would make me happy :)She reports in September! Wow, as I see other people get their calls and get closer to submitting their papers it's getting me even more excited!

I wonder where I will go! It's exciting to think about :D I had a dentist appt yesterday so that I could get xrays taken so that I can go get my other 2 wisdom teeth out! I will schedule an appointment..probably Tuesday. I think most businesses will be closed Monday. I'm going to be scheduling the extraction for the last week of July. I'm also going to try to talk to President Anderson (my branch president) about mission prep stuff. Just to figure out what all I need to start doing and maybe even start on paperwork. I still feel like my mission is a goal I want to do eventually, but it's still forever away! Maybe it will feel more real once I start filling out papers and making preparations. Who knows. I think the only other thing after the removal of my wisdom teeth is the physical (so NOT looking forward to that). Then it's making sure I have all the financial covered...speaking of which...

I'M SUPER CLOSE TO HAVING MY SCHOOL LOANS PAID OFF!!! :D I have enough in the bank to pay them off but...I have a trip to Utah coming up, a dentist cleaning, then cavities to get filled, plus the removal of my wisdom teeth coming up, plus 2 paychecks of tithing, so I want to make sure I have enough money in the bank to cover it all... but I just made a big payment on it and now have $251.45! It's such a relief! After it's all paid off everything is going to saving!! (With some taken out for some spending) I need to relook at where I will be financially and create a budget so that I know where I will be at the end of the year! I'm excited! I'm pretty sure the next 6 months will go by fast and the next thing I know I will be in the MTC! :D