August 26th post and pics from Sister Randall

Hola Familia!

So this week is going to be short and sweet because again i have run out of time.  This week was transfer week and I came to Durby, KS on Thursday EARLY morning. Funny (or not so funny) Story. The bus was supposed to be in Emporia, KS at 5:30pm. It got to the building at 10:30pm. That's right 5 hours late! Don't ask me how just trust that it's true. We didn't get to Wichita until about 12:30 and didn't get home until 1:30. Thankfully President gave us strict instructions to get a full 8 hours of sleep. I haven't stayed in bed that late for 6 months!!

New Shirts!

Derby is a hard area for me right now. We don't have any investigators and we aren't allowed to tract. So what do we do with our time? Beats me!! My new companion Sister Bitter has been out for 3 months and is having a really hard time adjusting to new mission rules. She has been in the area for about 7 weeks now but knows nothing about the area. It is definitely going to be a hard adjustment for us both.

Andrea did get baptized on Saturday! Sister Prince and I didn't make it up to see her but we are so proud of her and we know that she is going to do amazing! It is so great to see people come into the fold of God and "reap the blessings" of church membership. I wish i could have been there to see her but i know that there are so many amazing members in the Lawrence 2nd ward that are going to take good care of her.

Chocolate Milk Mustaches

At the Salvation Army

I can't believe school is back in session for all of you Utahn's. So crazy!! There is something about a mission that tricks you into thinking that time stands still back home while you are gone. In my mind it is still snowing and below 10 degrees in Utah!

Tips about the old apartment.

Well I have to go but take care, have fun in school and enjoy the last little bit of summer!

With gobbs of love,

Sister Randall

August 19th post from Sister Randall

Hey!

Well the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that Andrea is still on date to be baptized!! She is so excited for her baptism it's amazing. We have been teaching her a ton this week. It has been so great to watch the RS sisters get involved. The amount of progress that has been made in Lawrence 2nd ward is incredible. 

Next big news... I'm being transferred. I have really mixed feelings about this transfer. I have grown to love Lawrence and my companion so much and I'm just not quite ready to leave yet. Both Sister Prince and I are being transferred out and they are white washing the area (bringing in 2 new missionaries to the area) with Elders. It was so hard for me to say good-bye to the sister's in our ward. I've grown so close to them. Especially the RS president. She has worked so hard to motivate the Sister's to do missionary work and now they will have to start all over with the brother's in the ward. But they will do great. We do get to come back for Andrea's baptism on Saturday so that lessened the sting of the pain from transfers. It still stinks though. 

So I'm sure you are all wondering where in KS am I going? Well I'm headed to... Derby, KS. My new companion's name is Sister Bitter. We will be in the Ridgepoint 2nd Ward. Cool thing, Sister Prince and I will be in the same zone though. I'm still not sure how I feel about the new area but i know that the lord is looking out for me and his children and Derby is where I am needed.

Sorry I don't have much to write about this week it's been a little crazy today trying to pack up and everything. Life is going good. It's crazy to think that tomorrow marks my 6 month mark!!! Can you believe that?! I still feel like a new missionary just trying to figure my way around.

Good luck starting school this week and remember that I love you!!

-Sister Randall

August 12th Post and Pic from Sister Randall

T

his week has been so great! I really don't have much time to write today because of some complicated things but I will type fast so disregard the typos. :)

The week was a fairly boring week with lots of thunderstorms :) I am seriously in love with KS thunderstorms. Mom (April) they have all been safe storms so don't you worry :) Thankfully many of them have been at night and in the morning during studies so we haven't gotten too wet. They are truly beautiful to watch though.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was a great training and as always it was wonderful to see President and Sister Bell. Thursday we had exchanges with the Sister Leaders in Manhattan. They went really well it was just what i needed to take a step back and recharge. 

The work is picking up and the ward is behind us 100%. The RS team ups are going great and we have had 2 less active Sisters come back to church this week. One of the Sisters has made huge progress and has even met with the bishop to begin working on becoming temple worthy to receive her endowments. We had a new young women (23 yrs old) move into our ward. She is a girl that the YW fellow shipped at girls camp this summer and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She was taking the discussions in Junction City and ate it up. We began teaching her on Saturday and invited her to baptism. She took her time to think about it then answered with a resounding "Yes, I will!" We are so excited that she is going to be baptized. She is now praying and figuring out a date that will work with everything else going on in her life but she is

prayerfully

 considering August 24th. She came to church yesterday for the first time and absolutely loved it! She has a lot of people that love her in this ward and it is so great to watch her progress. It is amazing how God places things in your life at just the right moment to lift your spirits just when you need it. 

Sister Prince is so great! She puts up with me well. :) We actually have a lot in common and she is very "jovial" as well. It's been a huge blessing to have a companion that i can laugh, joke, and have fun with. 

I am amazed at how much i have grown in the past 6 months and can't wait to see the growth that will occur in the next 12 months as i put my trust in the Lord. Life is great. The work is great. I really am growing to love Lawrence again :)

Take care this week and know that I love you all greatly!!!

-Sister Randall

Look it's my road! :) We drive by this sign every week on the way to church and i finally remembered to stop and take a picture :)

August 5th letter and pic from Sister Randall

Wow this week has been crazy in Lawrence. With KU starting so soon I think the population has doubled (ok not doubled but there are a ton more people here!) Traffic has been insane! I love it though it means more people to teach! We have helped so many people move in this week it's been so much fun. We had 3 families move in on Saturday that we got to help and many others throughout the week. 

The ward here is just amazing! The RS President has implemented a new "Tuesday Team ups" that is working great we have made some really great visits through that and contacted people that we have been trying for weeks to get in contact with. Also meals have been so great! We have made some good contacts through our dinners and members are trying really hard to have people over for dinner for us to teach. Ok so funny dinner story. We were at a members home and Sister Prince was helping their daughter plan a FHE lesson. She suggested the song "Love at Home" as the opening song. The husband and I both groaned at that song and he said "Did your mom sing that when you fought with your siblings too?" Haha  glad to know it happens everywhere! He then proceeded to sing us some primary parodies. 

1. "When We're Helping We're Happy"
    When we're not helping we're happy and we watch as we sing; For we love to watch mother as she cleans everything!

2. "Smiles"

 (The real words...)

 No one likes a frowning face.

Change it for a smile.

Make the world a better place

By smiling all the while.

(The parody)

 No one likes a smiley face, Change it for a frown.

 

Make the world a grumpy place by frowning all the while.

Oh the imagination of little kids when they aren't happy!!


Well i don't know what else to really tell you this week things are going ok. The work has been really slow in Lawrence and it's getting a little frustrating. We are going on exchanges with the sister leaders tomorrow and I'm a little stressed out by that but it will all work out. Then on Wednesday we have Zone Conference with President and Sister Bell that i'm really excited about Sister Bell is so great and President Bell is amazing too. I am looking forward to hearing some inspiring words to help me get motivated again to do missionary work to the fullest.

I love you guys and love getting your emails and letters! If I don't get back to you right away it's not because I don't care, 

p

days just aren't long enough!!!

 I will get back to you all eventually just give me some time :)

Love you!!!

-Sister Randall

p.s. Sister Prince and I finally remembered to take a companionship picture

July 29th letter from Sister Randall

Wow, where to start? This week has been pretty good! Sister Prince and I are warming up really well to each other. It's been fun this week. We had an amazing lesson at our dinner appointment last Monday with a members friend. She loved it and wanted to learn more. We met with her again on Tuesday morning and taught her the Plan of Salvation and about temples. It was so cool to see her light up when she heard about eternal families. 

The weather has been AMAZING in Lawrence this week! It's felt a lot like Utah summer nights here. Ps did i tell you guys that i love Kansas thunderstorms. Well if not I love Kansas thunderstorms. They are so pretty and for me, calming. Thankfully though i haven't had to experience a tornado storm yet.

The ward here is really stepping up to the plate with missionary work. The RS president is behind us full force now (which is amazing because she hasn't had the best relationship with missionaries in the past). The bishop is taking care of our meal calendar and getting us more meaningful appointments. It's just going really well. We have the ward behind us, now we just need the investigators in front of us! I hope all are doing your part back home for your missionaries :)

Sorry for the short email but i don't know what else to say. Life is good here in Jayhawk town. School is about to start here so it's a little crazy here. Streets are getting busier, lines are getting longer. But more people are here to teach!

With lots of love, 

Sister Randall

Julyy 22nd letter from Sister Randall

Can you believe it's been 5 months now? I still feel like I just got to the mid west and now I'm nearly a 1/3 of the way through my mission! 

Lawrence is doing good. We are a little low on the investigator side of things but we are working really close with the ward members to find more people to teach. One sister in our ward is amazing, she always has a nonmember at the RS activities each month. This month she brought a lady whose daughter is friends with her daughter. They met in Walmart Thursday morning and she invited her to come to the activity that night. It was a great way to introduce her to the gospel. We were able to talk to her for a little bit afterwards about the church and prophets (we watched a conference talk that Elder Ballard gave on families in 2005). She was really open and excited about the church. She said she is new to the "whole religion thing" and is open to learn more! Sister Bird just called us a couple of hours ago and said that her friend is coming to dinner tonight and she has invited her to church on Sunday already! We need more members like her! We are really excited to get to teach her tonight.

We are working a ton with the active members right now to get them excited about the Lord's work. We got to speak in church yesterday...that was fun. I'm not one for speaking in church but it didn't turn out too bad. I hope someone got something out of my talk. One positive thing, the ward RS sisters are now doing whats called "Team up Tuesday's" with us. We are supposed to have a team up with someone every Tuesday night where we will go and meet with their friends. I really hope it encourages them to find their friends that are prepared for the gospel. It really does make our job a whole lot easier/effective when the members do the finding. I hope you guys back home are helping the missionaries! Tracting is no fun!!

Sister Prince and I are doing much better. The adjustment period is really difficult as a missionary but I think once you get past that it is a whole lot easier. We actually work really well together and I'm excited to get to work with her more. It's funny to hear the reactions of people when they hear she is from MO. She usually gets "Oh your not very far from home! Or, Were you disappointed when you got your call?" and I always get "Oh, a Mormon from Utah!" It's pretty comical. Life is good though Sister Prince and I haven't had a chance to take a picture together yet so we will try and do that this week :) 

We got to meet President and Sister Bell on Thursday! They are sooo cute. Oh and their picture that i sent...it's like 20 years old. I didn't even recognize them when they walked in! Sister Bell is amazing! I already love her so much and can't wait to see her again. President Bell on the other hand is someone that will take some getting used to. But he will be amazing he just needs to grow into his calling a little bit. I can only imagine how stressed out they are! Sister Bell though is seriously so amazing!

Well you guys have a fantastic 24th of July! It's so weird being in a state that doesn't celebrate Pioneer day, I almost forgot about it! :) Love you guys!!

-Sister Randall

July 15th letter and pics from Sister Randall

Warning! Missionary Weight Gain is REAL!‏

Well this transfer week was totally different than the last one. 6 weeks ago i was beyond excited to be transferred. This week I didn't want the transfer to end. Sister Beus was amazing. We really got along well and could talk about anything. 

So there was a typo on the transfer list and I'm not covering the university ward :( But I still get to be in the 2nd ward so that is great. My new companion Sister Prince is...interesting. I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting used to her personality but we will work through it. Sister Prince was in the Colorado Springs mission and they had a lot of different rules so we are trying to straighten those out right now. She is from Missouri, a super small town, she was home schooled, and has never lived away from home. She has been on her mission now for 3 months. Slowly but surely.

Not much has happened this week because of transfers. I've spent the week getting ready for Sister Beus to leave and getting Sister Prince acquainted with Lawrence. I get to speak in church this Sunday so that will be fun... I think i'm going to speak on the miracles of missionary work. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Sorry my letter is so short my brain is in a million different places today and I can't seem to focus. Hopefully I can write something more meaningful next week.

I love you guys and please take care!

-Sister Randall

July 8th letter from Sister Randall

Hello from the Heartland!

Wow what to say...Transfer weeks are always stressful. Sister Beus is leaving Lawrence on Wednesday. I'm super bummed but excited for her to serve in another area. I will be serving with Sister Prince. (no idea who she is yet :) but I'm excited to meet her!) So crazy thing...I'll be serving in Lawrence 2nd ward...and the University Ward! I'm crazy nervous (mainly because I've been to a singles ward a total of 1 time!) but it will be an amazing experience. We will get to work with a lot more people and will get way more referrals (the best way to do missionary work i might add).

The chigger bites have subsided. Now it's time for the mosquito bites! But being a girl from Utah I'm used to those. :) And they don't itch nearly as bad as chiggers. Funny thing, there are so many things that i used to complain about in Utah (like the snow, the bugs, the heat, etc.) that I would give anything to have back now. I guess you don't know what you've got till it's gone right? I really do love it here in Lawrence though. It's been super fun to be in a university town with lots of people my age to talk to, and now I'll be working with them even more! So crazy!! 

We got to meet with Kay, an investigator, and teach her the first lesson again. She's been taught by missionaries for the last 5 months or so but no one has made it clear that we teach to baptize not just to inform. We went over that and she said she would pray about the things that we had taught her. Super exciting! We are finally getting somewhere with her! Brittany a recent convert got her patriarchal blessing on Saturday. She is amazing. She was just baptized in May and is already wanting to serve a mission and everything. She has even introduced us to her mom and a friend to the elders that is on date for baptism! Holy cow do i look up to her!

Not much else to report here! I'm doing really good. A little nervous about the changes about to happen but like they say, "The only thing consistent about missionary work is change!" I guess i should just learn to embrace it! Well I love you all and can't wait to hear how things are going back home!

With lots and lots of love,

Sister Randall

June 30th letter & pics from Sister Randall

Well today marks the first day of my mission in the Kansas Wichita mission! It's so crazy how this day seemed so far away when I first started my mission and now it is here. I attached a mission map for those that are curious. It's kind of cool i could serve in my home state (Colorado) or Oklahoma as well as Kansas. 

This week was fairly uneventful. I finally got cleared to drive! So we got the car for a whole 2 days before the Elders needed it back for P-day stuff. We will be back in the car tonight though :) (now that the hot week is over).

On Tuesday we met a ton of really great people though! It was kind of cool. We went to an appointment that didn't go very well at all. Then we were deciding what to do. Every time we made any kind of plan it just didn't feel right. We sat there for almost an hour contemplating what to do. Super frustrating! I think we made 3 different plans and every time they didn't work. We finally came up with a plan that was decent but still not amazing. In order for this plan to work however we had to make it to the bus stop in about 5 min. A walk that normally takes about 10. We knew we could do it if we hurried. As we were walking we ran into a man named Pat. He was great to talk to and even knew one of our members. After talking with him we knew there was no way we would make it to the bus stop in time. We decided to tract a few apartments and then head to another area. Those apartments had more people home than we had hit all day. It was a really productive place to tract. We even found a new investigator that is a baptist but a ton of her extended family is Mormon and she was interested about what they believe.

The only other really interesting thing that has happened to me is CHIGGERS!! Oh my are they painful! They are microscopic bugs that bite and dig into your skin. They stay there until you suffocate them. Their bites are like mosquito bites that itch WAY more! Not fun at all! Right now I've got 5 bites on my feet and 3 on my leg. Last night I painted them with nail polish to suffocate them. Hopefully my feet will be itch free in a couple of days. Note to self...stay out of the grass. On the bright side of things at least it wasn't a tick!

Well not much else to report on the Kansas front. I'm looking forward to meeting President Bell (on July 18th) and I'm excited to see the work change and progress. Keep up the member missionary work back home and send me your miracle stories they are so inspiring!

With lots and lots of love,

Sister Randall

Topeka Zone with President and Sister Keyes on our temple trip

Kansas City Temple

Lawrence Sisters (me, Sister Beus, Sister Murray, Sister Christenot)

The cutest ward member yet!

June 24th letter & pics from Sister Randall

Hello Friends and family!

This week has been a week of many miracles (and tears... I'll explain later). This week we had the opportunity to attend the Kansas City Temple before it is no longer a part of our mission. :( What a wonderful day. I don't know if you guys know much about the temple but a couple of cool facts, the theme is the olive branch and there is a BEAUTIFUL stained glass olive tree behind the recommend desk, and some of the wood used to build the alters and what not was taken from Adam Ondi Ahman, how cool is that?!  The temple was so wonderful. I was able to participate in an endowment session and those that didn't fit got to do sealings. After the session we all met in the celestial room where President Keyes and Sister Keyes greeted us with hugs and handshakes. We sat quietly in there taking in the beauty of it all. While I was in there is was thinking about how this is what it is going to be like on a small scale when we meet our Heavenly Father and Mother. The love was overwhelming. After the temple we went over to the Liberty Stake Center and had a Zone Conference. It was all tears from the moment we walked in. The sisters from the visitors center were there with Elder Brenchly (The former MTC choir director) They began by singing the new Kansas Wichita Mission song. It is so beautiful we were able to then sing it with them tears and all. Then they sang "God be with you till we meet again." More tears... The new assistants bore their testimonies. It is so great to hear young men bear their testimonies about the Savior and missionary work. They are going to be amazing. Sister Keyes got up and tried to talk to us through tears. It was so cute when she got up there she grabbed the tissue boxes from both sides of the podium, slammed them on the podium and said "I'm going to need these!" It has been so hard to see them cry. PresidentKeyes bore his testimony and at the end stated, "If this is what it feels like to be released as a mission president, then I want nothing to do with it!" It broke my heart in two. At the end we sung "God be with you till we meet again." There wasn't a dry eye in there. On the last chorus we all began to stand up. What a powerful experience. If it weren't for the Elders that last verse wouldn't have been sung. The sisters cry too much :) It was a beautiful experience that i will never forget.

On to miracles this week we found people that were prepared! We found a new investigator while looking for a less active member. She is wonderful we taught her the first lesson and when we asked her what it would mean to her if these things were true she said that she already knows they are true! She is wonderful and we can't wait to continue to teach her. The other miracle we have seen this week was on Friday night. It was near the end of the night and we were going to visit a former investigator in a trailer park. When we got to her trailer Sister Beus and I both felt like we shouldn't visit her. So we continued walking down the road towards another potential. On our way a man was getting ready to get into his car when we said hello to him. He asked us what we were doing and we told him we were missionaries and we were going to talk to someone that lived close by. He asked us how come we weren't coming to talk to him. We were stopped in our tracks and told him we were! We got to talk to him about his life and his family who just immigrated from Nigeria 9 months ago. He has 4 children and came to the USA to give his children a better education. His faith in God is SO strong! He asked us if we had a pamphlet or something to give to him. We left him with a Plan of Salvation one and our phone number. He said he would read it and call us if he had any questions. The next day he called and said he had some questions and would like to meet with us! We feel so blessed to have met him and his family and can't wait to begin teaching him the restored gospel!

I'm doing SO great here in Lawrence! I finally feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be and that I'm doing some good. Missionary work is hard but the reward far exceeds the difficulties! Next week President Bell will be here and I will officially be a part of the Kansas Wichita Mission. I attached a picture of President Bell and his wife.

 He looks like a lot of fun. He's a retired colonel in the United States Air Force. I'm really excited to meet him and his wife. We got to tour the new mission home and office on Tuesday morning. That home is beautiful! I wish we had time to take pictures but the whole morning was a blur. 

But this week has been so good! I hope you all got to watch the special broadcast on missionary work and were inspired to do more member missionary work! It is amazing how little you have to look for opportunities to share the gospel. Missionaries need your help finding people to teach, knocking doors just isn't cutting it anymore! :) If you didn't get to watch it it's online and you should. :) My 3 favorite things about this gospel is the work the youth do, The Book of Mormon, and that we have a prophet on the earth today that leads and guides us. What a blessing from God that is! I hope this email finds you well and that you guys are having a wonderful summer!

Take Care,

Sister Randall

June 17th letter from Sister Randall

D

ear Friends and Family,

This week has been so great! I really am so much happier.

 Sister Beus is amazing! We get along really well and work well together as well. I finally passed off my lessons so now i can drive! It's going to be weird driving again seeing that it's been nearly 4 months since I've been behind the wheel. 4 months, can you believe it? It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. I don't have much to write about this week except one miracle story.

Sister Beus and I were waiting at the bus stop and i handed the phone to her so she could make a few calls while we waited. (I usually keep the phone because Sister Beus' bag is a black hole) We got on the bus and got to talking with people and i thought nothing of the phone. We went to our dinner appointment and then to a recent converts home. She didn't answer so i told Sister Beus to call her. She looked in her bag for a little bit and couldn't find it. Yup we lost the phone... We called the family that we had dinner with and they couldn't find it. So the only other option was the bus station. We called them the next morning and they hadn't seen it. I got a feeling that we should call our phone. Not really knowing why because it was on complete silent mode and was probably lying on the bus floor. Sister Beus called it and we got the voice mail. Only it said "hi this is Mark leave a message." My first thought was great someone stole our phone and changed the voice mail already. Then she just happened to look in her old planner where she had written our phone number down. 2 yes 2 numbers had been switched! She had been giving the wrong number out for almost 3 weeks! What a blessing it was to have lost the phone no matter how much stress it caused me :) We found the phone later at the bus station and found 2 potential investigators riding the bus that day. The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways!

I don't have much else to say... The work is going great in Lawrence, KS. The ward is amazing. Sister Beus is amazing. Missionary work is amazing. It took long enough but I think I can honestly say that I love being a missionary now. Keep up the hard work back home and keep cool this summer!

With lots of love,

Sister Randall

June 10th letter & pics from Sister Randall

This week has been so great!! There really hasn't been anything special going on, it's just been a positive week. Sister Beus is so great we have connected really well. (not as much as Sister Wood and I did, but still pretty good) We have a lot of things in common. It's been really good.

The work was a little slow going at first as we both are pretty new to the area. But I've got a lot of it figured out now so things are going smoother. Now if we only had a car... but i will pass off my last lesson on Friday and we will get a car every other week after that. But we are getting a lot of exercise and a good tan (farmers tan) Sister Beus and I took pictures last night of our awesome tan lines to compare them too at the end of the summer. They should be pretty great.

We were out tracting on Saturday and ran into a guy named Jason. We were looking for a former investigator who apparently had moved. He just returned from Iraq and is having a hard time connecting with his kids again and really liked what we had to say about families.  But anyways we were talking to Jason and shared a run down version of the Restoration and asked if we could meet with him again. He said yes and we set up an appointment to meet with him on Saturday. We feel so blessed to have found him and can't wait to begin teaching him.

The ward is super great here. Everyone is so willing to help us out with food and rides. We've only had to cook dinner once here. So that has been great. Although the food isn't quite as good (although still delicious just not as calorie/carb packed) as Albany it's been super good because I'm not gaining weight anymore. :) 

Oh something exciting, We are having a special Zone Conference with all of those missionaries that will be in the Kansas, Wichita mission and June 18th and President Keyes got special permission from Salt Lake to go to the temple that day as well. I'm so excited to be able to go to the temple again and to finally get to see the inside of the Kansas City Temple. Especially because it is the same set up as Payson. So it will be kind of a preview for me for when i get back. Can you believe that when I get home we will have 3 Temples within 20 minutes from home? How blessed are we to live in such a wonderful area where going to the temple doesn't have to take the whole weekend or longer like it is for most. I know i took advantage of that when i was at home, but i hope now that i see the dedication of other faithful members that i will continue to be more grateful for the blessings we have as members in Utah.

I don't really know what else to say. Everything is going great here. I love my new area. I love the people. I love my companion. And most importantly I love My Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for all of the things I have been blessed with especially for the love and support from all of my friends and family. I appreciate the prayers in my behalf they have helped me through many good and bad times.

Hope you all are having a great summer and look forward to hearing from you all soon.

-Sister Randall

June 2nd letter and pics from Sister Randall

Wow has this week been a whirlwind! I don't even really know where to start... We had a great pday on Monday shopping in St. Joe. It's been so weird to be so far from everything. We have to drive an hour and a half to get to even a Target. But it's been fun being out in the country. I really do love Albany and the people here have become like family to me. When i come back to my mission Albany is definitely on my list.

Tuesday night was the night we got our transfer roster. Sister Grange and I were both expecting her to be transferred because she is Spanish speaking and a visitor center sister. Well predicting transfers is crazy. We were listening to the call and heard, "In Albany, Sister Grange and Sister Hyer." I think i started crying when i found out i was leaving. But on Thursday i got transferred to Lawrence, KS. Hometown of Kansas University. I will be in the new Kansas Wichita mission, but I'm super excited about it. It's going to be hard to leave President and Sister Keyes but I'm excited to meet President Bell.

 Lawrence is nothing like Albany, it's HUGE! We have 4 wards here! I'm in Lawrence 2nd ward right now and I'm loving it! My new companion is Sister Beus. She is from Treemonton? Utah. But she went to BYU for a semester before coming on a mission. Crazy story, she's friend with McKay Bowcut, and David Bates! It's kinda crazy how small of a world we live in. Sister Beus is a visa waiter. She is going to Brazil! Oh ya and I'm training... Sister Beus has been out in the field for 5 weeks... The Lord must have a lot of faith in me.

One of our investigators furry friends.  Looks like Sophie only a little more poodle in her.

Sister Grange

Before the storm.

After the storm.  "The weather has been crazy here but we are safe."

God's beauty

Something really cool happened to me yesterday though. I was having a really rough day emotionally and was really close to calling President Keyes and telling him i wanted to come home. I never did call though and i soon found out why. At Church on Sunday we were talking to a less active woman that said she has wanted to invite her friend to meet the missionaries but there has been too much change and no stability in the missionaries here that she has been hesitant. Then again we talked with another member and heard a similar story. I now know that i am in this area to provide someone that the ward members can trust with their friends. I have no intention of coming home now. How could you when you know that there are members out there just waiting to share the gospel with their friends? Thank you all so much for you encouraging words they have kept me on my mission while i figure out my purpose and why I'm here. 

I love you all so much and love hearing from you. Keep writing  :)

With lots of love,

Sister Randall

May 27th letter from Sister Randall

Dear Family and Friends,

Life is pretty good in Albany. I’m a bit short on time today however because we spent the day in St. Joseph shopping and passing off my lesson. As missionaries we are required to memorize the lessons in Preach My Gospel and pass them off to our leaders. So we went to Culver’s with the Elders, got lunch, and passed off my lesson hallelou! 3 down 2 more to go. I’ve really been struggling to memorize them lately my attention span is about that of a nat, must be the stress. Boy is missionary work hard! Hard but rewarding.

Speaking of rewarding. We found 2 new investigators this week!! One is  a referral from some Mormon boys up here selling DirecTV. She isn’t a super solid investigator at this point but we have only met with her once. She has two really cute boys, a 2 year old and a 13 year old. We are hoping to see her at church this week plus we are going to go back on Friday and teach her the restoration. Our other investigator’s name is "T". "T" is "R"’s (our less active that is coming back to church) best friend. It was so cool meeting with her. When we first got there she was excited to meet us but made sure that we knew she wasn’t interested in joining she just wanted to meet the girls helping her best friend out. We taught her the restoration and "R" was able to share her testimony really powerfully. Afterwards we asked her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She said yes! Then we asked her if she came to know these things were true if she would be baptized, again she said yes! I guess the best thing about the lesson was to see her take a 180. She wasn’t interested at all in the beginning and now she is reading and praying about what we taught her!

                Not much else going on up in the middle of nowhere. Transfers are coming up and I know that Sister Grange and I are both looking forward to it. She is a wonderful person but we are not meant to work together, our personalities just don’t mesh very well. But we will find out tomorrow night whether or not one of us is leaving.

                Church attendance is up right now. Which is so great! We don’t have any investigators coming to Church right now but we have so many less actives returning that we haven’t seen in quite a while. It is so nice to see all of our work doing some good in the Branch.

                Well I love you all and look forward to hearing from you soon! Hugs and Kisses all around.

-Sister Randall

May 20th letter from Sister Randall

Can you believe that it's been 3 months since I've been home!? It's so crazy to think that I've completed a sixth of my mission already.

Monday was a ton of fun...but super crazy again. I'm grateful for the things that we were able to do but I'm really glad we are laying low today. It's been a little too crazy for me to keep up without my down time on Monday's. We've been visiting a lot with a less active member who i just realized is as old as my mom :) It's funny how as you age age doesn't matter as much. We've become really great friends with Wendy and love going and reading scriptures with her. It's turned into a weekly thing now so it's great. Another great thing that has happened is Ruth is reactivated! She has been to church 2 times in a row now, been to two church activities, and has asked her friend to meet with us! We are so proud of the progress our members in Albany are making and can't wait to see them grow more and more.

Albany has officially hit summer... Tuesday it was 97 degree's out side and Saturday it was 105 degree's couple that with the humidity and you have hot hot hot! We are spending a lot of time tracting now. Because it has warmed up more people are outside and willing to talk with us. On Saturday we were tracting out in the country part of Albany when we knocked on a woman's door named Vicki. Vicki has been prepared for the gospel. She has a strong relationship with her Father in Heaven, she knows how she receives answers to her prayers, and she has recently lost her mother. We ended up spending 3 hours with her discussing gospel principles with her. It was funny I don't know if we really taught her anything because she already knows a lot of our basic doctrine is true. We are so grateful to have found Vicki and we can't wait to meet with her again tonight and invite her to baptism!

Saturday night we had a branch BBQ that the Senior Sisters put together. These last few weeks we have been individually inviting many of the less active members. Our hard work sure paid off! we had a really great turn out. We had a few less active families that no ones seen in a long time show up. We even had a few part member families show up with their non member spouse. It was a lot of fun and really great to see so many people come out to the activity.

Yesterday we had a great day at church. The Relief Society lesson was on temples and family history work. I wish as missionaries we could do family history work and take the names to the temple. I wish we were able to attend the temple more often as missionaries. Oh how I long for that peace right now that comes only from being in the holy temples of the Lord. It really saddens me to think of how many people back home don't take advantage of the temple being so close to home. On the other hand I love seeing the dedication of the people out here. We have one couple that drives to the Kansas City Temple (about a 2 and a half hour drive) every week to be temple workers.  Yesterday we went to the Gardner's for dinner. Their house is crazy but we love it there We were able to get into a great conversation with them about why they aren't coming to church and to resolve some of their concerns. I really hope that they got what we were saying and have that desire to return to church. At about 7:45 last night while we were there we heard thunder and decided we better head home. There had been a lot of talk about a possible tornado yesterday and the sky was getting pretty sketchy looking. It began raining on our way home and only got worse after we got home. There was also talk of baseball sized hail coming with the storm so we parked Morris (our car) half way under the porch so the windshield was protected. I took a picture of it but i forgot my camera so I'll send it with next weeks letter. It was pretty funny. It was pretty funny because of how Sister Grange parked we couldn't get out of the front car doors so we had to climb in the back and run  out from there. I was in the rain for maybe 5 seconds and when i got inside i had to change because i was soaked. Hooray for crazy adventures!

Well things are going great in Albany, i love serving the Lord and can't wait to hear back from you all!

Take luck!, take care of the luck... (look it up :)

-Sister Randall