April 29th Pics and Post from Sister Randall

It's probably going to be a short letter this week not a whole lot happened. On Monday sister grange had a dentist appointment in Maryville about an hour away so that took up quite a bit of our p-day unfortunately. We did however have time to see Conception Abby so that was really neat. A Monk gave us a tour of the Basilica and part of the seminary. It was interesting to learn from someone who knew so much.

 

On Tuesday we finished painting the branch member's home we have been helping with. It was so good to see that project finished. Tomorrow we will help them unpack and get settled in their new house. While we were at a members home on Tuesday our one investigator called us and dropped us, thankfully we went and visited with her on Wednesday and she is back on! She even prayed for us Wednesday night. Oh and it snowed this morning! Crazy stuff, everyone out here is saying this never happens, but this girl from Utah is used to snow in April.

 

Wednesday we had our district meeting in St. Joe. Our new district leader Elder Lowrey did a fantastic job leading the meeting. He really knows how to inspire his district. The rest of the afternoon we spent doing some last minute prep on our youth activity. The activity that night went really well there were a few youth that really got into it and i think were inspired to be better member missionaries. One even talked about a friend he is thinking about inviting to church! I hope he follows through with it.

 

Thursday we got Sister Montierth back. She went to Arizona for her sister's funeral last week and got back Tuesday but was so worn out we didn't see her till Thursday. It was super funny we were on the phone with our zone leaders (with it on speaker phone) when up front Sister Montierth let out a big belch. It was pretty funny! I really hope the Elders heard her!

 

On Friday we had to go back to the dentist because Sister Grange had 2 cavities that she needed to get filled. While she was getting drilled Elder Lowrey and Elder Stockwell came to the office so i could pass off lesson 2. I can't tell you how good it feels to have that done and over with. Now i just have 3 more lessons to go and I'll be done, (that is for 6 months then I'll have to do it all over again).

 

Saturday was super interesting. We participated in the communities day of "Helping Hands". It's a service day where the community gets together to help the elderly clean gutters, rake leaves, clean windows, you name it. It was great to get out in the community and help those in need. The interesting thing came later in the day while we were tracting. We were knocking doors on the Senior Sister's street when we ran into the baptist pastor. We had a really good, long conversation about our beliefs and we were able to straiten out some misconceptions he had about our church which is always great. It's been hard out here in that manner so many people don't know the difference between our church and the RLDS church, so we've spent a ton of time explaining that to people. Oh gross story on Saturday. I went into the laundry room to get ready for the day when i noticed a dead little "friend" (mouse) by our washer. It took all i had not to run out of that room screaming. I grabbed all of my hair stuff, turned off the light, shut the door, and went to get ready else where. I kept trying to get myself to go and take care of it, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. Give me spiders, crickets, or beetles and I'm fine but rodents are a no go! So i gave Brother Smith (our landlords) a call and asked him to take care of it. Thankfully he is super nice and took care of it no problem.

 

Yesterday we went to Platte City for a special stake conference. Everyone talked about them splitting the stake or releasing the stake presidency but nothing special really happened. It was funny the member of the 70 that spoke said they don't dispute the rumors because it gets more people to the meetings :) Sunday after stake conference we got our car finally. I thought i would be more excited about it but it's been really hard to spend so much time with Sister Grange. I really just want to go back to riding with the sisters, but we get more done with our own car i guess.

 

Today it finally warmed up (that's what the picture attached is for) When we came out of Walmart it was 80 degrees. Can you believe it snow on Tuesday and 80 degree's on Monday? Honestly I'm not looking forward to the heat. With all the complaining i did in Utah about the cold I'm beginning to realize that i like the cold a whole lot better than the hot! It's like Grandpa Randall said, " You can always put more clothes on in the cold, but you can only take so much off in the heat before you're naked!" Well wish me luck out here in little Albany, MO!

 

With Love,

Sister Randall

April 22nd post from Sister Randall

Hello Hello!!

 

Well things have been great here in Albany! So P-day last week was fantastic! (Dad you're going to be jealous) After our normal letter writing and laundry we got ice cream, not just any ice cream, Russel Stover's ice cream :) Super yummy! While we were there "C" called us! It's been about 3 weeks since we had heard from her so it was really nice to hear from her. So she had 3 main exciting things to report to us. 1. She prayed about a baptism date and she is getting baptized on May 18th! 2. She has quit smoking! 3. Her and Ammon are expecting!! She sounds like she is doing really great. Her husband got a promotion at work and she has a job down there already as well. I can't wait to see her (and her baby) when i get back home.

 

On Tuesday Sister Montierth lost her older sister. She's been taking it pretty hard. She flew out to Arizona on Friday for the funeral. So it's just been Sister Grange, Sister Angle, and I the rest of this week. I hate to say it but it's been kinda nice. We've been able to get a ton done! We found 1 new investigator this week. Her name is "W". She's still a little skeptical about the whole Book of Mormon thing but with a little TLC and some time i believe she will get there :) Tuesday was the night we found out who was getting transferred. Sister Grange and I will be in Albany for at least another transfer. But we lost our District Leader, Elder Moyle, and one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Lusk. It's sad to watch them go but I'm excited to get to know the new ones that's for sure.

 

Wednesday was crazy! It rained (no poured) for over 24 hours! One of our branch members said that we got over 3 inches of rain! It was sure an adventure tracting in the pouring rain. You should have seen some of the clouds out here it was kinda creepy. anyways i took a video of the lightning but apparently gmail has a 250mb limit and won't let me send it :( but it's pretty cool you can hear the rain coming down and see the silhouette of the trees in the lightning.

 

Can you believe that on Saturday I have been out for 2 months! Time sure does fly. We went to a little town called Allendale on Saturday. Apparently there used to be an RLDS church up there so we met a ton of RLDS members. It's really hard to teach them because they believe that their church is the same as ours (only their women have the priesthood). That made for an interesting day. Oh and i went to Denver on Saturday. No not Colorado :) Denver, MO. Look it up, it is SUPER SUPER small!! But we wanted to check it out anyways :) Funny story from Denver. We knocked on this house and a guy came to the door. I thought he was drunk the way he was acting.

He asked us "Are you guys Jehovah's Witnesses?"

"No, we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints"

He still looked confused so we said, "Some people call us Mormons."

He responded, "Do you guys have the same husband?"

We both looked at each other and laughed and said, "No we don't practice polygamy!"

Oh man it was pretty dang funny stuff! Turns out he had been in the hospital that night so he was worn out and I'm sure on some medicine that knocked him out pretty well.

 

I have 2 other quick funny stories that may or may not be funny to you. Missionary humor is strange and i think I've fallen victim to it :) On Tuesday we visited with a less active woman in our branch and we found out that her heater was broken but someone was supposed to come and fix it. Well on Thursday during the big storm we though we would text her and see if it ever got fixed since it had been pretty cold. She text us back and said "No, are you going to come fix it?"

We replied, "We can find someone to do it but Preach My Gospel doesn't teach us that kind of stuff." (again maybe missionary humor isn't that funny) She hadn't looked at the who the text had come from and thought we were someone else but she got a kick out of our response.

 

Last story and then i have to run. On Thursday night we had tornado watches from the storm and Sister Grange was getting a little antsy about it and was on the phone with Elder Moyle. She asked him "Elder Moyle, What do we do if there's a tornado?" His response was awesome. "I don't know, run around outside in circles?" Apparently Elder Moyle is not the person to ask but we got a kick out of it.

 

Last night Sister Angle and us had a sleepover. It was super fun! I never thought i would have a sleepover with a 69 year old woman but it was great! She even got up in the morning and made us bacon and french toast on homemade bread. Super yummy stuff! ell we are headed off to the next activity for the day so i need to sign off. But i love you all and will write soon!

 

April 15th post from Sister Randall

Well...this week has been pretty uneventful. We've had some pretty good thunderstorms this week. I love the place I'm staying in because there are 3 sliding doors two in the front room and one in the bedroom. So on one of the nights when it was stormy we left the blinds open and watched the lightning and listened to the thunder. I LOVE mid-west thunderstorms! they are the best :)

On Wednesday we had zone training so we had to drive down to Platte City, it's about a 2 hour drive. Before zone training we were supposed to prepare a golden nugget (a quick thought) on PMG Chapter 6 and be prepared to share it with the zone because they would choose 3. I'm so glad i prepared something because being in a zone with only one set of sisters you get called on a ton! Zone training went really well. I love going to these because the Elder's go to a training with President Keyes and then they come and teach us. So it's pretty much like President Keyes is giving the training.

One super exciting thing is that "J" is progressing!! He is keeping all (well almost all) of his commitments and he prayed out loud twice this week! it's truly amazing to hear an investigator pray out loud for the first time. It brings a spirit to their lives that can't be felt any other way. It was pretty funny though the second time we met with him he took charge and asked me to say the opening prayer. after the lesson he quickly asked Sister Grange to say the closing prayer (we weren't going to let him get away with that :) no way Jose!) Sister Grange asked him to pray instead he wasn't super happy about it but he knew we wouldn't let him off the hook so he prayed but he made sure everyone knew that he wasn't happy about it! Sister Grange had a hard time not laughing as he pray because he said it with such attitude! A 42 year old man throwing a fit is pretty funny.

On Friday we met a man named ("N" named i hope) Hollywood. The first thing he said to us as we walked up was "You're not a Jehovah's Witness are ya?" We told him, "No, but we're Mormon. Is that alright?" He really was a funny guy and gave us all kinds of nonsense. There is no way we would ever get anywhere with him anytime soon but he sure was great to talk with.

On Saturday we had a less active women call us needing help cleaning up and moving into her new place. It was really great to help her with her new home. The renters before left it a total mess but he did our best to get it livable for her. Sister Grange and I were so excited that she called us to help her. Her brother lives in the branch and is an active member but for some reason she became less active. I really hope that her calling us is some sort of indication that she intends to come back. We are working really hard to get some of these less active members (especially the priesthood holders) back to church to strengthen this branch.

Well all is well in the dot on the map, Albany. Sister Grange and I are going to work really hard this week to find a new investigator to teach and share the gospel with.

Here's a favortie scripture from the week's studies.

-D&C 90:24

Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walkuprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.

With much love,

-Sister Randall

Personal note on Sister Randall from April Miller

I just wanted to write a little and say how awesome Sister Randall sounds like she is doing.  On top of the letters that we post each week that she sends she also write out personal letters to a lot of her family members including little sisters and mothers and fathers.

I just had to post something funny from one of her letters that I thought was great!  This was from a letter this last week:

"It is so peaceful out here.  We have tons of birds in our front yard.  Grandma Mahaffey would love it here.  On our drive in from town to home they have a ton of cow farms.  The amount of calves in the field is unreal and so adorable.  Another thing that is really big here is pig farms.  Thankfully they are way out of town...:)  also did you know they raise camels in Missouri?  well the do!  Crazy right?"

I just thought it was funny that they raise camels in Missouri and thought all of you might get a kick out of it.  She is excited about the new missions that are being created and her mission is one of the ones that will be split I believe it is in July so we will see where she ends up.  Her mission president sent out a letter asking for our prayers for the missionaries when this change occurs so they can have a little extra love and support.  So everyone keep her in your prayers.

Love,

April

April 8th Post and Pics from Sister Randall

Wow how time flies! We are already on the last full week of my first transfer!

We dropped by "C"'s on Monday to see if they had left for Utah yet. They made it off safely that morning. Utah now has one heck of a young woman! I really hope that she connects with the missionaries out there and continues to progress. It's crazy how quickly you fall in love with the people you are teaching.

For our service hours last week (and this week i guess) we are helping paint a young families new house. She is having a baby next month and the house isn't anywhere near ready. We ended up spending the whole 4 hours priming the living room, baseboard, crown molding and trim included. We had a ton of fun being able to relax a bit and help someone in need. It is going to take a ton of time and man power to get that house ready so we are headed back on Thursday to help paint again. We also met with two part member families this week. They are both really great people living really good lives i just wish we could get them to see the importance in this Gospel that we, and their spouses see.

On Friday we had our first district meeting in Maryville. The elders that are serving there are always saying how small it is and that they have had a hard time finding people because of it. We got to the main highway there and saw a Jimmy Johns, JC Penny's, Maurice's, Domino's... Umm sorry elders that is not small! :) our biggest name brand store is half an hour away...and it's a Walmart :) Anyways we had a really great meeting on finding. We did role plays at the end of the meeting and they made the senior sisters participate. Let me just tell you Sister Montierth was not having it! She hates role plays! She's pretty funny we call her our drama queen :)

Can i just say that there is very few things good about getting older but General Conference is one of them!! We were able to watch all of them and boy i feel like almost everyone of them had special meaning to me. I'm so grateful that we have modern day revelation. That we are able to hear from our prophet and his apostles. There were a few talks that really hit home and i can't wait to read them over and over again in the ensign. Isn't it great that we can get online and watch it or get it on the computer the next day?

So i can't remember if I've told you guys about "J" or not, but he is an investigator that we had been teaching but we felt that he wasn't progressing and we almost dropped him. We ran into his friend however on Wednesday and he said that "J" was wondering if we had dropped him because we hadn't been over in awhile. He also said that he had been reading from the Book of Mormon. Well if someone is keeping their commitments then they are considered progressing. So we went over and saw him on Friday and he is doing great! He has read the passages that we gave him, so we think that we are just going to have to patient as we work with him.

Thank you everyone for the letters and the packages! I love hearing from you and i love being on the Lord's errand!

-Sister Randall

April 1st Post and Pics from Sister Randall

This week has been pretty great! After the "snow storm" on Sunday we had a pretty good p-day. It was super relaxed and we pretty much just did laundry, grocery shopping, and letter writing. Then that night we taught a recent convert her first new member lessons. i guess technically she isn't a new member it's been 4 years but no one ever taught her so we get to. She is a 14 year old girl that I'm pretty sure joined because she was pressured by some of her (adult) friends. So we are working really hard to help her build a testimony of her own about the church and it's teachings.We've taught her the first lesson and visited with her a ton this past week to try and build that trusting relationship she needs. That night we were supposed to go and teach a fhe lesson to a less active family and eat dinner there but they all got sick and had to cancel. So we at with the senior sisters for dinner that night.

On Tuesday we went to eagleville and saw a member up there (when i say up there i mean UP there!) the country up there is super pretty and we must have made an impact on the less active we visited because she came to church yesterday. after eagleville we went to grant city where one of our new investigators live. His name is "E". I'm not sure about him yet he is looking for something but not willing to make the changes to better himself. We are planning on meeting with him again this week sometime to see if he has progressed any, but we'll see.  Before dinner we were able to visit a part member family and talk with the husband (the member) he was a great guy and really enjoyed us being there. For dinner we went to the "H" family. They are a great young family that has just become active again. It was so great to spend time with their family before the move to Utah this week.

Wednesday, we had zone conference! Zone conference next to general conference is the best! We spent the entire morning and afternoon learning how to better ourselves as missionaries. We got to hear from President Keyes, his assistants, and his counselors. Lately Sister Grange and I have had the impression that we needed to work more with the less actives in our branch to strengthen them before we add to it. But that's not really part of our calling.  Our motto pretty much sums up what we do. "In the Missouri Independence Mission we find, teach, baptize, confirm, and retain" Well at zone conference we watched a video from the quorum of the twelve that told us, now that there are so many missionaries in the field our calling has broadened. They want us to focus on reactivating members and help them become temple worthy member. Our motto now is "In the Missouri Independence Mission we find, teach, baptize, confirm, retain, and reactivate" It's so exciting!  Zone conference was absolutely amazing and i can't wait for another one. oh and i got to see all of my MTC sisters so that was super great too!

Thursday, we went to see "C" today and found out that her husband got a welding job in Utah so they are moving tomorrow :( I'm super sad to see her go but she is going to do so much better out there. We sat down with her for a while and talked to her about her BoM reading. Man is that girl dedicated! It's crazy how easily you call tell if someone is reading the book of Mormon or not. Her whole demeanor has changed for the better. She is doing so great. That night for dinner we were fed by a family that lives about 45 min away so they brought the food to the church so that was fun. But besides "C" it was all just trying to contact people to teach.

Friday, For our service (we are supposed to do 4 hours of planned service a week) we performed a Easter program at a care center here in Bethany. We performed a bunch of baptist hymns that we had only heard once the night before so it was interesting. But is was cool to sing with Sister Montierth since she had sung with Grandma Mahaffey in a trio some time ago. Regardless of how the program sounded they loved it, thankfully because it really wasn't that good. :) After the Care center we tracked down a few other members then went to this 89 year old women's house for dinner. She cooked us a FEAST. We had ham, potatoes, vegetables, the works. it was our Easter feast. We had a great time the rest of the night with her and some other branch members.

Saturday, Friday night I began to get a little sore throat, by Saturday morning i had a full blown cold. Not fun at all this dang weather can't make up it's mind on whether it wants to be cold or hot outside. Because missionary work is go go go all the time i stayed in with Sister Montierth and had a sick day so i could get better quick, and besides who wants a stranger in a skirt (a very uncommon thing here) with a cold coming into their house. That night i did go out because of the Young Women's broadcast. A couple of weeks ago we had told the young women's president we would come and bear our testimonies on personal progress. That all went really well, and we got a dinner out of it :) We went and saw "C" again and she was still doing great! She told us that her and "A" were going to come to church!

Sunday, a couple of weeks ago the first councilor here asked us to speak in church on Easter Sunday. Super intimidating. i really hate speaking in church but you can't say no as a missionary :). I was still feeling super sick so i basically shared a thought and bore my testimony, then Sister Grange took up the rest of the time. I'm so grateful for that because i was in no shape to talk for too long. After Church we went to a members home and had another Easter Feast. He had most of his extended family over and "C" and "A" as well so it was super great to see her. We were teaching the plan of salvation when Cherish asked if we were still going to go to Adam Ondi Ahman. We had talked about it earlier that week but she never said anything about it later so we had assumed we weren't going. But she wanted to go. So we called Sister Angle and off we went! it was so fun and special to be able to take her there before she leaves there really is a special kind of spirit and reverence you feel there and she could defiantly could feel it. I'm really going to miss her but she is moving to Richfield, Ut so when i get back i'll be able to visit with her.

How is everything going back home? It's nice to hear that the weather is finally warming up there, wish it would here we got snow again last night... but it seems to be warmer today. I'm eagerly anticipating getting mail from home soon. It takes me 8 days to get things here. Love you all dearly and can't wait to hear from you again.

-Sister Randall