May 13th letter from Sister Randall

Hello Hello!

This week has been great! On Monday we went to Jamesport (an Amish Community). It was a lot of fun we went to some neat antique stores and a soap/candle store. I wish we would have had more time there but it was back to the Lord’s work at 6pm. We did get to go to the famous bakery and have a cherry fry pie before we went back to Albany. I just realized I may have already told you guys this so if I have disregard. :) We had a great family home evening with one of the less active families. We’ve really been stressing CPR (Church, Prayer, and Reading) with them. They have 3 little boys, a 12 year old, 5 year old, and a 2 year old. So yes their house is crazy! Anyways to make it more visual we got a cool glass milk bottle and some warm fuzzy’s (pom poms). Each time they read, pray or see someone else reading or praying they get to put a warm fuzzy in the bottle. When it fills up they are going to take a trip down to the Independence Visitors Center. It’s been so fun to watch that bottle fill up and know that they are growing together as a family closer to their Heavenly Father.

                On Tuesday we had interviews with President Keyes. We get to see him every other transfer so it was great to see him and Sister Keyes and to talk with them. He taught us a great lesson on how to know if we are fulfilling our purpose. He said that if we are finding and teaching or preparing to find and teach that we are doing our job. He said that even getting our haircut on p-day is fulfilling our purpose because we are preparing ourselves to find and teach. It was a huge burden lifted off our shoulders because we have been focusing on the less active members in our branch and getting them strong before we add new people to the branch. Well our leaders have been stressing new investigators and we know that’s not what is needed here. So to hear President tell us that it doesn’t matter who we are teaching just that we are teaching was so great to hear. Tuesday night we had dinner with our host family’s daughter. Her husband isn’t a member and she has recently been through the temple for the first time. We spent a lot of time talking about the temple and the blessing it is in our lives. It was really neat to talk with someone older than me that went through the temple at about the same time I did. She is such a wonderful woman and mother. She has been doing everything she can to help her husband realize the importance of this church. I hope that one day he will realize this because she deserves to go through the temple with her family.

                Wednesday we went back to a branch member’s home to continue helping her unpack. I’m amazed at how much her house is becoming like a home. We really love going over there and helping her out. It’s going to be so hard when she has her baby for me not to be able to hold it. That night we spent a good chunk of time on the phone with "R". She is a wonderful woman and needs to be back at church regularly. That night we went over to a part member’s house. A lot of the people we had talked to about her were really skeptical that we would be able to meet/talk with her. It was quite the opposite we visited for about an hour and a half with her and her daughter. She gave us some really good ideas about service opportunities in the community.  It was funny she came up to the house with two bottles for feeding calf’s and Sister Grange was like “what are those?” The sister looked at her like are you serious? I guess I never realized that not everyone knows about country living. :)

                Thursday’s are always kind of boring to write about because most of the day is spent planning for the week to follow. This Thursday however had a little bit of excitement I guess you could say. It was about 8:30am when Sister "A" (the one with the boys) called and said she made homemade banana bread and she wanted us to come over and eat it and do scripture study with her. It was a lot of fun. She was eager to learn more about Joseph Smith so we read his testimony in the front of the Book of Mormon, and we read in the bible (Ezekiel 37:15-17) where it prophesies about the Book of Mormon and when the Book of Mormon prophesies about Joseph Smith (2 Nephi 3). We had a lot of fun teaching her about Joseph Smith and watching her get so excited over the things we read with her.

                Friday we spent out of town tracking down some less active member’s we haven’t been able to see yet. It was funny we aren’t supposed to go out of the state to Iowa and one of our members lives on the border…literally so Sister Grange was getting a little paranoid about where we were. :) But we had a really good time up in Grant City/Eagleville/Allendale.

                Saturday morning we went to the Methodist Church to help and volunteer with commodities. It was a lot of fun to meet so many people in the community and help them get their food to the car. I really do love all of the service opportunities I’ve had while on my mission and can’t wait to keep serving not only my Heavenly Father, but his children as well.

                Sunday, oh gosh Sunday was great! We had a really good sacrament meeting about reverence. Every time the stake talks about reverence and how it isn’t just sitting with your arms folded I think about the primary song that says “Reverence is more than just quietly sitting, it’s thinking of Heaven above.” I love that so many of our doctrines are taught so simply in the Children’s Song Book. Oh "R" was at Church! I was so proud to see her there. It’s so wonderful to be able to see the good we are doing in the Albany Branch.

                We have a family in our branch that grows herbs for a living and instead of flowers for mother’s day they brought herbs, lot of herbs. So we were able to take home some basil and rosemary. I’m so excited to have fresh basil this summer! We had a great dinner with the Zundel’s again then we headed to the sister’s house to talk to our families. It was so wonderful to hear and see my family. I love getting email’s and letters but there is something special about seeing them. Lynnae you are in trouble for crying :) I would have been fine if you didn’t start it :) But it was so wonderful to see you all and to talk to you guys. Makes me miss my family lots, but you all seem to be doing well.

                Today we are going to Far West, Haun’s Mill, and Adam Ondi Ahman. Far West was really great there isn’t a whole lot there but the spirit is so strong. It’s so cool to walk in places where the early saints have trod. It is a wonderful time to be in the land of Zion. The Lord’s work is going forth quickly and children are being brought into the fold to hasten the work. I know that my testimony has been strengthened as I dedicate my life to the Lord and keep his commandments. What a blessing it is to be a part of His work at this time.

With all my love,

Sister Randall xoxo

May 6th letter from Sister Randall

Wow where to begin! This week has been crazy! On Monday we went to an Amish store and bought some really cool things. Today we are going to Jamesport, an Amish community about an hour from Albany, to go shopping :) It should be fun. President Keyes said we have to go to the bakery and try the cherry turnovers.  Cherry turnovers are my favorite so I’ll definitely be trying them.

                On Tuesday we had district meeting in Maryville so we got to drive our new car down there and back that was fun :) On our way back we stopped in Stanberry and went tracting. It was 90˚ outside so that was fun. I sure am realizing what a Utah girl I am. This hot weather is going to be an adjustment. Funny story though on Thursday it stormed enough that we didn’t go out because of the ice on the roads. While we were in Stanberry we tracted into a guy named Rick. He is definitely searching for something. We plan on going back tomorrow to see him again and hopefully commit him to baptism!

                Wednesday we went over to a branch members home (the one we had been painting) to help her unpack her house. Normally we would be spending our service hours out in the community more but Sister Zundel is having a baby in 3 weeks and her house is still in boxes. So we went over there and helped her move the boxes from the master bedroom to the rooms they will eventually be unpacked in. We got all of that done and unpacked the kitchen before it was time to go.

As we were leaving Sister Grange realized that she had forgotten to bring her skirt to change into after service stuff. So we went across the street to a member’s home that is kind of a pack rat. Thankfully Sandy is a momentum pack rat, i.e. she doesn’t collect junk.  She had a bunch of cool clothes from the 60’s, 70’s, etc.  Sister Grange was able to find a cute skirt that fit her. Thank goodness for helpful members!

Because of the craziness of Wednesday’s with the branch members, the sisters fed us dinner. They really are the greatest. They are so willing to help us with whatever we need. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get transferred out of this area. We dropped one of our investigator’s on Wednesday because she isn’t progressing or making an effort to progress so that was kind of sad.

Thursday was the day we had a snow storm again. Sister Grange was complaining a lot about the snow but again I’m a Utah girl through and through I guess because snow in May doesn’t bother me, especially the snow here that dusts the ground and is gone the next day when the sun comes out. :) I wasn’t feeling well on Thursday so we stayed in until dinner. For dinner the branch was throwing a baby shower for 3 women in our ward so we went there for our dinner hour. It was a lot of fun to get together with a bunch of the women in our branch and talk baby stories. We had only planned on staying for an hour (I’m not sure why we thought that was feasible) but we ended up staying for the rest of the evening and going home afterwards.

Friday was another stormy day but we got out and went tracting anyways.  We knocked on an older man’s door because his front door was tucked out of the wind :) well he’s now an investigator! We gave him a rundown version of the restoration and left a Book of Mormon with him. He said he would read and he set up a return appointment to have us come back. Friday was a good day for us missionaries.

Saturday we finally made it out to Bethany. It’s been really hard with limited miles to make it out to any of the towns around Albany. Bethany itself is 17 miles out and that’s a close town. But anyways we drove down there and visited with "J" just to check up on him. We aren’t actively teaching him anymore but we wanted to check up on him. We spent the rest of the afternoon tracting and visiting less active members. We got to go and see one of my favorite less active sisters. She is really struggling right now and it’s been great to see her turn to the lord for her strength.  We ate at a less active member’s home for dinner on Saturday; man can she cook good Mexican food!! She made us a feast of enchiladas, Mexican rice with Chile Verde, and chili relleno. Our members sure do cook great food out here!

Sunday we had 131 members come to church! Our average right now is about 70 so it was huge to have that many there. The best part was only about 6 or 7 people were visitors so we had a great turn out this week. We nearly had as many there as we did Easter Sunday.

Well for p-day today we went to Jamesport. What a neat little town. It’s predominantly an Amish community so we found some pretty neat stuff, mostly mother’s day gifts :) Funny story (sort of) we were in an Amish country store and I had to use the bathroom. Thankfully they had indoor plumbing; unfortunately there weren’t any lights in the bathroom except for a small window to let in light from the store. So I got to use the bathroom in the dark :) We also went to a little bakery 2 miles out of town that President Keyes told us we had to visit if we went. We got what they called fry pies. Basically they are like the Hostess snack pies that we used to get at the day old store only a 100 times better. President Keyes recommended great! I also got some fresh Colby Jack cheese so I’ll have to let you know how it is next week.

Well not much else going on here just walking our tails off trying to find those prepared for the gospel (and working off some mission weight gain my skirts are getting a little tight :) I love you all dearly and can’t wait to hear back about life back home.

With Love,

Sister Randall