Sister Ricker

WOW!!! this is my last email. are you so excited?

here goes…i probably should have some great words of wisdom but in order for that to happen i think i would need another six months.

crazy…its gone so fast.

i went to the temple today. there were seven of us departing missionaries. its so surreal. i dont think its really gonna hit me till im standing in the houston airport. it almost scared me how excited i was to go on a mission and now ive got a week left.

President said to make this week the best of the mission and thats my plan. we have a baptism on thursday. im so excited and guess what…this tuesday he is going to the temple to do baptisms there. this is gonna be a good week.

we met him on sunday at the stake center so we could show him the baptismal font and them teach him a lesson before the fireside. he is so excited. im so grateful for the opportunity to teach him. he is so sincere and deeply converted. its one of those silent miracles. he told us he is excited for his baptism cause knows its true and its an important step for him to come closer to God. he is excited to go to the temple and be a part of Christ’s church. he just soaks it all up its great and he’s leading the way for the rest of his family.

on sunday we called one of our investigators we havent seen in a few weeks and invited him to church and he came. that was pretty exciting. his fellowshippers were sick but we told him he could come without them. you could tell he was happy to be there. he was so excited to tell us about how God has been helping him make changes in his life. it was cool to see him light up and see the greater hope that he has that wasnt there before.

im so grateful for the gospel and the power and influence it can have in our lives if we choose to let it. i love my Heavenly Father and my Savior so very much and im so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this great work. wow!! i never knew…

thanks for all the support y’all have given me and thanks for all the prayers.

this week went pretty well.

our investigator, who is getting baptized in two weeks, is still going strong. he made it to early-morning seminary one day last week. we were so excited for him. his car was having trouble on sunday morning so he was a little late for church but he got it fixed just in time. he is such and example to us.

sunday was a good day at church. we almost fell out of our chairs as we watched a few people come in late. what pleasant surprises.

i love y’all so much

thanks for everything.

love
sister sarah ricker

i hope y’all had a good new year. ours was pretty good. we had a ton of snow. but its slowly melting again. we got stuck in someones driveway the other day. someone had told us they might be interested in the gospel so we went to find out and we got stuck. that was pretty exciting. dont worry ive been doing my pushups. i simply picked up the car and moved it out of the snow.

luckily they were nice people and he helped us out.

lets see what else. ive definitely been noticing God’s guiding hand. we’re just going through our day trying to do the right thing and all of a sudden we find ourselves in the right place at the right time and i know that is not from our steller planning. this is His work and He is in charge. for that i am so grateful.

we had two appointments and an exchange lined up for sunday night and both of our appointments cancelled. i hate not having appointments especially when one of the sisters in the ward has agreed to go out with us. i want them to have a good experience with the missionaries. well we prayed and called and prayed and called and we couldnt get appointments with anyone. i knew there was somewhere we needed to be i just didnt know where that was. luckily Heavenly Father answers prayers. we got an appointment during church and that is where we needed to be.

im so grateful to be a part of this work

love sister ricker

i hope y’all all had a great christmas. we did. it wasnt white but thats okay. so christmas eve was awesome. we had an appointment with an investigator in the morning and he told us that nothing makes him feel the way he does when he reads from the Book of Mormon or goes to church or prays. he knows its from God. and then he said he really really wants to be baptized. so we set up a date, at the end of january. we are way excited.

also, last sunday we saw another investigator that we hadnt seen in several weeks and he came to church this sunday. that was pretty exciting.

life is pretty good here. im so grateful for the opportunity to focus all of my time and energy on this work. i especially love being able to feel even a portion of the love Heavenly Father has for His children. seriously, it gets me every time. sometimes i can feel it all over, some times i something inside of me screams out when i hear a child of God saying they dont know He loves them or that they arent worth it. NO!!! of course they are!! He loves us so much, we have no clue. this time has really helped me to gain a much greater perspective. i hope i can maintain that.

i hope y’all have a great new year

love
sister ricker

all the snow that came last week is pretty much melted. im not gonna lie, im a little sad. i was hoping for a white Christmas and i wanted to build a snowman. but im pretty sure there is more to come later in the winter. its pretty warm. in the 30s. there has been this nasty fog which is really fun to drive in but for the first time in several days, its gone. there is actually sunshine out there.

well, now that y’all have the yakima valley weather report, would you like to here about the work.

here is a cool random story. and since i was too tired to write it in my journal i figure i should record it somewhere. we had serveral appointments lined up one afternoon but much to our dismay two of them cancelled so we found ourselves trying to figure out what our backup-backup plan should be. we were standing in the snowy grassy courtyard of an apartment complex, pondering and looking through our planners and ward lists seeking inspiration. we sat down in a bench so we could really focus and just as i was asking Heavenly Father where we needed to be up walked one of our investigators. we hadnt been able to see him in several days cause he just got a job. we were so excited. we ceased the opportunity. we ran and grabbed a chair from some members in the complex. (it was on the patio and we left a sticky note telling them we would bring it right back…totally lagit)

we had a very nice lesson and visit right there in the foggy snowy courtyard. it was pretty cool. he was a little surprised to see us and thought it was just a coincidence but we knew better. this was God’s hand. He loves to remind us that He knows what is going on and He is there.

we got a new investigator this week. he is awesome. he is just 16 but he so excited about the gospel. he’s been to church several times and he loves it.

i hope y’all all have a great Christmas. what a blessing it is to be sharing the good news of Christ’s gospel, especially at this time of the year.

love
sister ricker

as we were singing the closing hymn on sunday (Christmas hymn of course), the words really hit me a little more than they usually do. He did come!!!! what a perfect plan this all is. how could we expect any less from a loving Heavenly Father. it all makes too much sense. its too clear to not be right. we are children of God and long before we came here He layed out this perfect plan for us to come to earth go through life and return to live with Him and our families forever. central to that plan and the best part is our Savior Jesus Christ. we are not alone and we never have to be. He was born! and He lives again!!! its perfect and we enjoy the blessings of the priesthood, the power of God to comfort, bless, and perform saving ordinances, is here of earth. Heavenly Father loves us so much!!!!! what a perfect and complete plan, all for us.

we have been so blessed with so many people to teach. which is good cause it is getting pretty cold and the more time inside the better .

we got out first snow last night and we had our first snowball fight. (i won, but shhhh…dont tell my companion, she thinks she won)

love
sister sarah ricker

whats up all. so i heard there was snow in texas, crazy. would anyone like to know what the tempature was this morning when we left the house? 10 degrees. which is much better than yesterday, yesterday it was 0 degrees. the complete absence of warmth (i know that is probably not scientifically correct but seriously it is cold)

but dont worry we were given hot chocolate four days in a row. i think our sad little shivering bodies tug at the heart stings. either that or people dont want to stand on the porch or let the heat out of the house so they go ahead and invite us in. whatever it is, we’ll take it .

no snow yet. it snowed a little but it was just a light dusting. this weekend its really gonna unload. im so excited.

we had Christmas zone conference yesterday. the last of my mission. that was kind of weird to think about. president had us get up and share our testimonies. not exactly the best moment in the mission.

lets see what else happened…oh we had an investigator come to church on sunday who we havent been able to get a hold of in about a month. that was pretty exciting.

life is good here. i care so much about our investigators and pray all the time to know what more we can do for them. i know how much our Heavenly Father loves them i just want them to know as well.

i love y’all

sister ricker

another week already, holy smokes!!!

so, hmmm….where to begin. we had so many people at church on sunday. a whole family of 5, and three other investigators. it was awesome. one of our investigators came late cause he showed up at his fellowshippers house ready to go to church and they slept in so he walked by himself. that was pretty cool to hear. (not that his fellowshippers slept in, but that he walked and came on his own)

Heavenly Father is definitely providing us with a ton of people to teach. so the coolest thing. we were at wal-mart last week and from behind, someone said “hey! are you the sister missionaries that are going to come teach me!” Holy Cow!!! wal-mart really does have everything. of course we said yes, before we even saw who we were commiting to teach. we quickly turned around and saw someone who we have been praying to be able to teach. he is awesome, he’s been to church a ton of times over the years, with his wife. that was pretty exciting.

oh day last week we parked our car at the church and spent the day walking. well at the end of the night we got our car and were driving home. about half way home i noticed a something flapping in the wind stuck to our side mirror. it was the name and address of a person interested in learning a little more. see, i told y’all, sticky notes are amazing!!! they are a missionary’s best friend.

we met her yesterday, she is awesome.

thanksgiving was good. we had dinner with a great family who invited over several members of the ward that didnt really have a place to go. there was one lady how didnt make it. we love her and were sad to see she didnt come. so we stopped by after and brought her some leftovers. and it was really cool. she was kind of down, not really having the best thanksgiving but we got to talking and we ended up on the subject of the Godhead which she said she didnt really understand and she said the didnt think God even had a body “what would he need one of these for? it would just get in the way” anyways, we were able to testify of God and the love that He has for us and how we were made in His image and how could He have and image. we talked for a while about that and how much He wants to hug us when we return home again. without a body He would be so distanced from us, He wants no distance between us, we are His children, He wants us to be able to understand Him, to know Him. to someday see Him. He has a body, a perfect glorified body!!! He is real and He lives and so does Jesus Christ.

anyways she said that nobody had explained it to her like that and now she believes. really i think she just never listened before. but, whatever it is, she understands a little more about who her Heavenly Father is.

i love the gospel!!! it makes so much sense.

sister ricker

i just want y’all to know that it is a miracle that i am even able to email today. last week i saw my life flash before my eyes as i locked stares with a very angry goose. seriously it was scary. do you know those things hiss? you see we visit this really nice lady and she has some geese and ducks. i’ve walked by them a thousand times (by a thousand i mean like 3 or 4) well for some reason they were not happy this week. i think they could smell my companion’s fear. she had just warned me that they might bite. but i had no fear of a bunch of ducks.

well after being cornered by a angry hissing goose (just so you know if you come closer they dont back down and if you try to retreat they will follow) i have come to a very important decision, my children will never own a goose, their pet options are quickly declining. my love for people has greatly increased on my mission, my love for animals, not so much.

anyways that was the entertaining highlight of the week. it was pretty funny.

lets see…we have begun teaching some really cool people in the last two weeks. there is one man that we have begun teaching. he has been to church twice and we have just taught him a few times but the last time we came by he said the closing prayer. it was amazing!! he prayed to know if what we taught him was true and then he paused not sure what else to say finally a few more things came out and you knew they were coming from his heart. the Spirit was so strong!!! i knew Heavenly Father so pleased with him. and he was so happy, you could tell by the smile on his face that he felt what we were feeling. The love of God!!!there is nothing better.

anyways, that’s just a snip-bit of what’s been going on. things are going really well.

i love being a part of this!! i love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and what a blessing it is to be able to join them in this work, their work. im so grateful for the opportunity to feel even a portion of the love they have for His children. its so intense, how else would i be able to sincerely love and care for people i hardly know. but i do, and its so real. these are children of God, who He loves so very much, and just wants to hear from. He wants them to come home, and He wants to help them while they are away from Him, here on earth.

its a perfect plan!!!

love y’all
sister ricker

well the spiritual highlight of the week was by far saturday. Elder Holland and Elder Jensen came. it was awesome. we had to be there way in advance and they had us sit by zone and our zone was assigned to the first two rows. (i sat on the second row so i could cross my legs without worrying about flashing the top of my knee highs ).

my comp and i sat right smack dap in the middle of the second row. it was amazing. all of it. elder jensen spoke about our identity as children of God and Christ’s invitation to rise up to a higher plane. i wish y’all could have been there. there is no way im gonna remember all that i felt and hear. i think the what stood out the most from what Elder Jensen said, came at the end. he had been talking about obedience and being covenant people. he called up and elder that is going home in 5 weeks and as he talked about what would happen when he goes home and the descisions that elder would have to make, one by one he pulled off his tags, his white hand book and his ministerial certificate. that really hit home. that poor elder. i think we all felt his pain.

this is only the beginning he pointed out. this is to be the foundation for the rest of our lives but we must decide what we will do and where we will stand when those tags come off. thats not a day i like to think about. this time here, my mission, means more to me than i ever would have thought.

elder holland got up and built on all of that. he really stressed obedience and “getting it” who we are what this is all about. he reminded us that we have been singing for years that we have been reserved for the last days and thats true but that doesnt come without a great deal of responsibilty. we must step up. he spoke with such power and authority there is no way to deny who he is, an apostle of God. it was so obvious that he knows who he is and he wants nothing more than for us to know who we are.

CHILDREN OF GOD. Set apart representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.

it was so good. i wish i had it recorded but i dont. when he was talking about obedience, he really stressed that this is the God’s work and if we are not obedient than we are not doing it His way than we have no promise of His Spirit to be with us. its as simple as that. do it God’s way and you have His promise. then are you built on a solid foundation. any other way cannot and will not last. same for missionary work and all aspects of life.

be a covenant keeping people. there is the source of our strength, security and stability.

he has such a clear picture and vision of what life is all about. i want that. (not to be an apostle, just the clear perspective, the understanding)

i better go im about out of time.

sister sarah ricker
(sad to say that was just a smidge of what we got in those two hours, it barely felt like 30 minutes, it was that good)