Sister Ricker

so i have a new companion. her name is sister bowcutt, she is from utah, and she likes to sing. hmm my last companion was from utah and liked to sing. i guess it is pretty typical combination for a sister missionary. n-e-ways she is pretty cool. we have a lot of fun together. i guess every companion brings a new adjustment but change is good. we have taught some really solid lessons together so we are off to a good start. we seem to work well together.

so this sunday was a great day. it was the primary program and the little 7yr old girl that i told y’all about in my last email (we are teaching her and her two older siblings) n-e-ways she, vanessa, participated in the primary program and i was so proud. i felt kind of dumb but i was grinning the whole time. i cant even imagine what it will be like to watch my own kids in a primary program some day. seriously i was practically skipping all day. weird, i know. n-e-ways we brought her a part for the program and a cd with all the songs they were going to sing and she practiced all week and on sunday she sang as if she had been coming all her life. ahhh!!! it was so exciting. she even sang in a quartet with three other girls her age. she is golden, too bad she is only 7. we went back and taught them lesson 2 (plan of salvation) on monday and she kept telling us that she is 8 and her siblings just rolled their eyes. if only she were 8. so both her brother and her sister showed up for mutual on wednesday and they loved it. they are also planning on going to mutual this week and the ward halloween party on friday. so in YW they had a good news moment and the 15 yr old, Ashley, said that her good news was that she went to church this week and she loved it and she is going to go every week for the rest of her life. if that isnt the best news a missionary could her i dont know what it. she is awesome. she told us about how she is really trying to turn her life in a new direction and this is why she is so excited about church. when we taught them about the celestial kingdom she said “that is where i want to be!”. so simple and sure. im really excited to keep working with them and hopeful this will motivate their parents to be more involved. it is so cool to see such strength from people so young.

on friday we taught the other young family that we have been teaching, Daisy and Pancho. we played a review game with them at the fellowshiper’s home. so the fellowshipers are a family of six kids, all primary age. it was crazy. i was worn out by the time we left. it was fun. we were so proud of our little investigators. they knew their stuff. pancho even knew who gave the priesthood to joseph smith (peter james and john). so proud. we are having a lot of fun teaching our young investigators. they are just so willing to learn and to trust. i wish everyone we talked to was so open.

so we also started teaching a woman that is not our ward. she has had the lessons several  times and she has even been on date a few times but for some reason it just hasnt stuck. so the elders in her ward were talking to president about it and he suggested that perhaps sisters should try teaching her. hmmm…thanks, thats not pressure. so we went and taught her part of the first lesson and the Spirit was so strong. she showed us real concerns about her family and we were able to help her and as we listened to her and the Spirit we were guided as to what to say and what scriptures to share. it is such a rush. i love teaching by the Spirit. i never would have guessed it would feel like this. when we left we both couldnt stop smiling. im so grateful for this opportunity to be out here. im so grateful for my Heavenly Father and the trust He has put in me to be a part of this awesome work.

oh i forgot to tell y’all we also sang called to serve in the primary program. us and two sets of elders. wow!! i love singing with missionaries. the Spirit is always so intense. it isnt always easy to understand what it means to have the mantle but sometimes we get a glimpse and i am overwhelmed. it is so humbling and i always want to remain worthy of that. i love being a missionary and i am so so grateful for the opportunity to serve.
sister ricker

ps sorry if sometimes my rambling doesnt make sense. im still trying to understand it all.

transfers are tomorrow and guess what, im getting a new companion. sister bowcut. i dont know anything about her just her name. that also means that i get to stay here in the edison ward. yah!!! there is so much left to do here and i dont want to leave yet. also im really excited to be further away from being a greeny. the longer im out the better missionary i am and the more useful i am out here. im kind of nervous to be the one that knows the area but im also excited for the change.

we just started teaching a new family yesterday. a 15yr old girl, a 12 yr old boy, and a 7 yr old little girl. it was kind of random how it happened. so the ym president gave us the name of the teenage girl and told us that she was on the records but she knew nothing about her so we were sent to go find out. well it turns out that we have been knocking on this girls door for several months to try to meet her mom who is a member. but neither us nor anybody else in the ward had ever been able to get in the home. so last week we show up looking for the girl and she happened to be in the front yard. we start talking and she told us that she wants to start coming back to church and she has thinking about it a lot lately. she said that she used to go to church all the time with her grandma but it has been a while. we asked her how long she has been a member and she said that she was never actually baptized. well, we told her we could maybe help her out with that and we set up a time to come back and teach her. then her little brother walked by and she was like “hey do you want to come to church with me?” “sure”. well if only it was always that easy. then we thought we would give it a try and we asked “so do you want to learn about the church and religion with your sister?” “sure”. wow…it really is that easy. j/k

so we went back yesterday and they welcomed us in and guess what…in enters the 7 yr old who is super excited to learn and go to church as well. i guess we could squeeze her in. she tells us she already has a dress picked out and she is going to ride her bike to church. then we start teaching. they are super attentive and the Spirit is so powerful, then just before we start in on the first vision, the door bell rings. which is not that uncommon, im starting to realize that anything can happen when we try to teach the first vision.

it was the boy’s friend. which we thought would mean we would lose him. so we say “he can come in and listen too” and he says “well he is a actually the friend im bringing to church this sunday so that would cool”….hmmm “that would be cool” kind of an understatement. that would be awesome. just keep them coming. we’ll teach your whole neighborhood if you want. so in comes the friend. we do a brief recap and the Spirit comes rushing back and we finish the lesson.

it was great. they are so excited to learn and be involved in the church. both boys were talking about scouting. the older girl was excited about yw activities coming up (we brought a yw in the ward over for the lesson and to meet her) and the 7yr old was just waiting for us to tell her what fun stuff we had to offer her. so we told her she could be in the primary program this sunday if she wanted. and she said yes. also we told her about the practice this saturday and pizza party. she was commiting all over the place.

so last night we went around visiting tons of people in the ward to make sure they have rides, fellowship, and a part in the program for the 7yr old. it was so exciting to rally the troops.

the cool thing is they did it all on their own. their mom was home but we never saw her.

i better go now but just wanted to share that excitement with y’all. oh and we had another great lesson with the family i wrote about last week. yesterday was a really good day.

sister ricker

hope all is well with y’all

all is well here. last night we had another great lesson with the most adorable little family ever. i think i told y’all about them. the mom is less-active and she wants to come back so she wants her kids to take  the lessons and learn about her church. we taught them the plan of salvation last night and it was so cool. pancho the little 8 yr old is opening up and answering more questions. both he and his sister daisy have been studying the restoration (we played a little memory/matching game with them last week and they kept the cards and studied them during the week), they read in the book of mormon (they read the same chapter twice trying to understand, how cute), and they have been practicing praying. so daisy said the opening prayer and pancho said the closing prayer. as soon as we started teaching they both came down off of the couch to get a better look at the visual aids. they were sitting there so eager to learn. to tell you the truth it is kind of intimidating cause we teach adults who have hard time grasping some of these concepts that seem so simple to us and here are two young kids who want to learn and everything that comes out of my mouth i am wondering if it sounds like a foriegn language to them. but they keep nodding along and they answer questions when we ask so hopefully it is getting through. they are so cute. so the hightlight of the appointment, well one of them, was when i was talking about the purpose of our life on earth, i was telling them that we are here to have joy and to learn and grow and i asked pancho if he knew how we could find the most joy in this life. that was kind of a retorical (sorry about the spelling ) question. i was planning on telling him. but before i could even begin to get the answer out he started talking. he said, well we pray about it and we ask God, if it is true or good, and if it is we will feel good inside, then we do it. Holy Cow! (i just thought that, i didnt say it dont worry) that was pretty much amazing. i was about to tell him that we find the most joy in life by keeping Heavenly Fathers commandments and doing what He asks us to do. these kids are great. as we were leaving they asked us if they could keep the plan of salvation visual aids so they could study it for next week. i wish all of our investigators would come up with their own commitments and commit themselves. next week we are going to have a FHE at a member’s home and play a huge review game with them. and they are so excited.
the Spirit was so strong when we were teaching them and when they were saying their simple prayers…seriously, it was amazing. everytime we leave an appointment with them, we are practically skipping…i know crazy…look at what the mission is doing to me. at this rate im kind of scared to see myself at the end j/k. it is great. i have learned so much in such a short time. i cant believe i have already been out for three months.

oh so here is a funny moment from last night’s appointment. we were talking to their mom about the coming sundays and trying to figure out when they would be able to come. she was telling us about a few family parties that are coming up that they will be out of town for. and we were telling her about some up coming ward activities and primary things and pancho all of a sudden says, is that when we are killing the goat? his mom busts out laughing and sister stutz and i are trying to figure out who has been telling this kid what about our church. im pretty sure they havent killed goats for primary activity day in years.
but apparently his grandma is going to kill and goat and they are going to eat it at one of the family things coming up. once his mom could collect herself she explained it. it was really funny though.

love y’all

sister ricker

hey,

hmmm….this week. well it was good, of course. conference this weekend was great. we watched all the sessions at the stake center, which was empty cause they get it on basic cable here, crazy huh. so it was mostly missionaries at the stake center. after the sessions on sunday, we went to one of the homes that houses as set of elders and we had a big meal of breakfast foods; sausage, eggs, waffles, and fruit. it was kind of fun. like a family of missionaries. . then of course we headed out for more missionary work. it was a good weekend. exhausting but good.

last night was taught a young family for the second time. it was so fun. there is a ten yr old girl, an eight yr old boy, and a 2 yr old little girl. they have an interesting story. their mom became a member as a young girl. she joined the church on her own and her neighbor took her each week, but then her family moved and she lost contact cause she was the only member in her family. eventually she married and had three kids. her husband was catholic so that is the church they went to and had their kids brought up in. but she never lost faith in the lds church and still claimed it as her religion. now she is looking to come back and she wants her kids to learn about her religion as well. so we are teaching them and they are adorable. they are so eager to learn and study each week. when we come over they are so excited. they made us cookies last night. how cute.

it is just amazing to me that even at such a young age they can feel the Spirit that the gospel brings in to their home and that they are so excited to learn about the gospel. they were really excited, when we invited them to come to church so it will be nice to see them this coming sunday. the older girl has a good friend in the ward and they talk about church at school. how cool is that. we are going to have a joint fhe with the two families. it should be fun.

i love being out here. time is flying by. sometimes i am not sure if what i am doing is making a difference of if i am just spinning my wheels but then i go into an appointment like the one i just mentioned and i know that i am doing exactly what the Lord wants. just seeing how excited they are to see us is enough of an answer, that this is His work. cause i am not that exciting, it is not me, it has to be the Spirit.

we also got in touch with a less-active on saturday after conference and as soon as she started talking to us i knew that we found her right when we were supposed to. ahhh! i love those moments. and they happen pretty much on a daily basis, more than once. just when i feel like i am just working to be working, we walk in to a door and we are immediatly humbled and overwhelmed by the knowledge that we were put in that home at that time for a reason. He is so good to me.

sister ricker