Sister Ricker

hey,
sorry i didnt press send fast enough last week and the computer kicked me off. so i lost the whole email and i didnt have the time or patience to redo it. to sum up last week’s email…the week was awesome…the Spirit was really strong…and the church is still true.

now moving on to this week…it was awesome. we went to the temple this morning. i love that place.

so daisy and pancho finally made it to church last sunday and on thursday when we asked them how they liked it they were really excited about it. they loved primary and they said they really enjoyed playing the games. (p.s. i dont remember playing games in primary, but if it keeps them happy, im cool with that) their mom also really enjoyed church. it was her first time back since she was a kid. how cool is that? she said the best part was sacrament meeting. she said the talks were perfect for her, they were just what she needed to hear. she asked “did they know i was coming?” nope…but the Lord did. isnt He great. i love how much He is in the details of our lives. He loves us so much and we see that everywhere we look, from the smallest things to the biggest, He is there, just eager to help us out. n-e-ways we talked to them about baptism and they have finally recieved their answer that the church is true and according to daisy they will be baptized “maybe in the spring”. random, i know, but apparently that is a good season for her. so things are going really well with them. they are awesome. we also had another rockin’ fhe at their fellowshipper’s home.

we find out about transfers this weekend. im not sure what is going to happen. i would love to stay here for just one more transfer. i want to be here for christmas and the baptisms that are already scheduled and of course for those that arent scheduled yet . but, i also know that wherever the Lord sends me that is where im supposed to be. it’ll all work out.

oh and im speaking at church this sunday. im kind of nervous. this is the first time i wont be able to write the whole thing out cause well i dont have access to a computer and im way to lazy to write it by hand. so im gonna try to just take up a few notes. intenese, i dont know if im ready for that. ill let y’all know how it goes, ya’ know if anyone walks out or how many people fall asleep. i better send this before it kicks me off. i’ll talk to y’all later.

love
sister sarah ricker

the theme of this last week was, baptism. we had a baptism on saturday, we put two more individuals on date for baptism, we had two different investigators attend the baptism on saturday, and we have yet another investigator who told us she wants to be baptized but still needs to learn.
a good week, wouldnt you think? on wednesday we were teaching our fifteen year old investigator, about the gospel of Jesus Christ, lesson 3, and we mentioned baptism but before we could challenge her to be baptized she said, “i need to do that, i need to be baptizeed.” we had planned such a solid challenge to be baptized and she didnt even let us use. it was beautiful,  that is how missionary work should go. we did challenge her to pick a date which was exciting. she is so cute, she picked it for dec 6, a month away, so that she would have plenty of time to learn and make sure she is ready for such a sacred commitment. i am so impressed with the children and youth that we are working with. they are always so eager to learn and to act.

the next day, we were teaching the woman the elders passed over to us, and all though we hadnt planned on it, we felt impressed to commit her to baptism and she said, yes. she acted as if it was just simply the next logical step. once again, that is the way missionary work should go. she too had to set the date for december because she just got a cast on her wrist. it is sad to see her have to wait so long but it will give her plenty of time to make sure she too is ready. ahhh! what a good week.

then thursday we taught our little 8 and 10 yrolds. we had a joint fhe with them and a family in our ward with 6 kids, all in primary. as usual it was crazy but fun. we centered the lesson around the classic “i am a child of God”. it was so fun. we meet with these young investigators twice a week now. once in their home and then later in the week we do the big joint fhe. it is so fun to teach these two kids. they keep their commitments and they really listen and learn. they showed up for the baptism on saturday. i about screamed when i saw them walk in. they have been praying to know if they should be baptized and so we invited them to come and see what a baptism is like. it was awesome. the Spirit was so strong and President Belnap even came to speak at the baptism so it was a really good experience.
last night we went by and taught them some of the commandments and we asked them how they liked the baptism. their mom said that she felt so happy and good and close to tears. that was exciting because she hasnt been to church in years and as we have been teaching her kids we have seen her testimony grow and her desire to come back to church has increased so much. she was so excited when we invited them to the baptism. it reminded her of her own baptism and what she felt then, even at such a young age. the gospel is amazing. so we asked the 10 yr old what she thought and she said it was different and she is still praying to know if she should be baptized. we asked her if she had recieved and answers as to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true and she said that sometimes she thinks it is true and sometimes she thinks it might not be. not really the answer we were hoping for but at least we know she is really thinking and praying about it. i was impressed that even at the age of ten she was taking this decision seriously. im glad she isnt just doing what we and her mom want. she said that she still wants to keep praying about it though and she still wants to keep learning. i know that as she keeps seeking and praying she will get the answer we are all hoping for and i know it will mean so much to to her because she worked for it and she really sincerely desired it. she and her brother are such sweet kids that i was scared they would just go along with it all. it was such a relief to hear such mature and honest responses from her last night. oh and she really knew what she was talking about when we asked her about the assigned chapter she read out of the Book of Mormon.

i better go. sorry it was so long. i just love it here. i hope that i am able to stay in this area for one more transfer so i can be here for Christmas and i get to be here for their baptisms.

love y’all
sister sarah ricker

hmm…what to say…
oh sunday was awesome. guess who came to church….k,times up. it was jerry. i told y’all about him several weeks ago. he is the less-active man that we found when we were just going through the list and visiting people that we knew nothing about. he is the one that said he wasnt interested in us coming back and he had actually been extremely active in another church for a while now. then after he shut the door a scripture came in to his mind about when Christ knocks you need to let Him in. so he called us back and told us to come back the next week. n-e-ways im not going to reiterate the whole story but basically he had been praying for a while to know what the Lord wanted him to do, what direction he needed to go in. he had been searching and really pleading with the Lord. then we knocked! so we started teaching him the lessons. we came by once a week and the appointments were always really awesome cause he has such a strong faith in Jesus Christ. so this week he called and asked us if we could come by sooner in the week than our appointment. so of course we quickly found an exchange and went by. basically all of his seeking and praying payed off and he knew what direction Heavenly Father wanted him to go. north, to the LDS church on union street. ahh!!! so exciting but not nearly as exciting as it was to actually see him walk in the church building after almost 30 yrs. this, is the Lord’s work!! i left him a chapter to read in 3 nephi (18-when Christ institutes the sacrament in the Americas) and he had already read it by saturday night. he told us that he is excited to talk about it when we come back this week.

oh guess who else come to church this sunday. one of our investigators who we thought had dropped us. we apparently she had been in the hospital and while she was in the hospital her sister used her phone to call us and she left a message on her behalf telling us that she was nolonger interested and asking us not to contact her. it was really weird because the last time we had talked to this investigator she had been asking us about baptismal clothing. so we were pleasantly surprised when she called this week and explained the whole situation. also she told us that she still wanted to be baptized and to continue learning. sweet music to our ears.

well i have my time warning so i better go.

love y’all
sister ricker