Sister Ricker

well, as y’all know, last week was Christmas and it was great. i got to talk to most of y’all, thanks for scheduling me in . we had a really good Christmas, maybe too good. we had a rough time getting back in to the full swing of things, on friday. but, it got rolling. the best thing i have discovered, is tracting. that will get me going every time. nothing like going door to door that reminds me who i am, why im here, and who my Savior is. i always come away from it feeling pretty good and rearing to go.

we also had a baptism on saturday and that was…yep…you guessed it…amazing. our fifteen yr old investigator (who is actually now our sixteen yr old recent convert) was baptized saturday at 6 pm. well, it was more like 6:30 due to traveling relatives. we felt so bad for her, the water was freezing. apparently the person who filled the font didnt know that you are supposed to take several hours to do so. so that you let the hot water heater fill up several times. poor girl, she was a trooper though, she was smiling as she was shaking in the font.

im so glad i got to stay here long enough to see her baptized. we started teaching her a little less than three months ago and it has been such a great experience. she is really setting the example for her family who were all in attendance for the baptism. oh!!! i almost forgot the best part, she is going to the temple today with the youth in the ward. she hasnt even been a member for a full week. i almost screamed when i found out she was going (out of joy not fear). bishop told us after the baptism so i was all emotional and i had to hold myself back from crying. im so grateful to have been able to work with her and see such changes happening in her life.

im gonna go now but i want to wish y’all a happy new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

sister ricker

Merry Christmas,

so kennewick is well…cold. apparently winter has been saving up this super abnormally cold weather for just the year when i would be here in kennewick. last week the average temp was about 8 degrees. but dont worry this week has really warmed up to about 12-15. we’re practically sweating now.

since kennewick is not used to this much snow, snow plows are really hard to come by. so when we woke up sunday morning to find our cars buried even further in the snow, the stake president had to make the executive descision to cancel the last two hours of church. he was worried about there being more than one ward in the parking lot so we just had sacrament meeting. but im pleased to report, we had more investigators there then we have had in a really long time. we had a really pleasant turn out. we were so proud of all the people that braved the weather. if that isnt commitment, i dont know what is.

our 15 yr old investigator who will be baptized this saturday. WOOT!, came along with…drum roll please…her 13 yr old brother (another investigator), her little sister, and her dad. they are such an awesome family. they are so sweet, you can tell they love each other, and they are so fun to teach and work with. i would love to see the whole family be baptized and go to the temple. that would be awesome!!!

what else has happened? hmmm….can i just tell y’all how fun it is to be a missionary, especially around Christmas. we went tracting yesterday and it just felt so good, knocking on people’s doors offering them the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of peace and joy. dont get me wrong it is great to knock doors the rest of the year but this time of the year brings a little extra. we have done some singing as well. i love carols.

people have been so nice to us. i have been blown away by the generosity of all the people we work with even just some random people in town. i love people, (hmmm….bet y’all never thought you would hear me say that, i even surprised myself there a little) arent missions great. i better go but i’ll talk to y’all later.

sister sarah ricker

so,

the work is moving along rather nicely.

last week we had Christmas zone conference. i left all fired up. just like i do every zone conference. we got to watch a movie since it was the Christmas zone conference. we watched Rudy. it pumped us up rather nicely to just go out there and fight.

thursday night we had a movie night with our 10 and 8yr old investigators. we watched the restoration. their mom made hot chocolate a bought a ton of mexican sweet bread. mmmm…good stuff. after the movie we commited them to a baptismal date. they have already commited to being baptized so on thursday we reviewed the baptismal interview questions and said how about jan 10 and wala! it was beautiful, the Spirit was so strong, and their mother started bearing her testimony. it has been so cool to watch her grow as we have been teaching her children. the gospel is so true!!! i know what i have felt my whole life but i have never known any different because i have been blessed to have never had to live without the gospel. i love watching people come back or learn about it for the first time. it is so real and so tangible. their mom was telling us how she loves going to church because of the way it makes her feel. she said that she has trouble describing it but it but she knows what she feels and she cant deny it. she said the she has to hold back the tears every sunday. it just hits her.

this is good stuff!

so one of our less-actives, who is not so less-active anymore, yep thats right two months straight, brought his son to church on sunday. he is ten and he is really cute. he came to church last sunday as well and he loved it. apparently he answered all the questions in primary and after primary he came running out looking for us cause he wanted a book of mormon. what sweet music to our little missionary ears! so this sunday we handed him a book of mormon and then he asked us if we also gave out bibles. why of course we do. later in church in came up and asked again how long it would take us to get that bible. he is awesome. apparently last week he found a bible in the dumpster and he brought it home and began marking it all up. his dad had to stop him before he colored the whole thing. how cute is that.

we are still trying to find more people to teach, cause well, thats what we do, we find, teach, and baptize. i love teaching the gospel. i am so grateful that the Lord has trusted me enough to call me on a mission. He has taken such good care of me.

love
sister ricker

hey,

wow! i cant believe it is p-day already. seriously, if only weeks had gone this fast in college. than maybe i would consider getting a masters when i come back.

we have a new district leader and a new district. well about half of the missionaries changed in this last transfer. i like the change though. change is good. it brings in new energy, new perspective, and a new start. it is good. im excited for the coming transfer. the weather hasnt been too bad yet. i heard it is supposed to get low this weekend. im bracing myself, dont worry.

this is the best time of the year to be a missionary. i love going tracting on streets all lit up with holiday cheer. it is hard to get discouraged with you have giant blown up santas smiling at you all the way down the street. and what a better time to tell the world about Jesus Christ than Christmas! I love my Savior so much and it is such an honor to be out here, spreading His gospel, His good news. Merry Christmas!!! Ahhhh! this is good stuff.

as you cant tell im pretty excited about this month. i have been looking forward to it literally since i entered the field. we havent gone caroling yet but we have sung in some of our regular visits. it feels so good.

we are doing well. we have been running late for two days. that is a good sign. we are busy. our investigators are doing well. oh!! i dont think i told y’all…we put another person on date. our 13 yr old investigator is going to be baptized the saturday after Christmas along with his sister. they are a sweet family. it is so nice to teach them because you can really feel the love that they have for eachother. we have scheduled a FHE to do with them next week so hopefully we can get their parents on board. we have yet to meet the mother. the is a member and knows we are teaching them but she never comes out of her room when we are over. the father is not a member. he is really nice and we have talked to him briefly a few times. it will be so awesome if we could just get the parents to start sitting in when we teach. these kids are awesome but they need to see their parents willing to make the same sacred commitments that they are making. with time. it will happen.

im about out of time but ill talk to y’all later. how about next tuesday.

sister sarah ricker

hmmm…

this week, what to say? well as y’all know it was thanksgiving. we did quite a bit of service this week, that was nice. i love doing service, racking leaves, helping people move, doing dishes etc..thanksgiving was nice. we ate with the family we live with. they are awesome! we spent most of the day studying and working on our talks that we gave on sunday.

oh! im not gonna be transfered so i get at least another six weeks in this area. that means i would have been here for six months, crazy huh! im so glad, this area is great. plus i will get to be here for Christmas which is what i wanted since i got here in august. my mission is going exactly according to my plans.

so i’ve told y’all about our investigators they are doing great. but we want to teach solid lessons all day every day so we have really been praying hard, for the last two weeks, for help. we know there are more people out there just waiting to be taught, prepared for us to come. and we obviously need help finding them. and it is amazing how quickly the Lord has answered our prayers. we went out tracting because well, how else are we going to find people, and the Lord has really been blessing us as we pray and work. we have recieved several referrals and this afternoon we are going to find a girl that we found tracting yesterday.

it is just amazing to see how the Lord is guiding us. i’ve been really trying to seek, listen, and act. i know He will help us to know where we need to go and what we need to say but if i dont listen or act than im gonna miss it all. we call a referral we recieved and the man who answered kind of just left us on the phone and never came back to talk to us, we could here him having a conversation and cussing at the tv, so we kind of thought is was a dead end. but a few days later, the Lord told us to find his house. so we tried. we couldnt find the street so once again, maybe a dead end. but we passed a house that we thought was the wrong address and there was a man out front and both of us thought, i bet thats him. we checked the address again and it was that house so we went and talked to him and he was so nice, completely different from the man we talked to on the phone.

we set up an appointment for yesterday and we came back with our exchange (since he is a single man) and he was awesome. it was so obvious that he had been prepared for us to teach him. he has been to the temple open house and agrees that it is the house of God, he told us he has no doubts that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and he has already read parts of the Book of Mormon, WOW and to think we thought it might be a dead end referral. it sure is a good thing we have the Holy Ghost on our side.

also we went by the other night to visit a less-active girl. the last time we saw her, we ended up teaching her boyfriend all about the atonement and repentance because well, he asked. it was beautiful. and he told us that he was interested in learning more but because of his schedule he wasnt sure when we could come back and he would be there. but we felt really good about him and have been praying for the opportunity to come in contact with him again. well anyways we tried to visit her the other night hoping that he would be there. before getting out of the car, i felt the need to pray so we said a prayer that we might be able to talk with him that night and that he would be ready to commit to a return appointment. we they werent there. sad i know but here is the point. as we were leaving she pulled up and told us to come back later cause she was just running in really quick and leaving again. that night sister bowcutt said a prayer and thanked the Lord for giving us the opportunity to try to visit that girl again at a time that her boyfriend would be home. wow! and i thought He hadnt answered our prayer. if we had talked with her that night it would have been another two weeks or so before we visited her again. that is a long time for satan to work on someone. now we can visit her sooner and hopefully he will be home this time. and it wont be two weeks before we see him again

the Lord is really watching out for us

love sister ricker