Sister Ricker

hows it going?

well, its good here. once again i cant believe it is p-day already. its going too fast. this weeks highlights…lets see.
we had stake conference and all the missionaries in the stake sang. i was not very happy about that. so the stake president called our mission president and told him that he would like to have the ten of us sing at stake conference and president said “of course, they would love to”. hmmm…not exactly the words i would use but oh well. one of my favorite things about being a missionary is singing with other missionaries. no matter how bad we sound the Spirit is always very strong, which is good for the sake of all those who are listening. we sang as sisters in zion/army of helaman medley. we also invited our mission president and his wife to sing with us since they were at stake conference.

oh but the best part about sunday was who came. so we were out tracting and it was hot and nobody was home and it was going great. then someone called out from behind us “hey, sister missionaries”. we got so excited, someone was alive on the street and they wanted to talk to us. of course we realized that they were probably members but still it does a heart good. so we went up and talked to him. it was a teenage boy from another ward but…here is the good part, he had a friend with him who lived on that street. so we stopped and chatted and i asked the friend if he had ever been to church and he said yes with his friend that was standing right there (ohh the sweet sound of member-missionary work, like music to our little ears) so i said “sweet, why stop at just once, you should come again this sunday” he wasnt 100% committed but he said maybe, so i said i would look for him and i would be expecting to see him and we shook on it (i like to assume people are more committed than they say they are). well i had pretty much forgotten about that until we were leaving the church on sunday and there he was. it made my day. it was great.

i hope all is going well with all y’all

love ya
sister ricker

how goes it?

its going pretty well here. it was 85 degrees yesterday…sighh…so nice. my canadian companion claimed to be melting but i saw no signs. it’ll only get hotter.

whats new? im all fired up. not that i wasnt before but now i really am. we had zone conference last week and that usually does the trick. we talked to everyone all week long and that always seals it. i love this work. we even found four new investigators last week. just to put that in perspective for all you who served in south america…thats a good week. and our goal is to hit it every week this transfer (and the rest of my mission of course).

one of our investigators called us up and said she would like to be baptized on june 13th. she is awesome, one day she is hanging out at work and some missionaries walked in and she thought “well i was going to talk to my lds friend about maybe learning more but there are missionaries right here…ill just talk to them” so she walked right up to them and said “i need to talk to you.” beautiful…and the best part is she lived in our area so we get to teach her. shes solid in her church attendance and she is committed. at every appointment she tells us about the peace that she has in her life now…and its only gonna get better . we talked to her about tithing and she said “well i kind of worry about it but i dont know why. i know Heavenly Father is just gonna give me more blessings” wa-la, thank you.

there are so many less-actives here and we are trying to find them all…itll take a while, plus we are putting forth some effort to find new people to teach and spend time walking around so we can talk to people we pass.

last night i shared a message with a less-active woman and her non-member husband. it was the one in 1nephi somewhere about it being impossible for Christ to forget
us, He has engraven us in the palms of His hands. anyways, i talked about how Christ and our Heavenly Father are pulling for us wanting so badly for us to make the right choices so that we can repent and make it back home. They love us SO MUCH!! we dont even know. it is His work and His glory to see each one of us succeed and return home. the Spirit was so strong, it felt so good, i love testifying of my Savior, my Heavenly Father, and Their love for each one of us. i was practically bouncing out of my seat, i wanted so much for them to feel what i was feeling and to follow Christ and to come to church. i was full (i know thats cliche but i was). it is so hard to explain how i feel sometimes.

love ya
sister ricker

im in hermiston oregon, population ….wait for it…16,000! this place is huge! i also cover two small cities just a few miles away. oh and im the driver. i got away with out driving for the past nine months but my number is up. it sure was nice to be driven around all that time. since both of us are new here, ive quickly perfected my u-turns and since our car is a beast, ive also perfected my 81point turns (its down from 97-point, im improving) . its been alot of fun.

hmm…what else. we have a ton of investigators. and there are a million less-actives so there is a lot of work to do here. im excited. its good to be in this area. my new companion is from canada. shes pretty cool. tomorrow is zone conference it’ll be pretty small since we are out here in the boondocks. there will only be four sisters (and a bunch of elders). the weather has been pretty good. i havent needed my coat since i have been here. although, it is pretty windy.

we cover two wards and our goal by the time we are both transfered is for there to be at least one more ward. there are certainly enough members for that we just have to get them to church. i can see it now, a bright shiny new chapel in the middle of nowhere oregon…its gonna be beautiful. ill send pictures dont worry.

love ya
sister ricker

im going to hermiston oregon!!! i dont have to pump my own gas!!
im so excited. sad that i am leaving west richland so soon. i thought i would be here for at least six months but six weeks will do. sad that i have to pack again ughhh…but i got that out of the way yesterday. it doesnt feel like i have anything till i start packing and then i think it multiplies.

so hmmm…this week. well the best part was conference of course. and transfers have been on my mind quite a bit. since my companion and i are both leaving the area we have had to get a lot of stuff ready to hand over to other sisters. im being doubled out and im being doubled in to my new area. i really excited for that. my new companion and i will be learning the ropes together. it is a fresh new start. we dont even know how to get home from the transfer site. we are going to spend the next six weeks doing u-turns. it will be great. oh and the weather is perfect. seriously, perfect.

what else do y’all want to know…i had some mixed emotions when i first found out about transfers. i was expecting to stay with sister koval, another sister in my district and i was looking forward to picking up another ward with her and just getting to work. but i know the Lord knows where i need to be. and i have wanted to go to hermiston at some point in my mission. everyone i have talked to that served there loves it. it is tiny and not the most attractive place but they love it. im really excited to come in with a companion who is also new. i have been wanting to be doubled in to an area (preferably after elders but this is good too). it will be great. we will have no background information but also no background opinions of people. of course there will be area books, hopefully up to date, but it will all be new to both of us.

okay im gonna let y’all go. hopw y’all have a great easter.

love ya
sister sarah ricker

how’s it going?

hmmm….how’s richland? well, we went to the temple this morning, it was great. when we came out we took a ton of pictures cause well…that’s what we do. but it was really windy so i was focusing on keeping my skirt from flying up…i dont know how the pictures turned out. they sky has a brownish haze to it due to all the dust being picked up by the wind. it has warmed up quite a bit. im very grateful for that. sooner or later it will be summer…

what else…oh we are being evicted from our home…we have a week to find a new place and both of our bishops are out of town so i dont know who is working on finding us new members to live with. okay so it isnt as bad as that…i just thought telling it like that would make the story better. really, the member we live with has a son that needs to move back home so we need to move out. but we’ll get a place its transfers anyways next week and they will have to change things up then anyways. ill tell y’all all about that next week…i just wanted to build up the suspense for y’all. hope you’re excited to find out what will become of us.

spiritual highlight of the week…well that would have to have been the temple this morning. it gets me every time.

we havent been teaching as much as i would like. i love the gospel and i especially love teaching and testifying. but it will pick up.

sister ricker