Sister Ricker

hmmm….
what to write…any suggestions…

really, y’all have none.

oh! here we go. i had an epiphany (i think i actually spelled that right). yesterday, we spent 7 hrs helping clean someones house. it was intense. on sunday we found out that a member of the singles branch has been fighting cancer and has just undergone very intensive chemo and the doctors told his parents that if they wanted to take him home they had to completely sanitize the whole house. literally. all walls and cielings had to be painted. everything in the house was taken out and cleaned…everything. they found out at the end of last week so on sunday like have the stake was in house painting. the singles branch just held sacrament meeting so they could go help. it was intense. i felt like i was on that extreme home make over show. then yesterday we went back to help put it all back in and finish cleaning. there were about twenty of us yesterday. he got home at about 3:30 and it was just about done. it was really neat to be able to be a part of that.

i was exhausted from it all. wow i must have improved my typing speed cause i have way more time than i thought.
arent y’all lucky. you get to hear some more

hmmm…what else…my farmer’s tan is developing quite nicely. oh we are wanting to make zone t-shirts and my companion and i are heading that up so if y’all have any grand ideas let us know.

thanks for everything.

sister ricker

so, ive heard about transfers and im gonna be here in oregon for at least another six weeks. i kind of figured that would happen. im pretty excited about that. as ive said, there is so much work to do here and we were just getting started. it would have been sad to leave.

so are y’all ready for the best story of the transfer…

all transfer we have been praying for a family to teach. we have been working hard to find people. when i got here, i knew there were people here that have been prepared for us to teach and we just had to find them. i knew it. so we got to work and we found a ton of people but they kept falling through, which unfortunately happens. anyways im sure you have all heard countless stories about how it was “the last door, on the top floor, after hours of tracting with no success.” well…it was actually the first door in the middle of the street and we had just parked our car. but it was the result of prayer and faith nonetheless .

well anyways so we had decided to go tracting in a certain area but we hadnt picked a street and i was driving past them all and none of them felt any different so i was getting frustrated. and then wa-la, my companion says well how bout this one. that one it was and for some reason i parked in the middle of the street across from some house and i liked that house. maybe it was the brown pillars (i do love the color brown) anyways, we decided to start there and work up and then down around. normally we just start at the top and work down, but that felt good so we went with it.

and the rest is history. she was so excited, we were so excited and we went back the next day, perfect. it is so amazing to be how subtle the promptings of the Holy Ghost are. my biggest problem is just relaxing and listening. sometimes its like im holding on so tightly because i want to do this right more than ive ever wanted anything.

i know Heavenly Father is guiding me i just need to go where im guided.

love y’all

sister ricker

last week was horrible, rotten, and no good. it lasted forever.

no im just kidding…were you worried. i just thought i would throw y’all off cause ive realized i start most emails off with something like “this week was so great…it just flew by…wow it was awesome.”

anyways…just keeping y’all on your toes. no it was a good week. i got to call home..woot!!! that was so good. i wish i could have talked to everyone but christmas will come soon enough. then everyone can enjoy the sweet music that is my voice . hmmm…what else happened? we went to the temple last week which is why i didnt email. we ran out of time.

okay so here is a random story. so we are having zone p-day today. we are all going to get together (there are just 10 missionaries in this zone) and we are going to grill some hamburgers and hotdogs and eat some other stuff and then play kickball (which by the way might not happen cause it is really windy and chilly, i would rather take a nap) that is besides the point. anyways the elders wanted to meet at wal-mart yesterday so we could buy the stuff for zone p-day. i protested, a- yesterday was not p-day and therefore we should not be at wal-mart and b- they wanted to meet before our study time was even up. but we went anyways…(maybe my protest wasnt quite a protest). anyways we were giving them a hard time, our leaders…leading us astray…what a sad sad day. they however were quick to point out the blessings that came from being there at that time. a lady bought us all subway for lunch…and the best part, another lady came up to talk to us. she was so excited to see a large group of missionaries. she had just moved in and was recovering from a stroke and she needed help. so we were able to go over and set up her bed in the afternoon. she had no way of contacting the church to find out about the meeting and the ward and she told us “i just figured i would run into some missionaries somewhere”.

wow…so the moral of the story is…hmmm…well i guess…the elders are right…the Lord does bless missionaries who go to wal-mart not on p-day.

no im just kidding. but it was way cool to be able to meet that lady and help her out. she is still only able to use one of her arms. she is awesome and we will see her on sunday.

i love y’all
sister ricker