Sister Ricker

so im getting a new companion. it was kind of a shocker to both of us. i thought maybe something was going to happen but i thought we would find out on friday. well nothing happened so by saturday morning we were already making plans for the upcoming transfer together. we were just starting to sing our companionship study song when the phone rang. my companion grabbed it and said “its president” —”shut up, no its not” —- “no it really is” — “well dont answer it”—but she ignored me and answered. sure enough i heard the unmistakable voice and i knew our plans were not going to happen. while she talked to him i kept telling her to just hang up. but she didnt.

so shes going back to the other side of the mission and im getting a new companion who has only been out a few months. im sad to lose her but the work will go on . and we have a lot of work so it should be good. it always is.

we have a baptism on the 11th. and next week we have zone conference. im so excited. when i first came out i did not like zone conference. too much sitting, we had work to do, there was no time for talking. but they’ve grown on me and i look forward to them. i always come out fired up and ready to go. also we get a really good lunch. not that we need more food in this mission, but oh well, ill enjoy it while it lasts.

we ran our six mile run this morning. it was awesome. we even got shirts and water at mid-way and there were people to cheer us on oh we even had a cop clock us. the joys of being in a small town . one of the track coaches is a member and he saw us and gave us the shirts we had asked him to find for us. we ran by another members’ house and he was waiting for us with water bottles. we didnt even have to stop. it was almost an official run. oh and we had a toilet paper finish line, to top it off. dont worry we took pictures.

love
sister ricker

how goes it? we had some more pretty exciting meetings with our wards on sunday. we got this grand idea to have a ward fhe type activity in each ward. we want it to be a night at the mtc type thing. we have tons of fun activities and stirring messages to rally the troops and get them pumped to share the gospel. we were so proud of ourselves and we brought it up to our wards and both agreed to our idea and one even committed to a date. we are so excited. lets hope we are both here when it happens. things are really moving here. which is good. we have put in a lot of work to get it going. the wards are awesome.

hmm…what else are the highlights of the week…i scared the zone leaders by calling them up and telling them that i was half way to kennewick and i just wanted to let them know. i said i wanted to go to the temple and figured i should let them know. dont worry, i was just kidding, i have not gone a-wall (im not sure if that is how it is spelled but y’all get the idea).

next week is transfers so we are having zone p-day. we have zone p-day pretty often since the zone is so small and the town is so small.

my companion and i ran 5 miles today in preparation for our 6 mile run next p-day. its what we have been working all transfer for.(that, among other worthy missionary goals, of course) we tried to get the rest of the zone to join us but they were not interested. one elder volunteered to hold up the finish line, thats as good as it gets.

seriously, work is good, really good. im so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission. this gospel is…hmmm…im still looking for a ward that really does it justice. im open for any suggestions.

sister ricker

this week was great!!! the highlight was by far, this weekend. we had a baptism on saturday, WOOT!!! it was so good. she is awesome, she has been solid from day one. just to give you an example. she was at work (some fastfood place) and she had been thinking about talking to her lds friends about learning more, then in walk two missionaries. so she says to herself “why wait to talk to my friends, there are missionaries right here”. the rest is history.

sunday we had our morning meetings. they were so good. are wards are really begin to catch the vision of member missionary work. all our harping is starting to pay off. in one ward, bishop totally stepped up to the plate and accepted our commitment to do something that day to help the ward fulfill their responsibility. from the pulpit he gave the whole ward a reading assignment from preach my gospel and in rs and priesthood a book of mormon was handed out to be given away. this week those people reported and another one was handed out. we are so proud of our wards .

dont worry, it gets better. since the day before we had a baptism, we had a confirmation. and one of our investigators who has not been to church yet came to church!!! and we werent even expecting her.

oh but there is more…just when we thought the day couldnt get better, it did. we were leaving rs and bishop came rushing in to tell us two kids we have teaching can now be baptized!!! they have been waiting for years to be baptized. we are so excited for them.

see i told you it was a great weekend which has carried over into this week. things are going really well. there is so much work in this area. i love it!!!

love
sister ricker

so that less-active guy i mentioned last week…he came to church. he tried to leave after sacrament meeting but of course we couldnt let that happen.

he had a lesson last night that was great. two new investigators! they were so interested and before we could even bring it up they asked us what time church is. and we will see them again this week.

this transfer is going to well. we have found several new less-actives who are ready to start coming back to church and we have a really good group of people we are teaching. also, we get to do tons of service since the weather is so nice.

i love it, oh i just got my warning so i better go. ill talk to y’all later.

love ya
sister ricker

how goes it?

so last week we had an awesome appointment with a less-active guy that sent me bouncing for hours (the appointment not the guy). it was awesome. it was one of those appointments that reminds you of all the reasons you are serving a mission. ahhh….it was so good. we found him the week before on a day when nobody was home (those days are great) and we set up a time to come back. he said he had been thinking about coming back to church so we said “perfect, we’ll help” we set up with him to “practice” teaching him the lessons. as we were teaching i kept watching him and trying to figure out what he needed, why were we there, what part of the lesson was what he needed to hear, then we got to the atonement.

i love the atonement, who doesnt need to hear more about the atonement. finally i asked him what it meant to him to know Christ did that for him. as he answered we were able to get a better understanding as to what he needed to hear. he really opened up and we were able to testify and teach to his needs. the spirit was so strong. i testified of our Savior’s love for him and then he asked me how i knew that. that surprised me a little. it wasnt contentious. he really wanted to know. he needed to know. so out came my response. i bore a very personal testimony of how i knew my Savior loved me and was always there for me. i have always been hesitant to share personal experiences and struggles i knew i couldnt answer his question without it. as i spoke, i could feel my own testimony being strengthened. My Heavenly Father and my Savior love me and from them i obtain strength to do things i could never do on my own.

i think i need to start asking myself that more often “how do you know?” it really helped me to testify with power and conviction. Heavenly Father blesses us with testimony building experiences for a reason.

sister ricker