Sister Ricker

howdy all!!!

its 105 degrees here. its finally summer. well it has been pretty hot for the last week or so. i cant believe that it is already the end of july also i realized i might be a little off on my week # in the subject line. oh well.

im learning lots of useful skills on my mission. yesterday morning we laid sod. i had no clue that grass was so heavy. i could have had an easier job but i didnt want to be a pansy. now im paying for it today. im so sore. it was fun though. the family we helped is awesome. i had to cut all my nails though, they collected quite a bit of mud.

this poor little library gets overrun with missionaries each week.

lets see…what else…we had some good appointments the last two nights. so in one of our wards the bishop decided to have someone in the elders quorum and relief society give out a book of mormon each week. so one of the members did it and we have started teaching the guy he gave the book of mormon to. both lessons went really well. he seems pretty interested. he is young so we will probably switch him to the singles branch elders.

i love the gospel. seriously how blessed are we to just know that God loves each one of us individually. i am a daughter of God. and my Savior Jesus Christ lives to continue to help and support me. He is my advocate.

WoW!!! do we realize the power in these truths that seem so basic and simple.

love
sister ricker

how goes it? i dont really know what to say this week. usually i come with several things in mind but i got nothing.

yesterday evening we walked in the park and talked to a bunch of people hanging out. it was practically like we were on saturdays warrior, only there were no pensive artists and we arent elders. there were some apricot trees and we discussed whether or not it was against the law to pick some of the apricots and fill up our bags. since there were alot of people around and we were in pros. we opted for not, better safe than sorry.

we have been collected quite the aray of produce since it is summer. someone sent us home with some zuchinni (hmm…20 bucks to whoever tells me how to spell that) (hey thats a good idea i’ll start buying y’all’s emails) the size of small children of whiffle bats. we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with them when our minds were drawn back to the park and all those apricots going to waste on the ground. if you dont see where im going with this let me also tell you how the church has a beautiful baseball. anyways, ill keep y’all posted.

seriously though, im in produce heaven. all sorts of garden vegetables and tons of cherries, scrumptious.

love y’all
sister ricker

oops…i forgot a spiritual experience…ill send two next week…well, probably not, but ill think about it

this week was great…we had a baptism. it was awesome. those two kids have waited a long time to be baptized and they have finally gotten their wish. i love being a missionary and being able to witness such miracles. every day i get to walk out my door and tell people of someone who loves them with the strongest purest form of love. i get to tell them that their individual value is immeasurable i get to tell them that Heavenly Father loves us just as much as those that came before us and He has not closed the heavens, He is still deeply concerned with what is going on in our individual lives and He still has a prophet here on earth to guide us. i get to tell people who have given up on themselves that there is always hope and there is a way for each one of us to change, we dont have to stay stuck in a place we dont want to be. through our Savior Jesus Christ we can change! what an amazing blessing that is in our lives that never really appreciated until now.

so that was my tangent for the week. good thing i dont email every day, y’all’s mail boxes would be full from me alone .

what else…we had zone conference..oh wait maybe i already told y’all about that. oh well, it was good. i’ll just let y’all go.

love sister ricker

week one of the new transfer. so far so good. my new companion is great. she is totally excited about the work and ready to work hard. we have had lots of really good appointments. we teach well together and that is always exciting. yesterday was zone conference. we had it in the mountains….okay let me correct…we had it in the really big hills of eastern oregon. it was pretty though. it was a good change up and it was good to see other missionaries. although i was a little sad cause none of my past companions were there. those still standing have been shipped to the other side of the mission.

so on monday we were walking around talking to random people cause well…there were several reasons..a) we had no appointments, b) the weather was really nice, but most importantly, one we want to find those people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach (oh and we’ve been using a ton of miles lately) but the point is we talked to a random couple in the street and they said to come by that afternoon and we did and the lesson went well and we are going back. but we also found out that they are not in our area so we are turning them over to the elders. it was really cool though. thats never happened to me before.

i must be learning to type faster cause i have a ton of time left.

i love y’all and i hope summer is going well for all

love
sister ricker