Sister Ricker

i just want y’all to know that it is a miracle that i am even able to email today. last week i saw my life flash before my eyes as i locked stares with a very angry goose. seriously it was scary. do you know those things hiss? you see we visit this really nice lady and she has some geese and ducks. i’ve walked by them a thousand times (by a thousand i mean like 3 or 4) well for some reason they were not happy this week. i think they could smell my companion’s fear. she had just warned me that they might bite. but i had no fear of a bunch of ducks.

well after being cornered by a angry hissing goose (just so you know if you come closer they dont back down and if you try to retreat they will follow) i have come to a very important decision, my children will never own a goose, their pet options are quickly declining. my love for people has greatly increased on my mission, my love for animals, not so much.

anyways that was the entertaining highlight of the week. it was pretty funny.

lets see…we have begun teaching some really cool people in the last two weeks. there is one man that we have begun teaching. he has been to church twice and we have just taught him a few times but the last time we came by he said the closing prayer. it was amazing!! he prayed to know if what we taught him was true and then he paused not sure what else to say finally a few more things came out and you knew they were coming from his heart. the Spirit was so strong!!! i knew Heavenly Father so pleased with him. and he was so happy, you could tell by the smile on his face that he felt what we were feeling. The love of God!!!there is nothing better.

anyways, that’s just a snip-bit of what’s been going on. things are going really well.

i love being a part of this!! i love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ and what a blessing it is to be able to join them in this work, their work. im so grateful for the opportunity to feel even a portion of the love they have for His children. its so intense, how else would i be able to sincerely love and care for people i hardly know. but i do, and its so real. these are children of God, who He loves so very much, and just wants to hear from. He wants them to come home, and He wants to help them while they are away from Him, here on earth.

its a perfect plan!!!

love y’all
sister ricker

well the spiritual highlight of the week was by far saturday. Elder Holland and Elder Jensen came. it was awesome. we had to be there way in advance and they had us sit by zone and our zone was assigned to the first two rows. (i sat on the second row so i could cross my legs without worrying about flashing the top of my knee highs ).

my comp and i sat right smack dap in the middle of the second row. it was amazing. all of it. elder jensen spoke about our identity as children of God and Christ’s invitation to rise up to a higher plane. i wish y’all could have been there. there is no way im gonna remember all that i felt and hear. i think the what stood out the most from what Elder Jensen said, came at the end. he had been talking about obedience and being covenant people. he called up and elder that is going home in 5 weeks and as he talked about what would happen when he goes home and the descisions that elder would have to make, one by one he pulled off his tags, his white hand book and his ministerial certificate. that really hit home. that poor elder. i think we all felt his pain.

this is only the beginning he pointed out. this is to be the foundation for the rest of our lives but we must decide what we will do and where we will stand when those tags come off. thats not a day i like to think about. this time here, my mission, means more to me than i ever would have thought.

elder holland got up and built on all of that. he really stressed obedience and “getting it” who we are what this is all about. he reminded us that we have been singing for years that we have been reserved for the last days and thats true but that doesnt come without a great deal of responsibilty. we must step up. he spoke with such power and authority there is no way to deny who he is, an apostle of God. it was so obvious that he knows who he is and he wants nothing more than for us to know who we are.

CHILDREN OF GOD. Set apart representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.

it was so good. i wish i had it recorded but i dont. when he was talking about obedience, he really stressed that this is the God’s work and if we are not obedient than we are not doing it His way than we have no promise of His Spirit to be with us. its as simple as that. do it God’s way and you have His promise. then are you built on a solid foundation. any other way cannot and will not last. same for missionary work and all aspects of life.

be a covenant keeping people. there is the source of our strength, security and stability.

he has such a clear picture and vision of what life is all about. i want that. (not to be an apostle, just the clear perspective, the understanding)

i better go im about out of time.

sister sarah ricker
(sad to say that was just a smidge of what we got in those two hours, it barely felt like 30 minutes, it was that good)

wow!!!

where to begin…last night first of all was great. we had and appointment with our young investigators. we were playing a game to review what we have learned so far and to help keep them interested. GUESS WHAT!!! the 10 yr old told us that she prayed!!! and she read the chapter we left her!! it couldnt have gotten any better than that. but of course it did. they were so excited about the game. shes really warming up to us. and they answered so many questions. she was listening! when she didnt know the answer she would grab her book of mormon and start flipping through the pages sure she could just open the book and find the answers. we pointed her in the right direction .

oh but the best part. her 13 yr old sister came out ot join us for the first time. she joined right in. these kids are awesome. im so grateful to be able to work with them.

okay what else…well my companion found this random green sticky note with a few names and addresses on it. when we were planning one night we couldnt think of anything else to do so we thought “hey if all else fails we can try the green sticky note”. i tell you the Lord works in mysterious ways. there is real power in the sticky note . no but seriously. all esle did fail and so, we went for it. honestly i thought “well that’ll take a good few minutes to try those random addresses”. the first one we tried was a really nice family. and he welcomed us in and we visited and testified for like an hour and a half!! it was awesome. you could really feel the love and concern this family had for one another and they have a sincer desire to do the best for their family.

there were a ton of random instances like that this week. we try our best to be doing what the Lord wants. we pray, we listen and we go. a lot of the time we dont see emidiate results from the steps we take. but we keep going and trusting. but then all of a sudden it all lines up and we find ourselves exactly where we need to be at that time. we may not see where our efforts are going but if they are done in prayer and faith, miracles will happen.

we had so many cool sitruations like that this week where we could tell we were being guided. im so grateful that He is in charge of this great work cause i have no clue

love
sister ricker

sorry i meant to put in this scripture

Alma 37:7

The Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls

isnt the gospel great

hmmm…this week…wow…it went so fast but i cant even remember what happened.

we took a laurel tracting one day. that was fun. she really enjoyed herself, she is excited about going on a mission herself. so we were talking to two men in their driveway. they were working on their car and we took that as an invitation to visit. they were really chatty and friendly but not so interested in learning more about the restored gospel. we offered our mechanic skills but they declined that as well. i figured the Spirit would guide us if they just let us have a shot at it. but, they didnt have such faith.

anyways as we were leaving my companion totally biffed it in their little ditch. it was pretty amusing (dont worry she’s fine, or i wouldnt have laughed, well i at least would have would have waited to laugh ) they felt really bad. Hey but we got into their house. So she could wash her battle wound. Ive trained her so well, sacrificing her body for the work.

Lets see what else…oh yesterday was a pretty good day. We had like 5 appointments and four of them cancelled but never fear, the Lord provided. We were trying to figure out what we should do after the third one bombed and the Spirit reminded me of a sweet older lady I had met like two months ago with my last companion. We had tracted into her and she wasn’t interested but she welcomed us in and told us to come back anytime. She enjoyed the company. Anyways we were passing her house so we stopped by. She had just found out that her daughter has four brain turmors that were inopperable. She was really upset. She said she would have us in but she was feeling a little sick and didn’t want us to get it. We assured her that we take our vitamins and additional vitamin c.  it didn’t take much. She wanted to talk. We talked, shared some scriptures and, sang her a hymn. Im so grateful that Heavenly Father is leading this work and helping us to know where we need to be and which of His children needs a message from Him.

WOW!!! How cool is it to be a part of this great work!!! I love that He is concerned with each and everyone of us and if we are open to the help that He has for us it is there. Even in the smallest most seemingly insignificant of ways.

Thanks for all the support
Love sister Sarah Ricker