Missions are the Best!

I love you all so much! Every one of you reading this- I'm serious! It's incredible how serving people can cause you to learn to love so much deeper and more fully. I just feel so much love for the people in my life both past and present! I don't have much time today, but I'd like to share some of the lessons from this week. I hope you don't mind my lists.... I'm such a list maker.....

1) I love when older women kiss me on the cheek. Weird? Maybe but whatever! I feel so loved! You women should all start doing it cause I would do anything in the world for these beautiful women who show me and others so much love.

2) When people told me that I would "always be tired" on my mission, I didn't take it too seriously. Um. Bad idea. I am LITERALLY ALWAYS tired. Every second of every day. Holy cow. Hahah I'm not complaining! I'm just telling it how it is :)

3) God is SO active in our lives. I think I'll share that lesson probably every other letter because it is so true. We have 3 investigators with baptismal dates and others that are close or on their way. God is blessing them so much for their desire to do what He wants. It's INCREDIBLE to hear of the miracles that are happening in their lives and to watch their actual NATURE change as they come to God. He is so good.

4) There are a LOT of people who are in a LOT of pain: emotionally, physically and spiritually. We need to honestly stop our judging and stop any unkindness because people don't deserve that. It is so sad to learn how much people really are hurting. I don't ever want to be the cause of someone feeling even more pain because of my pride or unkindness. Take some time this week to just look at people, strangers, and wonder what their background is. Then do something kind for them. That's my challenge for myself- you should try it too and let me know how it goes!

5) SOOOOOO many people stop going to church because of two SIMPLE things. They're so simple, but we have to choose to make them apart of our every day. Scripture study and prayer. Honestly, you talk to anyone who has stopped going to church and almost every time I'm sure they'll say that they weren't reading their scriptures or praying. Those are absolute safety nets. There is safety in the little things- really. 

6) I miss the temple!! Would you please go to the temple this week for me? That would mean so much. I would love to go so badly. We're actually going into Philadelphia today to see the temple site for the Philadelphia temple which will be awesome!

I'm so happy. There is so much joy in serving God and I am so privileged to be apart of this. People are so beautiful. I love being able to meet so many different people of different ethnic backgrounds (and eat ethnic food!) because there is so much beauty in God's creations. 

I love this church. I love the gospel and I love prayer. What a privilege to be able to talk to God! Literally, we can talk with the creator of all things. It's a billion times cooler than talking to the president or a king or something. 

Stay happy and remember how much God loves you and how much I love you!

Love, Sister Ricks

This was from the MTC with my MTC companion by the famous map.

This was my MTC Zone. They're incredible!

This is a member from Fiji who works with us. She's so great!

I'm in Jersey!!

Wow! The mission field is absolutely amazing! The MTC was great and I learned a LOT, but being in the field is a thousand times better!! I'm already in love with the people out here and my companions (I'm in a trio) are the absolute best! Sister J. and Sister S. are seriously so great and I've learned so much from them already. If I end up training, I really hope to be a lot like them in the way that they've been training.

Alright, some thoughts I've been having throughout the week:

1. People need to smile more! It made me sad walking through the airports and around town and smiling at people who don't smile back. SMILE! It really is a beautiful look and it helps you to feel happy.

2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ prevents SO much heartache. Oh man. I've met some amazing people out here with some crazy stories. Honestly, if they had been living the gospel, so many really tough things would have been prevented. Life is always going to be difficult and trials will come, but it is VITAL to live the gospel. Including the little things like praying morning and night and studying the scriptures every day. PLEASE find out what the gospel means to you and how it is a part of your life, and then LIVE IT! That is where happiness comes from. I am 200% convinced of that (no that wasn't a typo!)

3. Missionaries don't know everything. WHAT?! I know, I know it's a shock. It's been really humbling to find out how many people think that missionaries are all-knowing about the gospel. Makes me realize how much more I need to study and learn because the people really rely on the missionaires.

4. Repentence really matters. For everyone! And unless we repent and are clean, the Spirit will not reside in us to do God's work. We need to repent literally every day. I didn't realize that that was true until I got out here. Now, we don't need to be perfect; but I had it in my head that I only needed to take time to ask for forgiveness for the big things I do wrong. I didn't realize how flawed that was until I was out in the field for the first day and the Spirit kept prompting me to repent for some little dumb things that I did. I had a hard first day and didn't feel like I was in tune with Spirit at all. So I hit my knees that night and had a talk with Heavenly Father. That is so important to do every day. I make dumb mistakes every day and if I want to qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, I'd better be repenting every day! That is true for everyone, whether a full-time missionary or not.

5. I am so grateful for the people in my life. My family and my friends and my leaders and coworkers and my EFY kids and everyone who has been in my life. THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU! Your influence goes so much deeper with so many more people than you ever realize! I think about random people and the random things I learned from them all the time. Keep being you!

6. Missionary work is WORK. But it's also FUN! My companions and I have started a thing that we call our "Purple Book" where we write down funny things that happen. So I'll tell you some of those each time I write. To begin.... my companion gave a "The Other Side of Heaven" prayer this week. Y'know the one where the missionary gives the prayer over the food and teaches the entire lesson in the prayer. Because we were with a family where the wife and kids are members but the husband is not. He's not terribly open to having lessons, so that is how she took care of that.

Also, my other companion says "y'know?" to Heavenly Father in her prayers. Sounds like they're buddies :)

The work out in New Jersey is going really well! There is so much for us to do and it keeps us really busy. I'm loving it so much! We have two investigators with October 19th as their date for baptism! They are so wonderful- a cute old Cuban couple who love Christ and are so excited to be baptized! We have a few other investigators who are on track for baptism, so hopefully we'll be able to set a date soon. We also have some investigators that are going to take a LOT of work. And there are tons and tons of inactive members out here that we are working with. So we're busy and loving all of it. I know that I'm out here for a reason, and that reason is that I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ contains everything we need for true joy. I know that Christ lives and loves each of us and He wants us to do what is necessary to qualify for all the blessings that Heavenly Father wants to give us. I love you all so much!! :)

Love, Sister Ricks

P.S. If you could send letters to my physical address, that would be best! I might not be able to go to my mission home for quite a few months.... So! My address is 

1410 Cherrywood Apartments   

Clementon, NJ 08021. 

Please write!

Okay, and super random. But I've got a group of elders who want people to write to them so that they're actually getting emails haha. If you'd be interested in writing them, send me an email or letter and I'll get you their addresses!

It's been a month!!

Okay not really. But it certainly feels like that with the way that time goes in the MTC. We are learning SOOOOOOOOO much ALLLL the time! It's so great, but my goodness it's tiring. I'm so grateful to be here, I already feel considerably more prepared to actually go out in the field. But I have MUCH more to learn. Missionary work is just that.... it's work. No getting this idea that you just come out and hang out with your companions and your district. There is so much that I have been learning from my teachers, my companion, my district and zone. And most especially from the Spirit. It would take me hours to write everything I've learned in just one week, but I'll limit it to some particularly significant things that I have learned.

1. This Church is SO true! Everything inside and out is true. While the people are imperfect and make many mistakes, the actual principles and doctrines of the Church are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TRUE! And they really are taught for the purpose of making us better people, more able to be close to our Savior Jesus Christ. This is HIS gospel and that much I can never deny.

2. I have SOOOOOOO far to go to become like Christ. I am very very mortal and I make many many mistakes. Here I was, entering the MTC with this idea in my head that I was doing pretty well (sorry to admit to you that I'm pretty prideful. I know it's true haha). And then Heavenly Father decided that He should probably let me know that I've got a long ways to go. That hurts! Being made humble and having your weaknesses pointed out to you is no walk in the park. But I have found so much peace in the words of Christ and the prophets that explain WHY Heavenly Father points the weaknesses out. Ether 12:27 teaches that God allows us to have weaknesses and points them out SO THAT we can be humbled. It's for a reason. It's not to make us just hurt and feel bad about ourselves. He's got a purpose so much greater than we usually realize. And then here's another beautiful promise. Our weaknesses can, in fact, become those things that we are most strong at. But if we were just strong instantly.... I can just see a lot of pride happening. We need humility to do righteous things with those strengths.

Okay that was kind of a long one and I hope it made sense....

3. A mission requires a LOT of a person. This was made obvious through my own experience (which in fact has been really great and I am so happy!) and then also through watching an Elder in my district. Oddly enough, he looks a lot like Jonathan (my younger brother), so already I feel a little protective of him. Yesterday while in class, he started tearing up while talking to our teacher. I can't tell you how much love and admiration I felt for him and for all of the young people coming out to serve. God requires a lot of His children. But what is so beautiful to me about all of this is that God takes these young teenagers...18 or 19 years old... and molds them into strong men and women. How does He do it? Well... with a lot of what I talked about in Number 2. So my bit of advice to those preparing to serve... just know that it is work. BUT. Don't think that this is ever any reason to stay away. The outcome.... the final piece of work, after being molded in the hands of our Savior.... Beauty. God has so much more intended for us than we can ever even imagine, and He knows how to get us there. We should be so grateful!

Once again... I hope that all made sense.

4. EFY works!! Hahah anyone surprised that I brought that up? I guess what I really should say is The Spirit works!! Last night I ran into an Elder who was my EFY participant 3 summers ago. Here he is, getting ready to serve somewhere in South America (I should remember...) and to help bring the joy of the gospel and of forever families to those people. Now I know that the Lord has been working with him his whole life. But I had the privilege to watch one of those instances where the Lord was working on him. When the young boy felt the Holy Ghost in His life and had a testimony-building experience. It wasn't me by any means, don't think I'm saying that. It was entirely the Spirit! Our teenagers NEED to have testimony-building experiences. Wherever the situation is... EFY, the trek, girls camp, scout camp, mutual, church.... THEY NEED TO FEEL THE SPIRIT!! I guess we all do.... but everyone knows how much I love working with teenagers :)

Well, I'm basically out of time. I wish I could tell you about everything that has happened, but I don't have 6 hours to type unfortunately. But I do need you all to know that I'm out here in the MTC, getting ready to leave to Pennsylvania because I love Christ. My Savior has been the one true source of peace and lasting joy in my life. For that I will be forever grateful and indebted. I am out here giving a small portion of my life to try my best to show my gratitude for Him. Christ is peace. 

I love you all so much! Write me! :D

Love, Sister Amber Ricks

Tomorrow!

         Here I sit at my parent's computer, counting down the minutes until I will be set apart as a full-time missionary. It's amazing how fast this all has come! Yet I feel completely ready for this new adventure in life. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to dedicate 100% of my life to my God for the next 18 months. I look forward to meeting the people of the Pennnsylvania Philadelphia Mission. I'm so grateful for the people that I have had come into my life over the last 23 years. I know that I am at this point in my life because of the people know and the experiences I have had. If I know you, thank you! Thank you for being you and for influencing my life for the better. I've felt more love and support than I deserve and I hope to share that love with the people who I will meet over the next 18 months.
         In these last few minutes I want to tell you why I'm leaving the comfort of my home, my family and my friends for a year and a half. I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormon Church). I was raised by wonderful parents who have simply tried to do the best that they can. They have taught me how to love deeply and to ask questions. It is because of the way that I was raised that I got to the point in my life that I needed to ask some big questions: Is God really there? Does He really listen to me? How can Jesus Christ actually help my life? As I knelt in prayer and asked these questions, my answers came. And as those answers came, I came to know for myself that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This Church is for me- and for everyone- because it answers the questions of the soul and brings me closer to my God and to my Savior. I know that Jesus Christ is the one true source of peace in this life, and I can't imagine my life without Him in it. I love God- so I will dedicate a portion of my life to Him so that the people of the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission will come to love Him as well.