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!