Soooooo cooooooold! November 25

FIRST of all, I realized that I put the wrong scripture reference in my letter last week... oops! I think I did that another time too.... sorry about that!

Second of all, I don't think I've ever been more cold in my life than being out here! People were not lying when they said that would happen. Humidity + Wind = Misery. Haha. There were times this week when I was completely convinced that my face was just going to fall off. Luckily that hasn't happened....yet.

I've got to be quick this week. The biggest lesson that I learned this week:

1. Service is an incredible source of softening people's hearts. We decided to go around a neighborhood and offer to rake people's lawns. Some turned us down, but a couple let us do it. It was nice to actually do some manual labor! But it was even cooler because the second woman who let us rake her lawn is now an investigator! She was super nice and we met her kids and she was so touched by our service that she wanted to just talk to us to understand why we would do that. We were able to teach her about the Restoration of Christ's Gospel and she completely opened up with her life. 

I love you all so much! I'm so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. I feel your prayers and I'm grateful for that! Remember that Christ lives and He is always accessible!

Love, Sister Ricks

Artsy picture?

The Philly Love Statue!

Artsy again :)

Elder Morgan was an EFY participant at one of my sessions this summer!

My companions and me in front of a cool mural in Philadelphia

2 Baptisms!!!! November 18

Yesterday we had two baptisms! (Did you guess that from the title?) They were both so ready to be baptized and it was beautiful to soak in the experience of all that we have been through with them, and seeing them enter the waters of baptism. What a blessing! And J who was baptized last week was confirmed yesterday. She is such a sweet old woman and was so nervous to be in front of the ward, but she did it anyway. It's incredible what these people are willing to do, and what fears they are willing to overcome to make the decision to be baptized and confirmed. T, who was baptized yesterday, told us earlier in the week that she would "cancel anything or do whatever [she] needs to to be baptized." Reminded me of King Lamoni's father in Alma 20 when he said that he would "give away all [his] sins to know [God]." The gospel is amazing!

1. People REALLY can change. That true change comes as a person is willing to turn their heart to God and to follow His commandments. One of our investigators is pretty closed off and hesitant of people. She's not someone that I would describe as warm and cuddly. I was honestly a little scared of her the first time that I taught her. But as she has made changes because of God's commandments and to prepare for baptism, her entire demeanor has changed. Every time we meet with her now, all of us are rolling on the floor laughing. She is kind and loving and I'm amazed to see her warm up to different members of the ward. The gospel changes people, whether you believe it can happen or not!

2. Music is very powerful in inviting the Spirit. We have begun using hymns in more of our lessons and it's beautiful to watch a household that is chaotic just settle down with the Spirit when music is sung. Try it! If you're wanting things to calm down around your house, try singing a hymn and just pay attention to your feelings. If it's done in the right attitude, the Spirit will be invited.

3. I love rules. Okay, if you were drinking a cup of apple cider and had to spit it out because of my comment, I'm sorry! I know, I know, I've always been one to not like rules. But, just like our investigator, I have been changed. I've come to recognize the need for rules and I've realized how blessed we really are when we follow rules. I love having a rule and having the opportunity to be obedient. That's all they really are- Heavenly Father's excuse to bless us. He gives us a rule/commandment, and if we follow it, He can overload us with blessings. I love that Man.

Good news! Last night we were asked if we are Amish. We've also been asked if we are Nuns. Darn, I thought our cute outfits made us stand out a bit but....

I love you all! I know the Church is true and I know that God loves us!

Love, Sister Ricks

Yes that is a skunk on my head. And a raccoon on Sister Jensen's head

From behind!

In a tractor!

Amber Street!

The beautiful Fall leaves

D's baptism!

One of Those Weeks -- November 11

I just read the email from my younger brother on his mission in Utah and it's interesting, at least to me, that he had "one of those weeks" too. It's a cool experience being on a mission at the same time as my brother. But wait! We are all on missions with our brothers and sisters ALL THE TIME. You get it? Ya know... cause we're all member missionaries? :) Okay, that was cheesy. I'm done.

Anyway, I had one of those weeks where things are a little more tough and Satan is a little more mean. But of course, with difficulty comes much learning. Here are a few of the lessons I got out of this week:

1) Satan attacks HARD when you are about to make a really good decision. One of our investigators was baptized yesterday (woo hoo!!) but we had a darn hard time getting her interview done. We had to have a male present who is not a missionary and for the life of us, we couldn't find anyone. We literally knocked on random people's doors at an elderly home to see if ANYONE would come out, but they all refused. FINALLY as we were about to give up, we found a man who is a friend of ours, and the Elder was able to do the baptismal interview. Many other things happened that could have prevented her baptism, but we were absolutely determined to not let Satan win and she was baptized! If Satan is coming at you hard, you're very likely doing the right thing. Don't let him win! Remember how hard Satan came after Joseph Smith when he was about to pray to God about which church to join? Yeah, Satan is still using the same tactic.

2) I am weak. Really weak. Really super weak. Hahaha.

3) Okay fine, I'll expand #2 a little more. It's funny because both of my farewell talks that I gave were on the topic of "pride". And here I am, painfully realizing how prideful I really am. It's HARD to be humble. Heavenly Father is being really patient with me though, and letting me try to be humble on my own. Hopefully I can figure it out before He has to get even more involved. But when we choose to truly humble ourselves and realize how much we need Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we come to be so much closer to them than we even imagine we could be. I've got a long way to go to really be humble.

4) Reading scriptures is a privilege and a blessing. I've been reading through the Book of Mormon again since I got out in the field, and I've come to love it more than I ever have before. I really really really hope that when I get home, I make it a priority to set aside 30 min to an hour every day to read from the scriptures. It has only been through consistent reading of my scriptures that I've really learned to LOVE the scriptures and to look forward to reading them every day. But that consistency really is the key. When it's sporadic, it's easier to let that time of the day be something that you put off and that sometimes you may even dread. I understand that, I've been there. But now that I've learned how much I can truly LOVE reading the scriptures, I hope to always stay consistent with reading and studying them. 

5) I've learned a looooot about companionship in my short 2 months on my mission. It's really cool knowing and understanding that no matter what differences of opinion my companions and I may have, if we are being contentious and having any problems, the Spirit will not be there and we will not succeed in missionary work. Plain and simple as that. If we want to succeed, we must have the Spirit, and to have the Spirit we must be in harmony. We don't have to be perfect, but we do need to be in harmony. That harmony part is really difficult sometimes. But my goodness, I'm learning that no matter how RIGHT I think that I am, it doesn't matter. Harmony is so much more important than my pride. So I've got to give up those stupid ideas that I have, and humbly accept that just loving my companion is always best. 

I'm certain that marriage is the same way. Being in harmony with your spouse and just loving him/her is ALWAYS the best option. It doesn't matter how RIGHT you know or think that you are, you need to just let it go. Because if you're not in harmony, the Spirit will not be there, and you will not succeed in your marriage. 

It's been a great week. Difficult, but great. That's what missionary work is supposed to be like, right? :) I'll send the picture from the baptism. It was great and I'm so blessed to be somewhere where we have so much work to do. Also, we finally got ward missionaries yesterday!! I can't tell you how excited we are to finally have them. Ahh!! 

I love you all! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true church here on the earth. If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be out here. But I am out here, because I want the world to know that this is where true happiness is found. That's real.

Love, Sister Ricks

 

T is mentally handicapped and we clean her house every week. I love her so much!

K is in the hospital and needed a little lovin'.



Us and J! She's so smart and funny!

Artsy nametag picture :)

Oh I love this family!!

The baptism!!

 

So. Many. Miracles. November 4

My goodness, I really don't understand how I got to be this blessed! I'll tell you something that most of you don't know: I had a hard time in the MTC. A really hard time. And I'm so darn grateful for that because I learned a LOT and I feel like I had to go through a really hard time to then be ready for Heavenly Father to pour out blessings. How awesome is that? Heavenly Father lets us struggle a little (sometimes a lot) and then He overwhelms us with blessings. He is so good to His children. Do you see it in your life? I promise you it's happened and it will continue to happen that way.

This week was absolutely incredible. I literally witness miracles on a daily basis. God has done so much for every one of His children. It is so heartbreaking to see those who ignore His help and direction and choose to do things that prevent them from further blessings. But it's not that He's punishing them, He just CAN'T send blessings because they chose to disobey. This leads to my first point:

1. Agency. I love the topic of agency. Maybe I've written about it before... I can't remember. But really, agency is incredible, and is a HUMONGOUS gift from Heavenly Father. I'm afraid that too often we forget that we have agency, and we try to get other people to make all of our choices for us. I know that I'm guilty of that- sometimes I just want Heavenly Father to tell me what to do. But that's not what He intended for me. He intends for me to exercise agency so that I can learn. Maybe you can do a scripture study this week on agency, because there is a lot of cool things to learn about it.

2. Bible bashing is never worth it. I'll be honest. Sometimes I get a little prideful and I think that I know a lot. So when this man asked if he could meet with us and we expected that he was just going to Bible-bash, I was kind of excited to see how well we could do. And I'll be honest again... my companions and I did a pretty good job of using our scriptures to counter his questions. BUT then the Spirit taught me a very important lesson. This man came with no intention of learning. Therefore the Spirit could not teach him. After a while, I finally just bore my testimony. There was nothing else to do beyond that- but he kept bashing. I felt pretty bold-sauce when I finally just asked him if he intended to learn anything or if he just intended to prove us wrong. He said that he intended to convince us that the religion we had chosen was wrong. Immediately we told him that that would never happen, and we would not be able to meet with him again. Wow. Crazy experience, but really- Bible bashing is not worth it.

3. "Courageous Parenting" by Larry Lawrence of the Seventy is amazing. It's a General Conference talk. Really, look it up and read it. No matter how old you are! I've read it a few times this week and sent it to a few of our members because of how powerful it is. I'm excited to one day be a "Courageous Parent." :)

4. Sacrifice is not really sacrifice at all. Think about this. We are asked to sacrifice something that is important to us. But then, because we were obedient, Heavenly Father loads on the blessings that are BETTER than what we sacrificed. What? Why are we so lucky? Coming out on a mission has been a sacrifice- a pretty darn big one. But I came because I want to help other people. However, these other people seem to be blessing me more than I can bless them. I've had so many answers to questions come from the very people that I am supposed to be helping. And then, these people go out of their way to serve me. Wait a second- aren't I supposed to be the one serving them?! It's incredible. I guarantee you, I'm working hard out here. But the blessings that I'm getting in return are so much more than I deserve for this work. How does that work out?

5. Going to the temple is a HUGE privilege. A lot of times we think of it as a sacrifice to go to the temple. But now that I CAN'T go to the temple for at least another year because it is out of our mission, I've learned that it really is no sacrifice at all. Unless you think of it in the terms of what I explained up above. Because really, the blessings that come from the temple are soooo incredible. I was completely spoiled living in Gilbert and in Provo where temples were so accessible. I'm dying to get to the temple! The members out here and dying to finally have a temple within an hour! If you're close to a temple, PLEASE GO THIS WEEK!

6. The Spirit is another major privilege. We came across a heroine addict this last week. That was an intense experience, but one from which I learned a lot too. The Spirit is POWERFUL, up against Satan's influence. It was amazing how real that became to me from that experience. Live worthy of the Spirit. Not doing so is scary.

7. I'm supposed to be here. On Sunday I had the distinct feeling that Amber Ricks is supposed to be serving this is ward in New Jersey right NOW. That was a wonderful, blessed feeling to have. And a great confirmation that I made the best possible choice by coming out here. I'm supposed to be right where I am.

I'm happy. Certainly I have difficult days, and I can feel Satan trying to bring me down and convince me of his lies. But mostly I just have incredible experiences and opportunities. I'm so glad that I'm out here. I feel my testimony and my conviction of the gospel increasing each day. I know that this work is real and that the devil is after us. Helaman 5:12 is one of my favorite scriptures, because it explains how real Satan is, but also how much more powerful Jesus Christ is. Lean on Him, and you will be strong. 

I love you all so much! As always, I'd really appreciate hearing from you!

Love, Sister Ricks

Picking up our new companion, Sister Bernards!

Cool old time Book of Mormon that a member has.

Artsy picture of the tree by our apartment :)

Transfers!!!! October 28

I stayed!!! I was literally praying to stay here because I'm in love with the area and we have so much work to do. I don't remember if I already told you or not, but my companion Sister Seely has been waiting for her visa for the last 6 months and she finally got it! So she left us last night to Brazil. I'm so excited for her, but I'm really sad to see her go. Sister Jensen is staying here with me though, and we are getting a 3rd companion tomorrow!

Random fact: one of the Philadelphia Eagles players is in our ward and he and his wife are rockstar member missionaries, no big deal :)

This was a week full of learning! We were really busy and had some unique experiences. Here are some of the lessons I learned:

1. God works with each of His children throughout their WHOLE lives to get them ready for when we finally meet them. It's been amazing to learn from these investigators how many experiences they had previous to meeting us, that have proven to them that God is real. It is really cool to talk to multiple people a day, and have each of them tell you that if nothing else is real, they know that there is a God. Each of these people come from VERY different backgrounds and have different experiences, but it is amazing that it all brings them to know truth. Truth really is completely constant, and God allows His children to find those truths amidst all of the lies that the world is full of. How cool is that? It's so nice to work with people who already have come to know certain truths, because all we do is discover what truths they know and then build off of that. 

2. When we receive new commandments or counsel or (missionary) rules, it can be really hard to just accept them and follow them. Because of that, it is so important to pray about your own heart being softened enough to desire to follow it. This week we received new rules that seemed just kind of annoying (sorry, I'm not perfect!). So my companions and I prayed about the rules and asked for help to follow them. It was incredible how quickly our frustration seemed to melt away and we have been able to just accept and now embrace the new rules. 

3. Repentance is a natural consequence of faith. If you are familiar with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you know that the points go as follows: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We had two very distinct experiences this week where we had met with investigators for the first time, and the next time we met with them they told us that they had stopped swearing, stopped getting so angry with people, stopped drinking coffee, had a greater desire to love people and be kind to them, etc. We never told them to do any of that! All we did was visit with them and teach some of our beliefs. The Spirit had clearly touched them and as they experienced Faith in Christ, they naturally knew that it was important for them to make better choices. How cool is that? 

4. This point comes from the last lesson. This is an awesome parenting lesson that I'm excited to use some day: When someone is not following some commandment, don't keep teaching them that commandment! Weird, right? But really, if they are not being obedient to some commandment, there is some underlying doctrine that they do not understand. When that doctrine is understood (and faith is developed in that doctrine), then the natural consequence will be that they will want to follow the commandments (or repent. because repentance really is just changing whatever is not in alignment with God's will). You see? Repentance is the natural consequence of faith, and obedience in the natural consequence of true understanding.

5. "Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End." This is the missionary purpose that we recite every day. One of the members who goes out to lessons with us all the time helped me to understand Our Purpose in a new way. It says "to invite OTHERS to...." It doesn't say that we "invite non-members to..." As missionaries, we help others whether they are non-members, less-active members, fully active members, our companions, etc. I'm out here on a mission to help others come to Christ, regardless of what their religious background is. If I'm doing that, then I am succeeding as a missionary. 

It's been an amazing week! We have found new investigators, L & G who got baptized last Sunday were confirmed with Sunday and L got the Priesthood! D, Ju & Jo came to church! So did 2 less-active families that we are working with, both of which haven't been to church in many many years! We continue to see miracles all around us. I am so spoiled out here, and I really don't know how I'll ever pay back Heavenly Father for all of His blessings. Let's be honest... I really can't ever pay Him back. But I'm grateful to be doing what He wants me to be doing at this time in my life. Thank you for all of your love and prayers. I sure feel them! Keep going to church and doing the little things that keep you strong!

Love, Sister Ricks

My first district!

Eating halo-halo with our favorite Philippino!

Our last time together before Sister Seely left for Brazil!

My companions and me with one of our investigors. We love this man so much!