Feed My Sheep: 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