Happy New Year!!!

I'll just send a quick email today. Because it was Christmas, I was able to talk to my family! Which reminded me of a very important lesson:

1. What a blessing it is to have family. Heavenly Father certainly knew what He was doing when He organized the unit of families. They bring so much joy and love and comfort. Of course, family life can be really difficult sometimes. But the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families and heals families in a way that we just can't do on our own. Whatever Jesus Christ touches is healed. Whether it be a friendship, a marriage, a parent/child relationship, anything! When that relationship has been touched by the love of Christ, and each person tries to follow the principles of Christ's gospel, many miracles come!

I love you all so much! I hope everyone is doing well and is healthy and happy. I hope you all were able to remember who the Christmas season is all about, and that you shared the love of Christ with those around you. 

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that through Him, we can live with Heavenly Father and our families forever. I know that true peace and joy comes when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love, Sister Ricks

Merry CHRISTmas! December 23

Is anyone else amazed with how quickly Christmas came? What happened to the last 3 months?! What an amazing time of year though! People are willing to put aside so many differences and be kind to strangers just because we are all celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. We've had an awesome week of meeting a lot of members of the church that haven't been to church in a while. It seems like people are more willing to put aside the superficial at this time of year and really talk about what matters most to them. We've met some amazing people that we are able to help remind about Jesus Christ and what He's done for them. That's what Christmas should be about!

Lessons:

1. The Spirit of CHRISTmas. While I'm thousands of miles away from my family and friends for Christmas, most people out here think that I should be super sad and lonely. I'll be honest, there are moments when I crave being home with you all. But for the most part, it's a cool experience to get away from 1.things that don't really matter (the parties and the gifts, etc) and 2.things that matter most of all (my family and friends). Being away from it all, it's easy to differentiate and see what I really miss and what I want to focus on at Christmas time. At home, it all seems to mix and the superficial seems as important as the non-superficial. But now I see that what I care most about is the people in my life. I care about Jesus Christ and what He has done for me. I care about the gift that He has given me to be with my family forever. That is really what this season is all about! Showing gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ for giving us all the opportunity to find happiness with the ones we love. I sure love this season!

2. Love is about other people, not yourself. I saw an example of real love this week. It was simple and may seem insignificant. But it jumped out at me with a lot of force and I realized that love is always about other people. We were at a lesson and singing a song. There were 7 of us, and we were singing out of the hymn book. One of the ladies is an older woman who is mostly blind. She couldn't read out of the hymn book so she wasn't able to sing along. A younger woman leaned over and read the words to the older woman so that she would know the words to sing. The younger woman didn't think twice about letting the older woman have the blessing of singing a hymn to God. It was simple and sweet and full of love. I want to always be like that- I want to think of others before I think of myself.

This is a wonderful time of year, and a great time to get things into perspective for the upcoming year. I hope you all take the time to think of Christ and remember how blessed you are because of what He did for you. I know that my Redeemer lives!

Love, Sister Ricks

This is what happens to your door when it is locked in the middle of night and you and your companions try for half an hour to open it and just have to go to the bathroom so badly that the only option is to break it..... :)

Probably the tiniest, cutest old woman I've ever seen in my life

Some members through a Christmas party for some of us missionaries!

Its SOOOOO Cold!!!!!

See if you can do this math:

Arizona girl + New Jersey weather= ?

If you guessed "a really bad cold", you're completely right. The humidity is painfully cold out here! Luckily I'm feeling much better, so hopefully I'll be healthy in a few days.

Christmas is next week!! How the heck did it come so fast? Being a missionary around Christmas time is such a unique and fun experience. I am able to see the Spirit of Christ(mas) so clearly and it's a huge blessing. I love this time of year that people take away the label of what religion or race or gender they are, and they just let the joy of Christ shine through them. It's amazing! 

Lessons this week:

1.The more I serve, the more I am served. I can't stop the blessings from flowing when I give of myself to God by helping His children. Here I am a missionary who is serving other people, but they just keep serving me right back! It's a math equation that just doesn't add up. But I'm grateful for it!

2. Miracles happen when you put things in the Lord's hands. Of course, you have to work hard and do the best you can. But then realizing that things out of our control will be taken care of by God. We saw a LOT of miracles this week because we worked hard and trusted that God would take care of the rest. 

3. I have finally given my heart and mind completely to God. Up until now, I've been serving with my might and strength, but not entirely with my heart and mind. I've been doing the correct motions as a missionary, but in the back of my mind I've held onto who I was before I came out on my mission. I've been afraid to change so that I don't go home as a "weird" missionary. BUT, I realized that that is not losing myself in the work. That is not letting God change me for the better. Now, I'm hoping to come home as a "weird" missionary, because it means that I gave up all of my desires to serve God. I can focus on being a normal person when I get home, but right now, I need to focus entirely on doing what God wants me to do. And I'm excited to see what He makes of me!

This has been an amazing week and I feel so blessed each and every day. I'm grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ- it's a huge privilege to do so. I know that Jesus Christ's church has been restored on the earth in it's fullness. His church is back on the earth today, just as it was when He was on the earth. The church that I represent as a missionary is lead by Jesus Christ, and I am grateful to have the knowledge that I can live with Him and with my family forever. Share that good news with the people you love! Don't hold back that greatest gift from people because you're scared. God will back you up if you are doing His work. 

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the support and love that I have! 

Love, Sister Amber Ricks

Transfers! December 9

I'm...........staying! Sister Jensen is leaving though, and I'm really sad to have her go. She is my "mom" on the mission, because she was my trainer. We've gotten really close and it will be weird to not have her around all the time. But Sister Bernards and I are staying, and I know that we're going to have a ton of fun. She's a hard worker and is really good with keeping focused on the work, so I'm excited for the miracles that we are going to see in this area.

We had an exciting change happen in Stake Conference yesterday. We got a new Stake President because the old one is called to be a mission president. He was awesome, but I'm excited about the new one. Via Sikahema (This awesome Tongan man who played for the Eagles for years. He's super famous around here and played a HUGE role in getting the land purchased for the Philadelphia temple) is the new Stake President, and when he spoke on Sunday, he made it VERY clear that he is going to PUSH member missionary work. He called himself the Missionary Stake President, because that is what he's good at. He's a way humble man, but bold stated that missionary work is the thing that he knows how to do best. I'm way excited!

Also, we had a huge snow storm yesterday when we got out of Stake Conference. As we were driving home in bumper to bumper traffic, there were a lot of cars that got stuck in the snow. Sister Jensen and I jumped out of the car and pushed car after car out of the snow. Some other missionaries saw and came to help too. That was SO fun!  

Because I am no longer a 'Greenie' or a 'Golden' as my mission calls it, I get to have Facebook. But I'm not able to add anyone from back home as a friend, and you're not supposed to comment on anything. It will be an open profile so everyone can keep up on what's going on, we just can't be friends.

As for my lessons this week:

1. When you are struggling, pray for help to recognize your weaknesses. As you do so, Heavenly Father will let you know what your weaknesses are so you can work on them. If you don't try to recognize where you are weak, you may stay in a painful cycle for a long time until you know what you can work on. I had a pretty tough week again last week. I wasn't sure why, but I was just struggling. So I prayed hard. Heavenly Father graciously made me aware of what it is that I struggle with, so I am now able to focus on improving that area of my life. I'm excited to see what He helps me to become.

2. The Spirit at the temple is amazing! If you're feeling low on the Spirit in your life, go to the temple. Either go inside, or even just walk around the grounds of the temple. The closest that I can get to the temple right now is going to the Philadelphia temple site and to the visitor's trailer. Even in there, I feel the influence of the temple. Make the temple a regular part of your life!

3. You can make your own personal mormon.org pass along cards! Go to https://mormonorg.lds.org/profile/share/pass-along. They are SOO cool! You have to have a mormon.org profile for it to work, just so you know. Print them out, use them!

I love you all! I love the Lord and I love my chance to be stretched and to grow a lot! 

Love, Sister Ricks

We helped push lots of cars that were stuck in the storm! Yeah Missionary Power!

Came out of Stake Conference to a Snow Storm!

I graduated from being a "Golden" or a "Greenie"

At a SUPER pretty site in Philly

The Liberty Bell

Thanksgiving! December 2

Thanksgiving last week was so fun! I didn't know that my body could physically take in all of that food. We had 5 meal appointments that started at 10am... I love the members of my ward so much!

This was an interesting week full of learning the same two lessons...

1. If you have a good thought, act on it. We had so many little miracles this week. Almost all of them came in the form of a thought that we chose to act on. One of us companions would have just a simple thought to stop and talk to someone, or to go visit someone's home and we were able to find so many people that have already been prepared to hear the gospel and to grow closer to Christ. Moroni 7:22 testifies about how all good things come from God. So if you have a good thought, regardless of how weird or out of the ordinary it is, have the faith to act on it! Miracles follow faith. Look up the definition of "Faith" in the Bible Dictionary- it's cool.

2. Honesty. Honesty will save you from a whole bunch of struggling. I have a tendency to hold on to things that are bothering me and I don't talk about it. But that is not being honest with myself, with Heavenly Father, or with those around me. If I can just be honest with how I am feeling and just talk with my companions or with Heavenly Father, I can feel happy so much faster. Honesty makes all the difference in relationships, and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity now to practice being honest with those around me. 

Sorry for the short letter this week! I love you all and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy this Christmas season and think of ways that you and your family can remember WHO the Christmas season is all about! The Church is true!

Love, Sister Ricks