Your Favorite New Jersey Missionary!

  Hello everyone! How are you all? We had a great week with some
awesome miracles! It is so fun to see Heavenly Father's hand work
absolute miracles. We found some members of the church that have not
had contact with the church in many years, and it all happened with
the Lord's help. We were exactly where we needed to be when we needed
to be there and met exactly who we were supposed to meet. That is a
great feeling to recognize when that happens! What miracles have you
seen lately? When has Heavenly Father directed you to be exactly where
you need to be when you need to be there? I'd love to hear from you
about this!
       I am going to sound like a broken record, but I want to share
this with you anyway. As I was writing to a good friend, I thought
about the biggest lessons that I have learned so far in my mission. Of
course I have hundreds of other lessons to add to these, but here they
are:

1. The gospel blesses families. There is NEVER a reason to stray.
2. Love is the driving force behind sharing the gospel. It is not
possible without love.
3. You HAVE to be allowed to experience the low to really appreciate
the high. Even when the low is almost unbearable.
4. The Spirit World is SO much more real than we understand. We can
literally have immediate help from God's angels if we just ask for it.

      These are some of the main thoughts that have been on my mind
this week as we have worked. What has The Lord been teaching you about
lately?
      We tried to teach a less-active member last night but she was
sleeping, so her kids just came outside to talk to us. We are
absolutely in love with these kids and as we talked with them, we
realized how dangerous their living condition is. It broke our hearts.
Life can be so incredibly unfair sometimes. But the beautiful thing
about it is that the kids LOVE Jesus and they love talking about Him.
They have learned to rely on Him because they have no one else to rely
on. They are such a huge example to me of how to have constant faith
in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I hope that my faith can grow to
be as strong as theirs!
       Life is hard but the gospel is not! Learn it, live it and love
it and you will be happier than you can imagine. I know that Christ is
our Savior and we can turn to Him for help at all times. I love you
all!

Love, Sister Amber Flower Ricks

We participated in the Pinewood Derby contest :)

Amber is getting baptized this Saturday!

This is a house we helped clean, right on the beach

We balloon-attacked the Johnson's house while they were gone (the senior missionary couple in our branch)

I found my prince charming!

"There's a place off of Ocean Avenue...." anyone know this song? :)