Stepping Stones

 

 

So for this week:

 

We had exchanges this week. It was super last minute and I was worried about it, exchanges are really stressful. But it actually ended up being really fun and super helpful. I love the Sister that I got to spend the day with. She's just the best! Of course there's always miracles on exchanges. At the very end of the night we contacted this kid and by kid I mean teenager. He expressed that he really wants to change, he's had a really rough life and done some rough things, and really wants to change from all of that, and wants to know why he's here. It was pretty cool because the gospel can answer all those questions.

 

Most of the big miracles actually happened just yesterday. We were walking around contacting and earlier we decided to knock on all the doors that have stepping stones in the yard. So we knock on this door, a lady answers and lets us in. She goes to get her husband and so we re-introduce ourselves as missionaries and he says that he's a super inactive member and he's not on the roster. And then invites us over for dinner, as long as we don't get preachy on him haha. So now we have a dinner with them soon! That was the first miracle.

 

The second one happened after we were at a members house for a little longer than we should be. Sis. Smith needed some advice for her special diet. Me and Sis. Walker felt unusually calm about spending that much time there. Usually we don't like to just sit there.

 

We work our way back to the car and on the way there was a guy watering plants and we started a conversation with him. I don't even remember what was said or how we ended up talking about the gospel. All that I know is that it was 100% led by the spirit. I do remember after some conversation he mentioned that people our placed in our paths and he mentioned that it was serendipity. He told us that while he was watering his plants he was just praying and asking what to do in his life. Then we walked up and started talking to him. It was the most amazing contact of my whole mission. He was kind of a rough looking guy and towards the middle he started crying and just couldn't stop.

 

This miracle was a real witness to me of why I'm out here. Because you never know who is in need of a little help. You can't really judge them from the outside, you have to get talking to them. And you never know when someone needs your testimony or even your smile. I'm so grateful for the chance I get to be a missionary, and to be able to share the gospel with everyone I meet.

 

Well I hope ya'll have a great week!
P.S...Enjoy the pictures of our little friend, Freddy!



Meet Freddy!

Sisters, umm, I think we have a visitor!

 

 

I LOVE You!

Happy Father's Day Den!  I love you!

Well first of all we had an awesome baptism. It was one of the most powerful baptisms I've ever been to. This investigator is definitely one of the elect. She just soaked in everything. She went through some rough patches but she finally made it to her baptism. I don't think anyone has ever been so happy to be baptized! I'm so excited to be able to watch her testimony grow. She has so much potential! She's one of my favorites! And President and Sister Miller came all the way to El Paso, basically for the baptism. Which meant a lot to everyone! They are just the coolest people. Some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

This baptism really helped me realize why I'm here. For a long time I didn't think that baptizing people was really necessary for me as a missionary. I thought it was just for pushy people who like bragging about numbers. It's not about numbers at all. It's really about giving people the opportunity to receive blessings and happiness. haha that's really what baptism is blessings and happiness.

We've been doing a lot of contacting lately. And we've been enjoying it! It's not a pointless chore. We've been blessed to see a lot of fruit from our labors so to speak. We got 3 new investigators last week! I'm excited to continue teaching them all. Most of them have been pretty prepared, so they're real easy to teach.

Sometimes when we get bored walking we'll start rapping. haha I wish I had a tape recorder to share these raps cause I don't remember them at all. I may have to invest in one. Cause they always seem super genius when we say them haha. You're probably just shaking your head right now.

Last night we had dinner with our Bible Study friend. She's the one who initially turned us down. She didn't even take our card. And now she's feeding us dinner! It was interesting to see the difference in her from when we first talked to her and she was a little cold. And now she says we're going to keep in touch. We aren't teaching her, I'm not sure how open she is at all. But she's really friendly! We have a new friend in the neighborhood haha plantin' seeds.

Well that was pretty much it.... Or that's all I can remember at this point. My memory is getting a lot worse haha. But it's been a huge blessing to see so many miracles lately. I know that it's from all the hard work we've been doing. And especially how obedient we've been. Obedience really does bring blessings. It's really hard to believe if you just hear about it though. You have to try it for yourself to really understand. That's how I learned! Amazing miracles come from obedience though. I've noticed by obedience to the smallest things come the biggest miracles. So keep all the commandments. Even if they don't seem like a big deal. They're a pretty big deal.

Well I love you all! Keep on keepin' on!

Love, Sis. Ririe

Crazy Little Fortune Cookie~

 

This week was a pretty good week. I turned 1. Which was actually kinda really bitter sweet. I don't want my mission to end. I'm thinking about becoming a Mormon nun. haha jk. I've just seen so much growth in myself and so many miracles that I don't want it to end! This work really does make me happy. It's not even work. Me and Sis. Walker always talk about how awkward we're going to be when we get home because we don't want to lose the growth that we made. So be prepared I'm gonna be awkward to the max! And proud of it.

 

We had a baptism this week and it was pretty awesome. Just like all baptisms are. This lady was so excited that she was finally baptized, she was just so happy. That's what I love the most about baptisms, is seeing how happy people are. I also love seeing how their testimony has progressed and how much they love the gospel. They have like a greeny fire about the church. It's great!

 

This week we also had an interesting experience. We were out contacting and we talked to this lady. It was some good conversation we asked her if we could give her a Mormon.org card, her reply was "no thanks, been there done that." People rarely turn down a card so it was kinda weird.

 

On the way back to our car we passed her house again and she came running out and asked us if we'd like to come to a Bible study later that night. We told her we would. I was actually super nervous all day. I thought there was going to be some hard core bashing. Well there wasn't at all. It was actually really nice, and there were a lot of ladies there that we were able to talk to about the church and about what we do. I think the study was technically on the book of Joel but I don't remember.

 

Well. This same lady who invited us to the bible study called us a few days ago, and told us that she would like to feed us sometime!! We never saw that one coming. She went from not taking a card, to feeding us. That's a pretty big leap! So I'm way excited to see what happens at this dinner. I really think she felt something at the study and wants to know a little bit more.

 

This week is going to be super awesome. We have another baptism. It's for someone I've come to love so much. She loves the church so much! She's watched every Mormon message there is, and she even watched both Districts. She is definitely one of the elect. She has so much potential! I've been able to see her progress in just the 3 weeks I've been here. I'm so excited for this Saturday! No one is more deserving of being baptized than her!

 

I love being able to see how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ really does bless the lives of everyone that tries to live it. Of course no one is perfect, but as long as they strive as hard as they can to do what they're supposed to they will be blessed. Cause that's just how it works. That's how the cookie crumbles. I love this gospel so much! I love the opportunity I have now to be able to share it with everyone I meet. I just love being a missionary!

Oh yeah! Another cool little story. So we had zone conference yesterday, and they're always cool meetings. The spirit there is always so amazing and I always learn so much. One thing I got out of it was being happy and positive and how missionary work is 90% attitude. So on our way home we were talking about this and how we're going to be happy no matter what now. Well when we walk around we like to look on the ground, you can find some of the best things! (we found 3 spiderman masks!) I always look for lucky pennies. Anyways there's always good stuff on the ground. haha it's not as bad as it sounds. Anywho I was looking at the ground and I noticed a piece of paper that looks like a fortune and it was!!! (sidenote: I love fortune cookies a LOT!) The fortune said "Don't pursue happiness. Create it!" It blew all our minds that the random ground fortune went exactly with zone conference. Crazy tender mercy!

I love you all!

Sis. Ririe

The Zone!

Hi Mom!

We FINALLY got to have an awesome P-day!  This is the zone at "the falls".  I'd like to say we hiked all the way up there, but since it's hotter than hot we rode in the truck.  But go right ahead and think we hiked it, cuz that makes it sound way cool!

Things are moving along slowly but surely.  The language is coming kinda slow.  There was one day last week that we went on splits and all of a sudden it was like I couldn't remember a thing. I couldn't speak it or understand it.  It was weird.  My DL gave me a blessing and I was much better after that.  I know I just need to work on patience, but it seems like I've been here a long time and should be to that point already.

We had a zone conference and President Dester pulled me out of a class just to see how I was doing. When we were done talking he asked if we could have a prayer.  He started the prayer and then stopped and asked if he could give me a blessing instead.  Sure!  It was an amazing blessing.  I love that man!!!

The work is still slow and it's still super hot. People aren't out much in the heat and there's a few hours in the day when we just can't do much. We do get these awesome amazing thunderstorms roll in though.  Oh man, you'd love em!  And talk about loud!!!

Elder R and I are getting  long much better.  He's actually pretty funny.  I think it was just that language barrier that was getting in the way there for a while.

I was great to get to talk to you all and "see" you on Mother's Day.  Nerm is growing!  And now mom is officially the smallest in the family...haha

I'll try to add more details next week.  Really, there hasn't been a whole lot going on lately.  Just know that we're working hard (we're good kids and good missionaries), we're safe, and it's HOT!  Oh, and I haven't seen my package yet but I'm sure it'll be here next week.  Hi to everyone for me!! And tell them to WRITE!!!!

I love you!  The church is true!!!  I know my Savior lives!!!!

Love, Elder Ririe

Obedience, Blessings, and My One Year Mark!

Sister Ririe hit her one year mark this week!!!  Yay!!!  Only 6 more months to go!!!

So this week has been pretty good. We've been really focusing on contacting people. Talking to everyone we can. We've been able to see a lot of success from it! We made a goal to talk to 5 people one day, and we had 4 so far, and it was after the hour we had planned to do contacting. But we all decided to try hard and reach our goal.

There's a certain skill to contacting people outside. You have to look ahead so you don't awkwardly cross the street to contact them, then they just get defensive. Long story short we ended up crossing the street 3 times just to talk to one person. We finally got to her and did some small talk and then introduced ourselves and it turns out that she was baptized like 35 years ago but fell away when she was a teenager. We were able to invite her to church and now we found a member! It was pretty cool. I knew that we would be blessed to reach our goal. haha more importantly I knew we had to find that one person.

This week there have been a lot of blessings from being obedient. Well I truly think they're from obedience. There have been small miracles all over the place! Oh and this week we have a baptism! I've been able to teach her a few times. It's a part member family, and the husband is going to baptize her. I'm so excited for her! She wants it so bad! I'm glad that I got to teach her a little bit. I know I was here to help her with one little concern. It was cool to be able to really relate to her with things I've been through, and be able to help her that way.

Another miracle of this week is that an investigator called us and canceled an appointment... which isn't the miracle. The miracle is that she told us she's prayed about the Book of Mormon 3 times and she knows that it's true!! It's so exciting! It's always a great experience when you get to see people realized the blessing that come from the Book of Mormon.

It was pretty cool to be where I'm at for memorial day. They didn't do anything big, or at least anything that I heard of. But we were able to contact a lot of soldiers and I was able to thank them for their service.

This weekend we had a really interesting lesson. It was with a couple and they go to a non-denomination Christian church. We only got through 2 points of the first lesson (not even to the good part) when they took over the lesson, and started telling us different verses in the bible that "prove" it wrong. It was an exhausting lesson because they wouldn't listen to anything we said. Which is kinda funny because they really were the nicest couple! It just turned into an argument, except we didn't argue. At the end they read some verse and told us to discern what it means for ourselves, and to really look at what we believe again.

Well I know what I believe, I know that this is the true church, I wasn't brain-washed into thinking that. I had to find out for myself. But I've been able to see countless blessings that come from this church and from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of Jesus Christ and through Joseph Smith, He restored His church and restored the priesthood. I know these things because I've prayed about them and received an answer for myself. I know that Heavenly Father will answer anyone's prayers, just like He answered mine.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

When You're a Soldier's Mom

On the day her son enlisted she became a soldier too.

It's a different kind of battle, one that she's not sure she can do.

The fears, the tears, the waiting, pride and joy when he comes home.

It's not an easy life, but it's what you do when you're a soldier's mom.

He still seems like her baby, and that will never change, 

Although  he's twenty-five now shooting rifles on the range.

Maybe he's a pilot, or a gunner, or a doc,

He's doing what she raised him to, with all the courage that he's got.

The day he was sworn in.

On the day her son enlisted she became a soldier too.

It's a different kind of battle, one that she's not sure she can do.

The fears, the tears, the waiting, pride and joy when he comes home.

It's not an easy life, but it's what you do when you're a soldier's mom.

She doesn't read the papers.  She doesn't watch the news.

She just wants to hear his voice, and listen for the clues,

That he is doing well, and has the time to sleep and eat,

How much longer he will be away, and how long till they can meet.

Skyping home!

On the day her son enlisted she became a soldier too.

It's a different kind of battle, one that she's not sure she can do.

The fears, the tears, the waiting, pride and joy when he comes home.

It's not an easy life, but it's what you do when you're a soldier's mom.

She doesn't pray just daily, but every minute of every day,

Asking God to keep him safe and if He'd somehow make a way,

For him to come home back to her, and she finally understands, 

How hard it was for God to send His Son, to a world that hated Him.

Home!

On the day her son enlisted she became a soldier too.

It's a different kind of battle, one that she's not sure she can do.

The fears, the tears, the waiting, pride and joy when he comes home.

It's not an easy life, but it's what you do when you're a soldier's mom.

Other folks will never understand the things that she goes through,

Waiting for a phone call or a letter and a chance to say "I LOVE YOU".

Only a mom who's paced the floor,

And has a Blue Star Banner on her door,

Will ever understand the price you pay 

When you're a solider's mom.

~Becky Shipp

Waiting to say goodbye at the airport!

Greetings from...EL PASO!!!

So I'm now in El Paso. I'm actually really loving it! The people here are a lot nicer. And I have some good companions. Oh yeah, I'm in a trio now. So there are 3 of us. Sis. Walker, and Sis. Smith (not the one that came out with me.) We have a lot of fun together. Sis. Smith is like our little sister haha. Sis. Walker actually came out with me, she was my stl 2 transfers ago. It's been really fun. We really work well together. This whole trio thing is definitely something to get used to. Teaching is a little different with 3 people. But so far so good. We're working out the kinks.

 

As for me and Megan's pictures. Life is too serious to be serious :) I'm pretty sure there are serious ones from my farewell, which I don't think you have... haha I'll have to send her some.

 

So back to El Paso. The ward I'm in actually borders Ft. Bliss. Or my area does. I'm not sure if the base has it's own ward or how that works. But everyone around here is either military or border control. (I saw Mexico!!! With my eyes!) I actually really love it here. The heat isn't even that bad. Well I just tell myself it's not that bad because I know it'll get worse. Besides I'm getting some really nice sun! I've gotten like 5 shades darker!

 

This weekend we got to do a fun service project. Make a wall out of cement and rocks. We all think they're really ugly, but they take so much effort to make! So now I have respect for them. Anywho, I got to mix cement for a few hours, it was fun!! I love service projects like that. I don't have a camera with me but I'll send pictures last week.

 

I definitely have to brush up on my Spanish here. A lot of people will pretend they don't know how to speak English. It's kinda funny, well we laugh about it. Then we try to make a contact with extremely limited Spanish.

 

One of the biggest miracles this week was that we went by to try a potential investigator and she let us right in. It was our first lesson all together, and it went pretty well. She was very receptive and became a new investigator. Our first lesson our first new investigator all in one. Then a member at church came up to us and told us that he works with her husband (who we didn't meet with) and he's been reading the Book of Mormon! So we're really excited to go back and see her again!

 

Another miracle. We were out contacting (we've done a lot of contacting this week) And we decided to knock doors with a certain attribute. (like a design in the rocks, a wreath, a certain car in the driveway) Since we aren't really encouraged to go tracting. So we knocked on this one door with an attribute and this girl answered, she had a lot of tattoos, we went through our approach and she seemed not interested at all. We gave her a card, then made a little small talk, the small talk turned into good talk. She opened up to us and told us about a traumatic experience in the Army. By the end we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and when we handed it to her she said "are you sure?" Like she didn't want to take our book cause it was so special. It was one of the coolest contacting experiences I've done. I learned not to pre judge anyone but just pretend that everyone, no matter what, is going to be interested.

 

We've definitely had a lot of fun in the sun this week. I'm glad to be here in El Paso. I'm excited for all of the adventures in store! I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Ririe

P.S.  No Nerm, no big Texas hat yet, but I'll get one JUST for you!  And we have a baptism scheduled for the 31st!!!