First Exchange! 12/07/2015

What a week! This transfer is seriously flying by so fast. I can't believe. It is true that every transfer gets faster and faster. I can't believe how fast my mission is going!

Last Tuesday, we recorded the song! They are going to use it for some surprise in the Christmas zone conference.

Saturday I went on my first exchange as an STL and it was so fun! It was with a missionary that is on her second transfer, and we were in Oxnard! (Not the same area that I was in though.) It was really weird being on the other side of the exchange, but it was a really cool experience to be able to learn from her! It also took me back to the beginning of my mission when I was super frustrated about spanish and just wanted to be a perfect missionary! And now I realize that I still don't know spanish and I am never going to get this whole missionary thing right...but I sure have learned a lot since my first few transfers, and especially since before I left. I cannot thank my loving Father in Heaven enough for giving me this opportunity. I just think everyone should go on a mission. it is the most amazing thing I have ever done! 

The area here is awesome. We had a really great church tour this week, and have had some really powerful lessons. We are finding a lot of people with potential as well. We also got a new ward mission leader and he is AMAZING! He returned from his mission a year ago, and he is so fired up about the work. He made us pass-along sized cards with an explanation of how to pray on it (they have it inside all of the pamphlets that we give to people, but he made us little pass-along cards for it for them to keep in their Books of Mormon - genius...), he filled up our dinner calendar with recent converts and less actives to eat with, he had ward missionaries come to correlation and used ch. 13 of PMG to teach them their responsibilities, he found members to come to lessons with us, he us coming with us tonight, and he has us report to him something that happened at the end of every day. And he was just barely called last week to be the WML! We are so excited.

Okay I am finally going to tell you the story about Pedro who got baptized my first week here! So he has SO MANY health problems. He was in the hospital and going to die, and he told Heavenly Father that if he would lead him to the right church, he would join it, be a faithful member, and he would serve God for the rest of his life. Then his care-taker (who is a member of the Oxnard 5th ward) started telling him about our church, and she ended up having her brother (Who is actually Hno. Nunez - the one that called you all on mom's birthday) give him a priesthood blessing. He then saw miracles, and was able to walk and eat again which he hadn't been able to do for a long time, and wasn't suppose to be able to do again. They then took him to the Los Angeles Temple Visitor's Center where he had a really powerful experience, and he told the missionaries he wanted to be baptized. They referred him to the Ventura hermanas, and they set him with the date he could soonest be baptized on. And then he got baptized! Every time they would teach him, and the few lessons I was able to teach him before his baptism, he literally already knew everything. I don't think he stops studying. He is the most faithful man! He can only come to church for sacrament, because he can't physically sit up long enough, but he comes every week, and yesterday he bore his testimony. He is so amazing! Seriously, every time we call him he's like, "Oh I'm just reading in the Gospel Principles Manuel" or book of mormon or bible or watching a dvd we gave him.. Ah! He is incredible.

I love you all! I know this gospel is true! Discover why Christ was born for YOU during this Christmas season.

<3 Hermana Trystan Ricks

And here is an avocado we found on the piano in the church...

Here's a picture from exchanges: Yes I took her to get ice cream because I still am Hermana Ricks and I still love ice cream. :)