I have wanted to go back to Oxnard 6th ward my whole
mission! It is like my home because it was my first area! I was
secretly super jealous of Hna Young when she got called back to there
for her last transfer, because that was also where she was trained!
WELLLLLL... IT'S A DREAM COME TRUEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome other side note:
Hermana Young came to the meeting where they announced this and so I got
to see her!!! And Pedro Morales (the man that was baptized by Hno Nunez
in Ventura) also came! Too much excitement in one afternoon. I still am
excited let's be honest.
This week was so incredible. And incredibly exhausting. We had 3 exchanges! I have never gone on that many before in one week...and
I don't recommend it! We have another one tomorrow too, and then we
will be done. BUT! All of the Hermanas I went with were so great. I wish
I had time to write all of the stories down! I will tell you one that
happened over the course of three days.
So on the first exchange I went on, as we were planning the night before we kept writing names down in our 4:30
slot of our planners. We probably went through 5 or 6 people and had to
keep moving them to different spots because of different reasons. We
concluded that there would be a miracle at that time because our plans
kept not working! We then finally found a name we could write down.
Well, the next day the elders gave us a slip of paper with names from
our newly added Oxnard area (they decided that there are too many white
people here in Camarillo so they gave us some of Oxnard) and the name we
had finally written at 4:30 was on their paper too! That meant we had to erase the name again from 4:30 because we weren't going to be in Oxnard at that time. Well. Our 4:00
appointment then canceled, and so did the backup plan. So we tried to
think of a bunch of other things we could do. It eventually hit 4:30, then 4:45,
and we decided that we had to find this person before going back to eat
dinner. So I took a bunch of random turns until I could find a spot to
park so we could say a prayer. We said the prayer and were about to
start driving when we saw two workers building a fence! We decided to
get out and go talk to them. We first talked to Miguel, who was really
nice but not really interested. Then his friend, Jesus, came out from
the back and he was all, "Oh! Girl missionaries do exist! The Elders
always said they did, but I had never seen them!" Turns out, he was a
former investigator! Well, Hna Ames continued to talk to him and I
continued the conversation with Miguel. We then gave them our number,
and amongst all the confusion, we failed to get their number or address -
we just knew which corner they lived on and that it was in the Elder's
area. So we called the elders to ask them about Jesus, and they said,
"We had an investigator named Jesus that was suppose to get baptized a
month ago and he went MIA (missing in action) - maybe it's him!) So we
told them we would go back to figure it out. (Luckily, Jesus and Miguel
told us they had two other houses across the street where they were
going to build fences.) SO. (Sorry this is long...hopefully it all makes
sense!) Well, I soon realized that I didn't remember where we had met
them, because I literally had just taken random turns until I found a
place to pull over!
Okay. Fast forward two days later
to the next exchange. We are driving to our appointment, and I still
don't know if the GPS told me to, or if I was just making it up, but I
turned onto this road and the GPS starts "re-routing." So I go to turn
around, look to my right, AND THERE'S THE HOUSE WE MET JESUS AT!!!! This
time I paid attention to where we were at.
The
next day, I take Hermana Hemingway back to see the house and see if
they are working outside. We turned down the street, but I couldn't find
the house at first! I then realized I had driven right past the house
because they had painted it! It used to have a bright ugly yellow, but
they painted it white! If I had turned down that street any day later
than I did, I would never have recognized the house where we met Jesus!
So now we are on a mission to find him again. We will hopefully be able
to on Wednesday... we will see! Pray that we can find him again!
Okay
well, that story took up like all my time, but there were so many
miracles that I saw this week. I got to go on exchanges with
Hna Ames (In Camarillo)
Hna Wright (In Camarillo) &
Hna Gonzlez (in Simi Valley)
Hna
Gonzalez is in her first transfer and she's super cute. Reminds me of
those days...the best of times and the worst of times! hahaha being a
new missionary was a struggle. But it was also so miraculous!
I
am so grateful for my mission and for all that I have learned and am
learning still. My testimony has grown of prayer a lot this week. It
seems that I say that a lot, but it really does just keep growing! I
have been trying to be extra conscious of really paying attention to
what is being said and how I feel as we pray. It is so interesting,
because even in the most simple prayers I am able to feel the spirit so
strongly and clearly. Heavenly Father really is listening! I know we are
His children, and he loves us so much.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week! :)
<3 con todo carino,
Hermana Trystan Ricks
(warning: lots of pictures and it only lets me send one at a time..sorry.)
HERMANA YOUNG!!!!
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Hna Ames (also trained by Hna Young!)
(warning
#2: ignore the fact that I basically wore the same skirt all week. It's
a struggle when you have one skirt that just so happens to match all of
your shirts perfectly...)
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| Hna Wright |
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| Hna Gonzalez! |
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| Chilango
this is our "CHILANGO" friend, Victor Pacheco!
definition:
someone who is from Mexico City, but wasn't born there. If I were to
move to DL (distrito federal) I would be a chilanga and have to talk
like a valley girl but in Spanish. :)
|
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| HERMANA YOUNG!!!! |
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