Three Homeless People, Dog-sitting, and Displeasing that Lady... 08-17-2015

Welcome to the last week of the transfer! And ... this last week was weird. Plus, it was my year anniversary for getting my mission call! 

But first, let me tell you how I love Morro Bay so much. 

We have a new investigator named Dave that I would like to tell you about today! He was referred to us from his Inactive girlfriend a few weeks ago, and he was just able to meet with us this week. He is not a Christian, but he has a strong belief in God and he knows that God is smarter than him. We were able to explain the difference between justice and mercy to him, and he was able to see a need for Jesus Christ, but he told us that he would need to ponder it and feel it. He also told us that he needs to read the Book of Mormon in order to find out if there is a need for Jesus Christ because it is what differentiates us from other Christian religions. He is very smart, but very humble! I am so excited to work with him. Hopefully I get to stay another transfer here!!! 

The ward is also doing amazing. The bishop has a lot of trust in us and we had the best ward council meeting I have ever been in in this area yesterday. We really feel the ward is gaining a lot of trust in missionaries, and because of that, a lot more are willing to join in the work! Bishop is hilarious. He always talks to us about the crazy things going on in his life...like yesterday at church when he showed us his homemade stitching job on his knee that he fell down and busted open... he said, "I didn't need to go to the doctor. I looked it up on the internet!" :) 

So we have been doing a lot of weeding this week! There is a lady that owns a flower garden and is friends with some members that live here. The big rain storm we had made a ton of weeds pop up, and now she is over-loaded! So we have been going with the Elders and weeding our little hearts out! 

We also had three nights in a row of double desserts... BIG desserts. I almost didn't even have a dessert spot in my stomach anymore, dad! 

Then, the weird day. Sunday. Three homeless people came to church...none of which knew each other before hand. One of the lady's brought her dog, but obviously couldn't take it inside. So we ended up dog-sitting during sunday school so that it wouldn't bark outside the door. Good thing the dog was cute! She reminded me of Okie, but much thinner. Then to top it off, during the week an older lady in our ward called and asked us to bring a bible to church so she could give it to her friends. Well, in the midst of crazyness, we totally forgot it. Bit luckily the elders had a New Testament in their bag! So we gave that to her. All was well. Until she realized it was just the old testament...she was NOT happy. Awkward!  

On a more spiritual note, I have gained such a strong testimony of prayer this week! I have been studying revelatory prayer, and what it means to allow Heavenly Father to inspire the words that you say during a prayer. After studying it, and pondering it for many days, yesterday as we were at a member's home and she asked me to say the prayer, I felt my words being guided by the spirit. After the prayer, the member looked up and said, "Thank you. You might think that was a normal prayer, but you don't know how personal that really was to me, and how much I needed it." It was such a cool experience, and it is now my goal to have each prayer I say be like that. I want to be able to be a vessel for the blessings on these member's homes like Alma was on the home of Amulek. I encourage you all to develope these kinds of prayers, and strive to live after the will of God and not your own will. This will begin as you allow him to direct what you pray for. 

Have a WONDERFUL week! I love you all! 

<3 Hermana Ricks 

La Familia DiCaprio 08/10/2015

So this week we went and knocked on a potential investigators door. A man answered and intorduced himself as Leonardo. We talked to him for a while, found out he had been taking the missionary lessons like 4 years ago, and he has a son named Jesus with special needs. We talked to him about coming back and about what we will be teaching him, and then we asked if we could say a prayer with him before we left. He said yes and asked us to pray for his son. Hna. Young went to say it, but by this time, she had forgotten the name. So she asked him what his name was, and he told her, "Leonardo." I told her it was, "Como Leonard DiCaprio! He said, "Si!" And then she started praying and prayed for, "La familia DiCaprio y su hijo Jose." Well... not only was their last name not DiCaprio, but their son's name was Jose! But we didn't know his actual last name, and we needed to know it! So I asked him what his last name was, and he told us it was "Hernandez..no, DiCaprio..." hahah he started laughing and told her that his son's name was also Jesus. But that the prayer was beautiful anyways! Luckily, Hna Young has a great sense of humor so she laughed along with me about it. :) 

We also had such an incredible miracle this last week! I think I told you last week about how one of the families we have been teaching in the ward decided to bring their family friend's over for the lesson as well! And that the mom, Kelli, was having complications with her pregnancy. At the end of the lesson, the member explained the priesthood to her, and asked her if she wanted a blessing of healing. We had to leave, because we were on our way to the spanish group, but the members texted us afterwards and told us what a beautiful blessing it was. Well, we went back over this sunday for the next lesson, and Kelli told us that she had another ultra-sound, and the doctors couldn't find what was there before. All of the problems were just gone, and the doctors were really surprised. But we knew it was because of the Priesthood blessing that she received! And it is so amazing to know that she has the faith the be healed. She doesn't even have a religious background, but she is humble enough to allow that to happen. She also told us how cool the blessing was, because things were said that she didn't even realize she needed to hear in order to comfort her! I told her how every single time I receive a blessing, I am able to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for me. It is incredible how perfectly He knows us. I am so grateful for the Priesthood, and the fact that we live in a time where that power is available to us! If any of you are going through a hard time, or any sicknesses, or problems of any kind, a Priesthood blessing can truly bless you! 

I have grown a testimony of the love of Heavenly Father this week. I am grateful for the weakness that he has given me so that I can rely on him and be more humble. Sometimes I forget how weak I really am, and I think I can do it on my own, or in my own way, or in my own time. And then I am kindly reminded by Heavenly Father that I need to remember Him and His son in all things, and rely on them instead! :) 

I love you all! I hope you have had a wonderful summer! I realized the other day that it was a year ago that I was waiting for my mission call... that is just so crazy to me! I am so grateful I was assigned to come to this wonderful place to learn such a wonderful language, and serve such wonderful people! Have a great week! 

<3 Hermana Ricks! 

Life is Good on the Bay. 08/03/2015

Morro Bay is just swell. I love serving here! We have seen so many miracles this week. As I've already written about, we have been really focusing on using the members and gaining their trust. Hna Young and I have spent a lot of time visiting each member of the ward council and sharing our testimonies of Jesus Christ. We have been teaming up with the Elders to teach different families in the ward the missionary lessons in order to strengthen their conversion. We have only been doing it for about two weeks I think, but last night one of the families we are teaching decided to invite another family over that they are friends with. We taught them the restoration and they were so excited! The members bore very powerful testimonies, and the spirit was so strong. We committed the family to take the lessons after, and they said, "Yeah we would love to, but probably in this setting. We like coming over to our friends house because we know them and everything." Which is perfect, because that is the perfect setting that we want! 

We also challenged a member that supports the Spanish group a lot to share her testimony in sacrament meeting (in the English ward) of missionary work. (This was inspired by the zone conference with Elder Grow.) Her testimony was very powerful, and inspired many others to get up and share their thoughts about missionary work. We ended up having more people at the Spanish group that night there to support the Latino members than I have ever seen before in this area. There is still improvement to make, but we are seeing so much progress just from a few weeks of focusing on working with the members! 

Hna. Young is awesome! We are working hard and enjoy studying together every day. She is really smart, and I always learn a ton from her! She loves the people here so much, and invests so much love into each person that we meet. She really has charity for them, and for me!

I have grown such a strong testimony of the family unit this week. I have been able to study and see the different roles that each individual plays. I have learned so much of the importance of being married in the temple. It is the reason that we come to earth! Without it, the earth, and the very atonement of Jesus Christ would be "utterly wasted." We come here so we can prepare to gain eternal life. And that is possible through the incredible gift of being able to be sealed in the house of the Lord. I challenge you all to have that as your goal! And if you don't know what I'm even talking about, ask the missionaries! They can help you. :) 

So here's one of the funny stories I can think of from the week:

So first off, a few weeks ago, the Elders and we were helping a family in the ward move. The family is super awesome! And they are a little off.. So we were packing up boxes in one of the rooms. All of a sudden, this HUGE EXPLOSION occurred. We all turned to Elder Pace, where the explosion came from, and stared in silence. Then, we all busted out laughing in realization that his pants had just totally busted open. Like 5 inch long hole...The Sister we were helping didn't realize what had happened and she said, "What did you fart or something?" (It actually reminded me a lot of Graham because he had an impeccable reputation for having that same kind of luck with pants.) Anyways, fast forward to this week. We were now helping the same family move. They were loading up the Elder's trunk, and the Sister shoved her plunger and toilet bowl scrubber into the back. Right into their box of copies of the Book of Mormon... When they lifted it out, and lovely pool of toilet water covered the tops of them. Ga-ross! 

Anyways, I hope you all have a fabulous week! Remember to go to church, say your prayers, and read your scriptures! (CPR!) :)

<3 Hermana Ricks

Beware: Totally Lame Email Landing. 07/27/2015

Hello family!!! I have about 5 minutes left to email, this week was crazy! Sorry about that! 

So the area is doing well. This week, we are going to do some more finding activities, and more things to work with the ward members. We have really been seeing the ward putting more trust in us! The week after us missionaries sang with Daniel, they asked the Elders to speak in sacrament meeting, and this last week they asked us. They also asked me to play the organ for sacrament meeting it was super fun to do that again. It's been while!! The ward council members are acting more and more excited to see us, and talk to us more. We are really trying to help the ward become more missionary minded.  

Our investigators are now kicked out of their house, and homeless. We fasted for them yesterday. We aren't really sure how much to get involved. We have helped them translate applications that are English. It is so hard to see all four of those little kids without a home! But we are teaching them the gospel, and encouraging them to pray and remember Heavenly Father throughout all of this. 

I have gained such a strong testimony, especially in this area! I keep learning so many things about simple topics like prayer that I never understood before. This week, we were asked to speak on the sacrament and I loved speaking on it so much! Dad, I talked a lot about things that you taught me about the sacrament... I don't even know if you know that you did! But I'll have to write you about it cause I now only have 2 minutes left. 

I know that this church is true!!! I love my mission so much! I am amazed at how simple the gospel is, yet so deep. There is ALWAYS more to learn! I am so grateful to be a missionary and meet all of the people that I do!!! 

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

Mom, I'll write you a letter with a story in it sense this email is super short and kind of lame.

Have a great week!

<3 Hermana Ricks

Essufocate! 07/20/2015

Oh boy. We just have way too much fun over here in Morro Bay! This week was so fun! First off, Hermana Young and I sock wrestled. (Put socks on and wrestled trying to get each other's socks off.) Unfortunately, she won. Barely. It was a close battle! But we are going to rematch.

Monday, we were at a recent converts house whose husband is learning english. He always asks us questions about english, and this time he asked us about a word he saw on a plastic bag. "Suffocate." Like thirty minutes later, we heard him whispering "Essufocate. Essufocate. Essufocate." We told him it was kind of creepy when he said it like that..hahaha! They are awesome! 

Also, last night we called in to report our numbers for the week to the elders and we made this sweet rap. We are just basically the coolest. Hermanas. eva. 

We had a ton of super great lessons this week! We taught Daniel, the one that sang with us in church, the Plan of Salvation. It is a good thing I have a testimony of it, because he is way too smart for me to teach otherwise. Things that have taken me forever to understand about the plan, he just understands the first time he hears it! He is incredible. 

Also, you know the kids that we are teaching? They called us four times this Sunday and left messages telling us that we needed to make sure and get them a ride for church because they really wanted to come! (Last week, their ride went to pick them up, and the other lady that lives in the house that doesn't like us told the ride that they weren't home. We found out later that they had waited 3 hours ... But we got them there this week!) Also, their family is being kicked out of the house on the 28th, and they can't find another place to rent. Pray for them! We got to the park to teach them the other day (they are always there so we just drop by and see them) and Luis was talking to this homeless lady. When we walked up she said, "Oh he has been telling me all about you! And that you teach him about Jesus, and he's been singing me songs about Jesus (I am a child of god of course :))." What a good little missionary! (We also taught them the song, "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission." Anyways, then the lady said, "He came up to ask me why I was sleeping, and I asked him if he knew what homeless meant, and he said, 'Yeah, my family might be homeless soon.'" Ahhhh please pray for them! 

Anyways, this area is the best! I LOVE it! :) We have interviews with President tomorrow. He said he is excited to come see our apartment and our view. :) And I love being a missionary. I get SO EXCITED to study every day, because I am learning so much each time! The gospel is amazing. We are so blessed to have it. I know it is true. 

Have a great week! 

<3 Hermana Ricks

Transfer News! 07/13/2015

First thing's first! I AM STAYING IN MORRO BAY WITH HERMANA YOUNG!!!!!! First time I have been with a companion for more than 6 weeks! I am super excited. It's a good thing we really like each other! I did however have to put my foot down on one thing...

Hermana Young LOVES hugs and she hugs me just about every time she walks passed me...well, Hermana Ricks isn't a very touchy person and Hermana Young knows this due to the fact that the hugs are usually not reciprocated. The fact that Hermana Ricks is not a touchy person was talked about at the beginning of the transfer, but Hermana Young informed Hermana Ricks that she didn't need to hug back, she could just hug Hermana Ricks and wouldn't fell bad if it wasn't responded to. Well, once upon a time it was too much to handle so Hermana Ricks had to put a regulation on the hugging business...only one hug a day for Hermana Young. Hermana Ricks explained to Hermana Young that "you can't just hand out hugs like pretzels!" To which Hermana Young responded, "I don't even like Pretzels!" And Hermana Ricks responded, "Well I don't like hugs!" A few days later when they got the transfer news that we were both staying, Hermana Young did a dance and sang "6 more weeks of my huuuuuugs!!" Oh boy...     

But I am so happy to be staying in Morro Bay with Hna Young! The Elders are both staying too! We all have so many plans for the ward, and we are so excited to be able to implement them together. 

We had a great experience with our investigator Daniel singing with us and the Elders! Elder Pace is very straightforward, and ended up being able to get him to pray at the end of one of our practice which was something he wouldn't do for us before. The ward was very welcoming and gracious to him after we sang, and the spirit was so strong during the song (it almost even made me tear up, but not quite). 

We went to teach the ninos this week! (Alejandra and Luis.) When we got to the park, only Luis was there and he said, "I am just so happy whenever I see you because I know that you are going to teach me about God." and then he wrote his own version of "I Am a Child f God." He sang, 

"I am a child of God and God loves us so much.

 I want to kiss and hug him with all of my heart! 

Lead me guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.

 Teach me all that I must do to live with Him someday!"

SO CUTE!!!! We love them. They are going to decorate our next planners!!! 

That's all for this week! I love you all! 

<3 Hermana Ricks 

Music is the Best! 07/06/2015

Good morning friends and family! And happy 4th!  I hope you had a fun and safe holiday! 

So. Last P-Day we had a tire changing competition with the zone for our zone activity. Guess who won! Hna Young and I. I mean, only two other Elders participated (Because really, who wants to learn how to change tires on pday...bad idea ZLs) But it's okay! Because we were good sports about it, and we won gummy bears. And we found that one of our bolts was completely missing...so now we have to take the car in to get a new bolt. 

We were going to go to a parade in Cayucos, but our district leader told us right before we went to bed on the 3rd that he had a bad feeling about us going. I don't know what would have happened, but Heavenly Father is looking out for us! So we didn't go to that. :) We did get to spend the day at a birthday party for our investigator, Alejandra (One of the two that sang "I Am a Child of God" last week). We made her a birthday cake and got to hang out with them in the park all afternoon! It was super fun. 

So you know how we have our pet spider Silvestre? Well, on the night of the 4th, the people that own the house were there to watch the fireworks, so we tried to show them how cool it is when we catch moths and throw them into his web. But First, Hna Young was struggle bus-ing and could not catch a moth. And then we she finally did it went through the web, and then she caught another one and it stuck, and Silvestre just sat there! Like he was all stage shy our something. Then after the visitors went inside, he finally went and attacked the moth. Hna Young told him, "Man Silvestre, you made me look like a fool!" 

Then Alejandra and Luis then came to church again on Sunday, and they shared their testimonies this week! Their parents want to come as well. They were going to come this week, but the mom got called in to work. The kids love church so much! They are always so excited to come and learn. Their cousin Omar isn't too fond of us because they always leave him to come listen to our lessons (Omar is invited too of course, but he doesn't like it as much). So when we came earlier this week Omar said, "No let's go skate!" And Luis said, "No! We like church more than PLAYING!" hahahaha so funny. But! When we got to Alejandra's birthday party, Luis started singing "I Am a Child of God," and then Omar and their little brother Angel (Who is like 2 and can barely talk) all started singing it as well. The whole family knows the song because they sing in non-stop! WOOHOO! 10 points for Hna Young y Hna Ricks. 

We are able to use music a lot to teach them. We have been able to teach them, "I Am A Child of God" along with the Plan of Salvation, "Scripture Power" with the commandments, and "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission." We teach them how to play the Ukulele as well, and Alejandra wants us to teach her how to play the piano.

 We also have another investigator named Daniel that is really interested in music. He is not a member because his mom was inactive for like 20 years all while he was growing up. So he doesn't know anything about the church, but his mom is an active member now. He is in choir in high school, and so we asked him if he would sing with us in church! We are singing with him and Elder Peterson (District Leader) and Elder Pace this next sunday. We are so excited! We are going to sing the EFY medley. We practiced together last week and we felt the spirit so strongly. It is so amazing to see how we can use our talents to bring people to Christ! 

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

<3 Hermana Ricks