Where has the time gone?

Hey y'all!

I can't believe that this week is transfers!  It doesn't seem like I've been in here in Katy for that long... but then again, so much has happened.  I don't exactly know where I'll be next week, we won't find out if we're being transferred until tomorrow, or even Wednesday. Sister Wahlen and I are hopping that we both stay in the area - I love her, and I love it here!  I'll let you know next week what happens though.

This week has been kind of slow - everyone here is preparing for school so they don't have time to meet with us.  Which is unfortunate, but hopefully things will calm down for everyone and we'll be able to teach our investigators again.  We did get to meet with Megan again (I'm not sure if I told y'all about her - we met her tracting, gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said she wanted to learn more) and taught her the first lesson.  We taught the lesson standing on the porch though, because she didn't invite us in... hopefully she will next time, because it gets really hot when you're standing in the sun... but we felt the spirit while we were teaching, and we think she did too.  She said she would start reading the Book of Mormon - we'll follow up on that this week when we teach her again.

We have still been doing a lot of contacting, trying to get to know the members in the ward - less active and active alike - with mixed results.  Of course the active members welcome us in, and even some of the less active people are so excited to see us.  We met a sister this week, Elizabeth, who had been meeting with the missionaries regularly up until about 6 months ago, when the area was whitewashed, and somehow she fell off the list of people to visit.  But we found her, and will start visiting her again. :)  She also had her niece, Estefania, living with her.  Estefania is Catholic, but she has lived in Utah and loves her Mormon friends because they have high moral standards.  So we invited her to Institute so she can make more friends here. :)  Unfortunately, she is moving up to Cypress this week... what is it with Sister Wahlen and I finding investigators for other areas?!  At least we're finding them though, right? And we know one of the Elders in that area, so we can let him know that she's coming. :)

We also get the other side of the spectrum too... those who say that they don't want us to come back and they're not interested in being members of the church anymore.  Those people break my heart!  They had the truth at one point, and they chose to let it go... I wish I knew how to help them, but there is only so much you can do when they're not interested in hearing what you have to say.  All you can do is pray that their hearts will be softened, and eventually they'll have a desire to come back.

We still keep in contact with Jermaine, even though he is not in our area.  We visit him at work sometimes.  Yesterday, he told us that he is going to be baptized!  He has a date set for the end of September! We are so excited for him, and hope everything goes well as he continues to prepare.  Every time we talk with him, he tells us all about how the gospel is already blessing his life, and how he wants to be baptized to be completely free from the mistakes that he has made earlier in his life.  He is so awesome. :)  Sister Wahlen and I are really hoping that we will still be in the area, and that we can get permission from President Pingree to go to his baptism.  Hopefully we'll get to go!

I love you all so much!  Good luck to my siblings as you start school! (I know it's already past the first day... but I can still wish you luck. ;) ) And good luck to my fellow missionary friends - I hope everything is going well!  Thank you all for the  love and support!

Love you!

Sister Ririe

James 1:5

So much to say, so little time...

Pic #1 - Sister Ririe and her companion at the Houston temple this week, with her zone in the background.

Pic #2 - Sister Ririe by the "Autumn Bridge" road sign while out doing missionary work - a shout out to her little sis. :)

Hey y'all!

So yes, last week I was a little discouraged.  But it's ok.  I've realized that out here on a misison, you have some really really really good weeks and other not so good weeks.  And you just have to get through the bad and find the good in everything.  I'm still working on it, but this week was much better than last. :)

First of all, thank you family for your prayers in relation to the work out here - I don't know if I told y'all, but the focus of Stake Conference last sunday (not yesterday, but the week before) was misisonary work, and they had a stake-wide missionary training for all the ward leaders.  President Pingree spoke at the training and at stake conference.  Everything we talked about in Ward Council yesterday related back to missionary work somehow, and we're re-creating our ward mission statement.  It's so cool to see everyone here get excited about missionary work!!

We finally got to meet some of our investigators this week!  Yes, I know that sounds weird... but they are investigators that the Elders have been teaching, and they were planning from the beginning to transfer them over to us, but both the investigators have been super busy recently... but we met Ron on Tuesday, and we got to teach him and his wife Maria the first part of the first lesson - it went really well.  And both of them expressed interest in learning more, and they want to get their kids involved.  So hopefully we'll have a whole family to teach soon!  We also met Tish - Sister Oliverson, you would LOVE her.  She's this sweet little old black lady who has been investigating the church for 15  years.  We taught a lesson with the Elders, where we read 3 Nephi 11 with her and asked her to offer a kneeling prayer at the end.  She offered the most sincere prayer, and when Elder Bartholomew asked her how she felt, she said she felt at peace, and that nothing was telling her not to move forward in the Mormon church.  Awesome, right?  Unfortunately, she won't commit to a date for baptism... she thinks she needs to cut off all ties with the Baptist church before she commits to the Mormon church... but we'll get her there, sometime soon. :)  She is so excited that Sister Wahlen and I will be teaching her - her first missionaries were sisters, and she loved them.  Hopefully we will be able to use that to our advantage in helping her come to Christ!

Also, the strategy that the Elders used in the lesson with Tish - reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon, then asking them to offer a kneeling prayer and ask "Is the Book of Mormon true?" - the direct question, not "help me to know that the Book of Mormon is true" – has worked miracles in our area.  We and the Elders have been using it everywhere we go, less actives, members, investigators, all of the above.  And it has been so powerful.  Most people still don't ask the direct question, which is frustrating.  Direct questions get direct answers!  But we all still feel the spirit so strong.  Every time, I feel the spirit testify to me that the Book of Mormon is true.  I know it is - I can't deny it.  The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I love reading and studying it!  And we've even used it to figure out what concerns less actives and investigators have - the Elders said that they went to a less actives home and did this lesson plan, and found out that one of them never had a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  And now they have a specific concern to address.  I'm telling y'all, it can work miracles.  If my fellow missionaries out there haven't tried it yet, you should. :)

We were able to go to the temple on Friday - it was incredible!! For those of you who don't know, the Houston temple is in my mission, so we get to go once a transfer.  The Houston temple is beautiful! Of course, what temple isn't?  It is the house of God, after all. :)  It was an awesome experience - I love going to the Temple!

On a less spiritual topic... Elder J. Ruesch: There is a Jamaican family in my ward here, and Sister Wahlen and I had dinner with them yesterday.  So I've had rice and peas.  And I would agree with you - Jamaicans definitely know how to cook rice.  Just thought I'd let you know. :)

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Ririe

Alma 37:6

Life is a Roller-coaster...

I've heard it said that while on a mission everything is magnified - the highs are incredible, and the lows are terrible.  It is SO true.

We taught Jermaine again this week.  We met him at the church, and taught him a lesson in the chapel.  A member, Brenna, who is preparing for her mission, came with us and was an excellent help in teaching the Plan of Salvation.  She is going to make an incredible missionary someday soon. :)  Jermaine is doing great- he is reading from the Book of Mormon daily (When we saw him on Wednesday, he was already to Jacob!) and he is so excited and ready to learn more.  And he invited himself to be baptized, which is incredible!  The spirit was so strong during the lesson - he is definitely one that the Lord has prepared. He is amazing.  Unfortunately, when we got his address, we learned that he doesn't live in our area... so we called the mission home to figure out which missionaries should be teaching him, and we learned that he doesn't even live in our mission!  Which is terrible – we won't even get to go to his baptism unless we get special permission from President Pingree!  ... so sad!  But we know that he'll be in good hands, with whichever missionaries get to finish teaching him. We will stop by the goodwill where he works from time to time, just to check up on him and such.  He came to church with us on Sunday since he doesn't know anyone from his ward yet, and he had a good experience.  He is sad to have to switch missionaries, but he understands and doesn't want us to get in trouble - he is so sweet that way. :)  And he was planning on heading over to his church building when his ward ended so he could get in contact with the missionaries.  He is SO ready, and I am excited for him!

Other than Jermaine... we haven't really had anyone to teach... our ward area is kinda small, and even though we technically split the area between us and the elders in our ward, we still run into them all over the place.  And when we do go visit someone, we often get "Oh, the Elders were just over here!"  ... we're still trying to figure out how to coordinate better... :)  We've been doing a lot of work with less actives, but we're finding that most people just like to talk to us, they don't like it when we try and teach them... I like listening to people and their stories, but that's not what we as missionaries are here to do, you know?  Sigh... what do you do?  We have found a few that are willing to let us come over and "practice" the lessons on them, since I'm so new to the mission, so hopefully when we start that this week we will start finding success.  We struggle with finding people to teach, because most people here are very firmly rooted in their religion and don't want to change.  We're trying not to get discouraged though, because we know that the Lord has prepared people to receive His gospel, we just need His help in finding them.

I'm not sure if I've told you about Rafie - he lives in our apartment complex, and we met him on the first day.  He's hard to get in contact with, because he doesn't have a phone and he's not home very often. And we've learned that he's one that likes to do all the talking and doesn't like to give us a chance to teach him.  But we're making some progress.  Slow, baby steps, but some progress is better than none, right?  We gave him a Book of Mormon last night, and he said he would start reading it along with his Bible.  Hopefully we'll get to see him again soon and check on his progress.

Being on a mission is definitely helping me recognize where my strengths and weaknesses are.  I'm trying really hard to be bold and talk to everyone, but for someone as shy as me, it can be hard.  I've spent a lot of time on my knees, pleading with my Heavenly Father to give me strength and courage, and Sister Wahlen and I have been setting goals to help both of us break out of our comfort zones.  And I've started to notice a change.  It is amazing - Just like it says in Ether 12:27, if we come to the Lord with our weaknesses, He will help us make them strengths.  I'm not quite there yet... but the Lord and I are working on it. :)

I love you all!  Thank you so much for your love and support!  Have an awesome week!

Sister Ririe

Mosiah 2:41

I Believe in Miracles!

Hey y'all!

It's been a crazy week here in Katy, Texas - The work is definitely moving forward, and I'm so happy I get to be a part of it!  We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, where we talked a lot about finding people to teach.  We talked about setting inspired goals - goals that the Lord will help us reach if we go forward with faith.  Sister Wahlen and I have been struggling in finding people, but while in Zone Conference we prayed that we would be able to find those that the Lord has prepared.  President Pingree always says that "the Lord has prepared tens of thousands - we just need to find them."  That evening, we didn't have any appointments, so we were stopping by and visiting less active members, when we drove by a Goodwill store and Sister Wahlen felt like we should go inside to see if we could maybe set up some service to do there.  So we stopped, and went inside, and met Jermaine.  He works there, and we got talking to him about the gospel when we asked about service  opportunities.  He has been looking for a church to join, and has had a few friends go to BYU.  So we exchanged numbers and set up a time to meet with him again.  On Thursday we taught him the first lesson.  Sister Wahlen let me do most of the teaching, since I'm new and the best way to learn how to teach the lessons is to teach the lessons.  I was so nervous that I was visibly shaking... Jermaine asked if I was cold... haha.  I explained that it was nerves - that this was my first time really teaching a whole lesson.  But he said I was doing a good job, so... :)  He's a golden investigator though - He believes in God and Christ and the Bible, and when we taught each principle, he would say, "That makes sense."  He told us that a lot of what we had been teaching him was filling holes/answering questions that he had from visiting other churches.  He is excited to read the Book of Mormon - when we gave him one and committed him to read the introduction, he said that he had Friday and Saturday off of work (unfortunately he had work on Sunday, so he couldn't come to church) and that he would read as much as he could.  Yep, he's golden.  I'm looking forward to teaching him again - we're meeting with him again on Wednesday!

We've been doing a lot of work with less active members, especially single  sisters.  After church yesterday, Sister Wahlen and I prayed for direction from the Lord and then went to visit whoever came into our minds.  All of the people we ended up visiting definitely needed a visit from missionaries - all of them said that to us.  It is amazing - when you learn to completely trust in the Lord and follow the

promptings you receive, He will direct you to where you need to be. It's a lesson that I'm still learning - I like to plan things out. But Sister Wahlen and I are learning together. :)

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to send pictures yet, I'm still trying to figure out how... and it's kinda hard when you leave your camera in the apartment... sorry.  I'll try to send some next week!

I love you all so much!  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe