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
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