A full gratitude tree, a golden family, and a day without thumbs

1. Our awesome gratitude tree - thanks again mom :)

2. Our day without thumbs... we didn't use the tape all day, just while we were in the apartment.

3. Fall colors do exist in Houston!! yay! :)

4. Sidewalks in Texas...

Hey y'all!

This week has been crazy busy and stuffed full of miracles.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

But first of all - Happy Thanksgiving!! And thanks mom for sending the gratitude tree - it's been a great way for Sister Morris and I to really focus on what we're grateful for, especially during this season. We filled out all the leaves that you sent, and we even made some more. :)  I'll send a picture of what our tree looks like now. And as Sister Morris and I have been focusing on looking for things to be grateful for, we've noticed how our prayers have become so much more sincere.  We really do have a lot to be grateful for!  I'm looking forward to spending Thanksgiving here - yes, I'll miss family and our traditions, but there's an awesome ward family here in Westlake that is taking care of us. :)  We have plans to go over to the ward mission leaders house for dinner, and another family invited us over for dessert.  And we have plans to visit Jenny (one of the less actives that we visit) - she's in a rehab center because she had a mini stroke this past week and she'll probably have to stay there over Thanksgiving... so we're going to visit her to help cheer her up. :)

Also, this week we found two new investigators!! We tracted into Melissa - she's basically a less-active Jehovah's Witness.  She still believes what they do, but she doesn't go to church or anything.  We taught her the restoration on Tuesday, and she seemed willing to accept it, but she has a lot of skewed beliefs about the Plan of Salvation... that will be interesting to teach this week. :)

Our second new investigator is an awesome miracle - she basically fell right into our laps.  On Wednesday, we were just finishing up our studies when we got a text referral from church headquarters with a name (Elizabeth), an address and a phone number - no other information.  So we had no idea what to expect - we figured it could be anything from a good friend or family member referring her or someone who had just got the information out of the phone book and decided to send the missionaries over (something similar had happened to Sister Morris in a previous area - she had contacted the referral and they said they didn't even know that they knew any Mormons...) We kind of prepared ourselves for the worst, practiced what we would say, and went to see if she was home.  She answered the door, and welcomed us in saying "I didn't know if you'd actually come!"  Apparently she had referred herself on Mormon.org.  She was raised Catholic, but she wanted to find a church that was family oriented and would help her build her relationship with God, because she just felt that something was missing.  She has a 2 month old son, and she really want's a strong religion to bring him up in.  We told her that we could help with that. :)  Her fiancé is a less active member, so less active that he's not on the Westlake membership records, but he expressed a sincere desire in coming back to church.  They're so  golden!  We taught them two lessons last week, unfortunately they weren't able to make it to church yesterday, but we have plans to see them at least once this week - probably more.  They are awesome, and they are so ready to let the gospel touch their lives.  The Lord is definitely preparing people and helping them to find the truth!

Even though Elizabeth and Eric (her fiancé) weren't able to come to church yesterday, we did have a few less actives there.  And one (her name is Elizabeth too) came completely out of the blue - she hadn't expressed any desire to come back to church, and then she showed up yesterday!  It was awesome!  It always makes me so happy when I can see the progress of the people that we're working with, and coming to church is a huge step. :)

Now for a completely random story that doesn't have much to do with missionary work... We had dinner with the Schoenbecks this past week - they are an awesome family that invites us over whenever we don't have anyone else feeding us, and they make sure that we feel completely at home while we're there - they love missionaries!  And I love them, they're basically my adopted family here in Westlake. :)  Anyway, we learned that Sister Schoenbeck had a birth defect that basically makes it so she doesn't have usable thumbs... but we hadn't ever realized before, because she is so proficient at using her other fingers that she doesn't really need her thumbs - crazy!  She challenged us to go for a day without using our thumbs - it was hard.  Some things weren't as bad as I thought they would be, but other things we had to get creative with. :)  I'll admit - I didn't make it the whole day without my thumbs.  But "thumbs" were definitely added to our gratitude tree. :)

Last but not least - Happy birthday to my best friend Sister Oliverson!! I hope you have a great day full of fun and happiness. And I wish you the best during this upcoming year that you will spend at the ripe old age of 20. ;)  I love you so much!!!

Anyway... I love you all and hope you have an awesome week and a happy thanksgiving!  Thanks for all the love and support!

Sister Ririe

Alma 34:38

God arranged the alphabet

1 - Kati, one of the less actives that we work with, and her daughter Sarah
2 - Sister Chaplin, another of the less actives we visit
3 - bonus points if you can see what is wrong with this picture

Hey y'all!                                                                                November 18, 2013

So... miracle #1: Sister Morris and I are staying in Westlake for another transfer!!  We are both so happy, because we love each other so much, and we love this ward too.  This transfer is going to be awesome, with Thanksgiving, and Christmas... I can feel the miracles coming. :)

Miracle #2: and this has to do with the subject line... are y'all ready for an awesome story? Yes? Alright, here we go.  So, Sister Morris and I have been trying to figure out how to best work with members and get them involved with missionary work.  We decided this week during weekly planning (Thursday) that we would try and set appointments with active members to help them create a family mission plan, with action items that each member of the family can do so they can all be involved and awesome member missionaries.  Sounds like an awesome plan, right?  We thought so too. :)  So, Friday comes, and we're trying to set an appointment for that evening, but no one answers their phone... and so after dinner, we didn't have any set plans...  So we decided to just start at the top of the Ward list and go through all the active members, just stopping by their homes until someone had the time to let us in to share a message with us.  The first name on the list: the Adames.  We stopped by, and the couple welcomed us in.  Which was a miracle in and of itself - we got in on the first house we tried for once!  We started by asking them if they'd had any missionary experiences recently, and both of them launched into several stories about missionary work that they've done. Apparently, they've given 3 different sets of missionaries someone to teach in the past week, unfortunately none of the potential investigators lived in our area.  But they assured us that someday they'd find someone in the ward boundaries for us to teach. :)  Sister Morris and I weren't really sure what to do at this point – this family is obviously heavily involved with missionary work already... I mean, brother Adame carries pass-along cards in his pocket so he can give them out on short notice!  So we just continued to visit with them, and eventually the real reason that we needed to be there came out: Sister Adame has been struggling ever since her good friend died, a few weeks ago.  She puts on a face of cheerfulness, but she's still upset about it.  And she and her husband both expressed that us coming to visit them that evening had been an answer to their prayers - Sister Adame said she needed to feel the peace that we as missionaries bring.  The spirit was so strong in that home - I LOVE being an instrument in the Lord's hands!  So nothing went according to our plans, but everything went exactly how the Lord needed it to happen. Guys, this church is true.  I know it.  And our Heavenly Father knows exactly what he is doing.  He even arranged the Alphabet so that we would visit the Adames that night. :)  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Little experiences like that - being an answer to a prayer, getting to lift others up - it's all a part of missionary work.  Our purpose is to HELP OTHERS and bring them to Christ.  I love it!

Anyway... that's my long awesome story for the week. :)  In other news - Tish came to Church yesterday!  She only stayed for Sacrament meeting, but we were so happy that she came for one of the three meetings anyway.  We're hoping that we'll be able to follow up and meet with her sometime this week, but she likes to stay really busy with work and stuff, so we'll see how that goes.

Oh, and one other adventure that I almost forgot to tell y'all about: I was in a bike area for a day. :)  But the sisters down in the Katy 2nd ward, where I went on exchanges, don't really use their bikes because they can get around on foot just fine.  So I walked all day. My feet were a little sore after, but I thought it was great.  I think I would like to be in an area without a car.  Of course, I'm perfectly happy where I am. :)  I'm just saying for when I eventually get transferred out of Westlake.

I love y'all so much!  Thanks so much for all the love and support! Y'all are great. :)  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Helaman 5:47

A week in the life

Hey y'all!

It's been a busy week, but not as crazy as last week, which is just fine by me.  I like a little excitement, once in a while, but last week with all of our exchanges was a little hectic.  This week was a little bit more like normal.  (if such a thing exists while you're on a mission, that is.)  We had a lot of our regular appointments with less actives, and a few others that we were able to visit this week. I don't know if I've told y'all about Connie - she is recently reactivated (as of yesterday! :) ) She has a daughter with a lot of health issues, and she doesn't feel really comfortable with leaving her for so long - about 4 hours with all of church and the travel time in-between.  But we've visited with her occasionally, and she has awesome home teachers that have encouraged her to come to church. Last month she realized that going to church is what she needs right now.  So we've helped her get there, and she plans on going every week from now on!  It's so awesome - I love being a missionary and being able to help people on there way to conversion.

Speaking of conversion, we had a specialized training this week all about conversion.  It was really cool - President Pingree mostly emphasized how we, as missionaries, are not here to baptize or get people to come back to church.  We're here to help people become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ - to become converted to Him. And we talked about how, in order to do that, we need to be converted ourselves.  We listened to Elder Bednar's talk on Conversion from the October 2012 general conference (which was kind of ironic - we had a Relief Society lesson based on that talk on Sunday, and it came up when my iPod was on shuffle while we were getting ready on Monday, and then we watched it at specialized training on Tuesday... I guess I really needed that talk!) and we discussed how we can help our investigators and less actives become truly converted to the Lord. And, President Pingree introduced a new program for recent converts - apparently our mission is one of the pilot missions for this new program for convert retention - helping our converts continue on their conversion process even after they are baptized.  The whole idea behind the program is to have the missionaries and the ward work together to set goals to get to the temple; continue learning, praying, studying, and going to church; start family history work; start missionary work; and other stuff like that.  I think it's pretty cool - it will make the transition between missionaries and the ward smoother, and so converts are less likely to get lost in the process. I'm excited to see how it works out.  

(Here's a pic of Sister Ririe at specialized training this week - thank heavens her mission president keeps a blog that he updates with pictures every week! :))

As far as our investigators go... no one is progressing.  We have an appointment set with Tish this week, and we're hoping to see Brenda sometime this week too.  Tiffany hasn't been getting back with us, and we haven't been able to set an appointment with Rosa yet.  We've been working with the members to encourage them to get involved with missionary work, so we can get referrals from  them.  One thing that we've been doing consistently is sharing a few quotes form Elder Ballard's conference talk from this past conference, and inviting them to take the challenge to reach out to "just one" between now and Christmas.  So far the members have been willing to accept the challenge, but I guess we won't really be able to see any results from that for a while.  It's hard, because it seems like most everything moves so slow when it comes to missionary work, and we, as missionaries, want it to move a lot faster.  I guess my mission is teaching me patience.  Everything will work out the way it is supposed to in the end, as long as I am doing my part.

We had an awesome surprise yesterday - Jermaine came to visit us at church!  He's still doing well and working towards his baptism.  He's had a job interview, and he has a secondary interview on Wednesday. We're all praying that he'll get the job so he can save up money to move out so he can be baptized!  And I suggested that when he moves out, he moves into the Westlake ward. ;) Or at least into the mission, so I can get permission to go to his baptism! :)  He's awesome, and he seems really converted already - he was participating in the gospel principles class, and he said he loves going to church.  He's awesome, and I can't wait until he is able to be baptized!

Well, that's all for the week.  I love y'all and hope you're are doing well!  Have an awesome week. :)

Sister Ririe

Helaman 3:27-28

One week, four companions

My companion and I on Halloween - look closely and you'll be able to
tell what we are... creative, I know. :)

Hey y'all!

Yep, it's been a crazy week.  But I've loved every minute of it. :) Sister Morris is still my companion, but we've been on so many exchanges!   I don't remember if I told y'all, but she's the sister training leader for our zone, so we're supposed to go on exchanges with all the sister companionships in the zone.  We would have done them earlier in the transfer, but we've had a lot of problems scheduling them, and so it ended up that we did two of them this week. AND, it also happened to be the week that Sister Morris went to MLC (missionary leadership council, basically a training for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders)... So on Tuesday Hermana Fletcher was my companion, Wednesday Sister Correia was my companion, and Saturday I was with Sister McLean.  And the rest of the week I was with Sister Morris.  Yeah... like I said, it was a crazy week.  But it was awesome.  I was in Westlake the whole week, because I am the driver, so I was basically responsible for everything that happened, because my companion for the day had no idea what was going on in our area... so it was kinda stressful.  But everything worked out ok... even though most everything fell through... but that's missionary life.  With Hermana Fletcher, we were only together for part of the day - the part that involved breakfast, studies, lunch, and our set appointments with less active sisters.  With Sister Correia, the only thing that really fell through was our service - we usually go to KCM (Katy Christian Ministries - it's like DI or Goodwill.  Usually we help hang and sort clothes) but when we got there, we saw a sign on the door saying that they'd been locked out because they couldn't pay their bill... we don't know when they will be opened again, but right now we're spending some of our time in-between appointments to try and find other service opportunities.

And then, with Sister McLean, literally everything we had for the day fell through... so we tracted, and tried to contact people, and tracted some more... it was a LONG day.  But, we did get to talk to Tiffany!  We were supposed to meet with her last P-day, but when we got to her home she wasn't there... but we stopped by on Saturday, and she was there, and we were able to teach her the restoration.  We did find out that her mom is a Jehovah's Witness, and her dad is Christian... so all they need is a Mormon in the family. ;)  Tiffany is really open-minded when it comes to learning about other religions, and we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and gain her own testimony of it - that she didn't have to just take our word for it. I love the Book of Mormon - if we could just get all our investigators to read it and pray about it, they would all have a testimony of it! I know that it is the word of God, and that it contains the fullness of the gospel, and I love reading it every morning. :)

We have found a few other potential investigators while tracting - hopefully we will be able to start teaching them the lessons soon! One of them - her name is Rosa - took me off-guard:  Sister McLean and I were tracting, and we had a whole street of "not interested".  And then we get to Rosa's door.  She answered, and I started with "Hi, we're missionaries from the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and talked a little bit about the restoration and asked if she would be willing to learn more, and she simply said "yes."  I almost didn't know what to say!  Thank goodness for the spirit, which kind of took over, and I managed to continue teaching a bit more about the restoration, and we were able to get her contact information so we can continue to teach her.

Oh, and it was Halloween this week, Happy Halloween!  Our ward does a Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween night, so we were able to go have fun with our ward.  And there were a lot of less actives there, which was awesome.  And Kati and her non-member husband were there too.  It was great.

Also, Sister Oliverson... No way!  That is so amazing! I can't believe that you found him and were able to talk to him and teach him! Hopefully everything goes well there. Miracles do happen! :) (Mom's note - this is in response to the following note she got from her best friend, who is serving in Kentucky right now: "And, a miracle happened --Sister Ririe, do you remember when we were watching the Voice and there was a man by the name of Brandon Roush?? He worked with autistic children and has super curly long hair and has the voice of an angel?? Well, remember that part when he was from Kentucky and I looked at you and said "I am going to convert that man." Well... if you don't remember, that happened. And, no worries, my dream is fulfilled. On Wednesday while we were walking around we were stopping to talk to everyone, and there he was... on his porch, and now here we are.... teaching him about the Book of Mormon, it is amazing!! Ah! Miracles happen y'all.")

Oh, and one other random thought: I ate a steak the size of my face last night.  No big deal.  Of course it was the one family in the entire ward that DOES get offended when you don't eat everything... I thought I was going to burst.  It was good steak... but my stomach just isn't that big!  No worries though, I did survive. ;)

I love y'all so much and hope you have a fantastic week!

Sister Ririe

Moroni 7:33