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