When Houston freezes over

Hey y'all!

This week has been kind of slow, but that happens when you have a "major" ice storm blow through the city... seriously, Houstonians are wimps.  Yes, the roads were a little slick, but EVERYTHING was shut down.  And when I say everything, I mean everything.  School was canceled, stores were closed... President even canceled all of our meetings, which kind of stinks because my district was supposed to have interviews the day after the ice storm hit.  And he told us to avoid all unnecessary travel... so we were stuck inside for most of the day Friday.  But it warmed up a bit yesterday, but we're supposed to have another storm hit tomorrow... we're praying that it doesn't, because we're supposed to go to the temple... I really hope it doesn't close because of the weather.  Anyway, moral of the story, the people here are wimps and can't tolerate a skiff of ice.  None of them would survive if it snowed here.  But that's ok, I still love them. ;)

The past few weeks we've been able to help our ward make quilts to present at the annual interfaith quilting bee.  So we spent a lot of time at Sister Morgan's house putting our sewing skills to good use.  The quilting bee is not this Friday but next, and we're helping the sisters in the ward get excited about mingling with the women of other religions while they are there - a little missionary work never hurt anyone. :)  And I hadn't realized how much I missed sewing... not something I thought I would miss, but turns out I do... anyway... it was fun to get to help out.

We're trying to get the sisters in the ward more involved with missionary work, so a few Sundays ago we sent a sheet around Relief Society, basically asking the sisters when they would be available to go on splits with us.  We got a few people to sign up, and now we're trying to figure out exactly how we can get them involved.  Well, one of the ward missionaries, Sister Peruch, called us up Wednesday night, and said, "I didn't sign up on your split sheet because I usually have to watch my kids all day.  But my husband is going to get off early tomorrow, and I'd like to go on splits with you.  How does 4:30 sound?"  Well, of course we made that work for us - it's not every day that we get a member call us up and tell us exactly when they'd like to go on splits.  And it was a miracle - the day was wet and rainy, and it was great to be able to have access to a car for a few hours - we could cover way more ground and we weren't quite so cold.  And... here's the really awesome part... every door that we knocked on opened!  We weren't able to talk to who we were looking for at some of them, and some of them said they didn't want any contact with the church anymore, which is always sad, but we were able to talk to so many people.  And some of those people were less actives that we were able to help on their way back.  It was just another testimony to me - we as missionaries can't do this alone!  We need the members!  Sister Peruch shared her experience in Relief Society, and we have a couple of different sisters going on splits with us this week.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Also - apparently Brother Rackleff issued a pass-along card challenge in Priesthood yesterday... and there are quite a few men in the ward that are very competitive... we'll see how that goes.  :)  Oh, and speaking of Brother Rackleff, we stopped at the gas station a few times this week and were able to see Brehash (there, the "guy at the gas station" has a name :) ) and he's been reading the Book of Mormon!  He said he doesn't want to meet with us yet - he want's to finish the book first.  But the fact that he wants to read is awesome, and we'll keep checking in on him from time to time.

We weren't able to meet with most of our investigators this week... we were able to see Jo, but she says she still hasn't gotten her answer... hopefully she will soon.  And we're meeting with Robert and Melanie tonight to teach them the Plan of Salvation.  I'm excited - again, I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, I found this interesting statistic this week: If each member were to convert one person a year, the whole world would be converted in 9 years.  Isn't that awesome?  So... member missionary work... :)

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

Sister Ririe

D&C 18:15-16

It all started with a pass-along card...

Hey y'all!

We've had some pretty awesome miracles this week!  First of all, I don't know if ya'll remember me telling you about Brother Rackleff randomly stopping at the gas station to give out a pass along card while they were dropping us off for the evening... well, if you don't remember, that happened. So, fast forward a few days... Wednesday we get a text referral from Church headquarters, with a name, phone number, address, and the offer was a Book of Mormon, via pass-along card.  When we look up the address, it turns out that it's that same gas station!  What are the chances of that?!  Througout the rest of the week we tried to contact him by going to the gas station and by calling the number.  No one ever answered the phone, and we found someone at the gas station that told us that the guy we were looking for didn't work there.  So we thought it was a dead end.  Still a cool story, but a dead end.  Fast forward another couple of days... we shared the story (leaving out the dead end part) in relief society, and Sister Rackleff told us that we should come over that evening to share the story with her husband.  So we did, and finished the story, telling him that it was unfortunately a dead end.  Well, evidently Brother Rackleff had a bit more faith than us.  He'd just gotten home from a trip to Utah for work where he'd had some awesome missionary opportunities, and he was still on a spiritual high, so on the way home, he decided to stop at the gas station again.  This time, we all went in, and - the same guy that Brother Rackleff had given the pass-along card to was working!  We were able to give him the book of mormon that he requested.  He's not interested in taking the missionary lessons, but he said he would read the book and give us a call if he had any questions.  When we got back in the car, both Sister Goodrich and I were trying to contain our excitement.  It's so amazing how everything worked out!  The Lord had His hand in it all - it wouldn't have worked any other way.  So, there's the story.  Pass-along cards do work. :)

Another miracle: we were able to teach Robert this week!  He's our investigator who's been coming to church but didn't want to take the lessons just yet, but last week he decided that he was ready.  So Thursday morning, while we were at a relief society activity helping prepare quilts for the interfaith quilting bee that's coming up, we got a text from Brother McLane, Robert's fellowshipper, asking if we could teach Robert that night.  We already had some plans with a part member family, but we rescheduled some things and ended up canceling our dinner appointment so we could be there. (don't worry, we still ate dinner.)  After our lesson with the Andersons that evening, we went over to the McLanes and taught Robert and his less-active girlfriend the restoration.  Turns out - he already knows it due to all the study that he's done on his own, and he already had a testimony of Joseph Smith.  And when we invited him to be baptized he said yes!  We haven't set a date yet - when we asked him, he said no later than a year from now... We told him he could be ready by February.  I think he thinks he has to know it all before he commits, but he said he'd pray about it and let us know.  We'll hopefully get to teach him sometime this week and follow up.  He is SO prepared - I'm excited to teach him more.

Rewind a bit to our lesson with the Andersons - they are a part memeber family - Brother Anderson was excomunicated a while back, but no one in the ward knows because he comes to church every week with his family and still has a strong testimony.  He asked us to visit and teach a spiritual lesson each week, to help him keep the spirit in their home and hopefullh help him get on the track to being re-baptized.  When we were trying to prepare the lesson, we were at a loss for what to teach.  We prayed, seeking inspiration, and eventually we decided that we needed to teach about the Atonement, specifically focusing on its healing power.  So we prepared the lesson, and Sister Goodrich said something like "we should find a good song to share."  I'm sure that comment was inspired, becasue as soon as she said it, a song from my iPod, not one of my favorites or anything, just somethign I'd heard a few times before when my iPod was on shuffle, came to my mind.  We listened to it, and both of us ended up in tears.  The song is called "Let Him Heal Your Heart" and I would strongly encourage all of you who are able to listen to it.  It is amazing.  We shared the song at the end of our lesson, and ended up having an awesome discussion about the Atonement afterward, where everyone in the family participated.  It was awesome, and the spirit there was SO strong.  I am so grateful for the Atonement and how it helps me every day!

Well, there are my awesome stories for this week.  I hope this week continues on the same track!  I love y'all so much!  Thanks for everything!  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Alma 32:27

All kinds of Adventures

Me on my bike...

Hey y'all!

Ok, so much happened this past week, and I'm going to try and tell all y'all about everything.  So I'm going to apologize beforehand - this email might be a little bit scatterbrained.  Everyone buckled up?  Good. :) I don't even know where to begin...

Let me tell you a bit about my new companion: Sister Goodrich.  She is awesome, and I love her. :)  She is from Herriman, Utah, she graduated from high school with her pharmacy tech license and worked in a pharmacy until she came out on her mission.  She's the oldest of 5 kids - 3 sisters and 1 brother.  And she's planning on going to Utah State after her mission. (woot woot! ;) )  Does that answer all your questions mom? :)

We went to the doctor's office on Tuesday to figure out what was wrong with Sister Goodrich's knee - turns out she is loose-jointed and her kneecap doesn't sit in the groove where it should... there's nothing you can do to fix it, it's just something you either grow out of or deal with your whole life.  The doctor gave her some exercises to do to strengthen her quads, and told her she should wear a brace.  So she's been doing all that, and it's been feeling a bit better.  Hopefully it will continue to improve.  He said she should be able to continue to walk and bike, so we've still been working hard. 

The bishop did get a bit mad at us because he thinks we're working TOO hard... there was one evening where it was really cold outside, and we were trying to contact potential investigators and less actives and no one was home, and we were in his neighborhood, so we sought refuge in their home to get warmed up a bit.  Of course they let us in, and Bishop told us that we shouldn't be out in that kind of weather.  It wasn't raining or anything... just cold.  And we're not going to let a little bit of cold stop us.  It's a good thing that we have members that are always willing to let us in and get warmed up, and give us a ride!  This ward is awesome, and they love to help their missionaries, and I'm super grateful for that.

We mostly walk around, but I did go biking for the first time on my mission this week!  ... I am SO out of shape... and the bike I'm borrowing from a member has something wrong with it, so it's way harder to pedal than it should be.  But there's a less active that said he would check it out for me and help me fix it - hopefully we can get that done soon.  Biking in a skirt is an adventure, but I'm getting used to it.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of practice!

Sister Goodrich was sick one day, but we still went out to teach the lessons that we had scheduled for the evening.  She's a powerhouse - she can work through anything!  I'm learning so much from her.  We taught a part-member family that we teach every week, and that went well.  We also had a referral from one of the families in the ward - Sister Christiansen wanted us to teach Makenzie, who is her daughter's best friend.  Makenzie agreed to meet with us before she went off to school, so we went to teach her the restoration.  We taught the lesson, and invited her to be baptized, and she said yes!  Just one thing went wrong... Brother Christiansen is a seminary teacher, and once we had finished the lesson, he re-taught everything that we had just taught with WAY too much detail... I hope poor Makenzie isn't too confused.  And, we started teaching the lesson at 8:30, so we didn't have much time before we had to be in for the night... we would have been home on time if we had been able to end the lesson when we wanted too... oh well, she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, so she'll be able to build her testimony from that.  And missionaries will be able to answer her questions.  Unfortunately, she left to go back to Oklahoma for school yesterday... but Sister Christiansen said she would get her address and send the missionaries over to visit her while she's out there.  

We visited Jo again this week - when we went to visit her on Wednesday she was in a LOT of pain because of her broken ribs... we asked her if she wanted a blessing (she had had one before) and she said yes, so we called and tried to find anyone in the ward that was home... of course all the retired men were out of town... so we called the Elders in our district, who are serving in the area right next to ours, and they were able to get a ride to give her a blessing.  It took a lot of phone calls, but it was worth it - when we visited her on Saturday she was doing much better.

We were also able to meet with Al - he was a former investigator in our area book that the sisters had contacted back in October, and he said he was still interested.  He's just hard to get a hold of, so when we met with him on Wednesday it was only Sister Goodrich's 2nd time teaching him.  He is very knowledgeable about all different religions, and he says he likes ours best.  There are just two things holding him back: his wife doesn't like any kind of organized religion, and she refuses to meet with us, and he won't give up his coffee... We'll keep trying to stay in touch with him, and pray that he and his wife will have a change of heart sometime soon.

Robert, who is dating a member, came to church yesterday and said he's ready to start taking the missionary lessons!  Apparently he's been holding off on learning more because he wanted to come to church a few times and get a chance to read some of the Book of Mormon before he met with us.  But he said he's ready now, and we're excited to get to start teaching him.

As a district, we decided that we wanted to do a church open house/tour activity.  Well, it's been "in the works" for about 3 months now... apparently not all of the ward mission leaders have been on board with the idea - I guess no one wants to organize an event like that... During our correlation meeting last Sunday our ward mission leader basically was putting an end to the idea... but I think it will be a great finding activity, so... we're doing it anyway.  When I was in Katy, the missionaries in the zone put together the Christmas music devotional - the whole event was organized by missionaries.  So I figured we could do something similar here. I told Brother McLane all this, and he said we could go for it - so now the genius who had to speak her mind is running the show. :P  But all 6 of us missionaries are on board, so it should turn out to be a successful event.  Hopefully.  We're having a hard time finding an available day, but once we get a date set we'll be able to really move this thing forward.  We're all praying that this will work out.

We had zone meeting on Friday, and our zone leaders announced the new mission standards for the Texas Houston Mission for the year 2014.  Most of them were pretty much the same - have a member present at every possible lesson, qualify for the spirit every day (by doing things like keeping the morning schedule, obeying the missionary handbook, etc.), and always be finding (President Pingree said we should be talking to AT LEAST 25 people that we don't know every day - that number went up: in 2013 it was 10 people a day).  Here's the one that really astonished all of us - for 2014, the mission standard is to baptize weekly.  Now, that doesn't seem reachable.  Most of us weren't even meeting 2013s standard of baptizing a family every month.  And for me - I haven't had a baptism in 6 months - the whole time I've been out here.  It seems impossible.  BUT:  We CAN do it, we just need the Lord's help.  And it will take a while to reach the goal, we understand that.  But all things are possible when the Lord's on your side.  And as we were talking about it in zone meeting, we got talking about how the members NEED to help us.  As missionaries, we CANNOT do this alone.  The Lord is hastening his work, and each one of us - member and missionary alike -  has been called to move this work forward.  So we brought up the new mission standard in our correlation meeting and ward council on Sunday, and everyone was even more astonished than the missionaries in our zone.  One of the members of the bishopric said, "so, you're telling us that instead of having a goal for 5 baptisms this year, it should be 52?"  Brother McLane, our ward mission leader, really caught the vision though, and we as full-time and member missionaries are working to help the rest of the ward catch our vision.  It's not like President Pingree was making these goals and he thought "one baptism a week for each companionship sounds good" - He was inspired.  The Lord is behind all of this, and I know we can reach it.  So, all y'all members out there - I hope you can feel the passion that I'm writing this with.  We all have a responsibility to share our testimonies.  I know it's hard.  I've been there.  But the gospel really blesses our lives - we can see it every day!  So get out and share that with others!  I promise: you won't regret it.

Sorry, i'll get off my soapbox now.  Back to missionary life.  In order to get the members more excited about missionary work, we decided to start giving pass-along card challenges every week in relief society.  We did something similar in my last ward, and I'm hoping that it will work here too.  The idea is to give someone a pass-along card and ask them to give it out during the week, and then return and report the following Sunday.  So, we explained it to the sisters in relief society, and no one took the challenge.  Sister Goodrich said something like "really people?!" and then Sister Davis, who was conducting, took the card.  Hopefully she'll be able to report back next week, and we'll be able to get the ward really excited about doing missionary work.

We visited the Rackleffs Sunday evening, and talked to them about our pass-along card challenge (Sister Rackleff is in primary).  On the way home, Brother Rackleff pulled up to a gas station, asked for a pass-along card, walked into the store and gave it to the guy behind the counter after a brief conversation.  When he got back into the car, he triumphantly said "Done!" and then added that we could help explain to the sisters that it really doesn't have to be as hard as it seems.  I love Brother Rackleff - he's an awesome member missionary. :)

Alright, this email is forever long... there are so many adventures that come with being a missionary. :)  I love it!  And I love all of you - y'all are fantastic.  Thanks for everything you do, and keep up the good work!

Sister Ririe

Welcome to Memorial Springs

1. Welcome to Memorial Springs

2. My new companion, Sister Goodrich, and me

3. Sister Wahlen and me (the sister in the back is Sister Hudgens, Sister Wahlen's companion)

4. Happy new year!  Yes, we decided to decorate a gingerbread house to celebrate the new year before our bedtime.  Random, I know.  But it was fun. :)

Hey y'all!

The new year definitely brought a lot of new for me - I don't even know where to begin.  Transfers came and went (I did see my MTC companion there, and Sister Huber - it was great to see both of them!) and here I am in my new area:  Memorial Springs!  It's a little ward located kind of where the cities of Spring, Tomball, and Houston meet.  It's MUCH smaller than the Westlake ward so... you guessed it - I no longer have a car.  I am officially a bike missionary!  Our area isn't all that big though, and my new companion injured her knee a few weeks ago (we have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to get it all figured out, hopefully it's nothing serious), so we mostly get around on foot.  It's an exciting new adventure, that's for sure.  :)  The ward members here are awesome, and they give us rides when we need them, so that's good too. 

My new companion is Sister Goodrich.  She is awesome, and I love her so much.  Our personalities are similar, but different... I don't really know how to explain it, but it's working well for us. :) She loves to laugh, which is great, because I love to laugh too.  She's the first companion I've had that's younger than me, and has been out for less time than me.  (she's only younger than me by a few weeks, but still. :) )  She's been out for 3 months, so she just finished her training and now she's taking over the area, kind of like what I did in Westlake.  She knows the area super well, which is good because I get so turned around when we're walking around... I'm sure I'll pick up the area soon enough though.  There aren't a lot of less actives in the ward, which is great!  Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of investigators either... but we've come up with some ideas for finding that will hopefully expand our teaching pool.  We do have an investigator - he name is Jo (short for Josephine).  She's 94 years old, and has been investigating the church for 50 plus years... and she fell and broke 2 ribs this week...  I've only met her a few times, but I already love her so much!  She is super sweet, and she just needs to join the church already. :)  And we found a new investigator this week too - his name is Charlie.  Well, technically he's a former investigator that stopped investigating our church because he was meeting with Jehovah's Witnesses... he still meets with them every Saturday, but he's agreed to take the lessons with us again.  So hopefully he'll recognize that he needs to join our church, and not theirs. ;)

Also, guess who's in my new district - my trainer, Sister Wahlen!  It's awesome to get to see her again, and to get to serve close to her.  My district has 2 elders and 4 sisters, and I love all of them already.  Although I miss the people that I knew in Katy, it's great to get to meet other people out here in the Klein zone.  Oh, and my new area is super close to the temple!  Which is awesome, because a lot of the people here have heard of the church because of the "castle-like building on Champions Forest"  I'm glad I get the opportunity to serve so close to the temple!

Oh, in other news... I hit my 6-month mark this week!  Crazy!  I've been out for 6 months already!  Time sure does fly when you're working hard and having fun. :)

I'm sorry if this email seems all over the place... There's so much I have to tell y'all and I just don't know exactly how to get it all out.  But I'm doing great, and I love my new area, new ward, new companion... everything. :)  I love being a missionary!  I love all y'all so much - thanks for everything you do!  Have a great week!

Love, Sister Ririe

Matthew 20:26-28

PS - for those of you who want to know, my new mailing address is:

10810 Spring Cypress Rd. #1222

Tomball, TX 77375