I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Hey y'all!

This week has been amazing.  I don't even know where to start.  But, what else is new, right?  Basically, missionary work is great, and I love being a missionary.  :D  Yep.

Before Sister Goodrich left, we were able to meet with Robert and Melanie.  Robert is still solid, and working his way to his baptism. :) We went over the baptismal interview questions with him, and he passed!  Now we just need to finish teaching him the lessons and then he'll be ready!  We're meeting with them again tonight, and hopefully on Thursday too.  They are awesome, and I love being able to work with them!  Melanie is slowly but surely letting us bring the spirit into her life, and slowly but surely we're helping her realize that she can have it with her every day again.  I love being a missionary, and seeing/feeling the spirit work through me to touch others!

Transfers:  Sister Goodrich left and is now serving in Conroe, and my new companion is Sister Bonner!  She was in my MTC district, so she's been out as long as I have (just over 7 months - crazy!).  It is really fun to get to know her again, and get to know her better now that we're companions.  She's from Bountiful Utah, and she's awesome, and a really hard worker, and she has a lot of great ideas that we're putting to use here in Memorial Springs.  This is her 2nd area, just like me - she served for 7 months in the Melbourne ward, which is the southeast corner of our area, just above downtown Houston.  So she moved from the ghetto to the suburbs - quite the change.  She can't get over how small (geographically) the area is, and how there's a member on pretty much every street.  So, quite the change for her, but she loves it here.  Which is great, because I do too. :) That's Sister Bonner for ya - I love her! :)

Also with transfers - I didn't think I would be able to take over the area after just one transfer of being here... but so far I haven't gotten us too lost. ;) I'm really surprised at how much I've been able to remember, about members and investigators, where everyone lives, etc. - and I know it's not just me.  Alma 26:12.  I would NOT be able to do this alone.  But I have the Lord on my side, and with His strength I can do all things.  

We were able to meet with one of our investigators who we haven't been able to see in a long time - her name is Maria.  And she agreed to set a baptismal date!  March 22 - it'll be awesome. :)  We went over the baptismal interview questions with her too, and she passed too.  She's had the missionary lessons 3 or 4 times, but just hasn't been ready to commit and stick to a date (she's had 4 different dates in the past...) but this time it's going to happen.  She's ready, we just need to help her realize that. :)

We've been doing a lot of biking this week - we discovered a way to get from one half of our area to the other without riding on the really dangerous, busy, no shoulder, no sidewalk, no bike lane, ditch on both sides roads.  Don't worry, we haven't been riding on them, we've mostly been getting rides and then walking around.  Here's the dilemma we've faced: our apartment is at the corner of two such roads, so we've only been able to get into one neighborhood via bike.  But last week we moved our bikes to a member's back yard, so we've been able to ride around 3 of the 6 neighborhoods in our area without riding on any main roads.  Well, we finally found a back-road way to get to 2 more neighborhoods, so now we can get almost anywhere on bike, once we get a ride to our bikes that is.  ...I'm not sure if any of this is making any sense... moral of the story: we are now able to use our bikes a lot more.  So we have been using our bikes a lot more.  It's great - we're able to get places a lot faster without having to rely as much on members for rides.  And the weather right now here is great - I think most of the freeze has left and we are quickly plunging through spring back into summer.

Anyway... sorry about the long tangent... back to my story.  Along with all the biking we've been doing, we've also been doing a lot of tracting.  Sister Goodrich had tracted most of the area already before I got here, so I didn't tract hardly at all with her.  But now I'm with Sister Bonner, we've been tracting a lot.  And we've run into a LOT of different people - new investigators (Betsy and Coy, they're mostly interested in learning so they can respect mormons and our religion, they don't want to convert... that's what they're saying right now anyway...;) ) to people who say they're so sorry for us, that we're delusional, and that they hope we find the truth soon.  People like that... they don't realize that we're feeling sorry for them too... We hope that our knocking on their door will somehow plant a seed into their hardened heart.  But every door that we knock on that we get that response just strengthens my testimony - even with the hardest opposition, I can feel the spirit with me, helping me stand firm in what I know.  If the church weren't true, would I have that?  I don't think so.  I love being a missionary!  My testimony has grown in so many ways - ways I didn't even think were possible.  I love it.  

Summary: This week we have 2 new investigators, and 2 investigators with baptismal dates, in a ward that hasn't seen a convert baptism in over 2 years.  I can feel it - the Lord really is hastening His work!

I love all y'all so much!  Thanks for the love and support. :)  Y'all are awesome - stay strong in what you know.  And have a great week!  Oh, and Elder Johnny Ruesch - welcome back to the field. :)  Love y'all!

Sister Ririe

John 14:15

oh, and happy valentines day!  We heart-attacked a few of our investigators and less actives to let them know they're loved. :)