Monday, August 4, 2014

Loving the Life in Fairfield

#1 - Sister Funk and me :)
#2 - Mama Grover (the member we live with) and one of the new puppies!! :)




Hey y'all!

Transfers came and went, and although it was hard to say goodbye to all those I know and love in Memorial Springs, I went to the transfer meeting excited to see what my future holds. :)  I have been assigned to the Fairfield ward, which is somewhere in Cypress, TX... I'm not sure exactly where, I'll have to look at a map.  I'm still on bike - Yay!!  Seriously - I'm SO glad I'm still on bike.  Even though it's hot... I like being active.  It makes me happier.  Plus everyone sees us when we're biking all over the area - I guess it's good publicity.  Either that or they think we're crazy... but at least it gets them thinking. ;)  My new companion is Sister Funk, and she is awesome. :) She's been out for 9 months and has been in the Fairfield ward for 2 transfers now, so she has been showing me the ropes.  She's from Twin Falls Idaho and graduated in 2013, so she hasn't done any college yet - I'm trying to convince her to come to Utah State. :)  We live with members - the Grovers.  They are empty nesters... except they have missionaries living upstairs... I don't know, does that make them not empty nesters anymore?  Anyway, they are super sweet and fun, and I like living with them. :)  And they have dogs, and one of them had puppies yesterday, so CUTE! :)  I love having pets around!  Also - my new District Leader is Elder Ririe - crazy!  After a whole year of only running into my cousin at the occasional transfer meeting I now get to see him every week. :)  For the last month of his mission, anyway - I can't believe he's going home so soon!

Anyway - that's the basics of my new area, in a nutshell.  Hopefully it makes some sense to y'all- sorry if it seems all over the place.  Just know that I love it here! :)

There is a lot of good work going on too - We are teaching a lot of part-member families, which is awesome.  And from what Sister Funk tells me we have at LEAST 2 investigators to church every single week, which is crazy to me because in my other areas one of our biggest struggles was getting investigators to church.  But I guess people are more open to it here.  Now that's not saying that it's the same 2 every week, but most of them come pretty often.  And we meet with most of them at least once a week, which means our evenings are really busy and we are teaching a LOT.  I'm so excited!  Not that we didn't teach in Memorial Springs, because we did... just not nearly this much.  It will be a lot of fun to really get to know the people we're teaching and help them prepare for baptism. :)

Here's a brief intro to the people I've met so far:

Melody & Chris:  Melody is a returning less active, and Chris is her non-member "significant other".  They've been to church the past 3 weeks, and Sister Funk has told me that Chris has come a LONG way, even though he still has a long way to come before he can be baptized.  But they are so friendly, and love having us over, and they have loved church so far. Chris loves "boys club" (priesthood) and Melody is slowly warming up to Relief Society (she's had a hard time with women in the church in the past.)  And Melody LOVES to cook, and is SUPER good at it... and when we're biking around all day we have no problem eating. :)  She made us lunch the other day... I can now add cactus to the list of thing's I've eaten in Texas.  It was actually pretty good. :)

Honorio & Jennifer:  Jennifer has always been active, and her husband Honorio has started to show interest in becoming a member.  His family converted in Venezuela after he had moved out, and then he married a member... he's just destined to join the church. :)  He's super funny, and he says he knows he's going to be baptized someday, we're just working on helping him realize that sooner is better than later. :)

Mayra & Jacob:  Jacob is a returning less active, and Mayra is his wife.  They are working on building good scripture study habits, because Mayra wants to feel like she really understands before she gets baptized.  She says she's working on getting her answer by reading and praying.  Jacob is so excited that she's taking the lessons - I think they both want to have a church to raise their 1-year-old daughter in.

Sister Funk and I had an awesome miracle this week - on my first day in the area, we decided to try and visit some potential investigators.  After trying a few, with none of them being home, we decided to tract in the area.  On the very first door we knocked on, a woman answered the door.  Her response to us introducing ourselves was "oh, I already go to a church" but instead of letting her end the conversation there we asked her questions about her church and her beliefs.  As we showed genuine interest in what she was saying, her attitude changed.  As we talked, she eventually invited us in and we were able to share the message of the Restoration.  As we were leaving, she said "honestly, when I saw you at the door I fully intended to send you away.  But as we were talking, something told me 'just let them in' so I did!"  It's amazing to see how the spirit can touch the hearts of the people we talk to - even when it's 30 seconds on a doorstep.

Well, that's all for the week! Fairfield is great, Sister Funk is great, and I'm so excited to serve here with her. :)  I hope y'all have a great week!

Sister Ririe


Mosiah 27:28-29

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