So Much to Write, So Little Time

Hey y'all!

It has been a busy week full of miracles here in the Fairfield ward.  We basically had everything from exchanges to awesome member miracles to movies to teaching nearly all of our investigators at least once (we only missed Honorio who was still out of town), it was a crazy busy week.  We had one day where we didn't do anything except rush from appointment to appointment to appointment... it was the best thing ever. :)

We taught Alice twice this week, and she committed to baptism!  November 1st will be a wonderful day. :)  She came to all three hours of church and although she couldn't hear very well she started tearing up during fast and testimony meeting and loved how so many of the members took an interest in her.  I don't think I've ever met someone so sensitive to the spirit - she is so prepared, and we love teaching her!

One of our ward members, Sister LeBlanc, had an awesome member missionary miracle this week. We went out to eat Monday night with her and her family, and for some reason or another we had a lot of problems with our order. But our waitress was so helpful in working through everything with us, and when we were in the car leaving Sister LeBlanc turned to us and said, "Do you have a Book of Mormon with you? We need to go give her a Book of Mormon." Of course we had one with us, and she wrote her testimony in it and ran back inside and gave it to our waitress. When she got back in the car she exclaimed, "I love doing that! I love the feeling I get!"  It was amazing - and it goes to show that it's not only missionaries that can feel the spirit of missionary work - members can feel it too. :)

We also met with Colin - we pushed his baptismal date back to October 25th so he could be baptized with some of the other primary kids.  We're still trying to get the family to come out to church more consistently... hopefully they'll watch some of conference this week (we're trying to work out a session that we could come watch it with them) and come to church with us next week.  

Jamie is doing well.  She's still praying for her answer on whether or not the Book of Mormon is true, and she keeps telling us that she feels like it's good, and so it won't hurt her if she studies it.  We're trying to help her realize that that might be her answer.  She's super sweet, and we love visiting her.  We're hoping to watch some of conference with her, too. :)

We saw Melody and Chris this week too, and right now they are a bit frustrated... they feel like they are kind of in limbo while certain circumstances make it hard for them to get married.  But they are still strong in their decision to take a leap of faith at the beginning of the year and get married so Chris can be baptized soon after that. :)  He already refers to himself as LDS to anyone that asks.  They are so strong in their testimonies, and I admire their faith.  Yesterday Chris came to church without Melody and stayed for all 3 hours.  He was initially planning on just staying for Sacrament Meeting, but ended up staying for all of it and said that he was so glad he stayed - that he really needed it this week.  I'm so glad that he's starting to gain a testimony of church attendance!

We also were able to meet with Jacob and Mayra, who we haven't seen in a while.  Jacob is really struggling with having lost his job, but they recognize that Satan is trying to keep them from coming back to church by placing all these obstacles in their path.  We shared the Mormon Message "Lifting Burdens" with them and encouraged them to remember their Savior in their time of trial.  They were able to come to sacrament meeting yesterday, and it was great to see them there. 

I don't know if I've ever told you about John, but he's another investigator that we have here.  His wife Sina is a member, and John has been investigating for a LONG time.  I've only met him twice, and this week we were able to actually sit down and have a lesson with them.  We decided to start over and teach the first powerful lesson - the restoration - and it went really well.  The spirit was so strong and John told us that he would actually read and pray and ask God if it's true.  He already thinks that it is true, but he hasn't had the courage to ask God the question up until this point.  We're so excited to work with him as he seems like he is finally ready to spiritually progress!

As a mission we got to see the movie Meet the Mormons before it comes out in theaters.  And I would encourage EVERYONE to go see it - it is amazing. :)  Although it was a bit weird to be sitting down... watching a move... for an hour and a half... Something about being on a mission for over a year has made it so I get a little fidgety when I sit down with nothing to do.  But I wasn't the only missionary feeling that way!  haha. :)  But the movie was great - we laughed, and we cried, and it was great.  Seriously - go watch it when you have the chance. :)

And we also went on exchanges this week - I got to go with Sister Meyers to the Singles Ward.  And I met a sister there that my cousin Alex had helped to reactivate while he was serving in this mission - Amanda Allred!  So tell Alex that she says hi. :)  It never ceases to amaze me how open young single adults are to the gospel - we went to a college campus to do some contacting and to invite people to church and activities and FHE and institute and LDSSA... I guess it doesn't hurt that the singles ward has so many things to invite people too... but most of the people we talked to were at least interested in coming to some activities.  I suppose that's an age where people are naturally looking for truth, and for friends, so social activities from our church help to draw people in. :)

Of course the General Women's Meeting was amazing, and it made me SO excited for General Conference.  And it made me want to go to the Temple again.  I love being reminded of the covenants we make in the temple, and of the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of His children.  I love being a member of this church, and having the opportunity to share the truth that I have with other people.  I love feeling the love that our Heavenly Father has for the people I teach.  And I love getting to share that with others!  In short - I love being a missionary. :)  And I love y'all, and I hope you have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Romans 8:2

"Satan would rather that you define yourself by your sins instead of your divine potential. ... Don’t listen to him." - President Uchtdorf

Singing in the Rain

Not sure where Megan is, but she is up there somewhere singing with the missionary choir at the Mission President's fireside.  If you want to see a video of the choir singing, check it out on the Texas Houston mission blog - texashoustonmission.blogspot.com.  They sound amazing!  And her mission president's description of the fireside sounds pretty awesome, too. :)

Hey y'all!

It has been a rainy week here in Texas.  We were caught biking in the rain three times, and were blessed to be inside for the other storms.  Sister Funk and I now carry emergency ponchos with us wherever we go. ;)

We've been busy as always, and have seen quite a few miracles.  We found a new investigator this week!  Her name is Alice, and she's an older lady from Germany and she's a sweetheart. :)  We tracted into her a few weeks ago and were able to follow up and teach the Restoration this past Tuesday.  She accepted the message so readily, and even started tearing up when we were testifying because she felt the Holy Ghost so strongly.  And she came with us to Stake Conference yesterday, and loved it even though it was a broadcast to our building from the stake center and the quality wasn't very good and she's hard of hearing... but she still felt the spirit and was impressed by the people around her, and that's what counts.  She's excited to come next week. :)  She also invited us out to lunch after the meeting... so we had to explain about keeping the Sabbath day holy and all that... but it's alright, she said it makes sense. :)  We'll probably have lunch with her tomorrow and teach her about the plan of salvation.  It'll be great. :)

Another miracle - we actually met with our whole ward mission this week!  We have 10 or so ward missionaries, plus our ward mission leader and the assistant ward mission leader... and I'd barely even met any of them yet, and I've been here in Fairfield for 2 months already!  We should be meeting on a weekly basis, but... I don't know, somehow in this ward we kind of struggle with that.  And so many ward missionaries have been called and released in those 2 months that it has been hard to get everyone together... but anyway, we're fixing the problem. :) Now we know everyone, because we had a meeting this past Thursday to present an idea that I brought from one of my past areas and now we're going to implement it here - family mission plans.  The idea is to have each family in the ward create their own mission plan, with each member of the family setting goals and making plans to accomplish those goals.  And then we'll follow up each month or so to see how things are going and what we can do to help.  All the ward missionaries loved it, and they are SO excited to get involved and start fulfilling their calling.  And we are SO excited to work more closely with them. :)  

We've been getting more training with family history, and we're starting to use it every day, no matter what we're doing.  So one kind of discouraging day when everything seemed to fall through we decided to do some contacting using a family history approach.  Of course it was the last person that we talked to that was really interested in our message, but it was worth it. :)  Her name is Karon, and when we came up and talked to her about her family and ancestors and stuff like that she lit up.  She was SO excited to learn more!  So we exchanged contact information, and we're planning on seeing her this week to help her get started.  When we were leaving, she said, "It's funny that y'all would stop by and tell me this now... but my dad and I were just talking about finding out more about our family!"  There are no coincidences - we were meant to talk to her!  The spirit of Elijah has definitely worked on her!

The highlight of the week was last night at the Mission President's Fireside - President Mortensen is planning on having these firesides on a monthly basis - full of music, testimonies from recent converts, mormon messages, and such.  Basically a great way to bring others and feel the spirit.  There was a missionary choir too - I LOVE singing SO much!  There was quite the crowd there, which was awesome. :)  And the spirit was SO strong.  Definitely a success. :)  There were a few non-members from our area that were there, which was good.  They aren't really investigating the church, but we see them every once in a while and they are always friendly to missionaries.  Anyway, we invited them, and they came, and it was great. :)  I got to see a few people from my last area too, and my last companion Sister Walker - I love her so much. :)  It was definitely a good way to end the week. :)

I love y'all so much!  Thanks for the prayers and the support!  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Challenge Accepted!

It was actually in the 70's this week, so we celebrated by digging our cardigans out of our suitcases and wearing them! :)

Meeting Megan's former mission president, John Pingree and his wife, Ann, at Megan's cousin's homecoming talk yesterday - they are wonderful people and we are so glad Megan had the opportunity to serve with them.

Hey y'all!

It has been a great week out here in the Texas Houston Mission.  Things are continuing to move forward, and it's great. :)

First miracle:  Sister Funk and I have been praying and fasting to be able to set baptismal dates with our investigators, because although we are teaching a lot of people none of them had committed to baptism.  So last fast Sunday that's what we fasted for.  And we were expecting a miracle to come, because that's what fasting and praying with real intent produces - miracles. :)  The miracle came in the form of a challenge from our Zone Leaders.  Late Wednesday night we got a text from them, inviting us to set a baptismal date the next day.  So that's what we set out to do.  We were meeting with Colin, our 9 year old investigator, and were already planning on teaching about baptism and inviting him to be baptized, but the challenge from our leaders gave us the extra push when things didn't go the way we planned during the lesson... we had been there for about 5 minutes when he interrupts us and starts to say that he doesn't want us to come over anymore because we were taking time away from his family and friends... in my head I was thinking "no way are you dropping us right now - we need to set a date with you!"  But we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, and so we told him that in order to be baptized he had to learn a few things first, and that's what we come over to do - to teach him the things he needs to know.  He seemed to understand that, and so we asked him and his mom if we could set a date as a goal to work towards.  And so we agreed on October 18th - it's going to happen. :)

Jamie is still doing well - she's reading and praying and sincerely looking for her answer.  We read from the Book of Mormon with her, and the spirit was so strong.  The spirit is always strong when we are with her.  She hasn't asked her family if they want to learn yet, but she had planned on bringing her daughters to church yesterday except they all got sick... so that didn't happen.  :(  But we'll get them there eventually.

We had lunch with Honorio last Saturday, and that was great.  We haven't been able to meet with him lately because his wife Jenniffer has been in Venezuela and he wanted to take a break from our meetings, but then he offered to take us to lunch out of the blue.  So we went and it was great. :)  He has been reading from the Book of Mormon!!  Which is HUGE because that's his biggest concern right now.  Now he's just got to pray about it. :)  Baby steps.

Lately our mission has been putting a huge focus on family history - using it in our finding, teaching, retaining, and reactivating.  So each week we meet with one of the family history consultants in the ward and they train us on how do do it.  I'm excited to get involved with my own family history and learn more about my ancestors.  And we've been using it with our finding efforts, and it is amazing how long we talk to people about their families.  The spirit of Elijah is real.  And we are using it to help bring others to Christ. :)  It's great!

If ya'll could add someone else to your prayers - a family in our ward found out that their 7-year-old daughter Faye has leukemia again. :(  The cancer was in remission for almost 3 years, but they found out a few weeks ago that it's back.  So if y'all could pray for Faye and her family that would be great.  I'm sure they can use all the prayers that they can get. :)

Well, that's all from Houston for this week.  I love y'all so much and hope you have a great week!

Sister Ririe

James 1:12

The Blessings That Come

Hey y'all!

It has been an amazing week here in the Texas Houston Mission!  So much is happening, and it has been great. :)  I absolutely LOVE being a missionary!!

First of all - transfers happened last week and Sister Funk and I are still here in Fairfield!  It was a weird 5 week transfer, and this transfer will be 7 weeks long... we're still not sure why it happened that way, but it did, and we just go with it. :)  With transfers, all the districts in our zone were re-arranged, and now we have a bigger district with some awesome missionaries - Sister Huber, who I knew in Elementary school, being one of them.  :)  I'm excited to get to know the rest of them as we work together over the next few weeks!

We met with Jamie again and taught her the Plan of Salvation.  We had a member come with us and they really hit it off.  And the spirit was SO strong that Jamie started crying, and then I almost started to cry, and the member bore powerful testimony... it was great. :)  Jamie said she'd invite her family to learn with her, and that she's reading and praying to know if it is true.  So hopefully we'll have a family to teach here in the next few weeks! :D

I don't know if y'all remember Joe - he's the guy that we ran into a few weeks ago while tracting and got into a long grace vs. works discussion.  He invited us back so we could teach him the Plan of Salvation to him and his wife... unfortunately he wasn't sincerely interested, he just wanted to argue with us and try and prove us wrong.  We also learned that he works for a local church called Harvest Bible Church, and when we found that out we knew we were going to have trouble... we ran into the preacher a few weeks ago (after we met Joe, but before we met with him this week) and he right away started to try and tear down our beliefs.  And then we ran into someone else who said they went to that church and immediately started to try and prove us wrong too!  So basically: Harvest Bible Church is not our friend.  :(  But we still love them. ;)

The ward had an activity this weekend - there's a Polynesian family in the ward and they put together a Luau!  They do it professionally, and they offered to perform for the ward. :)  We went to the church around 4:00 to help set up tables and chairs in the parking lot, and then at 6:00, just 30 minutes before the activity was supposed to start, it started POURING... And the gym in our building is tiny, and our ward is huge, and all the tables and most of the chairs were outside getting wet... But everyone pulled together and gathered all the chairs from the classrooms around the building and set them up and people ate out of their laps or standing up because we didn't have enough room to seat everyone... but it was still a blast. :)  Luckily we do have a stage in our building so they had somewhere to perform. :)  I LOVE having a ward family where everyone is out to help everyone else and we can all pull together and have tons of fun, even in a crowded cultural hall. :)  AND - members invited their friends and we had two non member families there along with some friends of youth and primary age kids.  It was great. :)

One of Joe's questions got me thinking, and I've been thinking about it all week.  He basically asked why he would give up what he believes in order to join our church.  The main thing that he didn't want to give up is the not having to do any works... not that he's a bad guy, he just believes that his belief in Christ is enough.  So after our meeting with him, and during the next morning's studies, I asked myself this question:  If I were to leave this church, and assuming I could be "saved" somewhere else, what would I be giving up?  I came up with a long list of the blessings that come from knowing the plain and precious truths:  

•    The knowledge of the nature of God, and my relationship with Him

•    The knowledge of the Atonement and the power that comes from it

•    The Priesthood, and the blessings that come through it, including Patriarchal Blessings

•    The knowledge of the complete Plan of Salvation, and the comfort and peace that comes with that knowledge

•    The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price

•    The Gift of the Holy Ghost

•    Personal Revelation

•    A Modern-day Prophet

•    Exaltation

•    The instant network of friends and support, wherever in the world I go

•    A lay ministry, and church callings/responsibilities (aka ways to serve in God's kingdom)

•    Temple blessings

Obviously this is not a comprehensive list - it could go on and on forever.  I wouldn't trade my membership in this church for ANYTHING in this world.  I love this gospel, and I know that it is true.  I am SO happy right now, with this opportunity that I have to share it with anyone and everyone that I come in contact with.  I needed this chance.  I needed to come on a mission so I would realize just how good I have it.  The church is true.  It is Christ's church, established on the earth in these latter-days, and I am SO glad that I am a part of it.  :)  

I love y'all so much! 

Sister Ririe

Romans 1:16

Hey y'all!

It has been a busy week here in Fairfield! And as I don't have much time to write this week I'll just have to summarize all the awesome things that have happened.

We met with Jacob and Mayra for the first time in what seems like forever, even though it really has only been a few weeks. :)  They are doing great, and are really focusing on reading from the scriptures and praying daily.  Back to the basics, because that's what everyone needs. :)  

Chris and Melody are doing well too - they have decided to take a leap of faith at the end of this year or the beginning of the next and get married so that Chris can be baptized!  They are hoping and praying that everything will work out financially for them - they have a complicated situation... Melody's daughter Skyler is severely handicapped, and because of that they get a lot of money from the government to help take care of her, but for some reason if they get married all that money goes away... So we are really proud of them for being willing to take the leap of faith!   They are awesome, and so spiritually strong, and I am SO glad I have had the chance to work with them!

Also, Melody and Chris and Jacob and Mayra live close to each other, and they have become great friends in the last week. :)  So our part-member families are fellowshipping each other. :)

We also met with Honorio and Jenniffer - for the last time in about a month because Jenniffer is going to Venezuela for a month to visit family and Honorio wants to take a break from what he calls our "brainwashing" sessions while she is away... :(  We made a deal with him - we will take a bit of a break if he reads the Book of Mormon every day while she's gone. :)  We'll still check up on him via text, and hopefully he'll still come to church while Jenniffer is away.  But we're not going to let him get away that easily. ;)

We also met with an awesome new investigator Jamie and taught her the Restoration.  It was a really powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong.  She's really searching for the truth - we can feel it. :)  

To top it off we had 5 non-members at church on Sunday.  And 3 of them were our progressing investigators Chris, Mayra, and Honorio.  And our ward mission leader spoke in church about being accepted of the Lord - He is an AWESOME speaker, Sister Funk and I decided that if he weren't Mormon he'd make an awesome preacher.  Seriously - he had the whole congregation captivated, even the kids.  And the spirit was so strong.  I don't know how he does it, but it was cool, and all of our investigators said they loved it.  It was a great week to have so many people there! :)

Well, that's all I have time for this week.  I love y'all so much and hope you have an amazing week!

Sister Ririe