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