The Fair(field)est Sister of them All

Hey y'all!

This week has been go go go, we have been SO busy!  So many miracles have happened this week!  SO - without further ado... 

First - my new companion, Sister Ostvig, is AMAZING!  We served in the same district for 2 transfers while I was in Memorial Springs.  And - she has already served in Fairfield!  For 5 transfers!  She started her mission here, left to the Klein stake for a bit, and now she's back.  The ward is super excited to see her again, and she has SO much knowledge about the area - it is great.  So I have the knowledge of the investigators we're currently working with, and we've been able to get back in with all the investigators she was working with 6 months ago, so basically our teaching pool is HUGE right now.  We don't even have time to breathe.  It is CRAZY!! I LOVE it!  

A little about Sister Ostvig - she's from Minnesota, was originally called to serve in Brazil but after 9 months of waiting for her visa she decided to be permanently reassigned to the Texas Houston Mission.  She did a year of school at BYU before coming on her mission and is not sure what she wants to major in yet.  She's a lot of fun to be with, and she's an awesome missionary, and I think the two of us will make an awesome team. :)

Second - ALICE WAS BAPTIZED!!!! :D :D :D  She is absolutely amazing, and I love her so much!!!  She is quite the trooper too - she's 79 years old, and on the day of her baptism she woke up with super bad back pain... but when we talked to her about it she said "there's no way I'm missing this!"  The baptismal service was amazing - even though there were 3 other major events that members of the ward were involved in that night, we still had a good turnout.  It really touched Alice, who was expecting maybe 5 people to come.  This ward is awesome!  A few of her friends in the ward spoke, and I sang a solo... accapella... I think I would have been more nervous for it if I had had time to really prepare... but as it was, Alice asked me to sing, and I was only singing for her and it didn't matter what anyone else thought. :)  But it ended up being just fine. :)   

And then - yesterday, the day of her confirmation, Alice called us while she was on the way to church saying she had really bad hip pain... I'm telling you - Satan was doing everything he could to stop her from becoming a member of this church... but it didn't matter, because Alice is SO strong!  We had her home teachers give her a blessing of healing before sacrament meeting started, and then she was confirmed, and she ended up staying for all of sacrament meeting.  As we walked her out to her car she leaned over to me and said, "Jesus suffered a lot for me; I can suffer a little for Him!"  She is incredible - a HUGE example to me.  I am so honored and humbled that I am able to play a part in her conversion!

(While we're on the topic of baptism... I found out that Maria, one of my investigators from my last area, was baptized!  :D  I'm sad I didn't get to go, but Sister Walker said she'd email me a picture. :) ) 

Third - with Sister Ostvig's return to Fairfield, we were able to get in with a part member family that I've only met with once!  This family had a HUGE connection with Sister Ostvig, and when she left the missionaries lost contact with them... but now that she's back, Tommy (the non member husband) and his 10 year old son Devon have agreed to take the missionary lessons!  We were supposed to meet with them tonight, but we just found out that Jennifer (the member wife) has been in the hospital for the past few days... so pray for them - Sister Ostvig says this happened last time when Tommy agreed to take the lessons...  So we just need Satan to stop with all the physical health problems.

Fourth - We are also meeting consistently with another part member family - I've met with these folks a few times, but now we're really trying for twice a week.  Because John (the non member husband) says he needs consistency for him to get his answer.  Well, he asked for it. ;)  We had a SUPER spiritual lesson on the Plan of Salvation last night, and John said he'd pray about November 29th as the day he should be baptized.  It's going to happen. :)  His biggest concern is his extended family, who are all very involved in the Church of Samoa, but he told us that he's starting to realize that his family will love and respect him no matter what decision he makes.  He is SO close!

Fifth - Have I told you about the Dongarkars?  They're a new to the ward, as in they just moved in.  The wife, Lauren, is active, the husband, Amol, (who is from India) is not.  Anyway, we went over to their house this week for dinner - DELICIOUS Indian food.  Ok, so my mouth was burning, but it was still good.  ;)  I've definitely grown more tolerant of spicy foods during my stay here in Texas!  And then - Amol came with his family to church yesterday!  He really wants to have a church that they go to as a family (he has gone back to being Catholic), and Lauren wants that too, but she doesn't want to compromise and leave what she knows to be true.  So they are trying our ward together, and they're starting to make friends, and it is great. 

Sixth - We have been involved all week with "Super Faye Day" - a HUGE fundraiser for Faye (the little girl in the ward with cancer) and her family.  Basically it was a yard sale/bake sale/carnival/silent auction... like I said, HUGE.  We helped out at the church on Thursday and Friday sorting all the items that had been donated for the yard sale, and then on Saturday we were there from 8am to 1pm helping out with whatever Sister Fantasia (who was in charge of the whole event) needed.  Mostly it was a long morning out in the Houston sun.  But it was SO cool to see the whole community - not just the ward - pull together for Faye and her family.  SO many people gave of their time and energy to make the event a success.  They ended up raising over $15,000!  And at one point Sister Fantasia announced that Faye was on Skype over by the lemonade stand and ALL the kids in the whole church parking lot stopped what they were doing to run over and say hi to her.  It was so cute, and I felt the spirit SO strong throughout the day.  It kind of restored my faith in humanity.  There are still a lot of good people out there. :)

That's all for the week.  Well... not all... but all that I have time to write.  Miracles are happening!  I love this work!  And I love y'all - thanks for everything!

Sister Ririe

1 Corinthians 10:12 (I came across this verse in my studies this week.  It goes to show, once again, that content-ion (being content) is of the devil.  We MUST make sure that we are standing, and STAYING, on our sure foundation!)

I am SO sorry for the lack of pictures this week... I have so many good ones on my camera, but I left my camera cord at home... so look forward to next week! :)

End the Transfer With a Bang

1- Our Title of Liberty!  (for some reason my camera is being weird and somehow the better pictures were deleted... so we may have to recreate the moment and send some pictures next week. :) )

2 - Sister Maughan and me on exchanges

Hey y'all!

This week has been... I don't even know the appropriate adjective to use to finish that sentence... crazy, amazing, SO busy, full of miracles, etc.  What a way to end the transfer.

We went on exchanges earlier in the week with the sisters from Bridgeland.  I was kind of disappointed, because our STL had to change the exchange last minute so instead of staying and taking over Fairfield for a day, I left and Sister Funk stayed.  That has made 3 exchanges in a row where I've left my area... And we had an AWESOME day planned... oh well.  The miracles still happened here, and I was able to see some in Bridgeland.  One of which was I got to see one of the families that I knew from Memorial Springs!  They recently moved to Bridgeland, so we got to go welcome them to the ward here.  It was good to see them again.

Alice is still progressing well - we're working hard to fit everything in before her baptism on Friday!  The ward is excited, and she's excited, and we're excited - it's going to be great. :D

We were also able to meet with Jamie again!  She's had a busy schedule recently so we haven't seen her in a few weeks, but we marked a copy of the Book of Mormon for her and texted her on Tuesday to see if we could drop it by and she said sure - not only did we get to give her the Book of Mormon that we marked for her, but she invited us in, and we were able to share a lesson.  AND we were able to go back on Friday with a member of our ward.  We invited her to be baptized, and she said she'd have to KNOW that it's true first.  She wouldn't agree to a date, but she still has an open mind and heart about it all so we're confident she'll get her answer soon. :)

We've also been able to see Andrew, Chris, and Melody a few times this week - they're doing well.  And while Chris won't be able to be baptized until next year because they won't be able to be married until then, we decided to work towards December 20th as Andrew's baptismal date.  Little did we know while we were praying about a date for him that December 20th is his birthday!  So he will be spiritually re-born on the day of his birth - how fitting.  :)  He's super excited, and we're excited too. 

The most exciting day of the week was Saturday, which is actually quite odd because we didn't have anything major planned.  We were just going to bike along, trying to visit people... all drop-ins, no appointments kind of day.  Little did we know the Lord had something more in mind for us.  I wish I could send y'all a copy of my journal entry for that day, but I guess some stories will have to wait until I get home.  :)  I think it all started during our lunch hour, when Sister Funk and I decided to make our own title of liberty.  So we literally "rent" one of her old t-shirts and tied it to a PVC pipe and wrote our mission statement on it: "Our discipleship is settled.  We are faithfully prepared, exactly obedient, and lovingly bold.  We will see miracles and fulfill our missionary purpose as we unite with the Lord in hastening His work.  We are the Texas Houston Mission."  And then of course we had to go outside and take some pictures.  It was great. :)

It only got crazier from there.  We went to visit Mayra and Jacob because they have been avoiding us as of late... they've been going through a rough patch in life and instead of embracing the gospel so it can help them they've been pushing it away... :(  So, since the marked copy of the Book of Mormon worked so well with Jamie we decided to do the same thing for them.  So during companionship study we skimmed through our marked up scriptures and looked for passages and stories that would help them and then marked those in a copy for them.  And then we went (after lunch) to drop it off.  Mayra was home, and she let us in, and we had an awesome discussion with her - we were able to kind of figure out where she stands.  She said she has kind of lost interest because her member husband Jacob isn't being the great example for her right now. :(  But she did appreciate the time that we had put into it, and said they would read it.  We invited her to church, and to meet with us on a weekly basis, and she said she would talk to Jacob about it.  And the whole time we were testifying, and the spirit was so strong, and it was an awesome lesson.  

Right after the prayer, as we were about to leave there came a knock at the door.  Mayra answered, and IMMEDIATELY the spirit left - it was the creepiest feeling EVER.  The two people standing there introduced themselves as neighbors down the street, and told Mayra that while "the sisters are great and all" she needed to have ALL the information before she made the decision to get baptized.  They told her that if she had any questions to contact them, and then left.  Mayra shut the door and said something about that being weird, and we were able to tell her not to pay any attention to them.  She told us that she wouldn't.  ... the whole encounter was just strange... I've never met someone that was THAT against the church, that they would come by WHILE we were still in the house (they knew we were there because our bikes were outside)... but, at the same time, I am SO glad that they did come while we were there, so we had the chance to tell Mayra kind of who they were and to not listen to them.  But yeah, it was freaky.  So that was our experience with the "friendly neighborhood anti-mormons."  Weird...

After several other random, strange encounters that I can't tell now because I don't have enough time, sorry, we biked on our way home.  We decided to try a less active family, because we still had some time before we had to be home.  While on our way through the neighborhood to their house we hear someone yell, "Sisters, STOP!"  We pull over to the side of the road to find one of the members of our ward, Brother Savage, talking with one of his friends in the driveway. He proceeds to introduce us to his friend Larry by saying, "These Sisters here have been called by a prophet of God and set apart to preach the gospel."  We had a great conversation that lasted about 30-40 minutes with both of them, and in the end Larry agreed to let us teach him the message of the Restoration. So we're meeting with him next Thursday!  Basically the best member referral ever.

And then church on Sunday was great.  While none of our investigators came to sacrament meeting (which was a HUGE bummer... they missed out - it was the Primary program!)  Chris, Melody, and Andrew came for the 2nd and 3rd hours even though Melody wasn't feeling well at all.  And while we were outside talking to her for a bit, Mayra and Jacob walked in!  So, by the end of church we had 3 of our investigators there, AND two different members introduced us to their friends.  So it was a pretty good Sunday, if you ask me.

Yep, that was our week... pretty crazy.  And awesome, and busy, and (as always) full of miracles.  And after all that, Sister Funk is being transferred... :( I will miss her!  Hopefully my new companion will be able to keep up with everything that is happening here... ;)  I'm sure she'll be great. :)  I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Alma 46:12

Too Busy to Eat

Even though it's still hot, it's starting to look more like Fall!

Hey y'all!

Yes, we worked through our lunch break one day.  But we were on a roll - we didn't have time to stop!  SO much was happening - running from one place to another... it was great.  We met 2 new families in the ward, visited a part member family, did some family history, and found a new investigator... for some missionaries in Wisconsin... but hey, she's interested. :) and biked across the area - there and back again.  It was a busy day.  Luckily I had packed a snack!

One of the new sisters in the ward that we met is named Lauren, and she's got a crazy story... long story short she met her husband while working on a cruise ship, he investigated the church and was baptized, they got married in India (that's where he's from) with the plan to be sealed in the temple once he could go... except he kind of freaked out when they went to do baptisms for the dead and decided to go back to his catholic church... :/  But not to worry - we've got a plan.  We've only met him once, but Lauren said she'll invite us over to help paint their new house, and eat Indian food, and teach the gospel, and eventually he'll come back. :)  And the Elder's Quorum is working to fellowship him too. (Side note - Ward Council this week was AWESOME!! Basically we said a name and then everyone else was throwing out ideas and making plans to help whoever we had mentioned.  This ward has become REALLY good at getting involved with the missionary work recently - it's GREAT!)

We also started teaching Andrew, Chris's son, this week!  He's a really smart kid, and because Melody and Chris have been teaching him and he has been coming to church, teaching him the restoration was a breeze.  He's excited to be baptized, hopefully sometime soon, but we might wait until Chris is baptized so he can baptize Andrew... except we found out they won't be able to be baptized until February at the earliest... :/  So we don't know what we'll do yet.  Stay tuned. ;)

We saw Alice a few times this week, and she's continuing to make friends and love learning about the church.  She can't hear very well during church, but she still likes coming. :)  And the ward clerk dug through a bunch of boxes that have never been opened in the Library (because our building is so new) and he found some hearing devices!  So from now on she'll be able to hear sacrament meeting at least. :)  Also - when we met with her earlier in the week she was telling us about her favorite songs from church growing up and one of them was "How Great Thou Art" and when we told her it was in our hymn book she was thrilled.  And then - that was the rest hymn this Sunday!  Coincidence?  I think not!  She started to tear up, and the spirit was so strong, and I think she took it as a sign that this is where she needs to be. :)  We're looking forward to next Friday when she will be baptized!

During District Meeting this week we talked a lot about faith, and how we need to not only have faith but also act on that faith in order to accomplish miracles.  And then I read Alma 31 during personal study this week - where it talks about the apostate Zoramites and Alma's prayer for strength and comfort as he and his companions go forth to preach the gospel.  He prays with mighty faith, but after their prayer they go forth and act with faith.  It's not enough to believe it will happen - we need to act to help it happen.  It reminds me of Elder Christofferson's talk from this past general conference: "Beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency. My plea is simply to take responsibility and go to work so that there is something for God to help us with."  So go and do!  Act with faith. :)

That's all for the week.  I love y'all!  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Alma 31:38

oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUTUMN!!  I'm so glad you got to go to the temple, and I can't wait to all go inside together once I get home. :)

The Work Goes On

Sister Funk's Birthday!

Hey y'all!

It has been a great week.  Full of miracles, as all weeks are. :)  Especially because it ended with General Conference, which was absolutely amazing.  Funny though... Sister Funk and I were WAY more exhausted after sitting on the couch for most of two days than we are when we bike around in the heat... oh well.  We were definitely spiritually fed. :)  More on that later.

We had a lot going on this week.  From Interviews and Specialized Training to split night with the ward missionaries to celebrating a birthday to "regular missionary stuff" we were two busy sisters.  The specialized training was awesome, all about setting goals and planning with faith, and was followed by our Zone Meeting where we had the most spiritual goal setting sessions I have ever had.  In the past we've done everything from setting goals as a companionship or district and then adding those up to make our zone goals for the month to having big long discussions during the meeting as to what we can and can't accomplish when you look at the numbers.  But this month we threw out the numbers and focused on the names.  We talked about all the investigators in the zone that have the potential of being baptized in the next two months, and offered advice and counsel to each other.  Of course at the end we counted them all up because God "numbereth his people" (Alma 26:37) but we walked away from that meeting confident that we could, and that we WOULD accomplish the goals we had set.  The meeting was so spiritual, and by the end of it each of us had a list of all the investigators in the zone with the intention of having a zone fast and praying for each of them BY NAME.  So Sister Funk and I fasted and prayed yesterday, and it was amazing, because I DEFINITELY have a testimony that fasting and praying WORKS!  So we're expecting miracles to happen in the zone.  It will be great. :)

We finally had a split night with the ward missionaries this past week!  Except none of the sisters showed up, so we couldn't actually go on splits... :/  But we sent them out to do missionary work, which was good. ;)  We were planning on getting some families started on their family mission plans but after calling and texting nearly all the active families in the ward and finding that everyone had something going on... we sent most of the ward missionaries out to find less actives instead.  We did get one family started on their mission plan, which is better than none.  But we might have to switch split night to Sundays so we can catch more people at home.  But we did see miracles - the ward members were able to get in with some people that we've never been able to meet, and Sister Funk and I ran into a less active that we've been trying to catch for a couple of months now!  There are DEFINITELY miracles that come when missionaries and members work together. :)

We celebrated Sister Funk's 20th birthday by weekly planning... yay!  ;)  We did other things too, don't worry. :)  I decorated, and Mama Grover made cupcakes (thanks for the supplies mom!) and Alice took us out to lunch. :)  And we taught an 8-year-old (Chloe, she's the daughter of a returning less active and wants to be baptized but her mom wants them both to listen to the discussions again before that) and when she found out that it was sister Funk's birthday she ran upstairs and made her "birthday bucks" and put some chocolate covered macadamia nuts with candles somehow stuck in them (I think she creatively used toothpicks) on a plate and sung "happy birthday" to her.  It was sweet. :)  All in all, I think she had a great birthday. :)

Back to General Conference - AMAZING!  We watched the Saturday sessions with Melody and Chris and Andrew (Chris's 10-year-old son who we're going to start teaching this week! :D  I promise - this is a MIRACLE - we've been waiting for Melody and Chris to decide that he's ready to start learning, and it finally happened, and when Melody texted us last Monday saying she wanted us to start teaching him I nearly started crying out of pure joy on the way home from the grocery store.  It was great.)  They loved it, and Chris went to the Priesthood session with their home teacher and loved that too.  And we watched the Sunday morning session with Alice and the Grovers and let them get to know each other for a while before teaching the Word of Wisdom between sessions.  Alice is willing to give up coffee - she told us she could take it or leave it and when we told her that the Lord has asked her to leave it she said, "good.  It will save me a lot of money!"  Haha oh how we love her. :)  She couldn't stay for the afternoon session, but at least she was able to watch some of it.  We pushed up her baptismal date to October 24th because we feel (and have prayed about it) that she'll be ready by then, and why would we wait to give Satan more time to get in the way?  No way we're going to let that happen - she's golden. :)

So yep.  That's what happened this week. :)  Miracles miracles miracles.  I can't make it through my nightly prayers anymore without crying... I am SO grateful for everything that the Lord has blessed me with... I can't even accurately describe my feelings.  Basically it's the Atonement.  With Christ we can change.  Others can change.  We can help others to change.  Change to become more like our Heavenly Father and our Savior.  It is a beautiful truth of the gospel.  And I LOVE it.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! :)  And I love all y'all too. :)  Have a great week!

Sister Ririe

Alma 5:12-14