One Transfer More

Hey y'all!

It has been an AMAZING week.  Mostly because of John's baptism!  It was AMAZING.  Of course Satan will do everything he can to try and stop it... there was HORRIBLE traffic on HWY 290 out to the Waller Building where the baptism was... and so we ended up being late... but it wasn't just us - plenty of people were caught in the traffic too.  So we started right on time - Polynesian or Mormon standard time, that is. :)  It was AMAZING.  So many people came - ward members, friends, and family - even John's extended family who were opposed to him being baptized were there!  There were so many people that showed up that we had to open the overflow - we didn't all fit in the chapel!  The whole night was so spiritual, and the ordinance was beautiful, and John bore his testimony after and it was great. :)  And I had a realization during the closing hymn (Love at Home - we had a tradition of singing that to start our lessons with them because we wanted to have some music to bring the spirit and that was the only hymn that everyone knew all the words to. :) ) I looked over at the whole family and they were all crying and I realized that now they can be a forever family.  THIS is the work of salvation.  I absolutely LOVE being a missionary!

In other news - Thanksgiving was great. :)  Unfortunately Sister Ostvig and I both woke up feeling sick... :/  But we still went and had fun anyway.  Melody and Chris invited us over and we feasted with them.  Melody LOVES to cook, and so we had a HUGE feast even for our little group of people.  It's amazing how you can fill a large plate even when you only take a little bit of everything... but it was all delicious.  :)  Sister Ostvig and I finished filling our Gratitude tree - we took a picture to send to y'all. It is amazing how our Heavenly Father blesses us with the most wonderful, and sometime simple, things.  I am so grateful for the gospel, for family, for my mission, for the atonement, for the plan of salvation, for miracles, revelation, spiritual gifts, awesome members, friends, memories... the list could go on and on.  I am SO grateful, especially for all of you!

We saw another miracle this week.  Sister Fielding hadn't been to church for 10+ years now, but her sister is serving a mission and I think that is starting to soften her heart.  We visited her a couple of weeks ago and she was telling us about all that her sister is doing - helping people come to church and such... and so last Saturday evening we texted her, and used her sisters own words, and it worked!  She came to church! :D  When we stopped by later this week she invited us in and out of the blue she asked if we would teach her and her family the missionary lessons.  Of course we said yes, after we picked our jaws up off the ground.  This is the woman who just a month ago wouldn't even let missionaries inside her house.  She would be friendly and talk to us on the doorstep, but we never got in.  And now we're teaching her whole family.  Yep, I believe in miracles!

Church yesterday was interesting... We went to Sacrament meeting and part of 2nd hour in the Fairfield ward, and then we went to all of Cypress Lakes.  It will be interesting trying to balance overlapping church meetings... it will be easier in January when the times change and they won't overlap anymore.  It's a work in progress... we're still figuring it out.  Each ward got a new ward mission leader though!  Brother Burns and Brother Crandall.  We're excited to work with both of them - fresh ideas to work with. :)  Change is good - we're working with it.

I think that's all for the week... sure.  Today starts the last transfer of my mission... kind of weird... but it's going to be a good one. :)  I love y'all!  Have a good week!

Sister Ririe

2 Nephi 7:5

#ShareTheGift

The Great Divide

#1 - Jennifer, Sister Ostvig and I at the temple

#2 - Honorio took us out to lunch afterwards

Hey y'all!

It has been a great week out here in the Fairfield ward.  Although I guess it's now the Fairfield ward AND the Cypress Lakes ward... that's right - our ward split.  Fairfield was so huge that they split it right down the middle and created a new ward.  Of course, you would think that we would see this coming, and yes there have been rumors flying since I got in the area, but no one was expecting it this soon.  We just showed up at church and the whole stake presidency was there and they split us right then and there.  No warning or anything.  Apparently the Stake President just got approval this past week - our bishop didn't even know until Friday.  And one of the new counselors wasn't even called until Sunday morning.  Yeah, it all happened really fast.  Good news though, sister Ostvig and I are covering both wards!  So our area is exactly the same size, with exactly the same people, but now we have twice as much church and 2 wards to work with.  It should be fun.  Quite the adventure, as neither of us have served in an area that is over more than one ward before... but I guess we'll learn as we go.  I'm excited for the challenge. :)

I think that's the biggest news of the week.  But we did have a lot of other stuff going on too.  We had a Zone Conference, which was kind of weird because I realized that I only have one more of those left on my mission... crazy.  President Mortensen is really good at helping us become the most powerful teachers we can be, which is something I REALLY appreciate. 

John is still progressing well, and we are looking forward to his baptism this coming Sunday!  We went to a baptism in Sister Ostvig's last area on Saturday and he and his wife came with us.  The spirit was so strong, as it always is at special occasions like baptisms, and John came out of it crying.  He is SO ready, and we are SO excited for him!!

Also, we got back in with Jacob and Mayra this week!  They have been struggling recently, and because of that they started to push us away for a while. :(  But they came to church last Sunday, and then invited us over, and we had a super powerful lesson with them on Friday.  They told us that they have been missing the spirit, and they want it back.  And they know what they need to do.  We recommitted them to read their scriptures daily, pray, and come to church weekly, and Mayra agreed to take the lessons again. :)  We're looking forward to doing all we can to help them progress!

We did have a few days this week where everything seemed to fall through.  Which is normal for a missionary.  As I was writing in my journal the other day I got caught thinking about that.  I don't know if it's because I'm just used to things falling through or if I'm more aware of the hand of the Lord in my life, but it seems like everything has been working out the way it should.  Even if we can't see the success that comes from tracting a street or talking to everyone we see, If we're working hard and doing what we should everything will work out.  And the Lord will bless us.  Sunday morning we had a lesson fall through so we decided to do some tracting.  I'm telling you - it was a miracle street.  We only knocked on 5 or 6 doors in an hour, taught 3 lessons and got inside 2 homes.  We NEVER get inside when we're tracting!  Heavenly Father was DEFINITELY watching out for us.  I am so blessed - I see miracles every day. :)

Highlight of today - we went to the Temple!  I feel like it has been so long since I've been able to go... although I was pretty spoiled with President Pingree in getting to go every transfer... but either way, I'm used to going pretty regularly, and it has been 5 months since I went last... Anyway, I love the temple. :)  Love it Love it Love it. :)  Jennifer and Honorio took us, and although Honorio couldn't go inside he was happy to give us a ride.  And we enjoyed the time we had to sit in the Celestial room with Jennifer.  It is AMAZING the peace that is in the temple.  It's definitely not a worldly peace - it's a peace that can only come from heaven.  I can't get over how lucky I am to be a member of this church and have access to all these blessings!  Tis the season to really be grateful.  Well, I guess it's good to be grateful all year round, but it's especially good at Thanksgiving.  I'm so grateful for all of you!  Thank you so much for the love and support!  I hope y'all have a great week!!

Sister Ririe

#ShareTheGift

One Short Day in the City of Houston

Hey y'all!

Sorry I'm a little late writing today - for the first time in the 16 months that I've lived in the suburbs of Houston I finally got to go downtown!  Sister Phipps, a member of our ward, has a membership at the Houston Musuem of Natural Science and she offered to take us, so we took her up on the offer!  We had fun walking through the dinosaur exhibit, petting sharks, learning about the USS Houston, admiring raw gemstones, and looking at ancient Egyptian and American artifacts... it's a pretty diverse museum.  I took some pictures, but I don't have the cord with me right now, so I'll have to send them next week.  Look forward to it. :)  (sneak peak - dad, I took a picture with a totem pole just for you!) 

This week has been just as busy and just as full of miracles as the last few.  First off - John is getting baptized!!! I know I told y'all that a while ago, but he still wasn't completely sure so he didn't want us to announce anything to the ward... but this week he drove up to his parents' house in Austin to talk to them about it and even though they aren't supportive he isn't swayed in his decision.  And yesterday at church he started telling people about it, so now it's official.  And we can start telling people about it. We moved the date back one day to the 30th so that the Bishop can be there, but other than that it's full steam ahead!  After our appointment with them last night Sister Ostvig and I came home and celebrated by dancing and playing with the dogs and eating banana pudding.  It was pretty great. :)

Alice is continuing to do well - I love that woman. :)  Her back and hip are doing a LOT better, thank goodness!  And she came to church yesterday, and met with the bishop to get a calling - yay!  And when we went over to her house to teach one of the new member lessons she made sure to call Dalton, her 17 year old grandson, down and make sure that he listened to us too.  So member referrals from our recent convert - check!  Oh, and she told me at church yesterday that she thinks her back injury came at a divine time - because of it, she got to see just how much the ward loves her and cares about her!  She said that no other church takes care of their members like we do, and she absolutely loves that she feels like she belongs.  And I love that too!

Unfortunately we had to drop Cynthia's and Reuben's baptismal dates... they haven't come to church yet so they won't be ready by December 6th.  But we're meeting with them twice this week, and they both have awesome questions.  We just need to get them out to church!  Maybe we'll do a church tour with them, to help them get familiarized with it... when we followed up with their Book of Mormon reading earlier this week Cynthia said she hadn't read and so we read some of 1 Nephi with her and then she told us that the reason she hadn't started yet was because she was afraid she wouldn't understand it.  But now she knows the main story line and knows that she can understand what the text is saying, so hopefully she's reading more.  I guess we'll see when we see her on Wednesday!

I love y'all so much and hope you have a great week!! :)

Sister Ririe

Fairfield is White Already to Harvest

Hey y'all!

This week we found 2 families!  2!  I can't even believe it... I've never found a whole family of non-members where everyone is willing to sit down and talk with us... and this week we found 2!  :D  The Lord is definitely moving His work forward in Fairfield!  

The first is Cynthia and her 14 year old son Reuben.  There are other kids too, but they aren't to the age of accountability yet.  But they did sit and listen to us, as much as little kids have the attention span for anyway. :)  We contacted Cynthia a few weeks ago when she was taking her other son Mario to the bus stop.  She told us that her ex-husband is a Mormon, and that recently her son has been asking questions about his dad's religion.  And then we showed up - coincidence?  I think not!  We came back on Wednesday, and of course it was pouring rain... so we showed up on the doorstep of someone we hardly know soaking wet... but she let us in and gave us towels to dry off a bit. :)  We taught her the Restoration, and then we came back on Friday when Rueben was home so we could teach the lesson to him too.  They are both so open minded, and accepted the invitation to be baptized!  Right now we're working towards December 6th for both of them. :)

Next is William and his family.  Sister Funk and I contacted into him a while ago, and he showed some interest in learning about family history.  We finally were able to get in with him and his wife this week, and all 3 of his teenage daughters sat down with us too!  We were planning on helping them get started with their family history because that is what he had expressed interest in, but instead they started asking questions about what we believe.  So we ended up teaching the Restoration and inviting them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  We'll follow up with that when we go over to really get them started on their family history this week. :)

We had a great lesson with John and his family this week too.  They are continuing to read from the Book of Mormon together every day, and it is strengthening them as a family and helping them to grow in the church.  John has started to announce his baptism to his extended family... They are all very involved in the church that they grew up in - the Church of Samoa - and are VERY opposed to John being baptized... :(  It's heartbreaking, because John is so close to all of his family, but he also wants to do what he knows is right.  We're praying that his family will open their hearts and that he will continue to have the strength to stand up for what he believes in.  We had a SUPER spiritual lesson with them on Saturday where he told us about one particular sister's reaction - he basically bore his testimony to us, and his family all told of how they have grown stronger as a family and stronger in their testimonies just in the past few weeks.  They have come a LONG way since I first met them.  It is AMAZING to see the change that the gospel can have in people. :)  I think that's one of my most favorite things about being a missionary.

We also saw the Castillos this week - Stephanie, who is 13 or 14, is the only member in her family and she's less active.  Her mom has investigated for about 8 years but never really felt the desire to join.  Sister Funk and I met with them a few times when I first got to the area but then we decided to give them a bit of space so they could decide if they wanted to continue to meet with us.  Well, we stopped by last Saturday and had a really good discussion with them.  And then SHE set up the return appointment with us.  Which is HUGE, because just a few months ago it seemed like we were pulling teeth to get her to set an appointment with us.  We went back on Wednesday and she told us that she notices a difference when we are here.  And she knows that she wants it in her life, she just doesn't know if she can do everything she needs to in order to have it.  That's a start.  At least she knows she wants to meet with us - she asked us if we could meet every Wednesday.  And hopefully we'll be able to help her make the steps to come closer to Christ.  They did come to church yesterday, which was awesome. Hopefully we'll be able to see them there again next week. 

Also, Alice was able to make it back out to church yesterday!  She has been having a lot of back problems since the day before her baptism, but she's not letting that stop her!  I really admire her strength and courage. :)

We have seen so many miracles this week - this fair field truly is white already to harvest!  :)  I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Ririe

D&C 4:4

p.s. Sister Walker sent me a picture of Maria's baptism, so I thought I'd forward it on to y'all. :)