“If we start spending any more time together, people are going to think we’re counting!”

Dearest Family,

What a wonderful week I have had! I absolutely love being here. I love Irvine; I love Sister Kline; I love all of our wonderful friends here. Really, a mission is like a gold mine. There are so many nuggets around that we get to look for, but it depends on our faith if we will find them. I guess in that way it's not really like a gold mine because you can't really believe gold into your dish. But anyway. Let's just say it was a great week. 

Starting with the best news: DAVEY GOT BAPTIZED! Hooray! The service went really well. He showed up in a new tuxedo and new shoes that he had bought for the occasion. He said that he wanted to look like his Creator would have him look. Ah! The jump suit was too big for him because he's such a wee guy, but seriously it was just the best thing ever. In between his baptism and his coming back in, we watched the Bible video of Cornelius' conversion, and that was good. We had two other investigators there, and the Spirit was there too, so altogether it was dead brilliant. I seriously have only felt that happy a few times in my life—Ah! to see someone that I have taught from Day 1 be baptized! We really did nothing. He did everything. He studied and he prayed and we just happened to be there at the right time. I love him so much! I went and gave him a tie that we bought for him, and he teared up a bit. He asked, "Was yous pleased?" and just wanted to be sure that we'd had a good experience along with him. He is such a gem. Really, I feel so blessed to have gotten to teach him. Also, the quote in the E-mail title came from him. He is probably the funniest person I've ever met. 

We had some other great success this week! We were riding on the bus and talking to a lady a wee while ago (I'm pretty sure she was either drunk or high but I don't remember which) and she was telling us about her son who has been researching religion and things. She gave us his information and we went on our way. That was exciting because we don't get many referrals. We went by and it was a really sketchy place, and so we just left a card because he wasn't home. A few days later, he phoned! Then he met us at the church where we took him on a church tour and taught him about the Book of Mormon. What a miracle! It was amazing and strengthened my faith that we don't always have to find those that aren't looking, but we can find those who are seeking us out even if they don't know that they are. 

T-- is meant to get baptized this next Friday, but we don't know what's going to happen because he came to a lesson super drunk last Friday.  We are still pondering what to do about that. He is wonderful and has such great desires, and we don't want him to put it off but we also want him to be ready.

We went out to lunch this week and had some of the best food ever! The High Councilor in charge of missionary work took us and the zone leaders out to discuss some different things in the Paisley Zone. Anyway, it was this super fancy place that was pretty posh and the food was delicious! It was also a good conversation and I learned a lot about life and missionary work. Something that he said that I really liked was, "If you don't love yourself, how can you love Jesus?" I really love that and have been pondering it lately. 

A-- is doing well. She's started feeling a bit better and has started to meet with us again. That makes us so happy because we just love her to bits! She made us hot dogs this week, and I don't think I've had them since being in the states. She put sautéed onions on them though, and as weird as that sounds, it was pretty good. What does sautéed mean? She just put them on a stove in a frying pan and thingmed them up. It was good—that’s the moral of the story. 

Another highlight of the week was ward council. We prepared a missionary presentation and went in trying to coordinate the work with the ward members. It's so hard that often we feel that the work we do remains "our work," and it can be hard to figure out how to sync the ward and the missionaries. The meeting was a giant success! We all discussed actionable points of how we can coordinate better (take our progress records to more people, help with visiting teaching, etc.) and it has already begun to benefit the work. Now, if they know what people we are teaching, they will know when to get visiting teachers in and who needs help. We can really work together as a ward instead of missionaries vs. ward, which is how it feels sometimes. 

Well. That's about it for the week. I love being a missionary. Seriously. Putting on a name badge in the morning is the best thing in the world. Talking with people is so good. The gospel is so good, and it can bless anyone who will let it. That includes investigators and members of the church. Jesus is knocking at the door--we just gotta let him in! :) 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Sister Amanda Ann Ricks

The Face that Stopped a Bus

Well, hello there! 

I have been staring at this blank screen for about a minute and just can't think of anything cool to start off my week. Don't get me wrong: it was a great week and all, but I just can't think of a creative opening paragraph to set the mood. So ... here we are. I'm just going to go straight into updates about people. People are what everything is really about anyway. 

D--: Getting baptized this Saturday! Pray for him. He is doing so well. The funny thing is that he has read so much that we've only taught him a few lessons. We've not even officially taught him so many lessons, but he has studied so much and knows so much that he is completely ready. He comes on Sunday in his cute pink tie and is just lovely. I can't wait for his baptism! He's the first that I've taught all the way through and seen get baptized. He's just a wee man who is pure, dead brilliant! Hooray!

T--: Doing pretty well! He's down from a fag every 30 minutes to only 4 a day. That's way good! He gets pretty down on himself but I think he is still doing really well and looking forward to getting baptized.

J--: She is the nice woman that we met while she was walking her dog through a cemetery! She is lovely and we had an amazing lesson with her last night about the Plan of Salvation. We took a JT, Veronica Murphy, and it was just so filled with the spirit and amazing. She didn't come to church, but she did come to an investigator activity that we had this week where we watched some Mormon Messages and had some biscuits and juice. That was nice. Whilst we were at the activity, I was looking around and thinking that we, as missionaries, sure work with some interesting people. He he. But they are the best ever too. 

A fun part of the week was exchanging back into East Kilbride for a day! When we got off of the train and had been walking for about 30 feet, this bus stops and the Rodgerses jump off! They'd seen me and stopped the bus about a mile away from their house! They invited us over for a quick lunch, and we were able to be with them for a wee while. That was amazing! They said that although Helen of Troy had a face that launched 1,000 ships, I had a face that stopped a bus. :) Haha. 

We were also able to see Alison, the McNally's, Sister Betty, and their new investigator, Paul. How nice. 

Happy Valentine's Day: "This is the paradox of man: compared to God, we are nothing. Yet we are everything to God." --Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Well, that's about it for me. The Church is still true, luckily. The Book of Mormon is still the word of God. Joseph Smith still saw God, and his vision still impacts the lives of those who are hearing about it for the first time. 

Love,

Sister Ricks

Question of the week: If you could go on splits with any apostle, who would you choose?

Humility

Hello, hello, hello!!

I have been thinking a lot lately about why work is going so well in Irvine. It really is. It is amazing working here with Sister Kline and with all the wonderful people lately. I've been thinking how we really don't have much to do with anything. Heavenly Father is so good. He blesses us with miracles daily, and how blessed we are if we simply do our part (open our mouth) and let Him do His part (everything else) and hope that those that we speak to do their part (using their agency in a good way.) See how little we had to do with that equation? Opening our mouths. If we all understood this principle, there would be many more members of the church, and we would be a generally happier people.

Anyway. The work continues to roll forward!

Sheryl, our lovely friend who got baptized last month, has informed us that she is going to go on a mission. So we've baptized our replacement. And we're going on splits with her and her friend Ruth for three hours on Saturday. That was one of the happiest moments of my life.

D-- is funny. He is really hung up currently over a latter-day prophet. He doesn't understand why anyone needed to succeed Joseph Smith. We are trying to help him understand the pattern of apostasy. Hopefully he gets it soon so that he can be baptized. He does understand baptism though. He really wants to be baptized because he feels that Heavenly Father will give him more answers that way, which he is totally right about. So that's good.

T-- is doing so well! He came to church yesterday and said it was his favorite time of the week. He is going to try to give up smoking by going to the doctor and starting the patch on Wednesday. Any advice on helping him to quit?

We had a pretty cool experience yesterday when we left church. We were waiting at a bus stop, and we stopped a lady and were chatting with her when our bus came. These busses only come every 20 minutes, so it is totally rubbish when you miss it.  For whatever reason, though, we let it go by and continued talking with her. She was going to visit some relatives and friends in the cemetery. We walked with her and talked about the Plan of Salvation and prayed with her, all in the cemetery. It was amazing, and I really felt the Spirit. 

Our sisters are all doing pretty well. Some of them struggle with self-confidence. Any advice on helping others overcome those kinds of hard feelings?

I love this work. I love Sister Kline. I am so grateful to be a missionary in the promised land! :) Seriously. Being a missionary has brought me greater happiness than I've ever experienced. Greater sadness as well, but ultimately there must be opposition in all things.  When we understand that, the joys and the sadnesses are aiming at the same goal.

Quote of the week: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire." --Orson F. Whitney 

I love you all!! Have the best week ever! 

Love,

Sister Ricks