Questions

Dearest Family, 

Do you know how important the Holy Ghost is? Often we talk about baptism and miss the absolutely crucial (see John 3:5) element of receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the one that cleanses us from our Sin. The Holy Ghost is the gift we are given for the rest of our lives. The Holy Ghost is vital to our success, and virtually every commandment we have been given is there to entitle us to receive guidance from the Spirit. So, in answer to my initial question, the Holy Ghost is super important. In fact, PMG tells us that the Spirit is one of the most precious gifts Heavenly Father has given us. 

This week was wonderful! After I e-mailed last, we weekly planned and then met up with our friend Margaret. It is pretty wonderful, because when we stopped her, she wasn't interested in the gospel. I felt like I should talk about Family Home Evening and the blessing it's been in my life, which I did, and she was really interested and then kept her return appointment where we explained what it is. That was absolutely wonderful, and we're going to take her to a member's home this week and show her the way it can (the gospel can) bless her family. I am so excited! She was totally normal and cool. 

Sister Johnson got kebabtized this week! She liked her kebab, so that was good. She even ate the whole thing! I was a proud mama. :) 

Sunday was exhausting, as always. It really is such a tiring thing to have weekends on a mission. My DL, Elder Bayles, last night said, "Friday, Saturday, and Sunday kill me. On Saturday, everyone cancels their appointments and Sunday is just tiring!" So true. Weekends are the least relaxing thing of my life on a mission. 

Okay, so here are my answers to some of your questions! 

Diabetes: Diabetes has been going just fine on the mission. It's been a real blessing, and I feel like Heavenly Father has really helped me to carb count random food that I've never even heard of before, let alone taken insulin for. Of course there have been ups and downs, but overall I have felt fine and have managed. 

Exercising: I have always had companions who were good about exercising, not because they all wanted to be, but because I am stubborn and won't settle for lame exercises. For instance, in Sister Johnson's case, she doesn't really even know that some missionaries don't do great exercises. Her first day, I told her that we go out running and we did. We still run, play football, do workout videos, and throw balls back and forth. We try to mix it up and have fun, but hopefully she'll never get a companion who is lazy and just does sit-ups all the time/lays on the floor for 30 minutes. That's the worst. 

If there is one place in all of Scotland that I've heard of and could go, where would it be? I would love to go to Inverness. I've heard it's gorgeous there, and that's real highland type stuff. I would also love to see more of Aberdeen, I've only been there for one day in the Christmas season, and it was lovely. I would love to go back. 

My favorite place that I have been has definitely been the Isle of Arran. That was the best P-day of my mission: we had so much fun and it was just gorgeous! 

Do you eat any really weird foods? Not really. Foods are all delicious here! My favorites are steak pie, lasagna, chippies, and Irn Bru. :) Also Scottish strawberries are really good. 

Do you have any new favorite scriptures? Hebrews 5:8-9.  [“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; nd being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”] I love loads of new scriptures, but that is the one that came to mind. 

Is your mission going to start doing facebook anytime soon? I don't know. We are meant to get iPads at the end of the year or something, but supposedly you have to pay for them and things. They sound cool though, having your planner and your scriptures all on a wee thing that you carry around. Maybe missionaries won't have back problems with iPads!

Why are you happy that you were called to Scotland and not somewhere else? I really have such a testimony that THIS is the mission I was supposed to come to. I love Scotland, not only because of the accents and the greenery, but because the people are wonderful. I know that this mission was right for me because seeing someone be baptized here is incredibly special. Because baptisms don't happen as regularly as P-days as they do in other places, I've really cared about each recent convert I've had and been really involved in their progression. I also needed this to keep my pride in check and to realize that I genuinely can't do anything on my own, regardless of how hard I try or how well I plan.

Do you have a testimony? Why yes, yes, I do! I'm so grateful that I submitted that question so I could finish with my testimony. 

I know sharing the gospel makes me happy, and it also makes other people happy. I know that Jesus lives and loves me, and also everyone else. I know that the Book of Mormon helps me feel the Spirit. I know God's church has been restored and is the church we belong to. I know that people aren't perfect, especially in the Church, but that we can travel on the imperfect journey to eventually reach perfection. 

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Ricks

xx

Opposition in All Things

Picture from Scotland East Conference

Sister Lund, me, and Sister Hulet

Falkland--the oldest tennis court in Britain where tennis still takes place :)

Dearest Family,

What a crazy morning! Sometimes trying to find a computer to e-mail at can be rubbish--but we finally made it after trying two libraries and talking to a crazy guy who was reading the dictionary.  We gave him a Restoration pamphlet.  So now we're at the church e-mailing and all is finally well. But ooft, I have to say, I was nae chuffed at the running around. I just wanted to talk to and see how my family was doing! :) 

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Probably the bad news so we can finish on a positive note, eh? 

I have never done so much fruitless finding or felt so ineffective as a missionary. This comes primarily because I finally understand (not completely, but a bit more) how missionary work should and should not be done. So many things I have done in the past have been ineffective and my lack of understanding influenced the work. But now that I understand it and am not using excessive travel time, spending loads of time and effort on non-progressing less-actives, and other such false traditions, we have had to spend so much time finding and that can be a bit frustrating. Soon, our entire investigator pool with will be baptized and then we'll have to start at square one. Not that baptisms are a bad thing by any means, but you know, it's hard when you don't really have anyone to work with. So...yeah. 

Now for the great news: Kimberley got baptized and it was a wonderfully spiritually uplifting experience! The ward was supportive and came, the clothes that we bought her fit, and she didn't get mad that the boiler had gone out and the water was freezing cold. She was beaming afterwards and it was lovely to see her. 

D-- continues to progress towards the 30 July and since that's the day before Harry Potter's birthday, I think it's perfect. She bore her testimony to us about the Book of Mormon and how she knows this is the true church. She is great. 

We have been focusing on cottage meetings lately, trying to get the members really involved in the work because, really, that's how we should be finding investigators. I've learned a lot about member work recently--why is it that you finally figure out what you're doing right before you end your time?--and it has been really good. We took D-- to the Scharffs’ home one night to have casual conversation, develop their friendship, and coordinate the lift that Sister Scharff gave D-- to church. Anyway, we went and we ended up playing a game that was named something else but was basically Nerts. And guess what? Apparently my competitive spirit hasn't died down.....;) 

Last Monday we went to Falkland, which was lovely and really rainy, and then this Monday we saw some Highland Games (basically highland dancing, races, and big men in kilts throwing heavy stuff and tossing cabers [tree trunks]). It was sweet! 

We had a Scotland East Conference this week that was very spiritually uplifting and an answer to prayer in many ways. :) It was lovely, but I really just wanted to get back to our area and get to work again. 

We have some pretty good potentials that will hopefully turn into investigators this week. I am working on developing faith again, because I really feel like when we go to a return appointment, I don't expect them to be there. Who's to say that they aren't there because of my lack of faith? Sometimes it's hard being experienced, so to speak, because experience sometimes lessens our faith, and faith is a power that causes good to happen. So that's an unhappy circle that I want to get out of.

I feel like my e-mails are probably super boring to read and are kind of like a report, so if you have any questions at all, I'd love to answer them for next week. 

I keep you in my prayers and invite prayers on my behalf as well. I would love to find more prepared people, become more like Jesus Christ, and figure out how to be the best missionary and person I can be! :) It probably won't happen in two months, but hey, I'm going to try my hardest!

Inspirational quote from Elder Dyches at Scotland East: Often our success comes from the "Top Floor, Last Door." As we continue to diligently work, even when we're tired and when that last door looks like too much, we will experience consistent miracles as we move to the realm of the miraculous and off the seat of easiness and comfortableness. With application to life, if we take some steps away from our comfort zone and engage in activities that are beneficial and necessary but aren't comfortable, our comfort zone will enlarge and we will eventually do things that we once never imagined we could do. The Lord's grace is sufficient for us and gives us that room and time to grow and enlarge our circle of influence. 

I have a testimony of this work! I definitely don't know the truth of all things and I honestly have a lot of doubts about certain things, but I have no doubt that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world and that the Book of Mormon brings the Spirit into our lives and the lives of those around us. We're not perfect, and neither are the people in the Church or the scriptures, but luckily Christ is perfect and He stands at the head of our church. What a blessing it is to know of Him and to know Him. 

Love,

Sister Ricks

Collydean to Thornton

In front of a castle. It's right by our bit.

Sister Pugh and I.

Climbing Pratt's hill,

There is a brilliant grass bit outside of Kirkcaldy Galleries that we fittingly took pictures next to---it says "Growing Kirkcaldy" :)  

 BBQ at Aberdour!

This is Sister Johnson and I, and in the other pictures is K--,who is getting baptized on Wednesday--and Alison, a recent-ish convert. 

Dearest Family,

Yesterday Sister Johnson and I went to visit some of our favorite friends, Dan and Ann. They have had a difficult week, and we were trying to offer comfort and solace. After our visit, we realized that the next bus didn't come for another 30 minutes and thought to ourselves, "We can walk to Glenrothes from Collydean in that amount of time." Actually, we walked past Glenrothes into Woodside and missed another bus that didn't come for an hour.  We miss it by 10 minutes, so we almost walked into Kirkcaldy. I would guess with all of our detours and such we walked for 5 miles because we were walking for a straight hour and a half. [Actually it was 6.1 miles!] Not the most effective proselyting activity, but neither was waiting ages for busses. We got a great workout and then ran our socks off for a nice bus driver who stopped and waited for us.  When we got on the bus we realized how tired our feet were. Haha. Isn't that hilarious??

Including that, we had a wonderful week. Monday was P-day and we just wandered around Kirkcaldy and also saw the Kirkcaldy galleries (which left much to be desired if I'm being honest) and that was nice. 

Thursday was Zone Meetings and that was good. They re-introduced QGC's (quality gospel conversations as a key indicator) and I'm doing my best to have a happy attitude about it. 

We had a Ward BBQ at Aberdour this week and we were so lucky that the rain held off because as soon as it stopped, the rain poured! We obviously got soaked that night, but at least the BBQ folks didn't. So that was so great! 

K-- passed her baptismal interview and will be getting baptized this next Wednesday! Send some prayers her way--she'll need them. 

On the way back from Kimberley's interview, we heard some beautiful, soulful music coming from a church on Victoria Road. We decided to just look outside to hear it and so we were looking outside the actual service when the man near the door saw us and ushered us in! We listened to all these wonderful Christians singing about how Jesus had saved them and the Spirit was definitely there. We only stayed for about five minutes to make our curfew, but when we left, the pastor came out with us and asked us who we were! We said, "We're Christians as well and we heard the beautiful music and wanted to hear!" He welcomed us anytime and I honestly haven't felt so much love from someone in such a short period of time. It was amazing, and I learned a lot about fellowshipping other people and showing them the pure love of Christ that you feel. 

I love this ward and I love this work more than anything. I really know that the Savior is the motivating force behind everything we should do. I know that He loves us. I know that He cares about the individual, and that's why we don't do missionary work by pasting loads of advertisements or billboards or by baptizing collectively. We do it individually, because the Savior works individually and because individually, not collectively, we will achieve eternal glory. 

"My dear brothers and sisters, we would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." --President Uchtdorf. 

*There's a brilliant Mormon Message that goes with that quote--check it out if you have the time! 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Ricks