Sister Amanda Ricks: Who’s God? God!

Dearest Thingme (get it, cuz that can mean anything you want it to),

First off--Congratulations on having Baby Atticus Daniel Ricks! I am so happy that he is here and healthy and happy and sleeping. What a beautiful e-mail it was to get. I am so grateful for a family that is forever and to know that I will be able to see him in just a few short months. (15 months and 17 days, but who's counting?) Congratulations to the Ricks family on the birth of their beautiful baby son.

Apparently my letter was pretty depressing last week. I apologize! Sometimes the work is getting a bit tough and I struggle with making things sound positive. I am really at peace with myself, but it's hard to put that across when we don't really have any investigators or anybody making progress. So let me just tell you all that even though the outward results don't show it, I am doing very well. I am feeling the Spirit and I can feel the Spirit testify through me, and that's how you know you are a successful missionary, according to Preach My Gospel. I know that I can't convert anybody but that the Spirit can, and so I'm just waiting for God to put somebody in our path that we can be an instrument for! I keep realizing how much less of an influence we have than I thought we would. We are really there just to be a body, so the Spirit can speak and testify.

Here's to trying to make this letter sound positive. So let's all take a seat, take a sip out of our hot chocolate, and enjoy the ride!

On Monday, we had the coolest experience. I was super trunky (as you could probably tell from my e-mails) and was just pretty negative about the work. I was telling Sister Nicoll about it and so we decided to just go do a bunch of chapping because when we do the work, we feel better. Always. We always worry that we don't like something, but when we actually do it, we start to remember that it isn't too bad. We are chapping and this awesome lady opened up! She used to come to church but she is now a Sunday School teacher in the Church of Scotland. She offered her contact information and told us that she would kind of like to re-learn. Who knows if it will change her mind, but she was lovely and it was a tender mercy from God to remind me that worrying about the work is never going to help. Being negative about the work won't help. Thinking too much about myself won't help. What DOES help is getting out there and doing it! When we do, miracles happen. We just need to stop thinking about ourselves. So we are going to see L-- this week and I am so excited and happy about it. God is so good.

Tuesday was ALL SCOTLAND CONFERENCE! So cool to have loads of missionaries in the chapel. The Spirit was there. We talked about simplifying our language, using family history, getting referrals in a better way, etc. I can't tell you how strong the Spirit was. We all sang our mission song at the end, and it was just absolutely incredible. It was so good to see people from my group, especially Sister Ashdown. It made me feel much better about everything. Everyone that I talked to is struggling. Everybody is sad that people don't listen to us. Everybody wishes things were going better. The work is hard for everyone. Talking to everybody else made me realize that I am doing much better than I thought I was. Comparatively, I am on top of the world. :) Woot, woot.

We had exchanges from Tuesday to Thursday. (Whitney, to answer your questions, exchanges are just for a couple days and to give a more experienced missionary a chance to give you some more ideas and kind of let you know how you are doing. They are big teaching moments and I always learn the most from the exchanges that I lead, because I have to figure out where to go and what to do. So helpful and so stressful.) I was with Sister Knab. She is a rockstar missionary. She is so nice to people and hasn't had struggles with any companion, even though she's had some really hard ones, because she just chooses to be friends with everyone. What an example!

On Tuesday night, we were walking home and I randomly saw a door and thought we should chap it for some reason. So we did and a lady in there actually has a Book of Mormon and we were able to pray with her and might go back because she thinks her daughter may be interested. Talk about a tender mercy!

Wednesday I did something really dumb. We went out running in Callendar Park, which I've wanted to do. I was so excited to go that I forgot our keys! We had to call our landlady and she had to come over at 7:15 in the morning. Oops. Also, we were talking to a man in City Center and I said we were sharing a message about God and he said, "Who's God?" and I just said, "God." It doesn't really sound funny but I will have to tell you the story so you can hear the intonation. It was hilarious. It was Sister Knab's hump day, so we had pop tarts and custard! Delicious and fun time. We also had a bunch of appointments and only one went through I think. So that was cool. And always seems to happen on exchanges. ;)

The next morning was cold, so I turned on our fireplace to study. I remember thinking, "Wow, it smells a little smokier than usual" and then went back to my study. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that Sister Knab's towel had fallen down and was right next to the fireplace. So, good job to me, I singed a hole through her towel. It's a good thing that she's so cool and laughed about it.

We had a missionary fireside this week and only a few people showed up, mostly all people from our branch mission leader's family. Still, it was a good thing. We have some potential referrals maybe. And mostly they just told us how to better missionaries, which was the opposite of what we were trying to do, but still. It was a good thing overall. Elder Wightman and I sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace?"

Another miracle: We hadn't heard from or talked to K-- in a long time, and so we finally just went by her house. We were so nervous, because we'd left her stuff and texted her and she hadn't really responded. We were very nervous but we got to her house and she opened up and has been really busy. We didn't mention church or the Book of Mormon or anything, because we thought we should be less pushy and friendlier. We have another appointment with her tomorrow. I am thrilled about it! Maybe she just needed some space. Either way, it was wonderful. And a tender mercy before and after K--: We were going to the bus and this lady said, "I can't even say Hello to you because I just bought some toffee and I am eating it! Do you want some toffee?" and she gave us a piece of her toffee. So sweet. Then after we'd seen K--, this man in the branch drove up and yelled out of his car window, "You guys are great missionaries!" Very needed encouragement. So sweet. This work is so good. It's so good to be a missionary!

Fun fact: Scottish men love to take off their shirts. (And no, I am not only writing this because of Daniel's e-mail to the family). Whenever the sun starts to shine, the shirts come off. And the more hairy and the fatter and the more fake tan you are, the more likely it is that your shirt will come off.

Sister Smith continues to be my favorite person to visit. We were reading the Book of Mormon with her and we were starting a new chapter and she said, "Can I just interrupt you for a minute to tell you I love you?" How sweet is that? She is a wonderful lady who just struggles with some mental health things. She is absolutely the nicest person I've ever met. She kept two glasses out for us to have water in our lesson with her, because she always offers and we love drinking her nice water. Then, at the end, she bought us little pink Nessie stuffed animals to remember her by. She is the sweetest, most emotionally sensitive person that I've ever met. I absolutely love her.

I will share a part of my journal from 7 June: "I'm feeling pretty good about everything. Missionary work is pretty challenging, but I'm trying to keep my head up and look for people, not numbers. I think that I focus too much on that. When I pray, I feel at peace that I am doing my best and am being a good missionary. Someone is being prepared for the Spirit to teach through me." I know that is true! It is so good to have the Spirit with us always because we have the gift of the Holy Ghost. God must really love us, to give us the Holy Ghost that can show us all things that we should do.

Saturday was the Day of Miracles. One minute before our bus left, the zone leaders brought us more Mormon.org cards that we needed. We got to have a lesson with the chattiest, but nicest, lady I've ever met, Sister Prentice, instead of having to leave quickly like we usually do. The weather was beautiful. We went to Bridgend and met an incredible Muslim girl who wanted to talk about her religion and our religion and let us in her house!! My first house invite from chapping!! We got to see her prayer rug and everything! Sister Nicoll had felt impressed to chap that street and we got two potentials from it. How incredible it is to be a missionary and feel led by the Spirit!

Sunday was incredible. I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting, teach in RS while Sister Nicoll taught in YW, and I get to speak next Sunday in Church! It is wonderful to have a little branch and to be needed. It would be even more wonderful to have more people come to the branch and be less needed. :) We did have four less actives that we'd been working with come to sacrament meeting, which was a real miracle because it's the first time that people we've been working with have come to church! Nice tender mercy there.

I know that we are so blessed from doing the things we are supposed to! I know that the work I am doing is from God! I know that the work you are all doing is God's work as well, especially raising children in righteousness. I am so grateful for a family that is such an example to me. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you again next week.

Remember: "A mission is a family affair. Though the expanse of continents or oceans may separate, hearts are as one." A mission is a family affair! So get ready for some blessings coming your way! :) And be grateful for all that you have, especially a sweet new addition to our family this week.

The Church is true!

Love,

Sister Ricks