Sister Thingme

Hiya Family!

This e-mail is quite scattered (as they all are) and is a compilation of thoughts and stories. So, have a read, a scan, or just delete it altogether. :)

I love being a missionary! I really do. The work we do is exciting and important. I love waking up every day with a purpose, knowing that I am going to "invite others to come unto Christ." It is the best and hardest thing in the whole world!

One of the biggest miracles of the week was on Tuesday morning. We had a really weird day planned:  We were trying by people that we assumed wouldn't be home even though they'd scheduled with us because the appointments seemed a bit dodgy.  We had a dinner appointment with a member that got sick and a day from 11-9 that didn't have any solid appointments.  In the morning it was absolutely pouring rain. We put on our jackets, which was actually nice because it felt like putting back on an old friend. I've missed my black jacket. :) Anyway, when we were walking to our one scheduled appointment at the church, we saw LIGHTNING and heard THUNDER! We never get that here, although it rains all the time, and so it was a sweet little piece of heaven there. The member who was our joint teach didn't like the thunder, but we were absolutely loving it. That was so nice!

On Wednesday, we went out to Cambuslang (which is about an hour or an hour and a half bus ride away, but is still in our area/ward). 

Thursday was BY FAR the best day of the week, because we had All-Scotland Conference!!! AHH! I was so excited, and it was so good. We had to ride trains for about a year and a half to get there, but when we got out of the train station, there was Sister Nicoll and her new companion! Ah! It was so good to see her and get the update on Falkirk. Things are going well there. I miss Sister Nicoll a whole bunch. I also got to see Sister Ashdown, and she is doing okay. Anyway, it was just fantastic to see everybody. And now I will tell you about the actual conference.

We first heard from President Brown. No matter what he says, I just feel the Spirit pouring from him. He is the best mission president in the entire world. Here are a few of my favorite things that he said.

"We are the right people for this time. We were not called here by accident. We are the ones. And we can do it! The Lord trusts us. He didn't give us a call to fail. Heavenly Father believes in you. I believe in you. The Brethren believe in you. Jesus Christ, our Master and He who leads this work, believes in you."

He talked about how people, especially from "The Factory" (Utah) said when we got our mission call something like, "Wow, that would be an awesome mission. Too bad you won't baptize." I heard that all the time when I got my call. He said, "We do baptize in this mission! We baptized 19 last month, and that number could be 90!"

I have been struggling to think that anybody is prepared here, because it just seems like nobody wants to listen to us and it's easy to think "When is dinner?" or "When can I go home?" while you're talking to people, because nobody seems to want to talk to us. But, as President Brown said, "The Lord prepares people here. Why wouldn't He? They are His children!"

Of course there are prepared people here in Scotland. I am sent to find them, but I won't if I have a bad attitude about it. The spirit of missionary work is urgency, and as I do my best and have faith that people will accept, they will. Just the next day, as I increased my faith to find, we had three other lessons on the street! That has not happened here very often, and I know it was because Sister Jones and I had increased our faith. Faith is such a huge deal, and as I talk to people with the goal and the expectation that they will/should accept the gospel, they have a better chance to because they see that it means that much to me.

We also heard about seeking correction. We should seek correction from others, because when we do, we show that we are willing to repent. We should seek correction from our companions, through prayer and scripture study, and through district and zone meetings. If we seek correction and change, our investigators will change because repentance will be more real to us.

That cool lady that we did the family history approach with, S--, we finally got to see yesterday. We've tried by heaps of times and she hasn't been home, but she opened the door and said, "Where have you been?" She invited us in and offered us coffee, so clearly we're great friends, and her coffee was delicious. Just kidding, we didn't have any, obviously, but her diluting juice was so good.

Our investigator, Brother S--, had a very up and down kind of week. He drank this week, so that was another setback, and he didn't really feel too bad about it and so that was really tricky. We were teaching him at a member's house who had a husband who had a severe alcohol problem and ended up burning down their house. Anyway, she basically just reprimanded him for about an hour, but it was exactly what he needed and was nice that it didn't come from Sister Jones and me. Then last night when we taught him, he told us that he wants to figure everything out and change himself so that he can be baptized in autumn. What? It was seriously crazy, and I was reminded again just how little we have to do with the work that we do. It's the Spirit that works on them, and they choose to accept it. It really doesn't have anything to do with me.

Something I've been thinking about this week is the way that we can be happy. So often we cannot change our surroundings. I can't change my area, I can't change the members here, I can't change the weather, I can't change my companion, I can't change other's choices. But what can I change? My attitude about it! I can change the way I feel about it. When Nephi is sad because his brothers are being mean and his dad has just died, we read his beautiful psalm in 2 Nephi 4, and the only thing that changes from him in the beginning and the end is his attitude. He chooses to put his faith in the Lord and good things come of it. So when I am bugged with something and wish it would change, I can't change it. But I can change the way that I feel about it. That's really all I can do, and the way to be happy is to change myself so I feel happy about it. As Elder Teixeira said in All-Scotland Conference (he is the Area Authority of the Europe Missions), "I can teach you a lot of good things. But only YOU can change." How true that is!

So this week, when you are down about something—“Why is my baby crying?" "Why are my friends being so stupid?" "Why didn't this person help me with the things that I need?" "Why is the world such a bad place?”—just remember:  You can't do anything about that; but what you can do is change the way that you feel about it. I invite you to do that. As a missionary, if we were in a lesson, now would be the Invitation time.

Will you...change your attitude and try your best to not get down about situations you cannot control? Great. I know by doing so you will be happier and allow God's love to be more present in your life.

There you go. Missionary Manda.

Love you all,

Sister Ricks

P.S. Oh, and by the way, I wrote "Sister Thingme" as the title because two members of our ward have called me that this week. WAY cooler than Sister Ricks. Eh?