22 Lessons

Dearest Family,

Did I send this picture already? I think maybe. But here ya go. AR in EK.

This week was excellent! One of the goals of our mission, and one of the standards of excellence, is to get at least 20 lessons a week. It would be prime if they were all investigator lessons, but I've never even gotten it with less-active and recent-convert lessons. I've tried every week, but it's hard. I've been right on the brink and have missed the mark. But this week was different!!! We taught 22 LESSONS! And 15 were investigator lessons. It was seriously a miracle. Maybe it's because most of you went to Yellowstone without me and so God decided to bless me in His own way. And boy, am I grateful! :)

On Monday we ran up to EK's Loch and Castle. It was the Heritage Loch and it's gorgeous. Running there was interesting. Sometimes I forget that even though I love to run, I haven't really done it for 3 or 4 months, and so 5 miles is going to be a bit long for me! Still, it was really fun even though I made Sister Jackson, the marathon runner, stop a couple of times. My feet hurt. :) It also started bucketing on our way up. Seriously, it was so wet. So we just stood and looked across a beautiful loch at a tiny castle in the pouring rain. Moments like that make you grateful to be a missionary where you are and doing what you are doing. We were sitting there staring at the beauty and this lady went by and said, "No excuse to stop running!" Haha. It was awesome. Way fun.

On Monday evening we went out to eat with I-- and JM, two of my favorite people in the world. They were so fun and we went out to eat at this awesome Chinese place that had delicious food and smaller portions so we weren't too stuffed. Just enough. :) It was good! We finished the night by reading Moroni 10 with Brother S-- at FHE--his first time ever finishing it surrounded by his friends at Family Night! It was so fun and really exciting.

On Tuesday we accidentally got lost in Glasgow after district meeting. Oops. I forgot when we went to lunch as a district that I didn't know where we were and forgot my Glasgow map. But we got a nice lil' tour of Glasgow and eventually found our way home. It was pretty neat; we had just learned about service at district meeting and about how we should look on the street for people who need help. When we got home, we saw these ladies with loads of groceries and asked if we could help. Turns out that one is a less-active that I've tried by before. She let us help us with her groceries, and we have an appointment with her tonight! She said she'd been thinking about coming to church. Blessing of district meeting and applying the things that we learn.

Sister Jackson stopped a lady this week on the street right as a bee attacked me. So she was busy talking to the lady while I was swatting the bee with my Book of Mormon. Haha. 

People have been feeding us SO MUCH FOOD this week! Luckily we are running and my weight is exactly what it was when I started my mission.  Anyway, we went to a lady and she fed us 12 biscuits. 12! EACH! It was madness. 

Nobody told us on Wednesday night that our missionary coordination meeting was cancelled for a few weeks, so we sat and played I-Spy for 20 minutes until we had to call somebody and they told us it was cancelled. Haha. Oops! Apparently East Kilbride no longer needs coordination with their missionaries. Just kidding. It was pretty funny though. 

I realized this week that I've been out for 4 1/2 months ... that is 1/4 of the way done with my mission! Seriously, it is crazy how time seems to have flown by. I never realized until this week just how much I love being a missionary. I have the best job in the world: I am a full-time serviceperson, trying to bring others the good news of the gospel that will make them happier than anything else. I just get to serve and be with members and people on the street and meet all sorts of crazies! Being a missionary is the best! I love it. Check out psalms 89:47: Remember How Short My Time Is! Seriously.

We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders this week, and so Sister Jackson went back to Irvine for a couple of days while her trainer, Sister Passey who is now a STL, came to East Kilbride. As always, nearly all of our awesome appointments fell through but it was still a pretty good day. I missed Sister Jackson though. I cut Sister Passey's hair. How nice of me. Now she is walking around with one side long, one side short, and the top spiky. I'd say I did a pretty good job.

Exchange with Sister Passey

A lady in our ward was feeding us, and as we left I ended the message with, “In the name of.....uh.....see ya." So awkward!

I know I've already told you about the negativity thing, but I really have realized how much I lose the Spirit when I hear negativity. One of my favorite less-actives, who we see every Saturday evening at 8 o'clock, just started talking about all the things she didn't like about the church:   the choir isn't great and lets everybody in so it doesn’t sound wonderful, the Primary teachers don't know how to handle the kids, the organist shrugs her shoulders every time she makes a mistake, nobody talked to her friend that she brought to church, etc. I know I've said things like that about church before, but when she was talking about it I started crying. I didn't cry enough for her to see, but I wanted to say, "Stop talking about these people like that! They are my dearest friends, people that I absolutely love." She wouldn't comment about what she liked about the church, only the things that she didn't like. And she said she can never see herself going back to church. It just broke my heart. Church isn't about having a great choir or even great friends. Church is about worshipping Heavenly Father and taking the sacrament and obeying the commandments. If we have a strong enough testimony, it won't matter what kind of service is held or what kind of people are in the ward. We will go because we love God, not because we love the ward or the people.

Church was absolutely fabulous. Sister Jackson gave a great talk about fasting, and we also got to do a musical number where she played the viola and I sang "Where Love Is." It made our investigator, A--, cry when we were practicing before church. That was nice! I think this ward is liking our companionship, because we are getting so many more dinner appointments than ever before! This ward is great, and we got our goal of six joint-teaches this week! That was so exciting!!!!! :) Seriously, it was am amazing week!

We were teaching our reactivated less-active, Brother H--, right after church. Even though I'd tried to see if anyone could stay for a couple of minutes and teach with us, no one could. So we were going to teach him outside the church, in public, like normal. But then it started raining. Harder than it has rained in my entire four months. I was laughing so hard, and we ended up running to a tunnel and teaching there. It was hilarious. Then we went home and put all of our stuff in sandwich bags, inside a plastic shopping bag, inside our bags. Haha. Then it was sunny for most the rest of the day. Scottish weather--all 4 seasons in 1 day.

One thing that I learned from church that I especially liked is about the scripture "If ye love me, keep my commandments." If we emphasize different words in the scripture, it takes on new meaning.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

If: It's a choice. Not an automatic thing.

Ye: Love is a choice that WE make. We choose to love Jesus Christ. He already loves us. 

Love: As Elder Holland said, "The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty."

Me: Jesus Christ is the center of the gospel, and if we love Him, we will keep the commandments.

Keep: Keep them in your hearts. Write them in your hearts. Don't do them every once in awhile and let them go. Keep them. 

My: They are commandments from Jesus Christ. They are His commandments. That is how we can be sure they are for our benefit. 

Commandments: Emphasis on the S. There are lots of commandmentS. We can't just pick and choose the ones we want to keep. The Ten Commandments are not multiple choice.

I also like to do the scripture the other way around: "Keep my commandments if ye love me." It just makes you think a bit more. Why do we keep the commandments? Is it because we are blessed? Because they make us happy? Because the church members around us will judge us if we don't? Nope. We keep them because we love Jesus Christ, and He has asked us to keep them. And that's really all there is to it. 

Well. Sorry. That was a bit of a dogmatic e-mail, but just some thoughts and experiences I had for the week. 

Have a good week, each of you! Have a missionary experience! :) Witness a miracle. Help someone out. Be happy. Do what is right. Love God and love yourself and love your neighbor, and you will be all right. 

Love you! 

Sister Ricks