Sister Amanda Ricks: I Hang Out with Dad's Friends

Well Hello There Family,

The title of this e-mail comes from my realizing something this week. We were coming back from Family Home Evening and talking to our good friends/the people we see the most, and on the corner where we were setting up lesson times we realized that all of our friends are Dad's age. They are 50-year-old men! That is who we hang out with and see often! Isn't that strange? It's even stranger that one of my favorites, Brother Graham, a recent convert, wears skinny grey jeans and bright red converse. Please tell me, Dad, that you haven't changed your style to match Brother Graham's. :)

Last Monday, we went out to Rowallan Castle! It took us a wee while to get there, about a 30-minute bus journey and a 30-minute walk, but we eventually found it. We were wandering around looking totally out of place, because apparently it is an exclusive golf club and not many random people walk in to see where their ancestor is buried. It turns out that the castle only opens for tours once a month on Saturdays and Sundays, so we won't be able to go. We were able to walk around the grounds a bunch though, even use the bathroom (it was so nice that I wanted to get out fast), and take a heap of pictures. As we were wandering out and taking our final pictures, a man walked out of the house by the castle and asked us who we were and what we were doing. It turns out he was the owner of the estate and that he wasn't too happy with us. But it was still cool that we were able to shake his hand and meet him! Apparently my "blood isn't a direct line" which kind of makes him sound more like Lucius Malfoy than anything else. But whatever. It was beautiful there--perfectly calm, green, not many people around, sunny. It made me think of what heaven is going to be like. I think people in heaven might have Scottish accents.

On Monday night, we received a text from our district leader asking us to bring balloons to district meeting. We didn't know why, but Sister Jackson and I sent a text back that said, "We don't have any in our flat! Should we go get some to bring?" He said we shouldn't, and so we didn't, but we did our district meeting with them (we filled up balloons with our unbelief and then popped them, haha), and after he said that he had gotten the responses to his texts that he had expected. He said he expected a sarcastic response from the Hamilton sisters and got one: "You mean, because we all have balloons hanging around our apartment." Sarcastic response from the elders as well. But he said he expected willingness from us, and he got it! I thought that was such a compliment! It makes me wonder what people expect of us. What do you think others would expect if they called you up for a ride or for some groceries? Would they expect you to come willingly or would they expect you to be too busy? Good thought.

On Wednesday night, we got back from our talent show in Glasgow late. It was so stressful, because we would have been home by 9:30, but the bus randomly decided to stop. I didn't see that the bus stopped at George Square rather than travelling into Glasgow, and so we caught another bus after waiting for a bit and got in by 10:00. We were running and everything, and luckily met some nice ladies on the first bus that helped us find the 6 that we/they needed. It was so stressful though, and made me worry so much that we were being disobedient! Our district leader knew, of course, but I don't know what I'm going to do when I go home and feel like I'm going to throw up when I'm not in at 9:30. Haha.

On Friday, we had a really good day even though it shouldn't have been. We had a two-hour service appointment that fell through, which was awful. A LA lady in our building dropped us a note to help her move out, and we called to confirm on Thursday afternoon, and when we showed up on Friday there was nobody there. It's the worst when service appointments fall through, because two hours of backup plans is a long time! Luckily, right after that happened, we got a phone call from Stewart Churchill, a member in Falkirk who lives in East Kilbride, wanting to take us out to lunch! Then we got another call from the senior missionaries here who wanted to see our flat to figure out the situation with the new elders coming in. We were really blessed with random things to do when we had just lost our appointment. It was incredible and we were so happy!

It's also pretty cool that we are going to get a new flat when the elders come and they are going to get ours. :) Yay! Hope I'm staying in East Kilbride.

The absolute best news of the week comes from Brother S--! He is our professional investigator who has been investigating the church for over two years and who got baptized but never was confirmed and has continued investigating. Anyway, he has some pretty significant Word of Wisdom challenges, but he's been doing fairly well. This week, we were reading over the baptismal interview questions with him to show him that he is more prepared than he thinks he is (even though he has some supernatural experiences and some different challenges that he won't really explain) and he told us that he is getting a good feeling about being baptized in December! That is AMAZING! If I could be at Brother S--'s baptism, I would be the happiest girl in the world. He hasn't been smoking this week, and he's been reading and praying and everything. We didn't change anything we did, but we had the feeling during weekly planning that one of our investigators would make some significant progress this week, and he did! It was one of those moments when in weekly planning, we didn't understand how it would happen, but then somehow the Lord stepped in and took care of it! When we leave things in the Lord's hands and don't get in the way, we will see miracles. I totally believe that, even though my faith lacks sometimes (often.) I'm working on that.

Well, the moral of the story is that the work is going well here! I love Sister Jackson and I love East Kilbride! I know I am meant to be here for some reason, and it probably has more to do with me growing than anyone else, but I know that God knows what is best! He loves us—so much—and even though we don't always understand that, His commandments and counsels for us make us happier than anything else. I know it!

Being a missionary is the best!

I love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Amanda Ann Oompah Loompah Ricks--I started calling myself that this week and we got eight new investigators! Just kidding. We really didn't. :)