Dearest Family,
Wow. What a week! I
am so sorry for all my negativity last week. That was NOT a good example of a
missionary and of the faith I should have. I have been inwardly rebuked for a
lot of things this week, and that was one of them—the lack of faith in myself
and in God for knowing where to place me. I am so sorry!!
That being said, I am
still feeling entirely inadequate to be an STL. This week we are touring around
Scotland doing Christmas concerts in each of the five zones—Dundee, Paisley,
Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh. I am highly involved, and it's a way fun
time. Because I am one of the leaders, we are planning the whole thing. It is
me, Sister Passey, Elder Smithson, Elder Nielson, and Elder Sewell. Sister
Passey has been an STL forever; Elder Smithson was my first zone leader along
with Elder Nielson who just served as AP for six months; and Elder Sewell was
my second DL and now is a ZL. So yes, I am entirely out of place. I feel like
singing "one of these things is not like the other!" But what do you
do? The Lord qualifies whom He calls, I hope!
This week was really
hard in every way: I have been pushed and stretched. Leaving EK was one of the
hardest things I've ever done, and I cried for three days straight. I hated
leaving my home, my family, those whom I care about more than anything. So ... yeah.
That was tough.
Then I got to Irvine
and was given a terrific companion who is super diligent and obedient, given
responsibilities and given training from President and the Assistants about
everything. It was incredible and I learned so much. I know that Heavenly
Father has given me this position to help ME learn and grow. Hopefully I will
help some people on the way, and that's what I'm focused on. I know that I am
meant to be here because I can already feel myself growing in ways that haven't
happened thus far on my mission.
The title of this
e-mail comes because I feel that the past bit of my mission hasn't been so
great when it comes to my work. I could have been such a better missionary, but
our success is really defined by what we do now and what we plan to do. I know
that if I choose to focus on the future rather than the past, I will be
successful and will be able to move forward with no problems.
I am sorry that I'm
not responding to any of your personal e-mails this week. I read them all and
loved them. But we were only given about two seconds on computers this week
because all of the missionaries have to share the computers at the Mission Home.
So we are all just working our hardest to keep our time short. Just so you
know, I love you all! And I get to talk to you WAY soon! So I am quite chuffed
about that. I don't know how Skyping is going to work yet, but I'm sure we'll
figure something out, and I'll have a member e-mail you or something. We'll
figure it out.
I love you!
Missionary work is THE BEST ever, and I know that as we strive for exact
obedience, the Lord will bless us in all of our efforts: whether that is in the
field, at home with your children, or an answer to a prayer that you feel is
continually ignored. I know that God desires to bless us and that when we ask
and do our part, He will. Every time. In some way that may be different from
what we expected, but that is better than we could have ever imagined.
I love you!!!!!!!!!!!
Sister Ricks
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