Oye!- Week 13

Hey everyone! 

Well, another week has passed by! Still out here in good old Marshfield. This week has been filled with many miracles and I am so grateful for all of your prayers for me as I have really felt the blessings from all of your faith! God works mighty miracles through and according to our faith and I am very thankful for you all! I hope all of your weeks have been as good as mine!

For last P-Day we went as a mostly whole zone to a Hmong restaurant(there are some Hmong speaking elders here) and got like these super weird drinks. They were kinda like slushies but had a weird type of ball kind of like those things you can get at the frozen yogurt places. But it was actually super good. You couldn't taste them hardly but it was like a super cool texture and it was fun! 

This week we decided we were going to change how we did tracting a little bit and so we wrote a list of 15 streets that we thought would be good to go to. We did that part together and then we both picked 5 of those streets by ourselves and compared the list that we had. We ended up having 2 streets that were the same and so we ended up deciding to go tracting in those areas! 

We got to the first street and started knocking and literally everybody was home but nobody was interested at all or gave us the time of day so I was like greaaaat another day of talking to nobody. We go to the last apartments on the street and knock on the last door of the day and this young adult answers and we give our approach and he actually let's us in to teach and it was incredible! His name is axel and we felt the spirit so strong and have him on a return date to teach him again! And that was the first time we had ever even gotten in a door while tracting and it was really cool to have that inspiration and guidance by the Holy Ghost to knock that street that day!

The next street we went to we realized that a young mom named Tomi lived on it that had been dropped by the missionaries about 6 months earlier lived on that street so we went and visited her! We have since taught her 3 times and are already starting to see some progress! The Lord works in incredible ways and we have to be willing to go and do whatever He tells us to do and when we do that we will be blessed immensely!

We are also progressing with Berniece! She is this sweet 90 year old lady who has 2 daughters that live in Utah who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and also grand children and great grand children and it is so fun to talk to her! She is very faithful to her church but we were able to Skype in one of her grandchildren who served a mission to help us testify of the truthfulness and the blessings that come from this gospel of Jesus Christ! It is incredible what we can do with technology now a days haha.

We also had a meeting in Appleton, which is about 2 hours away from Marshfield, with all of the other missionaries that came out with me and it was fun to hear their experiences and what they are going through haha. Missionary work is awesome and I am excited for everyone preparing to serve and also for all of the missionary opportunities that everyone as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has! I know this is the true church and I am so glad that I get to proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ to all of the people here!

Thank you all again for all of your thoughts and prayers! I love you all and hope all is going well at home!

DO GOOD BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder Ricks

Also, I am learning how to break dance. 

Hola todos!- Week 12

Hey everyone! I hope you have all had as good of a week as I did! It was filled with TONS of adventures. But thank you all for all of your prayers thoughts and love for me! I can feel the blessings coming from your support for me! 

I am just going to do a short recap on the week and try not to miss anything. So last week on P-Day we went to the Wausau police department and toured it all. It was so fun to see everything there and see how police offices work haha! I even got to sit on a lie detector chair. 

I then went on exchanges with Elder Dutson. We got along super well and had quite a bit of success! We went tracting and talked to almost every person we knocked on and invited several people to church and to read the Book of Mormon! 

The next day I then went on another exchange with Elder Raymer, our zone leader, and this was my first time taking over the area. We found some awesome success finding as well! When we were about to end the exchange we were finishing up with eating some lunch and we went to a fast food restaurant and there is no Wendy's where I am and nothing else that is good sooo we went to Burger King haha. Anyway a Hispanic, Mike in America or Miguel in Mexico, came up to us and told us that he had a message for us and that God loves us! It was in okay English but not too good and he was learning it. So I told him I was learning Spanish and we had a pretty cool conversation! We are planning on going to teach him this next Thursday and help eachother with our 2nd languages! 

We were also able to go to Milwaukee for a special Spanish devotional with an Apostle from the Quorum of the 12, Elder Soares! We sat in the front row and on the side that he walked in on AND as he walked passed we were able to shake his hand before the devotional started! And he was impressed that I was able to speak and understand Spanish! What an incredible experience. I understood a lot of it! We were able to then shake his hand again after the devotional! 

We had a mission tour the day after where the whole mission got together and we listened again to Elder Soares and the other General Authorities that were there which includes, Elder Wilford W. Anderson of the 70, Elder Jorge M. Alvarado of the 70, Bishop W. Christopher Waddel Presiding Bishop, and Elder K. David Scott Area 70. All amazing men! We were able to take a picture with them all as a whole mission! Such a great week with many miracles and great blessings! Sorry this was actually not a very short summary there was just so much that happened!

Anyways, I came across a fun story in the Book of Mormon. In chapter 47 about Amalichiah and Lehonti! If you dont remember this story or even if you do, I'd invite you all to go read it and liken it to your lives! Long story short, Satan is smart and very good at deceiving us. He will try to get us to come down out of our safe places and tempt us with sin. He will try everything, and eventually he will tempt us with things that seem like they will do us no harm and he will lour us down just enough to where we aren't in our safe zone anymore and it is even easier for him to decieve us. Look to Jesus Christ doe guidance and He will help us overcome temptations of Satan! 

I love you all so much and am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary and represent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I know this is the true church and with the help of Jesus Christ, we can do all things! 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder Ricks

Para todo el mundo- Week 11

Hola familia y amigos! 

I hope that everyone has had a fantastic week and a good Mother's Day yesterday!! Thank you for all of the updates in your lives! Thank you also for all of your prayers and thoughts! I can definitely feel the blessings coming from you all❤

The Book of Mormon is true!! I read at least 8 pages in Spanish everyday and can only understand a little bit, but every time I read it I get this feeling of peace and comfort of the Holy Ghost testifying that it is the word of God! I am so thankful for how much the Book of Mormon has changed my life and all that I can learn from it to enhance my life by coming closer to Jesus Christ. I just finished the stories in Alma from when the sons of Mosiah are teaching all the Lamanites and it always amazes me how amazing they were(especially Ammon) at being patient and being great examples to the people to eventually be able to teach them the fullness of the gospel! 

We were able to finally talk to Kriss! She has been so busy with trying to pack all of her house up so that she can move but we finally caught her home! She seems like she is doing way better than when I first met her and I truly believe it is because the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love what this gospel can do to help people change and better their lives. We have a return appointment for tomorrow with her and are going to help her move to the new house this next week and I can't wait to see how she continues to progress!

We were teaching Jo Ann (a recent convert) and she invited one of her friends, Sue, to our lesson and we ended up having a great discussion with her about the Book of Mormon and she accepted a book and said she would be willing to read the Introduction through the testimony of Joseph Smith. If any of you have not read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon I would suggest reading that!! 

I was able to help a member, Brother and Sister Buck tear out some tile and carpet and basically redo his house! I haven't been able to see the finished product yet but it is gonna look awesome! It was awesome! I love giving service to people and seeing how it helps their days out a little bit! I wish that I could do more for people!

There are also some fun Amish people here that ride their horses and carriages around town! Great people here in good old Wisconsin:) 

We had an ant problem in our apartment, and I hated that and so I went and bought some ant killer stuff:) I put it out on Tuesday or Monday night and I have not seen an ant since! Hallelujah. 

We listen to talks a lot while we are driving and we recently listened to one called 'The Missionary Next Door' by Diana Hasler Hoelscher and you all really need to find this talk and listen to it!!! It is amazing and really teaches us how to be disciples of Jesus Christ and how to be missionaries for both missionaries and members! 

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts! I love you all:) Super Excited to listen to Elder Soares this next Friday in Español. I hope you all have excellent weeks!

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder Ricks

Cinco De Mayo- Week 10

Hola!! I hope everyone has had an amazing week! ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo ayer! My week here in Wisconsin was awesome! Have have been working super hard with the ward members and we have been almost non stop teaching and it has been wonderful so that we don't have to tract! But as for you all, I love getting updates on your lives and you can send emails at any time of the week! 

Eric has arrived in Arizona safe and sound! I am still so sad that he had to go back to Arizona. We were progressing so well with him and I saw so much change in his life! It is amazing how when we focus on Jesus Christ and put Him in the center of our lives, we become better people! I love that. Jesus Christ can heal anyone if we have faith in Him and have Him as our foundation! 

Michael is still doing great! He is still 17 and so he is working on his eagle and is leaving for the Air Force in early September! He is still shinning so bright with the light of Christ and last time we taught him, he said everyone he talks to can notice a difference since he has been baptized! Christ is the light, the life, and the hope of the world (The Living Christ). <-- This is a great read and if you have about 10 minutes, I would read it! 

I say all my prayers in Spanish haha! So my Spanish is really improving in the prayers, but sadly we don't teach or speak much to natives here in Marshfield. But that is okay! We study a lot sometimes! And I read at least 8 pages from the scriptures in Spanish every day! Most of the time I don't know what it is saying but my pronunciations are getting better and I am starting to understand a little bit more! It's fun to try to translate it in my head. 

This last Friday our dinner got canceled and so we (I) wanted to go out to eat because we never go out to eat! And so we did, and the sweetest lady came up to us and looked at our tags. Elder Thacker and I both have tags that are in Spanish and so Elder Thacker starts saying "It says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints" and before he can finish she looks at him and says I KNOW WHAT IT SAYS haha! She shook our hands and said she loves to see missionaries(especially ones who smile a lot and have the light of Christ with us😊) and introduced herself and gave us money to pay for our meal! It was so nice! We were able to go and sit by them, talk, and get to know them! She is a member of the ward that is next to our ward! Good people everywhere:) 

We were able to find and start teaching a lady that requested a Bible over a church website or something and it is fun to teach her! She wanted nothing to do with the Book of Mormon, but after we explained what it is and how it coincides with the Bible, she accepted one and said she would read the Introduction! I love the Book of Mormon! It is another testament of Jesus Christ and was made for our dispensation! I'm so grateful that I get to live here on the Earth where we have the fullness of the gospel! Take advantage of the Book of Mormon everyone! We can learn and become better while we read this book! 

It has been announced the Ulisses Soares will be the apostle coming to Wisconsin on the 17th!! Super excited to hear him speak and get to meet him! 

Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts! It means the world to me😊 You are all also in my prayers! I hope that everyone has another fantastic week! And keep me updated on your lives!!! I love you all!

Also, shout out to my parents! Happy anniversary on May 10! I love you both! Congrats on being married for so long haha! 

John Bytheway is an amazing speaker! We listen to him all the time. There is a talk called 'What are you carrying in your backpack' (I think) by him and it is amazing! If you all have the time I'd definitely listen to that:) 

Also, happy mothers day to all of the mom's this next week! I hope you all enjoy it! Especially my mom😊❤ I love you mom! 

Alma 36:18-20

... I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me ... behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more ... and oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as was exceeding as was my pain!

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder Ricks

Some cool art in town and my sweet white jacket. 

Lunch with Michael!

We got to feed some hunting dogs haha! Some big smelly dogs! 

The apostles and general authority I get to meet because I am a Spanish missionary😊