Thank you dad, for teaching me all I know- Week 38

Hello everyone, so as of today I have been a missionary for 266 days, in Wisconsin for 223 days, and in Janesville for 144 days. I love it here and I'm so glad that I have gotten to learn and grow some much from this area! It's pretty crazy how fast time goes by. When I first got here the summer was just starting and now sumner has come and gone and winter is upon us.

We found a new person this week named Annelise and it's pronounced almost exactly like my sister, Analee, but just with an s at the end of it! So that was pretty fun, when I found out her name I was like no way! That's my sister's name with an s! She might be married to this guy named Carlos who we met and started teaching last week so we have successfully found 2 people in 2 weeks which is awesome! During the last lesson I basically did all of the teaching because Carlos likes to talk a lot and he'd go off on tangents for about 5 minutes and they didn't really know how to join in the conversation or say anything because if there was silence for 0.5 seconds he would start talking so I'd always just have to shoot the gun but I think it turned out to be a pretty cool lesson! We told them we want to give them a book called the Book of Mormon and he said okay bring it next time you come over so I thoroughly enjoyed that! 

We were given a list of all the ward members to hand out invitations to our nativity party and we have ran into some pretty interesting people and situations. We were at Wendys and we were in line and this guy wanted to pay for our food and so we were like that's awesome! We start talking and he knew like a little bit about the church and so it turns out he is a member just hasn't been to church in like 30 years and he also doesn't believe in God anymore and he asked us to not visit him ever haha which is super sad but really nice of him to buy our food. So we thanked him and invited him to our nativity party and didn't really think much of it. We were delivering more cards later that night and we visited an address that was on our list and it happened to be the guy that asked us to never visit him. So he texted us after we left because he didn't answer and asked if it was us that visited his house just barely cause he saw us and we thought he was super mad cause he said don't visit but then we did so we told him what happened and I'm pretty sure that he was still mad but he said it's fine cause it was just a 'coincidence' but in all reality I think it was just God telling him that he needs to listen to us and come back to church so idk we will see! 

Also, thank you dad for teaching me how to do things. One of my lovely companions accidentally clogged the toilet and they could not figure out how to unclog it and because my dad has helped me unclog toilets before I was able to aid them in this endeavor. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me dad! Love you

We had the lesson with Nathanael to set him on date but we didn't get the confirmation from the Holy Ghost to su him on date so we didn't because there is still things we need to figure out before he gets baptized but he's doing pretty good. 

I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! It testifies of Jesus Christ. We will come closer to Christ as we read it. Our circumstances might not change as we live the commandments but our view point will change and we will be able to endure our afflictions as we follow the commandments without justifying or bargain with the Lord. He has set guidelines and boundaries for us as a protection from misery and as we follow these guidelines we will have happiness in our lives. I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon every single day. Either for 5 minutes or 1 chapter or 3 chapters, it doesn't matter. You will become more like Christ as you do this. I love the Book of Mormon and it has truly changed my life.

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder T. Ricks 

Cuenta tus muchas bendiciones- Week 37

Hey everyone, we still out here in Wisconsin! Over the past winter so far it has been way colder in Idaho than here in Wisconsin except for this week I think it was a little colder here! So if you're feeling alone you don't have to because we are feeling freezing too! We also got quite a bit of snow last night which was great. I hope all of your weeks have been well and that you are happy. 

This week was pretty busy with our transfer that just happened, we were in Madison a lot and we got our new companion Elder Harrison! It's been super fun to have him here. He is from Arizona, he's been out on his mission for almost a year and a half, he is sooo good at the kendama, and is super funny. So we are still in a trio which has actually been pretty fun this week.

We have this cool nativity thing here in Janesville and that has been going on for like the last 6 years here so we just got the pass along cards for that so that we can advertise it to everyone! So we went over to the De La Rosa Salón so that we could put the cards there and we were talking with Saul which is one of the sons there and we asked if he needed some help and he said yes please and so we went and helped him and I saw this super cool vending machine that I want and it was just sitting in their garage so I was like yoooooo are you ever gonna use this? And he said nope so I said could I have it after the mission? And he said yep, so when I get home from my mission I'm gonna have a cool vending machine to put somewhere😊 it's gonna be super cool. 

Oh also I'm kinda sad because the ward gave one of the members here a calling as the ward translator and so it's not the missionaries job to translate anymore:/ and it's kinda sad because for me that was always one way that really helped my Spanish to grow and now I don't have that option anymore! But no worries because I still translate in my head.;) 

We ALMOST have Nathanael ready for a baptism! The spirit is working really hard with him and we are going to go over all of the baptism interview questions with him so that we can know what we need to focus on when we teach him but we are going to try to put him on baptismal date for like December 7th or 14th!

Galations 3:26-27

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

We are all children of our Heavenly Father. Becuae of this we have all 'put on Christ'. I think that means that we are willing to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ out loud and willing to make and keep covenants with the Lord and strive every single day to be like Jesus Christ because we love Him and are trying to be one with Him. I promise as we do this we will become more like Him and I know this because I have seen it in my own life and know that it can happen for you too. 

I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week:)

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder T. Ricks 

Transferss- Week 36

I'm thankful for all of you and hope that all is going well for all of you. Hope everyone was safe during the record lows in Idaho🥶

Also, IT'S MY SISTERS BIRTHDAY THIS NEXT WEEK ON THE 7TH! Happy Birthday Ashlynn! I hope that you have an amazing day! Thanks for your wonderful Christlike example to me:)

This week was filled with tons of miracles. I'm thankful to be here in Wisconsin serving a mission. Sometimes it's super hard but I've been studying a lot about things that people had to sacrifice to become better and become the person the Lord wants them to be. So I know that it is super hard to sacrifice things and sometimes give things up that we really want or sacrifice the person that we are in order to better fulfill our purposes here in life. We have also been talking a lot as a mission and a zone and district about the story of how the Lord goes to Peter after He's been resurrected and tells him to set aside the fish to become a better disciple. And it has become very apparent to me that every single one of us have these worldy 'fishes' that distract us from repenting or becoming the person Christ wants us to be or reading our scriputes and praying or focusing on Christ to become like Him. I am inviting all of you to identify one, or a couple of the 'fish' in your life that distract you from Christ and sacrifice that thing so you can become more familiar with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I can testify and promise that as you do this you will truly want to be more like Christ and you will have true joy in your life. I have felt that in my life and I have seen that in others lives as well.

The work here in Janesville is going great! We are working hard trying to find all the people that have been prepared to recieve the message of Jesus Christ. There are always so many tender mercies and miracles that happen in everyday life we just have to search for them sometimes!

I will also be staying here in Janesville for another transfer:) I'll be finishing Elder Dowdle's training and we will also be getting another companion Elder Harrison! Elder Bird will be going to Racine. 

I love all of you! 

DO GOOD BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder T. Ricks