Idaho- Week 61

Hey, I hope you are all doing great!! It's been a pretty good week. 

I had to say bye to my companion and a couple other of my long time mission friends this week😢😢

On Wednesday we started our transfer and I moved just 1 area over. I was in Kenosha and now I am in Racine. Its been pretty fun because now I am in a Spanish area with a Spanish companion! We are both from Idaho so thats been super fun. We got some Idaho pride!! 

On Thursday we went and visited all of the people in our zone (only 5 other companionships) and that was fun and I think it was good for all the companionships! In my last apartment there was a huuuge white board that we could put all of our zone stuff on and we wanted it in my new apartment! So we thought we could fit it in the car but it was way too big.. it was the same length as the car so we ended up just putting it on the top of our car and taking bungie cord type things and securing it onto the car to drive it a city away haha! It was super funny. 

Friday Saturday and Sunday we had tooooons of meetings it was awesome! I'm excited for this next transfer. We have a lot of good things going for us with missionary work and also just for the zone. We started our local Facebook page and I've been able to post a couple videos!! I've been learning the guitar for about 7 weeks so it was fun to be able to make a video with the guitar!! When we were filming that we got a lot of fun bloopers.

I've been having a fun time with reading the Old Testament. I really liked 

Proverbs 29:18 - Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. 

Its really important that we have a vision for ourselves and a goal that we are trying to accomplish or it will be hard for us to succeed and we will be much more likely to perish or fail. And after we make that vision and goal it's important that we keep to that and make plans to keep our vision and goals and as we do that we are much more happy! If you do or don't believe me,  put it to the test and see if setting goals for yourself is a benefit to your life!

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks 

Double out- Week 60

Hey everyone! It's transfer week. So our P Day got changed to Tuesday! I hope everyone is doing well. 

Honestly nothing is too new with whats going on here. We are still trying to find the best way to do missionary work and be effective. Our zone started a Facebook Page to stary finding more people locally and start using the ward to invite their friends to the page. We rotate like every day who posts when so things are going pretty good with that! My mom sent a really cool LEGO Salt Lake City temple so i spent a day building that while recording myself and then made a cool video with it! Brick Em Young even shared my post with their page! I felt pretty cool. 

I went down just barely into Illinois this last week to drop off a Bible to somebody! Took a cool picture with the Wisconsin sign. I heard that in all the borders the same sign is there and its a pretty nice one too so I thought it was pretty cool.

I will be reassigned to go to a new area! I'll be going to Racine Spanish area and will be training another Spanish Elder to be a Zone Leader. I had a good time in this English area but I love and miss the Hispanic people so I'm glad I'll get to go back to do Spanish work! But I really loved the parts of the ward that I got to meet here! They are some great people and I'm gonna miss it. 

I have been going through my General Conference notes this last week mostly looking at my notes from President Nelson. I'm just so grateful that we have a living prophet who lives and who speaks to us today. I know he was called of God for this time to lead us! I wanna invite you to go back to either your conference notes or to his talks and remind yourselves what you learned and what you want to apply in your life!!! I know if you do the Lord will speak to you and you will be able to hear Him!

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks 

New hobby- Week 59

Hey everyone, I hope you have all had a good week and are getting used to this thing that is happening to the world. 

Nothing is really new from me this week. We are still trying to find new and better ways to do missionary work. We sadly didn't find anyone but we are working with this part member family and the 17 year old is going to get baptized when he turns 18 and it's been great to work with him.

The only time I get to see other missionaries really is when we have sacrament meeting and so we took a fun picture while we were all together.

I picked up a new hobby and its excelling pretty quickly (I think) as I have focused on it this last week. I have decided that I am going to be a rapper. I have written a couple raps this week and I am going to start making music videos to post on Facebook and start finding people to teach and maybe even get famous in the process. 

I also cut my own hair again

I love God. I love Jesus Christ. Im grateful for the restoration of His church. And I'm definitely grateful for thr Atonement of Jesus Christ and that we can repent, be fogriven and change our ways and natures to follow Christ. 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks 

Revelation- Week 58

Hello everyone. This last weekend was pretty amazing! Super cool announcements and its truly amazing how much the Lord loves us in order to give us Prophets and Apostles. I love my Savior. 

It has still been pretty interesting to figure out how to do missionary work at this time. But we are still working hard in any way we can! I've been able to have a couple meetings with my mission president and it seems like we as missionaries will be receiving more resources to fulfill our missionary purpose this week. We also have to wear a mask everywhere we go so i pulled out some cool bandanas instead of wearing those lame masks!!

We started running every evening because we aren't able to get out of the apartment too much and it's been super good to get out and stretch legs and get some fresh air. I've also taught my companion some games which has been fun. 

I got a lot out of General Conference this last weekend but I want to focus on the feelings I had rather than the knowledge I gained. It's amazing that just by listening to men and women called of God how much at peace and comfort you can feel. I felt God's love. I felt the truth that was shared. I felt and know that Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know this church is the restored church of Jesus Christ. I felt that although I have so many short comings that as I come unto Christ I can be forgiven and have guilt and shame be replaced with love and joy. I felt the love that President Nelson had for every single person and know that as we listen to his words we are listening to Christ and our lives will become better. I know we can progress in this life and in the life to come. I am excited to study the talks that were given even more and find things that I can improve in my life and I invite you to do the same. 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks