My life- Week 70

Hey everyone! I hope all is going well for all of you back at home. You are all in my prayers and i can definitely feel the love and support from all of you as well. 

Honestly not much has changed here and we are just working as hard as we can trying to contact as many people as we can! Everything is all good here!

I just want to share a quick thought. This is a quote from Joseph B. Wirthlin from the April 2002 general conference talk called Follow Me referencing Mathew 4:18-22. 

“They were fishermen before they heard the call. Casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee, Peter and Andrew stopped as Jesus of Nazareth approached, looked into their eyes, and spoke the simple words, ‘Follow me.’ Matthew writes that the two fishermen ‘straightway left their nets, and followed him.’ … ‘If the Savior were to call you today, would you be just as willing to leave your nets and follow Him?’ I am confident that many would. …… We might define a net as anything that entices or prevents us from following the call of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Nets in this context can be our work, our hobbies, our pleasures, and, above all else, our temptations and sins. In short, a net can be anything that pulls us away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father or from His restored Church. Let me give you a modern example. A computer can be a useful and indispensable tool. But if we allow it to devour our time with vain, unproductive, and sometimes destructive pursuits, it becomes an entangling net. Many of us enjoy watching athletic contests, but if we can recite the statistics of our favorite players and at the same time forget birthdays or anniversaries, neglect our families, or ignore the opportunity to render acts of Christlike service, then athletics may also be an entangling net. … It is impossible to list the many nets that can ensnare us and keep us from following the Savior. But if we are sincere in our desire to follow Him, we must straightway leave the world’s entangling nets and follow Him”

I invite you all to think of how you can better 'straightway leave the world's entangling nets' in your own individual lives asking the Lord through prayer what you can do better starting today and then keep to that. I promise the Lord will bless you dramatically in your life. 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder T. Ricks 

50- Week 69

Hey everyone!!! Happy Fathers Day yesterday to all the cool dads reading this! Especially my dad! You are a... hype beast! 

Happy birthday this last week to my good friend Logan❤ It's amazing the affect that someone can have in your life as they are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

This week has been crazy!! The Lord is just waiting to open the heavens and pour out blessings upon you! 'Consider your ways' to know what might be stopping you from having the 'eyes to see and ears to hear' the blessings and miracles of the Lord. 

I was able to go on real life exchanges! Not virtual exchanges anymore! We got approved to do them which was awwwwesome. I went on an exchange with a guy named Elder Eskeets. He started his mission in Brazil and so he was learning Portuguese. It's kinda crazy how similar that and Spanish are but how different they are. He is the coolest dude though I learned a lot from him! We also ended up contacting 50 people, it was a grind!! Also in that time of our exchange in both of our areas combined we found 7 new people. So many miracles! It was amazing. I love exchanges. 

Eating healthy is also sooooo good, I bought some lettuce to make some salad last week and wow it was so good! I love it! 

I wanted to share a little thought from Come Follow me today from what we learned last week. Alma and Amulek are some amazing examples of how to endure trials in our lives! This also applies to everyone because we all go through trials! In the beginning of the chapter we know they take innocent people who were followers of the prophet called of God and burned them in front of them. He also burns scripture that they had been using to teach the word of God. Threw them in jail and didn't give them a good living situation at all, spit on them, no food or water, took their clothes. The whole time they didn't complain or ask God to take away their trial! The actually wanted to turn outward and bless/save the people by calling on the powers of God and to keep their faith in the Lord. Think in your life, how could you maybe turn outward instead of inward when you might be going through a trial and how do you think that would help you grow as a person? I think my favorite part of the story is the prayer they offer in complete agony saying 'O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance' and then this is what happened 'And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them.' As we pray IN FAITH for strength to overcome our difficulties (not to change them) the Lord will in return give us strength and will help us grow as a person! I invite you all to turn outward instead of inward in trying times and have faith in the Lord enough to pray to ask for strength and know that He can and will help you and you will become something and someone amazing! (If you want another example just look at the story of Job!! Job 1;Job 42, also see John 14:26-27)

I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and I know that the message that I have been sharing for the past little while really does and can change lives as we trust God and put all of our faith in Him.

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks

Be who God wants YOU to be- Week 68

Hey everyone!! God bless you all! Life is too short to focus on the sadness in life we are are here to 'have joy'!! Sometimes it's hard to find joy but I promise it's always there! We just need 'eyes to see and ears to hear' and the Lord will show us. I'm grateful to be here on a mission to serve the people of Wisconsin! 

Wow it's been a crazy week! I got to give real life service on P-Day last week!! We made a dam for some people to prevent flooding of their houses! There was so much water it was wild! It's called Swift Lake. Maybe if you google search it and look on thr satelite maps you'll be able to see it flooded! They said it's been pretty bad for a while but dang! Glad to serve them. 

I was able to go on 2 virtual exchanges! 1 with a reassigned missionary Elder Rallison who got double into my last area with another reassigned missionary Elder Craig(both brand new to the mission!) Pretty crazy! They are learning and it was fun to learn more about him!

2nd one I went on virtual exchange with Elder Lacey who was one of my past companions!!! It was a fun time to reunite!! Mission relationships are fun!! We all just try our best to have a good time it's a blast.

We set a goal as leadership in the zone to contact as many people as we can with at least a goal of 20 every day! We havr already started seeing miracles!!! Its the same principle in real life, as we start doing ALL that we can to do what the Lord wants us to do than miracles and blessings happen!

I was also to attend a baptism yesterday!!! It was so amazing and the Spirit was so strong there! I was able to give him his baptismal intervie on Saturday and then he asked if me and my companion would be able to come and it was so fun to see him make the baptismal covenant with our Heavenly Father and take upon himself the name of Christ which we all renew every single week as we partake of the sacrament! What a beautiful thing!

As I was reading in Haggai I came across a scripture that I liked!! 'Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.' (Haggai 1:5,7) this was so powerful to me!! EVERY single day we NEED to consider our ways and do the things the Lord has asked us to do! As you consider your ways the Lord will prompt you with things that you can do to improve your life style! Go ahead and try it, in sincer prayers consider your ways and counsel with the Lord to make your ways a little bit more His way every single day and then eventually your ways will be the Lord's ways and you will be happier. 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks 

Cocin[ador]- Week 67

Hey everyone!! I hope all is going well! I'm hearing that more things are opening back up for you all back home! That's awesome:) things are still pretty closed here.. we are still in what we call 'Prephase' so we still get to work from mostly inside of our apartment! 

This week has been pretty good!! It's been pretty tiring too! We have been working super hard trying to message everyone and call everyone we know and extending tons of invitations.. you know how it is as a missionary! 

Transfers were this last week and one of the Hermanas(the only person) I came to Wisconsin with from Mexico came to where I'm at! Kinda weird honestly because I've never really served around her but it's gonna be good. Crazy news!! She goes home in August. I think exactly a week after my birthday. Pretty crazy how the people I started my mission with are about to start going home! 

This week I became a chef! I bought $70 worth of food to cook and I've made a super good breakfast and lunch every single day! My comp taught me how to cook fried rice and so I try something a little different every single day with that! And then for breakast I cook like bacon and some type of breakfast burrito! It's been pretty satisfying! 

This week has been amazing for studies! Finished Daniel, Amos and Obadiah. Started a new study for the Book of Mormon. Had some amazing trainings from President Murphy and Elder Nielson of the 70. Continued my study on charity. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on some of those.

Obadiah 1:3 - The pride of thine heart hath decieved thee. 

Sometimes(often times) the struggles in our lives come because of the pride of our hearts! I invite you to think about how you can have more humility in your life and become more like Jesus Christ! 

1 John 3:1 - Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons [and daughters] of God.

Out of all the names Diety asked us to call Him Father! I think that is so special when I think of the bond I have with my dad, God truly is our loving Heavenly Father!!

Elder Nielson - Joseph Smith was ready to accept his mission... are you?

Think about this!! Ask yourself what you could be doing better to fulfill the mission the Lord has given you in this life. As we remember who we are and why we are here God can use us better as instruments in His hands! 

Jesus is the Christ! I love being a missionary and getting to share the restored gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love,

Elder T. Ricks

Inspiring- Week 66

Hello everyone! 

I hope all is going well. You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Thanks for all of the prayers and thoughts sent my way as well!

This last week has been pretty crazy! Its transfer week so that is why I'm sending this out today on Tuesday. We had about 28 new missionaries come in this last week so we had to house one of them for a couple days! All the new missionaries are really funny. Its inspiring how they all have such a desire to be out here and serve the Lord even if it wasn't their original call! Then later in the week NO ONE WAS ANSWERING THEIR PHONE. It was crazy! I don't know how every single person was busy like the same days same times but it was funny! We have gotten back in contact with most of them now. 

I also had a photo shoot. I love pictures and I could do it for hours... also, the sun comes up at like 5AM so thats when I wake up now a days haha! I also learned how to make fried rice. All of the riots everywhere are kinda crazy! I hope you all stay safe and that nothing happens to you! 

I've been studying in Daniel. I really like it! I invite you all to go back and remind yourself about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. And then to also read the story of Daniel and the lions den and think of the principles you learn while reading it and APPLY THEM IN YOUR LIFE. So these stories are found in Daniel 3 & Daniel 6. I like it all but I think one of my favorite parts is Daniel 3:17-18 - "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." They were willing to except ANYTHING that the Lord had for them. As we are obedient and are trying to be our best to follow the Lord we will have the same attitude as Shadrack, Meshach and Abed-nego and we will be able to endure anything that we go through with the strength of the Lord. 

DO GOOD, BE GOOD

Love, 

Elder T. Ricks