Jan. 24, 2011

Hello everyone! I hope that you're all doing really well! I for sure am. It's been a great week! Filled with the kinds of miracles that missionaries sometimes take advantage of, I think. :)

We started out kind of slow, with some canceled appointments, but we've also had some great success. We had Zone conference on Thursday, which really helped me to recharge and get the spiritual upliftment that I really needed. It's weird, but I used to get that from Church every week. Now, as I attend church with my investigators and less actives, I'm concentrating more on how they must feel and be recieving the lessons that are being taught. It's not so much for me now-a-days. But zone conference has filled that in for me. I sometimes wish it was more than once every three months, though. :) But it was really good! We had a good reminder that we're doing good work as a mission, because we had 463 baptisms in the year 2010 as a mission. That's so good! Way better than 2009. And we've set the goal as a mission to hit 500 in 2011. It's going to be a good year. I can tell. :)

I was warned before I left for my mission by some of my friends who have served missions, that life here is a crazy roller coaster sometimes. And even in the same day that I would have the most joy and also the most sorrow I've ever felt. I believe I finally found that to be true this week. On Friday, Sis. Christensen and I were preparing our lesson for Alisha about the word of wisdom. We were really concerned about it because we weren't really sure if she might be addicted to prescription pain medication. Plus she smokes, and loves her coffee. We were worried about how it might go. And we got really down, really fast. It was weird. But we worked through it, and then went to the lesson with Alisha -- praying that the spirit would really guide us to help her. We found out she's okay! She wants to quit smoking, which we're going to help her with, and she doesn't really care about not drinking alcohol. She's going to have a hard time giving up coffee though. And she said she wasn't sure she could really understand that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment, so we committed her to give it a try-- to test Heavenly Father -- and see if he wouldn't prove it to her by blessing her with more energy than she's had in a long time. She said she's willing to give it a shot! So we left there feeling much better about everything. :) It's crazy how fast your mood changes when you're on a mission.

We also experienced a bit of a miracle with one of our new investigators. Her name is Ofelia, and she was my very first Potential Investigator that I met on the very first street I tracted during my first week here. She had said then that she was interested, but to come back later. We were never able to find her again until a couple of weeks ago, when she invited us in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She's a mom of three. Hispanic, and Catholic. And she has the biggest heart, and she's very funny, and very interested in what we teach her. When we met with her, we invited her to come to church, but she couldn't make it because she has a job where she works all weekend. Her husband works during the week, and she's home with the kids, and the her husband is home on the weekends while she works. We were kind of bummed about that because it's hard to teach people about the sabbath day when they need the income that their jobs provide, and now is not a good time to be out of work. Most people we've taught are not willing to make the leap of faith that quitting your job requires... So we weren't sure how we were going to tackle that one... Well... we met with her agian on Saturday and she was so excited to tell us that she'd just been hired onto a new job that is Monday - Friday, and that pretty soon, she'll be able to quit the job that had her working on Sundays. It was amazing. She totally recognized it as a blessing from the Lord. It was one of those little miracles that show me over and over every day that the Lord is watching me and helping me in ways I can't even imagine. Just the day before I had told Sis. Christensen that I was tired of Investigators that were like 1000 piece puzzles, and couldn't the Lord just send us a 25 piecer... lol... Prayer answered, I guess. :)

Kim and her kids came to church again this week. That makes 3 weeks in a row for them. Also, Chris and his girlfriend came to church too. He met with the Bishop after church to talk to him about maybe getting baptized in Folsom. I'm sure that the Bishop was able to help him understand maybe a little better about why he needs to be baptized in the ward where he's living. We'll have an appointment with him this week, so that should be good. :) We did find out that he asked Maleah's mom if Maleah could be baptized, and the Mom said no. It's heartbreaking for him and for Maleah both, I'm sure. We're praying that she'll change her mind soon. We're going to move ahead with Chris's baptism, though, and then he'll be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood so that he can eventually baptize Maleah, when that is finally able to happen. So it's hard, but a good thing.

That's pretty much it for this week... we have transfers next monday, and for once, I have no idea what will happen. I still feel like I have work to do here with the investigators we're teaching, and that I'm not finished yet with Sis. Christensen, but I have been here for 7 1/2 months now, and that's a long time, even for sister missionaries (who don't get moved as often as elders). I'm sure that whatever happens will be the best for the area, the ward, the investigators, Sis. Christense, and for me.

I love all of you and I'm very excited to hear from you. !!!

Love, Sis. Ried