The Gospel is True; The Book is Blue!

Time is so different as a missionary.  There are things that I did only last Tuesday which I feel happened like, two weeks ago!

Hello everyone!

CMA Fest was going on in Nashville this weekend, but I was too busy to even remember it was going on.  So much has happened that I don't know what to touch on or where to begin!

Remember Nathaniel?  Well, we met up with him on Saturday and taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, while also reviewing the Restoration and Plan of Salvation.  He had good questions and the lesson went well.  Sister Burton remembered that the Sister missionaries of the Green Hills ward had an investigator who was getting baptized that evening and invited him to come.  And he did!  Additionally, we invited him to church and he came to both sacrament meeting and stayed for the 2nd block.  It took three and a half months but I finally had an investigator come to church!  Well, okay, Jackie was technically the first, but she slipped in and out without anyone knowing she'd come so I kind of only half count that one.

Since it was a walking week, my feet started hurting on Thursday, after traveling everywhere by foot.  The weather has also been incredibly humid and hot lately.  But at the end of the day, Sister Burton and I counted how many lessons we'd taught Thursday, and we totaled 9 lessons!  We typically have about 12-13 per week right now.  We were blown away.  Miracles!  #Godblessesusonwalkingweeks #butHe'llmakeusworkforthem!

On Wednesday evening, we had an new investigator named Vern come to our Book of Mormon study group.  It was awesome.  I actually didn't think Vern would become a progressing investigator because he expressed disinterest in converting and mainly only wanted to read the Book of Mormon to gain a better insight as to what our beliefs were.  I totally thought we were going to drop him.  But when we met with him to give him a Book of Mormon, we testified of its truthfulness and invited him to come to the study group.  He not only committed to come, he really enjoyed it and wanted to come back to another one!  Vern is a very cool guy and I learned this week that I should not be so quick to lose hope in someone.  I also saw just how powerful testifying of the Book of Mormon really is.  

It really is another testament of Jesus Christ.  Reading it brings us closer to our Lord and Savior.  And with it comes a promise that if we sincerely read and ponder the words it has to offer, and ask God if it really is His word, He will answer our prayers and we can receive a witness from the Spirit that the Book of Mormon is true.

I love the Book of Mormon.  I've been marathoning the Bible lately and I just finished the book of Job this morning.  Reading the Bible has helped me gain an even deeper appreciation for the Book of Mormon.  Both work together to establish the gospel of Jesus Christ.  If you haven't done this before, or even if you haven't done this lately, I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon, cover to cover, like a novel or with a question in mind.  I can promise you that will bless your life.

I love you all and hope you're having a good summer.  Stay safe and use bug spray!  Also, fireflies are basically the most magical creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, EVER!

 First house in Bellevue.

 Giant Magnolia blossom

Visiting a Hindu Temple

Come and Partake of the Fruit!

Another week's gone by!  How crazy is that?  The weather has been the 90's and 100's.  There have been a handful of good storms this last week as well.  I was so thankful for the car and AC.  But we won't have the car this week.  Wish me luck:)

President Andersen just sent an email to us this weekend, that our whole mission exceeded our goal of number of people baptized this month!  Also, he notified us that the Cookeville area will be transferring from our mission to the Knoxville mission this month.  Sister Hansen and Sister Brennan (my former STL) are currently serving in Cookeville.  This is happy news, because with the move over, the Knoxville mission will now have 6 stakes and qualify for a temple in the future!  We are actively working to make the Vision of the South come true.

I don't think I've mentioned the Vision of the South before.  Every morning, we have companion study and we recite a handful of different things from memory.  The Vision for the South is one of them.  One of my favorite lines included in the Vision goes: "Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men's souls."  This is so true.  Especially when it comes to God's work.  Because through Him, all things are possible.  A part of the Vision of the South, is that there will be temples, plural, in the South States.  And helping the work progress toward making that Vision a reality is such a blessing.

We saw Latisha twice this week and we've re-set her baptism date to be July 2nd.  She finally understands that the Book of Mormon is not another version of the Bible and that it is an account of different nations and their testimonies of Jesus Christ.  She has been overwhelmed with work lately and she hasn't been able to come to church at all.  But she understands the importance of coming to church and is making an effort to change her schedule.  Latisha's testimony and commitment to God is so strong!  We got black raspberry ice cream to celebrate :D

Yesterday, during tracting hour, we met a man named Michael.  He suffers from social anxiety and felt that because he couldn't be a "light on a hill," to others, he wasn't being a enough good disciple and God wasn't answering his prayers.  He also had questions about whether men were subject to time and chance or directed by God.  Sister Burton and I tried to explain to him that both could be true and that God looks upon the desires of our hearts when he judges us but he didn't accept our answers.  He believed that no matter what our efforts were, all of our lives are determined by chance and in frustration, walked back into his house, stating that he was tired and had long over time, come to terms with the fact that he would never receive salvation.  

Sister Burton and I just stood there, in shock and overwhelming sadness.  I'm praying that somewhere down the line, Michael will come to feel and know how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love him.  I'm so thankful to have the knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful to know that I am a daughter of a loving God, who only wants the best for me and who is ever present in my life.  It is through the Atonement that I can find a certain peace and joy that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, and I am pleased to accept my calling to testify of our Savior's love so that some other soul can come closer to Christ and partake of the fruit which is most sweet and pure, and desirable above all other fruit.

I love all y'all!

Bellevue Adventures

Hello again!

Another week into another transfer. Same area, new companion. Sister
Burton is amazing and I can tell that this transfer is going to be so
much fun! She's been on her mission for 6 months and Bellevue is her
second area. She is from Hawaii...well, she says she's from Hawaii
because she knows the most about that place. Her dad is in the Navy
so she's lived in many, many different places.

Bellevue is doing great! We did a lot of walking this week and I have
a really bad tan line on my feet, which refuses to go away.

We had an incident this week in which google maps lied to us so we
were trying to blindly figure it the bus system to get back to our
apartment. I kind of feel bad for Sister Burton because this week was
her first experience of riding on a bus in America. I figure that we
probably spent about 4 1/2 hours on a bus that day. It was thanks to
memories of my previous bus experiences and really kind bus
drivers/other people, that we were able to find our way back to the
apartment. Overall, it wasn't actually that bad of an experience.
Just long, repetitive and tedious. And now, I understand the
Nashville bus system so much better!

We lost one of our ward missionaries, Brother Sabey, on Sunday because
he's been called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. Brother
and Sister Sabey are basically angelic member missionaries, as far as
I'm concerned. And we're so sad to see him leave but also so excited
that we'll have a ward council member who's pumped about missionary
work!

One really awesome thing that happened last night. We have this less
active family that we have been visiting regularly on Sunday evenings.
Lately, only Sister Owens has been present when we come by. But last
night, Brother Owens was there too! Before now, he has always either
been gone, sleeping because he has night shift, or cooking dinner in
the background. But he was there last night! And he said he made a
commitment to come listen to our lessons/messages more often in the
future...without us having to say anything! #miracles

Two other miracles happened on Sunday: Sister Green brought a friend
to church and Brother Thompson brought a friend to a patriotic
concert, sponsored by the church. It is so inspiring to see members
of the Bellevue ward sharing their testimonies and doing missionary
work.

My favorite miracle this week though: fireflies galore! I am seeing a
lot more and they are so beautiful!

I hope all y'all are doing well. Happy birthday Cami! Enjoy your
last year as a "teenager" :)
Sister Ririe

Another transfer gone by. . .

Wow, where does the time go?

Hey, all y'all!

Today is my last p-day with Sister Hansen.  We got out transfer calls over the weekend and she is being called to be an STL (Sister Training Leader) in Cookeville...(that's the area where Sister Peyton started her mission!)  So I'm once again, I'm taking over the area, staying in Bellevue, and going to be getting a new companion, and her name is Sister Burton.  I was shown a picture of her and I recognized her face but I haven't actually met her/had a conversation with her.

We taught a total of 19 lessons again!  Whoo!  The work is progressing!

This last week was my first week as a normal missionary, no longer in training!  This meant we headed out at 10am to work, as opposed to staying for an extra hour to do training, have lunch, then heading out at 12pm.  We were able to have another lesson with a fairly recent investigator we found named Chris, Nathaniel (with whom we had a lesson last week with Sister Spackman), and drop by Latisha's so Sister Hansen could say goodbye.

Saturday was an interesting day.  We found another large but dying cockroach in the kitchen so we disposed of that, and spent the next couple of hours throughly cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, behind the fridge, washer & dryer, and and re-spraying Raid and 409 everywhere.  It's actually quite miraculous that almost all of the cockroaches we've found have been on their backs, dying.  I think we have an angel watching over the apartment.  Also, the Raid must be working.  We spent all morning doing that, then we spent lunch time cleaning out the closets of our apartment.  We compiled a large Goodwill pile.  Later that same day, we helped a less-active named Alicia move out of and into her new apartment.  And after that, we followed up with some investigators we had and had an amazing first lesson with this girl we tracted into named Ariel, and her sisters.  More on her, maybe later.  Bellevue was having a Bellevue Picnic all day, that day.  It's an annual thing and kind of a big deal.  There were so many people there!  We went around to different booths and did street contacting.  At night, we sat in our car, called some members for different appointments, then watched the fireworks show.

Another cool miracle that happened this last week: we were tracting in a neighborhood and on the second or third door we knocked, the lady stood at the window and shooed us away.  As we turned around and started walking away, she came outside and yelled at us that we couldn't solicit and we needed to leave or she'd call the police.  (I'd like to insert my brief commentary in saying that one, we are not soliciting.  And two, a member actually looked up the law for us and told us that since ours is a religious purpose, we're totally legal in Bellevue anyway :P). And she just sat on her lawn, pulling weeds and watching us, so we kind of had to leave at that point.  We decided that obviously, there was someone on that street we needed to teach.  But we left and I remembered there was a McPherson Dr. close by I'd been wanting to tract for over the past 12 weeks but for various reasons, we'd never gotten around to it.  So we went there instead and we went down the whole left side of the street and only one man answered.  It was a very long street with many houses, but people just weren't home.  On the other side of the street we were tracting, there were a couple of guys landscaping and mowing lawns.  After we ended our tracting hour, we walked back to where we'd parked the car and Sister Hansen pointed out that one of the landscape workers was done working and was going to walk past us.  She told me we were going to talk to that guy so I had about 5 seconds of mental preparation before we greeted him and asked him how his day was.  His name is Rashad.  He was tired and told us he hadn't been having a good day.  I gave him a pass along card but as we started talking about religion more, we ended up giving him both a Restoration pamphlet and Book of Mormon too.  I shared with him Mosiah 2:41 and he gave us his number and asked us to keep in daily contact with him!  Like whaaaat?  And looking back, it's so evident that the Lord guided us to be able to talk with Rashad that day.  #thisisHisworkandwecantmessitup

Anyhow, I hope all is going well.  It wasn't humid last week.  In fact, there were days when it was almost chilly.  But we'll see what happens this week!  Tennessee weather is so weird and unpredictable.  But I love it!

Best regards,
Sister Ririe

Sent from my iPad

Miracles in May

Hello everyone!

This week last week has been busy! We taught 19 official lessons when
we usually have an average of about 10. All of the tracting is paying
off:)

Latisha still has a baptism date, but we have decided to postpone it
because she hasn't come to church yet and most likely will not be
ready by the 28th. Also, there are a few principles/doctrines we feel
she doesn't quite understand yet, even though she says she does. It
is a very interesting thing, to witness people believing in or saying
cognitively dissonant or conflicting ideas, and be totally okay with
it. I don't think my mind could handle living in a state like that!
I am so grateful that the gospel makes sense and encourages us to ask
questions and search for answers.

There are so many good and miraculous things which have happened...

Bellevue had its first convert baptism in years, last Saturday.

Andre, a kid we met by accidentally knocking on the wrong door,
finally got permission from his parents for us to teach him the
lessons!

We had a great lesson with another investigator named Nathan, who is
from somewhere in Asia and studying cell biology and recently moved to
Nashville for a postdoc. We brought Sister Spackman with us, who
surprisingly ended up being the perfect member to have with us that
day. She is a physician's assistant in neurosurgery and served her
mission in Korea. They were able to connect through their passion for
science and she bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and the blessings
of Priesthood power.

We have a handful of other investigators (Jasmine, Keisha, and Chris)
we've found, who we feel are so prepared for the gospel.

I saw fireflies for the first time!!! They are so cool!

Theres so much that has happened, I don't really know which parts to
write about, but those are just a few highlights of the week.
Especially the fireflies:)

There are good and great things happening in Bellevue.

It's kind of hard to believe that it's already the last week of the
transfer. This Saturday, I'll be finding out if I'm moving to another
area or staying.

I love all y'all! Stay safe and well!
Sister Ririe

Good day, Readers!

This last week, we set a baptismal date with Latisha, the investigator
who was referred to us by the Green Hills sisters. Latisha is
awesome. She has a very strong testimony and faith in God. She
recently moved from Washington to here, by herself. She was
originally going to be in the Green Hills ward, but when she arrived,
her apartment arrangements fell through and because of a myriad of
other things, she ended up living her car for a week and a half.
Thankfully, she was finally able to find an apartment but it happened
to be in Bellevue, so she will be in our ward! We helped her move in
last week, and we had lessons with her on Tuesday and Thursday with
her. On Thursday, Sister Andersen came out on splits with us and it
was fantastic. Prior to that lesson, we'd gone out to lunch with
Sister Andersen and the Green Hills Sisters. That was an absolute
blast! But back to Latisha! It was amazing to see how she came out
from her trials stronger and greatly blessed, because she didn't give
up or lose faith. She already wants to go to the temple! I am so
happy for her and I'm looking forward to helping her progress.

In addition to Latisha, the Elders have two other baptisms lined up
for this May. We are all so excited for Bellevue! Three baptisms in
the month of May, and they'll be the first convert baptisms Bellevue's
had in years!

Also last week, I gave my first training, during district meeting,
about Teaching Repentance. Since I haven't actually taught anyone
repentance yet, I felt very inexperienced and unqualified to give the
training, but somehow, with a lot of help from God, Preach My Gospel,
and the other missionaries participating, it turned out not that bad!
I also went on exchanges with Sister Gillespie, to the Green Hills
area, last week. Sister Gillespie and I have a lot in common and we
tracted into a bishop of another church, who was happy to speak with
us and invited us to come back! It was cool because he told us he
talks to his congregation about Jehova's Witnesses and Mormon
missionaries and uses us as good examples of going out to spread the
word.

I hope y'all had a great Mother's Day. I was able to skype my family
and it was awesome. I love all y'all! As Sister Andersen said, "This
is the Lord's work and we can't mess it up!"

Best regards,
Sister Ririe

Salutations, everyone!

Our main investigator, Tabetha, dropped us on Friday, this last week.  It was very abrupt and unexpected, and I was very attached to her...she was my "first" real investigator.  The day before she dropped us, I'd invited her to be baptized and she said yes.  We set up a baptismal date for June and it was a fantastic lesson.  Then right before we left, we told her she'd need to get married before her baptism or not live together with her fiancé.  We didn't provide her with a reason why, and looking back, I realize that we probably should have waited to tell her until next time or worded it differently.  The next morning, she texted us and told us she wasn't interested in us coming over anymore.  It was devastating to realize I had just lost Tabetha because of something I'd done/not done and now I won't get the chance to go back and explain or fix our mistake.

This is the Lord's work though, and I think He was preparing me to handle this loss because we had zone conference last Wednesday and a point one of the AP's emphasized, was "letting go" of people in our Area Book.  Elder Danielson capitalized on how refusing to let investigators go means a lack of faith.  He assured us, assured me, that God is always mindful of and teaching these people, and that I am not denying someone a chance at salvation if I delete them.  All I can do right now is have faith that Tabetha will find her way back to the gospel somehow in the future and give the matter to God.

Although I had this new faith, I was still having a hard time that day, so Heavenly Father blessed us with the experience of finding Mike that evening.  In addition to Tabetha dropping us, our appointments canceled and we walked back and forth, all afternoon/evening, to follow up with people but all of our plans fell through.  In the evening, we tracted this complex we'd tracted before.  It was hot and dark and I was tired and getting discouraged.  Then we knocked on this one door, and a girl answers.  She runs to get her Dad and he introduces himself as Mike.  He has four daughters and we didn't meet his wife but I saw her in the background.  When we were talking with Mike, I felt a good and peaceful feeling wash over me.  I don't know if it was because of the stark contrast of me feeling down all day and then being comforted by the Holy Ghost but the peace we felt with Mike was probably the strongest I've ever felt with any of the people I've met so far.  #miraclesandblessings.  I saw that there are people out here ready to hear the gospel.  The work continues forward and I won't witness the blessings if I don't let go of the past and move on.

During companion study, we were discussing how we can help the people we teach be more aware of the Spirit.  We looked up many scriptures about the Holy Ghost.  One of those verses was John 14:26-27, and it's a scripture that I've read and heard a million times before, but this time, it was like I was rediscovering it for the first time.  The particular phrase, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid," really hit me.  I consciously felt the Holy Ghost touch my heart and comfort me.  That verse was a very strong answer to my prayers and an assurance to not be afraid that my mistakes and weaknesses might drive people away from the gospel in the future, like Tabetha.  I am so thankful for my God who is aware of me and comforts me when I am discouraged and knows exactly what I need to be at peace with the present and move on.

And moving on, is exactly what the work is doing!  In addition to meeting Mike, the STL's gave us a referral, Latisha, who has moved into our ward boundaries and has a baptismal date set already.  The Elders and us, plus a member, helped Latisha move into her new apartment on Thursday, and we are going to have our first lesson with her on Tuesday.  At the beginning of this transfer, we set a goal for one baptism and we've cycled through finding and losing four different candidates before finding Latisha.  With this transfer already halfway over, I was certain that we probably wouldn't find someone ready for baptism in time but we just might meet our goal!  God truly blesses us, each and every day.  We just need to exercise our faith in Him and not let the past trouble our present and future.

I hope y'all are doing well!  (There are so many marriage announcements lately!)

Lots of love,

Sister Ririe

Picture 1:  Sisters at zone conference

 Picture 2:  Zone conference

 Picture 3:  Smoothie King
(angel food!)

 Picture 4:  Riddle:  Elder Larsen's grandmother and my aunt are cousins.  That makes us??