Exciting Times!

So apparently the main gas line from Alabama that supplies gasoline to Tennessee broke?  And now everyone is scrambling to find gas.  A member named Deven, told us it took him 50 minutes to get gas on Saturday and when he was filling up, he got 6 gallons and it ran out.  There is literally no gasoline available to buy aIt's kind of funny.  We only have a quarter of a tank left so we're praying it it'll last us until the line gets fixed.  Two members offered us gas while we were visiting them, the day the incident happened, and we declined both, slightly confused as to why people were offering us gas??  And then we heard we news from the Elders, later that night.  Ahhh!  Why is there such a delayed news report system for missionaries?!  Haha, we should be fine though:)  We heard there was a bombing in New York too.  There is much calamity happening in this exciting time of the last days.  It really makes reading the scriptures and finding the parallels and prophecies so much more interesting.

Greetings everyone!

This week we were not able to see Jeff again because he is in New Orleans and Allison and Mike also took an out of state trip to Utah to go to Temple Square and also meet up with Sister Kronmiller's family (it's just so casual), so we didn't see them either.  

On Tuesday, we had interviews with President Stone.  Interviews with him are different than with President Andersen, but I suppose that's only to be expected!  He told Sister Kronmiller that he had he impression that her work in the Thompson Station 2nd area is not done and he told me that I'm becoming one of the more experienced sister missionaries in the mission which...nope, nada, no way!  I'm still a fetus missionary!  I am almost at my 7-month mark and that is so crazy!  Time flies by so quickly!!

We weren't able to teach Isabella a lesson because her sister was sick.  Brother Escobar asked us to keep her in our prayers and thankfully, she got better!  Isabella also came to church!  Her mom dropped her off, which is kind of a big deal because her mom was initially against her being baptized, and she had a great time!  Just one more Sunday and then she can be baptized!! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk to Isabella much, other than give her a hug before she left, because I was busily trying to keep track of the other 3 investigators who came to church on Sunday as well!

To start off with, we got a call from Sister Helquist in the morning on Wednesday, and she was just asking if there was anything we needed that day.  It was kind of an odd call and threw me off for a bit because I've never gotten a call like that before.  Actually, we were in the middle of studies so we asked her if we could call her back.  When going over our plans for the day, we thought of Katie, an investigator who we've kept around for the past several weeks and who'd not been making any progress.  We were about to drop her but we managed to get a last minute set appointment with her the day before.  We asked called back Sister Helquist and asked her if she'd like to come with us to that appointment and she said she would.  We read part of 3 Nephi 11 with Katie and invited her to come to church.  She didn't have a car so she initially said no but we offered to find her a ride and she then she said yes, she would come.  Come Sunday, Sister Helquist brought Katie and her two young kids to church.  Katie has two young kids and her oldest daughter is four.  Her daughter is a super social and active child!  We brought a coloring book and a bag of Cheerios to help keep her entertained during sacrament meeting.  In Relief Society, a sister mentioned how hard it was for her to give up coffee when she converted.  Katie was busy attending to her baby so I was desperately hoping that Katie would be wearing spiritual earmuffs but no such luck.  Katie looked up, surprised and asked, "y'all don't drink coffee?"  The whole room went silent and everyone was looking at us.  Ummm...the news has been broke!  Haha!  We told her to not worry about it and we'd explain it to her later.   She told one of the sisters she'd probably come back again and Sister Helquist told us that she's planning on watching the General Women's Broadcast too!

Also this week, a kid named Carter Helquist called us and asked us to come to early morning seminary with him and his non-member friendHe has a few friends who have been coming to seminary with him regularly so we got to wake up at 5am and have a seminary flash back experience.  It was great.  It was Sister Kronmiller's first time experiencing early morning seminary, actually.  And then Michaela, Carter's friend, came to church on Sunday!  I didn't get to talk to her either but we called Carter later in the day to follow up and he said she should be coming to church next Sunday again!

Also, we finally got to meet with Mark again.  (It only took us like, 7 or 8 weeks!)  Mark is an 18-year old who recently moved out and is kind of just struggling through life on his own.  We met him while tracting, super late in an evening, last transfer.  We were able to meet with him thanks to Deven (same Deven who told us about his experience getting gas) who picked Mark up from his home and drove him to a park where we could all meet up.  We talked about faith in Christ and how this gospel can bless us.  We invited him to come to church to see how he felt and also to be able to interact with more people.  He agreed to come if he didn't work on Sunday and he was able to come!  Deven gave him a ride so that he could come.  After all three hours, we asked Mark how he liked it and he said, "it was good, but I didn't like the church part of it."  What?  Mark, it's all church!  Haha he meant sacrament meeting.  He didn't like how formal and traditional everything in that meeting was.  But he really liked Gospel Principles and Priesthood Meeting, and he said he'd like to come back!

Church was so stressful.  But in a good way.  None of the three other investigators would have come if it weren't for member involvement.  Crazy and exciting times!

Sister Ririe

 Unexpected detour car drives down beautiful parkways are always welcome.

Our district

Us and Katie and Annabelle, her daughter

Sparkling cider at goodbye dinner before transfer.

I got a haircut this morning.  It's shorter than I wanted but...meh.  It'll grow back soon.

No Hablo Español Bien & If It's Not Sparkly, I Don't Want It!

Language barriers will continue to be the bane of my existence.

Greetings!

This week, I went on exchanges with the Hermanas to Columbia!  It was kind of difficult to not be able to understand everything but I was thankfully able to understand some parts of our conversations throughout the day.  Plus with the Hermana's translating for me, I was able to help teach a little, sometimes.  The gift of tongues is real!

On one of the evenings, we went to find a less active named Kurt.  We'd tried his home a number of times before but no one answered he door so this was the first time Sister Kronmiller and I were able to successfully meet the man.  I don't know what I was expecting but our experience was quite simply one of the most appalling yet greatest interaction I've ever had with a human being yet.  I have never met anyone who loves money and himself, more than Kurt.  Basically, the whole conversation was Kurt bragging about how much money he'd made that day selling cars and how nice his home is.  He pointed out the $1000 carpet under his motorcycle, the casinos in his home, his hired personal chef, his pedicure he'd gotten earlier that day...and his sparkle enhanced floor.  Literal quotes from him, said in all seriousness: "if it's not sparkly, I don't want it" and "everybody in Spring Hill knows me."  Man, the guy was beginning to give Tony Stark a run for his ego.  Through it all, though, I could sense that in spite of all of this, he wasn't truly happy.  I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what can bring people real and everlasting joy and peace.  In the past, I've personally thought about how nice it'd be to have a lot of money but after meeting Kurt and seeing him basking in all of his wealth, I know for sure that no amount of money or wealth will ever bring me more happiness than my Savior.

Isabella finally came to church on Sunday!  It was awesome.  Sister Kronmiller and I smiled all throughout church so much, my mouth hurt afterward haha.  We went over the baptismal questions with her this week and she seems pretty solid with it all.  The only thing left now, is helping her come to church another two times and making sure that she will want to continue coming to church after she is baptized.

Also on Sunday, the Elders had an investigator come to church who mainly spoke Chinese and unfortunately, there was nobody available to translate for her.  I walked by and said hello but I didn't know much more than that.  I don't think I've regretted not putting forth more effort before my mission to learn Chinese more than I did at that moment, even when I was in China.  Grrgh!  Language barriers! 

Anyhow, I'm doing well.  Spring Hill and Thompson Station are doing well.  We weren't able to meet with Jeff but we are hoping to find a different time to see him this week.

See y'all later!

Sister Ririe

  We had a zone p-day!

  exchanges with the STLs and their companions.

 We randomly saw Allison at Walmart whilst shopping for groceries today:)

 The Old School Cafe...literally one of the best places I've eaten at ever!!  And it's just right down the street from us.  It's an old school building that's been remodeled and turned into a cafe!

Finally had cheesy grits, tasted like nachos!

List Not and New Humans Found!

Another week gone by already?  It's hard to believe that I've been out for over 6 months...

Yesterday in my personal studies, I was reading Mosiah 2 which is the section where King Benjaman is addressing his people in a final sermon before he passes away.  In verse 32, he says, "But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit..."  I discovered the word "list" in that sentence and I knew that he wasn't talking about a grocery list, so I looked the word up in the dictionary to see what "list" is defined as.  What I discovered was really cool!  List means, "inclination; cause to lean to the side; move; tilt to one side; angle; slant; tip..."  The word "listeth" is found in future verses another three times and they all are in reference to which spirit or voice we hearten to during this life.  I found that to be really meaningful to me.  We are being counseled to not even lean or tilt toward anything evil or negatively influential.  It really emphasizes how narrow and straight the path of righteousness is!

This week we found found three new investigators! We've been in kind of a dry spot for the last few weeks and they are the first new investigators we've been able to find for a while!  We found them all while tracting, which is great because there were definitely some days where we didn't feel like going out knocking doors. One of them is comfortable where she is right now but we had a fantastic conversation with her...(she was so funny!) and while she isn't interested now, we walked away happy that planted a good seed with her.

Another one of them is a girl named Lexie, who said she'd heard of our church from one of her middle school teachers.  And when we asked her if she'd had the chance to read the Book of Mormon, she said, "I wish!" Haha we got so excited and eagerly gave her one, with a pamphlet in the front. We set up a time to see her again, which is actually later today!  I hope the meeting turns out well!

Another of our new investigators, Cameron, had played basketball with members before so he was curious to know more about us. We asked him if he'd read the Book of Mormon ("no") and if he'd like a copy. He gave a hesitant "...yeeeeesss..." and asked what he'd have to do to get one. We both were beaming outwardly and inwardly laughing with glee as we handed him one and told him, "Nothing! We have one for you right now!"  (We do not solicit these books, Sir!). We are excited to meet with his family his Saturday and see what their thoughts of the Book of Mormon are.

Many members from our ward left this weekend to help out with the flooding in Louisiana.

We were not able to see Jeff this week but we are planning on meeting with him this Tuesday!

Also this week, Allison texted us and asked to take us out to dinner.  We wet to Cracker Barrel again and it was delicious.  We had a super nice waitress, who is actually going to graduate school here in Tennessee for therapy.  Sister Kronmiller got super excited and wanted to know more because she is planning to come back to Tennessee for grad school in drug rehab therapy as well!  Afterward, the waitress thanked us to talking with her and cheering up her day.  Turns out, she'd pulled a muscle in her thigh and was not having a very good day so far.  You never know who you can influence!

What else did we do this week?  Oh yeah, we had zone meeting!  More changes are happening in the TNM.  Our President has shortened our list of weekly and daily goals to motivate us missionaries to simply our focuses and place an emphasis on finding new people to teach.  Also, he has asked us to do more service in our agendas so Sister Kronmiller and I went to the library to return a wifi router we checked out and while there, I asked about volunteer opportunities in the community.  We are thinking of maybe helping out in the food pantry sometime in the near future.  

Lots of appreciation for y'all reading this!

Sister Ririe

Hello!

Hey y'all,

This week we sisters of the T-Stat 2 area have been battling sickness.  Well, not me.  Just mainly Sister K.  But we have been working together to overcome this rather inconvenient opposition and while it's still a work in progress, she is feeling much better!

This week we were able to meet with Jeff again!  We went with a member, Sister Purdon, and discussed what questions he had about the Book of Mormon.  Mainly, we taught him about how to receive an answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true.  The lesson went very well and Sister Purdon was super excited about how well the lesson turned out and was glad she was able to go with us. Sometimes I forget that lessons with a member present are not just for the investigator's benefit...the lessons also bless the members that come with us!  The Spirit was there and we are looking forward to seeing him again.  He is not quite ready to involve his family in the lessons yet but he's working his way there!

That's the main thing that happened this week.  

We were also able to see Isabella and we brought a beehive with us.  That lesson went very well too.  Isabella is so excited to be baptized but she still has not made it to church so that is the main thing we are going to focus on in upcoming visits.

Small world discoveries: we had dinner with the Chambers, who are members in the ward and it turns out that Sister Chambers' father's mother is the oldest sister of my Grandma Edna.  So basically, we are second cousins!

I hope all y'all are doing well!

Shout out to Mrs. Kylie Smith, congratulations! :)

Sister Ririe

Abundant doormat window shopping is one of the hidden benefits of being a missionary.

Spilled Coke, Tadpoles, and Teaching, oh my!

To start off our week splendidly, we discovered a wonderful surprise in the backseat of our new car, Monday evening.  To preface, we dropped by to see a less-active family last week, and the kid, Jeff, answered and said they weren't available but he offered us a drink of water so we gratefully accepted.  He comes back out with two cans of coke and apologizes that they are actually out of bottled water and we felt guilty for refusing the coke so we told the cans of soda and left hem in the back of the car.  I eventually took mine inside our apartment but Sister Kronmiller left her's in the car.  Come Monday, I look back from the driver's seat, trying to retrieve my bag, and I realize that the Coke's top lid is almost completely ripped off and all of the soda has spilled or splattered all over the car.  How delightful.  Exploding coke.  RIP Sisters Ririe and Kronmiller.  

We spent that evening buying carpet shampoo, scrubbing out the coke, and vacuuming it up.  All throughout the week however, we keep discovering more previously unseen coke splatters so...the adventure has been on going!  But we think most of it is out so that's a relief.

Hello everyone, how goes life!?

We were finally able to see Jeff on Tuesday!  We talked about the Restoration and discussed the priesthood, General Conference and opposition.  It's been 3 weeks since we've been able to successfully meet with him, even though we keep in touch by sending him texts of suggestions to read from the Book of Mormon.  We talked about the adversary and how Satan does not want him to come closer to Christ so he will experience opposition as he continues to investigate and learn more about the gospel.  One example of opposition is our not being able to meet for those three weeks because different things kept coming up.  Jeff said that he'd thought about that before we came to see him and mentioned that it was actually sort of "validating" to see that this gospel is good because there is opposition in seeking and living it.  That is such a great example of how we can either let our trials and opposition we face deter and frustrate us or challenge and strengthen us.  The Spirit was present and Jeff is so interested in learning more.  We invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and asked him to pray this week about whether he should be baptized.  He said he would and we're planning to see him again tomorrow!

District meeting on Wednesday was awesome.  Everyone is new to the area except us and Elder Berryhill, who is the ZL.  There are 5 greenies in our district!  Crazy.  

On Thursday, we contacted a referral from a recent convert named Amanda.  We weren't able to teach her a lesson but we asked her if she'd like to learn more about our church and take the discussions and she said yes!  She is so sweet.  We set an appointment for later this coming week and we're so excited to begin teaching her.

Also on Thursday, we tried to see a potential investigator naked Patrick but he wasn't available and his Dad answered instead.  His dad is so nice and he told us more about their children.  Guess what!  They adopted four kids from Asian countries!  Two from Korea, one from the Phillipeans, and one from China.  Soooo cool!

Come Friday, we had dinner at Allison and Mike's and followed up on our invitation to them to read the Bible with a question.  They both had such good experiences with doing that challenge.  Mike had a question about how to know where to read, when he's got a question.  There are several different answers that I could have given and more that I could have added, upon reflection, but I testified that while I don't know where to find those answers, God does.  I've seen while on my mission, a steady routine of reading from the scriptures and talks every day has helped me find answers to my questions.  Sometimes I find answers to questions I've wondered for years, sometimes I find answers to questions that I haven't even fully formed yet, and sometimes I find that the answer is scattered across the scriptures and its discovery must be found in patience and line upon line.  That reminds me of a quote from Elder Holland: "Some blessings come soon.  Some come late.  And some don't come till heaven.  But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."  As another commitment, we invited them to begin reading the Bible diligently every day, even if it were for only five minutes.  They happily agreed.  

We actually went back to their home the next day to help them relocate some tadpoles which were living in a kiddy pool in their backyard.  There were so many baby tadpoles!  But they didn't want to kill them, so we offered to do some service and help them move the tadpoles to a nearby stream.  Operation: Tadpole Relo 2016 was a success!

Much love,

Sister Ririe

Slow but Fun Times

Oh, the lovely random things one will see when driving past people's front lawns...(picture1)

We received transfer calls this weekend and Sister Kronmiller and I are staying in this area-yay!  But crazy things are happening in other areas.  Nobody in our district is staying, all of them are being whitewashed out.  Many, many changes are coming about, with President Stone as our new leader!

We had trainer/trainee meeting on Tuesday and I got to see Sister Burton again:). There were great trainings given and afterward, Sister Kronmiller and I came back to our area, feeling completely spent, but it was only 2 o'clock!  Fun times, fun times!

The week was rather slow.  So many appointments fell through and had to be rescheduled for this week instead.  My companion and I are determined to find many people next transfer (this week) and build our teaching pool!!

We met with Allison again!  Well actually, she met with us.  She took us out to lunch again, at Cracker Barrel, and we had a fantastic time!  She and her husband, Mike, are so eager to have us over again, so we set up a tentative time to go to their home and teach them again, later this week.  

To end this transfer off on a good note, I finished reading through the Old Testament in my personal studies, today.  There are a myriad of stories and prophecies that I'd seen quoted or referenced but it was a fun treasure to finally understand and read the sources of those references on my own.  Additionally, I finished 2 Nephi 33, which is my favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon!  The departing testimony of Nephi is so powerful.  "And if he shall believe in Christ he will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they should teach all men that they should do good.  And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye-for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words..." (2 Nephi 33:10-11)

I know that the Bible and he Book of Mormon are the Word of God and that the Lord has blessed us immensely by giving us these volumes of scripture.  And I know that God loves each of us so much that He wants us to pray and ask Him in faith, sincere desire, and real intent, if these scriptures are true so that He can give each individual a unique and personal answer.

I hope all y'all are doing well!

Love,

Sister Ririe

Ya Ain't Born 'Til You's Tried Goulash

It was a very odd week.  As I reflect back on what we did, it feels like we didn't do much but in reality, we did a LOT of different things.

We tried all weekend and Monday to find a member to come with us to Jeff's teaching appointment and after many, many calls, we found a Sister who could potentially come with us.  Come Tuesday morning, right before our appointment, we call to confirm that she is coming but her plans changed and she could not make it.  So we had to reschedule our appointment for Friday.  

Later that afternoon, we had an appointment to teach a 9-year old girl named Isabella, but we did not have any plans of things to do before her lesson, so we knocked on some doors while we tried to kill 40 minutes.  It was a very interesting tracting experience.  We accidentally knocked on the door of some active members, whom we didn't recognize immediately...#awkwardmissionarymoments (in our defense, they had not been to church in a very long time because of summer vacation).  We also passed by this one house who had a drummer practicing in the garage and the music was very loud, even though the garage door was closed.  They didn't hear us knocking so they didn't answer, which I was kind of disappointed about because that drummer was very talented.  

The coolest part of that tracting time was meeting the Robinson's.  Toward the end of the hour, we knock on a door and a mom answers and introduces herself as Amber.  We talk to her for a minute and she says she has a belief in Christ but her husband is much more knowledgable about religious stuff and would be better suited to talk with us so she went inside and got her husband, Jeffery, to step outside and converse instead.  Jeffery is such a cool guy.  He's researched and read many religious texts on his own, including the Book of Mormon.  Haha, he said he'd rate it as a 6 on a scale of 1-10.  He doesn't go to church right now because he has been doing chemo treatment on Sunday's.  We testified that the gospel blesses us and brings joy to people in this life, and not just the life to come, and he was interested in that.  We asked him if he'd like to hear the messages we share and he said yes, and gave us his number!  I'm very interested to see how this turns out.  #WhyareallthecoolpeoplenamedJeffery?  

Right after that, we booked it to Isabella's lesson and set a baptismal date with her for September 3:). She is such a sweet girl!  The most difficult obstacle will be her coming to church.  Her mom is not a member and her Dad and older sister travel on the weekends, all the time for softball games.  Softball is very important to them.  The Elders told us that her sister is like, the number one pitcher in the nation for her age.  Softball season has slowed down during August though, so hopefully, we'll be able to see her more often and help her family gain a testimony of the importance of attending church.

Apparently Tuesday was a very eventful day because we met with a former investigator named Connie that evening.  She is so fun.  Her sister is an active member, in one of the Franklin wards. She was telling us about a great new recipe she found for Goulash.  When she heard that neither one of us had heard of or tried goulash, she was absolutely floored and told Sister Kronmiller, "Child!  You ain't born yet til you's tried goulash!  What about Gumbo?"  Haha, she was dismayed that we hadn't eaten true gumbo either...we only have heard of it from the Princess and the Frog movie.  She promised she'd make some for us to eat later.

On Wednesday, we had our district meeting at the Franklin stake center, which is right next to the Nashville temple!  We also tracted into a really nice lady named Mandy.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'd read it that night!  She was really interested in the messages we teach as missionaries, partly because she has a co-worker friend who is an active member of our ward too.

Remember that drummer I mentioned earlier?  On Thursday, we were driving around, trying to contact less-active members and it turns out that, that home belongs to the Green family, in our ward.  And they are all very talented musicians in a band together.  They invited us in and played some songs for us, which was awesome!  The music was very loud and both Sister Kronmiller and I had the epiphany that the Green's were practicing when we'd knocked, earlier that week.  We're kind of glad they didn't hear us knocking and answer because that would have made two awkward accidental tracting into members, experiences in one day.

Friday...we were so excited to meet with Jeff!  But then we didn't.  We finally found a member to come with us but he didn't show up and didn't answer any of our calls or texts.  We went back home, very confused and worried that something had happened.  Thankfully, he texted us later in the day apologizing for missing the appointment because he'd slept past it.  He'd been up all night at the hospital for a family emergency but thankfully all is well and we rescheduled to see him tomorrow afternoon.  He has still been reading the Book of Mormon and found Alma 26:22 to be a fascinating verse.  We are so excited to keep teaching him.

Yesterday, we had dinner with the Ward family and they made donuts for dessert.  Did you know that canned biscuits, deep fried and coated with glaze and sprinkles, makes a super delicious donut?  They were so good!  Sister Kronmiller and I regret eating so much of their good food because Connie asked us to come over that evening and try the goulash she made.  Two things: one, that goulash was simply amazing! Two, I was ready to die from so much food.  Anyhow, Sister Kronmiller talked with Connie about her previous experiences with missionaries and it turns out that the Elders actually hadn't taught her a whole lot.  We boldly but kindly asked her if taking the discussions to see if the gospel had something to offer her, was something she'd be interested in, and she said yes!

What a great week.  I'm thankful to be in this area, serving with a fantastic companion and meeting so many good and fun people.

Sister Ririe