Taelor-In zone conference last week, we
received training and had a council about Finding and Elder Van Alfen and I got
really excited about everything that was said so we have begun talking with all
of the members of the ward about all of it and were able to share some of the
things we learned last week at dinner with Tyson and Will. Through the
discussion they began to recall experiences from their missions and Tyson began
sharing some of the things he has been trying to do to share the gospel with
his classmates and coworkers and out of nowhere Will exclaimed "Wow, I
suck. I am a terrible member missionary..." Elder Van Alfen and I
explained to them that at the beginning of the transfer we wanted to bring two
individuals into the fold through the waters of baptism, one of them we knew,
the other we didn't know yet. As we talked about this, we learned that Will and
I have the same amount of time left in Oklahoma and we decided all together
that we would find someone to teach and baptize into Christ's Church and they
will find someone who can be taught and baptized into Christ's Church before we
go home. We were all really excited about the goals we set together and we left
that dinner with a fire and excitement to find those that the Lord has
prepared.
We began praying, they began praying, that
we could all have the success in the Lord that we felt the Spirit testified to
us that we could be apart of.
Tyson came teaching with us this last
Tuesday and our appointment at 6:00 fell through and we felt prompted and
decided to go try an investigator, whom we haven't been able to get a hold of
or see for the last 3 weeks, before our next appointment.
We arrived and knocked on the door and a
girl answered. We began talking with her and learned quickly of a terrible car
accident she was in about 3 weeks ago and it could've/should've been a lot
worse than it was, about how she hadn't been to church in quite a while and
couldn't find one that she wanted to be apart of or had time for, about how she
hasn't felt happy for the last three years-since she was in high school and was
with a good group of friends who went to a Bible study together every morning
at 6:00 am, and about how she lived several years in Idaho next to a Mormon
family whom became dear family friends and who her sister had been visiting for
2 months this summer and was supposed to fly in the next day and how they had
gone to church with them several times while they lived in Idaho. We relayed a
favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon with her and offered her the book
which she took with a heart full of thanks and excitement exclaiming, "I
will definitely read this, I can't wait. I think my accident was God slapping
me on the hand and letting me know He is ready to have a deeper and greater
relationship again and it's time for me to find my way back."
John, Gina, and Elizabeth- A couple weeks
ago we met John and in a miraculous way he invited us over so we took the
opportunity and just last night we were able to go back to see him and were
privileged, by God's grace and mercy and perfect timing to meet his girlfriend
and one of his friends and taught them of the restoration of our Lord's Church
and Kingdom on the earth. They soaked it all up, asked great questions, and
expressed great thanks for sharing everything we did and for giving each of
them their own Book of Mormon.
Biking Miracle- Our Mission President has
issued a mission-wide bike week for this week starting yesterday so we got out
of our visit with John, Gina, and Elizabeth at about 9:20 and had a 5 mile bike
ride home so we took off cooking and actually made great time! On the road at
9:45 we were at the last stretch, just over a quarter of a mile away from our
apartment so I turned and yelled to Elder Van Alfen, "Beat me home!!"
he looked at me, slightly confused and concerned saying "There's
cars?!" I responded with a gentle and loving "Sissy!!" he took
off and I turned back around and just as I did so my front tire began grinding
on the side of the curb and I knew it was imminent so I had to decide if I was
going to fall to the left into the road or to the right onto the side
walk...Recognizing what Elder Van Alfen had said about cars I quickly opted to
fall to the right and gracefully went slightly over my handle bars and my
shoulder met the ground and I skipped for a second and proceeded to slide on the
ground on my shoulder and my back for about 5 yards.:) Now, there are two
miracles to this story! #1 It was the first bike crash I have had as a
missionary so I made it 1 year and 52 weeks without wrecking which is a mighty
miracle of itself!! #2 I was totally fine and my bike still works great and I
was worried that if I beat Elder Van Alfen home that he would be slightly upset
but instead he got to laugh a little bit and beat me home so on all accounts we
are blessed and it was a miracle haha:)
Keep the faith,
Elder Ricks
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