The Blessing- Week 26

What a wonderful week!  Once again, I am absolutely stunned at how quickly the week has gone by. 

It has been busy and wonderful in many ways! 

I moved from my beloved first area, Edmond 3rd. From where I stood in the Edmond 3rd Ward, I picked up a stone, threw it in the southwest direction and where that stone landed is where I now reside as a missionary in the Edmond 2nd Ward!

What a blessing it is to be so close to my first area!  Even though it is so close, it is a new area so I still have no clue where anything is... But it is great!  The people here are absolutely wonderful. The are so kinds, humble, and desire to have God in their lives.  This area also covers quite a bit of space but the houses are much closer together!  So we mostly bike and I really enjoy it!  I really feel like a missionary of old when I can get on the bike and ride in the rain and wind and cold and everything and Heavenly Father truly does bless you when you get on your bike instead of driving your car in a "car" area. (Every area in this mission is a biking area and the cars are just to stay nice when we go to church:)).  We have been able to talk to so many people that we pass by on the streets and in the neighborhoods and it has been a remarkable experience in the short few days that I have been here! Blessings abound! 

My second day we met with a part member family and set baptismal dates with the four children for February 20th!  Exciting right?!  Well the next day we heard word of a dual mission conference that will take place in Tulsa on February 20th and with that we will need to push back the baptisms for the following week.  Good problems to have I think!  Haha anyways, this area truly is amazing and I am so excited for it! 

Everyone knows my best friend back home (apart from my family of course, though I would consider him to be apart of my family), Walker.  Walker is doing great back home but what is really crazy is I received his long lost twin as a companion!  I cannot tell you how blessed I am to be with a companion that reminds me so much of my best friend.  The work was great and fun before but it just got even better which astounds me!  God is good.  I have been blessed greatly and love my new companion, Elder Morton! 

The baptisms of Blara and Darmelyn are actually this up coming Saturday!  Everyone has been emailing me about their excitement in the ordinances that are to be performed and I am so thankful for the support but I apologize that I misinformed everyone!  I look forward to this special event on Saturday though and cannot wait to tell you all about it in the email next week:) 

It sufficeth me to say that I am greatly blessed beyond what I deserve and the source of all these blessings and this happiness is Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.  The gospel is pure and perfect and the church is true.  I am filled with a grateful heart, God is loving and God is good!

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 25

What a wonderful week! 

I was blessed to experience a week of biking as our car was in the shop this week. It helped me to realize the blessing we have being in a car in this area. In all, we spent over 8 hours of biking time over the course of the week going from appointment to appointment. Unfortunately in this area there aren't many people outside so we don't have many opportunities to find people and talk to them as we bike so I was able to realize how much more efficient it is to have a car in this area. 

We still had a busy and blessed week! Darmelyn and Blara are set to be baptized together next Saturday and we are so happy and excited for their decision to do so. It has been such a wonderful experience to be with this beautiful and young family. The light and happiness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is illuminated as we live it and we can see this light radiate from this family we have come to love so much.

Also, get this: Mitch McGary who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder? Yeah, his roommate and best friend, Jake, came to the baptism of Cal Morley several weeks ago and we have since been able to go back and teach him so I can officially say I have been in an NBA player's home, seen his (messy) room and taught principles of the gospel in this bachelor pad referenced as a home!

I received a call Sunday about transfers. I will be moving several streets over to Edmond 2nd! I am truly so grateful for the blessing of serving in the Edmond 3rd ward. These are some of the most wonderful people upon the face of the earth. My heart aches to leave such a beautiful people that I have come to love so greatly in an area that I have seen the Lord build up and transform during my time here. I know that He will continue to bless this area and build it up to be ever greater but I truly feel privileged to have spent the last six months of my life in this place. I also look forward though to my new area and am thrilled to be able to make new leaps of growth in the coming days, weeks and months. Being so close to Edmond 2nd I actually already know my next companion fairly well! His name is Elder Morton and I am ecstatic to be with him and to serve the people of this new area! 

I have had the opportunity to bear my simple yet sure testimony to many people in the last several days and I am grateful for the things I do know to be true for the Holy Ghost has testified to me that these things are true and it gives me so much joy and hope and peace. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and for the love Heavenly Father has and gives to each of us as His children. Jesus Christ lives, and He loves us. I am grateful for the divinity of his life and teachings and especially grateful that through Him I can be with my family forever in the glory of God. I know this message of the restored gospel is true and desire to share it with all who will receive it. Glory be to God! 

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 24

This week was slow but Heavenly Father still blessed us greatly. He truly is so good and loving and blesses us beyond our worthiness and what we really deserve. This last week Elder Hilton was sick for two days and we had to stay in.  Despite his desires to go out and work, that becomes extremely difficult when you are throwing up constantly and in need of 30 hours of straight sleep. I am sorry to say that I was blessed though at the expense of Elder Hilton's health.. I was able to study, and study, and study some more over those 2 days! I read 4 devotional length talks, listened to approximately 20 conference talks, read the Gospel According to Mathew and Mark, read several chapters from the Book of Mormon, did some cleaning, planned for the week, and had lots of time with my thoughts! It was really good for me to be able to do all of these things and to take a step back to remember to simplify everything and look from an eternal perspective! 

We felt like it really put a block in the work and slowed down the progress we have been seeing occur so rapidly thanks to the Lord. Our numbers were way down but this weekend we were still able to receive 2 new investigators with one having a date, teach 3 lessons with a member present and 3 other lessons and still received and contacted multiple referrals and had 4 investigators able to attend sacrament meeting and 5 less-actives. Long story short, this is God's work and it is His glory and though we were ineffective tools in helping with the work in their lives for 2 full days He still provided great success in the harvest this week. 

Last week I told you we were teaching an 11 year old girl from a less active family and set a baptismal date with her.  Well, this last week we discovered that they have another daughter who is 9 years old and we were able to have a lesson with them last night and set a baptismal date with her for January 30th! Miracles, miracles!

I apologize for the delay in getting the emails out the last several weeks but I love and appreciate you all and the love, patience, and support you give. May God bless you this week and provide you with opportunities to learn principles of the Gospel yourselves and to have missionary opportunities to share them, is my prayer. 

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 22 & 23

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends and family!

I hope and pray you all had a wonderful day, week, and season. It is always one of my favorite times of the years because people take an extra step to help others out and make them happier or lighten their burdens at this time so it is easy to feel that pure love of Christ at this time of the year. But as a missionary it was an especially powerful spirit to feel this holiday season. I wish we could all stay motivated to do good all year so that spirit never leaves. May we all take some time to evaluate where we are at and consider setting a goal for this upcoming year to help another person.

Christmas Day:

-Woke up, Exercised, Opened Letters/Cards and Presents 

-Went to the Morley's (Amazing/Favorite(s) Members)

Facetime with my best friends Mom, Dad, Tyson, Carson, Ashlynn and Analee and Maria.

It was so great to visit with my family and such a dear friend. 

-Service at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City

-Bombing Memorial

-Dinner with the Rudd's (Amazing/Favorite(s) Members)

We watched the Cokeville Miracle with them

New Years Eve:

-Dinner with the Parry's (Amazing/Favorite(s) Members)

-Lesson with incredibly sweet investigator who was one of the first leukemia survivors in 1965.

-Saw the Eckman's for a few minutes (Amazing/Favorite(s) Members)

-Party with the Parry's (Amazing/Favorite(s) Members) playing celetial pursuit and then watching the Ball Drop at 11:00.

Earthquakes:(x3)

-We had three seperate earthquakes this last week where the epicenter was less that a couple miles away from our apartment. They all hit around the same time in the morning on different days at about 5:40a.m. Each one was over a 4.1! Unlike what we did in California two years ago while at nationals for cheer when we were in an earthquake there, Elder Hilton and I woke up, looked at each other, kinda smiled and laughed that we could feel earthquakes like that in Oklahoma and hit our heads on the pillow and crashed until it was really time to wake up at 6:25. 

Miracle/Tender Mercy:

-We are teaching the 11 year old daughter of some members who fell into less-activity after their conversion 8 years ago. They speak Chuukese so their English is very broken but Darmelyn speaks great English! Anyways, she is the sweetest thing. We ask her to pray at the end of each lesson and each time it is the most special, tender feeling. She expresses her gratitude to Heavenly Father for her family over and over again and is just so sweet and innocent. She is planning on being baptized on January 23rd and it is going to be the most special day in the world. It makes me never want to stop doing what I am doing.

Until next week, Keep the Faith.

Elder Ricks

Facetiming my family on Christmas:

 Bombing Memorial:

Service at the Cox Center:

Ice Storm #2:

The Blessing- Week 21

Wow, what a wonderful week!

I feel blessed beyond what I deserve most weeks but this last week was especially a tender one for me. 

Last Monday Elder Hilton and I had a good time and were just getting ready to go out proselyting for the night when we get a phone call. Elder Hilton answered and then handed me the phone. It was area code 208... So, of course I jump straight to the worst possible scenario like some doctor somehow found out I was going to die and had to go home or something so my Stake President was calling to give me the news. But I was wrong! It ended up being my Uncle Ryan and my Uncle Kirk and their friend Lamar. They were in Oklahoma for business and asked us if they could take us out! 

What A Great Night! We went to this awesome hibachi sushi and grill place and just had a great time. I love my family so much and it was such a special time for me to get to see them Definitely a huge tender mercy of the Lord that I will forever be grateful for.-It really helped to give me even greater motivation and refocus. We talked a bit about how things were going back home, about the work, about Christmas, we laughed, we hugged, and we felt the joy and love that comes in family relationships. It is because of those feelings and because of my family that I am out here. Because this Gospel blesses all individuals and all families wherever they may currently be however good or bad the circumstances. It allows us to be together forever and experience the greatest feelings of love and joy and peace. If I can help another individual or family to come closer together and to take steps to come closer to Christ so that they can have all of these things and enjoy these feelings more fully in this life, then my joy will be overfilled.

The rest of the week was really really busy and crazy! We visited a lot of people this week and we had our Christmas Conference as well. 

The big miracle to talk about this week is this: Bishop asked us to go see a lady who we had just received records for so we went and did just that. We knocked and a young man opened the door, the lady we had just received records for had already moved but Mathew invited us in. We shared the message of the Restoration with him and gave him a Book of Mormon.-He is from Bangladesh so English is still a bit hard for him so we told him we could get him a Bengali Book of Mormon and he was really excited about it! So we got the Book of Mormon and went back a few days later and this time his dad answered! Jason had been investigating the Church while they were living in Michigan so he also invited us right in and we got to talk to him as well! We gave him the Bengali Book of Mormon and he was overwhelmed with joy! I thought he was going to yell or cry with joy. He said that he was a good reader and he wants to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year! He also said that he wants desperately to come to church with us after the New Year because his job has him working Sunday's until the holidays are over. Incredible blessings and miracles. The Lord is far too good to us and we truly are seeing more success/miracles than we deserve. 

I love this work, I love the Lord, and I love my family. Merry Christmas to all and may we remember the real reason of the season. Look for opportunities to show your love, to serve others and be filled with the Love of Christ. I promise you will as you serve other children of our Father in Heaven at this beautiful time of the year. 

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 20

Hello everyone,

I apologize for my lack of diligence in getting out an email last week but I promise, we did work!!! 

It has been a really crazy and busy and wonderful season:) Christmas: Friday, December 25, 2015. The day we have set apart throughout the year specifically remember His birth and the significance of it. One little baby, born into this world, to change the world entirely and to redeem it in its fullness with His gospel and His sacrifice in His Atonement and Resurrection. As Christmas approaches I have thought about one of my new favorite Christmas scriptures, Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." I like this scripture not only because of Handel's Messiah, but because of the many names of Christ. We can learn much of Christ as we ponder His many names or Titles. Along with the names that Isaiah uses here are a few others that I have found: Messenger of Salvation, My Chosen, Son of Man, The Righteous, The Lamb, Creator, King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, Messiah, Son of Righteousness, Emmanuel, Just One, Holy One, Alpha and Omega, I Am, Only Begotten, Brother, Savior, Friend, Father, Lord of the Harvest, Redeemer, Mediator, King of Kings, The First Born, Son of Man, and Son of God. Each name or title conveys an aspect of the Savior and what he has accomplished for us. Enjoy the Christmas season as you grow closer to the Savior and share His message with others because it truly is a joyous and peaceful message of hope, happiness, blessings, and glory.

With that being said, the weather here is insane. We had a huge ice storm just a few weeks ago which has required much service during the days to members and nonmembers alike! We will also be helping to finish up a lot of this clean up this coming week as well. So, we went from an ice storm to having 70 degree weather with the sun shining in the middle of December.... That should be some type of crime right? Idaho is cold and has snow right now which is what I am used to but there are times it feels like summer here and it is December.... Talk about extremist. 

We have been working with a member who had fallen out of activity as a teenager and is now in his 50's or so. He lives in an apartment complex right next to ours so we would try to stop by whenever we had a spare minute and were near our apartment. We tried this guy 11 or 12 times and could never catch him. We met his roommates and talked to them on different occasions and, gave one a Book of Mormon but couldn't ever be there when Brother Batchelor was there. Finally, one Saturday morning we stopped by and caught him. We were able to just talk to him and learn more about him and his life and really just become friends. We learned that he is a scientist who has worked at several labs including Huntsman and OU (Where he is the head of a team now) researching leukemia to try and help people. He is very scientific minded and finds joy in being able to research to find answers and debate the data to find a resolve. He also, recently had surgery on his ankle where they put in a plate and he has to wear a boot and is unable to drive himself. Before the end of the visit we shared a message and set a return appointment for the following Saturday. We met the next Saturday and invited him to come to church and he agreed! We found a ride and rode with him to church then stayed with him throughout all of church. He had a great experience. We invited him to come to a baptism of an 8 year old boy on Saturday and he agreed again. Following the baptism, we asked him to read Alma 32 and pray about it. We saw him on Sunday morning before church and he told us that that chapter was exactly what he needed and he had a wonderful, spiritual experience as he read, pondered and prayed. We had meetings before church and couldn't ride with him this week but still had someone pick him up and he came and we stayed with him again and after church we went to visit him and he told us he would like to pay his tithing and desired to know what other next steps were to coming back into full activity. 

Brothers and Sisters, I wish I could give every detail about what has transpired with this incredible Son of God over the last few weeks but it suffices me to simply say that the Spirit has born testimony of truth to him as he desired to learn and seek answers and take steps of faith to find answers. He is truly being converted. Elder Hilton and I have had absolutely nothing to do with this conversion but in these few short weeks we have seen the faith of his testimony be established and grow immensely and in his countenance you can see the joy this has brought to him. I have never met a man as humble and sincere as this. What a blessing and a joy it has been for me to have witnessed this miracle as a mighty change in heart as occurred and we see the hand of God work in the lives of those we work with. There is no denying the truth of this gospel and of this Church because it is Christ's which makes it pure and good and true. 

How I wish I could express my joy and my love and my gratitude. All I can say is that God is good. He is loving. He is magnificent. He is glorious. All glory be to Him in this miracle, in this holiday season, and in all times of every year. 

I finished the Book of Mormon this last week and am so grateful for the faith, the strength, the hope, and the direction that we receive in it. It is truly Another Testament of Jesus Christ and bares truth of Him as well as the Restored Gospel and Church in its fullness through Joseph Smith. 

In regards to the Book of Mormon challenge which I am working on and challenged each of you to take part in, I am in Alma and am so grateful to be looking at this Holy Writ in search of the blessings and joy that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we live it. I look forward to having it completed again by Christmas.

There are so many miracles, each and every day! I love this gospel and have greater desires than ever to share it with all who will receive it because it will bless their life and increase their happiness in this life and more importantly, in the one to come. 

Jesus Christ is our Savior. He was born, lived perfectly, suffered, died, and rose again. I know this to be true.

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

This picture was labeled:   "Most recent picture we could possibly send you!"
They must be in the library typing their letters!

Eating at Sonic!

?????? Have not heard the story on Superman!

 Thank you Elder Hilton for sending the pictures!

The Blessing- Week 19

We actually didn’t get an email from Elder Ricks again this week!?!  (I think he is spending his time responding to everyone who writes him, which is good!  We did email back and forth a little and this is what he said:

Elder Hilton and I are staying here together for another transfer!  It is going to be a great Christmas and I am so happy relieved and thrilled about it all!  We are doing great Mom, its amazing:)

I am excited to Skype with you in just a few short weeks/days!

The work is just amazing, the people are even better, and I love it! We have dinner's set for pretty much the whole month and I already know where I am going on Christmas day. It is the Morley's home. They are a new family in the ward with 5 kids and they are awesome!!!

Our Mission Christmas Conference is on December 17^th.  We are really hoping we get our ipads then!

They bought matching Christmas ties for their ward Christmas party!