The Blessing- Week 83

I, Nephi (Elder Ricks), having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

But behold, I, Nephi(Elder Ricks), will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. (1 Nephi 1:1,20)

We met again with Lynx a couple times this week and the doctrine is all making sense to him. He is anxious to pray for truth and guidance and to read the Book of Mormon and come to church with us tomorrow. We didn't even have to ask him, as we talked with him about the Plan of Salvation, he opened up and said "Well, this all makes sense and it is obvious that I, and everyone, would want to go here (pointing at the Celestial Kingdom) and the most exciting part is here (pointing at the veil/earth life) because this is where you get to really learn and practice and do and this (pointing at the gospel of Jesus Christ-having faith, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) is how I can accomplish all of it so if I come to know that this is the truth then I would do all of that." [Elder Hays and I look at each other in astonishment, mike drop and walk away] The Spirit really and truly is the teacher and inpsires the Children of God to what we need to do and what to say and the Spirit was felt so strongly as He worked through Lynx in saying all of those things and committing himself to really learn of the truth himself and to act on it. 

Richard is absolutely incredible and so excited for his baptism next Saturday at noon! Before then, a member of the ward is taking him to the temple grounds to talk and meet with a member of the temple presidency and to ultimately have a spiritual experience together. We started this last week working on family history with him and he is so excited to be on this path of eternal progression and to have the opportunity to be with all of his family for time and all eternity. For him, it isn't just a matter of being baptized but a matter of working towards being a covenant making son of God and going to the temple.

We received a phone call this last week from a lady who joined the church about two years ago. She has a daughter who goes to school at OU and has seen us as we interact with people all over campus. This last week she saw us at our booth talking about Love-->the essence of the gospel, the very core of Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven, and then the next day we were talking with a girl on campus and she was looking into the sun so we tried to shield her eyes from the sun by holding up a Book of Mormon. The daughter of the Sister who called us, Sister Crawford, saw this and was really touched by it and told her mother what had happened and how impressed she was. Sister Crawford called simply to thank us and to encourage us and let us know that we are having a much more profound impact than we ever realize or know. She let us know how much she has worked at sharing the gospel with her daughter and has been praying for her endlessly and felt that this was apart of the process of God hearing and answering her prayers on her daughter's behalf. It was such a touching and heart felt call and assured to me, once again, by the power and confirmation of the Holy Ghost that this is the truth, and that the small and simple things matter and it is how God teaches and inspires His children and helps them to learn of Him and feel His love.

There were soo many more miracles but my fingers are tired, your eyes are exhausted, and we are both out of time:) I love each of you and hope you have a wonderful week! May we all look for the hand of the Lord in the small and simple things this week is my prayer and I stand with Nephi and know that the tender mercies will happen and you and I will indeed feel of the love of our Father in Heaven and come to deepen our faith, conversion, and knowledge of His reality. 

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 82

Elder Hays and I talked about how we can be more effective on Saturdays and determined that Monday's are one of the busiest days on campus and Saturdays are the absolute slowest days on campus so we talked with President Mansell about it and asked him if we could move our p-day to Saturday here and he loved the idea so we are giving it a try and I am really excited about it! 

It really has been another phenomenal week, filled with miracles and tender mercies. Some missionaries found Richard a few months ago on campus and he has been meeting with the missionaries, coming to institute and Friday forum and church ever since. He has had desires to be baptized but has felt like he hasn't received an answer. We had a lesson with him on Wednesday and decided then to talk about revelation. We had about 18-20 scriptures ready to go but only made it to three of them before he realized that he had indeed already received his answer and had, in fact, himself received revelation. We then asked him what he needed to do next, now that he knew he had received his answer. He looked at us and responded without hesitation " I need to be baptized." We hadn't mentioned baptism one time in the lesson but the Spirit touched him and taught him and inspired him through revelation what it was he needed to do next. It was such a spiritual experience as Elder Hays and James (the member who was with us) shared their powerful testimonies and experiences and asked not only inspired questions but also inspiring questions. I was grateful to be able to share some of my experiences as well and felt the power and reaffirming spirit that has so frequently testified to me of the truth of the reality of our Father in Heaven as I have felt the manifestations of His love, particularly in learning of, partaking in, and rejoicing because of His Son, Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of the Savior and it was brought forth by the hand of God through His chosen prophet, servant, son, and friend, Joseph Smith. Richard is so excited for his baptism on March 4th and is so prepared for that sacred experience and covenant coming up in just a few short weeks. 

We've been able to talk to so many people this last week and I have really been learning about what success is in testifying of Christ and inviting others to increase their faith in Him and strive to help them along the way. Serving on campus has been so fun and such a remarkable learning experience that I will remember and cherish forever!

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 81

It really has been quite the week! The Village has treated me so well and I felt so blessed with the way I was able to leave there. We were so busy and had so much fun and it was such a contrast as I reflected on my first day and week in the area. I am so grateful this is the Lord's work ad not mine because if it was my work I never would have been able to witness so many miracles and experienced so much love and support and growth. 

My last day in the Village we met three ladies (a mother, daughter, and friend) around 11:00 and rode over to talk to them and hopped off our bikes and walked with them for a couple miles to their home and had a powerful Christ centered conversation with them. We were able to talk about so many restored truths and told them we wanted to come by that night to give them a Book of Mormon Stories and Restoration DVD so we did and when we dropped it off we were able to set a return appointment for the next day and they were so excited to have the DVD that they said they would watch it that night and we could talk about it with them when we came over the next day. We also went over to David's house (a recent convert) for a lesson and the home that he lives in is also occupied by 8 or 9 other people. the owner is a member and in the last year three people from this home have been baptized and continues to be  a great place to find individuals who are prepared and wanting the gospel as it has been restored. We are teaching a man in the home, who came to church a couple of weeks ago, named Mark and on Tuesday when we went over, David was on the porch as was another lady, who has recently moved in, named Jacquie As we talked with David, she was involved with the conversation and at the end before we left we were given an opportunity to teach briefly in less than a couple minutes about the restoration and what we believe upon her request to know more from her peaked interest. As we testified the Spirit filled the porch and she asked us to come back and teach her more because she "always felt like something had been missing and this feels so right, like it may fill that void I have always had." Our Father in Heaven truly does prepare the hearts of His children through their experiences and situations and places them in the right places at the right times to receive the fullness of His blessings and joy and peace. 

OU has been such a fun and new and stunning experience!!! It is so different from anything else I have ever done as a missionary so it has taken some adjusting but I'm absolutely loving it! I'm really learning a new meaning of "success" as a missionary and coming to understand myself more fully so I am thrilled that I have been blessed with such an opportunity to get to meet and talk to so many new people and to be able to learn and grow so rapidly and in such an innovative way. I've been able to see some really neat miracles and been able to teach a lot with Elder Hays already since we've become companions.

The Sermon on the Campus (or, Ammonihah-Alma + Amulek teaching on the hill):

My first full day on campus we were walking around and all these students on campus have those hammocks that you can buy and put up basically anywhere so we went to talk with a group of four of them "hammocking" (I guess it is a verb now...) and through the conversation we all started talking about how Christ has influenced and changed our lives and what we do to continue to build faith in Him. They began asking us more and more questions about what we believe and about the Book of Mormon. Throughout the whole interaction, another three separate individuals saw all of us talking and came up to join in the conversation and also began to ask questions and to talk with us and it was so neat because they didn't know us or the initial group of four. We taught about the Restoration and as we all talked together, depending on the question or what we were talking about people would pay more or less attention and towards the end, a girl began packing up to go to class and Elder Hays recited the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith in regards to his experience in the garden praying and as he began, every single person stopped everything and dialed in on him and it was, as it appeared to me, as if the rest of campus and time stood still. I know, with every fiber of my mortal and eternal being, to the very core of my Spirit, that Jesus is indeed the Christ and He appeared with His Father and my Father, to the boy Joseph Smith demonstrating greater love than has ever been displayed with the only exceptions of Christ suffering in Gethsemane and on Golgatha and the Father preparing this divine plan of love for our happiness. It is all true, I know this and am grateful beyond description of words that I currently know.

I love this work and am so grateful to be on OU and for all of the experiences and miracles God has allowed me to witness and be apart of in His tender mercy. God is love-if one will seek out God, he will find love and if one will seek out love, he will find God. Happy Valentines (love) week! I hope and pray that we might all, this week and always, feel of and seek after God's love and to share it with others.

Keep the Faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 80

Elder Yamane and I had a miraculous week. God is so good and I see His hand more and more each day, for example:

Kristy has said for the last 3 weeks that she and her son Rueben would come to church but every week something has come up. She has told us so many times that all she wants is to come to church and feel of the peace and love there because she remembers the first time she went, how touched she felt at church. She is praying constantly and reading the Book of Mormon frequently.

We had two of the most spiritual lessons together with her this week that I have had and really that anyone can have. In one of the lessons she talked about the scriptures and said this powerful observation "I love the Old and the New Testament, especially the New Testament. But whenever I read that Mormon book, uh, the Book of Mormon, my day goes perfect. There is special power in that book and I always feel the Spirit so strong as I read it and it always relates to me." She went on to talk about the feelings she had for the Book of Mormon for a few minutes and it was such a powerful moment and reminded me of the countless times I felt the same way and had the same spiritual experiences that she was describing as I myself read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and received a testimony and witness of it's truth and power.

On Saturday we invited her to commit to God and promise Him that she would come. She then prayed with such exceedingly great faith as I have never seen or heard from anyone who is seeking for the truth to do what is right and be happy and she promised our Heavenly Father that she would come to church with "the Elders". She then proceeded to offer one of the most beautiful and touching prayers that can be uttered from the natural human tongue. Our Eternal Father heard her prayer, provided a way and she kept her end of the promise, staying committed to God, and her son Rueben both made it to church and had another delightful and peaceful and loving experience.

Kristy has the desires and is taking the steps that are necessary to live a Christ centered life having faith, repenting, and working toward being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost so that she can endure to the end when God will give her eternal life. Shikuna has the same desires and is taking the same steps with greater humility than anyone I have taught, invited and helped on my mission and is progressing to be baptized on February 25th. We are thrilled for both of them and for their families as they are involved and progressing also.

With great, bitter sweet feelings I am sad to say I have to leave Elder Yamane and the Village to go to Norman on the OU campus with Elder Hayes (he also came out with me and was actually in my MTC district and we stayed in the same room there!).

New Address:

748 Ridgecrest Ct. Norman Ok 73072 #1411

Keep the faith,
Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 79

It was, as always, another wonderful week!

Elder Yamane is absolutely incredible. He is one of the many great companions I have had that knows the scriptures better than I do and I am always so, so grateful when I am blessed with a companion who is filled with a wealth of knowledge and recollection of the scriptures because I learn so much from them about the scriptures and the doctrine found within them-that has been one of the many ways I have loved learning from and with such a spiritual giant, Elder Yamane.

We met so many incredible people this week and had some truly remarkable and spiritual conversations and experiences with them. A few, among the many, were Del, Shelly, Shandon, Ryan, Rebekah, Linda, Buster, Meghan, Katelyn, Mark, and a number of people who's names I have no idea how to spell because they were from Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, India and one or two more that I can't remember...:)

Elder Yamane and I found great success in our area this week in finding a few more investigators who want to learn and progress, Travis, Mark, Shikuna and Jabon and having a number of spiritual and impactful experiences with others. I love my Father and His Son. I love teaching. I love serving. I love learning.-In summation, I absolutely love the gospel and the work of sharing it!

We met Shikuna a few weeks ago when we were out biking from one appointment to another and offered him a Book of Mormon, sharing with him how it has changed and influenced or lives and how much it meant to us and he started reading it as he walked away but when we went back to see him for our scheduled appointment he wasn't there. This week we were in the neighborhood and thought we would just try stopping by and he answered and asked his uncle if we could come in and let us in. His family recently moved here from Ethiopia so his parents and uncle understand but don't speak English. He and his three siblings all speak English really well, however! We learned that he had never been taught how to pray and didn't know how to pray but how he frequently asked his friend to pray for him. We then taught him how to pray and related prayer to each aspect of the restoration. It was such a precious experience watching his expressions of joy and excitement overcome him at different times throughout our conversation as we could almost tangibly feel the Spirit in the room touching Shikuna and teaching him about how he was like the Prophet Joseph Smith and how he too could pray. We were able to sit together as he prayed for the first time and it was such a tender moment. After he prayed and we were about to leave, his uncle, who had been sitting through the entire lesson, thanked us in his native language for teaching Shikuna about God and how to pray and was so grateful and sincere, Shikuna translated for us. He and his brother, Jabon, both came to church with us yesterday and had a magnificent experience. They loved it so much and when we asked Shikuna what he had learned he simply said in his humble and sincere accented English, "I learned that I need to be baptized to go to heaven." We had never mentioned or talked about baptism with him but the Spirit is the real teacher and we promised him we would talk about it more when we come to visit with him again on Tuesday.

Keep the faith my dear family and friends,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 78

Hello everyone!


We had another wonderful week. I cannot believe it is already time to email you again. If you want the week in detail you can check out everything below but suffice it to say that miracles abound, God's grace and love is far reaching, never ending, and always available, and the most beautiful and glorious and comforting and promising and assuring and guiding and uplifting voice and feeling is the Spirit of the Most High Father. Of these things I am a witness and beneficiary. God is great and I love His work!

Monday:
-We went out with Bishop Silfies to see the Burke family; they've been investigating on and off for the last several years and just got home from a big Christmas vacation so it was the first time we were able to have a real appointment and lesson with them since the Sisters were teaching them before. Schyler, the mother, knows the Church is true and wants to join really badly but won't do it until Peter, the father, comes to the same understanding and desire. He loves the Church and said that if he believed in God and religion that he would join this Church but he is having a hard time with the aspect of faith and what that means and the implications involved for him in his life. Bishop was a great asset in our lesson and in just a brief hour and a half grew to love and demonstrate great concern for this incredible family. Peter is incredibly learned so it was really neat and fun to be able to go in depth on the gospel aspects of faith, repentance, the importance of ordinances and then Schyler was trying to help him identify times in his life when he has felt the Holy Ghost and tried explaining how the Spirit touches her. The Spirit was absolutely present in that lesson so I am confident that someday, he will recognize the truthfulness of it all and because of the manifestations of the Spirit he won't be able to deny the power and love and wisdom of God and at that point I really believe he will accept the gospel as it has been restored. I am so excited to continue to work with him and this family!

Tuesday:
-I love the temple. It was so refreshing and uplifting and wonderful to be able to go to the House of the Lord this week. It truly is a House of grace and of love and of learning and I experienced each of those things there this week. How grateful I am for that special opportunity.

Wednesday:
-We went out this week also with our Elders Quorum President, President Hawkins to see Brother Biglow, a less active new member, Brother Brashure, a less active member who's girlfriend is not a member, and Lisa, Lloyd and Cody, an investigating family progressing towards covenant making and keeping, the first being baptism. It was such a wonderful, spiritual night. President Hawkins is a very simplistic minded man and incredibly humble. He said some things that I really appreciated and took note on that I am now studying and looking forward to applying more fully:
"Value Added Living";
      "If it is too precious to use, then does it really have any value? Does it really add value to your life?"
"You can spend your life taking care of things or you can spend your life taking care of (people) each other."
Essentially, the idea, Value Added Living, is to simplify and always maintain a focus on the things that truly matter most, those things that really add value to your life.-Beautiful concept.

Thursday:
-We were going through some of our ward lists on Wednesday hoping to find more part-member families, less-active members, people we could talk to who live in the homes of members who are still on our records who have moved out, etc. that we would be able to begin meeting with regularly and teaching and helping. As we were trying this we saw a man to talk with, Travis, as he was walking his dog and pushing a shopping cart with some things in it that he was taking to his new apartment that he told us had been provided to him by the grace and goodness of God. We had a great interaction together and set an appointment to teach him the next day. We went to the address we thought he had given us and it was downtown OKC at a business so it definitely wasn't his address. We went back to the apartment and planned for our week and it was miraculous the timing of it all because as soon as we walked back out of the apartment, Elder Yamane saw and identified Travis walking down the street. We ran to him and figured out the miscommunication and went back to have a wonderful lesson with him the day after that. He is reading the Book of Mormon and we believe he will progress wonderfully, especially once he comes to church.
-We had two really spiritual visit this week with Kristy on Thursday and Saturday, both. She is going through so much and recognized God's hand. She is reading the Book of Mormon daily and finding great strength and application with what she learns. She had the greatest experience coming to church and looks so forward to being able to come again and Satan keeps throwing difficult circumstances at her but he can't win and won't stop her.

Friday:
-I got to go with Elder Shira on our exchange and it was so great! We saw Chris, an investigator, the  Kinnisons, a less-active family who have Hannah and Balentina in their home as foreign exchange students, and a handful of members from our lists. We walked and biked and were able to work hard, be obedient and have fun which made for open communication and overall a spiritual and positive experience together. I really look up to him! About a year ago we were serving near each other and a comment he made has changed my prayers and in turn, has changed my life. He is such a spiritual giant it was evident that he had a close relationship with our Father in Heaven so we talked about prayer and I asked him how he has come to have such a close and personal relationship and he told me "I get on my knees and I pray until I feel sincere. I don't ever get up or close my prayer until I feel like I am being sincere." It works and it has changed my life and I love him for it.

Saturday:
-Stake Leadership Meeting and Conference were fantastic. The Sisters did a stellar job in the training and your added words and witness and inspiration seemed to be the whipped cream and cherry on top. We are so proud of them and grateful for you! We are so grateful that President Gray would give to us and trust us with such a great opportunity and responsibility.

Sunday:

-Stake Conference was magnificent. What a revalatory and spiritual experience.

-The Spear family gave us a call and asked if we could come over for lunch with them-waffles. We had a really neat experience with them and through the discussions in their home and in the car as they picked us up we could feel a tremendous amount of love and trust and gratitude from them for us and from us for them.

-We were out trying different people, walking from place to place when we saw a man walking on the other side of the street in our direction so we went over to talk to him. He was really friendly and introduced himself as Raymond and asked us what we were out doing. We told him we were out sharing our experiences with how Christ has changed our lives. So he asked us, somewhat excited, how Christ had changed our lives. Elder Yamane shared his powerful testimony of the direction and peace that has been brought to his life because of Christ and the gospel and I talked about how much more love and joy I have felt in my life and how it has affected my relationships so greatly and positively and he masterfully compared my experience to putting on a nice, new suit, and how it transforms yourself and your relationships with others as well. I slaughtered his parable but it really was masterfully done and so powerful and he thanked us from the bottom of his heart telling us that we had inspired him. He told us he would like to buy us dinner and pulled out 18 one dollar bills and despite our telling him we couldn't accept his generous offer he took my hand and put the money in it and said "You've inspired me. You can't not accept my gift." not giving us much of a choice and then begged us if we could pray with him. He gave a magnificent and beautiful prayer after which he thanked us again saying, "You've inspired me. Thank you so much for going out and sharing your experience and spirit. It is transforming. I could've been on my way to chop off my Brother in Law's head for having done something small and insignificant but through your experience in sharing the word could change everything for me." We got his number and address and set up an appointment with him and after we had parted ways, marveling at the experience we had just had, we looked back at him and there was a huge knife sticking out of his back pocket...it could be that he really had thoughts before we met of going to his Brother in Law's house to chop off his head but wether that really ever was an intention of his or not, we were able to walk away confident that the thought was now far from him and we had all walked away edified and uplifted.

-We were able to go out with one of our young men last night, Josh, and it was the first time he has ever been out with the missionaries! We didn't know that until we were with him so we were even more disappointed than we would have been before when both of our set appointments cancelled on us right before. But we went out and tried a bunch of people. It was so neat, we tried Destiny, someone we met earlier in the week who said we could come by, and she wasn't home but her boyfriend, Gray, was home. We talked with him for a few minutes and he explained his experience and relationship with God and told us we could give him a call and come by again and he would love to talk with us. Josh thought that was just the neatest thing and had such a great night! We really can't ever fail when we are doing our best on the Lord's errand. We had a great time and it ended up being a success even though it seemingly looked as though we were going to fail Josh on his first experience going out with the missionaries.

Have a blessed week. I love you dearly!

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

The Blessing- Week 77

Time has gone by so fast the last few weeks with Elder Yamane! Speaking of time, I'm about out of it but we are having a blast and seeing so many miracles together. 

Gray received the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday and it was so neat to be apart of that. He is absolutely amazing. To be able to witness the miracle of conversion in such depth, and love, and at such an accelerated pace has been absolutely stunning. There was a youth temple trip to do baptisms for the dead last Tuesday and Gray received his temple recommend so we got to go with him. The Spirit was so powerful and testified and confirmed to me, yet again, the truth and the power and the sacredness of the temple, of the Church, and of the love that God, our Heavenly Father possesses for each one of us. It was so tangible, you could feel it and knew it with every fiber of your being. 

I love Gray, my companion, I love these people, these friends, these brothers and sisters, and I love my Brother, Jesus Christ, and our Eternal Father. I marvel at the beauty of it all and thank my Maker everyday for such opportunities and experiences. I love you and pray for you and hope you have a wonderful week!

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks