Teaching President Obama?

This was Sister Ricks' last week of training, so her companion Sister Morgan took a train ride and was gone for a couple of days to help another Sister and Sister Ricks got some experience of being a senior companion. She said it went really well, and she didn't even get lost which is a miracle because the train system there is very confusing. She said that this experience has taught her that the Lord really does choose mission companions because she learned how good Sister Morgan really is for her and how much she was able to learn from her. She is also very grateful that they were able to get along so well and focus on the work.

Today, President Obama is in Belfast so the town is pretty much shut down, which is messing with their pday plans, so they're going to the Titanic Museum since it was built there. They are hoping to run into the President so they can teach him...I'm sure that'll happen! ;)

Overall, Sister Ricks sounds like she is doing very well; her health is starting to get under control and she's getting into the groove of missionary work! We couldn't ask for much more than that!

Christlike Attributes

This week Sister Ricks was able to attend a conference with all of the missionaries in Ireland which she said was an amazing experience. There they were taught to teach the gospel with family history stories and work toward member referrals a lot more. She and her companion Sister Morgan have taken this council to heart and have already received 9 member referrals and they are working to involve the ward a lot more which so far has been a very positive experience.

 

Last week, they were given a challenge to develop a Christ-like attribute; Kinzi chose charity and love. She has learned and grown on the subject so much already and has learned how important those two qualities really are for becoming the best person she can be and helping others come to Christ. She studied the conference talk from the most recent conference titled:

 "The Savior Wants Us to Forgive." and challenged us all to read it.

 

Other than that, she is still trying to improve her health and has gone to the doctor and received medicine that hasn't helped, your continued prayers would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sister Ricks shares her love and appreciation for everyone! Thanks for all you do!

 

Here is a link to the video of the talk:
The Savior Wants Us To Forgive April 2013



This Week's Miracle

From Sister Ricks:

"this weeks miracle:

so we do this who, what, when, and where, finding. what we do is each week we pray for someone we feel inspired to find to teach the gospel to. This week we felt like we needed to find a women in her 30's looking for truth, she would already have a strong faith in christ, BUT would feel like something is missing in her life.
This week we decided to get the ward council involved so we told them about this new inspired finding. so that the ward could help us with the people we are trying to find. They all kind of where like skeptical about it. But all of a sudden the ward mission leader said, i know who you are talking about. he then went on and explained that the night before his wife talked to their neibor about the fireside(that me and sister morgan put on) that she just had gotten back from. she began to explain to her neibor breifly about the church and invited her out to a relief society activity that we will be having this tuesday.
So then our ward mssion leaders wife got up during testimony meeting and told the ward how she knows missionary work is inspired and told everyone about the women that she found that fit our description. it was very amazing to see how the lord puts people in our path to teach them the gospel.

The church is true, my prayers are answered everyday. i love what im doing."

Happy Memorial Day

 

We haven't heard from Sister Ricks for a couple of weeks, but this is what she shared, I couldn't say it any better....

 

 

SO, i am sorry for all of you who haven't heard from me the past couple weeks including family.

I have had the hardest 3 weeks of my whole entire life. I have been extremly sick with stomach ulser and other things, i have been yelled at by a handful of people(who where in a protest that we couldnt avoid)  saying that my religion is wrong. I have been compared to a wolf dressed in sheeps clothing. i have been told my beleifs are corrupt by some bible guy. and I have had every scripture thrown at me that is ''proof'' our church is wrong by a couple jahovah's witnesses that we somehow met with haha. i have had a couple investigators drop us, and i have had some difficult times swallowing the fact that a certain someone is home and i am half a world away,and can't do anything to help. and me and while still extremly homesick.

But in saying all of this. i could never ever ever ever be as close to my savior as i am at this second.

It's been said to me my whole life he can take away our sins and our pains. But it wasnt till this week that i realized i can literally put my pains on him. i can have him help me pull my burdens. my burdens seem to be never ending i keep getting more and more and more. But i guess heavenly father knows i have tons to learn and tons of room to grow. so for my trials i am going through i am extremly grateful. i hope he gives me more mountains to climb and rivers to cross, (or in my case, more storms to walk in, and more buses to spray you with huge puddles, or larger hail storms to hit you in the head with, or more people to get in my face and tell me my religion is wrong) because the more that happens the stronger i will get. my patrarticles blessing says that i will share my testimoy with the world and i guess that takes a pretty strong testimony. i have learned that who i was is not who christ wants me to be. he wants me to be much better. this past 6weeks i have learned more than i ever have my whole life. i know God put me in this CRAZY area for a reason. i am reminded everyday why i am here and as crazy as belfast is i am going to overcome it.

amoungst all of this heavenly father knows how extremly hard i am trying and so a miracle has happened. Neely our investigator has a baptism date for the 22nd of june! so everyone please pray for him.

i love you all so much!

love, sister ricks

Happy Skyper's Day!

We got to Skype Sister Ricks yesterday and it was great to hear from her! Here are some things she shared...

 

1. The weather is crazy there, she has yet to see a day without rain! It was ok at first but it's getting a little old!

2. The diet is crazy, they eat French fries (chips) with EVERYTHING! She never thought she'd get so tired of potatoes!

3. She loves the way they talk, every thing is a wee little something or other, even a handout in church!

4. Ireland is a country where A LOT of people go to earn college degrees so she has been able to meet a lot of people from many difference backgrounds and cultures which has been a great learning experience.

5. Her testimony has grown by leaps and bounds, she is amazed at all of the things she has learned thus far and can't wait to keep learning more about the gospel.

 

Sister Ricks is still feeling a little homesick and has some physical aliments as well that is making missionary work a little hard for her right now. She knows that this is where she is supposed to be and that she is sharing the gospel, but needs our love and prayers sent her way. Thank you for all of your love for Kinz, please continue to pray for her safety, health and comfort while she is learning to navigate life in a whole new world.

WE GOT BIKES!!

Sister Ricks is thrilled because she got a bike this week, some members found them and charged them a (fee, don't know if it's small or large because Kinzi hasn't figured out the conversion system totally! lol but she's still in love with them!) She said they look quite fashionable wearing a skirt and helmet on her bike riding along!

She's also been working hard too, they are working with a lot of investigators...

1. two brothers who watched the video about the restoration, when they asked them how it made them feel they stated they felt warm inside, they were raised Muslim so learning about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is new to them

2.A 23 year old sister who "is awesome" that they are going to hike Belfast castle with today; she lives in a catholic neighborhood so they have been asked to not to teach her at home, they always have to teach her somewhere else

3. They are also teaching a man who was inactive but is coming back to church, he has a 23 year old son who doesn't know about the church and has not been baptized and they are teaching him as well. He has come to church 3 times and they have been helping them paint their house which has opened a lot of opportunities for good conversations.

4. They are teaching a sweet 19 year old sister who has 18 month old twins. She came to church last week and seemed to really enjoy it, they hope she continues to come.

5. They are also teaching a woman who they have been unable to reach all week, then they ran into her in town and it sounds like she is out of phone minutes but has been wanting to meet with them so they were able to schedule an appointment with her...coincidence? I think not!

6. They are working with a young couple in school, they haven't seen them this week because it's been finals week but they are getting close to baptism and they're planning on challenging them to baptism this week.

7. They also met a young woman from Poland who they will be meeting with this Wednesday and she is looking forward to that very much.

 

She is doing well and enjoying the work. She said she knows this church is true...every part of it!



No Time For Little Old Us

This is the exact email from Kinzi this week...thanks a lot there Sister Ricks! just kidding!

 

 

"i dont have anytime this week to write a weekly because we have a lunch appointment with some friends or usually i would have another hour so i will catch you all up next week :) "

Who What When Where

Sister Ricks sounds like she is really enjoying life in good old Ireland. She said the food is interesting, everything is tiny, they speak English...but not really, its very confusing to drive on the left side of the street and it has rained everyday since she has been there...except one! But, the people are wonderful and friendly and she's been able to teach a lot of people! In fact both her and her companion got asked out on a couple of dates last week alone! She said it was pretty funny to watch her companion explain why they couldn't go on a date, and especially why they couldn't go clubbing.

 

Sister Ricks explained that everyday they pray specifically for people to teach, they call it "who, what when, where" meaning they asked for who they want to teach and when and where. Last week they prayed to teach a tall blonde woman in her late thirties and that day they ran into a tall blonde woman in her late thirties who allowed them to teach her the lesson and place a Book of Mormon. She said that things like that happen everyday and it's amazing. They even found a former investigator by praying specifically in that way. Currently they're teaching someone who came to church yesterday which of course, was very exciting and they're hoping that he'll commit to  be baptized.

 

They also are working with a young man who is blind but able to read The Book of Mormon, she is amazed at the miracles and blessings she has been able to experience while serving her mission and she's only been gone since March 27th!

 

Sister Ricks is doing well overall and is learning and growing so much! Thank you for praying for her and supporting her and the family throughout her time as a missionary!

Finally in Ireland

This week, Sister Ricks' email was pretty long and detailed, so I pulled the naught copy and paste, because I didn't want to mess up the travel details...

 

 My apartment is like 150 years old lol. its heated by radiator panels, no vents but it seems to be somewhat warm enough. we have no dryer and a washer that can probably fit like two towels in it. everything here is so small lol. every members house i have been to they have like mini washer, fridge, stove, over, freezer, etc. most people don't have dish washers lol. simple living here. but its just because all the town is pretty old, I'm in Belfast, Northern Ireland. some weird people here but they are so cute haha

i have been in three different countries in a week and i am exhausted. the first day i arrived in Scotland (where the mission home is) was Wednesday after flying for 13 hours and literally having to run from plane to plane in every airport because our plane from salt lake was delayed which made every other plane we were to get on delayed as well. so we absolutely no lay overs which is good and bad considering we made each plane wait for us for 30 minutes and having all the passengers give us dirty looks as we got on lol.

 

anyways so we get into Scotland and our mission president and the zone leaders decide to take us to the Edinburgh castle we walked 2 miles uphill and took a billion stair to get to the castle, which was amazing to see and go into all the museums within the castle except for the fact i hadn't slept for 30 hours so me and my companion and a couple other sisters where going from place to place to find benches to sleep lol. so basically i have slept in a castle. sweet... so then we went back to the mission home, ate dinner went to bed. woke up and they took us on a hike, which obviously i was more excited about because i had actually gotten sleep. so the place where we went is called authors seat but we as missionaries call is Pratt's hill. Because when Orson Pratt came to be a missionary in the Scotland area he climbed that hill and made a goal with the lord to be able to convert and baptize 200 souls(which he eventually did) so we as missionaries follow that tradition and go up there at the start of our mission and make a goal with the lord. pretty cool :) also our mission motto is that "act well thy part" that was mentioned in general conference by sister Dalton. so look that up it's pretty cool.

 

my mission has a lot of history so its way cool. anyways after the hike we were able to go back to the mission home and get our calling of where we were to go and who our trainer would be. i got called to Belfast Northern Ireland, i never realized that our mission is the only mission that covers three countries lol. Northern Ireland, Ireland, and all of Scotland. Pretty cool. so anyways thats where i am right now and yes i will be able to email you every week. i also will send you a letter so you have my address! my companion is sister Morgan and she's really cool. she's super obedient and awesome. she's been in this area for months and i guess all the sisters that have served before us has served here for 9 months each haha so i might be here a while. so i fulfilled my goal and handed out my book of mormon in the airport. i was able to give it to the ladies that sat next to me for 8 hours to London. so that was cool. i also taught this lady named twinkle on the streets of Scotland, I taught her the restoration. gave her a BOM and a joseph smith pamphlet. we went chapping (which is knocking doors lol) and i did some cool stuff during that as well.

 

 Yesterday i saw this black lady at a bus stop and i was committed to inviting someone to be baptized by the end of Sunday and our investigator Adam bailed on us so i was desperate lol so anyways we ran across the street and started talking to her, surprisingly she is a former investigator from like a year ago. so that was a miracle because we were able to clear up some misconceptions that she had, she has been to church once or twice and i don't know why she stopped meeting with the sister missionaries but anyways the bus came so we decided to hop on with her and we continued to talk she was surprised to find out that we pay our own way here to preach the gospel. she got off the bus at the next stop so as she got off i yelled and asked if she found out these things were true if she would be baptized and she said maybe lol that's a good start. so we are going to look at the area book and look into her. we are working with a lot of less actives and recent converts but we also have like 5 investigators too.

 

 

MTC and Trip to Scotland/Ireland

Sister Ricks has been in the MTC for 2 weeks, and left Tuesday morning for her journey to Scotland/Ireland! It is very exciting and time seems to be flying by already!

Sister Ricks said that in the MTC she had two "investigators" that she and her companion were working with. They had teach them the lessons and challenge them to baptism. She said that has been an excellent way to learn. She is having a lot of fun learning more about the gospel and how to share it and is very excited to start missionary work in Scotland or Ireland (where she'll start, we're not sure yet!) She was able to call home during  a layover at the airport and it sounds like she is doing well. She's not sure what she is going to do without an IPod on the plane for that many hours but she's excited to begin serving the people in Scotland and Ireland! Thank you for all of your love and support!

As soon as we hear from her in the mission, we'll post! 

First Letter Home

The family has already gotten the first letter from Sister Ricks since entering the MTC. She said that they were encouraged to write home the first day they got there, so she is trying to be obedient to EVERYTHING and wrote home! She said that the first day in the MTC was great and busy, they already started teaching their first lessons, she said that it is a lot to keep straight, but already she had learned SO MUCH! She is in a room with 6 sisters, 4 of them are going to Scotland/Ireland and the others are going to Peru and are already learning Spanish. She loves her companion, she said she is quiet but that's probably a good thing...(heaven knows Kinzi will help keep the conversation going)

She also says that she loves everyone back home and she's really excited to begin her mission. She can't believe the time has already come! She'll only be in the MTC for 2 weeks, so she's hoping she'll be able to learn and take it all in in that short of time before she heads off to teach the people of Scotland/Ireland. Thank you for all of your love and support for our Sister missionary!

First Day in the MTC

Last night Sister Kinzi Ricks was set apart to be a full time missionary in to serve for 18 months in the Scotland/Ireland mission. The spirit was strong as her uncle/stake president set her apart, with her dad and brother in the circle, to serve the Lord and share the gospel to the people of Scotland and Ireland.

 

Today Sister Kinzi Ricks entered the MTC at 1:30pm; her mom, dad and Sisters Rylee and Hadlee took her up to Provo, stopping for ice cream on the way to the MTC. They hugged and kissed her as she met the elders awaiting her arrival. Not a tear was shed, they were all so happy for Kinzi and her decision, and know that she will be taken care of by her companions, mission president, mission mom and most importantly by the Lord.

 

Kinzi is a wonderful example and has a strong, fun personality. We as her family know that as she follows the mission rules and listens to the spirit she will be an amazing missionary and teach the gospel to so many people.

This blog will follow her mission and keep everyone updated on her successes and lessons learned for the next year and a half!

Thank you for reading this blog and praying for our daughter, sister, and wonderful auntie!

 

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