hermana k. rife goes to texas: a lot of little miracles in Texas

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful week. It sounds like everyone is doing great. I am so proud that you got a microwave. How neat! ;) thanks for the update on christian as well. I hope he can keep recovering. well this week was another quick one. i can't believe how fast time flies here. I feel like we were able to get a lot done this week. We were able to see many miracles. Heavenly Father placed so many people in our path. Some of the things that happened weren't by coincidence at all. It is so special to watch Him work in the lives of his children.

Benidina - A few weeks ago we started teaching this lady named Benidina. We had just taught her the Restoration and hadn't been able to get in with her again. We went and knocked on her door and she told us we could come in. She looked happier. Her countenance had more light and she was being more patient with her two sons. We hadn't seen her for about 2 or 3 weeks. We sat down and asked her if she had been able to read the book of Mormon at all and she tells us yeah i read it and I am still reading it. We were very surprised and happy! She said that she is enjoying it. We invited her to be baptized. She told us that she would but that she had to be ready because she didn't want to go back to who she was before. We were excited to see it. Scripture Power....that is all i can say.

Carmen, Pablo, and Ashlee - We knocked into this family. She was cooking at the time but said we could come back. We went back later that night and from the moment we walked in, it just felt very comfortable and like we were chatting with an old friend. Ashlee is 7 and is full of energy. I mean full. Bouncing off the walls. One person has to be talking to her and keeping her busy and the other to her mom. We hadn't been able to teach the restoration because it was too crazy and the spirit just wasn't there to be a powerful lesson. We planned to teach it at our next appointment which was on Friday. Before we went in, Hermana Gutierrez prayed that a miracle would happen and that angels would accompany us to help get this important message across and that little Ashlee would be calm so that we could both teach. We were knocking and Carmen didn't answer and neither did Ashlee. Then Pablo comes walking up and had just dropped his sister off to play with a friend. He is 17 and so so so so awesome. He is very shy but really respectful. Carmen didn't hear us. We went in and we were able to teach a really strong powerful first lesson. Pablo sat in and participated too. We invited them to be baptized. Carmen said well I don't know if this is true but when every you come over I feel such a peace and I feel something good. She said it could change though so I can't say one way or the other. Pablo said that if he found out it was true and if he wanted to be a part of the church he would get baptized. It was a miracle lesson. We were leaving and little Ashlee was coming home with a bom of happy energy. She is darling but we were so grateful that we were able to lay a basis of the first lesson to help them feel the spirit and have it testify with out a that distraction! We are excited to see where they go.

Eddie is doing really good. We were able to meet his beautiful daughter this week as well as the daughters mom. We are going to go visit her sometime this week hopefully. We went to Yiseddies birthday party and that is where we were able to meet eddies family and the mom of the Yiseddie. I think he knows what we are saying is true but he is just nervous about going to church and praying in front of us. He will do it but i don't think he opens his heart. I don't remember if I told you but Eddie got shot in the head and so he has a learning disability. He has a hard time speaking and expressing his thoughts. He doesn't want to make us wait and so then he just says...I don't know. When we get him to talk he can tell us things. He is so special. Yiseddie his 6 year old daughter is always reminding him to read and pray. She said Hey Daddy, those church girls told you that you have to read so you need to. We may or may not give her suckers when he isn't looking...just kidding he always knows but we give her suckers to encourage her to keep being our little missionary. haha

We didn't have many miles this week so we road bikes for most of the day on Friday and visited with a lot more people/ knocked close to our home. Well it was quite the adventure but we had fun. It was good too because we were able to talk with a lot more people and lots more people were able to see us. We were able to ride through old town Tomball and we could see all these little shops and cute stores. It was fun to see it. There is a lot of weird things but cool things too. We took a few pictures on our little trek.

The funny story of the week. Nick said something about more bugs. I haven't seen any scorpions but the mosquitoes are HUGE here and the other day we saw this turtle in the water. It was cool. Sometimes I feel like things or bugs are crawling on me. The other day we were outside talking to our friends Jose and Steve. They always are sitting outside when we are in this one trailer park. They are nice people. Anyways we were seeing how they were and they were asking us some questions about missionary work and what we are doing. Well all of a sudden I felt something on my leg. I moved my leg and I still felt it. I look down and there is a quarter sized beetle crawling up my leg. I screamed and tried to kick it off but he kept climbing and he was going up my skirt. I was like ahhhhhhh. Then he flew off and Steve is standing up trying to figure out what is going on with this crazy girl screaming and then he sees the bug and just stomps on it. hahaha we were laughing really hard. He told me as we were leaving. You need to ask God to forgive me for killin his little creature. :) Oh man. It was sick though. It was so big and I for once really had something crawling up my leg.

One more miracle of the week. We went to contact this less active that we had on our ward directory. We didn't know who she was. When we arrived, they kids and parents outside were white. We went and asked if they were them and they said they had moved. Hna. Gutierrez told the mom Emily, well maybe it isn't a coincidence that we are here. She started to introduce us and Emily said...I know who you are. I used to be a member of the Mormon Church but I changed back to baptist. She started to tell us her story and what happened. Long Story short she doesn't have an understanding of some of the principles of the gospel and because of those doubts she doesn't want to accept it. She told us that she thinks of the church often and that she still has a testimony of the priesthood and of the book of Mormon. She isn't going to the baptist church so basically she is just inactive. We were able to invite her to read the book of Mormon daily and to keep praying. She said she would do her best but she said we could stop by another time if we wanted to. We were telling her our testimonies and I know she could feel the spirit. She said that she was just very stubborn but that she had been thinking that maybe it was time to get her daughter into church because she had been baptized as well.

It is really neat to see the miracles. I just know that all of these things can't just happen by chance. Heavenly Father truly does have His hands and angels working in our lives. Trying to help us always. Sometime we aren't able to listen or do what he has planned though. It is just a testimony to me that this church is true and that God lives. I love this gospel so much. I am grateful that I am able to be here sharing it with others.

I love you all a lot and a lot and I hope you are reading and praying always. Remember who you are and to whom you belong to.

Love this quote.

"Our discipleship will be developed and proven not by the type of trials that we are faced with but how we endure them. As we have been taught by President Henry B. Eyring: “So, the great test of life is to see whether we will hearken to and obey God’s commands in the midst of the storms of life. It is not to endure storms, but to choose the right while they rage. And the tragedy of life is to fail in that test and so fail to qualify to return in glory to our heavenly home” (“Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2005, 38)." Becoming a True Disciple - Elder Daniel L. Johnson -

Off finding the tens of thousands and teaching them...:) Thanks for the updates.

Love,.

Hermana Rife

Ps. I ate cactus this week. last night actually. It was really really good. Be prepared for some awesome mexican food when I come home. :)

Ps.s.s.s I might try to send pictures later

Psssssss I haven't heard back from the dentist. I need to call him. I'll try to do that today.