Monday, June 24, 2013

"I can see whats happening.... WHAT?.... Our trio is down to two..."

Hi Hi Family!

How are you all doing? I hope all is well. It sounds like you all had another really busy week and that you are all involved in some wonderful activities! I am happy to hear that all is well. I miss you all and love all you all too. I hope you know that. Give grandma jensen a hug for me and send my love. I can't imagine that, that would be so insanely hard for grandpa to watch his best friend and love suffer like she is. It breaks my heart too. I love her so much. All of my grandparents. What special examples they are for me! I didn't hear about kendra's hair. I am glad katelin could help her fix it?

As you see from my title. We are down to 2 companions again. Hermana Hansen got her Visa on wednesday and she was gone friday morning. It was crazy that it happened so fast. It was fun serving with her while it lasted. :) I guess I wasn't doing as good as Heavenly Father wanted so he said...I better get this girl out of here before she is corrupted anymore! :) I think she was a bit nervous to go but we received an email this morning and so we know that she made it and she is okay.

This week was a good week. It went by so fast. We had a few beautiful miracles. We had a lot but a few that were really special are the following.

La Familia Moreno: We had the chance to go and visit them two times this week. We went once when we were on exchanges. Hermana Gibson and Hermana Deloya were with me. We did this really cool Protecting the Family rather than the City with Alma 50. It was cool. Hermano Cue came with us and they had a good connection with him. Jesus wasn't there because he was working but Juan knows him from school because he is a teacher. It was neat. We also saw them on saturday. Hermana Isabel says that she feels that it is true and that Juan her son is changing a lot. They are in Enos of the Book of Mormon. When we talk about it they are totally understanding the principles. I think it is so cool. On saturday, they told us that they were going to visit church. It was far away because of the broadcast and so we were a little nervous to see if they were going to come. 15 minutes before church because, we received a phone call and it was isabel. She said Hermana, we are outside but we don't know where to go and we can't see you all. We went out and got them and wow. It was a beautiful sight. Even Jesus was able to come. All of them were dressed so nicely and they behaved soooo well. Other than the part at the end when one of their little ones was putting ctr and soy una hija de dios stickers all over jesus. It was quite hilarious. But even then they were super quiet and very behaved. It turns out that they used to live in what we call the "mormon complex" where a bunch of our members live and so they know a ton of the members. It was cool because they have the possibilities of social conversion. They are so special. I feel so blessed to be able to work with them.

Last night after the mission broadcast we didn't have any set appointments. Hermana Crandall said, what about The Rodrigous Family (Tirsa y Daniel) I was like yeah, why not. They weren't able to come to church because they were out of town. We didn't know for sure if they would be home but we went over there. They were home, and Daniel was like come in come in. He is normally super quiet but was talking to us a lot more than normal. Tirsa was really excited to see us even though they had just arrived home about 1 hour before we went over. We were talking and then Daniel comes in and just sits down with us. He NEVER does that. He is normally in the back room. He was just visiting with us and he made us a mango smoothie. He was so kind and just different. It was seriously beautiful to be in their home, with both of them sitting by each other and talking with us. We asked if we could share a little message. They said that was fine. We read out of Heleman 5:9-12. We talked about what Christ did for us and what repentance is and how we can build our foundation on Christ. It was so special because Daniel was just answering the questions and participating. Although, we had given him a book of mormon and he has come to church like 5 times. He has never talked to us. He would say like 3 words. I never felt that I could invite him to listen or that we could have a gospel discussion because He wouldn't talk. About 3 weeks ago, we gave him a book of mormon and I was able to bear my testimony about the plan of salvation and the book of mormon. He was listening so intently and said he would begin to read it. (It was the same day that Chris got the priesthood) I asked him last week if he was reading and he just gave me a thumbs up and said si! I asked him if he had questions and he is just like nope. So yesterday was a big change. I was bearing my testimony and we invited him to really start learning more and seeing if this was true. He was just like nodding his said saying yes yes yes. I said, if you want to and he just had a smile and said yes. It was seriously so special.  We are making them a darling fhe chart and so hopefully they will just be on a short trip this time so we can go back and teach him and their family this week. Hermana campos (tirsas mother who lives with them) told us that Daniel is always like Where is my Book? I need my Book of Mormon! :) This work is so special.

Wow. The Mission Broadcast was fantastic! I loved it. The spirit was so strong and it was just a very neat message. I am sure all of you can feel as I that The Lord is really hastening his work and he has stuff for us to do. As I sat and watched the broadcast I was just thinking, wow this work is so sacred and I have the blessing of being a part of it. Dad, you asked me what we were implementing. We are doing a lot. President Pingree has been working hard on trying to get a ward mission plan in every ward. It is hard in our ward because we haven't had a ward mission leader basically the whole time I have been serving in this area. Hopefully that will be changing soon. I feel that we need to encourage and inspire the members to find ways to invite their friends to listen to the missionaries. Through dinner appointments or whatever it may be.

The more and more I am on my mission, the more and more I am realizing that this is so important and the things that I used to think were important are like the least important things in the world. I am coming to understand more about our purpose, about how we need to do our part. I love my mission so much. I love this work. I know that Heavenly Father loves his Children so much and that is why we have this Gospel. I know we need it in order to get back to live with him again. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that the way is prepared but we just have to choose if we are going to follow it or not. We have all the tools, the scriptures, prayer, prophets and church etc. I love this gospel. I hope that you are all reading daily and praying. I know life can get busy but we can't forget about those things. Thank you for all your love and support. Your letters inspire and uplift me and help me keep going. I love you all so much and hope you all are taking care. Remember who you are and to whom you belong to.

Off finding and teaching the 10's of 1000s.

Love you! Texas forever. Your little texan,

Hermana Rife

Sister Rife with a new fancy hair do!!!
"Hermana deloya is a hair ninja. She did that to my head!"

"Hermana Crandall..how I love her sooo much! :) she doesn't like my taking pictures of her!"

"Look at my plant that I am growing! It is going to have flowers soon. It was like 2 in. tall when i got it."

"Kynsie's"  Trio
Hermana Rife, Hermana Hansen and Hermana Crandall

2 comments:

  1. I love reading of your adventures and can picture the areas you talk about! We've been to the Red Robin in Tomball, too. Maybe you can eventually get to Elizabeth's ward. They meet in the brand new building behind the Outlet Mall in Cypress. I can't remember the name of her ward. . . but her married name is Wallace. Keep up the good work, and remember that many are praying for you.
    Laura Leseberg (aka L3)

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  2. Laura,
    I will make sure I pass your message onto Kynsie. I would love it if She could see Elizabeth. That would be so FUN!

    Leslie

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