hermana k. rife goes to texas: Hola Familia!!!

Hey Hey Hey! How ya'll doing? :)

It sounds like you had an eventful week and that things are getting pretty intense in the rife household with chores. :) We got cleaning checks again this week and we got a perfect. Not that many people get perfects so that means our house is pretty clean. I haven't ever gotten a less that perfect so I am glad. Hopefully it will stick ;) I think it will!

This week was a good week. Lots of heat, and a lot of rain. yesterday it rained so hard. Walking out from the church to our car we were soaked. I will def. send some before and after pictures. This week is transfers. Who knows what is going to happen! Our area is being split so there is that possibility and all of them. I'll keep you updated. I did get your letter from Zone conference. It was really good. Thank you. I had to reread it because I couldn't focus really well and it was deep reading. :) It definitely gave me added motivation. I also loved getting mom's card. Thanks mom. Letters are wonderful things! :) I sent the boys letters on Friday. This week got away from me before I could get them to the mail box. Sorry.

We have been able to have a few really good lessons this week. We taught fransisco. He is progressing really well and understands the things we are teaching. He just needs to get to church. He can't because he has to work, but we are going to try to work something out. We are planning on talking about fasting and doing a fast with him. He is so sweet. He says some of the most reverent and fervent prayers I have ever heard. He always says I'll say the prayer and then is really talking with Heavenly Father. He gets all serious and it is a beautiful thing to watch. He always says thank you for sending me your angel messengers or servants to help me understand more about you. We taught him the Word of Wisdom this week because when we went on Monday he was drinking right before we came. We read corinthians 3 about how our bodies are temples and he goes off about how we have to take care of our bodies because when we go to heaven all ruined and crippled we can't say Heavenly Father I need a new body. He is going to say....Sorry that was the only one I had for you! :) He was just laughing when he was telling us. It was so funny! :D I love him!

We have been teaching Felipe and Maria as well. We hadn't been able to get into them since the past cockroach/hermana crandall crying in the lesson incident. He told us, we didn't think you all were going to come back. We told them no and that we wanted to but we weren't able to. We had a good lesson about the book of mormon and explained again the apostasy because Maria didn't understand how Joseph Smith wasn't one of the 12 disciples? I didn't understand where she got that from the restoration but I think she understands now. We passed by yesterday and took them banana muffins and tried to get them to church. All there family was over and they invited us to skip church and to eat with them. Temptations...;) Maria told us sorry that they had disappointed us. I think she really felt bad that they couldn't come. Hopefully they will come this next week. We have a lesson with them tonight and we are going to take our new ward mission leader. Hermano Rivera. We will also be extending a bap. date. Aug 10th. Keep your fingers crossed and prayers going.

Lazero. Oh. Lazero. He is the man. Seriously, I hope I can find someone as good as him. His wife died this past feb. and he lives by himself. We met him awhile ago and just stop by now and then. He isn't super interested but he always asks us questions and he was the man who we talked to at the 4th of july and he asked us to come over. He told us some really powerful stories about prayer and it was special. We were able to share a few verses in the book of mormon with him. He loved them and marked them. He told us about his wife and their life together. He gave us some really wise counsel. He was saying. "When i was about 16 or 17, one day I just decided that I was going to be a good man, a good husband, dad, brother, son, friend, and a good worker. I was going to be honest and live an honest life. It has always done good for me. When I met my jinny (his wife) I told her. You can ask me anything you want and I'll be honest with you so that you know what you are getting yourself into. After we get married, don't bring it up anymore because you knew beforehand. We lived open and honestly like that and we had a beautiful 47 years of marriage. She was a very special lady and i still cry for her daily. Find someone who will love you and who is honest and a good worker and always puts the Lord first. Don't settle. When you find him, you will know" He wasn't saying things that I hadn't heard before but I took it differently because of the respect I have for him. You can just tell how honest and how much character he has so I felt like he had all the right to say it because he has lived it. It was really special. He was showing us a few songs he wrote on the guitar too. He always tells us how glad he is that we come and that he has learned a lot from us. He found out about transfers and he said...I will really miss you if you leave. He I feel is going to be the key to getting a less active woman/family back to church as well as slowly but surely he will accept the gospel. We are encouraging him right now to read the book of mormon. He has read a little but not tons. He is really incredible.

Patricia came to the english ward yesterday with us. It was intense. I am not going to lie. I tried not to be judgmental but man they were noisy. There is a lot of little ones in that ward. I do have to just fall back on the fact that Heavenly Father knew what day she would come and what would happen. She was questioning why we didn't have wine at the sacrament. She took the bread but wouldn't take the wine! haha :D oh patricia. We saw her randomly earlier in the week and she was asking us a bunch of questions about missionary work. She was amazed at the different facts she learned. She was like well if one of ya'll get transferred, ya'll be fixin, to keep in touch right? We told her yes, she loves us. She never does fail to invite us to her church though. :)

We stopped by the morenos yesterday, and their bathroom flooded so that is why they have been canceling. I asked isabel if we had done anything or if something had happened she was like oh no, we have just been really busy. Juan told us that he is in 3 nephi. Future missionary. Here he comes. wow. 13. i'm impressed with that boy. Daniel Rodrigous came to church yesterday. He always has a smile from ear to ear as he comes in. He is a sweet heart. Tirza and he have been reading together. Julio (rossy's boyfriend) and Jasmin (lessactive-rossy's daughter) came to church yesterday too. It was good to see them there. :) As soon as rossy's divorce goes through we will be able to get him into the water!

That was just a few of the things that happened this week. I have been learning a lot like always. I am so grateful for this chance I have to serve a mission. I love this gospel and I know that it truly brings joy into a person's life. I know that the scriptures are where we can find our answers. They are wonderful tools. I also know that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers. We just need to really talk to him. I am so grateful for all the people I am getting to know. I learn so much from them daily. What a huge blessing this is. I hope you know that I love you all so much and miss you all. I pray for each of you. I hope you are reading the scriptures and praying. Stay on the Path. Stay Strong. Remember who you and and to whom you belong to.

Off finding the 10's of 1000's

Love you lots. Your little Texan,

Hermana Rife