"hasta ver, hasta ver, hasta ver nos con el Rey, para siempre Dios este con vos"

Hello my dear sweet family,

How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing well and can feel the love of Heavenly Father. I know that even though this is a hard moment that He loves us so much. I felt that it would be soon. 

Grandma Vedana is truly a very special and remarkable woman. I love her so much. She has influenced and touched the lives of so many. I will always remember all of the fun times we had with her. She has a smile and laugh that are contagious, a heart that is big and always giving and a testimony and faith that never has been hid because she lived it and showed it through her example. I love you Grandma! I know she is finally free from pain and  nothing is holding her down! I know that we are going to see her again. 

This week went by really quick. It was a beautiful week. We had a lot of success this week. I love my mission. It is the best ever. I had to do two exchanges this week. The first one was with Hermana Tanner. We stayed in Bear Creek. It was awesome. We had a conflict with a lady wanting to feed us and having an appointment with an investigator. We asked if we could bring him and she said yes. We have been teaching Alfonzo, Elisa, and Eugenio for about 2 months. They have been progressing but slowly. Eugenio has been having a bit of a hard time and he was the only one who was able to come. He fit in perfectly with the Alverez family. They were awesome. He told them about how he really enjoyed everything that we had been teaching them, but especially the plan of salvation. He opened up a lot about the book of mormon and how he has been feeling a lot of peace and tranquility as he reads. The spirit was so strong as we were teaching and we extended a baptismal date. He accepted. He is preparing for the 21st of sept. We are really excited for him. 

The Gil Family is doing good. They are reading a bit and we had a few really solid appointments with them this week.

Hna Rivera was randomly in texas and she was at the stake conference that i was at. I was so surprised. It was really awesome to see her and talk to her for a few minutes. She is so wonderful. We were planning to go to breakfast this morning with the Santillans but then it didn't happen because she had to leave. She loves you all so much. She told me a few things. She said she went to a pool party with kendra and that kylee gave her this cute little heart. She loves you all. :) She also told me how she called kendra and that she started crying when she found out that she had just seen me. :) It made me feel good. Love you ken. 

Even though Hermana Rivera wasn't able to make it. The Santillans drove up to bear creek and went to ihop. I feel we completed what we were supposed to do. It was really great. They are such wonderful people. I love them a lot. We will see what happens. We talked to them a lot about the spirit and how God can do anything. It was really good and hopefully they will start moving again.

I hope you know how much I love you all. I hope you all feel peace this week as you attend the funeral and have family time. Grandma is a wonderful person and she will be greatly missed. I am so grateful for the understanding that we have about life after this, that families can be together forever and that  we can have the holy spirit to give us comfort in these moments of difficulty. Love you all so much.  Sending lots of love and hugs from texas

Take care and I'll talk to you soon.

Off finding the tens of thousands! Remember who you are and to whom you belong too.

Love hermana rife

Hermana Rife with Eugenio

Hermana Rife with Jose & Lorena

Hermana Knappen and Hermana Rife with Jose & Lorena

"But I am showering.....":D

Helllllo Family Family! How are you all doing? I hope all is well in the house of the rifes. It sounds like you had a wonderful week! Thanks for filling me in! This week was awesome! There were so may beautiful experiences like always! Ahh The mission live. Love it. TEXAS FOREVER! 

To answer your questions so that I don't forget.  About the family vacation. I am good with either one. I would vote for texas but I guess that isn't part of the plan :D Really i don't care, both sound super fun! I think you should be careful about calling hermana rivera "sheriff" because I know that it was something that she didn't like being called before...sooo I maybe would call her by her name. I think that it would fall better with her. She is really nice so I don't think that she would say anything. Hope that doesn't offend you. It is meant with best intentions. :) Yes, I got my package. We were planning and we heard our doorbell. I looked through the peep hole and it was Jessie and Sister Maughn. They are sweet. Thank you soo much for all that you sent me. It meant a lot. i loved all of it. The gummi bears and the sprouts gift card. It was sooo thoughtful. I started crying reading your letters and notes. Thank you so much. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending the jam too but sadly it didn't quite make it. It was taken out at security. :( but it is okay! 

Funny story to start:  Israel, Gabby and Andy are such a wonderful family in our ward! Israel is one of Hermana Rivera's Recent converts. I love their family so much. They will drop anything to help us out. They always answer the phone and always help us with everything! They are the best. Sooo Israel, never doesn't answer the phone. He always answers. We went over  to eat and he told us that he hasn't been reading as good and it has been affecting him. He is preparing to go to the temple soon so I think that the bad guys are working with him. So we decided we were going to call him and make sure to remind him to read to stay strong. We called him and after a little bit of time he answers the phone. We heard all this weird noise in the back and Israel is like Hermanas whats wrong? We said hno, did you read today, he was like hahaha no, only a little but i'll read after and he was laughing and said is that all you needed? We said, yes, but are you going to read? He said yessss hermana's but hahaha I am showering right now soooo i'll call you later! They are sooo dedicated. Even answer in the shower. haha :) He is funny. Dedication. Dedication! :) Love them

We totally found some tens of thousands this week. Awesome things are happening in Bear Creek! La famila Gil: We received them as a referral from the english elders. We passed by on friday night and they just let us in with such a warm welcome. Luz and Abel (padres) were there. We had a beautiful and fun conversation with them and I seriously felt so comfortable in their home. It was just neat because I felt like we had know each other for a long time. They were very open with us about the things that they were struggling with and what they were expecting from the lessons. We shared with them the book of mormon and shared Alma 36. After Abel was giving us the book of mormon back and we said oh no, that is for you. He said, well thank you so much. Do you have something that you believe we should start with? We choose 2 chapters that we felt would be good for them. Last night we went back with the Martinez family (1st con. in the bishopric) and taught the restoration to them and their 2 kids, Abel Jr and Brittney. They have another daughter Yessenia but she was working and came home right at the end. It was an awesome lesson. The spirit was so strong and all of them were engaged as we were sharing about Christ's Church. After the vision, there was dead silence for 30ish seconds. It was neat. We have another appointment with them tonight! I love them all so much already. we are going to extend a date tonight! Awesome Awesome family!!!

Stephanie Long: She is one of the tens of thousands for sure. Stephanie referred herself to receiving the missionaries on Mormon.org. When we knocked on her door. Her husband opened and told us that the elders had passed by and that they were catholic. I said does a stephanie long live here because we received a referral from her. She popped her head out and said...sorry honey, I invited them to come. She welcomed us in and we had an awesome conversation with her as well. She told us how she loves the mormon messages and how they always make her feel so good and how much she loves a few of her friends who are mormon. She told us how she has always been so curious and finally she just decided to learn more. She explained to us about how she tried to find the church and the time to attend yesterday but was unable to find the time so didn't go. I was very pleased to hear that. We taught the restoration and talked about the church and how it is set up. She told us, wow, that just makes so much sense and normally it takes me a long time to process things like this. She then told us, well I guess I need to Pray and ask God if this is true. We hadn't even invited her to do so. She also committed to reading the book of mormon and asked us if we could come back! :) She is great. It is really sad because she is english so we have to give her up...its like giving a baby up for adoption....SOOO hard. :D hopefully her english parents with take care of her. ;) haha. bad joke. i know. anyways. We are going to present her to the english missionaries. Amazing experience though!!!

Temple: What a sacred experience. I loved it. The first session was in english with the new video and the second was the old one in spanish but it was really cool to listen in spanish. I will have to tell you more about it later but it was so sacred. Such a beautiful experience. I feel like Heavenly Father prepared that whole situation for me. I really feel like he prepared the whole thing so I would be able to do her work. Thank you for letting me do it. :) The houston temple president or counselor spoke to us before the saturday morning session. It was so sacred. I'll write some of the things he said in a letter. It was just so special. I love the temple.

Ana: Received the Holy Ghost yesterday. She is so great. We emailed her missionary son and he emailed us back. I guess he is doing awesome things in Ecuador and having a lot of growth! 

I just feel so blessed to be involved in this beautiful work. I know it is true. I know that Christ's Church is really on the earth and that we have such a big part in helping establish it among the earth. Not only through missionary work but also through temple work. I love the book of mormon with all my heart. I hope you all are still reading. It is how we are going to stay on the straight and narrow! I love you all so much. Thanks for all your love and support and everything you help me with! You are all so special to me. Let me know if you need anything! Take care

Remember who you are and to whom you belong too.

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

Love your happy misionera!

Hermana Rife

Jessie and Julie Maughan visiting Kynsie

"Thank you, Thank you so very much for taking time out of your trip to go see her.  It was so very kind of you both to do that and we appreciate it so much."

What a special day for Kynsie ...She was able to do her Grandma Grime's temple work.

Beautiful....Texas Evening at the temple!

"Hey, we just met you, and this is CRAZY but here's our number....get baptized maybe!!!"

I wanted to share this scripture

Colosians 3:12-15

Hi Familly! How are you all doing? Thank you for all your love and support. I really appreciate all that you do for me and all your love and prayers. I hope you know how much I love you all and miss you. The letter writing top three list was for hand written letters but mom and dad definitely take the #1 spot for emails on mondays. If you just keep emailing me every week that is wonderful. You don't need to change, just keep writing your emails and send me letters when you can. I appreciate it. I look forward to mondays and your emails. They always uplift me and inspire me. I was just teasing! I do like letters though.

About the money situation. I don't know why but it was a tough little bit and i was struggling having enough money on my mission card. The members hadn't been feeding us much and I was just running out of money. I had to get a few different things but i am being a lot more careful this month and trying to add match so that I can save more money. I will let you know if I need anything. Thank you though. 

This week has been so awesome. A lot of beautiful things have happened. First is the baptism of ana mejia. Wow. It was such a spiritual experience. This whole week we have been visiting her and teaching her. She just was so nervous to be baptized but so ready. She was really excited too. You could see her just understanding more and more as we continued to teach her. 

Last night at her baptism. A few things were running a lot a bit late but it ended up perfect. We went and watched from the back of the font to help her out with her towel and everything. She was in the water and Hno Guillen baptized her. When she came up from the water, she was smiling so big and said, wow. We left the font and gave her a huge hug. She just started to sob. We just sat there hugging her. The spirit was so strong. :) It was so special. I love her so much. I will never forget that moment. I know her kids are so proud of her. Her brother and sister in law were able to be there. Hermana Knappen and I sang Families can be together forever and a lot of members came to support her. Her kids and her are all baptized now. Now for her parents! :) It was a wonderful experience.

After the baptism, we went to carlos' house to teach his friend Fabian. Carlos was our member present and taught Fabian how to pray and also gave the sweetest testimonies of the book of mormon, of the happiness he has felt with the gospel and also that Heavenly father is listening to our prayers. He had this huge smile the whole time. I am excited for them. Fabian told us that if he knows it is true that he will get baptized. We invited him to pray about a specific date. Carlos is such a solid member. I know he is going to help so many people in his pueblo!

Justin is engaged??!?!?!?!? WHAT? all of my friends. all of em. its okay. maybe i'll just stay on my mission forever. :D or marry some rich latino. so start looking. make sure they can cook though. jokes jokes. Congrats to him. I sent him a birthday card. Hna crandall told me that he sent me a letter so eventually i'll get that. ohhhh speaking of latinos and marriage. Funny story happened this week. We were talking to everyone and we began talking to this man outside. He is Pentecostal. He is probably in his 50's or 60's! Soooo We are talking to him and he tells me...you are american? I said yes, he said it sounds like you were born speaking spanish and that is was your first language. I was like thanks. We continued talking about Jesus Christ and the gospel and he asks me, are you married? I said...no, WE are single until after our missions. He then says...wow, i wish i could go back 25 years and be with you...I was like EWWWWWWW. I kind of laughed and then completely ignored his comment and said...so do you want los misioneros (the boy missionaries) to come and visit you? He was like I am a busy man...but he did accept a book of mormon and said he would begin to study it as well as call the elders when he saw them next. He lives in the elders area and supposedly sees them all the time. It was funny. :) 

I also found a cockroach in my clothes and almost passed out. We were on exchanges and I was going to get in the shower. I saw it and freaked out and ran out of the bathroom screaming  and then made the poor hermanas that i was on exchanges with go and get it. It was soooo huge. totally dead but still nasty. There were two legs left in my clothes (clean) sooo i washed all of them again..just in case. :D 

Oh one last weird/funny story of this week. Sooo i love watermelon now. The Hispanics always make really yummy juices. So we made a water melon juice. I scraped the watermelon out and it looked like a hat...i totally said I want to put this on my head. hermana knappen being the supportive companion that she is was like...yeah, do it. So i did. It was really quite satisfying. The water was like dripping down your neck all cold. It was super funny. We were laughing really hard. I made her put it on and it was like a little jewish hat. I was wearing it dancing around our house and she was laughing so hard. I think i am going to modge podge it and send it to dad for his birthday, just in case he is balding so he can have a cool hat to cover it. maybe he could use it as something for his new calling as scout master! 

Back to spiritual...

We had an awesome finding miracle this week. We talked to this little girl named nikki last week. She told us to come and visit her mom. We set up an appointment and then went this last tuesday. The mom was there. We started talking to her and then she told us that she was baptized in the church when she was young. She told us how that her mom died two years after she was baptized but that the church was so important to her mom. She said that she doesn't remember anything about it but that she liked going and then they stopped, when she passed away. Her daughter isn't a member and we found her too. I just have a strong testimony that Heavenly Father is watching out for each of us. I know we met her daughter for a reason and that she wanted us to talk to her mom for a reason. We have an appointment with her and her mom on tuesday. Hermana Diana is so sweet. I am super excited to see her again. Totally going to come back and Nicole is going to be baptized.

Well Family, I love you all a lot. I hope you all are doing well. I am loving my mission so much. i am so grateful that I am here. I know that this work is true! I also know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and he wants to bless us as we are obedient and do our best. I hope you are reading the book of mormon. IT will strengthen our testimony of Jesus Christ and of this gospel, It will give us strength to carry on, it will give us counsel and guidance from God and answer our prayers.

Remember who you are and to whom you belong too. 

Off finding the tens of thousands!!!

Hermanita Rife

Do you like how my tan line is???

ps - mila is a DOLL!! those pictures were darling! :D

Ana's Baptism

"It was a wonderful experience"

Now for some "FUN" pictures of this crazy girl we call "Our Missionary"...

sporting the "watermelon hat"  :)

And...yet another one!!!

How she can talk other people into being as goofy as she is HER MOTHER will never know!!!! :)

But they at least know how to have a good time.  

And how to bring a smile to the faces of us here at home.  

Notice...the awesome "Texas" tan line!

Well....I guess there is another fun week down in the life of our cute missionary daughter.  She definitely knows how to add so much to our week and we LOVE getting her emails and letters and  hearing of her experiences.  Hope you all that take time to read her emails enjoy it as much as we do.  We love her and appreciate the blessing she has been in our lives.  Keep working hard Kynsie Kell!  Love ya, Mom

me amo mi mision mucho! :)

Helllooo over there! 

It sounds like you all had another wonderful week full of fun and memories. I am glad jessica's wedding went well. Thanks for sending me the pictures. She looked soooo beautiful! :) I wish I could have been there but I know that I am here and doing marvelous! I am glad you were all safe at girls camp too. Kendra is getting all country! Does she still want me to buy her a hat here? She had said something but it looks like she found one....it is probably better cause then i won't have to ship it. I hope the boys have a great week at scout camp. I received tanner's letter and he told me he was going. Have fun but BE SAFE!!!

This week went faster than the last one. I still feel like I have been serving in bear creek for a long time though. I sure like it here though. I really am learning a lot from Hermana knappen. She is so sweet! We had one of the coolest lessons this week. It was seriously awesome.

The hermana's before me knocked into this guy named Wilmer. He is the treasurer of this other non-denominational church. He is so cool. 25 years old. They only talked to him once and then we put a note on his door and tried him again. He called us and set up an appointment. On wednesday we went and visited him. I was asking him some questions about himself to get to know him more and then he said what is your story. I told him a bit of why I am on a mission and I was able to bear my testimony about the atonement and about Jesus Christ. It was really special to be able to share it in that setting. Hermana Knappen did the same. We asked him why he was interested in hearing what we have to teach? He told us that he didn't really know much about our church and then when the hermanas knocked on his door, an interest sparked. 

He told us how he had some questions because he had been doing some research. Of course it was from anti websites and youtube but its okay. We were able to direct him to Mormon.org and find some answers to his questions and explain about what we believe about the set up of Christ's church. He was really listening intently and he found that we had a lot of reason. I have been trying really hard to study the bible and learn it better because basically I still don't know hardly anything about it but before my mission....lets just not go there about my knowledge. :)  Oh wait...it is cause there is nothing to discuss because i knew NADA! Anyways, so I was able to show him a lot of stuff in the bible and it just made me smile because Heavenly Father was helping remember where stuff was in the bible and the book of mormon that I had been studying and I felt the spirit just directing me to different things. it was really neat. Then we continued talking and I felt to ask him to be baptized. I was like WHAT? he is sooo not ready for this. I felt it again just ask him to be baptized. So I said, Wilmer, If you came to know that these things are true through the Holy Ghost, would you be baptized and become a member of the church of Jesus Christ? He, without thinking said, Yes, if the Holy Ghost tells me I will do anything. He said who knows you could be right, I could too but I am willing to see what you all have to say.

He committed to reading the book of mormon and he is going to look and study mormon.org. it was just really cool that he was able to be so accepting. I thought it was such a cool lesson. :)

Ana - is SOOO solid. She will be baptized the 11th of August. The hermanas met her on the 16th of July and met with her 1 time. We have met with her ever since and soo that is less than a month and she is so prepared to be baptized. We talked with her about the interview questions yesterday and she was just all full of smiles and said she is so ready to be baptized. She is so sweet. I love her so much. She studies and her prayers are beautiful and fervent. She understands the scriptures and does her best to apply them. Yesterday, I was talking to her and we haven't even talked to her about fasting. She told me Hermana Rife, "today, I am fasting."  I think it was her first time. She said, I have been doing it all day and I brought this little water just in case I get sick. She said I only drank a little sip and that is all I have drank. She was so excited to tell me that she was fasting. It shocked me, I was really touched that she is that dedicated! I am so grateful for the chance I have to know her. It truly helps me to remember that there are 10's of 1000s ready to receive this gospel. Ana is a miracle and a testimony of this. :) 

Carlos received the holy ghost yesterday. He was told that he was going to be a strong missionary and instrument for his family. He was told that he would convert his family through his example! He couldn't wipe the smile from his face either. During the week, we stopped by a few times and he was telling us about all the things he was studying in the book of mormon and the books that he was given at his baptism. He is dedicated! He also was telling us about his pueblo because I guess where he lives is on a rancho and so it doesn't have a lot of technology. He said he rides a bull. hahaha I thought it was so funny. I told him that hermana knappen rides bears. He was like WHAT? seriously? she didn't understand what I said and just shook her head and said yeah....I just started laughing. :D It was funny, after I told him it was a joke. 

I love spanish. I love the culture. I love the language. I LOVE the food. I love it. I told hermana knappen last night. I have a little problem. I want to marry a hispanic or someone that speaks really good spanish, never want to go back to an english ward, want to teach my children spanish, and enjoy the hispanic culture for the rest of my life. I am pretty obsessed. Just a warning.

Yay! I hit a year on the mission. We celebrated and ate indian food. First time in a year. It was FANTASTIC! yummmmmy. I also went on exchanges with hermana hale. She is so sweet. I learned a lot from here. I feel like we had a good exchange. We had a bomb lesson with a member and this guy Omero is going to get baptized. We also did a church tour and the spirit was super strong. 

Life is so good. I love it. Sorry this email is so long. It probably is boring to ya'll so hopefully it won't be too bad to read. 

I love this gospel. I know it is true. I know that God and Jesus love us sooo much. When we follow the plan we will find true happiness. Make sure you stand in holy places, at all times. 

"Whether your Holy Places are geographic or moments in time, they are equally sacred and have incredible strengthening power." - ann dibb.

LOVE YOU ALLL!!!! off finding the tens of thousands. remember who you are and to whom you belong too. be good. live strong. and love lots. 

hermana k. rife

Hermana Rife with Ana and Hermana Knappen

At Zone Conference with Elders Cheney and Valdez

Celebrating her year mark with Indian!  :)  

12 months down...6 to go!!!

Helllllllloooooo

Hi family family!

How are you all doing? It sounds like you had another wonderful week. Wow i am so sorry to hear about Heidi. Wow. It makes me feel sick. I can't believe that. Thanks for telling me and letting me know about it. How sad. All of my siblings are going to be rich when I come home. I am going to hopefully have to get some loans from them. Ken - congrats on your new job. Look at you go! :)

This week has been really good. It has been forever though. I have felt like it has dragged but its okay. We have had a lot of good things happening. One of the days this week all of our appointments were canceling. The night before we had planned to do things God's ways and not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts style. We planned to go to a grocery store during power hour and help people with their groceries. When we went to the store it just wasn't working. We  tried this other lady and she canceled on us. So we were left not knowing what to do because we had already done our back up plans...for the whole night. We said a quick prayer and I asked hermana knappen what she felt. She said lets go to Kroger, I thought it sounded good. Maybe we could get some good contacts there. 

We got there and the carts were alllll overt the place so we said lets start putting some away. We were doing it and i caught the eyes of this man who was in his car. He was staring at us and I was trying not to smile because he probably thought we were crazy. I put the cart away and he rolled down his window and asked what we were doing and why we were putting the carts away. We talked to him awhile and then he said why did you come here. I said do you really want to know? He said...yes. so we told him we prayed. He thought it was pretty cool. His name was Kevin. He said he wasn't interested but who knows who he will tell about the mormons and when they knock on his door later maybe he will let them in because we are such a peculiar people ;) 

Then we went in and ended up talking to this other man named remy. He seemed really interested and we are going to send the missionaries to him. We were walking around the store and we saw this lady and we went up and started talking to her and I was "looking at the beans" :) haha We ended up talking to her about the church and we got her information and she said she would love to learn more. She is really awesome. Her name is Ana Quintania. (it isn't the next ana that i am going to talk about) She just recently lost her father and moved here. She told us I know nothing happens by coincidence...we were thinking...seriously. :) it was really cool because the Lord had other plans for us this night and so we changed them and it ended up so cool. We definitely bought ice cream too and I have a new favorite blue bell flavor. Butter Crunch. yummmmy :)

Hno Guilen, the old mission leader in our ward, told the hermanas about an old investigator who he thinks is ready. Her name is Ana. The hermanas had visited her one time before me. We went this last week to teach her the restoration. We gave her the baptismal commitment and I couldn't even finish it and she was shaking her head saying yes. We extended the date for the 10th of august and she said, Yes, I want to do it. I know this is my time. It was soooo cool. I was in awe. :) Her son is serving a mission in Guatemala right now. She is so awesome. We are going to probably move her date to the 11th because she wasn't able to come to church and she might go to this camp out but we will see. We visited her last night and she has been reading and she knows this is true! :)

Carlos was baptized yesterday by Israel, one of hermana rivera's recent converts. It was really special. carlos is such a special guy. He said he felt so good and he was all smiles yesterday. Friday night we took him shopping for clothes and he looked sharp yesterday in his shirt, tie and black pants. He is going back to mexico in a few months and he will end up converting his pueblo  there. 

I really like bear creek. It is an adjustment getting used to everything here but we have an awesome ward and awesome people to teach and I have an amazing companion. I love her a lot. She is very proper and I am learning a lot. Hermana Knappen cries a little. I asked her if i could tell you all this...she said i could :) She like dabbs her face soo nicely when she is crying. She doesn't look ugly. Just so pretty. I told her I like watching you cry because you look really professional and it is so pretty. she was like GREAT, my companion likes to watch me cry! :D it was funny. :) I am learning a lot from her.

Well Life is good. I can't believe it has been a year this week since I left on my mission. I am so grateful to be here. I love it so much. I feel like a completely different person and have a completely different life now, in such a small amount of time. I am glad i am here and not where i was. I also remember being soooo scared and feeling sick the days before my mission so i am glad that is over too. :D haha. I love you all so much. I hope you all know that. Keep on reading the book of mormon and praying and doing wonderful things. 

Remember who you are and to whom you belong to. Off finding the tens of thousands!!!

Your Little Texan,

Hermana Rife

Carlos looking pretty sharp after his baptism...

Gabby, Israel, Carlos, Andy (daughter of Gabby and Israel) 

and Kynsie and Hermana Knappen