Hellllooooo to my peeps in provo

Hi Family,

How are you all doing? It sounds like you had another fantastic week. I am glad to hear it. Thanks for your email and pictures. Thanks for that little update on christian terry too. I am glad he is progressing and that is sweet of Eric to keep people updated. Eric is a special guy. 

We had a busy week but it was great. We got our carpet replaced and our whole apartment painted and so we had to take all the stuff out and down and out and covered. We ended up putting pretty much all of our furniture in the balcony and our beds in the bathroom. It was quite the job but we got it done pretty quick. Its nice to have it all freshly clean. It had been five years since the first elders moved in and it is supposed to be cleaned and retouched ever year at renewal but I guess it hadn't ever been done so they just decided to redo it all. Lucky, Lucky us! :) 

We had zone conference this last Wednesday! It was awesome. I always feel so energized when i leave. President Pingree talked a lot about the baptismal covenant and how important that is. He also was talking to us about how we have to talk to everyone. I guess that he has even been trying to do it and he said that the other day he was scared and didn't want to talk to this guy because his forearms were as big as his thighs but it ended up being really great and the guy told him " my mama always taught be a follower of Jesus and I think it is time that i get close to him again" If he hadn't had talked to him then he wouldn't have been able to help him. I think it is quite admirable that he gets out there to share the gospel too so that he can testify and share his miracles! As we tried to talk to everyone, we had some really neat miracles! God is always blessing us when we try to do what is right!

This is kind of a fun story. On saturday, our ward had an activity. They were doing a few games and did that one where you have those 2 2x6 boards that are kind of like ski's and they have the rope and you have to walk fast with everyone in sync and it is like a rely? I don't know if that makes sense but anyways. The elders tell us, sisters the members want us to race each other so can you two come over here (because we were talking to this lady) We said yes. We were in our skirts and all and I am like ok hermana I am going to say left right and just step in sync and hang tight. She hasn't played many of these mormon games...haha. She is like ahhh okay. We start to go and we were in the lead. The elders say, oh don't worry we are okay, they'll slow down. We just keep going and I am dragging poor hermana gutierrez. We ended up winning and she told me. Oh my gosh hermana you are so tough. You were like picking up the whole board and me and I was just hanging on and trying to keep up. They elders thought they were totally going to beat us but oh no, not with us. :) I guess I shouldn't let my competitive side come out. It was really fun though. The elders couldn't believe that they were beat. They thought they were going to beat us and that is why THEY brought up the idea to the members to have us race. Silly Elders.... 

Catalina, Kevin & Charlie; It has been a while since we started to teach them. I suppose it just wasn't right timing. We went over I think last week and had an awesome lesson about prayer. They hadn't been reading, praying or coming to church and then it was like night and day after we gave them some space. They have been reading and praying daily and Catalina, the mom is actually listening and reading. She told us yeah, we can't come to church this week but we will come next week! It is so exciting. The little boys are so sweet. Their prayers are so special. Charlie always has like a huge list of things he is grateful for and then hardly ever asks anything. I think he is a good example for me because sometimes when I begin to pray I forget to thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings I have and just start asking him for more things that we need help with. I am excited to see their progress! 

The Rodriguez family: They are doing great. This week they will be getting their baptismal interviews. Yesterday, they all came to church and even her husband who isn't a member came. He is really nice. He is sooo quiet but said that he really enjoyed priesthood and expressed thanks for all the friend shipping he felt. Tirza's daughter who is 6, said mom I really liked this do we get to come again? Tirza said, yup, every sunday! Yay!! They are coming back. It is two weeks in a row. The ward was pretty good about fellow shipping them and helping them feel welcome too. Hopefully if everything works well, we will have a family night with them and another family in our ward tonight! I am so happy for them. We took a picture but it is on Hermana Guitierrez's camera. It was so fun to have them all be there. I really think they can feel the changes and they are going to be able to build that solid foundation for their children! 

We are holding off on eddies baptism because some doubts have come up but please keep praying for him and that he can feel the influence and understand the power of the holy ghost. He is so sweet and he is just struggling a bit right now but he will be okay!

On saturday, we talked to this guy who wouldn't tell us his name. He came up to us with 2 beer cans and a beer bottle in his hand. He said..oh your the mormons? We told him...yes and He started to talk with us a bit. He had done some really bad stuff in his life and told us basically that he believed in Jesus and God but that he was going to have to pay for his sins because of how bad they were. We talked to him a lot and testified to him about the power of the atonement. By the end he got a little teary eyed and he told us that he drinks to get the pain and guilt to go away. It was so sad that he didn't realize the power that the atonement has and that he has to forgive himself in order to move on. He promised us he would start to read the book of mormon and that we could send missionaries to his house. It made me so sad that people don't realize that it doesn't matter how far they have gone or what they have done but that Jesus Christ and God are waiting for us to come back. It is true that we will have to deal with the consequences of sin but that we have a way to repent. What a terrible life it would be if we didn't have that hope. We have never gone to far or done too much. They are always waiting for us to let them help us.

I know that the atonement is real and that we have the power to change and become new people in Jesus Christ through the atonement. We can repent and be cleansed of sin at baptism and then every week as we take the sacrament. I am so grateful to be here in texas sharing this good news. I love my mission and I love the gospel. I am so grateful to be here at this wonderful time! 

Next week is transfers, so you will hear from me again before changes are made. I don't know what will happen but a lot of hermanas are coming in. I will let you know when I know. I love you all a lot and pray for you daily. Keep making good choices and doing the best you can in all you do!

ps there is all kind of birds here and wildlife. This week I have seen, a bunch of cardinals, blue birds, yesterday I saw a woodpecker (that was really cool) and then A possum crossing the road. It is fun to see them all!

Off finding the 10s of 1000s. Remember who you are and to whom you belong too

Much love
Hermana Rife

Pictures with the Bowcutts. They are going home and I LOVE THEM!!!

:Eating Lunch at Zone Conference 

Everyone who got the "Clean Apartment"  Award!!!

Good Job Kynsie....your Mama is pleased with you!  :)

What a Wonderful Week!

Hello Family!

It sounds like you had a wonderful spring break as well as conference weekend! Thanks for your letter it was wonderful to hear all the things ya'll are up to. We had a great week! I really really enjoyed conference. It was a beautiful weekend of messages.

My birthday was a lot of fun! Yes, I received the Flowers from Kate & Nick. They were beautiful! I loved them. Our office lady Laurie came up to tell me that I had received a delivery because they were so pretty! She is so sweet!  I really enjoy visiting with her! She was so kind and bought me a balloon and left it on our door! :) I got in the shower in the morning and when I got out Hermana Gutierrez had decorated our apartment with balloons and signs and then she sang me this mexican happy birthday song in Spanish. The whole time I am just standing there in my towel. She then gave me an awkward hug and we had a good laugh. She said she was praying for Heavenly Father to make me take forever in the shower and I was trying to go so fast in the shower but it was seriously like I had to keep rinsing more conditioner out and I was like dang it is taking forever today. Well we know Heavenly Father answers prayers! :) It was nice of her to decorate. We ate at Hermana Calderon's home for lunch. She made these super good tacos and homemade tortillas. She told us how to do it, so that makes me excited to be able to do it. We bought some cupcakes from this little cupcake store and some ice cream and ate them as well as took a few to Elder Trotter, Barney and Then our two office ladies. They are like Gourmet Cupcakes. They were pretty good. We went and taught Benardina after and she said her first prayer out loud with us! She is so hard to read but she thanked Heavenly Father for bringing us to teach her and helping her know more so we know now that she is feeling a difference. It was a nice little birthday gift. :) 

We had exchanges Tuesday to Wednesday so I went to Waller with Hermana Auten. She only has been on the mission 1 transfer and she thought she knew how to get back to Waller but she didn't...So we ended up being really lost being in downtown Houston like 45 minutes away from Waller and then we finally got directions to get back on the right road and as we were on the side road to get on the freeway when our car starts going bumpedy bump bump bump... I said I think we should pull over and see what is going on. When we got to the nearest parking lot we got out to take a look and we had a flat tire. :) Yup. It was AWESOME. haha She is super quite so i am calling the car coordinating missionary and Elder Ohern says...well do you have a tire in the back and I am like I don't know! Do we? He said you don't know how to change a tire do you? I am like....yeahhhhhh NO! I am a girl, what do you expect. :) Just in my head I said that. As I am talking to him the phone beeps...yeah it definitely was going to die. He was so sweet and called the elders in the area and they came got us all set to go! There was a horrible storm hitting on the way back that Elder Ohern had warned us about. We we stuck right in the middle of it. It was raining so hard that we couldn't even seen what was in front of us. The lighting was lighting up the sky so bright and then it would be pitch black again. Hermana Auten has only driven a few times since before the MTC so I was thinking that it might be my last night alive! :) Not really but I was praying really hard the whole time for angels to lead our car and for us to be protected. We finally got to Waller about 10:13 PM after leaving our area at 6:30. We planned and went to bed. It was a very memorable birthday to say the least! I probably won't ever forget it! I thought it was quite funny all a long and it was one of those things where it just kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse. :) Its okay though! Anyways. Elder Ohern said we did exactly the right thing and that we are going to be used in the zone conference as an example of what to do if this happens. Notoriety. WooHoo. I did learn how to change a tire. It isn't as hard as I thought it was. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and love! It was a nice day. 

Conference was awesome. I loved so many talks. My top favorites were...Elder Perry, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Elder Uchtdorf, President Monson, and Sister Wixem but I really loved a lot of them. We watched it at the church all the sessions except the Sunday Afternoon. The elders brought quite the stache of candy. On sunday, The Rodrigous family came. It was so awesome. We said we would be at their house at 10:15 to pick them up and they were all super ready to go. Jonathan who is 10, even invited his cute little baptist friend Leo. He is already being a missionary. Leo asks some good questions as well. They all really enjoyed the conference. Tirza, the mom, loved it! We have a family night with them tonight! They have been making a lot of progress. We watched the testaments and the Joseph Smith Movie with them last week and in the testaments they started to cry. Tirza said that they really felt the spirit. We had to leave because we had another appointment but she said they all loved it. Her husband who isn't a member said that he wants to come to church so hopefully we can catch him one of these days when he isn't working! They are a great family! Very strong. Tirza recognizes how Satan is doing everything to distract her but I think she is finally fighting him hard and overcoming it! 

We ate at the Arredondo's between sessions and then we watched conference there. It was awesome! I love that family. Hermano Arredondo is so funny. He is always doing all of this stuff for us. He always makes us the lemonade that is so good and he keeps filling our cups over and over again. He made us this chocolate cake too and keeps giving us food. He is so generous! Hermana is so sweet and has a lot of quiet dignity. She is so great too. It was nice that they let us come over! I felt at home far from home. 

A neat miracle happened the other day. We were headed over to teach Brenda and Alex and they weren't home. We decided to go contact this lady that we had talked to a few times. A man answered the door instead and said Ana wasn't there. He asked if there was a message we could leave her and then we just said well we talked to her and then also we wanted to remind her of the english class on thursdays. With that he opened up a lot and started asking us about the class. He finally said...what church are you all even from. We told him and he just started to ask us a ton of questions about when we go home, what we do on and on. We ended up sharing a very brief version of the restoration and he said. What are the requisites to becoming a member of your church? What do I have to do to become a member. I was in shock! :) Hermana Guiterrez explained about listening to the lessons and then getting baptized. She gave him a soft commitment challenge. He said he would get baptized if he knew it was true! He said he is going to study the pamplet we gave him and then we are going to go back and teach him. He told us something of the following... Isn't it amazing how this happened. You came her to talk to my cousin but then I was blessed to have your visit. He said God works in different ways. He knows what he is doing. It was AWESOME! He told us that he doesn't drink or smoke and from the sounds of it...I don't think he is breaking the law of chastity. We are excited to go back and teach him. There are people prepared. 

It sounds like you all did lots of fun activities as well as lots of work over the break. That is good. I am glad you are spending time together. I loved how Sister Wixom told us to turn off technology and enjoy time together. I am learning on my mission that we have to make time for the things that are important. If we aren't making the time then they aren't going to happen. We have to make time to read our scriptures and say our prayers, we have to make time to serve and be a devoted member of the church, we have to make time to spend with our family and loved ones. If we don't then before we know it our lives are going to fly by and we will not have a whole lot to look back upon. We can make time for whatever we want to thought but we are the ones who decide what fills our time. 

Well It was a wonderful week. Lots of wonderful things are happening in Oakcrest. I am grateful for all your love and support. I'll answer some of your question in the letters i send home, hopefully but now it is time for my dentist appointment so I have to get going. I love you all a lot and I am thankful for your encouraging words! :) I love my mission and I am so thankful to be here

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

hermana rife

An Exchange to Waller with Hermana Auten and their Lesson on How to change a Flat Tire!  

Fun Times and Fun Memories!!! :)

Conference Weekend

A visit to a Gourmet Cupcake shop for Kynsie's 22nd Birthday

HaPpy BiRthDAy!!

"Purple" Tulips for her Birthday from a thoughtful sister and brother-in-law!

Thanks for thinking of this Katelin and Nick!  You were wonderful to do this for her.

Why HELLLLLLLO!

Hello Family,

 

How is it going? It sounds like you all had quite a wonderful Easter. We had a good Easter too! We had a beautiful sacrament meeting about the Savior, his atonement and the Resurrection? I can't remember how you spell that word. Sorry. :) We also did visits to a few members in our ward as a ward council. I went with our relief society president and hermana guitierrez with a different hermana in our ward. It was so weird leaving her. It was really fun though to get to be with hermana garcia. She is so special I learned a lot from just talking to her. She is a fantastic woman.

 

This week was good! It went by quick again. Time flies. Alright where to start. Hmmmm

 

Eddie is doing well. He is starting to remember things better. We taught him about tithing this week as well as a few other things but he was able to explain all the principles of tithing when we asked him. He is still reading and praying. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because he had a family activity but he is doing well. He (without even being taught the word of wisdom) is trying to stop drinking. We talked to him about some of the blessings. Later on in the lesson yeseddie (his daughter) came over and then she is sitting there and randomly says. Daddy, no smoking, no drinking and No bad words or God is going to get mad! hahaha :) Look at her go! :) We just told him, Eddie you have to listen to what she is saying! He was laughing. Yeseddie's mom, Yesenia came to drop her off and we talked to her for a minute. She said she is going to come to church next week. We asked Eddie if he had invited her to come and he was like...nope she invited herself! Maybe this little family can come back together...:)

 

Fun Story. We were at our investigator/less active's house. Julio and Rossy. We were eating dinner and then we were talking about cereal and I told them how I love cereal and how i always liked to eat it at night time. Rossy said well I guess we should just have some right now. After eating our cow tongue tacos (yup-that ain't no lie - quite tasty...tastes like chicken! slimy yet...satisfying! lion king...bahaha) we had a bowl of special K and it hit the spot. I was just smiling that we were eating a bowl of cereal. It made me happy! It was funny but it made my night. Speaking of food. You are never going to believe what i ate last Tuesday. I ate a whole fish. From the fish. Like a dead fish, just cleaned with head, eyeballs and all. All the fish. I thought I was going to die. I was giggling because i was thinking...how am i going to do this? Hermana Gutierrez was saying why did you keep laughing. I think it was like a nervous exertion of energy! :) I told her how i would have NEVER eaten anything like that before.  It was super good though. I also ate shrimp this week. Still not my favorite but I survived. I am becoming less and less picky which is good for me. Crazy though. I am sending pictures of the fish.

 

Lopez - Mormons at the Catholic BBQ peeps. We haven't been able to get in with them for a bit because they were out of town and then not catching them. We ended up stopping by and we had an awesome lesson with them. We read in Alma 32 about experimenting on the word and acting to see if it is true. Good stuff right there. We asked Hno Lopez what the passage was saying. He totally knew. He just starts going on and on and he got it right but then he said but i am catholic and i told my mom ya'll are visiting me but that i am catholic and just learning more about God. Hermana Gutierrez was able to bear a strong testimony about how she left what she knew to be true and is the only member and told a bit of how her family is being blessed for her decision. It was really neat that she can tell him that. She said it isn't about doing what your family did or what your culture is or anything. It is about doing gods will and doing it his way. It was powerful. He and Josephina (who is so sweet and humble and willing to learn) committed to reading the book of mormon and praying every night as a couple. I was able to testify of how dad you always said if people, married couples specifically, would do those little things it would change their marriages around. It is true though because when we have the spirit we don't have a desire to do evil. We want to be more Christlike and everything gets better. We have an appointment on wednesday with them.

 

We put on an activity for the youth this last friday. It was really fun. We had them do scripture jeopardy  scripture mastery relay races and a balloon pop with the balloons tied to feet and then you have to pop them. I think it went very well. I had fun. We had hotdogs and a guest speaker too from another ward. I felt it was very successful. It was a bit crazy putting it all together but it worked well. I think it helped strengthen the testimonies of some of the members of the ward who didn't trust us as much because they heard our testimonies and hopefully felt our intentions. I feel like we are gaining a lot of trust from them. Some of the people who didn't talk to us as much are coming up to us and inviting us to eat or just asking us more about the work which is awesome!

 

Saturday we went to Magnolia which is in our area. We were trying to contact some less actives up there. We thought on was in our area but it was the elders, they told us we could just contact them since we were there. It was like 8:30 at night on a super dark road. We can't see anything. We were sacred. As we are walking up we see this huge dog...up to my hip huge. It had a rope and it was broke and it starts running at us full charge. We are screaming...and then He jumps on top of us and and I fell over and he bit my arm. It didn't break skin but I was like ahhhhhh he wouldn't get off and it was just so crazy. Hermana Guiterrez just was like oh my goodness what do i do and it is definitely April fools. so ha ha got you. :) Back to the story. He starts running towards us and we are like yah he isn't chained and it was quite scary but he was nice. We hurried and knocked on the door and she let us in. She, Hermana Martinez, is soo nice and has a strong testimony but kind of just stop coming to church because sometimes her husband works and she hasn't come back but she said she wants to start coming again. We had a great lesson with her and hopefully the elders can continue to help her come back.

 

Okay well I think i this is it. This is the end. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I got my cards today. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. I still haven't heard anything from Kendra...hoping to get that letter soon! Well Have a beautiful week and enjoy your time off and conference! I love you all a lot and keep reading daily!

 

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

Hermana Rife!

At the Youth Activity with Bella, Yeseddie and Angel's daughter

Two cute sister missionaries

& 

The "Balloon Pop" 

Yummy Fish Kynsie got to eat!  :)

 "I ate a whole fish. From the fish. Like a dead fish, just cleaned with head, eyeballs and all. All the fish. I thought I was going to die. I was giggling because i was thinking...how am i going to do this? Hermana Gutierrez was saying why did you keep laughing. I think it was like a nervous exertion of energy! :) I told her how i would have NEVER eaten anything like that before."

Yup...Kynsie managed to eat the WHOLE thing!!! 

Another little creepy creature from Texas!

Kynsie is having quite the adventure and learning to enjoy all kinds of FUN  things!

Happy Easter!

Hello Family,

What a beautiful week it will be! It was another awesome week this last week. I feel the Lords hand in my life here so much as we work with these people and as we look for the chances to share the gospel. He is really hastening the work and preparing people to receive the gospel. It is truly a blessing to be here. When I start thinking back on the things that happened and how the Lord works in peoples lives it touches me because it is just a testimony that He loves us so much and is trying to help us in every way that He can. He is so involved and we are often blinded by the distractions of the world. We have to always be looking in order to find these blessings or they will just pass us by and we won't realize how He is working in our life. For me this week has been a week of smiles. At times it has been a bit rocky but some amazing things have happened this week that I just can't stop smiling.

Eddie and Yeseddie - Eddie has a baptismal date for April 20th!!!! wooooo hooo Even more exciting, He is keeping commitments. He came to church yesterday. He even brought his darling daughter Yeseddie. It was so great to see him there. I seriously couldn't not stop smiling. Yeseddie is 6 and didn't want to go to primary so stayed with us in the Sunday School. We taught the class on the scriptures and I felt it went really well. We convinced her to come with us so that Eddie could go to Priesthood and we took her to primary. She was holding our hands for the first part and was really nervous but by the end it was awesome because she was sitting with the other kids and even participated in a singing activity where she had to stand up front and conduct. She had this huge smile the whole time. When we took her back to Eddie I said Yeseddie do you want to tell you daddy what you did and she just gets this huge smile and said. Daddy, I had LOTS of fun. :) We said so do you think you can come to church next week and she gets this really sad face and said...ahhh i can't i have to go to school. haha :) We explained it to her and she told us that she would come again. Eddie said he enjoyed it and the members were great. He told us that he would come again next week. So ya'll are probably wondering how the whole baptismal date went down. Well let me tell ya'll. It was a war. :) We were talking to him about how he wasn't going to know if what we were saying was true unless he tried it. Unless he read the book of mormon and prayed and came to church and all of that jazz. After talking to him for seriously like 30  minutes about this stuff. I just asked him and said Eddie have you felt anything as we have been teaching you? He went back to day one when he prayed for the first time with us and when he cried. He said Yes. In that moment I felt hope. It was special that he recognized the spirit. He said so you are telling me that if i read this book it can change my life. We said YES and then we continued talking. Out of no where Hermana Gutierrez (who was entertaining the little kids mostly as we were having this discussion) says Eddie we have a baptismal service on april 20. Will you prepare to be baptized on that date. He was like ahh i don't know. We promised him that he would know and he just said okay. I'll prepare. He is reading and praying and going to church. :) It was so awesome. As we are riding our bikes home, I was like where in the world did that invitation come from. She just starts laughing and was like I have no idea because I wasn't even paying attention to what was going on and then I felt it for the second time so I went for it. We definitely gave each other a high five and we definitely both almost fell off our bikes. :) Two days later we went over and he said. I thought you guys forgot about me. You didn't come yesterday. We taught him the plan of salvation and he said a really sweet prayer and asked for heavenly father to help him understand what we were teaching him. He also told us that his doubt is that he will go back to being the same person he was before and he wants to stay strong. He is so awesome! I love him!!!

Brenda - We contacted this Lady named Brenda Walker about a month ago. I don't know if you remember her but anyways. The english sisters for whatever reason hadn't contacted her again. We had a few minutes and decided to stop by because we were about her area. She was like oh come in come in! We talked to her and she said I just want more of the light of christ in my life. I want people to be able to feel His love through me. I just told her Brenda, I know we didn't meet you by coincidence. She said ya know what. I have been feeling that. She said I have been thinking a lot about how i felt after you all left. She said I slept so good and I felt so good. She said I couldn't stop smiling for about 3 days and even my coworkers were wondering what happened to me. Cool little miracle. I wanted to give her a mormon.org card to watch this mormon message. I had given all of my english ones away of a picture of christ just barely to Yeseddie and like 500 little kids that all wanted that picture. haha I was thinking dang they took all my jesus pictures but it was for a reason. I had to get my second favorite picture but it wasn't by accident. Because I wrote the site down and on the back it had a picture of the book of mormon. The other one, the one i like better, has a finding faith dvd on the back. If i would have had the other one, Finding faith, I would have given her that one but I didn't so i gave her the book of mormon one. She looked at the back and said...oh, I tried to order this book before. I wanted to read it because it was free but I don't know what happened. I never received it though. We were like oh well let us go get you one. She walks out with us to our car and we are explaining about how the book of mormon is another testament of Christ. She said Okay. We gave her one and we promised her that she would feel something special if she read it daily. Before we could even commit her to reading the book, she said. Well I am going to read this tonight and watch that movie online. GOLDEN. I was like oh okay that is perfect! haha :) She said you two feel like my good friends and are so easy to talk to. Why can't you come minister to me? haha texan slang. We explained about the english spanish thing and then said we would stop by every now and then and if she needed any to call us. It was such an awesome miracle. Picture attached of Brenda

Brenda and Alex - Last but not least. We have been working with alex and brenda. It as been a bit crazy because they have been sick and working and this or that. We finally got in with them and we started talking about if they have been reading. Brenda said yeah but I was talking to my mom and I just said i don't know if it really matters if i am studying this book of mormon because it isn't something bad so it isn't going to hurt. It just doesn't make all the difference. It was like...okay something is not clicking. We talked about authority and how it does matter and how it makes all the difference. We went over how you have to be baptized by someone who has authority and that authority is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. How it was restored through a prophet and how we have a prophet today. They finally got it. We told them how they had to pray to find out for themselves though and not just believe us but to figure it out by asking God. We invited them to be baptized on the 28th of April if they come to know that it is true. Alex said yes and brenda said she would see. haha :) Oh that girl. Alex starts going off about how she needs to follow what Christ and God are saying and to not do it just because her mom said to go to this other church. He said It doesn't matter what man says just God. We are here to follow God. Brenda just said...oh you just know how to sweet talk me. ba hahaha. Hermana Gutierrez and I were just dying of laughter. Couples - Love - ohhh the life. :) We always joke about things that they say. Alex got his point across though so they both committed to taking some serious time to study and to find out if this is true!

Funny Story of the week - English Class - Elder Barney who has been out like 2 transfers is trying to explain the word old. He is explaining it in spanish and he wanted to say. My bones are old or mis huesos son biejos, but on accident he said mis huevos son biejos and that means my eggs are old. It was Sooo funny. I couldn't stop laughing. He is so awesome. He has a great personality and just always has a way to make everyone laugh.

To End my email. I just want to close with my Testimony of the Savior.

I know Jesus Christ lives and that we can find hope in Him when all seems to be lost. When we feel like there isn't any hope that is when we need to look to him because we aren't. I know that He came to this earth and He atoned for our sins and felt our pains so that each and every one of us can be healed through this beautiful sacrifice that he made for us. I know that the power of the atonement is real because I have felt it in my life. I have felt the power of being forgiven, of forgiving another and of being healed of things that have hurt me. I know that He is our perfect example and as we walk in the path that he has walked and truly harken to the words of Follow me, that we will live happier lives and become better than we could have ever dreamed of becoming alone. I love this gospel and I know that when we live by its precepts we are following the Savior. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 is one of my favorite scriptures about Christ

Love you all. Take care. Have a great week. Make good choices. Read everyday

I'll be here in texas, finding the tens of thousands. Thanks for all the updates. I love you alllllll

Hermana Rife

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.

"Nerds with Helmets... !!!"

"Texan Donuts!  There are TONS of doughnut shops here, so we had to try some."  :)

Kynsie and Eddie with his goat!

Mustache Madness in Texas - District Meeting

Elder Pliego and Kynsie

Texas!  oooopah!

That's my girl!  Always thinking of creative ways of doing things! 

(But I LOVE her!!!)

Hola!

Hello Family,

It seems like you all had a fantastic week! A busy one but good. I am glad everything went well with the funeral and that you went to good ol' chuck a rama or up chuck in kate's case! hahaha We had a good week. It went by quickly again. We spent a lot of tuesday getting our car fixed.We spent a lot of tuesday getting our car fixed because we got a new car. It kind of threw off our week a bit though. It took a lot longer than elder ohern expected and so we had to try to fit in planning for our week here and there and everywhere between going to appointments. I felt like this week i gained a testimony again of why planning is really crucial. We weren't able to be half as effective as we normally are. Don't get me wrong Heavenly Father still helped us but it was a bit hard because we weren't able to schedule our appointments closer and it wasted time driving all over. But Despite that we did see some miracles. :) 

We had a 2 great lessons with eddie. He is so sweet and is reading the book of mormon. We taught him the Restoration Lesson as well as about the book of Mormon. He is accepting of it. We invited him to church and he wasn't sure about that because he is so shy but he will come. His cousins live two houses away from us and we always teach him outside so all of the neighbors and his family is watching us. Yesterday we went and his brother was like you girls are the ones talking to eddie right and we said yeah. He told us oh well he just left so I just wanted you to know. We were knocking some other doors as well and They asked us if we were teaching him. haha. It is a good thing because we are making them all curious.

During the week we had a lesson with the Family Rodrigous. She is less active for 14 years or something and her family isn't members. She told us that she was praying to God and asking him to help her family so that they could learn of God and that she wanted them to learn of Jesus. She told us that we knocked on her door about 2 days later and she thought...wow He is really listening. It was neat that she was able to share that with us. We are going to extend a date for her kids on the 6th of April. He husband isn't a member as well so hopefully we can help all three of them accept it and get Tirza back and reactivated!

Yesterday we had some great news! Well two great pieces of news. We ate at the Arredondos and I got to play the grand piano!!! it was so fun. I got to play for about 10 minutes and it was a blast. I can still play the classical music you sent me so i am not losing it. Luckily. It was really nice. The other news....bom bom bom!!! Our branch turned into a ward. President Bonilla was released though which was a little sad cause they are going to a different ward now but its okay. There were a lot of changes but I think it is going to be fantastic for our ward! We are excited. We were really close and yesterday the stake president told us that he felt it was time to switch it. There are a lot of less actives that we have been working with and slowly they are coming back. It is good. In the Last month as a mission we have reactivated 155 people and had 45 baptisms. By the end of april we are trying to get 100 baptisms and 100 reactivations. We met the goal of that and now we just need to meet the baptism one.

Speaking of baptisms...:) I have some WONDERFUL NEWS! :) Hermana Koerner called me and told me something so cool. Lilly has a baptismal date for April 13th and the Bercerras have one for the 30th of March. I was so excited! :) I was like jumping for joy the whole night. It was such a happy feeling!!! wooo hooo. Can you tell i am sill really excited? Well...basically yeah I am. 

To give you and update on my teeth. I haven't heard anything back from the dentist. The thing he put on my tooth is working though. It hasn't been as sensitive so hopefully it worked. I gave him Dr. Mckell's information and so he should be getting back to me in the next few days. I am taking a medication for my tooth to stop the infection or at least slow it down and then when i hear back I'll let you know, or if it is something big sister pingree or the dentist will call you to let you know. It is good though. No i haven't been getting any more migraines and i have a medication now that will help on hand if I get one.

We eat here with a lot more members than we did in my other area. It is nice because I think it helps us get to know them and help them get the fire of missionary work. We ate with Hno Cue this last week and it was really good food. Argentine. He has a really amazing voice and sang us a song. "Mary did you know" I thought of you dad because you would have loved it. Just a little thought to share.

Okay well I feel like this letter is crazy and all over the place so sorry. :) but know one thing. I LOVE YOU ALL so much. I am really enjoying my mission. I am so glad I am here. It is so incredible. I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you all are reading your scriptures. Remember who you are and to whom you belong to.

Until Next week. Offf finding the 10s of 1000's.

Love Hermana Rife

A picture with the Garcia Family - The relief society president and her family. Kylee, Here is the turtle I told you about in the letter you should get this week. :)

A crazy bug we saw at the gas station. Weird right? I touched it to make sure it was real and yes, yes it was. There are some crazy critters in Texas

The Garcia Family 

Notice the little turtle...awww cute!!! :)

A crazy bug Kynsie and her companion saw at the gas station. Weird right? Of course,Kynsie touched it to make sure it was real and yes, yes it was. There are some crazy critters in Texas

Finally doing what she dreams about ---

Playing the Baby Grand 

at the Arredondos. 

I'm sure she was in Seventh Heaven!!!

She wants to have her own grand piano when she GROWS UP!!! :)

Happy March

Hello Family,

I hope everyone is doing alright. I am sorry to hear about the passing of Grandpa but I am glad that he didn't have to continue to suffer. I actually felt to just send him a quick email last week but I didn't. When I heard after in your letter that he was going down hill, I understood why. I told Heavenly Father though to have His Will be done though so that if i would be able to send something I could but if not then I would understand as well. I felt bad that I didn't follow through on that prompting. It just shows how easily we can be distracted from the Holy Ghost and how he isn't going to keep forcing it if we don't listen. I will be praying for you all at this time. Especially you Mom, and Uncle Scott. Life is a beautiful thing and how blessed we are to know of the bigger picture but at these times in life it still seems to shake our worlds a little bit and really remember what is most important in life. I remember when aunt amy died how i pondered about a lot of things. It helps you to recognize that life is to short to waste it and that we have to use and cherish the time fully that we have while we are here.

I just wanted to add a few of my favorite memories with Grandpa Cherry and a few of the things he left

-His willingess to always give of what he had. I have no idea how many packages of gum he went through when he would visit us. He would come with a full pack and leave with like 3 pieces every time he came! He always had a pack in his back pocket though. :) As well as his willingness to give of formula and any other things he had to offer. Including his famous plastic bag wrapping jobs of a candy bar and 20 dollars. haha

-I always enjoyed our christmas trips to chuck -a- rama and all the laughs we would have there with our family and cousins. As well as how we would eat plates and plates of food until the point that I thought I was going to die! I think we all felt that way. It was always fun

-How he would always do his best to support us in our activities that we had. Piano recitals, sports activities, band and choir concerts.

I hope that you all are finding comfort in this time. If I know one thing it is that Jesus Christ knows how we feel. There is a beautiful scripture in Alma 7:11-12

"11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

He went through everything that we have to go through so that he would know how to succor us and how to help us. I  know that we can find comfort in this. I know that it doesn't always make the things we are going through better but that we can at least have a bit more peace and we will be strengthened in our burdens and be able to carry them with out feeling it as much. It doesn't matter if it is a pain of loosing someone, of trying to forgive, of trying to repent, or anything. He can give us the peace we need. Let me know if there is anything I can do. I am sending my hugs to Provo! :)

It was a good week this week. It went by really fast again. To answer your questions dad. It is a 12 week training when you go out to the field so I got done in December. I don't really know if there is a thing as jr or senor companion. If there is President Pingree hasn't said anything to us or any of my companions so I don't know if they do it in this mission. I am sure that my training will never end on my mission and that I will always be trying to refine things. The Zone Leader Council is something that the Zone Leaders go to every month. President Pingree invites about 4 companion ships of sisters to attend depending on who he feels needs to go. I have had the opportunity to attend 2 times. It just depends on what he thinks. At times the Assistants to the Presidents, The Zone Leaders or the District Leaders will ask us to participate in part of a training, at interviews or meeting. It might be something little or teaching part of the class. It just depends on what they feel. It is fun to be able to study and participate.

I am glad tanner got his little project done. I remember doing lots of good little activities and how wonderful mom and dad are to always help us. The other day I was thinking about that pizza valentines box that I mad. Silly silly. Well A few things that are going well. We are working hard to gain the trust of this branch. I think that because of a few of the experiences with past missionaries the trust here isn't as strong as it should be. We had a little discussion yesterday in ward council. It was a bit...awkward so we have a work to do. I have been feeling ever since i got here that the members have a weird thing with the missionaries. They are a fantastic branch but we need there confidence in order to help them and help our investigators. We have been praying for opportunities to fix that. I think it will be good.

We had exchanges this week. I stayed here in Oak Crest and Hermanita Rowe came with me. She was in my district in the MTC so it was fun to be able to spend some time with her in the field. We saw a bunch of little miracles during the day. We went knocking in the day and we were able to get 2 return appointments. One was with this Man named Eddie. He was home alone and he invited us in but we told him that we weren't going to be able to come in. He said well we can talk outside. Let me grab some chairs. We had a beautiful little lesson about the atonement and about how we can be cleansed from sin through Christ. I asked him how he would feel if that principle were really true. He just breathed out and said. Really Really Good. We testified of its truth and how God is our father and how he has a plan for us. We invited him to Pray because that is of course how we communicate with God. He was really nervous but ended up saying the prayer. It was very simple but very strong and beautiful. He thanked Heavenly Father for sending "these girls her to tell me and remind me of you" It was touching. He has a little bit of a hard time talking because he was shot in the head and he is partially paralyzed and it has effected him a bit. He told us that is why he gets nervous. He started crying at the end of the prayer and I know he could feel the spirit. He is a very humble and sincere person. I can see he has a special spirit just in his eyes and smile! I am excited to see him tomorrow.

I can't remember if I told you this but we are teaching an english class. We have a few people that come. We did it a little different and sang a song in english and then gave a thought about learning at the end. I just felt the spirit was there more and that we could help our friends learn english better. One of them is Hermano Arsac. He is from Argentina and I love that man so much. He just gets so mad that he can't speak and he says I don't understand I don't understand in english. He is learning though and I think he enjoys coming. When I see him I always try to talk to him a tiny in english to review what we have learned. Sometimes he just smiles and responds to me in spanish haha but then he will say. I am good. How are you in english. Earlier this past week we had dinner with their family. It was good. They talk so fast and it is hard to understand sometimes. Elder Barney, an elder in our ward was just sitting there and he said yeah...I don't have any idea of anything that just happened in that last hour. haha. Poor guy. It is his 2nd transfer. I was lucky to have a teacher in the mtc with an accent so I think that is why I can understand as well as I can.

Last night we had another lesson with Alex and Brenda. We taught them Plan of Salvation. We had our scriptures ready and whipped out all the bible and book of mormon answer. I had been studying hard to have this lesson ready for Brenda's Bible Questions. "WHERE IS THAT IN THE BIBLE?" haha :) She is so cute. We were able to help her over come everything but The 3 different kingdoms. She said that is the only thing she still isn't positive on and she even believes now in baptisms for the dead. Woo hoo! Alex just kept saying. This just makes sense. We are children from God. He is our maker and this is just right. It was so cool to see the spirit working in him. Alex and Brenda are complete opposites. Brenda is the evidence and Alex is the feeler but also knows lots about the bible. They seem to be doing good but aren't reading and praying like they should so we are going to try to help them with that. They just don't pray with specific questions but we told them to last night and I think they will. When we were leaving I said we love you two and they normally don't say much but Brenda looked at me straight in the face and said. We love you too! I think they can feel how much we care and that we really want the best for them. Hermana Ruiz - our first counselors wife came with us and her little sister who lives with them - She was so great and really helped the lesson too. Members can do amazing things.

Well I am going to go now but I love you all a lot! Let me know how everything goes and give my condolences to Mary and his side of the family.

Remember who you are and to whom you belong.

off finding 10s of 1000s

Hermana Rife

Pictures with The arsacs and Elder McKnight and Barney and with Hermana Rowe, Gutierrez, and Stockton.

The Arsacs

A sweet couple that Kynsie and her companion are teaching English to

Reunited with Hermana Rowe who was in the MTC with Kynsie

Also Hermana Gutierrez and Hermana Stockton