Drops of Awesomeness in Texas!

Hello family!!!

Tengo  gozo in mi alma hoy! :) Today is such a wonderful day. Well everyday is but today for some reason I am extra happy! :) I really love missionary work it is the best thing I could be doing. I am not saying that it is easy by far but it is so special and worth it through all the other crazy not so super things! :)

Well I am going to tell you my good things of the week or my “drops of awesomeness “ as ken would call it! 

Veronica – Veronica is praying to know if this is true. She said she is waiting for God to let her know because she wants to do His will. She was already baptized in this other church but she said if Heavenly Father tells her she needs to join this church that she will do it. She is so special. She is only 21 too, but mature. Every time we teach her she just wants to learn and always asks us when we are going to come back! I think she is enjoying learning. Her Husband is reviewing the pamphlets too to refresh his memory! They are good people!

Lilly – Wow is all I can say about this woman. She is sooo amazing. :)  We had an awesome time talking to her and teaching her about the book of mormon and joseph smith again. We invited her to read and pray and she said “ I was already going to before you even asked me…whatever! “ :)  We are hopefully going to see her tomorrow and see how her prayer went. She always tells us how she sings and praises Jesus with her music and how she thanks God everyday for what she has. She tells us about this song that says if you can’t praise him with your hands and if you don’t have your hands then praise him with your feet and if you don’t have your feet then praise him with your heart and if you don’t have a heart then you are already with him! J she says oh that song is sooo funny. I love that lady so much. 

Exchanges – this week we had exchanges. Hna Guitierrez and I had an awesome time. I learned a lot. She has only been a member for a 2 years. Her testimony is so strong. I really like her. Watching her teach was awesome because she just relates to people and relates the gospel to people so easy. She is also so bold. I loved it. We had an appointment and went to their house and the Dad opened the door and said sorry I was going to call to reschedule. She said we have just a 20 minute message. Do you have just a few minutes. He said no and then she said what about 5 minutes and a prayer? He was like umm but then something happened and he ended up coming out on his porch and talking to us for like 30 minutes. It was awesome! :) He felt the spirit. I was like dang…way to go hna! She is super happy and touchy all the time. She was always hugging me and I was like AHHHh stop the touching. :) But I didn’t want to make her feel bad so I just put up with it! Oh man…

Jose and Lorena Telling the Preacher – So The Santiallans are starting to understand and know how true this church is. Jose and Lorena went to two difference churches and I guess didn’t like either one because it was yelling and preaching and you couldn’t feel the holy ghost. I guess one of the people speaking started to rag a bit on mormons and jose and lorena were both not happy because what they were saying wasn’t true. They were with some of their friends who were of that congregation and said that is a lie. That isn’t true. They asked for the phone number of the person and are going to call him and tell him that it isn’t true and to study his info! Haha Hna Koerner and I didn’t say much because we felt like they are being taught through their experiences. We just laughed about it in the car after. :)  We only try to teach the principles of the gospel and never try to put up our church by ripping others down. It was just a neat thing to see. Lorena always tells us how when she doesn’t do the big three she just feels awful and how once they get stuff figured out that they are going to do what they know to be right…aka baptism! :)

Talking in my Sleep – I still talk in my sleep and supposedly it is getting worse! :) Hna Koerner told me that Saturday night she woke up cause I kept saying ”hna koerner” and then she finally said “what hna rife” and I said “our investigators have to go to church to get a testimony, How can we help them get to church? We just have to.” Ha ha :)

Conference Goodness I loved this quote by Elder Eyring in the recent relief society session

“Keep the faith.With all your differences in personal circumstances and past experiences, I can tell you something of what lies ahead for you. As you keep the faith, you will find yourself invited by the Lord often to serve someone in need when it will not seem convenient. It may appear to be an unpleasant and perhaps even impossible task. When the call comes, it may seem you are not needed or that someone else could easily give the succor. Remember that when the Lord lets us encounter someone in distress, we honor the good Samaritan for what he did not do as much as for what he did. He did not pass by on the other side even though the beaten traveler on the road was a stranger and perhaps an enemy. He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more. He did that because he understood that helping may require more than what one person can do.”

Well I am going to go ahead and get going but I am including some pictures of Hna Koerner and I shoe shopping…don’t worry we didn’t get them although I was very tempted to and send them home for when I can wear heels again! A picture with Lilly and I. One of Hermana Koerner and I at district mtg with our mustaches. And my Shoes that I bought.

Hermana Rife and Hermana Koerner at their district meeting with their mustaches.

(not sure about the story behind this one)  :) 

Kynsie and Lilly

Kynsie and her companion trying on "high heel shoes" and wishing!!!

She was tempted to buy them and send them home for when she could wear heels again!!!  :)

Just a little howdy from houston.

Hello Family!

Thanks for your emails. :)  It was so sweet reading them. I don't have tons of time today to write because we are writing from our office because of all the computer labs being closed. I was worried that we weren't going to be able to write and then that I would have a mom calling president pingree asking him what happened to me! :) Just teasing. You never know though from some of the funny stories I have heard. haha Hna Koerner called home for Christmas from our phone and her dad joked with her about texting her a few times to say hello. She said don't but...we have definitely received a few from him. haha She is like AHHHHH its my dad. She doesn't text him back and she finally asked him again over email to stop. It was so funny. She is so patient. He is just a concerned dad. :)  

We had a lot of wonderful things happen this week! :) We had a Zone conference this last week. It was great. We were able to learn and do a lot. I really enjoyed it. President Pingree talked about how he used to run up and down a street on the harbor of Oregon with Ships and how they had all these ropes tying them to shore. He said he often wondered what would happen if one of those ropes wasn't untied. The ship wouldn't be able to go out to the ocean. He spoke to us about the ropes that hold us back in our life or mission that are holding us back from being or becoming the best missionary or the best person we can. He talked about how we all have the potential but if something is holding one part of us back we can't progress and get to where Heavenly Father needs us to be. It was a good thing to think about. Even for people who aren't missionaries. What are little sins or little things that we don't want to give up to the Lord. What are little things that we can do better. Is it forgiving someone? Is it listening to that one song that doesn't have the best lyrics but they aren't Terrible? Is it holding grudges or thinking bad thoughts about others? There are lots of things to think about. I have been trying this week to evaluate myself personally as well as a missionary. It was a great thought to think about. He is very good about helping us think in an interesting way. I enjoy listening to him speak. He also told me that He got an email from brother jarman and that he told me hello. I was able to play the piano for this conference. It was a bit nerve wracking because I had to play prelude for like 20 minutes while people were studying their scriptures but Sister Pingree and Sister Chappell (our 1st counselor's wife in the mission presidency) said that I did great and that the spirit was so strong and that I helped prepare the meeting. I was thankful that I passed with them. I enjoy playing so much. I miss being able to just sit and play for a long time but its okay. I know heavenly father is improving my sight reading skills a lot! There are a lot of Hymns in spanish that aren't in english so it is my first time and it is scary but I am able to do it! A blessing. :) I always wonder why i didn't practice the hymns more! :) haha

Since we had a zone conference this last week and so we didn't have lots of miles to drive.  We spent thursday walking. It was quite painful not going to lie cause I was breaking in a new pair of flats. We ended up walking about 8 miles. It was a funny day. We were laughing all along. We saw so many miracles along the way though. One of the coolest ones was that Hna Koerner lost her coat. I had to use the little girls room sooo terribly bad and we were in the middle of nowhere. She noticed her coat was gone and we turned around and couldn't see it along the long stretch of road when all of a sudden this random car comes driving down the road and honks and then holds the red coat up. It was crazy because she just knew it belonged to us and it must have fallen a long time before cause it was a long straight road. It was just crazy! I think heavenly father was helping us to remember that he was watching out for his Hermana's. It was a beautiful day too. We were blessed this week with pretty good weather. I wrote one of the other miracles in the letter I wrote to mom. 

I can't remember if I told you about Veronica. I just looked and I haven't. We found Veronica knocking doors. Before we had even finished saying We are missionaries from she was beckoning us to come in. I was like thinking in my head...hmm is she a member? Why is this lady so nice! :) haha But she isn't and she is so interested in learning about the church. She is doing all the things that she is supposed to and she came to church on sunday! WOOOOO HOOOOO :) Her husband and her and their darling baby are from Honduras and her husband has already heard the discussions but couldn't ever go to church cause it was too far away. He was explaining the difference between the book of mormon and bible to her and I was like woah woah woah! :) this is awesome. She really is open with her questions and doubts when they come up. She is so special. She told us that she can feel that we are her new special friends. It is so special when people are sensitive to the spirit. 

Our other investigators are progressing as well. We were so excited to have a few of them at church! :) All our ward was greeting them and everyone is all excited and on best behavior to help them and do anything for them. It spreads the excitement of the work through all the members! When we take member presents they are all asking how is so and so? Are they going to come to church? All of that! It is fantastic! The Becerras came to church as well and it was wonderful to see them there. They LOVED IT. Ruben had to take some medicine so they had to leave after sacrament but Gisellie and Justin (their grandkids) (maddison and Junior are the other two)  were begging them to stay. PLLLEEASE can we just stay. it was cool. They always tells us that every day their grandkids ask are las hermanas going to come today? They will be playing with their friends when we walk by outside and they will all run inside to listen to our lesson. They are so special. it is so humbling to me that I am one of the people that have been placed in their path to teach them the truth. 

I love this work so much. I am going to write one of you about Ltn. Cheeks the police man and tell you that miracle too. Every day I just feel so blessed to be a missionary. Next week I get to speak in church about missionary work and why I am here. The question is why wouldn't I be here???? :) I know that people can change through this gospel and they can reach their potential. i also know that through the Atonement people can find the comfort and peace they need. 

Love you all lots and lots.Hope you are all reading the book of mormon...EVERY DAY! remember who you are and to whom you belong to.

"I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings we can find greater happiness." - President Monson

Well If you need me...I'll be off finding and teaching these 10's of 1000's for another awesome week in houston. :)

Hna Rife

It is FREEZING - 36 and humility makes me want to die! :) I thought texas was warm...

Hi Family!

Well another week has come and gone. It is flying by. I can't believe the month of January is almost over...well sort of but 2013 is almost coming to an end ;) I always tell Hermana Koerner that it is almost done and she tells me to stop it. I just like to tease her about it. :) Time really does fly so fast on my mission. In 2 weeks....I am 1/3 the way done from my mission. CRAZY.

A lot of wonderful things happened to us this week. Every day from 6 to 7 pm we go knock for Power Hour. We try to find the people who are ready, we are trying so hard to pray with faith to find. We found 13 new investigators this week to teach. It was awesome. :) We were like are we counting right? But we were. It was awesome.

Our investigators are still struggling coming to church though. It is so hard because we work all week so hard to get them to be there and then we spend all morning chasing around checking up on them and inviting them to come and they all come up with excuses of why they aren't able to come and on and on. Its like...SERIOUSLY MERIDITH! El Enemigo (aka the enemy) works so hard to ruin the plans of church. I just don't quite understand why they don't have the desire to come after they talk to us about how they know and feel it is important but then they won't just go...Oh well we aren't loosing faith. As president hinckley said...even if there is a spark of interest, don't give up! so we aren't giving up and they will come next week! :)

Mayra is doing good! She is progressing and we had a wonderful lesson with her. We made some progress and she said she was going to begin to read and pray. She finally told us about some of her doubts. We talked about how she can get rid of them. She admitted that she knew that she needed to figure it out for herself and decide what she was going to do. She is so special! :) I am excited for her to find her answer. She texted us through out the week and let us know of different parts of scripture and how heavenly father was answering her prayers. I know that she will get her answer through the Big Three.

I don't know if I ever told you about Lilly. Lilly was a reference that a few other missionaries found. She is 84 years old. We tried and tried to contact her over and over but we couldn't get a hold of her but we always felt like we needed to keep trying. A few sundays ago we talked to her and it was a super spiritual moment. She talked to us and was crying about how she was ready to go when God was ready to take her and that she didn't want to be a burden on any of her children. She said that she wanted to help others not be helped. I testified to her about how she was here for a reason and that we had a special message for her. She said she wanted to hear it. We went back and she told us that she almost died and was in the hospital and tons of her story. She is soooo special and virtuous. I hardly cry on my mission just when the spirit is really really strong. I was crying through out the whole lesson. We have a special connection. We shared with her that there is a little more that she needs to know. We talked with her about the book of mormon and she said that why did i just feel something from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes? When we were leaving she had committed to praying as well as she hugged me and started to cry and said I feel something so beautiful. We were just crying together. We are excited to see her today or tomorrow! :)

All of our recent converts are progressing well. We are trying to set up a date that they can go do baptisms for the dead. We were talking to Hno. Juan a little bit about the temple. We are sometimes worried that people will think it is a little weird and so we always make sure to testify to help them feel the spirit of the work. Hna Koerner was testifying and he said that isn't weird this work is actually...Divine work of God. No one else can do it! :) He is still reading the book of mormon daily and is loving the book of Alma in spanish Alma means soul so I think it def. is the book of the soul :)

We had a tri mission conference this weekend. All the three missions in texas were together. Elder Ballard, Elder Nielson (of the 70) and Bishop Davies came and spoke to us. It was so awesome. The spirit was so strong and it was awesome to see them and feel of the authority they have. I will write home some of the things that we learned.

Katelin - You are lookin like a Skinny Mini! and I loved those pictures! I can't believe that they are growing so much. Kylee Lady! I am so excited to get your Flat Stanley. I have been thinking of places that we can take him and take a few pictures. Hermanita. I loved your letter. Thank you for sending it!  :) I also go the letter from grandma as well!

Well i need to get going cause my time is up but I love you all SO MUCH.

Off Finding 10's of 1000's and remember who you are and to whom you belong

Hermana Rife

Ohhh Hey

Hi Family,

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is doing really well. I know I am. :) Well another good week in houston texas. A few things of the week! 

So for new years we celebrated! We are pretty wild. So we had to be in bed on time at  10:30. We went to bed. We def. set our alarm for 11:57 and woke up went on our porch with pots and pans and yelled happy new year. Drank a mug full of martinelli and then I said okay I am going back to bed. Hermana Koerner went to the bathroom and i was asleep soundly by 12:03.  What a way to enter in the new year! :) haha I am glad that she will be a bit crazy with me and totally still obedient at the same time! 

I cut my hair this morning. I was just a trim. I really love it. The Sorto Family is a family I have mentioned before and they have a son and his name is Marvin. His wife cuts hair. So this morning we did that. It was nice and feels good to have it a little lighter.

Well the work is still going good in Houston! We are staying busy trying to teach and help people. We had kind of a funny week. We had an awesome Powerful 1st lesson on the restoration with a recent contact through knocking. She accepted the baptismal date of Feb 1st. We were excited. The spirit was so strong and it was just neat. She asked us at the end...so when would you like to come back. We always think that is a great sign! :) 

We are still working with the Bercerra family as well. We are trying to help them understand authority and the difference between our church and the other churches. I think that authority as well as church attendance is the thing that is challenging us this transfer. We have come to the conclusion that church is one thing that is really hard for people to do. Its kind of weird for me because growing up we always went to church and if we didn't it was weird to us. The week was off. So hopefully we can help them get going to church. That is what all of our investigatory are struggling with a bit. 

We had a funny experience. Hna Deleon is a less active member because she works on sundays. She is hilarious. She always wants to take us to Quiznos. She always is like "Vamos Vamos a Quiznos" The other day she walks in and says Mi Princessas are here to Eat. She always talks to the workers in spanish even though she is totally fluent in English. She tells them to not talk to her in English and just Spanish. She is hilarious with a bit of Crazy. She brought her friend named Eula with her. Eula is from Aruba. Like the Aruba, Jamaica  ooo I want to take ya....song. Yeah. Never heard of it before.She is very intelligent. She is working on her 8th language that she is fluent in. She ended up telling us this crazy story of how she lost her passport so she was there and hna deleon let her stay in her house because she was stranded at the airport. She is cool though. She ended up feeding us and coming to church on sunday...She bore her testimony too. I don't know if I have ever prayed so hard that she wouldn't say anything out of the ordinary. She has read the book of Mormon in 2003 and she knows a lot about Mormons  She believes that all churches are true. :) haha there is another one of the authority people. It turned out okay. :) She was so open to comment pretty decent things through out all the meetings. I was praying the whole time that she wouldn't shake up the ward though. She was well accepted and after I gave her a letter that explained the authority of the church. She understood better after that the phrase "only true church" It was quite the day. She asked for our information and so over the podium she said and those are my little angels. Miss Hna Koerner and Miss Mckenzie. She couldn't remember my name or last name. We were relieved when the meetings were over! haha 

Well I love you all a lot. Thanks for your love and support. I hope everyone is reading the book of mormon daily! I also am loving the general conference talks. Wow. They are fantastic. I really like "Beware concerning yourself" - Elder Anthony D Perkins, and Elder Eyrings talk in priesthood as well. Take the time to read them. It is further revelation from God! Oh yes. Will you take out 23 dollars from my account and pay my tithing??? Thanks!

Take care and remember who you are and to whom  you belong to. 

Off Finding the 10's of 1000's

Hna Rife

Pictures.

Christmas Conference with Kate Pingree and Hna Kelly

Me and PB and J

Christmas Eve with My Christmas Book from Hna Koerner. 

For Kate. Our finished Words with Friends Game. :)

Cheers to the New Years!

Dearest Family,

On this last day of December in the two thousandth and twelfth year of our Lord, I sit at this computer and email...

It has been a good year and we have fought the great fight.
We are beginning a new and it is sure a great sight.

The start of a new year, to learn and to grow,
to laugh, to enjoy and new experiences to sow.

I'll be in Texas, the Lord's work shall I do
You'll be in Provo, living life too.

Each new year states a brand new slate
New goals, dreams and challenges are at our fate

Accomplish them we will, the work may make us sore
but hopefully all of them, will mold us like Christ a little more.

Did you like my poem...yeah I just wrote it. its the rapping skills coming into action. ;)
Okay but in all seriousness...

What a wonderful time of year because we have the chance to re devote ourselves to a new "season" in our lives. As the year comes to an end I hope that you are enjoying the last day of this awesome year. I hope you are looking forward to the year of 2013. The ring of that number just sounds sweet! I think that sounds like a really good year...:) I hope you all have goals to become a little better to improve in areas of all aspects of life. Not only in physical but in spiritual as well.

I love this quote from Conference...

"This is the exchange the Savior is asking of us: we are to give up all our sins, big or small, for the Father’s reward of eternal life. We are to forget self-justifying stories, excuses, rationalizations, defense mechanisms, procrastinations, appearances, personal pride, judgmental thoughts, and doing things our way. We are to separate ourselves from all worldliness and take upon us the image of God in our countenances." (Robert C. Gay - What Shall a Man Give in Exchange for his Soul Oct2012)

God and Jesus don't ask much of us for in return we gain such a greater reward. I hope one of your goals is to read the book of mormon every day. Did everyone sign the paper? I hope so.

Well this week has been a bit rough because everyone is busy but we still found a lot of success. It was fun talking to you all on Tuesday but it seriously feels like it didn't really happen and it was forever ago! :) I don't know if it feels that way for you.

I received your package - Kate and Nick! I loved everything in it. It was so silly. I enjoyed the card and the pictures from Kinley and Kylee. Thanks! :) Hna Koerner and I already finished a game of words with friends. We do everything way fast at night and played from 9:40-10, two nights in a row. Lets just say...I still have it but Hna Koerner is good. I won barely because my last letter was I and hers was q. It think final score was 372 (me) to 321 (her). It was a lot of fun. We are going to play in spanish next. I took a picture but I forgot to bring my camera.

This week I had the best food of my life and the worst...:) Which one do you want first? Good first. I ate the BEST Pupusas ever this week! Nubia (juan solano's wife) made them. From what I have heard they are the best in Texas. Hna Rivera is from El Salvador where they are made and she said that they are the best ones she has ever tasted. She has a business from her home. They were dang good. We ate like 6. She kept bringing us more and saying eat eat. Yum. You can look them up on line and see a picture if you want. She also made us this homemade hot chocolate. It was quite tasty as well.

As for the Grossest...Saturday night we were knocking lots of doors for a few hours cause we couldn't get any appointments. We end up going to a ward member called the uribes to welcome them to the ward. She said oh I am making dinner let me feed you. We had a dinner an hour later with Tio and Tia Perla (Hna. Rivera's aunt and uncle) but you can't deny these people...so we are like okay...) She gave us Oysters...then Clam Chowder...then Artichoke dip with chicken and potatoes...I was dying. To finish it off, she gives us Fruit Cake...and I couldn't do it. Sorry Grandma...I know you like it. I ended up sneaking it in my napkin and putting it in my purse and then throwing it away. Hna Koerner was asking how did you eat that? I told her what i did and she was laughing so hard. She told me I kept looking over and it was less and less and less and I was thinking HOW is she eating this cake! haha The oysters were sooo NASTY! YUCK. ahhh. I thought i was going to die. I was choking them down. They looked like HUGE Bugs. ewwww. okay haha. Sorry, I am done. It was quite funny. After we left we were both like I can't believe we just ate that! We go over to Perla's and we just ate a normal dinner but they were telling us about how they eat snake and iguana in El Salvador. Tia Aida said " I am going to make Iguana next time and then you are going to ask what is this and I am going to say...Oh Just Chicken! :) I love them they are such great people! :) She said she misses hearing from her. I told her that we would call her to see how she was doing and that we would come and visit them.

One cool thing... I was telling Hna Koerner about our traditions and about the book tradition. She bought be a book for christmas and we read it on christmas eve. It was Belle and Rapunzel in winter. It was so thoughtful of her.

I saw my Greg Olsen Signature on my calender today when I hung it up. I was like why did my dad sign my calender then I was like Oh MY Goodness that is Greg Olsen! haha :)

When we were knocking doors, we go to the first one and the guy tells us he doesn't need a prayer or a picture of jesus.
The next let us in, told us a lot of stuff and then invited us back to teach them. They are Potentials and it is a family of 4 kids and the mom. They are great. We are excited to visit them this week.
The next door was also great and invited us back to teach them. Another Potential
The next was yelling when we knocked and yelled WHO IS IT? We said the Missionaries and he said WHAT DO YOU WANT. I said to say a prayer with you and your family...he said they were having a problem right now so no. I was really glad they didn't let us in! :) haha

We met these little girls and they were all drawn to us. We asked if we could pray with them. They said yeah. Then I said we have something for you. One of the little girls says "No, I don't take candy from strangers!" haha I said oh i don't have candy. I have a picture of Jesus. She said oh we will have that! :) It was quite funny. :) We met her mom and are going to visit her as well.

It was an awesome week! I got to get going but I am excited for this year because I have a whole year of being a missionary ahead! :) I love life!

Well remember who you are and to whom you belong to.
Off Finding the Tens of Thousands!

Love you! :)
Hna. Rife

Pictures! and my letter

Feliz Navidad!!! Feliz Navidad!!! I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas… I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas… I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas…from the bottom of my heart!

Well this is going to be a tiny letter because I want to save some stuff for tomorrow! This week has been long and crazy. But still a good one!

Hna Rivera is on a plane right now heading home! We said goodbye to her yesterday. It was rough. I felt like way off…I was like my best friend…is gone. I didn’t really know what to do. Haha. But we just jumped back into the work and went to our appointments. The night was a good one.

We met this catholic family last week knocking doors. Their name is the Boritza family. They are very humble and willing to listen. We have taught the Restoration Lesson and then Book of Mormon. They have 4 darling grandchildren that are going to be missionaries one day. The grandparents watch all of them a lot and so we have been teaching them as well. We are excited to see where this progresses to.

A lot of the things that we thought were going to pull through didn’t. We are just remembering that it is the Lords will and not ours as well as people have agency. Hopefully things will pan out.  We have had some pretty bad rain storms here one of them was like a mud storm. We came out the next morning and our poor car (white)  was all brown and muddy. We didn’t have time to clean it because it wasn’t pday until today and yesterday president pingree saw it and I was so embarrassed. I apologized but he didn’t seem to care at all. He said that it happened to their car as well.

This week we had a Mission Christmas Conference as well as a Ward Christmas party in the night. So we were basically doing Christmas stuff all day Friday. It was fun to be with all the missionariesPresident Pingree said wow you can play the piano and Hna Rife…you have hidden rapping skills as well. We did a rap for Sister bowcutt who is a senior missionary with elder bowcut. They work in the office and are awesome.  They recorded it and I guess they showed president pingree…haha J Oh well. It was a fun day. There is something so powerful about a 100+ missionaries singing and being together. We sang our Texas Houston Mission Song and This is the Christ together the spirit was strong as it always is for music.

Okay well I need to go for today but I’ll plan on calling you on skype at 4 o’clock mountain standard time in UTAH. Merrryyyyy Christmas and Kylee don’t get on santa’s bad list J Love you all

Hna Rife

Feliz Navadid

Dearest Family,

It is still pretty warm here for December. I am looking forward to getting my coat. It has been pretty cold lately. Hermana Rivera is kind enough and she me borrow her jacket in the morning as we run and then I just have been wearing a lot of tights to keep me semi warm. It has been raining a lot and so that doesn't help much but it is good! 

Well I have some exciting news. Hna Rivera is staying until the morning of the 24^th. I am so excited to say the least. We have been having a lot of stuff going on and success and we felt like she needed to stay. We have faith that the things planned will pull through. We are lucky to have a few extra days with her. We have had some really good talks the last few days. I am as always learning so much from her. I am going to miss that girl but it will be good. I know that this is what the Lord has planned for me in my mission.

As for Christmas next week, I am so excited to talk to you all. We are still working on a place to Skype but I don’t know if it will happen. I hope it will though. Pray that we can find somewhere to skype. If not I will be calling. I will call before 11 so Grandma can go to listen to Jenessa and Matthew or after around 3. I will let you know for sure next week but just in case I do get to skype try to get your camera so we can. I have been looking forward to this for two weeks. I am so excited. J I am going to be sending a package to you all this week so be watching for it!

This week I had an awesome interview with President Pingree. I just feel so lucky to have him be our mission president. I love talking with him.

On Wednesday we went with our zone to do service and the Houston food bank. Tender  Mercy of the Lord…Real Music J haha. Definitely wasn’t country but we had fun as missionaries singing and dancing to it. It was cool to go serve.

We finished nora’s lights and she is still doing great. I love that lady. She is doing great. Her husband and Daughter are coming around too. We are going to the Mall with Maria her daughter today.

Keep praying for the Lorena Faz and Jose Santillan. I know that prayers and faith will get them to keep progressing. Sorry this email is sort of short but I have some stuff to get done. I’ll give you the set time next week for calling and all of you have a good week. Work hard in school and look for ways to serve.

This week should be good. We get to go the temple on Thursday and then we have Our mission Christmas Conference on Friday and our ward Christmas party Friday night. Hna Koerner and I are singing a duet. It is an strange Spanish song but its okay.

One last thought for the day.

Mosiah 3:19

19 For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyields to the enticings of the Holy ^fSpirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnatural man and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Basically at the end when it talks about submitting to the Lord was when a cool little thing happened. We don’t always know or understand why we have to go through something but Heavenly Father knows why we are going through trials and all that hard stuff.  I remembered when tyler burnt his had hand and it was really hard for mom and dad to keep scrubbing it and making him cry. It hurt them how it hurts heavenly father to watch us go through trials but I know that just like mom and dad knew that it was better that tyler suffered that pain so he could have full use of his hand heavenly father knows what we have to go through to prepare us to be the people he needs us to be and the people who we can become.

Well I need to get going but I love you all. Take care this week and Remember the reason of this season. Be safe.

Always remember who you are and to whom you belong to. Remember that every action you are doing is important. The littlest sins are still sins and we need to repent of them become better and move forward progressing towards our eternal goal. Make good choices. J

Love your Hemana.

Hna Rife.