All is well!

My Dear Family,

Wow! What a crazy week it has been! All is well here in Catemaco from the Earthquake! We didn´t feel a thing! It was one of the many blessings and miracles that I recieved this week! We have worked hard this week and for the 10th straight week, we baptized!!! We had four on date for this past week, but one of the children didn´t have permission from his parents... yet! :) We baptized three this week, Felipe and his wife, Clara, and Magda, the sister of the our other two converts Janneth and Sandra! They are all so sad that I am leaving! It is going to be so hard to leave this area. Here I learned how to be a missionary and acquired my love for the Lord´s work. I thank my Father in Heaven and President Hansen for having sent me here to learn so much. All the sisters were fighting in relief society this last sunday to sign up for the food appointments for my last week here in Catemaco! There are so many people here that I love and who are life long friends! One of the thousands of benefits of serving a mission, are the friends you make.

I have been thinking and meditating alot this week about what it means to be a leader, getting ready to be a zone leader. For about 3 weeks Elder Molina and I haven´t had the best teaching practices that I was looking for. I took time to think this week about how I could help him focus more in the investigator and not so much in using eloquent and fancy words. I thought to my self, "All he needs is confidence and the feeling that he is a great missionary." Before we started the next practice, I told him how proud I am to be his companion and teach next to him. I told him all the things that he has taught me and shared with him what I thought his strong points are. After that, we began the practice and it was the best practice I have had with him. Everything changed when I learned how to be a leader and motivate instead of expect him to know and do everything right and then correct him for all the wrong things after. I learned that a good leader, like my Dad, teaches by example and motivates and helps others feel like the most important person in the world. I am thankful for having learned this lesson this last week.

It is sad to have to leave a place that means so much to me, but I know there are other people waiting in other places for the testimony I have to share. I hope and pray that I can do everything I can to find and help them! I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and support and words! One hour really isn´t enough to write all I could say and write all of you personally! I am excited to talk to everyone in a short time! Man the time is FLYING by! :) Until next week!


Elder James Ricks