You All Sounded Awesome!

My Dear Family,

WOW! It was so good to talk to you all again and hear your voices. It is so trippy how much Mike and Chandlers voices have changed! Everyone is growing up! Isn´t life good right now? I feel, just like I have said to you all a million times, that I am now spiritually awoken and I can´t stop loving life. This church and gospel means so much to me and I am so thankful for two things: 1) I am thankful to my Father in Heaven more than I could ever explain, for the opportunity to serve as a full time missionary. Mike and Chandler.. don´t you doubt for a second about serving a mission. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. 2) The second thing I am so grateful for is my family. Where on Earth would I be without each one of you? I don´t know... but it wouldn´t be a good place. It was so good to hear your voices and talk with each of you. I felt like the time flew by from the last call in Christmas and I know before we know it, it´ll be that time of year again and we´ll be on the phone (OR SKYPE!!!) talking with each other again!

This last week was such an awesome week. As I explained in the phone call a little, I had my first wedding this last week! Even though it cost me a bunch, it was so worth it. Our investigator Arely, wanted to get baptized so bad and had to get married first before she could do it. But the poor thing lives in a wood and sheet metal shack and didn´t have the means to do it. It was amazing to be able to baptize her and think about my awesome brother Michael doing the same with my awesome sister Grace. That spirit that you felt during the baptismal service is how I feel all day long. How is it possible to not be so happy with such a spirit all day long??!! A spiritual highlight of mine everyday, is when we extend the invitation to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. We always invite the person in the first lesson and when they are chosen investigators and prepared by the Lord to except our message, the spirit is ALWAYS there, so strongly. I will miss being a called representative of Jesus Christ after my mission and not being able to extend that invitation, but I will be a "missionary" all my life--sharing my testimony and loading up the elders in our ward with references and baptisms. I am addicted to sharing the gospel and seeing the change in light in a persons eyes from when we first enter their house, to the moment they leave the font all dripping wet.

My companion and I had a good long talk after our phone call last night. It was hard to see how I talked about my family and how much I loved you because his family is a little different. Actually really different. Before he came on the mission, he didn´t even live with his family because they didn´t get along. He was always fighting with his parents because before the mission he was so so so rebellious. He told me his life story and I told him mine and we talked about where we come from. Luckily, I never had the problems he had to go through. It was sad to see how he talks about his family. So different from how I talk about mine. I told him that Hannah is one of my closest friends and that blew him away.

Once again, I am so thankful for the family I have. There have been times where I didn´t feel worthy for such an amazing family, but I have always remembered that my Father in Heaven sent me my family to help me and bless my life. I love you all so much. I love this church and everything it means to me. I wouldn´t be here in a Mexican Internet cafe, listening to Mexican rap music from the street, sweating my guts out in another country right now, if it weren´t for the testimony of this church that I possess. It is not only a true church, but it is the ONLY true church in this universe. How blessed we are.... but what great responsibility we have. Lets help our Father in Heaven, and do his work. Until next week.....!


Elder James Ricks