P Day moved to Wednesday this week!

My Dear Family,

Another week gone by! It has been an absolutely crazy week with alot of work, meetings, interviews, more work and baptisms! This Monday, we had a meeting in Veracruz for the zone leaders at 6pm, so we decided to change our pday from Monday, to Wednesday. I knew you would all be worried and felt bad. But everything is okay! :) It has been a great week. Super busy like I said, but I seem to like the busy weeks more than the slow ones. We have had lots of meetings with Pdte Treviño and I have learned so much from him. It is interesting to see how he gets used to not being in his house and getting use to the extreme schedule of a mission President. He has a very interesting point of view on the work and it is so awesome to learn new things!

This week we have two baptisms! One is Griselda and the other is a boy named Marcos! They both were miracles and people so special to me. Gricelda has been an investigator for six months and has never wanted to be baptized. We had left her alone and stopped visiting her so frequently. She went to church every single week with her family who are all members including her husband. One day Elder Rios and I felt like we should go and just talk with her. We got there and the subject simply changed to baptism. We taught baptism and bore testimony of the blessings and she accepted a baptismal date. The Lord works in mysterious ways and it is always so rewarding and satisfying to be just a small part in the huge change in the life of someone. Its even cooler to do it Spanish! :)

I can't believe it is already August. My companion goes home the 22 and then it will be September! The time continues to fly by so fast and every day is a blessing. Being a missionary has changed my life completely. I am so so grateful and proud to be a representative of Jesus Christ. A girl in our ward left her mission today and had her farewell party last night at the church. Her name is Magali and she will serve in Merida Yúcatan (by Cancún) and is so excited! I couldn´t stop thinking about the days before I left for my own mission. Some of the happiest and saddest days of my life! I remember I stopped listening to my ipod, texting, watching television, and being alone. I remembered my own setting apart as I heard our stake president here in Tuxtepec set apart Hermana Osorio last night. As a missionary, we are set apart from the world, allowed to partake of the spirit on a much higher plane. It will be a sad day when I am relieved and my tag taken off. I have much to learn and much to do before that day comes!

I will get going for now! I am so glad to hear that everyone is doing so great! Good to hear that your surgery went great and that Chandler made it home safe from his trip. How I worried for him here in Mexico! I love my family so much! I know we will be together forever! How blessed are we! I am going to keep working my tail off here baptizing every week till my mission ends! Love you all!!

My knee is completely better! It actually stopped bothering me like two days after I fell. Just got a little scab now but no pain or swelling or anything! I have been sick for the last 3 or 4 days from the flu. Just stuffed nose, throat and ear pain, but I have been taking medicine and I feel much better today! Life is good!! Love you all!!!!

Mom...

Something interesting happened today and I thought immediately of you so I thought I would tell you! I was in Bodega Aurrera (its like Smiths) doing my shopping for the week and out of no where, on comes the song "Sweet Caroline" by Neal Diamond blasting on the radio. It was funny for two reasons... 1) it was in English and not a single Mexican in that whole store understood what the heck Neal was saying, just me! And 2) I remembered that night on the cruise when we saw the talent show and some guy got up and sang that song!!! "Sweet Caroline... bom, bom, bom!!!!!!" Ha ha ha I thought of you and just wanted you to know that I was thinking about you all day in the store! Love you mom!

Hey Dad!

How is my hero doing? What great news about your job and conference! I am so excited that you enjoy your new field so much! Its like this... you have mastered the steps to successful selling that you can literally work in any field! You are such an essential tool and your coworkers don't know who they are working alongside of! You are kicking butt and setting a great example for me and the boys! The work is exploding here Dad. I feel that my mission has been an exponential upwards curve. I hit the ground in the MTC running 50 mph and I feel that since then it has only gotten faster faster, higher, better, stronger, deeper, and more powerful. I am experiencing so many things. Changes, struggles, miracles, trials, and blessings. I couldn't be happier! I am so grateful for the choice I made to serve the Lord. Maybe I didn't fully understand the importance of serving a mission before I came... and much less did I know of the huge change that would come about in my life. But now I do, and that is so important. Your "number one" isn't the same as when he left. I am being tested and perfected in the refiners fire and love who I am. I am having so much success Dad. I know it is because I had a Dad who taught me how to achieve success. I have learned that a good leader isn't someone who is only there to remember the rules and gives punishments. A successful leader is someone who helps those who are below him, to become as he is. That is what I have learned as a zone leader. I love you Dad! Can't wait to tell you all my stories and experiences in a hot tub in 9 short months!!! Love you!!!!

Elder Ricks