Prove me now herewith‏ April 20, 2015

 Dear Family and Friends, 

It was a really fun and crazy week! I turned 20 years old. Yep. Weird. I am no longer a teenager. Paloma made me mole (a mexican dish/ my favorite)  and an ice-cream pie. It was really sweet.  And that's about all I have to say about birthdays:) 

I've been thinking a lot lately about obedience. Because lots of times people ask me "why do we have to do it like that?" "Why does God want me to change more? I am a good person?" "This rule doesn't even make sense!" Basically it all comes down to why.

This is one of the families that we teach. Jolette and Herlin are both young enough that for them, obedience just seems to make sense. When their mom says not to do something or to do something, it is because she is right. They don't need much more of an explanation. They know that their mom loves them and that she will ask of them, what will be of benefit. 

p.s. I adore this family. 

I have oftentimes replied to people who have why questions, with "I don't know." But I do know that the Lord invites us to "prove" him or try His promise. Every commandment we have is associated with a promise. And if we invite the blessings, they will come. 

Of course we can also pray to know if the commandment is really from the Lord. (My companion took this picture of me. awkward)

And after we have prayed, we should put it into practice. 

"prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Recently, I've thought about turning that phrase around too. Obedience is sometimes easy, until a moment of trial and testing. I want to show the Lord that He too can prove me. And I will be obedient. 

I know that God knows better than us. He loves us. We are His children, and there are things we just don't understand. I know that His son lives and He is Jesus Christ. I pray that we can accept the blessings that flow through obedience. 

-Hermana Ries

Malachi 3:10

Consider the Lillies of the Field April 13, 2015

Dear Friends and family,
It has been a very good week! First, I just wanted to send this picture from last week from the temple since the computer wasn't working with my camera last week. 

The temple is the place to be!

Like I said this week was really good! Something that I have been learning, and especially this week is that the work I do, is actually very little to nothing in the grand scheme of things. God says: 

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39)

So from that, and experiences out in the mission, I have learned, that this is His work and not mine in the least.

I think a lot of times, I get caught up in the details. Why is no one answering the door? Why does it have to rain today? Do I have to ride a bike again today? Why is the mailbox always empty? And variations of things like that. And it is really selfish. 

One of my favorite scriptures says: 

27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

 28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

 30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

 31 ¶But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

For the last few weeks we have worked really hard to get our investigators to church, with very little luck. After weeks of frustration, this Sunday morning I told my companion how upset I was, that they didn't understand how important this was. My efforts weren't making much a difference. And then I realized, of course my efforts weren't making a difference, because this is not MY work. 

Once I let go of the fact that I just do what I can, and then let the Lord do the rest, He was able to bless me. This week Paloma, Demetria, Vicki, Arles, Arcenio and Nelson all came to church and had a great experience.

On a totally different note, I went on exchanges to Alvin this week and met a family with a pet pig. It was a little weird. Oh Texas.

This week please include Arles in your prayers. Arles is from El Salvador and actually happens to be a friend of Ramon! We have been teaching him for about a month now and as you can see, he is a little camera shy haha. In this picture you can see him walking towards us with his Book of Mormon in hand and his mustang in the back. yeah, he's pretty cool. He gave up coffee this week and he's almost quit smoking! Please pray for him! He wants to do what is right and has a baptismal date for the 25th! He is so close! 

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Also please keep Jolette in your prayers! She really wants to be baptized this Saturday but is only 9 and afraid of water. Please pray that she will be able to overcome her fear!

I know this is God's work and glory. Our happiness is what He wants and desires and thinks about all the time.I am so grateful for this time that I have to serve Him and be doing His work. 

I love my Savior. I strive to be like him and hope we can all find joy and peace knowing that He loves us and has a perfect plan for us.

-Hermana Ries

We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet April 6, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Um wow. Conference was so good!!!! I especially loved the talks in Spanish! Do they have someone in English speaking over them or like subtitles or something? I'm not really sure. But our investigator Arles LOVED hearing messages in his native language! I'm hoping in the following conferences that we can hear some other languages as well.

I loved that President Thomas S. Monson, our dear prophet, focused on the importance of temples and making and keeping covenants.

The week we had the opportunity to go to the temple with Ramon for the first time! Hermana Christensen and I had both found some family members to be baptized for. The morning of, we got ready and headed over to the church to print out some family names of Ramon. Hermana Christensen shared with me that she had had a dream the night before where someone named "mother Teresa" had called her and said she would like to be baptized. And in the dream we drove up to a mountain where we were going to teach Teresa. 

Hermana Christensen shared with me she thought it might be one of our family names. But we both looked through our names and found nothing. So we went to the church to print out Ramon's names. He had told us he had an aunt who had passed away that he would also like to help baptize. We called him and asked her information to enter it into the computer. We asked what her names was:

Teresa.

We later asked Ramon where Teresa grew up and he said, by a mountain.

At the temple Ramon had the privilege of being baptized for his father, I for his mother and Hermana Christensen for his aunt who had called her in a dream.

It was a really special experience and I also felt very close to some of my ancestor, but will probably not include the details of my experience with that, in this email. 

I love the temple. I know it is the house of the Lord and worth any sacrifice to get there. I love what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 109:13

"And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness."

I love being a missionary. I love having a prophet and being led and guided by him and 12 apostles. I hope we all get a chance to read and reread their counsel! 

-Hermana Ries

We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.‏ March 30, 2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

I am grateful for Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the Gospel He restored. I'm grateful for prophets who teach it. I am grateful we have a prophet today. I am grateful Easter is this weekend and we can celebrate, that Christ lives- and because He lives, our lives can be joyful. 

​I want to talk about some things this week that brought me and others joy.

Arcenio: This week, Arcenio realized that reading the scriptures brings us joy. Reading is not easy for him and he doesn't like to do it. He actually dropped out of college because of how difficult it is for him. We started texting him short passages of The Book of Mormon this week and on Saturday, he was out doing yard work and told us to swing by. He told us "I actually read the text you sent me!" haha. But there is a noticeable difference. We are more joyful, when we read the scriptures.

Sometimes, as a missionary, you bike around in the heat for hours, and there is no one who wants to talk to you or answer your calls. But you know what makes you joyful? Still trying.

This is Jolette. She is 9 years old and comes from an amazing family that I adore. She is also afraid of the water. Fortunately, I spent the last 5 years of my life working with children who have a fear of the water. We are helping her prepare for baptism. We can be joyful knowing that God puts us in the right place, at the right time.

Ramon passed me the Sacrament this Sunday for the first time. All the little steps in the Gospel, make us joyful.

And more than anything, choosing to believe, makes us joyful.

God does not want us to merely survive. He does not want us to just have a "C average" life, so to speak. He commands us to be perfect. And we can do that through Jesus Christ. 

He loves us. He wants the very best for us. 

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

Romans 8:35 and 37

I hope we can all be more than conquerors, through Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know He loves us. 

-Hermana Ries

p.s. tune into #LDSconf this weekend!!!! It's gunna be so good!!!!! https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.‏ March 23, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a week of blessings. I am often shocked at how merciful and loving God is to us. According to justice, we merit nothing, but thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, God literally showers blessings upon us. 

And this week, it literally and spiritually rained. 

I love bike areas. 

We had the opportunity to do some service this week too! We helped clean out a house that hasn't been cleaned since Hurricane Ike. 

Notice the ceiling. It really was fun though. And the women we were helping were some of the cutest ladies ever. 

Lucy and Maria are sisters. They had the coolest stories to tell us and the home itself had a lot of history. It was a blessing to serve and get to associate with such kind people.

Also, Ramon got the Aaronic Priesthood! He asked us to sit in ordination to the office of a Priest. It was such a special experience and I feel so blessed to be part of his progression in the Gospel. 

This week as we were biking down the street someone driving saw us and yelled out the window "HOLA!!!!!" They then pulled over and we found out they used to be an investigator but just kind of lost contact with missionaries. Anyway, he told us that he first came into contact with the church in 1990 but he feels ready to change his life and wants to be baptized on May 1st. Whattttt? So cool. His name is Eric. And he is from El Salvador! 

I know that with life challenges, also come the blessings. President Utchdorf said:

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"Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up. But the commandments aren’t like that at all. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that,like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.

His commandments are the loving instructions and the divine help for us to close the umbrella so we can receive the shower of heavenly blessings."

I am so grateful for the storms and the blessings that get rained upon us during them. 

I know that God really wants to bless us and if we allow him to, He will shower down blessings in a way that we can hardly receive them. I hope we all choose obedience and blessings this week.

-Hermana Ries