Yokwe!

Yokwe Fam and Friends:

This week has been crazy!  

 

As you all know, it was transfer week!  I said a lot of goodbyes and i was terribly sad to say goodbye to Mountain Grove and Sister Merrill, but i know that we will always be best buddies!

 

I am know in Springdale Arkansas Marshallese Branch.  It has definitely been a struggle, but I love it!  It is such a cool experience.  They people here are so sweet and always let us in!  They are so humble and so open to learning.  I really feel like  i am in a different country.  It is so weird only teaching Marshallese people. 

 

Sister Booms is so funny!  We are going to get along great!  She always has a funny story to tell or a crazy adventure. She is so hardworking and extremely diligent.  I love her and can't wait for this next transfer!  

We have had a great time so far. We are just going around and trying to meet all of the people so we know everyone.  We haven't met very many yet, but that is our goal this week. There is a sister here named Masako who is planning to go on a mission here in the next few months, and she knows decent english, so she has been coming with us and translating.

Church was definitely an experience.  We had no idea what people were saying, so we had to use translators.  It is a really cool language.  Also yesterday after church we got a new investigator! It was crazy.  She said, "Can you come teach me, i want to be baptized."  The people here are so different.  No one is rude and everyone listens.  

The food....Oh my goodness.  It is so good, but man....do they feed you a lot! I am going to work out extra hard this transfer so i don't come home ginormous!  

I don't really have any super incredible stories this week.  Next week though!

Bar lo eok!

Ej yokwe eok!

Sister Ritter 

Pictures: 

1)Sister Merrill didn't want me to leave.

2)Love this sister so dang much!

3)6 months. whoo whoo!

4)Pretty sick street sign(: 

5)me, Masako, and Sister Booms

 

 

Transfer Week!

Hey hey friends and fam!

 

So this week was CRAZY.  Crazy news. Crazy lessons. Crazy busy.  

 

I have learned a lot this week!! 

 

Last Monday, all the Elders came to our church and we all played volleyball.  It was so fun!  It is always a party when you can do things with other missionaries.  So...We were playing and i went to run backwards. Completely fell flat on my back and destroyed my tailbone.  Pretty sure i bruised/cracked it...but there isn't anything you can do with it so i just moved on.  Typical Sister Ritter. Clumsy as ever.

 

Wednesday we had a zone training meeting.  We talked a lot about faith and how our faith is what motivates us to work.  I also learned that faith has a lot to do with relying on Christ.  That is what i have focused on this week.  Relying on Christ to help me in my missionary work.  I also had an interview with President.  It is always so nice to see him.  He asked me how i was and if i had any goals.  I told him that i have been feeling really afraid lately to do the simple everyday things that i have been doing everyday for 6 months.  He told me that it was all part of a cycle every single missionary goes through.  That helped me a lot.  Then he had me set some goals of how i can improve.  I set the goal to be bold and talk to a minimum of 2 new people a day.  He told me that i could and will accomplish my goals if i have faith and rely on Jesus Christ for support.  So that is what i did this week. 

 

First things first.  I HAD to rely on the strength of Christ to even get out of bed because my tailbone hurt SO bad. ALL week. 

 

First example of being bold. I called this less active man and said, "Word on the street is you make squirrel for the missionaries."  He just laughed hysterically and said, 'If i can catch one ill make it for you.'. Still hasn't called us back yet....): ) hahahah!

 

We had another incredible lesson with Vicky and Kennith.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom.  They were all on board but they said it would be a struggle because of coffee in the morning and Kennith chews and Vicky smokes.  So i just looked at Kennith and i said, "Would it be harder for you to give up coffee or tobacco? He said Tobacco, so out of nowhere i said, "throw your tobacco in the garbage right now if you have faith and sincerely want to stop."  He just looked at me and i was terrified.  I thought i was going to get killed and he would be mad...especially because i feel like it wasn't even me who told him to throw it away.  Well....He threw it away.  He said. "Thats it. Now i just have coffee."  It was such a testimony builder to me that i can be bold and as i am God will help me.  There is no way that would have worked without the spirit.  It was incredible.  

 

We also were on Exchanges this week.  I went up to St. Robert.  It was a really good day.  I told Sister Boll about my goal and she said, "Well lets go tracting." I DREAD tracting.  But we did and it got easier and easier. Now i love it.  It is so fun to go up to a door, guess what the person looks like and just share the gospel.  Even if they don't accept.  I can tell that as i have been trying to be bold and rely on Christ i CAN do anything i set my mind to. 

 

Saturday night!  We went clubbing with Jenni. (; hahaha just kidding.  We went to a restaruant called Club 60.  It looks like a junky old shack in the middle of nowhere, but we had a gift card...so we used it. It was awesome.  It was really nice inside, but outside...questionable. That was fun.  After that night came transfer calls. WORST hour of life on a mission.  So...as much as i prayed and prayed to stay in Mountain Grove with Sister Merrill, the Lord needs me somewhere else.  I am being transferred to Springdale Arkansas. Here is the crazy part. MARSHALISE SPEAKING.  Yup.  I'm not even kidding.  I am pretty pumped! But i am terrified.  

 

I know that as i rely on Christ i will be able to be a successful missionary.  I will be able to speak to and share the Gospel with these people and i will be able to make it through any challenges i have.  I know that this is going to increase my faith so much, and i definitely will have to opportunity to be bold.  Here we go!

 

Love you all!

Love, Sister Ritter

 

Pictures:

1)I love me some Sister Merrill (:

2)Transfer call night ):

3)Kennith and Vicky

4)Vicky didn't know what a selfie was.

 

 

 

 

Mountain Man Missionary?

Hello Family(:

We had a crazy busy week this week!  We saw tons of people and we even went above our standard for the week!  That was really cool!!! 

Even though it was busy, we didn't have too many crazy things happen or anything out of the ordinary either.

We did see Vicky this week. She has baby kitties!  She is doing so good!!!! I love her so much!!! We finished teaching her the restoration and she is so humble and faithful.  She doesn't have any concerns or problems yet.  She is cruising through the Book of Mormon!  She has been smoking less and less.  Everything about Vicky is a miracle.  On Sunday morning, Kennith called us and said, "I don't think we will be able to make it to church today because of the rain.  We don't have windshield wipers on our truck and i don't want to wreck."  We told them we understood and that we would miss them.  As we were driving to church, Sister Merrill said, "I just feel like something incredible is going to happen."  Well....We pull in the parking lot and BAM. Kennith's truck is parked right in the front.  We were thinking.. "These people are unreal.  They told us they couldn't come in the truck because of the rain and they beat us here."  We went into the chapel and talked to them. Kennith said something that was a lesson to me and a great example of the perfect investigator.  He said, "I realized that it is just rain. Satan is trying to do everything to get us to NOT come to church and to stop us from learning about Jesus. We aren't gonna let him win.  We are blessed to have this church and we are gonna be here no matter what."  Then Vicky said, "We are gonna get here, even if it is kicking and screaming and hollerin'. Im going to be at church."  Kennith told us he went outside before church in the rain and tore apart his truck to fix his windshield wipers.  It was incredible. 

I cannot believe the faith of these people.  They are such a testimony to me that God is Hastening the Work and He is leading people to the church.  They are so faithful.  I want to be like them and i think my mission is teaching me exactly that.  I LOVE this gospel so much and i didn't realize how much i did at home.  It is such a blessing to me.

We also went to see this old investigator who we thought we would go meet. OH BOY.  That was an experience for sure.  We get there and she is super friendly but she has like 47 cats.  We started talking to her and asking her her beliefs.  She said she is a spiritualist, but the Mormons are the closest to what she believes.  She has so many beliefs that she doesn't really know what she even believes and she kept going back and contradicting herself.  She told us she believed in reincarnation and then she told us that she believed when we die that we will teach the other spirits in Heaven about Jesus. She also told us that in her past life she was a servant to Pharoah and one of the cats she has was Pharoahs cat, and they had such a bond that they were reincarnated together to live here now. It was interesting talking to her.  We helped her do some service and she said, "We have to drive to my mansion".  So we got in the car and she pulled out of the driveway and pulled into the very next driveway.  It was so funny!!!!  She is just sweet!  We don't really know if she is fully prepared to hear the gospel yet, but it was cool meeting her!

We met a real life Mountain Man!(: That was sweet too!(: We got to see all his stuff. Kayde would have died.  All i could think about when i was there is "Kayde would love this guy."

Update on the apartment!  We live by a dog food factory, so it basically smells like daises and rainbows every morning and night! (; 

I don't really have anything else today! It was just a great work week!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, 

Sister Ritter 

Pictures:

1)We dressed up in Mtn Men clothes 

2)Watch out. Im missiouran now!

3)Vicky's baby kitty

 

 

Goats..?

Hello Friends and Fam!

 

The miracles continue on here in Mountain Grove!  This place is incredible. The work is moving forward!

Monday : a goat jumped on our car.

Update on Vicky!  SHE IS SO PREPARED.  She is a miracle. She is exactly what Sister Merrill and I needed.  We had a lesson with her and the whole time the spirit was so strong it was unreal.  We walked in and didn't have much time.  We asked how her Book of Mormon reading was going, she had read all the way through 1 nephi since a week ago! We asked her if she noticed a difference in her life since reading it.  She told us her desire to smoke is leaving, and she isn't smoking as much now. Miracle #1.  Then we started teaching her the Restoration of the Gospel.  The lesson went well and she said she agreed.  We were out of time, and we had been praying about a date for baptism for her.  We were not leaving without asking.  So we told her that and she got this crazy look on her face and it scared us.  She said, "I had a dream about the 21 of February.  I had a dream that i had to go to church but then i looked at the calendar and saw it was a Saturday and i was really confused.  Now i know why i need to be there.  I need to get baptized that day. MIRACLE #2.  Then somehow it got brought up that she wasn't really married to Kennith and that she had to get divorced from a different man first.  We asked her if she thought it would be a problem, and she said, "I will go to the lawyer tomorrow and get the papers." MIRACLE #3.  Then we asked kennith if he would be willing to get married.  He told us that he has wanted to marry her forever. MIRACLE #4.  Then she got a blessing to help her stop smoking.  Most powerful blessing ever.  In it she was promised that she would join the church and bring the gospel to her whole family and she would be an incredibly powerful missionary. It was unreal. 

 

The next day, we called and asked and she got all the divorce papers done and she told us her mom is interested in the church. The blessing is already coming true.  I am in the middle of a miracle and i cannot believe how touching it is.  I know that it is no coincidence that i am here at this time.  I feel so priveledged and grateful for this opportunity to be in Mountain  Grove. 

I spoke in sacrament meeting this week on the Book of Mormon and missionary work.  They go  hand in hand. As i have been reading i have really been focusing on the Christ-like attributes that are displayed and have applied them to my missionary work.  I don't really remember the talk, but i guess it went well! (: It was terrifying.  Then all the boys sang called to serve.  It was so powerful!  It really made me ponder the importance on why i am on a mission.  Why it is important to me. And why i love the Gospel.  It was a really reflective Sunday.

This week we have been really focused on the Book of Mormon.  We have been sharing it with everyone! I know that by reading the Book of Mormon, it can change your life more than anything else.  I know that the blessings and promises contained in the Book of Mormon will come true as we seek them out and do our best to follow God's every command.  I love sharing the Book of Mormon with people.  I love following the examples i have learned from it.  Our president always tells us, "Unlike the prophets in the Book of Mormon, we are not called to die for the Gospel. We are called to live for it."  I am striving and trying my very best to live FOR the gospel.  To follow it as exactly as possible.  I love the  Book of Mormon and i love being a full time missionary.  I couldn't imagine doing anything else. 

Love you all

 

Love,

Sister Ritter

Pictures:

1) A goat on our car

2) Sister Merrill is adorbs!