This is it!

Dear family and friends!!! 

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS MY LAST EMAIL! I am so full of so many emotions. I am excited, and sad, and overwhelmed, and stressed, and scared all at once. I am so grateful for this incredible experience that i have had to serve the Lord for 18 months. And this week was the absolute best way ever. It was so cool. 

Monday was probably the best preparation day in the entire world. One of the YSA works in a zoo so we got a VIP tour and got to hold a lot of the different animals. It was pretty much the dream. We got to hold..wait for it.......wait for it.....A BABY SLOTH. It was so cute. It just grips on and holds you. I loved it. We also got to hold an animal called a screaming hairy armadillo. IT WAS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE ANIMAL. I asked the zookeeper how i can acquire one. I am so in love with those things. I will definitely attach a picture. If anyone wants to buy one for me, you can be my best friend. (; 

Tuesday we had one of the coolest lessons ever. We got a new investigator named Jenny. She is so cool. She is also a chinese student. I have really enjoyed teaching them, they are so humble and willing to learn about Jesus Christ. She didn't know who God was, so we taught her about Him and invited her to pray. She asked the coolest thing. She said, "Can i still pray even though i am not Christian yet?" We told her that she could of course pray. She didn't feel comfortable praying with us, but she said she would pray the next lesson we had with her. 

Wednesday, we had our last district meeting.  It was really sad and i had to give my departing testimony.  It was really sad. Then Elder Dye made all of us sing 'God be with you til we meet again.' It was really hard. 

Remember how i got hit in the face with a dodgeball by a potential investigator? Well, we texted him and asked if we could meet more and teach him the gospel.  He was really excited to meet with us and we had a really powerful lesson with him.  He was genuinely interested and we get to meet him again this next week.  He had a lot of really great questions and as soon as we taught the restoration he had a different attitude about him.  I compared life to getting hit in the face with a dodgeball and ryan said, "Can we laugh about that yet?" It was a great lesson. 

Thursday i had one of the most touching lessons in my life.  We got a new investigator named Jessica. She is so cool. We started by singing a hymn and we taught her about the Godhead. As we went to say the beginning prayer, she wanted to say it. We were on splits and i was with Latea. Jessica was afraid of Latea and she whispered the prayer in my ear. It was such a powerful prayer. She absolutely loved the idea that Jesus Christ was her  brother.  She also loved that she could feel peace, happiness, and joy through the spirit. It was a very powerful lesson.  She knows minimal english and so it is a challenge to teach her, but the spirit was very strong in the room. At the end of the lesson, we explained that she could feel that all the time if she was baptized and received the Holy Ghost. She agreed that once she learned more, she would be baptized. 

Bonus miracle for thursday. We saw a shooting star. It was really really slow.  It was really cool!

Friday we had a lot of lessons on the street. We prayed that we would be led to people and be able to reach our goals. We were able to teach so many people and we were led to different people. I can't recall any specific events, but I know that i was really happy and we were busy all day long. It was a really productive day. Hannah made us homemade dumplings! It was the absolute best dinner ever. 

Saturday.....You will never believe what happened. WE GOT TO MEET AN APOSTLE OF THE LORD! We got Elder D. Todd Christofferson. It was the coolest thing that could have happened to end my mission. I got to shake his hand! He is so funny!!!! He had so many great things to say. He talked a lot about how we live in a day of miracles.  I wish i could write all of the things that i learned. It was a really spiritual experience.

This week we were able to be apart of 3 new investigators to say their first ever prayer! It was so cool! I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to pray. Something i have learned from the Chinese students is how genuine our prayers can be. They talk to Heavenly Father like he is right there.  They tell Him all about their day and what they have coming up. I have learned that i need to be more humble in my prayers and actually think and ponder as i pray. 

This week was incredible! I am grateful for modern day miracles.

See you real soon!

Love, 

Sister Ritter

pictures:

1) THEE worlds cutest animal! I want a puffy guy!

2) We got to hold a baby sloth!

3)We had a fantastic trip to the zoo!

4)We did service on Wednesday and borrowed the elders key.  We may or may not have locked their key with all of our stuff in the institute buiding and had to wait for 30 minutes for someone to get there. (: 

5)Bus ride to Tulsa to meet Elder Christofferson!!!

6)We matched. The unity in the YSA is unreal! 

7) Well....the welcome mats don't lie.

Valentine's Day 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

The very first lesson i learned last week was to never let an elder write your family email, no matter how lazy you are, and how nice he seems, because it will definitely be slightly awkward. HAHA!(: I decided this week i would work up the motivation and write my own. but then....i had to end up having Elder Belnap write it for reasons explained later on. 

First off, i just want to talk about how much i love Sister Jacobsen. She is seriously hilarious.  I am so grateful to be her companion because she brings a lot of joy to missionary work.  She is hilarious and always has something funny to say. On Monday, we were playing volleyball with all the ysa. Ill just let the secret out now.....Sister Jacobsen and I are TERRIBLE at volleyball. We almost always miss it when we try to hit it. But on monday, Sister Jacobsen hit the ball and yelled, "I hit it!" It basically stopped the game because everyone was laughing so hard. 

Tuesday was one of the coolest miracles of my life. We were sitting in the PSU cafeteria while we were waiting for one of our lessons to get there. There was a ton of highschool students there for FBLA so it looked like the PSU was full of elders. We were looking around and i saw TJ! He was an investigator from Ozark.  I hadn't seen him for over a year so i was super excited. I went to stand up, but our lesson got there, so i just watched where he went so after the lesson i could go and talk to him.  We had a really great lesson with Heidi. It was inspired because the talk we decided to share with her was exactly what she said she was struggling with. I love when moments like that happen. I know the spirit is definitely helping us in our planning. So anyways, after the lesson, we had to go to lunch so i had no time to look for TJ. It made me really depressed. After our lunch, we went back to the PSU and all the FBLA students were no where to be seen. All of a sudden we hear a lot of cheering and walk to the theater. The students are walking out, so i told Sister Jacobsen that we were going to sit there until i saw TJ. He walked out a few minutes later and i pointed and we jumped up and ran. We had to chase him around the PSU because he couldn't hear me yelling at him. Finally he stopped and i was able to talk to him for a few minutes. It was such a blessing. I loved teaching his family when i was in that area. I am so grateful i go to see him again and Heavenly Father answered my prayers of helping me find him. 

We also had a really cool lesson with a less active named Charles. He has such a desire to share the gospel.  He wants so badly to invite friends to church, but he doesn't know how. We did some role plays with him and helped him know what to say when he had a conversation with his friends. It helped me a lot to teach how to share the gospel. We also had Eliza with us and she was able to add insights as well. I am really trying to work on talking to everyone, so i felt like it was a lesson for me. 

Wednesday we had the best district meeting in the world. We were talking about how to be better at  OTMing. (open thy mouth.) We each shared a story about a successful OTM and a funny OTM. Then Elder Dye said, "Okay, we are going to roleplay it. Put on your coats, we are going to campus." He gave all of us a Book of Mormon and told us we had 15 minutes to give it away. It was a really cool experience. We walked up to a girl sitting along at a table named elizabeth. She was super nice and semi interested in learning more. It really strengthened my testimony on using the Lords' strength to talk to everyone. It is super scary to me, but i have had plenty of experiences on my mission to know that Heavenly Father will help us say the right things as we do His will. 

We also had seriously the best lesson ever with Hannah. We followed up with her about how she felt at church last week. We asked her how she enjoyed church and her answer was very humbling. She said, "I am so lucky to go." It was so cool to see how excited and grateful she was that she was able to attend church.  I feel like sometimes we take church for granted.  I know that sometimes i feel like church is just part of the routine.  It  helped me change my attitude.  I am so grateful that i get to teach Hannah. I feel like i learn so much more from her than she learns from me. We then taught her the Word of Wisdom. She struggles with the Word of Wisdom because she is going to school to be a wine maker. We talked to her and asked her if she believed Heavenly Father would help her be successful if she lived the Word of Wisdom. She said she believed she did, and committed to living the Word of Wisdom for 2 weeks. It was  a really cool experience. 

Later that night, we had english class. We went around and introduced ourselves and said one thing we liked. Hannah said, "I like everything." I just love her so much. She is the most genuine person i know. English went really well. We played telephone to help them with their english. It was really funny.  One of the phrases was "the elders smell weird." It ended up "The eldelrs smile weird." And the rest of the night the elders were self conscious of their smiles. English class is so much fun. I love teaching them. 

We got a new investigator of Thursday!!!!!! Her name is Jessica. She is also a chinese student.  It was really cool. She didn't know who God was. That was so hard to do. I am so grateful to be in this area. It definitely helps me stretch talking to so many people and having to teach people many simple truths that i have never had to explain before. It was so hard to explain to someone who God was. But with the help of the Holy Ghost, i think we were pretty successful.  By the end of the lesson, Jessica agreed to pray every day this week.  She was really excited to meet with us again. 

Friday we went to Arkansas on exchanges. It was cool. We did the usual exchange activity....painting a members house. I decided that i am not a huge fan of painting. It was nice to do service for them though. She was really stressed so  i knew it was a good thing. We also tried contacting referrals and teaching a less active member. It was good. 

Saturday. This is where the funniest story of the week takes place.  We went to the usual dodgeball tournament. We were really excited because we ha a potential investigator there who sounded like he was going to be awesome! he was but problem number one is that he was good at dodgeball problem 2 he nailed me in the face from point blank range and insodoing gave me a concussion of epic proportions. ouch...  good news about it though is that we were able to teach a sweet lesson becasue he was there when i got a blessing and he asked lots of questions and it was cool. we basically taught the first discussion and he is basically getting baptised not a big deal #sacrifice for the greater good.

Sunday was an interesting day so happens that i was way out of it and not feeling well at all so i went to sacrament meeting and listened to sister jackdaddy's talk which was pretty good but Elder Belnaps talk was pretty darn great... he is pretty much the greatest Elder in the world and you can spread that around. His talk was on humility and so was sister jackdaddys because they are the most humblest missionaries. Then i skipped out on the rest of church to go sleep not even in my own bed it was so nice... nap times have been lacking in my life since the mish so yea. My companion was freakin out after church because i am pretty much the best companion ever cause i wasn't there!! Then sister jackdaddy and I chilled at our apartment the rest of the day with a great member, Kendra and I was knocked out again but at 7 we had to go to the institute to watcha movie called 17 miracles but again all i did was lay out on the couch and pass out again... pretty much all i do is sleep anyways the elders prayed for me to be able to go to the zoo today and guess what I feel better and will be able to go!!! #powerofprayer

love yall very much 

Sister Ritter

feat. Elder Belnap

Pictures:

pictures:

1)My life dream of getting a giant card in the mail!!! 

2)The Elders brought us insomnia cookies and ice cream to feel better!

3)This is my valentine. Kendra. <3 

4) This is a typical email day! 

Sister Ritter's week, told by Elder Dye.‏

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week was pretty great!  We saw lotz of miracles!

Monday, was so great! We got to go to Bass Pro Shops here in Springfield! It is the biggest one in the world, and was also the first! We walked around and as YSA missionaries bought matching shirts and hats! Elder Dye looked pretty fly if you ask me! We also got to eat lunch there. Like I said, this place was huge. The cool thing was it was a buffet! It was so wonderful. Yummy!!

Tuesday, what a fabulous day! We had exchanges with the Sisters in Bolivar! The sisters were Sister Burt and Sister Stolp! They are the oldest companionship in the world! We were walking around at the Plaster Student Union (PSU) on campus, and heard a familiar tune! It was If you Could Hie to Kolob being played on the piano! It was so great! As we walked over to the piano we saw the greatest Elder's in the world! Elders Dye and Belnap! Elder Belnap was playing the piano, like a champ. All I could think is how handsome their exchange, Josh "The Boss" Styles, looked. We went over and talked to them about how they just OTM'd a lesbian lady. Quite the deal if you ask me. She was a Bernie Sanders fan, enough said. Then, all of a sudden, our investigator, Daisy, walked up. We talked to her about her concerns about baptism. She really like wine. In fact as I have probably said before, that's what she is majoring in! After we attempted to resolve her concerns, she invited us to go test wine with her... We had to sadly reject the offer. She was alright with that! It was a tender mercy though. We had no appointments lined up that day, and then when Daisy came up we had the opportunity to have a lesson. God really works in mysterious ways! Even better thing was a member ended up being there too! So it was a member present! #AllAboutTheNumbers

Wednesday, also a wonderful day! We had district meeting this day! I honestly have the best district leader of all time. Literally Parley P. Pratt wasn't this good! We had a great district meeting, it was wonderful to be able to get to know all of the missionaries in the district. We are trying to be more unified! So hopefully that'll help! Later that night at English Class, Leo was there again! Leo is an international student. We met him last week and invited him to English class and he came! So this week he came for the second time. This time he came up and asked about the church. Then for the activity in English Class we mad a maze outa tables. The only thing about that is we had to do it blind folded. It was rough. We made the International Students explain where to go and what to do. It was really funny! We had some great experiences there. Now let's talk about some miracles! So even later that night, my knee was hurting really bad. I had hurt it the last week when I had gone caving. It was hurting so bad that I really  needed a blessing. So I asked John, our Ward Mission Leader, and he asked Bishop Nothum, to give me a blessing. After the blessing I had instant relief from the pain. I can't tell you how grateful I am for priesthood blessings. I can testify that the priesthood of God is on the earth today. I can't tell you how grateful I was for worthy priesthood holders to give me that blessing. It also helps me know that God truly knows me, and is aware of the things I am going through! 

Thursday, we had the opportunity to do a table at the PSU. We talked to a whole ton of people! As we were sitting at the table, another hymn was being played! It was Nearer my God to Thee. It was really great! So our exchange Latea, went over and OTM'd him. Then he came over to the table and talked to us for a while! It was a great experience for Latea. She did a great job! Then Latea gave him her number. Then she waited for like literally an hour waiting for him to text. Sadly, it didn't happen. But it's okay, she'll bounce back! We also had a lesson with Hannah on Thursday. We talked about Adam and Eve as well as Agency. She asked why God would give them a commandment that he knew they would have to break. We explained how we have our agency and how God wouldn't force them to partake of the fruit and have kids. So it had to be their choice. Then Hannah had the dots connect. She realized that God had it all planned out, just so that he could get everything into action. #BoomRoasted I really love Hannah, she is so prepared for baptism. She has a really strong testimony. Every time I teach her I learn more and more about the gospel. It is so incredible how that works! 

Friday, such a stressful day because we only had one appointment. The rest was finding. So we were in that one appointment when we received a text from Tony. Tony is a recent convert of two years who hasn't been attending for quite a while. Tony told us that he had time that day to meet with us. The funny thing was was we had texted Tony about four days before and he had finally got around to texting us back! So we jumped on that like a trampoline! So later that night we were walking around campus, when all of a sudden Sister JackDaddy (Jacobsen) realized her purse was gone! So like two hyenas getting chased by a wildebeest, we ran back to the spot where we thought we had left it. As we were running there we saw a young gal crying. We walked past, felt a prompting to turn around, and instantly turned back and talked to her. Her name was Jasmine. We talked to her about all the activities and invited her to church. After we talked to her we continued to look for Sister JackDaddy's purse, ended up it was in the apartment thankfully. I know that our Father in Heaven places people in our paths. He also puts thoughts in our head to lead us to these people. I can testify of that. Again he knows us and loves us so much. 

Saturday, we had Dodgeball. "If you can dodge a rench, you can dodge a ball!" Sister JackDaddy is so great at ball! Tony even showed up! He had a lot of fun! I love seeing things pan out! We also went chalking that night! We put some mad art out on the sidewalk! It was really great! Elder Dye is such a great drawer! Pretty much Picasso but modern day. 

Sunday, we had a ward fast, along with the Springfield South Stake for the YSA. So you remember Tony, yeah he came to church! And guess what, he bore his testimony! He also is preparing to go to the temple with us on the twentieth. Hannah also showed up! She felt prompted to come to church! After Sacrament she told us this, "my heart....i cant explain it. my heart is happy." It was incredible! After church, we went on weekly friendship visits. Our Bishop, Bishop Nothum, decided to come out and OTM on campus with us! During we decided to go visit a less active member named Heidi. We went over and had a great visit. We committed her to come to the temple on the twentieth! It will be great! 

I know miracles can happen. I am so grateful for the opportunity Heavenly Father gives me to be apart of them. This work is so fantastic. It is hard, but is such a great experience to be having at this point in my life! 

Much Love, Sister Ritta

1) My new boyfriends.

2) Trying to find us some new gators.

3) The best looking elders around.

4) I throw better than Cam Newton at the superbowl.

5) Me and Jackdaddy on the way home to the crib.

The Final Month!

Dear family and friends:

This week was a super quick week. We didn't have as many hilarious adventures, but we definitely had a great week. Bishop Nothum was out of town this week, so that is probably why we didn't get into sketchy situations. (;

Monday, we had family home evening and we played volleyball after. There was a few people who were new, so we got to talk with them and invite them to different activities. We also invited a few to meet with us and we got a few appointments for this week.  It was really fun.  At the end of the night, we went to Andys with Holly and her friends. It was such a great night. 

Tuesday was a really great day!  We set up a table at MSU and invited everyone to come to the cave on Saturday.  The elders took the morning shift and when we got there to cover, their was 3 names written on the paper..i looked at them and realized it was the elders and one of the members. I was super confused and the elders said, "No one was signing up, so we made it look like someone was interested."  So then we all made up a bunch of fake names and wrote it down and it was like magic.  Everyone started coming and signing up.  We thought it was awesome.  I was struggling talking to people and just randomly walking up to people.  Elder Dye taught me his skills. He said, "Sister Ritter, always compliment the jacket." So i tried it and what do you know....people talked to us.  It was a really cool learning experience.  

Later that night, we didn't have anything to do.  We were talking to Kim and we said, "We don't have anything tonight. Who can you take us to meet?" She had a referral for us and texted the girl she knew and set up an appointment.  We got to meet her at Hurts Donut that night. She is so prepared for the gospel.  We had a great time with us and said she was so happy we got to meet.  Then we invited her to institute and she was really interested.  Jasmine is so cool.  She is from Malaysia and she knows 4 languages. She is looking for fellowship and for a church to go to.  I am so grateful for Kim in being bold and inviting her friend. It was such a blessing to us. After institute Jasmine had a lot of questions and wanted to learn more.  Sister Jacobsen was amazing. She told Jasmine what we do as missionaries and our job and Jasmine was excited to meet with us. 

Wednesday we had zone training. It was a lot of fun.  We also had interviews with President Loveland. I LOVED it. President Loveland is so amazing.  He made me laugh so hard during my interview. I am so sad to be going home, (and of course that is all he talked to me about) but he made it okay. I am grateful for the advice i received from him. 

I learned something really cool at the zone training meeting. It was all about repentance and why it is such an important doctrine in the gospel. In Isaiah 1:18 it says "18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  That scripture hit me really hard. I was thinking about the contrast in the 2 colors. Red and White.  It takes a lot of time and work to make something Crimson red turn white.  But through Repentance and Christ, it is possible for our sins to become white.  I know that it takes practice and time to get there, but i know that Jesus Christ is waiting for us to turn to him and use His Atonement to become clean through sin.  I know that Christ will forgive us if we truly repent.  I am grateful for the knowledge and the comfort i felt as i read that scripture. 

Sister Jacobsen instructed on the difference between testimony and conversion.  I feel that a testimony is a knowledge of a gospel truth and knowing that something is true.  Conversion is sacrificing and acting for that testimony. I have been working on my own testimony of Christ being with us 100% of the time. I know its true, but i feel i am not truly converted to the idea because i still struggle walking up to people and talking to them.  I get really nervous and i don't rely on that promise. I know that as i keep working on it and exercise my faith i will be able to have a full testimony and be completely converted to that knowledge. 

I was asked to speak on how our weakness' are not sins. Sister Loveland once said, "Weakness comes from Heavenly Father and Sin comes from Satan. Satan causes the sins to happen by tempting us."  It gives me so much hope knowing that Heavenly Father knows the difference between the 2.  I know that he can see us in different eyes than we see ourselves.  I read the story and encourage everyone to read it to learn more about Why we have weakness. The story is called the Jadeite Cabbage.  I am grateful for my weakness so that i have a chance to grow closer to my Heavenly Father and closer to my Savior Jesus Christ.  

On Thursday we had a really cool moment happen. Bishop gave Kierstin money to take us and anyone we invited to lunch. We were walking toward the room on campus we were meeting and we saw this girl. I got the feeling to talk to her, but kept walking, again the prompting came and this time Sister Jacobsen looked at me and we immediately turned around and went and talked to her. She was really excited to come with us.  As we got to the lunch room, her mom called and had an emergency, so she had to leave.  She gave us her number and we gave her ours.  She is excited to meet with us again. 

That night, we got a text about 10:15 and it was one of the YSA.  He said, "We are on our way to your apartment." A big group of the YSA came to bring us cinnamon rolls. It was hilarious because we were in matching sweatshirts.  Then a few minutes later, the elders text us and said, "Matching sweaters? #Unity." We all had on our matching sweatshirts when the YSA went to each of our apartments and they thought it was super cool.  

Friday morning, a girl we have trying to meet since we got here texted us and said she signed up to feed us that night. We didn't have anything, so we told her we were free. Turns out, she signed up to feed the elders, but we ended up going instead.  It was so cool to see how Heavenly Father blesses us so much everyday. 

Saturday we went caving. Basically a party. We had 19 non members there. It was amazing.  We got a lot of contacts from that and hope to see them soon. Later that night, we went to the Chinese new year celebration and we saw a ton of the chinese students we met at the cave. They recognized us and were so happy we came to support them that they smuggled us in so we didn't have to pay. It was awesome!!! They had really good chinese food and had so many different performances and songs. It was a really good experience to spend time with them. 

This week was so great. I am so grateful for all the many different experiences and opportunites i get as a missionary. I am grateful for Heavenly Father who directs me and guides me. I know he is blessing me so much. I love this gospel. 

I hope everyone has a great week.

I love you!

Sister Ritter

pictures: 

1)Sister Jacobsen and I wearing our matching MSU hoodies!

2)I LOVE SISTER JACOBSEN <3 <3 <3 

3)That awkward moment when you all show up for missionary work matching. (; We are the most unified missionaries in the mission.

4)Partying it up at the Spring Festival

5) The entire YSA group plus friends!

6) Me, Sister Jacobsen, and Dani in the cave....before the mud fight. 

7) Hurts Donuts.  The coolest donut shop in the world!