June 2

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to the month of June!

This week was challenging but rewarding. I think it is really funny.  Because everything in missionary work leads up to Sunday.  We teach and you teach and find, and then comes Sunday.  Sometimes you go and pick up investigators and then you wait to see who will come to church.  Sometimes those tense seconds on Sunday are the worst.  This week during weekly planning session.  I was like how can we help these precious souls progress.  We were just struggling to help investigators attend church. We started our fast on Saturday and I was just fasting that we could help people attend church and progress.  On Sunday, we waited and waited and then finally 15 minutes into sacrament meeting Brother Don shows up. I was so shocked.  He had just expressed his concern to us about how he had studied to became a pastor in the catholic church and had started a small church where they live. But there was brother Don.  It was really exciting, you could really see a difference in him, to experience church.  After we asked how church was he said it was good and next week he was going to bring his whole family.  Blessing.

Well that was the end of the week, but the other part of the week was great too.  We had exchanges with the other sisters in Bacon.  I was with Sister Estrada, she is from the part of the Philippines where the new temple is being built.  She was really fun to work with and we had a great time. I worked in her area. We were walking maybe 8:30 at night and he started talking to this boy that was like 18 that was just sitting and smoking a cigarette on the street.  But Sister Estrada was great and started talking to him.  He wasn't really interesting, but he said his sister might.  So we went to his house and taught his older sister.  Sometimes when they don't look at all interested you never know, so that is why we talk to everyone!

We also had zone conference on Friday.  It was really great, any time to learn from President Guanzon is really great.  The workshop for zone conference was about companionship study, It was a little different kind of workshop, but it was really helpful, how we can make companionship study more effective and making our planning more effective. A good day really starts off with a good companionship study.  It was a great conference and I learned so much.  I am trying to sprint to the finish, strive to be exactly obedient and work hard.

This week should be exciting.  We just realigned the areas in Bacon so that it was more equal in the areas closest to the chapel, so this week we are in a sense opening an area.  We are also going to try to use the book of Mormon to really help our investigators progress.

I have talked so much about how great the branch leaders are in this branch because they really are.  They strive to magnify their calling.  We had a meeting with the branch presidency and we talked about something the Branch is working on to save the rising generation.  They are tracking the Young adults and the Youth and making sure that no one gets left behind. The missionaries and the branch members are one in this.  President Desuyo said we are a team to really help them become truly converted.  Part of the plan is to have them work with the missionaries more, so they can share their testimony and thus be strengthened.

Well I hope everything is going well for all of you.  I love being a missionary, I love it.

-Sister Richins