Friday, April 15, 2011

oh "hey church ladies"

here's another excerpt from sister ricchio's letter:

we were out tracting one day and on our journey we came upon a man with shaggy hair, overalls, no shoes, and a bloody mary who saw us and yelled "OH HEY CHURCH LADIES!". right off the bat i knew this would be interesting. . . i told my companions to keep walking but they wanted to "share the message with him" - - i'm pretty sure he couldn't even remember his name. so he stumbled over to us and almost fell down! so then we introduced ourselves and then he said, "i'm john the baptist!". . . slurred a couple more words and said he wanted to pick all of us up off the ground . . . and then proceeded to set his drink on the floor but as he bent over he FELL OVER!

oh and i used to hear stories of people answering their front doors naked or whatnot and I never believe it, until one day when we were tracting and door after door the guys were wearing nothing but their underwear! it's so funny and so awkward at the same time! sometimes people will jump behind the door once they find out we're missionaries, but on the flip side some know who we are and do it on purpose! LOL

so i'm not sure if you were watching the news a few days ago but there was a tornado watch here! it was no biggy until we found ourselves in a giant hail storm! I promise patty it was so scary. no joke we said a prayer and waited it out. we hadn't received a text because we thought for sure our president would call everyone off and go indoors . . . so we called him and apparently he wasn't even aware of the storm because he was in an area in the mountains! but the storm totally reminded me of 'Twister' and I of course quoted some twister movie lines in my head amongst the scariness!

the latest story . . . we are teaching a group of congo students that are in an english exchange program. so we brought a member to come over and help us translate. they speak french by the way! so we were doing great in our lesson and at the end i brought out my pen and planner to make another appointment with them, but they were still talking so i sat there and started to chew on my pen . . . WELL all of a sudden i started to taste something gross and took the pen out of my mouth . . . .INK WAS EVERYWHERE! the pen had exploded in my mouth and i didn't know what to do so i turned to my companions and they were laughing so hard! the member and the congos started cracking up as i was practically gagging!

something really cool happened . .. so jeremy our recent baptism was a tough cookie, extremely stubborn and a bit confused about life. well we found him tracting and began working with him and teaching him. he loved it and totally grasped everything! he knows the bible better than anyone i have known and really has firm faith. however, he said he still didn't believe the book of mormon was true and wouldnt be baptized unless he had some amazing glorified angel come down and visit him! time after time we explained to him that more than likely that wouldn't happen! but by the power of the holy ghost he would know and also feel in his heart it was true. then a few weeks went by and he started to slack off on praying and reading and still said he hadn't received an answer. well sister ricchio was no kosher with that! LOL. i explained to him that he wouldn't receive an answer unless he did his part, and if he wasn't willing to do that, he was just wasting his time then. so after that, we as a companionship talked and i thought he wouldn't be baptized for a while and become what we can an 'eternal investigator.' BUT just two weeks after that he said he was ready!!!! so he had his baptismal interview with our district leader and when they were done our district leader said "sister ricchio, i need to tell you something." so i talked with him and he told me that jeremy told him in the interview that had it not been for me giving him a little push that he would have never committed to be baptized because he knew it was right and true but was just scared to make that commitment!!!! patty i just about balled because i was so happy! when my district leader told me that I KNEW that i was supposed to be in NORTH CAROLINA. if he is the only person i truly help . . . that's good enough for me. It was just such a fulfilling experience and a very proud moment as a missionary! i love being a missionary!

Monday, April 4, 2011

double baptisms

here is an excerpt from sister ricchio's letter:

Jeremy and Michelle were baptized and that was a miracle because as i had thought in the beginning that Jeremy would be an eternal investigator and somehow "O ye of little faith" came into my mind. Michelle was having some struggles the night before her baptism. We went over to meet with her to try to relieve her concerns....She started talking about how her family was a bit upset with her decision to be baptized and that she felt akward to tell talk more about it because they thought she was crazy. I then at that moment teared up and began to share my experience with going on a mission and how my family has had a hard time with it. She gave me a hug and thanked me for sharing with her and i really tried to testify of the importance of your own personal testimony. If you dont have your own testimony then you will be as the scriptures say, "driven like a tossed wave at sea." So she was baptized and i was so happy that she made the wonderful decision just as jeremy did!

Just last night the bishop's wife told us to come over to her house after the baptism....we though she wanted to give us some of her delicious bread that she makes for sacrament. So we swung by and she said to come in and sit down. So we talked to her for a minute and she said, okay now we can come to the table and eat, and the Bishop came from a room and we all sat and ate dinner. Apparently missionaries hadnt been over to the bishops house in awhile (just hearsay) but apparently its because the bishop hadnt been too happy with some of the missionaries that had been in the ward previously. That made me really think about our conduct and work as missionaries and how upsetting that was to hear. So we ate dinner and talked about some things in the ward and before we left i shared on of my favorite stories in the bible and being examples of the believers. It was an awesome experience and i was very happy that we have gained the bishops trust and hopefully will continue to do our best and work hard!