8-15-11

hey fam. well this week was once again a good one. we had a meeting with our mission president and it was good. i learned a lot about the help of members, well this week other than that wasnt all to excited, oh and btw if this email is short its cuz the other missionaries are rushing me but any whos, so yesterday was cool. we had dinner with a family and they had invited over the fluckigers. he is an area 70 so that was cool to be in his company, well yesterday in church we talked a lot about member missionary work, and just how important it is in the conversion of people, i mean us as missionaries can do a lot but if they have no friends in the church there isnt going to be a lot of retention, and they will probably go less active and then inactive which just isnt something we want now-a-days. well we are progressing in the work. we are doing a lot of tracting still, still finding great people to teach which is always fun, cuz missionary work, being fun as it is (tracting) teaching is so much more fun cuz you really get to see those changes that people want to make so they can live with all of us when this life is over and we are in the presence of our father, but it is sad to see when they dont realize what they will be missing out on when they reject the message that "we know will change their lives". you know fam, i really do not like satan. he really is not a fun guy, a few days ago we had this lady come out of her door and come talk to us and just started talking about how joseph smith wrote the book of mormon and that she doesnt agree with "mormonism" and she just handed us these 2 little books and i just bore testimony about the book of mormon and joseph smith and i know they are true but she still rejected it, so it is sad but they have their agency and they are going to realize after this life when i look them in the eyes and say "i tried to tell you, but you didnt listen" its going to be tough to see a lot of brothers and sisters not make it but it is all on them and the choices they make, well family i know this work is true and that joseph smith really did see god the father and his son jesus christ and that they really did restore that same church that was once upon the earth back when jesus was here and that joseph smith did translate the plates by the power of god and that it is the most correct of any book on the earth and that we can come closer to god by following its precepts. i know these things are true without a doubt in my mind and i love you all very much and wish the best to you this week.

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Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

Burning Up in Texas!

8-8-11 To Mom

first answer is yes - it is freaking hot down here. the last few days we have looked at the thermometer that says over 110 every time in the shade haha so yeah, we are burning, but it is all for a good cause :) well i am glad that the girls survived the "hot" trek, i knew they could. they are tough girls, well this last week was good. we had a few new people to start teaching as of lately so things are looking up, well that is to bad that shanlyn broke her nose. that must have hurt pretty bad but i do have a pretty good brother :) to help her out haha. well i am glad that you are doing good, yeah dont worry about the money thing i can wait till things get better for y'all. i think the lord will provide as long as we are faithful to him, well this week we have a meeting with the president and about 150 missionaries so it will be pretty good to be there, well i love you mom. i hope things go well for you. take care

To Dad

haha it is pretty cool how the lord answers prayers huh, that is one thing i have learned about a lot on the mission is that whenever i have needed help i first go to the lord and he has my back most of the time, sometimes he will want us to figure thing out but he is pretty loving, well i am glad all is working out for you at work. i bet it is pretty frustrating when things dont go the way they are supposed to, it happens a lot in the mission field. investigators arent doing the things they know are going to help them out in life even though they know the blessings they will recieve from just simply doing it, and i know there are still those elect people who are waiting still for us to find them and we are working hard to find our brothers and sisters that are lost, i heard a talk from troy dunn "life is a football game" and at the end of it he tells the youth that he doesnt want to just see a few of us in heaven but he wants us to go there and to bring everyone with us and it is our job to find them and bring them unto the true knowledge of the restored gospel, well i love you a ton dad. you are the greatest. thanks for everything

Hangin' In There...

8-1-11

well hello my wonderful family. i hope you all had a good week, well this week was a slow one again but we are hangin in there, well this week we got a great referal from the sisters and she is really great. she said she is really interested in learning more, so it is good to know that we have someone that wants to actually progress, so yesterday at church we had to translate for sacrament meeting and it was quite the experience. we had fun doing it, well this week we are hoping to be finding a lot of great peeps, so we are going to be doing a lot of tracting, haha. i kinda like knocking on random doors to share the gospel with them, well i hope you all have a great week. thanks for the pics of naomi. shes pretty cute :) well i love you all and take care
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Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno