Hola Padres

well first off i absolutely loved conference. it was so good. i really liked the priesthood session, i cant remember a lot but that is why i took notes, i am so grateful for the chance i have to watch all the sessions. i guess i really took advantage of that before the mission and i guess i just didnt know how important is was to actually sit there and listen to our leaders of the church. it is just the best couple days ever to receive spiritual guidance from the prophet and the 12. they really are inspired men and they always know exactly what we need to hear as a church and it is amazing. so we didnt get anyone to church which was a little disappointing for us not seeing our gators at conference to listen to the prophet, i really dont like satan all that much.. ok maybe at all. he really is working hard on our gators and he really doesnt want them to progress and it is annoying, well this week was a weird one. almost every lesson we had planned fell through, and it was even more weird cuz all of them were at home and they just didnt want us to be there at that time, its been kind of a frustrating week for us cuz we have been really working hard to be able to find those persons that elect and want to hear our great message of the restored gospel. it really is the best message they can hear at this time in their lives and a lot of people are using their agency in the wrong way whether it be peer pressure or what but satan, i'll admit is pretty good at getting people to listen to him, and that is very annoying, well this week we are going to be practically starting over here in our area with a few exceptions, but we are going to be working better, smarter, and listen more to the spirit to find those souls that are prepared by our father in heaven to receive this great message, well i hope you got a lot out of conference cuz i sure did, now i hope i can remember it all until the next conference and be refreshed then, but i hope you have a great week and work hard, i love you all a ton. adios

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.

--

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
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

7-25-11

well hello my family, how are you all doing this wonderful week. well i hope you all are doing great. well this week we found out that elders walsh's mtc companion is now our new zone leader so it is all pretty cool. so this last week, we still havent been able to find a lot of great people but we have found a few good ones. we are both just really trying hard to find those elect souls that are prepared by the lord, so we have been doing a lot of tracting. i love it. i just wish a lot more people would open their doors, haha. but it is all good. honestly, this week was pretty boring so there wasnt a lot happening, just a lot of tracting. so that is pretty much the news update. let me know when miles has his call. ssorry this letter stinks, so just deal with it :) and be happy. this week is going to be a better week than last so i will have something to write about. but i hope that you all have a great week and enjoy the cool weather. it is pretty hot down here. well fam, i love you all ton have a good one
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

What's Been Happening This Last Month!

7-18-11

well hello my family how have all y'all been doing, well here it is still going a little slow but we are getting more people to teach so that is all going good. well this last week we had interviews with our new mission president and it all went well. he is pretty cool, then we all went to subway for lunch with the president, well i am glad to know that delbert and mary are married and i hope that they are happy with that, well that is cool about what leon baker said and i know that if we all just keep making that effort of just going and doing all we have been told to do, like keeping the mandamientos, i just finished 2nd nefi in el libro de mormon and i love the promise it contains that if we keep the mandamientos we will prosper in the land, and the same with now a days if we go to the temple reguarly we will see the blessings of getting a new one and i think that would be totally awesome to have one in moses lake, so i hear that miles is going to get his call this week or something like that. i cant wait to know where he is going, my companions little brother just got his call to lima peru, so i am really excited for you, so i guess an update is needed now i dont know if i told you but do you remember the investigator i told you about that got drunk that one time, well she got baptized about a month ago and now she has her patriarchal blessing and she goes teaching with the sisters, it is so awesome to see her progress, well that is pretty much the update. i am staying in this area for another transfer so i am happy about that haha, well my fellow family members, i love you and hope all is well, hasta luego

7-11-11
hey familia how have you all been doing, well this week we have been doing a lot of moving this last week with the family we are living with. they are getting their house ready to show so they can move but it wont be for a while, well it is still a bit hard to find some people to teach, and the family we are teaching is a little slow right now but we are still trying with them, well this week we have interviews with president durrant for the first time so i am excited about that, well i am going to try and get you all some pictures that i have taken, but this email will probably be a little short cuz we didnt find any new gators this week and we taught 1 lesson but we arent going to get discouraged and just keep moving forward and hope that something good will come of it, well family i love you all very much, oh and remember when i told you that elder merkley, (my last companion) found his backpack that was stolen a while ago, he let me know about that, i thought that was pretty cool, well i love you once again and hope you all have a great week

7-4-11
well hello my family, how are you all doing, well i am doing good, well this week we did a lot of finding and we found a couple of new families that look like they are going to go somewhere we hope, well this week we also had the chance to visit with our new mission president, president durrant and his family, they are pretty cool and yeah he is tall, well right now i am going to try and just remember what president smith said to us and just remember that president durrant is our president now and that he was meant to be here with each and every one of us so i am going to do the best i can to love president durrant as much as i loved president smith, so this morning our ward had this breakfast and it was pretty fun and now we are just doing emails, well we had a couple of run ins with a few people that were just annoying, but i got to remember that the lord loves all his children, just some of them arent prepared to hear the gospel right now, well sorry this is a bad letter and short but thats just life, full of ups and downs right, well family i hope you are all doing well, and i hope you all have a good week love you all

6-27-11

hey family. well this week was a good one. this weekend we had the chance to go to an 11 stake project that took about two years to finish, so this weekend was the final production of that and us as missionaries we got to participate in it and we sang a song and waved some flags around and i got the us flag for the first go around, haha, then japan and korea. we did 3 shows it was really fun, well these last couple weeks have been hard cuz we dont find a lot of hispanics to teach cuz of the area we are in so we arent really finding a lot of new gators but we arent going to let that stop us from keepin on searching for those chosen people, well we had our final goodbye with president and sister smith, they are leaving this week and we are going to be meeting with president durant this week and i guess he is just going to get to meet all of us so i am excited to meet him and sad to see that president smith is done with his 3 year mission but i figure that he will be a seventy soon cuz he and uchdorf are like pilot flying buddies haha, well the family we have been teaching, the dad got a new job and that is stopping them from going to church, but we are having the whole district pray for them and if you all wouldnt mind praying for the family coheto, they are a really great family and i dont want this job that he just got to get in the way of their salvation so a prayer is always good, well i really cant think of anything more to write other than i love you all a ton and if i think of anything else i'll write it down and put it in the letter next week. i love you all a ton and i hope you all have a great week

6-20-11

so this week was also a good week. we went up to north dallas to my old area and we had the last training from president and sister smith and she wanted a tie from all the elders so she could have something to remember us by and i took my favorite tie right off my neck and i gave it to her, haha. it was pretty cool and i felt that she deserved, they have done such a wonderful job here in texas i am going to miss them so darn much, well i found out that my last 2 investigators that were in my last area, the ones who i have mentioned the one lady and another part member family the dad got baptized this last weekend so it was good to here that i have once again helped someone reach the waters of baptism. i was so happy for them, well this week we are going to be going to do a thing with 11 stakes from this area of texas and all the missionaries that are in the area are going to be participating in it and we heard that an apostle is coming so it is going to be quite the expirience. i cant wait. we are singing a song, haha. that is it, so the family that we have been teaching came to church this sunday and brought their daughter so it was good to see an entire family at church, they are so getting dunked haha. well we have also been doing a lot of tracting so i really like finding new people to teach. yesterday we found some dude that i knew we were supposed to find, we got talking with this guy and he started talking about how god has helped him in his life so much and that he has seen many blessings from doing service and i shared mosiah 2 :17 with him and that whenever we do service we are serving god and that it is a mandamiento to serve one another and that when ever we are keeping the mandamientos we will recieve blessings and he can tell that when you serve, you get those blessings, it was a good expirience for me just knowing that people are out there and they are looking for us and, then we started talking about the BOM and then he said, "speaking of" he went and got his own copy that some missionaries had given him and we left him with some chapters to read, so this week we didnt get into a lot of doors so we are really going to focus ourselves on doing just that. this week is going to be a good one, i got a feelin, woo woo, that this week's gonna be a good one haha. well familia i love you all a ton and hope you all are doing great, IM AN UNCLE AHHHHH haha. that is so awesome. congrats shayanna, love you all take care
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

Transferred to Mesquite

6-13-11

hey y'all. well this we went to the transfer meeting and i found out that i am going to be serving with elder walsh, my mtc zone leader, haha, so i was happy to get with someone that i actually knew before i got with him haha. so this week we had a family at church and they seem to be doing well. well my area is in mesquite right next door to my greeny area so i got to see a lot of members that were in my first ward which was good. so my first day i ran over a roofing nail and got a bloody nose, so it was all good. then some random dude gave me 20 bucks to fix my tire haha, so i took it, so other than that first day everything seemed to be going good. church was awesome yesterday. we had gators to church so it was good to see that they are taking those first few steps to progress towards baptism. well other than that i really dont know what is going on in this area yet because i really havent been able to meet all the members yet but i knew a few when i was in my first area so it was good to see some familiar faces and that some of them knew me. well familia, les quiero mucho. i hope you all have a great week and that you are all enjoying life haha. well i got to get going now. i love you all tons
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

5-16-11 To Mom:

well mom sounds like you all had a good week. its sad to hear that some people i knew had to go while i was here but it was their time to go. yeah i finally got the pictures to you all haha. took a while but there they are :) yeah but when you are done with it can you send it back asap cuz my other card is almost full as well, so this week we started teaching a great lady. she is way solid and i commited her to be baptized after the lesson yesterday. it was such a spiritual lesson and she felt it very strong. she is going to be great. well this week was good. we found a lot of new great people that we are going to start teaching and i thnk this area is going to blow up with tons of new great people. it is going to be awesome. well mom i love you. i hope you have a great week. love you

Mothers Day Calls!!!

We all had a wonderful time talking with Elder Cameron! We were able to use Skype so we could see and hear him! It was extra special, too, because Grandma and Granddad and Uncle Delbert and his 3 kids were all here and were able to say hello to Cameron, as well!!! We had our desk computer going with Skype talking to Cameron and our laptop going with Skype talking to Marshall. At one point we got both Elders Goodrich to see and talk to each other!!! We enjoyed taking the laptop around our house to show both of them our house, since neither of them has seen it. We also showed them Miles's "man cave" in the playhouse in our backyard that he has been working so hard on with Jordan. It was a wonderful day spent with family and our missionaries!!

Here is Cameron's email sent on Monday 5-09-11...

hello again, well i think we did pretty much all the talking anoche, but there were a few things i wanted to mention to you and favors to ask that i forgot haha. first off, i dont think i have ever mentioned it to you that my companion elder merkley, his brother dan merkley is the main actor in baptist at our barbecue haha. just thought i would tell you haha. and another thing - could you send me my camel pack because i want a litter bag to carry haha. oh and ties haha j/k ......but seriosly haha. well i am out of ideas right now but i am sure next week will be better haha. well ttyl padres have a good one >:)

Attached above are a few photos sent to Elder Goodrich, which he sent to us, from the mission office from their visit with Elder Oaks and companions...(in the mission photo, Cameron is in the 5th row from the front, 3rd in from the left).

--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

5-2-11

hello parents, well this week was amazing. well all the missionaries in the mission all came in for the meeting with elder dallin h oaks and we took a picture with him and i was next to elder nielson so when we get the picture we are going to email that to you all :) then we all had the chance to shake his hand and talk for a little bit. he said he might remember an elder goodrich from north carolina but he said he does know a lot of goodriches in vernol haha and he said he knows where moses lake is too because of the people that moved there from vernol. then after the little visit we listened to elder fluckiger, rasband and elder oaks. it was a very spiritual expirience for us all. they are amazing people. elder oaks is a very funny man and a great apostle. i learned a ton from all of them and i cant remember it all but i did take notes. oh and another thing, i have not missed a day in writing in my journal since christmas, in case you wanted to know haha. well this last week, apart from elder oaks, we had a pretty succesful week. we got a family of 5 to church this sunday. it was so good to see the fruits of our labors finally. this is the first time a family we have taught came to church and it made us so happy to see them take that step in their lives. they are a great family and they are going to be baptized :) i cant wait. well anywhos this is pretty much it and yeah me and marshall are going to talk about this sunday que viene about talking with all of you and i cant wait to see / hear you. well padres i love you tons have a great week
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

4-25-11

hello again. well this last week has been a little tough but we are going to be looking upward and praying a lot for help form the lord. we did learn how to sew and i learned a lot from it. i actually hemmed my own pants and i am wearing them right now and i must say that i did a great job. they turned out great. a lot better than the pros i go to to fix my pants. well we did find out that we are going to be visited by elder oaks this saturday so i cant wait to see him and learn a lot. well this last week we didnt get anyone to church and it has been a little tough and i think it is cuz of us but we are going to be trying our best this new transfer and we are excited to see the blessings from being consecrated servents of the lord. well i know this email is going to be a bit short but thats the life of a missionary but speaking of, could you send me a bit more money? when i fixed my bike they forgot a part and it is that part that is the most annoying so that would be great - probably about 50 -60 or around there that would be great. well thank you very much for you support for me and i hope that you all have a great week this week

hey dad a little news for you .... do you remember eddy fajardo? he was kinda your last companion in the mission. well anywhos, we are going out to lunch today and he seems like a great guy (in photo above), and no i did not get transfered so i will be staying with elder merkley for 3 transfers

Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

4-18-11
well this week was good parents. this week we were about to go to bed when we heard thunder. then it started hailing and raining and a lot of lightning and thunder. then the tornado warning sounded. it was pretty cool, so we were having a fun night. then everything just stopped like that. well this week we had a training from our president and i learned a lot from him and how we need to use members a lot more and how our mission is doing great compared to a lot of other missions in our area so it is good to hear that i am part of a great mission, but we need to do a lot more with members and asking for referals from them because the percent of people baptized from member referals is a lot more than from tracting and we do baptize a lot in this mission but it could be a lot more, so we are going to do our best to be talking with the members to help their friends become part of this gospel. it is going to be a great year, i cant wait. well we have been doing good with finding a lot of new people and we are hoping that something comes from it. well it sounds like you are all doing good and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM hahah. well i hope you had a great birthday and that this year is full of happiness and joy, well i hope you all have a good week. sorry this is short. we only have one computer between the 2 of us and people are waiting so yeah. well adios mis padres. i hope all goes swell this week. LOVE YOU

(Photos: 1. after a wedding which was followed a few days later by a baptism! 2. a cool Dallas sunset, and 3. a piece of hail...
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno

4-11-11
hey parents, how goes it. well once again this week was full of surprises. we met a few crazy people, one guy we met wanted to find out in the bible where it says that we can become gods and i did my best to answer but i know that this man would have never changed. we talked about so many things with this man. he even said that because he is a child of god and that he has accepted christ that he has the authority of god to cast out demons and i simply asked him if he thought if i had that power and he said no and i told him how i do and i asked him why he thinks he has the power of god and i dont and he never answered my pregunta and i knew that he couldnt and then all about how he doesnt think we are christians, and i being very smart allecky, i pointed right to my chest and i said "excuse me sir, what is the name of the man on my chest" and he said "yeah i know" and he said " well i think the mormons have changed the gospel and that the book of mormon is completely against the bible" and i just simply bore him my testimony of the book of mormon and that ZERO percent of the book of mormon is against the bible, ZERO! "ok sir and we can sit here arguing all day and we are going to get nowhere because you dont want to accept anything and you never will because you simply dont want to" and we said the only way you can know if these things are true is if you pray to god in the name of christ and then he started arguing with the way we pray then i asked him how he prays and he said that you need to pray through the bible, whatever that meant. then we started to talk about the godhead and how he believes they are one in body and then i, still being a little on the smart allick side, asked him "so if that is how you believe then who was jesus praying to in the garden, on the cross?" then once again he ignored my question and then we asked him if we answered any of his questions and he said no and i said "you know why cuz, you are too stubborn and you don't want to accept anything we say that is true and you won't" and we left it at that and we left. i think ever since conference i learned how to be way bold and i have been and i think it is helping build my testimony. it's great. well this week we finally got an investigator to church for the first time since we started here and she said "ya me quiero bautizar" i am 95 percent i heard her correctly haha. well parents i love you all and got to go now. i hope you all have a great week and don't forget to share your testimony when the opportune moment shows up. love you again

hola mis padres como estan
4-4-11
well first off, conference was amazing. i loved the part in priesthood session when president monson said if you have not read the book of mormon... read it haha and then president eyrings story in the beginning of his talk - it was way funny, yeah and also this last week i have been probably the happiest i have been on my mission so far. i think it is cuz i am finally realizing to think more of others and not myself and it is the best feeling in the world. i dont know to explain why i am so happy but i love it haha and even right now i am like freaking out cuz i am still so happy about who knows what, but i feel awesome and it is good to know that i am one of those 52225 missionaries spreading happiness to all and what i learned from conference was to be bold and after conference we had an expirience where we were talking to a man and he said that he knew about the church but everything he was saying didnt make sense and then he started talking about joseph smith and how he was wrong but could posibly be a prophet and i just said you know what is kinda funny that is probably what the people were thinking when the other prophets were in the earth and that the people here are doing the same thing they were doing back like in the times of noah and moises and even our elder brother jesus christ. they didnt think it was posible that they could be prophets so they rejected them and i just simply told this guy that that was what he was doing, then he started taking things back que el ha dicho and by the time we left, all we told him is to read and pray about these things and if he really wanted to learn then he would just, like in conference those who want to learn about jesus, they will, but those that are hard of heart will reject it even when they know it is true and just as nephi said the guilty take the truth to be hard, and their pride is going to be the reason they will NEVER live with our father in heaven and i have learned that. I can say that with authority and people can take it the way they want but like before, it is going to cut them to their very center and it will be hard for them to hear but ITS TRUE and we are sent to preach repentance so they CAN live with our father again in his presence but that is up to them if they want to reject us. we cant force anything on them and one thing i started doing is when ever we get rejected i just tell them that they are rejecting something good that is DIRECTLY FROM GOD and they are going to regret this, well this week we finally got someone to church. it was great to finally see the fruits of our hard work here in dallas and i know that as we continually work hard and be happy we will have exito and a sister last night told me that a happy missionary is more exitoso than one who is not and its so true if we are preaching happiness and we arent then whats the point? so i am still way happy to be a missionary for the lord. it is the best thing i could be doing and i finally realized that, well padres I LOVE YOU ALL and i hope you all have a great week
--
Con Amor
Elder Ricobueno