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
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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
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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).

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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
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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