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

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...
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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