HEY,

 It has been a crazy week here in Santa Maria. There is a lot of work to be done here. The church is so young here that it is really on our shoulders. There have been quite a few baptisms that have happened here in the past, but they were not very converted and fell away. The church is literally down to two worthy Melchizedek priesthood holders. Our success as missionaries determines the organization and functioning of the branch. Obviously we don’t want it to be like that, we want the members to run the show, but we literally have to train every member, including the branch president because they literally don’t know. Every member here is a recent convert, with exception of a few. We are working as hard as we possibly can to maintain order and find leaders that can take the lead when we are gone. It’s not easy, but the Lord will surely help us. This is a different type of missionary work, I love it.

 Elder Turner and I are getting along great. He is a super humble guy. He is a big guy, so I have to make a bit more food than I made in the past. The work is going great though.

President Mathews (new mission president) and his wife came to Sal this week. I got my first interview with him. It was a great experience. He taught me some things about leadership that I really believe can be used for the rest of my life. He is a wise man, a man of God. He even came out to teach with us. It was a great experience.

We are working quite a bit with our Branch President. We are training him how to administer in the church. There is still a lot to learn. At church we had a frequency of about 50 people attending, but unfortunately it was one of them more irreverent meetings we have had. Sometimes I feel like we are making great progress in the branch, and then the next week. It’s like we are back in the same place where we started. We are not going to let this get us down, we are going to work harder than ever to strengthen these members and really work to get more references.

There is a young woman in our branch named, Maritsa. It has been a good 5 weeks that she hasn’t came to church. We got to sit down with her this last week and she expressed a strong desire to serve a mission. We got to read a little in Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 about how we qualify ourselves for the work. She understood that to prepare for to be missionary she needed to strengthen some attributes. 1 of the most primary things is she HAD to come back to church. She accepted this invite and came back to church this week. Super cool.

 I know that wickedness never was happiness. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way that a man may be saved. One thing about the gospel that I love is that it is impossible for me to be sad. It doesn’t matter what we may pass through, difficulty, financial troubles, death or trial. Nothing can take away the hope we have of our heavenly home. With our foundation built strongly on the rock of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we cannot fall. Times may be tough, but its all part of the plan.

 Love,

Elder Rice

Hi,

So I got my new companion this week. His name is Elder Turner, he is from St. George, Utah. He´s a big guy. He used to do rodeo and did a bunch of weight lifting. We have been getting along super well and having a lot of success together. I can’t wait to see what else is in store.

We had a family night at Adilson´s, a less active member who is recently reactivated. He has a very small house, but somehow we managed to fit a good 15 to 20 people. We had the chance to invite some of his friends as well and they loved it. We have now gained a good 11 to 12 new investigators that were references from Adilson. They are all men over the age of 18. A few of them are showing extreme desire and will be vital leaders here in the Branch.

Fabricio is easily progressing the fastest. He used to be a very strong member of the Nazarene church, so he has a lot of knowledge of the bible and doctrines. He is more excited than ever for baptism. He is already thinking of ideas that we can put into practice to help strengthen the youth. He is reading in the Book of Mormon and repenting of a lot of sins. He is making great progress to be baptized on the 26th. I could see him being the 1st counselor of the branch or maybe Elders Quorum president, he is incredible. He is really helping others come to church as well.

We are also teaching Adilson´s brother, Jozemar. He came to church yesterday for the first and he liked it a lot. He doesn’t know how to read, so we have started to teach him the alphabet and are going to teach him how to read so he can read the Book of Mormon. He is also progressing for baptism on the 2nd of August.

For a few days, as we walked to our area. I always saw this white house and felt an impression that I should get to know the family there. Because of my foolishness I didn’t listen to the spirit and I just passed by. But the other day I decided to listen to this prompting and go there. As we knocked the door, the man, named Joao, instantly said, I’m going to work, but you can come back tomorrow at 10. So we did and had a fantastic lesson. We then got to know his step daughter. He had work this Sunday, but his daughter ended up coming to church, that was super cool. I know that the angels prepare the hearts of these people.

At church this week we had 47 people, it was super great!! The quality of the meeting and the reverence is getting a lot better.

I know the God is our Father and He loves us. I know the Christ is the only means of salvation. His doctrine is simple and pure. I know that Joseph Smith restored the fullness of His Gospel with the power and authority necessary to open the doors to the Kingdom of God.

Love,

Elder Rice

HEY,

So I have been with my mini missionary for about 2 weeks now, I should be receiving my greenie on Wednesday. I’m super excited to train again, that was definitely one of the highlights of mission, training Elder McKissick. I cant wait to do it again. I get to show him everything I have learned during my whole mission!

It was a solid week. We are cleaning out our inventory and really trying to focus on those that have real desire to continue to talk to us. Many of our really awesome investigators kinda fell off because they had things they really didn’t want to repent of. We are going to continue to pass them but just with less frequency.

We have been working quite a bit with a less active named Adilson. When i got here he wasn’t going to church at all. We started teaching him and now he has came back. The thing is that he has a pretty bad environment of friends. They all like to party, do drugs. They are a rougher crowd of Cabo Verdians. However, we are picking his friends off one by one and teaching them. Teaching them all at the same time would be setting ourselves up for a disaster. We have been talking to a few friends like Fabricio, Caritson, Kukuk and his brother Jozemar. They have actually started to come to church, and Adilson is really helping them We trained Adilson about being a ´´Watchmen´´, to look out for his friends and help them keep the commandments. Yesterday at sacrament meeting, one of the friends, Fabricio (an investigator), went up to the pulpit and declared ´´I KNOW that this is a true church, i prayed and asked God and he answered me. Before i knew the Elders I had a bunch of problems with my family, but now everything is being resolved. I feel these things are true. Amen´´. It was super powerful.

We had a super sweet Integration Night with all the members. We do a spiritual part and then we do some games. The game we played this time was where you put a piece of candy in a plate of flour. The first one to find the candy with your mouth wins. Iit was super hilarious, everyone’s face was covered in flour. I did it as well haha. We also do a film night every Sunday night. We watched the film “Ónly a Stone Cutter´´ and a bunch of small Mormon messages. After each film we have a little discussion of the principle that was taught and how we can apply it in our lives. There are some really cool Mormon messages on the Mormon Channel, you should definitely take a look at them. They are super good for youth and firesides and stuff.

The two biggest things I have learned on my mission are the nature of God and the absolute necessity of the Savior’s atonement for all mankind. I know that God lives and He loves us. I know he sent His only Begotten so that through Him and His name all men could be purified and redeemed from our fallen and carnal state. Jesus Christ is the head of this church, everything else in the gospel is an appendage of His Atonement.

Love,

Elder Rice