Hey everyone!!! How is life going in good old Utah? Isn´t it crazy how fast time flies. Before you all know it you will have to put up with all my missionary stories. ha ha So this week was pretty good. I think I already told you, but I got a new companion. His name is Elder Leon and he is great. He only has about seven months, so I am now the senior zone leader. It is a lot of responsibilty, but I am excited. We are teaching a lot and find a lot as well. We finished up January with five baptisms, which is good, but not great. We have a lot to get better.

Right now we are teaching a lady named Berenice and her daughter named Allison. They are so amazing. They have wanted to get baptized for the last three weeks, but their husband/dad won´t give them permission. They are showing a ton of faith and they told us that they aren´t going to give up. We are praying for them a lot and if you guys get a minute, an extra prayer or two from you would really help. Another lady named Teresa is really close too. The things she has had to do to follow Christ have been hard but her faith is amazing. We baptized her son last week and I think that is going to help them a lot.

Dad, thank you for your email. It sounds like everything is going great back at home and that makes me happy. Keep me updated on BYU. John 17:3, in spanish there are two ways to say "know". one is saber, which means to know facts or an answer to a question, and the other is conocer, which means to know a person or to be familiar with something. In spanish this scripture says conocer. The question that we need to ask ourselves is do we "know" God and Jesus Christ, or do we just know facts about them? Do we know "who" they are? Or do we just know "what" they are? We need to conocer God and Jesus and not just saber. I love you

Mama, I miss you. I hope you are doing amazing. Keep a smile on that face of yours and remember that if we get discouraged, we don´t understand the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Don´t worry, be happy now ooooo ooooooo. ha ha Good song. I love you mom.

Nia, Shayla, Matthew, and Hailey, stay tuned. I will write you guys next week. I love you all and I hope you all know how much God loves you.

Have a great week!!! xoxox

Hey everyone. Things are going great here. We just had three baptisms yesterday and they were so great. We had the service with the other ward too and we baptized seven in total. I will send pictures. We just got the changes last night and my companion, Elder Gomez is heading to another area to finish his last month and a half. My new companion in Elder Leon. I have heard that he is pretty cool and likes to work hard. I am excited. I haven´t gotten any of your packages yet, but I am sure they will be here soon.

I wish I could write you all your own email of letter, but I don´t think it is going to happen. Sorry. I love you all. I want you all to go read a scripture for me. It is Alma 41:15, but just focus on the first half. ha ha i love you.

This is a picture of the baptism last week. Their names are Alyson and Maria Guadalupe. This is the girl who wants to marry me. ha ha

So how are you all doing? Can you believe that I now have ten months in the mission? It is so crazy haw fast the time goes. Things are going great here.

This next week we have four baptisms and it is going to be great. The other ward that shares our chapel has five so we are going to do it all together. Nine baptisms!!! I am so excited. I wish I could tell you all about these four people, but you all know that time is in short supply here. When I get home I can tell you about everyone of the peole I had the blessing to baptize. They are all so great. I just found out a couple weeks ago that the Familia Deseusa is preparing to get sealed in the salt lake temple. I hope I can be there when it happens.

I hope you are all doing great. I am so sorry that I can never write a lot and that I can`t write each of you individually. You all know that I love you so much and that you are always in my prayers. Cuidense mucho. Les amo con todo mi corazon.

Hey everyone. Well, we had a great week. Just yesterday we had two more baptisms and they were amazing. It was an older lady with her granddaughter. I think I told you on the phone, but the granddaughter is the one who wants to marry me. It is pretty funny. Everything else is going great. We are starting to see a lot more success and it feels so good.

I wish you all could be here with me to see and feel the things that I am feeling. I love you all so much. I will send some pictures to show you what I have been up to.

Elder Ricks

No letter, but some pictures!

Taylor hasn't really written a whole lot in the past few weeks. But he's doing so great! We got to talk to him on Christmas and it was wonderful! He sounds great and is already forgetting a lot of English words. And though he hasn't written a lot, he finally sent us some pictures this week. So enjoy!