Last Email!!!

Well... the time has come!! we have another baptism tomorrow!!! my last day. I actually won't be in the area to see Cecilia get baptized because I leave fo the mission home in the morning and she is getting baptized in the afternoon.

I love you all and I will see you on Wednesday!!!!!!

Last Pictures!!

Letter from March 12

Another great week in the mission!! We had another baptism yesterday and the spirit was so strong. I will send pictures. We just got back from marrying another family as well today. Things are going great. We have another baptism this next week on Tuesday but the sad thing is that I leave the area that morning. I am going to see if president will give me permission to go to the baptism that night. I am pretty sure he is going to let me.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you!! do you all know when I am getting home and everything? If not, this is your last chance for any questions because I only have next Monday to write.

See you soon!!! Jesus Lives!!!!

Letter from March 5

I don't really know what to say. I can't even begin to tell you all what I am feeling right now. I am excited, nervous, sad, happy, and so much more. I love you so much.

In about an hour I will be heading to a huge market place that is filled with mexican art. I want to get you all a little something.

I love you and I love my God !!!

Letter from February 27

Things are goin great here. We just had another baptism yesterday and it was amazing. I will send pictures. Well... these are my last few weeks. I can't believe how fast time has gone. I can't wait to see you all and tell you all about the amazing stories here in the mission.

Sorry for the short letter. We are running short on time today. I love you all!!!

Pictures!!!

Letter from Feb 20 - Four Weeks Left!!!

Well... thinks are going great!!! I love my new area and the people here are amazing. We just had two baptisms this last weekend. One was a sixteen year old girl named Arielle and the other was a little girl named Brenda. I will send pictures. The two services were great. This is the best ward I have had yet in the mission. It looks like I will be baptizing another four or five in these last weeks. It is so great to just go to work with all the experience and all the faith that I have been able to gain these last two years. I wish I could start over knowing what I know now.

We went to Teotihuacan today which was pretty fun. Teotihuacan are these huge ruins just north of the city. I will send pictures.

I can't even begin to tell you all how thankful I am to God for all of you. These have been the best two years FOR my life!! I know that Christ lives. I love you all!!

Elder Ricks

ps. So I don't know if it would be a big deal, but as a homecoming gift I only want/need one thing..... NEW SCRIPTURES in english. I have a new way of marking my scriptures and I am dying to start with the scriptures in english. And I would like big ones like Dad's. Not the normal small ones. Big ones!!!! haha Love you

Letter from Feb 13

So I am now in Escuadron with Elder Hernandez from Honduras. We have some amazing investigators. Just this week we put two on date for this same week. One is a sixteen year old girl names Ariel and the other is a little girl named Brenda. I will send pictures. Oh.. and about pictures... I got my camara stolen. Luckily I had already put most of my pictures on a seperate memory, but I am still pretty sad. After the baptism of Pilar and Jesus last week it was not where I had put it. I searhed through the church for a good twenty minutes but... nothing. But my companion has one so it is all good.

I am now district leader and it is great. I have y first meeting in just a couple hours. I am excited. I never really had a chance to be a district leader because the first time I was district leader I couldn't even speak spanish and I had no idea what I was doing. It is going to be fun now that I have a little more experience.

I am very grateful for the chance to be with Elder Hernandez. It is a new experience for my to be with someone who has very little experience in teaching. I am learning a lot though.

I love you all and I can't wait to see you all. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He lives!! And because He lives there is nothing that we can't do.

Elder Ricks

Letter from Feb 3

Well... we just did the transfers here and to finish my mission I will be training and will be a district leader. The rest of the mission doesn't know yet but they will find out in a couple days. Elder Leon, who was my sixth companion in the misson will be taking my place as assistant. I am way excited and I know I am going to learn a lot in these next six weeks. The area presidency wants all missionaries to finish their mission training. I should be a great last transfer.

Tomorrow we have two baptisms. Their names are Pilar and Jesus, Pilar's son. I am so excited. Our hard work for the last couple months is finally paying off. Elder Bastian and Elder Leon should have a lot of baptisms these next few months.

I wish I had more time to write you but with all the things we had to do today i am out of time. I love you all so much.

We had a pretty good week. We had five baptism this next week. After a couple months of had work in this area we are finally starting to see the results. I can not tell you how happy I am for these people. It is a family of three and another family of two. We have been working with both of them for a couple months now and they are finally ready. It is going to be a great week.

Just yesterday we drove out to the state of Mexico with President and hiked up to some amazing waterfalls. They are the same ones I went to about a year ago. When we got back down to the base, president grilled us some steaks. It was a really fun day. I will send pictures.

Time is flying! My emotions are all over the place. I don't know whether to feel sad or happy. I guess it is a little bit of both. Just one more week and I will be in my last transfer. Maybe President will change me forr my last transfer. haha. I guess we will see when we do the changes this weekend.

I love you all and I know that Christ lives. This is His work!!!

Pictures from December 10 and 31

Email from January 21

Thank you for wishing me happy birthday. Yesterday for my birthday I worked all day. It was the best birthday I have had yet. Today is the sister's birthday that is here serving with her husband. They actually live with us, so today we had a big party in the house. President and his family came over and it was a lot of fun. The brother is from Argentina so he is pro at cooking meat. I have never eaten so much meat in my live. It was a great birthday.

Things are going great here in the area. Ever since we split the area we have been trying to find new people to teach. When the area split we chose to take the more difficult side to try to make it stronger. The majority of the people who live in out area are very rich which always makes the missionary work a little hard, but we have found some great people and it looks like we will be baptizing about nine or ten in febrero. President and his wife came with us to a lesson and it was great. President invited them to a family night in his house and I know they are going to get baptized.

I can't believe that i will be home in two months. i still have so much to do here. I loveyou all so much and I know that Christ lives. We are members of His church and we have no right to be discouraged or sad. I love you and I love my God.

Email from January 13

How are you all doing? Things are great here in mexico. The holidays are finally over, so the work is getting back to normal. I have learned so much and after seeing the trails that many people have been through or are going through here in Mexico makes me realize how merciful God has been with me. Please never forget how blessed you are!!!!

There isn't too much going on here, but I wanted to share some thoughts with you from my studies. I was reading the other day in 4 Nephi where it says that the people had all things in common. Or in other words, they were living the law of consecration. The grand majority of the church isn't living the law of consecration right now, but that shouldn't hold us back. We may not be able to live it temporally in these days, but we are able to live in spiritually. Let me explain. In 4 Nefi it says that they had all things in common. So how can we have all spiritual things in common? Jesus Christ lived the law of consecration both temporally and spiritually. In D&C 122 it says that He descended below all things. Or in other words, He had all things in common with us. All the pain, heartache, sadness, and so on. We must be as Christ. We will never be able to descend below all things, but we can descend a little to help other. We can put ourselves in their shoes. We can care for them so much that we can feel their pain and understand their heartache. We can have all things in common with them. That is the only way to help others. That is the reason Christ can help us. He descended to where we are so that He can left us up to where He is. We must do the same. Christ gave everything. We must give everything as well.

I wish Icould explain better, but it is hard for me to put it in words. I hope to share more with you after the mission. I love you all!!!

Elder Talyor Ricks

Email from January 6

How are you all doing? Can you believe it is 2012? It is incredible. Things are going great here in the Mexico City South Mission. Right now we have about 177 missionaries and it looks like that number is going to continue to grow. When the mission divided about seven months ago there were only about 130 or so and itis great to see that more and more missionaries are coming out to serve. It is such a blessing to be able to know everything that is going on in the mission. The zone leaders report in person every monday to my companion and I on all the missionaries and how the work is progressing in this part of the city. I love being able to help them and the experiences really strengthen my testimony.

We have some amazing investigators. They are all such great people and they all just want to have a better life and understand the "why" of things. It feels so good to have the answers to their questions and to see their faces light up when they learn about God's plan for them. I love being here. Elder Bastian is great! I have never taught so well with someone in my mission. We feel the spirit in every lesson and we are great friends.

I love you all so much!! Happy New Year! Keep smiling.

Elder Taylor Ricks

Email from December 31

This week was surprisingly good. Well... every week is a good week when your on a mission, but I a referring to the amount of work we had. We have some amazing investigators right now ans it looks like these last three months are going to be full of baptisms. I am way excited. Christmas with president was great. I sent some pictures. We had a huge dinner and Elder Jessup and I sang "White Christmas" with the secretaries. I was a lot of fun. It is New Year´s eve and it looks like we are going to spend it in the house just us and the secretaries. haha.

It was great to talk to all of you. You all sound like you are doing great. Matthew sounds like he is forty years old. I can´t believe how fast the time is going. I actually already have my flight plans. I will be arriving in Salt Lake at 4:45pm on wednesday the 21 of March. But I still have a lot of time to work here. I am so excited for these next three months.

Elder Jessup had changes. He is going to be training to finish out his mission. I am now with Elder Bastian. He is from Veracruz. He was called as zone leader just two weeks after me. He has a lot of experience in leadership as well. We have been together for four days now and we teach very well together. He is such a funny kid. We are going to have a lotof success and a lot of fun. I am pretty sure he is going to be my last companion.

I love you all and I can't wait to see you all. I know that Christ lives and that this is His church. I love Him!!

Email from December 16

How are you all doing? I hope you are having a great Christmas season. It is so hard to really get into the christmas spirit here because there is no snow, and it is actually pretty warm. Tonight we have the ward christmas party and a couple investigator families are going to come. It should be great. On Christmas eve President invited us to his house to hang out and eat dinner with him and his family. It is going to be a fun weekend.

I love being here on the mission. There is no place I would rather be. It is sad to see that December is one of the hardest months for missionary work here in Mexico. You would think that everyone would love to here a message about Jesus Christ but nobody has time. but, we have to keep working just as hard as ever.

Thank you so much for the package. I wish I could send you all something from Mexico, but money isn't in grand abundance here. Just know that I am sending a whole bunch of hugs and a whole bunch of thank you's. I love you all so much.

Email from December 9

Things are going great like always. We went to the temple as a mission this week and it was great. It is going to be hard to do everything in english again. In the temple I made a promise with God to rededicate myself to His work. This mission is almost over but I am still just barely starting in the work of the Lord. I have been recieving a lot of personal revelation these last couple weeks about a lot of things. About school, marriage, my family, these last few months, and much more. A feeling of excitement came over me in the temple and I am so ready to serve the Lord my entire life. I pray that He helps me and I pray that His desires become my desires.

I love you all so very much and I want you to know that I know that this is the church of Christ. I know that He lives!!!! Sorry that I can't write more. I love you!! Be happy!

Email from December 2

Hey everyone!! I hope you have had an amazing week so far. Things are going great here. The baptism of Norma and Mauricio was great and they are both extremely excited to be part of the Church. I love them so much and I can' even begin to explain how good I feel when I think of all the people I have been able to meet and help. We get to go to the temple this next week as a mission. It should be a great experience. December is always a kind of hard month for missionary work. With so much going on it is hard to find people in their houses, but we are going to do our best and so far we have six baptisms planed for the month.

Christmas time here is Mexico is very different. The main difference is that there is no snow. it can get to be pretty cold here. Well... cold for Mexico. The coldest it gets is like 55 degrees. It sure does effect the people though. Everyone gets sick in these months. It is so funny to see people in their big winter coats and scarfs and Elder Jessup and I are walking around in short sleeve shirts. Everyone always asks us, "Aren't you freezing?" When we tell them how cold it gets in Utah they just about have a heart attack.

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything you have done for me. I am tying to make you all proud out here. I know that Christ lives.

Email from November 25

This week has been great but very busy. The american missionaries just got here on Monday so we had to go pick them up at the airport where we almost got arrested and well... it is a long story. On Tuesday we had a day long training for all the leaders in the mission, and Wednesday we had another day long training for all thenew missionaries and their companions. Like I said, it has bee a busy week. We have two baptisms tomorrow and they should be great. I think I already explained a little about them last week. I am way excited for them.

Thanksgiving was just a normal day. To celebrate we ate some tortillas with salsa and a little meat sitting on a curb on some dirty back street. haha it was a lot of fun. Best Thanksgiving I have had yet. How was Thanksgiving for all of you? I can't believe how fast the time is going. It kind of scares me.

Anyway... things are going great here. I know have about seven months in this area and It is probable that I will finish my mission here. That means I will have been in this area for about ten months. I almost got you beat Dad. haha

I love you all and I hope you are all doing great. Christ lives!! Yo lo sé!

Email from November 18

This week was a great one. We got to meet the new Elders and give them a training. They are great and they are going to be some amazing missionaries. The americans still haven't arrived so Elder Jessup and I are in a trio with Elder Heredia. Do you remember him? He was my second companion here in Mexico. He and his campanion (an american who hasn't arrived yet) will be working in the other half of our ward. It should be a great experience. It is kind of hard to teach in a trio, but I guess it is a good thing for me to learn.

We have two baptisms this nest saturday and the stories of these two people are amazing. Norma is one of them. We have been teaching her for the past four months. In these four months she has told us mny times that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Thanks to many miracle that God has permitted us to see, she is finally going to get baptized on saturday. The other is a young kid named Mauricio. His parents were baptized about eight years ago. Due to problems with housing and other personal trials, they had lost contact with the church for more than five years. Mauricio's father is now in prision and has been there for the last two years. It looks like he won't be leaving for a while either. By checking the ward directory we passed by and started to teach Mauricio. The whole family is now attending church and the father is so happy. I had a chance to talk to him by telephone the other day and he is so happy that we are there helping his family.

I know this Church is the Church of Christ and that He lives. I love you all.

Elder Ricks

Email from November 18

This week was a great one. We got to meet the new Elders and give them a training. They are great and they are going to be some amazing missionaries. The americans still haven't arrived so Elder Jessup and I are in a trio with Elder Heredia. Do you remember him? He was my second companion here in Mexico. He and his campanion (an american who hasn't arrived yet) will be working in the other half of our ward. It should be a great experience. It is kind of hard to teach in a trio, but I guess it is a good thing for me to learn.

We have two baptisms this nest saturday and the stories of these two people are amazing. Norma is one of them. We have been teaching her for the past four months. In these four months she has told us mny times that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Thanks to many miracle that God has permitted us to see, she is finally going to get baptized on saturday. The other is a young kid named Mauricio. His parents were baptized about eight years ago. Due to problems with housing and other personal trials, they had lost contact with the church for more than five years. Mauricio's father is now in prision and has been there for the last two years. It looks like he won't be leaving for a while either. By checking the ward directory we passed by and started to teach Mauricio. The whole family is now attending church and the father is so happy. I had a chance to talk to him by telephone the other day and he is so happy that we are there helping his family.

I know this Church is the Church of Christ and that He lives. I love you all.

Elder Ricks

Email fro November 11

Well... we are just finishing up the transfers once again and it looks like I am going to be with Elder Jessup for another six weeks. After these next six week we will have been together for six months. It is crazy but I am grateful. I will also have almost 8 months in this area of Coyoacán. We teach really well together and we have some amazing people in teaching right now. Things are going to get a little crazy these next week because there are 15 americans that are supposed to get here on monday but their visas still aren't ready, so it looks like they are going to get here a few days late which kind of makes the transfers a whole lot harder. But oh well. That is just part of the mission. I am pretty sure that I am going to be finishing my mission as assistant and I am grateful for that. I have learned so much by being close to President Chavez and I really love teaching other missionaries.

In these next couple weeks many general authorities from the missionary department of the church will be here to evaluate the mission. They are going to be teaching with Elders in their areas and holding conferences. It should be a fun couple weeks.

It is crazy how fast time is going. I can't believe that in a little over a month I will be talking to you all for Christmas. I can't even tell you how happy I am here in Mexico. This work is amazing and these people are amazing. It is going to be hard to leave them.

I love you all and I know that this is the church of Christ!!!