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