From Elder Rice

Hey Family,

This was a great week. I gave my talk in Sacrament Meeting.  I had 10 pages with about 10 scriptures that i had to cut down. I think it ended up being 15 minutes. The ward liked it. I was worried because the time I spoke before, I spoke so fast that people couldn’t understand me. So I prayed a lot that they could understand and they did and liked it. I hope this brings a change in the ward and a greater focus on the right things. Then, that whole Sunday, the day was focused on how our ward can do member missionary work better. We gave a presentation on the plan we have for the ward. We talked about the need for member missionary work and so on. I hope they start. It will be amazing. Then we got to watch the broadcast for missionary work. I loved it. I have a stronger desire to work harder and to be better, and I understand the role and power of the ward now. I love it.

This last week was a sad one. We had to say goodbye to President Furniss and Sister Furniss. I loved his going away talk. It was so amazing. He gave a lot of advice on how to live our lives after the mission.

Our investigator pool has taken a bit of a dive lately, with all the doctors we have been going to (Elder Miller, Elder Rice’s companion has been struggling with severe hip and foot pain) Plus, I adjusted the way I find new investigators. In the past, we offered to teach English to people. However, those people meet only one or two times and drop or they continue for years. S, I stopped teaching English outside our regular class on Saturday. The result: less people to teach, but more people progressing to Christ, and we have more time to strengthen less active members in the ward and find people that need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In other good news... I’m reading the New Testament and I love it so much. I am in John right now… right before He is betrayed, and I am sad because I am almost finished with the part that Christ is alive and teaching. I love reading and learning about Christ. I just feel the Spirit so strongly and I get such a desire to do better when I read about my Savior. I love it.  I just love the more I think about my Savior and His teachings, the more every thing makes sense to me. It’s like a ton of doors are opening in my mind. It’s the best. I love it all. If we all just focus on our Savior, everything makes sense.

This week, I have been trying to focus on the eternal perspective and help those I teach do the same. In our lessons, we taught The Restoration. This time, I had him focus on why The Restoration is important.  Without it, there is no church on earth to perform the ordinances we need to receive salvation. He closed his prayer by thanking Heavenly Father that he could learn how to receive salvation, and asked for help to receive it. He read the 몰몬 경  (Book of Mormon) every day and prays every day. It’s amazing.

I love you all. Take care of Jessica.

Love, Elder Rice