Oh my lanta everyone, i have been on my mission for a WHOLE YEAR! That is crazy! I cannot even fathom how fast time goes by! So in honor of my year mark i am going to share 5 (more) Things I Learned On My Mission. Enjoy:)

1.LOVE: I will never forget how it feels to love everyone unconditionally. I have learned that everyone has different backgrounds, beliefs, trials and ways of expressing themselves but the one common factor is that we are all children of God and as a missionary i have gotten to feel a little bit of God's love for all his children. Nothing could get done in this work without love and i have loved people i would have never even thought twice about when i was home. It has truly been a blessing to see people the way Heavenly Father sees them and i hope i never lose sight of that. 

2.STUDY: The value of study is immeasurable. Literally the "primary answers" are the most solid truths! Prayer, scripture study, FHE, church attendance, seminary and institute, going to the temple. All these things are how we build up our knowledge of God and of His gospel and then the Holy Ghost uses that knowledge that we have as a tool so that we can bless other peoples lives. If we are not continually seeking after knowledge, we are not living up to our full potential and we can't be the effective instruments in God's hands that he needs us to be. So, keep on learning! There is always always always something new to learn and its always exciting!

3. THE SPIRIT: The Spirit is essential in our lives. The Spirit needs to have an active role in our lives by warning, guiding, lifting, answering, comforting, confirming, and helping us. When Christ performed His atonement the last pain that he felt was the complete withdrawal of the Spirit. In his final hour on the cross God withdrew His Spirit and Christ cried out "My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me" and shortly after, He died. Christ had the Spirit with him throughout his entire life until the very end and in order for Him to complete His atonement he had to feel EVERY hardship and to not feel the Spirit was the last thing he felt to complete his suffering. How important the Spirit is that God allowed that to be the final suffering because the withdrawal of the Spirit is the worst pain we can feel. It is literally hell. That is why we must do everything we can to always have the Spirit to be with us and then everything else in life will be a hundred times better. The Spirit is how we feel of Gods love. 

4. SACRIFICE: Oh my lanta a mission is hard! Not physically, unless you are walking all day in the humid heat of Iowa in July, oh no it is hard mentally and emotionally. We are here for a year and a half and we have to give up all the worldly things we love (purple hair, fancy nails, leather jackets, 14 rings on my 10 fingers, pinterest, etc) and we focus 100% on the needs of others. It is exhausting trying to help people and being ok when they use their agency to say no. Its hard smiling at someone and saying Have a good day! when they yell at you on the doorstep. Its so sad when you know that what you have to say can help people but they won't listen. It's so insanely hard not being able to see your families faces and hear their voices everyday. Missions are hard. But Jesus Christ gave EVERYTHING even His life for us so that we can be eternally happy. So who cares if its hard, that's how its supposed to be and i wouldn't have it any other way! Its an honor to sacrifice almost everything i love for a year and a half of my life to help as many people as i can so they can have that eternal happiness that God wants for them. 

5.ASSERTIVE: I have learned to be assertive. I have learned to fear no man. I have learned that what i am saying is eternally significant and i can't afford to be shy. I don't have to be a pushover or be passive about sin. I have been called of God to represent His son and help people know how to be eternally happy! Christ didn't see the people defiling the temple and say hey guys, do you think you could maybe not do that?...No he flipped tables and took care of business! You don't have to be rude to be assertive, you have to know for sure that what you are saying will help the particular person and you have to say it with love. Christ was confident and we need to be just as confident. Missionary work is not for the faint of heart. We have been called to declare Christ's gospel and by golly, we are going to do that with no reservations because we know who we are and we know our purpose. 

There you have it, stuff Hermana Rice knows for sure. I have had an unforgettable year and i can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring! As always LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL TONS!!!!

Hermana Rice

Ahhh i underestimated my emailing time and i have no more! So this week instead of explaining my week i will send a couple pictures! ( Cuz pictures are worth a thousand words right?)

Morning workouts tho! Jump-rope for life!!

Companion!!!

This week was fantabulous! Lots of good things happening:) Here's my week!

1.BLIZZARD: Ok so there was another big blizzard on Tues. and we were "grounded" meaning we weren't allowed to leave our apartment:( We were determined to make the best of it and be super productive and oh man we got super pumped and then Hermana Smith goes "Nap first?" and so we took a nap and guess what? We didn't wake up until 4 O'CLOCK!! By then the blizzard was over and we got the ok to go out....so much for our productive day BUUUUUUUT the blizzard was a HUGE blessing because literally EVERYONE was home so we talked to a ton of people and got a bunch of potential investigators!! Who knew blizzards could be blessings!? 

2. ZTM: Saturday we had Zone Training Meeting and it was super good! Lots of good trainings about teaching like the Savior would and  being patient and loving with everyone including ourselves and oh man it was great! Then we all went out to Texas Roadhouse for lunch! Sooooooo goood!!!!! Oh my lanta those rolls are my weakness! It was so fun! We have a super great zone and we just laugh and have a great time together! It was a fantastic Saturday!! 

3.LIZZY UPDATE: Lizzy is doing so amazing! She is working really hard to learn everything she can and to really prepare to be baptized! She is a champ! We had a lesson/lunch with her the other day at a Chinese Buffet ( an Iowa specialty) and it was super good! We taught her tithing and ahhh she is doing so good! Our only concern is that she is going on a Valentines weekend getaway to Philadelphia with her boyfriend and were just praying she can resist the temptations of the flesh! Pray for her! 

4. KNOCKING STORY FOR THE WEEK: Ok so we have done a lot of knocking this week and there are always super funny ways people react to us and this story is my favorite from this week: 

So we knocked on this door in an apartment building and an old lady answered and rudely said " What do you want!" i started to introduce ourselves and she cut us off and said "Go away!" and shut the door...then we heard her yell to her husband "It was a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses!" 

hahahahaha People!!!!! You need to learn the difference between us and the JW's! There is more than one church that sends missionaries! LOL People crack me up! 

5. MIRACLE OF MIRACLES: So yesterday we were knocking in this new area we found and we met this guy that let us in and started asking questions trying to bash with us but still kind of nice. After about a half an hour of trying to get out the door Hermana Smith cut him off and said, "Sir, you have a lot of good questions and we encourage you to go to God with them but we are called by a prophet to find the people that will receive us and we are promised that there are people here that are searching for our message and we need to move on and find them" Holy super charged Spirit! My companion is amazing! The second door we knocked on after that we found a family that is so prepared and understood our message and loved it and want to learn more and oh my lanta the Spirit in that lesson was stronger than me or Hermana Smith have ever felt while teaching! Such an amazing experience! We are so excited to teach them and are still in awe that we even met them!

Well guys, that was my week! Can't wait to hear from you all next week! Until then, LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!!! xoxo

Hermana Rice

The closest thing to a mountain in Iowa...so we climbed it dramatically:)

The beautiful Ames Zone!

Hey everyone this week has been fantastic and i can't wait to tell you all about it! 

1. WEATHER: So i find this really funny. We are supposed to have a blizzard these next 2 days and get 2 ft of snow and oh my lanta everyone is acting like its the apocalypse or something! All the businesses are closing and there are signs everywhere telling people to make sure they have food storage and are prepared....2 FEET OF SNOW! COME ON IOWA!! That really isn't very much and everyone is acting like they are gonna have to live pioneer style. No one will set up appointments with us because of the snow. Shouldn't everyone here be used to the snow??? NOPE! Ok, that is my rant of the week. 

2.TRANSFERS:This last week we had transfers and Hermana Smith and i get to stay together for another transfer!! woot woot! So that was nice. We got a new set of elders in our district so now we are no longer the "Relief Society District" it's so weird. But hey its all good. Elders are....elders. 

3. SERVICE?: So we got asked by the Chamber of Commerce to come help at their annual dinner. So of course we said yes because we don't turn down service and an opportunity for the community to see that we are real people. So we went and i did dishes all night ( yes i know) and Hermana Smith made sure that everyone's water pitchers were filled up but you know the funny thing is, they weren't drinking the water...because there was an abundance of alcohol. Eww. But you know they also had an auction and nothing like a little (or a lot) of alcohol to make people spend lots of money on nothing. Anywho, we had fun and met a lot of people and yeah, service is awesome!

4. LIZZY: Ok so Lizzy decided to wait til the beginning of March to get baptized!! So sad! We taught her the law of chastity and her boyfriend didn't like that very much so he got in her head about some stuff but she knows that he is being over dramatic and still really wants to be baptized, she just has to give Brad a little more time to accept it. So she needs lots of prayers! But she is doing fantastic with everything else! 

 

5.PUPPIES: The other day we went to a less active members house to visit and she is the one with the puppies i was telling ya'll about (the chow and corgi mix) and oh my lanta they are walking around now and are SOOOO CUTE!!! They look like little bears!! Literally the CUTEST puppies I have ever seen!!! We played with them for a little over an hour and it was the greatest day of my life!! Soooo Cute!!!!! I cannot express how adorable these little guys are!! i will send pics so you can see! 

That was my week:) LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!! xoxoxo Hermana Rice

PUPPIES!!!!!! Don't they look like little bears!!!! SOOOOO ADORABLE!!!!!