A special FIRST this week!

Mon, May 23, 2011 6:20:48 PM

We had a miracle baptism this week... a family. We hadn’t had any families this month. We were working and praying hard.. contacted and put the fecha (date) last Sunday, visited them throughout the week (and couldn’t the guy every time) and yesterday they went to the church for the first time and were married and baptized afterwards. 1 week. That’s my first time to do something like that. But they are AWESOME. Things really can happen like they say in the scriptures where it’s a change from day to night. Holy goodness.. like this whole week we were just WAITING for some huge problem to show up, for Satan to attack and everything.. and it never happened. God loves us. My comp has an amazing unfailing faith. She told me ´God has NEVER let me down in my mission. He knows He is my boss and no one else. And He knows we are working.´ And whenever she did falter or have a tiny doubt or something, I was strong. I love this compship I’m in right now. We completely build each other. It’s great. I love her a lot. I feel so grateful to the Lord for this change. I’m also in my dream area, with a rockin’ ward and an almost magical bishop.

We have another family progressing that is like.. a golden family. Hna. Padilla was teaching them last change but dropped him after like 3 weeks cuz they weren’t progressing and he was like yea, I’m not feeling baptism or going to the church and stuff and so I guess a little extra time was what he needed. So we started up with him like a month ago and at first there were still doubts about change and stuff but he came to church and kept his commitments and all of the sudden he was AWESOME. He had this one friend that tried to work with him for like 10 years, and now he regrets that time. We were worried a bit about teaching the word of wisdom and Sabbath day to him, but when we went to teach, we didn’t even get INTO the discussion we had prepared before he was like.. Okay. I’m not going to work on Sunday anymore and I’m going to stop my habit of drinking coffee every day that I’ve had for all of my life (he´s an older man). He and his wife told us we are like their daughters and they take care of us and everything and dude she makes like the best fruit juices ever.. out of fruit that doesn’t exist back home. It’s excellent.

We have learned levels and levels about faith and hope and a lotta’ other gospel stuff. I wish that I could express it all to you.. but I think it is more something you have to experience to be able to understand. My salute to all who have served complete and worthy missions. Well, right now we are kind of just in awe of the miracle we experienced this weekend. We are happy. We are nervous about changes. But we trust in God. And that’s what’s important.

Be good. Go to church. Read your scriptures. Pray. Remember the promises (covenants) you made with God. Love ya’! Catch ya’ on the flip side!

Pictures!

Hermana Rippstein sends apologies for not writing last week! However, she hopes you enjoy the photos she sent of the Catholic Cathedral of Leon. As you might expect, there are a lot of cathedrals, but this one is what Leon is known for. She and her companion had sort of a photo shoot up there on p-day that she described as "relaxing and fun". More entries to follow soon. Enjoy!

And the answer is...

Mon, May 9, 2011 8:21:39 PM

Wow. So.. we had changes of course as you all know. It has been a crazy ride. When we were in changes, they named the people going to the mountain areas first and I wasn't going and I was like.. oh my goodness.. where am I going.. I REALLY HOPE NOT CHINANDEGA! (the hottest). But here is the surprise! I have returned to León! Not to the exact same area but to another sister area. My area (Los Repartos) shares borders with my old area (Coyolar), as well as the same building on Sunday. I see people I know all the time and I'm not even going to bother going into how weird my first Sunday was. It is weird seeing all the same people again. And as well to see the people that we baptized when I was here before. I know I was called back at this time for a reason and that it is not coincidence. Also, the smells are the same, sounds are the same, etc is the same! I even live down the street from my old house and eat at the same food appointment! It was special also to find out that the people here really loved me. Multiple times I was hugged by people in tears, which was Wow. That was a surprise.

My comp is amazing. I love her a lot! Her name is Hna Padilla (she is from el Salvador) and we are complements to each other. What I don't have she has, and she tells me that what she doesn't have, I have. Which is cool. I love working and learning with her.

THE HATS!!!

I wanted to express to ya'll my complete joy that I have right now. For the first time in my mission I consistently feel peace and happiness and accomplishment. And I'm consistently having spiritual experiences which has never fully happened for me, well at least not like it is right now. I'm so happy, you don't even know. This change is doing wonders for me.. In the mission right now there is a lot of pressure about finding and helping families to be baptized, especially since I am with the super missionary of the mission, but even though we don't have baptisms or anything right now we really feel like that is okay, we feel peace - that we are serving sufficiently for the Lord and that is what counts. I'm understanding more what Preach my Gospel says in the ´Successful Missionary´ section like you feel good even when people fall apart because you know that you did your part and you did it with the spirit. I am really learning more about how to work with the spirit and how to not kill myself. I am really loving the mission - it was truly the best decision directionally that I have made in a very long time.

We are currently working with 2 families. Well, we are working with more than that but we have 2 really positive families. One of them has received confirmations and answers to prayers the times that they have come to church activities and stuff. The guy is an ex-pastor or something so he has a lot of knowledge and it is lovely watching the gospel testimony grow within him. The other family - well it is kind of interesting because everything seems to be happening against them. RIGHT after the appointment where we put the baptismal date with them, they were kicked out of their house. In their move, ALL of the money they had for food was lost. The day after we told them we were going to bring a dvd for them to watch, their dvd player broke completely (doesn't matter if you are poor - everyone has a tv). When they sat down to study the pamphlets and read the Book of Mormon together, the power went down in their entire sector. When the guy called us really positive one day, the call got cut off because he ran out of minutes or something and then because of bad connection we couldn't get ahold of him again. When they were going to come to church, their son accidently locked them out of their new house for the entire day and they had to wait for keys. Tons of stuff is headed their way! And the wife told us yesterday that she knows that the adversary is putting all these things in their way and so it must be a good thing they are doing. Yea! Way to be! Things are cool in the mission and I'm hoping to really have some time to enjoy this peace right now because it is delicious.

Where in the world is Hermana Rippstein?

Mon, May 2, 2011 7:37:57 PM

Well, I decided this week that just to have fun, I am not going to say where I got changed to. The places Hermanas go to are: Managua, Matagalpa, León, Chinandega, Estelí, and Jinotega. I have already been to Managua and León. I am just going to hold out until I talk to the fam on Sunday to have a little fun.

I want to share a good experience with ya’ll - last change my daughter (Hna Garff) And I had a spiritual experience in which the Lord put our goal for baptisms, which was 3 families for the month of April. Our change was based on a formula of Desire + Faith (which is action) + Sacrifice = Miracles. So we continued in that and Idk how it happened but we baptized 2 families before I left, and Friday night (After I had been changed to my new area) the last family was baptized with Hna Garff and her new companion. 3 families in April. Anytime things got hard I kept on thinking.. the Lord put the goal. And it happened. Isn’t it funny how we are still surprised when we achieve goals like that with the help of the Lord even though we know the whole time it is Him helping us to achieve it? I don’t know if I made sense right now but there you go. Anyways, here are a few photos that I was able to recover from my birthday! You´ll get a longer post next week, promise!

4/20--Courtney's birthday (I'm sure??? it's nothing else...)

One of the cakes....

And another of the cakes...

Courtney and her "hello kitty" pinata

SUCCESS!!

Remember, we cannot have true faith in the Lord without also having complete trust in the Lord´s will and in the Lord´s timing. This is something I am coming to learn right now, and also that happiness is something you create! It doesn’t just come! Also, it mostly is a result of satisfying work done well.