Richelle Singing (2/27)

I think I did it! I'm entering a new realm of techno-savviness! (is that a word??) This is a video of Richelle practicing a song she sang at a Missionary Fireside on February 27, 2011. The lady she lives with sent it to me this morning.

ENJOY!

Love,

Pat Ouellette (MOM!)

The Real Pursuit of Happiness (2/23)

OK... Best surprise of my mission EVER!: On Saturday afternoon I'm sitting in our kitchen (in our members' home) waiting for my broccoli to steam (yum!) and the doorbell rings. I think nothing of it because it's not my home, and the door is never for us... but I heard whoever answer it say "I think the missionaries are in the kitchen." Hmm... who in the world? I turn around for the biggest, best surprise of my life to see my trainer aka Hermana Wilkins aka Shanell Dunn standing right in front of me!! Are you kidding me?! Best day of my life. We hugged forever and even cried a little and then immediately got to catching up on her life. I got to meet her husband... they are so perfect for each other and so happy, which just made me so happy!

Besides that tender mercy for me there are so many miracles happening in our area. We have been teaching this awesome girl, Lakin, a friend of a recent convert, Annika, who was baptized in December. They are both 18 years old and the lessons we've had with them are awesome - the spirit is so strong, and the love and support of her friends Annika and Maddie is perfect.

This weekend we completely inundated Lakin with Church activities - Friday we brought her to a baptism, Saturday - the visitor's center, and Sunday our mission president's fireside. We were a little nervous that it might be a little much since she hadn't even been to Church with us yet, but that was not the case. She told us she really enjoyed her weekend, and was disappointed when she had to work on Sunday instead of being able to come to Church with us! The lesson we had with them on Monday was amazing... we talked about the plan of salvation. Annika's sister Mia has also been sitting in and came with us this weekend, and we are seeing changes in her as she starts to want these things more and more.

As we taught about the plan of salvation I could see how things clicked for them. Especially for Mia - their grandfather just passed away this weekend, and as with any death it has been hard for their family. However, Annika shared her testimony of the plan of salvation and how she's not as sad because she understands the plan and the way everything will work out. It was such a tender experience to see how the plan of happiness really does bring peace into our lives - especially as we talk about the healing power of the atonement, and the comfort that the spirit can bring in times of difficulty and grief.

As we were teaching I had sat on the floor directly in front of the couch the four girls were sitting on and laid out the plan visually in front of them. I was struck by two thoughts: 1. These girls are awesome. They are beautiful, fun, teenage girls and they were choosing to spend their evening (and their entire weekend!) with the missionaries instead of any other activity that probably would have been more entertaining. And number 2. These things we teach are real - They wouldn't do that if it wasn't true... The blessings we talk about of peace and comfort are so real they are almost tangible - I could feel it in myself, especially as I felt God's love for each on of them and saw it working in them to bring them answers and give them peace.

Our investigator Heidi and her two sons Alec and Tyler were baptized this weekend (see picture above). I've been saving her "story" until now. It all started with an 8-year-old missionary Solomon... right after Heidi and her family moved in next door to them he and Alec quickly became friends and one day when they were all outside Solomon told Alec "Alec, I know you don't got to my church or anything, but I reeeaaaalllly want you to get baptized." Direct. To the point. :) He then invited the family to Church... Heidi says she was slightly uncomfortable and didn't know how to tell a child "no, she couldn't come because she isn't Mormon." Well... it was all downhill from there. Alec and Tyler first started coming to scouts with the neighbor boys, then church, and eventually Heidi started coming with them.

They loved it from the beginning, and soon became regular "church-goers". As we taught them the principles of the restored gospel, they learned quickly and began to see changes in their lives. They steadily developed faith, repented and progressed toward baptism. Their baptism and confirmation were special experiences, but what is most exciting is that they recognize that this was only the opening of the gate to put them on the path that leads to eternal life. They are experiencing true happiness, and I know they will continue to grow as they come even closer to Christ.

Annika has one of my favorite descriptions of the blessings of the gospel... she always talks about how freakishly happy it makes her, and it's TRUE! There is nothing in this world that provides the lasting peace and happiness that the gospel brings into our lives. I know that as we do the things that develop our relationship with our Savior, including sharing the gospel, we are blessed with a joy that can not be described or compared. Annika and Alec (and I) are experiencing that happiness that comes from sharing the gospel, and the best part is that as they do that their friends experience that same joy and happiness.

"Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness." (Alma 27:18)

Be Happy! I love you,

Hermana Richelle Ouellette

Happy Valentine's Day (2/9)

As I've mentioned before holidays don't really mean much for missionaries, but this week I am looking forward to heart-attacking some people and delivering lots of yummy treats to our investigators and the other families we're working with!

We recently received texting on our phones... and it is awesome! Just another tool to help the work along! When Elder Evans (of the Seventy) came to visit he told us that Elder Scott has said we are doing missionary work in the twenty-first century with nineteenth century methods! He's the oldest living apostle, and he's the one fighting to get us up to date! There's so many new things available with the updates on mormon.org and new commercials, etc. We can already see how it's all positively affecting missionary work.

For example... last week we were at a lesson with our investigator Ryan and we start to look up a scripture. Ryan pulled out his phone and in seconds had accessed the verse we were going to read. Ok, so I've seen plenty of members with scriptures on their phones/ipads, but never someone we are teaching! He has all of the scriptures, plus the gospel principles book, and with access to the church website he has access to the gospel (and the spirit) at his fingertips 24/7. Awesome!

I heard a story this week from a lady that lives in Hawaii... She talked about her friend that came to visit her and wanted to go seashell hunting on the beach. She wandered along the shoreline looking for large seashells (which have mostly disappeared because of other tourists like her!). Another friend, who was a native Hawaiian, began to dig in the sand, and ended up finding some of the most valuable (but tiny) seashells that exist in the world. She made the point that we need to not miss the small and valuable things in our search for something bigger (kind of like the parable of the marshmallow.)

It made me think... but THEN... last night we were teaching a lady that would basically not let us share the lesson we had in mind because she was stuck on the meaning of a scripture in Revelations. Normally I'm all about answering their questions and teaching to their needs, but it was frustrating because we spent the entire time talking about the symbolism of white horses, etc. and didn't get to share with her the beautiful message of the plan of salvation. When we left we were talking with the member that was with us (Bernice - recent convert). We decided that she was getting too caught up on little details, and was missing the big picture of the entire plan of salvation and knowledge that we have of these things because of the restoration of the gospel.

I was thinking about this last night and thought how these two stories, or ideas are somewhat contradictory. They both speak of perspective and how we need to not miss the little things... but also don't forget about the big picture. OK... so where do we focus? I decided that BOTH ideas are equally important. We have to have not just perspective, but the appropriate perspective based on the situation. As we go to our Father in Heaven in prayer He will guide us and show us how to view what lies in front of us. I know that as we follow the spirit we will not miss one important detail as we look at the whole big picture of life.

Have a love-ly week. :)

Love,

Hermana Richelle Ouellette

Be Thou Humble (2/16)

I learned a good lesson this week about being humble. We had a zone conference (a meeting with our mission president and about 36 other missionaries) and we were trained on some more of the new material from Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel (our guide to missionary work - new and improved :)

We spent the morning talking about goal-setting, and I was humbled to say the least. Many of the things President Howes talked about seemed to be a direct chastisement for me. It kind of brought me to a low, and made me realize a lot of the things I needed to do differently. It was eye-opening to say the least and kind of painful to hear.

The best part of the experience though was that during the afternoon session of the training, my heart was softened and my mind open for revelation. I received many promptings from the spirit to enable me to set some new goals for myself, and for my area. I received specific inspiration for some of our investigators, as well as promptings concerning some things that I need to do more diligently (some not even directly related to the training).

Sometimes the Lord brings us down to the depths of humility so that he can raise us back up and tell us the things he needs us to hear. I also saw this pattern this week in my Book of Mormon reading in Ether 2. The brother of Jared was chastened by the Lord for three hours because he had forgotten to call on his name. My chastening was rough, but I think it's safe to say it wasn't as intense as this was for him! But the brother of Jared responded well... he was humbled, and repented, and because of his willingness to follow the will of the Lord he received revelation on how to build the barges and cross the ocean.

We have been teaching two young girls (Irene (12) and Ariana (8)) whose grandma is a member. We have just about come to the end of the lessons with them and the natural step for most investigators would be for them to be baptized, but their parents (divorced) have said that can't happen. We talked about this with our ward mission leader and together we decided we needed to approach the mother, Carol, (whom they live with) and see if we could dig up some of her doubts.

We were kind of nervous for this conversation, but it ended up going NOTHING like we had planned. Instead of being cold or stand-offish, Carol completely opened up to us, and even started crying as she described some of the difficulties she has been having. She told us about her "come to Jesus moment" that she recently experienced and the stress that has been weighing on her mind. She knows what she needs to do, but doesn't feel like she has the strength to do it.

We were able to talk to her about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how no matter what she is going through right now, the things we want to teach her will bless her life! She didn't accept the missionary lessons, but she also didn't say no. It was hard to see and feel her pain (she is an incredibly strong woman), but I recognized that the Lord has been preparing her to finally accept the gospel (her mom has been a member for 16 years). The Lord chastens us because he loves us (Helaman 15:3) but he does it so we will come to him (1 Nephi 16:39, Ether 12:27) We are praying that she will now let us teach her and allow peace come into her life through the gospel.

Remember that when you are chastened, or experience a trial - make it a "come to Jesus moment" and think about what you need to do to align your will with his more perfectly with His. Then He will bless you with personal, relevant, revelation for yourself and your family, as well as the temporal and spiritual blessings you need. "Be thou humble in thy weakness... and the Lord thy God shall teach thee." (Hymns, 130).

Love always,

Hermana Richelle Ouellette

Picture: Valentine's Day--The remains of cookies taken to a district meeting!

There Can Be Miracles (2/2)

A NOTE FROM RICHELLE'S MOM: PICTURE ABOVE....AS RICHELLE ENJOYS WARM ARIZONA, WE HAVE BEEN DUMPED ON BY 4 SNOW STORMS IN 7 DAYS...OVER 36" OF SNOW IN OUR YARD (AND ROOF)! ARIZONA IS LOOKING BETTER AND BETTER......

Here's this week's update from Richelle:

Another week... this one with some ups and downs, but I'm learning a lot!

We have been teaching this sweet 19 year-old girl named Francisca from Chile for about a month. She has been here on an extended vacation, visiting a family of members. When we met her she was familiar with the Church and her family has known the missionaries in Chile for years. Some other Elders passed her on to us with the specific instruction that she would get baptized, because how they found her was an answer to one of their prayers (a whole different story...)

Anyway, we started teaching Francisca and we love her! She has such a sweet spirit and loves learning about the gospel. We had invited her several times to be baptized before she left for home, and she assured us that if she received the answer she was hoping for then she would. We kept working with her encouraging her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She finally decided she would like to be baptized here, but out of respect for her parents she wanted to ask their permission before going forward with it. However, we were quickly running out of time before her departure date... last Monday.

We have been praying for her this whole time, but when we talked to her on Saturday she still hadn't been able to ask them, so we decided we would need a miracle to pull this all off in a day. We began a fast, and I felt full of faith and knew that things would work out the way they should.

Sunday was our typical long day at Church (7am-4pm), but as you do when you fast I felt especially close to the Spirit and full of God's love. Awesome. Then we had a few minutes after church before dinner, and went to an apartment complex to contact a family. They weren't home, but we started talking to another guy... we had a good conversation with him, and aside from sharing the gospel, we left with almost $300 worth of cosmetics from the company he works for. Sweet.

Dinner time: We ate with a great family (former Branch President) and met a friend from Argentina that is living with them, Carolina. She also has a very sweet disposition (very similar to Francisca) and we were touched by the strength of her testimony as she shared with us her conversion story. Hermana Norton and I looked at each other and realized we were thinking the same thing - Carolina was an answer to a prayer... she was perfect for Francisca so we invited her to come to our 6:00 lesson and share her testimony, with the assumption that after the lesson we would be pulling together a very last minute baptism.

Now, I'm sorry to tell you that this story isn't going to end the way you are probably hoping it will. When we got to Francisca's house Sunday evening no one was home. The family didn't answer their phone, and although we kept trying for the rest of the night we couldn't get in touch with her. Much to our disappointment, she left for Chile Monday without us even getting a chance to say goodbye.

I was sad... I really felt I had had the faith that things would work out! But on the way home I learned that things really did work out... EXACTLY the way the Lord wanted them to. Carolina shared the rest of her story - her family's conversion, which took place over a period of almost 20 years. She and her sister were the first to be baptized.. and they prayed for a long time to see the rest of their family come into the gospel. Finally, little by little her father, then a brother, after years her mother, and most recently her oldest brother were baptized. Now they have plans for their entire family to be sealed together in the temple toward the end of the year (after her brother has been a member for a year).

Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways - and He ALWAYS works on His own time. He knows Francisca's needs, and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be baptized when the timing is right. Sometimes we have to trust on the Lord that he knows what's best, but if things are good and right then they will "come to pass".

I also saw how the Lord knew exactly what I needed. The simple act of placing both Francisca and Carolina in my path taught me some very valuable lessons. At a time when I could have easily been frustrated, Heavenly Father placed someone in my path to strengthen my testimony and offer me peace. I've found that he often works in this way, and is so aware of each and every one of us and our individual needs.

Later that night, as we were looking through our new collection of lotions I had to smile as I realized one of the product names was "Miracle". So perhaps I didn't get exactly what I thought I had been praying for... But "who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles?" Because to me that day truly "there were many mighty miracles wrought".

"Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?" (Mormon 9:16-18)

Love always,

Hermana Richelle Ouellette