Mother's Day! Yay!

I just can't possibly put in to words how great it was to hear and see Mariah on Mother's Day! We had such a fun time talking to her.  She looks great!  We posted some pics and a video on Facebook which I guess I will include here too. But, I also wanted to include a video of her sharing her testimony in Spanish as well.  If you don't know the language I am sure you will be able to feel the spirit of it which is something that Mariah talked about in her group email this week.

Here is her group email from Monday, May 11th (the day after Mother's Day)

"Hello everyone!!

First of all, I just want to start out with... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY YESTERDAY!! I GOT TO TALK TO MY MOM (and family!) !!!! :) :)

We have transfers this upcoming Thursday, and I am pretty sure I will be leaving Springlake since I have been in this area for 6 months.. I'm going to miss it but I am really excited for the new adventures that lay ahead!! :) In that case, next Monday I will send out my new address.

So this week was crazy super busy!! We had a half mission conference last week and it was SO COOL. WE talked about being BOLD and the story of Nehemiah. I don't know how many of you have read that story in the Bible before, in the book of Nehemiah, but I sure hadn't until last week! I'll give you a run down.. So Jerusalem is destroyed by the Persians and there is a need to rebuild the wall. So Nehemiah is the cup bearer of the king and decides he is going to run this project, well long story short the wall ends up being finished in 52 days, and GUESS WHAT? We have a full mission conference where we will be switching Mission Presidents 52 DAYS from the day we had the 1/2 mission conferences!! WHAT?!! So, we are going to REBUILD our wall as a mission, and help a miraculous amount of people come unto Christ and receive this restored gospel! It's really time to buckle up and trust in God like we never have before! To seriously just lay in all on the line and give it all we've got! I am so stoked!! We talked about 6 different areas that our mission can be better bold in: Bold in Prayer, Bold in Obedience, Boldin Scripture study, Bold in Bearing Testimony, Bold in INVITING, Bold in GOALS!! I know these goals are something set specifically for our mission, but I encourage all of you to do the same!! Pray to your Heavenly Father for help and guidance in your life, and ask specific questions.. they will be answered! We need to be Passionate people!!! And you never know.. you may be someone else's answer to a prayer! :)

Well, I don't want to take up too much more space but I just want to share a really cool thing that happened this past week. So one of the members in our ward just moved to the English ward and so the English sisters that live in our apartment complex that we talk to a lot were invited to a lunch with both us and them at her house. When we got there before we knocked the Sisters asked if the member spoke any English and we were like... "Ehhhh, a little!" Well, come to find out yeah it really was only a little. But as we started to talk to her she started to open up to us about some of her doubts and things about the church, and COOLEST THING my companion, Hermana Mensinger had felt like she just needed to study this certain talk from the April 2013 General Conference called, "Lord, I Believe" by Jeffrey R Holland. We had discussed a few points we really liked that morning and come to find out that is EXACTLY what the member needed!!! She was so touched and overwhelmed by the Spirit, and it was SO STRONG in the room! Anyone in that room could NOT have denied what they felt!!  Later when we walked out of the house the English sisters afterwards were just in awe. One of them looked over at me and was just like, "I can't believe it." And I was like, "What?" She said, "I felt that. I didn't understand a WORD you or her were saying, but I felt that. And when you stopped to explain kind of what was going on it's like it was just a confirmation of what I had already felt was going on. I could feel and I KNEW what you were talking about and what was happening through the spirit. I don't even understand a lick of Spanish!!" It was amazing. The language of the spirit is real folks. It's not something I can even DESCRIBE. It is a language of feelings, and speaks to all, if you will just let it in. Doesn't matter what race you are, or what language you speak.. the language of the spirit is available to ALL, and can be understood as we open our hearts and come unto Christ by letting it in. It truly is wonderful.

Well I best be going now, I am excited for transfers this week and for the opportunity I have to be here serving a mission in Washington DC!! I love you all and pray for you! Have a fantastic week!!

Before I close I just want to say a few words letting you all know how awesome my mom is. She is one of a kind. I love her, and I know she loves me. You want to know why I know she loves me? Because of her ACTIONS. Her kind words, her worries, her cares, I feel like with how much she cares about me there is just NOT enough room in her heart for ANY MORE, but guess what? There is!!! My mom is a superhero. I love her with all my hear and I want her to know how appreciative I am for all that she has taught me, and for being the example to me that NO ONE ELSE on this earth could have EVER set for me. I will be eternally grateful for her and her genuine, kind, fun personality. Thanks for sharing with me mom ;) I LOVE YOU!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Riddle :)

PS this is a caboose in Herndon, VA that we couldn't pass up to take pictures by :)"

Mariah shared with me some of her personal goals in which she will choose to be BOLD. I know I am her mom but I just know that she is an AMAZING missionary! She truly loves her Savior and has such a strong desire to bring others to Christ.  She is continually striving each day to be obedient so that she is deserving of the blessings that come along with obedience. 

If any of you know me well you would know that I cried when I read that last paragraph in her group email.  What a sweetheart! I really am not deserving of how kind she was about me in that! Before I go on about how great she is and how she made my Mother's Day extra special I want to share the video of her testimony in Spanish that I was talking about. Here it is!

So..for Mother's Day I was completely surprised to receive a letter and gift from Mariah!  Like, how in the world did she have the time to think of me specifically!? Here is what she did...

Mariah sent me a really nice letter that included the pic below of her ready to eat Cinnastack pancakes from IHOP. (IHOP is one of the last places that she and I went together to eat before she left on her mission).  In the letter she said that she made the "sacrifice" to go to IHOP and order the pancakes so that she could take a picture of her there. She sent me a gift card to IHOP so that I could go and get some Cinnastack pancakes (which are my favorite) and "share" a meal with her.  WOW Riah!  That was so thoughtful.  A way to share a meal and have her close to me when she is so far away.  I feel so blessed to have such a special daughter. I'm going to take a pic just like this one below and send it back to her when I go there:)

Mariah has transfers this week and thinks that she is going to be transferred to a new area.  She has been in the same area for her whole mission so far so I'm excited and nervous to see what awaits her.

Here are some of the pics that we took on Mother's Day! Hope all of you Mother's had a happy one!