Merry Christmas

Hey, it was good to hear and see you guys on Christmas.

I had an awesome Christmas. That miracle I was talking about, we were supposed to baptize a  little girl and her brother Saturday but we weren't able to get permission from their mom yet, but we are hoping to get it soon and get them baptized. I'll let you know how it goes.  We were having a really rough day and then we met them through their grandma and committed them last week. They have a strong desire to be baptized so its still a miracle, just gonna talk a little longer to work it out. Oh, and the little girls name is L. and we were stopping by right after I got your package last week and it had that CTR slap bracelet.  I knew what to do with that as soon as I saw it! We stopped by and L. had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left and additional ones as well and we were standing at the door and I told her to hold her wrist out and I reached into my pocket and I snapped her on the wrist with the bracelet and she loved it.  Just the night before they were looking at my CTR ring and I was telling them that it meant "choose the right" or "Christ the Redeemer" and she really wanted one really bad.  So I was able to give her that one after she had read and she loved it!  She is awesome a little 9 year old that loves reading the Book of Mormon and really wants to get baptized.  She comes to church even when her grandma doesn't. So we are hoping everything works out with her mom.  Her brother is supposed to get baptized too but we have only meet with him the  first time we taught her, so we are hoping to get him over to his grandmas again because he really wanted to be a member of the Church.

Thanks for all the Christmas presents, I really liked them  all!! Just remember the true spirit of Christmas, as the prophet said you can just drop the second part of the syllable of Christmas and it becomes the spirit of Christ. He is the reason for the season. The greatest gift we will ever be given was the gift of our Savior and I know that he is the Son of God and our Savior and Redeemer.

Love, Elder Ritchie

The Lost Letter and Pictures

They told me to go suck a lemon.  So I did.

Hey, I had a good week, I just wrote a long descriptive story about the awesome miracle we had but then the computer erased it :( and it was a good one, I spent like 30 minutes writing it... but i guess i just have to wait and tell you on the phone this week.

I'll probably call around 1 our time so I think that is noon there. I'll see if we can get the skype thing to work or not if not I'll just call.

 Oh yes, I got your package and grandma's package! I used something in your package for that miracle I was writing about but got erased... it was super cool.. but this computer is lame... oh, tell Sullivan and Grandma thanks as well!




My Christmas gift to Terry




My mission President is a star!
We had a zone conference with a nativity play last week.




My Companion got carded buying root beer.  Good thing he's over 21.






We are supposed to avoid the appearance of evil.

 

My CTR Ring fits on my tongue!

 

I drink my Tabasco straight out of the bottle.

 

The trash shute from the loft of the Man Cave.



I like my toast licorice flavored.

I'll talk to you on Christmas!

Love Elder Ritchie 







Christmas Package

We received a package from Sam.   Here are the contents, presents wrapped up in Ensign pages, ketchup packages, and a left over bag of pork cracklins!

And a letter.

Dear Family,
I got you guys some presents.  It's not much but it's something!  Mom and Dad you can open yours when you get it but everyone elses can wait.  I put in a present for Chelsie, Nolan and Dillon so make sure they get them.  And no, the wrapping paper on Chelsie's isn't "Forget Me Not", so she doesn't forget me, it's because she said that was her favorite conference talk, so yeah.  Anyways, I just barely got your 12 days of Christmas package so I'll look forward to that. 

Tell the grandparents hello and I miss them and I love their letters.  And tell Grandma Clark to stop bragging about going to Hawaii, haha, but seriously, I'm going with her next time.  Anyways, I've got some dodge Ball that needs to be played and faces that need to learn how to dodge a ball!

Love you,

Elder Ritchie

Crawdads on our Christmas Tree

                                                         

An Instant Primary

Well, to start off we had an awesome church this Sunday, we got someone that lives across the street from the house we have the group meeting to come to church and she brought the 8 kids she was watching, 2 were her own.  We had a full house and all 8 of the kids were under 7 so it was a party haha!  I asked Sister Campbell if she was ready for primary and she kinda gave me an odd look and then we told her about the 8 kids that were supposed to be there and she kinda just went into shock, so did  I a little! It didn't really hit me, 8 kids, until they got there. And they were all under 7 haha!  We were in for a treat!  Then Sister Campbell asked if there was anything she needed help with and we said, well they live kiddie-corner to you, so we might could help her get them all here. So we went with her and took the first wave of 5 kids, we got to shepherd them to the church. It was awesome!  They were really good kids, they all held hands and walked with us to the house.  Then Terize (the lady we are teaching) showed up with the rest of them. They all were very good in church and the bishop even came down for the first time to the group meeting.

The three of us missionaries got to talk. I talked on hope and how the world misuses the term hope and how its a little different in the gospel context, that it is more of a firm belief and yearning for blessings. I used Alma 34:22 with it and then brought it back to Moroni 7:41 and that all hope comes through the atonement, and then to 2 Nephi 31:20 that we must have a perfect brightness of hope and we shall have eternal life, it went well. 

Terize, the 22 year old watching all those kids, really liked church we had a lesson with her this last week and she ate up everything we were teaching her.  I've never seen someones eyes light up so much from the thought of a prophet and how the book of Mormon came about through a prophet.  She had some questions about where we go after life here so we had her read Alma 40:11-13 and she was like, oh that's a relief!  Ha ha! She loved it, so that was an awesome miracle!

How we ran into her was awesome too.  We were out with a member and a lesson fell through so we went to see if we could see some other investigators but noone was available. So, we were like oh, we will have to try another time and the member we were with was like "I went on a mission and I know how it can be especially tough when you have members come it makes it harder a lot of the time".  So, we decided to call it a night but as we were driving back to the apartment I thought, "Hey, lets go stop by this house," and it just so happened that Terize was home and her kids and boyfriend were gone so we had a quiet lesson and we had a male member with us so we were actually able to go inside and have a lesson. It was an awesome miracle. The circumstances were to perfect to be coincidence and she really felt the spirit. She had been having a terrible day, her dog got stolen and she had to track the guys that stole it down and they made her pay for her dog because when she said she was going to get the police involved they said they would just shoot the dog, (people are in love with their pit bulls here they are the most popular dog) anyways, it was awesome that we were able to help provide the spirit to help her have a better day.

  

My new companion is having some struggles.  Then next few weeks will be interesting.  He really wants to be on a mission, but he is having some problems interacting with people and studying to be a missionary. 

 

The work is  going good, and my other companion leaves for home this week so that's good.  He was able to make it after all the struggles he has had on his mission. We get along well, especially when we are doing the work, not so much when we are just around the apartment but we do alright.

 

I'm sending a package home with some presents for Christmas, you and dad can open yours when you get it cause it can be used for Christmas and it probably comes close to the present I got you last year, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to top getting my mission call.  Every one else can wait to open theirs. I'm sending a picture that I got when I was in Challmete that an investigator, well now  a new member, got me. This is the one that was baptized two weeks after I left.  I don't know if I said this already but I think 10 or 12 people have come into the church because of her example. Mom,  will you get on my Facebook and say hi to Tammy  and Chelsie. Just tell them I miss them or something, just send them a message, don't have to write on their wall or what ever you kids are calling it these days.

 

Anyways, love ya

 

love elder ritchie

On Christmas, I'll call before three cause that will be four here and we only have one hour of church or I could do it after that,  maybe like 11 or 12  if that works, Idon't really think it matters. We can do it whenever works.

 

So, the man cave is awesome. My companion is from Corona California . The senior couple are still here and hey, if your sending a package just send it to the 1630 prairie address cause its probably safer going there because they have a hidden door, ours is like right by the street, but you can send mail to my new place at  604 Samson but either address works. The Campbell's call me if I have mail.  It's probably good we moved out though, I was about to start calling them mom and dad, haha!  It felt a little like home having older people there.  They are super awesome they support the church and the members here so much they have activated a couple of families and help us visit less actives and find people to teach.  Senior couples are the best!

 

We had kind of a disappointing week at church though, we were counting on Braden and his friends to show up because his friends had a baptismal date for the 17th but it looks like we will have to postpone it till next year. It would be to hard to get a baptism over the break, but we will see how it works out.  Terry has been sick lately, he has had internal bleeding or something, they think it's a bleeding ulcer so we haven't seen him in a little while, he did bear his testimony last week when we had church here in Abbeville.  Our group here in Abbeville is making progress, the bishop approved us to get the new teaching materials for next year. He wasn't going to let us have Sunday school and YM and YM but we talked to our ward mission leader who is awesome, and he has been trying to get the ward a spark for missionary work so I think his work is starting to pay off.

 

I got a package from the young women of the ward with some nice stuff inside. I love the pillow case they sent, it was sweet and I needed a new one anyway so tell the thank you for me. I'll try and sent them a thank you card sometime but not today, we are going to the Tabasco factory.  It's only like 20 miles from us. We are going with the New Iberia missionaries. Oh yeah, my Collin look alike from Tahiti that was serving in New Iberia got transferred :(  .  But they replaced him with another missionary from French Polynesia Islands, but he doesn't look like Collin. 



 

Tell Daphanie that I want some koolaid when I get to the airport or at least I expect her to have been drinking some so I can recognize her by her red Koolaid mustache that matches her red hair :] 

 

Boudin

Well, I got to try something new this week it was called boudin.  It's weird sausage with rice in a pig intestine. We also had seafood boudin with shrimp, rice, and crab in the intestine, it was pretty good, very spicy.  The seafood one was really good.  We grilled it over a wood stove our neighbor CJ has on our porch.  We are getting some really Cajun training.  I got to help make a gumbo the other day too!  

 

 

Well, I best be going now,

 

love ya

love elder ritchie 

Thanksgiving's Move to the Man Cave

We had a  good Thanksgiving, we ate and we ate... and then we taught... and then we moved. We moved into our new apartment and its saweeet! It has a loft and only one window and its a man cave! I'm going to take pictures and you guys can build me one so I can have it when I get home. It will just need a few more basic essentials we are not allowed to have on a mission. We moved into it on Thursday after we ate and then taught a lesson, we were actually teaching a lesson in one of the rooms at the Campbell's to Terry, just talking about priesthood cause that's what he was concerned about. He keeps saying "the bishop is going to test me on it next week".  He got the True to the Faith book and the bishop told him to study priesthood and he was going to ask him questions about it next week. So we went over it with him in his reading, but while were were reading everyone started running out the door with our beds so we were like, what in the world! And they said they were going to go put our beds in the new apartment cause someone was there with a truck. So, we just took everything and moved in that night, in a hurry!

 

 

 

My two companions are doing alright, I'm training one and getting ready to send one home. It's going well, Elder West is my new companion and Elder Limb is the older one. Elder West and I get along really well, he just has a hard time studying and remembering things but he's fun. We get along a little better than Elder Limb and I do.  But when Elder Limb and I  are teaching,  we do a pretty good job. Elder West is still shell shocked when it comes to teaching but that's normal, we will see how well he can break out of it cause he is a little different in social situations.

 



Sam in Abbeville



We got a new assistant to the president last week,  its Elder Murphy from Idaho Falls so I'm getting even more pull in the office and with president, so hes got my back! Oh and I can't remember if I told you but we got a car.  It's been in the 40's here to so we got it just in time.  For Christmas I could use a sweater and maybe a pair of thin gloves. Well I'm out of time.

 

Love you,

elder ritchie

Baptism Week

Hey,

So we had a really good week and a really really good weekend! Terry's baptism went really well. We had his family really involved, his son gave a very brief talk about baptism and his brother-in-law gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and while they were talking I went and talked to the ward missionary conducting the meeting and had him invite Terry's wife to bear her testimony right before the baptism as well. After each of them got done with their talk, Terry hopped up and gave them a hug and said thank you. Terry was the one that told me to make sure we got his wife to bear her testimony because they have been having a hard time but he didn't want her to know before the baptism so I was sneaky about it (ha ha, you know how I can be sneaky I'm sure). The baptism went really great, a member from the ward baptized him, he is the one that takes him to the addiction recovery class in Baton Rouge and he also home teaches his family so he has been a really good influence on him.  After our lessons when we would find scriptures with Terry he would all ways highlight them and make sure to show him on their way to Baton Rouge. 

 

 

 

 

 

So I have had a blast teaching Terry and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be here a while so I will get to be around him even more. There was a concern with his confirmation however, his wife was in the hospital the night after the baptism because she had a problem with her foot, she has diabetes, so they were in the ER all night and didn't even get to see anyone about it... (hospitals, what a joke!)  So they were late to church in Lafayette but they ended up coming in during the sacrament hymn so we did it right after the sacrament. It was also ward conference here and they have a traditioon of a gumbo for the ward after ward conference. That was pretty cool!  I'm going to have to bring that one back to Idaho. Gumbo is so good and the spicier the better.  I finally got to try potato salad in gumbo, I really liked  that too especially when you take a really good potato salad and put it in a really good gumbo I wasn't sure from the sound of it, but it was way good.

 

 

 

 

We also had a good FHE group after church, we were able to get a 15 year old less active there and his friend, they really like the food we had. There were some really good meatballs and pasta and we were able to go have a lesson with the less active and his friend and we committed him for baptism so hopefully they both start to learn more about the gospel together we are supposed to go play basketball with them today and a member that is their age too.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, its transfer week that's why I'm writing on a Tuesday.  I found out I'm going to be in a threesome for the next 3 weeks till Elder Limb, my companion goes home and I'm getting a brand new companion fresh of the plane so I'll be training again.  I get to see one come and one go in the same transfer. I talked to the president about my new companion and I'm kind of nervous cause I guess he's has had some learning disabilities in the past and had been in special ed before and he is going to need some "TLC" as President Wall put it. I'm not really sure what to expect, two companions that are struggling at the same time, I don't know if I'm the right person for someone that needs TLC.  I don't know, President really likes to throw me curve balls, maybe it's cause I need more patience or something. Oh, and I found out I'm taking over the zone leaders area cause the zone leaders are going to be the Spanish missionaries in Lafayette, so again I'm covering another area, another curve ball. But we get a car tomorrow haha! Because we are getting a giant area and I've got some pull in the office!

 

Love you guys!

love elder ritchie

Stay Tuned for Pictures!

A Letter!

Dear Family,

Hey, I got your card and your package so thank you!  I'm putting a SD card in here with a bunch of pictures so hopefully it doesn't get swiped.  People do that alot to the mail so you gotta be sneaky about it. The SD was wrapped in temple cards and the whole envelope was wrapped with layers and layers of tape.

Everything is going good, I think I told you mostly everything in the email I sent.  Oh, we are going to be moving to our own apartment a couple of streets over in like a month, so I will let you know when that happens.  Oh, I have been showing people my Trouble Book and they always say how cool it is.  I brought it out at an FHE dinner last night and everyone was drooling over her blue eyes.

So I haven't heard about Erica in a while, tell her hi for me, she has been out like 6-7 months now so she is almost half way.  I hit my sister-half-way-mark last month.  I wonder how the Swedish is coming for her.  I have been learning a new language again.  I went from Chalmation (it's what they cal it in Chalmette it kinda sounds like a Brooklyn accent) to Eubonics in Baton Rouge, and now I'm getting a taste of Cajun.  They talk fast!  And then the black people speak a mix of Eubonics and Cajun, it's different.  I didn't really think we had that proper of English where we live, but I got down here and feel like I sound so refined.  It's weird.  So I think I'm going to be in a tri-panionship in a couple of weeks.  I'm supposed to train again according to Pres. Wall two weeks ago, but you never know, he likes to change things a lot? But it's always good.  Well enjoy the pictures.

Take care and love ya,

Love Elder Samuel Alan Ritchie

Sick Days

Well, my sickness came back. I was homebound most of the week so we didn't get a whole lot done.  It's not fun being sick on your mission, it's alright for a couple of hours but once you have slept all you can, it's not fun cause there is no TV to keep you entertained while you feel like crap. Oh yeah, I lost my voice too, we were talking to a lady last Tuesday night that was an atheist and we were talking up a storm trying to help her realize that there is a God and how she can find out the truth and half way through the lesson my voice just went out on me. But I kept trying to talk and I think I made it worse than it was going to be cause we were really trying to help the lady out.  We found a good thing to share with her, I'll have to send it to you, I really like it. She was all about science and this article makes you think especially coming from  one of the smartest people there has been.

 

So I sat around all week and slept and read and I actaully learned a bunch of hymns from that easy hymn book they have  so I can play like 15 hymns with one hand now.  I just don't know how to teach myself how to play with the second hand, I figured it out for one song but then I took a break and forgot how.

 

Well, the baptism is still looking good for Saturday. Terry stopped smoking last Saturday and says he is going to do it! So, keep him in your prayers! He didn't have a problem with anything but coffee and smoking.

 

We are having Thankgiving here. The Campbells, our senior missionaries are cooking. We also had church here yesterday. Kinda cool waking up, studying, and walking out your bedroom and down the hall to the chapel.  It went well, we had 19 people here, we were missing a family of 5 so that hurt a little but still a good turn out. We had the senior office couple that I got to work with for a week come give talks, they were really good. 

 

And yes, I could use a sweater, it gets cool here.  Haha, I never thought I would be saying 40 degrees is to cold but I don't like it.  I bought some long socks because slacks don't hold the heat in and the wind goes through em. I'm looking for an old suit at a thrift store so I don't have to wear my nice ones on a bike. It's been fun on a bike, there are lots of ditches to jump in and out of and I've found some good ledges to drop off of. I had to go buy a skateboarding helmet too because bike helmets aren't as comfortable. Oh, and I would also enjoy a beenie if your ever sending a package, just throw one of my old ones in or something, just for the mornings. I bought a double xl hoodie that I wear when I study: comfy, giant, and warm! We're not allowed to swim in water so I bought a hoodie that I could swim around in instead!

 

We have also been helping a guy get our new apartment all ready it is sweet!! I want one like it when I get home, it has a loft that we study in and it's big and the ceiling is some old kind of wood he found and put up then he just ran a steel brush over and stained it.  It's a man cave haha! There are like no windows, and the guy we are renting it from is going to live on the side of the house in his houseboat. But he is normally out hunting and fishing all the time and goes to his cabin which I guess is bigger than most houses here (not hard to do).

Well that's about all I got!

love ya'll

love elder ritchie

 

P.S. Mom, I found your birthday in the Book of Mormon Alma 14:23!

Spreading Viruses and the Gospel

Soooo, I got sick last week... I was out for a day... and now everyone is catching it. I guess im just a trend setter... everyone want to do what elder ritchie is doing.. joke!   But other than being sick it was a good week, we played some football and soccer with some members from Idaho last Monday.  We have a family in our group that is from Idaho and they loved the Boise State shirt you guys sent, so good job!

 

I was on an exchange in New Iberia with Elder Geuthiex from Tahiti, he looks like he could be Collins twin brother except a little shorter and a smaller nose.  But they kinda have the same personality, kinda a shy funny kid.  French is his first language as well. So I think I decided that's where Collin really comes from, Tahiti. I'll have to get a picture with him.  Oh, and I'm going to Tahiti when I get home. 

 

Oh, thanks for the snowboarding pictures too, people like to see the snow and  the mountains cause most haven't really ever seen any.  They just don't know what they are missing out on! Haha! Mountains are where the prophets go to dwell with God, so its a good thing they have a temple down here cause there are noooo mountains! Although I did hear a rumor that there are hills up in Mississippi in Natches or Alexandria somewhere so I was gonnna try and go there when I was in the office, make a trip to see the elders and maybe a so called "hill" but it will have to wait.  But I'm glad to be out of the office and teaching again cause after a week I was getting rusty with teaching. We had a couple lessons but they weren't very good. We didn't get to study very often either so it's true, if you don't use it you lose it!

 

I just like it here and I'm glad I got here when I did because we started teaching Terry a day or two after I got here and it is looking like his baptism is going to happen on the 19th. He's excited about it and he is really working for it, it's not easy but he is doing it!

 

So Mercy wants everyone to lick her?? Man have things changed since I left haha!  (In my letter I said that nothing has changed, then what I meant to say was that Mercy the dog still wanted to lick everyone). Well thats all I got for now.  Take care! Love ya!

 

love elder ritchie

Eating Cajun Catfish and Teaching

I got the package, thanks! But I haven't gotten the card yet. That's to bad about Nolan... hope he gets better, sounds like everyone is just having back problems these days. I was just thinking a couple weeks ago about how cool it was going to be to when Nolan got out and all four of were all on missions and now we are back down to two. I hope they are both able to get better especially without surgery cause that's never good.  Hopefully Collin's and my backs hold strong.

 

I think we are going to go play soccer with some of the youth in our little group. There is a family that is origonally from Idaho that lives here and all the kids play soccer and they don't have schoool today so we are gonna go hang out with them for a little bit. Other than that I'm not sure what we will do for P day.  I don't have all the options I did in Baton Rouge, or all the other missionaries, or a car... but I hear there is some really good fishing around here so we might try looking into that, it's just hard when you can't go in a boat.

 

The work here is going really good. We have got some good people we are working with, we just started teaching a man named Terry that has a wife and kid that are members but he never joined and now that he and his wife have been separated he has really become interested in the gospel and wants to do better.  He was telling us how he wanted to get his family sealed together but because of everything that is going on right now he's not sure how far that will go but he says he just wants to work on himself first and then that will come or it won't but he wants to put it in the Lords' hands so he is super solid. We have been reading in Mosiah with him and we really hit home with the atonement in our lesson last night the Spirit was really strong and you could just see he wanted the atonement in his life just from his countenance and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. He is really excited to get baptized. He's working toward November 19th right now and I'm pretty sure he is going to make it. We are also teaching one of the friends of the senior couple we are staying with. Her name is Sheila and she's from England and has had a very hard life! But she sounds like she is doing very good and she is friends with alot of the members and she has come to church the last two weeks with us. Sheila and Terry have both been going to church and other church programs to help them out.

 

I ate something new this last week - fried cauliflower, and we had fried catfish but it wasn't fillets, it was just the skins and heads with the  guts cut out.  Just the head and the tail. The guy that came and cooked for us showed us that you can eat the tail of the fish after its fried and it tastes just like eating a potato chip and has the same crunch. Kinda cool, haha! Cajuns are crazy!

 

It's been cold here these last 3 days. It's been in the 60's and even down in the 50's at night. It's not like the 50's and 60's back home though, it's different and cuts through you especially if there is a breeze. But every thing for the most part is still green, there are a few trees that are a little yellow but not much.

 

Well I'm not gonna lie Mom, your emails have been kinda lame lately... but I guess thats alright I did just get a package!

 

love ya

love elder ritchie

Sermons in a small town

I'm out of the city now, it's nice to be away from all the traffic of Baton Rouge.... but I do miss it already.  But so far Abbeville is awesome, there are some really cool people out here. We don't have a church here but they do have a group that meets twice a month in the house where we live. We are living with a senior missionary couple that is doing a service mission.  They use their house for the group meetings. The closest church is in Lafayette so we went there yesterday and it was really great, it felt alot more like a home ward than what I've been accustomed to in Baton Rouge or New Orleans. But is still had its differences.  The people here are really nice, I forgot what it was like to be in a smaller town and how people on the street just talk to you.

 

We have had some really good progress here, we found a bunch of new invesitgators. It was kind of like we got double transfered into the area, both me and  my comapion Elder Limb.  The President called me last week to come to the mission home to have a chat and he told me about the situation here and  that I would stay until December and then I'm probably going to be training again after that.  So it's kinda been a different experience.  But we have gotten some work done in the 3 days I've been here, found 4 new investigators and had one to church and 3 have baptismal dates so its been alot of fun! 

 

We have a big FHE every Sunday afternoon as well and it usually brings out about 30 people. We ate a lot of food and then had dessert and I was in charge of the spirtiual thought or lesson so I did a lesson on "bondage and repentance" and how sin puts us in bondage. We read some good scriptures and then got a volunteer (there were a bunch of kids there so I did an object lesson) we had him come up with us and we had a giant bag of candy and we said that the bag of candy represented happiness or eternal life.. and then we asked if he wanted that candy and he said of course.. but we told him he had sinned so we had to put him in bondage so we taped his hands together so he couldn't grab the candy, then explained he had to repent to get the candy and we cut him free.  It went over great.

 

Oh, you know how  I said we didn't have to worry about traffic any more, well one of the big reasons is because I'm on a bike now...haha!  I went from unlimited miles in our giant van and driving different cars all day and driving  new cars right off the lot with only one mile on them.... to my bike! haha!  Oh well, at least I have the memories.  But I was missing teaching because we didn't get to teach hardly at all in the office. So I was pumped when I got here and got to go back to full time proselyting.

 

So Dillon is home, crazy! Hopefully he makes it back out! Tell him if he goes state-side to request Louisiana haha! Come teach some of these cajuns with me!

 

So Alisha is engaged! Haha! That's funny cause I think Elder Salizar wrote here a letter, he wanted someone to write and I know Alisha likes writing missionaries. Whoops!

 

Anyways tell Taylor and Nolan and Joe good luck for me.

 

love elder ritchie

Change of Plans

Hey, so false alarm! I am getting transferred!

 

There was some stuff that came up in another area and President said I'd be a good fix, so I guess I'm going to Abbeville to serve with and Elder Limb. So if there is anything you were planing on sending send it to: 

 

1630 Prairie Ave.

Abbeville LA

70510

It looks like my days as an office Elder were short lived but we had fun and I  got to meet some cool new missionaries, some that were shipped off today espeicially Elder Klem, haha! Tell Peter that I served with a legit Elder Klem, he might get a kick out of that. But I get to go be in a district with one of my favorite  missionaries that I was companions with in the MTC, Elder Bennett, so I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be sweet!

I can't get my camera to send pictures right now, so here is a picture from someone else's camera.  Enjoy!

Driving Cars for the Mission Office

Hey Mom, your old! Sorry but 50 is old. But there is nothing worng with being old though, old people are good at some stuff!

 

Everything is going good here working in the mission office, we get to do all the dirty work.  We get to run the fleet of cars, 51 of them and we get to drive a 14 passenger van around! Even when we go out and proselyte.  So that's pretty sweet, we  can just run people over now if we want. My companion is from LA and he is almost done, he goes home right when I hit a year.  We are doing great, we don't get a lot of time to work with the people here now since we work in the office from 10 to 5 from Tuesday to Friday and then we get to go out and teach on nights and weekends so hopefully we get some spiritual work done too. It's a little different, we got to drive to New Orleans last week, it kinda made me feel home sick. I hope I get to serve down there agian some time. Maybe I'll get to go to Chalmette while working in the office since we get to run all over the mission and deal with cars and help with apartments.  We even get to sell cars! So, I've been driving a lot of cars lately.

 

The Jackson's are doing great they weren't able to make it to church though, so that kinda stunk. But we're still seeing progress. Well I hope you all liked your birthday presents. I forgot when Rebecca's was actually, I don't think she ever told me. So happy birthday Rebecca!

 

Well,  love you guys, miss you

Love, elder ritchie

Finding a Big "Golden" Family

Hey, it looks like I'm staying here another transfer?? Guess I still have work to do here haha!

 

I'm kinda glad I'm staying though, we found a really cool new family last week! A family of 7 and we're able to commit 6 for baptism. They have met with missionaries before and the thing holding them back was not being married and the dad was smoking, but in the 2 years since they met with missionaries they were able to get married and he quite smoking so it has been a giant miracle. It's a crazy story of how we ran into them, we were reffered to someone else by another investigator we have and we tried to talk to them but we got the wrong person who said somone in a house down the street used to meet with the missionaries and to try down there. So we went down the street and played the guessing game of which of the houses it was. We ended up finding a girl in the first one we picked that said she had not met with missionaries before but we had a good lesson with her and she said she would like to get baptized and then we went back and taught her again and that time we invited her little sister that was 14 to listen and she was really excited. Then we stoped by again and they said they had talked to their mom about us and their mom was excited to meet us. We ended up meeting her a few days later and she said she had met with us before and she wanted to learn more but they were talking their baby to the hospital so we set up another time and we went back. When we got there the whole family (6 of them at the time) were gathered waiting for us and they were all asking really good questions and the father was  saying how he would really like to see all of his kids baptized. We had a member named Johnathan B. (but every one calls Whoop) with us. He is a convert of 2 years and is getting his mission papers ready so we have had him out with us whenever we can get him. Our ward hasn't had a missionary in years. Anyway, when the dad said he had been baptized before in another church, Whoop chimed in and said he was too but it really came down to the authority that our church has and how no one else even claims to have the proper authority.  The dad loved that! So we've had a solid last week!  I'm glad, it's going to make staying a whole lot better! I'm excited to stay now and work with a big awesome family.

 

We are also working with a part member family that is coming along really great, the parents are members but not active and their kids haven't been baptized. They were super happy I was able to stay. But I'm losing my companion and getting a new one and they threw something else at me, I'm going to be a part time office elder. We just got a new senior couple in the office and they need a lot of help, so me and my new companion, Elder Anderson, are going to be working in the office a lot too.  So it's going to be an interesting transfer.

 

I'm sending you a package with a birthday present for eveyone that has birthdays coming up (including Josh) or had them already. You guys can fight it out for what you want. So, Happy Birthday Mom, Peter, Rebecca and Josh!

 

So I hear your're already getting snow! That's crazy! haha! It's still in the 70/80 range here so I'm pretty happy with the good weather for football.  LSU is still holding number one! The town is getting antsy.  I think I'll get to be here for the end of the college season too! Thats cool!  Mom, when I get back we gotta go sky diving because your 50 now! haha! Half way to 100!  And its not crayfish its crawfish!  But I've been eating so much lately I'm not to sad  I missed it (the Semi-Annual Ritchie Crab, Shrimp, and Crawfish Feed).

 

Well, I'll let you know how the office elder work is and how the Jackson family progresses. Let me know when you get the package!

 

love you!

love elder ritchie

Teaching Iranians and Fried Chicken Prayers

Yeah, conference was really good, I loved it! It was different watching every session in the church, but kinda cool. I still missed my legos and my pjs, but I probably got a little more out of it that I do with my legos. I can't believe Star Valley Idaho is getting a temple, haha, probably because they were praying for something to do there.

Well, we had a good week other than getting people to conference. We tried but weren't able to get anyone there. But right afterward we went and saw Darrius and committed his son for baptism. His wife and daughter aren't really interested but his son Sam is very interested and Darrius has been telling him a lot about it. We even got him to offer a prayer in front of everyone at the end of the lesson. He was able to recount the whole Joseph Smith story from the restoration dvd we watched with them a month or so ago. And we had left a Family is Forever dvd with Darrius before his baptism and Sam had watched it and loved it. It was really cool to have Darius there bearing his testimony to his son about what he had felt when he was baptized because Darrius has a solid testimony. He even faced some"anti" when he went to an Iranian Christian service with his wife and was talking to the pastor and the pastor found out he was in the LDS church and started talking bad about it and he defended the Church and questioned the pastor for talking bad about something that made him feel good and closer to God. That's what Satan tries to do! Teaching Sam made me miss teaching Darrius though and whenever he likes something he always lets you know by telling you "vonderful"! He kinda throws a "v" in for the "w" because of his accent. He is just a super awesome guy and I think the best part of the lesson with Sam for Darrius was when we let him know that he could baptize his own son because of the priesthood. We mentioned that one day Sam could be a missionary like us and Darrius really liked that too. His eyes lit up when we said that because he loves missionaries especially what they do. I hope that his wife and daughter will follow their example as well. Actually, we found out the daughter, Roxy, was reading the Book of Mormon we left and she said she was on page 7 and she was enjoying if! So, there its hope! Now I just wish I spoke Farsi so I could talk to his wife a little better.

My companion is form Lovelock Nevada and one of the Spanish missionaries in the apartment is from Rupert so we have had a pretty heated week in the apartment (Boisie State played Nevada in football) but good old Boise pulled through for me and Elder Christiansen from Rupert haha! I don't think revenge is always a bad thing. We turned the other cheek, we just happened to beat them pretty good in the process! LSU is still standing strong at number one so the town's still happy. And the Saints won too so eveyone's in a great mood. I'll have to send a Fleur de Lise/ tiger eye sticker home because I know you all are big Saints/LSU fans... haha!

My favorite talk from conference was D. Todd Christofferson's about repentance, I thought that was a good one and I kept thinking about his spring on about being cut down too. President Eyring's was probably my second favorite, but they were all good. I think the ward liked the one about the Seventy who was riding his bike and prayed for a quarter so he could get some fried chicken and the Lord answered his prayer. I liked it too, kind of a humble faith filled prayer.. and then to top it off we had some fried chicken afterwards too!

But I gotta get going!

love you all and take care
love elder ritchie

Favorite Foods and Other Things

I'm ready for conference! I can't wait! We get to watch some TV and relax a little bit.. haha! joke! But seriously, we had a good week, I was able to go on an exchange out to New Roads, a little town and work with a missionary in my district. The area is really struggling and they are pretty sure it is going to get closed down, so I think im going to give an instruction on diligence in district meeting this week to try to keep them going strong out there. I hope they keep it open because it will be really hard to open it back up after they close it because it is so far from the church.

We have been doing a lot of less-active work lately because our ward has 600+ members but only 100-150 are very active. We have been seeing alot of them and we have had some back at church these last couple weeks. It has been really cool to see them there and seeing that they liked being back at church one because its "the church" and because the Baton Rouge 1st ward is awesome.

Oh, so we made donuts last night, beignet's actually, a french donut I'm not sure how to spell it but I had one down in New Orleans from Cafe Du Monde, it was so good!

I've been learning some Portugese lately because we have a member that is from Brazil and we have been teaching her friends and we teach them English to so they teach us a little Portugese too, haha! They keep saying that I could pick it up and speak it really well. Tania the member, wants us to go to the next world cup with her and stay at her family's place in Soa Paulo, that would be pretty sweet!

What picture did you find on his Elder Salazar's blog? He is living with us right now.

Oh,back to talking about food, we had some really good gumbo yesterday! And some jalepeno cheddar cornbread and topped it off with Blue Bell ice cream, the best kind of ice cream! We had cookie dough and birthday cake flavored! They need to get Blue Bell in Idaho and if they have it get Josh some cause he would be in heaven, its the best! I'm not much of an ice cream person and I cant stop eating it!

Haha! Rebecca is the primary president! That's sweet, we have taught a few primary lessons, its fun. I usually just use the pictures of Jesus on the pass along cards we have and let the kids hold my placque with my name on it.. they love that.

LSU isn't in our area right now. There are LSU elders, one is Elder Robins, my last comp. But last week the South Baton Rouge area was closed because one of the missionaies was a "visa waiter" and he got sent out so they closed the area and we absorbed it into the two other areas we already have. So we had the whole of Baton Rouge (which is giant, way more people than any other area in the mission) in our area for a while. I didn't know what was going on so it was pretty crazy. The mission president actually took us out to dinner the other night because he felt bad that he kinda left us in the dark for awhile. But it is all worked out and now they have missionaries back there so it's running smooth.

I gotta wrap it up!
love ya
elder ritchie

A Picture at the Temple

A picture I found and stole off Elder Salazar's Blog! Thanks Elder Salazar!

Nerf Gun Warfare and Deep Thoughts

(I was writing to Sam about our trip to Lake Powell - one of his favorite places - this week and how the Spragues were going to have to plan a trip when he and Erica his cousin are home from their missions.) That's good that you got to the lake, we gotta have an epic trip when we get home! Cause I'm sure you all are just going insane with boredom with out me and Erica I mean Syster Sprague.

But everything is still going good here in Louisiana. Baton Rouge is still an adventure! We saw the Sons of Guns TV show's shop the other day, The Red Jacket, we were going to stop in with our nerf guns and get them upgraded. Do you thing they would put us on TV, a bunch of Mormon missionaries bringing in nerf guns asking them to modify them for our nerf war we are going to have? I think it would be prime time stuff.. haha! But we really are having a nerf war today for one of the missionaries in our districts birthday. I got a nerf sniper rifle and I'm getting pretty good with it.. haha!

We had a good week this week, a lot of good stuff going on and then some let downs with it. Our investigators will switch on and off from one week to the next. A few will get hot and want to learn and come to church, then they cool off and others start to be interested. It eventually comes back full circle, its weird. We're trying to get some of them over the hump and keep them coming but Satan is real and throws all he's got at them. A lot of the time he works through others in their lives that are more susceptible to get down on those that are working for good. It's tough to watch people start to feel the spirit really strong and work really hard for something and then just stop because of some little thing someone did or said to them or sometimes the other people don't have to say anything, they just are worried they will. Makes you think of how Heavenly Father feels, especially when some people who already have the truth in their lives start to turn away from it.

But that kinda sounds doom an gloomish. It's been a really good week actually, we had the H. family at church and they seemed to really enjoy it! It makes all the difference when members throw themselves into the mix and introduce themselves to investigators and not just the other investigators. Every time they talk to anyone that is new its cool. Well that's all I got today. So, till next week!

love ya,
love elder ritchie

Ebonics

Every thing is still going good down here, we have had some really nice weather down here, in the 70s and not humid! It's been nice, I love being outside when it's like this. There's not the haze of the smog and humidity, it's clear and green. I love how everything is still really green here and hasn't died yet. I'm still waiting to see if the leaves on trees change colors or not in the fall.

We had a pretty productive week, we started teaching a woman from Brazil and her husband from Greece. So we are still using the gift of tongues and interpretation like crazy haha but they both speak pretty good English so its not hard at all (better than a lot we have taught).

Darrius gave a talk in church yesterday that was really good! and we got to see Detchewery the recent convert form France finally get the priesthood and another recent convert name Wes passed the sacrament with us. They were all baptized one after the other in a three week span so its cool to see them all doing great. Darrius was baptized first and he and Wes passed the sacrament and now he's given a talk. We had a dinner with his family last night but his wife speaks very little English. and then Wes was baptized and he is marrying into a Mormon family soon. He has been really fun to work with because of the changes he has made. He is a very driven guy when he wants to be, he always has questions and is working towards getting married and then in a year they are going to get sealed in the temple Then Detchewery was the third baptism of the three and he is the one from France. Very smart, he's 23 and has a masters in communications and is working on another in business administration so he can take over the family business back in France and Africa (oh yeah, he's black). Anyway, that's a little bit of whats going on down here. A lot of good stuff!

Well I miss "ya'll" (don't worry i still don't say y'all and never will, I hate it) but I have picked up on some ebonics or whatever they call it, haha, "the Book of Norman", "ax you a question", "scriptors", "squwimp" (shrimp), "churn" (children), haha, its weird the "skreet" it the street "skraight" its straight!

anyways, love ya

love elder ritchie

Tropical Storms don't stop BBQs

You asked if I hear about LSU football. WOW, DO I HEAR ABOUT LSU FOOTBALL!!!! That's all I've heard about... haha! They won this week so everyone was in a really good mood.. and it was cool that Boise came and beat an SEC team, people know where I'm from cause of Boise State.

I can't believe you didn't go camping at Fall River on Labor Day... that's weird.. don't worry I won't let the tradition die, I'll start it again in 2 years even if i go by myself.

They evacuated the New Orleans missionaries and put us on lockdown on Saturday because of the tropical storm. We had 4 missionaries stay with us so we just had a giant party. It was a weird weekend because it was sunny on Saturday when were on lockdown with just spurts of really bad rain and then on Sunday they took off the lock down and it was super windy and rainy... but by the time church and studying were over it got kinda nice so we went out. We just went to a bbq that an investigator invited us to haha, tropical storms don't stop bbq's I found out! Then we went to a less actives house and had a lesson. He's from Africa and he made us eat too and I was literally the fullest I've ever been because there was so much rice and they made us finish, I had to go back to the apartment and make myself throw up I was so full I think the rice was expanding in my stomach and was about to explode so I had to get it out of there.

Anyways, I'll try and get some pictures home, I've got some good ones so I'll try and mail them home next week cause it takes forever to email them. I was waiting for a memory card but maybe I'll just go by one and send the old one home. But when I send the old one home don't erase the picture just copy them and send it back cause I still like to have them When you send it back send some more pictures of me just doing stuff, people really like to see pictures especially the the ones of snowboarding. You can go add the people that want to be my friends on facebook now, I think there are a few.

Guess what, its in the 70's here!!!! So nice outside today! Thanks for the cds Luke, I love em, definitely a good choice with the Enya and the Walk in the Woods cds, there's one song on there that is just instrumental and kinda techno a little bit that sounds a little like donkey kong 3, its sweet!

The work is still going pretty good, we had SH. an investigator show up to church this week even with the crazy weather but she's going through a rough time because she wants to learn more about the church but her husband is super anti so we can't really go over there.... so that's no good. We're trying to involve the members but its tough.. well that's all I got for now, thanks again for the package!! I love the jerky its my favorite! and the cds and my green apple lip balm, good stuff... and I just got handed another package from the Spragues! so I'm gonna open that, so say thanks to them too!!

till next week love ya!! take care
lover elder ritchie

The one about Dogs, Baptists, and Transfers

Hey, just get grandpa a big dog... little dogs are no good! I still haven't got that package you said was comming but I'll keep looking for it (I sent it to Longview Ave instead of Longridge Ave and it came back!).

We had a pretty good week except it's transfer week and my Spanish roommates are leaving. One is going home, he is 27 and from Honduras, his name is Elder Sandres he is an illegal and was supposed to go to Boise but they found out he was illegal and sent him here because he lives in Texas. Now so his parents just get to pick him up. Elder Dehart is leaving too, he came to Louisiana the same time as I did and this is the only place he has been so he is way excited to leave. They aren't replacing them so it's just going to be two of us in our apartment now. It's not going to be as fun but it's going to be alot quieter. I'm staying here another 6 weeks at least, but I'm pretty sure this will be my last transfer here because I've done two and a half transfers here and that means I'm going to have at least three and a half here, and I doubt they will have me do more, hopefullly, I kinda want a little change, but it can wait. I'm just not looking forward to two people in our apartment.. but the work is going good and that is the important part.

Our mission president spoke in our church on Sunday and we had three unexpected investigators show up that kind of had fallen of the map. The mother said the wanted to get back on the path and was really insisted they were going to be baptized! They are a super cool family! It's the mom S. and her two daughters D and D (14 and 9), but the husband is a "baptist". we were actaully talking about John the Baptist in one of our lessons and he walked in and said "see John had it right he was a Baptist" haha!

But everything is going good here, tell both of my Grandma's thanks for the letters! I've been trying to write them back I have the envolopes filled out and ready but haven't had time to write the letters yet, so just tell them I love them and thanks and I love the letters! It's so nice to get letters I love it! I think my favorites are from my family and Jamie down in Challmette. It's so awesome to hear they are keeping the faith and loving it! There is nothing like it!! Well I'm out of time, they have us emailing our president's letters now so I don't get quite as much time to email.. but everything is going swell!!!

love ya bye

Service and Sweat

Well, we have been doing a lot of service. We moved a whole storage unit the other day and I got to use my rock garden planting skills the other day when we helped a less active member figure out how to install a rock garden and then helped her clear the place and we are putting the rocks in this week sometime, so thanks Mom, I didn't appreciate it at the time, but I guess it paid off! haha. Our new mission president is putting a big emphasis on service! So that's awesome. I've been able to wear my jeans a couple times and get dirty - oh yeah, and sweaty can't forget the sweaty, its ridiculous how sweaty you get, you can loose like 7 pounds a day of straight sweat..

We saw a pretty crazy fight going on this week, there were like 30 people involved and baseball bats and straight up fist to faces! haha It was in a pretty rough area so I flipped around and got out of there as fast as I could, haha cause that's all they would want to see, the only two white kids for miles around driving by. That and people always mistake us as some kind of police, haha.

We also were able to teach our Iranian friend D.H.'s family this week and they really liked it!

Oh mom, I actually just read about Saul/Paul on his way to Damascus and how he was converted, I read the story of Alma the younger not to long ago too so I kind skimmed over both and compared a little bit both really awesome conversion/missionary stories! (I asked him for some help on a lesson I'm giving)

We have been eating out a lot because its been a lot easier, but I'm still doing good keeping the weight off and we have been running now because my ankle is finally able to, it still is at only like 70 percent but its getting there.

Well that's about all I got time for today. love ya

love elder ritchie

Do me a favor and steal my Book of Mormons and Motab CDs

Everything is still good here, nope we didn't get our investigators baptized, they kinda fell off the face of the earth for a while but we got back in contact with the family and I let them borrow The Testaments a couple weeks ago and they said they watched it and really liked it. We just gotta stay in contact with them now but it's harder now that school started. Oh yeah, school started last week here, it's pretty crazy to start the first week of August.

Our Iranian friends family got back and they came to church this week, they looked pretty weary and nervous at first but at the end Brother Maughan had like half the ward go over and get to know them so they seemed a lot more relaxed when they were talking to people. D. seemed really happy that they we able to meet people. We actaully found a good video on mormon.org about a lady that speaks Farsi and is from Iran so we are going to try to watch that with them some time and I think his wife will really like that.

I can't remember if I told you but my companion's bike got stolen last Monday. He hadn't even ridden it yet. I felt super bad cause I probably should have locked it up for him cause the gates on our apartment complex have been broken so anyone can just drive in lately. We think someone got into our car but there's not much to steal in there unless they are looking for a Book of Mormom or some motab cds and that would probably be doing us a favor on both fronts :) I'm sick of motab and they would be taking what we try to give people everyday haha. I still want some good music by the way I'm counting on some Enya soon, I actually borrowed some but its her Christmas cd so we need more and preferably not Christmas music we have plenty of that unless its really good stuff..

Well, transfers are on the 31st so not for a couple weeks but I'm most likely staying because the new training plan keeps the trainer and the trainee together for two transfers. But it's not set in stone... Well, bye till next week!

Love ya
elder ritchie

New missionaries are like puppies.....

Now that I'm a DL, it's tough dealing with missionaries in a Christ-like way sometimes, but it's going good and everyone is getting along better.

My trainee got to baptize his first person on Saturday haha! We flipped a coin for it but I was hoping he would win so he could have a baptism in the first couple of weeks of his mission. I also had him do the confirmation. I told him he was going to do it right before it happened, he kinda got really nervous so I told him "only if you want to" cause I was supposed to. But he did it and it went really well! He is finally starting to break out of his shell a little bit. He has had a baptism every Saturday of his mission so far haha! and he just missed the one the week before... It's not looking like we are going to get the J. family baptized this comming Saturday, but they are still looking promising in the future.

It's tough being a trainer though and turning lessons over to him when you can tell he has no idea what to say. So we have been working on teaching and he's getting there.. haha! We're working on going 50 percent teaching from both of us instead of 98 percent of me teaching and 2 percent him.. But he is finding his place and starting to get out of the jitters a little bit. It's kinda like having a little puppy follow you around that has absolutely no idea what to do, but like puppies, they grow up fast.

Tell Sophie to wait a couple months to have her birthday and then I'll be happy to do it haha! (Sam's little 6 year-old cousin told her mother she was going to wait till he got home to baptize her, but she turns eight in November and Sam won't be home until February.)


I got to give my first instruction as district leader in district meeting (we have district meeting every Tuesday and the district leader instructs for an hour) I think it went really good!! I did it about the Book of Mormon and emphasised how it along with the spirit, is our best tool for conversion and then I read Alma 37, I think it's the last 10 or 12 verses of that chapter where it talks about the liahona and you replace the word lihona with the words Book of Mormon and it's really cool.. But it was really cool giving a good lesson and I had planned to give it on desire but when I got there I just decided to wing it on the Book of Mormon instead, it went really well though. It was definitely the spirit and not me...

Well it's getting a little cooler down here. It's been raining ALOT! We usually have a pretty good storm every afternooon and it makes it humid but it take the temperature from high 90's to mid 80's so thats nice. I don't really notice the humidity to much any more though except after it rains and the windows on the car always fog up on the outside, it's like driving in a sauna.

Oh, tell Collin's and Dillon's families thanks for the email forwards. It's nice to hear how they are doing, haha, it's weird to think they are in another country now, it still feels like they are just at home doing what they always do cause I didn't get to see any of them leave, but it sounds like its going pretty good for them! Hard but good! I live with the Spanish missionaries and it makes me appreciate missionaries that learn a language so much. I wish I would have been able to learn a language but I've been able to learn and hear about so many other countries and hear so many languages I feel like im in another country.. haha! I decided Africans are my favorite though, they are just the coolest people! We have a family that is from a tribe in Togo right by Ghana and they just tell us about it all the time and there are members from Nigeria and Liberia and we ran into a less active that went on a mission to South Africa that spoke some crazy language that they don't even teach missionaries anymore and he brought out his mission scriptures they were sick!! haha!

I'm kinda obsessed with scriptures now I've been living on ramen noodles cause I bought a giant quad this month that cost 70 bucks haha! I have like 3 pairs of scriptures now haha! I have a pair I color that is just the cheap kind we give away and I've colored it with my highlighters but it's probably my favorite to read cause I have some of the coolest highlighing! I've read through the B.O.M. like 3 times since I've been here!

Oh! they took away the rule of only motab, so send me some good music sometime. I want some Enya! and whatever else you think would work.



Well, thats about all I've got right now!
love ya,

love elder ritchie

It's not easy being a district leader and a trainer

Hey,

My companions name is Elder Gentry from Lovelock, Nevada. He's a good kid, he's really shy so I get to do all the teaching. I'm trying to slowly work him in, I had him start the lesson last night and do the soft commit and then a prayer, it went pretty good haha! It was with D. and he is getting baptized this Saturday so it was pretty straight forward cause he loves what he's hearing.

It's different being the experienced one, it's really opened my eyes to how much I've learned. I've read the Book of Mormon 3 times since I've been out and I feel like my teaching from it is doing pretty good and my teaching in general is really coming along. There are only 2 other missionaries in our district from new roads on the other side of the Mississippi and one of them is one of my favorite missionaries out here. But he and his companion aren't getting along as well as they should, so I get to talk to them about it. They just don't agree on some of the small things... and one is older but is the junior comp and only on his second transfer but he tries to run the show.

We had a baptism this Saturday, a man named W. and we have another coming up this Saturday for a man named D. and then the next week we have a family of three scheduled for baptism, so keep them in your prayers!

I gotta go, love ya, bye!

Email from the mission president

Dear Brother and Sister Ritchie,

It is my pleasure to tell you that your son, Elder Sam Alan Ritchie has been selected as a District Leader in the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission. As I have watched your son's development over the past months, I have noted the leadership skills that he has displayed. He has a good rapport with other missionaries and is a positive role model. I find him obedient, dedicated, and a hard-working missionary. His service as District Leader began on 20 July 2011. This call will continue until further notice. Your continued love and support will help Elder Ritchie in this responsible leadership calling. Thank you for your continued positive support of your son. Help him keep his mind on this spiritual opportunity.

Faithfully yours,

Jim M. Wall,
President Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission

A Baptism and guess who's a district leader & trainer

So D's. baptism went awesome! We had a member that was involved in the teaching baptize him, we thought it would help him get better fellowshiped in the ward and then my companion, Elder Robbins confirmed him and I gave him the priesthood.. It was good and he loved it. We were scared at the baptism though because he wasn't there at 7 like we had planned. We called him and he had gone to the other church on the south side because we took him there to watch a different baptism and so he went there instead. He eventually made it but it was kinda nice that he was late because our new mission president came and taught him with us and we had him do the baptismal interview and we invited him to the baptism and he said he wouldn't miss it. But the mission president, being new, put it in his GPS and it took him to the wrong Winbourne Street.. so he called right after D. finally arrived and said he was going to be late too. So they both eventually made it and then the baptism was a go!

So some other news, my companion and I have been doing pretty good here in North Baton Rouge and we got a call last week and found out that my companion got called to be a zone leader down on the West Bank! And so that means I'm getting another new companion... and when I say new, I'm talking fresh new and green... haha! So I'm going to be training. I'm kinda nervous for that, and I got called to be district leader on top of that so my hopes of going junior companion my whole mission are kinda foiled.... oh well..

So why was Josh passing out??? heat stoke or allergies or what? Maybe depression from missing his favorite crew boss?

Well it's good they liked the talk (I read some of Sam's letters as a talk in Sacrament meeting this past week). I'm sure a lot of it wasn't my writing though haha... But yeah, my ankle is doing better, I'm walking with out the brace, I still have to be careful with it but its getting a little stronger... and its back to normal color for the most part.. and i can finally fit it in the sweet loafers that I bought at a the thrift store..

A softball game and diversity

We had a good Fourth of July, we asked everyone in the ward for baseball mits and we got some bats and we went and played some soft ball. We even got a grill and had a BBQ. There were 14 of us missionaries and one that used to be a missionary here but went home and came back to sell security systems.. but it was great to play ball! I still couldn't reallly walk so I just pitched and hit and someone would run for me. It was the hottest game of soft ball I've ever played, it's so humid it's crazy! I didn't think it was possible to sweat so much, well I didn't sweat to bad cause I wasn't running at all but still its was hot... but my foot is alot better, it's turning back to its normal color and I can walk sort of normal.

We have a baptism comming up this Saturday if everything goes according to plan, he is really excited! We got him another Book of Mormon in Farsi because he lost his when he changed his store location. We started teaching a lady from Hati yesterday and we had a member that went to Canada on his mission and speaks French come so we could comunicate with her a little better. We have a teaching pool from all over the world, We have hit almost ever continent I think; Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and we are going to teach a member's mom from Brazil this week when she gets here.... It's pretty diverse here, one big giant melting pot.. I'm not really sure why they come to Baton Rouge of all places, but hey, if they are willing to hear us teach the restored gospel, nothing's gonnna stop us!

Short and sweet

It sounds like you had a fun fourth of July. My ankle is getting a little better, still really bruised but i think it will be fine in a week or two.. We met the new president this last week, he is going to do a good job.. i dont have alot of time tho cause we couldn't email monday - the library was closed.. but everything is going good we have a baptism comming up this next saturday with D. if everything goes smooth, so keep it in your prayers that's all for now!

love ya!

A letter for ya'll

Dear family,

Hey everything is going good down here. We had a really awesome week. Oh Dad, Hapy Fahter's day a couple of weeks ago. I've been so busy on my P-days I haven't had time to write. And thanks for the birthday package, I play with that green pop thing with the face and the hair all the time. The assistants to the president were here a couple of days ago and were playing with it.

We get our new president this week then next week he is going around the mission to meet everyone. It's going to be hard to replace President Woods, but I know he will do just as good of a job.

OK, so we were driving a Mazda 3 for a while but then we talked the office elders into letting us drive one of the brand new Ford Fusions. It had 12 miles on it when we got it. We named her Leila.

But we are doing really good this week. My companion and I get along really well. So has rogueing started? Who all is doing it this year? Mom, I've gone 3 or 4 weeks without soda now (he went soda free for nearly a year and was always telling me I could never do it - I'm four months now).

I got a letter from the Cantrell/Gougon family down in Chalmettte and they sound like they are still doing great, still loving church and hanging out around missionaries. And they told me Jamie G. (that got baptized the week after I left) is doing really good as well. I think they said they awere all reading my blog so tell them I miss them and I say hello!

I hit my four month mark a few days ago, its hard to believe I've been out that long. I still can't believe Collin is in Argetina and Dillon leaves the MTC Monday. I hope he's ready for the cuture shock... I know it was weird for me and I'm still speaking Engilish (kinda), same country (kinda), and I was only in the MTC for three weeks not two months. Well, thanks for everything! I miss ya'll.

Love Elder Ritchie

PS I still don't say ya'll and I never will!

Sprained Ankle and Pictures!

I sprained my ankle playing basketball pretty good on Monday and I can hardly walk right now and it's all swollen and all black, it looks gross. I had to rip up a T-shirt to wrap it up for a day. Hopefully it gets better cause I can hardly walk and the new mision president gets here tommorrow or Friday.

We went to a baptism last night, President Woods baptized a man from China. It was really good! We got D. there and he loved it. It was good to see the President get a baptism in his last weeks too. Oh, and afterward he came over to me and put his arm around me and asked me if I was ready, and my gut just dropped and I said for what, and he told me I'm going to be training this next tranfer most likely and if not this one the next one. So I'm kinda nervous about that but it will be cool having someone that doesn't know anything.

Make sure I have enough on my debit card, send me an email with the amount every once in a while just so I know cause I need to take 50 dollars out for emergencies like hurricanes. Everything is going good other than I can't walk!

Some pictures for you!

The Cantrell Family in Chalmette. Sam's first experience tracting and first baptisms.

Sam at the Baton Rouge Temple

Sam and companion in Chalmette just before being transferred to Baton Rouge

Note from the Mom: I saw this picture on Tammy's facebook page and commented on the lighting, she told me that "It's God's light!"

Happy Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day yesterday dad!! I don't get why we call on Mothers Day and not Fathers Day... doesn't make a whole lot of sense.. but I think it's because in the scriptures when Lehi is so calm when his sons were gone and Sariah was freaking out and murmuring (nagging) haha!

We had kind of a rough week this week, we had some really good lessons but decided everyone with a baptismal date needed to kind of start fresh so we took away all their dates except D. from Iran is still comming along really great. He is loving it! We just have to see when his family will get back from vacation in Iran because he said they will want to be baptized with him... We are still working with most of the rest them but just gonna have to wait some time.. We were really hoping to baptize P. this comming Saturday but he hasn't come to church enough. I think another lady we were teaching in Chalmette got baptized last Saturday, I talked to President Woods in an interview at the mini-going-away zone confrence we had for him and he said she was turned in and it looked like everything was going to go smoothly but I havent heard yet.

I'm going golfing with the office elders today so we will have them find out (one of them is Elder Murphey from IF). tell both grandmas and grandpa thanks for the birthday cards and if you write a letter sometime I could use some stamps.