First, tell Grandpa to get better! (He's been in the hospital with pneumonia)
Sounds like fun weekend (Erica's farewell). My companion's talk is on May 15 if your gonna be there he says to come!
The baptisms went perfect, they couldn't have gone any better! I baptized the father, R., my companion baptized the mother, T., and the bishop baptized the daughter C. The wedding went great also, it was awesome. They are going to be some solid members and already are doing their part in missionary work by helping us fellowship some new investigators with baptismal dates that live just down the road. They are also helping us teach their friends who have baptismal dates too so everything is running smoothly here I get my new companion tomorrow and we absorbed the other area in Chalmette so it's just going to be me and my new companion, Elder Griner so I've kinda got to head the new area. It's gonna be a lot of work because we have to take on the other missionaries investigators. I've gone on exchanges with them, so I think I've got it.
That baptism was probably one of the best days of my life, it was so awesome to see them get baptized and see how happy their family is now and to see how they love going to church. Oh, and R. also got the priesthood and they all got confirmed the day after. I was nervous to confirm them because I'd only read over the confirmation ordinance like one time before and I had to confirm R. first but I managed to do it right.
I was on an exchange Tuesday and Wednesday this last week in downtown New Orleans. I got to ride my bike all over the city. It was pretty cool to see everything and I also got to do a lot of Spanish work (I didn't do much, just went with Spanish missionaries, but I know a few words and I'm working on my testimony in Spanish).
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, we were groom's men at the wedding, it was awesome! R. bought me and Elder Cranney matching ties and we got to walk down the aisle, just not side by side with the bridesmaids. Our mission president and his wife were there too, it was really special. But as great as the wedding was, it was hard to compare it to the baptism and it won't compare to when they get to go to the temple. Well, I don't know what else to write... tell everyone hi for me and I miss them all.
Love ya,
love elder ritchie
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Upcoming Baptism
Hey,
It's been a great week I have my first baptism coming up Saturday if everything goes according to plan we will be baptizing our investigator family, T, R and C. I hope everything runs smoothly and right before the baptism T and R are getting married. They are awesome, they all have changed so much from the time we have met them and they are all loving the gospel. To hear them pray is the best part because they are really praying from the heart, they don't just do the routine things that life long members say, you can really tell how they are searching in their hearts for what to say and to here them say they are thankful for us as missionaries is awesome, I don't even know how to describe it.
The weather down here has been really nice. It got cool towards the end of last week, it still feels like early summer in Idaho but it feels really good for here. Tell Dillon good luck for me and I'll try and write him especially in the mtc.
Oh, p-day is on Tuesday next week because its transfer week to so I won't email till then.. I'm already through one transfer.
Love, Elder Sam
It's been a great week I have my first baptism coming up Saturday if everything goes according to plan we will be baptizing our investigator family, T, R and C. I hope everything runs smoothly and right before the baptism T and R are getting married. They are awesome, they all have changed so much from the time we have met them and they are all loving the gospel. To hear them pray is the best part because they are really praying from the heart, they don't just do the routine things that life long members say, you can really tell how they are searching in their hearts for what to say and to here them say they are thankful for us as missionaries is awesome, I don't even know how to describe it.
The weather down here has been really nice. It got cool towards the end of last week, it still feels like early summer in Idaho but it feels really good for here. Tell Dillon good luck for me and I'll try and write him especially in the mtc.
Oh, p-day is on Tuesday next week because its transfer week to so I won't email till then.. I'm already through one transfer.
Love, Elder Sam
Monday, April 11, 2011
Pictures!
My district at the big map in the MTC.
Me at the Big Map
Tree Tunnel
Historic buildings in New Orleans
This is a barge on the Mississippi which is actually ABOVE us thanks to the levees. In Chalmette, we are actually 20 feet below sea level.
Our church and ward mission leader in New Orleans.
Elder Baker and me.
Me at the Big Map
Tree Tunnel
Historic buildings in New Orleans
This is a barge on the Mississippi which is actually ABOVE us thanks to the levees. In Chalmette, we are actually 20 feet below sea level.
Our church and ward mission leader in New Orleans.
Elder Baker and me.
Baptism Commitments and Muffulettas
Hey ya'll,
It's been hot here, it was just under 90 degrees and probably 90 percent humidity the other day and we were tracting all day. I got some serious sun and then we got into a lesson and the house was probably 60 degrees, it felt like my body was about to go into shock. It is already a lot worse then July in Idaho. We keep telling people that there is still snow in Idaho and they don't believe us and think we are crazy for putting up with the snow for that long. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a foreign country. It's pretty cool.
Our main main investigator family are doing great, they are for sure getting married and then baptized on the same day. We just committed the daughter to be baptized the same day so its going really great. They have also been giving us some more solid referrals. We talked to the a niece and sister and had a good lesson with them, they wanted the change that they had seen in our investigator's family. The niece also said she has always wanted to be baptized so she lit up when we brought up baptism.
The food here is incredible. I had some ribs at our investigators house and they were probably the best ribs i have ever eaten. The bone literally pulled right out of them and was clean. I've also had some really good oyster-shrimp-mushroom-sausage gumbo. And a muffuletta! That's a sandwich with meat and cheese and then a layer of olive salad on top and its all on a huge Italian bun, it was amazing.
I don't know what they do to the breads they use down here but they are so good! I think its the humidity, the poboy and muffaletta bread is so good. There was a parade on conference weekend for St. Patrick's day in the St Bernard Parrish (Chalmette) and they just throw heads of cabbage, carrots and potatoes to the people, it's a really weird tradition but it's pretty cool so we have been eating a lot of cabbage lately.
I'm still loosing weight. We all work out in the mornings and run and go play basketball and then you sweat it off during the day. I think I've lost another 7 to 8 pounds these last 2 weeks. Oh, and are you gonna get my old watch fixed and send it to me? It would be nice to have more than one.
Love, Elder Ritchie
It's been hot here, it was just under 90 degrees and probably 90 percent humidity the other day and we were tracting all day. I got some serious sun and then we got into a lesson and the house was probably 60 degrees, it felt like my body was about to go into shock. It is already a lot worse then July in Idaho. We keep telling people that there is still snow in Idaho and they don't believe us and think we are crazy for putting up with the snow for that long. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a foreign country. It's pretty cool.
Our main main investigator family are doing great, they are for sure getting married and then baptized on the same day. We just committed the daughter to be baptized the same day so its going really great. They have also been giving us some more solid referrals. We talked to the a niece and sister and had a good lesson with them, they wanted the change that they had seen in our investigator's family. The niece also said she has always wanted to be baptized so she lit up when we brought up baptism.
The food here is incredible. I had some ribs at our investigators house and they were probably the best ribs i have ever eaten. The bone literally pulled right out of them and was clean. I've also had some really good oyster-shrimp-mushroom-sausage gumbo. And a muffuletta! That's a sandwich with meat and cheese and then a layer of olive salad on top and its all on a huge Italian bun, it was amazing.
I don't know what they do to the breads they use down here but they are so good! I think its the humidity, the poboy and muffaletta bread is so good. There was a parade on conference weekend for St. Patrick's day in the St Bernard Parrish (Chalmette) and they just throw heads of cabbage, carrots and potatoes to the people, it's a really weird tradition but it's pretty cool so we have been eating a lot of cabbage lately.
I'm still loosing weight. We all work out in the mornings and run and go play basketball and then you sweat it off during the day. I think I've lost another 7 to 8 pounds these last 2 weeks. Oh, and are you gonna get my old watch fixed and send it to me? It would be nice to have more than one.
Love, Elder Ritchie
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Conference was GREAT!
I loved conference I think I liked Elder Bednar's talk best about spiritual revelation and how there are two kinds, the turn-the-light-on kind and the sun-rises slowly kind. It is really evident out here in the field, some days you feel your not getting much help and then you think back and you were actually able to accomplish alot. And some days you just get an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and revelation.
We watched the Saturday sessions at a member's house just down the road. Ask Luke if he knows them, they were in Pensacola when the hurricane hit there. We had our main investigators there to watch. They really liked it and they had some good questions especially about temples and being sealed. The gospel is doing wonders for them. The father is one rough looking guy but he has a big heart and the gospel is helping him show it because i don't think he knew how before. The mother is the golden investigator she eats it all up and always wants more. She said when she doesn't do church stuff now she gets depressed. She said I could come stay with them when I get off my mission and her cooking makes it a very temping offer, ha ha. She makes awesome gumbo and macaroni and cheese like I've never seen and stuffed bell peppers. Wow! but back to conference, between the Saturday day sessions we had a bbq and of course I manned the grill as much as they would let me, (They were pretty impressed of my skills being from Idaho) but it was really good! I don't know what people do here but the food is amazing. Well priesthood session was really good except I feel like I'm supposed to go get married now, ha ha. It was really good for our investigator, it showed him how he should be as a husband and he said he liked it. They took us to the church on Sunday too, and there was a ward potluck between sessions. Oh yeah, I saw my cousin Maria in the choir! It was cool I wasn't expecting that.
We had something awesome happen after conference, we went out tracking to try and find some new investigators because we were 2 under our goal for the week and just as we were leaving to go to a new area because we weren't getting anything thing other than the abrupt "I'm Catholic" response, we were driving and we saw a really big family out playing in the yard and as we got down the road a ways we just knew we had to go talk to them and so we parked and headed over and we got talking. It started off good and she was listening but then said she had her church and was happy with it. We asked if we could have a short lesson with them and she said, yes but she had her fellowship. But we gave her and her kids a short lesson and and then we bore our testimonies of how there was a living prophet and through the proper authority families can be together forever and we asked her if this was true, wouldn't she really want to know that? And as we were bearing out testimonies you could just she the change in her eyes and her kids eyes and she said, "yes, I would definitely want to know that", and we went around the circle and asked each one if they wanted to know and they all said yes. After that she was basically begging us to come back and teach her more. She said "I have to get your number". and we asked her when was the best time we could come back and she said "well there is tomorrow but that's my birthday", so we told her she had to let us bring a cake, and she said of course she would let us as long as it had pecans in it. Ha ha, so we are going to make a cake today with pecans.
Well, it finally rained down here... and it was crazy! It rained 6 inches in about 4 hours.. we were driving down the road and it looked like a river, it was so cool! I think I heard a tornado touched down in our area but in might have been in Ponchatula, I'm not sure, we don't get to watch the news. We were about to go into a lesson with some inactive members and their investigator daughter-in-law and we were standing under their entry way when a bolt of lightning hit less than a half mile away. The shock wave was like some one punched me in the gut and it almost knocked my companion over, it was so cool. Scary, but cool. I've never had the hair on the back of my neck stand up like that, it was intense.
Oh, my companion is Elder Cranney, he is from Draper, he is 26 and this is his last transfer. He is the former assistant to the president so he knows what he is doing. The other elders and I always joke the when he talks we are listening to a future apostle.
There are four of us in our apartment so we have a good time, one is from Pocatello so I give him a hard time for that and the other is from Brigham City.
Well, that's about all I've got. Take care, miss everyone!
love elder ritchie
We watched the Saturday sessions at a member's house just down the road. Ask Luke if he knows them, they were in Pensacola when the hurricane hit there. We had our main investigators there to watch. They really liked it and they had some good questions especially about temples and being sealed. The gospel is doing wonders for them. The father is one rough looking guy but he has a big heart and the gospel is helping him show it because i don't think he knew how before. The mother is the golden investigator she eats it all up and always wants more. She said when she doesn't do church stuff now she gets depressed. She said I could come stay with them when I get off my mission and her cooking makes it a very temping offer, ha ha. She makes awesome gumbo and macaroni and cheese like I've never seen and stuffed bell peppers. Wow! but back to conference, between the Saturday day sessions we had a bbq and of course I manned the grill as much as they would let me, (They were pretty impressed of my skills being from Idaho) but it was really good! I don't know what people do here but the food is amazing. Well priesthood session was really good except I feel like I'm supposed to go get married now, ha ha. It was really good for our investigator, it showed him how he should be as a husband and he said he liked it. They took us to the church on Sunday too, and there was a ward potluck between sessions. Oh yeah, I saw my cousin Maria in the choir! It was cool I wasn't expecting that.
We had something awesome happen after conference, we went out tracking to try and find some new investigators because we were 2 under our goal for the week and just as we were leaving to go to a new area because we weren't getting anything thing other than the abrupt "I'm Catholic" response, we were driving and we saw a really big family out playing in the yard and as we got down the road a ways we just knew we had to go talk to them and so we parked and headed over and we got talking. It started off good and she was listening but then said she had her church and was happy with it. We asked if we could have a short lesson with them and she said, yes but she had her fellowship. But we gave her and her kids a short lesson and and then we bore our testimonies of how there was a living prophet and through the proper authority families can be together forever and we asked her if this was true, wouldn't she really want to know that? And as we were bearing out testimonies you could just she the change in her eyes and her kids eyes and she said, "yes, I would definitely want to know that", and we went around the circle and asked each one if they wanted to know and they all said yes. After that she was basically begging us to come back and teach her more. She said "I have to get your number". and we asked her when was the best time we could come back and she said "well there is tomorrow but that's my birthday", so we told her she had to let us bring a cake, and she said of course she would let us as long as it had pecans in it. Ha ha, so we are going to make a cake today with pecans.
Well, it finally rained down here... and it was crazy! It rained 6 inches in about 4 hours.. we were driving down the road and it looked like a river, it was so cool! I think I heard a tornado touched down in our area but in might have been in Ponchatula, I'm not sure, we don't get to watch the news. We were about to go into a lesson with some inactive members and their investigator daughter-in-law and we were standing under their entry way when a bolt of lightning hit less than a half mile away. The shock wave was like some one punched me in the gut and it almost knocked my companion over, it was so cool. Scary, but cool. I've never had the hair on the back of my neck stand up like that, it was intense.
Oh, my companion is Elder Cranney, he is from Draper, he is 26 and this is his last transfer. He is the former assistant to the president so he knows what he is doing. The other elders and I always joke the when he talks we are listening to a future apostle.
There are four of us in our apartment so we have a good time, one is from Pocatello so I give him a hard time for that and the other is from Brigham City.
Well, that's about all I've got. Take care, miss everyone!
love elder ritchie
Friday, April 1, 2011
Mission Stuff is Hard
Letter dated 3-29-11
Hey family,
Thanks for the pictures again, I love them! I don't have a lot of time to write. I'm doing good! This mission stuff is hard but I'm getting the hang of it and having fun!
It's really cool down here and the food is AWESOME! I'm loosing weight and I'm in a car area .... don't know how that works but it does.
Well keep me posted on family stuff, especially Erica, she said she might get married or something!?!?
Well, love ya!
Elder Ritchie
Hey family,
Thanks for the pictures again, I love them! I don't have a lot of time to write. I'm doing good! This mission stuff is hard but I'm getting the hang of it and having fun!
It's really cool down here and the food is AWESOME! I'm loosing weight and I'm in a car area .... don't know how that works but it does.
Well keep me posted on family stuff, especially Erica, she said she might get married or something!?!?
Well, love ya!
Elder Ritchie
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