New companion and a really good week

Hey,

My new companion is from Mesa Arizona and this is his last transfer too, so I keep getting put with the old ones. We don't have any other people in the apartment but we got a call from some that were getting transferred to our area and they are getting here later today.

We have the students from Tulane in our ward, all 5 of them that are members. Our ward is about 120 people, depending on the week, there are always conferences in New Orleans, so there are always visitors I've meet a bunch of people from Idaho Falls. When the BYU basketball team was here one of the players dads was originally from IF.

We do have a zone conference coming up but I don't know if its going to be anything really special but the one I did was pretty good.

Guess what, I've officially lost 20 pounds since I've been here. I went from 204 after the MTC to 184 as of today... 20 pounds in six weeks.

It's been a different week this week with transfers because everyone but me left the apartment so its been ALOT quieter which is good and bad. I have definitely gotten a lot better at being a missionary than I was 6 weeks ago. I basically got to do everything because my companion was new to the area. I got to set up all the appointments and introduce him to everyone it was a good feeling to be able to make a smooth transition from transfers.

It has been so awesome to work with our new members, they help the gospel spread like wild fire. T's sister-in-law was in town this weekend and she brought her to a crawfish boil we had in the park (which was amazing by the way, they can really cook down here) but her sister in law, A, was pretty curious in the change in T. and her family. So she wanted to know what did it and wanted some for herself so we invited them to a lesson we were having with another investigator, J. and we taught about the plan of salvation and they LOVED it and said it makes so much more sense than any thing they had heard. So A. came to church and loved it and her kids loved it and they said they cant wait to be members in a text to T. last night and that she was going to look up the church where she lives in Mississippi. I get to call the mission president tonight and give him the referral because she and her kids are so interested and so solid.

It's been a really good week, I got to give a really great blessing to an investigator struggling to quit smoking and drinking and she is doing it but wanted as much help as she could get. She said after the blessing that the weight has been lifted off her chest so i hope everything continues to work out for her.

There are so many things I could say but I don't have the time to say all of them so that sufficeth me for now... haha! But take care of Idaho for me, I miss everyone!

love elder ritchie