Louisianna Travels and Deep Thoughts

Yes and thank you Ma'am, I got the cards!  (We sent him a bunch of your-half-way-done cards since his Hump Day was on February 23rd).

 

Well,  it was kinda crazy here for Mardi Gras. Tuesday we were in New Orleans and then went to members' houses had a couple BBQ's, it was good cause we missed out on most of the craziness. But this week was just as crazy as last because of the meetings we've had left and right. I was in New Orleans Wednesday with Spanish missionaries on an exchange and then we stayed the night Thursday and had a zone conference with Elder Clarke of the Seventy, that was awesome! Then we went back to Thibodaux for Friday and then Saturday had a zone leader council in Baton Rouge with Elder Clarke to discuss how the mission and our zones are doing, that was petty sweet and I'm actually back in Baton Rouge again today.  So we have been all over the place. 

 

I got to stay in my old apartment with my comp that I had when I first got to that apartment so we just were reminiscing about all the good times we had in our 2 months together.  He was the companion I had when we taught Darius the Iranian and he is serving in that area again as an office elder. But he is able to see him and he said Darius is still holding strong, a little lonely in the church because his family doesn't come but he still goes and he also attends the Iranian service at another church so he can be with them.  It's cool to come back to an area to hear and see people you taught, its one of my favorite things! 

 

Oh, I was able to talk to Elder Clarke for a few minutes and he is actually from Rexburg so I asked if he knew of Grandpa or Grandma  Clark and he asked if he was a math teacher and I said yeah he taught at Ricks and he said that Grandpa was his high school calculus teacher so that was pretty cool!  Elder Clarke is an awesome guy! He is a fire ball! He was a pretty old but had more energy than most missionaries. He gave us a pretty good chastisement on how we can be better and he had a lot of really cool ideas to help us work to get more people to sacrament meeting and how we can get on the good side of a bishop and how we need to help people become converted so they will never fall away and not just help them get a testimony. One thing he really highlighted was that we needed to get the investigators friends in the church so that after they join they have a friend and they don't have to go back to their old ones. He also told me I need to stay on top of you guys and find out what you are studying.  Soooo... what are you all studying?

 

One thing lately that I have been learning about is children in the gospel,  there are a couple of scriptures I like where it talks about how the weak things of the word will confound the mighty and the unlearned will confound the wise.. and I have often thought about that as me being a 20 year old from Idaho who doesn't know much but is able to teach people the gospel. But I also realized it applies to children cause we were teaching a member's daughter before she gets baptized and some of the answers she has and question she asks are so profound I don't know how to answer or I don't know where she gets things from and I realize how close children are with the spirit.

 

Well, let me know when you find out about the baby, I'm hoping for a boy :) but a girl might be good for Luke, haha!

 

Well, love you all,

 

love Elder Ritchie

Thank Heavens for Lent

Well, I got my new companion and we have started to work with a few people. We started teaching a couple more people on Nicholl's campus but we have only meet with them once so we are hoping to meet with them again.

We have a missionaries who don't like to work that much, but for the most part our mission is pretty solid and our zone has been really great. From what I have seen, everyone is working really hard.  I have worked with all the district leaders, they are really good and they know how to help motivate their districts. Yesterday was crazy with Mardi Gras parades, the town basically shuts down and people go crazy so missionary work is tough.  Today and especially tomorrow are the bad days, fat Tuesday.    We have been struggling to find stuff that is productive because of the partying, but it will be over soon.
Thank heavens for Lent!

We have another general authority coming this week, he is a member of the seventies named Elder Clark. He is doing a mission tour and coming to our zone conference, so that should be good. I'm  looking forward to it.

  

I got the package you sent me everything made it safely, the shirts fit good they still aren't a 16 on the neck but they will work.

 

Well I have to get running I'm down in Houma at the elder's apartments cause we are having preparation day down here, and they have computers in the complex, and the libraries are all closed.

 

Love you,

 

Love elder ritchie 

Fried Chickums?

So, we had one of the assistants come on an exchange with us for the week, it was Elder Hale from Star Valley.  It was good but he kinda got an infection in his leg, it swelled up the size of a football so it was and eventful week. We went to meetings all week all over the zone. We had to sit in on every district's district meeting. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though. 

 

I'm getting a new companion this week his name is Elder Curtis, he's from Pleasant Grove, I lived with him down in Chalmette right before I left for two weeks.  We get along (most of the time) haha!  but a good missionary so I think it will be good.

 

So I made fried chickum last week and I don't know if its just being in the South, but it was amazing! I used a shrimp fry batter and mixed in some Tony's and some Crystal hot sauce then coated em in more shrimp batter and fried those chickums (they were cut breast strips) and they came out amazing!!  I think I'm picking up this Southern cooking thing. Now I just gotta make a gumbo. Oh, I've been making chickum wings too haha!! We have had them every preparation day for the last three weeks, but hey I'm loosing weight so its all good. I eat healthy the rest of the week.

 

Well I don't have much time, I'm in Baton Rouge right now.  I actually got to go visit a bunch of people I used to teach and actually got to say good bye to them cause when I got transferred from here I had like 3 hours of notice to pack my stuff and then I was headed out the next day to Abbeville. So that was awesome, made me miss serving here though and made me realize how fast the 6 months I was here  went by.

 

Well, love you all,

 

love, Elder Ritchie

Loosing weight, adding meetings

I'm loosing weight again.. I've lost 16 pounds here in Thibadaux cause I made a contract with my comp to loose 4 pounds a week because I gained weight in Abbeville and Baton Rouge after I  hurt my ankle and I couldn't work out for a long time and then I went to Abbeville where they fry everything and never stopped feeding me. 

 

Well, the super bowl wasn't bad for us, we went and taught a members daughter that  is turning eight in a month. They asked if we would teach her the lessons so she is ready, so we were there for most of the super bowl.   The father is even a football coach at Nichols. He actually played for BYU  back when they were actually good and they only lost one game. 

 

We were in New Orleans again for most of the week, we went to do double work with the Kenner elders and then we had a specialized training for two days at the stake center in New Orleans.  We didn't get a lot of time to teach but we did get to see Oscar, our investigator that plays basketball, he hasn't been able to meet with us because this is the crazy time for college basketball. 

 

Well, I  don't have much else for this week, and this coming week we have to go to every district meeting and one with one of the assistants. We are spreading them out so we will go to one every day and two on Friday so that will take another chunk of time.

 

Well, take care, love ya 

Love Elder Ritchie