Transfer to Denham Springs

Hey, so I'm getting transferred this week! I'm going to Denham Springs, I'm pretty sure it was a shock, we are getting double transferred out of our area. I'm pretty unhappy about that because we had alot of good stuff going... but I don't really know a whole lot about it yet, I'll let you know my address as soon as I can...

Another good week in Thibodaux!

Another good week in Thibodaux! Well, I was actually in Harahan for five days on an exchange, but when I did get back it was really good!! It was nice getting to do another exchange in New Orleans, it really makes me miss the city and the culture and the people, hopefully I get to make it back over there to serve. I was actually on an exchange with a missionary that came out like 3 months ago and he graduated the same year as Peter which is kinda crazy, he is 25 and just barely got out. But he is solid and an awesome missionary.

 

When I did get back to Thibodaux we went and saw our investigators K, C, S, and J.  We just stopped by to set a time up to see them because my companion waited till I got back to stop by and I'm glad he did cause it was a sweet experience. C. told us that he got an answer that he needed to join and that he had been praying about it during sacrament at church last Sunday. He had been trying to find out if this is what he needed to do and he said when he got home he got on YouTube to look something up and a "I'm a Mormon" ad came up and it was the first time he had ever seen one and he feel really good about joining in that moment and knew it was right, so that was way sweet. His girlfriend is following right behind him, she said she felt really good at church, not quite as obvious of a sign but she was able to feel a sense of peace and belonging in church! So they are doing really good. We had another lesson with them about the word of wisdom and they both committed to live it. In the lesson, K. kinda was still a little confused about the restoration and didn't fully grasp it and then C. started to explain it and bore testimony about it and how it was essential to have the way back to God restored and how Joseph Smith was just like him, looking for a church, and then God and Jesus appeared to Josheph and told him that he was to join none of them and then he would restore the truth... the spirit came in the room really strong when he started to teach and the funny thing is we didn't teach him that in-depth about the restoration, so I know that when we did teach it he was learning from the spirit. We had some of the Yount Sing Adults there with us when we were teaching, two of the Nichol's students Hayden and Pa'a, and they said they felt the spirit when he started to teach.  We had left them Alma 32 to read and C. read it twice and said that the 21st verse stuck out to him and really helped him understand the definition of faith. Haha! It has been a fun week and I've just been blessed to even be a part of it!

 

Well I'm glad Nolan finally got to have a sort-of farewell, I'm excited for him to get out and start teaching cause it's the best!

 

I'm going to try and write Sullivan today, I'm finally in Thibodaux on a Monday so maybe I'll get something done... I've kinda been a slacker when it comes to writing people, I have a stack of letters that I gotta start responding to or no one will write me anymore.

 

Well, they're shutting off the computer cause of construction so I gotta get going, love ya'll!

 

love, elder ritchie

Working with the Members and Happy Birthday Wishes!

Hey, sounds like we all had a good week of eating fish. I got to go to my first crayfish boil of the year. We went to a boil with the Nichol's football team and the coaching staff right after we watched the 3 point and dunk completion the football players and the coaches had. I had forgotten how much I love crayfish.

We had an awesome sacrament meeting, we had the two couples that we have been teaching come it to church on Sunday.  We actually went and woke them up just to make sure they we coming, but we did it in a nice way, we made them some breakfast so it was a little easier to get up, haha!

I got Sullivan's letter but I haven't been able to write back yet  because I haven't had any time on preparation day.  Right now I'm actually in Kenner, we had to go to a leadership training meeting, the stake president wanted our impute on how the priesthood leaders could better use the full time missionaries.  The New Orleans zone leaders and we got to get up and give suggestions and tell them how we can help them do missionary work. We just had Elder Clarke here from the Seventy and he basically told us we shouldn't have time to tract and that tracting is at the very bottom of our list of things to do, and that members are the key way of finding people to teach, and that we are teachers not finders.  So we are going through the phase of trying to figure out how to best mesh with the units and the members. We need to remember that we belong to one church not two.  We often act like there are two churches, a members' church and the missionaries' church, when it's really just one. So we need to be working together more than we have in the past.

Anyway, I'm going to try and write Sullivan today but I'm not getting back to Thibodaux until Thursday because I'm going one an exchange here in New Orleans until then, so if I don't get to tell him, make sure you tell him happy birthday for me!!  I can't believe he's going to be twelve years old!  Tell him that holding the priesthood is awesome and to read his scriptures everyday, it makes a difference! I'd love to send he and his sisters a package for his birthday, I have a giant garbage sack full of Mardi Gras beads!

Speaking of birthdays, give Aunt Dena a big happy birthday shout out from the bayou, she's the best!
 
Love , Elder Ritchie

Time in Thibadaux

Sooooo, we had a pretty awesome week this week, I was able to go on exchange with a new elder that came into my area, so I got to stay put for once! He is from Pocatello and he has only been out two weeks so I got to hear how Idaho is doing and what the real world is like these days. I think I've decided that Idaho and Utah aren't the real world, they are figments of peoples' imaginations.. haha! But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was good to stay here for the week I've been running around like crazy so we were able to get to work and we had a really good week.

 

We found five new investigators that have really love learning about the gospel. We knocked a door a while back and met a guy named Johnathan that told us to come back, so we did and we were able to sit down with him and his girlfriend and their two roommates and have some good gospel conversations. They always have crazy but good questions for us. They really liked what we taught them about the plan of salvation and how those that never got to hear about Jesus and his gospel will have the chance to hear the truth. That was actually one of the questions that they brought up. So Elder Curtis and I were just smiling at each other because normally we bring that up but they were able to come to the question on their own. We read through the plan of salvation pamphlets that we have  the next time we met with them and they basically taught themselves and we kinda just answered any questions they had, which is alot!  People are usually very curious about missionaries and Mormons in general.  We showed them a picture of the Salt Lake temple and they loved it cause they were talking about getting married and we told them how it can be forever and not till death do us part and they really loved that. 

 

Someone else we taught got baptised yesterday but it wasn't a convert baptism cause she just turned eight. There were some non members at the baptism and the girlfriend of less active member who has been coming back for the last couple weeks told us she wanted to get baptized so we are going to go start teaching her this week. So we have had a good week, it's been nice cause we haven't been able to have much time to do alot of missionary work the last couple weeks between meetings and Mardi Gras, so this week was a real tender mercy for us to get the time to see some miracles. There's nothing like the feeling of coming out of a lesson when the spirit was there and you get to look back and see how it was able to help someone with what they were going through and the questions they had.

 

So Mother, that wasn't a very descriptive description of your studies... haha!  I wanna know what your learning, not just what your studying. I was reading in Preach My Gospel today and it also said to ask your family and friends in letters and emails for experiences and blessings they have received from living the gospel. So if you have any that have happened recently, fill me in cause it's always nice to have good experiences to read and to share with others.

 

And Dad, thanks for the letter you sent on how to be a good leader I've actually been working on the eye contact thing and it has really helped me so I don't just stare off when my companion is teaching I've been trying to look to him an really work on my eye contact with investigators when I teach.  That was something my trainer and I did alot of, he was a master of eye contact so it was a good reminder cause sometimes the little things like that can slip through the cracks when you get teaching.

 

That's awesome news that Nolan should be heading out soon!! Is he still going to Mexico? (Sam's friend Nolan is finally leaving for his mission to Monteray after a back injury kept him from leaving on his mission in October).

 

And happy birthday Dad!! Maybe next year we can go to Salmon for your present cause I didn't get you anything this year. 

 

 love you