Wanna join Sam's Club?

Our week was a little slower this week, we ran out of miles for the month basically so it included a lot of biking and our area is not bike friendly. So it's been a little more difficult to do stuff, but it's a new month tomorrow.

 

The biking did have its benefits though, we had to stop at Walmart to pick up some chain lube and while we were in there a Sam's Club lady stopped us and started talking to us about a Sam's club membership and trying to get us to join, but then she realized we were missionaries and kinda started asking what we do and why we were doing it. So, we told her a little bit about what we do and talked to her about what she did and it was kind of like what we do except not with the gospel. She would talk to a lot of people and some were super nice and others not so much. We ended up getting her info and we set up a time to meet, but she was telling us that we can't come to her house because of the people she lives with.  So we are going to meet in the park tomorrow. We also have a lesson with a family tomorrow that is super interested but they don't live in our area so we have to turn them over to the other missionaries that we live with.

 

Well, next week is transfer week again so who knows whats going to happen.  I still can't believe it's been almost six weeks since I left my last area, time is flying and I still don't even know Denham Springs very well. Mostly because there are a lot more members in the area than I'm used to. Hopefully I get to spend some more time here, but I can never tell what the president and the Lord are going to come up with, haha!  But I know I've been where I've needed to be thus far so whatever happens, happens.

 

Well, that's all for this week love you!

 

Love, Elder Ritchie

Get your Mormon.org profile done!

Well, we had a bit of a slower week this week, literally, we were super low on miles for the month and there is still alot of days left, so we did alot of biking and found out how spread out are area is. There are no shoulders or ditches by the roads so it makes it hard to get around on a bike. We don't actually live in our area, we live like three miles from our area boundary.



Sharing Jerky from Home



But we were able to have some good lessons with some returning members. We had one with M., at the previous lesson I thought it would be cool to give her a plan of salvation pamphlet and see if she would teach it to us. She was up for it and did a really good job. She found some other stuff to read as well and learned a lot. She said it made alot more sense especially learning about the spirit world because others will be given the chance to hear the gospel. She has had friends say that every one in Africa and Asia that aren't Christian are going to hell so we showed her 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6, some of my personal favorites, because they talk about the spirit word and that's out biggest scripture reference for that doctrine and it comes straight from the KJV Bible so it helps alot of people start to see the bigger picture or the over lying plan to everything.  M. even came to our ward this week, when she would go to church she would always go to her parents ward "the pride ward" (actual name by the way haha) and the previous missionaries said that it's probably not smart to invite her to come to the Denham ward but the lesson was so good and she was definitely feeling the spirit. At the end it just hit me to ask her to come and it was probably the most blunt commitment I've ever made, I just basically said we had one thing we wanted to ask you, will you come to the Denham 1st ward and said we need you (not lying about that either our gospel principles class is pretty vacant at the moment because alot of the new members have started to attend temple prep so its the good kind of empty).  She was just like,"Yes I will, I knew that was gonna come up and I know I need to grow up and start going there", so it was pretty cool because she has had some major concerns with that in the past because of her history of growing up in the Denham ward and it didn't phase her when it came up.

We also were invited to sit in on the Aaronic priesthood lesson by the bishop because the bishopric was teaching out of Preach My Gospel to get the kids focused on the temple and going on missions. I wish it was something I would have been able to do because I'd heard alot about Preach My Gospel before I came out but no one ever explained what was in it and I tried to read it but didn't get much out of it.  The bishop just talked about his mission and how he decided to go and asked us some of the similar questions and we kinda talked about what we do and why were were out here.  It was really cool because they gave all the young men a Preach My Gospel so they can start finding out what it is now whether they are a priest or a deacon. Make sure Josh has one and since he's so smart since I left, tell him I expect him to read it because I didn't really know what missionaries did before I came, I'd heard they knocked on doors and taught people but that's about it... and that isn't really the big part of missionary work! So get him one and have him read the first chapter and write me about it to see what he comes up with!!

Oh mom, FHE activity or something to get the ward to do is to get on to mormon.org and create a profile.  You need to do it and have everyone else do it too, and if I'm ever teaching people I could show 'em my family members! Get everyone in on it too cause mormon.org is pretty sweet it's an awesome tool.   They have some sweet videos on there too and some cool people like Brandon Flowers the lead singer for the Killers, Jeremy Jones, an old school pro snowboarder, and K Fed, a pro skate boarder.  So, get on and make a profile, it just takes a couple minutes especially if you have an lds.org account. and you can post your profile on line or one of the videos.

Oh, we enhanced our coldrank tower, we made it an arch haha! and we even added a key stone :) haha! 



Book of Mormon Cornerstone



 

The Coldrank Tower becomes an Arch


Well, that's about all I've got this week!

Love you all,

Love Elder Ritchie

Random Scenes from a Mission

Just a few random pictures from Elder Ritchie.

Of Food And Miracles

Hey y'all,

I've decided I don't like my new area! It's too awesome and the members feed us way to much! Haha!  We had an awesome week this week. We have been trying to get to know everyone in our ward and get out and visit them. We've been to many crayfish boils and we are the official food waste disposals of our ward Everyone always has food for us. The young women had a jambalaya sale to raise money for girl's camp and of course they got the missionaries six plates and then we found out we had to take home  all the leftovers too. And that was the same day we got invited to the crayfish boil at the bishops! ha ha! I've got food coming out my eyes! All my efforts in Thibodaux of getting back into shape are going to waste!




Crayfish Boil before being boiled


But food is an awesome way to meet people. The bishop had a bunch of non members at his boil and we have been able to sit down with alot of less actives and part member families and get to know them. We had a bunch of meetings yesterday that went really well. When  Elder Clarke of the Seventy came, he gave us a ton of ways to find people by going to all the priesthood and auxiliary leaders and getting assignments from them and then just go down the pecking order to their counselors and pretty much just get on everyone's good side.

On Thursday we got a call from our bishop telling us that he received a call from a member who had a daughter who wasn't a member that had just moved here and that she was ready for the missionaries to come over. So we got the number and gave her a call and she told us to stop by. So we did and ended up just talking to her for a couple minutes and she told us her story and then began to tell us how badly she wanted to grow closer to God right now and that she and her kids needed church in their lives and that she wanted to join our church. She has had dreams of her brother that has passed on and she talked to him and asked him what the Big Guy on the other side was like, and then he told her that he hadn't met Him yet and that he was waiting with everyone to meet Him and that we would all meet Him at the same time and that he was in a place called the spirit world. She said as soon as she found out that we believe that, she knew that she needed to join. So that was a pretty big miracle!

We have another family on the horizon that a recent convert family is working with. They told us about the family and have been trying to set a time we could meet with them.  They are already super curious about the church and the wife has been following a member's blog and really loved everything that she was reading. So, it's been an exceptional couple of days.

We also have had alot of success working with less-actives. There is one named D. that we have been working with who is 27 and has a kid on the way. He kinda got lost as a teenager but he has been able to get the spirit back in his life and is praying and has come out teaching with us and even got up and bore his testimony yesterday.  Then a lady got up after him and said that his testimony really touched her so I think that was another help to him. We are working with a girl named M. who has been getting back into the gospel and she has been full of questions and is willing to find them out on her own, which is really sweet because she is learning by faith and treasuring the scriptures. And then there is E. as well, the one who came to conference randomly.  We actually just found out about her back story.  She was really lost and down and was praying to be lead to missionaries and was driving not knowing where to go but she was lead to the church and there just happened to be the four of us there watching the Saturday afternoon session of conference. She just sat down and started to watch. We talked to her afterward and she told us she was from Salt Lake and had grown up in the church, went to seminary all four years but after she graduated she moved down here and stopped going. She is married to a nonmember and pregnant and really felt like something was missing. She asked for a blessing and we asked if we could come by and we started teaching her husband. Well, E. has been doing much better, she was able to sit down with the bishop yesterday and get to know him and let him know everything that was going on in her life and how she feels alot more peace in her life since that day she came into the church. So, that's another miracle we have been able to see! It's been nice not being in so many meeting and on exchanges as a zone leader every week!

But that's just a few of the things going on here. OH, AND MOM, no more telling me how many days I have left! THAT IS NOT ALLOWED!

We are still working on our fireside, we haven't had much time for it yet so its still in the very beginning stages. But we do have a sweet "Meet the Mormons" meeting coming up, kinda like a Mormon 101, just some info about the infamous "Mormons" haha! Some people have the craziest ideas about us down here.  I've heard just about everything. I've had alot of people think we are the same thing as the Amish or Mennonites and that we don't believe in technology. It's alot of fun just telling people who and what we are and sometimes bringing down some of those crazy rumors.

Well, I'm gonna try and send some pictures today, hopefully it works.

Well till next week,

Love ya, bye!

Praying for teaching ideas

Hey y'all,

I had a really good Easter my first Sunday in the Denham Springs 1st Ward. I think I've served in almost every first ward now, I've been in New Orleans First Ward, Baton Rouge First Ward, and now Denham First Ward. I don't think there are any other firsts that I know of!  I still haven't been to a branch, in fact, I've never been to a branch in my life! I've had group meetings in Abbeville but never been to a branch, kinda weird for here.

Denham is a really nice area, it is by far the cleanest and wealthiest area I've been. The ward seems really strong as well, I  don't have to worry quite as much about a crazy meeting when you have new investigators show up. There have been some different things in other wards I've been in haha!  

I decided I'm getting a puppy when I get home! Oh yes, I got the package, we have been enjoying the jerky you sent.

We had a couple less actives at church this Sunday so that was really awesome and we had a potential investigator that is a member's girlfriend. He is one of the coolest members too, he is a musician and singer. He's an older guy that wants to throw an investigator and recent convert concert that we are trying to set up.  We are pretty pumped about that! He actually has a Grammy award too! So we might be able to get a pretty big turn out, we are going to try and get every one from our zone and the Baton Rouge zone in on it so we can have a lot of people show up and have the mission President and the Stake President here talk and then have a concert. It was awesome how we came up with the idea, I've been trying to come up with new ways of finding investigators because we had Elder Bednar and Elder Clark and the head of the proselyting department come to our mission and basically throw down on tracting and say there are so many better and more productive ways to find people to teach through members and activities and less actives and part member families. So we have been praying to find some good ideas and we were over at his house and he brought up that he had done investigator concerts in the past and would like to do another one. That was an answer to our prayers. We had a councilor from the stake presidency in our ward arrange a question and answer session about Mormons meetings,  he is going to invite families from his neighborhood and we are going to show some Mormon Messages and talk about what we believe and then let them ask any questions. I have just been super grateful this past week for the answer to prayers because the trickiest part of missionary work is finding people to teach.

  

So, my companion and I made a cold drink tower, I'll have to send you a picture soon. I forgot my camera so I can't today but I think you will be pretty impressed and probably a little grossed out, we ended up drinking over 20 gallons of soda haha! We are going to turn it into a castle soon!

I need to get my licence renewed here pretty quick or I'll have to get a Louisiana license haha! I won't be an Idaho citizen anymore if I do that, and I think I'll get even less intelligent if I have to get a Louisiana license.  I'm already loosing my vocabulary and annunciation haha! It still just boggles my mind how weird people talk down here and how different it is in every area I've been from Chalmette and their Southern Brooklyn style accent to Baton Rouge and their Southern Ebonics to Abbeville and their Cajun French and Thibadaux was a mix of New Orleans and Cajun and here in Denham, I'm still not sure what it is but its almost hillbilly cause its more woodsy!

Well, love all y'all,

love elder ritchie

General Conferance in Denham Springs

New address:

2630 Kelli Dr. #C3

Denham Springs, LA

70726

 

 

So I got to my new area this week and I'm a normal missionary now :) no more zone leader for now!  I'm still a district leader but I'm shooting for junior companion haha!

 

The new area is really cool so far, probably the best functioning ward I've been in down here and the most like a home ward but with alot of part member families. I still haven't been to church yet since it was conference so I will have to wait and find out for sure.

 

We had a pretty good weekend, we had a returning member at conference in all the sessions and we had her think of questions that she had and she said all of them were answered and she was just really happy afterward. She is in her mid 20's and just trying to find her way back. She is trying to find out if this is really what she wants and trying to find out how she can get closer to God. She wants us to start teaching her the lessons but I think we will try and get her a Preach My Gospel and have her teach us the lessons, learning by faith! haha! We also had a less active show up randomly to Saturday's afternoon session and we were able to talk to her and she wants to start coming back to church. She grew up in Salt Lake and moved down here a few years ago. Her husband is not a member and has been asking questions and he came to the Sunday afternoon session and we set up a time to stop by to see them. So, it was a pretty awesome week. 

 

I'm living with Elder Gentry, a missionary I trained back in Baton Rouge and it has been awesome to be around him because he is a completely different person. He's changed and is outgoing and not shy at all. He is the senior companion. Oh, I think I'll make him start doing all my district leader stuff so I can tell president that he's ready to be a district leader, haha!  My new companion is Elder Hausladen from California and he is cool super chill, we get along really well. I'm going to miss Thibodaux though, it was alot of fun and we had some awesome things going but Elder Curtis ended up staying there which made me happy because it didn't get double transferred after all.  We got the call on transfer day right before we headed up to Baton Rouge that he was staying, so we already said our goodbyes to everyone.  

 

I'm super excited for this area, its going to be alot of fun. It's weird because it borders my Baton Rouge area but is completely different. Baton Rouge was the hood and this place feels like the Hamptons of Louisiana. 

 

Have a great week,

Love, Elder Ritchie