On Memorial Day we went on an adventure, it was pretty sweet! We went up to Mississippi to a place called Tunica Hills. Yes, I got to see hills for the first time!! We hiked down a ridge to a creek bed and there were rocks and boulders and waterfalls and hills!!! Oh, and did I mention HILLS!! You still couldn't see very far cause of trees and stuff, but it was nice to be able to walk up hills and feel an elevation change. We went with the 1st councilor in our stake presidency who lives in our ward and a bunch of other companionships from our zone. We got to stand under some waterfalls and I found a spider the size of my palm, it was alot like the ones we found at Sheep Falls a few years ago that were giant. I was crawling through a tunnel in the stream and got through it then Elder Rawlings was going through and this giant spider almost crawled up his leg. This was right after we had a zone conference where our mission doctor came and talked to us about bugs and how we need to stay away from them. He showed us a bunch of bites from brown recluse and black widow spiders. But it was one of the best preparation days I've had, getting out and actually hiking on hills. It was probably about like hiking half way up our Iona hill but that's pretty giant for here, especially with the heat.
We have another general authority coming this weekend. We have a leadership meeting with him on Friday and he might be attending to our stake conference. I'm still not sure, but it's an Elder Gibbons from the Second Quorum of the Seventy, not an apostle but they are still spiritual giants that are always good.
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| Missionaries at the waterfall at Tunica, Mississippi |
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| We caught an Alligator Turtle |
Well, we had a good week this last week. We found a new less-active that we are working with who recently returned from Iraq. He is the former bishops step son. We got word from the bishop to go visit him so we made our way over and sat down and talked with him and found out that he still has a testimony and was able to pray and read on his tour and it helped him out alot he said. But he has been out of church for a long time now and hasn't been able to get the drive to come back. He knows its true, he just struggles to keep at it. We left him with 2 Nephi 32 and told him to read it and he did so that was a start and hopefully we can keep working with him.
Oh, I gave a talk in church on Sunday, I almost forgot. It was on obedience and I told the story of my golf ball in the eye experience at Eric Forbush's expense. I talked about having a broken heart and contrite spirit and being broken like a horse and not just the Godly sorrow that comes (similar to what Eric was feeling) but also that being broken means we are trained and we learn that there is no other option than obedience. I used Nephi and his life, how he went and did what the Lord commanded and just had that obedience ingrained in him. I talked about how both books he wrote end with him talking about obedience. The first one is the last two verses in the first book of Nephi and in the end of second book of Nephi he said "I must obey". He had it truly ingrained in his heart. It was probably the best talk I've ever given. ha ha! I talked first and went for like 23 minutes and I didn't even get through alot of what I had. My companion said he was praying that I would go longer than the 15 minutes we were each given because the night before he timed his talk and said it was only 5 minutes long. When I sat down by him on the stand he just said thanks because he hadn't told me about how he was praying I went long, he said it was answer to his prayer. But that clock shot by freakishly fast! Everyone loved the golf ball story, especially a bunch of the young men. haha!
Oh, we pulled a joke on one of the bishop's counselors this week. There is a joke around the ward that brother Ferrel is nicknamed the "hammer", Especially in the meetings we go to he is always referred to as the hammer. So we got a Thor hammer, there is a long story that involves a crawfish boil and an inside joke and some exceeding curiosity on his part. Anyway, we went over to his house on Sunday because he was sick and ate with his family. Right before we left we pulled out the hammer and gave it to him and it was like a little girl just found out she got a pony for Christmas! I thought he was going to scream! haha!
Elder Hausladen and I have earned some serious street cred with our bishopric and ward leaders because we ate our hearts out at a crawfish boil/pool party/young men's and young women's activity last Wednesday. They had over 200 pounds of crawfish and they invited us to go (and no, we didn't participate in the pool party). They were worried they had way to much food, but we pounded them down and then in the last pot they made they added a full jar of Cayenne pepper and we weren't even phased. We actually liked it even more! haha! My hands and lips were on fire the rest of the night but it was fun and there were a bunch of nonmembers that the youth brought that we hopefully can get some leads on.
I found out this week that a kid that we found and started teaching in Abbeville got baptized this week!
Well, that's about all I have time for today... love y'all!
Love, Elder Ritchie
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