Transfer Time

Hey, so news from the South:  I'm getting  transferred! Not really sure where yet but my time in Denham is up for now.  I made it over 4 months here so that was good, and it was a really good area.  I loved the ward especially.

 

President called us last night and my companion is staying and I'm  going to go be a zone leader again somewhere, and that's about all I know.  I'm kinda hoping I'll get to go back to New Orleans and see some of the people back in Chalmette because the zone leaders there go to the same ward as Chalmette. That would be really sweet to be able to got down there after being a way from it for a while. I'm really gonna miss alot of the people here though, it has been good working with them especially Mallory and Richard. 

 

Our bishopric has been awesome, they are they are probably funniest bishopric out there. We ate dinner at the second councilors last night and the bishop and his family came for FHE and they showed us some of the pictures of them waiting around while their wives were shopping and they were wearing crazy plaid suits that were way to small.  This is the same one that we bought the Thor hammer for,  he takes it to PEC and ward council because they call him "The Hammer" and if anyone gets out of line they have to deal with him.

 

We had a really good scripture study this last Wednesday, Mallory sent us a text before it started and asked if we were hungry and we said sure so she showed up with Cane's fried chicken and everyone in the church was walking by being jealous. Needless to say, there might be some better attendance in the future.  Feed them fried chicken and they will come.

 

I think its baby season, everyone is having a baby down here too.

Just another week in the trenches and swamps

Hey, sounds like things are busy there, I'm glad I dont' have to be there for the baby shower.  I'm sure Peter is soaking it all up for me, he is the one that loves that kind of stuff :)   Anyways, nothing really new this week just another week in the trenches and swamps of Louisiana.

We had an investigator committed to come to church, the one that just got a new car but Satan is clever and he saw the batman movie shooting on TV and he has social anxiety already and he said he just couldn't do it after seeing that. Brandy couldn't make it either were not really sure why. But Mallory was able to get a calling as the Young Women's secretary and she seemed really excited about that.  She was sad that she won't be able to make it to our scripture study class that we have been having because it is on the same night as Young Women's so we are going to have it an hour earlier so she can make it to that as well. It's a fun class, she has been our only faithful attender.  Occasionally we get other but she is always there.  We just read a few chapters and talk a little about them.  We have been in the Isaiah chapters and I always joke about skipping them and she always get mad at me and last week I taught the class and had two priests with me to help teach and my companion was out with another priest, because I had the priests I was able to skip out of Isaiah for the night ha ha!  This week we had the other Denham elders there and Elder Gentry, the one I trained in Baton Rouge a year ago sang a solo at the end of the class because we were talking about the ACapella group that I'm going to start when I get home and he is going to be lead singer.  I've drafted a few other singers and I'll manage it. It's jut a big joke because we were all such horrible singers but Mallory heard about it so she wanted him to sing something and after awhile we talked him into it :) I tried to film it but he wouldn't let me.  So I wanted to send it home so you could witness it for yourself... ha ha! Oh, I also have a couple other videos I need to send home, I have one of that alligator snapping turtle getting its head chopped off, that is pretty cool.

Well I don't really know what else to write, not a really eventful week, alot of rain! I'm going to miss the rain when I go home because it doesn't really rain in Idaho it sprinkles but it doesn't rain like here. You can have  six inches dropped on you in a couple of minutes and it's like someone is dumping buckets of water on you when you walk outside, it's sweet but then the humidity comes.  You know when your going to the ski hill and you stop at the gas station, or better yet Green Canyon and the windows are super foggy, well, it gets like that after it rains and then it gets hot  because it gets cold inside and so hot and humid out side its like the opposite of Green Canyon and when people wear glasses and go from inside to outside their glasses fog up... I think Idaho would be fine if they had just one of the storms we get here because it would give it a year supply of water in one storm.  I can only imagine if all that rain we get down here was snow instead, that would be cool, there would be like 30 feet!

 

anyways, love y'all

love, Elder Ritchie

That Super Righteous Guy

We had a good week, one of our investigators who got in a car wreck and doesn't have a job got a free car so that was pretty cool. He has even been reading the Book of Mormon and knows this was a blessing so that's always good.

 

B. wasn't able to make it to church, she had to go back to the hospital and then she was staying in another town but she has read into Alma and says she knows its true but that it has just been really hard for her to make it to church. But she does have a testimony of the Book of Mormon so that is good.  She was asking about Melchizedek because of the blessing she received and she said she knew who he was and that he was a super righteous guy, but she was wondering why they said his name in the priesthood blessing she received, so we told her about it and it made perfect sense to her.

 

 

Well we didn't have anything really new happen this week just working with what we have.

 

 

Oh, I asked for a due date for the baby and still haven't heard one..... you people aren't very good with the question and answer thing.

 

Well, love y'all

 

Love Elder Ritchie

Growing a Garden and the Gospel

Well, we had a rainy 4th of July so we didn't get much accomplished, it's been really rainy here which has been nice cause its been super hot but with the rain comes even worse humidity but it's nice while it rains. I don't know if I told you this, but we have a garden growing on our porch, we planted ghost peppers and bell peppers and peas and they are all growing! We even have a bell pepper that's almost ready to eat!

 

 

Well, we found three new people to work with last week that seemed really interested in learning more. It was the fiance of less active. He has been a member his whole, life just drifted from the gospel, but his sister's husband got baptized a year ago and they just got sealed so it has made him want to start coming back to church and get his fiance and her kids into it.  He was trying to explain the church to them and it was going over their head so we went and gave him a hand and they said it made alot of sense when we explained the restoration and the 20 year old daughter was really excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon. It's funny when we give people a Book of Mormon and they think they have to buy it from us and we are like no its yours, all you have to do is read it and pray about it.

 

 

 

We are also still trying to meet B. we sent missionaries to her in Baton Rouge to give her a blessing because she had surgery last Friday. She was very grateful and she said she is recovering better than expected and said it was because of the blessing. But we have yet to meet her so were still hoping this will be the week.

 

Well, that's about all I've got  love y'all have a good week!

 

Love Elder Ritchie

 

p.s. the first week of my mission I've heard from all my brothers at once...... did someone die or something??

Drama in the district and on the stairs

Well, we still haven't been able to meet B. and she didn't make it to church.  Her friends and the people she is living with wouldn't let her go to church on Sunday and ended up taking her to the ER because she is supposed to have surgery next week. But she still wants to be baptized and is trying to make it.  She has read to Mosiah and loves it and she says she knows it is true. People just have to deal with so much adversity when they start investigating or after they join down here.  It just helps my testimony grow more and more because people attack the church when they know nothing about it and you can just see Satan behind it all so clearly and how he is pulling the strings and just getting people that don't have the truth to keep others from having it. But Satan can't win so its all good, just have to have patience and keep trusting in the Lord and it will all work out.

 

Well, we had a little drama in our district this week and we are now in a trio, one of the missionaries in our district is now in our companionship while he's waiting for a missionary that is actually from Mississippi that was doing a service mission in our office. He is going to serve a full transfer with Elder Gentry.

 

I'm not sure what we are doing for the fourth yet, just kind of another day as a missionary though. Last year it was on our preparation day so we played softball and grilled, that was the week after I almost broke may ankle though so I was a gimp and couldn't really play.

 

 

Remembering the ankle

 

So on Saturday we were leaving our apartment early in the morning to go help someone work on their house that is moving into the ward, and we walked outside and were about to go down the stair well and I saw a man passed out on the stairs. He was awake and his eyes were open and he was breathing but he was unresponsive, so we had to call the ambulance to come get him. We were pretty sure he had been there all night. He lives on the third floor he was on the stairs and they think that he fell. We were talking to some other people that live by us and he was not looking good the night before when they saw him out by his car.