Thanksgiving card

Our Thanksgiving Card from Sam

Hello Family,

Just thougt I'd send a card for Thanksgiving and let y'all know I miss ya. Life is good in the South, Mormons are getting a much better rep after the election. They made the front page here talking about how most religions are sticking by our side now and the real winner of the election was the Mormons.

So Jen's baptism is now on the 29th this month because of scheduing work, she picked that day, so Happy Birthday Josh, looks like your getting a new member of the church for your birthday because you never told me what you wanted. There were some sweet white alligator skin boots I was thinking about getting you too, oh well.... So that RPM 5 gum you got me smells just like a monster energy drink. (He sent us back a stick to smell). Well, have a good Thanksgiving!

Love Elder Samuel Alan Ritchie

PS. I thought of the Andrus Girls when I saw this card, it sounded like something they would come up with.

Football on Thanksgiving

Hey, we had a good week, it was slower for missionary work because a lot of poeple were gone or had family in town so it was a little harder to work.  We went to a turkey bowl on Thursday morning and played some football, it's been a while since I played but it was fun.  I relized how out of shape I am. I could still run pretty good but not as good as I used to! haha! We have been playing basketball every morning at 6 for about and hour so thats helped but I'm thinking I'm going to have to try and do a half marathon or a full one sometime when I get home.

 

On Thankgiving we went out to a small little town in the Pineville's area and ate with the Yost family. They have a bunch of kids in the Pineville ward and one in ours, they also have a missionary out in Tacoma Washington right now, he is the youngest son and usually families with missionaries out watch out for us a little more than average. I think they hope someone is doing the same for their missionary.

 

That's cool Erica's home! I can't believe she's home already! And Genevieve got blessed! That's cool! I wish I could've been there for that, but she sounds like she is going to be the perfect age when I get home so that I can play with her and turn her into a little monster for her parents! haha! I've had some practice with the Andrus kids.

 

Well, Jen's baptism is comming together and everything is looking good for this Thursday.

 

Well that's about all.  I'll telll you how the baptism goes next week!

Where does time go?

Thanksgiving already??? Where does time go? It's finally cooling of here, even though it's been the the 50's at night and feels nice. I'll take the cold at home over this cold, I don't like it.

 

Well, some new news: Jen moved her date to next Thursday the 29th instead of the 15th of December because there was a stake activity and she wanted to do it before transfers come.  Most likely one of us is leaving that next week, hopefully its not me! haha!  I have a pretty good idea that I'll stay but you never know with me, I tend to travel and my companion tends to stay put.  

 

Nick is still doing ggreat! He left today to go back to Michigan for the week, we got him up to pass the sacrament yesterday too, that was sweet. 

 

I cant beleive Erica is comming home already!  That's cool she gets home before Christmas. Knowing her she will probably be married before I get home.

 

Well, have a good Thankgiving even if its just at a restaurant.

Love y'all!

love elder ritchie

The one about Bishop's Chickens

Well, Nick got a calling in the young men's this week, so that was some exciting news. Jen is doing really well, to she is getting more and more comfortable with getting baptized and she is about to finish Alma. The Wagleys were at church this week too, he is a member that has been less active for a while and she is his wife that isn't a member. He went on a mission to Mexico City and now he is a Spanish teacher, he is really cool.  He actually has the facsimile No. 2 tattooed on his back. Haha!  We have a lesson with them this week and we had a lesson last Monday night at the Bishop's and he made gumbo. The Bishop is actually teaching us how to make gumbo today.

 

Oh funny story! So we built Bishop a chicken coop a couple weeks ago but he couldn't find any chickens. So Elder Smith and I decided we were going to get him some as a surprise. So, we went to a farm store and see if the have any laying hens but they only had chicks, but they gave us the numbers to a couple of people that might have some. We gave them a call an find a guy that is selling them for 6 bucks a hen but the paper said $5, but we figured $6 was still good cause Bishop could only find some for $8 at the cheapest when he looked. So we tell the guy we are coming to get them and it turns out he lived in Pineville's area so we went poaching for a bit. But on the way, we decided we were going to barter with the guy and see if we can get 4 chickens for $22 instead of $24 and if not we were just going to get 3 chickens for $18.   When we got there we got him to take the bait so we ended up with four chickens in a big box in our back seat. So we head to Bishop's, then we try and decide how we are going to go about giving him these  chickens.  We figure if he is gone we will put them in the coop and wait and see if he notices. And if he is there, we would sneak them into the coop and then knock on the door and ask where the chickens came from. We get there and his truck isn't there, so we get ready to get the chickens out but something catches my eye, I see something in the coop and my heart sinks,  he already had chickens! So we go out and look and he has 8 chickens out there! We're are super bummed and wondering what are we gonna do now cause he probably has as many as he wanted and didn't want any more.  We panic and just put the chickens in the box on the front porch and head out.  As we are driving down the road, Bishop passes us, so we pull off and wait for a couple minutes to see if he calls.  When he didn't, we head back to his house and we pull up and he is out in the back yard messing with stuff.  We go out there and he starts telling us how he got some chickens for about 20 minutes, then he went and sat down a little ways from the porch and he starts talking to us some more. Then someone called and we are just nervous because there are chickens like 20 feet behind us that we're not sure he even wants anymore because he already has a bunch.  Then his phone rings again and  he starts talking to someone else and tells them about how he got chickens but  he only got 7 and was wondering if his they knew where he could get 4 more chickens because he wanted 11 or so. Well, as soon as he said that me and Elder Smith just start smiling and could hardly hold in our laughter! He finishes up his call and starts talking to us again and we are doing everything we can to get him to go inside so he will see the box. Then the chickens start making noise, so Elder Smith and I  stop and look over and Bishop finally hears because they have been making noise the whole time! He says "What's that?"and we're like "We don't know".  He thought it was the dogs.  Elder Smith and I start toward the porch and he follows us then gets out a head of us and we are trying our hardest not to bust out laughing.  When he sees the box he gets all sorts of confused and I barely managed to say, "Are you expecting a package?" He just starts creeping towards it because it's making noises.  He was really cautious as he got closer to the box.  It was kind of dark on the covered porch and he couldn't see well as he slowly started to open it, you could tell he was all sorts of nervous.  Then he realized that it was chickens and kind of put two and two together at the same time we couldn't hold the laughing in any more.  He said we got him good!  He was super excited that he had  more chickens and started taking pictures of them and us and sending them to everyone! haha! It was hilarious!! 

 

Anyways, everything is going well down here even though  we almost gave our bishop a heart attack with some chickens, our investigators are all doing really well..

 

Love Y'all

love elder ritchie

The one about chickens and missionary friends

So, Nick's first week after being baptized, he got up and bore his testimony! And then they had him say the closing prayer and he was just a stud! ha ha!  We found out his girlfriend is planning on moving down here in December and he wants to propose to her when shes here so if that's the case, I'll be able to go to their wedding if they do it this coming summer, it would most likely be in Michigan cause that's where they are both from. So that will be sweet!  That's one of the perks of going state side.  We had dinner with him on Friday night at Applebees and got the details on everything that he is plotting ha ha!

We have some other baptisms coming up. Jen has a date for December 15th right now and she is doing really well, she is basically a member already and everyone thinks she is too. She said she got the conviction she needs!

Writing your name on the wall with cheese.  What a great past time!



Well, we had and eventful Halloween of driving to a meeting and then driving some more.  I got to give a baptismal interview and then we crashed at Many's apartment for the night.  It was a long day... and then we had to instruct for two hours on Friday in a zone training meeting we put on. But the work's going great.  We have a lesson with the Wagleys tonight at the Bishop's and he is making gumbo. The bishop is famous for his cooking. Everyone knows him and loves his cooking and he is hilarious. We are thinking about buying him some chickens cause he hasn't got any for his coop yet.  We are going to make him name them after us one will be Ritchie and one will be Smith. 

Chicken Coop the Elders built for the Bishop

Yeah that's crazy Heather is going on a mission, she wrote me a letter telling me about it that's cool ha ha! There isn't going to be anyone to date when I get home!  Oh well. So,  is Josh is planning on a mission what about baby Heaps? Is he talking about it at all?  Collin sounds like he is doing great, he said he saw my blog and  said he didn't like the timer, so I had to tell him that was your doing, and I don't put anything on it ha ha! But as long as I don't see the timer I'm good, you can do what ever you want.  

Erica said she is doing great too. I can't believe she goes home so soon! That will be cool, we will have to set her and Eric up ha ha! We could use a Forbush in the family.  What about Rachel? What is she up to?  And tell all the little Andrus kids hi for me and that I miss them and I talk about them alot and that I loved the pictures they sent. 

The time changes makes missionary work hard.  But everything is going really well down here staying busy and look for miracles.

Louisiana Sunset

Well I better get going,

Love y'all

Love, Elder Ritchie