Transfer Time

 

Hey, I'm getting transferred again :/    I'm going to miss Abbeville.  We had a lot going on, we just found a bunch of new people to teach and had an awesome week this last week. I'm going to Thibodaux, haha! I thought I was going to be here a long time but I guess I'm needed somewhere else.  I know my companion I'm going to serve with, he is awesome.  I was actually on an exchange with someone from Preston and he asked who I would most like to serve with, and I said my new companion because it's his last transfer. So it's gonna be good! We have Elder Bednar coming next Saturday so that's exciting as well.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you  I'm going to be a zone leader I guess, haha!  I'm technically not supposed to know but when you have been in the office, you have a few connections.  I'm going to miss all the people we are working with here and all the people in my zone.

 

Yes Mom, we have sisters here in the zone, they are pretty good ones too.  One is from Pleasant Grove and she actually graduated with Erica and the other just got here from temple square. They let here come here for a few transfers and then she will go back for tourist season.  She was in the MTC the same time I was. She is from France. I went on an exchange with a missionary from Taboui a small island by Tahiti and he was teaching me some French. So I have a language card and some phrases because there are a lot of people here who speak French.  The guy living by us in the house boat grew up speaking French and didn't know what English was until he went to school and the teacher was yelling at him and he didn't know what was going on.

 

I'm not sure how being a zone leader will be, probably a lot more meetings.  Normally I give the zone leaders a hard time, so now I'm going too feel like a hypocrite!  But I've really liked and gotten along with all my zone leaders so far. So hopefully I can be like them.

Sounds like you all had a good Christmas. I still can't believe Alisha got married! haha! Well, I can - but it doesn't feel like I've been gone long enough for her to be getting married. But I guess it has been a few days since I left.  I saw the snow pictures from New Mexico, that was pretty cool. Maybe we will get some. I saw a little frost on the ground today, that was different.   

 

I'm still just shell shocked cause I'm getting transferred.  It came out of no where, but it's my first time being transferred on a normal transfer day though! haha!  No more emergency transfers for me! There is hope for me yet, no more mischievous Elder Ritchie that only gets ET'ed (emergency transferred), ha ha!  

 

I just hope my companion I'm leaving will do OK.  I made sure to leave very good notes and a very neat and informative area book, but i guess that's all I can do.  I hope the area can continue to do well because it is an awesome area, definitely one I'll have to come back and visit one day. I just wish I could've been here longer.  But I'm really excited for my new companion it's going to be awesome, he was in the office when I was in Baton Rouge. He was with Elder Murphy and his name is Elder Clark.

 

Well, I better go we are heading up to Lafayette for a zone p-day, play some more dodge ball, and say my goodbyes.

 

Love y'all,

love Elder Ritchie   

Merry Christmas

Hey, it was good to hear and see you guys on Christmas.

I had an awesome Christmas. That miracle I was talking about, we were supposed to baptize a  little girl and her brother Saturday but we weren't able to get permission from their mom yet, but we are hoping to get it soon and get them baptized. I'll let you know how it goes.  We were having a really rough day and then we met them through their grandma and committed them last week. They have a strong desire to be baptized so its still a miracle, just gonna talk a little longer to work it out. Oh, and the little girls name is L. and we were stopping by right after I got your package last week and it had that CTR slap bracelet.  I knew what to do with that as soon as I saw it! We stopped by and L. had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left and additional ones as well and we were standing at the door and I told her to hold her wrist out and I reached into my pocket and I snapped her on the wrist with the bracelet and she loved it.  Just the night before they were looking at my CTR ring and I was telling them that it meant "choose the right" or "Christ the Redeemer" and she really wanted one really bad.  So I was able to give her that one after she had read and she loved it!  She is awesome a little 9 year old that loves reading the Book of Mormon and really wants to get baptized.  She comes to church even when her grandma doesn't. So we are hoping everything works out with her mom.  Her brother is supposed to get baptized too but we have only meet with him the  first time we taught her, so we are hoping to get him over to his grandmas again because he really wanted to be a member of the Church.

Thanks for all the Christmas presents, I really liked them  all!! Just remember the true spirit of Christmas, as the prophet said you can just drop the second part of the syllable of Christmas and it becomes the spirit of Christ. He is the reason for the season. The greatest gift we will ever be given was the gift of our Savior and I know that he is the Son of God and our Savior and Redeemer.

Love, Elder Ritchie

An Instant Primary

Well, to start off we had an awesome church this Sunday, we got someone that lives across the street from the house we have the group meeting to come to church and she brought the 8 kids she was watching, 2 were her own.  We had a full house and all 8 of the kids were under 7 so it was a party haha!  I asked Sister Campbell if she was ready for primary and she kinda gave me an odd look and then we told her about the 8 kids that were supposed to be there and she kinda just went into shock, so did  I a little! It didn't really hit me, 8 kids, until they got there. And they were all under 7 haha!  We were in for a treat!  Then Sister Campbell asked if there was anything she needed help with and we said, well they live kiddie-corner to you, so we might could help her get them all here. So we went with her and took the first wave of 5 kids, we got to shepherd them to the church. It was awesome!  They were really good kids, they all held hands and walked with us to the house.  Then Terize (the lady we are teaching) showed up with the rest of them. They all were very good in church and the bishop even came down for the first time to the group meeting.

The three of us missionaries got to talk. I talked on hope and how the world misuses the term hope and how its a little different in the gospel context, that it is more of a firm belief and yearning for blessings. I used Alma 34:22 with it and then brought it back to Moroni 7:41 and that all hope comes through the atonement, and then to 2 Nephi 31:20 that we must have a perfect brightness of hope and we shall have eternal life, it went well. 

Terize, the 22 year old watching all those kids, really liked church we had a lesson with her this last week and she ate up everything we were teaching her.  I've never seen someones eyes light up so much from the thought of a prophet and how the book of Mormon came about through a prophet.  She had some questions about where we go after life here so we had her read Alma 40:11-13 and she was like, oh that's a relief!  Ha ha! She loved it, so that was an awesome miracle!

How we ran into her was awesome too.  We were out with a member and a lesson fell through so we went to see if we could see some other investigators but noone was available. So, we were like oh, we will have to try another time and the member we were with was like "I went on a mission and I know how it can be especially tough when you have members come it makes it harder a lot of the time".  So, we decided to call it a night but as we were driving back to the apartment I thought, "Hey, lets go stop by this house," and it just so happened that Terize was home and her kids and boyfriend were gone so we had a quiet lesson and we had a male member with us so we were actually able to go inside and have a lesson. It was an awesome miracle. The circumstances were to perfect to be coincidence and she really felt the spirit. She had been having a terrible day, her dog got stolen and she had to track the guys that stole it down and they made her pay for her dog because when she said she was going to get the police involved they said they would just shoot the dog, (people are in love with their pit bulls here they are the most popular dog) anyways, it was awesome that we were able to help provide the spirit to help her have a better day.

  

My new companion is having some struggles.  Then next few weeks will be interesting.  He really wants to be on a mission, but he is having some problems interacting with people and studying to be a missionary. 

 

The work is  going good, and my other companion leaves for home this week so that's good.  He was able to make it after all the struggles he has had on his mission. We get along well, especially when we are doing the work, not so much when we are just around the apartment but we do alright.

 

I'm sending a package home with some presents for Christmas, you and dad can open yours when you get it cause it can be used for Christmas and it probably comes close to the present I got you last year, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to top getting my mission call.  Every one else can wait to open theirs. I'm sending a picture that I got when I was in Challmete that an investigator, well now  a new member, got me. This is the one that was baptized two weeks after I left.  I don't know if I said this already but I think 10 or 12 people have come into the church because of her example. Mom,  will you get on my Facebook and say hi to Tammy  and Chelsie. Just tell them I miss them or something, just send them a message, don't have to write on their wall or what ever you kids are calling it these days.

 

Anyways, love ya

 

love elder ritchie

On Christmas, I'll call before three cause that will be four here and we only have one hour of church or I could do it after that,  maybe like 11 or 12  if that works, Idon't really think it matters. We can do it whenever works.

 

So, the man cave is awesome. My companion is from Corona California . The senior couple are still here and hey, if your sending a package just send it to the 1630 prairie address cause its probably safer going there because they have a hidden door, ours is like right by the street, but you can send mail to my new place at  604 Samson but either address works. The Campbell's call me if I have mail.  It's probably good we moved out though, I was about to start calling them mom and dad, haha!  It felt a little like home having older people there.  They are super awesome they support the church and the members here so much they have activated a couple of families and help us visit less actives and find people to teach.  Senior couples are the best!

 

We had kind of a disappointing week at church though, we were counting on Braden and his friends to show up because his friends had a baptismal date for the 17th but it looks like we will have to postpone it till next year. It would be to hard to get a baptism over the break, but we will see how it works out.  Terry has been sick lately, he has had internal bleeding or something, they think it's a bleeding ulcer so we haven't seen him in a little while, he did bear his testimony last week when we had church here in Abbeville.  Our group here in Abbeville is making progress, the bishop approved us to get the new teaching materials for next year. He wasn't going to let us have Sunday school and YM and YM but we talked to our ward mission leader who is awesome, and he has been trying to get the ward a spark for missionary work so I think his work is starting to pay off.

 

I got a package from the young women of the ward with some nice stuff inside. I love the pillow case they sent, it was sweet and I needed a new one anyway so tell the thank you for me. I'll try and sent them a thank you card sometime but not today, we are going to the Tabasco factory.  It's only like 20 miles from us. We are going with the New Iberia missionaries. Oh yeah, my Collin look alike from Tahiti that was serving in New Iberia got transferred :(  .  But they replaced him with another missionary from French Polynesia Islands, but he doesn't look like Collin. 



 

Tell Daphanie that I want some koolaid when I get to the airport or at least I expect her to have been drinking some so I can recognize her by her red Koolaid mustache that matches her red hair :] 

 

Boudin

Well, I got to try something new this week it was called boudin.  It's weird sausage with rice in a pig intestine. We also had seafood boudin with shrimp, rice, and crab in the intestine, it was pretty good, very spicy.  The seafood one was really good.  We grilled it over a wood stove our neighbor CJ has on our porch.  We are getting some really Cajun training.  I got to help make a gumbo the other day too!  

 

 

Well, I best be going now,

 

love ya

love elder ritchie 

Thanksgiving's Move to the Man Cave

We had a  good Thanksgiving, we ate and we ate... and then we taught... and then we moved. We moved into our new apartment and its saweeet! It has a loft and only one window and its a man cave! I'm going to take pictures and you guys can build me one so I can have it when I get home. It will just need a few more basic essentials we are not allowed to have on a mission. We moved into it on Thursday after we ate and then taught a lesson, we were actually teaching a lesson in one of the rooms at the Campbell's to Terry, just talking about priesthood cause that's what he was concerned about. He keeps saying "the bishop is going to test me on it next week".  He got the True to the Faith book and the bishop told him to study priesthood and he was going to ask him questions about it next week. So we went over it with him in his reading, but while were were reading everyone started running out the door with our beds so we were like, what in the world! And they said they were going to go put our beds in the new apartment cause someone was there with a truck. So, we just took everything and moved in that night, in a hurry!

 

 

 

My two companions are doing alright, I'm training one and getting ready to send one home. It's going well, Elder West is my new companion and Elder Limb is the older one. Elder West and I get along really well, he just has a hard time studying and remembering things but he's fun. We get along a little better than Elder Limb and I do.  But when Elder Limb and I  are teaching,  we do a pretty good job. Elder West is still shell shocked when it comes to teaching but that's normal, we will see how well he can break out of it cause he is a little different in social situations.

 



Sam in Abbeville



We got a new assistant to the president last week,  its Elder Murphy from Idaho Falls so I'm getting even more pull in the office and with president, so hes got my back! Oh and I can't remember if I told you but we got a car.  It's been in the 40's here to so we got it just in time.  For Christmas I could use a sweater and maybe a pair of thin gloves. Well I'm out of time.

 

Love you,

elder ritchie

Sick Days

Well, my sickness came back. I was homebound most of the week so we didn't get a whole lot done.  It's not fun being sick on your mission, it's alright for a couple of hours but once you have slept all you can, it's not fun cause there is no TV to keep you entertained while you feel like crap. Oh yeah, I lost my voice too, we were talking to a lady last Tuesday night that was an atheist and we were talking up a storm trying to help her realize that there is a God and how she can find out the truth and half way through the lesson my voice just went out on me. But I kept trying to talk and I think I made it worse than it was going to be cause we were really trying to help the lady out.  We found a good thing to share with her, I'll have to send it to you, I really like it. She was all about science and this article makes you think especially coming from  one of the smartest people there has been.

 

So I sat around all week and slept and read and I actaully learned a bunch of hymns from that easy hymn book they have  so I can play like 15 hymns with one hand now.  I just don't know how to teach myself how to play with the second hand, I figured it out for one song but then I took a break and forgot how.

 

Well, the baptism is still looking good for Saturday. Terry stopped smoking last Saturday and says he is going to do it! So, keep him in your prayers! He didn't have a problem with anything but coffee and smoking.

 

We are having Thankgiving here. The Campbells, our senior missionaries are cooking. We also had church here yesterday. Kinda cool waking up, studying, and walking out your bedroom and down the hall to the chapel.  It went well, we had 19 people here, we were missing a family of 5 so that hurt a little but still a good turn out. We had the senior office couple that I got to work with for a week come give talks, they were really good. 

 

And yes, I could use a sweater, it gets cool here.  Haha, I never thought I would be saying 40 degrees is to cold but I don't like it.  I bought some long socks because slacks don't hold the heat in and the wind goes through em. I'm looking for an old suit at a thrift store so I don't have to wear my nice ones on a bike. It's been fun on a bike, there are lots of ditches to jump in and out of and I've found some good ledges to drop off of. I had to go buy a skateboarding helmet too because bike helmets aren't as comfortable. Oh, and I would also enjoy a beenie if your ever sending a package, just throw one of my old ones in or something, just for the mornings. I bought a double xl hoodie that I wear when I study: comfy, giant, and warm! We're not allowed to swim in water so I bought a hoodie that I could swim around in instead!

 

We have also been helping a guy get our new apartment all ready it is sweet!! I want one like it when I get home, it has a loft that we study in and it's big and the ceiling is some old kind of wood he found and put up then he just ran a steel brush over and stained it.  It's a man cave haha! There are like no windows, and the guy we are renting it from is going to live on the side of the house in his houseboat. But he is normally out hunting and fishing all the time and goes to his cabin which I guess is bigger than most houses here (not hard to do).

Well that's about all I got!

love ya'll

love elder ritchie

 

P.S. Mom, I found your birthday in the Book of Mormon Alma 14:23!

Spreading Viruses and the Gospel

Soooo, I got sick last week... I was out for a day... and now everyone is catching it. I guess im just a trend setter... everyone want to do what elder ritchie is doing.. joke!   But other than being sick it was a good week, we played some football and soccer with some members from Idaho last Monday.  We have a family in our group that is from Idaho and they loved the Boise State shirt you guys sent, so good job!

 

I was on an exchange in New Iberia with Elder Geuthiex from Tahiti, he looks like he could be Collins twin brother except a little shorter and a smaller nose.  But they kinda have the same personality, kinda a shy funny kid.  French is his first language as well. So I think I decided that's where Collin really comes from, Tahiti. I'll have to get a picture with him.  Oh, and I'm going to Tahiti when I get home. 

 

Oh, thanks for the snowboarding pictures too, people like to see the snow and  the mountains cause most haven't really ever seen any.  They just don't know what they are missing out on! Haha! Mountains are where the prophets go to dwell with God, so its a good thing they have a temple down here cause there are noooo mountains! Although I did hear a rumor that there are hills up in Mississippi in Natches or Alexandria somewhere so I was gonnna try and go there when I was in the office, make a trip to see the elders and maybe a so called "hill" but it will have to wait.  But I'm glad to be out of the office and teaching again cause after a week I was getting rusty with teaching. We had a couple lessons but they weren't very good. We didn't get to study very often either so it's true, if you don't use it you lose it!

 

I just like it here and I'm glad I got here when I did because we started teaching Terry a day or two after I got here and it is looking like his baptism is going to happen on the 19th. He's excited about it and he is really working for it, it's not easy but he is doing it!

 

So Mercy wants everyone to lick her?? Man have things changed since I left haha!  (In my letter I said that nothing has changed, then what I meant to say was that Mercy the dog still wanted to lick everyone). Well thats all I got for now.  Take care! Love ya!

 

love elder ritchie

Eating Cajun Catfish and Teaching

I got the package, thanks! But I haven't gotten the card yet. That's to bad about Nolan... hope he gets better, sounds like everyone is just having back problems these days. I was just thinking a couple weeks ago about how cool it was going to be to when Nolan got out and all four of were all on missions and now we are back down to two. I hope they are both able to get better especially without surgery cause that's never good.  Hopefully Collin's and my backs hold strong.

 

I think we are going to go play soccer with some of the youth in our little group. There is a family that is origonally from Idaho that lives here and all the kids play soccer and they don't have schoool today so we are gonna go hang out with them for a little bit. Other than that I'm not sure what we will do for P day.  I don't have all the options I did in Baton Rouge, or all the other missionaries, or a car... but I hear there is some really good fishing around here so we might try looking into that, it's just hard when you can't go in a boat.

 

The work here is going really good. We have got some good people we are working with, we just started teaching a man named Terry that has a wife and kid that are members but he never joined and now that he and his wife have been separated he has really become interested in the gospel and wants to do better.  He was telling us how he wanted to get his family sealed together but because of everything that is going on right now he's not sure how far that will go but he says he just wants to work on himself first and then that will come or it won't but he wants to put it in the Lords' hands so he is super solid. We have been reading in Mosiah with him and we really hit home with the atonement in our lesson last night the Spirit was really strong and you could just see he wanted the atonement in his life just from his countenance and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. He is really excited to get baptized. He's working toward November 19th right now and I'm pretty sure he is going to make it. We are also teaching one of the friends of the senior couple we are staying with. Her name is Sheila and she's from England and has had a very hard life! But she sounds like she is doing very good and she is friends with alot of the members and she has come to church the last two weeks with us. Sheila and Terry have both been going to church and other church programs to help them out.

 

I ate something new this last week - fried cauliflower, and we had fried catfish but it wasn't fillets, it was just the skins and heads with the  guts cut out.  Just the head and the tail. The guy that came and cooked for us showed us that you can eat the tail of the fish after its fried and it tastes just like eating a potato chip and has the same crunch. Kinda cool, haha! Cajuns are crazy!

 

It's been cold here these last 3 days. It's been in the 60's and even down in the 50's at night. It's not like the 50's and 60's back home though, it's different and cuts through you especially if there is a breeze. But every thing for the most part is still green, there are a few trees that are a little yellow but not much.

 

Well I'm not gonna lie Mom, your emails have been kinda lame lately... but I guess thats alright I did just get a package!

 

love ya

love elder ritchie

Sermons in a small town

I'm out of the city now, it's nice to be away from all the traffic of Baton Rouge.... but I do miss it already.  But so far Abbeville is awesome, there are some really cool people out here. We don't have a church here but they do have a group that meets twice a month in the house where we live. We are living with a senior missionary couple that is doing a service mission.  They use their house for the group meetings. The closest church is in Lafayette so we went there yesterday and it was really great, it felt alot more like a home ward than what I've been accustomed to in Baton Rouge or New Orleans. But is still had its differences.  The people here are really nice, I forgot what it was like to be in a smaller town and how people on the street just talk to you.

 

We have had some really good progress here, we found a bunch of new invesitgators. It was kind of like we got double transfered into the area, both me and  my comapion Elder Limb.  The President called me last week to come to the mission home to have a chat and he told me about the situation here and  that I would stay until December and then I'm probably going to be training again after that.  So it's kinda been a different experience.  But we have gotten some work done in the 3 days I've been here, found 4 new investigators and had one to church and 3 have baptismal dates so its been alot of fun! 

 

We have a big FHE every Sunday afternoon as well and it usually brings out about 30 people. We ate a lot of food and then had dessert and I was in charge of the spirtiual thought or lesson so I did a lesson on "bondage and repentance" and how sin puts us in bondage. We read some good scriptures and then got a volunteer (there were a bunch of kids there so I did an object lesson) we had him come up with us and we had a giant bag of candy and we said that the bag of candy represented happiness or eternal life.. and then we asked if he wanted that candy and he said of course.. but we told him he had sinned so we had to put him in bondage so we taped his hands together so he couldn't grab the candy, then explained he had to repent to get the candy and we cut him free.  It went over great.

 

Oh, you know how  I said we didn't have to worry about traffic any more, well one of the big reasons is because I'm on a bike now...haha!  I went from unlimited miles in our giant van and driving different cars all day and driving  new cars right off the lot with only one mile on them.... to my bike! haha!  Oh well, at least I have the memories.  But I was missing teaching because we didn't get to teach hardly at all in the office. So I was pumped when I got here and got to go back to full time proselyting.

 

So Dillon is home, crazy! Hopefully he makes it back out! Tell him if he goes state-side to request Louisiana haha! Come teach some of these cajuns with me!

 

So Alisha is engaged! Haha! That's funny cause I think Elder Salizar wrote here a letter, he wanted someone to write and I know Alisha likes writing missionaries. Whoops!

 

Anyways tell Taylor and Nolan and Joe good luck for me.

 

love elder ritchie

Change of Plans

Hey, so false alarm! I am getting transferred!

 

There was some stuff that came up in another area and President said I'd be a good fix, so I guess I'm going to Abbeville to serve with and Elder Limb. So if there is anything you were planing on sending send it to: 

 

1630 Prairie Ave.

Abbeville LA

70510

It looks like my days as an office Elder were short lived but we had fun and I  got to meet some cool new missionaries, some that were shipped off today espeicially Elder Klem, haha! Tell Peter that I served with a legit Elder Klem, he might get a kick out of that. But I get to go be in a district with one of my favorite  missionaries that I was companions with in the MTC, Elder Bennett, so I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be sweet!

I can't get my camera to send pictures right now, so here is a picture from someone else's camera.  Enjoy!