Last week of 20

Yes, I'm still 20 but my this is  my last week of it.  

 

This week was a little slower than last week but it was still good. We had stake conference so we went to alot of meetings because they asked us to go to all of them.  We had a older couple that has been less active show up to church. We had a dinner with them and they showed up to stake conference so that was sweet and a couple other less actives we have been working with were there.  It was a really good stake conference, it was all about temples the theme was "an invitation to exaltation".  

 

We have had a couple of set backs with investigators this week, one got in a wreck and can't meet with us right now and another has been sick. So we had a week of less active work. We met with one that was way cool, he showed us a Mormon rap he made called Mormon Souljers,  it was sweet! He used the  Book of Mormon Stories tune in it. I'll try and send it so you can hear it.  he also showed us his car collection and wants to take us golfing, so we are going to really love working with him.

 

We even had a member of the Seventy, Elder Gibbons, come this week and talk about how one of his friends used golfing to spread the gospel by taking his nonmember friends and the mission president to play a round of golf. He said on the 14th hole he would tell the mission president beforehand that he should ask his nonmember friend if he had ever invited him to meet with his missionaries and then the non member would say no and then he told the mission president to look at him and he would then ask his friends if he would come meet with him and the missionaries. So we are hoping that we can get members to do things like this also. The major thing that Elder Gibbons tried to help us understand is that this is not our mission, this is not the Louisiana Baton Rouge missionaries mission, that it's the ward members' mission and they should be excited to get people to learn and not be able to stand the thought of their non member friends not having the gospel and that it is easy and fun to share the gospel.  He said we shouldn't worry and that its not our responsibility for our friends to become members but it is our responsibility to invite them and show them how much of a blessing it is. He said there is almost nothing better for families especially for kids than to have friends learn about the gospel in their home. 

 

Well that's all for this week, we are going fishing in Albany today with a bunch of missionaries.  So hopefully we'll catch some. They say they have caught a bunch of catfish and turtles and even a few gators. The gators come and eat the fish when your fighting it, then your fighting a gator but they always break off right before you get them in because they start to freak out and they don't actually get hooked. 

 

Well love y'all

love Elder Ritchie

 

Fried Chickums?

So, we had one of the assistants come on an exchange with us for the week, it was Elder Hale from Star Valley.  It was good but he kinda got an infection in his leg, it swelled up the size of a football so it was and eventful week. We went to meetings all week all over the zone. We had to sit in on every district's district meeting. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though. 

 

I'm getting a new companion this week his name is Elder Curtis, he's from Pleasant Grove, I lived with him down in Chalmette right before I left for two weeks.  We get along (most of the time) haha!  but a good missionary so I think it will be good.

 

So I made fried chickum last week and I don't know if its just being in the South, but it was amazing! I used a shrimp fry batter and mixed in some Tony's and some Crystal hot sauce then coated em in more shrimp batter and fried those chickums (they were cut breast strips) and they came out amazing!!  I think I'm picking up this Southern cooking thing. Now I just gotta make a gumbo. Oh, I've been making chickum wings too haha!! We have had them every preparation day for the last three weeks, but hey I'm loosing weight so its all good. I eat healthy the rest of the week.

 

Well I don't have much time, I'm in Baton Rouge right now.  I actually got to go visit a bunch of people I used to teach and actually got to say good bye to them cause when I got transferred from here I had like 3 hours of notice to pack my stuff and then I was headed out the next day to Abbeville. So that was awesome, made me miss serving here though and made me realize how fast the 6 months I was here  went by.

 

Well, love you all,

 

love, Elder Ritchie

Driving Cars for the Mission Office

Hey Mom, your old! Sorry but 50 is old. But there is nothing worng with being old though, old people are good at some stuff!

 

Everything is going good here working in the mission office, we get to do all the dirty work.  We get to run the fleet of cars, 51 of them and we get to drive a 14 passenger van around! Even when we go out and proselyte.  So that's pretty sweet, we  can just run people over now if we want. My companion is from LA and he is almost done, he goes home right when I hit a year.  We are doing great, we don't get a lot of time to work with the people here now since we work in the office from 10 to 5 from Tuesday to Friday and then we get to go out and teach on nights and weekends so hopefully we get some spiritual work done too. It's a little different, we got to drive to New Orleans last week, it kinda made me feel home sick. I hope I get to serve down there agian some time. Maybe I'll get to go to Chalmette while working in the office since we get to run all over the mission and deal with cars and help with apartments.  We even get to sell cars! So, I've been driving a lot of cars lately.

 

The Jackson's are doing great they weren't able to make it to church though, so that kinda stunk. But we're still seeing progress. Well I hope you all liked your birthday presents. I forgot when Rebecca's was actually, I don't think she ever told me. So happy birthday Rebecca!

 

Well,  love you guys, miss you

Love, elder ritchie

Finding a Big "Golden" Family

Hey, it looks like I'm staying here another transfer?? Guess I still have work to do here haha!

 

I'm kinda glad I'm staying though, we found a really cool new family last week! A family of 7 and we're able to commit 6 for baptism. They have met with missionaries before and the thing holding them back was not being married and the dad was smoking, but in the 2 years since they met with missionaries they were able to get married and he quite smoking so it has been a giant miracle. It's a crazy story of how we ran into them, we were reffered to someone else by another investigator we have and we tried to talk to them but we got the wrong person who said somone in a house down the street used to meet with the missionaries and to try down there. So we went down the street and played the guessing game of which of the houses it was. We ended up finding a girl in the first one we picked that said she had not met with missionaries before but we had a good lesson with her and she said she would like to get baptized and then we went back and taught her again and that time we invited her little sister that was 14 to listen and she was really excited. Then we stoped by again and they said they had talked to their mom about us and their mom was excited to meet us. We ended up meeting her a few days later and she said she had met with us before and she wanted to learn more but they were talking their baby to the hospital so we set up another time and we went back. When we got there the whole family (6 of them at the time) were gathered waiting for us and they were all asking really good questions and the father was  saying how he would really like to see all of his kids baptized. We had a member named Johnathan B. (but every one calls Whoop) with us. He is a convert of 2 years and is getting his mission papers ready so we have had him out with us whenever we can get him. Our ward hasn't had a missionary in years. Anyway, when the dad said he had been baptized before in another church, Whoop chimed in and said he was too but it really came down to the authority that our church has and how no one else even claims to have the proper authority.  The dad loved that! So we've had a solid last week!  I'm glad, it's going to make staying a whole lot better! I'm excited to stay now and work with a big awesome family.

 

We are also working with a part member family that is coming along really great, the parents are members but not active and their kids haven't been baptized. They were super happy I was able to stay. But I'm losing my companion and getting a new one and they threw something else at me, I'm going to be a part time office elder. We just got a new senior couple in the office and they need a lot of help, so me and my new companion, Elder Anderson, are going to be working in the office a lot too.  So it's going to be an interesting transfer.

 

I'm sending you a package with a birthday present for eveyone that has birthdays coming up (including Josh) or had them already. You guys can fight it out for what you want. So, Happy Birthday Mom, Peter, Rebecca and Josh!

 

So I hear your're already getting snow! That's crazy! haha! It's still in the 70/80 range here so I'm pretty happy with the good weather for football.  LSU is still holding number one! The town is getting antsy.  I think I'll get to be here for the end of the college season too! Thats cool!  Mom, when I get back we gotta go sky diving because your 50 now! haha! Half way to 100!  And its not crayfish its crawfish!  But I've been eating so much lately I'm not to sad  I missed it (the Semi-Annual Ritchie Crab, Shrimp, and Crawfish Feed).

 

Well, I'll let you know how the office elder work is and how the Jackson family progresses. Let me know when you get the package!

 

love you!

love elder ritchie

Teaching Iranians and Fried Chicken Prayers

Yeah, conference was really good, I loved it! It was different watching every session in the church, but kinda cool. I still missed my legos and my pjs, but I probably got a little more out of it that I do with my legos. I can't believe Star Valley Idaho is getting a temple, haha, probably because they were praying for something to do there.

Well, we had a good week other than getting people to conference. We tried but weren't able to get anyone there. But right afterward we went and saw Darrius and committed his son for baptism. His wife and daughter aren't really interested but his son Sam is very interested and Darrius has been telling him a lot about it. We even got him to offer a prayer in front of everyone at the end of the lesson. He was able to recount the whole Joseph Smith story from the restoration dvd we watched with them a month or so ago. And we had left a Family is Forever dvd with Darrius before his baptism and Sam had watched it and loved it. It was really cool to have Darius there bearing his testimony to his son about what he had felt when he was baptized because Darrius has a solid testimony. He even faced some"anti" when he went to an Iranian Christian service with his wife and was talking to the pastor and the pastor found out he was in the LDS church and started talking bad about it and he defended the Church and questioned the pastor for talking bad about something that made him feel good and closer to God. That's what Satan tries to do! Teaching Sam made me miss teaching Darrius though and whenever he likes something he always lets you know by telling you "vonderful"! He kinda throws a "v" in for the "w" because of his accent. He is just a super awesome guy and I think the best part of the lesson with Sam for Darrius was when we let him know that he could baptize his own son because of the priesthood. We mentioned that one day Sam could be a missionary like us and Darrius really liked that too. His eyes lit up when we said that because he loves missionaries especially what they do. I hope that his wife and daughter will follow their example as well. Actually, we found out the daughter, Roxy, was reading the Book of Mormon we left and she said she was on page 7 and she was enjoying if! So, there its hope! Now I just wish I spoke Farsi so I could talk to his wife a little better.

My companion is form Lovelock Nevada and one of the Spanish missionaries in the apartment is from Rupert so we have had a pretty heated week in the apartment (Boisie State played Nevada in football) but good old Boise pulled through for me and Elder Christiansen from Rupert haha! I don't think revenge is always a bad thing. We turned the other cheek, we just happened to beat them pretty good in the process! LSU is still standing strong at number one so the town's still happy. And the Saints won too so eveyone's in a great mood. I'll have to send a Fleur de Lise/ tiger eye sticker home because I know you all are big Saints/LSU fans... haha!

My favorite talk from conference was D. Todd Christofferson's about repentance, I thought that was a good one and I kept thinking about his spring on about being cut down too. President Eyring's was probably my second favorite, but they were all good. I think the ward liked the one about the Seventy who was riding his bike and prayed for a quarter so he could get some fried chicken and the Lord answered his prayer. I liked it too, kind of a humble faith filled prayer.. and then to top it off we had some fried chicken afterwards too!

But I gotta get going!

love you all and take care
love elder ritchie

Favorite Foods and Other Things

I'm ready for conference! I can't wait! We get to watch some TV and relax a little bit.. haha! joke! But seriously, we had a good week, I was able to go on an exchange out to New Roads, a little town and work with a missionary in my district. The area is really struggling and they are pretty sure it is going to get closed down, so I think im going to give an instruction on diligence in district meeting this week to try to keep them going strong out there. I hope they keep it open because it will be really hard to open it back up after they close it because it is so far from the church.

We have been doing a lot of less-active work lately because our ward has 600+ members but only 100-150 are very active. We have been seeing alot of them and we have had some back at church these last couple weeks. It has been really cool to see them there and seeing that they liked being back at church one because its "the church" and because the Baton Rouge 1st ward is awesome.

Oh, so we made donuts last night, beignet's actually, a french donut I'm not sure how to spell it but I had one down in New Orleans from Cafe Du Monde, it was so good!

I've been learning some Portugese lately because we have a member that is from Brazil and we have been teaching her friends and we teach them English to so they teach us a little Portugese too, haha! They keep saying that I could pick it up and speak it really well. Tania the member, wants us to go to the next world cup with her and stay at her family's place in Soa Paulo, that would be pretty sweet!

What picture did you find on his Elder Salazar's blog? He is living with us right now.

Oh,back to talking about food, we had some really good gumbo yesterday! And some jalepeno cheddar cornbread and topped it off with Blue Bell ice cream, the best kind of ice cream! We had cookie dough and birthday cake flavored! They need to get Blue Bell in Idaho and if they have it get Josh some cause he would be in heaven, its the best! I'm not much of an ice cream person and I cant stop eating it!

Haha! Rebecca is the primary president! That's sweet, we have taught a few primary lessons, its fun. I usually just use the pictures of Jesus on the pass along cards we have and let the kids hold my placque with my name on it.. they love that.

LSU isn't in our area right now. There are LSU elders, one is Elder Robins, my last comp. But last week the South Baton Rouge area was closed because one of the missionaies was a "visa waiter" and he got sent out so they closed the area and we absorbed it into the two other areas we already have. So we had the whole of Baton Rouge (which is giant, way more people than any other area in the mission) in our area for a while. I didn't know what was going on so it was pretty crazy. The mission president actually took us out to dinner the other night because he felt bad that he kinda left us in the dark for awhile. But it is all worked out and now they have missionaries back there so it's running smooth.

I gotta wrap it up!
love ya
elder ritchie

Nerf Gun Warfare and Deep Thoughts

(I was writing to Sam about our trip to Lake Powell - one of his favorite places - this week and how the Spragues were going to have to plan a trip when he and Erica his cousin are home from their missions.) That's good that you got to the lake, we gotta have an epic trip when we get home! Cause I'm sure you all are just going insane with boredom with out me and Erica I mean Syster Sprague.

But everything is still going good here in Louisiana. Baton Rouge is still an adventure! We saw the Sons of Guns TV show's shop the other day, The Red Jacket, we were going to stop in with our nerf guns and get them upgraded. Do you thing they would put us on TV, a bunch of Mormon missionaries bringing in nerf guns asking them to modify them for our nerf war we are going to have? I think it would be prime time stuff.. haha! But we really are having a nerf war today for one of the missionaries in our districts birthday. I got a nerf sniper rifle and I'm getting pretty good with it.. haha!

We had a good week this week, a lot of good stuff going on and then some let downs with it. Our investigators will switch on and off from one week to the next. A few will get hot and want to learn and come to church, then they cool off and others start to be interested. It eventually comes back full circle, its weird. We're trying to get some of them over the hump and keep them coming but Satan is real and throws all he's got at them. A lot of the time he works through others in their lives that are more susceptible to get down on those that are working for good. It's tough to watch people start to feel the spirit really strong and work really hard for something and then just stop because of some little thing someone did or said to them or sometimes the other people don't have to say anything, they just are worried they will. Makes you think of how Heavenly Father feels, especially when some people who already have the truth in their lives start to turn away from it.

But that kinda sounds doom an gloomish. It's been a really good week actually, we had the H. family at church and they seemed to really enjoy it! It makes all the difference when members throw themselves into the mix and introduce themselves to investigators and not just the other investigators. Every time they talk to anyone that is new its cool. Well that's all I got today. So, till next week!

love ya,
love elder ritchie

Ebonics

Every thing is still going good down here, we have had some really nice weather down here, in the 70s and not humid! It's been nice, I love being outside when it's like this. There's not the haze of the smog and humidity, it's clear and green. I love how everything is still really green here and hasn't died yet. I'm still waiting to see if the leaves on trees change colors or not in the fall.

We had a pretty productive week, we started teaching a woman from Brazil and her husband from Greece. So we are still using the gift of tongues and interpretation like crazy haha but they both speak pretty good English so its not hard at all (better than a lot we have taught).

Darrius gave a talk in church yesterday that was really good! and we got to see Detchewery the recent convert form France finally get the priesthood and another recent convert name Wes passed the sacrament with us. They were all baptized one after the other in a three week span so its cool to see them all doing great. Darrius was baptized first and he and Wes passed the sacrament and now he's given a talk. We had a dinner with his family last night but his wife speaks very little English. and then Wes was baptized and he is marrying into a Mormon family soon. He has been really fun to work with because of the changes he has made. He is a very driven guy when he wants to be, he always has questions and is working towards getting married and then in a year they are going to get sealed in the temple Then Detchewery was the third baptism of the three and he is the one from France. Very smart, he's 23 and has a masters in communications and is working on another in business administration so he can take over the family business back in France and Africa (oh yeah, he's black). Anyway, that's a little bit of whats going on down here. A lot of good stuff!

Well I miss "ya'll" (don't worry i still don't say y'all and never will, I hate it) but I have picked up on some ebonics or whatever they call it, haha, "the Book of Norman", "ax you a question", "scriptors", "squwimp" (shrimp), "churn" (children), haha, its weird the "skreet" it the street "skraight" its straight!

anyways, love ya

love elder ritchie

Tropical Storms don't stop BBQs

You asked if I hear about LSU football. WOW, DO I HEAR ABOUT LSU FOOTBALL!!!! That's all I've heard about... haha! They won this week so everyone was in a really good mood.. and it was cool that Boise came and beat an SEC team, people know where I'm from cause of Boise State.

I can't believe you didn't go camping at Fall River on Labor Day... that's weird.. don't worry I won't let the tradition die, I'll start it again in 2 years even if i go by myself.

They evacuated the New Orleans missionaries and put us on lockdown on Saturday because of the tropical storm. We had 4 missionaries stay with us so we just had a giant party. It was a weird weekend because it was sunny on Saturday when were on lockdown with just spurts of really bad rain and then on Sunday they took off the lock down and it was super windy and rainy... but by the time church and studying were over it got kinda nice so we went out. We just went to a bbq that an investigator invited us to haha, tropical storms don't stop bbq's I found out! Then we went to a less actives house and had a lesson. He's from Africa and he made us eat too and I was literally the fullest I've ever been because there was so much rice and they made us finish, I had to go back to the apartment and make myself throw up I was so full I think the rice was expanding in my stomach and was about to explode so I had to get it out of there.

Anyways, I'll try and get some pictures home, I've got some good ones so I'll try and mail them home next week cause it takes forever to email them. I was waiting for a memory card but maybe I'll just go by one and send the old one home. But when I send the old one home don't erase the picture just copy them and send it back cause I still like to have them When you send it back send some more pictures of me just doing stuff, people really like to see pictures especially the the ones of snowboarding. You can go add the people that want to be my friends on facebook now, I think there are a few.

Guess what, its in the 70's here!!!! So nice outside today! Thanks for the cds Luke, I love em, definitely a good choice with the Enya and the Walk in the Woods cds, there's one song on there that is just instrumental and kinda techno a little bit that sounds a little like donkey kong 3, its sweet!

The work is still going pretty good, we had SH. an investigator show up to church this week even with the crazy weather but she's going through a rough time because she wants to learn more about the church but her husband is super anti so we can't really go over there.... so that's no good. We're trying to involve the members but its tough.. well that's all I got for now, thanks again for the package!! I love the jerky its my favorite! and the cds and my green apple lip balm, good stuff... and I just got handed another package from the Spragues! so I'm gonna open that, so say thanks to them too!!

till next week love ya!! take care
lover elder ritchie

The one about Dogs, Baptists, and Transfers

Hey, just get grandpa a big dog... little dogs are no good! I still haven't got that package you said was comming but I'll keep looking for it (I sent it to Longview Ave instead of Longridge Ave and it came back!).

We had a pretty good week except it's transfer week and my Spanish roommates are leaving. One is going home, he is 27 and from Honduras, his name is Elder Sandres he is an illegal and was supposed to go to Boise but they found out he was illegal and sent him here because he lives in Texas. Now so his parents just get to pick him up. Elder Dehart is leaving too, he came to Louisiana the same time as I did and this is the only place he has been so he is way excited to leave. They aren't replacing them so it's just going to be two of us in our apartment now. It's not going to be as fun but it's going to be alot quieter. I'm staying here another 6 weeks at least, but I'm pretty sure this will be my last transfer here because I've done two and a half transfers here and that means I'm going to have at least three and a half here, and I doubt they will have me do more, hopefullly, I kinda want a little change, but it can wait. I'm just not looking forward to two people in our apartment.. but the work is going good and that is the important part.

Our mission president spoke in our church on Sunday and we had three unexpected investigators show up that kind of had fallen of the map. The mother said the wanted to get back on the path and was really insisted they were going to be baptized! They are a super cool family! It's the mom S. and her two daughters D and D (14 and 9), but the husband is a "baptist". we were actaully talking about John the Baptist in one of our lessons and he walked in and said "see John had it right he was a Baptist" haha!

But everything is going good here, tell both of my Grandma's thanks for the letters! I've been trying to write them back I have the envolopes filled out and ready but haven't had time to write the letters yet, so just tell them I love them and thanks and I love the letters! It's so nice to get letters I love it! I think my favorites are from my family and Jamie down in Challmette. It's so awesome to hear they are keeping the faith and loving it! There is nothing like it!! Well I'm out of time, they have us emailing our president's letters now so I don't get quite as much time to email.. but everything is going swell!!!

love ya bye

Service and Sweat

Well, we have been doing a lot of service. We moved a whole storage unit the other day and I got to use my rock garden planting skills the other day when we helped a less active member figure out how to install a rock garden and then helped her clear the place and we are putting the rocks in this week sometime, so thanks Mom, I didn't appreciate it at the time, but I guess it paid off! haha. Our new mission president is putting a big emphasis on service! So that's awesome. I've been able to wear my jeans a couple times and get dirty - oh yeah, and sweaty can't forget the sweaty, its ridiculous how sweaty you get, you can loose like 7 pounds a day of straight sweat..

We saw a pretty crazy fight going on this week, there were like 30 people involved and baseball bats and straight up fist to faces! haha It was in a pretty rough area so I flipped around and got out of there as fast as I could, haha cause that's all they would want to see, the only two white kids for miles around driving by. That and people always mistake us as some kind of police, haha.

We also were able to teach our Iranian friend D.H.'s family this week and they really liked it!

Oh mom, I actually just read about Saul/Paul on his way to Damascus and how he was converted, I read the story of Alma the younger not to long ago too so I kind skimmed over both and compared a little bit both really awesome conversion/missionary stories! (I asked him for some help on a lesson I'm giving)

We have been eating out a lot because its been a lot easier, but I'm still doing good keeping the weight off and we have been running now because my ankle is finally able to, it still is at only like 70 percent but its getting there.

Well that's about all I got time for today. love ya

love elder ritchie