Yes and thank you Ma'am, I got the cards! (We sent him a bunch of your-half-way-done cards since his Hump Day was on February 23rd).
Well, it was kinda crazy here for Mardi Gras. Tuesday we were in New Orleans and then went to members' houses had a couple BBQ's, it was good cause we missed out on most of the craziness. But this week was just as crazy as last because of the meetings we've had left and right. I was in New Orleans Wednesday with Spanish missionaries on an exchange and then we stayed the night Thursday and had a zone conference with Elder Clarke of the Seventy, that was awesome! Then we went back to Thibodaux for Friday and then Saturday had a zone leader council in Baton Rouge with Elder Clarke to discuss how the mission and our zones are doing, that was petty sweet and I'm actually back in Baton Rouge again today. So we have been all over the place.
I got to stay in my old apartment with my comp that I had when I first got to that apartment so we just were reminiscing about all the good times we had in our 2 months together. He was the companion I had when we taught Darius the Iranian and he is serving in that area again as an office elder. But he is able to see him and he said Darius is still holding strong, a little lonely in the church because his family doesn't come but he still goes and he also attends the Iranian service at another church so he can be with them. It's cool to come back to an area to hear and see people you taught, its one of my favorite things!
Oh, I was able to talk to Elder Clarke for a few minutes and he is actually from Rexburg so I asked if he knew of Grandpa or Grandma Clark and he asked if he was a math teacher and I said yeah he taught at Ricks and he said that Grandpa was his high school calculus teacher so that was pretty cool! Elder Clarke is an awesome guy! He is a fire ball! He was a pretty old but had more energy than most missionaries. He gave us a pretty good chastisement on how we can be better and he had a lot of really cool ideas to help us work to get more people to sacrament meeting and how we can get on the good side of a bishop and how we need to help people become converted so they will never fall away and not just help them get a testimony. One thing he really highlighted was that we needed to get the investigators friends in the church so that after they join they have a friend and they don't have to go back to their old ones. He also told me I need to stay on top of you guys and find out what you are studying. Soooo... what are you all studying?
One thing lately that I have been learning about is children in the gospel, there are a couple of scriptures I like where it talks about how the weak things of the word will confound the mighty and the unlearned will confound the wise.. and I have often thought about that as me being a 20 year old from Idaho who doesn't know much but is able to teach people the gospel. But I also realized it applies to children cause we were teaching a member's daughter before she gets baptized and some of the answers she has and question she asks are so profound I don't know how to answer or I don't know where she gets things from and I realize how close children are with the spirit.
Well, let me know when you find out about the baby, I'm hoping for a boy :) but a girl might be good for Luke, haha!
Well, love you all,
love Elder Ritchie
