Celebrating Mother's Day!

We got a package from Sam on the day before Mother's Day.

It was full of Louisiana Treasures.

And a card that said:

Dear Mom,

I saw this dog card and it reminded me of you so I thought I'd get it.  I also got you some Zapps, they are pretty good, the Crawtator ones actually taste pretty close to crawfish. The Voodoo are just delicious.  I got you some "Slap Ya Mama" It's alot like Tony's and some LSU paraphernalia cause I realized I hadn't sent any.  Well I hope you have a good Mother's Day!

I love you!

Love, Elder Ritchie

Then on Mother's Day we got to talk with him!

He sounded great. 

We invited Grandma Ritchie and the little cousins over to say hi!

It was a great Mother's Day!!!

Thanks Elder Ritchie

Random Scenes from a Mission

Just a few random pictures from Elder Ritchie.

The Lost Letter and Pictures

They told me to go suck a lemon.  So I did.

Hey, I had a good week, I just wrote a long descriptive story about the awesome miracle we had but then the computer erased it :( and it was a good one, I spent like 30 minutes writing it... but i guess i just have to wait and tell you on the phone this week.

I'll probably call around 1 our time so I think that is noon there. I'll see if we can get the skype thing to work or not if not I'll just call.

 Oh yes, I got your package and grandma's package! I used something in your package for that miracle I was writing about but got erased... it was super cool.. but this computer is lame... oh, tell Sullivan and Grandma thanks as well!




My Christmas gift to Terry




My mission President is a star!
We had a zone conference with a nativity play last week.




My Companion got carded buying root beer.  Good thing he's over 21.






We are supposed to avoid the appearance of evil.

 

My CTR Ring fits on my tongue!

 

I drink my Tabasco straight out of the bottle.

 

The trash shute from the loft of the Man Cave.



I like my toast licorice flavored.

I'll talk to you on Christmas!

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!

A Picture at the Temple

A picture I found and stole off Elder Salazar's Blog! Thanks Elder Salazar!

Sprained Ankle and Pictures!

I sprained my ankle playing basketball pretty good on Monday and I can hardly walk right now and it's all swollen and all black, it looks gross. I had to rip up a T-shirt to wrap it up for a day. Hopefully it gets better cause I can hardly walk and the new mision president gets here tommorrow or Friday.

We went to a baptism last night, President Woods baptized a man from China. It was really good! We got D. there and he loved it. It was good to see the President get a baptism in his last weeks too. Oh, and afterward he came over to me and put his arm around me and asked me if I was ready, and my gut just dropped and I said for what, and he told me I'm going to be training this next tranfer most likely and if not this one the next one. So I'm kinda nervous about that but it will be cool having someone that doesn't know anything.

Make sure I have enough on my debit card, send me an email with the amount every once in a while just so I know cause I need to take 50 dollars out for emergencies like hurricanes. Everything is going good other than I can't walk!

Some pictures for you!

The Cantrell Family in Chalmette. Sam's first experience tracting and first baptisms.

Sam at the Baton Rouge Temple

Sam and companion in Chalmette just before being transferred to Baton Rouge

Note from the Mom: I saw this picture on Tammy's facebook page and commented on the lighting, she told me that "It's God's light!"

Pictures!

My district at the big map in the MTC.

Me at the Big Map

Tree Tunnel

Historic buildings in New Orleans

This is a barge on the Mississippi which is actually ABOVE us thanks to the levees. In Chalmette, we are actually 20 feet below sea level.

Our church and ward mission leader in New Orleans.

Elder Baker and me.

Baptism Commitments and Muffulettas

Hey ya'll,

It's been hot here, it was just under 90 degrees and probably 90 percent humidity the other day and we were tracting all day. I got some serious sun and then we got into a lesson and the house was probably 60 degrees, it felt like my body was about to go into shock. It is already a lot worse then July in Idaho. We keep telling people that there is still snow in Idaho and they don't believe us and think we are crazy for putting up with the snow for that long. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a foreign country. It's pretty cool.

Our main main investigator family are doing great, they are for sure getting married and then baptized on the same day. We just committed the daughter to be baptized the same day so its going really great. They have also been giving us some more solid referrals. We talked to the a niece and sister and had a good lesson with them, they wanted the change that they had seen in our investigator's family. The niece also said she has always wanted to be baptized so she lit up when we brought up baptism.

The food here is incredible. I had some ribs at our investigators house and they were probably the best ribs i have ever eaten. The bone literally pulled right out of them and was clean. I've also had some really good oyster-shrimp-mushroom-sausage gumbo. And a muffuletta! That's a sandwich with meat and cheese and then a layer of olive salad on top and its all on a huge Italian bun, it was amazing.

I don't know what they do to the breads they use down here but they are so good! I think its the humidity, the poboy and muffaletta bread is so good. There was a parade on conference weekend for St. Patrick's day in the St Bernard Parrish (Chalmette) and they just throw heads of cabbage, carrots and potatoes to the people, it's a really weird tradition but it's pretty cool so we have been eating a lot of cabbage lately.

I'm still loosing weight. We all work out in the mornings and run and go play basketball and then you sweat it off during the day. I think I've lost another 7 to 8 pounds these last 2 weeks. Oh, and are you gonna get my old watch fixed and send it to me? It would be nice to have more than one.

Love, Elder Ritchie