Another good week in Thibodaux!

Another good week in Thibodaux! Well, I was actually in Harahan for five days on an exchange, but when I did get back it was really good!! It was nice getting to do another exchange in New Orleans, it really makes me miss the city and the culture and the people, hopefully I get to make it back over there to serve. I was actually on an exchange with a missionary that came out like 3 months ago and he graduated the same year as Peter which is kinda crazy, he is 25 and just barely got out. But he is solid and an awesome missionary.

 

When I did get back to Thibodaux we went and saw our investigators K, C, S, and J.  We just stopped by to set a time up to see them because my companion waited till I got back to stop by and I'm glad he did cause it was a sweet experience. C. told us that he got an answer that he needed to join and that he had been praying about it during sacrament at church last Sunday. He had been trying to find out if this is what he needed to do and he said when he got home he got on YouTube to look something up and a "I'm a Mormon" ad came up and it was the first time he had ever seen one and he feel really good about joining in that moment and knew it was right, so that was way sweet. His girlfriend is following right behind him, she said she felt really good at church, not quite as obvious of a sign but she was able to feel a sense of peace and belonging in church! So they are doing really good. We had another lesson with them about the word of wisdom and they both committed to live it. In the lesson, K. kinda was still a little confused about the restoration and didn't fully grasp it and then C. started to explain it and bore testimony about it and how it was essential to have the way back to God restored and how Joseph Smith was just like him, looking for a church, and then God and Jesus appeared to Josheph and told him that he was to join none of them and then he would restore the truth... the spirit came in the room really strong when he started to teach and the funny thing is we didn't teach him that in-depth about the restoration, so I know that when we did teach it he was learning from the spirit. We had some of the Yount Sing Adults there with us when we were teaching, two of the Nichol's students Hayden and Pa'a, and they said they felt the spirit when he started to teach.  We had left them Alma 32 to read and C. read it twice and said that the 21st verse stuck out to him and really helped him understand the definition of faith. Haha! It has been a fun week and I've just been blessed to even be a part of it!

 

Well I'm glad Nolan finally got to have a sort-of farewell, I'm excited for him to get out and start teaching cause it's the best!

 

I'm going to try and write Sullivan today, I'm finally in Thibodaux on a Monday so maybe I'll get something done... I've kinda been a slacker when it comes to writing people, I have a stack of letters that I gotta start responding to or no one will write me anymore.

 

Well, they're shutting off the computer cause of construction so I gotta get going, love ya'll!

 

love, elder ritchie

Working with the Members and Happy Birthday Wishes!

Hey, sounds like we all had a good week of eating fish. I got to go to my first crayfish boil of the year. We went to a boil with the Nichol's football team and the coaching staff right after we watched the 3 point and dunk completion the football players and the coaches had. I had forgotten how much I love crayfish.

We had an awesome sacrament meeting, we had the two couples that we have been teaching come it to church on Sunday.  We actually went and woke them up just to make sure they we coming, but we did it in a nice way, we made them some breakfast so it was a little easier to get up, haha!

I got Sullivan's letter but I haven't been able to write back yet  because I haven't had any time on preparation day.  Right now I'm actually in Kenner, we had to go to a leadership training meeting, the stake president wanted our impute on how the priesthood leaders could better use the full time missionaries.  The New Orleans zone leaders and we got to get up and give suggestions and tell them how we can help them do missionary work. We just had Elder Clarke here from the Seventy and he basically told us we shouldn't have time to tract and that tracting is at the very bottom of our list of things to do, and that members are the key way of finding people to teach, and that we are teachers not finders.  So we are going through the phase of trying to figure out how to best mesh with the units and the members. We need to remember that we belong to one church not two.  We often act like there are two churches, a members' church and the missionaries' church, when it's really just one. So we need to be working together more than we have in the past.

Anyway, I'm going to try and write Sullivan today but I'm not getting back to Thibodaux until Thursday because I'm going one an exchange here in New Orleans until then, so if I don't get to tell him, make sure you tell him happy birthday for me!!  I can't believe he's going to be twelve years old!  Tell him that holding the priesthood is awesome and to read his scriptures everyday, it makes a difference! I'd love to send he and his sisters a package for his birthday, I have a giant garbage sack full of Mardi Gras beads!

Speaking of birthdays, give Aunt Dena a big happy birthday shout out from the bayou, she's the best!
 
Love , Elder Ritchie

Loosing weight, adding meetings

I'm loosing weight again.. I've lost 16 pounds here in Thibadaux cause I made a contract with my comp to loose 4 pounds a week because I gained weight in Abbeville and Baton Rouge after I  hurt my ankle and I couldn't work out for a long time and then I went to Abbeville where they fry everything and never stopped feeding me. 

 

Well, the super bowl wasn't bad for us, we went and taught a members daughter that  is turning eight in a month. They asked if we would teach her the lessons so she is ready, so we were there for most of the super bowl.   The father is even a football coach at Nichols. He actually played for BYU  back when they were actually good and they only lost one game. 

 

We were in New Orleans again for most of the week, we went to do double work with the Kenner elders and then we had a specialized training for two days at the stake center in New Orleans.  We didn't get a lot of time to teach but we did get to see Oscar, our investigator that plays basketball, he hasn't been able to meet with us because this is the crazy time for college basketball. 

 

Well, I  don't have much else for this week, and this coming week we have to go to every district meeting and one with one of the assistants. We are spreading them out so we will go to one every day and two on Friday so that will take another chunk of time.

 

Well, take care, love ya 

Love Elder Ritchie 

Taking it to the teams

We had a pretty awesome week! We found some new people to teach on the basketball team and on the football team at the local college.  One is from Jamaica and the other is from Australia. We had some really good lessons! The one on the football team said he was really curious as to what Mormons were and then we came and knocked on his apartment door and he just couldn't turn us down. The coaching staff has a lot of Mormons and one that is married to a Mormon that goes to church every Sunday, so he was pretty curious. He had been asking around and no one knew anything about the church. So we went over and  taught him the restoration and he loved it! We compared the gospel to a mirror and how if you were to break a mirror you can't just glue it back together, there are still flaws, you have to get a whole new one and he was like, "So that's what God did with Joseph Smith, he sent a whole new church without  flaws!" We showed him a couple scriptures that he had read before and he said it was a completely different than how he interpreted them previously and it made so much more sense. He was really excited to learn about the Book of Mormon too, and in the lesson he was telling us that he had something that had been on his mind and that he normally doesn't like to tell people, but he asked, "Do you guys think the Bible is accurate, because I read it and I hear about all that went on and I feel like it's just not what it should be", and my companion and Hayden (a football player that was with us) and I just started smiling and nodding our head and he was like, "Everyone I say that to says I'm crazy!" haha! So that was a cool experience.  He wasn't able to make it to church though because a hometown friend showed up this weekend, but he promised next Sunday.  He and Hayden are both on the football team and the next day when he saw Hayden he ran up to him and said thank you so much! haha! He is a 280 pound black Jamaican football player and after the lesson he said he "felt like I was light as air".

 

Well, its been nice down here, we have done some biking cause we are almost out of miles for the month.  We got to go play tennis on Saturday with Janna, the new member from Holland, she is on the tennis team and she dominates!  We played some doubles and  she was on my team so we dominated! and I think I might have helped just a little.

 

To answer your question Mom, we have a ward here in Thibodaux.  I've still never been in a branch yet, we  had a group meeting in Abbeville, but no branch.

 

Well, have fun in the snow, I've been being working on my tan! haha!   
Live well you guys!

 

love elder ritchie

Just leading the zone

Still haven't found my camera, I'm going to start looking for another one like the one I lost.  It's still kinda weird working with college students and going to the dorms and walking around campus but I like it.  I still haven't gotten to know the area here to well because I have been on exchanges with the district leaders in our zone. It's kinda weird, I feel like I know their areas just as well if not better than I know my own! But I should be staying here this week so maybe I will get to know it better.

 

I was in Metairie last week with Elder Dehart a Spanish missionary that I lived with in Baton Rouge, it was cool to go tracting with him. We saw some awesome miracles and found some solid Spanish people, I wish I could have helped out more but I'm loosing the few phrases I know in Spanish after not living with Spanish missionaries for a while.  I was able to interview a guy they were teaching for baptism.  It was my first baptismal interview and it went really well.  I had to have some one there to translate though, but he was ready and got baptized on Friday.  Then Saturday when I was back here we got a call from the mission president's wife asking if we could go visit Elder Dehart cause he got hit by a car on his bike. She thought he was in shock because he couldn't stop laughing about it, but he was fine. I guess that's just Elder Dehart. He ruined his bike and he said he went flying through the air and messed up the front of the car that hit him but he walked away unscratched.  No coincidence I'm thinking. He has a reputation on his bike, not to long ago he took a wall on with his face, that one sent him to the ER but he still just laughs about it.  There are canals that run all over through New Orleans and he has ridden into a few of them... haha! But he always get away lucky so I'm pretty sure someone is watching out for him.

 

We had a lot better week here while I was gone, we had a less active call us the day before I left and said her friend was interested in learning about the gospel. Her life partner passed away a year ago so she was looking for answers and when they went and taught her she knew  everything because she got on mormon.org and read basically everything and really liked the plan of salvation.  She was very open to committing for baptism on Feb. 11th. She wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday however, but hopefully everything is still on track.

 

Well it rained here today but the rest of the week it was really nice, still holding strong in the 70's. It's weird to think its January but I kinda like it except the humidity is gross. We walked to the campus the other day and it was like your walking with resistance because the air is so thick its sticky.

Hey, I  hear that at your year mark it's good to get new shirts, they start to turn yellow and my front pockets are starting to rip I've had to sew a few of them up so I can hold my stuff and my name tag.

That's all I got this week!

 

love elder ritchie

 

Amazingly Awesome with a Side of Outstanding

Well, it has been a terrible week for Louisiana.   LSU looses in the national championship game in New Orleans... ( I was like 10 miles from the game when it was going on haha! There was a gloomy feel in the air while we were driving back to Thibadaux) and then the saints loose to San Francisco. Just a terrible week in Louisiana.

But my week consisted of amazingly awesome with a side of outstanding!  Elder Bednar came and had a meeting with just our mission and he asked us questions for an hour and then he turned the time over to us to ask him questions for two and a half hours and it was awesome!!  I know he is and apostle and he is so humble about it, he is bold about his calling but knows it is not him that is great but that it is his calling that is great.  He was able to expound on the scriptures like I have never heard and bring the spirit like I've never felt. It was awesome and we all got to shake his hand afterwards. 

Then we were able to go to stake conference with him and I was able to see Tammy there! It was incredible to see her again and her little girl Kirsten! They said Chelsie was sick but she made it to the YM/YW meeting with Elder Bednar!  So that was awesome and I was able to see Jamie and that was really awesome too!! I miss them down in Challmette. Tammy told me I'll always be family to them and that made me miss teaching them but its awesome that they are doing well! 

Peter  wrote me an email haha! What is up with this weekend? Haha! It's just crazy awesome and I got to watch the Best Two Years with a recent convert from Holland that just recently got baptized in our area.  We get to teach people our age here cause there is that college Nichols State.  It's super weird being around people our age but its cool. Luke sent me a pretty sweet picture too, I was pretty stoked about that!!  So many blessings this weekend, we had an investigator named Chelsea tell us she really wanted to get married to the guy she is living with cause it's what she needs to do to get baptized and she would want to have a wedding and then a baptism on the same day!

So many awesome new and tender mercies, something bad was bound to happen though... I lost my camera... so all my pictures are gone.... hopefully it turns up cause I think I lost it at the stake center but I don't know. It's a good thing I sent most of my pictures home but I have taken a bunch since then :( oh well, memories are what counts.  But it was an awesome week so I'm not going to complain I'll loose a camera if I can have a week like that again.  You should send that SD card back to me so I can have those pictures when I buy a new camera.  But take the pictures off for yourselves of course.

 

Well, I know the church is true and I know we definitely have living apostles that are called of God. I was able to witness that this weekend and I was able to have so many other blessing it was awesome, the church is true down here in Louisiana as well! I know that the Lord lives and one thing I really took from Elder Bednar was the strengthening power of the atonement. I always focused on the cleansing part but it is there to give us strength as well.  Elder Bednar said himself, without it he wouldn't be able to do what he does and that he would spend all his time hiding in his room under his bed crying. But its because of the atonement we can do what we are called to do and I know the Lord will strengthen us and will be  looking out for us if we are trying to do what is right! I know this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Well, love y'all,

 

love elder ritchie

ZL in Thibodaux

You asked about transfers and what Zone Leaders do. Well, transfers are on Wednesdays so I've been here about five days. The new area is good, but it is struggling to find people to teach right now.  They had two baptisms right before Christmas but now they are having a hard time trying to find people to teach. But we have a college in our area called Nichols State University and we are teaching students but they don't get back till next week.  So hopefully it picks up a little bit by then. 

 

We have been in meetings a lot. We had a zone leader council in Baton Rouge where we talk about the mission with the President and the assistant. We find out what we can do better and what other zones are doing that has been successful.  It was pretty cool to kinda see that other side of missionary work.  Now we have to have a district leader council tonight and will relay everything we went over and get the district leaders to commit their districts implement some changes, so that should be fun.  So that's basically what zone leaders do.  We  work with the district leaders and help them work with their districts. We have 4 districts in our zone and we have 11 companionships.  I think it's one of the bigger zones.  I know a lot of the missionaries in my zone: Elder Gentry, the first missionary that I trained is in the zone, it was cool to see him again. He is doing well.  There are a couple of Spanish speaking Elders that I lived with and one that came out of the MTC with me and a couple that had been in my district when I was in Baton Rouge.  So far it hasn't been super different.  We do exchanges basically every week so I'll be going with missionaries in the zone every week just to work with them. We rotate to different district meetings and go watch their planning sessions just try to help the missionaries out.

 

Elder Murphy from Idaho Falls is pretty awesome himself. My companion served with him and he is a stud, haha, does alot of good work.

 

Thibodaux is pronounced like ti-ba-doe haha! Sorta like tidbit almost.

 

Well it's about 70 degrees here today and we plan on going golfing with a member that's going to school here. He is awesome, he served a mission in Italy and baptized like 40 people which is alot! Especially in Europe.  He had a full ride to BYU but turned it down to go somewhere where he could continue to be a missionary and teach the gospel.  Two of his new friends just got baptized before Christmas and he just got back here yesterday.  He is from Georgia and said he is going to work on getting us some new investigators. It's members like that that make missionary work happen, tracting is not the ideal way to do missionary work.

 

I've been loosing my voice again but I think its starting to come back.  It's hard to come into a new area with a faint and crackly voice haha! The scripture "Open thy mouth and I will give the utterance"  wasn't working these last few days, but its getting better.  I didn't really feel sick, just lost my voice again.

 

Well I'l let you know more about the new area next week.  Actually I'm going to be out in Laplace from Tuesday to Thursday. Oh, and I'll let you know how Elder Bednar is doing too.  We are going to get to be around him all day Saturday. We have a missionary meeting for three hours and then priesthood meeting with him and then the adult conference session.  Then we have a new member investigator class we might get to attend Sunday morning which would be awesome cause it will be like a classroom setting with an apostle and then he will be in our stake conference Sunday.  So I'm preparing myself to be spiritually mind blown! haha!  it should be good and hopefully we have some investigators there!

 

Well, love you all!

love elder ritchie