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

Louisianna Travels and Deep Thoughts

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

Thank Heavens for Lent

Well, I got my new companion and we have started to work with a few people. We started teaching a couple more people on Nicholl's campus but we have only meet with them once so we are hoping to meet with them again.

We have a missionaries who don't like to work that much, but for the most part our mission is pretty solid and our zone has been really great. From what I have seen, everyone is working really hard.  I have worked with all the district leaders, they are really good and they know how to help motivate their districts. Yesterday was crazy with Mardi Gras parades, the town basically shuts down and people go crazy so missionary work is tough.  Today and especially tomorrow are the bad days, fat Tuesday.    We have been struggling to find stuff that is productive because of the partying, but it will be over soon.
Thank heavens for Lent!

We have another general authority coming this week, he is a member of the seventies named Elder Clark. He is doing a mission tour and coming to our zone conference, so that should be good. I'm  looking forward to it.

  

I got the package you sent me everything made it safely, the shirts fit good they still aren't a 16 on the neck but they will work.

 

Well I have to get running I'm down in Houma at the elder's apartments cause we are having preparation day down here, and they have computers in the complex, and the libraries are all closed.

 

Love you,

 

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

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 

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

 

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

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