Christmas

this week was a really really long week it felt like it lasted three weeks.  monday we had a bunch of stuff we had to do that we did not get done with until 6, then i had to get my hair cut and that took awhile. we did not get a single lesson taught or any thing. tuesday was just as bad but we did have good food, we just had a bunch of stuff we had to do plus my comp had to skype his family on Christmas eve, so nothing got done that day.  usually when we go a day with out teaching i start to feel depressed but when we went two days, i was in shock and bitter. 

 

Christmas was a little bit better, i did not feel that good and listening to people was hard, understanding them was almost impossible, but i got through it.   we did not get a ton done but it was amazing, first we had a really hard time finding a person with whom we could Skype.  the family my comp used was not home and all the people we could think of were not home or could not help us. we went to a diffreant area and started looking there. i was kinda freaking out and some guy in a shop started yelling at me which is not uncommon at all, i usually don't listen but this time i did.  it turns out he was yelling in english and it was stuff like, do good and keep going!  i felt i really needed it at that time, the lord works in mysterious ways and through other people. i hope i can find him and thank him, i just need to remember what shop he was in.  after that i was still worried about were i whould skype and the other elders were not, we found an internet cafe that appeared to be open but they were just closing and they would not let us in even though we offered double. then we found another one but it did not have a webcam. we found a webcam at a member's house and went back but they didn't have skype so i just gave up.  i sent my family my number but then my companion decided to call our primary prez who we talk with a lot, she said she had a computer with a webcam and they would download skype for me.  after we got there i just had to wait for it to install then i was able   to talk to my family and Kolton who is close enugh to family that it's not necessary to put his name seprate from family. 

 

but that wasn't the highlight of my week, i would have thought it would have been but i had some thing more important happen.  on thursday i felt terrible, i was sick and i did not want to be on a mission anymore. i had just finished talking with my family and i just felt terrible.   i was at a member's house for lunch and we decided to teach a simple lesson with them.  i opened my scriptures and i just opened to where i had read that morning and i found a scripture i had marked.  i noticed i had marked it different then the rest so it much be important. i read it and almoast started to cry, i was able to bear my testimony without crying but i don't even know what the scriptre said, i just know it was not for the members it was for me and i needed to hear it.  i dont remember where it was but i have it marked as the scripture that may have saved my mission.  i re-read it in english but it didn't have the same effect.

 

 after that i have just kinda been happy a lot. we taught Olivia and her three kids that night and they were getting baptized on saturday so we had to teach all the lessons but the restoracion and we had two hours to do it.  i thought we couldn't do it but we reviewed the restoration and then taught the rest of the lesson in about thirty minutes.  i was astounded and that night i thought we must not have taught it very well but the next day was her interveiw for baptism and she knew every thing perfectly.  we baptizd her and her 8 year old daughter on Saturday.  i baptied Validia, her daughter and Elder Richart baptized Olivia.  it was amazing, we had quite a few members there which was good.  Sunday, we were late to church so i thought we missed their confirmation but the bishop saved it until the end so we could be there. 

 

 

it was a really rough week but it ended well and i am so excited to have my first Christmas done. it was torture but i made it through and i can focus better now. i just need to keep my mind on others and not me or stuff.

 

thanks for all of your prayers, i can feel them help me.   i see miracles daily, i just need to be more aware of them. 

 

thanks every one  

Elder Ritchie

First Baptism and Eating Chicken Feet

well i went into the water and only had to do it once. i was so nervous afterwards every one was congratulating me on my first baptism and i had to keep telling them i am not important, the important one is the wet red headed Mexican, Antonio. he is really naturally red headed its weird. i dont have my camera so i cant send a pic this week. sunday was just a good day, we ran into a guy named Rueben, he has had the lessons before and loves the church but has a hard time cause he works all the time.  we taught him and his girlfriend or wife the restoration and he remembered alot of it. just so nice to have someone who knows whats is going on and is so excited to see us.

 

i ate the chickens feet and i was disapointed cause they were not pickled but they were still good, the member kept asking me if i didn't want them cause i was playing with them. if it were not for all the bones it would be good but i would not eat them unless some one gave them to me. 

 

occasionally i have a day were i feel i don't remember any spanish and i get frustrated easily, i looked back at my agenda and found out each one of those days was a day were i did not get to study very much or not at all. so, i just have to remember to try to read the BOM in spanish at least a little every day. 

 

i finished the second half of jesus the Christ, i stared half way through cause i wanted to follow were i was reading at the time. now i am going in depth on the Christmas story and stuff. 

 

as for the proselyting, we don't do that much contacting, we have to work through the members. we can only knock a door if someone recommended them to us.  we are allowed to do a little street contacting but usually we say good day and we only talk with them if they talk with us a little. the reason i think is partially for protection and so we don't have so many drop out converts. apparently this mission had a huge problem with new converts never going to church. so this is how they fixed it. less baptisims but more that stay with it and make it to the temple.  it makes finding people to teach alot harder but i think it works well.

 

well that's is about all i have to say about that.

Elder Ritchie

Cow Pajamas

this week was kind of a drag. but it went really fast.  we never had a normal day. monday pday, tuesday district meeting and the visitor center, wed was some what normal but not really, thurs was a meeting with a general authority, fri was the visitor center again. saturday was another meeting with the general authority,  sunday was the Christmas devotional.   so, i thought back on it and i felt like we didn't do any work but we still got new investigators and taught some important things, some how we never had to miss an important lesson. 

 

as for my comp he is awesome, i had prayed to get a good trainer and i got one.  he has only had one good comp most of them have been dead beats especially his trainer. but he is really good. it is just us in the apartment cause the president says having more would be to much of a party.  but some other elders live within walking distance so we see them every once in awhile.  we finaly got elecricity earlier this week, we went a whole week with any.

 

everyone here asks me what the coldest temperature i have seen in Idaho. then no one  believes me when i say -25 and the the hottest was 106.  they just look at me like i am stupid and didn't convert to celcius correctly. the weather here is nice, we only had a few cold days but it was enough that i went and bought one piece pjs, they have a cow pattern and a hood and a tail and feet. so yeah, i haven't changed too much since i have been here.

 

 

 

well our ivestigators have a "swimming party" this Saturday.  he and his mom went to the visitor center with us. i keep meeting people that know people i know.  one was a companion to Keston Neeser the other knew Isaac Jamisen. just weird how the church brings all these elders together.

 

 

 

Love all of you

Elder Ritchie.

Happy Birthday, Elder Ritchie

 

From:	Joshua Ritchie (joshua.ritchie@myldsmail.net) You moved this message to its current location.
Sent:	Tue 12/03/13 12:04 AM
To:

I thought this mission thing was supposed to feel like it takes forever but its is going so fast. first off i don't remember what day anything happened. every thing is mashed into a clump of time. we lost one of my favorite families last Saturday, i was on splits and apparently they told my comp to not come back.  that was really upsetting but then one day we completely ran out of things to do and elder richart said a prayer and i was just thinking of all the people i know (only like six by name) and he just decided we should go talk to this one member. while they were talking and i was listening trying to figure out what they were saying two women walked by and stopped and waited until we were done talking. then they asked if we could teach them. another time we ran out of stuff to do so we went to our investigators house. ( he gets baptised saturday) and no one was home and there was a street market right next to us and a guy who had a small food stall told us to come talk with him and he told us he likes our church and the only problem he had with taking lessons and stuff was cause he works alot on sunday. but we have and appointment with him later this week. another was a member brought her friend to church. she had four kids and was interested. for some reason only her and her friend were in class so we altered the lesson to be centered around baptism. 

 

well the electic bill for our apartment has not been paid for a few months and they shut off our power. we paid for it the next day but now it has not come back on. i was kinda sad at first but then i got used to not having light and when every thing in the fridge went bad i didn't care cause nothing in there was mine. but one day after we went and i got my finger prints done on the other side of the city we got a blender from the church offices and now i really want to use it  but i can't and i hate it. 

 

as for the food, i dont think it mentions in the scriptures a gift of the stomach but i

think it exists. some meals i look at and think, wow, chicken leg in soup again! cause i have had it for the past three days in a row. then i start eating it and it is the best thing i have ever had and after i am done i think that was disgusting, how did it taste good. then some of the food is actually really good. i just wish the caso was better. other than that i have been able to finsh ever thing they give me. and usually more.

 

As for my B-day well nothing special happened. the father of our investigator who is being baptised decied to sing hapy birthday in English. i laughed. he is a really funny guy i was the first to ask him if he wanted to be there during the lessons and now he loves being there, not because of the gospel he just loves to talk about religion but hopfully he starts to listen more. and a member fam gave me a cake on sunday. they are going through the temple some time this month, they just hit the one year mark of being members. 

 

more about food:

every one thinks that because i am white i hate fruit. i dont know why. every time i eat a papaya or any fruit they always tell me i am the first greengo they have seen that likes it.  i love the fruit! this morning we dropped off our launday and there was a guy selling juice, my comp got the last pitcher and i asked for some and in under two minutes he had cut up twelve more oranges wich are actually green and pressed them and strained them. it is served in a plastic bag with a straw. and it only costs 12 pesos so about a dollar and it was a whole pitcherful. 

 

as for the street markets, they have one  called a tiongi or some thing like that but it is just ever night around four they close the street and start setting up shops. when i first saw it it was kinda small and not that many people but over night it got a little bit bigger until it took up a whole block then it went onto the next block and then it started going onto side streets and they started to set up fair rides and last night we had to walk through it and it took us almost an hour just to get across the one block to the open street. they sell some nice stuff there. i might get a jacket soon cause it is getting cold. i sleep in sweats  and two blankets.

 

i forgot about thanksgiving, oh well. 

 

i would talk about how i struggle with the language but i don't like to talk about that. i am doing amazing at it. only i just prefer to appear solemn and pensive. but i am starting to talk more and thats good.  people get frustrated when i am struggling with what to say and they tell me to use my comp to translate i tell them no i need the `practice. only the funny father of our investigator understands, he always tells his wife i need the practice and that it's useless if i use my com`p to translate. 

well take care every one 

 

Elder Ritchie.

Struggles with Spanish

teaching is really different then i tought it would be, we really only teach investigators maybe three or four times a week cause we are not allowed to tract. we mainly teach the less active families and it's difficult cause they know what they should be doing, we just remind them. i feel like we teach the same people over and over. which is not that far from the truth. 

 

as for any experiences that are particularly spiritual, nothing comes to mind. which is not a bad thing, its just i cant think of a single experience that was more spiritual then the rest. we have two investigators with baptism dates. so that's good. they had it set before i got here. i think its is for the 7th. i went on splits on saturday that was different cause i was with another white person he is from Boise and has been out for two months. we had a really good day planned but the activity that took up four hours got canceled and then two of the lessons we had planned got canceled so we had no plan and our backup plans failed so we wandered around to different members houses. most were not home.  but that's how it is all the time, every one is working all the time. and even on saturday they go and do other things.

 

after two weeks my spanish is still bad, i just have less of a struggle using my bad spanish to talk with people. i still have no idea were anything is because they name streets differently here and usually there is no street sign.  i know how to get back to our apartment from anywhere and to two different houses, other then that i am lost most the time.  we went to lagoona which is truly a ghetto, dirt roads and cinder block houses. plus it had rained so the roads were really bad. we only have lagoona which is small, some entire areas are like that. 

i am glad i got to attend sam's wedding that was awesome. (my face was on a card board cut out of obama). i wish i could have really been there. well, i hope we can get the members to help us cause without them we have nothing to do. and i feel as if we do a lot of nothing and a little bit of genuine teaching. 

 

have a great week every body

 

Elder Ritchie

Note from the Mission President

Letter and picture from the Mission President's Wife:



The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Saint Days 
Mexico East Mission, Mexico City ,
November  2013 

Dear Brother and Sister  Ritchie
               We want to express our deepest feelings of gratitude to you and at the same time notify that you son,  Elder Ritchie  has arrived in the mission field with good health and a sweet spirit of love and service.

                     We are to your service and we know that the Lord fill you of blessings for all the work that your son is doing in this great work.  
             We recommend you for the strenght and health to him,  write him by e-mail every week , so it will help him to be in contact with you  and your words uncourage him to follow every day working faithfully , we hope these words can be full of  optimistical and faith 
            If in some ocassion you desire to say him some familiar matter, don´t feel you can´t do it, but call to the mission office or mission house but not directly or if he has our permission  

President and sister  Anaya 
Mexico East Mission. Mexico City  

Mexico City!

Well, i am in mexico and i just realized that the spell check is in spanish so this will be terrible spelling wise.  Well i spent monday night in the mission prezs house and had some awsome food.  i will try not to talk about food that much but it is so good.  you should already know how most of my traveling went i would give an accont of it but i dont even remember half of it.  the best thing was when the plane was landing it banked so that i could see the city out the window. this place is huge ! i thought i would hate the city but its is the coolest place. we went to a meeting to figure out transfers and stuff, they would call a elders name and then his new comps name and they would figure out that way.  well i heard the name Richart and i thought that it was me so i started to stand and it turns out that that was my comp cause my name was called right after. he is awsome he is latino and knows only a little english. so thats good cause i wanted a comp that would help me not use english. he and i listen to a lot of the same music and like alot of the same stuff so we get along really well.

About Mexico, this place is a dump! the streets are a monstrosity the cars are too.   mom could never come here, she would have to adopt a couple dozen dogs if she did.  they are every where and most of them are indistiguishable because they are the mostly mutts.  i don't quite know what what is going on most of the time, the only white people i have seen are missionaries. every thing has been graffitied and i like  some of it, it is acctually realy good but most is just crap but not as much as you would think. i want to say that no one here knows how to drive except that i have not seen an accident yet and there are just different rules. there are like five stop signs that i have seen and three traffic lights. they regulate the speed with speed bumps that are huge.  and for some reason alot of the cars are VW´s.  tell pete he can get another 100,000 miles on his car cause his was not as bad as half the cars here. 

The people are amazing they work harder than most any one in the U.S. and they do it with out complaining.  they all try to help me with spanish and some know a little english but when they speak english i cant understand it cause i am listening for spanish and the accent is so bad i think they are saying something in Spanish.  

 

As for me, i am doing great. i am starting to understand what some people say but at the beginning of the week i didnt understand anything.  after awile of listening to real spanish i can understand.  when i start a conversation it takes me a while to start to undertand what they are saying.   i absolutly love this city  and some of the people.  i started wearing the potato tie pin and it was like a magnet for people to start talking with me and gave me some thing to talk about.  i can almost describe all of my job in spanish now.  It's great cause i needed some thing to talk with people about other than the gospel.

 

Spiritual things:

 

well we have two families investigating right now. we are not allowed to knock doors or walk up to someone and start talking on the street. one reason is almost everyone will let you in to talk and they had a huge problem with baptizing people and never getting them to church again so i guess this fixed that.  we only get new investigators through refrences so alot of what we do depends on how willing the members are to work with us.  the first week we only taught like 4 lessons with non members. alot of the people we teach are less actives.  which is fine with me, they are used to missionaries and like to feed us. as for the investigators, one is a family with two sons and they seem to be receptive to the gospel.  the mother's father was sick or something so we taught about the plan of salvation that seemed to comfort her, i haven't taught the other famliy yet but we see the son around town every once in awhile, he and his mom went to church with us on sunday and he went and played futball with us today. real futball. not the American thing. but we are kinda in a slow spot right now cause no one is home until the evening so we do a lot of wandering to members and less actives houses. they all want to feed us. one less active girl that we got to go to church on sunday has a daughter that's almost the same age as evie she is so cute and funny.  

 

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting already which aparently is abnormal cause the other missionaries i talked with had been out for 9 months still haven't.  I wrote my talk on the dia de reposo and my companion looked at it and went and wrote me a new talk cause mine was unintelligible. it said the exact same thing just in correct Spanish.

 

We met with a family last night, they have been members for almost a year and they are really excited to go to the temple in Dec. i can acctuly talk with them, they were taught by a missionary from Idaho and they have alot to say to me. one of the sons who is 17 skate boards so i got to do that for awile with him.  the father is really interested in every thing i say, we sat and tlaked about fruit for 45 min. then he told me to bear my testimony on the book of mormon. and then we started  talking about the aztec ruins and how it was possible that the were the nephites and stuff then i realized I was the one talking with him and my comp was talking with his kids. so that was cool.

 

the worst time i have had here was Sunday morning, i woke up and just didn't feel like i wanted to be here and that i was not getting help. but then i went and opened my scrips and there was a passage that i had been looking for since the beginning of the mtc. then i read a note i left for my self for when i felt like that and every ting was fine after that.  

 

Is that better mom? i gave you both info and spiritual stuff in a letter! 

 

I hate it when people tell me it will get harder cause i can't see it getting worse.   all the other missionaries say two weeks in is the worst and i honestly don't think it will be that way. i am going to love every moment here even if i have to force myself too on occasion.

 

so thanks for your love and prayers 

 

Elder Ritchie

 

Getting ready to leave

Hey, I leave next Monday!  I might call around early morning some time, I leave the mtc at 2:30 but I'm am not sure when I will get to the airport and can call.

We got snow yesterday. that just made me want to go home.  I can't believe I won't get to see it for two years.

Well having travel plans makes it finally seem like this place will end. Our teacher told us some stories about when he worked at the MTC in Mexico and that made me want to go there even more. I don't think you will have to worry about sending me a new pair of pants cause the one pair doesn't fit. My teacher got a really nice good looking suit for 65 dollars.  So I will just go find some down there. He is going to get married in his suit.

The other day we did the lesson about the atonement where some one has to do push ups to make up for what every one else lacked. I got to be the savior and do the push ups.  It was fun.  I couldn't even hold myself up by the end. I still can't lift my hand up to my head very well. well I am doing great and am excited to leave.  Going to send the stuff I am not taking with me later today.  



The District at Provo MTC West



Love, Elder Ritchie

Engagement Anouncement from the MTC

Hey Mom, Big New here!

I'm supposed to tell you all that Peter and Katelyn are engaged!

 I found out my companion does not have mono just strep throat, so that's good. I don't feel like I did much the past week and that's probably cause I really didn't do much. I was kind of got stuck at the apartment a lot or the other person with strep would stay with my companion and I would go to class. Every one in my district has gotten sick at least once.  My companion was the first and also the worst. I was at class and some other guys in my district who were sick gave him a blessing.

So after they get married maybe Pete and Katelyn can move into your basement so you won't be all alone. Don't worry mom, when I get engaged I wont tell you until the day of the wedding and  I won't be like Peter and make some one else tell you for me. Sam is going to move out and.  Luke and Rebecca are going to have a baby.  I am going to Mexico.  So you will have to deal with it just being the two of you for awhile.  But don't worry to much, I am never going to leave. Haha! I found out what my major will be in college:  Stay at home son for life!

I am not worried about the Spanish any more.  I accepted that I am going to go to Mexico and not know what is going on for a few months. Hopefully less than two.  But every one told me it takes about eight. 

You sent me more church shirts!  I wanted ONE normal shirt.  Thanks for every thing else though, I might send back the shirts and I have one pair of pants that's too small. Its the grey ones if you could get those and go and get some with a bigger waist I would appreciate it. If you could throw a pair of ear plugs into the next package I would like that. 

Tell peter that he was late on getting engaged, my bet was that it would happen before October, not at the end of October. I think it was Kolton who had that month.  Well mom, I think this makes you the last to know again. But they got engaged on Sunday. I was given the task of informing you of this news.

Bye ya'll

Elder  Ritchie

Half way through the MTC

Take good care of my dogs while I'm gone  (Titus was hit by a car)  and get sam to write me.  Tell him the people here try to make fun of me for being from idaho and how i talk about potatoes all the time, but I'm proud of it.

I am trying to be more positive but its hard when because of the circumstances i am in.  but hopefully i can fix things in the next week.  sorry for being kinda nonspecific.

got to hear a talk by Elder oaks. that was nice. I don't have my notes with me so i can't remember much of what he said.

Don't worry about sending the ukulele, it was more of a joke than a request.  Did you get my letter?

You should get me Rae Miller and Rachel Roos's email and and just tell more people to email me.

So, I was made an online cordinator which is  a pointless position cause the only thing I do is call my self the online coordinator.

I saw Hailey  Robison yesterday, she got here last week.  Everyone here say its too cold and it has only frozen twice!  i dont think i am going to get any snow before i leave, its to warm here.

i just want to be in mexico already.  i am only half way through the mtc.

elder Ritchie

Proud to be from Idaho

Hey, there's something wrong with your DearElder letters! The only people i got dear elder letters  from is Megan and sister miller.  The rest of you are doing it wrong.  i don't know what you are doing wrong but fix it.  So if you don't figure that out i am coming back to teach mom and dad how to use a computer!  Peter should help you if possible.  not Sam, he is almost as bad with computers as dad. 

I am doing great here, we are teaching two people starting tomorrow.  We have to teach them in Spanish.  It's kind of ridiculous how much we are supposed to learn here.  But after the first week every thing started to speed up.  We are taught almost six hours a day from two different teachers  who try to only teach in Spanish.  Sundays are really weird cause they give us all this free time but we don't want to study more and we have to wear a suit every were.  

i wrote an actual letter yesterday but i cant send it until later today so you will get this first.  There is a list of stuff i want you to send, read the letter first then send the package but I need : a strap for my laundry bag (see illustration on letter),  one more shirt if room in package, my alarm clock i left (i bought an analog one and i am about to smash it against the wall),  more pictures of stuff like skiing and back packing, talk to Pete he will know what ones i want and one of those family pics we had taken. 

i never realized i would ever have been proud of being from Idaho, i wear that potato tie pin all the time. i even went to the store to use a needle point sharpie so that i could black out the letters on it. if you can send me a few more that would be awesome.  people ask me if i worked with potatoes and then i just go off about my job.  one time i talked for and hour and a half about what i did for the job.  all the people i am with are from around Utah or big cities.  i hate not being in Idaho, i hate the water here.  but the mountains are nice.  still no pine trees. that's kinda weird.  mom you would love the colors here right now.  i'm having the same problem I have every fall, the smell of dead leaves makes my throat tighten up.  i hate to say it but i am have dreams about walking through potato fields and i actually like it. usually i dread those dreams but now they are some how relaxing. i might have to become like Adam Steinmetz and just rouge for fun.  we will just have to see...  

being on the west campus is really weird.  i have to walk outside quite a bit. they are working on gyms, they were supposed to be done the week i got here but now i keep hearing that they may not even be done before i leave.  i have only seen four people i know. 

 i hope it snows before i leave.  we have a Samoan in my apartment and he has never seen snow.  he gave me a skirt thing, its the most comfortable thing ever.  there are four other people going to Mexico City East  from my district  so i will see these same people the whole time i am there. my mission is like the third smallest or something like that, it's only 48 square miles or some way low number.  i am going to have to learn to like cities i guess.  
Well have a great week cause i am going to only write you another letter after you figure out dear elder.  

Bye mi familia.

First email!

Why has no one written me yet?  Dena sent me some jerky, but as for you people I have nothing.  If you would not mind adding money to my debit card that would be great.

Tell me more about Luke's future child when more info come to light.

Is Pete engaged yet?  If not some one should propose for him cause he is obviously too much of a pansy to do it!

Tell Kolton to send me an email so that I can write him.  Same with every one else, i only know mom and Pete's email. 

I am on the West campus which is just a fancy name for Y View (an apartment complex).  I already rolled my ankle playing basketball. it swelled up and turned a lovely purplish color, similar to that of a purple grape.   As for studying and what not, I am probably the best.  Mi compa~n aro is a jock from Lehi so we are really different but that's good. 

I stress way to much about learning the language. I have had more stress over the last week than I did in all of high school. I watched and took notes for almost all of conference.  I have only met three people I know.

I got a new alarm clock cause I forgot mine and me and my companion kept sleeping in.  This place is like no where else.  I never seem to get time to just sit around and read.  I am in the same apartment with another set of elders, one is from Cali and the other Samoa.  We have the most exciting district on campus. It is made up of eight elders and they are all awesome.  I am still the most quiet out of every one, but that's partly because i am always thinking about learning Spanish. There are people here from all over the world and there are people going all over the world.  

Other than the teaching and studying ,this campus is completely different than the main one. The only thing I miss is sleeping in until eleven. Other than that I don't miss any of you. JK LOL (for Pete). 

Write me or I won't write you (except Pete i am going to make him correct all of my grammar)

from elder ritchie.