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.