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.