A REAL Letter

This letter took about 3 weeks to reach us in Idaho.  It's a little bit of a flight of consciousness and kind of a look inside Josh's mind.  Don't worry about him being depressed, he told me later that he had been sick from eating 17 tamales the evening before writing this. ~ Marie

Well, this is being written over a few days and it might not get to you for a month or so.  I really am starting to like it here.  My comp, Elder Richart, will more than likely have to leave this area in February. So I will be here  training or with a Latino.  The President tries to keep Americans with Spanish speakers for as long as possible.  It's supposed to help with the language.

It is not nearly as warm here as I was expecting, but it feels like it is the beginning of September all the time.  I got the letters through the pouch but only the DEAR ELDERS.  I will tell you when I get a real letter. 

I have entered into the year where I will not see America or my family or anything but Elders, a few Sisters, and a ton of Mexicans. 

This city is not a tall city, it is just massive.  Parts have tall buildings but not near my mission.  I am on the very edge of the mission now in a place Las Americas.  The other elders in the district have a big mall in their area.  We live in Las Americas but most of the work is in Bosques about a block from my house.  From what I have seen we have one of the nicest houses in the mission.  And I keep it clean! I sweep every other day or more and I try to clean the bathroom but it has been neglected for months so it will take a lot of time.  We finally cleaned the floor which was really bad and hard to clean.  The problem is the shower leaks and it never dries.  I fixed a pair of my pants last night.  I was proud of myself cause no one ever taught me how to sew.

My  running shoes have been through cross country, a lot of running during the winter in the school and track season.  So they are dead and Brooks is now my favorite brand cause they are still good.  We might go to a black market in a week or tow.  I will probably buy a fake watch or something really fake.  I already found a really cool fake watch that looks just like a G Shock but it does not have half the features it claims to have.  When I am in an area where I am more likely to be robbed I will wear a fake one so that I can have this one for when I get home.  I also might buy some new prescription glasses cause they are so cheap here.  One of the Elders was thinking about getting Lasik eye surgery cause it's cheaper but I would rather just do that in the states.  I don't' buy a lot of rand stuff cause Elder Richart does not give me time to but when I am at the end and have time I am going to buy a lot of stuff.  I only need new shoes cause mine have died.

I got a glimpse of the new Hobbit movie.  Yea, they were playing it on the street and I looked at the TV because my comp pointed at it and it was a dwarf in a scene I didn't recognize from the first one.  So, they have movies for sale on the street within the first week of release in the states.  Someone brought up Ender's Game because it sounds like the word Elder.  One of the other Elders likes to talk about how long ago movies came out cause it makes you realize how short two years actually is.  He keeps telling me, We could just walk into that theater and watch it right now", talking about the Hobbit.  Then we come up with all the reasons we shouldn't.  My favorite is cause then I would get excited for the third movie.  His reason is cause watching it on your mission would ruin it for the rest of our lives.

We have an investigator right now named Ruben, he is extremely hard working, I think he has something like five different jobs.  Because of this we only have taught him twice in about a month but we see him a lot and ask how he is doing.  The last lesson that yesterday, it was amazing.  He wants to be baptized, he is ready, he just needs to have time to go to church and...... no that's it, he is ready and he wants it.  He has had the lessons before and he continued to read afterwards and I know he knows it's true.  He has a two year old son and he absolutely adores him. He does everything for him.

I recently started listening to the conference talks, I usually get one or two in in a day.  I am on the Sunday Morning Session.  I just want every member to listen to the opening address by the prophet cause it basically calls all the member to do mission work.  I know they bring it up all the time but I never realized how much the missionaries absolutely rely on members.  And that for members the work is as simple as inviting them to activities, being their friends,  recommending them to the missionaries, and being present for the lessons. It helps so much when they have a friend there cause no matter how much we become their friends, we are still 19 year olds who will be gone in a month or two.  We can still encourage them through letters but they need more.

Right now I am at the church without much to do.  The other elders in my district have a family being baptized tomorrow so Elder Richart has to interview them.  I am with another elder from Idaho, Elder Vail from Boise.  Well this morning I was really depressed but that only lasted about an hour or two.  Now I am fine.  Just really hungry.  I had a really interesting thought earlier that I thought I would share with you.  What food is there that you would put ketchup on that would not be good or better with syrup?  I have yet to think of one.  So if you can think of one tell me and then try it to disprove yourself.  Elder Vail was with my comp the other day for exchanges and his house does not have hot water so he got hot water for the first time in four months since he was in the MTC.  Tomorrow I have to give a talk in church about being an example.  I really don't want to give a talk.  I bore my testimony last Sunday.  I now feel I understand why people go home early.  It's not cause of one thing, it's cause of a combination.  The home sickness, the difficulty of the work, the language, the feelings of not being good enough.  Every one tells me it gets better, I cant' see it getting better but I look back and realize how much better it has already gotten.

This whole sending letters by hand does not ;make a lot of sense but I did really enjoy the DEAR ELDER letters that I get.  So send a lot of those and stuff.  I am teaching a man who owns a tailor shop, so I feel obligated to buy a new suit.  I could get one made specifically for me in what ever material or color I want for like $200 but he has one I like already made so I will probably get it.  Or at least try it on some time.  Lie I only have one suit here and I only wear it once a week so what if it gets a little dirty?  I definitely need a spare.  I could get ANY COLOR I want!  Just think of the movie Dumb and Dumber.  That might be me walking off the plane!  Hahaha!  Baby blue or Orange?

That sleeping mask that you send me better be nice cause I realized why I can never get a good sleep here.  I have been here long enough I stopped noticing it but on exchanges the other day I realized we have a street light that shines into our window.  If I had not have gotten used to having some light in my room at the MTC then I would not be able to sleep at all.  But Elder Vail said that it bothered him so I started using the scarf I got for Christmas as a blind fold and I slept really well last night. I just didn't get enough sleep because we were at the church late for the interviews.  So if you did not send me a seeping mask, tell me so I can find one here.  I will have already emailed you about this so it doesn't matter that much now.

The other day I counted the number of dogs that I saw.  I was somewhere in the 50's and those were only the stray ones.  Right now I am on exchanges with the other elders in our district.  Today I ate a lot of food.  I ate breakfast at our house, two eggs, a large amount of cereal and PB sandwiches. Then I got more cereal at a members house and cookies .  Then I ate three plates of food at a different house.  I barely touched the last plate cause I was too full.  I started to just boil eggs cause it's easier to clean up rather than scrambling them or anything else plus it tastes better.  Elder Richart only eats tuna.  Nothing else.  He only buys tuna and milk.  No bread, no condiments, nothing else.  I have eggs, cereal, oatmeal, PB & J and yogurt.  And I thought I was eating frugally!  He only has TUNA!  And the cheapest milk here!

As for the milk here.  It's bad!  No jugs, no real milk.  It is all like the kind of milk dad drinks.  It does not even need to be refrigerated!  I hate it but guess what, mom, it is still better than your skim milk!  They add something that makes it sweet.  I still don't like it and I cringe when ever I drink it.  OK, maybe it's worse than skim.  Well this is my first attempt to send a letter through the pouch, so tell me when you get it so I know how long it takes.

Once again,
Love, Elder Ritchie

Members as Missionary Tools

Well, we had exchanges again this week and we decided to do some thing we had never done, we knocked a door! yea! i know we are rebels but the ban on knocking doors just got taken off so it was not bad, we still only did one and they said no but i felt so different doing that instead of what just trying to visit people. 

 

i have been reading 2 nephi 2 and i think it's really confusing but really beneficial and it explains alot of our beliefs just kinda hard to figure out in your head so i had to take notes as i read.

 

i am almost guaranteed to be training now. last week i told the president that i felt more ready, so if i am not training i will be really surprised. the only problems i have are i still don't know the roads that well and i don't know the members that well either, but i am trying to change all that. 

 

we played basketball for our ward activity and it was the funnest game i have played just cause they are not all that good and they try to make it as fun as possible.  i reallly do like this ward i just wish they had more time to help us or more willingness to help us. 

 

we had a record number of lessons this week some thing like 29. the only problem is most were with less active members who always promise to come to church but have not been in years. they are olways our back up plan for when our investigators are not home wich is about all the time. but i still like working with them.

 

we have an awesome member who has given us two references and the one has already been baptized and the other wants to be. she not only gives us references, she tells them about the church before and she organizes the lessons with them alot of the time.  i know not all the members have time to do this much work but imagine if they all tryed to. we could do so much more work here. if you think two references is not that much it is, we usually get one or two a week and half the time we can't find the people they tell us about.  i don't want to complain about my ward cause they do help us quite a bit but i just realize that with them we can do so much more.

 

well this week was great i am almost done with my training. have a good week everyone

 

Elder Ritchie

A Week in My Live

We had exchanges this week. it was nice, i realized i need to talk more.  i was with an Elder from mexico and his style of teaching is different, i would share some thing and i would look at him to see if he would say some thing and he just looked back.  so i had to keep talking. his comp says that he does it all the time so that we learn spanish better. With my comp, i have to get him to stop talking so that i can talk. but its all good i just need to try to talk more.

 

well, other than that i have started to read the old testiment and i thought about doing it in spanish but i find it hard enough in english so i will just stick with reading the BOM in spanish. i am into Mosiah ritght after Abinidi was killed.  i finished it in english the first week or two that i was here, but i skipped a lot cause i wanted to focus on other stuff. Alma is now my favorite book.  just the way he writes is more direct and it has interesting stories plus a time line unlike most of the rest of the book. i stared to read the notes in Jesus the christ it may not be as spiritual as the rest of the book but its interesting to learn about the circumstances of the time.

 

well, thanks for all the prayers and other stuff.

 

Elder Ritchie

The Will to Change

sorry every one for how depressing my last letter sounded. turns out i was in the early stages of food poisoning. i had eaten a tostada with some thing that was like jello but meat and it was made out of cow hooves. so yeah, i am going to take the food a little easier now. 

 

this week we had divisions and most every thing was ok but when i got to the apartment with one of the zone leaders my companion did not have any food, he does not eat much at our apt i only had a little so that was the main thing that we were doing wrong other that he said every thing was fine.  

 

Everyone  is telling me that after this transfer i will be training.  which is not uncomman at all,  but its  kinda scary to think i have to teach someone how to be a missionary in less than a month. i feel i barely know what is going on. but then i think about how i could try to be a better trainer than the one i have and i realize i can do it and i can do it more my way, whatever my way is. i have not found that out yet. not saying i have a bad trainer i just want to be better. 

 

the other night we were walking down the street and i saw a football game playing in a shop and someone had shown me a roster for the play offs and i wanted to see if it was the chiefs playing. it was and they were playing against the colts and i started to talk with the guy who owned the store he was nice and enjoyed talking with us, he said we can come talk with him again some time. i doubt he belived me when i said the quarter back is my dad's cousin. but i didn't see who won the game, i only saw the score and one or two plays. 

 

i found the guy who yelled at me on Christmas day and i got to thank him for what he said. we did not have time to talk with him much at all. just to remind him what he did then thank him.

 

well i am doing good now, not sick any more and all our investigators and other people who were on vaccation are home now so we can get back to work. not that we ever stopped, but when everyone we usually visit is gone and all the people we try to visit are gone we definitely  slowed down. 

 

that's awesome that peter is married.  i am glad i got to attend even if it was just in paper form. ( my face glued to a cardboard cut out of Obama).  i still can't believe sam got married before him. but then i think back and that is how i expected it to happen my whole life until pete started dating katelyn.  it's amazing how people change.  i get to see people change their lives all the time here even if they are not my investigators. when i see people change it makes me think, would i do the same if i was where they are? then i think in ways i am where they are, i just need to realize what i need to change. all we need is a realization of a need to change and then a will to do so.

 

this is the burger stand of Antonio's mom, Alisi,a she is like my mom here, she always tells me to stand up straight and stuff. she gives us free hotdogs and burgers too.