Fast Week

fast week.. hard to remember all of it.  so i will go in reverse.

 

we have some an awesome investigator family. they have already been to church twice and have been to a baptismal service. the father keeps coming up with really good questions. i am not used to being asked questions, but i really like it.  up until now not many people asked me any questions but either they trust me more here or we don't explain stuff as well or i don't know what is different, but i keep getting people that ask me all sorts of questions. most of the time they involve things that we just have not had time to teach them, which is awesome! it shows they want to learn.

 

we are teaching a woman and her mom who are both widows and have more questions then any one.  the first time we met was just going to be us getting to know them but we had like 10 mins of getting to know them then they started to ask about stuff that they had doubts about and that lasted over an hour. the mom told us she didn't believe us at first and just thought we were peculiar, then they had some issue with the electric bill and she prayed and the problem went away. now she is really excited when ever we talk with her.

 

i have been told by a few  people that we have a golden area right now and we are so lucky. but almost all of our success is based on other peoples work. which is good, it shows that missionaries are not the only ones doing missionary work.

 

you know how we had a field of alfalfa for years, well i found out something really interesting, you can make a drink out of it. when i first heard the term agua de alfalfa i laughed and thought how did a fruit end up with the name alfalfa but no, it's really alfalfa and it was really really good. the member who made it for me said that he is going to make other stuff for me that i have never tried. 

 

 

we have an investigator who is a crazy dog lady! she is so awesome. she has like ten dogs with her husband and two little girls. and they are not all small dogs. 

 

we have another investigator who has a really really bad smoking problem. i knew he smoked alot but after i found out the number of cigarettes a day i was speechless. in one day its more than 60 on average.  he is starting to cut back and change a little at a time.  he even considered going to church the other day.

 

 

well i think that is about it for now. I love it here time really does fly 

Elder Ritchie.  

Golden Families and Font Cleaners

well i am great as always, had a different week. we only got a few lessons in but i felt like we did alot more that what our numbers show.

 

we found a family that is way enthusiastic about the church. they are a reference from a member and at first meeting with them they explained all the problems in their lives and how they feel our church would help them. we then confirmed that the gospel helps people in the exact ways they wanted it to. we really used the first lesson to get to know them, then the second time we were with them the member family that gave us the reference came and suggested we go to the visitor center. we were planning on doing that with them later because we wanted to set a date for their baptism but we decided to go. at the visitor center the sister who was the guide was super helpful. when she asked us how long we had been teaching them we said we had not really taught them any thing yet just given them a few thing to read and talked with them. after a movie, she  asked them if they wanted to be baptized and they started to cry. they said yes and she set the date. kinda nice cause the sisters at the center don't get to see any success from what they do. later the family invited us over for carne asada and it was really good. 

 

last week the smog cleared first time  since i have been here. i got to see across the valley to the big mountain that actually has snow on it. i was really surprised. 

 

we had a baptism and it was a miracle that it actually happened.  first we had to clean the font, that was a disaster because the drain was broken. so we had no way to take out the water. so after we cleaned it for two hours it still wasn't clean so we decided to clean it again right before the baptism. whilst doing so we realized that it was not getting cleaner it was getting dirtier.  so we let the water run for a little and the water was filthy and had stuff in it.  we decided to go to a different church 30 mins before the baptism was supposed to happen.  we managed to get keys to the other church and we got in and everything worked out. but we didn't get to make it to his confirmation because of something, not sure what. but i think i will be doing that this Sunday, plus we are going to baptize his brother as well. 

 

we had a stake activity were i did stuff that i have never done before. i talked with people i talked with everyone!

 

Also, i knocked doors, all the missionaries here hate street contacting and tracting cause we had the ban on it for a year and now that the ban is lifted no one does it. i can't really force my comp to knock doors, but i can try to talk to more people in the street. plus i have never met any one who says the had any success from knocking doors.

 

well i am great. sounds like alot of stuff is happening there and alot of it is good, so keep it up!

 

Love all of you

Elder Ritchie. 

Transferred

Well, now i am in a different place. I still am not quite sure what the zone is called but i know we are right next to the metro which is a good change. i dont have to travel an hour to get to the temple. if you want to find out were i am, i am just right next to metro muskis or some thing like that. My comp, Elder Mendoza is good.  we get a lot done.  i like my new apartment alot more, it has really good hot water and i have a dog, not my dog but a neighbor dog that is always right next to our house. i no longer have a spot light shining into my window so i sleep a lot better.

 

On our first day my comp left his backpack in the taxi so we had to go to the temple and get a new set of scriptures. still trying to get familiar with the area and the members and stuff, but i really like it so far. got a baptism coming up on Saturday, he was taught by other missionaries but he lives in our ward so we are doing the baptism. i met him once, he is 9 years old.  other than that i don't know him at all. i think we are going to the visitor center twice this week with investigators. my comps last companion is from preston and ran XC, i remember a little bit of who he was but mainly just he was the kid from preston that loved to run and was always in the top 5 people.

 

Well, thanks for everything you all do for me.  as Elder Richart told me about every 20 min.  ANIMO. 

 

Well love you all, Elder Ritchie

 

PS: Dena told me that it is Grandmas b-day tomorrow, could you guys walk over and tell her i said happy birthday and thanks for all that she does for me that would be great.

 

PS:  i don't realize it myself but i really struggle with the language, i am trying to change that.  i now study spanish at night in the morning and half of my personal study is in Spanish.  i was told by a lady in the ward i need to ask about every thing and write down everything she says, she wants me to be able to speak really well before i leave here. i was really lazy with spanish study before, just kinda trying to get by on what spanish i knew. but now i realize i don't know enough and i don't use half the stuff i do know so i will try harder. its not that i am struggling it's that i am oblivious to how bad my spanish really is.   well have a good day and stuff i will figure this thing out!  every one always says give it time it will come but that frankly that is terrible advise.  that makes me think i can be lazy and it just comes with time but i don't have to wait till it just comes, i can actually ask questions and try to learn . patience  is a good quality but i prefer diligence.

well, that's where my spanish is,  as for other stuff, all good and fine.

Love Elder Ritchie. 

Interesting Story

we have a investigator and who is really struggling with money, he is the one i wrote about in my real letter. one night we were walking with him to a member's house and he was talking about how much he works and how he just wants to be able to pay for a new house so he does not have to live with his parents and we were just walking and i looked down and there is just a bunch of coins laying on the ground.  i was the first to see it and then he saw it and started to pick them up and then my comp picked some up and they divvied it three ways and gave me 1/3. I just handed it back and said i wanted him to have it, then my comp thought about it for awhile then he just handed it to him as well.

 

the cool part is that in the lesson he told us he believed it was a gift from God.  i believe it was too. people here are not that free with their money, whatever they get. they hold onto tight.

i have never seen money in the street before here, not a peso or any thing.

kind of an interesting story.

 

elder ritchie