Linstead -11 Happy Birthday!

Elder Ritchie with his birthday surprises today

 Excited to try out his chick-fil-a sauce on his fried chicken

Birthday package goodies

Don't have much time right now, but I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! I have the best family and friends anyone could ask for!

These past few weeks have been really frustrating though. Our numbers have been dropping. Less and less lessons. This week was really low. Elder Hall and I will likely have to drop several of our investigators as well. R and N used to be our 'top' investigators, but recently (past 3 weeks), they haven't kept commitments or took this seriously. I don't want to drop them. Really want for them to realize how important this is. We bear testimony of the truthfulness and importance of the gospel, but they neglect to act on it. Really frustrating. Really sad.

We had quite a few of our investigators commit to coming to church yesterday. They all said they'd come early, but no one was showing up. Finally D/Y called and said they'd be a bit late. Right after the sacrament D comes with her Y and her 5 young boys! So grateful to have them there. They enjoyed it all. Got to know the members better. I love the way everything is looking for them. Hopefully we can start teaching D's husband. The ward would definitely benefit from a faithful family.

Thanks again for the birthday wishes!

Elder Ritchie

fun food of the week: chicken foot soup and cowfoot with rice and peas

Linstead - 10

pic1 - Mom sent me some birthday Chik-fil-A sauce, yay!

pic 2- Bonfire

This past week in Linstead has been great! We have, however, had more than our fair share of canceled appointments.... again. Many of our 'top' investigators have been busy, but we've seen A LOT of improvement in others.

Weeks ago we taught Nicole the Restoration, Book of Mormon, and Pre-Earth life, and she was doing great. Interested and read regularly from the Book of Mormon. We then went over Adam and Eve - 'basic' Christian doctrine - but we taught 3 lessons on the Fall. She wasn't grasping it. She committed to coming to a session of General Conference though. She left right after the prayer, and we weren't able to talk to her. After that we kind of lost contact with her for about a week or so. Finally, we stopped by her house one day and caught up with her. Turns out she really liked Conference. She also read from the Book of Mormon. A LOT. She read most of the chapters up to Alma...... and she retained A LOT. We were able to address several of her concerns, and she is having sincere, open prayers to know for herself if this is the course that God wants for her.

After teaching a chastity lesson to Y, she's not sure she'll get baptized anymore because she's nervous to tell her boyfriend about it. Y knows this is what she must do, but she doesn't know how her boyfriend will take it. We met with her again yesterday, and she said she'll invite her boyfriend to take discussions and live chaste. I really hope all works out. Y knows this is what she must do.

Funny experience happened yesterday.......

Know how some Americans call Mexicans 'Juan' or 'Jose'?? Well Jamaicans do the same thing to white-people. Elder Hall and I were waiting for someone, when some old-crazy-man approaches us, "Hello Jakes!" Then proceeds to talk to us. Jamaicans call us 'Jake' or 'Joe' ALL THE TIME, and they think it's hilarious...... it is hilarious.

Elder Ritchie

Linstead - 9

pic 1 - bout to light dis ting up

 pic 2 - me 'n a bunch a grade-A ganja

This past week has been a week. Had several really good lessons, and had our fair share of canceled lessons. Many of our 'top' investigators canceled appointments this week, failed to keep commitments, and failed to come to church. That has been frustrating, but it's definitely made for a good learning experience. Every investigator has their own concerns they have to work through. For some it's accepting the Book of Mormon to be true. For others it's Joseph Smith. For others it's ganja, or rum, or gambling, or chastity, or a busy schedule. Even if we teach the same lessons to someone, we definitely can't teach it the same way.

Nothing too crazy happened this week, but I'll update y'all on some of our investigators...

G - Great guy. Lives with his baby-mother, who just delivered a few weeks ago. Is having trouble giving up ganja. Smokes when he gets stressed - which is a lot. They don't have much and he doesn't have a steady income. He wants to be baptized, but smoking and not being married is holding him back right now.

N and R - N and R are sisters, both in their 40s, both have pickne (children), and live in the same family house. Both have committed to baptism, but we'll likely have to re-extend a postponed date. N is really sharp and has a lot of great questions. We taught them the Word of Wisdom this past week. N thought that no coffee and tea was ridiculous, but then decided that she wouldn't let something as simple as coffee keep her from the Celestial Kingdom.

D and Y (referrals from G) - D is in her 40s, and is the mother of a 21 yr old Y. D is super nice and commits to coming to church and reading, but has trouble following through. Y is very sharp, a good reader, and very interested. She does, however, live with her boyfriend every other weekend. We're teaching chastity this week.

N - We've taught several lessons on JUST Adam and Eve and The Fall. Her Jehovah's Witness background makes it difficult for her to grasp several 'basic Christian' doctrines that most every other investigator accepts. She came to a session of Conference and like it though.

We have many other investigators, but not much more computer time.

In other news we found a cookshop that sells pancakes and eggs!

Elder Ritchie

Linstead - 8

This week has definitely been a very great week. A lot of great experiences throughout the week, capping off with a spiritual high in General Conference.

I want to share a cool story that happened last Monday evening....

We have an investigator Sabrina who is continually failing to keep commitments. She's 20, single, and doesn't manage her time well. She doesn't' have a phone, which makes it difficult to keep in contact with her. We make our way by her house several times each week, but we haven't been seeing much success with her. Because of our situation with her, Elder Hall and I went over how to do a "pre-drop" lesson. To better understand that concept, we looked over the 'former investigators' in our Area Book. We were only looking through that sections so I could get a better understanding of the how and why we drop someone. Elder Hall showed me the dropped investigator, and the reason why they were dropped. A few records in, we found Kamarla's record. Kamarala was taught by the Sisters months ago (back when the Sisters were in our area). The Sisters placed her in the 'formers' because they only had 1 lesson with her, and she had to leave to Europe for the next 4 months. We gave Kamarla a call to see if she was back and would be interested in hearing from us. She was. We had appointment with her last Monday evening.

Kamarla lives in Banbury, an area we don't go to unless we really need to. We had a great lesson with Kamarla, then made our way to our next area. We were both super thirsty at this point, and without water. We decided to stop at the next shop on the street. As we pull up to the next street shop, we see Andre, smoking his ganja, on the curb. Andre owns the shop, and Elder Hall and his old companion used to stop by there often, so Elder Hall kind of knew him. We ask for water, and Andre goes inside to get us water. Elder Hall tells me how they tried to teach him once, but he wasn't interested. His mother, however, was very prepared to hear the gospel. When they first met her, she said she had studied with the Mormon missionaries a decade earlier, and that her biggest regret was not getting baptized. Elder Hall and his old companion taught her one lesson, then she had to move to Bahamas for work. She moved to an island with no church presence. Not even 10 seconds after Elder Hall told me about that, we see Andre's mother, Dell, walk out in front of the shop. Elder Hall and her make eye contact, and she starts cheering and running over to greet us. She's still very interested in the Church. She lost her phone in the Bahamas, and lost her contact info with the missionaries, and was glad to have made contact with us.

A large sequence of events led to Elder Hall and I finding Dell....

If Sabrina hadn't been failing to keep commitments, we wouldn't have been in the Area Book.

If we hadn't been in the Area Book, we wouldn't have found Kamarla.

If we hadn't met with Kamarla, we would never have been in Banbury.

If we hadn't been in Banbury, we never would have been near Andre's shop.

If we hadn't been thirsty, we never would have stopped at Andre's shop.

If our power wasn't out at the house, we would have been carrying cold water with us.

If it wasn't the end of the end, and we were near-broke, we would've bought water long earlier.

And if we never went to the shop, we never would have found Dell.

Some may call that sequence of events some killer luck. Or some fortunate coincidences. But like Elder Neil L. Andersen said at Conference, "Faith is a choice." Faith is a choice, and I choose to believe that we were being led to Dell. A lot of good has come from that night. Kamarla has committed to baptism, and we're meeting with Dell tonight.

Faith IS a choice. As we CHOOSE to exercise our faith, we WILL see the Lord's hand in our life. I encourage everyone to find ways to better exercise your faith.

The Church is true. The Book is blue.

With love from the Motherland,

          Elder Ritchie

NOTE FROM MOM: Elder Ritchie and some other missionaries were on tv this week between conference sessions on a LDS Charity program.  They were helping build a road for a school in Lindstead. It was so fun to see him!