February 3, 2014

I am sorry that I haven't been very good about sharing Devon's letters. He doesn't write a lot. He writes every week but they don't always have a lot of information. Just that he is doing great, he loves it, not to worry - he doesn't need anything etc... However, this week when I sent him a copy of Courtney's first letter he apologized for not putting much effort in to his emails and said he is going to do better. Sometimes the positive pressure of having a twin is great! Here is this week's letter!

Hi Mom!

Thank you for that great email. I think it is awesome that you have had the opportunity to work at the temple open house. What a blessing that must me!

Courtney sounds like she is doing great at the MTC. I have been praying for her a lot and I am just so happy that she is loving it there. Her email that she sent was pretty sweet. Thank you for always letting me know what is going on! I soaked it all in and it is all in my brain! I am glad that everything is going so well at home. It is super weird that you took the leaf out of the table! Holy smokes you guys are living a different life now with only two kids at home!

This week in the mail, I got a wallet from the Johnsies (his wallet was stolen or lost on a bus a while back - we don't know the details as per usual!) It was a hard day of work and we were coming back to our flat at almost 10:00 at night and then I saw a little package sticking out of the mailbox and it was a new wallet that the Johnsies sent me for my birthday. It made me so happy. It was so simple but I just felt so grateful for them and how awesome they are.

This transfer has been hard! (they went from four Elders in their apartment/area to just two) The people are so stubborn here. Our patience is always being tried. We were able to schedule three baptismal dates this week though! So, hopefully right at the end of this transfer we will get a baptism. We don't have as many lessons as Elder Doane in the Philippines - goodness gracious! But we are happy with the success that we het here. The transfer is in two weeks and I'm pretty sure I will be leaving the islands. I have been in this same area on the same island for five months now so I am pretty positive I will be going back to the peninsula soon. So, if you want to send me anything, send it to the mission home address and I will let you know what my new address is when I get it.

We had such a great week! One of our best investigators who is hopefully getting baptized in two weeks isj a friend of Danny, our recent convert. Danny invited him to church a few weeks ago and he is now ready to get baptized! Recent converts always have such a great spirit with them and the excitement of being a new member so we are super grateful for Danny and his example to all of the other members. We also brought an inactive family back to church on Sunday. They hadn't been to church in 25 years! The Bishop was very impressed haha! He gave us the challenge at the beginning of the transfer kind of as a joke because they are pretty stubborn to say the least. But Heavenly Father helped us to bring them to church. I see so many little miracles while I am out here serving the Lord - I love being able to see Heavenly Father's hand helping us and helping the people of Las Palmas almost every day! The church is true!

Thank you for all of the prayers that you offer that help me to be the best missionary that can be out here!

Love,
Elder Ridd


p.s. This is what I call a "fatty burger" - its a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches. (no wonder he tells us he is gaining weight!)