More Pictures!!

Yesterday's email came much later in the day then we are used to. I was a little worried. When he finally emailed he said that they had gone on a big hike in the morning and were emailing in the afternoon and that he would send pictures. But all of the pictures were of his recent baptism. Then today I found these pictures in my junk mail folder. I don't know why they went there! But they look like they are from his hike! I see that some things never change - he is still JUMPING!! I wish he wouldn't send me those pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Veteran's Day (and more pictures!!)

Two weeks ago I asked Devon some questions about his living arrangements etc.. He answered back last week but I thought he was joking. He wasn't. I think maybe I won't ask any more questions about that kind of stuff!

Hola Mom and family!!

Yes, I really do sleep on the floor and there really are bugs everywhere. I wear my hoodie with the hood up and cover myself completely with my sheet at night to keep the bugs off of me... but, I love it :) It is all part of the experience! Don't worry about me - I really am doing fine!

So, Victor and Cynthia got married on Friday and then she got baptized yesterday! It was so awesome! There are some pictures from that at the bottom of this post. I asked him about why he was golfing in his shirt and tie and also about some of the other pictures that I have seen on facebook of him eating at people's houses! Yes, we golfed in our regular clothes just because we felt like it. The rule is that should wear your proselyting clothes as much as you can so we just said ehh, what the heck. I really have gained almost 20 pounds. I am eating lots and lots of yogurt and cereal that I buy from the store and lots and lots of frozen food that you just stick in the microwave... ha ha it is awesome. We pretty much only get fed by the members on Sundays and even then we sometimes don't always do that. I think the 20 pounds is


because of all of the yogurt I eat! And because of our eating schedule! Normally, missionaries get 1 hour for lunch and 1 hour for dinner. We get two hours for mediodia (lunch? siesta?) and no time for dinner. So, we eat a ton during mediodia and then usually a couple of yogurts right before bed. So, we proselyte for like 6 hours straight after mediodia without eating.

Transfers are on the 25th or something like that. Everything is going great here! We should have a couple more baptisms coming before the transfer ends and the ward is really starting to kick in to gear and it is awesome! The church is true! I love you all! Thank you for everything that you do. Os amo!

Love,
Elder Ridd

November 4, 2013 (With Pictures!!)

Wow Mommy! Thanks for the email! That was a good one! You said you want to know more about our living conditions. I sleep on the floor on some old blankets, our electricity hasn't worked for the last couple of days, I've gained like 20 pounds and we have every type of bug known to man in our apartment. (This is where he should have said "I'm just kidding") There are four of us in our apartment. It has been such wonderful weather here. I love it.

I got to wail on some golf balls last Monday! We have some sweet investigators right now. Cynthia is getting baptized this Sunday and Olga and Loida are both getting baptized next Sunday. We have a new investigator named Daniel that will probably get baptized after that! It's so awesome!

This week was really sweet. I had intercambios (exchanges or splits I am assuming!) so Elder Day (his companion) went to a different area and I got Elder Cross with me who is brand new to the mission and doesn't speak any Spanish. We had to teach two lessons and contact some people in some other parts of the Island. We also got a call from a menos activo (less active member?) and had to go to a hospital and give a blessing to a guy who was doing really bad after back surgery! So, I gave my first blessing in Spanish on Tuesday! I have done the anointing before but never the big one, so that was a great experience. So, yeah, my Spanish really got put to the test this week. It was cool.

Good job to the DRHS golf team! And I am so excited for Justin and his mission call! I love that kid! He is going to tear it up out there! Thank you to everyone who sent me emails this week. I am sad for Jacob about his Grandma. I will continue to pray for him and his family.

Everything is going great here. We are visiting a lot of old investigators and seeing if they are ready and prepared now to hear the gospel. We found one guy named Hector who lives in Arucas right next to the cathedral (look that up!) He lives in a 300 year old mansion all by himself and he is way ready to hear the gospel! It was so cool being able to visit him. The Lord's timing is different than our timing and sometimes we just have to wait for when it is the right time. The people here are so great. I'm really starting to love them. This work is the best!! Thank you for all of the support and everything that you and Dad have taught me. You guys are so great!

Tell Morgan and Nicole and everyone else that I love them! Until Next week!

Elder Ridd

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Letter from 10/21

We got a pretty short email this week. I'm including a little of what he sent to Courtney too. He sent her some pictures but not us! So I am thinking that we, his parents, are third on his email priority list. Actually, we told him to get out and see more of the Canary Islands! He mentioned last week that after they email, do their laundry and grocery shopping that they aren't left to do much sight-seeing or recreation so we told him to just give us the basics and get out and enjoy his day off!

Bonjour!

Wow, that was a long email mom! I appreciate everyone's letters so much! I love knowing what is going on. Thank you for all of the support. The island is great! The weather is great and the work is going along nicely!

We didn't have our baptism this week. Loida is still having some problems with cigarettes so we moved it back a little bit, no pasa nada. (I have no idea what that means) She is still way strong and will get baptized soon! We found some great great great people this week so November is going to be a great month!

The work is going great here. We called about 100 million people these last couple days from ancient ancient records and we have some new investigators now! We taught a 75 year old lady twice this week and she came to church and wants to get baptized! She knows it is true and is an amazing example! Another reason why we should talk to everybody! I will keep you updated on her. Her name is Olga! We should have some baptisms next month and I am so excited!

I am excited for Courtney going to the temple! And tell Steph congratulations on the Salt Lake call! Way cool! She is going to tear it up! Tell everybody I say hi when you are all together this weekend for homecoming. I miss all of the Aunties and Uncles!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Ridd

Letter received 10/14/13 (Columbus Day!)

Dear Family!

Thanks for the Columbus Day greetings! Yes, I did know that Christopher Columbus stopped in the Canary Islands but I didn't even realize today was Columbus Day! Everybody here loves Christopher Columbus but they say his name so different that half of the time I don't even realize that they are talking about him! We live right next to the church that he prayed in before he left on his journey to the Americas so that is pretty sweet!

I got the Halloween package that you sent! It was like Christmas! Thank you so much for everything that was in there! The pictures were so awesome! Thank you so much! I already have a Spanish hymn book that we bought before I left but thank you for the new one. It will be a great gift to an investigator that gets baptized so thank you. Everything in there was perfect thank you so much.

Courtney- thanks for sending the picture with the Erekson girls! You look great! Sis. Erekson writes me a letter each month which is so super nice of her.

I love being on the island - the weather is the same everyday. (He sent his wishes to his friends Justin Wright and Nathan Aller who got their Eagle Scout awards - he also said that he can't wait to get home and speak some Spanish on the golf course with Justin's Grandpa Barron. )

Wow, so it was kind of a crazy week. We can really see that Satan tries to work on our investigators who have baptismal dates. It seems like a lot of bad things were happening at the beginning of the week and we couldn't meet with them. But, I know that thanks to your prayers and our prayers, everything seemed to work out by the end of the week. Denis, our Croatian friend, is moving to Tenerife this week. So we prepared him nicely for the Elders over there to baptize him! We know all of the elders them and we are happy to have them do it.The work is great. Thank you so much for your prayers! Loida is still scheduled to be baptized this Sunday so we are excited for that.

You are all amazing. Thank you for your support and prayers. I don't know if Nana reads this, but tell her thank you for writing me a letter a couple of weeks ago! I haven't had time to write her back but I am going to do that today. Thank you to everyone who emailed me this week! I hope everyone is doing well. We had our transfers and Elder Day and I are still together and staying in Las Palmas. The church is true. I love you Mom!

Have a great week!

Elder Ridd

Last Week's Letter!

This is a compilation of the emails that Alan and I received on 10/07/13. Later that day I had a little dental procedure that turned in to a big deal and I didn't get around to posting the letters until today. He is doing so well. We love when he mentions people outside of the family that he is getting letters from! Thank you so much for your support of our boy! devon.ridd@myldsmail.net


Family!

I was able to watch all of General Confernce - what an amazing conference it was - holy smokes. I watched it all live so we started at 5pm on Saturday and then the afternoon sessions ended at 11:00 at night here but we had permission from President Jackson to watch it - I didn't fall asleep one time! We watched the Priesthood session on Sunday morning at 10:00. I was thinking of you, Dad, during that session. We watched all of the sessions in English except for Priesthood. I had to watch that one in Spanish. I could understand it, but it was way too easy to zone out and then when I did I missed important things. I've never gotten so much out of conference - it just strengthened my testimony so much. I felt the spirit so strong when President Monson got up to speak at the end of Sunday morning session. I felt the spirit throughout the whole thing, but right then I just knew that he was a Prophet of God. I thought to myself, wow I should have always watched conference with this much focus, I could have gotten so much more out of them in the past!

So, one of our cousins is in the General Young Men's Presidency! That is so cool! Dad will probably be the next General Authority from our family! :)

So this is the last P-day of this transfer! Time flies by out here - holy smokes!

Thank you so much for sending the pictures and the video from to'ona'i. I loved them. Tell all of the to'ona'i family that I love and miss them and I miss all of the food!

Elder Day and I have been working hard! We have 4 baptismal dates coming up! I have to tell you about one little miracle! I was in a bathroom at a bus station and I was washing my hands and so was this 22 year old man and I just said Hola! And we started talking and now he is getting baptized in 20 days! It is so awesome! That is why it is so important to talk to everyone! His name is Victor. The other three baptismal dates are Loida on the 20th of October. If you could pray with us for her to stay off the cigarettes that would be great. She is amazing and comes to every church activity there is. Then Victor is being baptized on the 27th. Cynthia in on the 10th of November after her wedding on the 8th. And Denis, our Croatian friend is the 17th of November. If we could all pray for Denis to be able to quit smoking and to keep progressing in the Gospel that would be great.

You guys are amazing! Thank you for all of the emails! I'm sorry this is short but I love you all!

The church is true!

Elder Ridd

 

10 Weeks!

It has been almost 10 weeks since Devon left us. I told him in this letter that at the 10 week point of my mission I was just barely out of the MTC and here he is teaching and baptizing and tearing it up in the field! Just a reminder that you can email him at devon.ridd@myldsmail.net   This week's email is from letters that he sent to Alan and I. Seems like he was busy emailing everyone else and didn't have a lot of time for us this week! :)

Hola!

Yeah, it's been almost 10 weeks! Crazy huh? Another 10 weeks just about and I'll get to call you guys on the phone! I'm so happy to hear that everything is going great back home! Everything is going so great here! 

We received the above photo via email from a man who said that he was refueling (?) in the Canary Islands and ran across Devon and his companion. He said that he has a son serving a mission in Australia and he always loves to hear from people who have seen his son so he sent us this picture and a note that they are doing well. Here is what Devon said about it: I'm glad to hear that you guys got the picture from that guy! I have no idea who he was, but he was a member, he spoke English and he works for the FBI! I love when I hear English - whenever I hear anybody saying anything in English I immediately start talking to them!

I email in a local computer lab thing (we asked him where he goes to email us). It costs me about a Euro and a half to email every week. And yes, mom, I email all of my friends regularly. All of the QFL (nickname of his friend's group) is in touch and I email Jacob (Dayley his other good friend) every week. It sounds like he is doing great! (he is in the Provo MTC preparing to leave for Mexico)

I love you mom and family and a big hug and thanks to everyone who emailed me and has helped me get out here on my mission. I asked him about how he will watch General Conference next week and he said: So, I think I get to watch conference as a direct satellite transmission - it's just going to start at like 11:00 at night! The president has given us permission because I guess that is what all of the members here do! So we will go to the Capilla (chapel?) and watch it there.

 I love you all! I emailed Dad and Morgan and Nicole back so I don't have as much time, but I loved getting emails from them! The power of prayer is real! Praying and fasting is such a huge blessing in our lives. I was able to fast yesterday because we have conference this week and it was awesome. I feel like my English grammar is going down hill fast so please edit this. I love you mom and family and a big hug and thanks to everyone who emailed me and has helped me get out here on my mission.

Dad, I wanted to say what a blessing it was to be your home teaching companion for so long. The other day I realized how much that honestly prepared me for my mission! It was like an hour long glimpse in to the mission field! So, thank you for all of the good experience there. I wish you were my companion right now, we would do work!

Mom, one thing that I wasn't going to tell you at first but now I can -  When I first got here on the island I thought there must be a very severe crime problem because every night I could hear gun shots in the night. BUT, it turns out that they shoot off fireworks every night to celebrate a different Catholic saint or something. So, don't worry, I'm safe!

I love you all! The church is true!!

Elder Ridd